Quick Hits: Saints 49, Giants 24

29 11 2011

They are who we thought they were. I’m talking about the Giants, of course. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, which means it’s also beginning to look a lot like yet another Giants second-half swoon. There’s no way around this. This is an underachieving team, decimated by injuries and lacking talent in too many key positions. Do you want me to name just a few of the problems with this Giants team?

Let’s start with the linebackers. Our linebacking corps was already paper thin before we lost Michael Boley to an injury last week. Now, with the exception of Mathias Kiwanuka, we’re trotting out a bevy of inexperienced, overmatched linebackers that couldn’t cover furniture. I like Mark Herzlich, he’s got a lot of potential and a ton of heart — but the guy is getting torched in the middle of the field. We are not going to get the job done with Herzlich, Spencer Paysinger and Greg Jones. That trio is not winning us a title. Sure we miss Jonathan Goff right now, but I’m not even convinced that he would be making that big of a difference at this point. The bottom line is that we need to go out and get linebackers that can make some plays.

Moving on, there’s another 270-pound problem I can think of off the top of my head, and his name is Brandon Jacobs. I’ve seriously had enough of Brandon Jacobs as a running back for the New York Giants. Listen Brandon, I’ve cheered for you for 7 years, I was there in Giants Stadium when you trucked your first helpless safety and scored your first career touchdown back in 2005, and we’ve had some special times together. But it’s over. I can’t sit by and watch you tip-toe into a pile of bodies anymore and routinely turn in 46-yard outings like everything’s okay.

And that touchdown dance you did last night with the scoreboard reading SAINTS 21, GIANTS 9? That was embarrassing buddy. I was literally sitting there watching you on TV, getting red-in-the-face embarrassed for you. How you can perform so poorly week after week, constantly run your mouth about everything from the fans to the offensive game plan, and then have the audacity to dance after a touchdown in a game in which your team got its doors blown off, just baffles the mind.

As far as I’m concerned, Brandon Jacobs is dead to me as a football player.

What’s next? How about the fact that this team continues to follow the same script year in and year out? Here’s how it goes: We’re coming off of a disappointing and deflating loss, we talk about how we’re “fired up” and “just focused on preparing for next week” in the media all week, we vow to overcome the disappointment and rise to the occasion, and then we get blown to smithereens on Sunday. It happened in 2009: a heartbreaking loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by momentary signs of life the next week in Washington, and then a complete and utter implosion in back-to-back weeks to end the season, giving up 41 and 44 points to Carolina and Minnesota. It happened again last year: a heartbreaking loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by a 45-17 whacking at the hands of Green Bay. And it’s happening right now: a heartbreaking (and god-awful) loss at home to Philadelphia, followed by Drew Brees putting up 49 points and carving us up like he was playing the scout team defense.

This team has no heart. That’s really all there is to it. Howard Cross put it perfectly last night during the radio broadcast when he said that the Giants are weak right now, and teams are coming in to play them knowing that all they have to do is hit them in the mouth a few times and they’ll just lay down. They just don’t have any fight in them. Perry Fewell is running up and down the damn sidelines last night after the hit on Hakeem Nicks, just trying to get this team fired up and there’s no response. We’re letting Drew Brees run amok, dunking the ball through goal posts when the guy probably needs a ladder to decorate his Christmas tree.

Even last week, our quarterback is clearly hit well after the play on an interception return, a dirty hit that was an obvious attempt to take out our franchise quarterback, and the only response we get is a miffed Antrel Rolle saying after the game that he wished he could have done something to retaliate. Are you kidding me? There’s no heartbeat on this team aside from Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and probably JPP.

Eli’s completing 21 consecutive passes in the second half with two receivers out there (Jernigan and Devin Thomas) who were strictly special teams players a few weeks ago. He’s turned a nobody like Victor Cruz into one of the top receivers in the league this season and we’re all content to just stand around and watch him.

