Pittsburgh Steelers

1. Usually, if I'm watching the Rams game and they play terribly, which has typically been the case for the past few years, there is at least a consollation prize for me. The Steelers win and since they're my favorite team anyways, it takes the edge off of the Rams getting their brains beat in. Four the past four Sundays, this has not been the case. The Steelers and Rams have both lost, forcing me to be 0-2 each week. The worst part, is the Steelers are winning for most of the game before tanking it on defense for the last drive. It's been like watching the 2008 baseball Cardinals. That team always had leads but ended up blowing more than 30 saves. If they had won half of those games, they would have won the division that year. The Cardinals didn't have Jason Isringhausen for most of the season due to injuries and mental issues. Sure, he may not have been the best guy for the job, but he was designated as the team's closer. The Steelers have been without their closer for most of this season. Troy Polamalu is just one defender out of 11, but the guy is all over the field making plays that other players just don't make. It took less than a season for the NFL to turn his one-handed interception on opening night against the Titans into a commercial.

Continue reading "The Steelers are No Longer Providing ..."

It's time to make predictions for the NFL season. It should be a bit easier since most of the games from Week 1 are already out of the way. Also, my picks for the week were submitted before the games began, just not here.

Steelers over Titans (was submitted here prior to the game)

Seahawks over Rams

Falcons over Dolphins

Bengals over Broncos (Brandon Stokely, are you flipping kidding me?)

Vikings over Browns

Colts over Jaguars

Saints over Lions

Bucs over Cowboys (Tampa's definitely rebuilding now)

Eagles over Panthers

Ravens over Chiefs (Survivor/Lock of the week)

Texans over Jets

Giants over Redskins

Cards over Niners (San Fran is back)

Packers over Bears

Patriots over Bills

Chargers over Raiders

 

I'll look at my final results after the Monday night games are over, but those should be a couple of sure things too. Now here are my division and playoff picks for the year. Number indicates seed in playoffs.

AFC North

1 Steelers (Still the Champs)

5 Ravens (No more Rex Ryan)

Browns (QB controversy could last all year)

Bengals  (Marvin Lewis' last year with this mess)

 

AFC South 

2Titans (Running game + defense > Kerry Collins)

Colts (No more Dungy, no more dominance)

Texans (Every year a sleeper pick, every year a disappointment)

Jaguars (Maurice Jones-Drew can't play every position)

 

AFC West

4 Chargers (Another year of underachieving due to Norv Turner, no relation)

Broncos (No Cutler, no problem)

Chiefs (If they can hang with the Ravens, they can hang with this division)

Raiders (The PUNCHline of the AFC West. Ba dum shing!)

 

AFC East

3 Patriots (Brady's back, but the defense is starting to get old)

6 Dolphins (The Tuna won't let them be a one-year wonder)

Jets (Mark Sanchez will have his growing pains, but will be in the playoffs next year)

Bills (TO will provide entertainment, but that's about it)

 

NFC North

1 Vikings ( AP showed yesterday why he went number 1 in fantasy)

6 Packers (Rodgers is ready, defense is solid again)

Bears (Urlacher being out for the year is tough, too tough for the Bears to win)

Lions (Stafford starting might be the right call, but not to win games this year)

 

NFC South

2 Falcons (Atlanta will post back-to-back winning years for the 1st time in franchise history)

Saints (Brees threw 6 tds yesterday. I was right to be unhappy when I missed out on him in fantasy)

Panthers (Delhomme might be done winning games as a NFL QB)

Bucs (Already time to look towards next year)

 

NFC West

4 49ers (Decent team wins worst NFL division)

Cardinals (The second biggest hangover of the year)

Seahawks (That game was ugly yesterday. Needing a half to break away from the Rams doesn't look too good)

Rams (I'm still going to cheer for them, but in the end, another high draft pick could help. Bulger is awful)

 

NFC East

3Giants (Manning's new receivers appear to be ready to help)

5 Eagles (Probably pick them to win if McNabb doesn't get hurt)

Cowboys (Now that TO is gone, we'll see that Romo was the bigger problem all along)

Redskins (They could easily win the NFC West, this is the AL East of football)

 

I'll wait to pick the postseason until we get there. League MVP is Drew Brees.

 

Anyone who missed the US Open yesterday missed some crazy stuff. There was Roger Federer's dominating win over Novak Djokovic, including this magical shot to set up match point.

