Checking in on Mario (&, of course, Reggie Bush)

'06 Football Alums General NCS Football19

Mario

We might as well turn some attention to Mario Williams tonight while we are talking about the success of some other Wolfpackers in the NFL.

ESPN’s Seth Wickersham checked in on improving Mario Williams in his Insider Blog today. If you have ESPN Premium access then you will enjoy the detailed read that ends with the following summary:

I know one game isn’t indicative of the season, but there’s no doubt Mario has moments where he looks like the most dominant player on the field and others when he isn’t even a nuisance for the offense -­ a reflection of his NC State career, when he was benched for ineffectiveness. Considering the pressure he’s under amid the controversy surrounding his selection, pressure that he did nothing to earn, for his sake I hope his overpowering play develops into the norm.

At the beginning of this, ESPN was extremely critical of Super Mario. One of ‘their’ favorite tactics was to constantly compare Williams to the success that they were choosing to project onto future hall of famer (if you listen to idiots like Mike Ditka droll) , Reggie Bush. Everything was about Bush. One segment on NFL Live had the personalities criticizing Williams via a projection that Bush would undoubtedly score more touchdowns than Williams would have sacks.

Hmmm. How is that working out for them?

Well…we are finally experiencing some re-addressment of the Williams vs Bush conversations. Woof Woof shared with us:

ESPN did do a spot on TV today on Mario and Reggie. Praise for Mario’s increasingly good play. They also talked about Reggie being over rated as a pro back. It may have been on PTI, but I’m not sure. It was very positive on Mario and Reggie proving that the number one pick may not turn out so bad after all.

After eight games, Mario has a very respectable 4.5 sacks for the Houston Texans and Gale Sayers, Jr.’s only touchdown has come on a punt return! In fact, Bush has yet scored a touchdown from a play from scrimmage through half the season! Additionally, Reggie Bush:

* has generated only 526 total yards from scrimmage in 8 games.

* longest run from scrimmage is only 18 yards on his way to rushing for only 207 yards for a 2.6 yard per carry average.

* has caught an impressive 46 passes this year, but he has only produced a 6.8 yard per catch average on 312 total yards.

* Yesterday, Bush generated negative yardage on 11 carries!! ESPN made a comment (but didn’t clarify it very well) that it was the only time in x years that a back has carried for more than 10 times and ended a game with negative yardage! (Don’t know if that is a New Orleans’ Saints record on throughout the entire NFL).

Heck…forget Mario Williams for a moment and check out this comparison – the Saints last pick in this year’s NFL draft has generated 700 yards from scrimmage and scored 7 touchdowns strictly from a wide receiver position this year.

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'06 Football Alums General NCS Football

19 Responses to Checking in on Mario (&, of course, Reggie Bush)

  1. Woof Wolf 11/06/2006 at 8:33 PM #

    ESPN did do a spot on TV today on Mario and Reggie. Praise for Mario’s increasingly good play. They also talked about Reggie being over rated as a pro back. It may have been on PTI, but I’m not sure. It was very positive on Mario and Reggie proving that the number one pick may not turn out so bad after all.

  2. StateFans 11/06/2006 at 8:43 PM #

    ^ Thanks so much for sharing!! We are going to elevate your comments into the entry to make sure that we give proper credit!

    Your post indicates the “power of SFN’s network”! We can’t all be ‘in tune’ 24 hours a day. Thanks again

  3. ktpritch 11/06/2006 at 9:01 PM #

    Yep – PTI had a segment on how the Giants were upset that Mario mocked their jumpshot move (whatever) after sacking Manning on Sunday. He caught some flack for it in the postgame and responded by saying that he didn’t know that move was patented. After that, they both went on to give Williams props for his impact over the past few games and Kornheiser went on to say that people should get off his back about being the #1 pick as Mario obviously didn’t pick himself.

    It was a very complemtary piece…

  4. choppack1 11/06/2006 at 9:46 PM #

    I was actually watching Cold Pizza when they brought up Reggie Bush. They talked about his #s -or lack thereof. I sat there and smirked – it was as if Sunday, the light finally came on. Then, Bayless had the auditicty to mention that the NFL hyped up Bush too much. Nevermind that the NFL wasn’t hyping Bush nearly as much as ESPN has hyped him.

    That’s how these clowns work – almost half way thru the NFL season, they realize, hey, this guy is averaging less than 3 yards a carry, hasn’t scored a TD on offense and isn’t even the best rookie on his team. They’ll pile on now. And it’s a shame, on PTI a few weeks ago, they’d already annoited Bush the chosen one and Mario a bust. You’d think they’d learn to look before they leap or at least be embarassed how often they are wrong. Or maybe, instead of rushing to judgement – then and now, they’d realize that one game doesn’t make a season, and one season doesn’t make a career.

