Tag: sports

Packers over Giants
49ers over Saints
Ravens over Texans
Patriots over Broncos

Last week: 3-1. I really didn’t expect another Miracle by the Tebow.

I don’t really care who wins any of these games, although it would be absolutely hysterical if the Broncos knock off the Patriots. I would like to see the Packers play the Saints for the NFC championship, though, as that would be an interesting track meet.

I don’t understand why Rick Spielman would assure Christian Ponder, and the rest of the NFL, that the Vikings are not going to draft a quarterback with the third pick in the NFL draft. Now, perhaps they want to prevent teams from feeling the need to trade for the #2 pick, which belongs to St. Louis, who are unlikely to draft RGIII, assuming the Colts draft Andrew Luck, since they have Sam Bradford. In which case, we can hope that they are simply lying in the interest of misdirection.

While it’s true that the Vikings need serious help on the offensive line and USC OT Kalil would be the obvious choice, the most valuable asset in the NFL is a first-rate quarterback. By all the significant metrics, RGIII has much higher potential upside than Christian Ponder, who isn’t bad, but appears unlikely to ever be more than a solid, non-elite starter. That’s quite acceptable, considering recent past history, but given that the jury is still out on whether Ponder can even reach the middle ranks of the NFL quarterbacking fraternity, while RGIII looks as if Vick-level performance is probably his floor, combined with the fact that it’s no longer necessary to mortgage the franchise in order to sign a high first-rounder, why not select RGIII, then start picking offensive linemen, and presumably, defensive backs?

RGIII needs time to learn the NFL game, so he can sit for a year behind Ponder. If Ponder unexpectedly shows signs of reaching elite status, the Carson Palmer trade and Matt Flynn interest shows that RGIII can be dealt for draft value. And if Ponder ends up being mediocre, or as his rookie season suggests, injury-prone, the Vikings can give a very promising, hard-working, and intelligent young quarterback his shot.

Anyhow, if the publicly announced retention of Christian Ponder as the undisputed Vikings starting quarterback is genuinely the first move of the true Spielman era, this doesn’t bode well for its long term results. The Vikings blew it by not picking up Drew Brees when he was available, as I recommended at the time, and I’m hoping that the prospective passing on RGIII doesn’t turn out to be a similarly epic catastrophe.

Apparently Alabama beat LSU last night in the second SEC championship game of the season or something. I don’t know, because like most of you, I didn’t bother to watch it. But it is certainly amazing to see a conference hold two championship games in a single year; what a pity there was no national championship game because neither Alabama nor LSU proved they could beat the Big 12 or Big 10 champions. Alabama has not proved it could beat the Pac 12 champion. LSU beat Oregon, but that was at the beginning of the season, long before LSU beat Alabama.

Yes, the SEC is the best conference, and yes, both LSU and Alabama are good teams, and perhaps both of them should be able to beat Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, and Oregon. Of course, Pittsburgh was supposed to be able to beat Denver, and a few years ago, Ohio State was supposed to be able to beat Florida. But that’s why you play the games! Now all we know that LSU can beat Alabama and Alabama can beat LSU. In the immortal words of Derrick Coleman, “whoopty damn do”.

About the only good thing about this BCS debacle is that the college football world is so dissatisfied with it that there is little chance they’ll be able to put off a playoff system much longer. And in closing, I quote this Oklahoma State fan:

“What in the hell, people? I bring you many earnest what in the hells. That was it? That was the immovable wall of Technicolor fearsome that Oklahoma State and Stanford had no chance of competing against? That was your big reveal? We are now in the position of crowning a national champion that couldn’t convert the extra point after its solitary touchdown of the game. You’re seriously telling me that our poor little old Big 12/Pac-12 selves didn’t deserve a glance at this business?”

UPDATE: Just to prove that playing a second conference championship game instead of a national championship game was as stupid as I said it would be, here is the empirical evidence:

The nation largely ignored a rematch of SEC foes, giving the BCS national championship its lowest overnight rating ever. The overnight ratings for Monday’s BCS Championship Game are in and they are not good. In fact, they are historically bad, as Alabama’s 21-0 win over SEC-rival LSU drew a 13.8 rating on ESPN (via LA Times). That was the lowest rating championship game in the 14-year history of the BCS.

