Sad Ending, New Beginning

Despite the wonders of NFL ticket, I really was only interested in a few games yesterday. All the games paled in interest when compared to the Jets game. I had looked forward to Chad’s kicking the Jets butts since around Week 10.

So it was mostly a good day for me.

I used to be a Jets fan. That was before the Jets played hardball with one of their best offensive linemen last year. That was before Mangini started testing players on their assignments during the week. That was before Tannenbaum finally acquired some really good free agents - guys who would finally make it possible for the loyal Pennington to lead the Jets into the playoffs.

Then in the Jets’ infinite wisdom, they acquired Favre. They held Pennington in such low regard that they just gave him his release. Parcells got him.

At that moment I became a Dolphins fan. Not a diehard Fish enthusiast certainly, but someone who kept an eye on what the men in those crazy teal and orange and white uniforms were doing each week.

And they did mostly good things, smart things. They got Joey Porter and Ricky Williams, and they took a chance on a hard-working coach from Connecticut. They beat the tar out of the Patriots by pulling out their Wildcat, and I watched with glee as the Pats were swiping mostly at air all afternoon.

So it was great watching Favre be himself yesterday and throw INT after INT --and Pennington be himself by throwing two TD’s and no interceptions. What can you say? They needed to win but the Jets lost again. I totally expected it. I anticipated the interceptions and reveled in Chad Pennington’s performance. I enjoyed watching the Fish run their Wildcat again and again against a Jets defense that looked slow and confused. And leaderless.

And now Mangini has been fired. So now the Jets can move forward again. They can start over with a new head coach, and hopefully new coaches. They certainly need a different scheme on defense. It doesn’t seem to work. There’s never any real pressure on the opposing qb’s, something that so many other good teams do successfully. The team just looked totally lifeless. Maybe it was Favre’s ridiculously low-key televised “pep talk” to the team.

It’s probably the best thing for Mangini at this stage of his career. Maybe he went too far too fast. The speed of the firing makes me think Mangini knew he had to win that last game in order to be retained. His physical reactions at his last press conference would seem to confirm that, or at least a suspicion of that.

I wonder now if pulling the plug so quickly on Mangini will save Tannenbaum his job. Somebody should pay for dumping Pennington so unceremoniously, and worse, from a business standpoint, giving him away.

But Tannenbaum has made some good moves too, though. Sure - he had Woody’s budget, but at least he recognized where his team needed help. Most of his moves were more positive than negative. The offensive line moves and the linebacker move he made worked out, by all accounts, so he must be doing some things right. And Jenkins helped them until mid-season. QB is a big place to make a mistake though. Geez.

Maybe I can even become a fan again, but it’ll be tough if Favre’s still the quarterback. They at least have to start developing somebody else long-term, somebody in addition to Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff, somebody who has a reasonable expectation of succeeding.

With or without Favre, the Jets have problems. The Dolphins certainly had their problems last year. But the good leaders found answers for them all. They got people with character. Sparano, Pennington, Porter, and even a kid from Jersey named Fasano.

But a team has no chance without good leadership…..any team. That was obvious in Philadelphia yesterday as the Cowboys got mutilated by the Eagles. It was “Fly, Eagles, Fly” time in Cheesesteak-land. Dallas seems to need some leadership skills too, somewhere. Could Tony Romo alone be the cause of such ineptitude?

Romo looked bad yesterday, bad enough to really warrant a re-inspection of their quarterback position. His fling down the sideline was so poorly thrown and so ill-advised that it made the whole team sick, I think. They lost heart….and then continued to lose heart. What a beating!

Wade Phillips will be kept, according to Jerry Jones’s first remarks after the loss. He sounds as if he’s tired of blaming coaches. I think he should reexamine his position. Wade seems to be another non-starter as a leader, maybe Romo too, but I think there’s still a lot of hope for him.

In a way, Romo’s biggest problem is his elusiveness. He holds the ball too long. He always needs a checkdown guy, but there weren’t any in sight yesterday.

Jones needs to get some guys without character issues too. T.O. wouldn’t be my team’s spokesman. I know he loves it but get a grip, Jerry. Stop picking up big names; they don’t always have big games.

It’s almost unbelievable what the Dolphins have accomplished. Now that situation just reeks of leadership. Sound operations from the top brought a good, maybe great, head coach. His guys played motivated in every game. They were good defensively and good enough on offense. Everything was balanced. Everything seemed well-organized, even when they ran a wildly-imaginative offense nobody had used for a long long time, maybe never.

So leadership seems to mean a lot. A new head coach in New York, even with total uncertainty at the most important football position, quarterback, will be a good start.

They need somebody who’s coached before, somebody who can handle people and be pretty good as a bench coach too, somebody with honest-to-God football instincts who can inspire a good performance or at least an honest one. It’s a tough game and you need tough people at the top.

Let’s go Jets.

Twas the Night Before.....

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the night
New York teams played football - just one was uptight
The Giants were golden, but the Jets had a care
The Dolphins would soon kick some butt in their lair.

The Giants were nestled all snug in their beds
While visions of Super Bowl danced in their heads
Coughlin full of mischief, a bye in his lap
The Vikings were next, but who gave a crap?

Mangini aloof, his season in tatters
He only sees red when his quarterback shatters
His game plan, his processes, all just a mash
His free agents butter, but they’d get their cash.

His team had collapsed on the new-fallen snow
Seattle had proven his receivers slow
Then what to his wondering eyes should appear
The Fish on the schedule, good reason to fear.

That his fickle old driver, once lively and quick
To capture a moment would soon make him sick
His punter not Feagles, his offense so lame
He bristled to think he’d have no one to blame.

Not Bret Favre the Dancer !
He’d sure get his licks in
As fast if not faster
Than Domenick Hixon!
From the podium porch
With his back to the wall
He’d trash away, trash away
Trash away all!

Dry heaves Eric conquered, his stomach a tie
He worked on his game plan, the old college try
His charges, he knew that they’d soon need a clue
When the Dolphins arrived, and Chad Pennington too!


Oh how, in a twinkling, as if Chad needed proof
That Tanenbaum chose to remain quite aloof
Chad managed to turn a lost franchise around
No dummy, the Tuna, he knew what he found.

Dressed orange-blue-green from his head to his foot
Field leader untarnished with ashes and soot
A team full of rookies he flung on his back
Game manager sound, he’d soon get them on track!

His eyes--how they twinkled ! His dimples, how merry !
To leave in his wake, a wideout named Cotcherry
As he went down South, he surely would know
That team managed down in Miami did not blow
In Ron Brown was someone to kick in your teeth
And Ricky, he’d circle the field like a wreath
And if that wasn't reason to turn on the telly
He'd throw to Fasano to make you look smelly!

NOT chubby or plump, a right scary young elf
Not arrogant either, played within himself
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Let all the Fish know they had nothing to dread!

Jets hopes of the finals may turn on his work
If he makes Mangini look like a jerk
Through Ronnie and Ricky his offense it flows
Sparano and Parcells, they smell like a rose!

How good would it play, if Chad lets go a missile
The TD to win, sweet as down on a thistle
And we hear Chad exclaim as he gets on his flight
“HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT ! "

Super Bowl Scenarios

Technology is good for some things, not many but some. One of those good things is the Yahoo Scenario Generator for the NFL Playoffs. By simply selecting your choice for the winner of each game in Week 16 and Week 17, you get to see its corresponding effect on the playoffs picture.

There are so many different scenarios that it really defies explanation. But by actually seeing the picture change, things become more easily visualized. One thing that became very clear is that, even if the Jets beat Seattle on Sunday, if they should lose to Miami in Week 17, the Jets will be eliminated.

That’s as it should be, I think. If you have to really worry that Seattle will beat them, 3 and 11 Seattle, what chances would they really have against a good team? How exciting would it be to see them smashed in the first round?

Whatever your fan base affiliation, you have to like the upcoming end of the season. A few scenarios yield pleasant surprises. The Eagles, the Bears and even the Falcons could wind up playoffs-bound, McNabb and Forte and Matt Ryan could get their shots, but I don’t expect it.

In the NFC, only the Redskins, Packers, Lions(ho-hum), Saints, and ¾ of the NFC West are out of it. And the games coming up this weekend are terrific matchups, starting on Saturday night with the Ravens-Cowboys matchup, a battle that I expect the Cowboys to win.

