As it seems many readers are into football as much as I am, a quick wrap up of the games and a new comments section. "Ben-Hur" was on last night on the classic movie channel and I forgot how much I love that film!
Wrap Up
The New England Patriots really got back to their roots (not 2007 roots!) and looked much better this week. The defense was actually pretty solid and finally, FINALLY they ran Fred Taylor who is the key in my mind for this team. Tom Brady is nowhere near back to form, and the Pats must give him time to grow into the game again. Big win over and NFC top tier team. Next up, the Baltimore Ravens who looked scary today. 2-2 is not bad though after 4 games, right?
I really cannot believe the Saints won in Buffalo. It is not that I think the Bills are better, but as a LONG time Saints fan these types of games they almost always lose. If the Saints running game is for real (it has been for 3 games) they are my favorites for the NFC.
We all had a bit of fun when I offered the question whether the Bengals could shock the Steelers. I had a funny feeling about that game, but really did not think it would happen. It happened. The hardest thing in my mind about being the champs is every team you play will play like it is the Superbowl to them. That is why repeating title runs is rare. I have to check the schedule, but the Ravens-Steelers games now take on way more importance after Pittsburgh's 2nd loss.
Miami has now had 2 games where they dominate time of possession (1st half anyway) but fail to really accomplish anything with the ball other than move it. Their defense also seems to have lost a step. With a brutal schedule ahead, I think the Dolphins are facing a real challenge.
Hello, Denver 3-0? I am a bit surprised here. While Josh McDaniels is an offensive genius, the Broncos seem to be defending pretty well, which was their issue last year. Whenever they play San Diego is a huge game.
The Titans lost to the Jets due to a span of 30 seconds. A silly touchdown call on a Mark Sanchez run into the end zone led to a fumbled kickoff as well. The Titans are in a bad spot.
I really cannot believe the Vikings and Brett Favre pulled off that win. Wild. This loss aside, the 49ers are for real this year. They should tell Michael Crabtree to enjoy the draft for the 2nd time next year! Next week, Green Bay vs Minnesota in the ultimate grudge match!
Hats off to the Detroit Lions who won for the first time since 2007 today. Great job guys!
Tonight the Colts and the Cardinals could be an explosive display of offense. Worth a look!
That is about it. I said this year would be the most competitive ever and nothing I have seen so far would change my mind. It is wide open for anyone. Lot's of fun.
Have a good night.
It's a good thing I didn't bet on my football picks. LOL
ReplyDeleteA LOT of the games were decided in the final minutes. I don't feel horrible about my picks at all. Many could literally have gone either way.
C-T,
ReplyDeleteI agree. Plenty of drama today. What do you think abouyt tonight? I think the Colts just have too much for the Crads, but after the early games who knows!
Well, I should have known better than to bet against Belichick and Brady. The former schemed the Falcons brilliantly, took TE Tony Gonzalez out of the game, and the latter, while not quite at 100% yet, proved why he's a champion. The man just knows how to manage a football game and make plays when they need to be made.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by Detroit. They held Washington to 0 yards rushing, 0 3rd down conversions and 0 points for the entire first half. How often does that happen? Against a winless team?? The Redskins are in a lot worse shape than I thought, which of course makes me happy because I hate them.
Who dat? Who dat? Who dat gonna beat dem Saints? That's what those crazy New Orleans fans were chanting when the Saints came into Texas Stadium in 06 and put a whipping on the Cowboys. I was at that game, and I actually felt happy for them. I always like to see a team that has never won a championship rise up and get at least one. It's good for the game, it's good for the league, and it's good for their fans.
Hell, if Baltimore, with Trent Dilfer, and Tampa Bay, with Brad Johnson, can win it all, New Orleans sure can with Drew Brees. That guy is playing out of this world football. And the Saints are going to be hard to beat this year. But it's a long season, so we'll just have to see if they're for real or not. They sure look real to me.
Yeah, Brett Favre is the luckiest quarterback that ever lived, when he's not the unluckiest that is. That desperation throw could have easily gone out of bounds, fell incomplete or been intercepted. But the receiver made one hell of a play on the ball. Incredible. Now if they can do that at Lambeau Field, there will be hell to pay.
I'm so happy the Bengals beat the Steelers. I had a feeling they might, but didn't think they would. Well, they did. So my hat's off to them.
Yeah, Tennessee is about the best 0-3 team I've seen. The Titans are a lot better than their record suggests, but they can't get any breaks. That kid Sanchez in New York though, he's going to be somebody. I don't expect him to maintain this level of performance for the entire season, but give him another year or so, and watch out.
Now you know why I wanted Mike Singletary as head coach for the Cowboys. He's turned the lowly 49ers into a solid football team, because he does not tolerate selfish players. He and T.O. would have never gotten along, which is why Crabtree is scared to sign. But that stupid kid is making a serious mistake. When you get the opportunity to show what you can do in the NFL, you take it and make the best of it. But if you pout and whine and don't show up, there isn't a team out there that's going to pay you what you dream you're worth. He's getting bad advice from his agent.