Listen, I don’t want this to sound like another retread of last week’s rant, but frankly nothing has changed from last week to now. And the fact of the matter is that everything is unfolding exactly like I said it would. So am I surprised? No, not really. But that doesn’t mean I still can’t be disappointed. I’m disappointed that a team with so much potential can be bullied all over the field for 60 straight minutes in back-to-back games. It’s only going to get worse too.

I don’t care too much for Russ Salzberg, but what he said on the Giants postgame show last night was perfect: the Giants coming off of three straight losses and having to face Aaron Rodgers and the undefeated Packers is going to be like getting your teeth drilled by an auto mechanic. I’m not even entirely sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it pretty much sums up this entire Giants season. And last season too, for that matter. Maybe even 2009.


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The 2010 Schedule Is Here!

21 04 2010
NCAA Lacrosse: BIG CITY Classic - North Carolina vs Virginia APR 10

Hey look, it's the "New" Meadowlands Stadium.

Last night, the NFL (that’s the National Football League for those of you out of the loop) finally released the 2010 regular schedule in preparation for Thursday night’s draft. Earlier in the day, Roger Goodell leaked the season-opening Thursday night match-up in an online chat. That game, a much anticipated rematch of last season’s NFC Championship Game between the Vikings and Saints will hopefully kick off the 2010-2011 season with a lot of excitement and a lot less Black Eyed Peas (Please NFL, I beg of you, can we just stop the pregame “concert” that usually goes with this event? I guarantee you that a good 80% of NFL fans couldn’t care less about Fergie or Rihanna. And if I even so much as catch a whiff of Justin Bieber at any NFL-sanctioned event this season, I swear that we will be having a serious talk).

Anyway, I have for you, right here in this column, an exclusive look at the Giants 2010-2011 regular season schedule. I use the word “exclusive” rather lightly here, because I’m sure that every single major sports news outlet and blog on the internet has the information already. Take it from me though, very few sports blogs care about a random arrangement of opponents, dates, and times more than I do, for every April I patiently await the release of the new NFL schedule like Christmas Day. That would make today the day after Christmas, where I swear that I will not eat anything until after New Year’s and that I will not watch A Christmas Story again for another 364 days.

Week 1

September 12th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants vs. Carolina Panthers

It’s only fitting that the team we closed out the old Giants Stadium with is the team we’ll be playing to open up the New Meadowlands Stadium, although I’ve tried as hard as I could to keep that last game against the Panthers deeply repressed beneath memories of Dave Brown and that snowball game against San Diego. By the way, is there a worse name for a stadium than the one we have now? I mean, we know it’s new, right? Why don’t we just call it “Meadowlands Stadium” then? Why do we need the “New”? Besides, are they going to change it after a few seasons to “Lightly-Used, But Still Smells Like It’s New Meadowlands Stadium”? I’m all for keeping the name out of the hands of a corporate sponsor, but if we’re going to do that, let’s think of something a little more creative then.

Week 2

September 19th, 8:20 p.m. NBC Sunday Night Football

Giants at Indianapolis Colts

Manning Bowl II! I absolutely cannot wait for this game, much like I couldn’t wait for the first Manning Bowl. I was at that game back in 2006 when we opened the season against Peyton and the Colts (who would ultimately go on to win the Super Bowl) and I remember thinking about how much more confident Peyton was in running the offense than Eli was. Even though little brother held his own in that game and we only lost 26-21, I remember thinking how great it would be if Eli became even half as good as his big brother one day. Then the next year we ended up winning the Super Bowl and it was Eli hoisting that Lombardi Trophy just like Peyton. I guess that wish came true.

Week 3

September 26th, 1 p.m. CBS

Giants vs. Tennessee Titans

The last time we faced Vince Young and the Titans was a total nightmare. I’m sure everyone remembers that game back in 2006. I believe it was November 26th. We jumped out to a 21-0 lead and everything was right with the world…until the defense completely collapsed, Vince Young started playing like Randall Cunningham from the early 90′s and then Rob Bironas kicked our hearts out with 2 seconds left in regulation to give Tennessee a 24-21 victory. That one still stings. The last time we hosted the Titans? Almost as bad. We squandered a 26-14 lead in the fourth quarter and lost in OT to the late Steve McNair 32-29 on December 1, 2003.

