Armchair Winger

More Cutler

2009-04-02T15:53:00.000-07:00

I'm going to chime in on this Jay Cutler thing a little further. I think he's going to come to regret the decision he made to cry like a little girl when the Broncos originally considered shopping him in a three way trade that would have gotten them Matt Cassel at the start of the Free Agency Period. Because his feelings were so hurt that he could possibly be considered expendable, he got his panties in a knot and he's now found his way into the frozen, windy, Soldier Field on an offense that ranks in the bottom third of the league. Cutler's record as a starter and some stats like his TD-INT ratio are not as good as his Passing Yards numbers, and so he has deceptively snuck into the picture as a top rated QB. I think that with a pretty weak set of receivers and a coaching staff clearly not up to the offensive standards of Mike Shannahan's staff, Cutler is going to see those yardage numbers of his drop off this year. Given all of that, Denver did the best they could in this situation. They got back a QB with some experience in Kyle Orton. He's almost certainly not as good as Cutler, but he's probably workable in the right system and Broncos coach McDaniels has the reputation of being able to develop good quarterbacks. They also get some real high value draft picks with the 18th overall this year and the Bears' first rounder next year. The additional swap of a third rounder for a fifth rounder is essentially irrelevant unless either team gets lucky that deep.

Both teams should be better because of this trade. Chicago certainly gets someone who's better than what they had in their stable and Denver gets rid of a malcontent, actually getting quite a bit in return. I like the trade all around, except for the fact that Chicago will now have an even easier time beating up on the Lions this year.

Cutler to Chicago

2009-04-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! The Bears got a quarterback!! Where was Chicago's name in all of the rumours? All I heard about for the last week was that Cutler would go to Tampa, or New York, or Detroit. Who had the Bears in that pool?

In other QB news, Stafford apparently wowed the Lions during his workout on Tuesday. This, of course, means that Detroit will pick him first in the draft, overpay him, then throw him to the wolves where he will be destined for massive failure and disappointment. 'Cause that's how the Lions roll. At least this year though, Detroit will probably win a game. Maybe.

Waiting for the Sweet 16

2009-03-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

The madness picks back up in a couple hours and I'm hoping for all of my Elite Eight picks to step up. But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts for today ...

New Jersey has got four guys in the the top 10 in the NHL's +/- category. That goes a long way to telling the story of why they've been so successful this year even without Marty for much of the season.
Tiger is back on course at Bay Hill this week playing in Arnie's event. Unfortunately, he's started off going backwards with a double bogey on the par-5 sixth. I'll be watching to see if Weir can have a decent event. He'll need to settle down a bit though after an up and down start with an eagle and three bogeys in his first nine holes.
The PGA Tour Skins Game appears to be dead. While the event has lost a lot of luster over the years, I always enjoyed watching Freddy make piles of cash in the event even while he couldn't win anything else on tour anymore. I'm hoping that they manage to find a sponsor and make a few tweaks to bring it back to life, but I can't say I'm overly optimistic. Sponsors are pretty tough to come by these days, after all.

Hump Day Trio

2009-03-25T14:52:00.001-07:00

The first weekend of March Madness didn't treat me well. After a blazing 16 of 16 start on Thursday, my bracket fell apart in the late games on Friday and then proceeded to have a crappy Sunday as well. When it was all said and done, I had 26 of 32 in round one and just 11 of 16 in round two. The bright side though, is that I've still got all of my Elite Eight picks hanging around, so there's a chance I could go on a real run and come back in the pool!

Now, onto today's Three-fer ...

Goalie Trouble in Detroit - I had the (mis)fortune of seeing the Wings games televised the last two nights. While Conklin filled in admirably when called upon, I've got to admit to being more than a little worried at how bad Osgood looked in the first 26 minutes against Calgary. This is supposed to be the Wings starter through the playoffs and he was letting in softies that even I could have stopped. Once three easy ones were past him, the team spent the rest of the second period playing pretty dejected hockey before mounting an unsuccessful surge in the third. Ozzie is going to have to be better or Detroit will go down early in one of their patented "outplay the other team and get killed by the goaltending matchup" upsets.
Robo-Lance - With a bad fall in Italy on Monday, Lance Armstrong has suffered his first real setback ever in preparing for the Tour. It will be interesting to see how his 37-year old body responds to not being able to stay on plan all the way through July. The most recent updates today are that he's had a five inch plate and a dozen screws installed in his shattered collarbone! I'd say his hopes of riding in yellow, while already slim with advancing age and competition, might just be dashed.
Tigers vs. Catholics - there's another big furor in Detroit today with the release of the Tiger's opening day schedule. It seems that the game is going to be on Good Friday with a 1:05 start. Catholics are up in arms because of the traditional belief that Jesus hung on the cross from noon to 3 pm, and thus most services take place at that time. Says local Rev. Ed Vilkauskas, "Nobody is saying baseball isn't big, but Good Friday is really big. It's 2000 years old." I think the Rev. is just upset that he's going to have to try to sell his tickets in a depressed market.

Who's In Your Lineup?

2009-03-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

Compare these NHL stat lines:

Which player would you pick for your team? I'll take the one who is 25 points better in the defensive zone and stays out of the penalty box. But give this a read ...

That first guy is Sidney Crosby, the all-everything player that every team was dying to get when the league pulled the lottery balls for the 2005 draft. He is argued as one of the best players in the league and every episode of Sportscentre shows off his talents. The other guy? He's also an other-worldly talent. Some real hockey insiders recognize him as the best puck-handler in the game and he shows up on the highlight reel from time to time, but certainly doesn't get the notoriety that Sid does. Oh yeah, and he was drafted 171st overall back in 1998. Every team in the league could have had him. Who is he? Check this out ...

Three For Hump Day

2009-03-18T10:33:00.001-07:00

In today's top stories ...

Does the NHL's Pacific Division ever suck?! - San Jose has already clinched the division with 13 games left in the season. The closest team to them is Dallas who currently aren't even a playoff team. This is a reminder of the fluidity in the NHL standings when SJ, Dallas, and Anaheim have been playoff regulars for several years while the Central Division has had the bottom feeders in Columbus, St. Louis, Chicago, and Nashville. Two of those four are locks for the postseason and St. Louis is making a run. You just never know from year to year I guess.
21 Years and Counting - With their come from behind win over the Flyers last night, the Red Wings now haven't lost a game to Philly at Joe Louis Arena since November 4, 1988! If Detroit advances out of the Western Conference this year, can someone please line up the Flyers to win the East?
I'm already 0-for-1 in March Madness - I picked Alabama State to beat Morehead State in the play-in game last night and got that clearly wrong as the Hornets barely managed to put 40 points on the board. I didn't know anything about either team, so my pick was based entirely on the hope that Alabama State's big man would become the best name in the history of the tournament -- Grlenntys Chief Kickingstallionsims.

2009-03-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Another Top 3 List today ...

How Funny is Charles Barkley?! - I've been watching The Haney Project on the Golf Channel the last few weeks. It's quite a concept, with Barkley taking his embarrasing swing in front of a ton of viewers to be dissected and, hopefully, cured. I thought that if Hank Haney could fix it, it would be a miracle, but he seems to be making progress! Charles' swing and the progress he's making prove how mental the game of golf is and listening to him talk about his "hit list" of guys he's going to beat once he gets better is great. I can't get enough of this show!
No love for the Wolverines - the experts' picks are out on SI today and only two of them have Michigan winning Thursday's game against Clemson. While I have to agree that the Wolverines aren't going to advance far this year, I'm giving them a shot since Clemson has lost four of their last five down the stretch. Michigan went cold shooting against Illinois and they'll be looking to prove themselves better in Kansas City this week. I like them to get the win against the Tigers and then bow out to the Sooners in the second round.
Jay Cutler's agent has screwed the Broncos over - Bus Cook (this is the guy who represented Steve McNair and Brett Favre through disastrous off-seasons in the past three years) is at it again, driving a wedge between Cutler and the Broncos. It's impossible to know the whole story, but Cook sure doesn't look good on this one with Cutler demurring on every opinion to his all knowing agent. The one bit of good news in this saga is that it might prove to be an opportunity for the Lions to actually get a QB! Let's wait and see if the new GM in Detroit has the stones to get a deal done before the draft.

Today's Top Three

2009-03-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

Again I've abandoned this blog for a long time, despite having many things to say! I would promise that this post will lead to many more, but there's a strong chance that it won't. Be that as it may, I will likely be inclined to write about the next few weeks in sports with March Madness, the NHL playoff race, the Masters and much else coming soon!

I'm going to try to re-format a little in an effort to get myself writing more frequently. With that in mind, I'll attempt to offer a top three thoughts of the day ...

Red Wings bounce back - after getting hammered by Columbus last weekend, Detroit looked like a completely different team with a complete effort in the 4-0 win over the Blue Jackets last night. Still though, giving up 8 goals to Columbus last week and Nashville the week before (not to mention 6 to Calgary mid-week) has got to worry the management that didn't bother to find any goaltending beyond the shaky Osgood with Conklin backing him up. Detroit is going to have a tough go of it trying to defend their championship if the backstop continues to be as shaky as it has appeared lately.
Michigan going dancing - the resume proved to be enough to get the Maize and Blue into March Madness for the first time in 11 seasons. Those wins over Duke and UCLA must have done it, because after watching them come out flat for the second half of what could have amounted to a play-in game Friday vs Illinois, I thought their hopes were in jeopardy. But they've been handed a 10 seed and a date with Clemson on Thursday. It's certainly going to be a stretch to get past the Tigers, but the Wolverines have done a good job this year against favoured opponents. I know I'll be tuning in with excitement!
Phil vs Tiger debate - With the win at Doral yesterday, Phil Mickelson pulls within a hair of El Tigre in the official world rankings. There was talk during the NBC telecast yesterday of how Phil could actually be number 1 and how he might be driven by the desire to be called the World's Best Golfer. But come on - can anyone really consider him the best with Tiger still around?! He's only gotten so close because Tiger has spent the last eight months not earning any ranking points while re-habbing his knee. Phil might take over that #1 ranking, but we'll all still know who the king is. For now, I'm just anxious for the Masters and to see Tiger figure out a putting stroke that looked shaky at Doral. He was every bit as good as Phil from tee to green this week. Now let's just see him get that feel back and continue his winning ways.

No Dancing

2009-02-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

There will be no dancing for the Michigan Wolverines basketball team this year. A team that held so much promise early in the year as they took down both UCLA and Duke when the Bruins and Blue Devils were highly ranked, Michigan has gone through Big Ten league play with an inability to get it done on the road. They're just 2-5 in their opponents' buildings. Heading into their final four games, they looked as though they would need to win at least three of them to remain on the bubble and in consideration of a low seed in the tourney. But with yesterday's loss to Big Ten doormat Iowa, they have severely hurt their own cause. Their shooting from the floor was dreadfully inaccurate and their defense didn't manage to step up when they had to a protect a four point lead with a minute to play. The 7-0 run that the Hawkeyes went on to start the OT period was just another sign that the Wolverines, a surprisingly good team at the start of the year, are still just on the cusp of being a contender, but haven't taken the next step yet. Analysts say that John Beilein's teams need to be sharp shooters from the outside to contend because of the system he puts in place, and unfortunately, this year's Michigan team has proven too streaky to get the job done on a consistent basis. There's a lot of hope though that the current team will continue to improve and their success will help with recruitment as well.

I've got my fingers crossed that it won't be much longer before I finally see a Wolverines team in the madness that tips off the third weekend in March!

Red Wings Update

2009-02-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

I was very pleased to read today that Detroit is going to really step outside the box to try to get Chris Osgood's game straightened out. Rather than try to have him play it out or simply sit him on the bench and hope for the best, they are taking their supposed number 1 guy and giving him a couple of days of not even dressing for games. He is to work strictly with goalie coach Jim Bedard and take some time to get his head straight. They've called Jimmy Howard up from the minors to back up Conklin in tonight's game against Anaheim and they're going to give Howard an opportunity to start against Minnesota on the weekend.

I think this is great from a whole bunch of standpoints. Osgood has clearly not been himself this year and his play recently has been even worse. He's given up bad goals with bad timing and needs to figure things out. This could be a great opportunity to really bear down and focus on what's been the problem and how he can get right again. In the meantime, they're taking a guy who is supposed to be their goalie of the future and giving him some real time experience. The Wings are in a very fortunate position of not absolutely needing wins right now to make the playoffs or lock up position. A game here and there isn't going to cost them anything, but the upside of giving Howard big time experience is priceless in his development process.

This is just another example of how well the Wings organization is run. Great coaching and management over the last ten years is why they've seen so much success. Now we just need to hope that Ozzie can get rolling so that they've got two guys they can trust heading into the playoffs.

Catching Up

2009-02-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

Clearly I abandoned posting on this blog when life got crazy. A trip to Chicago, a jaunt to Victoria, a Super Bowl bash, and another week later, here I am again! Obviously, a lot happened and I'm going to wax nostalgic on a few points from the weeks gone by.

First, the Super Bowl. What a fantastic game it turned out to be! With Fitzgerald completely non-existent for the first three quarters, he suddenly exploded into the un-defensible wideout for the fourth giving Arizona a chance. Then it was Big Ben's turn to pull off some final two minute magic driving for what turned out to be the winning TD. I still think that the fumble with four seconds left should have been reviewed and overturned leading to one last desperate heave to the end zone, but overall it was great entertainment and it made for a great party!

The NHL All-Star game happened a few weeks ago too. That turned into a ridiculous 12-11 shootout win for the East, which is so many goals that it can't have even been entertaining. I'm glad that I spent most of that game on an airplane and missed all but the last few minutes. In other NHL news, Detroit went through their traditional February skid losing five games in a row, and seem to be turning it around. In solid wins against Edmonton and Pittsburgh this past weekend, the Wings finally showed a little more gumption on defence (if you ignore the third period against the Oilers after they had a 6-0 lead). I'm still a little worried that Osgood continues to struggle so much, but I'm really pleased to see that Conklin has been such a capable backup this year. Hopefully with a little more time to pull himself together, Ozzie will come through when the chips are down late in the season and into the playoffs.

I suppose the most recent news is the revelation that A-Rod was juicing up for a few years when he played for the Texas Rangers. While it comes as a bit of a surprise since he was being held as the hope to clean up the career home run record, eventually passing Bonds' mark, I don't think anyone can be too surprised that another star in Major League Baseball was playing dirty at the turn of the century. Clearly the entire era was a disaster for league and there's still a lot of cleaning up they need to do before all the skeletons are out of their closet. That said, I think I'm of mixed opinion on evaluating the players of the "steroid era" as they fit into baseball history. On one hand, obviously, these guys were cheating and all of their accomplishments should be taken with a grain of salt. However, games change over time, which makes comparison from one generation to the next increasingly difficult anyway. If you look at baseball, the distance of the fences have evolved over time and are now totally inconsistent around the league. Equipment has evolved to some degree as well, with lighter, easier-swinging bats and livelier balls being used. Pitching technique has pitcher use as also evolved, with batters now facing more pitchers each game as specialists and revolving bullpens becoming the norm. If you then also account for pitchers being on steroids and throwing harder, it seems hard to me to compare any statistics from this generation to the past.

The only thing I need to clarify is why I don't feel as strongly against A-Rod as I do against Bonds. I think that the reality of it is that while A-Rod cheated for a few years, he has at least come out and said, "Yeah, I screwed up." Bonds still insists that he did so cluelessly and I just can't buy that. I guess I've managed to discover my moral line ... cheating - okay; lying - not okay. Who knew?!

Wings Analysis and More

2009-01-13T14:34:00.001-08:00

I've been slacking off again in my writing. First I let the weekend go by and didn't even bother to predict that Arizona would have their hinds handed to them by Carolina. Turns out it was better that I keep my mouth shut. I didn't offer any commentary on the BCS Championship Game last week either because really, it just would have been a rant about my belief that Utah deserved a shot at the title but can never get it in the current system. And no matter how flawed and archaic the college football championship system is, I've learned enough about it to know that it isn't going to change any time soon, so I might as well just start wishing that Michigan could hang on to their recruits and field a team that doesn't suck next year. Perhaps one that can sustain the competitive level that saw them take that undefeated Utah team down to the wire in the first game of the season.

What I'm finally back on here to talk about today though, is the Wings game last night. Detroit has been playing pretty well lately with that six game winning streak riding into last night. I was pleased to see that TSN2 picked up the Versus broadcast from Dallas and allowed me to watch on what would have been an otherwise eventless evening. So tune in I did, only to see that the Wings also decided that they would just watch for the evening, as the Stars threw almost 50 shots at Osgood! Despite Ozzy playing fantastic and Datsyuk trying to win the game all by himself (check out the three links below), the rest of the boys had about the worst defensive game I've seen them play this year (and that's saying something because there's been a few bad ones). When Steve Ott potted the tieing goal, I had a pretty strong sense that the Wings were not going to leave with that win streak intact. Sure enough, another defensive breakdown in OT and the puck was in the back of the net before you could blink.

Datsyuk setting up Holmstrom's goal

Datsyuk burning Niskanen and roofing it on Turco

And for good measure ... Datsyuk beating Nashville's Vokoun in a shootout a while back

What I find most curious coming out of the loss last night is Detroit's struggles in four-on-four situations this year. The commentators (who were absolutely terrible, btw ... no wonder nobody watches Versus) postulated that the Wings' talent is struggling with too much ice, because it negates some of the advantage they typically have using their skills in tight spaces. I suppose that's a possibility, but what I'm seeing is a lack of discipline and effort in those 4-on-4 situations. The defense are moving the puck up ice just a little bit slower, probably thinking they have more time, and it's taking away the speed advantage that the Wings have over a lot of opponents. Since Detroit is a puck possesion team, the slow exit from their own zone is causing their rythym to break down as they enter the offensive zone and the counterattacks are leaving one or two guys caught up ice. Last night in OT, the situation was compounded by Brad Stuart losing his stick and then having to use Dan Cleary's, which is about six inches shorter than his own. When Stuart failed on a clearing attempt with the short stick, the counterattack took about five seconds to wind up in the Detroit net and the game was over.

Interesting Thought

2009-01-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

I'm going to go light on the celebration of yet another World Junior Championship for Canada this morning. It was a fun game to watch against Sweden yesterday, but there's no question that the games of the tournament were the wins over the US and Russia last Wednesday and Saturday. Those two will go down as a couple of the most exciting hockey games I've ever watched. But congrats to the boys and I hope that had fun celebrating last night!

Now for the interesting thought of the day ...
I read a statistic this morning that the Detroit Lions only had 14 passes defensed this season. That means, that less than once per game, the Lions' defensive players did something proactive to break up a passing play (as opposed to the QB just missing with the throw or the receiver just dropping the ball). And that got me wondering, if the whole group of defensive backs didn't even manage to do what they get paid for once per game collectively, would the Lions have been better off without them? I can think back to a few of the games (against Atlanta, Carolina, Tennessee, etc) where Detroit gave up well over 200 yards rushing and truly got beaten by the run. Since those corners and safeties weren't doing anything to break up passes, would the Lions' defense perhaps have given up fewer points by just putting 8 or 9 or 10 guys in the box and focusing on stopping the run? It's just a thought, but I think with some better coaching, this team could have at least squeaked out one win.

What went wrong?

2009-01-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

Why do they let fans have so much control over who starts at the All Star Games of the various pro sports? As the leagues have moved towards more and more internet voting, there has been a dramatic rise in head-scratcher decisions about the starting lineups. Case in point, this year's NHL All Star starters were announced a few days ago. It seems that Anaheim, Chicago, and Montreal managed to mount successful campaigns to get their fans out voting, because aside from Crosby and Malkin who absolutely belong in the starting lineup, Ducks, Hawks, and Habs make up the entire dozen.

Some will argue that the starting lineup is pretty meaningless, and they would be right (more right than ever it would seem). They say that every other team had just as much chance to convince their own fans to go home and vote online over and over again. But it's ridiculous that some loser with too much time to spend on the internet and a man-crush on J.S. Giguere can get a goalie ranked 21st in wins, 47th in goals against, and 31st in save percentage into the starting lineup! The guy doesn't belong on the team at all and he's taking a spot away from someone more deserving.

Additional slights include the fact that five of the top seven points scorers didn't get enough votes. None of the top 20 goal scorers received enough votes. No player on the top three teams in either conference's standings got enough votes. It's simply ridiculous. And it's unfortunate to those who truly deserved the honour to be shut out because of some tech nerd who happens to like the Habs or the Hawks.

So Much Sports!

2009-01-02T14:12:00.001-08:00

I've been MIA this week mostly because I've been avoiding spending time at a computer, but also because there's just so much going on! From the Winter Classic, to an endless stream of bowl games, to the upcoming NFL playoffs, to the World Junior Hockey tournament, it's been fun and exciting to stay in and watch sports!

Where to begin? How about with the World Junior game between Canada and the USA on new years eve? I managed to turn the game on with the US ahead 1-0 and just about to double their lead. A short time later they made it 3-0 and I thought the Canadians were cooked. But instead of tighten up their defense and move on to the semis, the American kids skated by the Canadian bench taunting them, giving Pat Quinn a rallying cry for the troops. What followed was the most exciting 20 minutes of hockey I recall seeing in a long time as Canada popped three quick ones to tie it, then took the lead with another just 37 seconds into the second period. After the US tied it up again, Canada managed a fifth goal before the middle of the second to lead 5-4. That lead would hold up the rest of the way until Tavares and Ennis added empty net goals in the final minute. The win sends Canada to the semifinals where they await the winner of tonight's Russia-Czech Republic game. Meanwhile, the US have just lost to the Slovaks in the other quarterfinal match. I was interested in watching the US goalie this week since he's property of the Red Wings. While you can't put too much weight on just a couple of games, he didn't look overly impressive against Canada and he gave up three goals on the first seven shots against the Slovaks. That certainly wasn't enough to help his team win or to get me excited about the prospect of seeing him in a Detroit jersey anytime soon.