Anyway, the Patriots beat the Falcons, the Bengals beat the Steelers, the Lions beat the Redskins, anything can happen in this league. Which is why I'm not too confident in the Cowboys' prospects for beating Carolina tomorrow night.
Gawains,
ReplyDeletethanks for your take on today. As I am typing the "fireworks" that was to be the Colts/Cardinals game is a 7-3 defensive struggle! I guess you never know.
Sorry for the economic interruption but check this out:
ReplyDelete"To understand why it's unlikely that employment will come roaring right back, it also helps to dig into the unemployment statistics. In his weekly email letter, John Mauldin dissects the job numbers to show what is really going on.
John calculates the number of jobs we'll need to get back to a 5% unemployment rate (15 million) and asks where those jobs are going to come from. He also observes that, to get to 5% unemployment in 5 years, we'll need to average 250,000 new jobs every month. The average has never been this high, even in a strong economy.
The average job creation over the past 30 years is 50,000 jobs a month. The average job creation from 1991 to 2000 (a major boom) was 150,000 jobs a month. The average in 2006, the best year in the recent boom, was 232,000."
Article via Clusterstock:
http://tinyurl.com/y9wxju5
This does not look good. When will the bulls pull their heads out of thier a##?
NEW YORK (AP) - Half the respondents of a new poll say taxing the richest Americans by at least 50 percent is a great idea, while more than a third consider Twitter a fad that will likely fade.
ReplyDeleteThose are among the findings of a new "60 Minutes"-Vanity Fair Poll released Sunday.
Nearly half of the respondents chose Wal-Mart as the institution that best symbolizes America today, leaving in the dust runners-up Google, Microsoft, the NFL, and the banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs.
Dining out was chosen most often by respondents as a luxury they hate sacrificing in these tough economic times. And 5 percent thought the best way to fight obesity among patrons of fast-food chains is to equip each restaurant with scales for them to weigh themselves.
http://tinyurl.com/y98qjcl
Being I don't watch football or any other professional or college sports just thought I would highlight that Wall Mart symbolizes America best in the poll.
Ain't that the truth.
Kevin
Well, as far as unemployment goes, Mauldin is exactly correct. I think we're going to see at least a decade of slow and minimal, if not negative, growth. You simply cannot grow an economy without job creation. But there is no way this economy can create the number of jobs necessary to get back to 5% unemployment. Oh, and there will be a lot of NFL coaches joinging the ranks of the jobless after this season, if not sooner. Hopefully, every coach in Dallas will be among them.
ReplyDeleteI fear the government is going to raise taxes. In a recession, this is madness. All it will lead to is less job creation, lower growth, higher unemployment, and declining revenues, at the city, county, state, and federal levels, as consumers tighten their belts and reduce spending. In other words, it will be a disaster.
I read an interesting blurb in Peter King's Monday Morning Quarterback over at SI.com this morning. He interviewed one of the Giants about his thoughts on Jerry Jones's monument to himself. Basically, he said it's thrilling and that this was the direction the NFL was going in, toward bigger, more glamorous stadiums.
Oh, really. Yeah, well, the Giants and the Jets are building a new $1+ billion stadium of their own, so it's not surprising he would say that. But I think it's stupid.
Look. For season tickets at the new Cowboys Stadium, it costs somewhere between $15,000 to $35,000 for a personal seat license and $385 per seat per game. And that's just for the cheap seats! Who in their right mind would pay that kind of money to watch a football game in this economy?
In fact, a lot of people who held season tickets at Texas Stadium for decades, simply bought the seats they had sat in for generations at auction, and set them up in their living rooms, planning to simply watch the games on tv and vowing to never set foot in the new stadium.
The NFL, and in particular Jerry Jones, is pricing the common fan out of attending games. Hell, just to fly my brother down from Maine, get a hotel room and game tickets, it cost me over $2500, and we're sitting up in the nosebleeds. But at least we'll gave a view of the Jerrytron, although I have yet to see if that's worth the price.
I don't know if I'll be able to spend that kind of money next season, not if my taxes go up, not if home sales decline, not with this spaceship of a sports car I now have to pay for. It will be the first time in years I haven't flown my brother down for a Cowboys game. And that's the pity of it.
The only thing that happened was the Pats offensive line gave Brady an extra second against a second tier team. It was enough. This time.
ReplyDeleteSee us versus the chargers?
Market's jamming like Bob Marley today, must be that Xerox thing. Yeah, that sounds rational.
ReplyDeleteGood thing that recession thing blew over, was looking scary for a while.
Then we realized it was only imaginary. Everythings fine, back to the malls (we're in bubble-on mode again).
Rob Dawg,
ReplyDeleteOchie! It was like a second and a half extra and the Falcons are not second rate. I was surprised how San Diego handled Miami's running game, they really bottled them up.