In the NFC, my scenario turned out Carolina and the Giants as the 1 and 2 seeds, in that order unfortunately, and then had the Bucs playing the Vikings in Minnesota. The Cowboys would then face the Cardinals in Arizona.

In the AFC, the Steelers and the Titans would get the byes, while the Pats would face the Fish at Miami. In the other wildcard game, the Colts would face the Broncos in Denver.

Taking these predictions a little further, I can’t believe the Vikings would get by the Gruden-led Bucs, no matter that they’d be playing in Minnesota. The Bucs will stop Adrian Peterson, and then squash either Frerotte or Tarvaris Jackson. There’s almost no way the Cards could beat the Cowboys. You could make them play naked in the desert and the Cards would be folded. Bent and mutilated too.

So it’ll be Carolina vs. the lowest seed, Dallas, while the G-Men would face the Bucs again, as they did last year, at Giants Stadium this time. No doubt, there would be the same result.

I do think the Cowboys, who will have been on quite a run by this time, will beat the Panthers, even in Carolina where the Panthers have been dominant. The Boyz are a different team with Romo.

Those results would yield another Cowboys-Giants NFC Championship game at Giants Stadium. I won’t predict the winner of that war at this time. I’ll have to see the manner in which the G-Men play the Panthers this Sunday at home.

I don’t expect them to beat the Panthers this weekend. Yes, Jacobs is back but I’m not convinced that he’ll be all the difference, especially if the Giants offensive line remains banged up. On the other side of the ball, the Panthers running tandem of Williams and Stewart will be enough to keep the Giants off the field for long stretches. Eli hasn’t been super in those scenarios. It’ll be a low-scoring game, a real defensive struggle, and I expect to see quite a few field goals. Call it 19-17 Panthers.

I do expect the G-Men will take the measure of the Vikings in Week 17 though, especially after the indignity of losing their 1 seed at home the previous week. They’ll be ferocious at Minnesota. While they’ll have trouble offensively, they’ll stop the big guy Peterson and make mincemeat of Tarvaris Jackson.

In the AFC, Tennessee just lost the toughest, scariest defensive lineman in the entire league, Al Haynesworth. And VandenBosch is hurt too. Depending on their recoveries, the Steelers definitely become the favorites to make the Super Bowl.

The Patriots are banged up too, but not enough to lose to the Dolphins in Miami in the first wildcard game. The Dolphins will have spent a lot of their energies beating the Jets in the final week while the Patriots will have been coming off easy wins against the defenseless Cards and the coachless Bills.

The Colts should beat the Broncos in Denver but I wouldn’t bet on it, not the way they played last night against the Jaguars. Their running game is very suspect and, in a shootout of a game, I could definitely see the Broncos play inspired ball at home, especially if it snows.

The Broncos have shown progress on defense, and they have the strongest arm in the league in Jay Cutler, the scariest wide receiver in Brandon Marshall. They have good tight ends and are even showing signs of running the ball, be it Pope or Bell or any number of other guys, Young, Hillis et al. The Colts have trouble with any kind of determined running game.

A Broncos win would inject some life into the playoffs. The Steelers and Titans just aren’t that exciting, especially the Titans. The Steelers at least have Big Ben, Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes to complement a GREAT defense.

The Pats would face the Steelers in Pittsburgh after the Pats vanquish the Dolphins. This game should be another wipeout of the Patriots, something I always long to see. The Steelers have already crushed the Pats in Foxboro, 33-10.

The Broncos would then face the Titans in Tennessee. I’d expect the Titans to take them, especially after the Broncos great effort the previous week. But if the Broncos can stop the run, anything’s possible.

The Titans or Broncos would then lose to the Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Black and Gold would advance, just too much Palamalu and defense.

So it’ll be the Steelers vs. Dallas or New York. Stay tuned.

Coming Back to Earth

Maybe it was the prowess of the Cowboys defensive front that made the G-Men look so impotent last night. Maybe it was the Dallas secondary that blanketed the Plax-less Giants receiving corps. Maybe it was Tony Romo’s toughness and leadership that inspired great Cowboys performances all over the field. Maybe it was the elusiveness and power of Cowboys RB Tashard Choice.

Whatever “it” was, the Giants sure looked toothless last night. The 20-8 final score didn’t seem to adequately characterize just how decisively the Giants were beaten. Wind and fire became a puff and a spark; they were nothing without “Earth”, or maybe it was just the lack of an offensive line.

And yet, the Giants were really never out of it, not until the fourth quarter draw play to Choice out of the shotgun that put the contest out of reach. These Giants are nothing if not resilient, even without Plaxico, even without Brandon Jacobs, and last night without one of their fine defensive tackles.

So, despite the loss last night, the Giants are still in pretty good shape. That team that was running around last night wasn’t the real Giants team, not without their best receiver, their best running back and one of their best defensive linemen.

The G-Men finish with a contest against a Carolina team that has lately been playing as if it thinks it’s the best team in the NFC, followed by a contest against another tough defensive team, the Minnesota Vikings.

They won’t beat either of those teams if nothing changes. Forget about Burress, he’s been suspended and it just won’t do to keep harping on the fact. But Jacobs and Fred Robbins in the middle of that defense are both too big and strong bodies that are hard to not miss.

But, whether or not these two giant Giants can return, I think the G-Men should consider moving Hixon back to his specialty, returning kicks. Although he’s an adequate receiver, he’s not an imposing threat at wide receiver. He is an imposing threat as a return man. In moving Hixon, the Giants lose at two aspects of their game, special teams and their passing offense.

It’s high time to try somebody else at the wideout. Maybe it’s Manningham, maybe it’s Sinorice Moss, but it’s definitely not Hixon. Although the passing offense might suffer somewhat in that scenario, it should put a charge back into their kick returns, which have had nothing without Hixon.

You have to admire the Giants for keeping it close last night. They showed their true character. The same can be said for the Jets Sunday afternoon, as they overcame their deficiencies all afternoon by capitalizing on a stupid move by Bills coach Dick Jauron.

Jauron, doing his best Herm Edwards impersonation, called for a pass in a clear running situation. The game should have been over. But the Jets did what they had to do, stripping QB J.P. Losman of the ball, scooping it up and running it in for the winning score.

A win is a win. But you have to think the Jets have their work cut out for them. They play Seattle next week, a weak team, but as the Jets have proven they don’t travel well to the West Coast, having already lost to the Chargers, Raiders and Niners on the road, nothing is a sure thing.

If they do get by Seattle, and I think they will, they’ll then face the Miami Dolphins and Chad Pennington in the season finale. That should be great! If the Fish can beat the Bills next week, everything sets up perfectly for a game that will not only decide the AFC East, but one that will determine whether the Jets erred in their quarterback selection process for 2008.

It goes without saying that I wish the Jets had kept Pennington. He was a club leader and he never complained, despite a lack of protection and a lack of skills at the receiver position, which is still a problem. Neither Coles nor Cotchery have the speed to stretch the field, nor do they have the best hands, nor do they ever get much separation anywhere. Other than that, they’re fine.

Favre usually does have time to throw though, something Pennington never had. He has a defense that can usually stop the run as well, if not yesterday. The Jets let the Bills backs, Marshawn Lynch and even Fred Jackson, run over, around and through them to take the lead into the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

As strange as it seems, the Jets finally focused on stopping the pass against a Bills team that can’t pass that well, a team that ranked 19th in passing in the NFL. They hadn’t been that good at running either, ranking 15th in rushing, but yesterday managed about 185 yards against the men in the ugly green uniforms.

But the Jets did win the game. It’s difficult to say they’ll come back to earth, though. They were never that far removed from earth in the first place, although they were the first team to beat the Titans from Tennessee in very impressive fashion,

There is hope for the Jets though. They have a great running attack with Thomas Jones running behind that improved offensive line. They can pass the ball too, but not with authority, nothing that would scare opposing defenses. So those smart opponents will plan their strategies for stopping the running game.

There are bright spots though. For the Jets, there is Leon Washington. He added another long TD run to his already impressive resume by exploiting a seam in the Bills defensive middle on his way to a 47-yard score that put the Jets ahead 21-17 right before the half. If not for Leon, the Jets season may have already come back to earth.

