The Crystal Ball Week 7

Originally Posted on Quick Thoughts on October 20, 2006.


I must start off this week with at least an acknowledgement of the Fall Classic, set to start Saturday night. This year’s opponents match the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League vs. the American League representative the Detroit Tigers. Normally, being a Pirates fan, I would throw a cursory good luck to the National League entry. But not this year, this year, its go Tigers! To be honest, I do not care much for baseball. I used to be a huge fan. Each spring, I would watch Major League over and over just to get myself into the right frame of mind. I knew rosters and followed the Pirates all season long. But for me, after the league had the strike in 1994, it ruined the illusion that any of it mattered for me. If a bunch of overpaid athletes and overpaid owners could not hash out a deal with each other that essentially meant pennies to them, but a lifetime’s salary to most of those who watch the game, then they are not worth my time. I know many went back, especially after 1998, but in my opinion they still do not have things right. They ignored their steroids problem because it helped put people back in the seats, and now they are only paying the issue lip service. They still have no real salary cap, which keeps some smaller market teams down and turns them into little more than player factories for the bigger teams. It just does not matter much to me anymore. I left it behind, never looked back, and have never felt bad about it. Occasionally, I will still go to a game. There is nothing like the experience of a sunny afternoon at the ball park. But more often than not, I try to only go to minor league games. Most of those guys still give a damn, either because they are trying to get to the show, or trying for one last shot. But other than that, I tune out come summertime.

But this year, I will root for the Tigers, and for more than a few reasons. First, the city of Detroit has been very good to me this year. Was that really all the way back in February? Seems almost like a lifetime ago. And Lord knows that city could use something to celebrate as their own, other than Jerome Bettis finally getting a championship ring. Second, Jim Leyland is their manager, and I love me some Jimmy Leyland. Great manager, he turned around the Pirates and made them winners, and that was the last time they were winners, unfortunately. And third, I saw their ALCS clincher, and realized their first base coach is Andy Van Slyke. Back in the day, he was my favorite Pirate. I loved the way he played the game and how much passion and fight he brought every time he played, even after things started going south for the Pirates. He was a great player, and a great guy. And I will always remember how much he gave to the team, and how their defeats in the NLCS were so crushing to him. He felt them like the fans did. I remember the image of him in 1992 sitting broken and dejected in centerfield of Fulton County Stadium after game 7 of the NLCS after Atlanta had improbably come back to win. If he could get a ring here with Leyland, it would feel like a small victory for all Pirate fans. Of Detroit’s 7 coaches, 6 are former Pirate players, coaches or managers. And all of them are a reminder to me of a time when I loved baseball, before I wrote it off, and of a time when Pittsburgh baseball was relevant and mattered, as something more than a player development team for those in baseball with bigger pockets who sign away anyone of quality that will come up through the Pirate organization. So to Leyland, Van Slyke and the rest, you have an additional Tigers fan this post season. Bring home that ring.

Ok, one other not necessarily football related tidbit. Ooooooh, that damn Manning! After railing about him last week, he goes and does something this week that just killed me! I saw a new commercial for Sportscenter with the entire Manning family. The commercial was set up as if they are taking a tour of the facilities. As they are walking through the complex, Peyton and Eli are in the back, flicking each other and basically acting like 10 year old brothers. It made me laugh so hard, I flashed back to me and my own brother during one of many trips with my mother to the grocery store. Not just when we were kids, but the last time I was home and we went with my mom. Ha ha, she thought with us grown up she would never have to be mortified in a store again, boy was she wrong! Stupid Manning, it is hard to stay so worked up about him when he can be so blasted entertaining. Regardless….

Wow, there was a litany of close games this week. Seattle/St. Louis, Philly/New Orleans, Tennessee/Washington and Cincinnati/Tampa Bay were all close games that went down to the wire, and oddly enough, went the wrong way for me. I could have had killer week part deux, but some teams just refused to lose, while other refused to win. Guess there is a little fight left in a few of these teams.

