Miracle at the Meadowlands!

So I was getting ready to do a post on the Miracle at the Meadowlands, definitely a unique play in NFL history. But..looks like ESPN totally beat me to it and was able to do research/interview people and stuff. All I had was a youtube clip. Meh.

In honor of the eagles-giants game (and because people are hating on our sportssceneit team’s lack of sports history knowledge), here’s the story behind the miracle at the meadowlands. The Giants are leading the Eagles 17-12 and it looks like they have just wrapped up a win at home following a late Ron Jaworski pick. All the Giants had to do was take a couple of QB knees. Instead, the Giants decided to run a play with a few seconds left (which is standard Madden XBOX protocol, but not so hot for real games). The play is so controversial that some of the players/coaches involved from the giants side still refuse to talk about, more than 20 years after the game. The Eagles (naturally) sent an all-out blitz on the play.

The ball was snapped and the Giants QB, Pisarcik had some trouble handling the ball. He turned to hand the ball off to his running back, but fumbled the exchange. An Eagles DB, none other than the Chiefs’ Herm Edwards, timed his jump perfectly and broke free through the line. The ball hit the turf and Edwards pulled off one of the most clutch scoop and scores in the history of the NFL. Ballin.

Yup

If yall got time, you should read this.

Compare the “clutch doesnt exist” arguers to the “clutch is real, FU for even suggesting it’s fake!!” people.

2 quotes.

“There’s such a thing as a clutch hit,” Law says. “What we can’t seem to find is the player who performs consistently in the clutch. I’ve never seen a study that shows a clear statistical difference.”

and

“You can just tell by the look in players’ eyes,” Black says, “how they act, that they enjoy the big stage. Now, whether they perform well or not might not be borne out by the statistics. But, in most cases I think, guys who have that look perform well.”

One of these guys is smart. One is dumb. Which one do you agree with?

I thought so.

French Open Update

We’re into the second week of the French Open, and my pick for the women’s final was completely destroyed. Sharapova lost a close 3 set match to Safina. Although Safina was a 13 seed, this wasn’t as big of an upset as it seems. Sharapova lost to Safina in 2006. This match was crazy though because Sharapova had a match point…and promptly lost the next 2 sets. The third set wasn’t even close, as Safina took it 6-2. Not a clutch performance there by Sharapova, and she misses out again on a chance to complete her career grand slam. Things could be worse though – she’s still probably the biggest women’s tennis player in the world, and has commercials with ESPN, Gatorade, Nike, and Cannon. {BTW…i’m sorry to discuss clutchness because I know that’s a very popular topic with our blog but…why is Peyton Manning in those clutch gatorade commercials? I think I’ll take Tom Brady over Peyton Manning in clutch situations every single time. That’s fine though..Peyton’s lead some game winning drives and is a super bowl champion and all now. But this is just ridiculous. ELI FREAKIN MANNING? IN THE LEAGUE OF CLUTCH? That was not a clutch play. The catch was a MIRACLE. That’s what you do in madden/ncaa08 when there’s a mad blitz…you run backwards about 10 yards, and then lob a high pass to your receiver. I don’t think Eli Manning’s clutch skills caused that pass. Fact. For evidence, watch any end game situation Eli Manning plays next season (except against the Redskins – their D’s awful) . Guaranteed to throw for >1 interception.}

But back to the Open. Both of the Williams sisters lost on the same day, in the second round of the French Open. That was pretty surprising considering they seem to be taking tennis seriously right now. I really believe that when on their games, the Williams sisters are the best tennis players in the world. Henin was the only one who could consistently compete and beat them; Sharapova still has to prove that. One thing that is cool about this suddenly wide-open French Open is that there are 4 possible overall #1’s at the end of the tournament: Sharapova, Ivanovic, Jankovic and Kuznetsova. Updated Prediction: Ivanovic will beat Jankovic in the semifinals and go on to win the French.

Men’s Draw

Most of the top players are still intact on the men’s side of the draw. Ginepri was the last American player standing and he was also recently eliminated. Hopefully the Americans work on their clay court games because their next Davis Cup matches (kinda like the world cup of tennis) will be on clay, at Spain. Nadal appears to be peaking at the right time – he absolutely dominated his quarterfinals match, winning 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. His next match should be a great one, as he faces Djokovic in the semifinals. The last Frenchman standing is Gael Monfils. He’s making his breakthrough. This kid’s a baller, and a lotta people like his chances in the years to come. Prediction: Everything’s still pointing to a Nadal-Federer final, and Nadal’s my predicted winner.

