No Cure For March Madness

11 03 2010

Really guys? Come on....

I know I haven’t written in more than a month and that’s pretty irresponsible of me, but I do have a fairly valid excuse. I’ve been working on my first novel during the past few weeks, and so I haven’t had much time to balance both things. Okay, that’s a complete lie. I have nothing but time. Actually, time is about the only thing I’ve had a lot of lately. Either way, the novel is coming along pretty nicely. It’s funny because it’s like I’m having a competition with myself to see what I can make less money doing: blogging or writing a novel. Right now, they’re both tied at $0 a piece. We’ll see how that turns out.

A lot has happened during the past month, and so here’s a quick Cliffs Notes recap of what I think are the most important sports stories of the last month:

- The New Orleans Saints stunned the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in Miami on Feb. 7th to win their first Super Bowl in franchise history. Drew Brees was named the game’s MVP and showed the world that not only does he have what it takes to be mentioned among the top QB’s of his generation, but also that he has a really, ridiculously adorable son.

- Tiger Woods entered rehab for his “sex addiction”. Upon hearing this, men all over the country immediately deleted their internet history out of fear of also being placed in rehab. He then held a 15-minute “news conference” in which he fielded zero questions and spoke with about as much sincerity and emotion as HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

- The Nets kept losing.

- The Knicks also kept losing. Then they dumped even more salary by unloading the contracts of Darko Milicic, Nate Robinson, and the corpse of Jared Jeffries and acquiring Tracy McGrady’s expiring $22 million contract from Houston. In the process, the Knicks created almost $30 million in salary cap space heading into this summer’s free agent free-for-all and now apparently have enough money to sign two superstars. It is likely that neither of these superstars will be LeBron James, despite the collective prayers of the Knickerbocker faithful.

- Spring Training started. The Yankees went to an arcade to show us how much they like each other and how well they all get along. We were all supposed to feel happy for them, despite the fact that they….are a baseball team….and that’s kind of the point.

Tell me this doesn't make you wet your pants a little.

And that was about it. Nothing happens in February, so even the most mundane of stories turn into front-page headlines in the sports world. Thankfully though, the cold, uneventful winter months are behind us and we’re staring right in the face of arguably the most exciting one-month stretch of the year, at least when it comes to sports.

If you look at the next month/month and a half, we get treated to the following:

1) The NCAA Tournament starts next Thursday, which is no doubt, hands-down my absolute favorite sporting event of the year. Why? Because it gives me a reason to really get behind teams that I normally couldn’t care less about. Can you think of anything better than almost having an aneurysm on a Thursday night in March because Syracuse edged out Portland State by 2 points and you came within seconds of tearing up your bracket that had Syracuse in the Final Four? No, there is nothing more exciting than that, I’m sorry. I’ve tried the NCAA Tournament without putting any money on it. I think the last time I did that was 6 years ago. It wasn’t fun. I found my interest drifting away in the early rounds. When you’re in a pool with a $400 pot and you absolutely need West Virginia to beat Texas to have a shot at winning, tell me that it doesn’t make that game about 100,000 times more exciting. That is, if gambling was legal. My favorite thing about the tournament? When we start to get down to the Sweet Sixteen and I’m spending upwards of 8 hours a day playing around with all of the different possible combinations of teams in the Yahoo! Scenario Generator. As the number of teams left in the tournament decreases, the number of hours I spend on the Scenario Generator increases, exponentially.

2) The start of the baseball season on April 5th. With the start of a new season just around the corner, I have realized that the only way to forgot about the unrelenting nightmare that was the 2009 baseball season is to start a new one. What’s worse than the Mets losing two-thirds of their starting lineup to injuries halfway through the season and then having to endure a postseason that ranked somewhere between The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and all 40 Saw movies on the horror scale? Having to go through that for a second year in a row. What’s worse than watching a Yankees-Phillies World Series that made me want to pull out my own tongue? Watching the Yankees win another World Series. So things can only get better from here, right?

3) The NFL free-agent free-for-all. The Giants already got off to a pretty decent start with their signing of safety Antrel Rolle from the Arizona Cardinals. The thought of him and a healthy Kenny Phillips in the secondary next year makes me a little excited. There’s still a ton of questions to be answered though before free-agent season wraps up. For example, where will LaDainian Tomlinson end up, and will anybody care? How about the question of whether or not Donovan McNabb will be wearing a Eagles uniform next season? What team will Terrell Owens destroy next? Gripping storylines will unfold in the coming weeks and months and as usual, everyone will drool over the Chicago Bears until they start the season 1-4 and we remember that they still have no wide receivers. Oops!

4) The NFL Draft in late April. I don’t really have anything to say about this other than these quick points:

- Sam Bradford will be drafted wayyyyy higher than he should be.

-Tim Tebow will be drafted wayyyy lower than he should be.

-Suh should be and probably will be the #1 overall pick.

-The Giants need to draft some linebackers, maybe.

-The Jets finally can’t screw up a top-10 pick because they won’t have one.

So, as you can see, I’m pretty excited about the coming month(s) and I won’t let anyone bring me down from this cloud of sports bliss that I will be floating on until May when the Mets are 7 1/2 games out of first and LeBron is leading the Cavs to an NBA title that will all but guarantee he stays in Cleveland.

See you next week, sports fans and loyal readers.


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Live From Miami (Not Really)

5 02 2010
Super Bowl XLIV media day

Raise your hand if you know the name of the stadium that will host Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday.

Keep it raised if you correctly guessed that it was Sun Life Stadium.

Exactly. The stadium in Miami (Gardens), Florida that is home to the Dolphins and Marlins has had seven different names since 1987. Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Park, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium (yes that’s a difference of one letter), and most recently Land Shark Stadium. At least until 2 weeks ago. The stadium has gone through more name changes than Prince. To top it off, the NFL won’t really even specify that the game is taking place in Miami, because technically, it’s not. So, live from “South Florida”, it’s Super Bowl XLIV!

There’s a little bit of an identity crisis here, to say the least. As far as the game itself goes however, you couldn’t pick two teams with more of a distinct identity. The New Orleans Saints are the representatives of a city that had all but lost hope 4 years ago on the heels of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. This is a city that got behind just about the only thing it had left, its football team, and has now ridden on its back all the way to the Super Bowl. The Indianapolis Colts? They have an identity too, and it comes in the shape of their superstar quarterback, the 4-time MVP Peyton Manning.

There’s certainly an intriguing storyline going into this year’s Super Bowl that makes it more than just Saints-Colts. There’s the possibility of redemption for an entire embattled city, and there’s also redemption on the line for Indy: Coach Jim Caldwell and the Colts shedding the harsh criticism they took for throwing away a shot at a perfect season by shutting up the critics and taking the Lombardi Trophy. And of course, you have the possibility of Peyton Manning winning his second Super Bowl in 4 years and rocketing smack dab into the middle of the conversation about “Who is the greatest quarterback of all-time?”

So there’s that. There’s also the fact that instead of weaving my way through reporters and radio talk show hosts and TV personalities at media day, I’m stuck watching a bunch of retired coaches and washed-up players argue with themselves while they sit in the parking lot of Dolphin Land Shark Whatever-This-Stadium-Is-Called. I would like to believe that one day in the future my writing will grant me access to the Super Bowl, and I imagine that when that day finally comes it will be like a cross between the excitement of the first time I saw myself on TV and the excitement of when my plane touches down in Vegas in May.

This would be a lot more interesting if I was writing it from a hotel room in Miami (read: from a pool bar in South Beach while I sip on a margarita), but I’m not, so this is all I have on this unnecessarily cold Friday afternoon in New Jersey. There should be a foot of snow on the ground here by tomorrow night and we’re being subject to a barrage of news stories about Rex Ryan’s middle finger instead of other things we should be focusing on, like I don’t know, THE SUPER BOWL.

So we are now less than 3 days away from the culmination of this NFL season and by 11:00 p.m. on the east coast on Sunday night we will have a new champion. Will the Saints follow through on their jibber-jabbering and punish Peyton? Or will Peyton dispose of the New Orleans secondary much like he did to the New York Jets two weeks ago? We don’t know yet. We can guess though, and here is my guess. My guess is that this will be a much better game than most people are expecting.

