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Week 12 Random Shots Hi Folks, Here’s what happens when you
mix an NFL Junkie, Sunday Ticket, a big screen TV and fresh batteries in the
remote… Atlanta Falcon’s owner Arthur
Blank is doing one bang up job promoting his team. They’re offering $10 tickets and $100
season ticket packages. Fun to see an
owner who knows how to run a business and understands taking care of his
customers is priority number one… Mr. Blank also understands
marketing. If you thought those
automated phone call messages were just for politicians or telemarketers, check
out the automated phone message sent to all Falcon season ticket holders last
week: "Hi. This is Mike
Vick, quarterback of your Atlanta Falcons. As I'm sure you know, we've got
a big game this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. We've already beat them
once in their house, and I'm sure my cousin, Aaron Brooks, is gonna be looking
for some revenge. That's why we need the 12th man out there, making some noise
at the Georgia Dome, cheering us on. You've made a huge difference this year,
and we definitely appreciate it. So bring the same enthusiasm Sunday, and help
cheer us to victory. Thank you." Guess it worked. Conventional wisdom among
Defensive Coordinators has always been to confuse a young QB with pressure and
tons of different looks. Mike Vick,
Drew Brees and Marc Bulger don’t look too confused to me… Brett Favre is now 2-9 at the Metrodome. Favre had this to say after the game “At some point
before I retire, I'd like to get another win in here." I’m a Brett Favre fan but I was surprised to see the dumb
penalty where the 6’ 2” 225 pound Favre nailed 6’ 0” 194 pound Viking DB Jack
Brewer well out of bounds after Brewer’s interception. If Brewer had hit Favre with such a blatant
cheap shot, the world would’ve stopped.
Brewer had a pretty good comeback shoving the ball in Favre’s
stomach. I understand emotion and fire
(which Favre possesses in abundance) but that doesn’t excuse dumb penalties
from a veteran. Viking Coach Mike Tice reportedly told QB Daunte
Culpepper to just go out and play.
Tice told him he can’t go the rest of the year without throwing an
interception. To which Culpepper
replied, “Who says I can’t go the rest of the year without an
interception?” To which anyone who’s watched
Culpepper play shouted, “I say”. 26
minutes of game play later, we had an answer… Lots of talk about what an
early division clinch by Green Bay might mean to us Fantasy Footballers. Coach Bill Parcells gave Favre /
Green / Driver / Franks / Glenn owners a ray of hope when Parcells said he
wouldn’t pull Favre until after the 3rd quarter in week 17, but only
if the Packers were ahead. We’ll see. The more I watch this game,
the more I’m convinced it’s all about three things. QB Play Turnover Ratios Red Zone Defense Assuming Marc Bulger’s
finger is OK, Rams Coach Mike Martz has one of the tougher situations on
his hands that I can remember in a while.
Martz is handling it as well as possible and I think naming a guy early
is the right call. But that’s the easy
part. The squirm factor goes through
the roof if Warner struggles this week.
Granted, it was a semi tough spot coming off the bench as he did Monday
but that one series did absolutely nothing to get folks excited about Kurt
Warner coming back. It’s somewhat like Brady –
Bledsoe of last year but you have to remember last year most of us had a
different opinion of the 2001 Patriot Bledsoe than we do the 2002 Buffalo Bill
Drew Bledsoe. In Kurt Warner, you’re
talking about a guy who’s played this game at a level which few QBs have ever
played. But you can’t ignore the fact
he was awful before the injury. And why
would anyone expect him to be better after his injury? Talk about pressure. Funny interview with New
Orleans’ Joe Horn on how to stop Mike Vick. Horn started off saying he’d give his top 3 ways to stop
Vick: “Um…Let me start with # 3. Blitz him.
