fairly recent routine

Current Mood: improving

You should all know by now that I write about football around midweek. I do so because Saturday is college gameday, Sunday is NFL, and then there's usually MNF to wait for as well. I also like to read power rankings, finish up my fantasy team business, and study the reviews of the last week - and previews of this upcoming week's games. That said, here we go:

Purdue improved to 7-2 (all) and 3-2 (Big Ten) with a victory over Northwestern, 35-17. The offense-touted Wildcats made things close at times, but we managed to finish things off and secure a major bowl bid, and we're tied for 2nd in the Big Ten. Unfortunately, it seems that Purdue is perpetually unable to beat *good* teams, and reach the upper tier of the conference, at times skirting the BCS top 25 but unable to hold on to any sort of ranking. Next up: a tough road game at "Happy Valley" Penn State Nittany Lions (6-3 all, 3-3 conf.)

Other NCAAF thoughts: Indiana might actually give us a run for our money this year. Also, I think I may have to watch the annual OSU/Michigan game with Future Roommate Greg, even though he has no faith in his Wolverines.


This is simply amazing.

In the NFL, the Cowboys (6-1) had a bye week but the big news is that my boy Tony Romo signed a huge contract to be the Dallas franchise QB until 2013, worth $67.5 million. I could not have been happier with how that went. They play division rivals the Eagles (3-4) this week.

Patriots rolled over the Redskins (#5 ranked defense my ass). People have accused the Patriots of being stupid (keeping Brady in well into the 4th quarter, risking an injury) and running up the score. I have mixed feelings. For example, I want somebody to head block his knee and take him out, but I also think it's unsportsmanlike. One commentator suggested such tactics in his article "I'd Hit Brady Late". File that under "one of the gayest things I've heard this week". I also agree that if a team keeps scoring on you, it's not their job to let up - you should suck less. The Patriots had a sizeable lead and they went for it on 4th down late in the game, instead of kicking a FG, but I'm a big supporter of going for it on 4th down in general. Similarly, my love of trick plays knows no team loyalty, so when Brady faked a QB kneel and instead tossed it to the end zone, I was happy.

In the end, I suppose the consolation prize of their victory is a matchup this weekend between 8-0 Patriots and 7-0 Colts, the first meeting of lossless teams this far into the season. Everybody is going nuts over this game, and for once I will concede a bit of hype - we're well into the season and even though the Patriots have rolled over fluff teams from the basement of the NFL, the Colts have played with grit without one of their star receivers (Marvin Harrison - knee). One of the ESPN analysts on MNF thought it was particularly telling that the Colts - defending Super Bowl champs, undefeated and AT HOME are 5 point underdogs. Crazy. I've stated before that even though I've been in Indiana for about 3 years now, the Colts are not my team. I respect them, I think they're classy (especially coach Tony Dungy), and they are undeniably good. However I'm not a bandwagon fan, I'm not from around here at all, and I knew next to nothing about football right when they started getting good, so I resist rooting for them out of respect for the game. That, and QB Peyton Manning is a sellout/robot (admittedly, I begrudgingly respect his earning power, and this was pretty damn funny).

THAT SAID, I hope the Colts fuck up the Patriot's little party in an exciting, hard-hitting high-scoring game. I don't want a blowout, just high-caliber football with a Colts win (while I'm at it, I also hope Indianapolis loses later in the season and the Bengals make the playoffs, but one game at a time, right?).

The New Orleans Saints (3-4) seem to have a knack for shooting themselves in the foot and starting the season several games behind, before making a strong showing and giving glimpses of hope (Drew Brees with 4 TDs, weekly passing leader!). Will their 3 game win streak (including last week's win 31-10 over the 49ers) continue? I hope so, but I don't think they'll make the playoffs. Few things are better than a good underdog story. One of them would be playing well at the start of next year. They play the Jags (5-2) this week, which I think will be a good measure of how far they will go.