As we get closer and closer to kickoff I feel that most of the country is leaning towards a fairly wide margin of victory for the Colts. And here’s why: you haven’t heard a peep out of Peyton Manning or anyone else wearing a Colts jersey pretty much all week, aside from Dwight Freeney and his ankle drama. Unlike the Saints, they’ve remained quiet, like a ruthless serial killer eerily staring down the detective at the other end of the table not intimidated in the slightest. Maybe the Saints aren’t intimidated by this, but I am. I’m intimidated by Peyton Manning, even when I’m watching those Double Stuf Racing League commercials (I mean, the guy knows how to dunk Oreos).

The thing is, Drew Brees has spent most of his career being underestimated. He was underestimated early on in San Diego and he was underestimated during his first few seasons in New Orleans. Hell, he was even underestimated at times this season, but he has carried the Saints through a 13-3 finish and now through the post-season and this is where he gets to write his own ending. Sure he’s good, but he’s no Peyton Manning. That’s what he’ll hear if he doesn’t win. If he does win – Maybe he stops being underestimated and starts to become a little more — estimated? At the very least, he earns himself the distinction of being considered one of the best in the league.

Super Bowl XLIV Preview

Now, the only thing that is left after all of the talking and the nerves and media day and all the questions and answers and more questions is for the game to actually be played on Sunday. On the field, at Land Shark Stadium or Joe Robbie or whatever it’s called, two of the league’s elite quarterbacks will be arm-wrestling for a Super Bowl title, and I’ll be digging my car out of a snow bank to pick up wings and beer.


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The Final Four

21 01 2010

 

New York Jets v Indianapolis Colts

You can’t say that I didn’t warn you.

Last week, I told you that this league was hard to figure out. Did you listen to me? Probably not, I didn’t even take my own advice. I went ahead and picked the Chargers to beat the Jets when I had a sneaking suspicion that something fishy would happen in San Diego on Sunday. Actually, it wasn’t even a sneaking suspicion. The suspicion was walking around banging pots and pans and blowing a whistle. It wasn’t sneaking anywhere.

So why did I ignore this and pick the Chargers anyway? Half of the reason is because I’m an idiot, and the other half is because there’s no way I could have foreseen Nate Kaeding jumping into a DeLorean and reliving the 2004 NFL Playoffs over again.

However, I could have foreseen Norv Turner blowing yet another big decision in a critical moment by opting to go with an onside kick with over 2 minutes to play. Instead of putting the pressure on Mark Sanchez to pick up a big first down and hope that your defense can make one stop, why risk giving the Jets a short field? Sanchez had thrown for barely 100 yards at that point in the game and the Jets offense had been unable to get much of anything going for most of the game until Jim Leonhard’s late pick of Philip Rivers set the Jets up at the Chargers’ 27 yard line.

I’m having an extremely difficult time with trying to understand how and why the New York Jets are going to be playing the Indianapolis Colts this coming Sunday afternoon for a trip to Super Bowl XLIV. I’m having a hard time for a number of reasons and surprisingly, none of them have anything to do with my hatred of the New York Jets. Believe it or not, they impressed the hell out of me in San Diego and for at least the next 4 or 5 days, they have earned my respect. Relish this, because it will probably be the first and last time I ever say those words.

In all honesty though, I can’t figure out the enigma that is the 2009 New York Jets. Forget about the enigma of the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE for just a second and consider the fact that a team that was 4-6 through the first 11 weeks and went 2-4 in their division is now one win away from playing in the Super Bowl. This is a team that had it’s own coach remark in a press conference that his team had no chance to make the playoffs. This is a team who is led by a quarterback that finished the regular season with 12 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 63. 

Hopefully you can see why I’m so baffled. What compounds this confusion is the fact that I live smack-dab in the middle of the three-ring circus that is the New York sports media. For this reason, I am constantly witnessing the Jets getting raked over the coals for their latest embarrassment against Buffalo or their failure to stop David Garrard on a game-winning drive on their home field. Despite all of that, I now see a team that was declared clinically dead by an entire city of critics and sports writers only a month ago, march confidently into Lucas Oil Stadium with an NFL title in their sights. They have seduced an entire nation with their swagger and their cocksureness and judging from all the Daily News back pages these last few weeks, you would think that the Colts were the underdogs on Sunday.

Does America always love a good underdog story? Of course, and that is partly why the Jets have become America’s Darlings du jour. A team that nobody thought had a shot, suddenly has turned the tables with a rookie quarterback and a rookie coach who knows his way around a quote. And I’ll admit that any coach that uses the movie 300 to motivate his team obviously knows what he’s doing.

Do the 2009 Jets remind me a lot of the 2007 Giants? Yes. I find a lot of similarities in both the teams themselves and the paths that they took to get to this point. A young inexperienced quarterback, a relentless, blitz-happy defense that gives opposing quarterbacks nightmares and a steady, exhausting running game. And that is all I have to say about the magical allure of this strange and unpredictable Jets team.

Now, on to my picks for Championship Sunday. I was 2-for-2 last weekend, so at least we’re getting somewhere. I think.

New Orleans Saints 28, Minnesota Vikings 24

Last weekend the Vikings defense absolutely overwhelmed the Cowboys offense. Dallas rolled into the playoffs on the arm of Tony Romo and the suddenly breakout play of Felix Jones, and then rolled over Philadelphia in the first round. The Minnesota pass rush was too much for Romo though, and they were exploited in every conceivable way. Not turning the football over was one of the main foundations that held the Cowboys up during their run to the playoffs and that pillar came crumbling down on Sunday when they turned the ball over three times.

Can the Vikings replicate this gameplan this Sunday against the Saints and disrupt the rhythm of Drew Brees and the New Orleans offense? Probably not. First of all, they’ll be at odds in the Superdome which is possibly the hardest place to play on the road in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Second, the Saints don’t need a huge game from Brees to win. Of course they would like one on Sunday, but it’s not a necessity. There have been numerous times this season when Brees played very un-Brees-like and the Saints still managed to get the job done. Then again, those wins didn’t come against the Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre.

Nobody can deny that Brett Favre has been having one magical season and his 37 touchdowns and 7 interceptions look like numbers that the quarterback of Oklahoma or USC would put up. Could this be his season of destiny? His last hurrah? His final showdown? Sure. Will it be though? Probably not. I think that the Saints and more importantly, the Superdome, will prove to be too much for the Vikes. The Saints will get their first ever Super Bowl appearance.

Indianapolis Colts 21, New York Jets 16

To be perfectly honest with you, I think that the New York Jets match up better with the Colts than any other team in the AFC. The only thing that can derail the Colts offense is a blitzing defense that puts constant pressure on Peyton Manning and forces him to check off on his receivers a little quicker than he is accustomed to doing. It’s no secret that Peyton Manning is a little less Peyton Manning-like when he has to worry about  linebackers coming up the middle or cornerbacks coming from the blind side. If the Jets defense can harass Peyton Manning like they harassed Philip Rivers last week, they will have a very, very good shot at winning the AFC title.

New York Jets v Indianapolis Colts

There is just too much at stake in this game for the Colts though. Whether or not the Colts fans or the Indianapolis media will admit to it, Jim Caldwell has taken a lot of heat for his decision to pull Manning in the second half of the Week 16 game against the Jets. Even if they don’t necessarily disagree with the decision, every one has talked about it, and it is on everyone’s mind. Lose again to the Jets and there is going to be a lot of questioning going on and a lot of  criticism thrown in the direction of the Colts organization, particulary Jim Caldwell. There is simply too much at stake here for the Colts, and Peyton Manning for that matter, to throw anything less than the kitchen sink at this game. Peyton Manning absolutely lives for games like this. He thrives on it. Mark Sanchez? As good as he’s been so far this postseason, I don’t think he’s ready for this stage yet. And maybe that’s all it comes down to in the end.

I will tell you one thing though, it will be one heck of an AFC Championship Game.


