I know it’s Thursday and you’ve probably already taken more time than you should to digest what happened in the first full weekend of football of the year, but I have to throw out some of my thoughts before this weekend rolls around.
1. Going back a full week, nice performance by the Beavers on the smurf turf of Boise St. Apparently the traveling secretary (who George Costanza thinks does a bad job), left in their playbook for the last time these two teams met and forgot to put in the new gameplan. How else can you explain the Beavers going up by two tds AGAIN early in the game and then getting absolutely shamed for the rest of the game. There are beatdowns, then there are humiliating blowouts and then there is what Boise did to OSU. Nice work Beavers, way to represent the conference. I guess being a baseball school was good enough.
2. 3 great college games last weekend in terms of significance (to me) and I have to say something about all 3. First, thank you to the schedule makers for giving us a decent game in the middle of the day on Saturday with ND v. PSU. I can never just sit down in the middle of the day on Saturday and watch a full football game. Too much other stuff to do. That said, when you come in from working in the yard or running errands or shooting hoops with your sons, you want to be able to turn on the TV and see some football that actually means something to someone other than Mel Kiper and the two school’s alumni. Lately however, the modern trend is to put all the best games at primetime. Granted, I like having good stuff in prime time too, but throw us a bone during the day….like last week.
ND – I’m a believer. I think Weiss really is as smart as everyone say (but people love to doubt) and I think Quinn is the goods as a college QB. I’m less impressed by their All-American WR who I think is probably a better baseball player, but Number 5 picks them all up. What a great get to get him back this year. So, I wasn’t surprised by the win. I didn’t lose faith after the wobbly performance against GT because it was the first week and Brady and Co, clearly had jitters to work out. Well they worked them out Saturday and thumped Joe Pa. I hate to dump on a legend, but Paterno was flat out coached. Where were the adjustments? Where was the creativity on offense? That game looked like the future playing the past. Ugly wake up call for Penn and big statement by ND. I think the Irish beat Michigan this week, but in a much closer game. I think ND is going to have to fight getting over confident from here on out and Mich will be another test. That said, I think they pull it out and if Mich turns the ball over early, it could even be a blow out.
OSU – Troy Smith, wow. I hadn’t seen him play this year before he dismantled Texas, but now I see what the fuss was about. He is good. That said, I actually think Texas was pretty impressive in this game. You would like to see a better defensive effort in a game of that magnitude by their baby QB was pretty impressive under the lights and they played a very good team tough for most of the game. I’m not sure Texas is out of the hunt this year if they don’t put their heads down and sulk. Every contender has some very loseable games on the schedule. And, as good as Troy Smith and OSU looked. I would still take ND ahead of them and LSU and Auburn (what a game that’s going to be) and USC, as much as I hate to admit it.
Oregon – What a huge win against FSU. I know they weren’t ranked and it was a game they were supposed to win, but they were a game squad in their own house playing in a prototypical trap game for Oregon with OU coming to Autzen the following week. I feared the Ducks might be so focused on their revenge game this weekend that they might overlook Fresno and kill their season before it started. Instead, they came out and took care of business. They looked very good on offense even without their all-world RB and made all the right moves during the game. All the right moves, that is, except throwing out someone willing to get in the way of a Fresno RB. That run D was terrible. Really bad. No sugar coating that one. Peterson could rush for 350 yards this weekend. Hopefully though, Oregon has been working all week on how to sneak Ngata back for just one game. One more note on Oregon. Keep your eyes on their QB Dixon. He is known as a runner because of his great speed and moves, but that kid throws lasers. Great arm. I think he’s an excellent pro prospect if he continues to develop good decision making habbits.
