Good evening, Stuph Mafia™. I know you’re all getting ready to watch the Superbowl. Eh? What? A football game is going to ruin my Sunday night? I’m afraid so, dearest reader, but that’s not what I’m here to talk to you about. Continue reading
I don’t really care for “T-Sizzle.” He says a lot of stuph that, well, is just stupid. I can’t really stand people who run their mouths constantly.
This morning, however, a calm and rational Terrell Suggs uttered a phrase that damn near anyone who has seen or heard Skip Bayless has wanted to say for years.
On ESPN’s First Take this morning, Bayless was trying to suggest to Suggs that he said something he didn’t. Suggs calmly asked Bayless to stop it and to be an analyst and not a douchebag. Yes, Terrell Suggs called Bayless a douchebag on live TV and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Here is the video. The sound kind of sucks so you’ll have to turn the volume way, way up to hear it, but it’s worth it.
Wow! What a couple of great games we got to see yesterday! The games didn’t go quite the way I envisioned them, but I still made good on both of my picks and we now await a Superbowl 42 rematch between the Patriots and Giants.
We have finally arrived at the Conference Championship weekend. Four teams will slug it out this Sunday for the right to play in the Superbowl. Both games promise to be extremely hard-fought, entertaining games.
Baltimore Ravens vs New England Patriots: This game pits one of the league’s best offenses in the game against one of the league’s best defenses. The Ravens will have their hands full trying to cover Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker, and Deion Branch. And even if they do somehow manage to accomplish to cover all four on a given play there’s still Julian Edelman and Ocho Dinko to think about.
The Pats defense hasn’t been great this year, but they’ve been getting better in recent weeks while the Ravens offense has been getting increasingly stagnant. When people on the defense (Ed Reed) start calling out their quarterback (Joe “worst looking fu manchu ever” Flacco) then you know you’ve got problems.
I still think this will be a close game, but I don’t think the Ravens have what it takes. Tom Brady is more determined now than he was before he’d ever won a Superbowl and I think he’ll get another shot. Pats win.
New York Giants vs San Francisco 49ers: This game is going to be a slugfest. These are both physical teams. These two teams played during the regular season in San Francisco with the Niners winning 27-20. The Giants, however, are playing at a much higher level than they were at that time. Their defense specifically. Eli Manning and his group of his receivers have been playing some great ball.
Alex Smith and the Niners played a hell of a game last week, but it was against a fairly weak defensive team. The Giants are probably the most balanced team left in contention as far as all three phases of the game. I just don’t see the Niners making much hay against the Giants defense. The Giants offense will have its hands full with the Niners excellent defense, but in the end they’ll be able to score enough to win. Giants win.
Behold! I predict a Superbowl rematch between the Patriots and Giants.
Well, I went 3-1 again this weekend. Going into Sunday night’s game I thought I would go 4-0. I still don’t think the Packers have showed up for that game.
Last week’s picks went so well that I thought I’d try this prognostication thing again. I went 3-1 last week, and really, who didn’t pick the Steelers to beat the Broncos? Even the Broncos were surprised they won.
Denver Broncos vs New England Patriots: This is the game that everyone is talking about. Why? Well, because of Tim Tebow. Why is everyone talking about Tim Tebow? I have no frickin’ clue. He’s a mediocre quarterback who happens to be a phenomenal leader. Every win the Broncos have had this season has been a team win, but to hear the media tell it Tebow’s doing it all by himself. Maybe he’ll walk on water at halftime.
Anyhow, as to the game, I’m going with New England in this one. These two teams played in the regular season with New England beating the Broncos pretty soundly. And that was in Denver. This time they will be playing in Foxboro. The Broncos will still be without Brian Dawkins (and their long snapper for some reason), and their defense just hasn’t been the same since he’s been out of the line up. I see the Pats putting up a 40-burger on the Broncos in what will be the biggest blow-out this weekend.
Houston Texans vs Baltimore Ravens: This is going to be an ugly game. Two pretty exceptional defenses against a couple of average offenses. If the Texans had Matt Schaub in the lineup I would definitely be going with the Texans here, but they don’t so I won’t.
The Baltimore defense will force rookie TJ Yates into making some rookie mistakes while holding the Texans’ premier running attack in check. The Baltimore offense will score just enough to win. Anquan Boldin will be back and that should help boost a Ravens offense that has been lacking some punch lately. Ravens win a low scoring game.
New York Giants vs Green Bay Packers: While the NE/Denver game gets all the attention, this is the game I think will be the most exciting to watch this weekend. I expect a shoot out again between these two teams. And though I like the Giants’ confidence going into this game, you just can’t stop the Packers at home. Green Bay wins.