In bowl game news, I haven't actually watched much, but was disappointed in watching another USC blowout in the Rose Bowl yesterday. It's hard to believe that was the same team that blew its season by losing to Oregon State back in October (the same OSU who beat Pitt 3-0 in a boring Sun Bowl). If USC hadn't had a remarkably terrible first half in Corvallis, they would have gotten through the season undefeated and looked like odds on favourites to win the championship. Instead, because of 30 bad minutes of play three months ago, they have no opportunity to be the national champs. I can certainly understand why Pete Carroll is becoming an advocate for a playoff. His teams seem to be the best every January, but blow one early each year. After that performance yesterday, I think they could beat Florida or Oklahoma who will face each other next Thursday.

The Winter Classic in Chicago yesterday morning was definitely a game worth getting up early for, despite the previous evening of too much wine. It was fun to watch Wrigley Field transformed into a hockey environment and to watch an up and coming Blackhawks team try to face down the Red Wings. After getting out to a quick 3-1 start though, the Hawks looked terribly overmatched as Detroit piled on with five straight goals, one of which was a beautiful rush between the defense by Datsyuk. In the few games I've gotten to watch this year, it was the first time Datsyuk looked to me like the unstoppable force he was through the playoffs last year. While I'm a little concerned about how laid back Detroit's play has been at times this year, when they've had to play big like in divisional games with Chicago, or the game against San Jose two weeks ago, they've stepped it up and been the better team on the ice each time. I just hope they continue to find that next level as the season winds down and they head into the playoffs in April.

Finally, the NFL playoffs begin this weekend with four games the will put the "wild" into Wild Card weekend. I don't think there has ever been a time when none of the home teams were favoured in this round of the playoffs, yet as I look through the matchups, I see all four home teams going down. Saturday will kick off with Atlanta going into Arizona where they should have no trouble beating a Cardinals team that just doesn't belong in the playoffs. The late game Saturday will be Peyton Manning and Co. trying to win in San Diego for the second time this year and I believe that he'll be successful. Sunday will begin with the Baltimore Ravens travelling to Miami and beating an overachieving Dolphins team. And Sunday will wrap up with the Eagles knocking off a Minnesota team who haven't even managed to sell enough tickets to avoid a local TV blackout. It seems that they're fans don't have a lot of hope of victory either!

Welcome to 2009! It's a fun time to be a sports fan.

NFL - The Final Week

2008-12-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

So it comes down tot he final week in football land with several teams still in contention and a whole bunch more playing for nothing. Who will win? Who will step up? I think it's become clear that I have absolutely no idea, but that's not going to stop me from throwing out my two cents!

Falcons over Rams - with a shot at winning the division still, Atlanta should destroy a St. Louis team just trying to get to cleaning out their lockers and taking a few months off.

Patriots over Bills - New England could become just the second team to win 11 games and miss the playoffs. They'll take care of business and then have to watch the Jets-Dolphins game to determine their fate.

Bengals over Chiefs - the inept Chiefs will find make sure to enhance their draft position with yet another loss against the almost equally woefull Bengals.

Packers over Lions - with an inability to break their 17 year losing streak in Wisconsin, Detroit will become the first ever 0-16 team and go down in history.

Colts over Titans - in another meaningless matchup between these two teams in Week 17 (it happened last year too), Jim Sorgi will play the stand in QB role a little better than Vince Young and the Colts will leave with a win.

Giants over Vikings - I'm breaking my trend here of picking the team with something to play for over the team with nothing on the line. But really, I have so little faith in NFC North teams that I just can't stand to pick the Vikes.

Panthers over Saints - Carolina needs this one to stage off a late comeback in the standings and hang on to the division. New Orleans will be gunning though for the both the win and for Brees to break Marino's passing yardage record, so this game should be fun to watch!

Dolphins over Jets - after watching New England beat the Bills, New York will know they have nothing to play for and they'll come out flat. Pennington will have his revenge and the Fish will be in the playoffs just a year after going 1-15. Maybe there is some far off hope for the Lions!

Cowboys over Eagles - in another scheduling twist, the NFL has given the Cowboys a distinct advantage in that Philly will know before the game begins that they've been eliminated from contention.

Steelers over Browns - the big question here isn't who will win, but rather will Cleveland manage to score an offensive touchdown again before the season ends. After all, it's been six weeks since their last one!

Bucs over Raiders - Tampa will keep their very slim hopes alive by at least taking care of their own business. Then they'll have to wait for some help.

Ravens over Jaguars - Baltimore controls their own fate here and I can't imagine them blowing it against a Jacksonville team that gave up playing hard a long time ago.

Texans over Bears - Despite the Minnesota loss I predicted above, I think that Chicago's offensive ineptitude ultimately will cost them the opportunity to win the division and get into the dance.

Cardinals over Seahawks - after winning an emotional one last weekend, I don't think Seattle will travel well this week. Arizona is desperate to get back on track before they go into their opening round playoff game. Their not going to get a playoff win, but I think they'll make the home fans happy one more time, anyway.

49ers over Redskins - with neither team truly playing for anything, I have to give this one to the home team.

Chargers over Broncos - finally, in the final game scheduled, Denver and San Diego will renew acquaintances in the Hochuli Bowl. If Ed Hochuli hadn't blown a call in week one that cost San Diego the game against Denver, the roles would be reversed with the Chargers having the division lead. They deserve to win this division more than Denver and I think fate will find a way to make things right. Ole Eddie sure hopes so, anyway!

Merry Christmas and enjoy the final week before the dance begins!

Embarrassed by the Lions

2008-12-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

I hate that I like the Lions. How can I not feel embarrassed about being a fan of this team? After they lose in Green Bay this week (and who are we kidding ... they will ... they haven't won there in 17 years), it's going to go down as the worst season any professional sports team has ever had. Winless. Not even competitive. They were outscored in eight games at home by 176 points. That breaks the NFL record by 30! They have the 30th ranked offense in yards, 27th ranked offense in points, and the 32nd ranked defense in both points and yards. That's 27th, 30th, and 32nd out of 32 teams in the four most important statistics to winning and losing. It's no wonder that the season has come to this.

But they're doing more than losing. They're doing it in a league that prides itself on parity. It's a league with a very restrictive salary cap designed to make sure that you can't end up with a "Yankees" type team buying up all the free agent talent. They're losing while teams with historically terrible management still manage to win three or four games a year (see: Raiders, Browns, Bengals).

And yet what do the fans get for their patronage? We get seven and a half years of being managed by Matt Millen. Under his guidance, the personnel department built a team that went 31-84 (a 0.270 winning percentage). Upon his firing, the Ford family, who own the team, promoted two guys from the management team that Millen had in place to act as co-GM's. And while they have can hardly take all the blame for this year because they couldn't make many personnel moves through the season, I hardly think that anyone from Millen's tenure should be given the benefit of the doubt and more time. But more time is exactly what they'll get as Ford announced this week that they'll be in place again next year.

I want to give up on them. I really do. I want to pick one of the exciting young teams out there like Atlanta or Baltimore with rookie QB's and rookie coaches and watch them rise up and get me excited. I want to stop caring about this hopeless waste of energy in Detroit. But I'm not a bandwagon jumper. I have to have some faith that with new ownership (see: Ford bankruptcy?), and top to bottom firings, and some time to evolve, I might get to cheer for a winner. After all, I was cheering for the Red Wings back in the '80's when they were the Dead Things, and look where that's gotten me now!

NFL Week 16

2008-12-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

The stretch run is here and a whole bunch of games that don't matter will be contested. So trying to pick them becomes a case of trying to figure out who has something to play for, who has something to prove, and who is trying to save their job for next year. There are also a few really exciting battles looming, so on we go ...

Colts over Jags - we start tonight with what shouldn't be a very good game. But Indy and Jacksonville always seem to play tight games and this one is in Florida. I think Peyton will do just enough though to get it done and keep the Colts rolling.

Cowboys over Ravens - as much as I want to pick Baltimore and see Flacco be successful and make the playoffs, this is the last game in Texas Stadium and Dallas should come out all fired up to give the fans a good show.

Browns over Bengals - These teams both stink, but Cleveland stinks just a little bit less. They'll play hard for Crenel with all the rumours swirling around him getting canned at the end of the year.

Lions over Saints - yes, that's right. I'm picking Detroit. New Orleans has nothing left to play for. They're only 1-6 on the road. Reggie Bush is out for the year. Brees' numbers are down the last three weeks. Everything just points to this being the week. It probably won't be, but I have to try picking them once this year (if you look back, I actually did pick them in Week 1 ... my bad).

Steelers over Titans - Pittsburgh is getting it done ugly and Tennessee isn't threatening anyone the last few weeks. I think the Steelers will find a way to get it done playing for home field all the way through the playoffs.

Dolphins over Chiefs - Miami still holds their playoff fate in their own hands, being able to win the division by winning out. That's motivation enough to beat a lousy KC team.

49ers over Rams - San Francisco is playing really well lately. They're not a very talented team, but Singletary has them playing harder than any of their opponents and that's enough for them to win in this league of parity.

Falcons over Vikings - Atlanta should come out running and be able to shove it down Minnesota's collective throat all afternoon with the Vikes losing their best run stopper, Pat Williams for the rest of the regular season.

Patriots over Cardinals - There should be a few very disillusioned teams (Atlanta, Tampa, Chicago, Minnesota), a couple of whom will miss out on the playoffs while this lousy Arizona team beat up on an even weaker division and will still only manage an 8-8 record but still get a home playoff game!

Panthers over Giants - Carolina has not been winning games on the road, but the possibility of getting home field all the way through the NFC Championship will be motivation enough. Their defense will be able to stop a struggling Giants offense and they'll be able to put up enough running yards to get some points.

Eagles over Redskins - what happened to Washington? Half way through the year they were considered contenders. Now? Now they lost to the Bengals! Has any team slid further?

Broncos over Bills - okay maybe the Bills have slid further. From 5-1 to a very probable 6-10. That's Detroit Lion like. Remember last year when the Lions went from 6-2 to 7-9? Denver will do enough to get this done and lock up the division.

Texans over Raiders - Houston is on quite a roll and now they get a cupcake to guarantee a .500 season. There will likely be some high hopes for this team next year.

Jets over Seahawks - I'm not positive about this one. It'll be Holmgren's last game as coach in Seattle and he'll have the guys well motivated to win this one and spoil NY's playoff hopes. The Hawks played New York's division rivals tough this year. But I think that Favre's desire to get back to the playoffs will let him get it done.

Bucs over Chargers - San Diego will know by game time if they still have something to play for. If the Broncos lose, then a SD win sets up a week 17 matchup for the division. However, since I've predicted Denver to win, the Bolts will have nothing to play for and will come out flat.

Bears over Packers - home field will be the difference in what looks to be an unbelievably frigid Monday Night Football matchup. I feel for those fans who will be watching their beer freeze over in the stands at Soldier Field.

Enjoy the weekend!

Inside the NFL

2008-12-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

There's an excellent story about Justin Blalock of the Atlanta Falcons today in Peter King's Monday Morning QB - Tuesday Edition article on Sports Illustrated. I'd like to share it here since the Monday night game was such a garbage contest and I have nothing else to really talk about.

Now for the Blalock story. I'm almost rooting for the Falcons to make it, just so Blalock gets his due. Think back to overtime Sunday, Atlanta and Tampa Bay tied at 10, the Falcons driving. On second-and-eight from the Buc 43, Matt Ryan scrambled forward, and from behind Buc defensive end Kevin Carter dove on his back and stripped the ball from Ryan at the Buc 39. Tampa Bay linebacker linebacker Barrett Ruud dove on the ball, cradled it in his right arm as he attempted to curl his body over the ball, and within a millsecond was snowed under by Bucs and Falcons alike.

Six seconds later, as the officials pried bodies away from the pile, they signaled for the Falcons and yelled, "Atlanta ball!'' And Blalock emerged with the football.

So what happened?

"Mostly grasping, gouging and punching in some unmentionable areas,'' said Blalock, a second-year guard from Texas. "Just chaos. Hopefully our season doesn't come down to that one play, but if that's the big one, I'm glad I was able to make it.''

What happens on the bottom of scrums is one of the great mysteries of the NFL. Once, Boomer Esiason told me he was at the bottom of a pile, having lost a fumble, and looked over to see Cleveland Browns nose tackle Bob Golic right next to his face. They couldn't go anywhere, so Boomer said to him: "Hey, you ever get those boots I sent you?'' Seems that Esiason had sent Golic a pair of Cowboy boots as thanks for an appearance on a radio show of his, and Golic said yes, he got them, and thank you. But it's usually not that cordial under there.

In this case, Blalock saw the ball come out, saw Ruud beginning to cradle it, and just dove for it. "He [Ruud] had one hand on it and he was trying to get his body over it so no one could pry it loose. I got my right arm in there, then wedged my body closer and just sort of moved him out of the way and got on the ball. It's physics. I'm just bigger, and I had the leverage. Then it was just crazy, with everybody jumping in there and trying to get it. My guys kept asking, 'You got it? You got it?' And I said I had it.''

He said it didn't occur to him how big the play was at the time. But the Falcons finished the drive with the winning Jason Elam field goal. If Ruud recovers that fumble, the Bucs would have needed to drive 30 yards to try a winning field goal of their own. At 8-6, Atlanta would have been a longshot in the NFC playoff race, needing two wins and lots of help to make it. At 9-5, they're major players.

"I didn't have the luxury to think about that at the time, obviously,'' Blalock said. "Now that I can think about it, I'm pretty happy. The strange thing is, that's only the second time I've ever touched the ball in a football game. At Texas once, I recovered a fumbled snap late one game. But that's it. This one is probably a little bigger.''

This one, in fact, is the kind of thievery that can save a season.

Here's Hoping!

2008-12-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

The Lions put up a valiant effort against the Colts yesterday. Say what you will about how terrible they are, at least they haven't just packed it in. Apparently, trying to avoid going winless for the year is actually something to play for! Which is why I'm going to put it all out there and say that Detroit is going to get a win against either New Orleans or Green Bay in the next two contests. While Detroit is fighting to avoid going down as the first 0-16 team ever, New Orleans and Green Bay really have nothing to play for at all. Neither has any playoff hopes remaining, so the only thing facing them will be trying to avoid the ignominy of being the only teams that didn't beat the Lions. Add on the fact that the Saints have been hopeless on the road (1-6 so far) and that Drew Brees' production has fallen off over the past three games and I think the win could come at home on Sunday. So remember that you heard it here first. Detroit moves to 1-14 Sunday afternoon at Ford Field.

If I'm right, do you think anyone in New Orleans will be amused by the symmetry of Detroit cracking the win column against the Saints just as the winless 1976 Tampa Bay team finally got their first win in their 13th game of 1977 against none other than these same New Orleans Saints?

NFL Week 15

2008-12-12T10:29:00.001-08:00

Here I come with post number 100 on this blog! They add up quick, evidently. And I come with picks for week 15 after getting off to a rocky start with the Saints losing last night. I did at least say it would be a close one and I lost when Chicago won the coin toss in OT. The NFL really needs to do something about that overtime format where the team winning the coin toss almost always wins the game. It hardly seems fair for them to battle for 60 minutes and then have the game decided by random chance. In any case, let's hope the other 15 picks turn out better!

Falcons over Bucs - The Bucs defense played a pathetic game Monday night and will no doubt bounce back with a better performance. I like the Falcons though because I think they'll be more desperate. Both teams have easy contests in weeks 16 and 17, but Atlanta needs to win out to make the playoffs, whereas Tampa can lose one and still have a shot.

Redskins over Bengals - Washington finally gets a win over a hopeless Cincinnati team.

Colts over Lions - This is a 1:00 pm start and should be over by about 1:10. Indy will take a four TD lead in the first half and Peyton will have a nap on the sidelines during the second half.

Chargers over Chiefs - too little, way too late for San Diego. Quite a disappointing year for the Bolts.

Seahawks over Rams - speaking of disappointing years, Seattle has really been a letdown. However, give them a ton of credit because they're not just playing out the string, they're laying it all on the line to get a few more W's.

Dolphins over 49ers - Miami will win this one, but it will be close. San Francisco is really playing hard under Mike Singletary and with a couple more solid efforts, the "Interim" tag should come off his "Head Coach" title.

Jets over Bills - New York finally gets back on the right track this week while the Bills confirm their fall from 4-0 and on top of the world to 6-10 and a long winter.

Panthers over Broncos - just call more runs to the right John Fox! Keep going there until it stops working. 300 yards against the Bucs D could be even more against a porous Broncos defense. The Panthers will remain perfect at home and on pace for home field advantage.

Packers over Jaguars - battle of underachievers here. Jacksonville is worse though and I don't expect them to do much even against the thoroughly poor Green Bay defense. Since GB hasn't been able to win at Lambeau lately, maybe a little road cooking is just what they need.

Ravens over Steelers - this is the game of the week to me. This will be the hardest hitting, manliest game, for sure. The sensational Joe Flacco will do just enough to outperform previous rookie sensation Roethlisberger. He'll just have to avoid those fatal turnovers that cost Romo the game against Pittsburgh last week.

Titans over Texans - it's going to be a shootout. These teams have been averaged a score of 29-26 in their last five meetings in favour of the Titans. I'm going to stick with the trend and pick Tennessee.

Cardinals over Vikings - I still think Minnesota stinks. They almost lost to the Lions both times the teams met. I mean, really ... how can you have any faith in a team that almost loses to the Lions?! Arizona is going to put up a ton of offense in the desert.

Patriots over the Raiders - New England keeps their playoff hopes alive with another west coast win that will likely be more difficult than it should be. After all, the Pats have made just about everything look difficult this year.

Cowboys over Giants - New York isn't playing for anything at all. They've already locked up the division and the only team that can catch them for home field through the NFC Championship game is the Jags who they can knock off themselves next week. This is a rest week for the G-Men and Dallas is going to benefit.

Eagles over Browns - where's the flex schedule now? Why are we stuck watching the crappy Browns on Monday night? Couldn't they have shifted Baltimore-Pittsburgh over? The last two Mondays don't get much better either. I guess last week's Tampa-Carolina game was as good as it gets!

Enjoy the weekend as the playoff picture continues to unfold!

The Buzz in Hockeytown

2008-12-11T10:58:00.001-08:00

Finally! I watched a Wings game and they won! It took a lot more than it should have playing against a Calgary team that only arrived in Detroit at 4 am though. Calgary came out a lot harder than Detroit and won almost all of the battles for the first period, taking a 2-0 lead. After the first frame though, the game was all Detroit and with the Wings still trailing 3-1 half way through the third, the defending champs managed to really pick it up a notch and take over. Two goals in four minutes tied it up and Lidstrom managed to bury the winner in OT. As well as Detroit played in the second and, especially, the third periods, they need to do that from the opening faceoff a little more often to avoid giving up three every game. In net at the other end, it was Curtis McElhinney getting a rare start and absolutely standing on his head on a night where Detroit could have gotten 6 or 7 with all of the quality chances they had.

One last comment about the hockey game last night ... the refs did a decent job, but there were three penalties that follow a pattern I've been disturbed by this season. I realize that the league wants to open up the offense and eliminate the clutching and grabbing. However, there has been a rash of hooking, holding, and interference penalties that I think go too far. Rather than use judgment as to whether or not the player was inhibited from being able to make a play, the refs have been instructed to just call it as soon as a stick touches an opponent above waist level. Calgary got called for a phantom hold in the first period and Detroit was called for phantom hooks in the first and second. I know that by the rule book they were all the right calls. I just have visions of important games getting decided by power play goals on penalties that were really marginal in the level of interference run.

Onwards to tonight's New Orleans - Chicago game at Soldier Field. The weather is supposed to be cold and a bit breezy, but without snow or anything too severe. While I would imagine that the Saints will struggle a bit in the elements, and because they have gone win one, lose one most of the year, I don't trust the Bears to defeat any strong opponents. Chicago had a couple of strong wins in the early going against Indy and Philly, but that was before either of those teams started playing well. Since their bye week, the Bears only wins have been against the real weaklings of the league in Detroit, St. Louis and Jacksonville. So, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Drew Brees will do enough to get New Orleans a couple of TD's and the Saints will win a tight one.

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of my picks for the weekend!

Maybe in Week 17?

2008-12-08T12:51:00.001-08:00

Does that final game against the Packers provide a chance for the Lions to avoid running the table in reverse? I thought their best shot would be against the Vikes this weekend, but having blown the fourth quarter lead yesterday, I look ahead to see if there's another opportunity.

Week 15 against the Colts? Nope. No chance. Peyton will eat this defense up and we'll see Jim Sorgi at QB by the second half. Week 16 against the Saints? Ditto with Drew Brees at the helm. But week 17. That's a possibility. Green Bay has been giving up a ton of points and yards lately, especially through the air. With the Pack at 5-8, they'll be officially eliminated from the playoffs before that week 17 game, so they won't really have anything to play for. And to top it all off, Detroit has actually been competitive in their last three divisional games, losing by 2, 4, and 4 points.

If there's any hope at all, it's going to come at Lambeau. Detroit hasn't won there in about a thousand years, but Green Bay is only 3-4 there this year too. I still have hope. But I'm sure not holding my breath.

NFL Week 14

2008-12-05T09:50:00.001-08:00

Hard to say what's wrong with the Red Wings defensively these days. But beating the Canucks 6-5 last night brought me back to the early 90's days where Detroit would win wild shootouts all season long and then bow out quickly in the playoffs when every team tightens up and scores come down. This team is fundamentally unchanged from last season though, so hopefully they can pull themselves together and stop giving up so many. At least for now they've got the firepower to hang in while they get things fixed.

