Sports Curmudgeon

Yesterday was baseball day; so today will be football day here in Curmudgeon Central. And kudos have to go out to the Oakland Raiders who are riding a two-game winning streak now and who just beat the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers despite gaining less than 100 yards on offense all day. Ben Roethlisberger must have been trying to channel the Donovan McNabb performance from the Eagles/Bucs game because he threw four INTs and had two returned for TDs and the Steelers lost 20-13. Look, I understand that Roethlisberger is injured and I even said last week that I would not have played him in that game, but I have no explanation as to why he seems to be morphing into Kordell Stewart.

Give Raiders' DT, Warren Sapp, a measure of credit for perspective after that game. Said Sapp, "We're not going to go around and stroke our egos or anything like that. We're 2-5; we have a long way to go to get ourselves to .500." Good for him; he could have gone over the top after this game and he didn't. But let me add something else positive here. If you take a look at the standings, you'll see that the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-5 too.

Interestingly, Jerry Porter returned to the field for the Raiders for the first time this year. He caught a pass but the Raider offense gave up 6 sacks and gained a total of 98 yards for the day. Obviously, Jerry Porter isn't the complete answer to the offensive woes in Oakland.

The Jacksonville Jaguars simply rammed the ball down the Philadelphia Eagles' throats all day on Sunday. The Jags gained 209 yards rushing on 46 carries and held the ball for almost 37 minutes. That is an organized butt stomping! More interesting in the stats is the fact that Donovan McNabb was sacked 4 times in the game; he usually has more "escapability" than that.

The Jets managed to give the ball away to the Browns three times on Sunday and the offense was sleepwalking such that it could not even gain 200 yards all day. Against the Browns, that might not have mattered, but on this particular Sunday it did. The Jets dropped to .500 losing to a team they should beat "on any given Sunday".

The San Francisco 49ers were behind 41-0 at halftime and I wondered if the famous 73-0 game might be replicated here. It wasn't; the Bears went conservative - or maybe compassionate. But the 49ers did provide a moment of confusion in the game. With 11:35 to play in the fourth quarter, SF had the ball fourth and goal just outside the Bears' 5-yard line. They kicked a field goal to make it 41-3. Why? Did the special teams coach go to Mike Nolan and tell him he had a miracle scheme up his sleeve that he wanted to try out?

And of course, no thoughts about the last week's NFL games could be complete without a mention of the gutless and spiritless performance offered by the Arizona Cardinals in Lambeau Field. This was Green Bay's first win at home this year; this was the first time the Packers had two RBs go over 100 yards in a game in more than 20 years; this was Brett Favre's first rushing TD in over 5 years. By the way, it may not be all that embarrassing for the Cards to give up 100 yards in a game to Ahman Green; but the other RB to gain 100 yards was Vernand Morency; yeah, that Vernand Morency. The Cards defense was shredded to the tune of 383 yards. That's interesting because there were rumors that defensive coordinator, Clancy Pendergast, might be the interim coach to take over the Cards if Dennis Green were to be fired. Meanwhile, Edgerrin James still has not cracked the 100-yard mark in a game yet this year and Matt Leinart - despite the lavish praise heaped upon him after the Cards' "almost-win" in Chicago two weeks ago - is still winless in all of his starts in the NFL.

The above descriptions lead to the five worst teams of last weekend in the NFL:

Did you see that the Colts defense gave up 180 yards rushing to the Broncos in the second half on Sunday? It's a good thing that team has Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison because that defense wouldn't be able to carry the team very far on its own. Speaking of Reggie Wayne, all he did in the second half of that game in Denver was to catch 10 passes for 3 TDs and a two-point conversion. That'll do…

And while I'm on the subject of teams with positive records who also have defenses not pulling their weight, may I mention the Seattle Seahawks? Yes, they have injuries to critical players on the offense, but that is a time for a defensive unit to rise up and play a bit over their heads to keep the team on track. In the last five games, the Seahawks' defense has given up 30, 37, 28, 31 and 35 points. That's an average of 32.2 points per game. The only word for that is "Horrible". Both the Seahawks and the Rams are 4-3 in the NFC West at the moment; the Seahawks are entering the soft part of their schedule; they have Oakland, SF and Green Bay in three of the next four weeks. The Seahawks and the Rams meet in their second game of the season on November 12; that should be a very important game. If the Seahawks falter in this stretch, they could very well miss the playoffs. And if they falter against those teams, the defensive unit should be very ashamed.