New Orleans Saints vs San Francisco 49ers: The Saints are favored to win this game, and it’s not hard to understand why. They arguably have the most potent offense in the league. They have a vicious three-back rotation featuring very productive backs. The passing game features Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham, Marques Colston, Lance Moore (who may not play), Devery Henderson, and Robert Meacham. Plus Darren Sproles coming out of the backfield. There are a ton of weapons on the Saints offense. The 49ers, however, have a good enough defense to stop them. Or at least contain them. The Saints offense scores about 13 fewer points a game on grass than on turf, and they will be playing in the Niners backyard. The Niners offense isn’t explosive, but they can put some points on the board. And they can control the clock.
Having said all of that, I think the………..Niners will win. I’m going with the upset here. I think the fans will be loud enough to distract the Saints offense. The Saints don’t really have much of a defense. They put 11 guys out there every play, but they play like there’s only 5 out there. The Niners will win the time of possession and keep Brees sitting on the bench most of the game.
That’s what I see while gazing into the crystal ball. What do you see?
At 9-0, the Packers are the lone unbeaten team in the NFL currently. So can they finish what they started? Can they succeed where the 2007 Patriots failed?
I think they will. If you look at their remaining schedule, the Packers don’t have many tough games left on it. They still have to play the Bucs, Lions (twice), Bears, Giants, Raiders, and Chiefs. They should easily win each one of those games. The Bucs are just not that good this year, the Lions are falling apart, the Bears just don’t match up with them, and the Raiders aren’t good enough.
The only games where they might have trouble are at the Chiefs and Giants. The Giants have a high-powered offense of their own, but it’s prone to the occasional mistake. Plus, the game is in New York. You may laugh at the fact that I said the Chiefs may be a tough game for them, but it’s ALWAYS hard to get a win in Kansas City no matter how bad that team is.
Ultimately, I think that the Packers win every game they play this year. No team can match what they do on offense and their defense, while not great, isn’t a push over either. BJ Raji, Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson, and company lead a pretty damn good defense.
Currently, it looks like a team that could give them trouble in the playoffs is the 49ers. They are playing great football this year. Gore is running wild and Alex Smith is finally living up to his first-round status. The San Francisco defense is playing extremely well. That will be a helluva game to watch if it comes to fruition.
As far as the Superbowl, I just don’t see anyone in the AFC that can stop them, either. The Patriots aren’t as good this year as they normally are. The Steelers couldn’t stop them last year, and they’ve regressed as a team this year, though they are still good. The Ravens are too inconsistent. Those three teams are the class of the AFC right now.
I’m calling it now. As long as Rodgers is healthy, the Packers go 19-0 this year and repeat as Superbowl champions. Do you think they will do it? Why or why not?
* While he might be able to pull one out against the winless Dolphins, against a good team like the Lions, Tim Tebow looked lost. He was 18 for 39 passing with one interception and 3 fumbles. Be careful what you wish for Denver fans, cause you just got it.
* The Panthers are pissing me off. They should’ve been able to beat the Vikings. Cam put up good numbers again, and didn’t throw a pick, but he lost 2 fumbles. Also, our kicker missed an easy 31 yard field goal attempt that would have sent the game into overtime.
* Both the Giants and Ravens looked like crap in the first half of their games against teams they should have owned. They were able to pull out wins, Ravens over the Cardinals and Giants over the Dolphins, but the games should never have been that close. The Dolphins will probably be firing their head coach within the next few weeks, if not sooner.
* Congrats to the Rams for getting their first win of the season by shocking the New Orleans Saints. Steven Jackson looked like a beast.
* The Colts got killed again. Pack for Indy, Andrew Luck.
* DeMarcus Ware had 4 sacks, but those were the only 4 plays that the Cowboys were able to stop the Eagles, who scored on their first 6 possessions and ended up winning 34-7.
* Buffalo looked good again as they shut out the Redskins 23-0. The Bills also gave Ryan Fitzpatrick a 6 year extension during the week. I bet the Redskins are wishing they had a quarterback right about now.
* The fuckin Patriots lost,which is always great. Fuck the Patriots.
* With the exception of his 2 interception throws, which were both horrible, Andy Dalton and the Bengals looked good, beating the Seahawks 34-12. If it’s not there, Andy, don’t try to force it to Green. He’s a beast, but even he can’t protect you from every bad throw.
Since it’s impossible to watch every game during the week (unless that’s your job), most of what I’m about to say is based on stats and highlights. I’m not going to go over every game, just certain things that caught my attention.
Green Bay vs New Orleans: The Packers still look like the champions. They played a pretty good game in all phases. I’ve heard some people claim that their defense looked weak, but most defenses don’t look all that good against Drew Brees and the Saints offense. The scary part? As good as Aaron Rodgers is playing, he looks like he’s getting better every game.
Pittsburgh vs Baltimore: The Ravens made the Steelers look bad. Very bad. The Ravens defense, which is getting older but is still pretty good, forced 7 turnovers. Big Ben threw 3 interceptions and lost 2 fumbles. The question now is “Are the Ravens really that good, or did Ben just have a really bad game?”