Now, on to the weekend to come. While college football has Championship weekend in the SEC and Big 12 to figure out who's going to play for the National Championship, pundits will continue to spout off about what a farce the BCS is and why we still can't get a playoff. But the facts remain, the BCS is run by conferences with their own financial interests in mind, and the current BCS does a better job of distributing the millions than a playoff would. Good luck convincing them to change their minds on multi-million dollar payouts every year!

While I didn't manage to post my pick for last night's game, I see that San Diego very expectedly put a beatdown on the Raiders. Everyone put your hand up if you didn't see that coming. No hands? Okay. We'll move on then.

Bears over Jaguars - What a colossal disappointment Jacksonville has been this year. I watched that Monday night game start to finish and they were just dreadful in every aspect.

Vikings over Lions - this is the only hope to avoid 0-16 really. It's entirely possible that the Leos could pull the upset, but I don't see it. Detroit got gashed by the Titans running game badly last week. Does anyone really think they'll do better against A. Pete, the best back in the league?

Packers over Texans - While Houston looked pretty good Monday night, they don't travel very well and I especially don't hold much hope for them travelling to the frozen tundra on a short week.

Titans over Browns - Tennessee really has had a pretty easy schedule, haven't they? They've only had to play four teams that are above .500 and they'll only have two more the rest of the way. That means they got nearly a third of their season against garbage teams with no playoff hopes. I'm not convinced that they're going to be prepared for football in January.

Colts over Bengals - With the Bengals, Lions, and Jags on the schedule, Indy is going to go from a 3-4 start to their last game against Tennessee at 11-4. That's an impressive run and should make them a scary wild card team to face in the first round of the playoffs!

Falcons over Saints - sounds like the Saints might not lose a bunch of guys to suspension with the legal battle ensuing, but since they can't seem to play with any consistency, I think Matt Ryan will do enough to keep Atlanta's playoff hopes alive.

Giants over Eagles - NY will battle hard to show that all this Plax mess isn't going to distract them. With the best offensive and defensive lines, I think they'll have no trouble. Besides, McNabb isn't going to put up great numbers against the G-Men the way he did against the Cardinals wobbly defense.

Ravens over Redskins - Washington seems to be sliding backwards lately and is going to leave a disappointed fan base after appearing to be a competitor at the start of the season. Baltimore is really starting to roll as they open up the playbook for Flacco.

Dolphins over Bills - How's this for good fortune? Instead of going to freezing cold, windy, probably snowy Buffalo for their road game, Miami gets to travel to Toronto for a game inside the cozy Skydome, er - Roger's Centre.

Broncos over Chiefs - Would the real Denver Broncos please stand up? Which team will it be this weekend? They lost to the Raiders, so it's entirely possible that they could lose this one. But I don't they'll get caught napping again.

Jets over 49ers - New York got humbled at home last week in a game they never should have lost. Now they've got a tough cross country trip to make. It's their good fortune, though, that they only have to face the Niners. And even though San Francisco is playing better these days, it shouldn't be enough to knock off a Jets team that needs to bounce back.

Cardinals over Rams - speaking of playoff teams who haven't really beaten anyone (see: Titans, above), the Cards are going to roll into January and we'll all be totally clueless as to whether they have any chance to win a playoff game. They're just fortunate to play in the crappy NFC West, where one more win will lock up the division title.

Steelers over Cowboys - this should be the best game of Sunday. Pittsburgh is riding high after destroying the Pats and the Cowboys are picking up after a mid-season slump with guys returning from injuries. The pick here is a bit of a toss-up, but the way the Steelers played last week and with this one being played in the Ketchup Bottle, I've got to go with Pittsburgh.

Patriots over Seahawks - New England is lucky to face a bad Seattle team to try to bounce back from that loss to the Steelers. They'll be in tougher than they might think though against the Seahawks at home. Hasselbeck is getting back into the groove and this one should at least be competitive.

Bucs over Panthers - Despite a 9-3 record, I still don't have a lot of faith in Carolina. I think that Tampa is just the better team here and I look for them to prove it and take a huge step towards the division title Monday night.

Modern Pentathlon - Neither Modern, nor "Penta"

2008-12-01T11:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a story that you probably missed last week: the Modern Pentathlon, which hasn't been "modern" roughly since it was created as an Olympic event in 1912, is to receive an update! The event that has for nearly a century combined pistol shooting, fencing, swimming, horse jumping, and running (how's that for a modern mix?!), is getting a facelift as outlined in this article from the New York Times.

The shooting and running will now be combined, which has led to the obvious conclusion that several NBA and NFL stars might now have a chance at Olympic glory if they can just learn how to fence and ride a horse!

I suppose the combination of running and shooting makes the final event of the competition a "biathlon" of sorts. If you follow up three individual events with a biathlon, is it still five? Yeah, I would say so. But Modern? I still don't think I can give them that one.

Half Way There

2008-11-27T14:26:00.000-08:00

With today's debacle against the Titans, Detroit has moved within four games of the infamous first ever 0-16 season, and finishing the season on the road against Peyton and the Colts, at home against the high flying Saints offense, and at Green Bay where Detroit hasn't won in 17 years, I think that next week's game against the Vikings is the Lions only hope. It's do or die time.

But how bad is 0-16, really? Sure, no one has ever done it. But the league has only played 16 games in a season for 30 years. Back in 1976, the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14 for the imperfectly perfect season. Detroit is only going to add two to that. How many more consecutive losses did Tampa suffer? Twelve! That's right. The Bucs started that '77 season 0-12 before winning their last two to break the 26 game losing skid. So going back to last year's season ending loss for the Lions, they've only now lost 13 straight. That's just half way to infamy!

Does anyone else see some irony though in Detroit's preseason record this year? They were 4-0 against the Giants, Bengals, Browns, and Bills! Just enough to give all of us so much false hope.

Turkey Bowls

2008-11-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day is upon us! Unfortunately for those of us north of the border, we don't get to share in the trytophan fueled festivities, but I will hopefully have some opportunity to watch some football. Especially my lovable losers in Detroit!

But who will win the Thanksgiving games? Here are my thoughts:

Titans over Lions - Obviously. Tennessee coming off their first loss are going to be anxious to get back on track. This one could be ugly early.

Cowboys over Seahawks - Dallas shouldn't have much trouble taking care of the boys from up here in the Northwest. Seattle has been lousy this year and Dallas is finding their stride again as the injuries heal.

Cardinals over Eagles - Philly has been so bad the last two weeks that I almost have to believe that McNabb will bounce back. I'm a little worried about Arizona traveling so far on the short week. However, I don't think any of that is enough to stop the Cards from taking this one tomorrow night.

So enjoy your turkey folks! I'll sit here at work jealous and watch the scores tick by on the internet!

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2008-11-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

In Lions news, Detroit jumped out to a 17-0 first quarter lead yesterday and were well on their way to pulling the upset and getting one in the W column. Of course, we all know what happened next. Tampa put 5 TD's on the board in just 18 minutes of play and the Leos proved true to form. This team clearly has no idea how to win. It's a good thing that the national audience will only have to be exposed to them once this year - this Thursday when the Titans show up to kick them to the curb.

In Tiger news, the poor guy got dropped by Buick today. It seems that, wisely, GM has finally figured out that every million they pay to have their name on Mr. Woods's golf bag is one mil closer to Chapter 11. Undoubtedly, there will be many companies clamoring for the right to throw their name on El Tigre's bag, but it may not add up to the reported $7 M a year that he's been receiving from Buick. How is he going to get by having to support that second baby he and his supermodel wife are having! It's not like he can fall back on actual earnings right now.

Finally, in Bears news, Dr. Jeckyl will see you now. The Bears's defense, in the past three weeks, has given up 20 yards, 200 yards, and 14 yards rushing against Tennessee, Green Bay, and St. Louis respectively. How does a defense hold two teams to a combined 34 rushing yards, and then get gashed for 200 by a divisional rival who they have to beat to get into the playoffs?! Even better, if Green Bay wins tonight, there will be a three way tie between Chicago, Minnesota, and the Pack for the NFC North lead and a playoff berth. Since none of them are likely to get a wild card, I look at the Vikes and Packers holding a one game advantage over Chicago because they each still have another game against the Lions, whereas the Bears have used up their two free wins for the year!

NFL Week 12

2008-11-19T13:36:00.001-08:00

Here we are again with another weekend approaching. Last night's game worked out fine with the Steelers taking care of business as expected. But far more exciting last night, how about those Wolverines?! No, not the football ones ... they still suck. I'm talking about the Michigan basketball team! The one not even listed in the 65 teams projected to dance in March in last week's SI College Basketball Preview issue. They pulled off the upset of No. 4 UCLA at Madison Square Gardens last night! I know it's just a start and they won't likely be able to keep this up and contend for the Big Ten title with Purdue and Michigan State heavily favoured, but they're obviously doing something right in Ann Arbor this year and hopefully it's just a sign of good things to come for a program that hasn't been able to recover from the NCAA sanctions caused by the Fab Five more than a decade ago.

All right ... enough basketball. On we go with the picks for week 12 ...

Falcons over Panthers - Not totally convinced on this one. But I don't think Carolina will have such an easy time running it down the throats of Atlanta as they had running on Detroit. Add the fact that Carolina's passing attack was just dreadful against both Detroit and Oakland the last two weeks and I'll take Atlanta in an upset.

Browns over Texans - Brady Quinn looked pretty good Monday night and Houston can't win on the road. I'm a bit worried about Quinn's broken finger, but not worried enough to pick Houston to get the job done.

Cowboys over Niners - This one should be a piece of cake for Dallas.

Bucs over Lions - Another obviously easy pick. Bring on 0-11 for their nationally telecast Thanksgiving game!

Titans over Jets - It'll definitely be a stiff test for Tennessee. However, with NY coming off such a big emotional win over the Pats, I think this game might be hangover time for Favre and the boys.

Bills over Chiefs - I can't believe how much Buffalo has sucked since the 4-0 start. That said, Kansas City is simply terrible and with the Bills' schedule, they have to still think they've got a shot at the playoffs if they take care of business.

Bears over Rams - what to make of Chicago? Gave up 20 yards rushing to Tennessee and followed it up with 200 against GB. Which team will show up this week? I think the one good enough to beat up on the wounded Rams.

Patriots over Dolphins - must win games for both teams. NE got beat last week because their D couldn't handle Brett having a perfect game. With three extra days to gameplan and memories of getting embarrassed by the Fins earlier this year, I can't figure out why New England is a two point dog in Vegas.

Jags over Vikings - I still think Jacksonville is better than their record. Unfortunately for them, the record is what it is and even with getting to feast on three more NFC North teams, they're not going to get into the playoffs without a miracle. But beating the Vikes is step one for a team that has to keep playing hard to have any hope.

Ravens over Eagles - Donovan didn't know that OT ended after one quarter? How is that possible? How could a veteran professional QB not know that? How could they play so crappy against the Bengals? So many questions.

Broncos over Raiders - I still don't know how the Raiders won a couple of games this season. They seem every bit as terrible as the Lions right now.

Giants over Cardinals - this is a tough call. The last two times Warner was involved in Giants vs Cards games, he was on the losing side, first with NY, then with Arizona. I think he's going to lose again because NY will put enough pressure on him that he can't rack up the 300+ yards he's been passing for every week.

Redskins over Seahawks - how bad is football in the Northwest? The 2-8 Seahawks are the most exciting option as the Apple Cup features 0-10 Washington against 1-10 Washington State on Saturday!

Colts over Chargers - In Peyton I trust. I'm a little worried that San Diego has made visiting QB's look terrible the last four home games, but I think Manning can overcome that. What I can't figure out is why the Chargers look so much better on paper than on the field this year.

Packers over Saints - New Orleans simply can't string two wins together. Brees would be the unquestioned MVP with the passing yards he's racking up if only his defense could give him a bit of support so they could crack .500.

Enjoy the weekend! It's now time to pray for a second UM miracle at the Horseshoe tomorrow. It pains me to see a senior class at Michigan go their entire careers without beating Ohio State. I hope things shape up under Rich Rod the way they've started to for the basketball team under Beilein! After all, they brought both coaches in from West Virginia ... Beilein has just had a one year head start.

NFL Thursday Nighter

2008-11-19T13:13:00.000-08:00

With the Thursday night game just a day away, I thought I would chime in on it with time to spare.

The Steelers and Bengals both had very interesting finishes to their games last weekend. Troy Polamalu of Pittsburgh got completely jobbed by the officials, robbing him of a rightful touchdown for his stats. While the mistake didn't cost Pittsburgh the game (they still won 11-10, the only 11-10 final ever in the NFL), all the talk is that it could have lasting implications since point differential factors into playoff tiebreakers. What I haven't heard anything about is how it might affect Polamalu in his next contract negotiations. These guys are always using every stat they can to bolster their earning potential. How is he going to feel about getting ripped off of a defensive touchdown? Those types of plays are huge and they're what get you the big bucks!

In Cincinnati's case, the finish was even more bizarre. Capitalizing on a horrendous game played by Donovan "I didn't know a game could end in a tie" McNabb, the Bengals managed to have a shot to win in overtime, but the 47 yard field goal with 7 tics left missed. The game ended in that tie and half the Eagles team was left to admitting that they don't know the rules of the game they get paid millions of dollars to play for a living. That's kind of like the SEC (the stock market watchdog one, not the college football conference) saying "we didn't really know how all these derivatives worked, so we decided not to regulate them" only to have it all blow up in their face. Wait ... that happened too? Never mind.

So what do I see happening tomorrow night on short rest? Well, the Steelers, even having not played well still did get their W and they are clearly a better team here. The Bengals got a half W that they didn't deserve. Pittsburgh already beat up on the Bengals in Cincinnati a month ago, so I like the Steelers by 8 at the Ketchup Bottle.

Another inept defensive record

2008-11-17T08:36:00.000-08:00

More record setting for an offense facing Detroit's D this weekend. The Panthers rushed for 264 yards at a rate of 8.3 yards per carry. Yeah ... you read that right, 8.3!! They almost averaged a first down every time one of their running backs touched the ball. Could the Lions possibly suck any worse? We'll find out soon ... just 6 more losses to be the first 0-16 team ever!

And not to pile on or anything, but you've got to feel bad for Jason Hanson. This guy is one of the best kickers ever. He moved into eight place all time in points scored by kicking a 56 yard field goal on Sunday. He's only missed one field goal all year. He's 6 out of 6 from 50 yards or more. And he's been performing this well with the Lions for 17 years!! That has for to feel like 17 long, torturous years playing in the football wasteland.

NFL Week 11 and NHL Conspiracy Theories

2008-11-14T09:17:00.001-08:00

It was a fantastic game last night, even if my pick turned out wrong. Favre took care of the ball better than I said he would. Belichick's boys got completely outschemed on defense and couldn't come up with key stops when the Jets stopped playing not to lose and started playing to win in the fourth quarter and OT. And despite last minute heroics from Cassel and finally a big play from Moss, New England simply made too many costly mistakes (dropped balls, dumb penalties, gave up kickoff return for TD) to come away with a W. I think both of these teams have some fundamental flaws on defense right now, but they're operating awfully well on the other side of the ball. With both teams having some very winable games down the stretch, a repeat of last night in the playoffs could be something to look forward to!

And now for the rest of my thoughts on the games this weekend. I feel like there are a lot of pretty straightforward picks, so I'm probably going to get trounced by upsets. But here we go anyways ...

Falcons over Broncos - Every week I wait for Matt Ryan and this young Falcons team to crash back to earth and every week they prove me wrong. I'll take them and hope for the best against a very flawed Broncos team.

Eagles over Bengals - The Bengals have lost coming out of their bye seemingly every year for the last decade. Philly played a close one against the Giants last week and is without question the better team here. They should win easily.

Bears over Packers - The QB situation in Chicago is still a question mark this week, but Green Bay just played so terribly against Minnesota last week that I can't overlook it. They should be well motivated here, but I like the Bears to get a boost out of having hung so tough against the unbeaten Titans last Sunday. Bears in a close one.

Colts over Texans - Peyton is finally in a groove and Houston can't seem to win on the road, so this pick doesn't seem too hard. Indy has tended to make life difficult this year though and they didn't deserve to win the first matchup between the two this year. It could be close, but I can't go against Peyton at home.

Saints over Chiefs - I really want to pick KC here. New Orleans has been completely unpredictable with Brees putting up passing records but still failing to win and the Chiefs have been right in their last couple of games with chances to win in the final moments. But still, it's the 1-8 Chiefs and I can't overlook the fact that they just can't seem to get it done.

Dolphins over Raiders - How did Oakland get two wins this year? And Detroit can't get one? Bizarre ... too bad Oakland isn't on the Lions' schedule. Give this one to Miami in a walk.

Giants over Ravens - Just like with the Falcons and Matt Ryan, I keep waiting for reality to set in for the rookie QB - rookie coach tandem in Baltimore. Yet every week they show up and do enough to win with the defense playing exceptionally. I think they might meet their match this week though with NY forcing a turnover or two that will change the game.

Steelers over Chargers - I never would have believed that San Diego would struggle so badly to be a .500 team this year. What's even harder to believe is that it's very conceivable for both them and Denver to enter week 17 against each other at 7-8, playing for the division title and a playoff berth. That's one sad division.

49ers over Rams - Mike Singletary gets his first win here! The Rams continue to suck. Nobody cares. Let's move on.

Seahawks over Cardinals - Yes, I know. This pick is asking for trouble. 2-7 to beat 6-3 you ask? Yup. Seattle would have won last week with a moderately adequate performance from the QB and this week they get Hasselbeck back from injury. And Arizona? They had no right winning that game on Monday and wouldn't have if SF wasn't completely inept in managing the clock. I'm calling for the upset because it's up here in the rainy northwest.

Bucs over Vikings - Tampa is going to have to find some way to slow down Adrian Peterson here. If they can, I don't give any chance to Gus Frerotte to beat them on his own. It occurs to me that I'd like to pick the NFC North to lose every game, but I can't since the Bears and Packers are playing each other.

Redskins over Cowboys - Even if Romo can go, his throws can't possibly have everything on them with the still not completely recovered busted finger. Dallas' leaky offensive line won't give him a lot time to shake the rust off either.

Panthers over Lions - unfortunately for Detroit, they come up against another team who played a lousy game last Sunday and should be out for redemption. Moving to 0-10, the Lions will further enhance their position as the laughingstock of the league.

Titans over Jaguars - After facing the Bengals and the Lions, Jacksonville cannot possibly be prepared to face a team as strong as Tennessee this week. The Jags are struggling to run the ball and the Titans aren't going to make things any easier for them. Obviously it's tough to remain undefeated, but I have a hard time calling for the upset here.

Bills over Browns - This could be a real stinker of a Monday Night game. Buffalo will look for some redemption after losing to their entire division and Cleveland has given up 71 points in the last two weeks. I think Buffalo will get back on track, and with upcoming games against the Chiefs and Niners, that could mean 8-4 going into the last four weeks.

One final note for this post is that the Red Wings got back to winning last night with a 4-3 victory in Tampa. It's good to see them win, but it's upsetting to see them give up another three goals again. Of interest to me though, were the comments from a few of the guys after Tuesday's loss that the league seems to be giving 5 on 3 advantages to a team that goes down by three goals at every opportunity this year. Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory and I don't buy into them much, but those sure were two ticky-tack calls half way through the third period and it didn't get paid back when Staal put the same kind of hook on Datsyuk in OT. Not saying it was all the refs fault, but the zebras sure didn't hurt Pittsburgh's chances to win.

Toughest Pick in Week 11

2008-11-13T13:18:00.000-08:00

Huge, huge game tonight in Foxborough. Jets - Pats. Identical records. Same on the road and at home. Same versus the AFC and NFC. Same versus the division. There's nothing that separates these teams in the standings right now. The Jets have a slight edge in passing yards and TD's, but also have more picks. The Pats have the slight edge on the ground. The defenses are giving up within 1 yard per game of each other, thought the Pats have a field goal lead in points allowed. What I'm getting at, is there just isn't any differentiation here.

So how do you pick a winner? New England should have some advantage because they're at home, but they've also got a lot of injuries. The Jets should have some advantage because they've built their entire team around finally knocking the Patriots off the top of the division, but all the money in the world on free agents hasn't been able to reign Favre back into the effective dink and dunk playmaking he produced in GB last year. He's still too prone to turnovers. But it's still Favre. He can certainly make magic happen. Just check out their 40-0 halftime lead against the Rams last week!

It should be the Jets, right? I mean, if they don't win, the Jets faithful are going to jump off a bridge! And we can't expect Matt Cassel to win on this big a stage, can we? I don't know ... would you put your money up against Belichick and his schemes? No, me neither. Not in New England. I have to go with the Pats. Can I bet your money instead of my own?

Wings - Pens, the Rematch

2008-11-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

It was a crazy hockey game in Detroit tonight. While the first 45 minutes of play were almost all dominated by Detroit, two chintzy penalty calls in a span of 6 seconds completely turned the tide. Pittsburgh scored on the 5 on 3 and then popped a bunch more when all of the momentum went their way. Finally, with the net empty, and eerily similar to game 5 of last year's finals, Staal netted another one to tie it up and send it to OT. Half way through overtime, Datsyuk turned the puck over (after Staal gave him a little uncalled hook) and the Pens scored again on the break the other way.

I would love to blame the refs for turning the momentum with two bad calls and then missing the one in OT, but no amount of bad calls should have resulted in the Wings giving up five goals in less than fifteen minutes of play. That performance was absolutely pathetic and had better act as a wake up call as they start another tough road trip. I trust Babcock to ride the guys for this one. It was a bad loss.

