American Sports Thread

[gallsman]

Cleveland Cavaliers fire coach David Blatt, even with the team's 30-11 record.  The Cavs have won 11 of their last 13, but the two losses were against the league's elite, Golden State and San Antonio.  Maybe this will light a fire under the Eastern league-leading team.

Interesting. Who will LeBron approve of? Blatt is a good coach with a good record overseas but coaching a LeBron team chasing a championship was perhaps above him and he was really nothing more than a puppet - it's LeBron's team, nobody else's. In one way, it's all irrelevant as nobody has a chance over 7 games against the spurs or the warriors.

On the court, the Cavs are a bit of a mess. All the talk about LeBron and Love working to get on the same page has long since gone and a Love trade is the most logical solution for both him and the team.

[Asal Mor]

New England will batter the league's best defensive unit, they have two great wide receivers and Brink who is unstoppable.

If the Pats stuff the line game over, Manning has no arm left and cannot leave the pocket, New England in a blowout 31- 10.

New England have no running game though and Manning wasn't bad last week. He completed something like 21 of 37 passes even with 7 drops by his receivers, in very windy conditions. It was all short stuff but that's the way he has to play now and I thought he did a great job of playing within his limitations. No interceptions was the key. With guys like Thomas, Sanders and Daniels to throw to he just needs to be solid. And Denver have a decent running game. Throw in one of the top defences and home advantage(at a difficult venue where Brady has had his struggles) and there are lots of reasons to think Denver could win. Anything can happen on the day but you'd have to fancy Brady the way he's playing, especially with Edelman back.

[gawa316]

Cleveland Cavaliers fire coach David Blatt, even with the team's 30-11 record.  The Cavs have won 11 of their last 13, but the two losses were against the league's elite, Golden State and San Antonio.  Maybe this will light a fire under the Eastern league-leading team.

Interesting. Who will LeBron approve of? Blatt is a good coach with a good record overseas but coaching a LeBron team chasing a championship was perhaps above him and he was really nothing more than a puppet - it's LeBron's team, nobody else's. In one way, it's all irrelevant as nobody has a chance over 7 games against the spurs or the warriors.

On the court, the Cavs are a bit of a mess. All the talk about LeBron and Love working to get on the same page has long since gone and a Love trade is the most logical solution for both him and the team.

They've promoted Tyron Lue to the position. Blatt was always on a hiding to nothing and to be far the job (well managing Lebron) probably was too big for him. Am I right in saying, he called a play last year and Lebron said something like, 'no we ain't doing that, we're doing this' They went with Lebron's play. After the game, Blatt bent over and said absolutely he made the wrong call and Lebron was right. I hope I haven't made that up!!

I wonder will anyone come sniffing around Luke Walton now Kerr is back? How much of an input did he have with an already great team?

[gallsman]

100% Walton will be a HC next season.

[Syferus]

I don't like the Cards Defense against Newton and Olson. They've struggled against TEs in the last few years, and if they try to pressure Newton, they won't be able to bring him down if he gets out of the pocket.

Think I read something about Cam's QBR dropping to 27th in league once out of the pocket. Will try and dig it out.

He has the most TDs against blitz formations of any QB this year.

[Oraisteach]

No, I think you're right, gawa.

[heganboy]

ok - can someone tell me what you are saying is a statistical bias?

That if you randomly flip a coin, it is biased in favour of the side facing up at the time of the toss.

<smugselfcongratulatoryrant>
Thats what I thought was being said, that's actually bollocks (unfortunately). The issue is actually moment of inertia, i.e. the distribution of the mass of the coin around the axis of rotation. As you can't predict the precise axis for a coin flip it would need to be evenly distributed around the center , and while with US coins (not only) there is a spin bias (especially on the penny) the commemorative coin for the flip will very likely have a bias of its own one way or the other... (unless there is a perfectly even distribution of mass and is tossed in a vacuum) 

the Draconis bias theory about the flip while fun, doesn't actually hold up in at all despite the press it got at the time. The mass distribution rule however does. Laws of Physics- still a bitch.
</smugselfcongratulatoryrant>

[heganboy]

Any predictions ahead of the conference games today?

Id love to see Broncos va Cards, but i dont think either of them will make it

[gallsman]

Of all the teams left, the Cards are the only ones I'd absurdly like to see win. However, I'd love to see Goodell forced to present the trophy to Kraft, Bellichik and Brady again.

[Minder]

Denver D giving Brady his fill of it

[RealSpiritof98]

The one thing that bugs me about this sport is the constant penalties and how huge a part they play in the outcome of the game.

Denver D killing it.

[screenexile]

Pats look to be in big trouble they have no answer for Vaughan Miller and the Denver defense!!

Will be interesting to see if they can find a way to nullify it before its too late.

[gallsman]

Jesus the Pats O-line has been absolutely garbage. They've looked very poor anywhere close to the red zone so scoring and then making the 2pt conversion is some ask.

[screenexile]

Jesus the Pats O-line has been absolutely garbage. They've looked very poor anywhere close to the red zone so scoring and then making the 2pt conversion is some ask.

Should they not have taken the FG in that last drive?? Their defense is playing pretty well and they should have been confident of getting the ball back and another drive for the win.

[Syferus]

One of the highlights of any season is the Patriots being eliminated.