Is it the Spurs year again?

The Spurs are playing .875 ball. They have a habit of winning championships in the odd numbered years and you have to wonder if 2011 is their year again. Their game against the Mavs today was not as big as originally projected because of the injury to Nowitzki. Coach Popovich termed it a lose-lose game because if they won, it's no big deal since Nowitzki was out and if they lose, they will have to deal with the fact that they couldn't even beat a Mavs team without Nowitzki. But the Spurs beat the Mavs anyways for an impressive 28-4 record to end 2010. They are entering 2011 as the best team in all of the NBA and they are a completely different team this season. They have de-emphasized Tim Duncan a little bit and play a more up-tempo style. They let their versatile offensive stars like Parker and Ginobli strut their stuff and they have a couple of young, athletic scorers to run and gun with them. As a consequence, their defense is not as good as it used to be, but they are scoring more than enough to win games.

Greg Popovich is one of the smartest coaches in the league. He has not won a championship since 2007 and seems to have put some thought into how to win again with this roster. His teams have always won with Timmy and defense, but father time is slowly catching up to Timmy and he has slowed down a little. More importantly, their game-plan has not been working the last couple of years and Pop has decided to switch things up. Actually, the Spurs have always had some offensive talent ever since they got Parker and Ginobli, but that was not the emphasis in Pop's world by design. He wanted the team to think defense first, Duncan in the low post second and everything else was a distant third. Now, he is unlocking the offensive potential of this team and trading off some defense and Tim Duncan in the process. And the beauty is, this is the right strategy at the right time for the Spurs given where Duncan is in his career and where the Spurs have been with respect to the rest of the league the last couple of years.

The challenge for Pop is going to be the playoffs. It would be interesting to see if the Spurs play this style or go back to basics in the playoffs. They do have Timmy available, but is it practical to turn him on and off like that? Would the rookies and the younger Spurs be able to adjust to a different style in the playoffs if Pop decides to go that route? These are interesting questions I am sure Pop is thinking about already. They did beat the Lakers the other day with Timmy having a 2 point, 4 rebound night, but that dog probably aint gonna hunt in the playoffs. Lets see if the Spurs get all the way to the finals behind this new strategy and an improved offense. In the East, the Heat are still rolling. They spanked the Lakers on Christmas day and are looking unbeatable these days. Dwayne Wade has had 2 consecutive 40 point nights to lead them over the Knicks and the Rockets. The Celtics are still the favorites in the East, but with Garnett out for a couple of weeks and with the new look Magic, the East is going to get really interesting. Great way to start 2011 in the NBA.

Lets go bowling

To nobody's surprise, we are well into the college bowl season now. The length, the number of bowls and the stupidity of the sponsors are all getting worse every year. This year, the national championship game is not until the 10-Th of January. Pretty soon, we will be watching college football on Martin Luther King's day. There are 35 bowl games in all with bowls named after "uDrove", "R+L carriers" and "AdvoCare V100". It would be cool to get one of them bowl games named after myself next year. I am a huge sports fan, but have never really gotten into these bowl games since I don't see a point in a lot of them. I will watch them if I am at home and there are no other pro games to watch at that time. And some of these games are fun and nail-biting like any sporting event has the potential to be, but outside of the elite bowls, there is not much for me to get excited about. So clearly, you can see where I fall on the college football playoffs discussion. Absolutely bring on the playoffs and nuke some of these bowls. And playoffs will nuke some of these bowls. Thats exactly why the NCAA doesn't want it.

The bowl season is a good time for reflection on our lives as a sports fan since it also coincides with the end of the year when we are supposed to do resolutions and evaluate our life and all that nonsense anyways. I split the bowls into 3 parts. The first is the set of games prior to Christmas. These bowls starts earlier and earlier every year and I think it started on the 18-Th this year, but I am not sure. Ideally, it's good if you didn't know there are bowl games going on before christmas, but if you do, pretend like you didn't know. Of course, there will be a few good ones like Utah-V-Boise State, but for the most part, the pre-xmas bowls will feature match-ups like the 7-6 BYU versus the 6-7 UTEP. If you find yourself watching these games with rapt attention, please check yourself into GA - Gambleholics Anonymous! Honestly, gambling is the only reason to watch these games unless you are an alum, or in some cases, even if you are an alum. The march madness play-in game between the 64-Th and 65-Th seed is the only other sporting event that comes close to these bowl games in it's irrelevancy while also being marketed as an important sporting event.

The second phase of bowls are between Christmas and New Year. This is, for the most part used to be the meat of the bowl season leading up to the real big ones. I am not even sure anymore because of all the mish-mash of bowl games strewn across the calendar both before Xmas and after New Years. But if you are watching these bowl games closely, time to get a girlfriend! Something is slightly off in your life and lets go get a new life. It's the holiday season, schools and most of the workplaces have time-off and if all we are doing is watching these bowl games, life is not too bad, but aint great either. At the cost of sounding a little judgmental, I would recommend you shake things up a little. The third and final phase starts with Jan 1-St and this is where you have the big hitters like the grand-daddy Rose and the Orange and the Sugar. These are the games we should be watching and if you are not, then you are too busy. May be it's time to re-evaluate your priorities and re-connect with your inner sports fan. May be you are spending too much time at work or with "honey dues" and you should step back a little to enjoy some sugar (bowl). It will do you some good.

Of course, since they introduced the championship game a week later, they have dirtied up this third phase as well with a bunch of filler bowls leading all the way up to Jan 10-Th. For instance, Pittsburgh is playing Kentucky on Jan 8-Th. They are both better off playing basketball instead this time of the year, but thats neither here nor there. So when I say watch the post-new-year bowl games, I mean the real ones, not the "BBVA Compass Bowl". By the way, how perfectly named is that bowl! As I am writing my thoughts on how to use the bowl season as a compass to our lives, there is actually a bowl called compass bowl. In short, if you are watching the compass bowl start to finish, you need to change direction in your life. That pretty much sums up my 2 cents on the bowl season. As someone who has been on all sides of this bowl compass (except the gambling side), I thought I will share my opinions with you. But lets not forget to have fun with college football this holiday season. Lets go bowling, but hopefully not 35 times.

Dogs beware

This is Michael Vick's world and the rest of the NFL is just living in it. He says dogs are welcome in his new world, but I am not convinced yet. But the guy has been awesome on the field and is a legitimate MVP candidate. Everything he touches or involved in turns to gold this season. The game of week 15 was clearly the Eagles win over the Giants. They were down 31-10 with just 8 minutes to go in the 4-Th quarter and Vick brought them back to tie the game. Then with just a few seconds to go for OT, DeSean Jackson took a ill-advised punt to the house to give the Eagles an improbable and shocking 38-31 victory. Punter Matt Dodge had no business kicking it to Jackson in the first place. This was against a good team and a great defense in the Giants.

Vick has been part of several such jaw-dropping performances this season. The only thing that could have made this better for him is if he had thrown a "buzzer beating" 80 yard TD instead of Jackson scoring on the punt return. Vick has slowed down a little bit since that great game he had against the Redskins. The Giants game was in some sense the mirror image of that game. He scored a load of TDs in the first few minutes against the Redskins and now in the last few minutes against the Giants. He is a legitimate MVP candidate and the other top contender is Tom Brady. Brady has been near flawless this season and Vick is not far behind. I don't love or hate Vick these days, but it's amazing how quickly we forgive athletes if they play well on the field. He got a massive standing ovation at the 76'ers game against the Lakers and even Kobe had to stop and look.

Pittsburgh and NY Jets played a great game and the Jets came through 22-17 to stop the bleeding for now. It was an impressive win and it reestablishes them as a contender. Sexy Rexy can now go back to humoring us with more stupid quotes. Speaking of Sexy Rexy, the other Rexy (Grossman) started for Washington and had a good game. I am not sure what Shanahan is doing with Donovan McNabb, but Mike has benched him for the rest of the season. McNabb's agent is saying he has never been disrespected quite like this and I have to agree, McNabb is a star QB and treat him with some respect for God's sake. I don't know what Shanny is trying to do with these moves. Shany has not won a single playoff game since he benched my man Jake Plummer in favor of the baby-faced Cutler. I would chalk it up to bad karma.

In life, showing up is half the battle. If you consistently show up, regardless of what you do, you will do well because most people don't even show up. Brett Favre definitely scores big on this front. I was shocked to see him start the Monday nighter against the Bears after sitting out just 1 week. Unfortunately, he got beat up again and is probably done for the year now. The disastrous season continued for him as the Bears then crushed the Vikings 40-14. In other big games of the week, Ravens beat the Saints and the Colts beat the Jaguars to show them they are still the big boss in that division. Tim Tebow started for the Broncos and God shed some tears of joy resulting in some rain in Oakland. Run DMC and the Raidas won easily, but Tebow did rush well and threw and rushed for a TD each.

The trade to nowhere?

So far, my NBA predictions have been off the mark this season. Thats always going to happen once in a while and thats the beauty of sports, but you still like to think your expert opinions are correct more often than not! I buried the Heat after their shaky start and they seem to have totally turned it around after that trip to Cleveland. The Cavs might have blown it for the entire league with their ineptitude and lack of heart and pride in that game. I still think the Heat are not good enough to win it all or even win the L-East, but they do seem to have a better handle on playing together and might be good enough go really deep in the playoffs. I also thought the Fakers are looking good enough to may be threaten the 70 win plateau. I was wrong, though I was not entirely serious about the 70 win mark. Some years, teams do look like they are threatening 70 when they go on a long streak and it never really happens. But my point was, the Fakers looked really unbeatable and I think they still are very good. They are still everybody's pick to win it all, but they are nowhere near 70-win good. I am totally fine with it given I am no Faker-fan. I also thought the Warriors were going to be decent, but they seem to be back to where they always belong - the cellar. The suns looked good to me despite their early season record through a tough schedule.