First, yes, Cincinnati losing hurt my poll, but it sure helps in the division! I guess they did show us what they are made of after all. Not much more than some flashy jailbirds and hyped up nonsense. Couple that with Baltimore losing, and then hitting the panic button and firing Jim Fassel, excellent move by the way, plus the, at least temporary, return of Kyle Boller, and suddenly I’m feeling pretty good about how things are beginning to shape up in the AFC North.

Speaking of AFC North teams, how bout them Steelers!!! All is good in the Burgh again. Nothing like a little win to salve all the old ails, especially one with a 45 point offensive explosion. Troy looks back to normal, as does Roethlisberger, and thank goodness for that. The offense and defense run through those two men, and when they play poorly, the whole team plays poorly as well. And it had been showing. Ben was dead on all day, making great decisions and zipping passes all over the field. It must have been the return of the beard. Roethlisberger was 16-19 with two touchdowns and no picks for 238 yards. Willie Parker had 2 touchdowns and 109 yards rushing. Polamalu had 9 tackles and an interception, and did not even let Mr. Larry Johnson picking him up by his hair disrupt his cool demeanor. Even Cris Collinsworth said after the game that Pittsburgh is back and will go to the playoffs. If that is not a vote of confidence, I do not know what is. Plus, we got to see the return of Chad Brown. Number 94 had a sack in his first playing time as a Steeler in a decade. As a matter of fact, it was the only sack of the day. It was nice to see Chad back where he belongs, although if you ask me he should have never left.

I gotta say it; I am legitimately frightened of New Orleans. Yes, Philly had a bit of a let down game, but still the Birds played tough in the second half and the Saints still won. They finished with a game ending drive that took up the last 8:24 of the game. That is astounding. When you can hold onto the ball for that long and keep it away from your opponent, and still score, you are doing more than one or two things right. New Orleans can go far with their team and the chemistry. And honestly, I am afraid to see what will happen when they come to Pittsburgh. Luckily, we have beaten Brees before, so I bet we can do it again.

Boy did Da Bears have a tough one in the desert. It was much tougher than anyone ever thought possible, and I will bet more than a few people lost a few bucks betting the spread on that one. But you see it was not really as tough as you may think. Ditka told the team before the game that it was not fair fight, so they had to take the first half off, and then it would be fairer and a better challenge for Da Bears. And then at halftime, he said they could play, but only the defense. And as he always was when he was the coach, Ditka was right. Honestly, how much worse could the offense have played? How do you give up the ball 6 times and win? Seriously, did Grossman and Orton switch uniforms before the game just for giggles? How do you come back from being down 23-3 without scoring once on offense? An amazing performance by the defense and special teams was on display. That is how championship caliber teams really play, by coming up big when you are down and not everything is going right. They win by finding a way to win, no matter what. There might be something to these Bears. Ditka is proud, and somewhere, Chris Farley is smiling with a beer and a polish sausage.

On the other side of the ball, Arizona did a masterful job of throwing that game away. They had the Bears beat, BEAT. By almost the end of the third quarter, the score was 23-3, Arizona. The Cardinals defense was playing their hearts out, leaving everything they ever had on the field. They were aggressive, opportunistic, tireless, tenacious and above all, tough. They smacked the Bears offense right in the mouth time and time again, showing no fear of the much vaunted Bear Offense. They gave up 3 points in that game. 3 total points, AND THEY LOST THE GAME 24-23! If I were a Cardinals defensive player, I would have walked into the locker room after the game and strangled the first offensive player I could find.

