Thursday, September 29, 2005
Rants! Raves! Drew's the mvp! Madden curse continues!
A few things to ramble on before I go into fantasy football week 3...
Rants: Don't worry, I won't rant about work this time, I promise. Apparently, the Hanshin Tigers have won and clinched their 2nd division title in 3 years and everyone was going nuts out in the streets of Osaka. A few things irk me though...
1. Everyone cares only about the division title, yet nobody even cares about the playoffs! Why?! This drives me crazy! Regular season records mean everything in this current system. That's just plain wrong! The 2nd best team in the division couldn't close the gap fast enough and now they're complete losers. Oh, the agony! This system just completely murders the thrilling aspect of professional sports! What if one team just has a complete vice-grip on the entire division, like the Cardinals in MLB? I mean, the 2nd best team in their division is behind by like, what, 9.5 games or something? Seriously, if regular season records really mean THAT much to teams, why don't more teams play with complete urgency in every game? Even if all the teams and players try to play with complete urgency in every game, it's impossible to keep up that level of intensity for such a long time. Try imagining Jack Bauer keeping up that level of intensity for 4 straight days...that's what it would be like. Sheesh, if fans are already celebrating like their team won the championship, shouldn't they be celebrating BECAUSE of a championship victory?! In the words of the immortal Jim Mora: "P-Playoffs?! What do you mean playoffs?! We're just trying to win one game!!!"
2. I miss football. TERRIBLY! Here's the flipside to the coin of a baseball season. 17 regular season games, 4 postseason games. Crazy antics of T.O. and Moss, great quotes from Chad Johnson, shaky QBs like Chad Pennington and Kurt Warner, snake-bitten teams like the Jets who lose BOTH their starting QB and backup QB to injuries! Shaky coaching like the Mikes (Holmgren, Shanahan, Tice, hall of famer Martz). Throw all of them in the mix and you've got guys who are so intense, that they scare you when you watch them on tv (watch Ray Lewis sometime, trust me!), hillarious stuff from prima-donna WRs, quotes from Chad Johnson firing up the other team so much that they're looking for blood in the next game, shaky QBs and coaches adding suspense to every game. Add in the final touch of playoff football, where every game is do or die, and it equals to just about the best product of entertainment! Unfortunately, I live in Japan, where the most popular sports are baseball and soccer. Dammit, I miss football!
Rave: Although I do miss football, I was able to catch a little bit of the Broncos - Chiefs game on satellite tv here. The only downsides were that they showed it at 12:20am and that it's pre-recorded. The great thing is, pre-recorded actually means that they cut out ALL the commercials! So now, everytime the coaches call a timeout or when halftime begins, 2 seconds later the next play will start! It's excellent! Like having TIVO without the TIVO, if that makes sense. Furthermore, Al Michaels and John Madden were calling the game! I'm switching to cable, hopefully soon!
Ok, on to week 3:
I won my first game of the season and it felt really good. I still can't believe how it happened though, as Drew (not Brees!) has been absolutely carrying my team this season! Here's my starting lineup:
Drew Bledsoe-QB, McGahee-RB, Barlow-RB (Lewis had a bye week, so I had to grab an extra RB), WRs - Stallworth, Steve Smith, Rod Smith, Gonzales-TE, Chicago D
Well, Bledsoe threw for 363 yards and 2 TDs, and ran for a TD, which basically makes him the co-mvp of my team so far. Steve Smith was just a monster, 3 TDs! Unfortunately, Stallworth didn't even get one catch, though that's mostly Aaron Brooks' fault! Rod Smith was pretty solid though. McGahee was very good. I still couldn't believe that the Bills lost with him rushing for over a 100 yards in the game, but I'm glad he had the numbers. Barlow was mediocre. Not terrible, just mediocre. I probably should have read up on the Broncos/Chiefs rivalry, because the Broncos still own the Chiefs at home and Gonzales didn't get as many catches as he should've gotten, no thanks to Green! Chicago was torn up by the Bengals unfortunately. Still, this was my highest scoring total in one game so far and it was enough to win week 3. Since Dallas is playing against Oakland's non-existent defense, I'm starting Bledsoe again. Stay tuned...
Almost forgot: McNabb needs surgery after getting banged up. He's also on the cover of Madden 2006. The curse is strong with this one...
