Connelly’s Top Ten: Wild Card Weekend

By Michael in Featured, Now!, Top Story ⋅ January 4, 2013 at 6:49am ⋅ Post a comment

1. This weekend in NFL:

* BJGE had 7 runs of over 20 yards this year
* Top three in fumbles this year: RGIII 9 / Michael Vick 7 / Colin Kaepernick 7
* 28% of Stevan Ridley’s runs were for first downs
* Aaron Rodgers was sacked 51 times in 552 attempts of pass
* Luck’s season over-rated? Rookie QB’s rating: RGIII 102.4% / Russell Wilson 100% / Andrew Luck 76.5% / Ryan Tannenhill 76.3%
* Calvin Johnson converted first downs on 92 of his 122 catches
* Wes Welker led football with yards after catch with 619
* Rookie Luke Kuechly led all of football in tackles this year with 164
* 31 of the top 34 tacklers were linebackers – the other three were safties
* Lions punter Nick Harris punted 67 times and had only ONE touchback / Mesko had 6 touchbacks on 60 punts (Mesko was 24th in net with 37.9 yards)
* Not one field goal kicker missed more than one extra point
* Gostkowski was 20th in field goal % at 82.9

2. Patriots QBs:

Patriots could trade Ryan Mallet and bring back Hoyer or Cassel? Here’s what have they got in other quarterback trades…

For Jim Plunkett – three first round picks, second round pick, Tom Owens
For Drew Bledsoe – 1st round pick

3. Around the Bowls:

* NCAA better be careful – lot of empty seats at these bowl games, which are anti-climatic after New Years – they are glorified exhibition games
* Interesting watching Oklahoma State go with the flea flicker up 48 points late in the 4th quarter
* I’m predicting by the end of next year – some player will die after suffering from one of these insane hits
* Ranked SEC teams right now are 2-2 in bowls
* Chip Kelly is leaving for the pros – he will be there for two years and then Boston College (boosters) should be ready to offer him a ten-year, $100,000,000 contract, which he would pay for himself with bowl earnings

4. Celtics:

Only 3 of the 19 players on the 2010 Celtics Finals team is still with the team:

Still on team – Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo
Still in League – Ray Allen, Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson, Big Baby Davis, Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace, Bill Walker, Marquis Daniels
Out of League – Scal, Shelden Williams, Oliver Lafayette, Marcus Landry, Lester Hudson, Eddie House, JR Giddens, Michael Finley

5. NFL RBs:

Draft position of top rushers in 2012:

1. Adrian Peterson………7
2. Alfred Morris………..173
3. Marshawn Lynch……12
4. Jammal Charles……..73
5. Doug Martin…………..32
6. Arian Foster………….Undrafted
7. Stevan Ridley………..73
8. CJ Spiller……………….9
9. Chris Johnson……….24
10. Frank Gore………….65

6. Non QB or RB that have won NFL MVP or Heisman:

1997 – Heisman – Charles Woodson – Cornerback
1991 – Heisman – Desmond Howard – Wide Receiver
1988 – NFL MVP – Lawrence Taylor – Linebacker
1987 – Heisman – Tim Brown – Wide Receiver
1982 – NFL MVP – Mark Mosley – Kicker
1972 – Heisman – Johnny Rodgers – Wide Receiver
1971 – NFL MVP – Alan Page – Defensive End
1949 – Heisman – Leon Hart – End
1936 – Heisman – Larry Kelly – End

7. Amazing Stats:

What was the draft position of the player that has scored the most points per NBA draft:

2003 – Lebron James (1) – 19,839
2004 – Dwight Howard (1) – 11,970
2005 – Chris Paul (4) – 9,662
2006 – Rudy Gay (8th) – 8,343
2007 – Kevin Durant (2nd) – 10,859
2008 – Russell Westbrook (4th) – 6,601
2009 – Brandon Jennings (10th) – 4,089
2010 – DeMarcus Cousins (5th) – 2,750
2011 – Kyrie Irving (1st) – 1,443
2012 – Damian Lillard (6th) – 571

8. Old School:

In 1981 and 1982, Carney Lansford hit .317 for the Red Sox before Wade Boggs moved him out

9. Just a Little Bit Outside:

Update on the Belichick coaching tree from New England:

* Romeo Crennel fired a second time
* Josh McDaniel a coordinator
* Charlie Weis 1-10 season with Kansas University
* Eric Mangini – out of the sport
* Bill O’Brien – Penn State

10. Randomocity:

* Interesting watching Reggie Bush more upset about not getting a 1,000 yards than losing game Sunday
* Devin McCourty has 14 interceptions already in his career
* Great hockey in the World Junior championships – Bruins first pick Malcom Subban was benched by Canada in the semi’s versus USA / Boston College star Johnny Gaudreau is on fire
* Baylor’s women basketball team has won 11 games so far this by an average margin of 43 points
* Cold bad / warm good

About Michael

Lifelong Boston resident who finds equal enjoyment in celebrating the local team's success as I do complaining about their failures. I have been writing the Top Ten for the last decade as well as five sports books: 26 Miles to Boston, Rebound, The President's Team, The Great Book of Boston Sports Lists and NBA List Jam.

Tags: Connelly's Top Ten, Top Ten

Discussion

4 comments for “Connelly’s Top Ten: Wild Card Weekend”

alfred morris is a stud pick at 173. he is the new bowling ball wrecker.

no one ever said mccourty has bad hands… he just gets burnt all day long.

reggie bush is a fraud.

REPLY – MPC – I presume NFL teams do forensics on their picks and ask how he got by

Posted by tronburger | January 4, 2013, 8:21 am
what did we get for Cassel and Vrabel from KC? I agree move Mallet, he wouldn’t fit in the scheme anyway

REPLY – MPC – We ended up getting KC’s second round pick which back then seemed like a steal for both quality players but if I remember Vrabel was doing a lot of talking back then. Did you see him head bang one of his Ohio state players this year – google

Posted by kevin | January 4, 2013, 9:33 am
When it all said and done I bet Luke Kuechly will go down as the best BC player of all time.

REPLY – MPC – Are you talking in the pro’s? Interesting item for Top Ten – Art Donovan, some offensive linemen, Smerlas….

Posted by Clint | January 4, 2013, 12:35 pm
And Carney played pretty darn well for the A’s for a number of years thereafter, although he was certainly no Wade Boggs.

REPLY – MPC – Couldn’t say no to Boggs – to bad one of them couldn’t have switched positions

Posted by TimU | January 4, 2013, 1:14 pm