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You Would Think I Don’t Even Watch Football

14 01 2010
Cincinnati Bengals v New York Jets

The NFL is an enigma. It’s not completely beyond comprehension, but it’s a lot harder to understand than baseball or even the NBA. Parity is one of the reason for this, but most of it stems from the fact that there are hundreds of mitigating factors that are in play every time two teams step on the field to do battle. Home field, momentum, teams with a chip on their shoulder, injuries, mistakes, rookie quarterbacks playing on the road, and coaches that don’t know how to properly manage the clock. These are only a few of the things that go into what ultimately decides every game in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, especially playoff games. The playoffs amplify everything by 100 and put every single flaw that a team may have under a microscope.

I’m not making excuses for myself. I went 0-for-4 in my picks last weekend. If you go back and read those picks after the fact you might even go as far as to assume that I don’t watch any football. Being completely an utterly wrong about each and every one of the Wild Card playoff games is not going to convince anyone that I actually watch 10+ hours of football every Sunday during the regular season. A person that watches 10+ hours of football every Sunday doesn’t go 0-for-4 in the first round of the playoffs.

But…this is the NFL, and in the NFL things like this happen in the first round of the playoffs:

1) A rookie quarterback, who looked like he was having a Chernobyl-like nuclear meltdown a few weeks ago, can win a road playoff game. By the way, this rookie quarterback is Mark Sanchez. Nevermind the fact that he’s now drawing eerie comparisons to Eli Manning’s breakout 2007 season in the New York media, this is the same Mark Sanchez who couldn’t muster more than 7 points at home against an Atlanta Falcons pass defense that was next to last in passing yards per game allowed.

2) The second-ranked overall defense will show up in Arizona and get torched for 51 points. Yes, 51 points. Even more ridiculous: the Cardinals scored 51 points and still needed overtime to beat the Packers.

3) Joe Flacco 33, Tom Brady 14. In Foxborough. To be honest with you, that’s a little misleading though, because Joe Flacco only threw for 36 yards on Sunday. That’s all. The Ravens beat the Pats 33-14, on the road, and their starting quarterback had 36 yards passing. How? Ray Rice, that’s how.

So, knowing that I not only embarrassed myself last week by going 0-for-4, but also lost my Super Bowl pick after the first round, I will put a unique twist on my picks of the Divisional Playoffs. I will pick the opposite of whatever my instinct tells me this week. That means that whatever I say in the next few paragraphs is the complete and total opposite of what my obviously flawed football intuition is telling me. This is a win/win situation, because if I go 0-for-4 again, it would mean my original instincts were correct. Try to stay with me here.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m.

Saints 33, Cardinals 27

There is no way that Kurt Warner has another game in him like the one he played against Green Bay last week. There is also no way that New Orleans is feeling a little out of sync after losing the last three games of the regular season. It doesn’t matter at all that their last convincing win came against the Patriots all the way back on November 30th. We’ve seen this happen year after year, number one seeds that sputter out towards the end of the regular season, but then rebound once the playoffs start. They are not in any danger of a hot team like the Cardinals coming in and stealing the game from them with an early ambush. Nope. Not in the NFL.

Saturday, 8:00 p.m.

Ravens 24, Colts 20

I forgot what the rule was — always bet against Peyton Manning in primetime games, right? I’m pretty sure that was it. Also, does anyone remember what happened to the Colts in the playoffs last year? They lost to the 8-8 Chargers who snuck into the playoffs by stealing the AFC West right out from under a reeling Broncos team (the Broncos are getting awfully good at tanking the second half of the season). So this is actually a no-brainer. The Ravens are coming off of a big win, Jim Caldwell is taking a ton of heat for pulling Manning against the Jets and Lucas Oil Stadium is not a difficult place for a young quarterback like Joe Flacco to win a road playoff game.

Sunday, 1:00 p.m.

Cowboys 41, Vikings 10

This game has stumped NFL analysts and ESPN’s talking heads all week. Nobody really knows how to pick this game. I do though. I know exactly who to pick. The Cowboys look like one of the hottest teams in the league right now and the Vikings don’t. Is it that simple? Apparently. Are you really going to make the mistake of backing Brett Favre in the playoffs at 40 years old? I dare you.

Sunday, 4:00 p.m.

Jets 27, Chargers 24  OT

You have to be a moron not to back Mark Sanchez on the road in the biggest game of his career against a team that’s won 11 games in a row. Seriously. Anyone who watches football, in fact anyone who even knows the definition of the word “football”, knows that the Jets will march in to Qualcomm Stadium on Sunday and their top-ranked defense will stifle the hottest team in football. I swear, sometimes this league is so easy to figure out.


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Ready or Not, It’s Time for the Playoffs (And Why I Think The Packers Will Win It All)

5 01 2010
Green Bay Packers v Arizona Cardinals

Aside from the NCAA Tournament in March, the NFL Playoffs are probably my favorite postseason event in sports, even when the Giants aren’t playing. Do you want to know why I love the NFL Playoffs? If you don’t, just skip the next few sentences, because I’m going to tell you anyway. I love the NFL Playoffs because you get one chance, and that’s it. There are no best-of-5 series, there are no brutally long best-of-7 series that drag out for a week and a half. There is one game and one game only. If you’re unprepared, it will show. Typically in best-of-7 series, the team that is supposed to win, will win. In the NFL Playoffs, anything can happen. Often enough, anything does happen. That’s why I love the NFL Playoffs, because you can have a team like the 2008 Arizona Cardinals get hammered in Week 16 against the Patriots and lose by 40 points but then suddenly get hot at the right time and be in the Super Bowl a month later. I love the NFL Playoffs because a 10-6 wild-card team that everybody wrote off two months before can beat the number 1 and 2 seeds in the NFC in back-to-back weeks on the road and then stun an undefeated team to win the Super Bowl. Do I need to explain myself anymore?

If you’re getting deja vu from looking at the games slated for this weekend’s Wild Card playoff round, that’s because three out of the four match-ups are repeats from last week, and two of them are even being played on the same field. If I was the Elias Sports Bureau I would probably be able to tell you if that has ever happened before, but I don’t have those kinds of statistics in front of me, so for now I’m going to have to go out on a limb and guess that it is a pretty rare occurrence. Both the Packers and Eagles will return to the scene of the crime from Week 17 for a playoff rematch. The Packers easily handed the Cardinals a 33-7 loss in Glendale on Sunday, and will hope for a repeat performance this weekend. Meanwhile, the Eagles are hoping to actually show up in Arlington this Saturday night, because from what I saw they sure as hell didn’t show up on Sunday, losing 24-0 to the Cowboys and also losing out on a chance for the #2 seed in the NFC. In doing so, they dropped from the #3 seed all the way down to the #6 seed, ensuring that they will not have a home game in the playoffs. Going from possibly having a first-round bye and a home game in the Divisional round to being the #6 seed in the span of a few hours was probably just as disheartening for Eagles fans as remembering that they’ve lost 4 NFC title games in the last 7 years.

As for the Cardinals, I think we’ve all learned our lesson about writing off teams that look like a bunch of ghosts with uniforms on in Week 17. Last year’s Cardinals team taught us that lesson, and maybe they’re trying to reteach it again this year. All I know is that Sunday’s Packers-Cardinals game will certainly be a lot closer than 33-7.

So two exact, carbon-copy rematches from Week 17 in the first-round of the playoffs for the first time ever (yes, I’ve actually done the research now, so I can say that with confidence), and that’s just the NFC. What about the AFC? Well, there’s the remarkable story of the New York Jets. Even Rex Ryan wrote this team off a few weeks ago, but now they’re suddenly the toast of the town. How did this happen? I have no clue. I can take a shot in the dark though and attribute their sudden and inexplicable success to a few things:

1) Their cream puff of a schedule. The Jets won 9 games this year against Houston, New England, Tennessee, Oakland, Carolina, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis*, Cincinnati*. Three of those wins came against playoff teams, including Indy and Cincy in the last two weeks, but I’ll explain the asterisks in my next point.