Rants: Don't worry, I won't rant about work this time, I promise. Apparently, the Hanshin Tigers have won and clinched their 2nd division title in 3 years and everyone was going nuts out in the streets of Osaka. A few things irk me though...
1. Everyone cares only about the division title, yet nobody even cares about the playoffs! Why?! This drives me crazy! Regular season records mean everything in this current system. That's just plain wrong! The 2nd best team in the division couldn't close the gap fast enough and now they're complete losers. Oh, the agony! This system just completely murders the thrilling aspect of professional sports! What if one team just has a complete vice-grip on the entire division, like the Cardinals in MLB? I mean, the 2nd best team in their division is behind by like, what, 9.5 games or something? Seriously, if regular season records really mean THAT much to teams, why don't more teams play with complete urgency in every game? Even if all the teams and players try to play with complete urgency in every game, it's impossible to keep up that level of intensity for such a long time. Try imagining Jack Bauer keeping up that level of intensity for 4 straight days...that's what it would be like. Sheesh, if fans are already celebrating like their team won the championship, shouldn't they be celebrating BECAUSE of a championship victory?! In the words of the immortal Jim Mora: "P-Playoffs?! What do you mean playoffs?! We're just trying to win one game!!!"
2. I miss football. TERRIBLY! Here's the flipside to the coin of a baseball season. 17 regular season games, 4 postseason games. Crazy antics of T.O. and Moss, great quotes from Chad Johnson, shaky QBs like Chad Pennington and Kurt Warner, snake-bitten teams like the Jets who lose BOTH their starting QB and backup QB to injuries! Shaky coaching like the Mikes (Holmgren, Shanahan, Tice, hall of famer Martz). Throw all of them in the mix and you've got guys who are so intense, that they scare you when you watch them on tv (watch Ray Lewis sometime, trust me!), hillarious stuff from prima-donna WRs, quotes from Chad Johnson firing up the other team so much that they're looking for blood in the next game, shaky QBs and coaches adding suspense to every game. Add in the final touch of playoff football, where every game is do or die, and it equals to just about the best product of entertainment! Unfortunately, I live in Japan, where the most popular sports are baseball and soccer. Dammit, I miss football!
Rave: Although I do miss football, I was able to catch a little bit of the Broncos - Chiefs game on satellite tv here. The only downsides were that they showed it at 12:20am and that it's pre-recorded. The great thing is, pre-recorded actually means that they cut out ALL the commercials! So now, everytime the coaches call a timeout or when halftime begins, 2 seconds later the next play will start! It's excellent! Like having TIVO without the TIVO, if that makes sense. Furthermore, Al Michaels and John Madden were calling the game! I'm switching to cable, hopefully soon!
Ok, on to week 3:
I won my first game of the season and it felt really good. I still can't believe how it happened though, as Drew (not Brees!) has been absolutely carrying my team this season! Here's my starting lineup:
Drew Bledsoe-QB, McGahee-RB, Barlow-RB (Lewis had a bye week, so I had to grab an extra RB), WRs - Stallworth, Steve Smith, Rod Smith, Gonzales-TE, Chicago D
Well, Bledsoe threw for 363 yards and 2 TDs, and ran for a TD, which basically makes him the co-mvp of my team so far. Steve Smith was just a monster, 3 TDs! Unfortunately, Stallworth didn't even get one catch, though that's mostly Aaron Brooks' fault! Rod Smith was pretty solid though. McGahee was very good. I still couldn't believe that the Bills lost with him rushing for over a 100 yards in the game, but I'm glad he had the numbers. Barlow was mediocre. Not terrible, just mediocre. I probably should have read up on the Broncos/Chiefs rivalry, because the Broncos still own the Chiefs at home and Gonzales didn't get as many catches as he should've gotten, no thanks to Green! Chicago was torn up by the Bengals unfortunately. Still, this was my highest scoring total in one game so far and it was enough to win week 3. Since Dallas is playing against Oakland's non-existent defense, I'm starting Bledsoe again. Stay tuned...
Almost forgot: McNabb needs surgery after getting banged up. He's also on the cover of Madden 2006. The curse is strong with this one...
# posted by bastard : 6:04 PM
