UFC in Need of Rule Changes

The last two UFC main events have ended on judge’s scorecards and the decisions were controversial. Last night at UFC 105, Randy Couture beat Brandon Vera by unanimous decision and at UFC 104 Lyoto Machida defended his light heavyweight belt with a unanimous decision  over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. To many fans at home these looked the wrong decisions.

Last night, Couture controlled the pace of the fight well throughout, but Vera appeared to do more damage than Couture did throughout the fight.  At one point Vera rocked Couture with a strike, Couture fell to the ground and turned his back as if retreating. Watching from home it appeared that Couture won the first round, Vera won the second, and Vera won the third.  Both the second and third rounds were close but Vera got the lone takedown of the night in the third round. Couture’s win was not as much of a surprise as the unanimous decision.  The fact that Couture retreated from combat  and yet still won does not sit well.

The title fight in UFC 104 was rather uneventful, with not much happening in the five rounds.  No fighter appeared to have a distinct advantage on the scorecards. Rua attacked, while Machida was content to defend and never really pressed much of an offense.  It could be argued that Machida showed better technique, but he showed less fighting all around.

UFC President Dana White cannot be happy with the way his last two Main Events have gone.  White has clashed with fighters he thought did not bring enough a show to Octagon.  He took more than a few shots at former heavyweight champion Tim Slyvia, who he thought was too timid in his title defenses. For fights to end the way White wants them to, there might have to be a change to the rules.

Right now the UFC uses the Unified Rules for Mixed Martial Arts. This rule set is a 10-Point Must System were the winner of a round is awarded ten points and the loser is awarded nine or less.  The points are awarded based on “effective striking, effective grappling, control of the fighting area, effective aggressiveness and defense. ” That kind of rule set works fine if there is a consistent pace of action. But there does not seem to be enough incentive for all the fighters to push the pace. A belt-holder knows that they can hang back; there may be more of a risk in losing the belt by engaging the opponent.

There is a thought that you have to take the belt away from a champion and that a veteran will receive a more favorable decision than an up-and-comer. While those sentiments make sense, they are not fair and they do not always make for good fights.  The UFC needs to modify the rules to fit the style of fights the fans want. There needs to be points deducted from a fighter who does not engage or retreats during a fight (Timidity is a foul but that does not seem to cover plain tentativeness).  Punishing fighters who retreated or refused to meaningfully engage would force the action of a fight to continue and turn snooze fests like Rua vs. Machida into actual entertainment.

The NHL and the NFL made changes in recent years to increase the offense in their games. While some purists complain about the bastardization of hockey and football most fans are happier than ever with those sports. If Dana White wants the UFC to continue to grow he needs to make sure the fight by decisions we have been seeing recently stop happening.

Episode 19 – 2009 NFL Midseason Review

Michael fills in for David as host as the crew discusses the biggest NFL surprises and disappointments this season, Redskins mid-season grades, whether or not Dan Synder is a bad person, and the Wizards first few games

Episode 19 - Left-click to play, Right click to save

 

Update:

We had a problem with the audio-sync, just fixed it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Is Gibbs III a Good Idea?

The hot rumor of the day is that Joe Gibbs could be back to try and bail out the amazingly more dysfunctional every day Washington Redskins.  Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk at www.profootballtalk.nbcsports.com is reporting that there may be a third coming of Gibbs to the Skins organization.

This would not be a third head coaching stint, however.  Dan Snyder would bring Joe Gibbs back to assist in bringing in a GM and the next coach.  This is just a rumor at this point, so let’s examine the pro’s and con’s of this possibility.

Gibbs III would be a bad idea because…

• There were mixed results when Gibbs shared a joint role with Cerrato, Snyder as a Team President role. Adam Archuleta and Brandon Lloyd are just two of the misjudged people brought in to help the Washington Redskins during Joe Gibbs’ watch.  Those two players alone set the Skins back in dead cap money, roster spots and potential development of other players.
• Would Gibbs have the time and will necessary to really turn this organization around in the long run. As screwed up as the Redskins are, there is a potential that this is going to get worse even next year.  The Skins need a major overhaul of the structure from which this organization operates.  Gibbs has a ministry he’s in charge of, he has a racing team, and a host of other things down in North Carolina.  For that reason, Jason Reid says that a source close to Gibbs thinks it’s unlikely that it will happen.  He’s just too busy.
• Joe Gibbs worked very closely with Cerrato and Dan Snyder when he came back, is he willing to make the wholesale changes to the front office that it seems like the Skins need? There’s a reason that Dan Snyder and Joe Gibbs still stay in touch beyond the fact Gibbs was the last coach here.  How many of the ex-coaches under Snyder’s tenure does he still have some kind of a relationship with?  Does that tell us something?  Is Gibbs strong enough to finally put a “real” General Manager with real power in charge?  If they are close friends is he going to actually be able to keep Snyder out of the kitchen?
• Does Gibbs still have the contacts after being out of the league for the past few years to accurately assess who should be here for the job?
• Will fans dismiss this as a simple public relations move without substance and be even angrier with Snyder and the front office?