Tangentially related to the Saints (+ Hurricane Katrina), many credit the Chargers's 35-10 win over the Texans to a sense of community bonding over the California wildfires. I think the two disasters are surprising in that this sort of weather/natural phenomena happens regularly in those areas and people are pretty blind, but that's a topic for another time. Situationally, I think the two events are different, and the Chargers win may have had more to do with a little guy named LaDainian Tomlinson. You may have heard of him, he was last year's MVP (early season lack of production notwithstanding).

Adrian Peterson is amazing. I will add him with Devin Hester to my list of players I like, but don't care about their team.

At first I was sad about not seeing the Giants beat the Dolphins 13-10 in Wembley Stadium, London. Then I saw the highlights, and noticed it was a boring game far away between crappy teams that nobody really enjoyed. Cool. Let's hope next overseas trip goes better, NFL?

Ack! Bengals lost big time to the Steelers 24-13. Not a big surprise, but being further away from home means I see less games, and it's easier to swallow a loss I don't spend 3+ hours watching. Apparently there was a big controversy over a fourth down call that came from coach Marvin Lewis (remember my earlier comment about going for it on 4th down) that could've cost the Bengals the game. The AFC North lead gets further away each week, though if the Ravens beat the Steelers on MNF this week, that could help by pitting the other massive juggernauts of my division against each other while the Bengals try to find some way to get their shit together and claw their way back to even .500. We're now 2-5, facing the Bills (3-4) this week.

I wish I could tell you a lot about Green Bay's 19-13 win over the Broncos on Monday Night Football, but I kinda slept through most of it accidentally. The highlights were pretty sweet, though, and Brett Favre continues to impress me. Apparently he's played over 30 MNF games, and is 2nd in just about every record there (trailing only Dan Marino, I believe). I hope he has many more MNF games left, since he's got the big-play arm and vision. Captain Comeback led the Packers to 6-1 (tied for the NFC best record with none other than the Cowboys) in a great overtime victory, with an 82 yard score by WR Greg Jennings - snapping a 6 game losing streak in Denver. Was not happy with some GB penalties, but special mention goes to Aaron Kampman for some great sackitude (sackitude?). Let's hope the Packers running game (if you want to call it that) can continue to grow against 4-3 KC Chiefs this week (if not, eh, let Brett Favre throw it s'more).

Here's a photo gallery of short NFL players. It makes me happy.

Another fantasy win this week, this time over 2nd place Cooper. This puts me back at .500, and I should win again this week (unless something crazy happens). That said, I don't know if I can realistically climb to the top, given current player distribution and win/loss records. Bill Vedra has Tom Brady, and he is very difficult to beat. Here's hoping not playing Eagles QB McNabb doesn't bite me in the ass AGAIN. He should not be as good against the Cowboys when compared to Hasselbeck vs. the Browns.


Lastly, I'm going to predict here (for nobody in particular) who I think will reach the playoffs, even take a stab at the Super Bowl. I should've done this earlier for a greater effect - I hereby admit that my mid-season knowledge makes this less impressive. I'm...I'm not entirely sure how this works? Note to self: learn playoffs system this year.

AFC East - Patriots (*sigh*)
AFC North - Steelers (*sigh*)
AFC South - Colts
AFC West - Chargers
Wild Cards - Browns (whaat?), Titans

NFC East - Cowboys (yeah!)
NFC North - Packers (yeah!)
NFC South - Buccaneers
NFC West - Seahawks
Wild Cards - Panthers, uh...Giants?

AFC Championship - Patriots vs. Colts
NFC Championship - Cowboys vs. Packers

Super Bowl - Cowboys over Colts, 24-21


What do you guys think? Did I do it right? Am I smoking something? Given the current records, remaining schedules, and probably some favorite-team bias, that's what I think will go down.



Ryan's blog: becoming an amateur sportswriter's column, one week at a time. Well, just football really.