Texan

What amazed me about people thinking that was where George St. Pierre had the disadvantage, was that when George St. Pierre first came into the UFC that is what he was known for. His striking was really the area that first got him into the UFC, and people really didn’t know about his wrestling ability. GSP really is one of the elite strikers in the UFC, because his background in so many disciplines. Trains with real Muay-Thai teacher from Thailand, kickboxing, and his background in Karate as well. GSP is such an amazing striker, but because he likes to use his wrestling, and the almost fluke by Serra people fail to remember that he is. I didn’t think heading into that fight that GSP really had a disadvantage in the striking at all. Your right though, no matter where that fight took place, GSP dominated the entire fight with Alves. Set the pace and tempo, dictated where the fight was going to take place, and by far inflicted the most punishment. His jab with his hand was landing at will when they was standing, he hit a lot of leg kicks which was supposed to be Alves big deal, and just beat him up. I really thought it was beautiful display of MMA by St. Pierre. As for this fight, I find it similar to the GSP/BJ Penn part two fight. Both fighters are so close in talent and ability, the one big factor would be the size factor. GSP wouldn’t be able to utilize the clench at all like he did with BJ Penn, and because of the length and ability for Anderson Silva to move in and out with his punches and change up combinations GSP would have a hard time getting the takedown. This would be an extremely tough fight for GSP, a very hard one for him to win, I wouldn’t see it happening just like everyone else thinks so.

I really don’t agree that it’s safe to say that Silva is the best striker in the UFC. I think he’s top two, but there is some question to him really being the number one striker in the UFC. Machida has proven to be a very adept striker, his ability to mix kickboxing and karate make him as good of a striker as anyone in the UFC. In fact, no one has really even been able to land any good or solid shots on him at all while in the UFC. I would put Machida’s ability to strike right on par with Silva. As for best ground game, Maia is definitely a good one for best ground game. His brazilian jiu-jitsu is top notch, few are able to match his ability on the ground. Aside from him, I would put BJ Penn as the other one being the best on the ground. George St. Pierre is really good, but I still question his ability from his back, and how well he can pull off any type of submissions or defense from his back. BJ Penn on the top can send down punches with lethal power as well as anyone else in the game, his domination of Stevenson and Florian was proof of his ability to strike from the top position. He also has the ability to sink in any type of submission at any time as well. What sets him a part though, is how well he can fight from his back, and the control he can have from his back. His rubber guard is by far the best in the MMA that we have seen so far, his flexibility and ability to really put his foot almost all the way up to the top of his shoulder blades is as good as we have seen. He limit’s any amount of damage he takes. His ability to both dictate the pace on the bottom, as well as most people he faces positions is just amazing. I think he is as dominant at 155 as anyone else in the UFC is at their weight class.

The thing is, there isn't really much credit to your claim that they would win less than ten games if Durant did not play for the Thunder. End of February/Early March time frame of last season, Durant had actually gotten hurt and missed like seven games in a row. During that time the Thunder actually won five of those games, and lost only two, so the stats do show that the team could win without Durant. Now that’s just a small sample size to play with, and obviously teams having to adjust to playing the Thunder without Durant would make game plans a bit different and harder. That said, I definitely think the Thunder are talented enough to win more than ten games without Durant. As for the thesis of this article, I really don’t agree with it, no matter what plus or minus says. Just because the team doesn’t play as well when is on the court, does not mean that he is the worst player on the team. It just means the team doesn’t play well when he’s on the court. Durant is far and away the most talented player on the team, team output shouldn’t have any impact on who is the best and most talented player. Aside from that plus/minus doesn’t take into account that a majority of the time when Durant is on the court the other teams star players, and starters are on the court as well. When Durant leaves the court, the other team usually has their second unit backups in, and with the young talent like the Thunder have on the bench, they can do really well against other teams second units. So there is more to this story than just plus/minus, and you would figure that whoever made this accusation that Durant is the worst player on the team is a complete statistician and nothing more.

With the Tennessee offensive line, and their runningbacks I think they have a solid chance at running the ball effectively against the Colts. We all know the Colts d-line is undersized at best, and can be pushed around at any time. The Dolphins pushed them around for a majority of the game, ran the ball, ate up the clock and kept the Colts offense off the field. Like the Dolphins though, their secondary is suspect at the very best and teams can put up points on the Titans in a hurry. During the Texans game, Schaub ripped through that secondary and passed as he wanted to. Peyton is ten times the quarterback Schaub is, and that receiving group is just almost just as good as the Texans receivers. This past week, Jacksonville did whatever they wanted to through the air on and neither their quarterback nor their receivers are anywhere close to as good as the Colts. So while I wouldn't be surprised to see the Titans win, I wouldn't put money on it.

You don‘t just line up and pass from the one yard line. Your to close for the fade route, or a jump ball to the corner with Johnson, and dropping back for an actual pass could lead to a sack or an interception because there are less throwing lanes that close to the goal off of a normal pass. The Texans on that last possession actually played it right, as far as running on second and one, play action on third and one and then a run on fourth. They actually had a chance to score on 3rd and goal at the one with the play action, but Schaub put the ball just a bit to high and the receiver ended up going out of the end zone. That said, on two runs from 2nd and 1 you would expect your team to pick up enough of a push to get just one yard. Just about any offense in football would have went for a run there.