The Giants can look forward to “Earth” coming back, either that or some extensive tweaking to a pretty moribund offense, one that just can’t score.

CC and JJ WooHoo!!

Wow! Bang! In comes K-Rod
Whoosh! In comes J.J. Putz, out goes Heilman.

Sitting here listening to Darryl Strawberry talking on the FAN with Francesa about his years with the ’86 World Champions New York Mets, and still basking in the knowledge that we’ll have some real relievers next year, what could be better?

Uh-oh, now he’s re-living his Yankees Days. Geez, even that’s OK now. Now that Omar and the Mets have done such a sterling job of operationalizing their priorities. The Yanks pay 61 mill for C.C and we get K-Rod for beans, relatively speaking, of course.

Then we get JJ Putz from Seattle, one of the premier relievers in the league for at least a few years now for Aaron Heilman and Endy Chavez. Some minor league players were also involved, but the crux of the deal is Putz for Chavez, Heilman and Joe Smith, who actually will wind up with the Indians. A lefthanded pitcher named Jason Vargas, who was hurt for all of last year, was also included in the deal.

The Mets also get a pretty fair right-handed middle-inning reliever named Sean Green, who may be better than anyone the Mets now have in that role. A utility outfielder named Jeremy Reed completes the 12-player mass juggle. The Mets are probably ten to 15 games better than they were last year, and that may be conservative if everyone stays healthy.

I don’t like some aspects of the huge trade, such as letting Joe Smith go. He was a tough pitcher in certain spots last year, and you had an overall good feeling about him. Sure, he may have messed up some, they all did, but not in the spots that Heilman did. Oh God, don’t make me re-live that all over again!

I understand they’ll be talking to Pedro again. While I don’t think they’ll work anything out with Mr. Martinez, I do relish the thought, just for fun rather than effectiveness necessarily.

And I hope they’ll get the crazy left-hander back too, Oliver Perez. If they can retain him for less than they can get for a free agent starter of the same quality, why not keep him? He’s at his best in big games, and more than ever, it looks as if the Mets may have some of those in 2009.

Just accomplishing this much would yield a starting rotation of Johan Santana, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Pedro Martinez. Another lefthander with possibilities named Jonathon Niese makes for a pretty fair rotation. Compare it to that of the World Champ Phillies.

Maine and Pelfrey should be better than last year. So should Pedro, for that matter. If Santana can hold his form, what a year it could be. I’m sure crazy Ollie would provide some unwanted adventure, and Pedro usually provides just five or six good innings at this stage of his career, but three of five starters would be pretty consistent, providing mostly routine quality starts.

So there’d be quite a few instances of a need for good relief pitching with that rotation. But now the Mets have it. If they can just get to the eighth inning, they now have the best finishing tandem in either league, JJ Putz in the eighth and Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth.

With a finishing tandem such as that, the Mets really don’t need to do more in the pitching area than to just keep Perez and Pedro. They’d keep some of that crazy chemistry too. The lineup they have is strong enough to score runs, and that’s just by keeping the other Reyes (Argenis) at 2nd base and the Murphy/Evans combo in left field.

Keeping Damien Easley would be fine, and Fernando Tatis was no slouch either last year. Otherwise, I’d be happy with Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Church, Murphy or Evans and Schneider/Castro.

The Yanks are talking with a lot of guys. They need a lot of guys. And maybe they’ll watch Teixeira go to Boston. Oh man! How good does it get? Imagine the joy of watching Teixeira hit 30 and 100 and lead the Sawx to one more title. Meanwhile, we Mets fans got what we needed all year.

The Yankees are figuring, I guess, they can throw just anybody into the first base position. Giambi, Damon, whatever…and I suppose they’re not that crazy about Bobby Abreu, which is hard to believe really, given that he hits .300 every year.

If I were a Yankee fan, I’d be worried big-time. Sabathia has always been one of my favorite fantasy-league pitchers and he’s been great, but he tends to start the season slowly and that just won’t do in the big town. He’ll be vilified on the rags’ back pages at least a few times before the beginning of June. How will that affect an easy-going guy?

Does trading Mike Cameron for Melky Cabrera really accomplish that much? For all anyone knows, Melky could come back from his down season, and he was never bad in that centerfield spot. It was his lack of presence in the lineup that was frustrating. Cameron has more power but he strikes out……a lot.

Maybe they’ll have some bulletins during the football game tonight letting us know what other moves the Yanks may be making. God knows they still need some pitching. C.C. may be able to pitch with three days rest but not even the big guy can pitch every day.

The Yanks too are allegedly bidding against the Phils for Derek Lowe. That would be just fine for Mets fans, robbing the Phillies of still another weapon that would soon turn on our boys in blue. Go get ‘em, Cash….

Anything can happen in baseball, of course. As Yogi was supposed to have said one day, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over” but Mets fans are a lot further along than they were a couple of days ago. That’s for sure. The beginning of the beginning is looking very good indeed.

In My Mind I'm Goin' to Carolina

Was there ever anything so old as an old running back? As I watched the Panther running backs, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, run roughshod over the poor, defenseless Bucs last night, I was able to appreciate the difference between some of these older backs, the Jamal Lewises and Freddie Taylors of the world, and the new breed of lightning fast, turn-on-a-dime, fake you out of your jock variety of back.

They made Ronde Barber look like an old plodder, on both sides of the field, and, if the thought of retirement had never occurred to him before, I’m sure last night he may have had his first. Both these fine young Carolina running backs made cuts that shouldn’t even be possible at the speed they were going.

I never really like to get into stats, you can read that anywhere, but these two romped for an average of seven yards per carry. Both of them. Most of it was done on their own. But that, I think, may be the key to controlling them. Don’t let them be on their own. That they made it that far, one-on-one with only a scared cornerback between them and paydirt, was the big mistake.

Our Giants may have some trouble on their hands, even with a healthy Brandon Jacobs and a Plaxico look-alike who can actually catch the friggin’ football. Because, even if they take the measure of everyone else in the league, they’ll still probably find Carolina at the end of the line, that line that separates the also-ran from the Super Bowl.

But there is hope. The Giants front seven is tougher and faster than that of the Bucs. They should make it tougher to find a seam, or to get around the end. They have some pretty tough tacklers in the secondary too, but I wouldn’t want to see them put to the test.

The really scary thing about the Panthers is that they can pass the ball too. Even with a not totally healthy Jake Delhomme, that Delhomme to Steve Smith combination is tough, very tough, and they’ve connected way too many times for any team facing them to think that they could maybe put eight men in the box. Smith would certainly demand double coverage, practically all the time.

And, oh yeah, the Panthers play pretty good defense too. They have the freaky Julius Peppers to deal with on their defensive line, and the other guys are no picnic either. Their defense is kind of suspect, though, as a few teams have discovered this year, but only those teams with strong running games themselves, and teams that could stop the run.

I’m speaking of Minnesota, who held them to ten points in a 20-10 win, and Atlanta, when Michael Turner lit them up for four big touchdowns in a wild 45-28 win. Their other loss was to the same Tampa team they dismantled tonight. That game was in Tampa and they were held to three points. The Bucs held both Panther running backs to a little over two yards per carry in that one, and there just weren’t that many carries, as the Panthers fell behind and had to pass. Delhomme was intercepted three times in that endeavor.

So, the key to beating them would seem to be to take an early lead, pound the ball at their defense, and stop their running game early. The Giants should be capable of that, but only if Jacobs comes back healthy, and Hixon starts catching the ball. Aside from the “x” in both their names, there just doesn’t appear to be that much similarity in their games.

All of this, of course, is looking way ahead, even though there are only three games left. The G-Men have to face the surprisingly tough Cowboys this week, and the Boyz may find the G-Men a soft touch after having to face the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Romo was running for his life most of the time, and I just haven’t seen that kind of pressure exerted by the Giants this year.

As the Cowboys have to win out to make the playoffs at all, the G-Men will be facing a terribly dangerous team. The loss of Plaxico hurts almost every phase of their game. Their running game suffers as the defense can focus on it. Their special teams suffer because Hixon may not have the same explosiveness if he has to run patterns all game. Their defense even suffers as the Giants may not be able to sustain drives to keep them off the field.
Antonio Pierce too was victimized a few times in the Sunday contest against the Eagles. One wonders what kind of effect his legal troubles may be having. It can’t be good. As leader of the defense, he has to set an example for his defensive teammates, and that’s kind of difficult if he’s not making plays himself.