3. The NFL’s opening weekend couldn’t get here soon enough for me, but it apparently got here a bit too soon for most of the teams. I can’t remember the last time I saw that much bad football all at once and I’m just talking about one quarter of the Seahawk/Lions game. Ugh. I’m not even going to begin with Tampa and their debacle, but I have to comment about a few others. First, the worst game of the week was the Seattle v. Detroit game. Hands down. If you just saw the 9-6 score and the highlight of the game winning FG, you might have thought it was a defensive struggle won by some clutch plays and heart. You’d be very wrong. Instead, it was two team who looked like they were on one of those Kobe Bryant like protests where they had just decided not to play offense. I’m not sure what the point of the protest was other than to try to make me hate football, but it was ugly. So what does it mean? Here’s a few things I think it means:
a. Detroit was not just Mike Martz away from recreating the greatest show on turf. He didn’t bring Holt and Bruce in their primes and Marshal Faulk as the most devastating offensive weapon in football with him. Those guys could turn a lot of guys into geniuses. I appreciate Martz’ creativity on offense and I think this team will turn around and put some points up as the season wears on, but they were not and are not just one or two tweaks away from being good. They’ve got some work left and it starts by getting something out of the increasingly disappointing Kevin Jones and rests squarely on throwing to Roy Williams more than a handful of times. I’m giving Kitna one more week as my back up fantasy QB, but I’m not that hopeful.
b. Seattle just didn’t show up. That O line is a mess and Alexander looked disinterested and the WRs don’t look like they can beat anyone, but mostly they just looked like they didn’t care. If you’re really really loaded, you can coast some in the NBA. No matter how good you are if you try to coast in the NFL you are going to get injured and beat up. Seattle is lucky to have a W after that last game and their fans better hope it was a wakeup call. Losing Hutchinson from that line matters…a lot. Ask Chester Taylor. But the left side of the line was not the only problem. Hassleback was the only offensive player who played decent and he was his usual accurate self when he wasn’t staring up at D lineman with the sky in the background. Seattle should be worried. Expect them to bounce back against the porous Arizona D this week, but I trust this team even less than before.
3. How about my Niners? Ok, so they lost, but it was still encouraging. That’s where we’ve come as Niner fans: taking solace in losing efforts. So, so sad. Why is it taking so long to deport John York or at least put him in some secret CIA prison as a practice prisoner. The way Denise and John have ruined that franchise should be criminal. That said I liked most of what I saw on Sunday. It is clear that they still having nothing resembling a defense, but the improved offense should at least make them more fun to watch. Smith finally looked good from what little I saw and from the highlights. Vernon Davis, after a less than staggering preseason is looking every bit the high draft choice he is and then there is my main man Frank Gore. Too bad about that name, but nothing to hate about the game. Check out what Adam Hoff has to say about him over at www.rotowire.com (a great site by the way). Adam does a nice comparison of Gore to early L. Tomlinson (still not calling him LT…ever. LT retired so he can star in bit cameos and do massive amounts of drugs. There is only one. Stop it now.)
I’m not ready to anoint Gore the next Tomlinson or even the next Roger Craig, but he did look great. Great power inside, great speed outside, great hands in the passing game. Just a tremendous performance. Granted it was against Arizona who appears to be going with the same defensive game plan as the Niners (i.e., asking politely for the team to stop going to the endzone so much), but it was still fun to watch. Of course, made that much more fun by the fact that he is on my fantasy team and I started him at the last minute over Deuce McCallister and he let me to 2 wins. In other words, I can’t get my hands on a number 21 jersey fast enough. My only concern about Gore is health. He wrecked his knees in college and then had shoulder surgery as well. That’s a lot to ask of your joints, but if he can stay healthy, he could be the most important part of the Niners’ most recent turn around attempt other than Coach Nolan.
4. StumpTown fantasy update – Because I know you care deeply and passionately about my fantasy season, here’s an update after wk 1. For more information about my team and league, you can go to our home site at Boyz Near the Hood. The link is to your right. In our league, we go head to head against two other teams in the league every week. We started out the league, which I run with my buddy from college Chitwood (named for his great mid-range jumper a la Jimmy Chitwood), going head to head against a single team, but both of us are prone to fantasy excess and so, more games seemed better. Last week I beat Clint’s team (Preston Express) and Steve’s team (Bush League) by fairly wide margains and posted the best overall scoring week in the league with 104 points. I never got over 103 points in a dismal year last year, so last week was an excellent start to the season.
I started Hassleback over the “on the hot seat” Kitna which was a no brainer and they both ended up with the same number of fantasy points which was more than either deserved. I expect Hassleback to bounce back from a poor start (in fantasy) and put up some big numbers against Arizona’s butter in the microwave D.