2) They beat Indy and Cincy teams that were pretty much only on the field to collect a paycheck the last two weeks. Peyton Manning was out of the game by halftime in Week 16 allowing the Jets opportunistic defense to take advantage of a terrified Curtis Painter to the point where I was about to call DYFS on Jim Caldwell. And then on Sunday night, they trampled a Cincinnati team that clearly didn’t have any incentive to put on a show. I mean, Carson Palmer was 1/11 for 0 yards before being replaced by J.T. O’Sulli-beard. If those stats don’t scream, “The Football Felt Like a Frozen Brick, Somebody Give Me Coffee and Get Me Out of This Game Before Kimo Von Oelfhoffen Comes Out of Nowhere and Dives At My Knees”, then I don’t know what does.

3) Every single thing that the Jets needed to happen in the last two weeks in order to make the playoffs, happened.

But hey, I’m not bitter! So let’s move on to the next AFC Wild Card match-up featuring the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens. Ironically, the Patriots, one of the only teams that I have been able to consistently figure out for the past 4 or 5 years is turning out to be the only team that I really don’t understand this season. Are they good? Are they a shell of their former selves? I can’t even tell anymore. However, if Wes Welker’s injury is as bad as they say it is (and they say it’s pretty bad, trust me), then I fear for New England. And if Tom Brady really has been playing with broken ribs for the last month like Bill Simmons says he has, then I fear for New England. I can see this game going either way though, it’s like the Tila Tequila of playoff games.

So, with all of that said, here are my Wild Card playoff predictions:

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. EST

Bengals 27, Jets 17

I didn’t watch all of Sunday night’s game, I’ll be honest. Most of what I got out of the game, I got from glancing over my shoulder at the TV while I sat at a blackjack table at Showboat. What I saw was this: J.T. O’Sullivan’s beard, Mark Sanchez not throwing many passes, really cold fans, Brad Smith, J.T. O’Sullivan’s beard, Mark Sanchez looking confused. Somehow it was 37-0. It’s going to be a whole different sequel in Cincinnati on Saturday with the Bengals hosting a playoff game in front of their home crowd for the first time since the 2006 playoffs when Kimo Von Oelhoffen simultaneously ended Carson Palmer’s season and the Bengals’ season on the second play from scrimmage.

Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EST

Eagles 31, Cowboys 23

You can’t say the same about the Eagles Week 17 performance as you could about the Bengals. The Eagles had a lot to play for, probably just as much as anyone else playing last week. They just didn’t show up, simply enough. Now, they have to avoid the dubious distinction of losing to the same team three times in one season, and twice in consecutive weeks. JerryWorld is going to be packed to the gills for it’s first playoff game and it’s going to be up to Donovan McNabb and DeSean Jackson to quiet the crowd and get the Eagles on the board early. If the Cowboys build an early lead like they did last week, it’s going to be Blitz City for the Dallas D and the Eagles injury-depleted offensive line.

Sunday, 1:00 p.m. EST

Patriots 20, Ravens 17

This game is going to be about how well the Patriots defense can calm down the Ravens potent two-headed beast at running back of Ray Rice and Willis McGahee and it’s also about how many times Randy Moss can get open against the Baltimore secondary. If Randy Moss has a big day, then so too will New England. I think that the Patriots should be able to get it done against the Ravens on Sunday, but with Welker gone and Brady not 100%, they’re going to have trouble after that, especially against San Diego and Indy, should it come to that.

Sunday, 4:00 p.m. EST

Packers 36, Cardinals 33

I like Aaron Rodgers and I like this Packers team just about as much as any other team in this year’s postseason. I have a good feeling about Green Bay and I think they’re one of the hottest teams in the league right now, and I love Donald Driver and Greg Jennings, and this Packers team is my playoff team for 2009. They seem to me like the most complete team in the NFC, and yes, even more so than the Saints. Their defense, the new 3-4 system implemented by Dom Capers this season, as proven to be effect as it’s one of the best in the league. Their balanced offense is a perfect fit for the gunslinging Aaron Rodgers, and I finally think that it’s time for a coming of age for A-Rod. Beating Brett Favre in the playoffs for a ticket to the NFC Championship is probably the sweetest justice he can have. As you can probably tell, I like the 2009 Green Bay Packers. I like them to beat Arizona on Sunday and then I like them to beat Brett Favre and the Vikings next week and then it’s on to DALLAS, OR PHILADELPHIA, OR NEW ORLEANS! THE PACKERS ARE GOING TO TAKE THEM ALL DOWN!

Since I’m already all worked up I just wanted to add one more paragraph about something that happened yesterday in the Giants organization that excited me more than anything else having to do with the Giants since Week 15: Defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan was fired. As I watched the latest 44-7 embarrassment this past Sunday in Minnesota, I hoped that Sheridan would be out no later than Monday, and I (along with most of Giants Nation, I would imagine) got my wish yesterday afternoon. So thank you, John Mara, for standing up for your fans and for being an owner with guts, and for doing what the Wilpons will probably never do: FIRE PEOPLE THAT CAN’T DO THEIR JOB (*cough* Omar Minaya *cough*).


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One For the Ages

30 12 2009
Carolina Panthers v New York Giants

Last week was a busy week for two reasons: Christmas. Shopping. For those reasons, I couldn’t turn out a column after last Monday night’s 45-12 throttling of the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. Had I written something, I likely would have gushed about how good the offense and the defense looked and how I could see this season turning around. I may have even written about how I thought this team might make a pretty surprising run in the playoffs and how I thought that there were a lot of similarities to the 2007 team that won the Super Bowl. I probably would have written all of those things, and a lot more. Then, after Sunday’s game, I would have looked back at last week’s column and been very embarrassed. I would have been almost as embarrassed as the Giants were by the Carolina Panthers Sunday afternoon in the last game they will ever play at Giants Stadium, their home for the last 34 years and 283 games.

A few weeks ago, after the wild Sunday night shootout against the Eagles, I wrote that I would not be disappointed if that was the last game I would ever watch in Giants Stadium. Then I got greedy. I knew I just had to be there on Sunday, I had to be there for the last hurrah, when the curtain came down on the place that I have grown to love over the last 15 years. Now, my final memory of Giants Stadium is going to be the Giants getting spanked by a team that had absolutely nothing to play for, on a day that we had everything to play for. It’s going to be a memory of our defense getting torched for 206 yards by a second-string running back (mind you, I know Stewart can be a starter on just about any other team in the league) and for 3 touchdowns by a second-string quarterback. It’s going to be a memory of Brandon Jacobs getting mercilessly booed as he walked off the field and towards the locker room with about 8 minutes to go and the Giants down 41-9. Were the boo’s warranted? Certainly. Jacobs racked up a whopping 1 yard on 6 carries. The workhorse who helped carry the Giants to a Super Bowl title 2 years ago, now looks like he has suddenly aged a decade. His explosiveness has all but disappeared, he no longer puts his shoulder down and runs over defenders and for the most part, he looks like he is running with ankle weights on. He has not crossed the 100-yard mark once all season, he only has 5 touchdowns (one-third of his total from last season) and unless he has a monster game against Minnesota next week, he will fall short of 1,000 yards for the first time since 2006, when he was Tiki Barber’s backup.

Needless to say, the lackluster running game has been the root of several of the Giants problems this season, but not all of them. Not in the least. It certainly hasn’t affected the passing game. Manning has had no problems finding the open receiver this season (you know, when they actually decide to catch the ball) and he is having, by far, the best statistical season of his career. His 27 touchdown passes are a career high and he will likely pass the 4,000 yard mark next week, making him only the third Giants quarterback to do so in franchise history. He needs a little over 200 yards to set the Giants all-time single season mark currently held by Kerry Collins who set it in 2002.

What the lack of a run game has done to the Giants this season is fail to establish a rhythm that has been so vital to our offense in the past few seasons. Being able to balance a successful passing game with a steady running game is the key to success in the National Football League, and the Giants just couldn’t find that balance for most of this season. Not enough big runs from Jacobs and Bradshaw to jump start a scoring drive and not enough big plays to galvanize the team and give the offense some momentum when the team sorely needs it.