# 2…(long pause) I dunno, call the Mafia I guess. This kid is good…” You knew it’d be interesting
when Keyshawn Johnson was the featured player on the “Mic’d up” segment
where a player is wired for sound during a game. Best part was when Johnson got in the face of one of the
Defensive Lineman after a tackle calling him a “Fake a** John Randle” Johnson takes two steps back toward the
huddle and turns around to shout again “Yeah, you’re just a fake a** John
Randle”. Steps out of the huddle for
one more shout “fake a** John Randle”
He then turns to QB Brad Johnson and says, “Sorry Brad, I’m gonna
get you killed.” What is it with the Giants
needing to provide bulletin board material for every team? First it was Jeremy Shockey calling out the
Eagle Defensive Backs as “lucky”. Then
last week, Tiki Barber had plenty of motivation for Washington’s Jesse
Armstead. Daunte Culpepper looked like a guy playing for his job Sunday. Incredible start but he faded pretty
quickly. We’ll see this week which guy
is for real. Fun watching Buffalo’s Travis
Henry break into the secondary following the lead block of center Trey Teague. The former Vol Teague was pulling fellow
Vol Travis Henry along with Henry holding tight to a handful of the big guy’s
jersey. At 5’ 9” – 180, Warrick
Dunn is amazingly tough between the tackles. He does not shy away there. My favorite NFL Referee? Tom White, # 123. Mostly because he looks like Alfred
Hitchcock http://members.fortunecity.com/schwarr/pics/white2.jpg Did you know the Field Judge on his crew is
named Boris? I don’t make this stuff
up. Most money QB? Steve McNair of course. 23 consecutive games with a TD pass. How old is Philadelphia’s Brian
Mitchell? And does he ever go a
game without a big time return? Until Jason Sehorn
picked off Shane Mathews Sunday, the Giants hadn’t intercepted a pass in their
last 6 games. Hard to believe with that
secondary. Is it really necessary to
have the words “a dramatization” pasted on the Ford truck ad where it’s pulling
the giant ice breaking boat? Watched Monsters Inc (again)
with the kids recently. I loved the
Billy Crystal little guy Mike Wazowski.
Couldn’t help but smile watching the Chief’s game and Mike Maslowski out
there making tackles… Trying to decide which is
more useless, Major League Baseball or the NBA. Baseball has a commanding lead but give the NBA some time as
it’s early… Exhibit A why it’s tough to
bench your star players -- Randy Moss, week 11. With his audibles, I don’t
know why Peyton Manning even bothers to call a play in the huddle. Have you seen the ads during
the Sunday Ticket games on Direct TV where they say, “Sunday Ticket brought to
you by Microsoft”.? I thought Sunday
Ticket was brought to me by the $149 I paid them… Talk about make ups. Buffalo’s Travis Henry had a nice 23
yard run called back for holding. The
next play, he rushed for 25 yards. Is there a tougher TE in the
Redzone than Green Bay’s Bubba Franks?
He’s teased us with this before, but he looks to be right on the verge
of becoming a star receiver. You can throw out
conventional wisdom about “angles” when it comes to Mike Vick. There is no way in the world he should have
beaten those DBs to the corner Sunday.
But he did. Just last week, I wrote that
few things in sport make me stop and stare but Vick flicking the ball 60 yards
was one of those things. Vick didn’t
disappoint Sunday with the play of the season thus far. Rolling to his left, he spotted Trevor Gaylor
50 yards down field. And Vick waves
him back. You just know Gaylor is
thinking “yeah right”. Running hard to
his left, Vick flicks it 60 yards downfield to his WR for a 74 yard TD. If he ever gets cut on the field, I bet
you’ll find he bleeds green as I’m pretty sure the guy’s not human. 4th and 10 from
the Washington 32 and the Giants go for it.
12 yard completion to Amani Toomer and Jim Fassel looks pretty
smart. It was great to see Giant TE
Jeremy Shockey with a 100+ yard game.
On the flip side, when you’re targeted 18 times as Shockey was, you’d
better go for 100+. He’s still
dropping a lot of passes. Don’t look now but Kansas
City’s Johnnie Morton and Eddie Kennison looked like real live
NFL WRs Sunday. I’m glad Drew Bledsoe
shaved the beard. Doesn’t Washington Coach Steve
Spurrier look cold on the sidelines?
