The Colts Imperfect Season

This weekend the Colts were on the edge of perfection, a half away from going 15-0 to a Jets teams who was outmatched by the Colts. The Colts were up by 5 in the 3rd quarter and Coach Jim Caldwell decided to pull their starters most notably MVP Peyton Manning. The Colts gave up their 5 point lead and said, goodbye to their perfect season. Caldwell expressed that having a perfect season was not in the Colts' goals this year. After seeing the faces of the Colts after they lost though, it seemed as if the locker room wanted it. To have a place in history above ever team in history would mean something to the Colts and I think Caldwell ignored that. I think the perfect season talk will probably be a sore subject for a few weeks, but the real question I have, "Does resting players before the playoffs really help teams in the long run?"

In recent years it seems as if the growing trend is that teams from the Wild Card Weekend seem to be reaching the Super Bowl more and more. Why is this? Three out of the last four Super Bowl champions have played on Wild Card Weekend. Last year, the Cardinals who were considered one of the worst playoff teams ever to make it, ended up almost winning the Super Bowl over another Wild Card Weekend team, the Steelers. This trend would seem to not make any sense because not only do the teams with superior records get to play at home, they also get this much needed rest.

I believe that this much needed rest is what is hurting these 1 and 2 seeds in the playoffs. With resting nearly two weeks with the playoff format and sometimes 3-4 when resting early, teams get out of sync. Football is a game of timing and when you have not played a competitive game in a month it is tough to get that back right away. I think teams that fight until the last week of the season to make the playoffs and play the first week have an advantage because they are in sync. Now in order to curb this teams like the Colts should play until the last week of the season. It makes no sense to rest a quarterback who has started 191 consecutive games because he may get hurt. Players always have the chance to get hurt but the way to increase it the most is to play like you have a lot to lose. The goal every Sunday is to win football games and at the end of the day win the Super Bowl.

A 14-1 team seems bummed and is down and is questioning what could of been, when they should be getting prepared for one of their biggest playoffs in their lives. Caldwell by resting his players and letting the Colts lose has created a distraction they may not of had otherwise. The problem is that even if the Colts win the Super Bowl, players will still be questioning whether it could of meant perfect. I think in order to help his team win the Super Bowl and have the chance to make history Caldwell should of kept Peyton Manning and the players in.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS!

Logo

I am looking to make a logo and really was wondering if anyone wants to come up with a better logo than these two...

Who Would Win in Horse?

Childish Games or a True Rivalry?

Wisconsin Shocks Duke, The ACC, The World, Bobby Knight

Well in case you missed the game of the year thus far in college basketball, thank God you got Two Cents from the Nose Bleeds because I didn't miss it. Although it did conflict with my favorite show on television "Glee", I watched this game from opening tip off to the storming of the court. What Wisconsin was able to due on Wednesday at the Kohl Center was incredible, playing a nearly flawless game.
The game started off to a fast start, Wisconsin were on pace for 100+ points after 10 minutes of the game. Wisconsin was playing their offense, they ran the swing beautifully, were patient and were knocking down shots. Trevon Hughes, Jon Leuer, and Keaton Nakivil were studs early and carried throughout the game. As well as hitting open shots, Nakivil was getting offensive rebounds and playing tough inside with the Duke big men, something people think he lacked in his game. Duke seemed very one dimensial first half on offense. Kyle Singler, the ugliest player in College Basketball since Joakim Noah was torching the Badgers in the first half. Throwing up desperation heaves that seemed to find nothing but the bottom of the net. While Badgers lacked on helping on Singler they did a good job shutting down some prolific scorers like Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer. They limited Duke's offensive rebounds and had a very impressive first half. The biggest coaching decision for Duke was switching to the zone which seemed to slow the Badgers' offense down. For the Badgers I think putting Jordan Taylor on Singler was a good move that seemed to shut him down for the last 5 minutes of the half.
In the second half Duke started their charge but the Badgers held tough. Badgers continued to hit big shots when necessary and somewhat slowed down Singler. Hughes looked like an NBA player hitting shot after shot and creating for the offense. The MVP of the second half for Badgers may have been Taylor, though. It seemed for the majority of the second half Bo wanted the ball in Taylor's hands. Taylor's penetration set up buckets for the big men and open shots on the wing. Taylor's interception late was one of the best defensive plays of the second half, unfortunately it was quickly stolen from behind. After Hughes hit a 3 pointer to go up by 11 with 5:01 remaining in the game seemed as he may have put the game away. Do not start storming yet though, here comes Duke. Andre Dawkins hit 4 3's to put Duke right back in the game. But like the whole night, Badgers came up big, made free throws and iced the game when redshirt freshman Ryan Evans shut down Kyle Singler. The fans stormed the court and Madison went crazy. It was the first time Duke lost a game in the Big Ten/ACC challenge. It was also the first time Big Ten won the challenge, much of the credit to this Wisconsin upset.
It was a perfect game by the Badgers, the stars stepped up big the role players did their job. This game makes them believe they can play with anyone and that they have as good a shot as any team to win the Big 10. Watch out for those scrappy Badgers because come March I would not want to play these guys!

