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Quick Snaps: NFL Week 5

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I love a good holiday weekend, even if Columbus Day is one of the most controversial federal holidays on the calendar. Maybe the entire country should go the way of Berkeley, CA and change the name to “Indigenous Peoples Day”. If you’re looking for a good read on what this land was like before Columbus and his merry band of disease ridden malcontents arrived, take a look at “1491” by Charles Mann. Excellent and investigative take on the culture and progress of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. But enough of the book review, on to a quick NFL Sunday recap for Week 5.

Quick Snaps

Bills 31 Eagles 24 – The Bills lead the AFC East, MIke Vick broke the career rushing record for an NFL QB, and the Philadelphia Eagles dropped to 1-4 on the season. I joked last week about the need for the Philadelphia Phillies to keep winning to help take some of the pressure off of this abysmal start for the Eagles. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen so while Ryan Howard is at home nursing a torn achilles, the heat is only going to intensify on Andy Reid and his basement dwelling Iggles.

Vikings 34 Cardinals 10 – Speaking of the Eagles, two former Philadelphia QB’s, Kevin Kolb and Donovan McNabb, squared off against one another in the Metrodome yesterday too see who could amass a lower passer efficiency. Adrian Peterson had a good afternoon with 3 early touchdowns and this was the game most people should have taken in their survivor pool. However…

Seahawks 36 Giants 25 – Nearly 70% of remaining survivor pool contestants lost because they bet against Clipboard Jesus. If you look closely, you can find Charlie Whitehurst on the cover of most Southern Rock albums from the 1970’s.

Steelers 38 Titans 17 – I can’t decide if Ben Roethlisberger is really tough or just an attention seeking prima dona. He always seems to have these mysterious injuries which threaten to keep him out of action until he “recovers” in time to put up ridiculous numbers like he did Sunday against the Titans.

Raiders 25 Texans 20 – With the recent passing of Al Davis the football karma gods were clearly on the side of the Raiders Sunday afternoon in Texas. Too bad most young football fans don’t entirely understand the impact Davis had on the NFL. I will forever be thankful to the Raiders owner for two reasons: 1) Bo Jackson and 2) the Lane Kiffin firing announcement.

Chargers 29 Broncos 24 – The Republican Party should consider asking Tim Tebow to run for President in 2012. Think about it, they would be guaranteed a win in at least two swing states, Colorado and Florida, and the QB’s presence in the upcoming debates should be inspiring enough to keep even Rick Perry awake.

Patriots 30 Jets 21 – At this point, Jim Nantz, will all of the New England games he has called over the years, has to own a home in the Foxboro area. At the very least he splits a time share with Phil Simms. Now I’m not saying Nantz favors the Patriots but I did find it a little peculiar when Bill Belichick’s red challenge flag came flying out of the CBS broadcast booth during yesterday’s game with the Jets.

view from the Georgia Dome courtesy of @EricFisherTWC

 

View My Picks: NFL Week 5

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INDIANAPOLIS (-2.5) over Kansas City – This game was much more appealing back when both teams were fresh off of division winning seasons and before Peyton Manning, Eric Berry, and Jamaal Charles suffered season ending injuries. Now all you need to know about this game is that the E squad of Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots are calling the game for CBS.

MINNESOTA (-2.5) over Arizona – A homecoming of sorts for Twin Cities native Larry Fitzgerald whose father, as we all know by now, is a reporter for a Minneapolis newspaper. Here’s a headline for you pops: “CARDINALS WR OPENLY RECRUITING KURT WARNER BACK TO DESERT”.

Philadelphia (-2.5) over BUFFALO – Why would Andy Reid put Juan Castillo in charge of the Eagles defense in the first place? Going from an offensive line coach to defensive coordinator does not seem like a natural transition at all. This would be like turning a major league catcher into a starting shortstop or perhaps a male model becoming a Senator from the state of Massachusetts.

Oakland (+6) over HOUSTON – The Raiders are one of the few teams in the NFL whose road/white uniforms look just as good as their home/color. Also on that list: Chargers, Packers, Giants, and Steelers.

CAROLINA (+6.5) over New Orleans – Darren Rovell is right, why would the Saints award Mercedes-Benz with the naming rights to the Superdome? To me, there’s nothing that screams continuing recovery from one of the largest national diasaters in American history quite like a $75K luxury sedan.