Pretty Solid Picks!

2008-11-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

11 out of 13 wasn't too bad for the weekend, and if the refs hadn't screwed up the illegal forward pass call that went against the Packers for a safety yesterday, I'd have had 12 out 13! That's two pretty good weeks in a row now. Perhaps I'm starting to get a handle on how these games are going to play out. Or maybe I just got lucky.

Tonight's game shouldn't exactly be a monumental event with an average Arizona team playing a crappy San Francisco team. So I move my attention to tomorrow's Stanley Cup rematch with Detroit hosting the Penguins. Obviously it's a new season and at this early stage, it's difficult to draw many conclusions, but both teams seem to be playing well and poised for another deep run. The game should be another exciting one between the two. Hopefully the Red Wings can continue to give the city a bit of hope in the doom and gloom that otherwise surrounds it.

NFL Week 10

2008-11-06T16:24:00.000-08:00

I guess I have to throw this out there before the game starts tonight. I don't have a lot of time, so I'll dive right in ...

Broncos over Browns - I'm actually really tempted to take the Browns here because their D has been solid the last couple weeks and because Denver has been so bad. But I don't see Brady Quinn winning his debut. There's already been too much winning from rookie QB's this year.

Falcons over Saints - speaking over those rookie QB's, I keep liking Matt Ryan more and more every week. I think they'll hang in tough against New Orleans' potent offense and escape with a win.

Titans over Bears - I can't imagine Chicago beating the last undefeated team. Just watch ... I'll be wrong again.

Jaguars over Lions - Jacksonville will definitely not be sleeping through this one like they slept through the game against Cincy last week.

Panthers over Raiders - how did Oakland win two games? Seriously! They had negative yards on offense at the end of the first half last week and only gained three first downs the whole game.

Dolphins over Seahawks - poor Seattle stinks pretty badly too. Miami should have no trouble getting this win at home.

Packers over Vikings - this game could be tight because it's in Minny, but I really like how tough Green Bay played against Tennessee last week. They should get this important win to surge ahead in the division.

Patriots over Bills - tough loss for New England last week, but I think Buffalo is showing their true colours and falling apart after that quick start. Cassel and Co. should light 'em up on Sunday.

Jets over Rams - St. Louis is falling back to normal after a couple wins under the new coach. I think Favre lights them up this week (though he'll probably hand them a few picks as well).

Giants over Eagles - How is Philly the betting favourite in this one? Haven't the Giants won just about every road game they've played for the last 12 months? Aren't they 7-1? Maybe it's a trap, but I like the G-men to keep rolling.

Steelers over Colts - That Pittsburgh defense was amazing making Monday night miserable for Washington. I think the Steelers will win, and win or lose, Peyton is going to get beat up at the Ketchup Bottle Sunday afternoon.

Chargers over Chiefs - San Diego should be well enough rested after the bye to beat up on Kansas City this week. I think San Diego will even win enough down the stretch to win their division. That's not saying much though since the rest of the division stinks.

Ravens over Texans - I have no idea who to pick here because I don't have a huge amount of confidence in Baltimore. However, Schaub is hurt and the last time Rossenfels played, he guided the collapse agains the Colts.

Cardinals over 49ers - This is a crappy Monday Night game. Arizona should absolutely destroy SF. It might be fun to watch what Mike Singletary is going to do next though.

Enjoy the game tonight!

Looking Ahead

2008-11-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

So Washington's election record moves a little closer to 100% this week, with them losing and the incumbent party getting the boot. The election return was not a big surprise of course, but the Skins getting dominated so badly by the Steelers defense was not entirely expected. I'm a bit worried with Roethlisberger potentially out, but if Pittsburgh's D keeps playing that way, they can beat anyone.

I'm looking ahead with interest this week though, to Thanksgiving Thursday, and a potential matchup between an 11-0 Titans team and a 0-11 Lions team. Obviously, either team could blow their perfect (or very much imperfect) season before then, but the matchup would certainly provide a little bit of intrigue to what will otherwise be a totally uneventful game with the Lions' only national audience of the season. So, what needs to happen for us to get there?

Detroit has the Jags at home this week who shouldn't take them for granted because they just screwed up doing exactly that against Cincy last week. Then they go to Carolina who might be looking ahead to a tougher stretch of games against teams who are all currently at .500 or better. However, Detroit is so lousy on the road that I doubt they pick up a win even if the Panthers are looking ahead. Finally, Detroit will host Tampa with the chance to get to 0-11. The Bucs are on their bye this week and then face the Vikings at home, so they should be well rested going into Detroit and with them in a tight battle for their division, Gruden will have them playing hard. I put the odds of 0-11 for Detroit at about 85% with my only hesitation being some resurgence under new QB, Daunte Culpepper. Bringing in the new QB might be just the kick in the pants that the Lions need to pull of a surprise win or two before this season is out.

Tennessee has a tougher road to get to that Thanksgiving game still perfect though. They go into Chicago this week where I fully expect them to get the win. I mean really, the Bears almost lost to Detroit. Could they really be that tough? With Orton hurt now, I don't give the Bears much shot at winning until he comes back. Next week though, the Titans have to go into Jacksonville to face the most Jeckyl and Hyde team in the league. With the Jags be the crappy team who lost to the Bengals last week or will they get their running game going again and play like the pre-season Super Bowl pick that a lot of people thought they were? My guess is that this could be the one that trips Tennessee up. Finally, the Titans host the Jets in the final week before Thanksgiving. I think the Tennessee defense does a lot more damage to Brett Favre and his interception stats and they come through this one clean. So I'll put the odds on them staying perfect a little lower than Detroit ... say, 60%. The Jacksonville game is going to be the toughest, but the longer you stay perfect, the more every team will be gunning for you. They'll definitely be in tough through this stretch.

The only thing I can very confidently guarantee is that if the two teams meet at 0-11 and 11-0, you can tick those numbers forward to 12.

Weekend Fun

2008-11-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

Another interesting weekend in sports, wrapped up with a great hockey game here in Van City last night.

I'll begin with the Lions, who after the Bengals win are now the only winless team in the NFL. After last year's 6-2 opening half of the season, Detroit is now 1-15 in their last 16 games with the only win being against fellow doormat Kansas City in a meaningless late December game. Detroit was marginally better this week and kept it close, as I predicted, with a big 23 point second quarter. Unfortunately, those were their only points and not enough to support such a lousy defense. There's a chance for that first win this coming week though as Detroit faces the Jacksonville team who just gave Cincinatti their first win of the year. however, if I were a betting man I would guess that the Cincy loss will act as a wake up call for the Jags and they'll take Detroit a lot more seriously than they may have otherwise.

As for the rest of my NFL picks, tonight's game finally gives me a shot at double digit correct picks for just the second time all season. I'm a little worried though. You'll recall that I picked the Skins. While I'd like to be right, I'm afraid of the political outcome that that result might bring. You see, Washington's final home game prior to an election has almost perfect correlation with predicting the outcome of the election. If the Skins win, the incumbent party wins. If the Skins lose, the incumbent party loses. This predictor is 17-1 all time. Clearly, the Obama faithful will be cheering for the Steelers tonight.

Finally, the Red Wings finished off their road trip with a solid victory here in Vancouver last night. Special teams did the trick with the Wings cashing in on the PP three times and killing off all seven penalties that they took. While I'm pleased with the win, especially against the local guys, I wasn't terribly impressed with their play last night. The seven penalty kills were too many by far and it meant that Osgood had to have one of his best games of the year for Detroit. There were brief flashes where Detroit looked dominant, but Vancouver played them tougher than I would have liked to see. That said, the Wings came out of a really tough West Coast road trip, with five games in just over a week, and went 3-1-1 for 7 out of 10 possible points. A few days off will do them some good now before hosting the Devils (possibly without Brodeur) and then a Stanley Cup Final rematch next Tuesday.

NFL Week 9

2008-10-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Another slate of games approaches and I can't help but feel that perhaps I'm just not meant to get all of these picks right. At least I have one constant ... the Lions will lose. It's almost comforting.

Bills over Jets - call it a hunch, but I think Favre is hurting. Seeing the replays of some of the picks the last couple weeks, it just doesn't look he's got the same velocity we're used to seeing from him. Buffalo is going to bounce back from a bad loss at home.

Bears over Lions - Another record passing day for Kyle Orton? Probably not ... he already set his career high against the Leos earlier this year. Detroit will keep this one closer, but not close enough.

Jaguars over Bengals - Cincinnati is the only team in the league I think Detroit could beat right now and they're facing a Jags team who are going to be hungry after getting totally stuffed on the run last week.

Ravens over Browns - Cleveland is on a bit of a roll lately and showing some of the promise that a lot of folks believed they had before the year started. I'm not completely confident on this pick, I just think that Baltimore is good enough to hold them off.

Titans over Packers - Tennessee was very impressive in playing it out Monday night, completely dominating the second half against Indy. There's no glitz or glamour to this team, just tough, hard nosed football being played on both sides of the ball.

Bucs over Chiefs - Tampa disappointed me last week, but even if they're not as good as I thought, they're plenty good enough to beat Kansas City. KC is on the third or fourth string QB after all.

Cards over Rams - This could be the first Western team winning a game travelling east (if you don't count NO winning in London ... but someone had to win that one!). The Rams have stepped up under the new coach, but I think Warner has a big day back in St. Lou.

Vikings over Texans - Houston can't win on the road. They just haven't got it figured out. Minnesota will be desperate to keep up with the Bears in the division and will have enough in them to win this one.

Broncos over Dolphins - I don't know what to make of Denver. They're a talented offensive team with not much going well on the other side of the ball. I think they have enough fire power to get past Miami though.

Falcons over Raiders - Matty Ice goes into the Black Hole and comes out a victor! It helps that the Raiders only two wins were total gifts.

Giants over Cowboys - When Romo went down with the busted pinky, Dallas had to be hoping to get through the Tampa / NY games even. They beat Tampa last week which is going to lead to a little let down against a Giants team that seems to be getting better each week.

Eagles over Seahawks - Seattle's twelfth man is not enough. Can they put out thirteen or fourteen? No? Okay then ... not enough fire power to win games for poor Mike Holmgren who's got to put up with this team as his last before "retirement".

Patriots over Colts - Game of the week! What's that? No Brady? Peyton's playing hurt? Okay then, maybe this one isn't the Sunday Nighter NBC was hoping for. It should still be a good game and Matt Cassel will do just enough to pick on a depleted Indy defense.

Redskins over Steelers - Pittsburgh is just too beat up right now and Washington is going to come out and lay another physical beating on them. The Skins almost got caught last week looking ahead, but still came away with the win in Detroit. They'll be better this game.

ISU World Cup

2008-10-28T14:42:00.001-07:00

After another miserable round of predictions this past weekend, I'm going to ignore football for this post and focus on the event I got to watch live on Sunday.

The ISU brought their World Cup Short Track Speed Skating circuit through town in a test event for the Olympics and tickets were not as popular as I expected. I was able, with just a few days of notice, to score a pair of seats pretty close to the ice for just $20 each! I thought this was a great vantage point to judge the speed and aggression of the skaters heading through the turns.

The event started with the quaterfinals of the men's and women's 500 m and 1,000 m races. This being my first opportunity ever to watch speed skating live, I was a bit confused by several aspects of the event that you don't actually get to see on TV every four years when they cover this during the Olympics. First of all, there are actually five tracks that get used. The little black markers on the ice that delineate the turn get moved for each heat to make sure that the ice is smooth and consistent. When they move the track, they also pour several gallons of water onto the ice and squeegee it into the ruts that get carved out by the skaters' blades. By the time they've gone through the five tracks, they can go back to the first and the water will have had time to freeze and create a new smooth, consistent surface for the skaters again. My next question, of course, was about the distance staying accurate with the track changing every heat, but they take care of that with five separate start lines for each corresponding loop. The five or six guys who take care of maintaining the track throughout the event get a serious workout skating around fixing the ice and the track all day!

After the quarterfinal heats, they cleaned the ice for real and prepared for the semifinals of the same four events. It was interesting to watch the strategies change from the 500 m races to the 1,000 m races. In the 500, it was essentially an all out sprint where the first person into the first turn more often than not came away with the victory. The 1,000 involved a lot more of the skaters playing cat and mouse with each other, getting through the first 2/3 of the distance without anyone really pushing it and waiting for someone to make the first move. Once the passes started happening, it was fast and wild to the finish.

The semifinal races generally each sent two skaters to the A final and two to the B final. From what I recall, B finals exist in case there are mass disqualifications in the A final, leading to the medals rolling down. I learned at the event that it's the responsibility of the skater trying to make a pass to avoid contact and it's that contact that leads to the DQ's. What I came to gather from watching though, is that some contact is clearly allowed. In fact, as the two Korean skaters in one of the 500 m semis squeezed a Canadian right out of the picture in the final turn, my outraged yelling for a DQ was met with inaction from the judges, but unkind reaction from the dozens of Koreans parked in the seats in front of me. Oops.

This clip that I found on YouTube was taken during the preliminaries on Friday or Saturday, but shows a pretty exciting race from World Record holder, and Canadian, Michael Gilday ...

The finals were pretty exciting with several Canadians spread through the races. None of them came up with golds, but Gilday got a silver in the men's 1,000, Remi Beaulieu took bronze in the same, Francois Termblay took silver in the men's 500, and Marianne St. Gelais won her first world cup medal, a silver in the women's 500 m. Looking through the list of people on the Candian team, it was clear that I am already way over the hill to take up short track speed skating, and apparently not french enough either!

After the individual finals were all complete, they really ramped up the excitement with the relay finals. It began with the women's 3,000 m relay which had five teams in the final due to an advancement due to DQ in the semis. This meant that there would be 20 skaters on the ice, all interchanging every lap and a half, trying to stay out of each other's way but not give any room for a pass. As the teams started to spread out a little it became dizzying just trying to watch and difficult to keep track. The excitement grew and the tight race eventually went to the Chinese over the Koreans and the third place Canadians. The men's 5,000 m relay was similarly dizzying, though with four fewer guys on the ice, a little easier to keep track of. The Canadians pushed extremely hard, but got edged out in the end by the Americans by about 0.8 seconds.

It was a great new experience to see live and something I would definitely recommend if you ever get a chance. I know I'll be trying to get tickets again when they come back to town, whether that be for another World Cup race, or the Olympics in 2010.

What to Watch?

2008-10-24T13:54:00.000-07:00

Another weekend is upon us and I seek to determine the most exciting events to watch! Will it be baseball? Well, it is the World Series ... but there's threat of a rainout tomorrow and the series can't end this weekend regardless, so I'll have to say no. Hockey? There's an excellent slate of games Saturday night with every team in the league in action! But I still don't think that's it. NFL? There are a couple of intriguing games to watch including whether Europe will see a decent game between the Saints and the Chargers in London, and whether Pittsburgh or NY can show dominance between AFC and NFC leaders. Still though, neither of these games have huge implications for playoffs or much else. What's left? Ah yes ... there it is ... Saturday night at the Horseshoe! Penn State visiting Ohio State. God I hope JoPa's boys can kick some Buckeye tail! There's nothing better than watching OSU lose.

As for those NFL games, I do have some thoughts. Let's see if I can crack double digits for a change. I'm going with a lot of home teams in the hope that that might actually help this week. Here we go ...

Texans over Bengals - I just think Cincinatti is nearly as hopeless as Detroit. Houston is going to look like they're on a roll after this, but their recent opponents provide that deception.

Bucs over Cowboys - This is a bit of a toss up for me, but I think Dallas is spiralling out of control and the injuries and suspensions aren't going to let them get any better quickly enough.

Redskins over Lions - I've stated here before that I think the Leos are going to go 0-16 this year. Detroit's games now become automatic in my picks the rest of the way.

Bills over Dolphins - so yeah, I said I was liking the home teams this week and this is my third road pick in a row. Believe me, I'm getting to the homers.

Patriots over Rams - see? Home team. St. Louis is not good enough to win three in a row, even under the guidance of a new coach.

Chargers over Saints - okay, technically, this is another road pick ... but the game's in England! Aren't they both on the road? I just hope that San Diego brings the team that beat up on the Pats instead of the one who stunk up the joint in Buffalo.

Jets over Chiefs - Herm Edwards has got to feel down about leaving a decent Jets team to coach a lousy KC team with some fourth string QB trying to beat Favre in NY this weekend.

Eagles over Falcons - This one's going to be close. I'm pleasantly surprised watching Matt Ryan flourish this year the way rookies so rarely do. He's a lot of fun to cheer for. But I don't think he's got enough talent around him to win this game.

Panthers over Cardinals - no team from the Pacific or Mountain time zone has won a game outside their time zone yet this year. Don't expect this to be the first.

Ravens over Raiders - don't expect this to be the first either!

Jaguars over Browns - Jacksonville should be better than 3-3 right now. This is a playoff caliber team that needs to get the ball rolling and I think they'll do it at home against a weak Cleveland team.

Steelers over Giants - As discussed above, this should be a really good test of two top teams. With both sitting 5-1, we'll find out how much the Giants' record might have been helped by playing a lot of crappy teams so far and how ready they are to defend their title.

49ers over Seahawks - two crappy teams coming together here. I'm going to take San Fran mostly because they'll be motivated to perform after the coaching shake up.

Titans over Colts - this should also be a really good Monday night game this week. I like the Titans to remain undefeated because their defence could really do damage against a poorly performing Colts offensive line and make it a long night for Captain Pants's boy Peyton.

Enjoy the weekend! I'll be off Sunday to watch a far lesser observed sporting event, the ISU World Cup Short Track Speed Skating event here in Van City. Go Canada!

Sad Sack Lions

2008-10-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I'm not the only one thinking about the ignominy of 0-16 this year. Don Banks is grateful that among all of the parity and unpredictability in the NFL these days, the one thing we can count on is the Lions total ineptitude. Check it out in this article.

At least Detroit has the Red Wings to cheer for.

Weekend Wrap Up

2008-10-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Another week, another pathetic first quarter for the Lions. The Leos have now been outscored 54-0 in the combined first quarters of their six losses. With the worst record among their next six opponents being the 3-3 Jaguars, I like the odds of this team running their record to 0-12 on Thanksgiving!

In better news, I beat the coin this week. My eight correct predictions going into the Monday nighter, while still not great, dramatically outshone random chance this week. Let's hope the Pats can make it 9 for me tonight.

I suppose some sports fans might also be interested in the fact that baseball is finally going to wrap things up shortly. While the TV executives were praying for the LA-Boston final, the action on the field managed to give them Tampa Bay - Philly. There should be about six people tuning in to watch this series ... that is if any of them can stay up until 1 am on the east coast to watch the games finish. Let's just say that even with the benefit of being three time zones over, I'm more excited about the chance to go watch the short track speed skating World Cup race that's coming to town next weekend as a test run for the Olympics.

NFL Week 7

2008-10-17T14:20:00.001-07:00

Here we are again, heading into the weekend, trying to figure out what on earth the surprises will be in the NFL. And speaking of surprises, I've now watched the Red Wings' two home games so far against Toronto and Vancouver, and I can't figure out why Detroit isn't working harder. There's a clear talent divide between the Wings and those two teams, yet Detroit got out hustled both times and lost because of it. Last night against the Canucks, Detroit even game up two goals including the game winner by not reacting fast enough to bounces off the lively boards that they should be well and truly used to by now. It seemed to be another case of Vancouver just wanting it more and winning the little battles within the game. Of course, it wasn't hard to predict that Vancouver was going to come out jumping after their absolutely pitiful performance two nights earlier in Washington.

In any case, we'll move on now to the NFL picks for week 7. Again, I will pit my clear lack of predicting abilities against those of a coin to see if I can catch up after losing 8-6 last week. Here we go ...

Bills over Chargers - San Diego has to travel across the country after an emotion filled Sunday night win last week. Buffalo has won four years in a row coming off their bye week. Sounds to me like a Bills win.

Bears over Vikings - I'm not really sure which of these teams is worse, but at least Chicago had less trouble beating up on Detroit and it's in the Windy City. The pick has to be the Bears.

Steelers over Bengals - Cincinnati will remain winless and keep the Lions company in the cellar, especially with Pittsburgh coming off a bye.

Titans over Chiefs - On the flip side, Tennessee will remain undefeated by beating up on the lovable losers from Kansas City.

Cowboys over Rams - Romo or no, depleted secondary, trouble all over the place, and I still think Dallas will win this game on the road. They're lucky to have drawn St. Louis during this time of trouble.

Dolphins over Ravens - call me crazy, but I'm starting to believe in these Dolphins. It's not just that Wildcat offense either ... their defense has really been stepping up. They'll manage to keep Baltimore and their rookie QB in check.

Giants over 49ers - I almost feel sorry for San Francisco having to travel out to face a Giants team feeling ashamed of their last performance. They have no chance in this contest.

Saints over Panthers - I've had trouble picking NO games right this year, but I'm putting faith here in Drew Brees. His numbers don't lie and I love that Reggie is finally getting in on the action.

Texans over Lions - This was one of those games that I circled on the calendar before the start of the season thinking the Leos could get a W. Not so. There aren't any circles on that calendar anymore.

Colts over Packers - Would the real Peyton Manning please stand up? Is it the guy who lit it up last week? Or the one who stunk for the first four? With the revelation that he actually had a second knee surgery during the summer, I believe that he's finally starting to feel healthy again and what we saw last week was for real. Indy in a close one.

Jets over Raiders - Brett's only other visit to Oakland was the day after his father died and he put up almost 400 yards on the Raiders. This one will be less emotional, but this Oakland team is even less talented. Favre will win this one easily.

