Week 6 Recap

Quick thoughts while recovering from the best football

weekend of the last decade…

n After watching most of Wisconsin/Minnesota and both the PSU/Michigan and the USC/Notre Dame instant classics on Saturday, I didn’t think that Sunday could even hope to compete. I was wrong. Great endings in Detroit, San Antonio and Dallas, and great comebacks by the Bengals and (almost) Patriots. What a great weekend.

n You could cut the gambling tension at my place with a knife last night. Between the weekly poker game, plus me rooting for the Patriots to score another TD and cover the +3 line and my buddy cheering against the Patriots scoring to preserve his Under 48.5 bet… I mean, it doesn’t get much better than that.

n Sickening loss for the Giants yesterday. Dallas tried to give them that game in the first half, and the Giants couldn’t do anything with it. Coughing it up on the one-yard line just summed up that game for New York. Always close, never quite enough. I had no doubt that Dallas would win the coin toss and the game in OT – the Giants just didn’t have luck on their side yesterday.

n Speaking of wacky endings… here’s a question for you. In PSU/Michigan, the wolverines scored with no time left on the clock to take a 2-point lead. Why weren’t they forced to attempt the extra point? I understand that the crowd rushed the field, but the same thing happened in USC/Notre Dame, and the refs cleared the field for the final play. If Michigan flubs the snap or PSU blocks the kick, the ball could have been returned for a game-tying safety, so why wasn’t Michigan forced to at least take the extra point snap and fall on it? Just wondering…

n I was impressed by:

o Seattle. Maybe they’re not as bad as I thought…

o Chicago (Bears). In that division, 8-8 is probably a 2-game lead after week 17… They’ve got as good a shot as anyone.

o Chicago (White Sox). Everyone will point to the Doug Eddings debacle, but the White Sox pitching was just far too dominant for the Angels. I don’t doubt that the Sox could have gone into Anaheim down 2-0 and still taken three straight to bring it back to Chicago to clinch in six rather than five. Congrats on the win – now just watch out for those Astros…

o New England. Down 28-3 mid-way through the 3^rd quarter, and they still manage to make a game of it. Just shot themselves in the foot (again) with bad penalties late in the game. Plus that unmerciful Denver blitz might have played a small part in it…

o Washington. They dominated every aspect of that game except the turnover battle and the final score – the two most important stats. Tough loss to take.

o Buffalo. Who is this Kelly Holcomb guy? Why did Cleveland let him walk In favor of Trent Dilfer?

o Cincinnati. Great win for the Bengals. What’s even better was that my Thursday prediction for Chad Johnson of 9 catches, 135 yards and 2 TD’s in a 31-10 Cincy win wasn’t all that far off (8 catches, 135 yards, 1 TD in a 31-23 Cincy win).

n I was appalled by:

o The Giants. I said it above, but I’ll say it again – they missed every gift-wrapped opportunity in that game. You get that many turnovers, on the road, and convert them into 6 total points? You deserve to lose that game.

o The Vikings. Not that they really needed a reason to have a bad week, but that was one heck of an ugly loss. And I don’t want to hear that they were distracted – they brought those distractions upon themselves.

o John Fox. Let me set the situation – The Panthers are down by 3 with about 6 minutes in the game. The have 4^th and 1 on the Lions’ 4 yard line. Automatic field goal call from the head coach, no? No. They go for it. And miss. The Lions march almost 90 yards the other way and kick a field goal to take a 6-point lead. Now, if the Panthers hadn’t come back to win on a last second TD and extra point, John Fox would be the goat of the week. But Carolina got the win, and got the hell out of Detroit.

o Bill Romanowski. Following in the great tradition of Jose Canseco, Romo wrote his own “tell-all” book about himself and his career, even going on 60 minutes just like Canseco to pimp his work. Trouble is, Romo didn’t tell us anything. Everyone knew he was a dirty player. Everyone suspected that he was juicing. Give us some new info, or else just fade off into retirement oblivion.

n Good luck Tedy Bruschi. God knows the Patriots could use you, but don’t come back just because the team is in trouble. The last thing any of us wants to see is #54 sprawled out on the field for any reason. He doesn’t owe New England fans a damned thing. I hope he realized that before he straps on the helmet and pads one more time…

n I’m sticking with my pick of Rams (+14) tonight. And I’m taking the over (51.5), simply because if Indy doesn’t put up 45+ tonight, they won’t do it this year. I’m also going to go way out on a limb and say that, although I’m down by quite a few points in fantasy football (Thank you, Shaun Alexander), I’ve got a good chance with Marc Bulger, Edgerrin James and Brandon Stokley all going tonight. The Kids’ Table with rise again!

Quote of the Week:

From WEEI’s “Dennis & Callahan” morning show today. During their weekly conversation with Tom Brady, the following exchange took place:

John Dennis: “Tom, can you put into words what it will mean to have Tedy Bruschi back in uniform for your team, and more importantly, do you think it’s the right decision?”

Tom Brady: “Tedy’s coming back? I hadn’t heard…”

Don’t forget – ESPN’s final day of coverage of the WSOP Main Event, Day One is tomorrow at 8PM. Take a look – maybe I’ll be there, maybe I won’t. But you’re guaranteed to see Phil Ivey, so there’s a pretty decent shot I’ll be there, in the background, waaaaaay up in the top left corner, with my back to the camera. I’ll be the big guy in a white shirt and khaki’s, looking depressed as hell at the short chip stack in front of him.

posted by Big D @ 10:15 AM