The Haphazard Blog

Right off the bat, I had to deal with NFL Sunday Ticket annoyances. If a game is scheduled to air on your local station, DirecTV blacks out the NFL Sunday Ticket broadcast. It really sucks when:

1. The early game you want to watch is on local TV and turns out to be a blowout. The local channel switches to another game and it’s also blacked out. It will take almost a whole quarter before DirecTV lifts the blackout.
2. The late game you want to watch is on local TV and another game they want to air to completion goes over. I’ve never seen them lift the black out in this case, you have to wait until the local station shows the game.
3. The late game you want to watch is on local TV and the team in/near your market goes over. If it goes to OT, they will usually lift the black out until half time, but not until a fair amount of the game has already been played.

So today, I was stuck with scenario #2. By the time they joined the game, there was 10:30 left in the 1^st quarter and there were already 2 possessions. What’s the point of getting “all the games” when this routinely happens across the country to fans who live outside their favorite team’s market? Can’t DirecTV do it the other way? Have a god faith agreement to black out a game after they confirm it is airing locally? How about at least having a phone number or e-mail address to alert them that a black out needs to be lifted. They charge $300 a season. Is it too costly to hire a guy to work every Sunday to handle black outs?

The last thing I’ll say is there are at least the Shortcuts so I can see the plays I missed tomorrow. Now, on to the game (at least what I saw).

Someone needs to remind Brandon Meriweather that while he did make a big hit, the guy still got a 1^st down. Quit celebrating like Ellis Hobbs. But a good job lowering his target after the dirty hit and big fine the week before.

The Chargers went for an onside kick early and the Patriots did a good job making sure they got it. Last year, they were caught not paying attention and just running back to cover, this year, while they were taking a step back, they were watching the ball. Dane Fletcher was able to fall on it while other guys made blocks to make sure he had the time to secure the ball. There was no panic.

The Patriots ripped of a 9 yard run on 1^st down, then threw 2 incomplete passes. This was a sign of a theme for the offense today, lots of ineptitude and inconsistency.

On the flip side, the defense played very well. They were stopping the Chargers on 3^rd down, and on a 3^rd and long were able to force a fumble and recover deep in Charger territory. It was another good play by Fletcher who seemed to be carrying over his good play from the Ravens game.

After the Patriots scored a touchdown, Richard Goodman pulled a somewhat common rookie mistake by just dropping a live ball after hitting the ground after the catch. I was yelling at the TV as he went down for someone to touch him because I knew he could get up and run. Instead he tossed the ball on the ground and James Sanders picked it up.

Once again, Matt Light did his best impression of a turnstile as Tom Brady was sacked. In general, the whole offensive line played poorly and Brady was under pressure all night. I’ll repeat it again, the Patriots will be drafting a left tackle. Light is useless. He gets beat routinely (but not often enough to be benched) and he can’t even play any other position.

The Patriots came out playing better in the 3^rd quarter. CBS showed a stat saying the last time the Patriots failed to gain more than 38 yards in the 1^st half was against the Giants (29 yards) in 2003. They also won that game, went 14-2 and won a Super Bowl that year.

Danny Woodhead continues to amaze. He has great instincts for running and he also perfectly timed a high step to avoid a guy who was behind him from making a shoe string tackle that allowed him to get at least another 10 yards on 2^nd and 17 to make it 3^rd and 1.

The defense started to look pretty porous in the 4^th quarter. On one play, they had a 3 man rush on 3^rd and long and the Chargers converted the 3^rd down with a pass. This is the opposite of how they played against the Ravens where they played their best in the 4^th quarter (and OT).  They were able to move the ball and score touchdowns at will it seemed. I felt like I could predict what was happening. Thy started to pass when Vince Wilfork was in for 1^st down, mostly as a checkdown to a wide open underneath receiver or running back. So New England countered with a similar plan to the Ravens last week having Fletcher spy the running back. Philip Rivers just went deep in the middle then. So then they decided to take Wilfork out and the Chargers would just run it. Antonio Gates really stepped it up in the 4^th quarter despite an injury.

The second onsides kick by the Chargers was perfectly timed. The Chargers player was at the ball just as it was crossing the 4o-yard line. The only chance the Patriots had was to try and go forward and get a hold of the ball, but without their best “hands” guys, would’ve been equally risky.

I thought it was a curious decision for Bill Belichick to go for it on 4^th and 1 from their 49 after the 2 minute warning. The Chargers still had 3 timeouts left and only need a field goal to tie the game. A punt gives them 2 minutes and a long field with 3 timeouts. If they fail to get the 1^st down, then the Chargers have the ball at midfield with 3 timeouts and need 15-20 yards to be in field goal range. If the Patriots get the 1^st down, they could force the Chargers to burn all their timeouts and then punt for a long field to get a field goal. And best case, they are able to run the whole clock out. My guess on Bill Belichick’s logic: I like our chances of getting a 1^st down on this play (It looked like the same play they used to get their last touchdown) over my defense stopping the Chargers with 4 downs on a long field.