Redskins over Browns - I'm looking again at turnarounds. Washington played lousy last week and are going to be looking strongly to bounce back. Cleveland, however, came up big on Monday night over the G-men. With a letdown in emotion and a short week, I don't give Cleveland much of a shot on the road.

Bucs over Seahawks - Seattle is just bad. There's no sugar coating it. Now they have to travel as far as they possibly could (unless they draw the really short straw some year and get sent to Europe for a game; see: New Orleans vs San Diego next week). Tampa in a walk.

Patriots over Broncos - The Pats got embarassed last week too and are going to be looking to rebound. I think Denver will be a good team for them to let Matt Cassel open up against on Monday night. Should be a good game, anyway.

And now for the picks that you would be more wise to trust ... the coin toss! Heads for the home team, tails for the road. Results are: Chargers, Bears, Steelers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Dolphins, 49ers, Panthers, Lions, Packers, Jets, Browns, Seahawks, Broncos. I like my chances.

And then there were two

2008-10-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

The random coin toss out-picked me 8-6 this weekend. I think I should perhaps give up trying to get the selections right, and just go on tossing the coin.

With the Texans and the Rams getting their first wins of the season, only Cincinnati and Detroit remain with doughnuts in the win column. Detroit had a real solid chance to break out of that, of course, but for Dan Orlovsky's boneheaded safety in the first quarter against the Vikings. If you haven't seen it already, check it out here.

Adding to the ineptitude that has invaded Detroit area sports, the new vintage Wolverines managed to lose to Toledo on Saturday with a missed chip shot field goal that would have sent the game to overtime. Then to add insult to injury, Michigan grad Braylon Edwards, after helping his Cleveland Browns beat the Giants last night, did his postgame interview wearing a Penn State t-shirt. This, as Michigan gets ready to face PSU this coming weekend. Braylon's got some explaining to do!

Slackers

2008-10-10T10:37:00.001-07:00

It was a pretty pathetic performance put in by the Red Wings last night. Uncharacteristic giveaways time after time ultimately cost them the Leafs' third goal, but the turnovers did a lot more to derail Detroit's offense than anything else. They didn't win the battles for the puck and they got outskated.

Hopefully they will learn from last night's game that having a lot more talent than the other guys isn't going to be enough this year. The work ethic has to be there too. Win the races. Battle like they did in the playoffs last year. And take advantage of opportunities. That's what it's going to take.

On the other side of the game last night, I think the Leafs are going to be able to hang around in more games than anyone expects. Ron Wilson has them playing hard and buying into the system. The trap is going to make them horribly boring to watch all year, but if Wilson can keep their effort levels up, they might have some hope at seeing the playoffs again.

Raising the Banner

2008-10-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

Big night in Detroit tonight. Put on your jersey and break out the wing nut

Tonight we celebrate this ...

By beating up on this ...

Can't wait to check it out! LET'S GO RED WINGS!!!!!

How Strange Will This Week's Games Be?

2008-10-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Another week of picking dawns, and it's been pointed out that perhaps I would do better if I just flipped a coin. So, after I've made all of my carefully calculated picks, I will do just that and see how I fare versus fate. I'm not optimistic that this will end well for me.

Bears over Falcons - Is Kyle Orton for real or does he just wish he could beat up on the Lions every week? Tune in to find out.

Ravens over Colts - This is a pick where I could happily just flip a coin. Ultimately, I think the Ravens' D is too good and I think the Colts' two wins have both been fluky. I'll take the more solid team even though they're on the road.

Vikings over Lions - Minnesota's win on Monday night was also very fluky, but A.Pete could run for more than 200 yards against this porous Detroit defense. Look for it to be 21-0 at halftime like every other game the Lions have played.

Saints over Raiders - the Raiders are just as dysfunctional as the Lions. New Orleans is going to come out with something to prove after pissing away the game Monday night.

Jets over Bengals - it should be a high scoring affair and I think Cincy will remain winless, especially having to go on the road and face Brett.

Panthers over Bucs - tough game to pick. Both defenses are playing great and neither offense has stepped up, so it should be low scoring. I picked Carolina because no one knows how the QB carousel will land in Tampa.

Redskins over Rams - St. Louis is the only team in the league that might (and I emphasize the might part) be as bad as Detroit. Washington is going to pound them.

Texans over Dolphins - Houston has seemed cursed so far this year, but with Miami coming off back to back wins over New England and San Diego and having to go on the road, I think this might just be a week they could be caught napping. With Schaub back to health, Houston will take the doughnut out of their win column.

Denver over Jacksonville - I get both the Broncos and Jaguars games wrong every week. Pay no attention to this pick.

Cowboys over Cardinals - and so begins my picking of road teams the rest of the week. Dallas is too good for Arizona and they won't be caught off guard like Buffalo was last week.

Eagles over 49ers - Philly needs this game to keep their season on track. Donovan will have the boys jumpin'.

Packers over Seahawks - Green Bay will bounce back against a Seattle team that isn't nearly as good as everyone expected this year.

Patriots over Chargers - really tough pick after both just got burned by Miami's "Wildcat" offense. I think SD's pass defense looks susceptible and Philip Rivers has been too eratic to make plays to bail the defense out.

Giants over Browns - could I possibly get a Monday Night game right this week? The G-men should prove to be reliable.

Finally, here are the picks from the random number generator ...
Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland, Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Arizona, Philadelphia, Green Bay, San Diego, Cleveland.

That's right ... the random number generator picked every winless team. And it will probably do better than me.

The Woebegone Lions

2008-10-06T09:14:00.000-07:00

Stat of the day courtesy of Peter King's MMQB column ...

Detroit's seven first-half possessions ended in a punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, punt and punt -- and none lasted longer than 99 seconds.

Could this team possibly be any worse? They are truly going to threaten that perfect 0-16 record this season. The only hope they might have is playing the Saints and the Packers at the end of the year if either of those teams already have playoff berths locked up. And the way those two teams are going, that's no lock either.

And speaking of bad teams, how terrible is Kansas City, losing even worse (34-0) than the Lions this weekend? What do you think Denver is thinking right now after giving up 33 to the Chiefs in last week's loss?

Finally, my picks were bad again this week. 8-5 going into tonight's game. I'm optimistic that one of these weeks I'll hit double digits again in the win column. Perhaps if things like Denver's choke job last week and San Diego's this week stop happening I might be able to figure out what's going on in this league!

NFL Week 5

2008-10-01T16:24:00.000-07:00

I'm uncertain about several of the picks this weekend and I'm not buoyed by my weak performance in week 4. However, with the beginning of the MLB playoffs in the books and Chicago overwhelmed with baseball fever (though they'll certainly be hoping for better outcomes shortly), I'll begin with Chi-town's other important sports event this weekend ... the disheartening destruction of the Detroit Lions (pardon the alliteration).

Bears over Lions - I was very impressed by the goal line stand against Philly (even though I needed Philly to get in for my picks). The Bears won't have to do anything nearly as difficult to beat Detroit.

Packers over Falcons - both have two wins, but Atlanta's were against KC and Detroit, so I don't value those much. Both lost to the Bucs, but Atlanta lost worse. I look for GB to bounce back from a couple of poor games. I'm a little worried about Rodgers' sore shoulder though.

Chargers over Dolphins - SD is a last second play and a bad call by the ref from being 4-0. There's no way the Fins beat them, even in Miami.

Giants over Seahawks - it's almost too easy picking the better team at home with the other guys flying across the country.

Eagles over Redskins - this is a tough pick to me. Philly should have won last week but as stated above, couldn't punch it in on three tries from the goal line. Washington seems to be pulling it together after a bad first week. But injuries will play a role and Philly is getting healthier while Washington is going the other way.

Panthers over Chiefs - KC's win was a one off. Won't happen two weeks in a row ... especially not against a great defensive team.

Titans over Ravens - I hate picking so many road teams, but I just can't overlook how well the Titans' defense is playing. Baltimore's D almost won them the Monday-nighter though. I think I'll take the team with an extra day of rest.

Colts over Texans - in Peyton I trust. Off the bye week Indy might get some of those banged up bodies back and they should certainly be a better team than Houston.

Bucs over Broncos - another tough one and I'm going to go with the road upset because defense wins ball games. Denver's record is inflated and I don't see them continuing to win with offense alone.

Cowboys over Bengals - this Cincy team is exceptionally bad. Dallas struggled with the game planning last weekend, but they would be hard pressed to blow it against the Bengals.

Cardinals over Bills - I would really like to pick Buffalo to be 5-0, but I still just can't believe in them. Look for them to lose a game they shouldn't this week and come back to the division a little bit.

Patriots over 49ers - I'm nervous about this pick too. However, Bellichick probably tried to hang himself after the colosal failures against the Dolphins and then he had extra time through the bye week to prepare for this one. The Pats should walk away from SF with the win.

Jaguars over Steelers - Pittsburgh was lucky to win Monday night (14 points in one bad minute by Baltimore sure helped them out) and I don't see them escaping what will be a very physical game against Jacksonville on short rest with the injuries they suffered.

Saints over Vikings - this will be another high scoring Monday Nighter if the Saints hold to form. I like them to win a shootout as Drew Brees continues to put up the most yards in the league this year.

Random Musings of a Lions Fan

2008-09-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

At least there's one Lions team that can go out and win football games. The BC Lions are on a roll these days. After a pathetic start, they've rattled off four straight wins to climb into second place in the Western Conference with just five games to play, two of which are against a below-500 Argos team and two more against Edmonton who they've split the season series with so far.

In a nice change in the NFL this past week, the Detroit Lions also managed not to lose. Of course, the only way they managed that was to not play. From here on out, I don't see anyone on their schedule who shouldn't be favoured to beat them. Rest assured though, one of these weeks they'll come out and play a remarkably strong game and make everyone wonder why they haven't been able to win all year. The Bucs perfect season from 1976 (who can forget their 0-14 record?) will not be in jeopardy ... do you think they'll celebrate like the '72 Dolphins?

With the Leos on the sidelines this weekend, it turned out to be a tough slate of games to pick. Raise your hands all those who had the Chiefs winning a game. Chirping crickets ... it's all I hear. Skins over the Cowboys? Anyone? What about Bears over the Eagles? No one, eh? Oh well ... I'd like to thing that this coming week will make things easier, but as I look at the week 5 score board I grow timid ...

Skins at Philly - is Washington as good as they looked against Dallas?
Falcons at Green Bay - how bad is that shoulder of Aaron Rodgers'?
Titans at Ravens - both giving up nothing on D ... will either be able to score?

It just keeps going on. I think there's about 7 games that I'm tossing a coin on and I'm sure that won't work out well for me.

In brighter news, the NHL preseason has kicked into full swing and we're less than a week away from the regular season starting up. I'm looking forward to seeing the Wings try to defend their territory this year and to seeing how they hold up as a favourite when the favourites seem to collapse like a flan in the cupboard every year. The MLB playoffs are also set to begin, though we need an extra game this evening to decide who will win the AL Central since the Tigers stunk it up in their bid to eliminate the White Sox yesterday. It figures, of course, that the Tigers would finish dead last in the season when everyone picked them to win the World Series. I'm nto bitter about that at all. Of course, it could be worse ... I could be a Mets fan!

What's on Tap?

2008-09-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

So USC lost to OSU, eh? But I thought that OSU just lost to USC a couple of weeks ago. What's that? Different OSU? Oh ... well at least they lost to the highly ranked one, right? Nope ... they lost to the unranked one. The one that lost to Stanford earlier on. Wow. I guess you just can't trust those 19 year old kids to travel up the coast and take care of business the way everyone expects. It's as though they're not professionals or something. Oh wait ... they're not?

And thus begins the 2008 season of college football. After all of the shocking upsets that we saw last year, I suppose this game last night shouldn't come as too big a surprise. But still, I was somehow blown away when I looked at the TV last night and saw the Trojans down 21-0 at halftime. I have no doubt that more surprises are in store this season with the uprising of the mid-majors (see: Boise State, East Carolina, TCU, and Fresno State all being ranked in the top 25 this week), the competitiveness of inter-conference play every season, and the sheer fact that college football teams are made up of a bunch of teenage (or just barely post-teenage) boys. I think that the unpredicatbility is part of what makes it so much fun to watch.

Speaking of predictions, here I go again with my picks for the NFL this weekend. I'm hoping to replicate my success from last week where I went 13-3!

Bengals over Browns - one of these two teams has to finally get a win this week because they can't both lose. I suppose they could tie. Can I pick that? Nah ... pick the home team.

Titans over Vikings - Tennessee just isn't giving up any points and Minnesota aren't scoring many either. It won't take much offense for the Titans to win this one.

Broncos over Chiefs - While I'm loving Denver's ability to put up points this year, I'm not sold on their D. However, KC is so lousy that it won't hurt the Broncos at all this week.

Saints over 49ers - I'm not totally sold on this one, especially with Shockey out, but I have little faith in the strength of the Niners' wins against a depleted Seahawks team and an inept Lions team.

Jets over Cardinals - In a battle of old QB's, I like Favre in his new home better than Warner travelling across the country.

Bucs over Packers - another game I'm not totally comfortable with, especially since Tampa could be missing their kicker. But I do like the way Tampa stepped up and faced some adversity in beating the Bears last weekend and will give them the benefit of the doubt at home.

Panthers over Falcons - Atlanta is going to have a hard time scoring on a good Carolina defence, especially with their rookie QB. I like the Panthers to bounce back from the loss to Minny.

Jaguars over Texans - This pick would be easy, except that Houston has had Jacksonville's number since they joined the league. However, I think the Jags are finally on track.

Chargers over Raiders - finally, an easy pick! I'll enjoy seeing the Chargers put up a pile more points against the only team with management as inept as Detroit's.

Bills over Rams - Can Buffalo actually wind up 4-0? It's really hard to believe, but I don't see St. Louis stopping them.

Cowboys over Redskins - speaking of unstoppable, do these Cowboys ever look good right now! Let's hope they can stay healthy and keep putting on a great show.

Eagles over Bears - Chicago could be 3-0 right now instead of 1-2 if just a couple more plays went their way. It just looks like one of those kinds of years for them.

Ravens over Steelers - This Monday night game will not be as high flying and offensive as the last two. If you like a ground out battle though, it'll be a great game to watch. I'm picking the Ravens because I think their D can hamper an injured Big Ben even more than Philly did last week.

Enjoy the weekend!

A Long Time Coming

2008-09-24T15:03:00.001-07:00

I think the Associated Press article's opening line says it all ...

The Detroit Lions fired president Matt Millen on Wednesday, more than seven years after the former linebacker and TV analyst took over one of the NFL's most mediocre franchises and made it the worst.

Whatever pictures or dirty laundry that Millen has on William Ford Sr. must have finally come out because the inept GM couldn't continue to sink the ship any further. I fear that it's going to be a long rebuilding process, but as a Lions fan, I can have hope again. At least Ford announces who he's going to hire as his next mistake.

Ryder Cup to the US

2008-09-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Another prediction gone very wrong for me. But how could I guess that the European leaders would play as bad as the US guns have played in the last three cups? Garcia, Harrington, and Westwood got 2 out of a possible 11 points in the matches they played. That's just completely ridiculous and sounds an awful lot like the criticism of guys like Tiger and Phil over the last three cups. (Worth noting ... Phil only won one match and stunk it up big time on Sunday, too!)

In other news, how did New England get so completely destroyed by Miami? Ronny Brown goes for five touchdowns? Come on Pats ... you've got to play better D than that. True to form though, the Lions are getting their butts kicked at halftime. At least some things never change!

Week 3 Pickoff

2008-09-18T10:31:00.001-07:00

So it's Ryder Cup weekend in Kentucky and for some reason, no one seems to care. This has been a strange golf season since Tiger was felled by the knee injury in June. Interest has been enormously down, even my own, and I think it has a very obvious tie to the fact that the only guy who seems to be able to step up and transcend the game is sitting on his yacht somewhere playing with a one year old. At least there will be some patriotic interest bubbling up this weekend, but that should also die quickly as the Euros kick the Americans' buts again.

In the NFL, week 3 brings us another interesting slate of games and some further definition of who is for real and who might have tricked us for a couple of weeks. Here's what I think is going to happen ... take it for what it's worth. My picks the first two weeks have been crap. Hopefully things start shaping up.

Falcons over Chiefs - KC is the only team Detroit has beaten since the middle of last season. They're that bad. Even with a rookie QB, Atlanta is going to be 2-1.

Bills over Raiders - Buffalo is looking great to go into their bye week 5-0 (who would have thought?!). Facing the Raiders with Kiffin on pink slip watch, then the Rams and Cardinals, you've got to like their chances!

Bears over Bucs - this is a tight one to call, so I'll go with the home team thinking Chicago's defense is going to give Brian Griese all he can handle.

Broncos over Saints - New Orleans' defense has not been good enough to stop this Denver team that's been scoring at will. Especially at Mile High, this one should send Denver to 3-0.

Cowboys over Packers - both are in the top 4 statistically on offense and the bottom half on defense, so this one should be high scoring, and possibly just as exciting as Monday night. I'm hesitant to pick the Boys on the road on a short week, but I just like Romo more than Rodgers to get the W in the spotlight Sunday night.

Titans over Texans - will Houston be well rested from the extra week off, or worn out from the stress of living in a hurricane? I'm leaning towards the latter and making the pick based on Tennessee simply being a better team and playing at home.

Jags over Colts - Jacksonville's season is on the line. They were a Super Bowl favourite early on and have failed me both weeks to open so this is their last chance in my books. I may be stupid, but I think they just might be able to pull off what has to be considered an upset at this point because Indy is completely decimated by injuries right now.

Panthers over Vikings - yeah, the Vikes are desperate and at home, but Gus Frerotte? Really? Carolina gets Steve Smith back this week and walks all over the Vikes.

Pats over Dolphins - When Joey Porter opened his yap to say how easy it was going to be to beat the Pats with Cassel instead of Brady, he signed the death sentence for this game. Pats by three touchdowns.

Giants over Bengals - Cincy can't score this year and facing New York's D isn't going to help any. This one shouldn't even be close, especially in the Meadowlands.

Eagles over Steelers - Gotta worry about Big Ben's shoulder in this one. It should be a great game and Philly's D worries me a bit, but I'll pick the home team in the battle of Pennsylvania.

49ers over Lions - You think Mike Martz is excited to have O'Sullivan go out and rip up the Detroit secondary to the tune of 50 points? This one could get ugly.

Seahawks over Rams - Seattle will get their first win, but not because they're playing any good. They're just lucky to face such a horrible St. Louis team at home this week.

Redskins over Cardinals - I thought long and hard about this one. I don't have a lot of faith in either team really, but Washington got a seriously gut check win last week in the last few minutes against NO, so I like them to win at home against Arizona. Besides, can anyone really see the Cards at 3-0?

Ravens over Browns - Cleveland could surprise me here, but if they don't stop dropping balls and playing generally lousy, they're not going to start winning games. Baltimore should be well tuned up coming off the extra week to prepare.

Chargers over Jets - SD has lost two heart breakers (and gotten completely robbed last week). If they still have Super Bowl aspirations, they had better step up Monday night.

Best. Game. Ever.

2008-09-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

I'm limited in the depth of Monday Night Football games I've watched, since I grew up in the east where MNF lasted well into the night. But I can't remember ever seeing such an exciting contest as the one I just watched. Nearly 70 points, 7 lead changes, absolutely awesome displays of offense and a few mistakes mixed in to keep things interesting. It was an instant classic.

And what can be concluded from this affair? Dallas and Philly both have sick offenses and should be able to run up some serious scores this year. Their defenses? Maybe not so good. We'll find out more from both of these teams next weekend as Dallas heads north to Green Bay and Philly host the Steelers. I'll definitely want to set the PVR for both of those games!

What I've Learned from the First Two Weeks

2008-09-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

I cleverly forgot to post my picks at the end of last week for week 2 in the NFL. I say cleverly because my picks, as it turned out, sucked. I'm 8-6 going into tonight's game in Dallas and will not be cracking the ten-win mark for the second week in a row. However, having had the chance to actually watch a lot more football this weekend than last, I think I may have learned a few things. Division by division, I'm going to run through the things I think I think after most of the teams have played an eighth of their games.

AFC East:
The Pats are still going to be a decent team because of the strength they've got on D and because of the genius they've got on the sidelines. Cassel will make sure he doesn't lose the games for them and the Pats will put up 10 to 12 wins. The Bills are a lot better than I ever believed, largely because their D is playing great! The Jets will hang around with Brett, but probably won't be a threat as the year plays out. And the Dolphins, while dramatically better than last year's 1-15 team, will still be the doormat of the division.

AFC West:
San Diego got totally jobbed this week. Can they bounce back from two straight heartbreakers? This next one against NE will tell us a lot. o-3 might be too big a hole to come back from. Denver, aided by the officiating, have jumped out to 2-0, but I'd be a bit worried about all the points they gave up. They're going to win a lot this year, but they're going to lose some too if they have to rely on being on the positive side of the shootouts every time. The Raiders are slightly better than I gave them credit for, but they're still going to lose most of their games. After all, the win yesterday was against the Chiefs who could threaten that 0-16 mark that the Dolphins were looking at last year.

AFC North:
We haven't seen enough of the Ravens to pass much judgement yet, but the Steelers appear to be the class of this division again. The Browns are in huge trouble as the only team to be 0-2 with both losses coming at home. The Bengals look pretty terrible again with their offense failing completely to come together. It's hard to infer much more from these first two weeks, but if I had to make a prediction, Pittsburgh will win the division and none of these other teams will be in the playoffs.