Continue reading "NFL Opening Weekend and US Open"

Most Super Bowl responses came out on either Monday or Tuesday of this week, but I needed a few days to catch my breath. I've spent most of the week wearing Steelers clothes, getting excited greetings from a guy at the Tin Can who looked like hw was out of an Adam Sandler movie and the occasional joking heckle from the other side of my weekly poker game. All the negative comments directed towards me stopped once the game ended and the Steelers brought home the Six Pack to Pittsburgh. After a game that exciting and nearly devastating, I'd even high five this girl (you know the one I mean).

Continue reading "Super Bowl XLIII Champs"

Before I talk football, I want to vent about the Blues a bit. Prior to the All-Star break, the club managed to win at Chicago and mount a ridiculous comeback to win at Boston. If not for a horrible missed call by the refs (this isn't just about me being a homer, if a guy catches the puck in his glove and the entire catching portion of the glove is across the goal line, it's pretty obvious that so is the puck) in the home game against the Blackhawks, the Blues easily could've been riding a four-game winning streak heading into the break. So with seven points in their last four games, how do the Blues come back from the break? By blowing a home game against one of the worst teams in the Eastern (and in my opinion weaker) Conference. It was 1-1 with two minutes left and we allowed a goal when they were outnumbered 4-2 in our zone.

Continue reading "Super Bowl XLIII"

The NFL's final four are set. We're left with a two, a four, and two sixes. The four is actually more surprising than the sixes. I would guess that very few people had the Arizona Cardinals hosting the NFC Championship. I certainly didn't and I even managed to go four-of-five in my picks last week (five-of-six if you count Utah over Florida, which I'll give myself the benefit of a doubt since the BCS leaves us with nothing but doubt). The Cards got over the hump by winning on the other side of the Mississippi River. Sure, Jake Delhomme was awful, setting all kinds of records for turnovers (6) and interceptions (5), but the Cardinals fell behind 7-0 quickly and responded just as quickly. They could have gotten down on themselves while trailing on the road, but they fought back and blew out the Panthers instead. Hell, they even had a running game for the first time in weeks. That likely won't be the case against the Eagles, but they may not need it as they look to have Anquan Boldin back. When Kurt Warner is right, he's one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league. With Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, they have two of the biggest deep threats in the league, so they have a chance against any defense, even one as good as the Eagles have been lately.

Continue reading "Conference Title Games"

When I was a sophomore in high school playing on the JV basketball team, we went into our Christmas break undefeated and feeling pretty good about ourselves. Over the break we were scheduled to play one game against a team from the division below us. We practiced a few times, nothing too serious, and went into the game feeling good. But the week and a half layoff killed us and we lost by four, our only loss of the season.

Continue reading "Picks for the NFL weekend"

The Rams and the Steelers both continued their 2008 season trends in Week 15. The Steelers turned defeat into victory while the Rams did just the opposite. I was glad for both outcomes. The Steelers clinched the AFC North by beating the Ravens 13-9 to make their fourth consecutive playoff appearance while the Rams lost the tiebreaker with Seattle by getting swept by them, better positioning themselves for the upcoming draft. The Cincinnati Bengals upset the Washington Redskins, giving the Bengals an overall record of 2-11-1, meanin that St. Louis is now tied for the second worst record in the league with the Kansas City Chiefs, trailing just the winless Detroit Lions for the top pick. The Rams now stand a very good chance to pick second in the draft for the second straight year. Jim Haslett may not be around to enjoy it though. Haslett's been the only one enjoying the Rams playbook lately.

Continue reading "NFL Week 15"

This past weekend held many ups and downs for me on the football field. It started on Thursday with the Thanksgiving games. I went with the better win-loss record in all three of those games, which put me at two-for-two, before the Cardinals remembered their history and got blasted by Donovan McNabb(yes Roy Williams, he farted on me this year too, or at least my fantasy team). I of course had McNabb benched this week in fantasy since he got benched last week in reality, and got burned by him for at least the sixth time this year. My gut told me the Eagles would win the game, but with as bad as McNabb was the previous week, I just couldn't go with them.

Continue reading "Big 12 and the NFL"

It’s been a weird year, especially for sports. The Boston Celtics finally picked themselves up from the bootstraps to win a championship. Neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees amounted to anything more than a bunch of overpaid whiners. They are even tearing down Yankee Stadium.  

Continue reading "All Good Soldiers"

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"