Category: News

We have begun one of the most interesting months on the sports calendar. I love September because it’s where the rubber hits the road in baseball and football begins.

It finally gives baseball the sense of urgency it mostly lacks during five interminable months of non-drama game after game. While each game played has the exact same value, wins and losses in September seem so much bigger — an irony for a game that brags it’s best because it has no clock. But it’s actually made much better as sand slips through the hourglass over the final 30 days. That ratchets up the tension and reduces the room for error to make baseball’s final month better than any other sport because they play almost every day.

The opening week of the NFL is exactly opposite of baseball, because with so few games a loss really matters, instead of just being one of 162. So the pennant race starts immediately. And while we pretty much already know who’ll be in the college football Final 4 — Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Clemson — it offers a pageantry and excitement unmatched in other sports. Plus it gets major points for having marching bands at halftime instead of the “entertainment” shows pro sports are so married to. And with local lads Chip Kelly, Ryan (make my) Day and Dan Mullen head coaching UCLA, Ohio State and Florida respectively, there are many local rooting interests as well.

So that’s what lies ahead starting in the year’s ninth month, which, as you can probably tell, I’m jacked and pumped for! These were some of the big stories as we entered September.

Sox are in the hunt, but… The Red Sox enter the final month running on fumes as they’re not just losing to the good teams, they’re losing to the bad teams, and even when they win it’s been scary. Like winning by just a run over the 55-71 Twins on Wednesday when they yanked closer Matt Barnes four hitters into the 9th inning after blowing a 9-4 lead. The biggest reasons are (1) maybe he had to because the starters were so bad, but Alex Cora has blown out the bullpen, (2) they needed two “good” arms for the pen and Chaim Bloom got them two flamethrowers instead, (3) the big boys aren’t hitting consistently, (4) they’re terrible defensively and make dumb mistakes. Not sure how they’ll turn that around in the next 30 days.   

Sailing along: coverage: The lone piece of good news the Red Sox got in August was Chris Sale blasting out of the blocks to win his first three starts with a 2.35 ERA. That was most encouraging. And as someone who absolutely hates when a pitcher in the pitch count era wastes a pitch trying to get someone to swing at a bad pitch on an 0-2 count, you know I loved seeing him strike out three Twins on nine pitches in the third inning on Thursday. It made him and the great Sandy Koufax the only pitchers to do that three times in their career.  

Cam gets axed: Well, I didn’t see that coming. But whether sooner than later, it was inevitable that Mac Jones would eventually be the starter. Guess Coach B overcame concerns outlined by Greg Bedard in the Boston Sports Journal about the under-developed physically developed Jones could last the rigors of a 17game NFL season. Similar concerns were why Tom Brady red shirted his rookie year as the fourth QB because they knew he needed a year under an NFL training program to get stronger and sturdier. But in the end, Cam Newton’s refusal to get vaccinated and Jones outplaying him in the preseason were viewed as the more important factors. I’ll have more on this in next week’s season preview.  

Sony forecast in L.A.: Given that J. J. Taylor and Rhamondre Stevenson have demonstrated far more explosive speed and power on short yardage and plays around the goal line, the combination offers more utility than the departed Sony Michel. But, given their intent to ground and pound, I’m not sure that was the smartest move of the pre-season. The banging style of lead back Damian Harris has forced him to miss 16 games in his first two seasons and that could put their depth to a test. Yes, Brandon Bolden is a special team ace, but with him having been with Miami in 2019 and taken a Covid pass last year, they’ve survived without him for two of the last three years. So, if they are searching for help at RB due to injuries in November, tell me then whether getting picks in rounds 5 and 6 for Michel was worth it.   

Jackie Mac hangs it up:Pioneering female sports writer and one-time UNH hoopster Jackie MacMullen hung up her ESPN notepad the other day. She was a trailblazer in the once male-dominated profession who became one of the most respected voices around the NBA. She earned my respect for two observations she made soon after she began covering the Celtics for the Boston Globe. I’m a skeptic by nature and doubly so because she was a “girl” then, so I thought saying Larry Bird shouldn’t be playing hurt with his back problems was too dainty for me. She also kept talking about how good this guy Xavier McDaniel of the Seattle Supersonics was, and I didn’t think he was that good. But it just took a few games after he joined the Celtics following Bird’s retirement for me to say, “I like this guy — he’s tough and a leader.” So Jackie was right about X, and since Bird was forced to retire early because of his back issues, she was right about that too. Both observations earned my respect from then on. So congrats on a job well done, and happy retirement.