Since Arizona has a rookie running the offense, and now one calling the plays, let me make a few notes for these newbies. One, running the ball kills the clock. Know how to do that well? GET A BETTER OFFENSIVE LINE. How many times do I need to say it? The current line is barely adequate at pass protection and would be horrid if Leinart did not have such a quick delivery. But when Edge James gets 55 yards on 36 carries for the entire game, well that is a shameful statistic. What is even more shameful, that this type of performance is not an aberration for this game; it is the norm for the season. To add to their woes, James keeps complaining about being a bigger part of the offense, so they give him 36 carries, and what does he do? He gets a total of 55 yards and then fumbles the ball at a critical moment that directly results in a Bears touchdown. Which leads me to another little note, hold onto the ball. Fumbles by James and Leinart led DIRECTLY to 14 Bear points, and put them right back into the game. Oh, and one other thing, your kicker seems to have jumped the shark, so you might want to look upon him as an absolute last ditch option.

Wow, what a fantastic collapse, and I am referring to Denny Green’s in the post game news conference. That was the most entertaining part of a night full of great football, just super stuff. He really lost it. That’s a TIVO moment if ever I saw one. Better even than Jim Mora’s playoffs speech, or Herm Edwards talking about why we play the game when he was with the Jets. I almost wanted to get a bowl of popcorn and watch him melt down over and over again. Of course, now he’s overcorrected everything by firing his offensive coordinator. Yeah, that was the problem. Oh, do not be mistaken, coaching was the issue in that game, but I doubt it was the offensive coordinator’s fault.

Has anyone been watching the NBC games? I love the Rock star of the week. But what I want to know is who is the sucker that has to go out to the top of the building and put the picture of that week’s winner up there at 11:30 at night. Now that is a thankless job, if ever there was one. Do the NBC interns play rock, paper, and scissors on Friday afternoon until one chump loses out? Maybe they could have a contest for NFL fans, and have the winner up there all night, and occasionally Al and John could throw it to them, and get their input on the game. Now that would be fun come mid December. I do love it when Madden says, each week, we’ve come a long way from the horse trailer. I was so disappointed when he didn’t say it this week. It felt like the game was incomplete.

Well, this week is the second week in a row with only 13 games to be played. Plus, for some reason there is no Sunday night game this week. According to Al Michaels, they have bye week. Color me confused, but since when do networks get a bye week? That is one of the most absurd things I have heard yet. NBC, after many years, finally gets football back. And they get a primetime game every week, a time where they are featured network. So far this season, they have been outclassing all other broadcasts, but did they let it go to their heads? Is this some strange quirk that has something to do with the impending schedule shift that will determine who will be playing future Sunday night games? It seems really odd to me. I bet, though, that it has something to do with Madden being honored by the Raiders during their home game this week. It is such a shame that this honoring of their former coach will be the only highlight of the day for Raider Nation.

So nothing spectacular this week, but at least I was still on the winning side. Check it out.

Last Week: 7-6
Season to Date: 52-35

I cannot say I am thrilled about it, but at least the numbers on the left were higher than the numbers on the right. And, it is really easy to forget how horrible you did in the poll that week when your team hangs 45 points and completely crushes its opponent. Tee hee. Plus, each week is a new opportunity to do better, and oh, here is a new week.

Teams with a bye week this week are Baltimore, Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco, St. Louis and Tennessee. Baltimore made a great move this week, firing Jim Fassel as the scapegoat for their crappy offense. How ridiculous of a move is that? I will tell you. Fassel was brought in originally as a consultant, to help the maturation of Boller. By the end of last season, his progress with the young QB was beginning to show. But by then, it was not enough for Baltimore, so they brought in broken down Steve McNair. Predictably, McNair underperforms trying to learn a new system and be the quarterback he was 6 years ago. Even more predictably, he gets hurt, forcing Boller back into the lineup. Boller, who has now worked with Fassel for a few years and knows the system in and out, pours out three touchdowns in what could only be called in Baltimore as an offensive explosion. Of course, it was not enough because Carolina is a much better team. So what do they do, looking down the barrel of extended time without McNair and with Boller at the controls? Fire the one guy with whom Boller is comfortable. So now Kyle, whose confidence I am sure is at a low point for being benched in the first place, now has to go directly to Billick for his plays, knowing that Billick does not particularly care for him. BRILLIANT MOVE RAVENS. Well, it is in my book, since I now see us passing them in the coming weeks. Excellent, it’s like an early Thanksgiving present. Chicago had to have this week off, not only because of the scare in the desert, but also because Ditka’s birthday was this week. New Orleans can sit back and breathe, knowing they are only a few wins away from having something that is as rare in the city as a working government, a winning season. And I say good for them, because the team, its fans, the city and state have a need for something to cheer about. San Francisco, well, there is not much to say. Enjoy the rest and keep working, you will get there eventually. St. Louis can sit and grumble about blowing a winnable game at the end and wait for revenge. And that brings us to Tennessee, who is looking good all of a sudden. It would seem like they made an excellent choice with Vince Young. Taking Indianapolis to the wire, and then beating Washington at home, the Titans are now shaping up to be one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL. Not good enough to make the playoffs, but more than good enough to ruin it for anyone else.