Intra-conference “national championship” games are a horrendous idea and will clearly harm NCAA football. Historically bad ratings at a time when the NFL is racking up historically high ratings strongly indicates that there is something rotten in the structure of college football. The BCS absolutely should have banned teams that did not win their conference championship.

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. I really thought Denver had given a very winnable game away, between McGahee’s fumble as the Broncos were driving into range for a putaway field goal, then Champ Bailey dropped a relatively easy interception to win the game. When Tebow missed a wide open receiver on third-and-eight after a horrendous no-call on a blatant facemask, it looked as if events and the referees were conspiring to end The Miracle of Tebow.

But then the Denver defense finally stepped up and made a play, sacking Roethlisberger once, then strip-sacking him to force overtime. Mike Tomlin showed his yellow belly by not letting Suisham try for the 69-yard FG with three seconds left – I have no doubts that Fox would have given Prater a shot – and accepting overtime instead. That set the stage for the lightning strike… game over.

Considering Tebow’s first start against Miami, to say nothing of the disastrous last three weeks, it seems almost impossible for any knowledgeable football fan to not interpret what was not only a Denver victory, but Tim Tebow beating the league’s top-rated defense with his arm, as incontrovertible proof of the existence of God.

316 yards and two touchdowns in the air, 50 yards and one touchdown on the ground. I saw it and I still don’t believe it. As ProFootballTalk concluded: “If someone was writing this stuff into a Tim Tebow movie, they would have been fired by now because it all sounds too unbelievable.”

86 Bailout Banksters
71 Mounds View Meerkats

Congratulations to the 2011 VPFL champions. It would appear that it is still good to be a Bankster. I have to confess, I was VERY disappointed to lose this game, as Aaron Rodgers showed up even bigger than I’d anticipated with a 35-point game and Arian Foster performed precisely as projected. Ironically, considering that I am usually mocked for overdrafting them, it was the kickers and defenses that let me down.

The Banksters got 23 points out of a projected 21 from New England’s Gostkowski and the Cincinnati defense, I got 2 out of a projected 20 from Dallas’s Bailey and the Washington defense. And that 20-point difference was the ballgame. The painful thing is that for the last four weeks, I tried four different defenses to little avail, and each time considered, then decided against Buffalo since they were playing the low-turnover Broncos. Naturally, the Bills defense put up 25 points in Week 16. But it was a good and competitive year, as Greenfield looked dominant early, then Mounds View entered the picture with Foster’s recovery, only to see Bailout close strong and carry their end of season momentum through the playoffs.

And so yet another football season goes by without a fantasy championship. I can’t help but notice this marks the fifth championship game I have lost, dating back to the old MFL. How fortunate that I am so well-prepared for the experience.

My predictions:

Texans over Bengals
Saints over Lions
Giants over Falcons
Steelers over Broncos

The Vikings season may be over, but they’re not quitting. Allen has three sacks already and there’s still four minutes left in the third quarter… he only needs one more to break Strahan’s Favre-assisted NFL record. And Dan Marino could take some lessons from Chris Doleman, the former Vikings record-holder. I always liked Doleman back in his day and he looked downright delighted to see Allen bringing down McCoy.

92 Moundsview Meerkats
22 Greenfield Grizzlies

90 Bailout Banksters
74 Green Reverends

I don’t think anyone would disagree that the two best teams are meeting in the championship game this upcoming weekend. The question is, will the Piranha of the Serengeti finally claim their first fantasy title or is it still good to be a bankster, even in the face of the Eurocrisis. Interestingly enough, the Projected Matchup has both teams scoring an estimated 71 points next week. It could all come down to whether Brady throws touchdowns to Gronkowski or Hernandez.