Gibbs III is a good idea because…

• Gibbs is the only remaining link with the former success of the Redskins that has any ties to the organization. Gibbs knows what this heap of a mess used to look like when it was a championship winning team.  He knows what it should look like unlike the garbled mess that has been created by current management.
• He had some success in personnel while he was here. Cooley, Moss, and Portis were brought in during Gibbs’ tenure.  These were major additions to this team and have been some of the only bright spots during the Skins past few seasons.
• There is no one above Gibbs, not even Snyder. When Gibbs stepped back onto the scene Snyder stepped back.  It was amazing to see.  Gibbs has the respect of the owner and experience to back it up.  With any other person hired by Snyder comes along the possibility that it becomes a situation that we are currently dealing with.  Where someone is brought in but has no real authority to make things happen or staying power to weather the hard times (where real character and experience comes from).
• There’s no way on God’s green earth Gibbs would keep Vinny, right? Could anyone?  This, and point #3 are probably the biggest things to hope for if Gibbs were to come back as a more hands-on consultant.  The real problem has been picking, keeping and signing talent.  The real problem has been not having a clear long term direction to take this franchise.

My Thoughts

I know there is a sentiment among Skins fans that Gibbs II was a complete failure.  I understand but disagree.  One of the things that I enjoyed most about it was that there was a coach who I knew I could trust was doing everything he knew how to fix things, was given the authority to do so and had the experience and character to back it up.

Jim Zorn could have eventually turned out to be a great coach here.  Unfortunately he was not given anywhere near the respect or authority Gibbs was on his return.  Zorn has been humiliated and dishonored here, as has our franchise’s once proud reputation.  Gibbs has a chance to bring stability back to Washington by setting up a map for the future and if there is anyone that could persuade Snyder, it would be him.

Your Thoughts

Do you think a Gibbs return would put this franchise in a better or worse situation for the future?

Other Links

Dan Steinberg sums up some of the latest analyst chatter about the Skins and our possible open head coach position.

Washington Post writers Jason Reid and Rick Maese say that Jim Zorn considered walking after the “suggestion” of giving up offensive play calling decisions.

If you haven’t read this piece Mike Wise wrote on John Kent Cooke, read it.  Now.

Episode 18 – The End of the Redskins World Podcast

The whole crew returns for the latest podcast. David, Matt, and Mark discuss the worst game of all time, Jason Campbell’s benching, Jim Zorn’s demotion, the Burgundy Revolution and Black Sunday, and give their opinions on what the Skins should do next.

Episode 18 – Left click to play, Right Click to download

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The worst game of all time

So yesterday, I had the joy of going to the Redskins game. I was excited, I had received the tickets as a birthday gift. I know it has not been the greatest season, but they were playing the Chiefs. I mean the Chiefs. Surely, they can’t lose to both the Lions and the Chiefs in the same year right?

This was the third game I have been to in the last four years, going to about one a year. I have to say that this game was disappointing on so many levels. The forecast was calling for rain, but it was clear all day. We didn’t get loss or stuck in traffic on the way to the stadium. We made pretty good time in fact.

The disappointment was  to come. The Stadium was not full at all by kickoff. It looked to be a quarter empty, possibly more. The crowd never got loud on Defense. Some fans would try, but most fans just sat there. Well, sat there and complained and heckled both the Chiefs and the Redskins. The other times I have been to the stadium the visiting offense had false starts or had to burn timeouts because of crowd noise. That was not a problem this time The crowd was almost as loud when the Chiefs were on D.

There was plenty of booing, both the Chiefs and the Redskins. Campbell was booed but so were other players. There was booing at the playcalls, particularly the ones at the end of the the first half. The loudest cheer was probably when Todd Collins entered the game. Which struck me as unfair; is it Campbell’s fault Stephon Heyer was falling down, committing false starts, and only giving Campbell one second to throw? And yeah Campbell overthrew Moss slightly, but Moss had his hands on it he should have caught it. Of course there are other receivers to pass to then Moss and he had to throw the ball away not scramble during a two-minute offense.

But there was plenty to boo about. I cannot recall a game in which the Skins played worse. There offense could get nothing done all day, except for two big plays. And after moving deep into Chiefs’ territory with those big plays they could not get it in the endzone. Special Teams was atrocious with a blocked punt and bad punt returns. The Defense played decent, but let’s be honest – the Chiefs’ receivers dropped plenty of passes. The Skins got in Cassel’s face a few times, and played good bend-but-don’t-break D. But everyone in the stadium wanted to see more aggressive D. There were constantly calls for “Pick 6″! Because the crowd knew the offense was not going to score.

By the time the Skins had ball backed up in their own endzone, down 12-6 with precious little time left in, most of the fans had left. Then Todd Collins was sacked for the saftey on the very first play of that drive. After that we, along with nearly everyone else, also left.

This was a huge disappointment to me on so many levels. The Skins went out there and proved that they are probably the worst team in football. They looked like they did not care, and there did not seem to be any hope for a turnaround any time soon. I have been a Skins fan since I was a kid, and I remember them being bad for many years. I do not remember them ever looking this hopeless, this much of a lost cause.

The Skins were not the only disappointment, the Skins fan were as well. People have every right to stay home from a bad game, to boo and heckle their team but its just sad when a home game does not mean an advantage. FedEx Field is one of the biggest and loudest stadiums in the NFL, and Redskins fans are among the most diehard. But you might have thought the Redskins came into the game losing and 2-4 the way the crowd reacted yesterday.

Obviously, a lot needs to be done to both improve the team and improve the fans’ mood. It looks so hopeless now, I do not really have any suggestions.Here’s hoping we have something to cheer about later this season.