John Harbaugh for "Change is Good" (and So am I)

The last thing you would think about doing if you are the Super Bowl Champions is trying to change too much. However, that just seems to be the cards that the Ravens are dealt with... or playing?

Baltimore's off-season has been mostly about losing players after their Super Bowl win in February. They have lost Ray Lewis to retirement and two other linebackers to other teams, Anquan Boldin in a trade to the 49ers for a 6th round pick, and other notable starters along the way. Ed Reed's days in Baltimore also look like they are over as he's getting looks from other teams like the Texans.

The only thing that they have been able to do is keep Joe Flacco with a 6 year $120 million plus contract to eat up a lot of cap space.

Despite all of this, the PR department known as John Harbaugh has spun it the best way he can. "The worst mistake you can make is trying to hold a team together," Harbaugh said in an interview. "It's impossible." He also cited Bo Schembechler's (the late family friend) advice of  "if you try to stay the same you end up getting worse."

Full article at http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9066834/john-harbaugh-baltimore-ravens-roster-change-part-nfl

An interesting question gets raised by all this: Is all this "change" better for the team/John Harbaugh long term? Also, is it best to break up a Super Bowl team rather than try and keep it together nowadays?

I'm not sure anyone can ever answer the second question perfectly but the first one seems to be a yes. The Ravens team that won it all was old and heading down the other side of the hill anyway. They certainly made a great postseason push with a deer antler charged Ray Lewis leading the pack. But now with the Ray Lewis era is over in Baltimore, the Ravens took it as a sign to start a new era with some different players.

While they did lose players in their prime, they also let aged veterans go like Ed Reed (34) and Anquan Boldin (32). Keeping them would've been too hard with the cap restrictions what they are and even if they had managed to do so, they might only be productive for a couple more seasons. (I must reiterate that I still like that the 49ers got Boldin).

The next couple of the years for the Ravens will have them trying to return to contender status. But don't despair, Baltimore. They weren't predominantly seen as contenders last season. As you all have seen, anything can happen once you get into the postseason and with a quarterback like Joe, getting to January is always a possibility.

P.S. Now my best shot at answering the 2nd question: I'm leaning towards saying yes. Just look at the Super Bowl winners over the past decade or so. Except for the Pats about ten years ago, there have been no repeat winners. It's not that Super Bowl teams haven't been contenders the season after they've won it. It's just that the path to the Super Bowl nowadays is too chaotic to navigate and predict.

Lately, it hasn't been what are considered the great teams that end up winning the Super Bowl. The last three winners have just been teams that have gotten hot at exactly the right time.

Also, of the teams that have won it multiple times over the past ten years, the common denominator is that they had great quarterbacks. The Pats have Brady, the Steelers have Ben, and the Giants have Peyton's younger brother. By that logic, the Ravens think they are set for the foreseeable future seeing how well Joe Flacco performed this past postseason.

With quarterback being the far and away clear centerpiece of a team today, everything else is interchangeable. Just look at how Bill Belichick and the Patriots deal with players not named Brady. He casually let's players go or trades them the instant he thinks their ability will tank. He then manages to find suitable enough replacements (not always the best) and gems in the draft to keep the team afloat.

While they haven't been able to close the deal since February of 2005, the Pats have been in the playoff hunt every season except for two since their first Super Bowl title at the end of the 2001 season.

Unless you have a great defense, a great quarterback, and a lot of luck, there are no dynasty's anymore in the NFL. Talent level is pretty well spread out in the league, even at the quarterback position. That's right, even at QB.

Let's name the QB's that have been good enough to lead a team to the Super Bowl: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Peyton's younger brother, Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger. Now quarterback's that possibly join the list above as soon as next season? Colin Kaepernick (HA!!!), Matt Ryan, and Matt Schaub (bit of a stretch).

Now quarterbacks that are just good enough to get their team to the postseason at the present time: Tony Romo, Jay Cutler, Matthew Stafford, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, and Andrew Luck.

If the standard nowadays is just getting into the postseason while hoping your team is peaking at the right time, I count 16 quarterbacks that are eligible for the job. That's not even counting quarterbacks that have potential to become that or those that have faded away.

If that's the case, it's about finding the right parts for your ever changing team year after year. You can't have too many star players on your team too long because of that pesky salary cap and winning a Super Bowl just has everyone able to renegotiate at that time chirping for more money. It's today's NFL and it's what champions now have to do to remain in contention.

P.P.S. Is my P.S. longer my than original post?

Texans and Packers Winners Saturday

The NFL playoffs started today with two games in the Wild Card round.

The first one featured a rematch from last year's Wild Card round with the Bengals once again making a trip to Houston to take on the Texans. Houston managed to win last year's game and pulled off the same result today. It was a low scoring game throughout and the Bengals offense didn't do much failing to convert all 9 of their 3rd down attempts, only getting 12 first downs compared to Houston's 24, and only having 198 total yards compared to Houston's 420. The Bengals' only TD came off a Leon Hall interception in the 2nd quarter. Cincy's defense might've kept them in the game until the end but their offense didn't have the spark. Houston wins 19-13.

The 2nd game was less exciting despite the match up. After beating the Packers in Minnesota just to get into the postseason, the Vikings now traveled to Green Bay to face the cheeseheads for a 2nd week in a row. This time, however, they had to do it without Christian Ponder at QB. Joe Webb came in off the bench to play having not thrown the ball once this season. On top of that, the Green Bay defense played Adrian Peterson much better allowing him to get just 99 rushing yards on 22 carries. That combined with Joe Webb equaled a Packers win 24-10.

Both home teams win and know who they will face in the next round. The Texans will travel to New England to face the Patriots while the Packers go to the Bay Area to play the 49ers. Both the Texans and the Packers played their upcoming opponents during the regular season. The Pats beat the Texans in week 14 while the 49ers beat the Packers in week 1.