AFC South:
Great win by Peyton and the Colts on Sunday, but the injuries are going to make it hard every week for them to get W's. The Titans are 2-0, but with one of those against the Bengals, and with Kerry Collins now being the go to guy at QB, I don't have a ton of faith in the winning streak continuing for long. Who knows what to make of the Texans yet, with their game pushed back to November because of Ike. As for the Jags, I'm quite surprised at the start. They were widely selected as a Super Bowl contender but they've stunk it up for the first two weeks. Both of the teams that beat them are now 2-0, so perhaps they've just run across good teams, but Indy is going to be another tough opponent this coming week too. If they can't bounce back and get a W, their season is going down the tubes early. This division is still a toss up, but as Indy heals, I think they're still the team to beat.

NFC East:
How do you call this division before seeing the battle in Dallas tonight? I've got Dallas as the class of the division, but Donovan could show me otherwise tonight for sure. The Giants look great again on D with their offense good enough to win a bunch of games. And even Washington looked great this week after I wrote them off for a crappy week 1 performance. This division is completely stacked and too tough to call. But I'll be picking them an awful lot when any of the teams play outside the division.

NFC West:
As stacked as the East is, the West is bad. There's not a team in this division that I will have any faith in on any given Sunday. Kurt Warner has the Cards looking okay but who knows how long he can hang on. The Niners are a .500 team at best as J.T. O'Sullivan finds his way in his first year as a starter. The Seahawks, struggling with wide receiver injuries, have been pathetic on D and aren't going to stop anyone. And the Rams ... where to even begin. They'll battle the Chiefs for the basement this year. Is this the year the Cards finally make the playoffs? They've got a 2 game headstart on the Seahawks who I would have picked before the season. But there's a lot of football left.

NFC South:
The Panthers at 2-0 are a surprise to me, and getting Steve Smith back after his two week suspension can only make them better. The Saints looked pretty good to me both weeks, but their D let them down badly giving up two touchdowns in the last 6 minutes this week to lose by 5. That kind of performance is going to cost them big when they play better teams than SF. The Falcons game back to earth and will struggle this year with their rookie QB at the helm and teams clogging up the middle to stop the run. I'm not sure what to make of Tampa yet, but I don't think they're a playoff team. We'll learn more in weeks 4 and 5 when they play Green Bay and Denver. If I have to pick it now, the Panthers win this division and the Saints make a run at a wild card spot.

NFC North:
Evidently, the Packers are going to be just fine without Brett. Rodgers has played very solid ball the first two weeks, minimizing mistakes and letting the solid team around him take care of the rest. The Bears have been really solid on D, but the fact that they still have no QB will cost them in the long run I think. The Vikings look surprisingly inept. We all knew they were going to have QB troubles, but the performances these first two weeks were just pathetic. And speaking of pathetic, this division gets rounded out by the Lions. What other team could possible be losing by 21, leading by 1, and then losing again by 23, all in the same game. I look down their schedule and can't find a game where they should be favoured. They don't get to play the Chiefs or the Rams. Yet if history tells me anything, they'll win a couple of games they have no right to win. Maybe even enough to save Matt Millen's and Rod Marinelli's jobs again. Let's hope not. Pack win this division in a walk.

Same Old Lions

2008-09-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that after another year of trying to make positive changes and reshaping the team; after years of changing coaching staffs; after years of changing styles of offense and defense; after years of trying to change the gameplan; the two things that remain in Detroit football are Matt Millen and a shitty team.

This year, Detroit will focus more on the running game that they haven't had since Barry Sanders left. Of course, that's going to be difficult when they start the games losing 21-0 five minutes in. Playing against a rookie QB, a rookie RB, and a rookie coach on Atlanta, the Lions trotted out their 4-0 preseason players to get their butts very quickly handed to them Sunday afternoon. I look at their schedule and figure that everyone's jobs will be on the line by Mid-October. Everyone of course, except Millen. I'm not sure what embarrassing things for the Ford family that he's got on tape, but how he has managed to not get fired is truly remarkable.

In other ridiculous headlines from the first Sunday of the season, how did Indy, SD, and Jacksonville all lose? Aren't those the guys that everyone said would battle for AFC superiority? And poor Brady. I actually feel sorry for every football fan out there because we are going to miss out on watching a guy who is a true pleasure to watch perform.

Finally, I hope to at least get those two games tonight right. I could feel a little better about my picks that way. Overall, it's been a tough first week and there's going to be a lot to re-evaluate for next weekend. Which of these first week games were true indicators and which were as misleading as the Lions' 6-2 start last year? I'm sure to guess wrong on Friday ... stay tuned to find out!

An Early Forecast

2008-09-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

With the NFL starting up on Thursday night this week, I'm forced into making my bold predictions a little earlier than normal this week. With the return of fall and all of the sports goodness that comes with it, I will do my best to return to normal weekend forecasts and wrapups with additional posts in between as interesting issues arise.

At this point in the NFL season it's rather challenging to make any of these picks. The preseason is obviously meaningless since no starters see more than about four series of plays and teams are already hiding their injury reports, so I'm not sure how much faith I have in any of my picks this week. We'll see though ... I could surprise us all with a strong performance!

One interesting note that I found enjoyed in doing some research was the analysis one of SI's writers on the Lions ... "the problem I find with the Lions is they're fully capable of losing to any team on their schedule." ... sadly I see it the same way.

And now on to the picks:

Giants over Redskins - they're a bit banged up on the D-line, but it's hard not to pick the defending champs on opening night at home in any year.

Lions over Falcons - Atlanta could be the worst team in football. I think the Lions' D will actually be able to stop a rookie QB in his first start on a crappy Falcons team.

Seahawks over Bills - Seattle is actually going to be decent this year and will win the division again in the last year for coach Holmgren.

Jaguars over Titans - I have zero faith in Vince Young getting any better and Jacksonville is going to contend this year.

Dolphins over Jets - who will be more motivated? Favre in his Big Apple debut, or Pennington trying to prove that the Jets picked the wrong QB?

Patriots over Chiefs - NE has still only lost one of their last 19 (real) games. I'm picking them until I find out that they're going to amputate Brady's injured foot.

Saints over Bucs - there may be too much turmoil for NO to hang in there this year, what with the hurricanes and all, but I think they'll at least get off on the right foot.

Eagles over Rams - St. Louis is going to stink this year. Like, Lions kind of stink. No running game, no receivers. It's going to be ugly.

Steelers over Texans - Houston is the team that ruined David Carr by having no line for him to learn behind. Not much has changed.

Bengals over Ravens - Baltimore is the other team (besides Atlanta) starting a rookie QB in game one. Never a good sign for a team's fortunes.

Cowboys over Browns - Dallas' receiving corps is beat up, but Cleveland's defensive backs are lousy ... this should be a fair fight.

Chargers over Panthers - SD is going to be real good again. They'll be fun to watch this year.

Cardinals over 49ers - can I pick both teams to lose? Warner is going to be tough to predict this year because he's going to win some and he's going to give some away. I pick him in this one because the opposing QB is J.T. O'Sullivan ... heard of him? Neither has anyone else.

Colts over Bears - hard to believe the Bears were in the Super Bowl recently. They're going to be last in the division this year ... yeah, that's right ... in a division that includes Detroit. That's pretty bad.

Vikings over Packers - Minnesota is going to try to run all over everyone this year. And I don't like Rodgers to pick up where Brett left off.

Broncos over Raiders - Denver isn't going to be great, but you don't have to be to beat the Raiders.

I'm going to miss most of the action Sunday since I'm off to see the Yankees-Mariners game in the afternoon. We bought tickets when we thought the Yankees would be in the midst of another playoff run ... shows how much I know!

Wolverine fans more Blue than Maize

2008-09-02T11:24:00.001-07:00

We got our first dose of Michigan football this weekend under the Rich Rodriguez regime and it was largely as expected. Without the personnel to make the system work, the Wolverines struggled to gain any yards, putting up just 203 total for the game and almost nothing on the ground. While the defense stepped up pretty well in the second half, they were terrible in the first half and gave away far too much to the Utes. It's going to be a long painful progression this season for Michigan with no QB to run the show and a group of young inexperienced players trying to learn the system. But there were at least a couple of positive signs in the defensive performance late in the game and even in the offense's ability to take advantage of a few short fields to at least keep the game interesting. A winning season will be a long shot, but here's hoping that the Maize and Blue can keep their bowl-eligible streak alive while the system starts to fall into place.

The Two Month Hiatus

2008-08-28T16:34:00.001-07:00

I have no excuses really. I just didn't have much that I felt strongly enough to write about. Then I got busy. Then not posting here became a habit. Thus, the two month holiday. But here I am, back again having missed one Tiger taking the rest of the year off and a group of Tigers who also seem to have taken the season off. I missed pontificating about the Olympics, which were fun in the bits and pieces that I saw, but not enormously interesting to me beyond three or four specific events that I have an interest in (like the Oly Tris which were amazing!! Way to go Simon!!!). The Winter Games are more my thing.

But where are we now? Day one of the college football season! It seemed so far off for so long, but it's finally arrived. The dawn of fall. The time when every school still believes they have a shot ... you know ... before they actually get beat by Appalachian State and drive their fans into the depths of despair, leading to the hiring of a new coach and the departure of all the players who can actually play and a season that is likely to be the first without a bowl berth in forever. But enough about Michigan.

Beyond college football, we're just a week from the dawn of the NFL season and then shortly thereafter, the MLB playoffs and NHL season will begin. It's good times in sports and I'm excited to see it all start. I promise, I'll post again in less than 60 days this time!

Quote of the day ...

2008-06-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

From today's SI 10 Spot by Pete McEntegart:

The Tampa Bay Lightning have hired ESPN analyst Barry Melrose as head coach. Melrose is excited to unveil his new style, featuring tight forechecking by the forwards and free-wheeling defenseman. Or, as Melrose calls it, "Business up front, party in the back."

If you don't get the joke, just google a picture of Melrose's hair ... that should fill in the details!

That was an interesting three weeks!

2008-06-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a very long time since I've chimed in here. I've been busy with real life getting in the way. And mostly I've been lazy when I've actually had time. But I certainly haven't stopped paying attention to all of the amazing things that have happened in the sports world over the last three weeks.

I didn't get down my thoughts when the Red Wings finally clinched the Cup in game 6. I was too busy celebrating! The Wings should be proud of the way they bounced back from the triple overtime loss in game five and, despite everyone saying their "old" legs wouldn't bounce back as quickly as the Pens, they went into Pittsburgh and played a dominant game to put the finishing touches on a masterful season. Aside from those hectic final two minutes, Detroit was thoroughly the better team and a deserving champion. It's scary to see how much talent they've got coming back next year and it's going to be fun watching some of the young guys develop further. As for Pittsburgh, I'm not sure that they're going to be back as soon as everyone thinks. It looks like Shero is going to struggle to keep that team intact, so he's going to have some work to do to make sure the supporting cast is solid enough to make them more than a one-line team in the years to come. They should hold hope though in that as Crosby and Malkin develop further, they'll start being able to take more penalty kill and defensive time that will make them the complete players that Datsyuk and Zetterberg showed themselves to be for Detroit.

The NBA finals happened too ... but that pretty much sucked. The most interesting thing during the finals was the assertion by disgraced ref Tim Donaghy that the league has conspired with the refs for years to fix games and extend series. I would normally laugh off a conspiracy theory like this one (especially when the ref has been found criminally guilty of gambling and fixing games), but this one sticks a little bit better since people have been questioning the reputation of the NBA for years. The refereeing during the 2002 series that Donaghy specifically referenced in his accusation has been called some of the worst in the history of the league ... maybe there's something to this story!

The US Open was a much more thrilling event than the NBA finals at least. All of the old Maple Leafs fans still clinging to Bobby Baun winning the Stanley Cup on a broken leg (it was just a hairline crack in the ankle ... and his goal wasn't even in game 7) can now look at a new hero. Tiger, playing on a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia managed to still lap the field except for Rocco. Mediate put up an incredible fight and hung in better than anyone could have ever expected him to, but Woods was simply too much. The guy just has an uncanny ability to find a way, any way, to get the ball in the hole when he absolutely has to. How did he make the 80 footer for eagle on 13 on Saturday? Or the 40 footer for eagle on 18 that same day? Or that final putt on Sunday? And then again to birdie 18 when he had to in the playoff and hang on long enough for Rocco to finally make a mistake. It was just an amazing performance that was made even more incredible when we found out how badly injured he really is. I'm not suggesting that he made the right decision to play through his leg problems (in fact, I think it was a mistake), but it sure made for good theater!

And speaking of amazing Tigers, how about those fellas from Detroit?! Winners of 12 of their last 14 games! I'm not going to suggest yet that they can climb all the way back in this, but looking forward at the rest of the season all they have to do is average wins in 2 out of each 3 games to get to 95 wins. 95 wins usually gets them in the playoffs and with the hitting they have (they've started to not suck at the plate any more) and the pitching staff figuring out how to limit the damage each game (giving up less than 3.5 runs per game during this stretch), this team offers some hope to live up to the expectations that everyone had at the start of the year!

Unfortunately, the sports world is now pretty quiet for a while. The summer will bring a few interesting golf tournaments, but without Tiger I think I might be the only one watching. Training camps for football are still a little more than a month away. The middle of the baseball season? Well, one game sort of runs into the next when they play so many. I think it might finally be time for me to break out some posts about the sports that no one follows. There will be posts about triathlon (perhaps a recap soon of the World Championships and later this summer, some talk about Ironman Canada) and in seven weeks, I'll certainly get into the Olympics! Look out for Greco Roman Wrestling! (not really ... even I don't know anything about GRW)

The one that got away

2008-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

There was Hank, skating up ice with about 45 seconds left, empty net at the end. Instead of making the smart play and just dumping it down though, he tried to get cute for a chance at the sealing goal. Unfortunately, that led to a giveaway, which led to the puck in Detroit's end, which led to a second giveaway by Franzen and the puck was in the back of the net. Bring on the OT.

But it never should have gotten that far. Detroit was so dominant for the greater portion of this game that Pittsburgh didn't deserve to be in it with 35 seconds left. Add to that the Penguins getting an awful lot of help from the refs throughout the game and you have to start questioning how much impact all of Michelle Theriens whining early in the series has paid off for them. I'm not going to argue with the penalty that finally decided it because there wasn't really anything the refs could do when Hudler got reckless with his stick. However, Pittsburgh got away with murder all night and I still can't believe that the Pens weren't called for too many men on the ice in the second period when their sixth skater jumped on the ice and played the puck right in front of the ref. I'm generally fairly calm and rational, but sitting in my living room watching the game last night I found myself yelling a profanity laced sentence that threatened the hunting down of and physical violence against the ref after the second goalie interference call in OT. It's just dreadful to watch the refs have the opportunity to effect the outcome the way they did, even if the winning goal wasn't scored on the bad calls. The last straw of course, was that on the winning goal, the puck was bouncing out to the Wings penalty killer until it hit the ref in the ass and bounced back to Malkin so that he could set up the goal. It was like I told the Pants after the second goal was a clearing attempt that just hit Hall's skate, then the crossbar and still managed to go in ... sometimes when it bounces this way, you just know it's not your night.

One final mistake by all of the folks on TV and at the arena ... when they selected the stars of the game, Fleury shouldn't have just been the number one star. He should have gotten all three. Without him, Pittsburgh loses that game 5 or 6 to 2 and all of Detroit is celebrating this morning. Instead, they're heading back to Pittsburgh for game six where Detroit can make that prediction of mine come true. Wings in six. I still believe.

Dreams Can Come True

2008-05-28T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I was mentioned by Sports Illustrated! No, I didn't do anything wonderfully athletic (though I will do a half ironman this weekend). Rather, I sent them an interview that they found interesting. Hot Clicks threw the article up and gave me a shout out!

You can check it out here ... Hot Clicks - May 28, 2008

And another thing ...

2008-05-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Maxime Talbot ... are you seriously complaining that Osgood dove on the play at the end of the game? After you just tried to slew-foot Holmstrom about two minutes earlier? Man up you dirty little punk and admit that you got beat by a better team.

Reruns on CBC?

2008-05-26T20:44:00.001-07:00

Maybe it wasn't exactly the same ... Detroit jumped out to the lead earlier and never got that fourth, meaningless, goal. But that game tonight sure looked a lot like Pittsburgh hadn't learned any of those lessons they claimed to be clinging to from game 1.

See if any of this is reminiscent of the first game ...

Malkin makes a lazy play to cough up the puck leading to goal number 1
The Pens defense falls apart in their own zone and mishandle the puck leading to a scrambling second Wings goal
Chris Letang gets out hustled in his own zone by one of Detroit's third-liners leading to a pretty third goal
Ozzy doesn't face much rubber, but gets a little bit of luck and comes up big when he's needed

The game got a little scrappy in the end once the result was a foregone conclusion, but that's all good. No one should be too upset with Osgood taking a dive when he gets hit behind the net (he has after all had to watch Hasek most of the year) and I don't think anyone can fault the Pens for a few dirty cheap shots at the end either. They did, after all, have to try and take something (anything!) positive from the trip to Detroit.

In other good news, the Pistons also got a big win in the Motor City tonight and take their series back to Boston all even. I'll keep my fingers crossed for big road wins from both Detroit teams on Wednesday!

Wings in Six

2008-05-26T09:08:00.001-07:00

Sometimes work gets in the way. Unfortunately, I was not able to post late last week as promised with my predictions for the finals, and now that everyone has seen the first game, some of the predictions may ring hollow. However, it is with best intentions that I will now come up with the goods as I would have reported them Friday before the game one beatdown that Detroit put on the young bucks from Pittsburgh.

As I alluded to in my previous post, I think that there are two real difference makers in this series. The first is the depth of Detroit's defense. When Lidstrom and Rafalski play half the game and then the Wings can roll out guys like Kronwall, Stuart, and Chelios (even though he didn't dress for game one), the Pens are going to have a difficult time penetrating deep enough to create chances. The bigger question mark I had was whether or not Osgood was going to be able to step up and be the best goalie in the series. Clearly in game one he was phenomenal, but the Wings are going to have to be better than they were in the first period at limiting opportunities for Sid and company because Osgood can't be expected to hold down the fort alone.

My prediction before it began was for Detroit in six. I think that the opportunity to take advantage of home ice and their depth on defense will allow them to get a lead in the series and their experience will allow them to finish what they've started. After watching the first game there's a part of me that would like to shorten that prediction to five games, but I'm going to stick with six. I think that Pittsburgh is going to learn several lessons from that first game and they're going to come back with a better effort for a full 60 minutes tonight rather than coming out hard in the first and then losing their grip after intermission.

Detroit looked great Saturday night, but this one is a long way from over yet. Let's just hope that the boys can keep rolling and take a more commanding lead tonight!

Who's it gonna be?

2008-05-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone is dying to hear me tell the world what's going to happen in the finals between Detroit and Pittsburgh, but I haven't decided yet. This one is too close to call in my mind, though I will make a prediction before it all gets under way on Saturday.

For now, who has the advantage? Pittsburgh's top two, Crosby and Malkin, have combined for 40 points in their first two rounds. For Detroit? 40 points from Hank and Pav. The Penguins have had Staal step up with some secondary scoring. The Wings saw Franzen step up until he got hurt and Hudler step up in Franzen's absence. On defense, Detroit would appear to have an advantage with all-world D-man Nick Lidstrom having no comparator on the Penguins and guys like Rafalski and Kronwall playing tough and putting up points. While Pittsburgh doesn't quite have an answer for the Wings backline though, they have shown great ability to win 1-0 just as well as they can light it up in a 6-5 game.

So who is going to make the difference? I'm thinking goaltending. Fleury suffered the high ankle sprain half way through the season and came back incredibly strong. He's looked really solid in the playoffs despite this being his first really deep run with all the pressure on his back. On the Wings side of the ice, Osgood has been impressive after coming in to take over for the struggling Hasek against Nashville. He's gotten himself technically better this year, worked harder at positioning and it seems to have paid dividends. He hasn't been called upon a great deal by a Detroit team that just doesn't give up many shots or chances, but when he's been tested, he's stepped up big. I would guess that he's going to be called upon a lot more this series though, so we'll see what he can do!

I'm leaning one way on my call, but I'll give it a few more days thought before laying it out there to be laughed at. Look for my call at the end of the week and look forward to game one getting underway Saturday night!

Deep Thoughts

2008-05-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

After a second 2-10 stretch this season, are the Tigers on track to be one of the biggest disappointments ever in baseball? Clearly all of that money they spent on bringing in offensive power has seen them shut out in nearly 15% of their games and their pitching has given up more runs than every team but one. The may not approach the records they set for futility a few years ago, but they sure aren't going to have that run to the World Series this year like everyone expected.

And speaking of playoff runs, the Wings couldn't manage to finish off the Stars last night. The calls by the refs were the biggest black mark on this game though. For Detroit's first goal to be disallowed because Holmstrom breathed somewhere in the vicinity of Turco and then see the Stars first goal count with Loui Eriksson actually in the crease is extraordinarily frustrating as a Wings fan, but Babcock was right in his assessment that the refs are human and they frequently screw up. Detroit didn't lose the game specifically because of the two wrong calls. Though +2 would have been a lot more desirable than -2 versus the refs. Still, the series will shift back to Detroit on Saturday and the Wings should finish it off with a more solid effort and the advantage of home ice. Let's see too if Pittsburgh can finish the job tonight and walk into the finals or if they're going to take an extra game too.

Finally, the ponies will run again on Saturday at Pimlico. I'm hoping that Big Brown can demolish the field again and keep those Triple Crown hopes alive, perhaps helping to move the general public move beyond the lasting image of poor Eight Bells down on the track at Churchill Downs.

