The Incredible Mr. Luck?

by: Adam DC Thomas

There is a man in NFL football who is the greatest to ever walk on a field. A man that has every sport's analyst in the world salivating at his pure awesomeness. He dominates sports casts whenever he is being covered, nicknamed "the can't miss player of the century."

"You are healed by my high five!"

Who is he? His name is Andrew Luck, the pinnacle of 100 years of organized football culminating in this man seemingly the sum of every great quarterback to ever throw a pigskin, spawned from the Gods themselves.

"Though you have been raised a human Andrew, you are not one of them."

 If you clicked on this post to bask in the glory of him, and get your morning man crush of "Andrew Luck fixings" please go away, you are annoying. No, instead of praise I'm going to analyze Andrew Luck's main fault because obviously....NO ONE does.

A room full of Andrew Luck's critics.

 No, every thing that he does wrong is somehow justified by the media in ways unfathomable. If his team doesn't win it's because of his supporting cast. If he throws an incompletion it's the receivers fault. If he throws an interception its because his coaches called a bad play. If he has any sort of horrible play that was totally his fault, and there is no one else to blame, the commentators will acknowledge what a great sport he is. But, I'm not surprised at all because this is the whole story with the guy.  In the past few days I've actually been hearing that Andrew Luck is a Hall of Famer at a rate consistent with that of Chicken Little.

 HALL OF FAMER!! HALL OF FAMER!!

This is actually the main problem with sports media, they are to in the moment. This is a second-year player and already he's a Hall of Famer? Let's just all calm down before this turns into last year's Lakers championship team coverage.

2012-13 Lakers Championship Trophy

The media is very temperamental and as such jumps to the conclusions. But that's another story.

First off I'm going to tell you why Andrew Luck is a good player. For one the guy is very clutch and is a top choice if you are looking for a comeback out of a quarterback. He get's a lot of passing yards and isn't a bad runner either. He has an above average quarterback rating and has turned around a Colts team that was absolutely horrendous the year before. He's a big guy that can take hits and is incredibly sound in all of his techniques. Don't get me wrong I think Andrew Luck is an above average quarterback but not nearly as great as the hype he gets. Watch a Colts game and tell me if anyone is as good as the hype he gets literally every other sentence is about him. 

"You'd be talking about him too if that Greek God stood in your presence."

Although there is alot to criticize in the second coming of "The Golden Boy" I'm only going to use one stat that is the most troublesome for Andrew Luck and separates him from every quarterback who doesn't play for the Jets. 

Turnovers 

32, Do you know what that number represents when referring to Andrew Luck? Touchdowns, broken tackles, number of children saved? No that represents the amount of turnovers Andrew Luck has committed in....wait for it....22 games. But wait surely his touchdowns make up for that number! Not really, I'll be generous and give him his rushing touchdowns and that adds up to 37...Yep pretty much for every touchdown Andrew Luck scores he turns the ball over to match it. Pretty Elite huh especially when I give you this stat, Andrew Luck led the league in dropped interceptions against with 14 last year. I'm not even going to add that to the total possible because it's rather depressing that everyone's favorite quarterback is literally a turnover machine on a level only Mark Sanchez reaches. 

So who want's to argue with me now on it? Lets have a discussion in the comments or over email. I always love to debate these kinds of things. So all you Andrew Luck lovers lets go. Have a good week everyone.

The Number One Question

by: Josh Cottrell

My oldest brother and I always argue with each other, what is the best type of offense in college football right now.  These conversations often get heated because he is an old school power I offense lover.  I have played more recently than him and enjoy the spread offense because that is what I normally played against in high school.

To make this argument a little more generalized to a wider public audience, which offense do you think is better Alabama or Oregon?

Alabama has been a strong nationally ranked team for the past few years with back to back national championships, and from the way they are playing right now they will probably be in the national championship game again this year.  When I think of an old school power I offensive team I think of Alabama.  They normally run inside the tackles and have strong, powerful runners.  My roommates and I are often joking around that this is the strong way to play football, which I can agree with but it isn’t as exciting.  There aren’t as many points scored or big plays made.  

Oregon is a team that has recently made a name for themselves with their fast pace offense and flashy uniforms.  Oregon can go basically the whole field in less than a minute and it is amazing to watch.  They run a spread offense that is hard to defend, because they use the whole field and it keeps the defense guessing what is coming next.

Football, like every great thing, gets better over time.  I think that most teams are switching to a spread offense because you can better use the field.  It is an offense that is harder to cover because you can’t rush as many people.  You are forcing teams to throw another safety in to take away the deep threat or the big play opportunity.  The game seems more up paced and fun to watch.

When I watch Alabama play I am reminded of how the game was played back in the “Boston Game,” one of the first games played in the United States.  This works for them and you can’t fight against the way Alabama plays their game, because they are good.  But like many things in nature, you either evolve or you die.