  5. vtpackfan 11/06/2006 at 11:04 PM #

    Watched a little of game and saw when Mario got flaged for unnecessary roughness while pushing Manning. It was atleast 5 yards in bounds, right as Eli threw the ball and suppossedly a foul because he extended both his hands towards the flayling QB. The NFL is still a cool sport, and this is a bit off topic since it’s not Mario specific, but is this game recognizale to the greats whose jerseys hang in Canton? Just play the game and forget the thousand ways to interpret roughness, more often than not its necessary since its football.

  6. Wolfpack4ever 11/07/2006 at 12:00 AM #

    ktpritch Says: “Yep – PTI had a segment on how the Giants were upset …After that, they both went on to give Williams props for his impact over the past few games and Kornheiser went on to say that people should get off his back about being the #1 pick as Mario obviously didn’t pick himself.

    It was a very complemtary piece…”

    It was both complementary and complinemtary.

  7. Andy 11/07/2006 at 12:14 AM #

    or even complimentary

  8. Wolfpack4ever 11/07/2006 at 1:09 AM #

    Andy, a smart-ass like myself gets hoisted on his own petard occasionally. (Petard: fr. pet – expulsion of intestinal gas) 😉

  9. packbackr04 11/07/2006 at 9:45 AM #

    mario and bush will both have good (too early to say great) NFL careers. These talking heads at ESPN dont have anything better to do but sit around and have huge circle jerks.

  10. Gene 11/07/2006 at 9:50 AM #

    The talking heads just ramble on and on to try and drum up ratings. They’ve been doing it for years. I remember when Green Bay drafted Tony Mandarich 2nd overall in 1989 and he was praised as someone who would redefine the OL position, while Barry Sanders pick as 3rd, that year, was criticized because he left school early, which was almost impossible to do back than and he was undersized and wouldn’t last as an every down back.

    Mario v. Reggie isn’t anything new. It’s just louder, given all the different 24 hour sports channels on these days.

  11. Mr O 11/07/2006 at 9:58 AM #

    http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2006/11/post_3.html

    Williams is coming off one of his best games of the season. He came alive for a few moments in the second quarter Sunday at the Meadowlands and showed he’s capable of dominating a game. Meanwhile, Bush and Williams were terrible on Sunday. One other big difference is that Bush is playing on a winning team. At the end of the day, that’s the No. 1 statistic. One of my favorite features is the post-season analysis of the previous draft by Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. He goes back and predicts how the draft should have gone instead of how it did go, factoring in the first-year contributions of the first-round picks. If the Texans had this draft to do over, they might not change anything.

  12. ktpritch 11/07/2006 at 10:03 AM #

    Well – remind me to spellcheck next time.

  13. Packaholic1 11/07/2006 at 10:10 AM #

    “Or maybe, instead of rushing to judgement – then and now, they’d realize that one game doesn’t make a season, and one season doesn’t make a career.”

    Does this extend to everyone, or only to Bush and Mario?

  14. GoldenChain 11/07/2006 at 10:39 AM #

    Interesting.
    I’ve tracked Bush all season just to see if he was in fact the next Walter Peyton.
    Bush had his best game of the season …….. in the 1st week, it’s been downhill since then, especially the last 5 games.
    In the last 5 games:
    game 4: 11 = 22yds
    game 5: 9 = 23yds
    game 6: 11 = 26yds
    game 7: 5 = 16yds
    game 8: 11 = -5yds
    And before you tell me its the O line, that same O line is helping Brees average what, 350yds/gm passing without any sacks?

    In other news, Mario has had a sack in each of the last 3 games.

  15. Texpack 11/07/2006 at 12:18 PM #

    This quote is worth more in my mind than one from the talking heads. I also have to agree about the roughing penalty on Ellie Mae Manning. It was bogus. The Giants were forced to double team Mario for a large portion of the game on Sunday. Even some of the local (Houston) Bush lovers are getting a little bit quieter as the season progresses.

    Giants offensive tackle Bob Whitfield, a 15-year veteran and former first-round pick by Atlanta, had this to say about Mario Williams: “The son of a gun is almost inhuman out there for how big and thick and solid he is. And I caught it firsthand because I said to myself, `Don’t give the young kid a sack.’ But I don’t call it a sack when he actually dislocates your whole left side of your body when he hit me. It was almost like he needed to have a penalty for tearing up an old man. I actually told him, `Slow it down, young fellow.’ He’s strong. He’s big. He’s got it. He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

  16. gumbydammit 11/07/2006 at 11:14 PM #

    When will people wake up and realize that there is nothing more stupid or more irrelevant than a sports pundit.

    As to Mario getting a penalty for roughing Eli, well, it’s just not right to beat up on girls, now is it?

  17. cfpack03 11/09/2006 at 10:19 AM #

    Speaking of ESPN, its nice to see someone FINALLY standing up to the bully
    http://story.scout.com/a.z?s=336&p=2&c=587754

  18. redfred2 11/09/2006 at 11:51 AM #

    ^Good story!

    Boise State’s AD, putting the interest of the Bronco fans themselves, above that of the media.

    Strange.

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