Weekend Review

2008-05-12T10:24:00.000-07:00

I was wrong about Sergio not being able to win a big one this weekend, but I still think his putter is balky when he needs it the most. He managed to hit a few bombs early in the round yesterday and, obviously, he hit a really big one on the 72nd hole, but that missed three footer on 16 and the missed two footer on the first playoff hole tell me that he's not all the way there yet. That said, his ball striking is still so good that he doesn't have to be perfect around the greens. It's going to be interesting to see if this can boost his confidence and if he can build off of the win. You certainly need to still question his psyche when he made a point of thanking Tiger for not showing up, and giving him a chance to win! Oh well, maybe the $1.7 million winners cheque will help his state of mind!

More importantly, it's starting to look a lot like a Detroit-Pittsburgh final for the Stanley Cup. Dallas and Philly sure didn't put up a very strong fight the first two games. Anything can still happen when the series shift cities, but the Wings and Pens are both looking great! The thing that stood out for me in game two between the Wings and Stars on Saturday was that Detroit managed to be even more dominant in the faceoff circle than they were in game one. Unfortunately, though, the goal that Dallas got was the direct result of Stuart getting out-hustled after a faceoff win by Draper. I hope that Detroit's dominance on the draw doesn't make them let up off the gas just that little bit because that will get them into trouble for sure. They need to keep the pedal down and the pressure on. Game 3 tonight is going to be fun to watch!

Fine Spring Weekend!

2008-05-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Back by popular demand (or really by the request of a small following), I thought I'd chime in on game one of the Detroit-Dallas series, the woes of the Tigers, and what to expect this weekend!

The NHL playoffs finally escaped their self-imposed hiatus last night with the Wings taking on the Stars in game one at the Joe. True to form, Marty Turco still hasn't managed to win a game as a pro in Joe Louis Arena where he actually had quite a good record (18-5, I believe) when he played for the University of Michigan. Somehow, he has become snakebitten and he didn't get any help at all from his teammates who took lazy penalties and never managed to get their legs moving. It sure looked like a round two hangover and a lot of tiredness from the four overtimes it took them to dispatch of the Sharks on Sunday. Entering the third with a 4-1 lead, Detroit just shut it down, providing for a boring finish where neither team looked like they cared much about game 1 anymore. They had both shifted thoughts to game two where hopefully Detroit can maintain their streak of 2-0 series leads.

Meanwhile, sitting in the front row last night were Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi who are in town to take on the Tigers this weekend. Yeah, those Tigers ... the ones who clawed back from their 2-10 start to almost reach .500 at 14-15, only to tank two straight series against the Twins and Red Sox. They're sitting at 15-21 now and probably going to get their hats handed to them again this weekend in a three game set with the Yanks. They've given up almost seven runs a game for the past seven days and only managed to win when they threw ten on the board against the Sox Wednesday night. Everyone said this was going to be a great offensive team before the year started ... too bad no one knew just how offensive the pitching staff was going to be.

Finally, this weekend I'm looking forward to watching game two against Dallas as discussed above, but I'm also anxious to watch some of the carnage on the 17th hole at Sawgrass in the Players Championship. You've got to love a hole where the pros are hitting an 8- or a 9-iron into a relatively large green but can't shake the giant lake from their heads. Water balls galore make it fun to watch, especially if things are tight down the stretch. Sergio opened up with a 66 and the lead yesterday, but fear not rest of the field ... his putter should fall apart again any moment. Enjoy the weekend!

Not so heated rivalry

2008-04-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

The Detroit-Colorado series has not amounted to much of the animosity that many expected before it began. Of course, that's not terribly surprising when one considers that only a few of the guys on either team actually played in the several series during the '90s where these teams developed a healthy distaste for each other.

What's been even more unexpected is the lopsidedness of the play so far. While I figured Detroit to be a better team, I did not expect to see Colorado get thoroughly outskated for the majority of the first three games. Detroit has certainly capitalized on their opportunities and made the most of the the Avs suffering through the injury bug, but Colorado really hasn't put up the same fight that they showed in battles down the stretch of the regular season and against Minnesota in the first round. Unless there are a couple of turnarounds of epic proportions, it's going to be Detroit and Dallas fighting it out for the right to play for the Cup in May and June.

Detroit could still do a few things better though. It was painful to watch them take two straight too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties last night. Those are brain-dead penalties that shouldn't happen in the first week of the season, never mind the second round of the playoffs. More importantly though, Detroit's dominance of the faceoff circle seems to have diminished. I'm not sure if you can even find this stat anywhere, but I would like to see the faceoff stats that eliminate faceoffs in the neutral zone (because those tend to have very little game impact). Draper and Zetterberg had two of the best faceoff records in the league throughout the season, but I've had the feeling during the last couple games of the first round and throughout this round that both have been losing more than they've won when they count. A little extra focus, especially on those defensive zone draws, might just pay dividends against Dallas. After all, a faceoff win in OT allowed the Stars to set up and score the winner in game three against San Jose last night. That's a scene I'd rather not see repeated against the Wings.

11 Run 6th

2008-04-24T08:37:00.001-07:00

Clinging to a precarious 7-6 lead going to the bottom of the sixth inning last night against Texas, Tigers fans were treated to the home team getting three walks, two hit batters, a pair of two run doubles, a three run homer, a couple of sacrifices to score, a one run double and run scoring single. When the Rangers finally managed to get out of the inning, they had dug themselves an 18-6 hole and Detroit added another in the seventh for good measure. That sure would have been fun to watch for the home faithful!

With the win Detroit climbs out of the cellar in the AL Central, just 3 games back of the White Sox. Even with their dreadful start this year, this team is poised to make a run. Now if they could just solidify the pitching a bit ... giving up 6 in the first four innings was not the way to get rolling last night!

On to Round 2

2008-04-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

So it's going to be the Avalanche that roll into town Thursday evening to start taking on the Red Wings in round two. The playoffs are always a different story from the regular season (see: Montreal-Boston, where the Habs were 8-0 during the season but needed seven hard fought games to escape the first round upset). But the four meetings between Detroit and Colorado this year make me pleased to see that Detroit isn't going to have to play Calgary. Detroit won the series with the Avs 4-0, outscoring them 11-2 with three shutouts. Clearly, Avs netminder Jose Theodore seem to have stepped up his game a bit in their first round defeat of the Mild (as our local radio station likes to call those folks out of MN), but I like that Colorado plays a free flowing more exciting brand of hockey than Calgary. Detroit will have some opportunity to create plays and not be hung up in the stifling defensive play that less talented teams like Calgary have to utilize to keep up in the league. Also, this series should provide some excitement from the old rivalry, bringing back memories of the great series between these two teams throughout the late '90s when both teams were winning cups and dominating the league. I'm excited for it all to get started! Thursday night is going to be fun!

Figured It Out

2008-04-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

The Red Wings finally figured out how to stop the quick back-to-back goal problem ... apparently the game plan is to just not give up the first one! Friday night and this afternoon Detroit did a great job limiting Nashville to almost no opportunities, outshot them 95-41, and managed to make a couple of breaks work for them to finish the series.

Let's hope that the 100-foot goal that Lidstrom bounced in a sign of things to come. When Detroit won the cup in '97, he scored a 70-footer against Hextall and when they brought Stanley home in '02 he scored a 90-footer against Cloutier. Both of those goals turned momentum Detroit's way and that winner today just might turn the tides for the Red Wings again.

The other thing that was most impressive was the play of Detroit's third and fourth lines. Cleary, Helm, Drake, and McCarty all stood out to me for their efforts this afternoon and they're starting to earn extra ice time from Babcock. Giving Detroit a few extra good shifts is going to take the load off of Pavel and Hank a little bit and give them a little more jump if Detroit goes four rounds.

Now ... I'm off to watch SJ-Calgary to find out who Detroit might be playing on Thursday. On to round two! This should be fun.

What's Wrong With These Guys?

2008-04-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hi kids, I'd like to draw up a play. Faceoff is at centre ice. Someone just scored ... doesn't matter if it's you or your opponent. First, you win the draw. Then you maintain control for a few seconds and manage to get it deep into your opponent's end of the ice. Then you put some pressure on them and keep it in their end for 30 seconds or so. WOW!! Now you know more about playing hockey than the Red Wings. Evidently, not giving up two goals in less than a minute over and over and over and over again is really hard for multi-millionaire hockey players. Of course, they are part of a union ... so the explanation must be that defense isn't not in their job description.

So after a solid 2-0 start, I see my beloved team skating back to town with their tails between their legs after gift wrapping two games back to Nashville to tie the series. Tonight, Osgood will get the start and be under some serious pressure to not stink up the joint the way Hasek did the last two games. While those goals can't all be blamed on Dom, it sure would have been nice for him to play more like the all-everything goalie he's supposed to be and bail out his defense on one or two of them. I'll have my fingers and everything else crossed today in the hopes that we can pull forward into the lead again and polish the Preds off.

Masterful Fashions

2008-04-11T09:23:00.001-07:00

Simon on Sports has a great post today using pictures from the first round of the Masters yesterday to try and decide what he should wear in his golf tournament coming up. You can check it out here! I think I might need to consider some of those outfits for the odd round that I'll get in this season.

The Final

2008-04-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

How did Memphis collapse so badly? I think the answer is obvious ... they're the Tigers. And Tigers of every sport have stunk this week (especially the baseball kind).

The bottom line though is that coach John Calipari simply got it wrong. He said earlier this year on Pardon the Interruption that if you put together a list of the 25 things that might cost them a game, their poor free throw percentage all season long wouldn't even make the list. In the last 1:15 of regulation, with the game seemingly in hand, the Tigers hit just 1 of 5 from the charity stripe. 20%. Pathetic. It's why they lost. Number one on the list. No question. For the game, Memphis totaled 12 of 19 versus the Jayhawks' 14 of 15. In a game that was forced into OT on a last second prayer, free throws made all the difference.

Now that that's over, let's move onto the Masters. Today is the Par 3 tournament and by the time I make it to office tomorrow, the real action will be underway. Thank goodness for the PVR!

I'm back!

2008-04-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

It's a big week ahead for CBS. After carrying the first Final Four ever with four #1 seeds, they'll be broadcasting what looks like a pretty exciting final tonight, then start prepping for Masters week in Augusta, where it will be all Tiger all the time for four days.

I apologize for not having posted in so long, but after I had to tear up my bracket with everyone losing on the first weekend, I lost a bit of the interest in the madness. Have no fear though, I will tune in for the game this evening. With the up-tempo style that both teams play and their surprise chances at glory (come on - who really picked both Kansas and Memphis over UNC and UCLA?!), this one should at least be an entertaining game.

As for the Masters, excitement abounds! For the first time ever, the Par-3 tournament on Wednesday will be broadcast, so I'll set the PVR to take care of that for me. Much time Thursday and Friday will no doubt be spent checking scores and looking in on the online broadcast from Amen Corner. Sunday, after my swim and run I've already ensured that Captain Pants knows I'll be lying low for several hours of final round action. I'd like to see Tiger get another jacket this year, but even more importantly, I'd really like to see Freddie Couples show us some more magic around Augusta. With a 66 this past Sunday to finish in the top ten, we know that he's still got it in him and if there's one place that he's always been able to find it, it's at the Masters. It should be fun to watch!

Finally, the NHL playoffs get under way on Wednesday. There are a few interesting first round matchups to watch. I'm excited to see what the Penguins can do with a healthy lineup against Ottawa and I'm pleased to see Montreal looking so good. Obviously, I'll nervously be watching Detroit hopefully live up to how good they were for the first half of the season instead of how average they looked down the stretch. And I'll be fearfully watching the Sharks who have looked invincible for the last three months as they try to bring the cup to another crappy city that doesn't give a damn about hockey. Let's hope for the sake of all things that are right in the game of hockey that the Sharks start to look like fish out of water sometime soon!

Looking forward to April

2008-03-28T15:37:00.001-07:00

Well, I didn't update it, but the mascot method fell apart on day two of the tourney last weekend. Of course, on Saturday and Sunday, my bracket got blown up as well, so I certainly can't brag. As stated last week, I really wish that I had pulled the trigger on picking WVU over Duke, but I'm going to lean on the old "It's the thought that counts" to make me feel good about my picks!

After the first weekend, I didn't have the 75% victory rate I was hoping for to stay competitive in the pool, but I still had hope for 7 of my elite 8 picks to pull through. That took a further hit with Tennessee playing terribly last night but 6 of 8 and all of my final four is still potential if Memphis, Kansas, and Texas can pull through tonight!

In other sports action, I've noticed that April is shaping up to be fabulously exciting! Obviously, we've still got March Madness wrapping up on the 7th, followed by the NHL playoffs starting on the 9th. Mix in Tiger trying to win another Masters from the 11th to the 13th, and I'm going to have a tough time tearing myself away from the TV long enough to do all my training! I'm thinking the PVR will save me. I can get through everything I want to see commercial free with a minimal amount of bothering the Pants. Let's just hope that thing has enough free memory!

16 Down ...

2008-03-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

And the mascot method is clearly superior. With the glaring exception of having Kansas going down, the Pants' picks beat the heck out of mine and put her in a strong leading position going into day two of the Madness. At 13-3 with her only losses coming in Midwest Regional, Amy's results bettered my 12-4 results. However, I hold my head high with only having lost one of my sweet 16 teams on day one this year. I can only hope that tomorrow goes as well.

As for Duke getting a scare, I'm really wishing now that I had pulled the trigger on picking WVU to beat them on Saturday. Oh well, maybe coach K can rally the troops so that they lose to Xavier next weekend instead!

Interesting Starts

2008-03-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

Maybe I should have let the Pants take the first cut at filling out my bracket. The "Mascot Method" has yielded a 5-2 start versus my 4-3 start and I like a surprising number of her picks to also do well. The only bright spot I see in my early selection woes is that I haven't lost any of my picks from the next round yet, which has in the past, been a good sign. Especially since I was pulling for the upsets in all three of my losses.

When Mascots Collide ...

2008-03-19T17:17:00.000-07:00

So I thought it would be funny to see how much better Captain Pants could fill in her bracket than me using any style of her choosing as compared to my diligent research. She seems to have gone with matching up the mascots, and quite frankly, I'm expecting her picks to be better than mine! Without further adieu, I offer you today's guest blogger ...

I’ve done my research. I’m ready to pick my teams. Or whatever it is you do for these things. I did a whack of research for this. Already so here are my calls for round one:

North Carolina v Mt St Mary:
Tarheels take on the Mountineers. Tarheels: crappy name but bonus points for having a mascot that at some point or other was actually living. More points because it had its own sweater/blanket thing and looks really pissed off in this picture.

Indiana v Arkansas:
So I can’t read Arkansas without saying R-Kansas in my head and Hoosier is a little to close to hoser eh, so I don’t know here. Razorbacks versus something whose name historically means hick… mmm tough call. Boars have tusks. Done.

Notre Dame v George Mason:
The Irish up against the Patriots. The Irish are probably still drunk. So Notre Dame it is. Them drunken leprechauns are wily little buggers.

Washington State v Winthrop:
This will be good. Butch the Cougar battles Big Stuff the Eagle. I know I wouldn’t dare call a cougar a butch. Especially at a bar in Denver.

OK v Saint Jo’s:
Who has a wagon as a mascot??? Honestly! But it does come with two ponies: Sooner and Boomer. Ponies can kick a hawk’s butt any day.

Louisville v Boise State:
Red Bird the Cardinal (really? Cardinals are red? Thanks for the update Einstein!) and Buster the Bronco. I’m letting the pony take this one too.

Butler v South Alabama:
One of the MANY unis with a bulldog as a mascot: Butler Blue II. I pick the jaguars for this one.

Tennessee v American:
Volunteers (and Lady Vols)? Seriously? But at least it’s better than the predictable Eagle of American University. And Clawed Z. Eagle??? Maybe it’s just that I’m Canadian and I say “z” the right way (zed) so it didn’t make sense the first time I read it and when it did I groaned. So Tennessee it is… wondering if they have to actually live up to their name to graduate?

Kansas v Portland:
Baby Jay the Jayhawk against one of many Victor E.’s, this one being Victor E. Viking the Viking. Pillaging and plundering hands down.

UNLV v Kent State:
Runnin’ Rebels and the Golden Flashes. Sounds like a comic book match up to me. Would be much better if Kent State’s mascot was the Flasher. But I can’t say that I have much faith in a school who calls their mascot Hey Reb! So Go Kent!

Clemson v Villanova:
Some cat on cat action here. Who would win in a back of the bar cage match: a Tiger or a Wildcat? Or in this case a Tiger Cub verses Will D Cat. I’m going with Tiger since Will is probably too ashamed of the lack of creativity in his name to put up much fight.

Vanderbilt v Siena:
Mr C takes on a Saint. Would be better if it were Mr T. But I still give the Commodores the upper hand here.

USC v Kansas State:
Trojans (and the woman of Troy) take on the Willie the Wildcat. For the record this is our 2^nd Wildcat team. Historically the Trojans were fooled by a big wooden horse. They better have learnt their lesson. Do it for Helen.

Wisconsin v Fullerton:
Bucky v Tuffy (the Elephant… of the Titans… yeah I too thought it was Carthaginians who had Elephants). Points lost for not knowing their Roman history. Badgers all the way.

Gonzaga v Davidson:
More Bulldogs and more Wildcats. Spike Q. Bulldog (who was a living animal) and Mr. Cat. Mr. Cat? Really? Sic Spike!

Georgetown v UMBC:
Hoyas (which means “what” or “such”) with their bulldog Jack against True Grit the Retriever. A Chesapeake Retriever to be precise. Maybe Vick can help us out here. I’ll go with the Hoyas for this one… even if their name makes no sense. It does make a good comedic moment “the Georgetown what” “hoyas” “what” “hoyas” “that’s what I said: what”.

Memphis v UT- Arlington:
Tigers and Mavericks. Pouncer and Blaze. Tiger all the way. They have claws and teeth.

Mississippi v Oregon:
Bulldogs (AGAIN!!! I’m telling you! No imagination! At least I was Gryphon and then a Thunderbird – mythical creatures and very nifty – they have wings). And so do Ducks. But I’m sorry Donald doesn’t really inspire me all that much. I have to go with the Dog again for this one.

Michigan State v Temple:
Sparty the Spartan (which I was in high school before I switch schools and became a Raider… dddaarrrr) and Hooter the Owl. I thought a hooter was a restaurant with tiny t-shirts. Sparty it is.

Pittsburgh v Oral Roberts:
Claws, fur and feathers. A Panther fights a Golden Eagle. I’m going with the Panther.

Marquette v Kentucky:
I was disappointed to learn that this was U of KY so it’s the Wildcats not the Thorobreds. (This just in: to my disappointment there are in fact 2 American Colleges with the Thunderbird mascot. Damn it. I though BC had that one locked up). I’ll go with the Golden Eagle on this one.

Stanford v Cornell:
The color Cardinal (which I guess is the color of the bird of the same name, and birds sit in trees… so therefore Stanford = Tree mascot), and Big Red Bear called Touchdown. This is basketball Cornell… not football, even the Tree knows that!

Miami v St. Mary’s:
Hurricanes represented by Sebastian the Ibis take on the Gaels. Gaels are from Ireland. See my thoughts about Irish above. Go Gaels!

Texas v Austin:
Longhorns take on the Governors (and the Lady Govs). You know it really grinds my gears all the states that realized that girls could play sports too but couldn’t go for a gender friendly name and so just stuck the word Lady in front of some shortened version of the team name. Besides, Texas has a live longhorn steer called Bevo. And I’m a fan of beef. Go Texas!

UCLA v Mississippi Val:
Joe Bruin fights the Delta Devils. Hmmm… I’m gonna have to go with UCLA here. For no other reason than I want to.

BYU v Texas A&M:
Cougars and Aggies. Well we had Aggies at my Uni. And they threw some wicked pub nights. And these Aggies have a live Collie named Reveille to boot. So I’m going with the Aggies for reasons of nostalgia.

Drake v Western KY:
More Bulldogs and something called a Hilltopper which is represented by Big Red which is a red, blob like costume. So again I give into the slobbering dog named Spike.

Connecticut v San Diego:
Jonathan the (live) Huskie and the Toreros. Sounds like some new project from the makers of Making the Band XIII. I like dogs and this is the first Huskie we’ve had. So Go Connecticut.

Purdue v Baylor:
This one got me. Creative yes. But good name? not by a long shot. The Boilermakers. Who have a train. Yeah I know. Take on Bruiser and the Bears. Well when it comes down to it, train does beat bear. Physics and everything considered.

Xavier v Georgia:
Well thank goodness they aren't the Peaches, but Georgia is (drumroll please) another team of that slobbering canine favorite: the Bulldog. While Xavier has the Musketeers. And D’Artagnan has a musket. And we all know it’s not guns that kill, it’s people… but having the gun must help somewhat.

West Virginia v Arizona:
Picture this: a man in the mountains with only his wits, and a can of beans. He meets a wildcat. They look at each other. Stare deep into the other’s eyes. And then at the same moment they lunge forward to attack. Who wins? The Mountaineer of course. I said he had a can of beans, but not a can opener. He’s freakin’ starving.

Duke V Belmont:
Blue Devils and the Bruins. Wait! I’m having déjà vu here. Didn’t we just have this match up. Well I’ll even it out for the Devil. I’m picking Duke here.

I'm Back!

2008-03-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Having pulled a disappearing act for the last couple of weeks, I'm back to blogging in this most exciting week. I hope to jot down my comments Thursday and Friday during all of the excitement, but for now, I'll offer my very limited insight into the tournament ...