Just a question. I was sort of surprised to
see San Diego mismanage the clock so badly against San Francisco. They scored way too early. Speaking of that game, I
thought Coach Steve Mariucci was in an interesting situation leading by
7 with 1:12 on the clock. San Diego
had the ball 1st and goal from the San Francisco 1. I wonder how much thought Mariucci gave to
allowing San Diego to score there which would have given the 49ers the ball
with plenty of time. As it was, they
stopped LaDainian Tomlinson on 1st and goal and the clocked ticked
down to 0:35 before Brees threw the TD to McCrary. Hindsight is 20-20… Do you think Mike
Holmgren watches Green Bay highlights on Sportscenter and wonders what he’s
done? Rodney Peete? That’s
what we thought… Most money RB in the
game? Moe Williams with his 7th
consecutive game with a rushing TD. Hines Ward is tough as nails.
Tennessee’s Tank Williams absolutely nailed him in the back causing Ward
to crawl off the field to the sidelines.
He was back in the game for the next play catching a TD. Vikings unveiled their “Sugar
Huddle” Sunday (not quite a no huddle but less than a full huddle) Before the Raiders showed it this year, I’d
never heard that term before. Ricky Williams showed me something on the TD run Sunday. Instead of bulling through the line, he saw
Baltimore’s strong safety Ed Reed flying in from the left and easily
spun around him for the TD. Fred Taylor owners – Yes, Tom Coughlin really does hate
you… Is there a more inconsistent
WR than Detroit’s Bill Schroeder? When I see the bickering
between Emmitt Smith and Troy Hambrick, I can’t help but think of
seeing Muhammad Ali when I was a kid and watching Leon Spinks beat up an old
and out of shape Ali that was a shell of his former self. Emmitt’s not there yet but I hope they can
work this out and let Smith move on with dignity. Glad to see Tommy Maddox
doing well. The Steelers Neurosurgeon
was kind of funny in the press conference saying he wished that his MRI looked
as good as Maddox’s. Why I like San Francisco –
Facing 4th and 3 from the San Diego 32, Garcia throws long to
Terrell Owens for a TD. Is William Green a
real running back? I’d like to see
another week of production before I get too excited. Steve Beuerlein’s first pass as a Bronco was for a TD. Do not forget that in 1999, Beuerlein threw
for 4,436 yards and 36 TDs. Has a QB with a rating of
106 over 5 games ever been benched? The Cardinals are officially
back to Earth… How good is Priest Holmes? His owners are grumbling about him “only”
gaining 127 total yards with “just” one TD… I could have done without
seeing the Az-Zahir Hakim fractured and dislocated hip thing… Over / Under on how many
times “step up” will be written this week about the Steelers? 23,043
(and no, that doesn’t count…) San Diego’s Curtis Conway
nearly killed a camera guy in the endzone. I’ll be the zillionth guy to
say it but Donovan McNabb is one tough guy. The Dolphins exploded for 26
points Sunday led by Ray Lucas.
It didn’t seem like Baltimore’s Ray Lewis made that much of a
difference. Speaking of Ray Lewis,
does anyone find it interesting that the post Super Bowl “incident” of a few
years ago seems to be totally forgotten?
