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Quick Thoughts - September 13th

Quick Thoughts while plotting my revenge against the Forty-Niners…

n 9-7 to open the season. Not stellar, but not terrible either. Actually, it’s an improvement over last year, when I started 8-7-1.

n I need to learn to listen to my own advice. After the Niners blew up my best shot at a big payday in Week 1 (more on that later), I finished Sunday up all of $40. I decided to make my weekly “Monday Night Get-Healthy” bet. Naturally, I let myself get talked into the hype about the Eagles, even though I knew it was going to be a low-scoring, Atlanta win. So I took the Eagles (-2) and the Over (43). Final Score? Falcons, 14-10. Perfect.

n I liked what I saw from:

o Miami’s Offense

o Indy’s Defense (They look possessed – very possibly 7-0 when they come to Foxboro in November)

o Kansas City, all around. San Diego is going to get a run for that division.

o The Patriots’ second-half (although, to be honest, I fell asleep at halftime and only saw highlights. Hey, I had to work the next day)

o Da Bears. Sure they only scored 7 points, but they only allowed 9. Yes, I realize that still equates to a loss…

o Anything and everything the Saints accomplish this season. No excuses; just play ball. And that’s exactly what they did.

n I was appalled by:

o Chad Pennington suddenly contracting Kurt Warner disease. SIX fumbles? Are you kidding? It was like watching a Pop Warner game out there.

o The Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles, St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers. Confirming, once again, that the NFC is completely wide-open. Also confirming that I have absolutely no idea what’s going on in the NFC (those were my 4 division winners)…

o The Cardinals. Man, the wheels came off of that bandwagon pretty damned fast, huh?

o Luckily, there’s plenty of room on the Lions’ wagon…

o The Michigan Wolverines. Sorry, but as a Big Blue fan, that was a terrible, terrible game against Notre Dame. And I can’t even be mad, because I’m required to support Charlie Weis by law.

o At least Ohio State lost too… But that was a HELL of a game.

n OK, so when did the 49ers become an NFL team? Before Sunday, I would have taken USC and laid 2 touchdowns in a game against the Niners. Now? I mean, I know it was the Rams’ defense, but still. As for how they blew up my big payday: I had a nice $20 6-way parlay that was paying almost 53-1 (how I got that, I’ll never know). Game #6 was the Rams (-6) over the Niners. It’s the only one I missed. I had the Lions (-3), Jags (-3), Bears (+5.5), Dolphins (+4.5) and Bengals (-4) mixed in to one parlay. If the Rams had even pushed, I would have gotten paid on the 5-way at about 40-1. You cost me a grand, San Francisco. I’m staying away from you for the rest of the year…

n If you blinked, you might have missed Sunday’s 10- Yankees/Red Sox gem of a game. At 2 hours and 29 minutes, it was very possible to flip to the football game for one half, then flip back to the baseball game and realize it was over. That’s basically what I did – turned on the Sox game, watched Giambi’s pop-fly home run, then flipped to the Panthers/Saints on Fox. By the time the first half ended, I went back to the Sox and it was the 8^th inning. Anyway, helluva game. Even if the Yankees won. At least what I saw of it was good…