So the “Should it be Cam or Mac?” media soap opera raged on again all last week. It got a weird jolt when both played very well in the Patriots’ 35-0 pre-season rout of the Eagles. Though it should be noted it all came against the second team Philly D.

Depending on which camp the media member was in, the pontificators said the showing was further evidence their choice should be the Week 1 starter. Not that it matters, because with Coach B leaning toward the veteran, I suspect no matter what Mac Jones does, it’s Cam Newton’s job if he keeps playing like he did vs. Philly, when he had more mustard on his throws than he did all last year.

But here’s my question: why can’t the Patriots play both guys based on game circumstances and match-ups? Especially since their distinctly different skills are so complementary?

Say what you will about Cam’s puny eight TD passes last year, but he still ran for nearly 600 yards while scoring a QB team record 12 touchdowns to account for just four fewer touchdowns than Tom Brady threw for in 2019. As for Mac, his game is about quick, accurate, on the money short throws that move the chains and he’s run the no huddle in each game, which is something Newton never did in 2020.

Of course playing two quarterbacks challenges the old axiom that says if you have two quarterbacks you have none. And there’s also the same voices the likes of the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and others heard on their way to changing the world from folks with tiny brains who said, “We can’t do that, because we’ve never done that before.”

Except when it comes to NFL football it has been done already, and quite successfully at that, though admittedly not recently. Here are a few examples.

1950 L.A. Rams: I know this was 1950, but with two Hall of Fame quarterbacks and HoF wideouts in Crazy Legs Hirsch and Tom Fears this team chucked it all over the lot. So much so that their 38.3 points per game season scoring average is still the highest in NFL history. Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield each started six games and played in all 12 games, as NVB threw 233 passes for 2,061 yards and 18 touchdowns, while Waterfield managed to throw 213 for 1,540 and 11 while being married to ’50s Hollywood starlet Jane Russell. The combined 29 passes would have been a NFL record if done by one guy. They made it to the title game, where they lost to the Browns 30-28.

1956 Giants: Kind of a weird setup where Don Heinrich started all 12 games but Charlie Conerly came off the bench to play more snaps in every game as he threw twice as many passes (170-88) as Heinrich. It worked, though, as the G-Men went 8-3-1 and crushed the Bears 47-7 in the title game.

1970 Raiders:Daryle Lamonica was the starter and backup George Blanda only threw 55 passes. But George, not Lamonica, was the 1970 Player of the Year because over a seven-week period he rallied Oakland from behind to win or tie six games in the final minute by throwing the winning TD pass or moving them in position to where he kicked the winning (or tying) FG.

1972 Washington Football Team: To this day I don’t know why George Allen played the wobble and win ex-halfback Billy Kilmer at QB over the great Sonny Jurgensen. But any time they were down by 10 or so in the second half, in came the relief-pitching Sonny to chuck spirals all over the yard. It was actually a multi-year thing, but in ’72 it took them all the way to the SB before they lost as the Dolphins completed their undefeated season.

Can it work? In a word, yes, but it’s likely up to Cam. QB controversies are most destructive when the locker room gets split over who should play. So if Cam fought it there might be issues. But then again, this is his last chance to show he can still win big as a starter, so if Bill wants the kid to play he may have to go along no matter what.

As for implementation, football is now a game of situational players and player groups. Long yardage, short yardage, red zone packages, down 14 in the fourth quarter, up 14 in the fourth, quarter etc. Just assign the appropriate QB to the appropriate package and their job will be to be ready when the call comes and produce when on the field. What’s the big deal?

How would it work? Given their knack for innovation I’m sure Josh McDaniels and Coach B could come up with plenty of ways to employ their combined skills, like these:

The change of pace:With Mac already showing he can handle the no huddle, they could pick up the pace to start the second half (and derail any adjustments) by running it for three or four series. Then bring Cam back in with a jumbo package to ground and pound a winded defense to control the ball and clock.

The wildcat: If the choice is to start with the pinpoint passer, then make Cam a Wildcat QB like New Orleans successfully did last year with Taysom Hill, who is neither the passer nor the runner Newton is.

Relief pitcher: If Jones turns out to be the more reliable passer, then he plays the Jurgensen/Blanda relief pitcher role if they fall behind and need to pass on most downs.

I’m not sure if Coach B would try this, but I am sure if they did they could pull it off. Plus it would be great to see the naysayers kill it until it worked and then spend the next few years pontificating about how they knew it would work from the start.

Got it.