The suns are hovering around 500 though their schedule has been rough. It's not as rough as it was to start the season as the schedule has evened out a little bit given that we have played 25 games, but they are looking more and more like a true .500 team. The loss of Amare has taken it's toll and it's kinda revealing how important he was and how good he is considering that the Knicks are rolling at 16-12 while the suns are 12-13. There is always this discussion about whether guys get over-valued because they look so good playing with Nash and if they will do well without Nash. Guys like Marion have proved that Nash adds more value to them than they ever did to Nash, but with Amare, it's not the case. Amare has proved that he is a true superstar by averaging 26-9 for the Knicks. Coincidentally, Nash's assist numbers are slightly down and his 3-point shooting is down to 33%. I don't think thats directly related to Amare's departure, but one has to wonder. He is still shooting a career high 51.4% and has more than 10 assists a game - both very impressive given his age and the state of this team. We all know the Suns were going to take a step back without Amare, because you need talent in this league and Nash can't compensate for everything. But the more surprising part has been how good Amare has looked in his new colors. Also, the new pieces for the Suns like Hedo have not really jelled and hence the tough predicament.

While I was sadly getting close to being resigned to a season of giving (away wins) and mediocrity, the suns have engineered a trade. It's very interesting in the sense that any change and shake-up is good and trades are great because it shakes up 2 teams. The Magic, for instance, have done exactly that with these trades. They get Hedo back and J-Rich and also Gilbert Arenas for Rashard Lewis from the Wizards. The Magic are making some desperate moves to win now and have given up some cap flexibility, but they have improved. They have gotten a little smaller and have some duplication at certain positions - JRich and Gilbert, but overall they are better. They had no business getting rid of Hedo in the first place. He was perfect for them. As for the suns, I am surprised a old team even got older at a key position, They now have a 33 year old shooting guard instead of a 31 year-old guy in J-Rich. They also hope that Vinsanity now replaces the productivity of J-Rich, who was the scoring leader for the suns. The suns also get some cash in return. With this stupid ownership group, the money part of it was probably the main motivation for the trade - they get some cash, flexibility plus they get out of Hedo's contract. This ownership group has constantly acted cheap and thrown away expensive assets. So I expect them to do the same with the first round pick they got.

However the official reason for the trade is defense. The suns are as usual leading the league in points scored, but they have the worst FG% against in the league and they give up the 2-Nd most points in the league and that explains the record. So they wanted size and defense and are hoping Marcin Gortat will give them both. Also, Pietrus should be a good defender as well. Thats the hope, but I am not entirely buying it. Vinsanity is old and flaky and I am not sure if he can even match J-Rich's consistency and scoring. The potential is there, but a whole lot of other things have been missing with this guy his entire career. I like his talent, but I don't trust him. As for the other pieces, they are nice, but I am not sure how much Gortat is going to provide over and above Lopez and how do those 2 play together? I like Pietrus as a piece around Nash and he can even defend some fools, but he needs to get healthy as well. As a fan, you always have hope, but I feel like this is a trade to nowhere or at best, a lateral move. They are hoping for better chemistry around Nash and I would definitely be curios to check it out. But I don't have much expectations and I still feel like this team is going nowhere. I sure hope my suns prove me wrong with this prediction as well. Speaking of predictions, the Magic just proved me right with 2 of my prior takes. I said the Rashard Lewis contract was stupid and they would do worse with Vince than with Hedo. Let me pat myself on the back for those on the way out.

On a totally unrelated note, fellow sun-devil James Harden is just awesome!

The roof caves in

The scariest and the most fascinating sight in the NFL last weekend was the roof at the Metrodome in Minnesota collapsing under the weight of a lot of snow. Thank God nobody was in the stadium when this happened since it was early in the morning. I can't even imagine what would have happened if this had occurred during the game. This video is a must-see on youtube if you had not seen it yet. Vikings game against the Giants was moved to Detroit on Monday night. This scene was a metaphor for the Vikings and Brett Favre's season. Despite the extra day, Favre could not go ending his impressive streaks of continuous starts at 297. This has been an utterly disastrous season for the ole' gunslinger. Between his 10 TD, 18 interception season, a 5-8 record, 2 losses against the Packers, the sexting scandal, firing of Childress and now the end of the amazing streak, the roof has definitely caved in on Brett Favre as well.

This has been one of those seasons where Favre would have gained more reputation sitting at home instead of playing. Good for him that he gets to deposit his 12 mill plus incentives in the bank and derive some comfort out of it. Of course the Vikings have no replacement for him and Tarvaris Jackson proved that at Detroit against the Giants. Now experts are saying the Vikings should audition Jackson for 3 weeks so they can decide what to do with the QB position next season since Favre should be definitely gone. There is really no point in playing Favre though Leslie Frazier still says he will play again this year if healthy. I think they should just shut Favre down and get this team to turn the page. The Favre era is over after one unbelievably great seasons and one horrible season. Whatever the Favre-haters and Packer fans wanted last year from Favre, they got it all this year and then some!

Speaking of the Packers, Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion and the Packers shockingly lost at Detroit. This severely hurts their playoff chances given how difficult the rest of their schedule is. They may end up 9-7 and still miss the playoffs. My dream of a sub-500 team from the NFC West making the playoffs is still alive. 13 weeks in, the entire division is sill under 500. The only team in the entire NFL that has clinched the playoff position is the NE Patriots. They went into Chicago and creamed the Bears in inclement weather. It's amazing how good this team plays in bad weather. They may be the only team that does not change their passing game for the snow and handle the weather like it's no big deal. I don't know how the Pats and Brady do it, especially without Randy Moss or any top receiver of that caliber. The best game of the weekend was the Raiders at Jaguars. It's a better league if the Raiders are good and they seem to be almost there. Darren McFadden is an absolute stud and the Raiders almost won a big game on the road after many moons. They are almost there but not yet.

When you win, say little. When you lose, say less.

That was Tom Brady quoting his head coach after their game against the Jets. As much as I would like to hate these 2 guys, it's getting really hard with each passing week as their body of work just seems to get better and better. At 10-2, they have the best record in the AFC in a year that was supposed to be a rebuilding year and on top of that, they traded away Randy Moss, their most potent weapon on offense. These 2 guys are ultimate professionals and great role-models for professionalism. It's amazing to watch Brady bite his teeth and rally his troops on the sidelines even during games they are leading 30-6 or whatever. Even today, he plays with a chip on his shoulder and seems like a perfectionist. No wonder he is married to a super-model. The hoody seems like a perfectionist too. He is the ultimate operator of a franchise. The Patriot are so consistent with how they approach players, situations, media etc. top to bottom in that organization. If somebody veers off the beaten path, he is gone. And other organizations have tried to steal their system through assistant coaches like Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Josh McDaniels, but none of them have been the same without the hoody. McDaniels was a disaster and Denver finally let him go before he got rid of few more studs from the Broncos roster.

The hoody and Brady made sure the much hyped Jets-Pats Monday night game was a non-event. This was supposedly for all the AFC East marbles between 2 coaches and teams so culturally different. At the end of the night, Rex Ryan had to eat a 45-3 score wrapped in a humble pie. Brady scored 4 TDs and threw for 326 yards against the vaunted Jets defense. The talking heads on TV went gaga over hoody's game-plan and the quick, precision passing offense Brady ran all night to slice and dice the Jets. One more feather in the cap of these Pats. They may have another Super Bowl in them this year and if he Steelers are on the way, we know the Pats will walk all over them. Speaking of the Stillers, is there a better rivalry in the NFL than the Ravens-V-Steelers? While the Jets-Pats fell way short of expectation, Ravens-Steelers was every bit as exciting as advertised. It was a hard-fought game with some amazing hits and collisions. The game started off with a broken nose for Ben Roethlisberger, but Ben closed the deal at the end thanks to Troy Polamalu's hit on Flacco and the subsequent fumble. Is there a better defensive player in the league than Polamalu? This guy's speed, strength and aggression stands out even during a physical Ravens-Steelers game.

Manning and the Colts are moving in the wrong direction. Lots of passing yards and lots of scoring, but Manning is also throwing lots of interceptions and pick-6's and the Colts are riding a 3 game losing streak. It's no coincidence that Manning's interception numbers have sky-rocketed since Dallas Clark's injury. The Colts have some issues right now and if they don't fix them soon, they may miss the playoffs. In the NFC, the Bears are continuing to win. I don't understand this team at all, but I have to start giving them their due. At 8-4, the Packers may not even make the playoffs because of these Bears and a few other quality teams in the NFC. Of course, the NFC West still stinks and some bad team is going to make it and give us a bad playoff game. In the NBA, the Suns are still going back and forth and seem to be settling into a 500 bteam. Thats not good. The Heat are making my prediction of their demise seem pre-mature. They went into Cleveland and crushed the Cavs. That seems to have rejuvenated the team and are on a surprising 6 game winning streak. The schedule is soft right now, but they are winning some road games and today's win at Utah was impressive. Let see if this is something permanent.

Week 13 also means the fantasy football regular season is done. Unfortunately, I missed the playoffs in both my leagues despite having 2 good teams. I need to take responsibility for the bad showing. I guess I am no Bill Belichick.

You heard it here first!

I am going to go out on a limb and say that they will blow up this Miami Heat team in a year or 2. I actually give them 18 months. By the summer of 2012, they will have to trade away one of the two and let either LeBron or Wade take his talents to some other city. I know it's just 18 games, but I see structural problems. Sure they will get rid of coach Spo and sure, Riles will come down and the team will improve. They will listen to him and he has the stature to implement some interesting things with these fools. Also he will make defense a priority and that in and of itself will be worth 5 more regular season wins. Of course, they have enough talent to make it to the playoffs in the East under coach Spo or under my grandma for that matter. Riley's coaching will only upgrade the team to a much deeper playoff run, but I don't see championship credentials in this team. And thats not just because of the lack of a strong supporting cast or lack of depth. Those are peripheral issues that are actually fixable over a couple of seasons, if not right now.