I’m not going to say much about Sunday’s game, mostly because there really isn’t anything to say about it. It was the epitome of all that has gone wrong for the Giants this season. The defense failed to make big plays when they needed to. It seemed like last week’s defensive game plan, which worked so well against Jason Campbell and the Redskins, was not replicated on Sunday, as the Giants only sacked Matt Moore once, on the Panthers first offensive play from scrimmage. If you take a few steps back, Sunday’s game was quite simple to understand, mostly because it happened so quickly. The Giants opening drive, which ate up almost 8 minutes of the clock, looked almost exactly like their opening drive in Washington last week. When Manningham fumbled on the Carolina 17 yard line after converting a huge 3rd down, the momentum that the Giants had seemingly tried to build up with that march slipped away, and from that point on it looked as if the Giants were going through the motions. One of the amazing things about football is that entire outcome of a single game can be changed by a single play. It is often the littlest things that can swing the momentum and which can either bury a team or give them a second life. On Sunday, the Giants were buried early. Perhaps even before the fans knew it, and certainly before the players knew it, proving that anything is possible on any given Sunday.

Carolina Panthers v New York Giants

Was it tough to head out to Giants Stadium for one final Sunday, hoping for a heroic, season-saving effort from the Giants and a final push for the playoffs, only to see one of the worst performances in the stadium’s history? Yes, it was admittedly difficult. However, there was a sort of poetic beauty in being able to witness Sunday’s game. Everything served as a type of closure, from the boo’s, to the guy over in section 319 who threw all of his food at the field when the Giants fell behind 24-0 at halftime. I’ll be the first to admit that with all the games I’ve seen at Giants Stadium over the years, I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve seen a lot of good games, and even a handful of great games, but I haven’t witnessed to many stinkers like the one I saw on Sunday. Actually, it’s safe to say that Sunday’s game was the worst I have ever attended at Giants Stadium, or anywhere else for that matter. So bad that I probably will have to amend the column that I wrote a few months ago detailing the top 5 worst games of the Eli Manning Era to include it. When you look at it that way, it even begins to make some kind of sense. Maybe not fully, and not yet, but in time I’m sure I’ll see it for what it is.

On Sunday, Big Blue will travel to Minnesota to take on Brett Favre and the Vikings. The Vikes have already clinched a playoff spot, which is lucky for them considering the nosedive they’ve been locked in since the beginning of the month. They’ve dropped 3 of their last 4 games, including a gut-wrenching 36-30 overtime loss to the Bears on Monday night. The 11-4 Vikings suddenly have something to play for, as a loss by them and an Eagles win over Dallas would drop Minnesota down to the 3rd seed in the NFC, giving the Eagles the coveted first-round bye. As for the Giants, it’s a much different story. By Week 5, many Giants fans looked at this game on the schedule anticipating that it wouldn’t mean anything, much like last year’s Week 17 matchup against the Vikings. After all, we were 5-0, and most of us thought that we would have our playoff position readily secured by now. Well, it turns out that we were half-right, as Heatmiser would say. The game means about as much as an exhibition game to the Giants, but not for reasons that we had anticipated back when we were 5-0. The Giants will miss the playoffs this year for the first time since I was a senior in high school and I still believed that prom would be just like American Pie, only in real life. Instead, we will try to play spoiler and help out the Eagles, because after all,  they’ve helped us out so much this season (outscoring us 85-55 in two games). It’s the least we could do. To be perfectly honest with you, I’d much rather see the Eagles win the NFC than the Cowboys, a team we beat twice. It would hurt much less to know that the team that caused us the most torment this season turned out to be the second best team in the NFC.

With The Minnesota game being played on January 3rd, this past Sunday’s game against Carolina served not only as the last game at Giants Stadium, but also the last game of the decade. Although the decade ended on a bitter note for Big Blue, nobody can deny that it was one hell of a decade to be a Giants fan. With two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl title, 3 division titles and 6 playoff appearances, it was arguably one of the most successful decades in Giants history, and I’m proud to have been a part of it. As we say goodbye to another decade and welcome in 2010 in just a few days, here’s to hoping that 2010-2019 will be even better for the New York Football Giants. Who knows, maybe it will even start with a win on Sunday.


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Shootout!

16 12 2009

‘Tis the season for giving, and the Giants were in the holiday spirit on Sunday night. They gave and they gave and they gave to the Eagles until their little hearts could give no more. If Sunday night’s shootout between the Giants and Eagles ends up being the last game I ever watch inside Giants Stadium, the only way I can picture it being any better is if the Giants came out on the winning end of that 45-38 circus that I witnessed from section 128, row 31. Before I talk about the game and why it turned out the way that it did, let me get a few things out of the way first. I go to a pretty fair amount of Giants games, I’d say around 4 or 5 each year. Never, ever have I been to a game that was as much of an emotional see-saw as Sunday night’s game. Even last year’s Sunday night finale against the Panthers for home field advantage in the NFC, when we overcame a 21-10 deficit to win 34-28 in overtime, could match it. From the opening drive of the game, you could immediately tell that it was going to be a unique night. There are a few reasons why this was evident:

1) It was a Sunday night game. Even though it was raining all day leading up to the game (luckily the rain subsided about an hour before kickoff) Giants fans were out tailgating in full force from about 3 in the afternoon, proving that not even the most miserable weather can stop people from drinking outside in a parking lot for 5 hours. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: night games are a very different animal. Everyone is at least 30 times more rowdy and loud and obnoxious and innocent taunts are about 100,000 times more likely to quickly escalate to full-blown fist fights. Night games are special, night games are dangerous.

2) Combine the fact that it was a night game with the fact that it was a divisional game against the hated rival Eagles, and it’s like mixing Mentos with Diet Coke. It goes without saying that there is no love lost between New York and Philadelphia. If anything, the rivalry between the two cities has escalated ten-fold since the World Series. We hate each other, and we’re not afraid to let it show. About 80,000 people let it show on Sunday night.

3) To top it all off, this game was for first place in the NFC East. With the Cowboys losing to San Diego earlier in the day, the winner of Sunday night’s game would take over first place in the division. Although a Giants win would have pulled them into a three-way tie with the Eagles and Cowboys at 8-5, they would have held the tiebreaker over both teams (winning head-to-head both times against Dallas and having a better division record than Philly). Needless to say, this was an extremely important game and everyone in that stadium the other night was fully aware of it.

So, as I was saying, we could all feel that this was going to be a special night. I was positive that it was, at least until McNabb marched the Eagles down the field on the opening drive like he was playing against the practice squad. After Brent Celek turned his 92nd catch of the drive into a touchdown and it was 7-0, I was more than a little apprehensive. When Brandon Jacobs coughed up the ball at the Eagles’ 44-yard line on the ensuing possession and Sheldon Brown ran it back 60 yards for the touchdown to make it 14-0 with less than 6 minutes gone by, the only thing I could think of was November 1st.

Giants vs. Eagles

Like I said though, this was not going to be just another ordinary game. Sure enough, the Giants answered, and after an electrifying 68 yard touchdown pass from Manning to Hakeem Nicks (a play that came after Nicks dropped two consecutive passes and was bailed out both times by a pass interference call on Eagles corner Quentin Mikell) the Giants cut the Philadelphia lead to 14-10. The game would continue like this for pretty much the rest of its duration. Just when it looked like the Eagles had extended their lead for good, Eli would lead Big Blue right back into the game. The momentum was passed back and forth more times than Snookie on an episode of Jersey Shore.

When the Giants finally took the lead in the middle of the third quarter on a 61 yard touchdown pass to Domenik Hixon, Giants Stadium erupted in a way that I haven’t seen in a long time. The play started out as short pass that Hixon turned into the second big play of the game for the Giants, when he broke several tackles en route to his second electrifying touchdown in as many weeks. When Lawrence Tynes’ extra point sailed through the uprights in the east end zone to give us a 31-30 lead, the place went bonkers. In fact, if you didn’t know any better you would think that Oprah just gave every single person in the stadium a new car. There was the whole deal: awkward man hugs, way too many high-fives, my brother slumped in his seat like he was just assassinated, and far too many old men dancing to Notorious B.I.G. So basically, it was everything I love about football.

