Friday Odds & Ends

While the "what have you done for me lately crowd" freaks out about Carson Palmer, the rest of us who base our opinions on facts can point to the following breakdown from Rob Weintraub of Football Outsiders (via Joe Reedy) to help dismiss the lunatic fringe:

Our game charters noted only 15 percent of Palmer’s throws as “deep” or “bomb.” By contrast, noodle-armed Chad Pennington threw 19 percent of his balls deep or bomb in 2008 in a similar scheme. Palmer threw long 23 percent of the time in 2007. He saved his best play for clutch situations, as though recognizing that his arm had only so many throws in it. Besides the comebacks, his third/fourth down efficiency was superb, 26.0 percent DVOA, and was even better in the red zone (51.3 percent DVOA).

So let's recap:  1) Palmer was limited by the lack of big plays called and 2) the more important the situation the better he played.  Everyone please stop rushing to judgment for chrissakes.  And please do not clamour for high draft picks to be spent to replace him.  He's 31.  He's got a lot left in the tank.

MGMT has been good for some recent quotes.  Turns out NFL execs recently realized what most HDTV owners and fantasy football players have known for a long time:  it's kinda sorta awesome to just watch the games at home rather than at the stadium.  So the Bengals will be showing the Red Zone channel on many of the screens located throughout PBS in order to allow folks to keep up with the other games going on at the same time.  Joe Reedy takes special care to note that:

The service will be free to fans.

Gee, thanks Bengals, for not charging us for content we have no control over and you get at no cost.  Seriously, though, this year again the Bengals will struggle to sell tickets and this is part of the reason (two decades of shitting on the fans and the Great Recession also play a role).  From Katie B:

Again, we want our fans to have the best of both worlds — all the information from other games while also being able to enjoy the unique and unmatched experience of seeing our games in person.

Great.

Last, Baghdad Hob published a gem titled "Brown remembers The Boss" in which Mikey Boy reflects upon the life and character of George Steinbrenner.  My first reaction:  huh?  Well, it turns out Mikey Boy worked for George back in his days of shipbuilding.  And Mikey worked as a sailor!  The article consists mostly of:

1. Mikey selectively remembering only the good things about Steinbrenner;

I’ve got a fondness for George. He was a very generous guy. Very good to the people that worked for him,” Brown recalled Tuesday as he reacted to Steinbrenner’s death at age 80. “I saw him do countless things for people that needed it. That’s the guy that I remember.

 (pay no attention to the two times he got banned from baseball for gross ethical lapses)

2. Step-toeing around the glaring differences in how these men ran their sports franchises;

Both would become team owners and could there be two different owners in professional sports? Brown, 74, one of the last of the family-owned sports teams trying to win while holding the line in a small market in a league ruled by a salary cap. Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees in the nation’s biggest market that made free agency a way of life in sports when his spending translated into back-to-back world titles in the late ‘70s.

(ummm...how about Steinbrenner wanting to win at all costs...Mikey wanting to win as long as there is no costs - and he's not holding any line in small market, the salary cap spefically allows any size market to compete)

3. Old man gibberish:

The Yankees have half a track head start. He was in baseball and I’m in football, so it’s a different kettle of fish.

???

Anyway, Mikey speaks rarely so no matter how pointless the comments we must mock them.

Comments

[Wyatt]

C'mon, SWB, no love for Chaddy's video on si.com that I pointed out a couple of posts down? Not only does he mock the Steelers and Ravens, he says he's still trying to get Mikey Boy to sign to TO, directly stating that there's no salary cap this year (and indirectly implying that Mike Brown is cheap).

[blesterov]

I would like to see them sign TO for a one year contract, but not for the amount he is asking (approx $5 mil). If they can get him for $3.5 to $4 mil that would be a deal. It would be great to have an additional tall WR with big game experience in their arsenal. A guy who also can go over the middle.

From watching the OTA videos, I like Shipley a lot, but I would feel a lot better if he could be groomed in the the 4th spot and TO be number 3 this season. But who knows maybe Caldwell takes his game to another level this year...

For some reason, I feel we have a lot of similarities with this Bengals team:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/151763/team-highlights-1981-cincinnati-bengals?team=cincinnati-bengals#s-p1-sr-i1

[bguy_1986]

@blesterov

One thing I noticed in that video is that they said the bengals were extremely aggressive. That doesn't happen, and probably won't happen. I think that's holding us back.

[Wyatt]

@bguy_1986

Surely you're not seriously suggesting that Bob "Run Run Draw Punt" Bratkowski is holding back our beloved Bengals? Why, Bobby B is the longest tenured out of our Big 3 coaches (Marvin, Brat, Zim), so surely he's doing something right, right?

Right?

Oh, wait, there's a reason we call him Bratworst - because he's awful. Can't someone in the 'nati set up a sting and catch him with a transvestite hooker or something? This guy's gotta have some kind of skeletons that can be exposed, forcing Mike "Family Values" Brown to fire/release him.

[coach sale]

Stories seldom told,Flowing by the skyline,My love songs that never rhyme.I Stand alone and alone,lingering by my secret rainbow

[Artrell]

Great post. Could not agree more on Carson. Those of us who have watched every throw and who can consider the totality of the situation he has dealt with of the past several years understand this. Those of us who watched him deliver missile like strikes to engineer last minute victories multiple times last year get it. And with a full healthy year and healthy offseason (FOR ONCE!) to build, on I really hope this is the year he'll have the chance to prove all the nay-sayers wrong.

[TigerJ@w]

@SWB, you missed the best part of that article on MFB talking about the Boss or did not note it....

Yea MFB, you would never agree spending money to win Championships, we all ready realize this and know how you operate and yes, your Bengals fans would not mind if you did it this way if it brought Championships. What a concept! but I knew you would never agree with they way the Boss operated because who would ever want a Super Bowl trophy, right.

“He came to New York just at the right time. Just as cable television was coming on and he was able to harness all that income,” Brown said. “You have to admire what he did, although I don’t agree with it. The Yankees have half a track head start. He was in baseball and I’m in football, so it’s a different kettle of fish.

“I think there’s an imbalance there. It created some issues for all of us, but I don’t think George created those issues. I’m sure the people in New York don’t mind at all. They won a lot of championships with George.”

[Artrell]

This is hilarious... video of Jordan Shipley singing a song at Colt McCoy's wedding... I'm really starting to like Shipley.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/07/19/tim-tebow-colt-mccoy-texas-longhorns-cleveland-browns-cincinnati-bengals-jordan-shipley-rachel-glandorf-wedding-song

[Michael]

Question is Cincinnati still looking at T.O.? Just have a strange feeling about T.O.'s agent saying he will be signed in a few weeks. He also stated several teams are interested. It also did not state Cincinnati was not interested. What are your thoughts guys.

[coach purses]

Sit on your porch and admire the view without paying attention to your needs; search for knowledge,read more, I think that is very meanful for you because today is important.