So the Giants don’t have the cakewalk they appeared to have just a couple of weeks ago. The Eagles exposed their vulnerabilities. Our G-Men looked all too beatable, almost as defeatable as those crazy Jets.

The Jets would appear to be a schizophrenic team, beating the Pats and Titans only to lose to the Broncos and Niners. A closer look, though, uncovers even more serious problems than that. They cannot stop the passing game of their opponents.

The Titans tried to stuff the ball down the Jets’ throats. Their running game was effectively bottled up, and they didn’t resort to passing until the game was out of hand. The Pats have been hurting all year, and, even with that, Matt Cassel rang them up for 400 yards passing, and the Jets escaped with a 34-31 win.

So both the local teams should have a very trying end of season. The G-Men may lose their home game throughout the playoffs. The Jets may not make them at all. If it comes down to coaching, you have to like the Giants’ chances.

Cuffed Hands, Hired Hands, All Hands on Deck!

If there’s anything I care less about than Rutgers football, it would have to be a Thursday night NFL matchup between the Oakland Raiders and anyone. If the powers that be were doing their best to try to turn football fans away, they couldn’t possibly pick worse games to televise.

I mean, gimme a break. Even before the season, somebody should have figured out that the Raiders couldn’t match up with any NFL team, never mind one that, by rights, should have been contending for the AFC Championship.

Oh well, at least it wasn’t an all-night discussion about Plaxico. Or who may have driven him home, or to the hospital, or concealed information from the police. At least I didn’t have to see any more of the biggest Fascist of them all, the too honorable Mayor Bloomberg, chip in with his two cents.

What’s scary to me is that incredibly rich and powerful people can say anything they want and get away with it. That the Mayor of New York can pretty much call the shots, and let any judge within the confines of his city know that the Mayor won’t settle for anything less than a conviction, that he won’t stand for anything less than the maximum sentence.

To me, that’s a much worse offense than shooting yourself in the leg accidentally. Plax’s offense is something that only happens to stupid people. It’s pretty much confined to those brazen enough, or insecure enough, to carry loaded guns around. What the mayor’s doing could be perpetrated on anyone.

He’s tried the case in his mind and he knows what the outcome had better be. He dictated the ending. Hell, not just the ending but pretty much the process too. I’m sure Plax’s life will be hell for a long, long, time and only the lawyers will be the happier for it.

At this point, I’d rather they throw the Mayor’s butt in jail. The charge could be obstruction of justice, or bribing an official of the city government. To me, New York deserves a classier mayor than this small-time Hitler. This is the same guy who had no problem with the sweet stadium deals both the Mets and Yankees perpetrated on the City.

Not that I care that much about Plaxico personally. He could have shot somebody, especially carrying heat in a crowded environment. But I don’t know the facts, really, nor does anyone, not really. That’s what trials are for.

Okay, enough about Benito Bloomberg. I’m glad I don’t live in his city. We have our own problems here in New Jersey, and not the least is Governor Corzine and his band of crooked legislators, corporate lenders, tax leviers and toll increasers.

I really did mean to write about sports today….. honest. I’ll be getting to it soon, I’m sure, but my little diatribe certainly has made me feel a little better, almost as good as that nice warm feeling I got from the news that O.J. Simpson would finally be spending some time in the slammer.

The Giants will be playing the Eagles again. It seems as if they play them every other week. With just 16 total games on the regular season schedule, it seems a little ridiculous to me that we have to play division opponents twice each. This division just isn’t that exciting…. the Redskins, the Eagles and, thank God, the Cowboys.

Even though it’s totally absurd that a Dallas team could finagle its way into the NFC East, and it’s a tribute to the corruption in the NFL, I thank my lucky stars that they’re a good team, and an interesting one too. The Eagles and Redskins just aren’t. Sure…they’ll win their share of games but it will be boring. Clinton Portis and a cloud of dust for the Skins; for the Eagles, Number 5 and DeSean Jackson and…..well, really nobody else.

At any rate, I expect the Giants will rise above all the stupidity this week and put a beating on the Eagles. If they’re still able to get their practices in, they should win the game. These are high-character guys, guys who bring their game each week, or try anyway.

The same, alas, cannot be said for the Jets. The Jets hired hands travel to San Francisco to play the suddenly Singletary-enlivened 49ers. The Jets don’t travel well, at least not to the West Coast. They managed to lose to the same team, Oakland, that got pummeled by the Chargers last night.

The hired hands have agreed, it seems, to play hard this time out, after their pitiful performance against the Broncos last week. Kris Jenkins, at least, has acknowledged maybe a lack of intensity in that loss that probably contributed a great deal to their failure to stop the Broncos running game.

Favre seemed to acknowledge the same thing, albeit in many more words. Hopefully, he’ll save some of those words for the Jets huddle this week. The 49ers are certainly beatable. But the Jets will have to stop the run, something they’re pretty good at doing ordinarily. They’re not so good against the pass, but the Niners don’t bring that much to that phase of their game.

My attention will be focused on the Cowboys-Steelers game. That one should be a real struggle, not really a Dallas “must” win, but close enough, given the rest of their schedule. It’ll be the tough Cowboys offensive line against the relentless Steelers defense, and conversely, a more determined Cowboys defense against a Steelers offense that hasn’t really knocked anyone’s socks off all year, discounting their man-handling of the Pats last week in New England.

The Steelers have lost three times, and once each to the NFC East G-Men and the Eagles. It’d be nice to make it an NFC East clean sweep. Whatever happens in this one, it’ll be a war. Demarcus Ware and Marion Barber are hurt, but it’ll be all hands on deck!

NY Super Bowl My Butt

Thank God the Jets lost to the lowly Broncos yesterday. I was getting a little tired of the all-New York Super Bowl hype I’d been hearing all week ad nauseum. The Jets don’t have the character of a true Super Bowl team as they proved yesterday.

Think of the last few Super Bowl teams. New England, Indianapolis, and our own Giants. QB’s…Brady, Peyton, Eli…..Coaches….Belichick, Dungy, Coughlin. I could go on, traversing every position on the field but the Jets just don’t measure up to those Super Bowl teams.

Not to be unkind but the Jets succumbed to the theories of their own greatness. After beating the Pats and then the Titans, they really thought they were hot. It didn’t occur to them, maybe, that the Broncos were a totally different team, a team with a real live passing game.

It didn’t occur to them that there may have been a big difference from Titans QB Kerry Collins to Broncos QB Jay Cutler. All the way down their respective rosters, the Broncos are superior to the Titans. The Titans are just a running team. Stop the run and you stop the Titans.

The Jets weren’t prepared for any adversity on Sunday. You could tell that from the opening kickoff to the final gun. It was cold and rainy too, and Favre just really wasn’t interested. After all, who would notice a clunker thrown in on the last Sunday in November? It wasn’t a team in the AFC East, they had a cushion in the East on the Pats and the Dolphins, it was time to coast past the Broncos.

Surely, they thought, we could stop their running game. Surely, then they would stop the pass. Well, it didn’t turn out that way, of course, but the Jets didn’t react, even after it became quite apparent that the Broncos weren’t going to be content with just holding the lead in the AFC West. They wouldn’t be making any turnovers this day.

The Jets just weren’t prepared to play. I don’t put the blame on Mangini, although he can’t be held blameless. The same goes for Favre who was pretty dreadful in the rain yesterday. It’s a team responsibility, heart. The Giants have it, clearly. The Steelers have it, the Chargers don’t have it, the Jets don’t have it.

I wouldn’t even mind if the Jets had come back. But they didn’t. They were content to tuck their tails between their knees and go home. They are a seriously-flawed team, not from a talent perspective as from a character point of view.

Chad Pennington, I might add, did not have a character problem and still doesn’t, as evidenced by his bringing the Dolphins back to respectability. His Jets played with a lot of heart but they didn’t have the talent in his time. Now, they clearly have the talent but not the heart. A large part of the heart got shipped to Miami.

