First of all...seeing Joe Flacco up as an MVP nominee is a little bit embarrassing!! I don't think he was even worth a nomination. Maybe if you completely disregarded that last stretch of 3 or 4 games where I threw like 10 interceptions......but you can't.
I was very pleasantly surprised that Ray Lewis got nominated though, not because I don't think he is deserving...but cause you typically only see offensive players get nominated. So since it would appear that Ray Lewis has DPOY on lock....I suppose the only case I need to make would be for MVP!!!!!!!!!!! So here it goes...
I wanna try to focus on making a case for Ray Lewis rather than making this a smear campaign for Jamaal Charles (who I'm assuming is the #1 candidate for MVP for most people), but I would like to briefly address a certain stat that may be overlooked. Out of Jamaal Charles' 2800+ rushing yards, only 514 of those yards were achieved after an initial hit. That means that Jamaal Charles is getting a large majority of those yards from long runs where he goes the distance UNTOUCHED. And THAT means that you could probably replace Jamaal Charles with any of those "dime a dozen" 95-99 speed HBs you find in every draft class and Doom would probably produce similar results. It seems like Charles' runs are more of a product of Doom playing to his o-line's strengths rather than Charles making plays himself. Just comparing Charles to my own HB Lynch...Lynch has 2000 less yards rushing (800 vs. 2800) but only 200 less yards after the 1st hit (300 vs. 500). After calculating this shiz...it appears a little over 36% of Lynch's yardage was after the first hit, while a tad below 18% of Charles' yardage was gained after the first hit. Yardage after the first hit is what can be attributed to the running back making plays himself rather than just simply speed or good blocking. Obviously you can't discount speed altogether since that is what Charles is all about, but I'm just saying that you could plug in any back with speed and I'm sure Doom could replicate his results (albeit with a few more fumbles in the mix since those HBs tend to have poor carry ratings).
Okay, onto Ray Lewis...the Ravens undoubtedly got to the playoffs riding on their defense. They were mediocre in offensive yardage per game (16th), but 3rd overall in total defensive yards allowed, 2nd in points allowed, 5th in pass yards allowed, and 9th in rush yards allowed. And Ray Lewis was obviously the leader on this defense, registering the most tackles, the most interceptions, and the most forced fumbles among his team. Sure there were better defenses than mine out there, but I can assure you none of them had a standout leader on them like Ray Lewis. Those teams got contributions from all over the field from various players.....Ray Lewis did it all though (aside from pass rush...). You could argue that I'd be able to put up similar production with another MLB...which may be true in regards to my interception total (since he only has a 50 catch rating), but definitely not tackles and FF. Defenders would most likely break a ton more tackles and hold onto more balls if not for Lewis' 94 tackling and 98 hit power.
Well that's all I have for now...I probably spent WAY too much time campaigning for this relatively meaningless award anyways!! No offense to Doom...obviously everyone loves these awards at the end of the season, but it's not like anyone has anything to show for it...you just announce the winners and we all move on with our lives afterwards.
widow n his comment on ur baseball skills...u were like pedro on the dbacks...or should I say danny almonte lol.[/QUOTE]
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