Week 4

October 3rd, 8:20 p.m. NBC Sunday Night Football

Giants vs. Chicago Bears

So, this will be our second primetime game in a three-week span. Giants fans know that we either look incredible or absolutely awful in primetime games. Take last season’s stinker against Denver on Thanksgiving night and then the game we played on Monday Night against Washington later in the season. It was like day and night. I hate to keep bringing up bad memories, but the last time we played Chicago on Sunday night was November 12, 2006 and we got annihilated by the Bears. How do I remember that date so vividly? Because I had gotten back from seeing Dane Cook at the Garden and I was watching the game at a bar around the corner and when Devin Hester returned that missed field goal 107 yards for a touchdown before the half I almost threw up on everyone that I was with. However that Bears team eventually played the Colts in the Super Bowl that season, so I guess we get a pass for that one.

Week 5

October 10th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants at Houston Texans

Funny story (or not, it depends). My friends and I have a running joke we use at Giants games when an opposing quarterback is having too easy of a day and we’re not getting enough pressure on him. Usually we’ll yell “SOMEBODY TOUCH (insert quarterback’s name)!” at least once every time that team is on offense. This started back in 2006 at the last Giants-Texans game when the Houston quarterback at the time, David Carr, was running all over our defense. The guy sitting in front of us would stand up after almost every play and yell at the top of his lungs, “SOMEBODY TOUCH DAVID CARR!” Sometimes he would switch it up, depending on the situation and add, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEBODY TOUCH DAVID @#$%&@ CARR!” Anyway, we thought this was hysterical. Maybe you had to be there.

Week 6

October 17th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants vs. Detroit Lions

Weirdly enough, I don’t have any interesting anecdotes or stories involving any past Giants-Lions games. I guess it’s because most games against Detroit end up being mind-numbingly boring or we end up losing and I purposely have a way of forgetting about every game that we’ve lost to the Detroit Lions, for obvious reasons. Anyway, this is a nice afternoon game in mid-October when the weather isn’t really cold yet, but it isn’t hot anymore and nobody knows whether to bring a jacket to the game or not. Usually if you bring a jacket, you end up sitting in the sun the entire game and losing eight pounds of your weight in sweat. Or the weather can throw a giant wrench at your head and it can be 35 degrees with 40 mph wind gusts. I don’t know what this has to do with the Giants and the Lions, but I’m just warning you about mid-October games at the Meadowlands.

Week 7

October 25th, 8:30 p.m. ESPN Monday Night Football

Giants at Dallas Cowboys

This year will mark the latest into the season that we’ve gone without playing a division opponent since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. That’s six weeks without any games against NFC East teams. We kick off divisional play on October 25th at JerryWorld on Monday Night Football. By this point in the season, we’ll either both be going in opposite directions or we’ll both be neck and neck and this game will be an early test of fortitude. I can definitely see both teams being 4-2 going into this game and ESPN hyping it up for a full week and a half.

Week 8

BYE

The good thing about bye weeks is that we never lose.

Week 9

November 7th, 4:05 p.m. FOX

Giants at Seattle Seahawks

I’ve brought back enough bad memories in this column to give you all nightmares and flashbacks for weeks, so I’m going to leave this one alone. I could dig out a handful of bad games we’ve had in Seattle since the 90′s and every one of them would give me the chills and the cold sweats. Like the 5 false start penalties in a row? How about Jay Feely missing three straight game-winning field goals? Falling behind 42-3 in the first half? Brad Daluiso shanking a potential game-winner in the Kingdome? I’m sorry, I just said I wouldn’t do this. Needless to say, Seattle is never nice to us.

