2013 Offseason Update, Week 8

Things didn't pan out for Kevin Kolb in Arizona, but he'll try again in Buffalo.
At least the Bills have a decent defense and a solid running game.

Before I get started on this week’s offseason update, I’d like to remind everyone to keep sophomore Louisville guard Kevin Ware in your prayers. By now you’ve all seen footage or pictures of his leg injury from yesterday’s basketball game. He has had surgery and a rod was placed in his tibia. He is expected to have a full recovery.

On to the NFL, several pieces of quarterback news came through in the past week, so we’ll start with that.

QB News

Most of this news involves players headed to new teams, but not Tony Romo. The Dallas quarterback signed a contract extension for $108 million over the next six years. $55 million of that contract is guaranteed money.

Free agent quarterbacks Jason Campbell and Kevin Kolb will get a change of scenery next year. The Cleveland Browns signed Campbell. He will start the offseason as Brandon Weeden’s backup but could have a chance to compete for the starting job if he performs well. Buffalo picked up Kolb to replace Ryan Fitzpatrick, signing him to a 2 year, $13 million contract.

News came over the wire today that the Seahawks have traded Matt Flynn to the Oakland Raiders for a 2014 draft pick and a conditional 2015 draft pick. This leaves Russell Wilson as the only quarterback on Seattle’s roster for the time being.

Tight Ends Staying Put

Last Monday, the Green Bay Packers decided to pick up the $3 million roster bonus in Jermichael Finley’s contract, keeping him with the team. The Packers already have lost Greg Jennings and, though they have a deep receiver corps, they couldn’t afford to lose the pass-catching tight end.

Fred Davis was getting looks from a couple of teams but decided to stick with the Washington Redskins. After Davis suffered a season ending injury early in the 2012 campaign, Logan Paulsen stepped up as Washington’s best receiving option at tight end. Davis will have competition.

One tight end is not staying put, however. Delanie Walker decided to leave San Francisco for the Tennessee Titans. Walker says he believes he has what it takes to be a starter in the NFL but knew he wouldn’t be able to do so with Vernon Davis in San Francisco. With Jared Cook gone in Tennessee, Walker should be the clear-cut starter at tight end in 2013.

Giant Defensive Moves

The Giants lost two defensive players to conference opponents on Wednesday. Linebacker Chase Blackburn decided to sign with the Carolina Panthers. Blackburn isn’t a ‘sexy’ player at linebacker, but he is all heart and his effort has helped him make big players during his career in New York, none bigger than deflecting a pass intended for Rob Gronkowski in Super Bowl XLVI.

Osi Umenyiora, meanwhile, will head to Atlanta. The Falcons have been making big moves throughout this offseason, but most have been on offense. Atlanta’s defense is now looking like one that will compliment their offense in a Super Bowl-winning kind of way.

If I’m missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Rams vs Cardinals

The Rams hosted the Cardinals in the 4th installment of
NFLNetwork's Thursday Night Football

Last night wasn’t a particular exciting game, but we still learned a lot from it.

I have little doubt now that the NFC West is the best defensive division in football this year. The 49ers have done well on defense, we all saw what Seattle’s defense did against the Packers, and Arizona’s defense has been terrific, allowing their offense to outscore New England and lead this team to a 4-0 start.

The Rams joined that group last night as Steve Spagnuolo’s group finally had a huge game on defense. It is tough to read too much into it because it was the second straight week Arizona’s offensive line gave up eight sacks. But St. Louis allowed Arizona to enter the red zone three times. In those three trips, the Cardinals came away with nothing. Nothing! Three trips and not a thing to show for it; I give credit for that to the Rams’ defense.

That said, St. Louis didn’t play lights-out either. At one point, Sam Bradford has thrown 12 or 13 consecutive incompletions, the longest streak of his career. Granted, he did have a 51-yard touchdown pass, which was also a career long.

I always enjoyed close games with a lot of defense, but seeing quarterbacks struggle the way Sam Bradford did, and offensive lines not be able to protect their quarterback, like Kevin Kolb’s failed to, doesn’t keep my interest as easily. Kolb was sacked eight times, but he was knocked down and hit around 20 or 25 additional times.

