NFL: Week Two
So, it’s the second week of the season and I have not seen an entire NFL game, but I have watched long parts of them in both the Oakland and Chicago-Midway airports. It’s been a strange almost two-week season thus far. A few comments about last week:
It was nice to see New Orleans beating Carolina, though I think some sportscasters overstated its impact just a wee little bit – that being said, the only problem I had with the outcome of the game was the fact that it caused me to think, “Hey, Jim Haslett did a really good job getting that team focused and ready to play.” I’m still uncomfortable about it.
I didn’t see the Jets play either week, and I certainly don’t know what to make of them – but I will say that Herm Edwards officially lost me with that little cheat-sheet of “How The Jets Win” or some such nonsense. If you didn’t see it, it had purposefully the very basics of the game “Run the Ball/Stop The Run” and nothing else but these fundamentals. I can’t imagine any player being inspired by that, it seems more designed to publicly embarrass them – Bill Parcells has done this in press conferences, but it never has been so baldly scripted and formulaic. I can’t imagine it actually teaches the players how to correct any existing problems, and I can’t see it helping anyone. Except maybe Herm Edwards. I just found out he actually published a book called “You Play To Win The Game” – his memorable press conference quote. I know a lot of folks in this league like the Jets, and I have nothing against them, but Edwards? He officially seems like a liability to me.
Congrats to Jack Barlow, who won the first week. I think I looked at it midway through the week and it said that someone else had won – but it turns out it was Jack. The reason? As usual, it came down to the tie-breaker – Jack had a total points of 34, closer to the actual 24 points scored between the Falcons and Eagles than anyone else with 11 wins. Congrats, Crackboot!
That means Jack doesn’t have to send in a check, and will end up getting paid a sum that is still undefined. Why is it undefined? Because all owners who haven’t paid by Week 4 – that’s less than two weeks away – gets kicked out of the league. It’s true, believe it. Send me a check via paypal at tenaciousgreebs@yahoo.com or to my home address:
1392 11th Avenue, SF, CA 94122 – do it.
Seriously.
OK, onto this week.
No – actually, not yet. I neglected something in the first post of the season, and that was not recognizing the greatness of retired WR Jerry Rice. Sure, he hung onto long and it was a little uncomfortable to watch, but there is NO DOUBT that he’s the greatest wide receiver to ever play the game. For those of you who even hint that this isn’t the case – and shockingly, there are some of you out there – tell me one receiver who legitimately can be held up against Rice. There isn’t one. Not ONE. The quarterback discussion should also lead back to Montana, but I understand the other logical contenders – Elway, Favre, Marino, etc. There are legit – if flawed – reasons that any of them could be considered the best of all time. But who are you going to say beats out Rice? I double-dog dare you to come up with a name you can feel good about putting above Rice. So, the greatest of all time is now retired.
In lieu of this oversight, and the fact that my team has lived up to the ‘Crap’ in “Craphonso!”, I’m renaming my team. Hey, Craphonso got cut so he’s gone – it’s now Flash 80, and expect to see it soar in the standings.
OK, now…really, onto this week. Finally.
Wow, did a lot of things not go the way I thought.
Man, the Vikings look awful. It’s not just Randy Moss’ absence – they’ve reshuffled the offensive line and gotten a new coordinator, but suddenly Daunte Culpepper looks very, very pedestrian, and Mike Tice’s pathetic coaching is getting harder to hide. Who was worse yesterday -- Culpepper or Joey Harrington? The fact the question isn't easy to answer is STUNNING.
On the flipside, Tampa Bay looks like they might have gotten better a lot quicker than I assumed – and largely because Cadillac Williams looks like he’s the real deal. It’s one thing to run through the aforementioned Vikings defense, it’s another to do so against the Bills.
I saw a LOT of the Chicago-Lions game yesterday and it was pretty interesting. Chicago actually played well and Joey Harrington really stinks. So does his offensive line, as he got absolutely clobbered by a fast, aggressive young Bears defense. That division is chock-full of teams that are crap shoots.
Which includes the Packers, who got beat by Cleveland. That’s ALL I need to say; that should never, ever happen. Like I said, I don’t think the Pack has it this year and that sort of sucks for Brett Favre.
Peyton Manning’s line from Sunday against the Jaguars: 13/28, 122 yds, 0 TD, 1 INT. Take a good look at that because it’s hard to see that happening again anytime soon.
Donovan McNabb was questionable to start and tossed FIVE TDs against my very mortal 49ers. That tells me the Eagles are still quite good, and that if anyone actually started hyping the 49ers (really, I have no idea but I suspect some did) last week, that this made them look a little foolish.
I thought that the Titans sucked before the season started. They just absolutely shut down the Ravens. However you slice it, that can’t be good for the Ravens.
Oakland is almost assuredly better now with Randy Moss than they were before. But they’re going to be 0-3 after next week – and really, what did anyone expect from a start against the Patriots, Chiefs and Eagles? That’s the two Super Bowl teams plus a revamped Chiefs team with legitimate playoff aspirations.
Alright – this is long enough already. Tonight is a rare, double MNF game and though it’s for a great and worthy cause, it makes predicting who might win our league a bit too hard for me. I blame the jet lag.
Remember, SEND IN YOUR MONEY.