Week 10

November 14th, 4:15 p.m. FOX

Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys

We return home for the first time in almost a month and who do we find waiting for us there? Oh, it’s the Dallas Cowboys again. Twice in three games So before we play the Eagles or Redskins even once, we have to face the Cowboys twice? Tell me how that makes any sense? At least we get them out of the way early in the season, because those games tend to give me the most frequent heartburn and eye twitches.

Week 11

November 21st, 8:20 p.m. NBC Sunday Night Football

Giants at Philadelphia Eagles

Speak of the devil! Here are our friends, the Philadelphia Eagles. The team who outscored us 85-55 last season. Good news though Giants fans: Donovan McNabb is gone! The wicked witch is dead! Wait, what was that….you mean he’s still in the division? We still have to play him twice a year? Oh….

Week 12

November 28th, 1 p.m. CBS

Giants vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

This here is the quintessential late-November trap game. It’s a winnable game against a weak opponent in the middle of a bunch of tough divisional games that we are supposed to win by a wide margin, yet we usually find ourselves trailing by a touchdown in the 4th quarter until we finally realize, “Hey, this is the Jacksonville Jaguars, we’re supposed to win this game!” and we squeak by in the last 5 minutes.

Week 13

December 5th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants vs. Washington Redskins

The good news: we don’t have to see Donovan McNabb until December. The bad news: I can see us going into this game at 7-5 and really needing a win to stay in the NFC East hunt and the playoff hunt. And facing Donovan McNabb with our season on the line is something that always makes me a little uneasy. (See 2009; 2008)

Week 14

December 12th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants at Minnesota Vikings

For the 96th season in a row, we have to travel to the Metrodome to play the Minnesota Vikings in December/January. We’ve lost the last two games in Minnesota, however neither game mattered. In 2008 we had already clinched home-field advantage and last year we had already been eliminated from the playoffs the previous week. This season the game will hopefully be a little more important. Plus, we’re still in that stage of the year where we don’t know whether or not Brett Favre will be returning or retiring! Always a fun time. I like to call this period, usually from April to August, “Favre Limbo”.

Week 15

December 19th, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants vs. Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles again. How will the first year of the Kevin Kolb Era turn out for Philly? I’m guessing that by this point in the season we should have a pretty good idea of whether or not the Eagles made a monumental mistake in ditching Donovan.

Week 16

December 26th, 4:15 p.m. FOX

Giants at Green Bay Packers

Eli vs. Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau on the day after Christmas. I’m anxiously anticipating this game. I think it has a lot of potential to be a great game and hopefully by Week 16 it will actually mean something. Although I won’t be complaining if we already have a playoff spot locked up by then. Even so, the match-up between Manning and Rodgers, two talented young quarterbacks, should be intriguing enough on its own.

Week 17

January 2nd, 1 p.m. FOX

Giants at Washington Redskins

We will end the 2010-2011 regular season on second day of 2011 against the Washington Redskins. What will this game mean? I’m not about to start projecting in April, it’s still way too early in my opinion. For all I know, we could be 11-4 at this point, we could be 8-7 or we could be 6-9, I have no clue. All I know is that if there is a playoff spot on the line and Mike Shanahan and Donovan McNabb are standing in our way, this could be another classic, old-fashioned NFC East slugfest.

On Thursday night, I should be rolling out a live running diary for the first 10-15 picks of the NFL Draft, so stay tuned for that.


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The Endless Appeal of the Underdog

5 04 2010

Don't pretend that you won't be openly rooting for Butler tonight.

Tonight, when Opening Day is winding down and Mets fans have been painfully reminded of just how bad our team really is, two college basketball teams will take the court in Indianapolis for a shot at the 2010 NCAA Men’s National Championship. One of those teams, the Duke Blue Devils, is coached by Mike Krzyzewski, with a total of 76 NCAA tournament wins under his belt and 4 national titles in the last 19 years, along with a handful of Final Four appearances.