As mentioned I started Gore over Deuce at the last minute along with Caddy Williams. Caddy let me down in a big way and poured salt in the wounds with an injured back that could plague him all season. To say I’m concerned about my first over all pick, number 1 keeper option and key to my season would be like saying that the tabloids are concerned about Tom Cruise’s progeny. (as a side note, can we amend the constitution to put a stop to this naming of couples by combining their own names? How did that start? How can we find them and punish them? No more Benifer/Tomkat/etc. – though if we are sticking with it, let’s do sports couples as well. My nominee to kick off that trend “TerreBill” for my favorite Dallas couple). This week I’m sitting Caddy. Huge risk, but back spasms plus the Atlanta D is just too much for me.
The real hero on my team was really the Baltimore D. They pitched a surprise shut out against Tampa Bay and were the high scorer in all of fantasy in our league’s format. This was especially nice since I had been running at the mouth about how good they were going to be and unlike most of the junk I had been talking, I finally got that one right.
My WRs were awful except for Fitz, so I dropped my first WR drafted (Burleson) for the “relying on Vick” Michael Jenkins. Probably not going to be the move that makes the season, but I had to do something and I think this helps.
5. Manning bowl – I like the Mannings. The whole family seems pretty cool and there is no doubting the talent, but I hope they never play each other ever again. The game was pretty good especially compared to the garbage most teams played on Sunday, but I can’t take all the hype and the shots of the stone faced Manning family in the box.
6. I know Tom Brady is maybe the best QB in the game because he has no one to throw to and still leads them to victory more often than not.
I could go on forever, but I’m out of town on business and just want to get this posted, so I’ll leave it at that.
Go Niners.
1. Going back a full week, nice performance by the Beavers on the smurf turf of Boise St. Apparently the traveling secretary (who George Costanza thinks does a bad job), left in their playbook for the last time these two teams met and forgot to put in the new gameplan. How else can you explain the Beavers going up by two tds AGAIN early in the game and then getting absolutely shamed for the rest of the game. There are beatdowns, then there are humiliating blowouts and then there is what Boise did to OSU. Nice work Beavers, way to represent the conference. I guess being a baseball school was good enough.
2. 3 great college games last weekend in terms of significance (to me) and I have to say something about all 3. First, thank you to the schedule makers for giving us a decent game in the middle of the day on Saturday with ND v. PSU. I can never just sit down in the middle of the day on Saturday and watch a full football game. Too much other stuff to do. That said, when you come in from working in the yard or running errands or shooting hoops with your sons, you want to be able to turn on the TV and see some football that actually means something to someone other than Mel Kiper and the two school’s alumni. Lately however, the modern trend is to put all the best games at primetime. Granted, I like having good stuff in prime time too, but throw us a bone during the day….like last week.
ND – I’m a believer. I think Weiss really is as smart as everyone say (but people love to doubt) and I think Quinn is the goods as a college QB. I’m less impressed by their All-American WR who I think is probably a better baseball player, but Number 5 picks them all up. What a great get to get him back this year. So, I wasn’t surprised by the win. I didn’t lose faith after the wobbly performance against GT because it was the first week and Brady and Co, clearly had jitters to work out. Well they worked them out Saturday and thumped Joe Pa. I hate to dump on a legend, but Paterno was flat out coached. Where were the adjustments? Where was the creativity on offense? That game looked like the future playing the past. Ugly wake up call for Penn and big statement by ND. I think the Irish beat Michigan this week, but in a much closer game. I think ND is going to have to fight getting over confident from here on out and Mich will be another test. That said, I think they pull it out and if Mich turns the ball over early, it could even be a blow out.
OSU – Troy Smith, wow. I hadn’t seen him play this year before he dismantled Texas, but now I see what the fuss was about. He is good. That said, I actually think Texas was pretty impressive in this game. You would like to see a better defensive effort in a game of that magnitude by their baby QB was pretty impressive under the lights and they played a very good team tough for most of the game. I’m not sure Texas is out of the hunt this year if they don’t put their heads down and sulk. Every contender has some very loseable games on the schedule. And, as good as Troy Smith and OSU looked. I would still take ND ahead of them and LSU and Auburn (what a game that’s going to be) and USC, as much as I hate to admit it.
