When it rains, it pours in Denver. The Broncos’ Craig Morton won Player of the Week in TLL 79 Week 2 with an overtime victory over the Raiders and a very impressive stat line:

11 / 16 330 Yards 5 TD 1 INT

With statistics like those in any TLL game, it seems like voting for Morton is a no-brainer.  However, like many stellar quarterbacks, Morton has a deadly deep target in WR/RB Haven Moses.  Moses’ stat line is also impressive:

5 Receptions 201 Yards 3 TD
6 Carries 26 Yards, 2pt conversion

When looking at the statistics of both players, one could make a case for either player winning player of the week.  As coach of the TLL 79 Broncos, I considered both players to be valuable, but ultimately voted for Moses as my choice for Player of the Week.  Yet Morton won out after other coaches voted.  This compelled me ask the question, “How does one choose who is to be Player of the Week?”

My initial choice of Moses over Morton could come from the insider knowledge that I have from being coach of the Broncos.  I played the game, felt Moses was a deciding factor in it, and voted appropriately.  Coach TecSpectre may have influenced my vote after the game, saying that when Moses came in at running back, the Broncos were a different team and harder to stop.  However, it is unclear which player TecSpectre voted for, if either.

And then there are the other coaches.  What do the other coaches use to determine a player’s Player of the Week status?
•    The simplest and perhaps most accurate way is for them to vote on players who are either on their team or who they played against for the week.  This seems the most sensible since each coach was able to experience the performance of the player on the field.
•    There is also the possibility, with the advent of most TLL games being recorded for the season, that coaches go back over other teams’ game footage and make a choice based on that.  This seems unlikely because it can be labor intensive and tedious to watch every single game for the week.
•    The likelihood is that most coaches will compare stat lines for players they have not seen that week and decide from there.  Whatever kinds of stats that the coach deems to be important may sway his final decision.
•    In addition, other factors may be taken into consideration.  What about the strength of the team the player is playing against and the stats that were put up?  Four touchdowns versus the 79 Steelers defense certainly looks more impressive than if it were against the 79 Seahawks.

Getting back to Morton’s performance, I decided to revisit some of the plays that both he and Haven Moses made in tandem and individually that may shed light on the accuracy of the voting.

Morton and Moses hook up 5 times in the game.  The first was the first Denver pass of the game, which was 36 yd TD pass.  The two did not connect again until under 3:39 left the 4th quarter, when the Broncos got the ball trailing 31-20.  Clearly during these two drives, Moses was a force. In this span, Moses had a 53 yard catch on 3rd and long, a shorter 17 yard catch to bring the Broncos into FG range, and a 60+ yard catch with 3 defenders on him with seconds to go in the back of the end zone. In addition, Denver was down 31-29 and needed a two-point conversion, which Moses delivered on a run out of the backfield.  Morton was 4 of 5 during that 4th quarter stretch, but 3 of those passes were crucial gains to Moses. Morton was also sacked twice, which certainly hurt the Broncos’ chances.  In OT, Morton was sacked one more time, but still completed two passes, one of which was a 35 yard game-winner to a diving Moses in the end zone.

But perhaps I am making Moses look too good.  He only had 1 catch in the first half.  He came in at RB in the 3rd quarter to provide a spark, especially after Riley Odom went down, but only 3 of his 6 runs were for positive yardage. Also, Morton only had 5 incompletions.  One was an interception to end the first half on a chuck-and-pray play, another was an overthrow.  The other three were not really his fault: two were deflected by Raiders’ defenders down the field and the other was a drop by Upchurch.  In essence, his passing record was near perfect for the game: 3 of 5 passes could have been caught; there was a garbage interception which does not take away from his 5 TD passes.  He also spread the ball around, hitting 5 different receivers throughout the game.

