Is Sparano Giving Away His Gameplan? Favre vs Penny, and Chad Jackson news.
Written by Dave Blake
Saturday, 06 September 2008
Is Sparano giving away his gameplan?
The Star Ledger reported this week that Ricky has won the starting job over Ronnie and will see at least 20 carries. Does this blip of information sound like a Bill Parcells plan to disclose information to the opponent by telling them how many carries his starting back will take? Of course not. If Sparano is anything like Parcells, he will keep the media and fans guessing. My guess is that Ricky will start but Sparano will go with the "hotter" back for the majority of the carries. Each will get plenty of carries.
Who will have the better game? Favre or Pennington?
That is actually a good question. My guess is that it will be Favre because the Jets will be forced to pass often to win this game. Miami's first team defense shut opponents running games down this preseason and Favre is not afraid to air it out. I think the Dolphins front 7 will hound him into a couple of mistakes, but Favre has a nice arsenal of receivers to get the ball to. He will find a way to connect. Pennington should have a good game as well as he is focused on proving Jets fans wrong for letting him go. Last year Jets fans showed their class by cheering loudly after he was injured in a game. Pennington does not have the receivers that Favre has, but he is smart enough to get the ball to them. Let's hope that he gets the ball to his surest handed receivers such as Ginn, Camarillo, and Bess so that we do not have to endure the display of drops that we've had to endure since Orande Gadsden retired. Pennington will air the ball less than Favre because the Dolphins should play to their strength and that is the running game. At this point our offensive line is better at run blocking rather than pass blocking and we have two dynamite backs that are both fast and power runners. I really like our chances in this game if we can limit the mistakes.
The Dolphins work out WR Chad Jackson.
This is another Parcells move to get information ... and upgrade a position of weakness. If Jackson impressed the Fins he will get a contract offer early next week (or sooner). Jackson was a highly touted receiver coming out of Florida and ended up being a 2nd round pick for them. Chalk it up as another failed 2nd round pick on a wide receiver for the Patsies ... maybe. The Patriots do not have to pay top dollar for a good receiver as they have been able to find talented receivers who will take less than market value in order to win. There is no need for them to develop receivers. Chad Jackson is a talented and good sized receiver, AND he also possesses the Patriots offensive gameplan between his ears. How many times have we seen Parcells add an opponents' ousted player to get good information out of them ... and use him in the game as well. Currently, adding Chad Pennington to the team not only gave him a starting quarterback but also knowledge of the Jets offensive and defensive gameplan. Pennington knows the Jets weakness on defense as he played against them head-to-head just weeks ago. So, tell Bellichick that you do not need Spygate when you add thier ousted players;)
How did Parcells get the nickname "Tuna" and ... "Bill"?
"I think it goes back to my first time with the Patriots. There was an old commercial from Starkist with Charlie the Starkist Tuna, so my players were trying to con me on something one time, and I said, ‘You must think I’m Charlie the Tuna,’ you know, a sucker, and that’s kind of how it started. We started with it that year and they used to wear those little tuna helmets, you know, tuna pictures on their helmets. That’s where it all started."
Early in his teenage years, after the family had moved to nearby Oradell, Duane Parcells had a lookalike at school named Bill. After a number of people mistook Parcells for the other boy, Parcells took Bill as a nickname, then as his first name."
Is Sparano giving away his gameplan?