Cincinnati (+2.5) over JACKSONVILLE – It makes total football sense for TCU to join the Big 12 in 2012, leaving the Big East behind before it actually ever joined. Since football is all but dead in the Big East anyway, the conference should go back to its basketball roots and return the focus to all the small Catholic schools from the Northeast that made the league so popular back in the early 80’s. Of course, it would help if Patrick Ewing were still playing for Georgetown.

PITTSBURGH (-3) over Tennessee – Dare I say a must win for the Steelers who with a 2-2 need to prove to the rest of the NFL that they are not too old to win in the NFL.

NY GIANTS (-10) over Seattle – Tarvaris Jackson + East Rutherford wind = lots of Seahawks turnovers.

SAN FRANCISCO (-3) over Tampa Bay – I don’t make much of Tiger Woods deciding to play in the Frys.com Open this weekend other than it serves as a nice warmup before the President’s Cup as well as a good opportunity to break in a new caddie. Also, why do I feel like I shouldn’t be visiting frys.com from a work computer?

NEW ENGLAND (-9) over NY Jets – The Patriots will be wearing their throwback “Pat Patriot ” uniforms Sunday and we can only hope that Tom Brady will come out sporting the retro Steve Grogan neck roll.

DENVER (+4) over San Diego – If I had known that Philip Rivers has 6 children I never would have drafted him on my fantasy team. Parenting is EXHAUSTING!!!

Green Bay (-6) over ATLANTA – Rematch of last year’s NFC Championship game and even though the Falcons are 2-2 it still feels like these two teams are headed in opposite directions.

Chicago (+5.5) over DETROIT – I read a really cool story from NPR about how many of Detroit’s vacant city lots are being turned into organic farmstands. I wouldn’t think that this relatively new venture is going to end up bringing many people back to the Motor City but perhaps they can help to dress up the barren landscape of economic despair.

Last Week 10-6 (Overall 35-29)

view from the Coliseum courtesy of @charliepanian

MLB Playoffs: A Little Something for Everyone

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It’s not very often that you have four playoff games in a single day. Yesterday was an instance where you had roughly 10 straight hours of baseball on TV so if you happened to be unemployed, or bored with your job, Tuesday served as an excellent opportunity to kill valuable brain cells.

Yankees 10 Tigers 1 – Heading into last night, I was surprisingly confident that the much maligned AJ Burnett would help the Yankees force a game 5 in their series against the Detroit Tigers. All thanks and praise should go to Curtis Granderson who made two PHENOMENAL run saving catches. Now, as they had back to the Bronx, smart money moves back to the Bombers. However, should the Tigers win Thursday night, expect New York sports radio to be filled with all kinds of “fire Joe Girardi and ARod” talk.

Rangers 4 Rays 3 – Rays manager Joe Maddon is a pretty enlightened dude. From the horned rim glasses to the flowing white locks, throw a black turtleneck on him and he becomes something out of a Kerouak autobiography. Wouldn’t Maddon fit in perfectly alongside Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise cruising through the Salton Sea? Unfortunately, “the Dude” couldn’t help the Rays overcome Adrian Beltre and the Rangers who move on to the ALCS to face the winner of Yankees/Tigers.

Diamondbacks 8 Brewers 1 – The Diamond Dogs live to fight another day in the desert. Very rarely do sideline reporters say anything newsworthy, however, last night was an exception. Sam Ryan, reporting from the dugout, mentioned how Arizona pitcher Josh Collmenter developed his strange “ferris-wheel” like pitching mechanics by throwing a small axe at a tree stump. As I joked last night, if the Coen brothers were watching the game, Collmenter should expect a phone call soon to star in their next movie, Fargo 2: What Lies Below Paul Bunyan’s Beard.