At the goal line they have liked using Chris Brown better, because he is stronger and can muscle his way in there, or atleat that is their thinking. I think they are also worried about Slaton being a smaller back, can he handle the punishment down there on the goal line. I personally would rather Slaton, because the holes close up so quickly at the goal line, I like speed to get in there quickly before it closes. The problem is that the offensive line is getting no push, so it really didn’t matter who we have back there running the ball, whether it be Slaton or Brown. On the fourth and one play where they tried to run right between center and right guard, people were in the backfield almost before Schaub could even hand the ball off. The offensive line did absolutely nothing to create a whole, they just wilted. It's utterly pathetic that they couldn’t get convert with just one yard to go at any point in the game.

WTF? Did a great job to battle back, it was really a tale of two halves, scored 21 unanswered points just to throw a big time pick-6. Was tied 21-21, had the ball and was on the move then Schaub made a huge mistake in going over his progressions and made it easy for Rogers-Cromartie to jump the route and take the ball to the house. Unbelievable, but when you have to pass the ball 45 times to win the game because your running game sucks, that is going to happen.

Honostly, I really don't think that we are going to miss Howard very much while he is gone, especially with Shawn Marion here now. Marion is much better off the ball than Howard, as well as being better in transition than Howard is. With Kidd as our starting point guard who will be able to get Marion into the open court and get him easy looks at the basket we will be fine without Howard. Marion just fits better with Kidd and the current Mavericks than Howard does in my opinion. Howard fits best in an offense where he can get into more one on one play, trying to take people off the dribble and use his athletic ability. He doesn't fit as well in an offense where he needs to get open to get his shots.

The Texans are easily the softest team in the league, there isn't another team in the league with less push and drive than the Texans, and it's precisely why they will not make the playoffs. The offense has been in a group of 2nd and 1, or 3rd and 1 situations, and they couldn’t pick up the first down. Their offensive line has gotten no push all, they couldn’t run the ball just one yard. They are simply to small and to soft to be effective in short yardage situations and it has been that way all year. Defensively, the way their defense is set up, they are meant to be a soft defense. They have smaller lineman that are one gap type lineman, which makes those guys easier to block on running plays and clear out running space. Much like we have seen with the Colts over the years, the smaller guys trying to pressure the quarterback make for worse in run defense on the line. That offensive line has been getting pushed around by a Cardinals offensive line that frankly hasn’t been good to date. We have the skill position players offensively, they have the linebacker play, what they don’t have is the ability to control the line of scrimmage on either side of the ball and it is what will cause them to miss the playoffs this year

How’s it going, I was on another site and someone told me about this site, so I figure I would come over and check it out to see what all is going on here. I'm from Round Rock Texas, pretty much a suburb of Austin, and I pretty much love everything Texas. I'm a huge sports fan, love pretty much most sports. My teams are of course any team USA, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Texans, Texas Rangers, and of course the Longhorns. I'm still looking forward to us laying the wood to the Sooner’s this week. I also very much like MMA, I pretty much have three favorites, Heath Herring for obvious reasons, Carlos Condit, and Mike Swick. I look forward to talking sports with everyone here, and hope to have a good time on this board.

Don't know what game your watching, but he had just released the ball when brought down, there hadn't been any more than about 2 seconds between him releasing the ball and Peterson grabbing him. What made it even worse, was his own lineman caused Peterson to take him down. Peterson had stopped for the most part until the Pittsburgh lineman ran into the both of them and caused it to happen. If the lineman was still playing hard like that, then obviously it wasn't just the defensive player that was causing it. There is no way that was a good call, only the most die hard of Pittsburgh biased would make someone see and say that.

I'm watching the Steelers/Pittsburgh game, and the Lions just got screwed by the NFL wanting to make the quarterbacks not be allowed to get touched these days. It's pretty rediculous, Big Ben just threw into double coverage to Hines Ward, just as he released Julian Peterson grabbed him and took him down and they called a personal foul on Peterson. Erased an interception, and possibility to get some momentum because of a bad call by the refs.

Team record has to play just a bit of a factor in who gets the MVP award. IF a guy that is getting good to great stats, but is on one of the four or five worst teams in the league, then he's just a stat stuffer. If a team finishes with 23 wins on the season, it doesn't make a very good case for why that player should get MVP. Just the same this year, if Oklahoma City proves to be a bottom dwellar again like that, then it's hard to say he should be in the top five over guys that are pushing their teams to being among the best in the league. As for the bulking up, I really don't think he needs to bulk up that much. Right now he is around 6'9/6'10 and up to about 230 pounds. By comparison a guy like Rashard Lewis has played at that almost exact same size and height pretty much his entire career. Durant has a similar game with his ability to shoot, the big difference is that he is much more explosive than Lewis has ever been with a better ability to create off the dribble. He will be just fine at the weight he is now, because who knows how bulking up might effect his movement and conditioning on the court.