A few commercials and a kickoff later, and McNabb found DeSean Jackson for a 60 yard touchdown pass that looked so easy I could have sworn that the play was blown dead and I just hadn’t heard the whistle. No such luck. Eagles 37, Giants 31. I haven’t gone from utterly ecstatic to utterly devastated that quickly since that one Christmas morning 15 years ago when I found a letter from Santa on the dining room table and then realized that his handwriting was exactly the same as my mom’s.

The rest is history. Leonard Weaver from 1 yard out to make it 45-31. The Giants add the obligatory late game touchdown to pull within 7, followed by the obligatory onside kick attempt and the inevitable kick that goes out of bounds. Game, set and match, Giants are in third place. So how did we get to that point, and what is there to look forward to as we head into the home stretch of this anything-but-ordinary 2009 season? I’m glad you asked. Let’s hear the bad news first, and then the good news, since that’s the way I like to do it and this is my column.

The Negatives

- Too many dropped passes. There were drops on Sunday night and then there were drops. You know, the kind of drops where your only reaction is to put both of your hands on top of your head and remark more than once about how you “can’t believe it”. I can’t even tell you how many times this happened on Sunday night. Hakeem Nicks did it. Mario Manningham did it. Heck, even Michael Boley dropped an interception that would have been a sure touchdown in the third quarter. Fortunately, Nicks was bailed out by Quentin Mikell three times on one drive (two pass interference calls and one awful missed tackle on his touchdown), but for the most part the Giants receivers were catching like they were wearing boxing gloves on Sunday night. It got so bad that I was waiting for someone to come out with glue on their hands like the kid from Little Giants.

Philadelphia Eagles Donovan McNabb reacts after a touchdown in the fourth quarter against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium

- Missed tackles. The tackling also could not get any worse. Our linebackers and secondary dove at Eagles receivers like they were trying to pull a flag out of their pants, not make an actual tackle. On his 72 yard punt return in the second quarter that give Philly a 24-10 lead, DeSean Jackson actually ran backwards for a few steps to avoid tacklers before accelerating down the near sideline. He backpeddled, changed direction, and still managed to avoid even being touched. Enough said.

- The secondary. Listen, I could fill up a whole 3,000 word column about the Giants secondary, so I’ll save my time (and yours) by saying that everytime McNabb took a seven-step drop and threw the ball downfield, my hands went right to the top of my head as if I knew that someone in a white and green jersey was going to be wide open. Almost 90% of the time, I was exactly right. The worst of this was the aforementioned backbreaking touchdown pass to Jackson. Almost as bad as that: on a 3rd and 20 on the final drive of the first half, with the Giants trailing 24-17 and trying to hang within a score heading into halftime, McNabb found Jackson for a 44 yard gain in the middle of the field to the Giants’ 24 that led to Michael Vick’s 1 yard touchdown run and a 30-17 lead. There is no way that NFL receivers should be that wide open that often. Yet somehow, it happened on Sunday night.

The Positives

- Eli Manning. He did everything he had to do to win. You could not possibly ask of anything else from a quarterback. He put 38 points on the board. In the NFL, when you score 38 points and outgain your opponent 512-374, you’re supposed to win the game. His defense let him down, and that’s it. His numbers (27/38, 391 yards, 3 TDs) marked a career-high in passing yards, breaking the mark he set a few weeks ago against Atlanta, and prove that he kept the Giants in the game and gave them a chance to win up to the very last moment. That’s all you can ask of him.

- Run defense. Although we got absolutely shredded through the air, we held the Eagles backs to only 77 yards on the ground. Furthermore, Jacobs and Bradshaw combined for 133 yards on the ground. Even if it’s not the best we’ve seen from the two, they both picked up a few big first downs and did what they had to do to open up the passing lanes for Manning.

- The future. With three games left in the 2009 season and a 7-6 record, one would assume that the future is looking bleak for Big Blue. However, we know better than to count anyone out yet. After all, this is the NFL. With the Giants only one game behind the Cowboys, it is more than possible for us to sneak past Dallas in the final weeks to grab the final wild card spot in the NFC. The Cowboys will play the Saints, Redskins and Eagles in their final three games, starting Saturday night in New Orleans, and we all know that there is no such thing as a sure thing for the Dallas Cowboys in the month of December. Even the Redskins will be a test for Dallas. Two losses for the Cowboys in the their next three and two wins for the Giants will give us a playoff birth at 9-7. The Giants last three opponents: Washington, Carolina and Minnesota.

Clearly the playoffs are not yet out of the question. So the question is, can we start covering some receivers?


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NFL Week 14 Picks

10 12 2009

It’s been a few weeks since my last full NFL picks column, so I’m taking the time to give you Week 14, no holds-barred. The Thursday night games have been throwing me off because now I need to have my picks done a full 3 days before I usually do them, so thanks a lot NFL Network, for throwing me off my comfortable routine, and also for providing meaningless games that almost nobody cares about. Come on, Bears-Niners? Jets-Bills, in Canada? Tonight is no better. Steelers-Browns? These games are making me feel fine with the fact that Cablevision doesn’t get the NFL Network. No complaints so far. So let’s get to the picks. As usual, home teams in all caps.

Pittsburgh (-10) over CLEVELAND

Look, I know that I’ve shamelessly name-dropped my fantasy football team so many times in this column that I’m starting to sound like Nicholas Cage plugging another bad movie on Letterman. However, I’m now in the playoffs (at 6-7, it’s a miracle) and it’s starting to get important. At this point in the year, with Michael Turner limping around like House, my most reliable player has become Rashard Mendenhall, a guy I claimed off waivers in Week 4. Tonight they’re expecting a lot of snow in Cleveland. This game has “150 yards, 2 TDs” written all over it for Mendenhall against a weak Cleveland run defense that’s among the bottom 5 in the league. Am I excited about the possibility of him racking up 30 fantasy points on a bad ankle? Yes, absolutely, especially when the team I’m going against has Drew Brees and Chris Johnson. Okay I promise, that’s enough about my fantasy team for at least another 500 words.

Denver (+7) over INDIANAPOLIS

It’s Week 14 and we still have two teams that are undefeated. Some may call it a remarkable season, I just call it the biggest piece of evidence to show that the league has more bad teams this season than ever before. It’s not that the Saints and Colts are that remarkably good, it’s that the teams they are playing (for the most part) are remarkably bad. You mean to tell me that it’s just a huge coincidence that in the 37 years since the ’72 Dolphins we’ve had only one team go undefeated in the regular season (’07 Pats, of course) and now all of a sudden we might have two in one season?

Cincinnati (+7) over MINNESOTA

The 2009 Bengals are a lot like Santa Claus in that I want to believe that they are for real. So I will, for now. I will keep believing, even when Carson Palmer throws 16 passes a game.  (sentence deleted because of content about fantasy team). The people of Cincinnati are rejoicing because this is a team that is one year removed from an 0-8 start and now they have clinched only their second winning season since 1991. That’s fascinating. They’ll have an even bigger reason to celebrate if they can hand the Vikings a second straight loss on Sunday.

TAMPA BAY (+3) over NY Jets

Why am I taking the 1-11 Bucs over the Jets? Because they are the feistiest 1-11 team I’ve ever seen. Also because Kellen Clemens will make the start in place of an injured Mark Sanchez (out with a knee). Luckily, Joe Girardi came last week and showed poor Mark how to slide correctly. Fortunately Rex Ryan was able to get Girardi, because the other option was to get Jose Reyes to come in and show Sanchez how to milk a minor knee injury for 5 months.

Green Bay (-3) over CHICAGO

Okay, I think I’m safe to talk about my fantasy team one more time. I’m excited for this game because I have the Packers defense and I know that they are all staring at a picture of Jay Cutler right now and salivating. I’m thinking of a word that starts with “inter” and rhymes with “ception”. Green Bay is peaking at just the right time for them, and just the wrong time for the Giants. The thing about the NFL is that you need to take care of your own business before you can start counting on other teams to take care of it for you.