Phillies 3 Cardinals 2 – My favorite opening round series is the matchup between the Cardinals and Phillies. Two great baseball cities with boat loads of marketable stars and two iconic managers. Unfortunately for St. Louis, most of their players seem to be walking around the diamond with some sort of limp or in the case of Lance Berkman, a pretty sweet mullet.

view from Busch Stadium courtesy of @JNW218

It Happened on 125th Street

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Not to get all Ken Burns on you, but I’m watching more of this year’s MLB playoffs because of the final day of the regular season. For baseball fans like myself, September 28th was a reminder of how dramatic and exciting the game can be. As a country, Americans have slowly started to trend away from our national pastime, choosing instead to set the DVR for the less time consuming and faster paced football or basketball. And to be fair, I myself did not intend to watch any baseball that Wednesday evening after agreeing to attend a special screening of Pearl Jam Twenty in New York City, which, in retrospect, was a fairly radical decision for a 32 year old male who no longer wears flannel.

Flash forward three hours. My first move after hopping on the 10:22 out of Grand Central Station was to fire up the MLB At Bat app on my iPhone, a feature which I have not used since the Orioles dropped twenty games below .500 in Mid July. Standing there in the nearly vacant bar car, I was pleasantly surprised to find that neither the Yankees/Rays or Red Sox/Orioles games were over. And then, just as the express train cruised passed Larchmont, Dan Johnson hit the homerun to tie the game at 7 causing the Chris Christie look-a-like sitting across the aisle and drinking a Coors Light to stand up and give a jubilent, yet solitary fist pump. I never did bother to ask the New Jersey governor if he was a Rays fan or Yankee fan just happy that the Red Sox path to the playoffs was about to take an even more circuitous route. Either way, thanks to baseball, that 52 minute non-stop trip from Midtown Manhattan to Stamford, CT felt like it took no time at all.

That night, I was back on my couch in time to watch the conclusion of both games and I guess I’m telling you this story today because here it is Tuesday morning, with another long work week looming, and I’m already fighting serious sleep deprivation having stayed up to watch Yankees/Tigers. As John Sterling says, “you just can’t predict baseball”.

view from Comerica Park courtesy of @MissCoryCoffey

 

 

Quick Snaps: NFL Week #4

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Before we pull the trigger on a week 4 recap, it must be October in the NFL as players, coaches, and officials alike began adorning a variety of pink garments in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My eyes weren’t nearly as strained by any of the well intentioned accessories – even the whistles – and find the pink towels much more palatable than the pepto-bismol bats MLB uses for a very similar cause on Mother’s Day.

Quick Snaps

Lions 34 Cowboys 30 – So maybe Tony Romo can’t close after all.

Bengals 23 Bills 20 – Mike Nugent didn’t seem all that excited after he kicked the game winning FG to lead the Bengals over the formerly undefeated Buffalo Bills. Perhaps his lack of exuberance was due to the noticeable fact that there were plenty of good seats still available at Paul Brown Stadium. Was this apathy for a mediocre franchise or more indicative of the tough economic times on the Ohio River?

49ers 24 Eagles 23 – The best thing that can happen to the Philadelphia Eagles is for the Philadelphia Phillies to reach the World Series. That way, the “fans that booed Santa Claus” won’t channel as much energy and blinding venom towards a campaign to fire Andy Reid. I’m sure firebigred.com is already a hot commodity with Go Daddy.

Giants 31 Cardinals 27 – Eli Manning, like most quarterbacks, is a totally different quarterback in a dome. Would his older brother Payton be as prolific a passer if he spent his entire career outside in the Meadowlands instead of indoors at the RCA Dome now Lucas Oil Field?

Chiefs 22 Vikings 17 – As Buster Olney suggested on twitter, maybe the Vikings should consider trading RB Adrian Peterson in a “Hershel Walker” type deal instead this time around Minnesota ships the superstar in return for a gluttony of draft picks. Also, do you really need to keep trotting Donovan McNabb’s carcass out there when you have Christian Ponder, your QB in waiting, holding a clipboard on the sidelines?

Patriots 31 Raiders 19 – Tom Brady gets a much needed haircut and the Patriots transform into a running team. Stranger things have happened but one things for sure, unless New England keeps chewing up yards on the guard, and develops a consistent pass rush, they’re still a long way from New Orleans.

Packers 49 Broncos 23 – Quite a weekend for the state of Wisconsin. First the Badgers take it to Big Ten newbies the Nebraska. Then the Brewers go up 2-0 in their NLDS series with the Diamondbacks before the weekend was topped off by a record setting fantasy performance by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Good news for me, the team I played started Jay Cutler.

view from Paul Brown Stadium courtesy of @cincynowsports