BACK TO FOOTBALL!

I love seeing those words painted on NFL football fields when the new season is here, "Back to Football"...great stuff.  It's the best time of the year, as the fall brings us the best sport on the planet.  It's hard to believe the college football season is already about half over! How did that happen? This weekend will mark the 6th game for most teams already, and there's going to be some good ones.  Even the NFL is already beginning week 5, and I'm looking forward to getting back what I lost last season on the NFL schedule, Manning vs Brady!! It's still the best the NFL offers and with Manning having had last season off, it's an even bigger deal this time around at Foxborough.  It should be a fun game this Sunday, and I'm pulling for Manning even more this time around since he's now in command of my Broncos.  Brady v Manning, enjoy the show!  Let's all enjoy getting back to football!

The NBA landscape just got a pretty interesting makeover this offseason as the Lakers quickly put together a very legitimate championship caliber team...again.  First they brought in Steve Nash to start passing to Kobe every night and make things even easier on Kobe to torch defenses, then they added Dwight Howard to create a very dominant presence that will take even more attention away from Kobe to do his thing.  This is a pretty scary moment for the defending champion Heat, because next June they won't be dealing with an inexperienced Thunder team that wasn't ready for the big stage.  Next time, it's going to be a three-headed monster of Kobe, Nash, and Howard in their way of another title.  Trust me, the Lakers WILL fight back.   I think that scenario I once wished for, having Kobe vs Wade in the NBA Finals, is just a matter of time now.  That will be must-see NBA TV.

Catching Up

It's  been awhile since I've shared some thoughts on my blog, I guess I was just saving up some thoughts for a good time.  I will pick up where I left off on the college football season.  I love it when a thought I have is justified like the BCS Championship game showed us.  I wasn't excited about Alabama v LSU at all and it turned out being a HORRIBLE football game.   I felt like I was completely ROBBED as a football fan.  Never mind that we still badly need a playoff, but that game was just awful.  LSU couldn't even score, as if they weren't interested in being there.    That was just embarrassing.   Thankfully, and possibly too good to be true, the BCS officials are FINALLY starting to talk about a playoff system.   It's possible that they were just as horrified by that LSU v Alabama game as everyone else in America was.   There's talk of a final four playoff system that involves the winners of BCS games.  Sounds GREAT, let's get it done!

As much as I was hoping for a Packers v Patriots super bowl, at least we ended up having a respectable super bowl again.   I felt very much like I was watching Super Bowl 42, not just because it was the Patriots and Giants again, but it just played out almost exactly like their SB 42 meeting.   Pats had the halftime lead again, and Eli Manning beat the Pats again in the last minute.  It was a good game, but not great.  It would have been nice to see a little more scoring, 21-17 isn't exactly great football.  

WOOO-HOOOO!!!  I've been doing that since my Broncos landed hall of fame QB Peyton Manning to take over for the Broncos and lead them back to greatness.   I think the best way to put it is that the Broncos are looking to restore the order in Denver and I can't wait!  A lot of people I talk to about this are a little skeptical about Manning's health and if he can be the same guy.   I'm being realistic with it.  I'm NOT expecting the same Manning we've seen so far, I'm expecting a different Manning that will be great in a  new form, and it's a great boost for the Broncos.   I just love the feeling of knowing that we've got a shot to win on any given Sunday again.  It's been awhile since I've felt like that.   If he is able to play the full season, you can book him for comeback player of the year right now!

The NBA season flew by thanks to the lockout shortened season, and it's not exactly how it would be expected to look in the playoffs.  The heavily favored Miami Heat are now down 2-1 in their series vs the Pacers, and honestly the Pacers just look like the more complete team.   The Heat just don't look like a team that is on the same page.   As much hype as the Heat got when they became the big 3 with LeBron, D-Wade, and Bosh, they just don't look like the team most of the league was expecting.   The Pacers have quietly turned into a solid team that will be a tough out in the playoffs.  It's starting to look like the Pacers and Boston Celtics will meet in the Eastern Finals.   Out west, the Thunder are up 2-0 on the Lakers, but watch out for the San Antonio Spurs!  No one gives them much credit for some reason even though they are just walking over everyone in the playoffs so far.    If I had to pick the NBA Finals right now, I'd be tempted to say Celtics v Spurs.  Unfortunately, it's hard to get excited about that matchup.    

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.

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.

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.

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.

Xmas Hoopla

The Patriots are back to their old selves, with impressive wins over the rival Jets on a Monday night at New England and on the road in a snowbowl at Chicago over the NFC north champion Bears, both in blowout fashion. Then they just escaped a very feisty Packers team on Sunday night, proving again that they are a complete team that just finds a way to win each week. Brady is back to his MVP form and the Patriots again have all the ingredients a championship team always needs. The Patriots are likely going to have the homefield advantage in the playoffs and unless they fall asleep along the way, should end up in the Super Bowl. It's pretty hard to argue that anyway. On the other side of the field in the Super Bowl, it's too soon to tell who we're going to see representing the NFC, but it seems like the defending champion Saints are quietly making their run to get back. They will likely have to go through Atlanta to get there, but I'm not counting them out. This Monday night's game with the Saints and Falcons should be an NFC title preview. That will be a good one.

Tim Tebow made his first NFL start last Sunday at Oakland, and even though he had a couple nice plays in the game for the highlight reels, I just can't see him as the long-term plan for my Denver Broncos. There are too many questions there about his abilities and the Broncos need to be fixed in a hurry. They are now playing uncompetitive, sloppy, uninspiring football and that's absolutely gutwrenching for diehard fans like myself. They finally made the choice to give up on the McDaniels experiment. Hopefully they will now make good on their mistake and get an NFL experienced coach to turn things around quickly. The word around Denver is that Hall of Fame QB John Elway is going to be hired as a front office executive to help change the atmosphere in Denver back to the winning ways that he was accustomed to. That's a pretty good start, to bring in a guy who knows how to win and has a personal attatchment to the Broncos. Maybe we can start to bring our franchise back to respectability and make Sundays fun again!

The BCS games are set, and while some of them are exciting matchups, it doesn't make me forget how ridiculous the BCS is. That being said, it's looking like the first team to 45 or 50 wins the championship game between Auburn and Oregon. I'm not all that excited about the matchup or have a team to pull for this one, I'm just hoping for a good football game since we'll never know how either of these teams would do against the other top 10 BCS teams in a playoff atmosphere that we are BADLY missing for college football! It's OK, I will stop myself from another rant about the ridiculous BCS system. I'll save it for later.