Monday, December 7, 2009

Week 13 Hangover - Love/Hate

LOVE

- Finally after 13 weeks, I recognize that hillbilly with the gray-stubble wearing that purple #4 jersey. More impressive was the performance from the Cardinals. There is some concern with how banged up Kurt Warner is after missing last week with a concussion and injuring his hip at the end of last night’s game. However, the Cardinals defense completely shut down Adrian Peterson, and confused Favre on multiple occasions. Could they be the second-most-dangerous team in the NFC?

- The BCS Championship matchup: Love. Texas was lucky to get by Nebraska after some terrible clock management, and Colt McCoy cost himself the Heisman trophy. Why did they not use their timeout? Why did they call a roll out and casually throw it out of bounds barely leaving one second for the final kick? Maybe they were reading from the Les Miles/Andy Reid book of clock management. Here was a four-year starter at quarterback that didn’t appear to have a good grip on the game clock? In the end, we get the two big programs and probably the best teams playing for the national championship. Alabama looked dominant against Florida and Texas will have a tough time putting up points against the Bama defense, which is better than the Nebraska defense that stuffed Texas all night. I think the difference may come down to coaching, and it’s tough to go against Nick Saban with a month of preparation to come up with ways to slow down McCoy and the Texas offense. He's quickly put himself among the legendary Alabama coaches, Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings.
- Peyton Manning is better than Tom Brady. Case closed. No argument. Despite Brady having 3 Super Bowls to Manning’s one, it’s not even close. Manning continues to be a master with the Colts, crushing records, cruising through the league with new weapons around him, and running the team with perfect precision. Brady threw another 2 fourth quarter interceptions yesterday, and it’s been 5 years since his last Super Bowl title. While Brady remains in the discussion among the top quarterbacks in the league (probably still the #2), Manning is a level above him in every way…….except for the whole Gisele thing. Though he’s done pretty well considering he has more chance of being on the cover of “Herman Muenster Look-A-Likes Monthly” than GQ.

- The race for the NFC East just got a lot more interesting. While I still think the division is grossly overrated, the Cowboys and Eagles are tied at the top with 8-4 records and the Giants are now 1 game back at 7-5, and have swept the Cowboys. The Cowboys may have another December swoon, but it may be a result of their schedule more than anything. After losing in NY, they get San Diego at home and then go to New Orleans before finishing at Washington and hosting Philly. That is a brutal finishing kick. 10-6 would be an accomplishment and 9-7 would not be a stretch. Philly goes to NY this weekend, where the Giants have revenge on their minds and seem to have regained some confidence. They then have San Francisco and Denver at home before finishing at Dallas. That looks like 10-6 but 9-7 would not surprise me since the Eagles love to choke away winnable games. The Giants need to go 3-1 to have a chance, and after a home game against Philly, they go to Washington, host Carolina and finish at Minnesota. It should be an interesting run down the stretch

- Reason #2,321,768 why I will never be able to make a living gambling: The Redskins lose to the Lions, breaking Detroit’s 19 game losing streak, but then have multiple chances to knock off the 11-0 Saints. The “Bingo” offense showed life the past few weeks, and had Suisham hit the 23-yard field goal, they would have iced the game. Can Jason Campbell not handle the pressure when games matter, and as soon as the team is out of it, he looks like he could have the potential to be the Redskins’ quarterback next year? It sure appears that way. So while some might say it’s an example that the Saints can or will be beat, I think the exact opposite. They were able to pull out this game when they had a hangover from the Pats game, and didn’t play well. I think they will run the table. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

HATE

- The Fiesta Bowl matchup between TCU and Boise State. No one wants to see the two small conference teams play each other. We want to see them play against the “Big Boys” to see how they really match up and if they are as good as their unblemished records. The ratings for this game will be horrible. No one is saying “man, I really want to know if Boise State or TCU is the best unbeaten team that doesn’t get to play anyone.” Having them match up is not in the best interest of the BCS either. Now it is guaranteed that one of them will be unbeaten and can make a legit argument that they didn’t get a fair shot to prove they were the best team in the land. If you match them up separately against Georgia Tech and Florida, they both lose and suddenly it adds ammunition to the argument that the BCS works. Oh, and someone please show or tell me what the hell that hand signal thing is the TCU fans do?

- Grow up Tim Tebow. There is just something so contrived about the guy, and his big crying show he put on as he team was getting dismantled was another example of it. Of course CBS had to show his passionate/contrived speech on the sidelines imploring his defense to play better. Maybe he should have given that speech in the mirror. Random aside: Why would Florida break out the hideous alternate all-white jerseys for the conference championship game? They have strong colors in the bold blue and bright orange, and they hide all of it with white jerseys, white pants and a white helmet? Seems like they were taunting karma and got kicked in the jimmy.

- The mainstream media is going to tell us that Michael Vick is back after doing some stuff in Atlanta. Who cares? No one. He was able to get some things done in a blow out game when the Falcons had given up. It’s a non-story. The media is obsessed with trying to make a story out of this guy when he sneezes, drops a deuce or steps on the field. He’s about as relevant as Canada. Let’s just move on.

- The Steelers are going down faster than Lindsay Lohan on a table of nose candy. Four straight losses, including one to the Raiders and one to the Chiefs (who have been destroyed by the Chargers & Broncos). They are in absolute crisis mode and likely just knocked themselves out of the playoffs. I suspect this was not the “hell” that Mike Tomlin had in mind during the December. The bigger question might be whether Tom Cable saved his job in Oakland? The Raiders almost look like a pro football team, but who knows if all the off-field issues will have a detrimental effect on his long-term prospects. Someone please wake up Al Davis and ask him what he thinks.

- We’re about one more mistress away from Tiger Woods claiming he’s a sex-addict and going into rehab before the next golf season kicks off. Have you seen the latest one? After his best looking birdie (so far) came out, Jaime Jungers, he went “Steve Phillips” on us with Mindy Lawton. Yikes. I guess it’s probably just time to start bringing out women that aren’t skanks or waitresses (or both) from Vegas/Orlando that DIDN’T sleep with Tiger, as it might be a shorter list.

And Saturday Night Live did a skit about Tiger getting roughed up by his wife on the same show where the musical guest was Rhianna? That’s some unfortunate comedic timing.

And now the NY Post claims that the number is up to 9 for Tiger. Once he paid Rachel Uchitel to keep her trap shut (and I guess you could claim he paid her to keep other things open?), it opened the floodgates for every woman he ever had a conversation with to come out and offer up all the details for some easy cash.

- One more thing – so Notre Dame was turned down by Bob Stoops and now they’re going to turn to Brian Kelley at Cincinnati as their top target? Let me get this straight……they got turned down by their top target, and now they’re going after a hot name that is an offensive whizz, but doesn’t know anything about defense. Sound familiar? Five years ago, they were turned down by their top target, Urban Meyer, and they settled on an offensive genius who didn’t know defense in Charlie Weis. So how is this going to be any different or better?

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