The Cardinals are not doomed, but their flaws that were hidden during their 4-0 run to start the season are now in the open. The Rams are above .500 for the first time in years, but I’m not convinced they are for real either, especially with Danny Amendola out for possibly the rest of the season. The team should learn today whether he has a broken collarbone or if it is something less severe, which would be a huge relief and a major bullet dodged.

I am playing with a few ideas for a blog post tomorrow. I am going to work on them and see if it will work. Check back tomorrow for a possible post. If nothing comes tomorrow, my next post will be, as in the past, on Monday when I publish my Sunday Football Afterwords. Thanks for reading everyone, and enjoy the weekend!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 4 Late Games

Brian Dawkins was honored during pregame and at halftime,
but looked like he wanted to suit up and play last night.

I just missed a perfect Sunday evening with my predictions because of the Sunday Night matchup, but I got every game correct that started in the 4:00 hour.

Arizona narrowly retained their status as an unbeaten with an overtime, 24-21 victory at home against Miami. The ‘Fins owned a 13-0 lead at halftime, but Arizona came alive in the second half as Kevin Kolb threw three touchdowns, two of them in the fourth quarter, including a 15-yarder to Andre Roberts inside of 30 seconds to play in regulation. Kolb finished with 324 passing yards while rookie Ryan Tannehill threw for 431 for Miami, 253 of which went toward Brian Hartline’s single-game team record.

New Orleans offense finally did what we thought it could do when the season began – keep them in games despite their crippled defense. Unfortunately, the Packers rode the same train and did so slightly better. The Packers held on for a 28-27 victory in what was a must-win game for both teams. Drew Brees threw for three scores, throwing a touchdown in his 47^th consecutive game, which ties an all-time NFL record. Rodgers threw for over 100 fewer yards, but one more score in the game.

The other exciting early-evening game was a blowout after the first half. Washington led Tampa Bay 21-6 at halftime. But three missed field goals by Billy Cundiff on stalled Redskins drives allowed the Buccaneers to battle back to a 22-21 lead. With three seconds left, Cundiff ‘redeemed’ himself with a 41-yarder that barely made it through the uprights, to win the game. RGIII played very well, rushing for a touchdown (nearly two) and didn’t turn the ball over at all.

Andy Dalton has now thrown an interception in each of the first four games this season, but they keep pace with the Ravens in the AFC North with another win, this one a 27-10 victory over Jacksonville. The Jaguars could not get anything going offensively and the win was even more lopsided than the final score suggests.

Granted it was at home against an awful defense, but Peyton Manning looked better than he has all season, even looking back at their opener against the Steelers. He finished 30/38 for 338 yards, 3 touchdowns, and, most importantly, no interceptions. Willis McGahee contributed to the offensive attack with 19 carries, over 100 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

The Sunday Night game was as exciting as I’ve been waiting a nationally televised game to legitimately be this season. At the two-minute warning in the first half, the score was tied at 0. At halftime, it was 7-3 Eagles. The scoring picked up a little from there, but it was a close one to the finish. The lead switched hands a couple times late, and the Giants even grabbed a late 17-16 lead. The Eagles drove but were held to a 26-yard field goal by Alex Henery with just under two minutes left in the game. The Eagles committed two pass interference penalties on the Giants’ final drive, including on a 4^th & 1 downfield pass. However, offensive pass interference a few plays later moved the Giants out of Lawrence Tynes’s range.

Andy Reid needs to take a note from mistakes made by the likes of Jason Garrett and Joe Philbin and stop icing the kicker. They Eagles got lucky last night. Reid called a last-second time out and his defense blocked the field goal attempt. Lawrence Tynes took his second opportunity and made a beautiful kick, perfectly down the middle of the hash marks. He just didn’t have the leg from 54 yards and the Eagles held on to win 19-17.

With the regular officials back in place, this was the most exciting week of the season so far and I look forward to 13 more weeks of the same. For now, we have a big matchup on tap for tonight as the Cowboys host the Bears at 8:30. Be sure to check out my afterword on that game tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 3 Late Games

Torrey Smith hauled in two touchdown receptions
in an emotional game.