The other team that will battle it out in Indy tonight? The Butler Bulldogs. Representing the Horizon League, a mid-major conference that also includes the basketball powerhouses of Cleveland State, Detroit, Green Bay (this conference sounds more like the NFC North), UW-Milwaukee and Valparaiso, Butler is the embodiment of every small school across the nation with big dreams.

Although I picked Butler to go down in the first round of this year’s tournament to UTEP, there was a part of me that always knew that they could make a run to the national championship (I’m just kidding). However, even though I didn’t pick them to make it past the first day, I am going to be rooting for them like my bracket depended on it (it’s been in the garbage since the Sweet 16) when they tip-off against Duke tonight.

Chances are, you’ll be rooting for Butler too, and I know exactly why. It’s because we, as Americans and as sports fans, don’t love anything more than a good, compelling, inspiring underdog story. I mean, we (America) were even underdogs ourselves at one point in history. Yeah, I’m absolutely talking about the Revolutionary War. Don’t think that I can’t slip a little history lesson into a column about the Final Four, because I can, AND I JUST DID.

Anyway, the allure of the underdog is something we can never seem to resist. Whether or not you’re a sports fan, chances are that you’re familiar with the phenomenon of the underdog. In fact, if there was no such thing as the underdog, Hollywood would probably have run out of movie ideas 40 years ago. Either that, or we’d be getting ready for the release of Transformers 28: Cooking With Optimus Prime.

You can find a quality underdog story in pretty much 85-90% of the movies you watch. Forrest Gump? Underdog story. Hoosiers? Underdog story. Rudy? The ultimate underdog story. We love underdogs in this country. Actually, that’s inaccurate – the entire world loves underdogs. The movie that won Best Picture at the Oscars two years ago, Slumdog Millionaire, was an underdog story from beginning to end. Why do we love underdogs so much? It’s because everyone likes to believe that they are the underdog deep down inside. We root for the underdogs because if they can do it, then anyone can.

Underdogs in sports encapsulate all the things that we love about the typical Hollywood underdog story, only playing out in real life, right before our eyes. I can’t help getting constantly sucked into falling for underdogs. I can probably trace it all back to the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals when the Rangers beat the Canucks in seven games. I was 7 years old at the time and not even a huge hockey fan, but I was oddly drawn to the series and the underdog story that surrounded the Rangers, who were trying to end their 54-year championship drought.

Since then, I’ve been captivated by a number of underdog teams over the years, in pretty much every sport. The Florida Marlins in 1997 and 2003, a team with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball that made two improbable postseason runs in 6 years and won two World Series titles; the 2004 Boston Red Sox, probably one of the most memorable underdog stories of the last few decades, the team that came back from a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in the ALCS to break their 86 year World Series drought; George Mason’s unforgettable road to the Final Four in 2006 (much like the 2009-2010 Butler Bulldogs); the Colorado Rockies and Tampa Bay Rays World Series runs in 2007 and 2008 which unfortunately fell short, and of course the 2007 New York Giants, the road warriors who beat the 18-0 Patriots to the throne to claim the Lombardi Trophy.

Underdogs are not a new concept either. Even the Bible features an underdog story, probably the father of all underdog stories. Ever hear of David and Goliath? Yeah, that’s right, even Jesus was a fan of underdogs. Underdogs aren’t just fun to watch and root for, they also serve as ways to inspire us, and also ways for us to lose tons of money by betting against them.

Here’s a guide to the four different kinds of underdog teams you might encounter in sports. Think of it as a field guide for beginners, as well as a way to help you recognize these Teams of Destiny so that you won’t make the mistake of betting against them and end up trying to back over your own foot with your SUV.