The fundamental problem I see is that Wade and LeBron are not complimentary pieces. They want to and have no problems playing together, but they are not adding value to each other. Chemistry is a difficult science. It is very important in any sport, but more so in basketball and it's very hard to predict until the players actually play together. Unless you have a great glue guy like Stevie Nash who brings everybody together and makes them all better, it's hard to predict how guys play with each other. So nobody, myself included, ever commented on the potential fit of the Wade-LeBron duo. We all assumed it will work and it does for many stretches, but it's not consistent. You need a Jordan and a Pippen and I am afraid the Heat have 2 Jordans who are not as good as Jordan of course, and they have no Pippen. People don't appreciate Pippen and how important he was for the Bulls. He was very talented, but more importantly, was ultra-versatile. Plus he had the attitude and maturity to fill in any gaps for that Bulls team. He did everything that MJ couldn't or wouldn't do on a given night.

With Wade and LeBron, there are issues. They both came in to the league together and became big-time stars separately. Now they are together, but their games don't work together. The only options for them would be to make a Pippen out of Lebron, Thats not because he is the inferior talent or has been unproductive so far. It is only because he is the more versatile of the 2 and Wade can't do everything a Pippen or a LeBron can do. So turn the offense over to Wade and see if LeBron can do all thats needed to fill in the gaps. But who can make LeBron do that or is it even fair to LeBron to fit him into that role? He is one of the potential all-time greats and how can you make him a second option? So there is no easy way to make these 2 players complimentary. Short of giving them 2 balls and 2 hoops (and possibly 2 strip clubs in south beach), it's going to be hard to maximize their potential. It's not that they are hogging the ball or fighting for it, but they are not able to work well together. When LeBron is dominating the ball, Wade is nowhere to be seen and when Wade is on fire, it looks like they are over-paying LeBron for nothing. They both do similar things and are not both useful at the same time. They are not great rebounders or defenders or 3-point shooters. They don't have a great low-post game or a dependable jump-shot. Their style may be different, but their output and roles are very similar. And this despite the fact that LeBron is a triple-double threat every night.

Of course, chemistry builds over time and players evolve too. One or both can become a great 3-point shooter or an awesome defender and things can change. Richard Jefferson is supposed to have finally found his spot with the Spurs after an entire season. So 18 games doesn't make a season. But like I said, I see structural problems (not dead people :-) ) and I don't see an easy way out. The great expectations and lack of salary cap doesn't help either and I suspect this system collapses under it's own weight and the Heat will be forced to trade either Wade or LeBron after 2 futile seasons. Thats my prediction. Last time, Riley fired Stan Van Gundy and collected a easy ring with Wade and Shaq, but he may not be able to pull that scam again. He can and will fire coach Spo, but he ain't winning the championship with this group. This once again proves it's not easy or efficient to have 2 talented wing players as your superstars and 1-2 punch. It's always easier to build a team with a wing and a big combo - Kobe-Shaq, Shaq-Wade, Kobe-Pau. Their positions and their roles on the court are complimentary by design. Not the case with Wade-LeBron and thats what makes the Jordan-Pippen combo all the more impressive.

Cards suck

Today's monday night football was one of the worst performances you will ever see by the Arizona Cardinals, even by their unbelievably low standard. There is really no reason for the Cards to suck like this against a mediocre Niners team at home. With Fitz and Breaston on offense and decent talent on defense, it's really hard to see what ails this team. QB Derek Anderson is not even that bad, but he is no Kurt Warner and Warner's retirement has completely changed the complexion of this team. Anderson was also caught smiling with a teammate on the sidelines and that became an issue later. Some reporter questioned him on that and he flipped. I feel for this guy. I am sure he works had, but the talent is just not there. I think he was just smiling with his teammate on the sideline and I always find it funny that the media makes a big deal out of losing players smiling on the sideline. You are supposed to sit there looking like one of your close relative just got shot. It's OK if that's fake remorse - which is what it is with most players, but you are just not supposed to look normal or have any kind of fun if you are losing. Not sure why the demeanor matters so much, but it just does for some folks.

DA definitely didn't do anything to earn the right to laugh tonight. He made most fans cry watching his throws and this offense and the Cards defense was even worse. They couldn't stop the run to save their lives. Gore got hurt in the first 5 minutes of the game, but he already had 50+ yards rushing and backup Westbrook ended up with 130 yards rushing. They didn't get any pressure on the young QB Troy Smith or the old RB Brian Westbrook. Niners looked like World beaters after looking like the Cards last weekend against the Bucs. The NFC West is horrible and the rookie QB Sam Bradford might end up leading the Rams to the playoffs. He is very good for a rookie and they beat the Denver Broncos on the road while Seattle lost at home. It would be awesome if a team wins this division with a 7-9 record. I always want a team to win a division with a losing record. And what would be even funnier if that team also goes onto win the Super Bowl. That probably would never happen, but the first request might actually be satisfied this year in this horrible NFC West.

There were a few indelible images from this football weekend, and some of them were from shockingly bad plays. Buffalo's Steve Johnson's drop of the game winning TD pass in the end zone should be on the top of the list. It was hard to watch his emotional post-game interview after the loss. At least the Bills have nothing to play for and that should help him handle this better. It would have been much worse if he lost the game with playoff position or a Super Bowl trip on the line. He was open and Fitzpatrick's pass fell right on his hands. He just dropped it inexplicably. The good news for the Bills fans is that they might have the QB of the future in Fitz. This dude is good. The other disturbing image of the week was the Boise State kicker missing gimme field goals that would have won the game both in the 4-Th quarter and OT thereby losing the game for Boise State and putting an end to a supposed championship run and an undefeated season. I was pulling for Boise State and TCU to stay unbeaten and crash the BCS party. Now that dream is gone though TCU is still in the run. The best play of the weekend, if not the entire college football season was made by Oklahoma State defensive back Broderick Brown who jumped outside the lines and tapped an attempted out-of-bounds pass onto the field of play where his teammate caught the ball for an interception. Heady, unselfish and athletic - the very attributes that define a good football player.

Wild wild west

The Western conference in the NBA is supposed to be finally slowing down this year after some talent movement to the East. But there are some crazy records in the West right now and it looks scarier than ever. San Antonio is 10-1 for the first time in their history and they are still not even leading their division! The Hornets are 10-1 too and are finally realizing the potential they showed us 2 seasons back. We were all wondering what happened to them the last 2 years and CP3 even wanted out. But now they have come back strong. The Spurs are as good as ever and slightly better that last year because Richard Jefferson is looking better than before in their uniform and Parker looks a little more focussed with all the divorce news floating around. Duncan just surpassed the Admiral Robinson to become the franchise's scoring leader. As usual they have their yearly steal from the draft - James Anderson contributing.

The Lakers are of course 11-2 with their 2 losses coming against the Suns and the Nuggets back-to-back. They are still the best team by far and are pretty much making the NBA regular season look meaningless. But these other teams in the West are threatening them just a little bit. The Jazz at 8-5 are barely holding onto the 7-Th spot, but they have had a bunch of impressive, come from behind wins including a shocker in Miami where they embarrassed the small 3. But today, the Jazz lost to the Spurs big 3. Dallas, OKC and Portland are as good as expected and the Warriors are looking surprisingly good at 7-5. Watch out for this Warriors team. They are no joke. They score a lot as always, but now they can also rebound, especially when David Lee is healthy and available.

This leaves the Suns and the Nuggets looking in from the outside. I think things will change, especially with the Suns having such a brutal start to the schedule, but the West will be rough as always. The Suns have already played the Spurs, Jazz, Lakers - twice, Heat, Denver and the Magic with a lot of those games being on the road. This combined with the fact that the team is new and still learning to play with each other and the fact that Nash has missed a game already, it's not bad that they are 6-6. The schedule will loosen up eventually and if they are still healthy, they should be fine. I was hoping they will beat the small 3 and the Miami Heat, but it was not meant to be. Bosh and the Heat crushed them. Hopefully we will get them in Phoenix later. Speaking of the Heat, one of the few funny catchphrases in the stupid sportscenters these days is when one of the anchors always introduce the team visiting the Heat as "The Charlotte Bobcats took their talent to South Beach today". I love the pun! I am still amazed Bron "took his talents to South Beach". I used to be such a "believer" in this guy, but now I want them to lose every game.

Vick is sick

I couldn't believe my eyes when I glanced at the score of the Eagles-Redskins game during Monday night football towards the end of the first quarter. It read 28-0. I don't think I have ever seen such a score in Q1 of a pro game. Michael Vick just went nuts. I can't believe how good this guy is playing right now. The entire sports media is in awe of this guy today and I have to say, rightfully so. He threw for 333 yards and 4 TDs and rushed for 80 more and 2 TDs. Are you kidding me? What's this, Tim Tebow and Florida versus Cincinnati? This didn't look like a pro game against a semi-decent Redskins team.

Vick actually looked like himself from his good old college days at Va Tech. Ironically, this is exactly what I thought he would become when I used to be his fan when he was in College. But that potential was never realized and as if to add insult to injury, he ended up in jail. Just when we thought his career was done, he comes back out of jail and coach Andy Reid seems to have completely resurrected his career. Of course, Vick himself I am sure is a changed man after that stint in the jail and that helps. But he was never the kind of passer he is right now before he hooked up with Reid.

I hate to admit this, but Vick might be unstoppable after all. Took him a while to get here and there were some unsavory detours along the way, but he might have finally arrived. Of course he has just played a few games this season and it's way too early to put him in the hall of fame, but he sure looked impressive Monday night. Just his fantasy numbers was newsworthy considering how ridiculous it was - close to 50. One of the record breaking nights for a QB and he missed just 8 passes. Now there's talk of a MVP award and his games have become must-see TV again already. May be time for Favre to retire for the 15-Th time and turn over the reins to Vick.

MLB has started handing out it's stupid off-season awards. Actually good awards but stupid timing. Roy Halladay won the NL Cy Young. Well deserved for sure. So was the Rookie of the Year winners - Neftali Feliz in the AL and Buster Posey in the NL. Buster Posey was the biggest no-brainer ever. The guy pretty much turned around the season for the Giants, a season that eventually ended with a championship for them. I don't know if people understand his impact on the team, but it was humongous. It was his call-up that turned around the hitting, the attitude and the excitement surrounding the team. He brought both tangible and intangible benefits to the team. R.O.Y indeed.