So if the 49ers loss against the Vikings moved them out of first in the NFC West, who took over their spot? Surprise, surprise, it’s the Cardinals! Kevin Kolb faced his old team and played a fantastic game as Arizona hosted Philadelphia. Michael Vick was 17/37; Kolb was 17/24. Vick had 217 passing yards, 28 rushing yards and no touchdowns. Kolb had 222 passing yards, 16 rushing yards and two touchdowns. The Eagles better miss him! But it wasn’t only Kevin Kolb who led Arizona to a big win and their first 3-0 start since the 70s; Arizona’s defense has been rock solid, and they came up huge yesterday.

The play that defined the game for me was the final play of the first half. With a few seconds left and the ball on the 1-yard line, Vick dropped back to try one more throw before settling for a field goal. Instead he was hit hard, fumbled the ball, and James Sanders returned for a score to put the Cardinals up 24-0 at halftime. Philly managed to hold the Cardinals down in the second half but only put up 6 points themselves in the 27-6 road loss.

Matt Ryan continues to shine as the Falcons beat the Chargers in similar fashion, 27-3. Ryan was 30/40 for 275 yards, 3 touchdown passes, and just his first interception of the season. A week after being arrested for a DUI after playing the Broncos, Michael Turner was back and carried the ball 14 times for 80 yards and a score.

Philip Rivers meanwhile continues to struggle early in the season. He threw for under 200 yards and after picking off Peyton Manning three times last week the Falcons defense picked Rivers off twice in San Diego.

Peyton Manning wanted to come back from that rough performance against Atlanta as the Broncos hosted the Texans, but for the second straight week, a big fourth quarter come back bid fell short. Houston led 31-11 heading into the final quarter. Manning finished the day with 330 passing yards and 2 touchdown passes, both coming in the final 15 minutes. But Matt Schaub’s 4 touchdown passes were too much for Denver to overcome in the 31-25 Houston victory.

Big Ben Roethlisberger had 384 passing yards four touchdown passes and no picks. That was the best statistical game for any quarterback so far this week, yet it wasn’t enough as the Raiders earned their first victory, 34-31. Carson Palmer played good, not great, but Darren McFadden is a beast. He carried the ball just 18 times but gained 113 yards and scored a touchdown. It took a 13-0 fourth quarter effort, but the Raiders earned their first win of the season.

The Sunday Night game was interesting. There were a lot of penalties, but the game moved at a quick enough pace that it didn’t lose my interest like many games over the past two weeks have.

Of course, the story of the night was Ravens receiver, and Maryland grad, Torrey Smith, who played despite his younger brother Tevin being killed in a motorcycle accident early in the day. Smith had 6 catches for 127 yards and two scores.

Flacco played well, as did Ray Rice. Baltimore’s defense, as always, was strong. But the Patriots did not look very good on offense. Brady had a decent second half as New England finally got Wes Welker involved in their game plan, but Brady has not looked like Brady this year when he’s throwing to just about anyone else.

With little time remaining, the Ravens were in range for a 27-yard field goal try. Last year Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that gave New England the AFC Championship and a Super Bowl bid. This year, rookie Justin Tucker was the man to try and give Baltimore the win. His kicked sailed high over the uprights, but the official beneath said it went directly over, which constitutes a successful field goal attempt. The kick gave the Ravens a 31-30 victory and a 2-1 record.

New England drops to 1-2 with the loss. Their streak of consecutive games played without being below .500 ends at 145, a streak that spanned nine seasons. In 2003 they lost their season opener, 31-0 against the Chiefs. After that they won two straight games, lost to the Redskins, then did not lose again as they went on to win the Super Bowl against the Carolina Panthers.

Tonight the Packers take on the Seattle Seahawks. Expect the 12^th Man to go all out as Seattle tries to keep pace with the 49ers and not lose too much ground to the Cardinals. It will be a tough task against the Packers, but if there is nothing else the first three weeks have taught us, it’s that the NFL loves upsets and there is never a ‘gimme win.’

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my Afterword on the earlier Sunday games.

Pre-Season Week 2 Look-back

We have reached the halfway point of the 2012 Pre-Season, but the Regular Season could not feel further away. Everybody loves the first couple games of the Pre-Season. But by this time we’ve seen all our teams’ players and are ready for the games to start counting. Maybe if the season ever expands to 18 games that will happen, but for now we have two more weeks to hunker down for before the chase for Super Bowl XLVII begins.

