September 11, 2014
Barr and the Boys: It’s Time to Get Excited About the Vikings Defense
Minnesota’s defense has been a generous bunch in recent years. It was 27th in DVOA a year ago, including its second bottom-three finish against the pass in the past three seasons. That’s what Mike Zimmer was brought in to change.
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Boxing Relevance Report: Fighters We Love to Hate
With Saturday’s rematch between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana nearly upon us, we look at fighters for whom it pays to be the bad guy.
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June Jones’s Retirement, and the Lasting Influence and Likely End of the Run-and-Shoot Offense
In a world where NFL teams use three or more receivers and the shotgun on a majority of snaps, and college offenses are dominated by spread-based attacks, you don’t need to look far to see the run-and-shoot’s influence.
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Iron Men: Quantifying the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Remarkable Injury Edge
After floundering earlier this season, the Pirates are now back in the thick of the NL wild-card race thanks to remarkable teamwide health. Have they stumbled upon a secret the rest of the baseball world has yet to uncover?
Read moreSeptember 10, 2014
How New Schemes and New Teams Are Changing Our Perception of Elite Cornerbacks
Despite the rise of sabermetrics, it is still difficult to quantify a position that involves literally trying to prevent numbers from being accumulated, so how can we be confident that the NFL’s best cornerbacks are elite independent of their defensive schemes? For a start, we can look at how four cornerbacks who changed teams performed in Week 1.
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The Grantland NFL Podcast: Titans, Saints, and Week 2 Fantasy Implications
With Week 1 in the books, Bill Barnwell and Robert Mays adopt the Titans, worry about the Saints, and get to the fantasy implications of Sunday’s action.
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Hazy Forecast: What’s to Come for Oregon State and the Pac-12 North
This preseason, the Pac-12 North looked like a loaded force. Now, it looks like Oregon and a bunch of also-rans. Can the little brothers from Corvallis get it together quickly enough to compete?
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Q&A: Cardinals GM Steve Keim on First-Round Quarterbacks, Scouting Mistakes, and Running an NFL Franchise
In his first year in charge, there was an argument for Keim as the best general manager in football. He grabbed Tyrann Mathieu in the third round before selecting Andre Ellington in the sixth. His debut free-agent class yielded Karlos Dansby (went to the Pro Bowl) and John Abraham (put up double-digit sacks). Under Keim and first-year coach Bruce Arians, the Cardinals won 10 games and just missed out on the playoffs.
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A Clockwork Oakland: What the Heck Happened to the Once Great A’s?
Six weeks ago, the A’s looked like prohibitive World Series favorites. Now, they’ll be lucky to make the playoffs. You can blame the Yoenis Cespedes trade if you want. But you’d be wrong.
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Team USA Is Here to Save the Day
It’s only Tuesday, but it’s already been a pretty miserable week in sports. But you know one thing that helps keep me going in times of distress? Team USA.
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Heisman Watch: A Man, a Myth, a Miracle, AMEER ABDULLAH!
A good Heisman Trophy campaign includes all the trappings of a heated election: retrospectively hilarious bumper stickers, ridiculous taglines, and highly regional voting patterns. As such, it’s time to treat the race for the stiff-arm trophy like the overtly political enterprise that it is. So instead of running down the top candidates in traditional 1-10 fashion, I’ll compile a category-driven, semi-comprehensive guide to the race at large each week. My lists are bound to feature way too many quarterbacks and a regrettable paucity of kickers, but remember: I don’t make the rules! Here’s where things stand after Week 2.
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Who’s That Guy? New Buffalo Bills Owner Terry Pegula!
As of Tuesday, Terry Pegula is the next owner of the Buffalo Bills. You might not have heard of him before, so here is anything and everything you need to know about the current owner of the Buffalo Sabres.
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No Steals for You: How Kansas City’s Yordano Ventura Became the King of Controlling the Running Game
Diminutive Royals hurler Yordano Ventura hasn’t allowed a stolen base attempt since joining the majors last season. How has he done it? And how does his streak stack up historically?
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