In my favorite league, the association, my favorite team is doing great. Suns' early season schedule looks like something a die-hard Suns hater would have come up with in his copious free time, but they are still 6-4 with 2 strong wins recently. Just when I was wondering if the Lakers would win 72 games, they lost to the Nuggets on the road. The Suns then beat the Fakers right in LA using 22 3-point bombs and followed it up with a win against Denver at home on a back-to-back night. Now onto Miami to take on the Heat. The only problem is, beating that Heat team may not be as impressive as the previous 2 wins! Great quote heard on the radio - "is it just me or does Pat Riley really look closer to the bench every time they show him on TV during Heat games". Riley might come down and steal another championship, but this team may not be good enough to win one this year. The only bad news for the Suns is that Robin Lopez is injured and they got even smaller if thats even possible.

Programmatic non-fit

Vikings coach Brad Childress might have come up with the quote of the year, if not the decade in the NFL. When asked why did he cut Randy Moss, he said Moss was a programmatic non-fit. Thats so cool! I am going to start using this term everywhere. I have always wondered if I was a programmatic non-fit in this World. But thats neither here nor there. Coming back to Chilly, I have always disliked him since last year. I thought he has been sounding a little arrogant and way too self-important ever since he started winning with Favre last season. But I love him now! As weird as it sounds coming from a football coach, thats the best description for Moss. Considering that Moss's recent issues range from disrespecting the head-coach to yelling and screaming at the caterers, "programmatic non-fit" sounds fitting - pun intended. I was shocked that they actually went ahead and cut him after trading the Pats a 3-Rd round pick for him. Moss is still a threat in the field and of course a threat to caterers and other off the field apparently, but still, Chilly had no business cutting him. Apparently he didn't tell his ownership either. So the ownership went out and interviewed the players to see if they should hold onto Moss and fire Chilly instead! Chilly better put his house in Minnesota on the market. Even before the Moss mess, Chilly's time there was coming to an end soon, but the Moss fiasco will seal his fate for sure. Favre is done too. That team is in a world of trouble, and most of it self-inflicted by either Favre or Chilly or both.

This has been a strange week in the NFL newswire. Mike Shanahan benched McNabb last Sunday for the final 2 minutes and gave a weak excuse that Rex Grossman, of all people, had a better handle on his 2-minute drill and hence was inserted into the game. The only good handle Rex has his own - sexy Rexy. Dude usually takes planned 10-minute drives and makes them a quick and dirty 2-minute drill - typically featuring a 3 and out. So Shanahan's comments were strange at so many different levels. Shanahan sounded like a "programmatic non-fit" after that comment. He then came back next day and made it worse. He said he pulled McNabb because he was not well-conditioned for a 2-minute drill. Now Terrell Owens is referring to McNabb throwing up during the Super Bowl and is agreeing with Shanahan. Here's a good rule of thumb in the NFL. If TO is agreeing with you, you are saying something stupid. I think Shanahan could have just said McNabb was benched because of his performance and things would have been so much better. It sounds like Shanahan came up with something initially to make it sound better than a good old benching, but later decided to throw McNabb under the bus anyways. Weird! Even Tom Brady got sucked into the stupidity of this week as he suggested he doesn't make any decisions in New England and if they listened to him, Lawyer Milloy and Deion Branch would have never left. He was answering a question about whether the Pats should claim Randy Moss off waivers. Brady said all this with a smile and didn't end up stirring any controversy, but it sounded a little odd coming from a "programmatic fit" like Brady from the ultimate program - hoody's Pats. Hoody is go well put-together, even Moss had high praise for him after last week's loss and that was actually the start of the issues for Moss and Chilly - at least publicly.

If only the games tomorrow are as good as the action during the week, life will be good.

A Giant week

The San Francisco Giants actually sealed the deal and won their first championship in SF after 52 years. It was great news for the Bay Area that has been in a sports funk the last few years. There are a lot of teams in the area, but most of them have been extremely mediocre lately since the great run by the niners in the nineties. The Giants have been pretty bad since Bonds left and this year was not supposed to be any different. They had built a good pitching staff the last couple of years, but their hitting has been downright garbage since Bonds retired. The most over-used phrase in baseball is probably "playoffs are all about pitching". While this is true, you will often see games in the playoffs that are 8-6 or 11-3. This is because the playoff teams often feature good hitting in addition to good pitching and on some nights, hitting trumps pitching and thats especially true in the American League. But this year, the playoffs were truly about pitching. Between the Giants and the Phillies, the NL pitching was out of the world and Cliff Lee basically carried the Rangers through the AL playoffs.

Not to take anything away from the Giants' timely hitting, but their pitching was awesome - both starters and their bullpen were phenomenal. They had 2 shutouts and a one run game in the 5 World Series game thanks to Lincecum, Cain and Bumgarner. Their entire starting rotation is comprised of talented, young and most importantly, home-grown pitchers. The aforementioned three studs were all first rounders and Jonathan Sanchez was a 27-Th round pick by the Giants. This is a rarity in this day and age. No wonder the Giants fan base feels this good about their team. While I am not a Giants fan, I have to admit that this team is the exact opposite of the mercenary Yankee model and I like that about this team. Their most expensive pitcher, Barry Zito didn't even make the playoff roster. Their biggest offensive weapon - Buster Posey, is also home-grown and young. He is clearly the MVP of this team. It's his call-up to the bigs and the subsequent promotion to every-day catcher status after the trade of Bengie Molina that was the turning point of this season. The team's hitting was so bad on paper, that a lot of the pieces were accumulated over the course of the season and they were not even part of the starting day roster. Posey was called up, Pat Burrell was signed late and the playoff hero Cody Ross was added in August. Thats the exact opposite of the 200 million dollar Yankees lineup for instance since it was assembled last December and January by spending millions and zillions of dollars.

Of course the youth and pitching on this roster has the fans dreaming about a dynasty and multiple championships. While the Giants are going to be good, nothing is guaranteed in life, especially with pitching. Doesn't it feel like just yesterday we were all gushing about Kerry Wood, Mark Prior and Carlos Zambrano? Forget a championship or the Cubs, these 3 dudes are barely even relevant as individual pitchers anymore. Thats how fickle pitchers and their arms can be. But even assuming the Giants studs stay strong and Posey improves, championships are not easy and thats what makes them special. Dynasties have become a thing of the past in both football and baseball and it happens only in basketball these days. Baseball at least has some notion of dynasties because of the high-spending teams like the Yankees and Redsox that are at least expected to have a winning season and a possible playoff berth most years. Otherwise, for the most part, teams that make it to the Super Bowl or the World Series don't even get back to the playoffs next year. The Phillies made it to 2 straight World Series and the NLCS this year and thats as impressive a 3 year stretch as you will see these days with teams not named the New York Yankees. It's doable, but the Giants fans can't assume it's a given. Not to rehash a old theory, but the Giants still need some hitting. It's one thing to catch lightning in a bottle over a 10 or a 15 game stretch and win the championship, but they can't assume this will happen every October. They still need a lineup that scales to handle a 162 game season. They need to upgrade their hitting, but they may not be as far off as we originally thought, especially with the development of Buster Posey.

With all this said and done about baseball, we all know football is the real national past time as Sunday night showed us. The Steelers-Saints regular season game outdrew game 4 of the World Series on TV and I was not even surprised. Of course the one million or so Giants fan who gathered at the parade yesterday don't care. They are just happy their Giants won.

We got a series on our hands now

The World Series is getting interesting now. The Rangers went back home and won game 3. So far, the great pitching of the Giants has looked like it's too much for the Rangers to handle. It's not just their starting pitching, but the Giants bullpen aint bad either. Ironically, their famous and amusingly interesting closer, Brian Wilson, might be the weakest link of that bullpen. The Rangers on the other hand have a rather shaky bullpen and they seemed too dependent on Cliff Lee when the series started. The Giants got Lee out of game 1 pretty early and rather easily. Of course Lincecum was not great either, but the Giants didn't care since they won. Cain was spectacular in game 2 as he shut fools down. The game was close until the texas bullpen started spraying the ball all over the place. Walk after walk meant a hit here or there was going to score 2 or 3 runs and thats exactly what happened. But now, if they win tomorrow, this series becomes fascinatingly close. Tommy Hunter versus Bumgarner should be interesting to watch.

In football, Auburn survived the curse of the first seed as they went on the road and beat Ole Miss to stay at the top. Oregon crushed USC to stay undefeated. Two more undefeated teams lost today - Missouri and Michigan State. Both got embarrassed and thats good news for one loss teams like Alabama. BCS is a mess now and will be a different mess by the time it's all said and done. I guess thats what we like about College football - at least thats what we are told. ASU won 42-0 against Washington. Thats neither here nor there. A dominant scoreboard from a team that has looked anything but lately. To be fair to the Devils, they did play Oregon pretty close early in the season, may be before Oregon fond itself. Lets see if Oregon can punch this one in and take it all the way home for Pac-10.

In the NFL, it's all about Brett Favre. Dude is definitely hurt and probably should sit down, but won't because of his streak. Childress and Favre are talking like they both are in different planets. I have a feeling this is going to end real bad in all fronts. I think Favre starts tomorrow, loses, probably gets hurt more and loses his continuous streak next week. Chilly threw Favre under the bus last week after Favre repeatedly threw the ball into the chest of Packer defenders. Since then they have been going back and forth and this is going to get a lot worse before Chilly gets fired and Favre retires end if the year. NBA is on and apparently the Heat games are getting amazing ratings. The Suns are 1-2, but have looked good so far. The schedule is brutal, but I am surprised how fluid they look.

