Howdy everybody! This Wrap comes a few hours earlier this week because, well, it’s my wife’s birthday and I didn’t want to spend her whole birthday working (so I worked during games this week. Pretty fun actually!) The good news is that we have PLENTY to talk about (anything I miss will come up on Wednesday in a very long version of WTRM…promise.)
Let’s start with some early thoughts…
Generally Speaking:
– Alright, now I’m getting confused. Bobby Bowden gets the good fortune of not being asked to resign at FSU. (Good for him I guess.) Then his team gets beat by Georgia Tech. (Bad for him.) Then he goes to the postgame press conference and says people will always complain about him now that he’s so old (I can see that.) Then he says that all the good people will stop complaining. {Wait a minute, so I’m a bad person if I think it’s time for you to go? I’m a bad person if I can clearly see from out-of-state that he needs to step aside?} That’s total crap! Bobby, you need to step aside immediately and let the Football program move on. You could easily become an Associate A.D. and do alot of good for the school. Couldn’t you spend all your time raising money for the University? Funding programs like Water Polo and Field Hockey? Couldn’t you? Vince Dooley did that at Georgia. Barry Alvarez stepped aside at Wisconsin to do that. Why can’ t you let go? If this makes me a bad person, so be it. At least I’m being nice about it.
– I can understand announcers having a lovefest with Tim Tebow, but there’s something going on that they are glossing over. Doesn’t anyone think it odd that Florida all the sudden started running dive plays and all kinds of senseless-looking draws? Anybody? I think something’s wrong with him. I don’t know what it is, I’m not a doctor, but he’s messed up right now. All I can say is this…I hope it isn’t permanent because I want St. Louis to draft him #1 next year and turn around their franchise (after they go 1-15 or 0-16). I would instantly stop hating the Rams if he went over there. (I know they’re in the same division as my beloved 49ers, but I could at least like them a little…there’s nothing wrong with that. Listen, if I can respect Jerry Jones’ accomplishments I can learn to like the Rams a little.)
– I heard Iowa described as an elite club yesterday. I don’t get it. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t “elite”. Bama, Florida and Texas are elite. Iowa is a nice team that could go on a run and screw up alot of people’s season…but they aren’t elite. Want more proof? They barely beat Michigan…and Michigan is unranked. Can we hold off on the superfluous praise for a while? We know who’s great and the great teams are few and far between. Iowa is not one of them…Iowa is a great spoiler…because they will spoil alot of stuff for alot of people if they keep it up…but that’s it.
– Kansas barely beat Iowa State and I saw Todd Reesing on a Heisman watch graphic. Really? He’s a nice kid, I’m sure. But he was a Heisman candidate when Kansas was challenging for the Big 12 title and the Missouri/Kansas game was one of the biggest games of the WHOLE season. Now they’re a marginal team that is somehow #16 and barely beat a really sucky Cyclones team. Listen, I wish Todd Reesing all the best, but Heisman watch? Really? Every heard of Jake Locker?(his team isn’t that much worse than Kansas.) Ever heard of Tyrod Taylor? Ever heard of Jacory Harris? Just wondering…
– Arkansas beat Auburn and now I have to admit I read that game totally wrong. Arkansas is a little better than I thought and Auburn isn’t as good as I thought. That’s pretty much that. At it’s core this is all evidence that the ranking system is severely effed up…severely… {On a side note…I am not changing my stance on Bobby Petrino….he’s a loser and he’ll stay that way, but he isn’t quite as bad as I said. However, that whole “I took a smaller program places and now I’m failing at a bigger one” fraternity is staying the same…until one of these guys can prove they’re Urban Meyer I’m not budging.)
– The Cards got swept right out of the playoffs. Can I take a mulligan on that pick? I really thought they’d go somewhere. Now that they got embarrassed by the Dodgers I have to ask this question? Did they run into the eventual champs and that’s why they looked so bad, or are they getting a little too old for comfort? Now, this doesn’t mean they can’t retool and be just fine, but I have to ask…should alot of the older guys on this team go away? The first one I’d say is Chris Carpenter…I said he should win the Cy Young…but if you play like that I was dead wrong AND… are you losing your mojo Chris? I have to ask.
– The Yankees let the Twins win a game and now I think I might be right about this one. The Twins are the hot team…can they hold it together? I don’t really want to say goodbye to all my picks this early, but I have to ask…did the Yankees get the wrong team at the wrong time? {I wrote what is above before the game was played last night. Now it’s early Monday morning and the Yankees kicked the Twins right out of the playoffs. Hey, Angels/Yankees sounds good, but now I need to rethink my whole prediction system.}
– Last question…not sports related. Have you seen “We Own The Night”? If you haven’t you must see it immediately. I just turned it on because we’re getting free Showtime for a couple months. I had no idea I’d watch one my favorite movies of all time. Damn that movie was good. Maybe I’ll get around to talking about the other movies sometime…
Conversations That Never Happened:
This is Roger Goodell talking to his secretary about why he hasn’t disciplined Tom Cable for (allegedly) nearly killing one of his Assistant Coaches.
