October 9th, 2006

Week 5: Another Week, Another Bears Beatdown

By Brett | Add a Comment »

Before we get to anything else, we feel like we should address the whole “Philly punks TO and then TO rips his QB” thing, but, right here, right now we’re creating a new NFL Logue rule: as long as the Bears are undefeated, they get first billing. Why? Same reason we haven’t washed our Bears hats all year, in spite of watching most of the games in a smoke-infested hellhole that we’re sure takes a year off our life every Sunday….we’re superstitious sports fans. What are ya gonna do, you know?

Our takes on this weekend’s games:

Chicago 40 — Buffalo 7
Once again, the Bears looked like the best team in the NFL in all three phases of the game. For the second week in a row, they were able to achieve a more balanced offense, and their defense got a few big first half turnovers that led to points. Plain and simple, if the Super Bowl were held today, the Bears would win. But, unfortunately for us, there’s another four months to go. Which probably means that the Bears will be the best regular season team, and then screw it up in the playoffs.

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October 9th, 2006

MNF Liveblog: Ravens vs. Broncos

By Brett | Add a Comment »

We’re gonna do something a little different tonight. Instead of updating every drive, we’re going to do a quarterly recap. Quite honestly, we just don’t care that much about tonight’s match up, and we want to have a little bit of time to update another post on what went down during week 5. So, while the MNF liveblog may be a bit scaled down, we’re going to attempt to do something that we’re relatively sure no sane person has tried to do before: update two blog posts, simultaneously. While we admit that this isn’t on par with accomplishments such as swimming the English Channel or whistlin’ Dixie with your armpit, we’re pretty stoked about it.

We’re also stoked about seeing Denver’s running game vs. Ray Lewis and the Ravens defense. Liveblog coming up in 2.2.

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October 8th, 2006

God Bless You, Drew Bledsoe

By Bob | Add a Comment »

Any Philadelphia Eagles fans will tell you that some of his best and worst memories has been watching games against the Dallas Cowboys. From Wilbert Montgomery running wild in the 1981 NFC Conference Championship game to Buddy Ryan’s Bounty Bowl to the countless times Dallas has drubbed the Eagles, the rivalry has been one of the best in the NFL.

Sunday’s game will take its rightful place in Philadelphia lore. The two teams slugged it out and both showed that they are more than capable. Sure, the pre-game hype was all about Terrell Owens making his return to the City of Brotherly Love, but this game didn’t turn out to be about a wide receiver. No, the difference this game was at the quarterback position.

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October 5th, 2006

Week 5: Chicago vs. Buffalo Preview

By Brett | Add a Comment »

Two things we keep hearing about leading up to this game: The return of Dick Jauron to Chicago, and that this is a classic trap game for Chicago. Dick Jauron coming back is pretty much a non-story. After all, for the last few years, he’s been on the Lions coaching staff. Not like this is the first time he’s been back to Chicago since his dismal days as the Bears head coach.

The trap game angle, though, is a bit more interesting. Chicago is 3-0 in their division, which is possibly the weakest in the league. They’re coming off a huge win over the Seahawks, and are looking at a very easy schedule over the next month. After Buffalo, they go to the desert to play Arizona, then have the 49ers and Dolphins at home. After that, things get a little tougher with 3 straight road games, before getting easier again in December. Bottom line, though, is that the Bears have a soft schedule and should have no problem winning enough games to get into the post-season. That makes a good but not great non-conference opponent very easy to overlook.

The Bills aren’t the most talented team in the league, but Jauron has them playing hard. JP Losman, who we remain convinced is better suited to be an underwear model than an NFL QB, is actually playing pretty well, and their offense has plenty of weapons in Willis McGahee, Lee Evans, and Roscoe Parrish. Defensively, they’re doing a nice job of getting after the QB and coming up with big plays. They’re a little banged up on the offensive line, and it looks like OG Chris Villarial won’t be able to go this weekend. That’s a big blow to both the Bills’ ground game, and their pass protection, given how well Chicago’s interior defensive line has been rushing the passer the last few weeks.

The Bills will need to play a great game to upset the Bears in Chicago. Follow the bouncing ball to find out how….

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October 4th, 2006

Week 4 Coaching Shorts: Martyball Is Back

By Brett | Add a Comment »

It seems that the particular, uber-conservative style of football known as Martyball is once again rearing its ugly head in San Diego. And, once again, Marty Schottenheimer is catching hell for it in the media, after the Chargers blew a second half lead in a close game to the Ravens last Sunday.

Our three initial thoughts to the media’s predictable response were: A) What if this was Bill Belichik instead of Marty Schottenheimer. How would the media have responded? They’d fawn all over him, just like they always do. B) What if Marty had played it fast and loose in the second half of this game, and Phil Rivers turned the ball over? Marty would be getting crucified by fans and media alike this week. So it’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t thing, yeah? C) If San Diego’s hadn’t stopped playing one series too early, this would be a total non-issue.

So,while we laid into Andy Reid for doing the exact same thing just a couple weeks back in Philly, we actually agree with the Martyball approach, in this particular case. And we’ll tell you why, after the leap into the great beyond.

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October 2nd, 2006

MNF Liveblog: Packers at Eagles

By Brett | Add a Comment »

And once again, we’re back with the MNF Liveblog. Don’t we have anything better to do on a Monday night, you ask? And a resounding “no” is our answer.