1) The Championship Drought Underdog

This underdog story usually features a team that has either never won a championship in its history, or a team that hasn’t won a championship in a ton of years. A team like the 2004 Red Sox for example, which hadn’t won a World Series since the Ford Model T was cutting-edge engineering. This team will go through their entire postseason run with their incredibly lengthy drought being mentioned at every possible opportunity and beaten into the ground by announcers and analysts almost to the point where they’re almost trying to turn you against them. You can guarantee that every time the Chicago Cubs make the playoffs that Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will do everything but hold a séance on the pitcher’s mound for the ghosts of the 1908 Cubs.

The Championship Drought Underdog is unique from all other underdogs because they can sometimes be a very respected and storied franchise. They might even make the playoffs year in and year out, but they’re still classified as underdogs because they can never seem to break past the imaginary wall that’s keeping them from winning the title. Think of them as the sports equivalent of that one friend you has no problem with meeting girls at bars and getting their number, but just can never seem to be able to seal the deal.
When a Championship Drought Underdog, or CDU, finally breaks through and wins that title, it’s a surreal feeling. It’s the feeling of experiencing something you thought would never happen in your lifetime.

2) “The Little Team That Could” Underdogs

These underdogs are usually teams that have been bullied for years in their respective divisions and are usually perennial doormats. They have a miniscule payroll and their roster is often filled with either names you’ve never heard of or names you can’t even pronounce, but somehow they band together and make an improbable run for to the postseason. These teams are usually the product of “right place at the right time” circumstances and everything short of the planets lining up and raining gold coins on their practice facility. What are some recent examples of this? The 2008 Arizona Cardinals certainly come to mind, also the 2009 New Orleans Saints, the 2007 Colorado Rockies, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, and probably a ton of other teams I’m forgetting right now.

The thing about these types of underdogs is that you often don’t see them coming. Sometimes they come out of nowhere and sometimes, they disappear right back to nowhere when their magical run is over. You can never tell when one of these kinds of underdogs can pop up, and that’s why they’re so dangerous.

3) The “Injured Star Player” Underdog

This kind of underdog is fairly self-explanatory. Usually it’s a team that is missing its best player due to injury, or retirement, or felony conviction….yet the team still continues to roll on almost inexplicably. Often, this team will come together amidst the adversity of losing their best player and use it as motivation to win. Other times, the team’s inexplicable run will allow people to realize that maybe this star player wasn’t really that important after all. A classic example of this kind of underdog is the 2007 New York Giants. They lost the face of their franchise, running back Tiki Barber, to retirement at the end of the previous season, and then lost another key player, Jeremy Shockey, to a broken leg in Week 15. Despite that, they rolled off 7 straight wins and won the Super Bowl. No big deal.

4) The “Where Is That School?” Underdog

This underdog is very similar to the second type, but it applies only to college, whereas the “Little Team That Could” mostly applies to the pros. The Butler Bulldogs would fall into this category. I’ll admit that I had no clue that Butler University was located 5 miles from Lucas Oil Stadium until I saw it on ESPN a week ago, after their Final Four berth. Some other examples of the “Where is that school?” underdog that I can think of off the top of my head would be the 2006 George Mason basketball team, the 2008 Appalachian State football team that upset Michigan, and even the 2006 Rutgers football team that rose all the way to #6 in the BCS before crashing back to Earth. I’m sure everyone knows that Rutgers University is in New Jersey now, but they sure as hell didn’t know in 2006.

So, after all that, we’re back to the Butler Bulldogs. With a sure-fire future NBA player in Gordon Hayward leading the way, they’re not as big of a long-shot as most people assume. According to just about every team that they’ve beaten in this tournament so far (Syracuse, Kansas State, Michigan State) they’re not really sneaking up on anyone. Nevertheless, they are still proving an enormous point that advocates of the BCS for college football have failed to even consider: that a small school from a even smaller conference can have a legitimate shot at winning a national championship in a major sport.

Tonight, the Butler Bulldogs from the Horizon League will play what might be considered a home-game, for a national title, 5 miles down the road from their campus. Only instead of Hinkle Fieldhouse, it will be in front of almost 72,000 people at Lucas Oil Stadium. A real-life David and Goliath story, the big, bad Duke Blue Devils against the little mid-major team from Indiana. I couldn’t be more excited.