Final Regular Season Standings

Bailout Banksters 9-4-1 1000 854

Greenfield Grizzlies 9-5-0 1045 930

Moundsview Meerkats 9-5-0 1009 877

Green Reverends 7-6-1 923 935

RR Redbeards 7-6-1 920 927

Macau Marauders 6-7-1 895 998

MS Swamp Spartans 6-8-0 933 951

Bane Sidhe 6-8-0 923 991

Cranberry Rhyneauxs 5-9-0 973 1040

GroverBeach Quixotes 4-10-0 804 922
111 Bailout Banksters
84 Moundsview Meerkats

71 Greenfield Grizzlies
63 Bane Sidhe

90 RR Redbeards
84 MS Swamp Spartans

62 Green Reverends
60 GroverBeach Quixotes

87 Macau Marauders
85 Cranberry Rhyneauxs

Thanks to everyone for playing this year. The Banksters made a strong late season run with a three-game winning streak that claimed the regular season title, while Nate made an equally strong run that just fell short of the playoffs thanks to Green holding off the last-place Quixotes by only two points.

In the first round, the Banksters look to make it to the championship game with a 40-point performance from their Falcons giving them a Thursday-night lead over the Reverends. The other game features a classic old school showdown between the Meerkats and the Grizzlies.

Sports Illustrated correctly notes a new aspect to the phenomenon:

Before, when Tebow pulled rabbit after rabbit out of his hat, it was easy enough to chalk it up to Denver’s new quarterback giving the entire team a jolt — more confidence that, no matter what, the game was never out of reach. That’s all still true, but the reason this Broncos run has continued goes beyond that.

What’s happening now is that opposing teams are starting to buy in, too. No one will ever admit to it, of course, but Tebow is in the league’s head.

I noticed this last night too. The faces of the Bears players, and especially their coaches, showed something between concern and outright fear during the fourth quarter. What Tebow has done is transformed the Broncos into something like the NFL version of the Terminator; they simply will not give up even when the game is obviously over.

Consider Marion Barber. He isn’t a stupid player or a bad one. The one thing he is known for is his hard running and he even made a great catch in overtime. The mistake he made at the end of regulation time when he didn’t go down soon enough and was forced out of bounds wasn’t indicative of stupidity, but desperation. The only way to be absolutely sure of victory was to get the first down, and so he foolishly decided to go for it.

And the way the Broncos defense was swarming to the ball and attacking even in overtime when the Bears were in field goal range is simply not normal. In most cases, a team in that position gives up and allows the running back or receiver go for the score. Those who try to distinguish between Tebow and the Denver defense are completely missing the point. A great quarterback will lead an offense. A great inspirational leader will inspire the entire team.

I remember when a mediocre team had a truly dreadful quarterback situation. The Baltimore Ravens didn’t score an offensive touchdown for FIVE STRAIGHT GAMES, but still managed to win two of them on the strength of their epic defense. When asked to make a distinction between their great defense and awful offense, Ray Lewis refused. They were one team, he explained, and if the offense couldn’t manage to get it done for one reason or another, all that meant was that the defense would simply have to step up its game.

And behind the inspirational leadership provided by Lewis and the powerful team spirit forged by that month of adversity, the Ravens didn’t merely win the Super Bowl, they smashed their way through the AFC playoffs by forcing other teams to quit. I remember seeing Eddie George almost cringing in front of Lewis and receivers pulling up their slants rather than go over the middle. NFL football requires such an intense effort that a mentally defeated team will find it difficult to beat even an inferior opponent.

That’s why Tebow and the Broncos outperform in the 4th quarter. It’s no longer that they don’t stop giving 100 percent, it’s that the other team knows they won’t stop giving 100 percent. What gives Tebow his uncanny ability to win isn’t his belief in God, his belief that God wants him to win (which he doesn’t actually believe anyhow), or even his teammates’ belief in him. What gives Tebow his uncanny ability to win is his unusual ability to maintain hope, even in the face of certain failure.

Peter King spoke with Denver’s kicker: The 51-yard winner looked like it was a Tiger Woods tee shot on a par-5 hole. It almost drilled a hole through the net behind the goalpost.

“You know what’s fun about this?” said Prater. “Everyone keeps saying what Tim can’t do. And he goes out every week and we win. We love the guy. He’s so real. Now we just feel like anything’s possible.”

Of course, Tebow isn’t the only quarterback whose deeds are looking divinely inspired this season. He may be less outspoken, and his religious beliefs are much less discussed, but Aaron Rodgers is also an evangelical Christian. Tom Brady, on the other hand, quite clearly sold his soul to the Devil, aka Bill Belichick, some years ago.