Here’s what we’re stoked about in tonight’s game:

Donovan McNabb vs. Brett Favre
A future HOFer vs. one of the best QBs in the game today. Whichever team gets better QB play should win this one. Our money’s on McNabb, but you can’t count Favre out on Monday Night.

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October 2nd, 2006

Week 4 Wrap Up: Parity is Dead

By Brett | Add a Comment »

We’re starting to notice something different about the NFL this year: we’re not hearing many commentators break off the traditional “Any Given Sunday” platitudes as much as in recent years, and we think it’s because the NFL is once again becoming three-tiered league.

There’s the handful of teams –six, maybe eight– that have a real shot of winning the Super Bowl, another 12 to 16 that might make the playoffs but won’t be a factor if they do, and then a bunch of lackluster, suck-ass teams that no one should ever be forced to watch. Cleveland vs. Oakland? Please. What a awful, awful game. Well, at least those poor saps that blew a high pick in their fantasy draft on guys LaMont Jordan and Ruben Droughns (we know a guy that took Droughns at #11…unfortunately, we’re not making that up) got at least one week of love.

Other Week 4 ramblings, in no particular order:

• Because the Bears are one of three 4-0 teams, and just placed a beatdown of mammoth proportions on the reigning NFC Champs on national TV, we’re not going to feel like homers for talking about them first. We observed pretty much the same thing that everyone did last night: the Bears defense is flat-out nasty. If Tommie Harris continues to play all season the way he has through 4 games, he’ll be considered the best defensive tackle in league. The guy is just unblockable at times.

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Category: NFL News, Weekly Wrap Ups
Tags: NFL News, Weekly Wrap Ups, Tag Index

September 27th, 2006

Coaching Shorts: Week 3

By Brett | Add a Comment »

Another week has come and gone in the NFL season, and there’s a whole new set of coaches to bitch about:

Tom Coughlin
Normally, we think Jeremy Shockey is kind of a long-on-talent, short-on-production putz, but we find agreeing with his assessment on Coughlin’s performance last week. For the second week in a row, the Giants have come out underprepared and totally overwhelmed by their opponent in the 1st half. That falls on the coach. Take the ball out of Eli’s hands a little bit, coach. Start getting a little creative on defense to cover up for the serious, serious weak spots in the secondary, and for crissakes, stop using Lavar Arrington in coverage. This is a team that is about 15 minutes worth of good football away from being 0-3.

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September 25th, 2006

MNF Liveblog: Falcons vs. Saints

By Brett | Add a Comment »

We’re on record as stating that we think that the Saints are going to win this one tonight. Yes, we know that the Saints really aren’t very good, even though they’re 2-0. Yes, we know that the Falcons are the closest thing to we’ll see to Wing T offense in the NFL, and are churning up yards on the ground like they’re going out of style. And, yes, we know that the Falcons defense is also better than Cleveland’s or Green Bay’s, the two teams that the Saints have beaten thus far.

Still, we can’t help but think that the re-opening of the once squalid, festering with life Superdome is going to big factor in this game. Call it the X-factor, if you will, but we think that the Saints are going to have a little something extra in store for Mike Vick and the Falcons tonight. Here’s what we’re stoked about:

Mike Vick
Say what you want about the guy not being a real efficient passer or even a very good QB, he’s one of the most exciting –dare we say, titilating– athletes of our time, and we love watching him play. Plus, not get all Kornheiser on you, but he’s on my fantasy squad, and I still need a couple points to win this week.

Reggie Bush
How can you not be excited about watching this guy play ball? Let me pull up a nice cliche for you: He’s a threat to go all the way every time he touches the ball. I guaran-fucking-tee that Joe Theismann says that at some point tonight, almost in those exact words.

The Superdome Lives!
OK, sure, ESPN is going to go way overboard on the human interest side of this game, but c’mon….the fact that the Saints are even still playing in New Orleans, let along the Superdome, is really pretty damn cool. It’s triumph for the team, and for a city that has really had it’s ass handed to it over the last 12+ months. Hell, I’m gonna go so far as to say that this game is a triumph for America. This game sends a message that we will not let the terrorists win….or something.

Anyway, game on in 15 or so. To follow along with the rest of the livebloggin’, beer guzzlin’ madness, you know what to do.

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September 25th, 2006

Week 3 Wrap Up

By Brett | Add a Comment »

We’re only a few weeks into the ‘06 season, but we’re already starting to learn a little bit about each of the teams in the NFL. We’re also learning that, much like most of the experts out there, we can’t pick winners to save our arse (let’s just forget that we ever had that conversation about the Giants going out to Seattle and coming home with a W).

Week 3 was notable for a few reasons. First, there were two milestone acheivements from QBs: Brett Favre getting his 400th TD pass, and Mark Brunell connecting on his first 22 passes. Second, while we’re not really starting to separate the contenders from the pretenders, we now have a firm grasp on which teams really suck — Tampa Bay, Detroit, Tennessee, and Cleveland. And, of course, the Raiders, but they were (mercifully) on a bye.

We took a few other nuggets away from this weekend’s games:

Jacksonville vs. Indy
The AFC North is looking very much like it did last year, and we’d be stunned if both of these teams aren’t in the playoffs again. We’ll also be stunned if either of them represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, because neither team can fix their biggest weakness. Indy can’t stop the run, and Jacksonville can’t score points.

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