Week 4's Opening Coin Toss

Hype around Vick and the
Eagles has cooled off. (Getty)

Stally: Austen, what's up with the Buffalo Bills?

They trailed the Raiders 21-3 and the Patriots 21-0 and came back to win both.  Is this just the karma training bowling me over for making you talk about Tom Brady's greatness?  Was it just proving my theory that there's too much parity in the NFL for lengthy streaks to exist (like the Patriots 15-gamer over Buffalo that was snapped)?

Or, are you actually buying the Bills are this good?  Likewise, do I need to be worried in New England or was it just a bad half of football?

Heads or tails?

Austen: I am buying the Bills as a decent team. I have been a strong proponent of Ryan Fitzpatrick being a franchise quarterback since his impressive play last season with a very mediocre offense, and one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. Since Fred Jackson was on my sleeper list this season in fantasy, I am clearly a fan of his skills in what he can do in the run game and the passing game. He is a rare feature back in the NFL and I really hope the Bills pay him what he deserves. 

Week 3 Final Score

Nobody wins when Tom Brady loses. (AP)

Stally took home his first win in three tries, thanks to his first winning week of draft pick choices.  However, neither manager went home happy as they each lost the karma battle by picking the other guy's team for big points against perennial duds.

Austen took Stally's Patriots for seven-points over the Bills and Stally reciprocated by taking Austen's Jets over the Raiders for six-points.  Both picks failed, so neither guy went home with a big smile on his face.

Both put up impressive pick 'em weeks, with Austen again coming out on top.  Austen also finally saw his season picks come out on the positive end, after Stally had opened up the first two weeks at 19-13.

Here's a look at this week's final score,

Week 3

Week 3: Steel Curtain

The Steelers' rugged defense will be too much
for the Manningless Colts offense.

Stally: A programming note that I'm literally in the middle of working the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race so sorry for being brief and that it's late.

Austen (Eight Point Pick) - Pittsburgh over @Indianapolis 

Austen: The Colts' offense has been one of the worst and they are not going to play better against what is still one of the best defenses in the league, despite slowing down due to age. Also, defensively the Colts will not be able to stop the Steelers' tough run game and they do not have the speed in their secondary to match up with the Steelers' speed receivers.

Stally: I think Austen is lower on the Colts than I am.  I guess I'm old school, but it's hard for me to ever go eight points against Indianapolis when they're at home.

Austen: Stally said the same thing last week when I took the Browns over the Colts high, but we all know how that worked out for me.

Stally (Eight Point Pick) - @San Diego over Kansas City

Stally: I'd already written this one in for Austen, so I was faster than a fat kid on a candy bar to take the Chargers when they fell to number two.

Austen: While I don't think the Chiefs have a chance in this one, we never know how bad the Chargers can play from week to week and I'd stick with the Steelers over an inferior opponent any day. 

Too Much Mike Martz

GOAL LINE STAND WEEK 2

Mike Martz has gone from legend to clown.

Can we all finally agree that Mike Martz is a mediocre and stubborn offensive coordinator? You can blame some of the Bears’ offensive troubles on the General Manager, Jerry Angelo, for being dumb enough to allow the Bears only good offensive lineman, center Olin Kreutz, to walk in free agency over $500,000 when the Bears had the cap room. However, Martz’s offensive scheme has just as much to do with the team’s struggles protecting Jay Cutler. I have been very critical of the hiring of Martz since the beginning and it is time that others take notice of Martz’s faults.

Martz has an offensive system that is extremely effective when he has the right pieces in place, but when he doesn’t, his offense really struggles. Sure Martz’s system was made famous by creating the “Greatest Show on Turf,” but he had at least five Hall of Fame players in Marshal Faulk, Kurt Warner, Torry Holt, Issac Bruce, and Orlando Pace. With that amount of talent, I could have had those guys producing like champs. On top of his great players, he also had Dick Vermeil, who could very possibly also end up in the Hall of Fame, as his head coach and mentor before he took over the head coach job for the Rams.

Not Enough Chiefs

Make fun of Charlie Weis all you want,
but the Chiefs could use his command.

Stally's Goal Line Stand

In our current bureaucratic society, it's common for me to look at a roomful of people delegating responsibility to a select group of individuals.  It's almost an epidemic these days and the concept is simple: too many chiefs, not enough Indians!