Roger: You know this Tom Cable is really eating me up. I can’t believe this is happening. Does he know how much money he’s costing us?
Secretary: Sir, maybe you should investigate and see if he deserves a fine or a suspension?
Roger: Oh my dear, the Personal Conduct Policy doesn’t apply to this.
Secretary: Why not Sir?
Roger: Because I feel like it.
{This underscores my one and only opinion of Roger Goodell. He’s a spoiled little brat who couldn’t make the Football team and he’s mad at all the jocks who picked on him so the only way he can feel good about himself is to do crap like this.} Where’s the investigation Roger? Where’s your policy now? How long before you start making all the players and coaches call you the “Great Father and Teacher” (what Stalin had all of Russia call him.) From now on Goodell on this column is “Commissioner Stalin”. Period.
One more this time…this is Marvin Lewis talking to his Bengals team in the locker room after they JUST beat the Ravens.
Marvin: Men, we came in here, you didn’t give up on me, damn it I can coach, and we beat a premiere team in this league. You should be damn proud of yourselves. There is nothing stopping this team right now. Sure, we snuck up on everyone, but what are they going to do about it now? I dare anyone in this league to come over here and get a piece of this team. I guarantee you no one wants to…no one.
{In essence, I wish Marvin talked like this. He’s one seriously sweet man (you know, like in “The Whole Nine Yards”?) and he’s got this Bengals team believing. I remember his first season where he gave everyone a t-shirt that said “One Heartbeat” and that team gelled and they went to the playoffs not soon after. I think he got derailed by idiots and now that the only idiot left is an idiot that no one takes seriously anymore (Chad Johnson) then Marvin can coach and show us how good he really is. I really happy for him. [Oh, and we now interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast to alow the rest of the league to change its pants.}
Back to Life, Back to Reality:
– This first one is a two-way street. I have made a decision that Cincinnati is for real and I have decided that the Ravens are “good” but not “great”. This kind of goes back to the way last season ended. The Ravens were not “great” and they couldn’t take the Steelers and they showed that today by crumbling under a team like Cincinnati who is “good” but not “great”. If the Ravens were truly “great” they would have beaten the Bengals fairly well, but they didn’t and they’re not. {Plus, it doesn’t hurt to have Carson Palmer at Quarterback.}
– NFL Officiating has taken a turn for the worse (as if it wasn’t bad enough.) I should just keep this to one example because if I get started I won’t be able to stop. I’m watching the Oakland/Giants game and I see one of the most egregious errors I’ve ever seen in any game I’ve ever watched.
Ron Winter (I believe) was calling the game. {His crew also screwed up the Ravens game last week.} Anyways, Justin Fargas gets stood up near the goal line, goes down and as he does the ball comes out and a Giants player runs it all the way back for a score.
Now, whistles are blowing and the commentators are saying they thought the play was blown dead, but the official at the other end of the field is calling a TD. Now, Ron Winter (the Referee) says the call on the field is that the play on the field was blown dead because of forward progress. Well, with the magic of television the broadcast plays back the play and the whistle is not blown until after the ball comes out. Now you see my problem… these officials are so stupid that they don’t even know when THEY blew their own whistles! So, they talked Tom Coughlin out of challenging (with the rules) which say that “because the play was blown dead it is not reviewable.” Well, the only problem with that is that they DIDN’T blow is dead. Now I know another official’s name. My favorite official in the league, I can’t remember his name to save my life(thin, black dude with the mustache), I just know his crew is great. This Ron Winter dude…total buffoon. I don’t get it.
– Dallas, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Each team played equally bad games in very close fashion and the loser didn’t look much worse than the winner. In Dallas’ case they got one broken tackle that made all the difference…otherwise they were going to tie a HORRID Chefs team. Cleveland and Buffalo scored 9 points between them (Derek Anderson threw for 23 yds all day, you get the idea.) They all came crashing down this week. I was kind of hoping some of my “these teams suck” proclamations would stop being true, but these teams are plain awful, and they are clearly back to life and back to reality…the reality of suckiness.
– Georgia got their fannies handed to them by a pretty bad Tennessee team on Saturday. Now I think we know the reality in Athens: Willie Martinez and Mike Bobo are ill-equipped to run this program. Mark Richt needs to go back to calling plays and he needs to shuffle around the defensive coaching staff. I bet you anything Willie Martinez is a much better position coach than he is a coordinator. Move someone up and put Willie back at Defensive Line or something like that. Stop the madness now before it gets out of hand…they suck, almost inexplicably, then you see who’s coordinating the team and it’s not so inexplicable. (You know, they have Vanderbilt next week…I say they lose.)