Carolina at Cincinnati

Is it possible, that all of the off the field distractions that have surrounded the Bengals are finally catching up with them? They looked flat and uninspired, and like they were confused about what was going on out on the field. I saw it when they played Pittsburgh, but since the Steelers gave them that game, no one said anything. Then they got pounded by New England, and finally, some of it cropped up, but too many thought it might be just a letdown game after the Pittsburgh game. But now, finally real talk is happening. The Bengals are reverting to form. There is still a ton of talent and potential on that team, but if someone does not step up and lead them, it will be worthless and wasted. As for Carolina, 0-2 without Steve Smith, 4-0 with Steve Smith. Steve Smith will be playing this week. Hard to argue against that.

Carolina over Cincinnati


Detroit at N.Y. Jets

Ugh, do I have to say something about this game? Ok, uh, well, it will be played in the Meadowlands. There will be two teams. Hmmmm, oh, and the Tigers will help the good people of Detroit forget about the mess that is the Lions.

N.Y. Jets over Detroit


Green Bay at Miami

Yikes, another stinker. Are there any good match ups this week? Sigh, well, at least this one features the Brett Favre farewell tour. I am sure soon enough the retirement talk will start up again, but Favre seems to be keeping the talk at bay this year by limiting his exposure to the media. Smart move, Brett, you might actually enjoy at least parts of the season that way. He may have to honestly look at things after the season in realistic terms. If he wants to play for a winner before he hangs them up for good, it will have to be somewhere other than Green Bay. I know he is the face of the Packers, and he keeps the fans coming back, but they are not going anywhere anytime soon. But the only one who really knows how he feels is Brett, and I imagine he just wants to get some wins this season. Considering this week, after getting some rest, they are playing the mess that is Miami I will take Brett, with or without Koren Robinson.

Green Bay over Miami


Jacksonville at Houston

Oh man, not another one. Is this torture or something? Are there any games worthwhile? Ugh, well, uhhh, ok. Houston got simultaneously spanked by Dallas and wrapped up in the TO circus, and Jacksonville had a week off after spanking the Jets, so I guess that should make this pretty simple.

Jacksonville over Houston


New England at Buffalo

Yikes, there just does not seem to be any compelling match ups this week. So far, it’s either ultra crappy versus ultra crappy, or ultra crappy versus good team. Here is an odd thought, though. Is it just me or does it seem as though the Away teams are significantly better, thus far, than the Home teams? It might just be me. I think we will see that dynamic in this game. As much as I hate to do it, I must.

New England over Buffalo


Philadelphia at Tampa Bay

Ok, this one has at least a modicum of interest. How will Philly react after losing last week to New Orleans? Will the defense step up after getting ground down in the fourth quarter against the Saints? Will McNabb get angry about losing a game like last week, when their offense did little in the first half, by exploding early and often this week? Will Tampa start to right their season, after showing promise over the past two weeks? How far will their rookie QB be able to take the team? Some compelling questions, at least one game so far has been able to produce a few.