We have added a few writers and are still looking to expand if you have passion about sports, join the team, email me at thomas.adam499@gmail.com

Chris McConnell's Week 5 CFB Predictions

 Week 5 College Football Picks:
Current record on the season: 70-11
Last week’s record: 19-1
Upset Specials: 3-4
Winning Percentage: 86%

No. 11 Oklahoma State at West Virginia - (Oklahoma State)

No. 12 South Carolina at UCF - (South Carolina)

No. 15 Miami at South Florida - (Miami)

No. 3 Clemson v.s. Wake Forest - (Clemson)

No. 14 Oklahoma at No. 22 Notre Dame - 

No. 1 Alabama v.s. No. 21 Ole Miss - (Alabama)

No. 10. Texas A&M at Arkansas - (Texas A&M)

No. 16 Washington v.s. Arizona - (Washington)

No. 20 Florida at Kentucky - (Florida)

No. 23 Wisconsin at No. 4 Ohio State - (Ohio State)

No. 5 Stanford at Washington State - (Stanford)

No. 2 Oregon v.s. California - (Oregon)

No. 25 Fresno State at Hawaii - (Fresno State)

LOCALS:

Georgia Tech v.s. Virginia Tech - (Georgia Tech)

No. 6 LSU at No. 9 Georgia - (LSU)

Agree? Disagree? Let us know.

Week 2 NFL Rankings (100 years of Movie Quotes)

Sorry for not getting the week one rankings let us know what you think this weeks ranking is accompanied by a quote from AFI's 100 years of movie quotes. See if you can figure out how each one relates to the team.

1. Denver Broncos-"Keep your family close, but your enemies closer."-The Godfather Part II

2. Seattle Seahawks-"There's no place like home." -The Wizard of Oz

3. Houston Texans-"Made it Ma, top of the world."-White Heat

4. San Francisco 49er's-"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."-The Wizard of Oz

5. New Orleans Saints- "You don't understand I coulda had class, I coulda been a contender, I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am."-On the Water front

6. Atlanta Falcons-"Well, Nobody's Perfect."-Some Like it Hot

7. Green Bay Packers-"I'll be back." -The Terminator

8. Chicago Bears-"Yo, Adrian!"-Rocky

9. Miami Dolphins-"You're gonna need a bigger boat."-Jaws

10. Kansas City Chiefs-"Cinderella story. outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the masters champion. It looks like a mirac...It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!-Caddyshack

11. New England Patriots-"Today I consider myself, the luckiest man, on the face of the Earth."-Pride of the Yankees

12. Philadelphia Eagles-"I feel the need, the need for speed."-Top Gun

13. San Diego Chargers-"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."-Forrest Gump

14. Cincinnati Bengals-"What a dump."

15. Dallas Cowboys-"Oh, no, It wasn't Airplanes, it was Beauty killed the Beast."-King Kong


Agree or disagree? Let us know below!

Chris McConnell's Week 4 CFB Predictions

This weeks top 25 predictions from Chris McConnell

No. 3 Clemson at North Carolina State - (Clemson)

No. 4 Ohio State v.s. Florida A&M - (Ohio State)

No. 7 Louisville v.s. Florida International - (Louisville)

No. 17 Washington v.s. Idaho State - (Washington)

No. 18 Northwestern v.s. Maine - (Northwestern)

No. 19 Florida v.s. Tennessee - (Florida)

No. 22 Notre Dame v.s. Michigan State - (Michigan State)**
**UPSET SPECIAL**

No. 24 Wisconsin v.s. Purdue - (Wisconsin)

No. 20 Baylor v.s. Louisiana-Monroe - (Baylor)

No. 8 Florida State v.s. Bethune-Cookman - (Florida State)

No. 1 Alabama v.s. Colorado State - (Alabama)

No. 23 Arizona State at No. 5 Stanford - (Stanford)

No. 10 Texas A&M v.s. Southern Methodist - (Texas A&M)

No. 16 Miami v.s. Savannah State - (Miami)

No. 25 Texas Tech v.s. Texas State - (Texas Tech)

No. 6 LSU v.s. Auburn - (LSU)

No. 15 Michigan at Connecticut - (Michigan)

No. 13 UCLA v.s. New Mexico State - (UCLA)

Agree or Disagree? Let us know.

Still looking for my writers for this blog email me if you are interested

thomas.adam499@gmail.com

The Debut

Greetings to all you travelers of the internet this is the maiden voyage of my new blog "The Challenge Flag." I have had this blog for almost two years but have never posted anything to it until now. This blog could go in plenty of different directions the main direction I hope is up. So far I'm not sure what this blog is going to be, I hope it is a place where we can all discuss (argue) sports.

What did you just say about Tebow?!

First things first I'm looking for writers who are interested in sports and would be willing to write rather regularly for this. I'm looking for people who can cover with accuracy NFL, NBA, MLB and possibly NHL.

What about MLS?

 

I personally will not be doing any soccer posts because I'm not a big fan. However, if there is someone out there reading this that feels they have a great opinion on the subject they are welcome to give it a shot. This is not going to be a place to get your sports updates from, rather to hear opinions on current topics inside sports. If you are interested in being a full time contributor to this blog, email me or write a comment down below. I'm hoping this works out we'll see what happens once this gets rolling. We'll start kicking out the posts here soon and see if we can get some views and interaction going on. Roll Tide.