More Cutler

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

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

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 ...

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

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 ...

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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?

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

In today's top stories ...

1. 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.
2. 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?
3. 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.
   

Another Top 3 List today ...

1. 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!
2. 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.
3. 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

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 ...

1. 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.
2. 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!
3. 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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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?