What may be most telling for Morton is that he was not even in the game for the first drive of the 3rd quarter.  His backup, Norris Weese, moved the Broncos backwards.  Here are Weese’s plays on that drive:

1st down- Incompletion
2nd down- Incompletion Out of bounds (intended for Moses)
3rd down- Sacked

The next drive, down 24-13, the game plan changes.  Odoms is out, Morton comes back in for Weese, but has lost a solid receiver.  Moses switches to the RB position, where he would switch back and forth from there and WR.  Clearly, the game plan (along with a fortunate onside kick) worked for the offense.

So who is really the Player of the Week here, Morton or Moses?  Or is it someone else that coaches overlooked in other games?  There are so many factors in place that it is hard to isolate a player.  As many sportswriters claim, football is the ultimate team sport, and it is truly challenging to pick out one player whose performance would be dominant without the superb play of his teammates.  In the TLL, it might be easier to decide, but this is not to say that the team factor is not present.  Nor am I denying that there are transcendent performances by players.  There may be defining moments in games where it is clear that without that player’s performance, the team surely would have failed.

One thing seems certain is that it is much easier to decide a Most Valuable Player for an entire season than it is for just one week. Over the course of a long season, all coaches are exposed to the performances of TLL’s best players.  The more games that are played, the more accurate the stats can be about a player’s overall value.  Yet it is still fun to talk about great performances from week to week.  But when deciding the Player of the Week, perhaps we should take it with a grain of salt.

The start of the 1977 TLL season has been inauspicious for coach Cheap Catch, last season’s reigning Super Bowl champion. While it was to be expected, Cheap Catch opened the season by getting routed by his former championship team, the Washington Ethnic Insensitivities 28-7, while using the lackluster New Orleans Saints. In game two, again against Dead Faulkner, Cheap Catch was able to locate the win column, but at a high price. Last season Otis Armstrong was the heart and soul workhorse for the Denver Bronco offense, compiling 1,553 rushing yards and 26 TDs, good for second and first in the league, respectively.

Armstrong, however, was cut down hard in the 1977 opener against the Steelers, after just two carries, which netted 5 yards. The Broncos managed to pull off the 22-12 victory, but the offense was anemic after Armstrong’s decampment, and it was apparent how badly the Broncos running game suffers when Armstrong’s services are unavailable.

In 1976, Armstrong made it through the entire regular season without an injury. Strangely, Armstrong was eventually knocked out in similar fashion to this year, suffering an injury early on in the AFC Divisional game against the same Pittsburgh Steelers. Currently, Armstrong is serving 12 weeks in the infirmary with a concussion, after getting crunched by vicious Steeler LB Jack Lambert.

The question then is: Can the Broncos legitimately vie for a playoff spot without their star running back, and with seemingly no steady body to fill his role? Early word from Bronco land is that the team is, certainly concerned, although (they) are not at a point of panic. After one week the Broncos are still (1-0), but one must wonder how long that can last. The Broncos are now going to have to employ a running back by committee style, exhausting the extent of their resources in order to remain competitive and continue to keep opposing defenses off balance, so that they cannot merely dig in and rush QB Craig Morton. And, an Oh, by the way (Chris Berman style), Morton was 2/12 in his Bronco debut after arriving from the New York Gents.

It remains to be seen what the Broncos can accomplish without Armstrong, but the early storyline seems to have transformed from visions of the promised land to a promising opening for Denver’s AFC rivals.

No Movie (Yet)

Earlier this season coach Deadfaulkner and Cheapcatch went toe to toe in a matchup between the Steelers and Bengals that finally saw the Steelers score the only points of the game in overtime. Fast forward to Week 7 and the two coaches were at it again. If not for a Haven Moses` 63 yard TD with five seconds left the game between Denver and Green Bay would have marked the second time these coaches, in a head to head match up, entered overtime scoreless.

However, on what was Craig Morton`s most errant pass of the game, a toss that traveled toward the middle of the field, while Moses was running a fly, the Broncos would dash Green Bay`s hopes of an upset. Moses, standing in a crowd of four Packer defenders, hauled in the throw, burst loose, breaking a tackle at the 20 yard line, and yet another at the half yard line, giving the Broncos the only points of the game, and the eventual victory.