Ice triumph over Sioux Falls

The Ice beat the Sioux Falls Stampede 2-1 tonight to start the first half of their road trip out west in a good way. John Kemp and Paul Carey both scored for the Ice while goalie Matt Hoyle had 40 saves and only allowed one goal.

The Ice will finish their road trip tomorrow night in Sioux City, Iowa against the Sioux City Musketeers.

Pacers vs Raptors Summary

The Indiana Pacers surprised everyone tonight, snapping their three game losing streak with a big win over the Toronto Raptors. Chris Bosh leaving the game after only 9 minutes of play certainly didn't help the Raptors any, but that doesn't change the fact that the Pacers played good team basketball.

Personally, I thought the Pacers were going to struggle tonight against the Raptors. I did also think Marquis Daniels was going to be out with a sore back, but he did end up playing and contributed 12 points. 'Super' Rush played 41 of the 48 minutes and had 23 points and 9 total rebounds. Rush did shoot 10 three pointers like I said he must, and he made 4 of them. The star of tonights game though, was Mike Dunleavy. Dunleavy had 36 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists on 38 minutes of play. He was 11-19 from the field including 6-9 on three pointers.

The Pacers had six of their nine players score in double digits tonight, showing they were playing good team basketball. If the Pacers are going to win, sharing the ball, finding the open man, and making the open shot is what they have to do. They did miss a lot of open three's, but what NBA team doesn't?

The Pacers have an off day tomorrow, then return home on Sunday to play the 22-36 Milwaukee Bucks.

Is Dallas Clark worth 6 years and $36 million to the Colts?

I know it's been over a week now since Dallas Clark signed the contract that made him the richest TE in the league. It's a 6 year $36 million contract that pays him $27 million over the first three years and could include an extra $5 million in incentives. It's great that we get to keep Clark on the team as he's obviously a favorite receiver for Peyton Manning, but at what point do we stop paying good players more than any other player in the league? What makes Dallas Clark so irreplaceable in our system, especially when the stats show he's not too far of an upgrade above Ben Utecht who is also a free agent, but could be kept for much less? What makes Dallas Clark different than Marcus Pollard (remember him?) Well I'm going to break down Clark's stats over the last two years and compare him to our other receivers and tight ends, then compare his stats and contract to those of other tight ends in the league. I'll finish with my opinion on this subject and let you come to your own conclusion based on my research or research you do on your own.

First, let's go back to 2006. This was a 'normal' Colts season with Harrison and Wayne playing all 16 games without being injured. Harrison had 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns while Wayne had 1,310 yards and 9 touchdowns of his own. The leading receiving TE that year? Ben Utecht, with 377 yards to Dallas Clark's 367. Of course, Utecht did play 15 games to Clark's 12, and had 37 receptions to Clark's 30, but Utecht was was the third leading receiver in terms of yardage for the 2006 season. Fletcher, Manning's third tight end option, ended up with 202 yards and two touchdowns in 15 games. Let's compare their stats for the 2006 season a little more closely:

Ben Utecht: 37 receptions, 377 yards, 10.2 yards per reception, 25.1 yards per game, averaged 5 yards after the catch, had 18 1st downs but did not have any touchdowns.

Bryan Fletcher: 18 receptions, 202 yards, 11.2 yards per reception, 13.5 yards per game, averaged 4.8 yards after the catch, had 12 first downs and 2 touchdowns.

Dallas Clark: 30 receptions, 367 yards, 12.2 yards per reception, 30.6 yards per game, averaged 4.6 yards after the catch, had 22 first downs, and had 4 touchdowns.

Dallas Clark, even though he missed 4 games, had 4 of Manning's 31 touchdowns that season. Utecht, whose receiving stats were similar even with less receptions per game than Clark, was unable to score in 2006 even while averaging more yards after the catch. Fletcher's stats, on a much lower amount of receptions, are closer to Clark's than even Utecht's were in terms of yards per reception and yards after the catch. He even had 2 touchdowns to Clark's 4. What if Fletcher and Utecht had Clark's 30 receptions to play with at their current averages in terms of yards per reception and the number of first downs they earned?

What if...

Utecht (what if...): 15 games, 581 yards, 38.76 yards per game, and 31 1st downs.

Fletcher (what if...): 15 games, 312 yards, 20.8 yards per game, and 21 1st downs.

I'm basing the above stats on the assumption that Clark's 30 receptions were due to designed plays or breakdowns in the defense that Utecht or Fletcher would have also been able to take advantage of. I'd also be willing to throw in Clark's touchdowns to either Utecht or Fletcher based on those same assumptions. What do we give up in terms of yardage based on these assumptions? 53 yards. Doesn't seem too bad to me (once again, based on my own assumptions.)

Let's fast forward to 2007... which was an above-average year for Dallas Clark. With Harrison out for 11 games and often being able to line up in Harrison's abandoned position on the field, Clark took advantage of the loss of both Harrison and Stokley (who was replaced by the rookie Gonzalez) to move up to second on the team in receiving yards and first on the team (and NFL tight ends) in touchdowns. Let's look at the stats for all of the Colts' tight ends for 2007:

Clark: 58 receptions, 616 yards, 41.1 yards per game, averaged 3.8 yards after the catch, had 37 1st downs, and 11 touchdowns.

Utecht: 31 receptions, 374 yards, 26 yards per game, 11.7 yards per catch, averaged 5.6 yards after the catch, had 20 1st downs, and 1 touchdown.