My intelligence is limited this year as I haven't watched any basketball leading up to this weekend. However, I've been listening to a couple of ESPN podcasts all winter, so I at least know that UNC and UCLA are about as good as it gets and that Tennessee got jobbed not being given a one seed and then getting thrown into the Charlotte bracket with UNC. I've had a hard time finding a 12 that can beat a 5, as happens every year, so I've gone with MSU to lose because, generally, the Big Ten sucks. In fact, the Big Ten is so bad that I've got only Wisconsin winning a game and then, only one. I've seen a few people picking Oral Roberts as an upset special for the first round, but I stuck with Pitt and instead went with Siena to pull the upset on Vandy who played terribly down the stretch. USC-Kansas St. is about the most exciting first round game because it pits the best two freshman against each other before they leave college for the big paycheck. Davidson-Gonzaga is another great first round game with the majority of brackets I've seen picking Davidson in the upset. Finally, I'm a little upset after going through my picks to see that I picked the one through four seeds into the sweet sixteen in both the South and West regionals, but I can't find any major flaws in any of the picks, so I've left it. If I were to make a change (which I probably will before Thursday because I can't leave well enough alone), it would be for WVU to upset Duke in the second round.

My final four is UNC over Kansas and UCLA over Texas with Kevin Love and the Bruins prevailing on April 7th in San Antonio.

How'd I Do?

2008-03-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

I got to watch a little bit of the Montreal-New Jersey game on Saturday night and while the early going had some good action, I was having a hard time getting intrigued by a game that seemed to not have any meaning. Both the Habs and Devils are going to be making the playoffs and their positioning in the conference seems to mean so little once the playoffs come, that my excitement level with little vested interest was lagging. However, the finish turned out to be pretty exciting with both teams playing well and Montreal getting a good bounce to pot the winner after NJ took a couple of dumb penalties.

But more importantly, how were my picks for those ten games that took place on Saturday? Well, if you are a betting man, you'd be wise to bet against me. 3-7 is a pretty pathetic record. Somehow I just can't get the league figured out lately. Perhaps it'll just take a little more time for the dust to settle after the trade deadline. Or maybe there's just going to be a bunch of surprises in this playoff run that's kicking up with only 15-18 games left for most teams. Either way, I think there are going to be a lot fewer games that I feel are meaningless over the next four weeks!

Taking a Flying Leap

2008-02-29T16:16:00.001-08:00

February 29th. A special day, but still a lousy time on the sports calendar. Nothing much exciting happening yet in the NHL or NBA. The NFL is non-existent right now. Baseball has barely begun spring training. Even college basketball is still two weeks away from the conference tournaments and then the Madness. I don't feel much like talking about a PGA tournament of also rans at the Honda. So, to commemorate this once every four year mark on the calendar, I thought I'd "leap" onto the grenade of trying to predict all of the scores from the upcoming Saturday night in the NHL. I must warn you that my hockey picks lately have been terrible and that I can't figure out how teams that looked so good at the start of the year (see: Detroit, Ottawa) are falling apart so badly now. Without further adieu, here we go:

Atlanta @ Boston - Boston just destroyed Ottawa and Pittsburgh and while all the talk was about those "good" teams losing, ignored in the matter was that Boston looked great! I'll take the B's 4-1.

Philly @ NYI - after just 4 wins in 19 games to start 2008, the Isles rolled of 6 wins in a row before losses to the Devils and Pens this week. With Philly struggling lately I'll take New York 3-2.

Pittsburgh @ Ottawa - now here's a couple of desperate teams. Pittsburgh looked horrible last night, but Ottawa has looked pretty bad for weeks now. I think the Pens will bounce back and take this one on the road 5-3.

Toronto @ Washington - does anyone have any idea what's going on in Toronto? The GM has written the team off, but I'd like to think that they'll bring all their fans great excitement by creeping into a playoff spot only to break down and miss the dance at the last possible moment. Leafs 3-1.

Tampa @ Carolina - how has Tampa got to be feeling today after Richards chalked up five points in his first game with the Stars? This team went from bad to worse and don't stand a chance down the stretch. Canes 2-0.

New Jersey @ Montreal - This should be a great game between a couple of teams riding high in the standings. I'm interested to see Carey Price handle the pressure of being number one down the stretch and I think he'll do it well. But not well enough on this night when Brodeur goes back home. Devils 3-1.

Nashville @ Dallas - Coming back to Richards' five point night, I sure hope that it isn't a sign of things to come or else Dallas will be unbeatable in the West. Against a pretty weak Preds team tomorrow night this should be a cakewalk. Stars 6-2.

San Jose @ St. Louis - Not much to say about either of these non-descript teams. The Blues are still a back of the pack team and the Sharks are slightly better, but coming off a game against Detroit tonight while St. Louis will have two days rest, I like the Blues to be the better team on this night. St. Lou 3-2.

LA @ Colorado - There sure is a lot of excitement in Denver this week! We'll see how much help they really get out of a guy like Forsberg who hasn't played in far too long though. My guess is he'll be good, but not great the way he used to be. But against the lowly Kings, not much is required. Avs 4-1.

Calgary @ Phoenix - Phoenix has lost their last two against Calgary, but Gretz has them sitting right there on the verge of the playoffs for the first time since 2002. I'd like to think that they'll have a decent stretch run and then lose in the first round again. Desert Dogs in this one, 3-2.

Enjoy the games! I'll enjoy taking a look in on them tomorrow night.

It Passed With a Whimper

2008-02-27T08:58:00.000-08:00

Trading deadline came and went without much excitement yesterday in the NHL. It's always difficult to predict this early, especially when a lot of the trades were for picks, but the biggest pickup would seem to be Brad Richards heading to Dallas. Richards has had proven success, winning the cup a few years back and may be just the thing to put Dallas over the edge. With the Red Wings struggling lately, the Stars have come way back and still have a real shot at winning the West down the stretch and Richards could be just the piece to make that happen. The other big winner yesterday was Pittsburgh picking up Marion Hossa, Pascal Dupuis, and Hal Gill from Atlanta and Toronto. I'm not ready to declare this a clear victory though because Hossa is in the last year of his contract and Pittsburgh actually had to give up quite a bit to get these guys. The Penguins now won't have a pick in the first two rounds of the draft this year where they've been quite successful the last few years in building a solid young heart to their team. We'll see how that effects them over the next few, because I don't think Hossa and Gill are going to be enough to get Pittsburgh the kind of immediate playoff success they're hoping for.

Some trades that I quite enjoyed were Wade Belak going from Toronto to Florida and Marty Lapointe going from Chicago to Ottawa each for a bag of pucks and a water bottle. I take a sick kind of pleasure in seeing Lapointe, a guy that left Detroit because he wanted more money rather than another chance to win, fail in his last two cities while playing out that huge contract.

In other NHL news, the Wings blew another one last night. They finally managed to put a couple of pucks in the net, but hanging onto a one goal lead with two minutes left was too much pressure, so they fired a puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty and gave up the tying goal. What followed, was Edmonton's record 13th win of the season in a shootout where Detroit went back to normal and couldn't score on Garon. I have to wonder a bit what Babcock was thinking though putting Jonathan Ericsson, a defenceman in just his third game of the season, up first in the shootout. With the number of guys Detroit has who should be scoring but aren't lately, what better opportunity is there than during a shootout to get one of them going? Chalk up another "L". At least we got a point for this one.

Kick 'Em While They're Down

2008-02-25T15:18:00.000-08:00

That appears to be the attitude in the NHL right now when it comes to playing the Red Wings. But while I'd like to make excuses for Detroit getting beaten by everyone over the last couple of weeks while half the team is out with injuries, there's still no real excuse for the team not being able to put any pucks in the net. The injuries, on the back end primarily (with Lidstrom, Rafalski, Chelios, Hasek, et al out Saturday night), will have some impact on the forwards being able to set up and create an attack, but the reality is that the only regular they're missing up front is Cleary and the rest of the team just hasn't stepped up. With the trading deadline less than 24 hours away now, will Ken Holland be able to make a move for a top six forward who isn't in the tank right now? We'll see. But I think what Detroit really needs right now is a couple of lucky bounces to get those guys of the schneid.

Speaking of the trading deadline, I want to address the situation of those poor Leafs fans. The team has five relatively senior guys with a no trade clause in their contracts and not a single one of them has indicated any willingness to waive it. Now, I can understand a desire for stability when you sign a long term contract and if you've got the leverage to get the no trade clause put in, good for you. But on a team as bad as the Leafs are right now; On a team that has absolutely no shot at making the playoffs this year; On a team that doesn't appear to have anything positive in their outlook for the foreseeable future; How can you not want out of dodge?! Sundin is the biggest example. He claims to just have the Leafs in his heart and can't playing anywhere else. Yet if he was willing to take a trade right now to a team that has a chance, he would not only finally get a shot at winning the cup, but his beloved Leafs would get a bunch of prospects that could brighten their future and he could sign right back with Toronto in July! He's basically telling the fans of Toronto, "I don't want a chance to win now, and I don't want my team to have a chance to win in the future either." It's a sad time in Leafsland, and amazingly, I actually feel sorry for all those fans. They deserve better.

And Then There Were 8

2008-02-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

The World Match Play Championship is on this weekend in Tuscon, Arizona and over the last three days, they've whittled the field from 64 down to 8. In this most unpredictable of tournaments, I will attempt to guess who might prevail this Sunday ... you're gonna be surprised! Tomorrow morning Tiger will tee it up against KJ Choi to try to win the Bobby Jones bracket and advance to the quarterfinals against the winner of Henrik Stenson and Woody Austin. Despite being a higher rank, I think Stenson has gotten through an easier path so far and that Austin is going to beat him tomorrow morning, but then lose 3 and 2 to Tiger in the afternoon. On the opposite side of the draw, look for Angel Cabrera to beat Stewart Cink and Vijay Singh to beat Justin Leonard in the morning and then Vijay to prevail in the semi-final to advance to a great final match with Tiger. And do you think that Tiger will remember that match from several years back at the President's Cup when Vijay had his caddy wear a hat that said "Tiger Who?"? My guess is that Mr. Woods might have a little motivation to kick Vijay's butt again on Sunday. So yeah, I guess it's not a surprise who my pick is going to be to win it all ... Tiger.

The late HNIC game on Saturday is the Vancouver Detroit matchup that I've been waiting for all season. Unfortunately, now the entire Red Wings team seems to be injured, but if the way Vancouver has played lately is any indication, that shouldn't stop Detroit from whipping all over them anyway. I'm not optimistic enough to predict a repeat of the 9-3 win I watched here in Vancouver a couple years back, but I'll put it at 4-2 for the Wings.

Enjoy the weekend! I'll be watching.

A look back

2008-02-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

My predictions for the weekend actually turned out pretty good this time! I indeed looked in on the Daytona 500 for about 30 seconds Sunday afternoon and quickly flipped away. This morning I watched Sportscentre long enough to see that there weren't any really good wrecks, but it did yield an exciting finish with the Penske team actually racing as a team to overtake Tony Stewart on the last half lap for the win.

In the NHL, my picks were pretty good too as the Leafs mounted a late comeback to beat the Bruins and Vancouver managed to win a penalty filled contest with the Oilers. The only disappointment in the NHL on the weekend was that Detroit somehow managed to lose two more games in a row. Somehow, a six game losing streak has taken hold of them and they only still lead the second best team by 8 points with two games in hand. Yeah ... I don't think the President's Trophy is at risk yet.

Finally my picks for the Northern Trust Open fared remarkably well. Phil pulled off the win when Quinney collapsed under pressure down the stretch and Harrington finished a solid third. My other two picks for good finishes were Chad Campbell and Adam Scott who finished T11 and T14 respectively. When all four of my picks from Thursday finish in the top 15, I've done really well. Additionally, I said that Couples would have trouble holding it together for a full four rounds, but he hung on around par the whole time for a T31 finish. And, the easiest prediction, I guessed that John Daly would fall apart, and true to form he was +10 the last three days after a solid opening round 69. Poor John ... all that talent but still just a country bumpkin who can't get his act together.

What's on Tap This Weekend?

2008-02-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

It's been far too long since I put one of these forecasts together for the weekend. You see, things have been busy. Work, rest, play ... it all gets in the way of this bloggy thing. I'll try to be better, really I will. But no promises.

So what's on tap this weekend? The PGA Tour makes a stop at Riviera for what used to be the LA Open but has been corporatized into the Northern Trust Open. Does anyone else think that an event in LA having the word "Northern" in the title seems a little wrong? Just me? Okay then. I would love to see Weir pull off a win in this one as he did in back to back years earlier this decade, but as of 10:30 this morning his round is in the tank and it's going to take a strong effort on the back just to make the cut. Looking further up the leaderboard, some names like Mickelson, Campbell, Scott and Harrington are in good shape to challenge on the weekend and I would give even odds for the winner to come out of that group. John Daly is up there too after the first day, but you can look for him to collapse in a drunken stupor before the tournament is through. Finally, Freddy Couples is also in great position after the first day, but sadly I'm not convinced that his back can hold up for the full four days. I'll keep my fingers crossed though!

In the NHL, the normally busy Saturday night has the surging Leafs hosting a Bruins team that is clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the East right now. I like the Leafs in this one. I think they're going to continue their surge right through the end of the season just to break all of their fans hearts again in the last game of the year and miss the playoffs again. I'd feel more sorry for their fans if I didn't carry such angst against them for past transgressions like Borschevsky scoring the OT winner in game seven back in 1993. Yeah ... I can hold a grudge. The Western game on Hockey Night in Canada this week will be the Oilers coming out here to Vancouver to face the Canucks. This one's tough to choose because neither team is playing that great, but the Canucks have been better at home than the Oilers have been on the road. Additionally, Edmonton hasn't had much success out here in recent years, so I'll take the Canucks in a close one.

Finally, Daytona is this weekend. I don't know a damn thing about Nascar because I didn't grow up in a Red State, but I might click over to this for five or ten minutes in the hope that I'll see a giant crash. Of course, if the crash is really spectacular, it'll probably be on Sportscenter, so perhaps I'll just tune in for the highlights! Have yourself a great weekend!

Now What?

2008-02-12T10:00:00.001-08:00

It would seem to me that these are the slowest days in sports. The NFL season has ended, the NHL and NBA are just past mid-year and not really into the playoff race or much excitement yet. Spring training for baseball is still a little ways off for those who might get excited about that. College basketball isn't quite buzzing yet the way it will be in a few weeks for March Madness. The PGA has started back up, but fans have to wait until April to see anything more exciting than the Northern Trust Open and some tournament in Mexico that I've never heard of. Even tennis has seen a major go by, but has to wait until spring for anything exciting to happen again.

So what is there to do to get through the winter doldrums? Sports Illustrated's answer is to give you the Swimsuit Issue this week. My answer? Tiger Woods 2008 on Wii! I picked it up on Sunday and I can't put it down. I can't believe how realistic it is and how much they've improved it from the game I already thought was pretty good in 2005. If you throw in a little bit of Wii boxing to keep your fitness up (yes - it really is a workout if you play it for a while), we'll get to March in no time and start filling out brackets for the most action filled weekend of the year. Hang in there, it's only a few weeks away!

Not So Super Predictions

2008-02-04T15:46:00.001-08:00

I have to defend my predictions today after watching almost everything go wrong yesterday. I'll start with the game itself. Clearly, the struggles I had picking New England were well reasoned. I did think that New York had a real shot at winning, but I just couldn't convince myself to go all the way and call for the upset. What I really didn't see, was the game being so low scoring. The Giants' defensive line was absolutely amazing and should have collectively won the MVP. That line never let Tommy-boy settle into the pocket to make things happen and it killed the Pats offensive hopes.
Finally, my last thought on the game is to question why the Pats didn't kick the field goal in the second quarter when they had 4th & 13 from the 32. It would have been a 49 yarder indoors that Gostkowski should have been able to hit readily (he was kicking them through from 55 in the warm-ups). I haven't heard much mention of it today, but those three points would have forced OT. Instead they threw up a desperation heave to the corner that never had a chance. That was a terrible coaching decision that cost them a shot at victory.

Now, on to my other terrible predictions. I clearly was too optimistic on the length of the national anthem when put the over/under at 1:37. As 2:00 approached with Jordin Sparks not yet rounding into the home stretch, I knew that I had most surely lost every bet on that one. And the American Idol plugs? One of our party guests wisely pointed out to me that they didn't need to plug a show that people already watch. Instead they plugged the Sarah Connor Chronicles over and over and over and over again. Sure didn't make me any more inclined to watch it though. Finally, Peyton didn't give any Priceless Pep-Talks, but he did get almost as much camera time as his little bro. The commentators comments that he'd be more excited for Eli winning than he was last year when he won it himself though? Come on ... don't be absurd.

What will we see today?

2008-02-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

Belatedly, I come to this forum to put down my thoughts for the big game this afternoon. I've taken my time getting to this this week because I'm not quite sure which trend I think will continue. Will the Patriots complete their roll to the perfect season, or will the Giants continue to be perfect on the road since after their first trip to Dallas? After a great deal of debate in my mind, I've decided to pick ex-Wolverine Tom Brady and the Pats to finish off their march to the history books. This one's going to be a high scoring affair and should be pretty exciting. I'll peg the score at 38-31 on a late, legend-sealing drive by Brady with a TD throw to Moss for the win.

More importantly, I offer a few intriguing bets to watch for on Super Sunday. One of my favourites is the over/under on the length of the National Anthem. I'm setting the bar at 1:37. Another interesting one will be the over/under on the number of times Fox will plug American Idol. Surely this should top 15 times through the broadcast. And finally, how many times will Peyton tell you how disappointed he is that the season is over in his most recent Priceless Pep Talk? I'll set the over/under at 4.

Happy viewing! Enjoy a Super day! And give some more props to Mr. Woods coming from behind with five birdies in his last seven holes for another win in Dubai.

Unbeatable

2008-01-31T13:12:00.000-08:00

Is there anything or anyone out there that can stop Tiger Woods' run of victories? It's scary to look at what he's done the last while. Since getting the newest incarnation of his swing dialed in last summer, he's won 7 out of the last 8 events he's played and finished runner up to Mickelson at the other one. Recently, he's not only been winning, but decimating the field. He's won by 8, 8, 7, and 8 in his last four events and he's already jumped out to a two shot first round lead this week in Dubai. Forget the Super Bowl, right now if Tiger tees it up he's better than a one touchdown favourite! What's really scary is that he still knows he can keep getting better. At his victory press conference after the Buick he addressed the "holes" in his game that he claims are holding him back. His driving could certainly be more consistent and will need to be in the conditions they'll have when the US Open is back at Torrey Pines, but he ranks at the top of just about every other statistical category. With a pretty good rotation of courses for the majors this year, I wouldn't want to place a bet against him winning them all. I mean really, who's going to beat him?

Very Strange

2008-01-28T11:29:00.001-08:00

My apologies for disappearing for so long, but I've been out of town on business and not checking in with much online. I will return this week with some Super Bowl related content and whatever else I find intriguing. Meanwhile, have a look at this, rather unusual, new extreme sport.

Those Crazy Midwesterners

2008-01-22T16:13:00.001-08:00

It's too bad that the Packers lost on Sunday. That city is as football mad as any city anywhere, hands down. Just check out this excerpt reported by Peter King from last week ...

This week's issue of Sports Illustrated -- the one with Brett Favre setting up to pass, a snowstorm camouflaging him, and the words "Totally Cool'' ribboned across the cover -- arrived at the biggest newsstand in Green Bay, Bosse's Newsstand and Smoke Shop, on Thursday at around 8 a.m. A crowd stretching around the block waited, some arriving at 6 a.m., for the 1,000 copies to arrive, and when they did, the deliveryman had a police escort into the store, and some fans chanted, "Go, Pack Go!'' It took about two hours for the magazines to sell out. The store had to turn about 100 people away.

You can't spell Canada without NCAA!

2008-01-15T08:33:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, the NCAA has approved a pilot program to test letting Canadian schools join division II. Today's 10-Spot Blog posted the top 10 reasons that this is a good idea. Click here to see the list in it's original form with all of the comments from people chiming in with an opinion. If you just want the top 10 list, here it is:

Here are 10 reasons we think it's a great idea for the NCAA to annex Canada:

10. We'll finally benefit from that strong Canadian dollar

9. Can't wait to hear, "First down at the 52 ..."

8. They couldn't be any slower than the Big 10

7. There's no "I" in Canada, but they slap a "U" in pretty much everything (honour, humour, etc.)

6. Those tiny Canadian flags they plaster all over their gear when they travel are so darn cute

5. Forget March Madness, just wait until curling's Final Four

4. Families of USC players can also opt for free igloos

3. Can't spell "Canada" without NCAA (no, really)

2. BCS will give Canadians something to gripe about besides American politics

1. Three words: Cheap prescription drugs

What a Great Weekend!

2008-01-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

What an interesting weekend it was! From the blizzard at Lambeau to Upset Sunday, there was lots of exciting playoff football and, thanks to the magic of the PVR, I could watch every snap in a mere few hours without suffering through commercials or yammering commentators. Add to that a bunch of time spent relaxing with friends and it was a heck of a weekend here in Vancouver!

While I never managed to get my picks written down here on Friday, I'm pleased to say that my predictions were three for four. My only miss was on the Colts who inexplicably managed to blow piles of scoring chances by turning the ball over and didn't take advantage of some terribly lopsided officiating that was in their favour. How on earth Billy Volek managed to outplay Peyton Manning is beyond me, but I guess that's why they play the games. My favourite game of the weekend was the one in Green Bay where the Packers managed to spot the Seahawks 14 points and then proceed to completely dismantle the birds of the Northwest for the final 55 minutes of the game. Watching Brett Favre have so much fun out in the snow was a true pleasure and I hope that he can do even more of it this coming Sunday against the Giants.

In another piece of intriguing sports news this morning, the NCAA has almost unanimously approved the admission of Canadian universities into division II. The schools will still have to apply for admission by June of this year, but it sounds like there will finally be opportunities for Canadian kids to get into schools on athletic scholarships without having to head south of the border. You can take a look at the report in the Globe and Mail here.