New Orleans (-10) over ATLANTA

I don’t know whether to be impressed or confused by the Saints, especially when one week I watch Drew Brees pick apart the New England secondary, and then the next week they’re edging out the Redskins in overtime only because Shaun Suisham can’t kick field goals (don’t worry ‘Skins fans, he was cut this week). WHO ARE YOU, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS? WHO ARE YOU???

Detroit (-13.5) over BALTIMORE

I was wrong about the Baltimore Ravens, I’ll admit it. But then again, so was everyone that gushed about them for the first two months of the season. It’s was a nice honeymoon, but I think we’re seeing what it’s like when Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco come back down to Earth. All I’m saying is, let’s not wet our pants just yet. On the other hand, Ray Rice has passed my first test of stardom. When I look at my opponent’s fantasy team (seriously, I promise, this is the last time) and see him on the roster, I actually mutter “oh crap” very softly to no one in particular. That’s what I call the “oh crap” test. Ray Rice has passed that test. Welcome, Ray.

JACKSONVILLE (-3) over Miami

It’s the 2009 Battle of Florida Teams Who Might Be Relevant Again, Only We Can’t Really Tell Yet, We Just Hope This Game Doesn’t Get Blacked Out! Only on CBS! By the way, the Jacksonville Jaguars currently hold one of the wild card spots in the AFC. What I’m trying to say is, if the season ended today (thank God it doesn’t), the Jacksonville Jaguars would be in the playoffs. Their fans can’t even watch them on television at home because they can’t sell out their games. Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 AFC Playoffs!

NEW ENGLAND (-13.5) over Carolina

You know what it means when Bill Belichick starts kicking guys out of practice because they got their $80,000 Hummers stuck in the snow and couldn’t make it to morning meetings on time. It means that it’s Serious Time and when it’s Serious Time, Bill Belichick is serious. It’s not anything like the rest of the year when he’s happy-go-lucky and cracking jokes with the media. Not anymore. He’s cutting off the sleeves to his grey hooded sweatshirt as we speak. I don’t want to be the Panthers defense this week.

HOUSTON (-6) over Seattle

I have nothing to say about this game because I feel like it’s between two 5-7 teams who basically play the same exact game every week. I’m sorry.

TENNESSEE (-13) over St. Louis

Last week was the first time in 5 weeks that I couldn’t tweet “VINCE YOUNG WINS FOOTBALL GAMES” on Sunday night, because Vince Young did not win a football game last week. This week however, Vince Young will win a football game and I can go back to living my life the way that it should be lived. Thank you, Mr. Young.

Washington (-1) over OAKLAND

This is what I don’t get about the Raiders: they’ll beat the Eagles, Bengals and Steelers, but then they’ll get trounced at home by the Redskins on Sunday. Of course I don’t know this for sure, but I can sense it coming. If it doesn’t happen that way, then we can just conveniently forget that I ever wrote this paragraph. Okay?

San Diego (+3) over DALLAS

Around here, in Giants country, we have a name for the Dallas Cowboys in December and January: Choking Hazards. That’s right, I said it. Let’s see you win something, “America’s Team.” I haven’t enjoyed a Giants win as much as I enjoyed last week’s win in a long while. Probably since the last time we beat the Cowboys. I’m not very fond of Philip Rivers either, but you better believe I’ll be a Chargers fan on Sunday.

Philadelphia (+1) over NY GIANTS

I hate games against the Eagles. Do you want to know how much I hate games against the Eagles? I hate them a lot. First of all, my brother is a huge Eagles fan, so the tension that builds up in our house the days leading up to a Giants-Eagles game is both exciting and uncomfortable at the same time. Second, they have demolished us the last three times we played them, with one of those times being last year’s NFC Divisional Playoffs. Needless to say, I’ll be there at the stadium on Sunday night with my brother, so we’ll see how this one goes. The last time I saw a Giants-Eagles game at the Meadowlands in December, Jeff Garcia took apart our defense like he was taking apart a bunch of Lego’s.

Arizona (-3.5) over SAN FRANCISCO

What has my fantasy football season come down to? Listen, if you’ve stuck with me for this long, then you’ll have to hear me out when I say this: my starting quarterback this weekend is Alex Smith. I’ve endured a long 13 weeks going back and forth between the likes of Matt Ryan, Donovan McNabb (even after I swore I would never touch him again after last season) and Carson Palmer (don’t even get me started about him), but now going into the first round of the playoffs, Ryan is M.I.A. like Andy from Shawshank Prison, Palmer is looking at a possible stat line of 9/22, 121 yards, 1 INT this week against Minnesota’s defense and I can’t possibly start McNabb against the Giants (as important as I think fantasy is, it will never come before my allegiance to the Giants). So it’s come down to this. Alex Smith. I’ve dropped so many Alex Smith jokes in the past few years that I know I have terrible karma going into this game. It all goes to show that the fantasy football gods really, truly hate me.

Last Week: N/A (out with a swine flu)

Season Total: 101-75


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They Might Be Giants

7 12 2009

Well, I’m back. I was out of commission this past week, battling a particularly ornery case of the swine flu. Apparently, the Giants are back too. Yes that’s right, that football team from New York that’s been locked in a nosedive since early October (no, not that New York football team) wants to play with the big boys again.

Yesterday, the Giants improved to 3-1 in the NFC East with a somewhat-convincing 31-24 win over the hated Dallas Cowboys. With the win, the Giants captured their first season sweep of the Cowboys since 2004 and most importantly, capture a little bit of the momentum that has eluded them as of late. The win pushes the 7-5 Giants to within one game of the division lead, behind the Cowboys and Eagles, both 8-4.

Looking at the box score from yesterday’s game, you would most likely find it hard to believe that the Giants won the game rather decisively. But as we all know, in football more than any other sport, who wins and who loses goes far beyond what you read in the stat sheet. After all, the Giants were topped in every single statistical category except for rushing yards yesterday (they outgained Dallas 100-45 on the ground). The 31-24 final score doesn’t even tell the entire story; with less than 5 minutes to go in the game, the Giants held a 31-17 lead. The Cowboys cut the lead to 7 with under a minute to play when Romo connected with Miles Austin for a touchdown. The Cowboys soundly beat the Giants in the time of possession battle, holding the ball for more than 38 minutes, to the Giants’ 21:10. They also managed to top us in total yards (424-337), first downs (27-15), total plays (80-49), and they turned the ball over fewer times.

So how did the Giants do it yesterday? Magic. Mostly smoke and mirrors, actually. You see, they were able to suspend an entire second team, just slightly above field level, while keeping them completely invisible to the naked eye– I’m just kidding. The Giants got help yesterday from a little something I like to call The Big Play. We haven’t seen too much of The Big Play this season, mostly because Plaxico Burress and Tiki Barber were our two biggest Big Play contributors in the past, and neither wear blue anymore. And Ahmad Bradshaw, who can typically be counted on to break a Big Play every now and then, is playing on not one, but two sprained ankles. In case you’re keeping score at home, he doesn’t have any more ankles to sprain. He has sprained just about every ankle he has. That’s two. In fact, the Giants number Big Play guy so far this season has been the rookie Hakeem Nicks. The first touchdown of his NFL career was a nifty 54-yard catch and run against Kansas City and his highlight reel 62 yard touchdown catch against Arizona were two of the biggest Big Plays the Giants have seen all year. Until yesterday.

Yesterday the Giants used The Big Play, and they used it well. I mean, how else do you score 31 points when your starting quarterback completes only 11 passes the entire game (11/25, 241 yards, 2 TD)? That’s right, The Big Play. One of these big plays came late in the third quarter, immediately after the Cowboys had just recaptured the lead at 17-14 on Romo’s second touchdown pass of the game to one of their Roy Williamses. The one that catches passes (or doesn’t, if you’re going by his stats from the last two years). Anyway, on the Giants’ first play following that touchdown, Manning swung the ball out into the flat for Brandon Jacobs, who proceeded to make a few defenders miss and then tightroped his way down the near-sideline for 74 yards and a Giants touchdown. I was going to follow that with an analogy about the last time I saw Brandon Jacobs run that fast, until I realized that I have never seen Brandon Jacobs run that fast. Ever. All of a sudden, it was 21-17 Giants, and the momentum was priority-shipped right back to us, and we would never relinquish it.