Atlanta vs Chicago: I did watch half of this game (I was flipping back and forth between this and the Bengals game), and while Cutler did have some good numbers, it was only because of his receivers that he did. The touchdown pass to Forte is a good example. Forte caught the ball maybe 5 yards from the line of scrimmage and did the rest of the work on his way to a 56 yard touchdown, aided by one of the worst tackle attempts I’ve ever seen. During the offseason, Atlanta tried to upgrade its defense, but apparently it wasn’t nearly enough because they looked terrible. Chicago’s offense isn’t nearly as good as the Falcons made them look.
Indianapolis vs. Houston: The only thing that can be said about this game is the Colts are completely screwed until Manning comes back.
Buffalo vs Kansas City: KC’s offense looked like crap and Buffalo’s looked awesome. This was an outcome that nobody saw coming. There might have been people out there that picked the Bills to win, but nobody thought that they’d put a 34 point butt-kicking on them. I hope Buffalo can keep this up all year, if only so they beat the Patriots and Jets.
Carolina vs Arizona: Cam Newton put up huge numbers in this game. That only happened for, what I believe, two reasons. One, the Cardinals stacked the box to stop the run. Two, their defense isn’t all that good anyways, and they traded away their best secondary player to get Kevin Kolb. I’m predicting that those numbers will go down big time next week as the Panthers are playing the Packers.
That’s all I can think of right now. What stood out to you in Week 1 of the NFL season?
The NFL playoffs began on Saturday, and the first game was a shocker. It was a result that almost nobody saw coming. That game was one of the great things about the NFL: you never know what’s going to happen. Here’s my take on the four games from this weekend.
Seahawks 41- Saints 36: Like I said, almost nobody gave the Seahawks a chance in this game, and who could blame them? The Seahawks are the first team in NFL history to make it into the playoffs with a losing record at 7-9. All 9 of the games they lost, they lost by over 15 points. All during the week, they didn’t even know who their starting quarterback would be, because Matt Hasselbeck was getting over an injury. Even with all of that, they still managed to go out onto the field and beat the defending Super Bowl champions. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought they’d get demolished. I’m not a huge Pete Carroll fan, but I have to give him credit for having his team ready, and for having them believe that they had a chance to win. The MVP of this game has to be Matt Hasselbeck who threw for 4 TDs, although Marshawn Lynch deserves a mention for that awesome run he made, breaking 6 tackles, including a statement stiffarm that threw a defender 5 yards.
Jets 17 – Colts 16: I didn’t watch as much of this game as I wanted to, because I was busy punting Ewoks. When I turned this game back on, it was 14-13 Jets with about 4 minutes left to go in the game. The Colts drove down the field and kicked a field goal to go up 16-14 with a minute left on the clock. The Colts special teams then let the rest of the team down by allowing a 40 kickoff return, allowing the Jets good field position. The Jets were then able to drive down the field and kick the game winning field goal as time expired. I thought the Colts were going to win this game. The Jets were starting to falter down the stretch, which started when they got destroyed by the Patriots. The MVP of this game would be LT. He ran for 84 yards and 2 TDs.
Ravens 30 – Chiefs 7: After the first quarter, this actually looked like a game. The Chiefs were up 7-3 and they looked like they were up to the task of challenging the Ravens. Then they just fell apart. The Ravens rolled off 27 straight points to end the game. Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassell looked lost after the first quarter, throwing 3 picks and getting sacked 3 times. I know that Baltimore’s defense does that to a lot of teams, but this to me, looked more like Cassell choking than Baltimore’s D throwing their game plan off track. The MVP of this game is Todd Heap. He didn’t have any touchdowns, but every time the Ravens needed a big reception on 3rd down, they went to Heap. He kept their drives going by catching 10 passes for 108 yards.
Packers 21 – Eagles 16: This was a good game. One of the deciding factors, in my opinion, is when DeShaun Jackson was out of the game for a quarter with a knee injury. He wasn’t the same for the rest of the game. Normally, defenders can’t keep up with him, but they had no trouble after he came back into the game. He only had 2 catches the whole game. James Starks, a 6th round pick by the Packers, ran for 123 yards, giving balance to their offense for probably the first time since Ryan Grant went down with a season ending injury. Vick also injured his ankle late in the game and didn’t look like he did during the regular season afterwards. Vick ended the game with a bad interception in the end zone with 30 seconds left in the game. The MVP is either Starks or Aaron Rodgers, who threw 3 TDs. Before this game, “experts” were knocking Rodgers for not having won a playoff game yet. His only playoff game so far was a 51-45 loss to the Cardinals last year. Rodgers played great in that game, throwing 4 TDs. It’s not his fault that his defense gave up that many points. He didn’t lose that game, his defense did. Leave Aaron Rodgers alone. He’s played like a top 5 NFL quarterback since he’s taken over for Brett Favre.