NBA, MLB, NFL and NCAA

What a time of the year this is. College Saturday, NFL Sunday (and Monday), World Series and the NBA season is kicking off tomorrow. The Suns play tomorrow along with the Heat and the Fakers. I am really not as excited as usual for this season because of 2 reasons. I decided I don't like the Heat and this season is going to be all about the Heat. I don't think they are going to win 72+ games nor the championship, but they are going to be VERY good and thats going to be very irritating the way ESPN has been covering this team so far. Of course the other reason is that the Suns are without Amare and probably are not going far. I am not a pre-season dork, but they have a horrible 2-6 record. They have some talent, but no size. What's new? So a lot will depend on chemistry and Nash. You look at the Suns and you are certain that their defense can never get worse, but they always seem to make that happen. With Hedo and the advancing age of Nash and Hill, their defense will be even worse this year. But overall I will reserve judgement on the team until December. I am hoping they are good, but I am afraid they'll be mediocre. As for the others, I have been a Laker hater all my life, but am suddenly finding myself hoping they beat the Heat in the Finals. Thats how much I don't like LeBron in a Heat uniform.

The World Series nobody wanted or expected is here - Giants versus the Rangers. I am very curious to see the TV ratings on this. Both SF and Dallas are decent sized television markets, but the rest of the country don't follow these teams and the East Coast will be basically checked out of this series. Plus, even locally, the Rangers are not that big a franchise though I am sure the local area is very excited about them now that they are in the World Series. But as a team that has never won a playoff series from a predominantly football region, the Rangers are not one of those big-ticket franchises. The Giants are at least decent locally. Of course one of the most amazing things in sports is how with every advancing round in the playoffs, the hype and the fan-base of the team grows exponentially. I don't want to call these people band wagoners, but they are something. They are not your serious sports fan for sure and they come out of the woodwork in droves as the team advances each round. The SF Bay Area is currently firmly in the grip of World Series hype. Neither team was picked by anybody to even make the playoffs, but they are now in the World Series. This series will feature some tremendous pitching match-ups much like the previous rounds of the playoffs. The series should kick-off with a Lee-Lincecum match-up. Should be fun. I don't know who I like in this series. I don't care who wins, I will be watching

NFL doesn't stop for the World Series and they don't have to given that the horrible, regular season Tennessee-Jacksonville game last Monday crushed the Yankees ALCS game on TV ratings. So the national sport continues after all the brouhaha all last week about hits and helmet to helmet collisions. Too many concussions and too much noise later by the defensive players on how the league is over-reacting. May be they are, but I like the basic idea that the player need to be tacked, not necessarily hit. Oftentimes, the defender hits the offensive player because he can, not because he need to. The way I see it is, the league is legislating against unnecessary hits. Those have always been part of football, but I don't mind taking them away. Doesn't really change the game for me that much. I don't watch it to see the "jacked up" highlight hits. I don't mind protecting the players better given that the athletes are constantly getting bigger, stronger and faster in these days of advanced health sciences and medical advancements. The game is constantly becoming safer and thats good. Injuries are part of the game, but it's sad to see guys get injured. For instance, today, Romo got hurt and is out. I don't want anybody to get injured, but I especially get frustrated when bad teams that I don't like suffer injuries. Suddenly the bad team gets a convenient excuse for their incompetence. The Cowboys are exactly in that situation - an incompetent team that is 1-5 with an injured QB now.

The NFL results this week were all over the place - like the Raiders and DMF crushing the Broncos 59-14. You really have to parse through the standings to figure out which team is doing what. It's about time we throw the pre-season rankings out. Speaking of rankings, in college, once again a number 1 seed lost and now, BCS says it's Auburn's turn to lose. They have them at one after they beat LSU. Not sure why the BCS hates Oregon and Boise State, not to mention TCU, Michigan State or TCU - the other undefeated teams. But they don't think Oregon is number 1 even after they pummeled UCLA 60-13. And this is the UCLA team that crushed Texas 34-12. Oregon is ranked number 1 in the coaches and other polls, but not in BCS. Of course some of these undefeated teams, may be even Oregon will lose and we will be watching these ranking go upside down a couple more time before all is said and done.

Torture

The San Francisco giants games are affectionately called "torture" by their fans. This is because they have been in a high-pressure, playoff push since early Sept and in actual playoffs this month and they always play agonizingly close games. They have great pitching and questionable hitting. This means they play a lot of close, low-scoring games that end up torturing their fans until the last pitch. I can't remember too many giants games that were blowouts one way or the other. Brian Wilson joked today "I got anxiety. I got a mini-ulcer developing". Now, they are really torturing the Philies who are trailing the series 3-1. Roy Halladay is pitching tomorrow, but then again, so is Timmy Lincecum. The giants pitching is good enough to neutralize the Phillies pitching and this dude Cody Ross has looked like Babe Ruth so far. Hitting was supposed to be Phillies strength, but so far this entire playoffs has been about pitching. Oswalt volunteered to pitch the ninth inning today and lost the game. The whiz-kid Buster Posey had 4 hits including a key one in the 9-Th against Oswalt. Posey is clearly the Giant's MVP this season. What a talent he is!

The giants are playing very well right now and the chemistry is building and the experience of growing. I can easily see Lincecum slamming the door on the Phillies tomorrow. The Giants are the under-dogs and there still seems to a lot of fans nationally who are just assuming the Phillies will win 3 in a row and take the series. Thats easier said than done. H2O with Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt is pretty formidable, but Sanchez, Cain and Lincecum are no slouches either except in the nick-name department. Closing out this series is gonna be difficult for the Giants like Texas learnt today, but the Giants will have their horse on the mound tomorrow. All stars are aligned for the giants. Texas, on the other hand, is now going back home leading 3-2 and they got 2 games to close the Yankees out. Hope they don't slack off in game 6 hoping Cliff Lee will take care of things in game 7. I can't believe the SF giants or the Texas rangers could be World Series bound, but it could happen. A Giants-Rangers World Series might be the league and the television channel's worst nightmare. In any case, the giants fans don't care. They are just ready for another torture tomorrow.

Parity on display

Among all the things that makes football the top sport in the country, parity is one of the major attractions. NFL has been all about parity the last few years, may be for a decade or so. There are several stats to prove this point like how most Super Bowl losers, and sometime even champions don't even make it to the playoffs the next year, let alone repeat as champions. The 2010 Saints seem to be very much on track to do their bit to fortify that stat. This year has been especially messy and confusing. There are no dominant teams, no clear-cut favorite and most pre-season favorites, especially in the NFC are barely 500. As a matter of fact, I think the entire NFC might be 500 or below soon :-J This week had it's share of head scratching results as always. San Diego lost to Saint Louis and Seattle beat Chicago - a bad team with a decent record. As I am typing, Colts are trying hard to give the game away to the Redskins - they have fumbled away the ball the last 3 possessions. Steelers, Ravens and the Jets look to be the best and most consistent teams so far. The Colts, Saints, Eagles and the Falcons look decent, but not great. Giants and the Vikings seem to be coming back. Packers seem to be going down. Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco look horrible - to various degrees of course. Thats the story of the season in a nutshell.

The parity bug has also spread to college football over the last few years. It used to be that we always heard of the Texas and the Ohio States and the USC and Floridas of the world all the time in college. But then came Boise State and TCU and these days, "mid-majors" like those have become a regular fixture in the top 10. The number one seed has now lost 2 weeks in a row. Alabama lost last week at South Carolina and Ohio State lost at Wisconsin this weekend. Both good results from my perspective. Undefeated Nebraska lost to Texas after Texas lost badly the last 2 weeks to UCLA and Oklahoma. South Carolina turned around and lost on the road to Kentucky this weekend. That falls on the ole' ball coach as Spurrier went for the touchdown rather than go for the tying field goal at the end of the game. QB Stephen Garcia ended up throwing an interception instead - ballgame Kentucky. All these results add up to a dizzying landscape in the college ranks this year. Boise State was rumored to be number one or two in the BCS standings. But then the actual BCS ranking did come out and Boise was at 3 behind Oklahoma and Oregon. That sucks because I would have loved nothing more than a Boise State - Oregon championship game. That would have been the worst nightmare come true for the old time purists from the East coast. Now, it's going to be an uphill climb for Boise State because the computers are going to continue to penalize them for an easy schedule that will get only easier over the next few weeks. Of course, do we really believe Oregon or Oklahoma will stay undefeated through the rest of the season? It's especially hard to do for Oregon in the Pac-10. But we shall see. Boise State itself might have a tough game on hand against Nevada later in the weekend.

In MLB, probably a bad example of parity, the Yankees are as usual doing their thing in the playoffs. You can kill even the roaches, but beating the Yankees is so hard. As a fan of a team, you are never comfortable with leads. You are always afraid that the other team is going to come back and catchup with you - fan paranoia. But you have to multiply this fear 10 times over if you are playing the Yankees. I really doubt how many Ranger fans were really comfortable when they were up 5-1 in game 1. Sure enough, Yankees come back and win it 6-5 late in the game. Talking heads on TV will call it the Yankees mystique and aura. I call it a 200 million dollar payroll and a bad financial system in the MLB. I hate to quote Curt Schilling, but he nailed it during the World Series when he was playing for the DBacks when he said mystique and aura are nothing but names of strippers. Whatever it is, the Rangers suffered a horrible loss in game 1 and full credit to them for coming back and winning game 2. I still have to believe they lost the series in game 1. In the NL, Halladay and Lincecum went head-to-head in one of the most anticipated pitching contests. We got a good game, but neither looked that great. There were 3 homers in the game, but the Giants got the W at the end of the "torture". This dude Cody Ross has hit 4 home runs in 3 playoff games - 2 against Halladay. Thanks to Oswalt, Philly evened the series today. This series might go 7, but the Phillies might have the edge.

