September 29, 2023
GOD BLESS UKRAINE AND THE USA!!!!
BIGGEST TEST OF THE YEAR SO FAR
Tonight’s Denham Springs HS Football game vs St Thomas More HS comes your way at 6 o’clock with Sport n Center Jackets Warm-up on Family Radio, 91.9 FM and on the net at Jon Fine Productions.com.
GREAT GUESTS
Sport n Center Jackets Warm-up will include an interview with LSU Ladies Tigers assistant Basketball coach Bob Starkey. DSHS principal Wes Howard will come on the Smalls Sliders Half-Time Report.
TODAY’S COLUMN
Jon tries to save the world! See Fine Ideas by scrolling down below.
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FINE IDEAS
The Government (Revis Island like) Shut-Down, the UAW (Nolan Ryan like fastball) Strike, Auto Gridlock on our streets, Confounding Football Coaching Decisions.
It is one of the oldest bromides in sports. What does Prevent Defense do?
It prevents victory! Apparently, Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman did not get the memo. Although much has been made of Notre Dame having only 10 defenders on the field the last 2 plays of the 17-14 Ohio State victory over the Fighting Irish—and one would think that should not happen at the elite of the Power Five level—what I believe cost the Irish this winnable game vs Ohio State, does not have much to do with Notre Dame not being able to count to 11. No, not playing with 11 did not help the Gold Domers cause on the final play of the game—Chip Trayanum diving in for a one-yard Buckeyes victory winning touchdown. But, to me the bigger irritant for Notre Dame fans should be the Irish rushing 3 and dropping 8 into coverage as it defended a third and 19 OSU completion to the ND 1 yard line, 2 plays prior to Trayanum’s run. The Irish’s chances at a national championship—as good as just about any team in this Pac 12 finale dominant mixed up college football world—were largely diminished by this loss, largely attributable to this coaching decision. This was one of many mind-boggling coaching maneuvers made over last weekend.
In the LSU-Arkansas game—a 37-34 LSU win, both coaches made questionable moves in the last 2 minutes of play, although Tigers coach Brian Kelly gets exonerated based on the strategy he said he was employing. The game was knotted up at 34. LSU had a first and goal at the Arkansas 7-yard line, inside 2 minutes left. Arkansas was out of timeouts. Both teams had fileted the opposing team’s defense in the second half. LSU had a reliable kicker. What the Tigers should have been doing was to have 2 kneel-downs and then inside the last 10 seconds spike the ball to set up a just about guaranteed gimme game winning field goal. LSU instead, ran its offense, looking to score a touchdown, or so it seemed. Had they scored a touchdown, Arkansas would have gotten the ball back with an opportunity to tie or win the game. Kelly, afterwards, said his team was in a mode of offense where players were instructed to not cross the goal line. If you take his word at face value, then it absolves Kelly, although taking a knee would have been the safer route. One hears about fumbles/interceptions on offensive plays all the time. On knee-downs, not so much! Meanwhile Arkansas coach Sam Pittman seemed to have his defense digging in. This was the unequivocal wrong move. The odds of causing a turnover or having a missed LSU chip shot field goal, were far exceeded by Arkansas getting the ball back down by 7, and with sufficient time, scoring a touchdown. Alternative one to just play defense? Our just formed (truthfully nonexistent) metrics staff gives Arkansas about a 2 percent chance of preventing an LSU game winning score. Meanwhile, if you intentionally let LSU score, we (in my noggin) calculate the chances of Arkansas scoring a game tying or winning touchdown in regulation is about 15 percent. And, we’ll put up our anecdotal probabilities vs ESPN’s supposed empirical-based odds any day of the week, except Monday through Sunday! Ironically enough, Kelly and Pittman physically resemble each other, at least in my geriatric eyes. Could it be they derived their comparable coaching strategies because they are related? Do we need to take a DNA swab to see if they are brothers?… Enough silliness (for now.). An important qualification of this strategy-dissection-- If you think Kelly was veracious in his post-game explanation and believe that Kelly’s troops would not have crossed the goal line even if provided an Arkansas chauffeured limousine delivery into paydirt, then it is a moot point to question Pittman’s strategy…
All of this has me conjuring up memories of former Tigers coach Les Miles’ foibles, especially in the last 2 minutes of play.