That's not the case in Kansas City.  While their chiefs, Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles, have gone down for the season with ACL tears, they needed more than just two chiefs to be successful this year.  They didn't have that.

The injuries are an easy cop out in KC for why the 2010 playoff team might end up at 3-13 or maybe worse, but they were headed for double-digit losses long before the workhorse RB became the second season casualty in Week 2.

Week 3's Opening Coin Toss

Tom Brady: Greatest Ever?

Stally: Ok, Austen, I'm loving this week's question because I know that you as a long-tortured Jets fan will suffer a tough internal struggle providing an unbiased answer.  After last week's multi-part question involving several teams, this week's is extremely simple on the surface, yet might require a much more complex answer.  Tom Brady: is he the greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL?

Coin's in the air.  You call it!

Austen: This is clearly a leading question because Stally knows that I have stood firm on saying that Tom Brady is the best quarterback to ever play the game. I have not watched enough game tape on old school quarterbacks like Johnny Unitas to say that he is hands down the best quarterback, but I can say with little doubt in my mind that he is better than any quarterback to play in my lifetime. 

Week 2 Final Score

Jamaal Charles (and the Chiefs)
are the season's first major casualty. (Getty)

Sorry, we never finalized Week 1.  We needed to come to terms on how the scoring system works and, unlike the CBA on which all of America was waiting, it was really just our No. 1 Fan, Kelli, that was waiting on the Final Score.

Here's what we agree upon:

-Each weekly draft pick is worth the amount of points stated during the draft (eight through one).  The other guy, by default, gets the other team, so an inaccurate draft pick results in the opponent getting the points.
-Every correct pick in the weekly Pick 'Em is worth one point.
-Every win for one of the teams we drafted at the start of the season is worth two points.

Here's a look at how the first two weeks have shaken out:

Week 2: The Cheese Will Squeeze

Matthews and his Pack look to roll over the tame Panthers.

I apologize for this getting out so late, but it has been a busy weekend for us two SOBs.

We will also get out the point totals from Week 1 as soon as we can, but I (Austen) crushed Stally in Week 1. Neither one of us had a great week picking teams, each going only 8-8 with our picks, but I drafted much better than him. Behold the power of the draft!

On to Week 2. Another week and another chance for teams to prove Stally and I wrong about whether they are for real or a one week wonder. Lots of teams looked a lot better than expected (I am looking at you Buffalo, Cincinnati and Jacksonville) and lots of teams failed to meet expectations (Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Tampa Bay are all playoff contenders who lost in an embarrassing fashion). What will be the surprising performances this week? You will just have to watch. Check out who we drafted to win their weekly matchups and why.

Stally goes first since Austen went first last week.

The Detorit Lions: Too Much Hype!

Austen's Goal Line Stand

Can everyone please calm down about the Lions first win of the season? While it is a big win for a team that has been the worst road team in the NFL for most of a decade, this win was still against a very young and inexperienced team that lost its starting quarterback for a significant portion of the game. On top of this, they also came close to blowing a huge lead once Josh Freeman came back into the game. Since blowing leads has been a constant problem for this team, it was concerning to see it almost happen again.

Everyone knows the type of talent that is on this team, but their final record this season will be mostly due to whether or not starters Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, and Jahvid Best can be healthy for at least the majority of the season. All three of those players are crucial to this team making the push into the playoffs that everyone seems to be expecting from them, but all of them come with a lot of injury concerns. Despite their improvements on defense, they are not close to a top 10 unit that can help them win games. They need to continue to win despite their defense and they will not be able to do that without their top 3 offensive weapons, most importantly Stafford.

Every year it seems like the Lions are in need of fixing their offensive line and yet year after year they seem to avoid upgrading this position, baffling all draft experts, including myself (for the sake of this article I am going to consider myself a draft expert). I think this is the glaring need that will again hold this team back once again. Whether it is by giving up a huge sack that takes out Stafford or allowing unblocked linebackers to cream Best in the backfield, I believe Stafford or Best, or both, will go down with an injury that will be because of a failure on the offensive line. That could be the difference between 9 wins with a playoff berth and another disappointing season below .500.

The Fantasy Handcuff

Ricky Williams has been handcuffed enough.