Redskins Win NFC East, Vikes Squeeze Into Postseason, Broncos and Pats Get Byes and More

The last week in the NFL was huge as it featured quite a few good games with playoff implications.

The biggest perhaps was the Cowboys vs. the Redskins with the NFC East title on the line and the loser not getting into the postseason. Both sides started out slow and it was tied at 7 heading into the locker room. The 2nd half had more of the Washington's ground game wearing down the Dallas defense. Rookie Alfred Morris managed to run an even 200 yards against the Cowboys and managed 3 rushing TDs. RG3, meanwhile, only had 100 passing yards going 9/18 with 63 rushing yards and a rushing TD.

Dallas fell behind by 11 and managed to cut the lead by 3 with just under 6 minutes left. Tony Romo, however, made a season ending mistake throwing his third interception of the game with this one being picked off by London Fletcher on a dump pass to DeMarco Murray. The Redskins managed to kill the clock down to 1:09 left in regulation and scored the nail-in-the-coffin TD with Morris' third score. Redskins win the NFC East 28-18. Dallas misses the playoffs for a third straight season while Washington gets in with a rookie QB and running back leading the way.

There was also a big game earlier that day involving the Packers and the Vikings. Green Bay was fighting for the #2 seed in the NFC while Minnesota was fighting to just get into the postseason. The Packers knew that Adrian Peterson of the Vikings was going to run on them and they still couldn't stop him. Peterson ran for 199 yards including a 26 yard run to get the Vikings a chip shot field goal for Blair Walsh to win the game 37-34. Peterson, however, still finishes 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson single season rushing record. Vikings get into the playoffs as a wild card while the Packers lose the #2 seed with this loss and the 49ers beating the Cardinals 27-13 claiming the bye week for themselves.

Some craziness in the top seeding of the AFC. In an emotional game in which Chuck Pagano made his return to the Colts, Indianapolis beats Houston 28-16. The Broncos and the Patriots both capitalized on the Texans loss winning their respective games. Denver blows out Kansas City 38-3 while New England shuts out Miami 28-0. Broncos get the #1 seed and home field advantage while the Pats grab the #2 seed. Texans are stuck playing in the wild card round of the playoffs as they finished the last 4 games of the season 1-3 after starting 11-1.

As for noteworthy news, the Giants blow out the Eagles 42-7 but are eliminated from playoff contention. Looks like a 9-7 record didn't cut it this year for the G-Men. The Bears win their game 26-24 over the Lions but with the Vikings win they fall just short of the playoffs. Minnesota and Chicago have the same record of 10-6 but the advantage goes to the Vikes who had a better divisional record of 4-2. Last one I'll mention is that the Seahawks beat the Rams 20-13. Not really a significant win with the 49ers claiming the NFC West but Seattle finishes the season undefeated at home with a 8-0 record at CenturyLink Field. Thank goodness nobody has to play them there in the postseason.

A great 2012 regular season ends with a lot of excitement and noticeably 3 rookie quarterbacks leading their teams into the playoffs. Two of them will actually meet in the wild card round of the postseason with the Seahawks traveling to Washington to play the Redskins. It's going to be a good postseason.

P.S. There is also an interesting game on the other NFC wild card game with the Vikings now going to Green Bay to play the Packers. Let's see if the Pack can stop Peterson at home.

P.P.S. Click here for a full recap of the 49ers win over the Cardinals. Be sure to check out the 49ers section at prosportsblogging.com for updates on the team before and after each game.

Still So Much to See with the World Ending

As the end of the world is nigh, there is so much that I wish I could've seen in the sports world before our time was up. Here are the top ten things I was still waiting to see before the apocalypse came.

10. The NHL to come back. Be nice for Hockey to at least make the list.
 
9. The Sharks win the Stanley C… HA HA HA HA YEAH RIGHT!!!!

8. Mayweather v. Pacquiao. We wanted it for years but the promoters were always just too much of a tease like Justin Bieber (he's gay, get over him).

7. See if Tim Tebow could be a good QB/player in the NFL throughout a career. If the heavens can help it, they might just postpone the apocalypse to just see if the "other" son of god can be a starter in the pros.

6. See if any of the PED users got into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It doesn’t look good for any of the potential candidates from the steroid era but I’m sure most of them were just happy not to go to jail.

5. The other woman finally step forward and identify Ben Roethlisberger as her rapist. That and say Kobe joined in. See you a**holes in hell.

4. See the Cubs win the World Series. This is really the only significant thing in baseball that I would like to see happen. Them not winning in over a 100 years is the true disaster here.

3. Derek Jeter retiring from baseball. This I would've LOVE to see happen. I was going to throw a great party with chips, dip, and a roast of Jeter. No, an actual roasting of Jeter. He would’ve tasted so good in pinstripes.

2. 49ers win super bowl. While I was actually alive for three of the 49ers super bowl victories, I was too young to appreciate or even be aware of any of them. I’ve just been around for the heartache really.

1.The US get to the Semis of the World Cup. This one is more of a dream than anything else. To win it would be the Impossible Dream. 

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Well it's been a good life anyway having seen the SF Giants and the Red Sox each win a pair of titles, see Chelsea win the Champions Cup, and to see Mark Sanchez get Butt Slapped in the face by his own lineman. Or was it a "Tight End"?

It's been fun while it lasted. Now if you don't mind I got to try and die without my virginity. I don't want to go out like Tebow.

P.S. If the world doesn't end, be sure to click here for a preview of this weekend's 49ers game. Also be sure to check out the 49ers Section at Prosportsblogging.com for my take on the team before and after every game.