Oregon – What a huge win against FSU. I know they weren’t ranked and it was a game they were supposed to win, but they were a game squad in their own house playing in a prototypical trap game for Oregon with OU coming to Autzen the following week. I feared the Ducks might be so focused on their revenge game this weekend that they might overlook Fresno and kill their season before it started. Instead, they came out and took care of business. They looked very good on offense even without their all-world RB and made all the right moves during the game. All the right moves, that is, except throwing out someone willing to get in the way of a Fresno RB. That run D was terrible. Really bad. No sugar coating that one. Peterson could rush for 350 yards this weekend. Hopefully though, Oregon has been working all week on how to sneak Ngata back for just one game. One more note on Oregon. Keep your eyes on their QB Dixon. He is known as a runner because of his great speed and moves, but that kid throws lasers. Great arm. I think he’s an excellent pro prospect if he continues to develop good decision making habbits.
3. The NFL’s opening weekend couldn’t get here soon enough for me, but it apparently got here a bit too soon for most of the teams. I can’t remember the last time I saw that much bad football all at once and I’m just talking about one quarter of the Seahawk/Lions game. Ugh. I’m not even going to begin with Tampa and their debacle, but I have to comment about a few others. First, the worst game of the week was the Seattle v. Detroit game. Hands down. If you just saw the 9-6 score and the highlight of the game winning FG, you might have thought it was a defensive struggle won by some clutch plays and heart. You’d be very wrong. Instead, it was two team who looked like they were on one of those Kobe Bryant like protests where they had just decided not to play offense. I’m not sure what the point of the protest was other than to try to make me hate football, but it was ugly. So what does it mean? Here’s a few things I think it means:
a. Detroit was not just Mike Martz away from recreating the greatest show on turf. He didn’t bring Holt and Bruce in their primes and Marshal Faulk as the most devastating offensive weapon in football with him. Those guys could turn a lot of guys into geniuses. I appreciate Martz’ creativity on offense and I think this team will turn around and put some points up as the season wears on, but they were not and are not just one or two tweaks away from being good. They’ve got some work left and it starts by getting something out of the increasingly disappointing Kevin Jones and rests squarely on throwing to Roy Williams more than a handful of times. I’m giving Kitna one more week as my back up fantasy QB, but I’m not that hopeful.
b. Seattle just didn’t show up. That O line is a mess and Alexander looked disinterested and the WRs don’t look like they can beat anyone, but mostly they just looked like they didn’t care. If you’re really really loaded, you can coast some in the NBA. No matter how good you are if you try to coast in the NFL you are going to get injured and beat up. Seattle is lucky to have a W after that last game and their fans better hope it was a wakeup call. Losing Hutchinson from that line matters…a lot. Ask Chester Taylor. But the left side of the line was not the only problem. Hassleback was the only offensive player who played decent and he was his usual accurate self when he wasn’t staring up at D lineman with the sky in the background. Seattle should be worried. Expect them to bounce back against the porous Arizona D this week, but I trust this team even less than before.
3. How about my Niners? Ok, so they lost, but it was still encouraging. That’s where we’ve come as Niner fans: taking solace in losing efforts. So, so sad. Why is it taking so long to deport John York or at least put him in some secret CIA prison as a practice prisoner. The way Denise and John have ruined that franchise should be criminal. That said I liked most of what I saw on Sunday. It is clear that they still having nothing resembling a defense, but the improved offense should at least make them more fun to watch. Smith finally looked good from what little I saw and from the highlights. Vernon Davis, after a less than staggering preseason is looking every bit the high draft choice he is and then there is my main man Frank Gore. Too bad about that name, but nothing to hate about the game. Check out what Adam Hoff has to say about him over at www.rotowire.com (a great site by the way). Adam does a nice comparison of Gore to early L. Tomlinson (still not calling him LT…ever. LT retired so he can star in bit cameos and do massive amounts of drugs. There is only one. Stop it now.)