Tex in the mix

The Texas Rangers have never won a playoff series. They did it this year in style. After winning 2 games on the road, they lost 2 at home and clinched game 5 on the road. Basically the home team never won a game in this series. Thats weird! The Rangers better thank Cliff Lee for this. He won 2 games on the road and totally justified the trade for him. He went complete game in game 5 and shut the Rays down. The only down-side of a 5 game series is that he can't pitch game 1 tomorrow against Derek Cheater and the Yankees. Yes, I just wanted to use "Derek Cheater" for the first time in the blog. The best contribution of this MLB season might have been that nickname. Just for the record, I was not that offended by whatever he did to earn that nickname, but I am going to use it anyways. So C.J.Wilson will pitch game 1 for the Rangers against C.C and Wilson is no dummy either. He did what he had to do in game 2 against the Rays and while the Yankees lineup is significantly different, this should still be a well-pitched game. I like Wilson. Something tells me the Rangers take this series against all odds. May be it's just wishful thinking, but I say Rangers in 7.

The fun series to me is the other one between the hated Giants and the Phillies. The pitching matchups in the series are just insane. I don't think I have seen this good a starting pitching match-up ever. Typically, pitching is always the story this deep in the playoffs. But Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels on one-side is a special threesome. You add Lincenum, Sanchez, Cain to this mix, it's just spectacular. Thats not even counting the new phenom Madison Bumgarner for the Giants, who seems every bit as effective as the other 3 fools. If these pitchers stay true to form, this series may just not see more than 20 runs total! The Phillies do have better hitting and I expect them to take this series in 6 or 7. They have similar pitching, but the Phillies have Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jayson Werth in the middle with Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino setting the table for them. The Giants may find the going tough in this series. But then again, Giants somehow seem to find a way to win. Lets hope that trend comes to an end in this series. Just last Sunday, the Eagles beat the Niners in the NFL contest between these 2 cities and now the action shifts to baseball. Cant wait for Saturday to watch Halladay-V-Lincecum- this year's Cy Young versus the last 2 years'. Bring it on!

Pitching rules

Two days into the MLB playoffs, we have seen some great pitching already. The pitching statistics this season has been way better thanks to the fact that a lot of the league is now de-juiced. And proportionally the playoffs seems to be featuring even better pitching since this time of the year is always about pitching. Yesterday, Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter for Philly. He is already the front-runner for the NL Cy Young and then he goes out and pitches a no-hitter in his first game ever in the playoffs. I have always loved this guy as a pitcher since his days in Toronto. Of course, I wanted him to do well back then considering he was beating the Yankees and the RedSox all the time. Now he is in Philly - a team I don't particularly love (or hate). But he has always been a great pitcher and is now getting the right level of recognition after being slightly under-rated in Toronto for all those years. This is just the second no-hitter in the history of the playoffs and I am glad a true ace like him got it done.

Today, Tim Lincecum did what we all knew he was going to do for the Giants. The Gigantes won 1-0 behind a 2-hit, complete game shutout by Timmy. I am never a hater or a sadist, but I am one when it comes to the Giants. As an Arizona Diamondbacks fan and a Oakland A's fan, I have both a divisional jealousy and a geographical rivalry working against the Giants. But even I started pulling for this kid in the late innings because he was just filthy! He had 14 strikeouts and most of them were a swing and a miss. The Braves hitters are probably still swinging and flailing away in their dreams. It's amazing how many times they swung at stuff not even close to the strike zone and how over-matched they looked in the process. Thats just domination. Derek Lowe is definitely overrated, but he was good today. Unfortunately he has nothing to show for it. Lincecum on the other hand put the "touch" in untouchable. If he does this every start, the Giants may be a scary team this off-season.

In the AL, Andy Pettitte added to his post-season resume today by pitching another gem. Both the road teams are now leading the AL series 2-0. Thats surprising, especially in the Texas-Tamapa Bay series. Cliff Lee and this kid C.J. Wilson bottled up the Rays by holding them to 1 run over 2 games. I guess I was wrong about Texas. The series is not over, but both the Yankees and the Rangers should wrap it up at home either in 3 or may be 4 games. They better wrap up the ALDS before Sunday when both NY and Dallas have NFL games to follow. Speaking of the NFL, Randy Moss has been traded away from the Patriots to the Vikings. The Vikes are going all in and I am not sure what comes out of this except coach chilly losing his job at the end of the season. What's the value of Moss when Favre retires? I am sure this is a very uncomfortable question for the Vikes, but I do like this trade for this year. A motivated Moss is still a game-breaker and it should be fun to see these guys play. As for the Patriots, a legendary coach like Bill Belichick with 3 super bowl rings can do a trade like this. He has enough goodwill in the bank to gamble on this season and think really long-term. More power to the hoody!

I was watching the sportscenter and I might have seen the most stupid back-to-back questions in television history. Merril Hoge for some reason was sent to interview Ben Roethlisberger. First, he asks him "what's the difference between Big Ben and Ben?". I am sitting there thinking what kind of stupid question is that? Roethlisberger goes on and blabbers something about how Ben is that little kid from Ohio and is back now and Big Ben was the result of all the hype blah blah blah. Then Hoge in all seriousness asks Roethlisberger, "that incident in Georgia, was it Ben or Big Ben". Come on, give me a break and grow some balls! If you can't ask legitimate questions to Roethlisberger, who needs all the help from the media as he is trying to rehab his tattered image, who the hell are you going to ask the tough questions to? I always liked Hoge as a football expert in the NFL edge show, but he should really stick to his day job. A 'seal here and a seal there" is a lot better than "Ben or Big Ben".

Yankees, Rays, Giants and Phillies should advance

The MLB playoffs start tomorrow. The yearly Yankees-Twins playoffs series is on at prime-time again. It seems like the AL playoffs always features either the Twins losing to the Yankees or the Yankees losing to the Angels. This year, the Angels are out and the Twins will probably lose to the Yankees. I am glad to see Francisco Liriano back and doing well and winning the comeback player of the year award. He starts game 1 against C.C.Sabathia. He may win, but it may not matter anyways. Pettitte and Hughes go in game 2 and 3 and unfortunately for the Twins, the Yankees offense will be playing all the games all the time! Yanks in 4 as always I guess. It would be funny if Carl Pavano beats Pettitte after all the time he spent, rather wasted in NY. That may be the most intriguing story-line of this series for me.

In Philadelphia, Roy Halladay starts his first ever playoff game. He should win another Cy Young this year with his 21-10 record and 2.44 ERA, but I am sure he is not sleeping today because of the playoff excitement and anxiety. He is going against Edinson Vólquez and the Reds who have not been to the playoffs forever. It will be good to see Dusty Baker back in the big dance. But I don't think Dusty will be happy to see Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels on back-to-back-to-back games, Thats as tough a pitching matchup as we will see in these playoffs. Plus the Phillies have the hitting to back that pitching up. Ryan Howard had an "off year" with just 31 homers and 108 RBIs, but that should be enough to set this pitching up for success. Phillies in 4.

The Texas Rangers have never won a playoffs series ever. I find that stat hard to believe. But the Rangers may not be able to change that this season either. It's great that they made the playoffs, but I pick the Rays primarily because of the level of competition the Rays endured on their way to these playoffs. The Rays have a much better record than the Rangers despite playing in a much tougher division and going down the wire to win that division. The Rangers on the other hand, won the division where the Oakland A's were the second best team at 81-81. The A's organization don't even want to win these days. Winning creates stars and that costs money. The A's just want to be in a perpetual rebuilding mode. These 2 divisions are so different it's almost like one is in the big league and the other is in the minor leagues. With all that said, Josh Hamilton, Cliff Lee and bad Vlad will make this challenging for the Rays. But Rays should take it in 5.

All 4 playoff games feature a Cy Young winner in game 1 - Lee, Halladay, CC and Lincecum - another proof that pitching is the key ingredient to success in baseball. That brings me to the Giants. I was hoping against hope that they would miss the playoffs, but they made it despite some spirited showing by the Padres in that season-ending series. The Giants finally won on the last day of the regular season after losing the previous 2 games to the Padres. They play the Braves in the NLDS and they should win it behind that filthy pitching - Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez with Bumgarner waiting in the wings. The Giants are probably going to leave their 120 million dollar man Zito off the playoff roster. That tells you all you need to know about Zito and about how loaded the Giants pitching is. Atlanta will hang in there behind Tim Hudson who is back strong after 2 injury plagued seasons and they would love to win one for their retiring manager Bobby Cox, but the Gigantes should take it in 5. I don't trust the Atlanta pitching outside of Hudson. I have always thought Derek Lowe is overrated and he will show us why again on Thursday.

In the NFL, Moss is going to Minnesota in a trade. A hired gun who is going to be a pain starting next season. But lets see if Favre clicks with him this season.

Life is going to get bizzy!

This is the time of the year when life gets busy. College football, NFL and fantasy football is already keeping us busy and occupied and then MLB playoffs start. This is pretty much the only time of the year when anybody really needs to care about baseball. My dream playoff lineup almost happened this year. I have always wondered how baseball will do if it goes all small market - specifically if you take out NY and Boston. I am probably never going to be that lucky, but this year came close. No RedSox, no Dodgers, no NY Mets, no Chi Cubs or Whitesox, no Anaheim Angels and just for added effect, no St. Louis Cardinals either. Of course, I didn't expect the NY Yankees to be kept out, but they crashed my playoff party and are still fighting for a division title with the Rays. Rays have been great this season and they gave away 20,000 tickets for free to fill up their 37,00 seat stadium. Sometimes I feel Baseball is in big trouble.

Anyways, the other party-pooper team for me are the hated SF Giants. They are now guaranteed a tie for NL West and are probably going to win it easily given their pitching and the fact that both Colorado and San Diego have choked away their season. The Giants have a September ERA as of today of 1.78. Thats just offensive ! Lincecum, Cain and now this kid Bumgarner are all killing me. If Lincecum looks like he is from high-school, Bumgarner looks like he is from the little league! I was hoping the Giants will do what they have been doing the last few years - pitch well, hit nothing, be mediocre overall, show some life on and off, but eventually fade into oblivion. But this year has been different. They showed some life and sudenly one thing lead to another, and here they are winning the division. Rookie Buster Posey was the catalyst who took this team to the next level. They better build a statue for this kid outside the AT&T park.