Finally, here's something you may need to do in order to act properly next month. November is International Microfinance Month. I don't know about you, but I don't understand international microfinance nearly well enough to know how to celebrate appropriately. You might want to hit the books in the next couple of days…

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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		Sports Curmudgeon: 10/31/06

		Yesterday was baseball day; so today will be football day here in Curmudgeon Central. And kudos have to go out to the Oakland Raiders who are riding a two-game winning streak now and who just beat the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers despite gaining less than 100 yards on offense all day. Ben Roethlisberger must have been trying to channel the Donovan McNabb performance from the Eagles/Bucs game because he threw four INTs and had two returned for TDs and the Steelers lost 20-13. Look, I understand that Roethlisberger is injured and I even said last week that I would not have played him in that game, but I have no explanation as to why he seems to be morphing into Kordell Stewart. Give Raiders' DT, Warren Sapp, a measure of credit for perspective after that game. Said Sapp, "We're not going to go around and stroke our egos or anything like that. We're 2-5; we have a long way to go to get ourselves to .500." Good for him; he could have gone over the top after this game and he didn't. But let me add something else positive here. If you take a look at the standings, you'll see that the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-5 too. Interestingly, Jerry Porter returned to the field for the Raiders for the first time this year. He caught a pass but the Raider offense gave up 6 sacks and gained a total of 98 yards for the day. Obviously, Jerry Porter isn't the complete answer to the offensive woes in Oakland. The Jacksonville Jaguars simply rammed the ball down the Philadelphia Eagles' throats all day on Sunday. The Jags gained 209 yards rushing on 46 carries and held the ball for almost 37 minutes. That is an organized butt stomping! More interesting in the stats is the fact that Donovan McNabb was sacked 4 times in the game; he usually has more "escapability" than that. The Jets managed to give the ball away to the Browns three times on Sunday and the offense was sleepwalking such that it could not even gain 200 yards all day. Against the Browns, that might not have mattered, but on this particular Sunday it did. The Jets dropped to .500 losing to a team they should beat "on any given Sunday". The San Francisco 49ers were behind 41-0 at halftime and I wondered if the famous 73-0 game might be replicated here. It wasn't; the Bears went conservative - or maybe compassionate. But the 49ers did provide a moment of confusion in the game. With 11:35 to play in the fourth quarter, SF had the ball fourth and goal just outside the Bears' 5-yard line. They kicked a field goal to make it 41-3. Why? Did the special teams coach go to Mike Nolan and tell him he had a miracle scheme up his sleeve that he wanted to try out? And of course, no thoughts about the last week's NFL games could be complete without a mention of the gutless and spiritless performance offered by the Arizona Cardinals in Lambeau Field. This was Green Bay's first win at home this year; this was the first time the Packers had two RBs go over 100 yards in a game in more than 20 years; this was Brett Favre's first rushing TD in over 5 years. By the way, it may not be all that embarrassing for the Cards to give up 100 yards in a game to Ahman Green; but the other RB to gain 100 yards was Vernand Morency; yeah, that Vernand Morency. The Cards defense was shredded to the tune of 383 yards. That's interesting because there were rumors that defensive coordinator, Clancy Pendergast, might be the interim coach to take over the Cards if Dennis Green were to be fired. Meanwhile, Edgerrin James still has not cracked the 100-yard mark in a game yet this year and Matt Leinart - despite the lavish praise heaped upon him after the Cards' "almost-win" in Chicago two weeks ago - is still winless in all of his starts in the NFL. The above descriptions lead to the five worst teams of last weekend in the NFL: 5. Steelers 4. Eagles 3. Jets 2. Niners 1. Cardinals The Tennessee Titans are also on a 2-game winning streak. They beat the Texans on Sunday and David Carr was removed from the game late in the third quarter after he'd been sacked for what had to feel to him like the seven-bazillionth time. Enter Sage Rosenfels who threw three TD passes in the final 17 minutes of the game. The Texans only lost by 6 points and they turned the ball over 5 times to Tennessee in the game. The Titans got fourteen points from a fumble returned for a TD and a punt return for a TD. Did you see that the Colts defense gave up 180 yards rushing to the Broncos in the second half on Sunday? It's a good thing that team has Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison because that defense wouldn't be able to carry the team very far on its own. Speaking of Reggie Wayne, all he did in the second half of that game in Denver was to catch 10 passes for 3 TDs and a two-point conversion. That'll do… And while I'm on the subject of teams with positive records who also have defenses not pulling their weight, may I mention the Seattle Seahawks? Yes, they have injuries to critical players on the offense, but that is a time for a defensive unit to rise up and play a bit over their heads to keep the team on track. In the last five games, the Seahawks' defense has given up 30, 37, 28, 31 and 35 points. That's an average of 32.2 points per game. The only word for that is "Horrible". Both the Seahawks and the Rams are 4-3 in the NFC West at the moment; the Seahawks are entering the soft part of their schedule; they have Oakland, SF and Green Bay in three of the next four weeks. The Seahawks and the Rams meet in their second game of the season on November 12; that should be a very important game. If the Seahawks falter in this stretch, they could very well miss the playoffs. And if they falter against those teams, the defensive unit should be very ashamed. Finally, here's something you may need to do in order to act properly next month. November is International Microfinance Month. I don't know about you, but I don't understand international microfinance nearly well enough to know how to celebrate appropriately. You might want to hit the books in the next couple of days… But don't get me wrong, I love sports... << Back to the Recent Rants Index = Home = Recent = Topical = Wagers = = Archives = Pros = Scores = Contact =