I’m not ready to anoint Gore the next Tomlinson or even the next Roger Craig, but he did look great. Great power inside, great speed outside, great hands in the passing game. Just a tremendous performance. Granted it was against Arizona who appears to be going with the same defensive game plan as the Niners (i.e., asking politely for the team to stop going to the endzone so much), but it was still fun to watch. Of course, made that much more fun by the fact that he is on my fantasy team and I started him at the last minute over Deuce McCallister and he let me to 2 wins. In other words, I can’t get my hands on a number 21 jersey fast enough. My only concern about Gore is health. He wrecked his knees in college and then had shoulder surgery as well. That’s a lot to ask of your joints, but if he can stay healthy, he could be the most important part of the Niners’ most recent turn around attempt other than Coach Nolan.
4. StumpTown fantasy update – Because I know you care deeply and passionately about my fantasy season, here’s an update after wk 1. For more information about my team and league, you can go to our home site at Boyz Near the Hood. The link is to your right. In our league, we go head to head against two other teams in the league every week. We started out the league, which I run with my buddy from college Chitwood (named for his great mid-range jumper a la Jimmy Chitwood), going head to head against a single team, but both of us are prone to fantasy excess and so, more games seemed better. Last week I beat Clint’s team (Preston Express) and Steve’s team (Bush League) by fairly wide margains and posted the best overall scoring week in the league with 104 points. I never got over 103 points in a dismal year last year, so last week was an excellent start to the season.
I started Hassleback over the “on the hot seat” Kitna which was a no brainer and they both ended up with the same number of fantasy points which was more than either deserved. I expect Hassleback to bounce back from a poor start (in fantasy) and put up some big numbers against Arizona’s butter in the microwave D.
As mentioned I started Gore over Deuce at the last minute along with Caddy Williams. Caddy let me down in a big way and poured salt in the wounds with an injured back that could plague him all season. To say I’m concerned about my first over all pick, number 1 keeper option and key to my season would be like saying that the tabloids are concerned about Tom Cruise’s progeny. (as a side note, can we amend the constitution to put a stop to this naming of couples by combining their own names? How did that start? How can we find them and punish them? No more Benifer/Tomkat/etc. – though if we are sticking with it, let’s do sports couples as well. My nominee to kick off that trend “TerreBill” for my favorite Dallas couple). This week I’m sitting Caddy. Huge risk, but back spasms plus the Atlanta D is just too much for me.
The real hero on my team was really the Baltimore D. They pitched a surprise shut out against Tampa Bay and were the high scorer in all of fantasy in our league’s format. This was especially nice since I had been running at the mouth about how good they were going to be and unlike most of the junk I had been talking, I finally got that one right.
My WRs were awful except for Fitz, so I dropped my first WR drafted (Burleson) for the “relying on Vick” Michael Jenkins. Probably not going to be the move that makes the season, but I had to do something and I think this helps.
5. Manning bowl – I like the Mannings. The whole family seems pretty cool and there is no doubting the talent, but I hope they never play each other ever again. The game was pretty good especially compared to the garbage most teams played on Sunday, but I can’t take all the hype and the shots of the stone faced Manning family in the box.
6. I know Tom Brady is maybe the best QB in the game because he has no one to throw to and still leads them to victory more often than not.
I could go on forever, but I’m out of town on business and just want to get this posted, so I’ll leave it at that.
Go Niners.
Comments
- The Oregon win was indeed huge, particularly because they were able to survive the loss of Jonathan Stewart. Jeremiah Johnson is a great backup, but it was still impressive to lose the most underrated tailback in the country and march on to victory. Of course, when you have kicker Paul Martinez to run the ball, who needs a stud like Stewart? I hate Fresno State, by the way. Not sure why.
- I interviewed John York's two daughters when I was working at Pepperdine. The girls were great, he was a major tool. I couldn't believe how stupid he seemed, and how completely lacking in charisma he was. How do people like that make it to such heights? Seriously.
- I am kind of on board with the whole LT thing, except for two things. I remember Simmons making a big issue out of this a few years ago, so now I use LT as much as possible to spite him. Also, it is just so hard to type LaDainian Tomlinson over and over. We need to just give him a sweet nickname like "The Cannon" or "Tommy Gun" or something. Just to make it easier on bloggers. As for announcers though, they have no excuse.
- Thanks for linking to that Gore post.