Monday, November 01, 2004
Fakers lose, Brees looks like Marino, Pats streak ended
The Fakers
I've been bashing the Minnesota Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts (as well as the Seattle Seahawks) pretty hard this season, so I take great pride in pointing out their losses yesterday. It's not even their fault that I have such animosity towards them. Rather, it's the fault of the so-called experts who think these teams are capable of winning the Superbowl. I sincerely think not.
Even though Randy Moss only played one half yesterday, Minnesota got absolutely pasted at home by a superior, underrated New York Giants team. The Giants are playing some great football and, despite being in New York, really don't seem to be getting their due. Let me tell you something, Tiki Barber is playing like an MVP and Kurt Warner isn't making mistakes at quarterback. Combine that with a strong defense and it might very well be the Giants who end up challenging the Eagles for the NFC crown. Minnesota, of course, had their defense further exposed as being flimsy and unable to stop the run. Culpepper slipped back into his bad habit of forcing mistakes and, unsurprisingly, the Vikings of this season look like the Vikings of last season. You know? The ones who collapsed at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Indianapolis (high flying offense and all), got lit up for 45 points. Granted, they played Kansas City who is finally back on track with their explosive offense (they've scored 101 points in the last two weeks), but the point here is that Peyton Manning can throw 5 touchdowns -- as he did yesterday -- and the Colts can still lose. I love it. Defense wins championships.
Drew Brees
Part of my bitterness against paper-tigers stems from my frustration at watching the Oakland Raiders. Looks like they'll have to start preparing for next season after getting smashed by a hot San Diego team, 42-14. That's 5 straight losses for Oakland with no sign of righting the ship. Great. The thing about yesterday, though, is they made a much maligned quarterback (Drew Brees) look like Dan Marino in his prime. He completed 22-25 passes and had 5 touchdowns. Now, admittedly, Brees is having a career season and I'm happy for him because he's been shit on in San Diego for an awful lot that wasn't his fault, but he shouldn't be putting up numbers like that. Not when his best receiver is a tight end who didn't play college football.
Streak Snapped
So it finally ended for New England. 21 consecutive victories came to an end against a really really good Pittsburgh team. I don't know that Corey Dillon's absence affected the outcome that much because the Steelers looked very game. Thanks to a scheduling quirk, they get to play another unbeaten (the lone one this year) in Philly next week. If the Steelers win that, you can bet their bandwagon will get pretty full. All this on the arm of rookie QB sensation Ben Roethlisberger. For the record, the Patriots' accomplishments are far more impressive than the '72 Dolphins who are the only team to have an undefeated single season. The league is much much tougher now and both teams came out with a Superbowl. Pats also had a longer streak.
One last thing
Mentioned it in the post below, but Green Bay beating Washington is a good thing. Whether you believe in that sort of garbage/omen or not, vote Kerry.
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I've been bashing the Minnesota Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts (as well as the Seattle Seahawks) pretty hard this season, so I take great pride in pointing out their losses yesterday. It's not even their fault that I have such animosity towards them. Rather, it's the fault of the so-called experts who think these teams are capable of winning the Superbowl. I sincerely think not.
Even though Randy Moss only played one half yesterday, Minnesota got absolutely pasted at home by a superior, underrated New York Giants team. The Giants are playing some great football and, despite being in New York, really don't seem to be getting their due. Let me tell you something, Tiki Barber is playing like an MVP and Kurt Warner isn't making mistakes at quarterback. Combine that with a strong defense and it might very well be the Giants who end up challenging the Eagles for the NFC crown. Minnesota, of course, had their defense further exposed as being flimsy and unable to stop the run. Culpepper slipped back into his bad habit of forcing mistakes and, unsurprisingly, the Vikings of this season look like the Vikings of last season. You know? The ones who collapsed at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Indianapolis (high flying offense and all), got lit up for 45 points. Granted, they played Kansas City who is finally back on track with their explosive offense (they've scored 101 points in the last two weeks), but the point here is that Peyton Manning can throw 5 touchdowns -- as he did yesterday -- and the Colts can still lose. I love it. Defense wins championships.
Drew Brees
Part of my bitterness against paper-tigers stems from my frustration at watching the Oakland Raiders. Looks like they'll have to start preparing for next season after getting smashed by a hot San Diego team, 42-14. That's 5 straight losses for Oakland with no sign of righting the ship. Great. The thing about yesterday, though, is they made a much maligned quarterback (Drew Brees) look like Dan Marino in his prime. He completed 22-25 passes and had 5 touchdowns. Now, admittedly, Brees is having a career season and I'm happy for him because he's been shit on in San Diego for an awful lot that wasn't his fault, but he shouldn't be putting up numbers like that. Not when his best receiver is a tight end who didn't play college football.
Streak Snapped
So it finally ended for New England. 21 consecutive victories came to an end against a really really good Pittsburgh team. I don't know that Corey Dillon's absence affected the outcome that much because the Steelers looked very game. Thanks to a scheduling quirk, they get to play another unbeaten (the lone one this year) in Philly next week. If the Steelers win that, you can bet their bandwagon will get pretty full. All this on the arm of rookie QB sensation Ben Roethlisberger. For the record, the Patriots' accomplishments are far more impressive than the '72 Dolphins who are the only team to have an undefeated single season. The league is much much tougher now and both teams came out with a Superbowl. Pats also had a longer streak.
One last thing
Mentioned it in the post below, but Green Bay beating Washington is a good thing. Whether you believe in that sort of garbage/omen or not, vote Kerry.
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