Tailer Made

We all like the sportsguy. Some more than others. But after reading this article I felt like Bill Simmons had written a letter to me.

“Dear The Other Shammgod

You thought I wouldn’t have seen this huh? You thought the fact that you guys at We Talkin’ ‘Bout Practice only have like 100 readers a day would mean that I wouldn’t read it. Well I’m gonna write an article for ESPN the magazine that is awesome in its ridiculousness and is totally calling you out for everything you believe in.

Truly Yours Forever,

Sportsguy”

Firstly I want to point out that I do not think I’m a better writer than Bill Simmons. I am an awful writer. I might be better than Bill Plaschke and that’s it. Simmons is also way funnier than me. He’s better ok? That doesn’t mean he’s allowed to be dumb and not get called out.

During the last few minutes of Game 6 of Boston’s second-round series with Cleveland, poor Kevin Garnett looked like Forrest Gump right after Jenny pulled her top down in her dorm room.

Weird analogy, but that’s fine. I’m just worried you’re gonna turn this into some sort of “Garnett isn’t ‘clutch’” articles. But you wouldn’t do that. You’re not dumb. You’re a redsox fan’s for Pete’s sake. We are all smart.

On one play, the ball swung to KG at the foul line; no Cav was within 10 feet of him. Strangely, he panicked, thinking about shooting an open J before realizing, Wait, I’m seven feet tall, that would be dumb, and barreling toward the basket to rush a clumsy jump hook.

Oh boy, it is gonna be one of those KG ain’t clutch articles. I take back what I said about redsox fans.

For a former MVP who makes $22 million a year, it was an astoundingly incompetent sequence.

So it’s surprising.

It also wasn’t a surprise.

Beep, Bop, Boop, errorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

Garnett’s crunch-time woes have been the dirty little secret of this storybook Celtics season.

The thing is, Simmons totally watches more Celtics games than me. For him to believe this is unconscionable. Seriously, he is searching for a reason for some of the celtics struggles and, as always, if you look hard enough you will find something that isn’t there.

Sure, he saved the franchise and made the C’s relevant again. He’s also the reason they might not win the 2008 championship. Put simply, Garnett shrinks from pressure more times than he comes through.

This is ridiculous. I can’t believe people still believe this. Really? Garnett is the reason they are losing? I KNOW YOU WATCH THE GAMES!!! How can you even think of writing this? It’s not Ray Allen? Bench guys not showing up on the road? Doc Rivers whom you hate so much? Random Chance? Sam Cassell? ?????????????????

The intriguing wrinkle with Garnett is he plays differently down the stretch by not playing differently. Selfless and passionate for 48 minutes a game, eight months a year, he can’t raise his game because it’s already raised.

Oh, so you’re not trying to make sense. Good players try hard for the whole game. Garnett is known for doing his best at all points in every game. He is always hustling and playing hard. This is exactly what you are saying. Hence, him doing just as well in the “clutch” is to be expected and to be appreciated. You are criticizing him for this? Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Garnett’s unselfish play is a GREAT thing to have in the “clutch”, just like it’s a great thing to have in the not clutch. He is willing to find the open man and isn’t always forcing up jumpers. Would you rather have a guy like AI taking on 4 guys and forcing up a fadeaway with a 20% chance of going in, or Garnett drawing a double team and finding an open Ray Allen, or Rajon Rondo or P.J. Brown? Sure KG is probably better than these guys, but wide open shots are good. PLEASE KG do not listen to these people and start jacking up crappy shots to prove you are “clutch.”

Sometimes, when Garnett’s adrenaline kicks in during crunch time it’s like watching a diabetic in the midst of a sugar rush. His body can’t handle it. When he succeeds, he loses his mind, pounding his chest, belting out profanities and hollering at the crowd like a crazy person. When he fails (and it’s happened a few times this season), his mistakes are unbelievably amateurish—intentional fouls when the team doesn’t need them, taking too many steps on his signature fall-away, that kind of stuff. The pressure gets to him. You can see it. In Game 4 of the first-round series with Atlanta, after a near-altercation with Zaza Pachulia, the camera found KG on the bench and he was practically hyperventilating.