So after not getting the 1^st down, the defense held enough. On the 3^rd down play I was hoping for short completion to set up a long field goal. An incomplete might’ve had them go for it on 4^th and long. They got a little more yards than I had hoped. They set up for a 45-yard field goal and has a false start! It moved them back 5 yards and I feared they may decide to go for it, but they went ahead with a field goal. My thought was where is Patrick Chung when you need him (someone else did come real close to blocking it), but to the Patriot’s fortune, the kick hit the right upright and was no good. Another tough win.

One final note. No idea if there is a correlation, but the Patriots 3^rd down offense has done a lot worse since the Randy Moss trade. And speaking of, next week he comes back to face the Patriots.

I’ve detailed in the past the troubles I’ve had to go through to get the same deals other DirecTV customers get. This year was a totally different experience. I had read that DirecTV was changing the NFL Sunday Ticket package to remove SuperFan and make it one package. Ultimately, they split the package up. They removed the online viewing part of SuperFan and called that “To Go” and put all of the rest (Red Zone Channel (not the same as the NFL Red Zone Channel that has commercials), Game Mix, Shortcuts and HD) into the base package. The new price is $300 for renewals.  That price was a lot easier to pay. A little higher than I’d like (I’d prefer $250) but I wouldn’t cancel over it (I was ready to at the almost $400 I expected this year).

The price got even better thanks to the great community over at DBSTalk.com. They had a thread talking about a $20/off for 6 months discount for existing customers. I called to check on what was auto-renewing on my account and after the CSR explained that to me, I dropped the “To Go” part and asked if I could get the credit. They checked, said yes and that was it. They had also started a program to match DISH offering Free HD for life. I’ve pretty much had a credit to offset the $10 HD Access fee since I got HD a few years ago. I asked about that and was told I couldn’t get that with the current credit going and that they couldn’t drop that and add the other one in its place. I was told I could see about it once the credit ran out, but no guarantees.

There was also a thread about the Free HD for Life for existing customers (it’s really for 24/months right now). I got my notification that my bill was ready and when I looked at it, I saw that the HD Access credit was no longer there. I called in and inquired about that credit, the CSR checked that I had HD and was on auto-pay and said no problem and added it. Explained the most they can do for existing customers is 24 months but to call back when that runs out and they’ll add it back on again.

It has been a completely different experience and I don’t know why but it’s very much appreciated. That kind of service goes a long way IMO. A couple months ago I was doing the math on building a home theater PC, switching to very basic cable, getting a good OTA antenna, switching from DSL to cable HSI and switching to Vonage World. Now, I will scratch off the HTPC, getting cable and a what not. I am still considering a switch from AT&T to Cox for Internet and Vonage for phone service though.

Every year it’s the same song and dance with DirecTV. They raise prices on NFL Sunday Ticket (or they break up the existing package and add some new features to charge you more to get what you had before). It’s up to $370 for auto-renenwal customers. However, after they “added” the SuperFan package (they took what was included (HD Games) and added a RedZone Channel (awesome) and some other features) for an additional $100 a lot of people weren’t happy. Primarily because they only wanted the HD games and already paid a $10/month HD Access fee.

So word travels fast when they start to offer a customer free SuperFan. Then last year for people who signed up as early birds (same discount as auto-renenwal) would get SuperFan free. That didn’t thrill customers who auto-renewed. So word traveled fast again on how to get it for free like everyone else. So it’s that time of the year again. If you read over at DBSTalk.com or FatWallet people were getting free SuperFan plus $120 off ($20/mo for 6 months) for a net cost of $150.

This is where the fun begins. You have to call and get them to do it. Sometimes a CSR will do it. Sometimes it has to be someone in the customer retention department. All kinds of stories work. The economy, the wife says it’s too much, thinking about switching, my friend/neighbor/co-worker got such and such or even just coming out and asking for it. Plenty of people get shot down and have no luck. Some call right back and get the deal. Some try a bit later and get the deal. Some just give up and are mad. Some cancel their service.

It drives me nuts. It’s all a game. All I want is SuperFan free. It really bothers me that they took something that was included in the price out of the package. They not only bundled it up with other stuff, but they also raised the price of the base package. So to get the same thing you had the year before, the price jumped $120. For every person like Bill Simmons who would pay $2,000 for it, there are people like me who just get it to watch their favorite team all season. DirecTV is smart to bump the price only $10-$20 a season so it’s easier to swallow, but they are pricing people out slowly. This is why they have an amazing new customer offer that includes the Sunday Ticket. They also started to offer this to existing customers who don’t auto-renew this summer.

In the end I went with the loyal customer and it’s unfair that some customers get these deals and others don’t. They offered me $10/mo for 6 months, I asked for $20 and they said yes. It only took 3 or 4 calls.  I think they are all trained to negotiate with customers. You have to push for it. They are perfectly OK saying no and sorry to see if you’ll just say OK. Uncomfortable silences work well too.