Final Thoughts on Sherman and Crosby

I'm still loving it (sorry McDonald's) - the win over the Packers new BEF (Best Enemy Forever) - and before I move on the Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs a couple of observations.

It pays to target "The Mouth That Roars". The unwanted one - old man James Jones - beat Richard Sherman for the first touchdown of the game. Later on the disputed offside-flinch play Sherman was called for a 52-yard interference play setting up a Mason Crosby field goal.

Richard Sherman doing what he does so well

The previous two games against the Seahawks were highlighted by stroking Sherman's immense ego by totally ignoring him in the season opener last season and, for some odd reason, never throwing at him after he injured his arm in the playoff collapse.

Sherman is a media creation. After he yelled at Erin "I Really Love My Ass" Andrews - which actually made him a cultural icon and Andrews the million dollar girl leading to her becoming a very obnoxious co-host of Dancing With the Stars - he somehow was viewed as the second coming of Darrelle Revis, when actually he is very flawed cornerback, who can be beaten, which old man Jones (who had lost a step and was having problems with separation that led to him being cut by the Raiders and the Giants) proved.

Sherman actually (I have to stop using actually, but it so fits when I point out reality verses the sports media creation machine) holds on every play and the only reason I can see he doesn't get called for it is because he is the (ugly) face of the NFL and the word has come down to leave him alone, which only feeds that ego even more.

A good example of how important Sherman is as a member of the "Legion of Boom", which is what everyone calls the supposedly best secondary in the game today. With Kam Chancellor holding out the secondary was quite ordinary and you would figure with the best defensive back in the game (this time I am channeling Chris Collinsworth) still dominating Sherman's Island the play wouldn't drop off.

But, as a surprise to all, but me, it was Chancellor that is the real MVP of that secondary and Sherman is just a cog in that machine. Without Chancellor patrolling the middle of the field and Bryan Maxwell at the other cornerback (he left to join the Eagles) Sherman proved to be an ordinary, albeit dirty, player that he as always been. It was about time to go after him and I guess we have Tom Clements to thank for that.

Aaron Rodgers is an amazing quarterback. With both tackles not worthy of earning All-Pro status Rodgers doesn't take a licking and keeps on ticking. Don Barclay - playing in place of Bryan Bulaga at right tackle - was rated the worst tackle last week with 10 hurries, but in fact, once again the media not knowing their ass from a hole in the ground, he was doing exactly what he was supposed to. The hurries they counted were Barclay actually pushing his man outside the pocket allowing Rodgers to step up and throw or run. Those are designed techniques.

Now lets talk about Mason Crosby. He came into the season needing just 18 points to become the all-time leading scorer in Packer history overtaking Ryan Longwell (1997-2005), who finished his Packers' career with 1,054 points (226-of-277 field goals and 376-380 point afters). Crosby (2007-present) had 1,037 points (212-268 FGs and 401-405 PATs).

So according to my Unity Point match Crosby needed 18 points to break the record (18 + 1,037 = 1,055) coming into the season. The first week against the Bears Crosby was 1-for-1 in field goals and 4-for-4 on extra points for seven points leaving him 11 points short.

Against the Seahawks he had an extra point and a field goal in the first quarter - leaving seven points short. In the second quarter he had a field goal, so it was down to four at the half. In the third quarter he added a field goal to leave him two points from the record.

Forty-four seconds into the fourth quarter when he kicked an extra point to pull into a tie and with 1:56 remaining in the game he kicked his fourth field of the game from 21-yards out to make him the all-time leading scorer in Packer history.

Congratulations Record Holder Crosby

Three years ago when he was missing every other field goal (or so it seemed, but he actually missed only 8 of 33 attempts) who would have thought he still be around to own the record. In fact (or actually), to this day Andrew (one of the Carbondale/Herrin Packer Backers) will not watch Crosby kick field goals.
 

I've been lucky being a Packer Backer since 1965. I have watched Crosby, Brett Favre (8,754 pass attempts, 5,377 completions, 61,655 yards, 442 touchdown passes, 286 interceptions) Donald Driver (743 catches, 10,137 yards overall), Paul Coffman (322 catches, 4,223 yards, 39 TDs for tight ends), Ahman Green (8,322 yards rushing and 350 pass catches, 2,726 receiving yards for running backs), and linebacker A. J. Hawk (the leading tackler with 1,118), KGB (Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila) with 74.5 sacks and the punting records of David Beverly (495 career punts) and Craig Hentrich (highest career average of 42.8) to have seen history being made.

 

The only records I haven't actually seen are interceptions by Bobby Dillon (1952-59) with 52 and receiving touchdowns by Don Hutson (1935-45) with 99.

Finally the Packers are lucky to have James Starks as the backup to Eddie Lacy.