I fully understand the justice system and that he was declared
innocent. I wonder if fans would feel
the same way toward O.J. Simpson if his “incident” had occurred in the
prime of his career? Not judging. Just making an observation and asking. What it’s like to be a Bengals
Fan. As your team trails by a
touchdown with 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter here’s the
sequence: 1-7-CLE7 (7:59) C.Dillon
left tackle to CLV 6 for 1 yard 2-6-CLE6 (7:20) C.Dillon
left end to CLV 1 for 5 yards 3-1-CLE1 (6:36) C.Dillon
right end to CLV 1 for no gain 4-1-CLE1 (5:57) C.Dillon
right tackle to CLV 1 for no gain God Bless you guys. The clock apparently struck
midnight for the Colts’ Cinderella story James Mungro. He managed 0 yards on 5 carries Sunday… I think Rich Gannon’s
using the helmet ear pads he broke into the league with in 1987… What a huge weekend for the Corey
Dillon Awards: (Formerly the Hard Luck Awards) GB RB Ahman Green 7
yard rush to the 3 (Favre to Franks TD) CIN RB Corey Dillon 6
yard rush to the 3 (Kitna TD) CIN RB Corey Dillon 5
yard rush to the 1 CIN RB Corey Dillon
no gain to the 1 CIN RB Corey Dillon
no gain to the 1 (yes, twice) NYJ RB LaMont Jordan
9 yard rush to the 1 NYJ RB LaMont Jordan
no gain to the 1 (Pennington to Becht TD) TB RB Michael Pittman
2 yard rush to the 1 TB RB Mike Alstott no
gain to the 1 (Johnson to Johnson TD) DEN QB Brian Griese 2
yard rush TD nullified by penalty DEN RB Clinton Portis
no gain to the 1 (Beuerlein to Hape TD) JAX RB Fred Taylor 2
yard rush to the 2 (Brunell to Brady TD) JAX FS Marlon McCree
35 yard interception return to the 2 (Mack TD) HOU RB James Allen no
gain to the 1 HOU RB James Allen
minus 1 yard to the 2 (Carr TD) BUF QB Drew Bledsoe 9
yard TD pass to Eric Moulds Reversed (Hollis FG) PHI RB Duce Staley 2
yard rush to the 2 (McNabb to Thrash TD) PHI RB Duce Staley 13
yard rush to the 4 PHI RB Duce Staley no
gain to the 4 (James Thrash TD) ARZ SS Adrian Wilson
35 yard interception return to the 2 (Plummer to Mackovicka TD) SD QB Drew Brees 35
yard TD to Curtis Conway nullified by penalty SD RB LaDainian Tomlinson
no gain to the 1 (Brees to McCrary TD) MIN RB Michael Bennett
62 yard rush to the 4 (Williams TD) OAK QB Rich Gannon 14
yard pass to Charlie Garner to the 2 (Crockett TD) IND RB James Mungro 5
yard rush to the 3 IND RB James Mungro 1
yard rush to the 2 IND RB James Mungro 1
yard rush to the 1 (Manning to Harrison TD) TEN LB Peter Sirmon
25 yard interception return to the 1 (McNair to Dyson TD) TEN QB Steve McNair
23 yard pass to Derrick Mason to the 4 (George TD) TEN QB Steve McNair
55 yard pass to Justin McCareins to the 5 (George TD) MIA QB Ray Lucas 3
yard rush to the 2 (Williams TD) MIA QB Ray Lucas 39
yard pass to James McKnight to the 4 (Williams TD) MIA RB Ricky Williams 4
yard rush to the 1 (Lucas TD) STL RB Lamar Gordon 2
yard rush to the 1 (Bulger to Conwell TD) Sometimes it’s better to
just not know…. For all the hype Jeremy
Shockey draws, you can’t argue he’s changed the way his team uses a
TE. In 2001, New York completed 17
passes to TEs all season. Some teams seem to continue
trends long after the coaching staffs have been cleared out. Any Moe Williams or Michael
Bennett owners can’t help but flash back to Vikings Leroy Hoard and Robert
Smith of a few years ago. "I'm going to sleep tonight for the first time in a
month." -- Dolphins QB Ray Lucas after his first win in four tries. Leadership by example.
With the game time temperature at 43 degrees, several Titan players were
complaining about the cold weather in Nashville. Coach Jeff Fisher responded by coming out for warmups
wearing no jacket and a short sleeved golf shirt. The players stopped complaining… That’ll
do it for this week. Here’s to
Football… Joe Joe
Bryant is the co-owner of www.footballguys.com You can usually find him on Sunday
afternoon staring at the Sunday Ticket broadcast muttering “this is so cool…” |
