Best In The Business; Larry Fitzgerald

I think its official now. Larry Fitzgerald is the best in the world at his profession

Playoff version of Fitz is a monster. His playoff performances didn't just tell us hes a big game player, they screamed it.  His 419 yards are the most ever in a single postseason already, and he has a Superbowl to play. The way he has done it is just as impressive as the raw numbers. You can't cover him on a fade at the goal line, he is ripping down any ball up for grabs, downfield home runs, and even running with bad intentions with the ball in his hands. 

What really makes him great? Greatness for a receiver requires more than just being big and fast, and Fitz can pretty much do it all. But the secret to Fitz, and what he really has more of than anyone else is body control. His insane body control allows him to catch balls in any position whether its jumping, falling, twisting, diving, etc. Its also what allows Fitz to adjust to poorly thrown balls, get it at its highest point, keep his balance, get feet down in bounds, get position on the db, and more. Its the body control that makes Larry a pass catching genius.

The thing that Im not used to is the physicality after the catch I've been seeing from Fitzgerald. Not that Fitz has ever been soft, but it took Richie pointing it out for me to know why. With Boldin hurt and less effective, Fitz has been going over the middle more. Usually Boldin is running amok underneath, but it was cool to see Fitz lowering the dreads to deliver a pop, then churning the legs, and bucking like a bronco while hes trying to get to that invisible yellow line. 

The bloggers were with some friends watching the Ravens/Steelers game afterward, and early on someone goes up for a ball in traffic but didn't come down with it. Williams says. "It almost sucks watching Fitz the game before this because I expect these guys to come down with balls like that. I forget that they aren't mega machines like Fitz". And it was really true. The rest of these guys are only human. For the rest of the game we dropped about 19 more "Fitz woulda had it" references.

Kurt Warner and his high flying Christian Army just beat a good defense in Carolina and a very good defense in Philadelphia, but can they now beat a great defense in Pittsburgh? Fitz made Ken Lucas and Asante Samuel look like Earthwind Moreland and Duane Starks, so if AZ can protect Warner (Pitt only had 3 more sacks than Philly this yr) then Fitz might do more of the same. Especially if Polamalu is roaming underneath attempting to shut down a rested Boldin and his Centaurian lower body. We'll see.

Eary line: Pittsburg -7 with an o/u of 47

-J. Wolfe

Paying Homage: Kurt Warner

Im not going to rip off a thousand word column like I've been guilty of lately. Actually in general I am going to try to save the long posts for articles, not blogs. 

I do want to give homage to my boy Kurt Warner today.  In fantasy football I drafted Leinart very late and then picked up Warner off waivers and planned on playing whoever won the starting job but I was rooting for Warner. I came up with the strategy because I looked at how Warner had a better 2nd half of 2007 than Tom Brady. Plus that AZ system was going to get 4000 through the air with 30 td's.

So what happened? Warner was in the MVP debate this year after throwing for 4583 yards with 30TD's and the highest qb rating since he posted with the 2001 Rams and third in the NFL this season (ahead of Brees, Peyton). He carried my fantasy team to a 2nd place finish. And if it didn't snow in Foxboro in week 15, it might have been a first place finish. But this wasn't meant to be about fantasy, it was meant to be about how under appreciated Warner has been throughout his career.

I knew the majority of these stats anyway but I was reminded of them when I was reading an article on espn today. Warner has always posted good QB ratings but people have still thought of him as a stopgap in NY and AZ. A lot of people forget he even played for the Giants. Well how about the fact that the passer rating Warner posted in his one year in NY is higher than any rating Eli has posted since. 

So Warner had the third highest career QB rating in the NFL this year right? Well he also has the third highest career QB rating in the history of the game. 28,591 yards? 65.4 career completion percentage (2nd all time)? A superbowl ring, a superbowl MVP, 2 time NFL MVP, 4 pro bowls?

I think Warner is a hall of famer, no joke. He wins one or two more games this postseason and Canton is an absolute lock. Plus it would take a few more paragraphs to explain how charitable of a man he is. Heres to you Kurt, good luck Sunday my angel in shoulder pads...

-Wolfie