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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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Making Sense of Week 10

16 11 2009

With the Giants not playing yesterday, I had a better chance to really absorb the other games going on around the league and take a closer look into some of the more interesting stories that unfolded in Week 10 of this NFL season. There were more than a few interesting subplots to take away from yesterday’s action. From near-upsets to head-scratching coaching decisions, Week 10 was like one long of episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Moments of laughter, moments of confusion and moments that make you wonder, “Did he really just do that?” But above all those things, yesterday just proved to me, once again, that I really do not have a clue how to pick NFL games.

  • Since I’m likely to finish below .500 in my picks for the second straight week, I’d like to at least take a few sentences to acknowledge that I am capable of getting something right. In my Week 10 picks column, I wrote that Vince Young had revitalized the Titans in a way that they desperately needed. He provides an extra intangible spark that Kerry Collins didn’t possess and with him on the field it seems that the team as a whole is playing with a lot more confidence now. That has never been more apparent than yesterday’s 41-17 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills. Of course I’m aware that they beat the Bills and not the Colts, but Tennessee has now won three in a row with Young under center.  I’m aware that anyone with even a portion of a normally-functioning brain could tell that replacing Collins as the starter would spark the Titans, but I still feel proud to be able to salvage some sliver of wisdom from my defeated and drained psyche.
  • I’m aware that even the best teams in the league have their off days, but the Saints really escaped with one yesterday. And by escaped, I mean that they did everything but have Michael Scofield tattoo prison blueprints to his body and get arrested so he could help them escape. The Saints were sloppy yesterday, but the fact that they somehow managed to stick with their gameplan and survive even on their worst of days to stay undefeated, makes them that much better. And if that doesn’t make a lot of sense to you now, just wait until the playoffs and you’ll see what I mean. A 9-0 team that loses a sloppy, meaningless Week 10 game to the Rams loses a little bit of their swagger, even if its not immediately noticeable. On the other hand, a 9-0 team that barely escapes the upset and ekes out a win over the Rams in a meaningless Week 10 game gains something from that win. Believe it or not.
  • The Cincinnati Bengals. I’ve been fawning over them all season like I’m a teenage girl from 1994 and the Bengals are Zach Morris from Saved by the Bell. Of course I haven’t been able to pay as much attention to them as I’d like because I took up a seat on the Broncos bandwagon after Week 1 and I have been riding shotgun there ever since. But yesterday, as much as I talked up their defense all week and even though I took them in my picks column, there was something in the back of my mind that told me that they couldn’t beat the Steelers on the road in the most important game of the season thus far in the AFC North. And then they did. 18-12. They scored the only touchdown of the entire game on Bernard Scott’s 96-yard kickoff return in the first quarter and 4 Shayne Graham field goals later, the Bengals are 7-2 and all alone in first place in the AFC North. With a 5-0 record within the division, they are in the driver’s seat right now, having swept both the Ravens and the defending Super Bowl champs and one more meeting with the hapless Browns is the only thing that stand between Cincy and a 6-0 record in the AFC North and possibly a first-round bye in the playoffs. Needless to say, I vacated the Broncos bandwagon after yesterday’s disaster in Washington so quickly that I think I left a vapor trail and now I’m on the waiting list for the Cincinnati bandwagon. I know I should have come to them sooner.