You see the lack of character all over the NFL. Plax’s gun incident is a very clear example. How easy it is for a man to go from the heights to the depths when he is conspicuously lacking character. All those physical attributes that make him such a talent on the football field couldn’t save him from the debacle that will be his life from here on.

It’s a good thing that Burress has been such a small part of the Giants’ success this year. The team seems to be carrying on without missing a beat. The beat goes on and it will go on without Burress. But it may not go on against the best teams in the NFL, a team that has a balanced offense and defense, a team such as the Pats were last year before they were beaten by the Giants with Burress.

Is there a team though that meets those qualifications this year? In either the AFC or NFC? I don’t think so.

You could possibly make a case for the Steelers. They have Ben Roethlisberger at QB, and some talent at the receiver position. They have a formidable defense too, and, in the person of Troy Polamalu, they have the most talented player in either league. They can run the ball too, but not as well as a Super Bowl team should. Their offensive line doesn’t seem strong enough to support either part of their overall offense.

Their potential to fulfill that Super Bowl contender position will be seriously challenged next Sunday when the Cowboys come to town. The Cowboys have Romo back, and he does not seem to be the Romo of last year, not from the perspective of character.

Romo seems to have grown into a leader this year, his injury and the subsequent Cowboys demise seems to have challenged his whole being, and his performance in the games since his injury seems to bear that out. He is one of those players who can make everyone around him better, at least this year.

The Colts have always been a team with character. They were hit hard by injuries this year, and seem to be a little slow in coming back from them. Their performance against the Browns yesterday wasn’t that of a playoffs contender though, unless it was the Browns that made them look bad, a Browns team that seems to lift its game against better opponents, as evidenced by their victory over the G-Men this year.

Who else is there? There are Carolina and the Bucs in the AFC, the Panthers with conspicuous talent on both sides of the ball. But I don’t think Carolina has the heart. They are a team much like the Jets. The Bucs may have the character but not as much talent as is required to reach the heights, at least on the offensive side of things.

A team that turned in that performance against the Broncos yesterday could never reach the Super Bowl. Forget about it. They probably already have.

The Day After

Thank God for Thanksgiving but especial thanks for the day after. That’s the day the family’s all together but the company’s gone home. That’s the day for pancakes in the morning and no cooking or cleaning up to do. That it’s also about the time I overfill the furnace with water and spend the night with the comforting but eerie sounds of clanking pipes is even easily forgotten, so full of anticipation as I am for the coming day.
Yeah, Friday after. That’s the day you do reflect, the good things, the bad things, all that, and, for a sports nut, it’s an affirmation of the normal state of things. In the NFL, it’s the dominance of Dallas, and the putridness of Detroit. In most Fantasy Leagues, it’s the last week of the regular season, and Sunday we’ll find out which brainiacs made the playoffs.

It’s also a big, big day in college football, the only day in fact that some fans pay any attention at all. This day may not be as good as some of those I recall from the past, but it will still be pretty good. It’s the height of the season and usually chock full of regional matchups that decide who’ll have bragging rights for another year. And to hell with the BCS and Bowl Games.
Not that I’m even into college football. But I still remember with a good deal of fondness those Turkey Friday games between Alabama and Auburn and Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. I don’t see those on the schedule today, I suppose Nebraska has slipped and Auburn, who knows, I couldn’t really tell you.

But still, I’m watching Pitt against West Virginia right now and that’s not all bad. West Virginia (7-3 overall, 4-1 in the Big East) can tie an unlikely Cincinnati team for first place in the Big East with a win. Dave Wannstedt’s Pitt team is also 7-3 overall but just 3-2 in the conference. They’re leading 7-0 right now and WVU looks like it’ll be coming back.
LSU plays Arkansas later on CBS, and I have no clue as to why. Both teams just aren’t that good, not this year anyway, the same goes for Colorado playing Nebraska, although Nebraska still has some hopes. Then the late game features UCLA and Arizona State, both with no hopes whatsoever of winning anything, and this couldn’t even be characterized as a regional rivalry. If anybody can tell me what the sports networks are thinking, please drop me a line.

Still, I’m determined to enjoy the day. It’ll be this Pitt game and then Colorado-Nebraska. I’ll tune in to some NBA action later on, see what Charles is up to. (If you’re asking Charles who?, this column is not for you. Click elsewhere. Thanks). But Miami will be up against Phoenix at 8 and Shaq’s always a giggle. Then Dallas vs. the Lakers and there’s Dirk and Kobe. Life is good.
But maybe not if you’re a West Virginia fan. Pat White just got smacked down at the two and they’re settling for three. Geez, will Pat White ever graduate? He’s been around forever, it seems.

And we still have Sunday to look forward to. The G-Men might have a real battle on their hands at FedEx Field in Landover vs. the Skins, who’re 7-4 and feature a healthy (supposedly) Clinton Portis, the best running back in the league. Although the Giants beat the Skins in the opener, by a score of just 16-7, the Skins were awful in that game, the first under new coach Jim Zorn, and they’ll be missing the big mouth Brandon Jacobs and the big hamstring Plaxico Burress.
Can the G- Men do to the Skins what they did to the Cardinals a week ago? I don’t think so, especially in the aftermath of the Eagles convincing drubbing of Arizona yesterday. Arizona just couldn’t stop the run again, or any piece of the Eagles game, for that matter.

A look at the stats reveals some interesting data. The Skins rate very favorably on defense when compared to the Giants, both against the run and the pass. And, if they can stop Derrick Ward and maybe even Ahmad Bradshaw, who never seems to get enough playing time, it’ll get very hairy indeed.
The Giants are comfortably ahead. They don’t really have to win while the Skins will be fighting for their playoff lives. They play smart defense usually, but the Giants have some smart fellows themselves, especially at the receiver position with Toomer and Steve Smith and even Plax’s backup, Domenick Hixon, looked really good vs. Arizona.

Of course, you have to like the Giants chances, what with that offensive line, and Eli standing tall over center. I don’t think Jason Campbell measures up. But that’s why they play the game. Will a chance at knocking the Skins out of the playoffs be motivation enough for the Giants to overcome that bruising Skins running game? And if they do stop that, will they forget about Santana Moss?
The much-ballyhooed Jets will be playing at 4 on Sunday. They’re coming off two gigantic wins, versus the Pats and then the now once-defeated Titans. They’ll be going against the crazy Broncos, a team coming off a horrible 31-10 loss to the lowly Oakland Raiders.

But the Raiders do have a great defense against the pass, just ask Jake Delhomme. The Jets secondary may look like cake in comparison. Despite the presence of Darrell Revis in that backfield, they’ve allowed 148 first downs through the air.
And, if anybody can put the ball in the air, it’s Denver QB Jay Cutler. He’s got some nifty receivers too, a fast and huge fella named Brandon Marshall on one side and a tricky Eddy Royal on the other. They’ve got two tough tight ends that can both catch the ball in Scheffler and Graham too. It could be that they’ll master the porous Jets passing defense.

Yeah, Thanksgiving Friday, the best day of the year.

NFL Coaches - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Bad coaching seems to be running rampant in the NFL this year. Some of them have been bad for years. Herman Edwards of Kansas City comes immediately to mind, of course, and Jack DelRio is most certainly another, despite winning some games with some terrific personnel in Jacksonville.

Some are just recently bad. Lovie Smith of “da Bears” would seem to qualify this year and the Cowboys Wade Phillips would almost certainly be another. Oh yeah, I think you can throw San Diego’s Norv Turner in there too. Anybody who’d hire Ted Cottrell as his defensive coordinator wears blinders.

All this comes to mind as I tonight witnessed te Green Bay Packers get totally annihilated by the sometimes equally inept New Orleans Saints. Any defense that surrenders over 50 points in a game is just not doing the job, I’m sorry to say. I don’t care how good Drew Brees may be.

The Vikings absolute man-handling of the Jaguars was ridiculous. Atlanta’s destruction of the Panthers was almost beyond belief. How can you let Michael Turner score four touchdowns? Didn’t the first three give you a clue?

The Cowboys destroyed the 49ers too, which, maybe you could say was predictable but why let Owens catch all those long balls? Was anybody watching the game unfold, or was Singletary busy watching the behavior of his tight end?

