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Football Outsiders likes the Colts... sort of

By Brad Wells

I had the chance to interview Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders on the SBNSR a few nights ago. Tanier is one of their better writers. He completed two articles recently that are must reads for Colts fans. The first one is his breakdown of all the QBs in the league. Naturally, he ranked the Colts QBs first because of Manning. He then ranked the Patriots second. On the SBNSR, he told me the amount of hate mail he was getting from dumbass Patriots fans was bordering on the absurd. One guy went so far as to say the Super Bowl last season was "rigged." In other news, the New England Patriots unveiled their new fan helmets for 2007:

The Patriots are #1!

The second article of note written by Tanier is an excellent piece on the 1981 Baltimore Colts. This article really takes you into the bowels of a bad football team, headed by a meddling, drunken owner (Robert Irsay), incompetent coaches, and a roster divided. The 1981 Baltimore Colts were a big reason why the franchise moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Here is the most interesting segment from Tanier's article:

The Eagles crushed the Colts 38-13 in Week 11. "I'll be honest," Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski said after the game. "I don't remember a game like this where we could do whatever we wanted on offense." Jaws also probably couldn't remember a game in which the other team's owner [Irsay] grabbed a headset and started calling plays on the sidelines. Irsay, sitting in the coaching box at Veterans Stadium, got fed up with his team's performance in the third quarter, picked up a telephone, and ordered McCormack to replace Jones with backup quarterback Greg Landry. Irsay later appeared on the sidelines, ordered Jones back into the game, and called several plays. Needless to say, coaches and players were stunned. And a little displeased.
Can you imagine if that happened today? Something like that might actually revivie the floundering "Worldwide leader" kown as ESPN.

Articles like Tanier's 1981 Colts article are things you just don't see written in media like the Indy Star or The Booyah Network. Football Outsiders has gone on to rank the WRs, RBs, and the OLs in the NFL as well. For the WRs, Bill Barnwell ranked the Dallas Cowboys WRs first over the Colts. Barnwell's argument for this is weak, at best. Basically, he suggests the if Tony Romo had started the 2006 season, Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn would have had insane stats. Not sure I buy that. Romo thrived against garbage competition (Tampa Bay, New York) and choked against real defenses (Philly, Seattle). He played especially bad down the stretch. Despite that, when it is all said and done, no one who knows anything about football is going to say Terrell Owens is better than Marvin Harrison, or Terry Glenn is better than Reggie Wayne. If they do, they don't know football. That simple.

Per usual, our resident Cowboy cheerleader, Terry, was flaunted the Football Outsiders WR review. All I can say is everyone has an opinion, and Barnwell's is both wrong and unsupported.

The Cowboys' receivers are #1!

Despite Barnwell's retarded WR ranking, his article on RBs, co-written with Alex Carnevale, was pretty accurate, ranking the Colts at #13. I can only assume Carnevale's influence helped remove Barnwell's head from his butt.

All in all, the evaluations are good, and I'm looking forward to their take on the Colts defense. Hopefully, Tanier will write the article and not Barnwell.

 

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