Tales Of The Week – (NFL Week 7)

By:Tyrone Montgomery Jr.

Time For A Change In B-More?

Sometimes in life, we want to do some remodeling. Redecorate the place. It may not be anything wrong with our homes. We may have a beautiful house, but we just want a different look. Maybe we had our furniture for awhile. Maybe we want to keep our living room set, but we want to move some things around. Perhaps you have carpet, and want to tranfer your flooring to a nice hard wood. Change can be good. Change helps evolve to something bigger and better. New and improved to say. Perhaps the Baltimore Ravens need to make a bit of changes within the organization. Their defense comes out and plays hard every week as they rank 13th in the league with points given up with 21 every week. In today’s game however, you must have great QB play. While running the ball fairly well with 120 Rushing Yards/Game, Their QB situation has been horrendous this season. Joe Flacco has numbers of 1,189 Passing Yards for the season with only 5 TD’s and 8 INT’s while completing just 63% of his passes with a QB Rating of 70%, ranking him dead last with 157 Passing Yards/Game. This team is in bad shape. I went to a bar with my cousin whose a Ravens fan over the weekend in Maryland, and I’ve never seen him so concerned about his team. The look on his face was heartbreaking to say the least, as he watched his team lose again with bad offense being produced on the field. The Baltimore Ravens bought in Colin Kaepernick during the offseason. Perhaps they made a mistake by not signing The QB. Flacco has won a Superbowl, won a Super Bowl MVP Award, and made his money. Perhaps the man is content with that. He reminds me of Jay Cutler. He doesn’t seem to care about Football. Is there time for a change at QB in Baltimore, because in the eyes of many, Flacco has failed this city.

Good Luck, Bad Luck – Trade That Man!

Many people believe in luck. Luck is defined as success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one’s own actions. Sometimes in life, you do have it when things just tend to go your way. That is considered having good luck. But there’s also a thing that people believe in when things don’t go your way called bad luck. Injuries aren’t seen in the future, they tend to just happen on their own. Somethings are beyond our control, and that is the case for injuries. The Colts have one of the best QB’s in the league in Andrew Luck. Ironically, Luck has what is considered bad luck.

Andrew Luck has career statistics of 19,078 Passing Yards, 132 TD’s, and 68 INT’s. His rookie season, he showed a lot of promise as an NFL QB with 4,374 Passing Yards along with 23 TD’s. He only gotten better, with his best season in the league being in 2014 with 4,761 Passing Yards, 40 TD’s and 16 INT’s. That season in 2014, he actually led the league in Passing TD’s too. He was a Pro-Bowler from his rookie season (2012) through 2014 as well. Ever since then, Luck has had bad luck. It’s not his fault though. He’s been the best he could be. Not only does he play with a good pocket presence, but he also plays with great athleticism with over 1,400 Rushing Yards and 14 Rushing TD’s throughout his career. His team has been in a bit of a pickle these last couple of seasons. In the beginning, they helped him along the way and gave him fantastic receivers. Some of the names include Reggie Wayne, TY Hilton, Andre Johnson, and Dontae Moncrief. However, their RB situation has been a bit of a mess. The last 5 seasons, they had a bust at RB in Trent Richardson and a washed up RB in Frank Gore. This season, their running game still hasn’t gotten any better as Frank Gore continues to lead the running game as they rank 21st in the league with 97 Yards/Game. To add on to that headache, ownership has been weary, and so has coaching. Chuck Pagano has been on the hot seat for the last 3 seasons now, but yet, he’s still employed. The icing on the cake is what I consider Bad Luck, Andrew’s health. He has had several injuries over the past couple of seasons and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It doesn’t look like he is going to play at all this season due to injury and maybe that’s for the better because his team isn’t going anywhere this year. The Colts have ALOT of work to do. The running game is bad, Luck isn’t healthy which makes their Passing Game average with backup QB Jacoby Brissett. Their WR’s can’t seem to stay healthy either which doesn’t help the case. Terrible coaching, bad ownership, and horrible protection by the offensive line. We haven’t even talked about defense and really there’s no need because the Colts give up the most points each game in the entire league with 31 PPG given up. Andrew Luck has a chance to be an MVP of this league, but it will not happen playing in Indianapolis. It’s time to get him fully healthy, try to play him the last 2 games of the season, get his trade value back up, and deal him to another team. Andrew Luck is good, but he has bad luck. Send him somewhere that will take care of him. A place that has a good defense, a stable offensive line, a good running game, and good management. The Colts sent their former QB Peyton Manning to Denver. I wonder how Andrew Luck will look wearing Blue and Orange….

Weathering The Storm In Minnesota

The Minnesota Vikings have had some tough breaks this season. They were already without starting QB Teddy Bridgewater this year due to a leg injury he suffered last season. In wake of the injury they traded for Former Eagles QB Sam Bradford. Bradford is yet again, injured once more. They also lost rookie RB Dalvin Cook. Cook was playing extremely well and looked like a sure star before being lost to the season due to a knee injury. They now turn to a 3rd string, a backup to the backup QB to run the show, Case Keenum, and the backup RB Latavius Murray to carry the load. Somehow, The Vikings are 5-2. Despite the injury bug in town, they still manage to compete and win games as they sit at top of the NFC North Division. Here are a few reasons to watch out for The Vikings. Their starting QB Teddy Bridgewater may actually return in the next 2-3 games. They’re looking at a November 10th matchup against The Washington Redskins for a return date. That only leaves them with just one game that they may be without Sam Bradford and Teddy Bridgewater as they are on a bye week in week 9. RB Latavius Murray had his best game of the season since taking over the starting RB role over the weekend with 18 Carries and 113 Yards along with a TD. Also, Minnesota is a scary defensive team. They have the 5th Best Defense in the league. And the final reason this team is in position to succeed is because it appears Aaron Rodgers may be done for the season. They are by far the best team in the NFC North without Rodgers in the picture. This team deserves kudos because despite their hardships, they have weathered the storm and rose above the competition as they have competed all seasons. This front office and coaching staff deserve contract extensions because they have proved they know what they’re doing, unlike some teams in the league. If they can get a fully healthy team, this team is primed to win a Superbowl within the coming years.