Fletcher: 18 receptions, 143 yards, 9.5 yards per game, 7.9 yards per catch, averaged 2.7 yards after the catch, had 10 1st downs, and 0 touchdowns.

With nearly the same amount of receptions, Fletcher's stats went down noticeably while Utecht remained consistent with his previous year's numbers while adding a touchdown. Clark's 616 yards weren't enough to match Wayne's yards from the previous year when Wayne was second on the team in yardage which is one of the reasons why the team averaged 80 less receiving yards per game.

So with such a great season by Clark, who lead EVERY NFL tight end in touch downs, he must have been a shoe-in for the Pro Bowl, right? Second leading receiver for the 13-3 Colts, led the team in touchdowns? Well, let's see how he and the $6 million a year he earned compared to other tight ends this year:

Antonio Gates: $4 million, 75 receptions, 984 yards, 54 1st downs, and 9 touchdowns

Tony Gonzalez: $4 million, 99 receptions, 1,172 yards, 59 1st downs, and 5 touchdowns

Jason Witten: $4.8 million, 96 receptions, 1,145 yards, 56 1st downs, and 7 touchdowns

Chris Cooley: $5 million, 66 receptions, 786 yards, 46 1st downs, 8 touchdowns

Kellen Winslow: $4.5 million, 82 receptions, 1,106 yards, 56 1st downs, 5 touchdowns

Heath Miller: $1.4 million, 47 receptions, 566 yards, 32 1st downs, 7 touchdowns

The only player on that list you can legitimately say had a worst year than Dallas Clark was Heath Miller, and his stats were very close in both yardage and touchdowns to Clark's. So why are we paying Clark almost four times as much as Heath Miller is being paid for almost the same stats? And in a year when Clark's stats were distorted because of the lack of a veteran true wide receiver to backup Marvin Harrison?

With Harrison coming back next year at full strength and with the Colts most likely picking Harrison's replacement in this year's draft or the next, why would we pay Dallas Clark more money than any other tight end in the league when we have Ben Utecht as a more than suitable replacement that would demand much less money? The Colts' philosophy in the past has been to put the most emphasis on drafting well and signing released or undrafted rookies to bring into our system and then replace veterans going into free agency with these players. Players like Peyton Manning, Bob Sanders, and Dwight Freeney have shown that they are far and away much better at their position than anyone else on the team and therefore deserve the contracts that they received (and even I think Dwight Freeney's contract may have been pushing it.) So why Dallas Clark? Maybe it's because he tied with Braylon Edwards last year for most dropped passes in the NFL among all wide receivers. Maybe it's because Manning, for some strange reason, trusts Clark over the other tight ends even though they've proven they can produce the same numbers as him in an average year.

So what's my opinion? By now I think it's pretty clear that I think Clark is being overpaid and the Colts made a mistake by signing him to 6 more years. He is getting paid more than tight ends that out-produce him year after year and he's eating up cap room that we could use to bring in both his replacements and replacements for Harrison and other aging players. Am I glad he's on the team? Yes. Will I cheer for him to be successful? Yes, just like I do every Colts player. Do I think he's worth 6 years, $36 million? No, not even close.

Sources:

iWon
Yahoo! Sports
Rotoworld

Pacers vs. Toronto Preview

The Pacers (22-36) head to Toronto tonight to play the Toronto Raptors. (32-24) The Pacers will be without five different players as O'neal and Tinsley are still injured, Granger is suspended for striking a Bulls player, Marquis Daniels has a sore back, and Shawne Williams was left home for his personal issues. What does that tell us? Super Rush is in the starting lineup!

Kareem 'Super' Rush will look to point the Pacers in the right direction tonight as he will be starting at shooting guard. In the last meeting with the Raptors on Feb. 25, Rush scored 13 points in 38 minutes of playing time. He went 5-11 from the field including 3-6 from three.

The Raptors seem to be running in stride as they have won 4 of their last 6 games and 4 in a row at home. Since the All-Star game Chris Bosh has been averaging 26.4 points and showing that video of his wasn't the only reason he was voted onto the team.

Key to the Game:
The key to tonights game is Ike Diogu, Andre Ownes, Stephen Graham, and David Harrison. Those 4 guys are the players coming off of the bench tonight. In the last game against the Raptors, David Harrison was the only one of those four who played and only played for 5 minutes. The only way the Pacers win tonight is if Super Rush plays every minute of the whole game and shoots at least 10 3's.
Go Pacers!

Pacers head up north; leave Williams behind to hang out with murderers

Indy Star Sports

This is a great idea! You have a player who lets people of questionable morals into his home (and has to leave games at halftime because of it) so when you head up to Toronto to play the Raptors, you leave him behind. I understand thinking that he might need to deal with certain issues, but did the police even charge him with anything? One thing we've learned is that certain types of people of a certain type of character don't change just because they are caught doing something wrong or are punished by their bosses. The Pacers need to decide right now if they are going to play these types of players for the rest of the season, or put them on the bench and bring in NBDL players.

Colts dump Booger and Morris so they can show Clark the money

Colts.com

I'll go into this deeper tomorrow in terms of the production these two guys had while healthy compared to Dallas Clark, as well as comparing Dallas Clark's production to that of the other tight ends like Fletcher and Utecht (who are also up for new contracts.)

My first reaction? Business as usual for the Colts. Cut a guy who has been hurt or under-performing while taking up too much cap room, and replace him with someone who is still on their first contract. We'll see how I feel tomorrow when I actually sit down and look at the numbers.