The Las Vegas Raiders were trailing by 8 with 3:15 to go and did not go for it 4th and manageable, but kicked a field goal instead. A personal foul penalty on the Pittsburgh Steelers was accepted and Raiders coach Josh McDaniels took the points off the board. Da Raiduhs ended up driving to the Steelers 8-yard line and had fourth and 4. They ended up kicking the field goal again. There was 2:20 left. The Raiders did eventually get the ball back, down by 5… but with 12 seconds to play. Final Score: Pittsburgh 23 Las Vegas 18. Not sure of Raiders time-out situation, which is critical in this analysis, but all things being equal, with a healthy dose of 20-20 hindsight, Las Vegas field goal attempts, especially the second one, look questionable.
What is not questionable is the mind-boggling coaching moves made by both coaches down the stretch of the Los Angeles Chargers- Minnesota Vikings game. The timeout-less Vikings, trailing by 4, had just converted a fourth down play, with an inbounds pass to the Chargers 6. 42 seconds remained. The Vikings rushed to the line of scrimmage and, largely disassembled, threw a game-sealing interception. Final Score: Los Angeles 28 Minnesota 24. Clearly, the Vikings should have grounded the ball and had an opportunity to win with 3 plays from the Chargers 6. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell goofed. But a more egregious coaching error was made by his counterpart on the Chargers sidelines, Brandon Staley, whose daffy decision afforded O’Connell his chance at goofiness. The Chargers had gone for it on 4th and one from their own 24, up by 4, inside 2 minutes to be played. Their running back got brought down shy of the first down, allowing Minnesota to get the ball just outside the red zone with 1:47 remaining. I am wondering if O’Connell and Staley should have been placed in the concussion protocol. What other plausible logical explanation is there?
We have some ideas about the Revis Island shutdown and the Nolan Ryan UAW strike, but we will let greater minds than mine (over under is 95 percent of population and we advise you to bet the over), and I have spoken my piece on the football goofball strategies employed by the millionaire coaches.
So that leaves us with trying to solve traffic issues. I’ll take my shot by comparing vehicle congestion represented in the northeast vs the deep south.
For the folks in Louisiana, let me introduce you to the apparatus on the steering wheel of motor vehicles. Fellow citizens (and illegal aliens) in the Pelican state, this is what is referred to as a HORN—think former Saints receiver Joe Horn, without the Joe. It should be employed when you are sitting in traffic behind a knucklehead (moi) at a green light. The over/under is 10 times a month that I am involved with Jennifer Garner (I’m daydreaming and, again, take the over) as I’m sitting at a red light. The next thing I know is I look up and the light is green and about to turn red, and there are several cars waiting behind me. I often make a mad dash to get through the green light. Usually, there are numerous cars that were behind me that are stranded at the red light. They are, most probably justifiably irate. Yet, Louisianans, I am not responsible for your road rage. It is your fault. Had you employed your horn… make that horns plural, in timely fashion, I would have arisen from my slumber and made the green light, and you would have too. So, fellow citizens/aliens, take responsibility, be accountable. These traffic congestions that you cause are avoidable. That device on your steering wheel—the HORN—use it, frequently, when you are behind Arrested Development One (my vehicle).
Now, to my friends in New York, where I originally hail from, my advice to you is to give it a rest! I literally have heard more horns honked during a ½ hour interval at Kennedy Airport than I would in a month in Louisiana. No Hyperbole! If you are behind one of my fellow knuckleheaded old buddies from Valley Stream South HS (likely suspects. Just kidding FINE IDEAS readers and VSS greats Mitch Adelman and Billy Brown), use the horn once. If the Falcon (VS South nickname) does not arise from his hibernation, use the horn again. You do not need to have an elongated toot either, unless a 3rd usage of your horn is necessitated. And, if you are in cars 2—20 behind, you need to use your horn a lot more judiciously. No need to have a NY cacophony at red lights.
Wow. If my typed words have just brought Lilly Red Louisiana and Largely Blue New York together, imagine the possibilities. If this is any template for success, road rage should become a thing of the past. And, in the larger scheme of things the Government shutdown, UAW strike, I will even throw in alleged (this word deployed for my Louisiana friends) Global Warming! In comparison, those issues might be easy to solve now. FINE IDEAS to the rescue!
Brain addling football coaching decisions? I have no definitive answer for those.
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