Thread: Kick the habit! TMQ

[size=12pt]Kick the habit![/size]
By Gregg Easterbrook
Special to Page 2

The Minnesota Vikings boomed a punt to Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears, most dangerous punt returner ever, and he repaid the favor by running the ball back 89 yards for a touchdown. As a result, football pundits everywhere are asking, "Why does anyone punt to Devin Hester instead of kicking the ball out of bounds?" Tuesday Morning Quarterback asks: Why do NFL teams ever punt to any returner, rather than deliberately punt out of bounds?...




...Stats of the Week No. 1: The Dolphins are 6-16 since the moment Sports Illustrated predicted they would win the Super Bowl.

Stats of the Week No. 2: Tom Brady is on a pace to throw 56 touchdown passes; the NFL record is 49.

Stats of the Week No. 3: Minnesota is last in passing defense and just a fraction short of first in rushing defense.

Stats of the Week No. 4: Owing to penalties and a successful fourth-down conversion, Jacksonville ran eight consecutive plays inside the Houston 20.

Stats of the Week No. 5: Oakland already has as many offensive touchdowns as it scored in 2006.

Stats of the Week No. 6: In back-to-back visits to the Meadowlands to face Jersey/A and Jersey/B, Donovan McNabb was sacked 15 times.

Stats of the Week No. 7: From its Pittsburgh contest into the first half of its New Orleans game, Seattle was outscored 42-0.

Stats of the Week No. 8: Devin Hester and Adrian Peterson combined for 624 all-purpose yards -- just slightly fewer yards than the all-purpose yards by all players in the Baltimore-St. Louis game.

Stats of the Week No. 9: New England is outscoring opponents by an average of 23 points per game.

Stats of the Week No. 10: Carolina emergency quarterback Vinny Testaverde has 6,562 career pass attempts. The Panthers franchise has, in its entire history, 6,412 pass attempts...

"Prophet" wrote:

[size=12pt]Kick the habit![/size]
By Gregg Easterbrook
Special to Page 2

The Minnesota Vikings boomed a punt to Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears, most dangerous punt returner ever, and he repaid the favor by running the ball back 89 yards for a touchdown. As a result, football pundits everywhere are asking, "Why does anyone punt to Devin Hester instead of kicking the ball out of bounds?" Tuesday Morning Quarterback asks: Why do NFL teams ever punt to any returner, rather than deliberately punt out of bounds?...

So - the thing that bothered me about this article is that he fails to note that the Vikings DID, in fact, try to kick that one away from Hester.
But the kick was too long and Mike Doss missed a tackle that he should make and it was over.

Also - he tosses out "punt it out-of-bounds" as if that was really really easy to do.
I don't think it's quite that easy.

=Z=

I read a pretty neat article one time on stupid stats facts.
I need to find that one again.
;D