The Giants may be the biggest beneficiary of the divorce of the McCourts. The team that lost to the Phillies in the last 2 NLCS just disappeared with the ownership fiddling away. Of course the DBacks did nothing this year either, but thats neither here nor there. At least nobody expected the DBacks to do well this year. Speaking of teams that were not expected to do anything, The Cincinnati Reds are in the playoffs after many years and they took the division away from the Cardinals. The Reds are an interesting team and America will learn about some of their young stars like first baseman Joey Votto and relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman during this year's playoffs. It is fun to watch Aroldis Chapman pump in fastballs at 105 MPH. Texas Rangers have finally made the playoffs too after 11 years or so . Bad Vlad goes from the Angels to the Rangers and now the Rangers are in the playoffs and Angels are out after 3 good years. If I were him, I will hire LeBron James' manager and try to get all the credit I can for this reversal.

Thats a good segway to ex-king LeBron James. The hype continues. ESPN has put 3 fools plus Rachel Nchols full-time on the Miami Heat beat. I have never seen anything like this. Usually people don't even get know when the NBA training camps start, but this year it's not only news, it's tracked continuously. Rachel Nichols is interviewing the 3 dudes - Wade, LeBron and Bosh EVERYDAY! Leave it to ESPN to make a mountain out of a mole-hill and then sell that mountain to us as Mount Everest erected on top of Mount Whitney. Starting Oct 11-Th, they are going to have a special section called Heat Index tracking this team on ESPN.com. This is insane. I like it and hate it at the same time. I like the fact that there is focus on the NBA pre-season much like the NFL pre-season or even the spring training. But at the same time, this super team reminds me of the notorious Yankees in Baseball. I am afraid the NBA will be just about this team for the next 5 years.

The big 3 might have set a bad precedent for others to follow. For example, there is talk of how Amare, Melo and CP3 or Tony Parker will join forces in NYC. Multiple top money guys in the NBA could never play for the same team at the peak of their careers due to financial constraints. But LeBron, Wade and Bosh might have given the blueprint for everybody and this is not a good blueprint for the league in the long term. You could argue that Lakers were always that top team, but this is different. Even the Lakers had to grow their team organically due to NBA's economic rules, though it is true that success does seem to come easier for them than the other teams. They had Kobe and Shaq, but Kobe was drafted. They now have Kobe and Pau, but they traded for Pau. This is different from 3 of the top 5 picks in the same year coming together via free agency at the top of their game. This is the Heat "model".

The Heat are the most hated and the most intriguing NBA team right now. LeBron came out and said that race was part of the backlash against him. That ridiculous. You can't blame the white race for you going on a stupid "decision" show on ESPN and saying "I am taking my skills to South Beach". It's amazing that this once beloved home-town kid has become one of the top 6 most-hated sports personalities in the US. And he is now blaming others for his predicament. You left Cleveland, you went on TV and got all the attention you possibly can. Don't blame that on the white race. If you didn't milk your free agency like a poor third world cow farmer would milk his cow for the last drop of milk, the backlash wouldn't be this bad. And if you didn't have a bunch of high-school dropouts running your "global brand", you wouldn't have to learn that fact from this blog either! Your manager would have warned you so 24 months back when the attention started accumulating around your free agency.

Surprising week 3

Week 3 is usually when the NFL season gains some definition. NFL has been known for it's parity and hence there are always going to be a few surprising teams every season. And of course the first few weeks is when we are going to be surprised the most as these teams come out and disprove the expert's pre-season predictions. But there could be a few anomalies in the first 2 weeks as teams can catch a break with their schedule or run into a couple of tough teams. So week 3 normally ends up being a good indicator because as the number of games go from 2 to 3, the chances of fluke performances drastically decreases. Granted, it's still early days and teams can totally go from good to bad or bad to good from this point on to the end of the season. The San Diego chargers have done this many times and they are again on track for something similar with a 1-2 start. But by game 3, we typically get a good handle on most teams, if not all.

After week 3, there are 3 teams that are 3-0 and you could say 2 of them are surprises - KC Chiefs and the Chicago Bears. KC Chiefs one could argue have had an easy start to their schedule. Granted San Diego is tough, but they got them at home early in the season. Then they played Cleveland and San Francisco - 2 teams that are now 0-3, with San Francisco being the surprising 0-3 team. But Chiefs actually look very good. Thy have a lot of speed with their young guns and the Niners were exposed. They were not even competitive against the chiefs and it was funny listening to the Niners radio honks after the game still talking like they are some great team destined to win their division. One dude was saying they played down to their competition and was citing how they played well against the Saints and badly against the Chiefs and the Seahawks.

The niners were completely outplayed by the chiefs and it is pretty arrogant to talk about "playing down to the competition". Thats like me saying I didn't get a date with Angelina Jolie because I didn't use my best pickup lines on her :-) I love Mike Singletary, but I think his act is wearing thin and his job is under threat. He has now fired his offensive coordinator and that sounds like nothing but a defensive move to put the blame somewhere else. I hope he survives, but it is pretty clear that he is just an emotional, motivational type coach. His X's and O's is just not there.

There were several other surprising results last weekend. I was surprised by Dallas crushing Houston on the road. I guess Dallas showed up with everything they got to save their season. I still think Houston is the better team, but they can't play like that in a big game. Where were you Matt Schaub? Buffalo lost to the Patriots, but they made the game pretty interesting. The Patriots just don't have the defense this season to dominate teams. Brady better get ready to air it out and line up Moss behind him. The other surprises were Seattle running circles around the Chargers special teams and winning the game. Also, the rookie QB Sam Bradford is doing really well. The Rams shocked the Redskins at home 30-16. What's going on with McNabb and the skins? Minnesota saved it's season too behind Adrian Peterson against the now 0-3 Detroit. Jets beat Miami to go to 2-1 and Atlanta defeated the Saints in OT. There were a couple of games like the OT one which could have gone either way last weekend.

Raiders lost to Arizona, but the could have won if only the fatso sea-bass had made a 32 yard field goal. He is the highest paid kicker in the league and has such a strong leg, but he misses way too many critical field goals in my opinion. For his talent level, he is pretty inconsistent. The other close game this week was the Monday nighter between Green Bay and Chicago. It's funny to watch the Chicago offense. I don't think there has ever been a more risk taking offensive coordinator paired with a more reckless QB. Martz and Cutler just throw the ball wherever they want and surprisingly, the packers sill found a way to lose this gam via penalties. They still had a chance to win the game if only Greg Jennings hadn't fumbled ball away during the 2-minute drill. Aaron Rodgers played very well and his reputation is being cemented every time he takes the field. Cutler was not bad either, but some of his throws are interesting to say the least. He will be throwing some interesting interceptions this season.

Speaking of QBs, Vick is playing like the QB I thought he would be when I saw him play at Va Tech. I thought he was going to be the era defining QB for this era much like Dan Marino was for the 80's. And then he never became a great passer though he could run and had the arm strength. Now, it looks like everything is coming together. May be it's his maturity or may be it's the coaching at Philly, but he is making all the right reads, throwing precision darts and running effectively only when needed. It was fun just watching his highlights this week. Lets see if this continues when McNabb comes back to town next Sunday. Kyle Orton threw for 476 yards against the Colts and still lost. I am surprised he could do that. It probably was bad defense on the part of the Colts. Its funny that the top 5 guys yardage wise among the QBs (Orton, Rivers, Eli Manning, Brees and Henne) all lost proving once again defense wins championships. Well, unless we are talking about fantasy football championships, then it's great to have these QBs.

Week 3 is done and week 4 will only be better. In college, Arizona State played a frustrating game as they tried to come from behind and ended up throwing interception after interception after moving the ball well. Pathetic performance against a ranked team that couldn't actually stop them. The devils stopped themselves.

Flip-flop

In Philly, Andy Reid flip-flopped this week to go back from Kolb to Vick. He picked Kolb one day and switched sides the next. Now he claims that he has a great problem in his hands with 2 championship caliber QBs. First of all, neither him nor the Eagles should be talking about championships this season. Secondly, neither QBs are championship material. Vick has been playing well, but I think this is a bad decision. Granted, the stupid Philly fans will kill Kolb and Reid if Kolb started and faltered, but Kolb is their future. Vick's ceiling is set. He is a good runner and a mediocre QB. You traded away McNabb for Kolb and you have to set him up for the future. As somebody wrote on espn.com, seems like Eagles just wanted to replace McNabb with any QB NOT named Donovan McNabb! Kolb is young and talented and Vick's legs are not going to carry you that far. Sure, Vick is talented to win you a game or 2 all by himself, but this is becoming more and more of a passing league. There are more elite QBs right now than anytime in the recent past and Vick is not one of them. Let Kolb show what he is made up of before benching him for Vick.

I am not a Vick hater nor am I wedded to the "you can't lose your job to injury" philosophy, but there is some logic to that theory. You spent all your football intelligence and off-season training camps and OTAs and pre-season games to determine Kolb is your starter. Then he gets injured and Vick plays decent. Now you take the job and give it to Vick. So what if Kolb was indeed all that you told us he was? What if he was the next Peyton Manning? Are you going to derail his future just because Vick had 6 good quarters? I am not suggesting that Reid should be stubborn and stick to his decision, but he should let Kolb play and mature right now. It almost feels like Reid is afraid of his fan-base and would rather see Vick fail and then insert Kolb back instead of taking the tough, but right decision now. This might be a case of a fan-base influencing a head coach more than his common sense or football IQ. It's not a horrible decision, just a wrong one. Vick has played very well and he may even be better in the short-term than Kolb, but he doesn't do much for you long term and the Eagles have to think long-term here. Especially since they just got rid of Brian Westbrook and McNabb. This is the time to rebuild.

There are a couple of great games this weekend in the NFL. Houston is hosting Dallas in the Texas bowl and I am pretty sure they are going to whack the Cowboys. Schaub and the Texans are great on offense and are 2-0 after impressive wins. Schaub has been good for a couple of years now ever since he came to the Texans, though things never came together completely for him. This year might be the year where things jell together for him and the Texans. He threw for 497 yards (and crushed my team in fantasy) as the Texans beat McNabb and the Redskins 30-27 in OT. As McNabb and Shanahan and the rest of that team was walking to the locker room after this awesome game with all the yards and the twists and turns, I realized how draining NFL games should be. These guys spend the entire week preparing for this game and it should be hard to lose it in OT like that. It's a difficult, intense and physical line of work.