Here’s how I will back up my claim: Seemingly made up observation, Anecdote, Anecdote, Anecdote

Good effort SG

To quote firejoemorgan, with this article Bill Simmons is “driving an Underwater StupidTank to Uninformed Thinking Island” if he thinks KG is a bad player to have in the “clutch.” At least the sportsguy’s not the coach.

Thanks goes to Eaglesforever for tipping me off about this article. Props. Also, if you hated this, blame him.

Is clutch real?

Normally I would never post on this topic because after about 6000 words of blabber I would reach the conclusion that I’ve already hounded too many people about: “clutch” doesn’t exist. But over the last few days I got to thinking. Seriously. I’m wondering if I’ve been looking at this all wrong for the last few years. I’ve got to get a few things off my chest.

I realize this is like the equivalent of Ghandi saying he believes in Allah (now that’s a sweet religion reference yeah? Also, I think I just offended 40% of our writing staff with that awful “joke”.  Anyways, back to the sentence we are currently in the middle of…), or maybe it isn’t, because nobody actually cares what I think about things. Whatever the case, there were two recent things that got me on the path toward thinking that clutch is real.

Firstly, I stumbled upon this interview given by the great Dak of firejoemorgan.com. In it he states what socalsports has been trying to tell me for seemingly twenty years (that number might be a bit off): Clutch may be stupid and make no sense, but it’s tough to argue with Josh Beckett. His performance in big games at least makes you think. If a writer from FIREJOEMORGAN.COM, the chief of all anti-clutch sites, can admit that there is a chance they are wrong, than I must do so as well. And if a person like socalsports, who at least pretends relatively convincingly that she knows a lot about sports, can agree for the most part with me, but not jump to the same conclusion, then I have to think about it, right?

I may have been wrong. Also, don’t try to find dak’s quote in the interview, I think it’s like halfway in, but that interview is really long and you may never find it. Just some advice.

Anyways… the second thing was today’s performance by Paul Pierce and Lebron James. They both stepped up huge in a game that mattered a whole hell of a lot. The thing on which I’ve been basing my whole “no such thing as clutch” argument was that in a professional league, with the athletes seemingly trying as hard as they can all the time, it would be impossible to like, “try harder” or “focus more” or “step up” in a way that would actually make your performance better than what it normally is. But what if athletes do not always try their best?

Is it possible that some athletes coast until they realize that it’s crunch time and then step up? I know that in random pickup games this happens all the time. I frequently do not play defense until it is game point (even then I sometimes still don’t). Could professionals actually be “pacing” themselves in order to play well in key games and key situations?

(record scratch sound effect)

Wait a second. Hell no. It’s not like Lebron purposely went 2-18, or Pierce purposely threw up multiple wild lay-ups in a few games in Cleveland. If they could have made these shots go in, they would have. Their shots were just falling today. Yup, clutch makes no sense. Forget I ever said anything.

Not to copy the other Shammgod…

…but I heard too much about clutch at the end of the Celts-Cavs game. Yes, I think some element of clutch exists but no, not every shot was clutch. For example, if Ray Allen shot 10 free throws in that situation he would probably make about 9 of them. Also, I don’t see how Pierce’s free throw was clutch because he missed pretty badly, but it was still sweet. At any rate, congrats to the Celtics and thanks for making the series interesting.

Here is Your Undoubtable, Inalienable Best Player in the NBA (circa 2004)

The dude is SUPER Clutch. Look at that smile! Why is he so happy? He’s mad clutch. Why is he so clutch? Perhaps because he was a very good three point shooter that year in Miami and in big time situations he would only shoot open shots. But that’s probably not it. It’s probably completely random chance. My first argument for chance: DAMON JONES IS LISTED AS THE MOST CLUTCH PLAYER. Also there are so many flaws in this stat. It measures plus/minus in points in the clutch. So obviously good teams will have high numbers. And players that are good on that good team will be at the top because good teams score good during all points in the game including good scoring levels in the last five minutes. Good? And look, 4 Miami guys in the top 5. And then 4 Seattle guys soon after (they went 52-30 that year). And, reminder, Damon Jones is at the top. Flawless. I see no flaws.