We had plenty of action this week, and the AFC North did well, winning three of their four games. It started on Thursday when both the Bengals and Browns won against teams that I have winning their respective divisions in the NFC. Cincinnati beat Atlanta by less than a touchdown, but the surprise was Cleveland’s 35-10 blowout win over Green Bay. Brandon Weeden did well, though he was fortunate to leave with no picks thrown after making a couple very poor decisions. The Packers’ biggest concern should probably be that their two leading rushers in the game were Aaron Rodgers (2 carries, 24 yards) and backup Quarterback Graham Harrell (3 carries, 23 yards).

All six games on Friday featured an NFC team taking on an AFC team, five of those games with the NFC team hosting. The NFC won four of the games, and three of their home games. Tennessee blew out the Buccaneers in Tampa and the Jaguars squeaked by the Saints in the Superdome for the only two AFC wins of the day.

Detroit played a great game in Baltimore, scoring 17 points in the second quarter behind a pair of touchdown passes by Matthew Stafford who went 12-17 for 184 yards. Five of those completions went to Calvin Johnson, who turned them into 111 yards and a score. The final in that game was 27-12 as Baltimore fell in the AFC’s only home game of the evening.

Carolina beat Miami at home and Minnesota got a home win against the Bills, but it was the late game that drew most of my attention on Friday. The Raiders didn’t have a very memorable game, though undrafted Wide Receiver Rod Streater did have a pretty good game. He only had 43 receiving yards, but they were on seven receptions. With Oakland’s other receivers struggling massively, he could be a fantasy dark horse. On the Cardinals’ side, Kevin Kolb looked terrible. John Skelton looked good, but he only threw three passes. He completed all three of them, one of them going for a touchdown, but Ken Whisenhunt pulled him out immediately after his third completion like he was scared something would happen that would ruin it, so it’s a bit early to jump on his fantasy bandwagon.

The Jets couldn’t wait to play the Giants, and they got that chance, and wasted it, on Saturday as the defending Super Bowl Champions got a 26-3 win as the Jets played as the home team. The Jets had been trying to make a case for being New York’s team over the past few seasons, and though this is only the Pre-Season, last year’s regular season win by the Giants, and of course the Giants Super Bowl XLVI win have pretty much skewered that notion.

The Redskins came back with a very impressive fourth quarter by Kirk Cousins, who you have to think has proven that he should move past Rex Grossman to #2 on Washington’s depth chart. It wasn’t quite enough as the Bears still got a 33-31 win at home, but it was something positive after RGIII struggled for most of the first half.

Houston won at home against San Francisco, but the 49ers shouldn’t be too worried yet. Only playing in one half, we can’t expect too much out of Alex Smith in the Pre-Season. The 49ers will be fine once their first team is playing entire games. Sam Bradford looked good in St. Louis’ win over Kansas City. He only threw nine passes but completed six of them for over 100 yards and two touchdowns.

Denver backed up their 31-3 week 1 win in Chicago with a 30-10 loss at home against the Seahawks, showing severe inconsistency. Manning looked good in his second outing, but did throw a pair of picks. His accuracy is mostly there, but he is still not 100% when trying to stretch the defense with downfield throws. Dallas’ first team offense still didn’t look very good this week. They scored 10 points in the first half, which isn’t terrible, but you hope for more. Their first team defense, however, looked great. After the team shut out the Raiders last week, the Cowboys’ first team defense blanked San Diego’s first team offense. The Chargers won the game thanks to 21 fourth quarter points.

Andrew Luck didn’t do great, but he didn’t do badly either. It is all a learning experience for the rookie quarterback. He threw his first interception and was sacked for the first time in his team’s visit to Pittsburgh, but there was plenty to like, too. He completed 16 of 25 passes for 175 yards. He also scored a touchdown on a triple option run.

Last night was the final game of the week as the Patriots hosted the Eagles. Tom Brady didn’t play at all – Belichick rested him and a few other players as last night’s game marked the start of a 3-game-in-10-day stretch. Michael Vick sustained a hit on his ribs that knocked him out of the game. It was the second week in a row he left with an injury, though the X-rays came back negative for the second straight time. The good news for the Eagles is that Nick Foles did well in backing up Vick, going 18-28 for 217 yards and a pair of scoring throws against the Patriots’ first team defense. The Eagles went on to win 27-17.