After a 25-yard pass to Steve Smith (6 rec., 110 yards) and a 29-yard scamper by Bradshaw set up another Tynes field goal to extend the Giants’ lead to 24-17, the rejuvenated Big Blue defense forced Dallas to punt and the Big Play that came next, would serve as the proverbial nail in the coffin. Domenik Hixon returned Mat McBriar’s punt 79 yards for the touchdown, electrifying the Giants Stadium crowd and most importantly, letting Giants fans breathe a little bit easier on the way to victory. The punt return was the Giants first since Chad Morton brought one back against Arizona in the 2005 season opener and it was Hixon’s first return touchdown since he brought back a kick-off against New England in the 2007 finale.

As for the defense…they still allowed a ton of yards. Although they succeeded in shutting down the run game and neutralizing Dallas’ three-headed monster of Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Choice (they allowed 251 yards rushing at Dallas in Week 2), the pass defense still left a lot to be desired. Tony Romo completed 41 of 55 passes for 392 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Jason Witten had a field day, and continued the pattern of tight ends absolutely torching the Giants secondary. His 14 catches for 156 yards were both career highs and I swear that if he converted one more 3rd and 16 with a sliding catch over the middle I was going to chug Windex and light myself on fire. The changes that the coaching staff made to the defense yesterday, starting Kiwanuka over Umenyiora, Chris Canty over Fred Robbins and Johnathan Goff over Chase Blackburn at middle linebacker, seemed to spark the defense where it mattered; Umenyiora ended up recovering a huge Marion Barber fumble at the end of the first half and returning it deep into Dallas territory which led to Brandon Jacobs’ one-yard touchdown run and the Giants 14-10 halftime lead. However, the same weaknesses that we’ve been seeing all season were still exposed yesterday, namely the middle of the field, where Romo picked apart the Giants linebackers by hitting Witten and Austin over and over again on slant routes.

The big difference though, was that the Giants defense stepped up and make stops when they had to, and because of that, Big Blue lives to fight another week. Not only is a win over the Cowboys important in the race for the NFC East, but it’s always sweeter to beat the hated division rivals, not once but twice in one season. Their schedule gets tough over the next few weeks (San Diego and New Orleans) which means that the Giants need to take advantage of this door that has suddenly been re-opened for them. A win at home next week against Philly and the week after that in Washington could put the Giants back in first place. As we all know however, winning in the NFC East is always easier said than done.


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An Open Letter to LeBron James

24 11 2009

I started playing basketball when I was 6 years old. The last time I stepped on a basketball court was senior year of high school. Needless to say, a great majority of my childhood and adolescence revolved around the game of basketball. My winters were spent playing in my township’s rec league on Saturdays and traveling around the state with my travel team on Sundays. My springs were spent watching the New York Knicks religiously.

Believe it or not, I lived and died with the New York Knicks in the 90′s. They were my team. I didn’t get their channel on the 19-inch television in my room, so every night I would fall asleep with a Sony handheld radio under my pillow and I would listen to the soothing voices of Gus Johnson and Walt Frazier call the Knicks games on WFAN. I can’t tell you how many nights I was woken up by one of Gus Johnson’s frenzied calls when John Starks hit a game-winning three or Charles Oakley dove into the press row to save a loose ball. If I dozed off before the game was over, the first thing I would do before I brushed my teeth for school the next morning was turn the radio back on and try to catch the final score.

Although I wasn’t even 7 years old at the time, I can vaguely remember the 1994 Finals against Houston. Luckily, they made it back again in the spring of 1999. After a season shortened by the lock-out, my Knicks made an improbable run to the NBA Finals as the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference. It was one of the best springs of my life. From Allan Houston’s runner in the lane to win Game 5 against Pat Riley and the Heat, to Larry Johnson’s 4-point play in Game 4 of the Conference Finals against the Pacers. I watched that play on my knees with my hands clasped together in front of the TV in my parents bedroom. When Johnson hit that shot over Dale Davis, I jumped so high that I came dangerously close to hitting my head on the ceiling fan. My parents thought that someone dropped a piano through the floor.

In the Finals, we were swept away in five games by a Spurs team that was at the beginning of a run that would bring them 4 titles in the next 7 years. As for us, it was the beginning of the end. After the 1999 Finals, we made one more run the following season, taking the Miami Heat to 7 games in another classic May battle before falling to the Pacers in the Conference Finals. Patrick Ewing was shipped off to Seattle the following offseason and the Knicks have made the playoffs only twice more since then and only posted a winning record once.

Over the next 6 years, I watched an incompetent front office and even more incompetent ownership run a once proud franchise into the ground. The decline of the New York Knicks this past decade has been such an epic disaster that it makes the Titanic look like a bath toy. Something else happened during that time though, something happened between the Knicks and I. We began to grow apart. Like they had done to so many fans, their organization had alienated me. The World’s Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden, a place that had seen NBA Championships and countless legends now houses a failing franchise and the laughingstock of the NBA. The mecca of basketball, a building that never stopped rocking in the city that never sleeps, now struggles to fill its seats.

This where you come in, Mr. James. I, along with just about every other person that still calls themselves a New York Knicks fan, desperately want you to come to New York next summer. In fact, it’s more than that — we need you to come to New York next summer. I know we haven’t won a championship in 36 years and that we haven’t even made the playoffs since 2003, but believe me when I say that New Yorkers are passionate about their basketball. You might not be able to tell at first glance, but we still love our Knicks. We still love our Knicks even if this past decade was like the sports equivalent of going through a messy divorce. Maybe we’re a little more distant now, but we’re still here. Maybe we aren’t as loud as we used to be, but it was them who took away our voice. It was the Jim Dolans and Scott Laydens and Isiah Thomases that took this team away from us, and now we want it back. We want it all back. If you want it too, this is where you’re going to find it. If you want to win a title, we are your best shot. We have cleared enough cap space for 2010 to put an actual supporting cast around you, not just Shaquille O’Neal. If you want to become the biggest superstar the NBA has ever seen, New York is the city that will let you become just that. Come on, I mean Spike Lee is even wearing a #23 Knicks jersey already. And it’s not Toney Douglas.

We need you to save our team, LeBron. We need you to bring basketball back to New York, back to where it belongs, back to Madison Square Garden. We need you to make us matter again. The days of intense April and May playoff battles against the Heat and Pacers are long gone now. Long gone is Patrick Ewing dunking over Alonzo Mourning to win Game 7. Long gone is Allan Houston hitting a jumper over Reggie Miller to ice a Game 6 in Indiana. Long gone is John Starks dunking over Michael Jordan, Jeff Van Gundy swinging on Mourning’s legs and Chris Childs taking a swing at P.J. Brown. It’s all a distant memory now.

LeBron, you can help us remember again. There’s so much history that’s been lost among the wreckage of this decade. With your help, we can start rewriting that history. Adding pages to the legends, and adding banners to the rafters. LeBron James, deep down inside you want to be New York Knickerbocker. So when we send you that invitation next July, come on in and make yourself at home.

Sincerely,

Every New York Knicks Fan Ever

*Because of the short week and the holiday weekend, no picks column for Week 12, but here are my picks:

Green Bay (-11.5) over DETROIT

Oakland (+13.5) over DALLAS

DENVER (+5) over NY Giants

Indianapolis (-3.5) over HOUSTON

CINCINNATI (-14) over Cleveland

MINNESOTA (-11) over Chicago

Washington (+9) over PHILADELPHIA

Miami (-3) over BUFFALO

Arizona (+3) over TENNESSEE

Seattle (-3) over ST. LOUIS

Tampa Bay (+12.5) over ATLANTA

Carolina (+3) over NY JETS

SAN FRANCISCO (-3) over Jacksonville

SAN DIEGO (-13.5) over Kansas City

BALTIMORE (-2.5) over Pittsburgh

New England (+2.5) over NEW ORLEANS

Last Week: 8-7

Season Total: 90-70


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