In order to see just how bad the coaching problem is in the NFL, if anything could be worse than the referee-ing, I’ve gone down the list of teams and their respective coaches(courtesy of SportsFrog.com) and classified them as either good, bad, or ugly as follows:

The Good

1.Arizona Cardinals – Ken Wisenhunt – took a chronically bad team and made it good, had the courage to start Kurt Warner over Matt Leinart.

2.Atlanta Falcons – Mike Smith – maybe a great coach, judging by the great shape of every aspect of the Falcons game, running, passing and defense

3.Baltimore Ravens – John Harbaugh – he’s given that great defense a reason to believe, he recognized some good things in QB Joe Flacco and nursed him and his team to victories.

4.Indianapolis Colts – Tony Dungy – if all the titles don’t sway you, what about his handling of this team after all those injuries?

5.Miami Dolphins – Tony Sparano – great job this year marred only by his single coverage all game long on none other than Randy Moss on Sunday. Geez.

6.New England Patriots – Bill Belichick – maybe the best coach of them all – unless you totally surprise him, as Miami’s “wildcat” did earlier this year

7.New Orleans Saints – Sean Payton – injuries hurt him this season but his team is hanging in there, and his defense appears to be getting better.

8.New York Giants – Tom Coughlin – his better treatment of his players had to be forced on him but you apparently can teach an old dog some new tricks.

9.Pittsburgh Steelers – Mike Tomlin – seems to have retained all the good things about the Steelers, except maybe for the absence of a big jaw.

10.Seattle Seahawks – Mike Holmgren – top three or four – injuries decimated receivers this year.

11.Tennessee Titans – Jeff Fisher – his teams have always been ready to play; this year he had the smarts to make Kerry Collins his starter and let Vince Young watch.

12.Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Jon Gruden – remarkable consistency and great Chucky face.

13.Washington Redskins – Jim Zorn – despite looking foolish in the season’s first game vs. the Giants, he and the Skins have come on strong.

The Bad:

1.Chicago Bears – Lovie Smith – stayed too long with Rex and has seemingly no head for offense at all, not to mention defending the pass.

2.Green Bay Packers – Mike McCarthy –mishandled Favre situation, signed Rodgers for six years and team can’t stop the run OR the pass as evidenced by last night’s Saints debacle.

3.Houston Texans – Gary Kubiak – does this team EVER get better?

4.Philadelphia Eagles – Andy Reid – yeah, I know, blah-blah-blah re coaching record, but what has he done lately? When will his team get some real receivers and running backs? And then there’s the McNabb-Kolb thing, time to go home for a while.

5.St Louis Rams – Jim Haslett – this team seems to have quit, ‘nuff said.

6.San Diego Chargers – Norv Turner – good team-underperforms in all areas.


The UGLY:

1.Jacksonville Jaguars – Jack Del Rio – I still recall the “ax incident” and good personnel that plays either badly or inconsistently.

2.Kansas City Chiefs – Herman Edwards – good motivator, terrible bench coach, terrible time management, as coach, makes a great cornerback.

3. Oakland Raiders – Tom Cable - anybody who’d coach for Al Davis has to be listed in this category despite impressive recent win over Shanahan’s Broncos.

4.Cleveland Browns – Romeo Crennel – has totally botched the QB situation, and now a quick hook on Brady Quinn.

5.Dallas Cowboys – Wade Phillips –his team displays no toughness in bad times; even in good times can play with no heart.

6.Minnesota Vikings – Brad Childress – excellent personnel plays very inconsistently on a consistent basis, terrible offense when the run is stopped, terrible bench decisions.

Jury Still Out:

1. Buffalo Bills – Dick Jauron – inconsistent teams but injuries too, QB Trent Edwards may someday turn the corner.
2. Carolina Panthers – John Fox – not convinced that this team is as good as its personnel, plays inconsistently very often.
3. Cincinnati Bengals – Marvin Lewis – hard to like but cursed with head cases and injuries.
4. Denver Broncos – Mike Shanahan – yeah, I know, what a surprise, but his teams are always very strange and play that way, witness last loss to Raiduhs..
5. Detroit Lions – Rod Marinelli – winless but horrible personnel and losing culture will be hard to overcome.
6. New York Jets – Eric Mangini – over-thinks situations, bad bench coach despite good team, we’ll see if he can advance in playoffs.
7. San Francisco 49ers – Mike Singletary – not enough time in job, could be great with right staff.

For those teams listed as bad or ugly, ask yourself if you couldn’t imagine that team being a lot better with a different coaching staff. Happy Thanksgiving!

Nets Bring Magic to Toronto

I had been looking for inspiration all day. Even the clever cap-clearing moves engineered by new Knicks GM Donnie Walsh didn’t really do it for me. I had loved watching Jamal Crawford the last two years, and I’d recognized some renewed efforts put out by Zak Randolph this year.

That the Knicks would get a former NJ wunderkind named Al Harrington and a still very serviceable Cuttino Mobley in exchange didn’t really do it for me. Although things will be much more exciting two years from now for the Knicks, it’ll be pretty much the same story for the rest of this 2008-2009 season.

I had thought I could salvage something from the NFL Thursday night game, but as the Steelers rolled over the hapless Bengals rather easily, my inspiration wouldn’t come from there. The most notable aspect of that game was the Bengals coach’s decision to kick a field goal rather than go for a touchdown embarrassingly late in the game.

Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the Bengals. They have a head coach who’s just as happy to cover the spread as he is to win the game. After the Pittsburgh-San Diego refereeing debacle of the previous week, in which the referee “mistakenly” called back a touchdown that would have enabled the Steelers to cover the spread, it was another unpleasant reminder that we may not be watching what we think we are. It may be rather well-disguised professional wrestling.

The Giants and Jets prospects can usually move me, but as it was still Friday, and with both teams facing rather uncertain futures on Sunday, the Jets having to play the undefeated Titans and the Giants having to face the pass-happy Arizona Cardinals, I wasn’t quite ready to wax prosaic just yet about those contests.

But tonight, quite by chance, amid some channel surfing, I witnessed a furious battle in Canada, an NBA basketball game that reminds me of what purpose there could be in sportswriting. Someone needs to chronicle the heroism displayed in only those contests decreed by God to be special.

Such was the battle between the Nets and Raptors last night. Who would have expected it, such drama, such intensity, such athleticism, such talent, such strategizing, all being played out before my wondering eyes on what otherwise could have been a dreary Friday night.

Just for the record, the Nets won 129-127 in overtime. But that says nothing. It was the ebb and flow of the game that was mesmerizing, and the heroics of Nets point guard Devin Harris in the third quarter and perennial All-Everything and Toronto pariah Vince Carter in the fourth quarter and overtime that eventually decided the matter.

But for all their heroics, it was the inbounds pass from Bobby Simmons to the very sneaky Vince Carter that eventually ended this marathon. It was seemingly an impossible scenario, being that Vince was electrifying all night and had sent the game into overtime with his last-second high arching jumper from the top of the key.

Carter seemed to just disappear as he glided away and behind his defender, and Simmons waited until the last possible moment to loft his perfect inbounds Alley-Oop pass to Vince directly in front of the basket. Carter simply jammed it in backwards and didn’t even smile really. His face just radiated contentment and a realization that his had been a job well done.

Right behind Carter in the line for accolades had to be the mercurial Devin Harris. It was Harris who mobilized the Nets in their comeback in the third quarter, Harris who charged past defenders, Harris who made the pull-up jumpers, Harris who made all the right passes to bring his team back from a huge deficit.

Despite the flair exhibited by the Nets in coming back, at no time was the miraculous ending an expected one, if only because of the unbelievable efforts of Toronto forward Chris Bosh. Every time the Nets did something, it was Bosh who’d answer back. Sometimes, he’d defer to Bargnani or Calderon, but it was Bosh who was running the show, and he fought the good fight.

That it was Carter providing most of the spectacle was especially fitting, given that the Toronto fans continue to boo the man for having had the temerity to abandon their team those many years ago, this despite Vince’s admitted lack of enthusiasm for the game in those days. The fans’ vitriolic treatment of Carter, though, certainly made the win sweeter for Vince, sweeter for the Nets, and sweeter for yours truly.

Nets coach Lawrence Frank was predictably ebullient in the game’s aftermath. He of course praised his big guns but also had kind words for the less evident aspects and players of the game. He certainly had many good reasons to be happy.