This week action begins on Thursday again, but the last games will be played on Sunday, so my next look-back will be next Monday. Tomorrow I will post this week’s Things You Need to Know, so keep a lookout for that. Thanks for reading everyone!

First Impressions

Since it is only the preseason, I am not going to bother making predictions or giving in-depth recaps of any of the games (though weekly predictions is something I am adding this season).

However, I do want to give some of my first impressions on some potentially key quarterbacks in the NFL based on their performances in the first week of the season.

Neither Tom Brady nor Peyton Manning played in their teams’ preseason openers. Manning’s appearance without a jersey on the Colts’ sideline was to be expected, and he likely will not play at all this preseason as he continues to let his neck recover from corrective surgery). Brady’s absence from the playing field was very surprising, even to him, who did not even know until the team had arrived at the stadium that he and a small handful of other starters would not play against the Jaguars.

I got to watch the first few drives of the Browns/Packers game. Aaron Rodgers looked good, like he picked up nearly where he left off in the Super Bowl, with that lost step being attributed to it being preseason and having a shortened camp. Colt McCoy’s performance is what really impressed me. He might some very crisp passes into tight spots and everything was on the money. He left the game having gone 9/10 for 135 yards and a touchdown pass. Most notably, he threw no picks (he finished last season with 6 touchdowns to 9 interceptions).

Despite what many experts seemed to be saying, I thought Tim Tebow’s performance was pretty respectable against the Cowboys. He was not necessarily one of the standouts, but the contrast between my view and the views of most analysts on ESPN and NFL Network make me feel that his performance is worth mentioning. He was 6/7 for 91 yards. He did not look exceptionally comfortable, but he sure looked better than the projected Broncos starter, Kyle Orton, who was just 2/6 for 37 yards.

Staying on that game, Tony Romo, as usual, looked decent but did not impress, which I expected. However, Jon Kitna did not particularly impress me either, something I had not expected. Stephen McGee looked fine, and led the ‘Boys to a win, but he was playing against backups, so I would not dream of saying he should be the starter in Dallas. I will, however, say that I think Dallas has a tough decision ahead of them on who the starter would be. They will need to give both Romo and Kinta more than five passes in their game against the Chargers on Sunday.

It certainly looked like Kevin Kolb and Larry Fitzgerald were on the same page against the Raiders, but he did not look particularly sharp throwing the ball elsewhere. It will take some time to adjust to his new team, so nobody should be too concerned. If anything, it is a positive that Kolb has already apparently developed a bit of a rapport with the Cardinals’ best receiver.

Rex Grossman really stood out to me. The Redskins need a good quarterback if they want to have any shot at competing this year. I am still not convinced that he is the one, but he definitely made big strides toward be considered such in my mind. Granted he played the entire first half, and only the first drive against the Steelers starting defense, but on that drive he took the ‘Skins from their own 1-yard line to the Steelers’ 10-yard line, resulting in a missed 27-yard field goal attempt. Soon after he led an 82-yard drive for a touchdown, though against a second-string defense. Tim Hightower was the main attraction for Washington on the first drive, but Grossman made some nice passes. He made great passes later on, too, ones that I have no doubt would have been great against a first-string defense and a small handful that could have been big mistakes against a better defense. All in all, it was not a perfect outing, but a huge improvement from the final few games of the 2010 season.

Of course, I cannot close this out without mentioning the #1 overall draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, Cam Newton. He got plenty of playing time and went 8/19 for 134 yards. I cannot really speak too much on this subject, as I have not had the opportunity to see more than a couple of his good plays from their game against the Giants. However, those numbers do not particularly impress me. Though there is more to football than stats, and if you make the plays in key spots and do not in other times, you can still come away with a win. But, by and large, players who make plays have better stats than those posted by Cam Newton. He is a rookie, so he has to be given time to adjust, but he better not think that he is locked in as their starter in Carolina. Clausen wants a shot, and Anderson has been a starter before, granted in a terrible Browns offense, but he knows how good it feels to start and you better believe he will fight for that right again.

I will be back next week with a short recap of players who stood out to me in week 2 of the preseason.

Pre-Season Time!

Never before in my life have I been so excited for pre-season action in the NFL. I spent my afternoon watching last year’s episodes of Hard Knocks, focused on the New York Jets training camp, and realized just how badly I am craving some pro football.