What This Really Means:
– The Red Sox got swept out of the playoffs by the Angels…WTRM: I was wrong, the Red Sox need to retool before it gets out of control, and the Angels are NOT playing around. IF the Yankees make it to the Angels, the Yankees better look out. {Remember, I wrote this before the Yankees played their game. Now that that series is se…the Yankees better look out!}
– The NBA has started the season with replacement officials and the players aren’t really complaining yet…WTRM: The players in the NBA are so used to bad officiating that more bad officiating isn’t new to them and they actually think that the replacements being bad is a “good job” for them. This is pathetic really. The best part is that the NBA doesn’t care because they ALSO know that the officiating sucks and that a bad job by replacements is this really sick version of a “good job”.
– Atlanta beat the 49ers 45-10…WTRM: I STILL have expectations for the 49ers, but I was right in that I thought the Falcons could regroup…I just thought in the week off with San Fran playing so well that regrouping wouldn’t be enough…man I missed on that one. The Falcons looked like a Top 5 offense and the 49ers just let them do their thing. I’m mad at my team right now, but I can’t say I’m surprised since I said that Matty Ice is an emotional leader and that he could rally the troops, and he did just that. Good job Falcons.
– The Broncos and Patriots are in Overtime as of the keystrokes of this column…WTRM: Well, by the time I paused to sneeze Matt Prater of the Broncos made the game-winning field goal. Now the Patriots are highly imperfect and the Broncos are 5-0. This means a few things: 1) The Patriots play in a league where officiating is biased in their favor. I watched 3 straight missed Pass Interference calls on Shawn Springs. Even as the game was clearly rolling in Denver’s favor somehow the officiating was rolling in New England’s favor. I think something is amiss. 2) The Broncos are NOT messing around and I think in Joshie McDaniels we may have discovered a nice balance of Belichick aloofness and actual passion for the game. 3) The Patriots NEED bad officiating to win games and even when the bad officiating moves in their favor they can’t always win. They are sinking…fast. This is the same team that may have cheated in a Super Bowl and was docked a 1st Round Draft Pick because of “spygate” and we really think for one second that they aren’t happy that they get all the bad calls? If only they could capitalize on them! [More to the point, do you think the bad officiating upsets them? No, it doesn’t, because they are getting EVERY call and it’s ridiculous. I didn’t know we had “Jordan Rules” in Football. Oh, and the whole “No touching Tom Brady thing”. I think he oughta be glad he’s still standing with the gigantic bullseye that’s on his back.}
– Matt Hasselbeck returned and the Seahawks annihilated the Jags…WTRM: Matt Hasselbeck is GOOOOOOOOOD. The Jags are BAAAAAAAAAAAAD. The Seahawks can’t live without Matt Hasselbeck and I’m afraid that the Jags may not be able to live with David Garrard. The unfortunate reality is that he has run his course and his signing was a big mistake. Move him now while somebody still thinks he has value.
– Washington and Carolina played a tight game, but Washington still lost…WTRM: The Washington offense is a joke and the only reason Carolina won was because they were playing a team that is actually worse than them. I hate to say it, but Jim Zorn is probably going to get fired sooner rather than later. He sounded great when he was coaching Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle, but now with Matt Hasselbeck having limbs falling off and still shutting out Jacksonville 41-0 I don’t think ole Jimmy had anything to do with it. At this point I have to assume that Matt Hasselbeck made Jim Zorn look good…not the other way around.
– Florida still has 50 First Place votes and Bama now has 10…WTRM: The Rankings are still f*%$^#^ed up and I don’t understand how Florida is ranked ahead of Alabama. Like I already said, watch Florida run all those dive plays and barely beat LSU…then watch Bama do whatever they want to Ole Miss and conserve energy. Now tell me that Florida is better than Bama right now. They aren’t. They also aren’t as good as Texas. The General’s Top 10 looks like this:
1. Alabama
2. Texas.
3. Virginia Tech
4. Boise State
5. Florida (yes, every team above them is better than them right now.)
6. USC
7. Cincinnati
8. Miami
9. Ohio State (yes, Cincy and the U are better than them.)
10. Oregon (yes, they are this good…they proved themselves…without their best player who is essentially ready to sue the school at any minute to get reinstated…that makes you Top 10 material when you blow out the former number 7)
[I realized I say this alot so now it is a new segment…]
At This Point…
…I dont’ want to call for some coaching jobs, but some coaches are doing their teams a big disservice [Ahem, Tom Cable, Wade Phillips, Bobbys Bowden and Petrino, Jim Zorn, The Amazing Doofgini]
…The Falcons and 49ers are more dead even than the score indicated today
…The Patriots are one bad loss away from a tailspin
…The NBA is going to be wacko if this officiating thing doesn’t improve. Every year promises only to get worse
…The Russian Billionaire who wants to buy the Nets probably has more business sense than most of the owners in the NFL, which means that the Nets will be competitive like the Mavs in just a couple years.
…I wonder when the fans of the New York Giants are going to stage “Fire Ron Winter” demonstrations…
…I think I’m done for now…more to come on Wednesday.
Peace.