The Jets will be at the 2-0 Miami, who beat Favre and the Vikings last weekend. Jets payed a great game and shut down Brady and the Pats for a big win themselves. Darrelle Revis was injured on the play Randy Moss pulled in a superb one-handed catch for a TD. But the Jets did well anyways. Brady tried going to Moss on multiple occasions after the injury, but the strategy did not work. Chicago Bears will be facing the Packers next week to renew their long-standing rivalry. The Bears are a surprising 2-0 team and Culler and Mike Martz might get something going there. Cutler has the arm and Martz has the plays to use it. Last week, Cutler took care of the Cowboys in what was a great game. But the bears better be prepared for this one. It's one thing to stop Romo, but is a whole different ball-game if you want to stop Aaron Rodgers. Lets see how they do it.

In other sports, the Oregon State football team is going to Boise to supposedly give them their toughest game of the rest of the season. OSU actually painted their field blue to simulate road conditions. Not a bad idea, though a little newsworthy to say the least. If BSU wins, their BCS championship aspirations will not only stay alive, but look a lot more realistic. These mid-major teams always choke and lose these big games when it matters. But I think Boise state this year is different, In fact, they should not even be called a mid-major. Thats ofensive to a team like that. In basketball, Warriors coach Don Nelson is rumored to depart and turn the keys over to Keith Smart. This sounds like a great idea on paper and it probably upgrades the defense, rebounding and rotation. But Nelly's system provides a level of offensive success and excitement that sometimes translates into great fan and team energy and propels a team forward. This is especially true with young, talented teams and the only downside to Nelly leaving is that this offensive energy might dissipate unless Smart is smart enough to continue to tap into that well.

The Baseball pennant races are in full swing. The Yankees and the Rays are in a cut-throat battle for the AL East while the Padres and Giants are placed pretty close. With that pitching, Giants have had a season way better than expected. Hope they taper off and go away. They either win 13-0 or lose 0-1. That offense is feast or famine, but that pitching is forcing famine in a lot of cities around the National League. The ERAs of their starting pitching are 3 (Cain), 3.16 (Sanchez), 3.26 (Bumgarner), 3.6 (Lincecum) and 3.98 (Zito). Thats an awesome range even in this non-juiced, pitcher friendly year. They obviously have the best ERA in the league followed by San Diego, who is fighting them for the NL West crown. It should be a fun 10 days in this division, but unfortunately my DBacks have nothing to offer. Most of the other divisions are not competitive and the Twins actually clinched the division already and have the best record in Baseball. Ron Gardenhire is awesome! He and Matt Schaub may be two of the most under-rated talents in sports today.

Tough games

Two of my teams had a rough, rough day on the field last football weekend. Both these teams just gave away their game to the opponent and luck was not on their side as well. First it was ASU on Saturday going into Madison and outplaying the 11-Th ranked Wisconsin badgers. I was at a sports bar with some friendly, mid-western alums from Wisconsin and the grip was on for them once they saw how fast and effective the ASU running game was in the first quarter. But after both teams missed a field goal, the ASU receivers dropped a couple of catchable passes in the end-zone. Mistakes like that on the road are always costly. The badgers special teams had no answers to the Devils kick-off and punt returns and the Devils scored a TD through their special teams. But then they almost returned one more at the halftime buzzer. It was so hard to see them get tacked at the 1 yard line with no time on the clock. That was just bad luck. They could have scored if the guy got one more yard or if we had one more second on the clock for a field-goal kick or a play. They came back in the second half and the game went back and forth. The Devils fell behind, but came back to score a TD to make it 20-19. They then missed an extra point kick to lose the game. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tough way to lose the game.

Then on Monday night, the niners lose a great game in a similar way. I am not a passionate fan of any particular NFL team except my fantasy team, but I do have a soft-corer for the niners. They will probably be in my top 3 list in the NFL along with the Arizona Cardinals and the Oakland Raiders. They played very well and defended Drew Breezy and the Saints effectively. But 4 turnovers did not help their cause. Alex Smith had 2 interceptions, both of which didn't seem like his mistake exclusively. The first one was intended for Gore and was a little wide and inaccurate, but both INTs were tipped balls. Some of these turnovers were also in the red-zone and those are the worst. Despite all these mistakes, the niners had a chance to tie the game with a TD and a 2 point conversion. Alex Smith got them both in what was the best drive of his career up to this point. The 2-point conversion was denied by the refs initially, but a booth review overturned it and tied the game up.

The only problem was, Alex Smith left too much time on the clock for the Saints. Breezy did what Breezy do and basically won the game for the Saints 25-22. The game winning kick was actually tipped by the niner defender, but went in anyways. This was really unlucky for the niners. It's not often you see a tipped kick make it through the goalpost. That hurt. If not for the 4 turnovers, the niners could have beaten the champs 30-15 or something. The niners have now lost 2 games where they looked like the better team for 6 out of 8 quarters. May be Mike Singletary does have to take some responsibility for this. I like him a lot and I think he is a great professional and a great motivator, but I am not sure if he is a great Xs and Os coach. Also, his fire and brimstone approach can wear thin easily. The niners better start winning before the players start tuning out Mike. I like Alex Smith too. I hear good things about him as a person and this game might be the first time where fans and the media are also saying good things about Alex Smith, the football player.

Anyways, 2 days, 2 teams, 2 great games, but 2 heart-breaking losses.

Week to week

Life is flowing gently from week to week right now. Thats the beauty of the football season. You start following the rhythm of the football season - both college and NFL, and your excitement level picks up towards the weekend and settles down during the week. With some spike in excitement Monday night for MNF and Thursday night if you are a hardcore college guy. Week 1 was good in the NFL. Lots of low scoring games as the offenses are still trying to get into the groove. New Orleans beat Minnesota 14-9 and Washington beat Dallas 13-7 in 2 of the more surprising low scoring games. Baltimore beat the over-rated Jets 10-9 in a game which didn't surprise me at all. The one true upset of the week was Indianapolis losing 34-24 to Houston despite Manning throwing for 433 yards and 3 TDs. This was a huge win for Houston as we have all been waiting for them to take the next step. This victory might propel them to much better chemistry and performance down the road this season.

In college, ASU is playing Wisconsin tomorrow. Arizona is playing Iowa and the cats are ranked 24. Hope they lose and stay out of the rankings. No other major top-25 match-ups between ranked teams. Last weekend, Va Tech lost to James Madison 21-16 at home. This was shocking and embarrassing for the Hokies, but more importantly, this diluted Boise state's win over the Hokies the weekend before. So Boise lost some shine and may be some number 1 votes even without playing a game. Classic college football - broken system with questionable semantics. I always love how at the end of year talk shows are endlessly arguing about the relative superiority of conferences. Oregon state lost to Mississippi state which lost to Tennessee but Tennessee lost to UCLA which in turn lost to Oregon state. So is the Pac-10 better or the SEC? You can argue about all this till the cows come home and thats exactly what NCAA wants us to do. We are still a few months away from such discussions. Lets enjoy the games until then.

Bring on the NFL

The first NFL Sunday is almost here, It's like christmas-eve for sports fan as we get ready for the must-see TV over the next 5 months. America's top league takes over Sundays from now until early February and dominates some Mondays and Thursdays too. The season officially kicked off Thursday with the much awaited Saints-Viking matchup. The game didn't live up to the hype and neither did Brees or Favre, but it was still awesome to see football on TV and see these superstars play. Saints won as expected, but the scoring was not nearly as prolific as people expected. I was a little surprised at the Saints and Brees having trouble scoring. I am going to go ahead and give the credit to the Vikings defense. I think they are good and thats good news if you are a Vikings fan.

The Vikings offense on the other hand didn't look that great. Understandable considering Favre is just getting back into the groove and with Sidney Rice missing. Adrian Peterson had a few good runs, but Favre was clearly off on a few throws. He spoke about it in the post-game show and claimed that the game would have been different if he was not off on those throws. I would be pissed if I was a Vikings fan. He is talking about being a little off after missing all of training camp. Isn't that what practice is for? To get all of the timing and chemistry nailed down. Of course he is off and he can't use slugs like Cleveland and Detroit as training camp substitute this season since their schedule is a lot harder. But I think they are going to be fine given that defense and the fact that Favre is going to be fine eventually.

Favre's old team, the Packers are a trendy super bowl pick from the NFC this season. I am surprised, but happy about it. I have always been a fan of Aaron Rodgers and he is clearly one of the top QBs in the league today. Suddenly this era has become a golden era for quarterbacks after a few years of serious mediocrity at the position outside of a coupe of elite QBs. Now, there are more than a dozen high quality QBs with a lot of young guns like Rodgers and Rivers. I was happy to see A-Rod lead all QBs in the fantasy rankings. I don't always remember when I am wrong, but I won't forget to remind people if and when I am right. I told anybody who would listen that Rodgers will be good and same with Brees. I have liked both these guys from their college days and they had their ups and downs in the league, but they have finally arrived. Tomorrow, Rodgers and the Packers have a big start against Phily. Week 1 features a lot of good games and I am ready for all of them.

In college today, Penn state couldn't hang with Alabama and Florida state got embarrassed by Oklahoma. Miami lost to Ohio state and Georgia lost to South Carolina in the top-25. The biggest loser of the weekend didn't even play. Boise state was off after their impressive victory, but Va Tech made sure it was not that impressive anymore by promptly losing to James Madison at home. Not sure what it does to Boise state's championship aspirations, but it can't be good. In the Pac-10, my man - captain comeback Jim Harbaugh and his boys from Stanford undressed the Bruins 35-0. Thats a great start to their Pac-10 season. ASU won and the other great win for Pac-10 was with Oregon crushing Tennessee 48-13. USA barely sneaked past