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS

Staying in Presnap Position

Bobby Bowden Retires

Bobby Bowden retired today from Florida State, whether it was his decision or not. Bowden retires as second winningest coach of all time. The last five years Florida State's program has been slipping and it seems as though it was time to go a different direction. Many saw Bowden's loyalty to coordinators as a big problem with the inability to fire coaches who were not producing. Either way he was an incredible coach and deserves a lot of respect for years of wonderful coaching at Florida State.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS!

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods' mysterious investigation ends with a $164 fine for reckless driving. The Florida Highway Patrol said that there will be no other charges in the case. Tiger Woods did not have to talk to authorities and he did not. Tiger decided he will not travel this weekend to his tournament. It seems as though he will not do any events for the remainder of the year, which means it will be months before you will see him competing in another event. It remains to be seen whether the issue with the possibility of his wife chasing him with a golf club will be put to rest or not. The fishy story does not seem to be over even though Florida Highway Patrol has put it to rest.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS!!

Jennings: Part 2

Now Jennings started off this season blistering hot. It looked at though he was ready to enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, after only a few weeks of the NBA season. While Jennings has slowed down a bit, I still believe Jennings is going to be a super star. He continues to compete even when he is struggling. His points has been down but he also did not have Bogut for a week. After watching the game last night even though he struggled from the field getting Bogut back will open the floor again he will be able to play like himself again. Jennings will not be incredible every night but after watching this video through his hard work, I see him being a perennial all star.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS

BCS worked this year?

Dennis Dodd of CBSSportsline.com had an interesting article how this is the one of the first years BCS lucked out. With there being two Big Conference Power Houses that will be undefeated at the end of the year and most other BCS bowl team undefeated mid majors, College Football caught a break.
I have a different plan to try to fix College Football rankings and maybe not have to get rid of BCS all together.
"We beat Cal when they were ranked 4!" College Football is heavily based on its ranking human ranking system. Although BCS is a computer ranking it is largely based on people's judgments using the AP and Coaches Poll. The problem with these rankings is that wins team's get early in the year may not be as strong as they seem. Once teams get ranked higher for beating these overrated teams they receive high rankings and will never drop unless they lose themselves. For instance, when Oregon beat #4 Cal 42-3, Oregon seemed as if they may be one of the best teams in the country and they jumped up the rankings. Now it looks as though maybe that win is not as strong as it once looked with Cal struggling at the end of the year. I believe many 1 and 2 loss teams are rooted at the top by supposed "big wins" that really are not that impressive. What I propose is that AP and Coaches Poll do not come out with rankings until at least Week 4 of games. This would make every win early have the right respect after seeing how the teams fair against other teams. With this new ranking teams would not be locked at the top or bottom for wins that may be as good for a "bad win" or be punished as much for a "bad loss". While it is impossible for preseason sites and SI to come up with their own rankings, the polls that decide BCS games should not come out until later in the season. This will be a lot like how the NCAA tournament field is not decided until after the season.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS!!

Bogut's Back

Bucks had a nice win 99-97 over the Chicago Bulls last night, despite another poor night by Brandon Jennings. The team looked like it was back it itself though with Andrew Bogut on the floor. If Redd becomes himself and realizes he isn't 2005 Redd and Bogut stays healthy and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute the Bucks best defender and one of the most underrated defender's in the league returns I like where the Bucks are going. While Jennings may not put up 30 every game he is still a great Point Guard who runs our offense brilliantly. Carlos Delfino and Ersan Ilyasova are my MVP's for the Bucks this season because I think they are two players that make the team go. I think we have the potential to fight for a 5-6 seed in the playoffs. Excited to see where the Bucks go from here with a tough week ahead of them.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY TWO CENTS FROM THE NOSE BLEEDS