I had planned to post as soon as the lockout ended. But the moment it ended, I knew that each post would only end in me turning around and posting something else on the now-most-recent acquisition.

Players were flying from one team to another so quickly it left my head swimming, so I chose to wait until the trades and signings slowed down to write my first post-lockout post; this one.

Probably the biggest acquisition was the Eagles’ signing of cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who’s career in Oakland began in 2003. He started 99 of the 122 games he played in and has 11 career interceptions. His best games as far as being a shutdown corner go came back in 2005 and 2006. In 2005 he had 14 knockdowns and a career high 60 tackles, 55 of them solo tackles. 2006 was his best year overall; he made his first career interception (and then 7 more that season), had a career high 19 knockdowns, and he had 50 tackles (48 solo). Projections had him landing either in Dallas or with the Jets, but he shocked everyone and chose Philadelphia. With him, Asanté Samuel, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in their secondary, their defense is going to be very tough to penetrate.

Before I move onto another topic, and since I’ve already brought up Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, I may as well stay on the subject and explain how he got to Philadelphia. He arrived as part of the imminent Kevin Kolb trade. Kolb is now in Arizona, to whom he was traded for Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2nd round pick in next year’s draft.

The Eagles stayed busy by picking up recently-cut Vince Young, who has had a lot of ups and downs with the Titans. His past two years have probably been his best, but he has only played in 24 games over the past three seasons. He will take Kolb’s vacated spot, backing up Michael Vick on Philadelphia’s depth chart.

To replace Young, the Titans signed Matt Hasselbeck who led Pete Carroll’s Seahawks to a divisional playoff appearance last year, knocking off the defending Super Bowl champs in the wild-card round.

New England was also rather busy, bringing in Chad Ochocinco and Albert Haynesworth. Assuming he doesn’t step off the field every third play as he did in Washington, the addition of Haynesworth on the defensive line will make their run defense even tougher than it already was, in addition to greatly bettering their pass rush (they were in the middle of the league in sacks last season). The Patriots already have several proven receivers, including Wes Welker and Deion Branch, and younger players who proved their worth last season, like tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, so adding Ochocinco will simply add extra depth to an already solid receiving corps.

In addition to trading Albert Haynesworth to New England, the Redskins also traded away quarterback Donovan McNabb. He will be in Minnesota this year, and the Redskins will get a 6th round pick in next year’s draft and a potential pick in 2013.

The Cowboys recently cut wide receiver Roy Williams, among other players. Williams has had a pretty good career overall if you look at his year-to-year numbers. In fact, he did so well in four years in Detroit (five if you include his 2007 season greatly shortened by a knee injury) that the Cowboys traded 1st, 3rd, and 6th round picks in the 2009 draft and a 7th round pick in 2010 to Detroit for him. He has played decently in Dallas for the past two seasons, but never reached the level of productivity that they needed from him. He has been picked up by Minnesota, with whom he has signed a one-year contract.

Another former Cowboy will also be in the NFC North this season as Chicago picked up running back Marion Barber.

The Dolphins picked up Reggie Bush in a trade with New Orleans, sending away safety Jonathan Amaya. There were also draft pick(s) involved, but they are so far undisclosed.

All of this was done (not necessarily in order) over the first few days after the lockout ended and free agency began. There are still several transactions being made every day, but so far not as many big names have been involved. DeSean Jackson is expected to end his holdout and report to camp with the Eagles tomorrow. There still is no word on when or if the Chris Johnson holdout might end in Tennessee. And despite his tweets, it looks as if the Titans will also have to deal with Cortland Finnegan holding out as well.

With the preseason fast approaching, I am working on a season outlook and playoff prediction for the coming season. Hopefully I will be able to publish it sometime on Wednesday, the day before the first five preseason games of 2011, including Seattle in San Diego, scheduled for an 8:00pm start time on ESPN.

Remember to check back weekly for new posts. I’ll probably be more active on the blog than I was last season, but I can’t really give any guarantees since I’ll also have a busy schedule between classes and athletics.

As always, I appreciate any feedback, including criticism. Nobody is a perfect writer, and I am bound to make mistakes like anyone else, so please be considerate with how to criticize on grammar/spelling issues, but certainly don’t hesitate to correct any facts if I have made errors concerning them.