Saturday, December 10, 2011

A Season Winding Down

I gotta keep talking some football as long as I can. The college football season just blew by in a blink! One thing that stays the same after another season, BCS still sucks. LOL. I like to throw that in there whenever I can. While most analysts and experts out there are fine with LSU vs Alabama, Take II as the best #1 vs #2 scenario, I'm not excited at all about that game. How can I be excited about another likely snoozer as their first meeting was (LSU won 9-6 in OT)? BLAH. It's just a shame once again that we can't have a playoff to figure this season out. At least the FCS setup got it right. I will say that the Fiesta Bowl is a pretty good looking football matchup. Stanford, with Andrew Luck, taking on Oklahoma State, with a slightly less-hyped QB in Brandon Weeden. That should be some fun football that will light up the scoreboard! I will enjoy bowl season and soak it in while I can, despite the ridiculous BCS.

With the playoff race in the NFL heating up in December, the games are going to get more exciting. Even though I'm not a Packers fan, I can't help but be impressed. Their record speaks for itself at 12-0. The thing that stands out to me the most is how they just don't panic. They have an answer to just about every challenge, when they are tested. Watching them beat the Giants at the Meadowlands last Sunday, all I can see is a team that just can't be flapped. The Giants gave them ALL they could handle and the Packers still pulled the game out in the last seconds. Good luck to the rest of the NFC in stopping them from getting to the super bowl. They are the most complete team in the NFL. How fun would it be if Brady and the Patriots got to the super bowl to try to stop the Packers from an undefeated season as they were going after 4 years ago? The answer...a LOT of fun.

While I'm on the NFL, I gotta say thank you to the Miami Dolphins who have shown some true professionalism since starting the season 0-7. The Fins are playing some good football right now, and it really makes the Colts look even worse than their 0-12 record. The word is integrity. Look it up Colts. It's painfully clear the Colts have no interest in this season without Manning on the field. At least when the Lions went 0-16 a few years ago, they did it honestly. The Colts seem to be doing everything they can to ensure a horrible season so they can get Andrew Luck in the NFL draft. The Colts roster needs to be fitted for paper bags to replace their helmets, shame on them.

The NBA season is just a couple weeks away now, thanks to the lockout mercifully coming to an end. That whole soap opera was just sad, and I'm just glad that it's over. It will be great to see the NBA get rolling again Christmas Day. It's going to be a bitter-sweet start to the season though. As fun as it will be to welcome back the NBA, it's going to be missing a great player in the northwest. Brandon Roy has unfortunately been forced into early retirement due to a condition in his knees that makes it too risky to continue playing ball. He will be greatly missed, not just for what he brought to the Blazers every night, but for what he stands for. He stands for a great athlete, leader, and character, someone you can't help but respect and root for. The Blazers have some MASSIVE shoes to fill in Portland. Thanks for the ride Brandon, it was a blast.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

NFL talk

I gotta get this out of the way right away because I didn't throw this out there in preseason. Here it is...I've got the Packers and Patriots going to the Super Bowl this year. This isn't nearly as effective 6 weeks into the season, but at least it's still early so I can still have it on record as my official prediction. So far, I like my prediction. Packers look like the best team in the NFL and the Patriots could easily be the only other undefeated team if they had not blown a 21-0 lead at Buffalo. That concept alone of the the Pats blowing a big lead in any football game is almost ridiculous to think about. They seem to be back on track.

The glaring difference of this NFL season to me is that there's a HUGE void missing in the quarterback world. Not only are the Colts a very mediocre football team without Peyton Manning, but the NFL isn't nearly as exciting as it is with Manning playing on Sundays. I feel like it's Christmas without Santa Claus with this NFL season missing two of the greatest QBs of all time, Peyton Manning AND Brett Favre! What exactly are the football gods punishing us NFL fans for? The lockout wasn't OUR fault! Seriously though, is there a better argument for Manning as NFL MVP as there is this season? Look how different the Colts are without Manning on the field. Not only does the offense suffer, but even the defense can't get just ONE win for the Colts so far. They even managed to blow a 17 point lead at home vs the Chiefs. The saddest thing about Manning not being available right now is that I'm probably not going to get my favorite NFL matchup of every season...Colts v Patriots with Brady vs Manning. OUCH. Hopefully Manning gets healthy soon and he's able to get back to football. As for Favre, he finally let go of the game and that may have been for the best, but I still feel like he had some good football left in him. Mostly I just don't like the way he went out, it just isn't right.

