The 2009 Chargers were a proficient passing team and a poor rushing team. Football Outsiders reviews how teams heaviest on the pass and lightest on the run fare. The answer is pretty good.

You’ll notice that there’s nothing wrong with having a great passing game and a mediocre running game. Every team on this list except the 2008 Chargers had a winning record. The team with a losing record and the biggest gap between passing and rushing was the 2005 Arizona Cardinals (5-11) who had 10.4% DVOA passing (15th) but -30.3% rushing (32nd).

Here’s the other side of the coin, the teams where the running game was far superior to the passing game. You’ll notice that these teams, with the exception of the 2004 Falcons, all have losing records — but part of that is the fact that being better at running the ball doesn’t necessarily mean you are great at running the ball.

via FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | FO Mailbag: Pass-Run Imbalance.

I post this as an Eagles fan because a big debate here in Philly is whether or not the Eagles can win when they run as little as they do (historically under coach Andy Reid its been a 60-40 pass-run ratio). The real fact of the matter is that the Eagles are a productive run team, when they choose to run. And yes they can win passing a lot more than they run (the charts from Football Outsiders are about the efficiency of the run game, not the frequency). The real problem, even the most rational Eagles fans have, is the offensive coaching staff’s seeming unwillingness to run in certain short yardage situations. Some of that changed for a bit last season with the usage of Leonard Weaver and Eldra Buckley as short yardage options. We’ll see what happens going into next season.

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Sounds like Iverson is on the same path as Employee #8:

And as the rest of us are forced to bear witness to a disintegration, the rapid decline of a career clearly lacking nurturing, the time has arrived for Iverson’s inner circle to stand up and be counted, to provide some semblance of tough love – by any means necessary.

Unless those people are willing to write his epitaph instead.

Just listening to Gary Moore, Iverson’s business manager and the person he trusts most, they may be doing so very soon.

Allen Iverson is in trouble, folks, deep trouble. The combination of alcohol and gambling – and a once-promising career in tatters because of the first two – won’t culminate in anything short of disaster if help does not arrive in short order.

If numerous NBA sources are telling the truth – and there’s no reason to believe they’d do otherwise in a situation of this magnitude – Iverson will either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away.

Moore, ever the protector, would never admit as much, of course. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it?

Iverson’s wife, Tawanna, having hired some high-powered Atlanta attorney and filed for a divorce last week, does not help matters. Nor does it help that she’s already separated from her husband, with custody of their five kids and seeking both alimony and child support.

When you consider Iverson’s well-known penchant for alcohol and his banishment from casinos in Detroit and Atlantic City, if disgust and sadness don’t come to mind, at least one question does:

Where is Pat Croce when you need him? Or Iverson’s coach at Georgetown, John Thompson?

via Stephen A. Smith: Iverson needs more than a prayer | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/07/2010.

I don’t think its fair to ask “Where is…John Thompson?”. Thompson’s player graduation rates were higher than average for NCAA Men’s College Basketball. Iverson was an exception and he may be a very awful exception to Thompson’s excellent record as a coach who built excellent basketball teams and built a program where most players ended up with a degree from Georgetown.

I do think its fair to wonder about his posse who is famous in Philly for being always present when Iverson wants to hang out and never present when a tab is due.

In the end, like Antoine Walker, its Iverson’s responsibility. For the sake of his family and kids, if not himself, i hope he can level out his life out before he spirals further into the depths of these addictions.

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A lot of talk is circling around college football standout, Rhodes Scholar and NFL hopeful Myron Rolle. Its been rumored NFL scouting staffs have been reticent to rank him high on their draft boards until they figure out where his head is at.

FSU S Myron Rolle. He has been out of football for a year after attending Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. But now he wants his shot at the NFL. He is in the right physical shape — you would be hard pressed to find an ounce of body fat on him. But there are some draft pundits who wonder whether his year off will hurt him simply because coaches want to draft guys who eat, sleep and breathe football. Rolle has grander pursuits in mind.

via Orlando Sentinel – College Gridiron 365 Blog.

Coaches who want academics to be a secondary pursuit to football isn’t new to Rolle.

In a recent interview in Sports Illustrated (SI.com), Myron told reporters he chose Florida State “because it was the only school that was committed to aiding me in reaching my goals as a standout student…” In keeping with tradition, Mr. Rolle has exemplified achievement at every turn in his collegiate career. As an Exercise Science/Biology Pre- Med student, Brother Rolle has maintained a near perfect GPA of 3.75.

via Kappa Alpha Psi Member Named Rhodes Scholar.

But at the NFL level it isn’t necessarily unfair.