Jarvis Hayes got 32 minutes off the bench and contributed 14 points, a late and timely three-pointer, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Rookie Brook Lopez contributed 14 points and 6 rebounds and Sean Williams, though the box score may not reflect it, contributed a great deal to the win with physical play in the paint.

Williams certainly let Jermaine O’Neal know he was there. Williams’s not so flagrant flagrant foul on the Toronto center contributed to some pain O’Neal had been already feeling in his knee and hip and sent him to the bench.

Coach Frank’s biggest problems may be just determining his starting lineup, a happy dilemma to be sure. The young Nets are now 6-6 and seem to have a lot of talent, not to mention height, power, a dynamite speedster in Harris and the magic that Vince Carter can still bring to the court more often than not.

Yes, sometimes you get some magic in the unlikeliest of places and so it was last night in Toronto. I most certainly appreciate the Nets effort. I know I’ll be looking to watch those Nets some more in the months ahead, especially when I might need some inspiration.



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Giants Eat Ravens - Mangini Eats Crow

Gee, if it weren’t for the economy going to hell and everyone’s retirement money going into the abyss, no jobs around or even on the horizon and state and local budgets going farther into the red, we’d have to be happy campers here in New York, unless you have to rake the leaves, of course. Then you have a real problem.

What can you say? The G-Men look invincible, the Jets refuse to lose and even the Knicks and Nets aren’t going down without a fight these days. Every day seems to bring with it new wonders. Even baseball fans can look forward to the next big signing, after Nick Swisher, that is.

Invincible? I don’t know that that’s the right word for it, but those Giants surely made some kind of statement against the Ravens on Sunday. Everyone seemed to be expecting a very close game as the Baltimore defense had been allowing almost nothing on the ground. It was Ray Lewis this and Ray Lewis that, and surely the Ravens stable of running backs, featuring Willis McGahee and Rutgers own Ray Rice would challenge the G-Men’s front seven.

It sure didn’t turn out that way. The Ravens running game was stuffed. Jersey’s own Joe Flacco, the rookie QB, was the leading rusher with 57 yards, the rest were in the teens. In fact, the biggest surprise in every respect was Flacco, who gave the Giants fits, both with his arms and legs.

But the issue was never in doubt. The tone was set from the first drive of the game, when Jacobs got hit behind the line, shrugged it off, and wheeled around to his left for about 40 yards, rendering quite a few Ravens tough guys on the ground before going out of bounds. When he crashed into the end zone a few plays later, it was pretty much all she wrote.

The Jets were less awesome to be sure, but they managed to beat their perennial nemesis, New England. I would have preferred a game with less Jets lead squandering and more convincing defense but it wasn’t to be. Favre had to save their butts in overtime after some Mangini over-think allowed the Pats to tie the game on its last play.

I won’t belabor the point but the Genius abandoned what had been working all game to present the most appropriate possible defense for the situation, classic over-think, and of course he ate crow.

In fact, the best characterization of the weekend is to say that the Giants ate the Ravens while Mangini ate crow. Not to be cruel but the Jets should be winning more easily with the talent they have. They’ll make the playoffs but Mangini will make every game an adventure. Not that I don’t like the man. Heh-heh.

Oh, and Leon Washington is just super. So is Kris Jenkins. Okay, enough about the Jets. They’re almost certain to be a disappointment in the final analysis.

How good is it to see Mike D’Antoni’s influence paying off for the Knicks? Although they lost a tough one last time out against the tough Mavericks, when Dirk Nowitzki went crazy and the Knickerbockers went very very cold (for the first time), they are 6-4 and will face the Celtics tonight sans Kevin Garnett, who was suspended a game for hitting Andrew Bogut in the face. (Yeah, I know, just a game suspension for hitting somebody in the face)?

The Nets are a very surprising 4-5 after beating what had been thought to be a tough Atlanta Hawks team twice in a row. The guard they got in exchange for Kidd, Devin Harris, has been pretty phenomenal and is making the Nets management look very good indeed, especially considering the fact that draftees Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson are both proving they play some pretty good basketball in those West Coast colleges.

Hockey? Sorry, I don’t do hockey. And neither do the Devils this year by all accounts.

Then, of course, there are the Yankees. Let me remind my readers that I truly hate the Yankees, not the players, of course, but the management. No, let me be more specific than that, it’s GM Brian Cashman who bugs me (lately).

Nevertheless, I do pay attention to their doings, if just to be able to pick on Cashman a little bit more. I hate that the Yanks are going after Sabathia, one of the very best pitchers in the game, but who is just not a good fit for the Yankees. (Time will prove me right on this one if he is stupid enough to take their offer). Sabathia’s a free spirit whose fire will go out on that humorless team.

But I must say I love their signing of free agent Nick Swisher. Here’s a guy who is coming off a very mediocre last year but who had two pretty good years before that. Here’s a guy who plays the game hard, takes a lot of pitches at the plate, and can play any outfield position in addition to first base. For a team with needs at both positions,it was a brilliant move, and one that will be a good fit for both team and player. Good move, Brian, for once.

My favorite team, the Mets, will make its fans agonize for a month or so before GM Omar Minaya gets us a closer, and probably make us wait even longer than that to fill out the rest of the bullpen. I remain concerned that the Mets will trade Beltran, my favorite Mets player. (What’s not to like? He does everything well).

While there has been talk of the Mets acquiring a bigtime closer in free agency (Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes), there have also been rumors of trading for Bobby Jenks. While I’d love to get Jenks, it makes me wonder who’s on his way to Chicago. And the White Sox will be needing an outfielder.

I’m thinking I should brace myself for disappointment.

Curiouser and Curiouser

Well, tomorrow's another big football day and things just get curiouser and curiouser in the National Football League. Where's the defense? How many teams really have one worthy of the name? Certainly not the Jets, who, while they won their game against the Pats in overtime, let the Pats and Randy Moss tie it up on the last play of the game.

The Giants, too, would seem to be a little suspect after allowing the Eagles to score as many as they did. I mean, gimme a break, they won much because of overly conservative Herman Edwards-like play calling.

Yeah, I know, both teams are leading their divisions and who cares about defense anyway. Well, besides me, most successful playoff teams of yesteryear have cared rather passionately about defense. Need I mention the '85 Bears? Nah! How about the 2007-08 GEE-Men?

In the Jets case, their coach just overthinks everything. What had been successful against Moss all day was abandoned on that last play. Because he had thought, "well, there's no time on the clock, the qb can't afford to scramble, the ball can't go to the middle of the field, yada, yada, ad infinitum, and he forgot that he had put Moss to sleep all day by smashing him at the line of scrimmage.

Randy looked like a kid who's just gotten his first bike for Christmas. And, when he snared that pass from Cassell (and indeed, Randy was the only guy who could have caught it), he got his bike, and a Christmas goose too. Wait...check that, it was the Jets who got the goose. That they came back to win in OT was great, but somehow that bad taste lingers for me. Can the Jets really go much further?

The G-Men will finally see some real defense played tomorrow. The Ravens are unbelievable, a fierce defense, no over-thinking going on. I don't see Brandon Jacobs or Derek Ward doing much, not that Coughlin won't try. Hopefully, he will change his game somewhat in the face of some furious realities in the forms of Ray Lewis and his band of renown.

What's most curious about football is the emotion involved in the game. The fact that the G-Men have a nice little cushion in their division will surely alter the metabolism of each and every man on that field. The same will apply to the Baltimore crew, of course, and their collective chomping at the bit can only bode well for them.

The other curious thing is the affect of injuries. Who could even figure out who's playing? "Questionable" means everything from "no way" to "definitely in". Take Clinton Portis, for example. He's questionable every week. The G-Men have some questionable secondary people for tomorrow. I have no idea who's playing.

And, speaking of curious, let me turn to baseball for a second. Isn't it a little strange that C.C. Sabathia may be practically forced by the Players Union to accept the highest salary offered? When did the players give up their individuality? Who authorized that?
<>What if C.C. hates the Yankees? I can’t think of a team that less suits him. I have followed C.C. since his first year in the majors, if just for the size of him and the tilt of his cap. Will the Yankees make him straighten it out? Probably. Never was there a more serious bunch than these Yankees. Never was there a group that appears to be having less fun.