So, apparently it's "Tebow Time" in Denver. I seem to be in the minority here by not being that excited about this. I still feel like he's not meant to be an NFL QB, but is a very respectable football player. His passion is unmatched, and it's a great element for any team to have, but I just have a gut feeling that it's not meant to be. I have a strong feeling that the Broncos are going to struggle a lot the rest of this season and will be getting ready to draft the next franchise QB in April 2012. I did like how ESPNs Colin Cowherd put it recently on SportsNation, the Broncos are going to be pretty bad anyway the rest of this season...playing Tebow at least makes them a little more interesting. I can agree with that much.

Speaking of the AFC west...the Raiders just made a pretty big upgrade at QB this week by trading for Bengals' QB Carson Palmer. I think this is a perfect fit for Palmer, having played his college football at USC so he'll feel quite at home in Oakland. This really does make the Raiders a legit NFL playoff team now, and they were already in the discussion at 4-2 so far this season. I expect the Raiders to be in the wild card hunt in the final week of the season.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Blogger's Block

I want to say that I haven't been blogging since the Super Bowl because I haven't been able to come up with ideas, but since there's always something going on in sports to talk about...it wouldn't be true. The fact is I've been UNINSPIRED, due to the ridiculous drama the NFL has been going through with the current lockout. It barely deserves discussing because it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but it's so annoying that it brings out something anyway. This league is too successful and popular for this to happen and I only hope it is resolved soon. It's very frustrating to all NFL fans and very disturbing to say the least. I enjoyed Super Bowl 45, and even more than usual because my prediction was on the money! :) I called a Packers win by a TD or less and sure enough the Packers beat the Steelers by 6. Good game, NOW let's bring the football BACK PLEASE!! I wanna see the Packers host the Saints at Lambeau Field on opening night, it would be a great way to start the season. It feels like we've reached a temporary football armageddon, no Brett Favre to be found trying to decide whether to play or not...and the league is currently in a lockout. This is depressing stuff to football fans.

The NBA Finals were enjoyable for me because I was part of that large part of America that wanted to see the Heat fail with LeBron James at least in year one, because they created WAY to much hype for themselves. I thought justice was actually served with the Mavericks winning, and the Mavericks are just a good team that deserved to win it after they swept the defending champion Lakers. The Cavaliers meanwhile have the #1 overall pick in this year's draft and they are likely to take former Duke guard Kyrie Irving. He is not LeBron James, but he could be a guy to build a team around. They also have the #4 overall pick and have a good opportunity to get some solid talent right away. So the Cavs may one day be back in the playoffs to try to get that long awaited championship that LeBron couldn't deliver.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Super Sunday

The big game is this Sunday, and I think we are in for a beauty. The Packers are a team coming in on fire with 5 straight wins and put together a great playoff run with 3 road wins at Philly, Atlanta, and Chicago. Meanwhile, the Steelers bring their experience to the game, having been in two of the last 5 Super Bowls. Packers are the slight favorite to win, and I do think they are going to pull it out in the end. Both teams have great defenses, it will come down to who makes the fewest mistakes. That could be said for most games, but these teams are so close in talent that it will make a bigger difference. I like the Packers by less than a TD.

I gotta send some congratulations out to Ndamukong Suh, who was voted AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year! He really is a beast of a defensive tackle, and really should have won the Heisman last year. He was the most dominant player in college football last year, but just wasn't on the best team. I think he's going to make a big difference for the Lions in the next few years, as I suspect the Lions to be competing for a wild card next season. It wasn't talked about much, but the Lions won 4 in a row to finish the season! If Stafford stays healthy for the Lions all season, they will be a tough team to beat in the NFC.

There have been a handful of coaching changes in the NFL so far, and the Broncos really made a great move with getting former Carolina head coach John Fox. He's EXACTLY what the Broncos needed. He's a defensive specialist that has playoff and super bowl experience. He took over a bad Panthers team and turned them into a very consistent winning team. The Broncos are in good shape.