Personal Statement : The Self Fulfilling Prophecy

In seven of their nine losses the Giants held a lead in the final two minutes. In five of those losses, they held the lead with less than 75 seconds to go. Multiple late game gaffs, poor clock management, and costly turnovers have cost the Giants a chance at winning the NFC East. Right or wrong, these things fall on the shoulders of coach Coughlin.

The Penn State football team has the talent to be a Top 4 team in the Big Ten Conference, but will be a middle of the road team due to James Franklin’s lack of understanding of player personnel. In year two of his offense, it is clear they are not a spread offense. Fans must understand that the spread offense does not always work for every team and is not the “next big thing” that you must implement to win, i.e., Michigan, Stanford, Michigan State. Running a spread offense requires athletic offense of lineman who can run, cut block, and win one in one battle, Penn States line to not equipped. Franklin needs to watch the film and realize when they run a pro-style offense with a fullback, both the line and Hackenberg look comfortable, and their

From the excerpt, “How David Beats Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell, I found interesting how it says if you can change your tactics opposite to what your greater opponent may be accustomed to, your chance of victory goes up. For example, in the excerpt it states, “What happened, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6,” (Gladwell, page 3). This drew to the conclusion that when David and the underdogs decided not to play by Goliath’s rule, you can come out victorious against those more powerful against you. This concept is something that can really apply to sports. If you analyze a team and see what tendencies or what makes them victorious and if you then try to disrupt them from their own rules, you can come out winning even if you are the weaker team.

I went to see a great game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. First they started to flip the coin when Packers called tails and it landed on tails and they chose to receive. The Dallas kicked and Packers gained 19 yards. Then they lost 5 yards or -5 because they got tackled behind the line of scrimmage and its now 2nd and 15. The Packers threw the ball 10 yards and they caught the ball and gained 12 and now have a first down. 1st quarter was over and Green lost 18 yards or -18. Green Bay threw the ball and Dallas intercepted the ball picking up 12 yards before being tackled.

In the first half, things started out slow for the Zips as they could not find a way to stop the

Yardage doesn't seem to be the issue, considering, they've surpassed 400 yards of total offense three games in a row, beating the 2012 record. They're averaging 9.2 points in the fourth quarter, which is 3rd in the NFL, but only 23.6 points per game, ranking them at 13.

You must choose strategic pays to gain yardage. In the book “What Could be Better than a Touchdown”, Dwight Lowery has to make a split second decision to run the ball to the end-zone or take a knee. The text says,”He breaks towards the ball, intercepts it, and dashes twenty-six yards into the end zone. Touchdown! And also perhaps a mistake?” The author is showing us that even if Lowery scored a touchdown, there was another option. In another part of the book, it says,” On the other hand, if Lowery had forsworn the end zone and dropped to one knee as soon as he caught Favre’s pass, then the game would have been over.” This is the other option of what Lowery could have done, which would have immediately ended the game. With the choice he made to score a touchdown, he prolonged the game and risked the Vikings scoring, or a player could have gotten injured in the following plays. In the text it states,” ...how do you calculate the odds of a Jets defender getting injured on a Vikings drive that never would have happened if Lowery had refused to score.” See, if Lowery had given up the touchdown, then he would not have risked anyone getting injured, or even letting the Vikings come back and score to win the game. In this instance, all the risky play did was to prolong the game for no reason, but in other times, this could have been

What a difference a year makes for the Carolina Panthers and coach Ron Rivera. Last season we were just starting our magical run just realizing our potential and proving to the NFL that we were a team that needed to be taken seriously. Fast forward a year we are chasing perfection and have a legitimate shot at the Lombardi trophy with the playoffs potentially coming through the Queen city. The players are the ultimate deciders of what happened with game by game, but I feel when coach Ron Rivera adopted his alter ego riverboat Ron taking chances going for it on fourth downs putting trust in his guys to make the plays and ready to take the criticism if they didn't work out.

The good news is the players have professed to being more comfortable in the defense and there is evidence that VanGorder’s scheme is effective when time is afforded to learn it. In 2008, his first season with the Falcons, his defense came in at 24th in the league after being 29th the year before under a different coach. In the subsequent three season’s their total defense rank rose every year from 21st to 16th to finally 12th in 2011. But, those were NFL players who didn’t have practice restrictions and had to study for courses like Chinese-Mandarin. Is the learning curve too steep for the college athlete to truly “get it?” This is especially an issue when Notre Dame has to sit two starters because they can’t get the calls and is forced to play lesser players just so the defense can get lined up. Blue-chip linebacker Nyles Morgan is still struggling to get the calls correct and is likely to play a reserve role this season because of it. Is the scheme so great that it comes at the expense of the more talented players watching on the

On average, the Patriots have defeated these opponents by 14 points. This one loss, however, strikes to be more significant to the players and fans than the winnings themselves.

"Ours was terrible last week," head coach Dana Holgorsen said. "They hit about the same as us, we're both at about 38, 39 percent, I believe, which is bottom-half. It's the same thing, you have to be able to execute in tight spaces. If people are going to beat you up, then you have to be able to body people and make catches. Gary (Jennings) has been fantastic with that; we need a few more guys be able to do that. They know we're going to Gary on third-and-four. He's made some big catches, but we need other guys that need to be options as well."

We’re officially more than halfway through the NFL regular season with some teams already having played nine games. One of the major storylines this season has been the lack of quality football, with the lack of favorable ratings partially stemming from the subpar play. The stretch run to the end of the regular season is when the league has to be hopeful it can recover some of those potential viewers who haven’t tuned in as often.

The football game was about to start Pj got there perfect time. it would seem stupid for a team that scored just 14 points in a Week Two loss to enter a game with the plan of winning a against an opponent averaging over 40 points per game, yet that was Saint Louis strategy when it came to Dewier Stadium on Friday night said the stadium announcer . IT was halftime 24-34 they was losing Pj had to do something so he gave his team a halftime peep talk. I worked hard this year to just lose. We totally agree with what you’re saying I believe a “hate” and “kill” mentality will have a negative effect on team brain in the future said Coach. I will tell our future kids that the thing to beat is their last performance. Can you do better than last game?

Second quarter relaxing a bit but still anxious for someone to score. Finally it happens but it's not us the falcons are up 7-0. By the end of the second the Pats are getting crushed 21-3 Falcons and the Patriots have only scored a field goal.

Another reason we need to relax is because we have one of the best defenses in the league! We have the best middle linebacker combination in Thomas Davis and Luke Kuechly wreaking havoc in opponents back fields. Bill Polian said Luke Kuechly is “the Peyton Manning of defenses” that praise is definitely warranted in his four years in the NFL he already has 453 tackles and seven interceptions absolutely ridiculous! Thomas Davis has himself overcome three ACL surgeries and come back better than ever. Those two guys are enough for me to still be confident in what this team can accomplish despite the recent blow on the offensive side of the ball. Along with Davis and Kuechly we have great complementary players including Charles Johnson, Josh Norman,