Philadelphia over Tampa Bay


Pittsburgh at Atlanta

Finally, we have a compelling match up. The resurgent Steelers, flying high off of an offensive explosion against the Chiefs, charge into the Georgia Dome to take on the slightly reeling Falcons. Atlanta’s potent rushing attack will be a real test for Pittsburgh’s rushing defense. Containing Vick and keeping him in the pocket will be the key to the game. The Giants showed last week that it can be done, and that putting the game on Vick’s arm is the real secret to winning. Plus, the Giants exposed Atlanta’s defense, and showed they could be had. There are a million reason’s to watch this one, how well each team can respond from the week before, fantastic running versus fantastic run defense, and the outcome of this game will have implications on who will win the title for two different divisions. This is a very big game. I think finally one team is ready for a big game. Bet you cannot guess who.

Pittsburgh over Atlanta


San Diego at Kansas City

San Diego has earned the praise they have been receiving as of late. But, they are not nearly as good as everyone says they are. Beating a Pittsburgh team that was running on five cylinders and then pounding on the 49ers does not show me a great team. And last time I checked, Shottenheimer was still the coach. But, they will collect another win this week, and the Super Bowl talk will continue unabated.

San Diego over Kansas City


Denver at Cleveland

On the surface, this did not seem all that compelling. Now, I am not so sure about that assessment. Denver has a defense that is fantastic, tough, tenacious and stifling. But their offense is still something to be desired. They only managed to score13 points against Oakland; you know Shanahan was bothered by that. Cleveland is playing tough, but they are young and inexperienced in some areas, and just lacking in others. I think they could give Denver a run for their money, but the Broncos defense could be too much for Charlie Frye. Gotta go with the safe call here.

Denver over Cleveland


Arizona at Oakland

Originally, I thought this would be an easy win for Arizona. And even by halftime on Monday night, I was writing them in for this game. Now, I am not so sure. First, they are on a short week after playing on Monday night. Second, unless someone steps up in that locker room, they will still be shell shocked from losing to the Bears. Third, Oakland played somewhat tough in Denver, and the team and fans will be amped with John Madden in attendance as the team honors their latest hall of famer. Plus, I saw Lamont Jordan on the sidelines of the game last week after his fumble. I thought he might pound a hole in the ground so deep that he might bring the whole stadium down to sea level. At least someone on the Raiders has some passion and cares about how they do. If that is infectious, they might ruin their perfect defeated season. This could be their biggest test to date on their quest to get to 0-16. Hopefully, Arizona can overcome last week and the dismissal of their offensive coordinator and come through on the road. I bet Leinart can do it, and remind everyone in Oakland that they could have had him and drive the Raider fans completely insane.

Arizona over Oakland


Minnesota at Seattle

Minnesota had some rest and I bet is raring to go. Seattle is coming off a big last second win on the road against a division rival. Qwest Field will be rollicking, no doubt. Go 12th man! “snicker”. Alexander still is not playing, but I doubt that will mean too much this week.

Seattle over Minnesota


Washington at Indianapolis

Executive of the year Dan Snyder must be so proud of the concoction his ego and checkbook has created of a once great franchise. What, you mean just constantly overpaying for middling talent and a coaching staff that resembles a kitchen with too many cooks is not the secret to NFL success? How odd! I just cannot understand this team. One week they look like the class of the NFC, and the next week they look worse than Oakland. You never know which version of the Redskins is going to show up. This week, it could be the good one. Portis is looking for a big game, and Indy’s run defense is questionable. But they upgraded their defense in a trade with Miami, and Peyton is not ready to lose yet, especially to Washington.

Indianapolis over Washington


N.Y. Giants at Dallas

This looks to be a good match up as well between bitter division rivals. The Giants, for all their dysfunction, seem to play better when they fight amongst themselves. Dallas has kept the T.O. circus in check for almost a week, and is playing at home. This tough division game will have ramifications on who will take the lead in the NFC East. I say, Dallas staves off insanity for one more week, and the Giants drop one, and wonder if Tiki Barber really meant it when he said he is going to retire after the season.

Dallas over N.Y. Giants