Stally's Goal Line Stand

Last weekend, I got a text from one of the new managers in our keeper league (in which Austen is also new) asking why if Austen was such a fantasy guru, he hadn't handcuffed Arian Foster, Ray Rice or Knowshon Moreno.

The simple answer, Billy Tecklenburg, is because, as you already said, Austen is a fantasy guru.  He understands why that's more of a hindrance than a help.  The more complex answer, well that will take sometime, so let's dig our heels in for this week's goal line stand.

Week 2's Opening Coin Toss

Bad day or sign of things to come for Big Ben? (AP)

Us oxen are trying to find ways to keep the content coming here on The SOB Story.  Obviously, we don't have all day, every day to devote to the small time blog but we definitely want to do our best to cover all things NFL.

In an attempt to keep up on the major stories from the past week, we'll open up the upcoming week with a ceremonial coin toss.  True to its name, it'll be a topic question that could go either one way or the other.  Each of us will toss up a question to the other guy and have him answer.

Of course, being argumentative, the guy tossing might consider the reverse side of the coin, or perhaps he'll just agree whole heartedly.

Stally: Austen, we both strongly agreed on several games last week, but, like Jim Carey ("Samsonite!"), we were way off.  The two games I find most intriguing were the Bears win over the Falcons and the Redskins win over the Giants.  My two or three or four part questions for you:

Week 1: Austen Goes Benedict

Austen swallowed pride for a guy that did the same.

The excitement was in the cell phone wave that filled the air tonight as Austen and Stally congregated for the Week 1 draft picks.  With Stally getting the first pick in the season draft, it was Austen's opportunity to kick off the weekly picks with the top choice.

In this system, each person's first pick will be worth eight points, the second pick will be worth seven and on down to the eighth and final choice being worth just one.  While Austen showed stern criticism for Stally's first overall pick of New England as his choice of Super Bowl favorite, the Patriots favorable opening week match up and the eight points they could provide couldn't be ignored by the devout Patriot hater.


Week 1 Picks

Season Preview: Team Draft

Stally and Austen divvied up forces.

The conference call took place Monday to draft the teams for the season! The results are in and here's some reflection on why the OXen took who they did.

The system works as such: the two alternate picking 16 teams a piece out of the 32-team pool. During the season, teams get one point for every game they win. Playoffs get interesting as the team gets two for a wild card win, three for a divisional win, four for a conference championship and five for the Super Bowl.

Austen called the coin flip as tails and (true to his Jets lineage) lost as it landed on heads, giving Stally the first pick. His choice won't surprise anyone!

Team Draft Results

Welcome to the Stubborn OXen Blog!

Elmore (left) and Stallsmith in 2007.

The Stubborn OXen Blog is launching for the 2011 NFL season.  Going by the nickname of The Sob Story, the blog will pit the opinions of the two vastly different, well-informed football talking heads against one another.

The two met as Theta Chi (OX) fraternity brothers at the University of Southern California, from which they both graduated in 2009.  On Saturday, the two lived in a world of roses as they watched their Trojans attend four consecutive Rose Bowls in Pasadena.  On Sunday's, they rarely spoke.

In one corner will be Jonathan Stallsmith.  He's a proud New Englander with a deep rooted arrogance for  winning.  He embodies everything that is wrong with the Boston area fan base...and loves it!  He intends to swipe the feet out from under any New Yorker at any point he can.

Which leads us to the intrigue of the opponent in the other corner: Austen Elmore.  Growing up with a passion for football on Long Island, he quickly attached himself to the New York Jets at a young age.  Before he liked the Jets, he hated baseball and that only spurred his affinity for the football team.  However, as Stallsmith often reminds him, Elmore is frustrated by the Jets disheartening past.  The team has yet to make a Super Bowl appearance in his life, but as they appear to be taking flight, he's no longer afraid of the Big, Bad Patriots or anyone in its fan base.

Each week during the season, the two writers will square off in a draft-style pick 'em.  They'll alternate turns picking which team they think is most likely to win and providing an explanation of the rational.  The other guy will then have the opportunity to interject why the lousy team he got stuck with might have a chance to win the game.  (Good luck with trying to explain how Cam Newton will win more than four or five games this year!)

They'll also provide insight on some of the top stories around the league, and, for the sake of intelligence, close out the blog with a straight pick 'em to see which person is generally smarter, not only in life but also, in picking more winners during the season.

Fight's on, Trojans!

-JS