So on Election Eve it’s only fitting that MNF is played in our nation’s capital. In fact while writing this we’re only moments away from our Arizona and Illinois senator’s final pleas for your hanging chad.
Pregame discussion surrounded Big Ben’s tough times this year and his sieve of an offensive line. It delved into what one too many hits from the blind side can do to a quarterback and his career. The crew brought up the stories of Jim Everrett(click the link, trust me), Jeff George (troubled in other ways as well admittedly) and now JaMarcus Russell who suffer not from a lack of ability, but the inability to have time to showcase it.
The beauty of football is the teamwork that it demands. Basketball can win with 1-2 superstars, baseball can pull it off with a great pitching performance, but football requires all 22+. Safety blows an assignment? TD. WR slips and allows the CB to intercept? TD. Offensive lineman not able to handle the bull rush resulting in a fumble and a return for a…TD? Yup, not good. No other sport reflects life more accurately.
Where am I going with this? No team is going to win without a team effort, and no team is going to win without their top QB. How do you keep your QB safe? Keep him from getting hit. Allow that backside end in a few too many times…allow Joey Porter to run free on a delayed blitz…here come Brian Dawkins, uh-oh! Get hit enough times and all the sudden your internal the clock is a bit shorter, you start throwing off your back foot, you don’t follow through as well…aka you’re hearing ghosts.
The mental game of sports is just as important as the X’s and O’s. As easy as it is to ask your players to have a short memory, human nature is to flinch…it just is. Hit a good man enough and eventually he’ll break. Some make it back…good job Kurt Warner, and then 5 years later, Kurt Warner…but most don’t. Then again though, life isn’t much different…but that’s a different post all together I guess.
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