  • Speaking of the Broncos, they are slumping, and they are slumping big time. And speaking of slumping, there’s another team that continued its struggles yesterday that starts with “Atlanta” and ends with “Falcons”. While the Broncos were busy dropping their third straight game to a Redskins team that can’t get out of its own way, the Falcons went ahead and lost for the third time in four games. Atlanta, now 5-4 after a 4-1 start to the season, apparently has a strong case of the homesick blues as all four of their losses have come away from the Georgia Dome. The road woes will be in play once again next week as the Falcons travel to Giants Stadium to take on a Giants team that is also struggling. In addition, Atlanta might be without star running back Michael Turner, who rolled his ankle yesterday in the second quarter, after piling up 111 yards on only 9 carries. While this could be disastrous for my already sinking fantasy team, it’s a good thing for Giants fans, which I am. The Broncos aren’t without injury issues of their own, as Kyle Orton went down with an ankle injury yesterday as well. Chris Simms started the second half for Denver, which might seem like a bad thing, until you realize that the difference between Kyle Orton and Chris Simms is like the difference between Sweet & Low and Equal. They’re both bad for you, but one is a little less worse. Fortunately for both teams, the Falcons still have two games to play against the Bucs and the Broncos play in the same division as the Raiders and Chiefs. Hope remains.
  • The Dallas Cowboys are not really making it hard for me to question their legitimacy. They put on a strong performance one week and then have a game like they did against the Kansas City Chiefs the week after. Last week, they seemed to be in top form; and then yesterday they get shutout by Green Bay for 58 minutes. I’m not saying the Packers are bad, because they are far from it, but this is a Packers defense that got torched for 38 points by Tampa Bay last week and are apparently having identity issues themselves. Romo looked his usual, scared self, and most importantly, Dallas just could not get the run game going with Marion Barber being held to only 26 yards on 5 carries. Romo was forced to throw the ball 39 times, and everybody knows that when Tony Romo is throwing the ball 39 times, things are not going well. Had I stayed home to watch football yesterday, I would have been stuck watching the Cowboys-Packers with nothing else to toggle back-and-forth between. However, I decided to go to the local sports pub for the 4:00 games and possibly saved myself from sticking bamboo up my fingernails to ease the torture of a 3-0 game in the 4th quarter combined with the drone of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
  • What will possibly end up being the most-talked-about story of yesterday and the most heavily questioned coaching decision in recent memory happened during last night’s much anticipated, annual Patriots-Colts battle. With the Pats up 34-28 and just over 2 minutes to play, Bill Belichick opted to go for it on a 4th and 2 with the ball on the Pats’ own 28-yard line. As Tom Brady came back on the field and the team lined up to go for it, all I remember is that I kept repeating, “No they’re not, they can’t be” as I watched in horror. Sure enough, they did not convert and at the two-minute warning, with three full timeouts left, Peyton Manning had but a mere 28 yards to take his team for the game-winning touchdown. Instead of punting it away and leaving Manning with maybe 60 or 70 yards to march in 2 minutes, Belichick made Peyton’s job at least 50% easier for him. In case Bill wasn’t aware of this, Peyton Manning is perhaps one of the few players in the NFL that you don’t want to ever make things easier for. It’s already easy for him. Is it highly possibly that Manning would take the Colts down the field for the score anyway, even if New England punted? Yes, very possible. BUT WHY MAKE HIS JOB EASIER? It took Indy four plays until Manning found Reggie Wayne in the endzone. 35-34, game over, Colts stay undefeated. Not only did the Patriots blow a 34-21 lead with 4 minutes to play and possibly a chance to recapture the throne of power in the AFC, but their supposedly genius coach suffered one of the most epic brain farts of all time. I swear that I’ve made decisions with a BAC of 2.25 that were better than that decision to go for it on fourth down.
  • And before I sign off for the rest of the week and mentally prepare myself for the Giants-Falcons game on Sunday, it would not be right if I didn’t get in at least one dig at the New York Jets. Not only has Gang Green dropped 5 of their last 6 games after their rather arrogant 3-0 start, but they’ve lost to the Dolphins twice, the Bills and now the Jacksonville Jaguars, with 3 of those losses coming on their home turf. Forget for the second that somehow the Jaguars are 5-4, losing to Jacksonville, Miami and Buffalo at home is not going to make a lot of people believers. Keep up the good work, and you might be able to salvage a 6-10 record out of this season.

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