The NFL wants players who are smart about football and smart enough off the field. I’ve gotta agree with G.D. at PostBourgie when he says that Rikyrah of Jack and Jill Politics opinion that a white player wouldn’t be scrutinized like this isn’t true.

Tim Tebow is the toast of college football. Every Saturday where he played was an almost unbearable chorus of football analysts professing him a titan among men. He has been for 4 years. Just another strong jawed, quick smile, god fearing, linebacker flattening, “role model”.

During the college offseasons, he didn’t fix what his mechanics, see Tebow has what scouts call a looping throwing motion that is just too slow for NFL play. As a result, the QB that is perfectly fine for college, is the first QB football people doubt can make it in the NFL. Too many people whose paychecks depend on them knowing football thought Tebow couldn’t be a pro quarterback after his college football career and they definitely wouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt after his Senior Bowl performance. Tebow often summered in the Phillipines to do missionary work with his family. Scouts don’t doubt his dedication to football, he never took a year off, but scouts do wonder about his dedication to being an NFL quarterback. His whiteness nor his Hesiman Trophy have saved him from this criticism.

Rolle has basically had a year off. There will be some basic rust and a learning curve to adjusting to the NFL level of play. The way I see it, Rolle has already showed something by playing high level football while excelling at academics. He demonstrated he could handle reality and life while being a  top level football player. Rolle started 3 years at a BCS conference school, graduated early so that he would have a graduate degree within 4 years and be ready to play NFL ball immediately after only one year away. In the NFL, he would not have to deal with academics, but and would be able to focus all of his time on playing football.

A lot of hay is being made over a staff member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, rumored to actually be head coach Raheem Morris, who allegedly asked Rolle, during combine interviews, how it felt to “desert his team” in reference to his year away studying at Oxford.

Former Florida State S Myron Rolle, who spent the last year away from his Seminoles teammates while studying at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, is scheduled to meet with the media tomorrow at the NFL scouting combine.

Should be a cakewalk in light of some of the queries he got at the Senior Bowl.

According to Yahoo!, Rolle was asked last month by a member of the Buccaneers coaching staff how it felt to desert his teammates to advance his studies.

“I hadn’t heard that one before,” said Rolle. “My initial reaction was a bit of confusion. It never was anger, but I was more bothered by the question because if anyone knew my involvement with my teammates, how much they care about me and how much I care about them.”

via Ex-Seminoles S Myron Rolle already fielding tough questions from NFL execs – The Huddle: Football News from the NFL – USATODAY.com.

The Bucs staff alleges that Morris asked Rolle “If he felt like he deserted his team” while studying abroad.  Neither version changes the fact that in these interviews, the NFL team coaches and staff want to push prospects off of their interview script or rehearsed answers with unconventional questions. Rolle definitely has the maturity to deal with an off beat interview question and he even notes that the interviewer, Raheem Morris, had pulled him aside at the Senior Bowl and told him he was proud of his accomplishments.

“(Bucs coach) Raheem Morris has been my biggest advocate,” said Rolle.

“I don’t feel any animosity toward the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”

via Myron Rolle: ‘I don’t feel any animosity toward the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ – The Huddle: Football News from the NFL – USATODAY.com.

Most questions about player commitment get answered at the combine. A player that shows up in good shape and deals with interviews well, by demonstrating football knowledge and desire to play, usually helps answer any doubts regarding their commitment to the sport. Rolle should be drafted in the NFL or he will be a definite free agent post draft signing.

At the last practice before the final Rhodes interview, his teammates gathered around him at practice. They didn’t know what exactly he was interviewing for — some texted him good luck on the “Roads” — but they knew it mattered to their brother. So they all put a hand on him and everyone said a prayer. “Someone asked me, ‘Where do you feel more comfortable, in the locker room at FSU or around the Rhodes scholars?’” he says. “Probably my locker room. We didn’t talk about politics or medicine or world health care or world peace. It was just laughing. Here you got to be on your toes. What do you think about Gadhafi’s speech to the UN? What do you think about the legislation that was passed in Indonesia?”

via ESPN – OTL: The Burden of Being Myron Rolle – E-ticket.

Many retired players talk about how they miss being part of a team when they leave the NFL or college football. It seems Rolle misses his team after his year away from the game and still feels that he belongs on a football field. I would bet his mind is in the right place. He will have an opportunity to prove he is physically in the right place between now and the opening of NFL training camps.

Regardless, he made the right choice in delaying the NFL for Oxford. The real concern is that he doesn’t wreck his body beyond repair playing football and ruin a chance to pursue a career neurosurgery.

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