Shouldn’t C.C. be allowed to take that Milwaukee offer? Sure, it’s millions less but what about job satisfaction? Shouldn’t that really be the first consideration? C.C. won’t like the Yankees, I know, and, as hard as this may be to believe, I don’t think the Yankees will like him.
<>Money, money, money. It’s keeping Stephon Marbury in limbo, if a very rich and comfortable limbo. Last on the bench, first in the bank account. Isn’t he a basketball player? Doesn’t he care about that?

Whether Stephon may eventually get bought out or not, the Knicks’ fortunes have certainly been changing for the better. They seem reborn, these D’Antonians. Defense once again graces the floor of Madison Square Garden. No more Marbury or Curry, these Knicks have guys who actually leave their feet.
<>Wilson Chandler seems to be the biggest difference, an under-sized power forward who does it all, rebounding, scoring, blocking shots, and yes, thank goodness, defense. The most curious thing, though, is that much of the personnel remains the same, Jamal Crawford, Zak Randolph, yada yada. Oh, and a guy who cares not so much for money, an unselfish point guard named Duhon, Chris Duhon.

On the other side of the river, the Nets look horrible one night, terrific the next. While that inconsistency is supposed to be normal for a young team, a kind of consistent inconsistency, it still seems awfully strange. I’m glad I don’t gamble. I’d never have picked them to beat the Atlanta Hawks.
<>The world of sport is filled with curiosities, of course. New York has no monopoly on strange. The Cowboys could be the weirdest of the bunch (if you don’t count the Raiders and the Lions). How can a premiere team neglect to get themselves a decent backup quarterback?

Tomorrow, we’ll see another curious but interesting phenomenon, the positive affect that the quarterback return can have on a team. The Redskins, though much improved themselves this year under new coach Zorn, will have to deal with a Cowboys team that should be angry, fed up, and just delighted to have good old Tony back behind the center. I think they’ll totally forget the PacMan, and maybe even their crazy owner, even if he does place himself front and center on the sideline.

Enjoy Week 11 (including the bye week, another curious thing), sports fans. I know the fans in Miami will, what with Chad at the helm and in Atlanta, where a Yankee named Ryan seems to be taking the Falcons to the heights.

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QB's - Turning On The Jets (and Boyz)

Everybody's talking about the Jets these days, especially after their stomping of the lowly Rams on Sunday leading up to their AFC East showdown with their perennial nemesis, the New England Patriots on Thursday night. Things looked even brighter when it became apparent that the Pats star linebacker Adalius Thomas would be unable to play. And it seemed like piling on when the Jets picked up free agent and former Patriot All-Star veteran cornerback Ty Law.
<>I should preface all my remarks by first telling you that I’ve soured on the Jets for the past two years. There was all that nonsense with the offensive line for starters last year, and then the genius Mangini proved he couldn’t coach. Then I was very impressed with their free agent pickups in the off-season, Faneca and Woody, Calvin Pace and of course Chris Jenkins, the mammoth defensive tackle.

I was so happy for Pennington at the time. Chad would finally get some help, a LOT of help, on both sides of the ball. No more would I wake up on Monday morning to read about Chad’s failures, when it was really a thinly-disguised team failure. No more would Chad have to be humiliated by sitting while a raw Kellen Clemens got the starts. Surely Chad would excel in this new environment.
<>And then they picked up Brett Favre, the aging wonder from Green Bay. Chad went to Miami and has been terrific for them, so he has at least landed on his feet. Favre has been up and down, in and out, as has been his history. He threw six touchdown passes against a pretty good Arizona team but managed to lose to a horrid Oakland team. Then he managed to eke out a narrow victory against the lowly Chiefs (thank God for Herman Edwards and his conservative nonsense down the stretch) but did beat Buffalo pretty soundly before the pounding of the Rams on Sunday.

So Favre has been Favre. But, to me, it’s really been about Jenkins and Pace and that improved Jets defense. The offensive line has been improving each week as further evidenced on Sunday by the running of Thomas Jones over, under, around and through the Rams.
<>But they did lose to New England in Week Two, 19-10. And Favre was instrumental in the loss. A poorly thrown ball and subsequent interception led directly to a Pats score, while Mangini’s obsessive-compulsive decision to run Jones into the sturdy heart of the Pats defense three times in a row from the three made sure the boys in green wouldn’t catch up.

Of course, that was Week 2. The Jets seem to have come a long way since then. And now for the rematch Adalius Thomas is out. That means it’ll be easier for the Jets to run the ball. There will be less pressure on Favre as well. While I don’t think that Ty Law can significantly change the Jets fortunes in this particular contest, his addition certainly bodes well for the future.
<>But the Pats will still be pretty darned good. Theirs is a Bellichick defense, and that means smart. That means tough. If their defense can stand the pounding of Jones and catch up to the shifty scatback, Leon Washington, they’ll probably be able to win again, even if the Pats are stuck with a rookie running back with a whole lot of names.

This game will be the benchmark for Favre, and Mangini too, the game by which both will eventually be measured. Can Favre show that he’s finally learned the offense? Can he lead the team to victory against that determination that Bellichick seems to inspire? Can Mangini out-think Bellichick…..if just for one day?
<>The game will be in Foxboro. That should make things that much tougher. It could possibly rain, another potential roadblock to what has been a very nice running game the past couple of weeks. The team that takes advantage of the conditions will have the edge. Can Mangini think that far ahead? Can he make the in-game adjustments that his coaching mentor surely will? Can they find a hole in Matt Cassell’s game? Mr. Cassell surely didn’t show much weakness against Buffalo.

Whatever the outcome, it should prove to be a very intense game, a very competitive game, one that may ultimately determine the AFC East winner, and maybe even the AFC representative to the Super Bowl. I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the game, hopefully as much as I’m enjoying just the prospects of the game.
<>Once again, I’ve been down on the Jets. I haven’t liked Mangini and I’ve liked Tanenbaum even less. It seems to me that they’ve focused most of their attention on burying their popular players to solidify their hold on this team. The new emperor buries the sword…..

The Jets game will just be the kickoff to an exciting schedule of NFL games this weekend. I’m most looking forward to the return of Tony Romo to the Cowboys fold. I’m hoping his pinkie will hold up against the outstanding defense that the Skins will bring.
<>It had better. If it doesn’t, the Cowboys will be done. Stick a fork in them. That much-ballyhooed team with all the Pro Bowl representatives may as well go home again. It won’t be easy either. They haven’t been able to stop the run, something the Skins like to do, with Clinton Portis doing most of the damage. It’s a bit hard to believe he won’t play, something that is supposedly a distinct possibility as this is written. And then, of course, there is the disturbing news (for Boys fans) of CB DeAngelo Hall, formerly of the Raiders, joining the Redskins.

Can a quarterback change the entire complexion of a football team? I’m betting that he can, that just the Romo presence on the field will boost not just the Cowboys offfense, but the defense and special teams as well.

I’m a little less sure that Favre can do the same this Thursday.

Of Mets Follies and Football Too!

You're probably asking yourself how anybody could be writing about baseball when there are so many exciting things happening in football, and even basketball. I'm wondering myself actually. My only excuse is that I'm worried bigtime that Mets GM Omar Minaya will make another "brilliant" move, one on the order of his Moises Alou or Luis Castillo ploys.

Who knows if it's true but I keep hearing rumors that the Mets will trade Carlos Beltran and are listening to proposals concerning the Mets great centerfielder. Not only that but I hear the suitors are the Yankees and the principal Yankee for the Mets would be Robinson Cano and a couple of relief pitchers. What a mistake that would be, but just the kind of mistake for which Minaya has become famous.

GM’s sometimes lose the forest for the trees. The Mets need two relief pitchers and a closer. Period. There is Kerry Wood of the Cubs. There is Brian Fuentes. There are a few other short relievers in free agency.

The Mets have second basemen. Damion Easley plays second base as does Luis Castillo and an exciting fellow named Argenis Reyes, all of whom are already on the roster. Second base, while not a comparative strength, was not the reason the Mets folded again.

Need I remind anyone? It was relief pitching. We need relief pitching. Hello Omar, are you there? We need those guys who come out after the starter and before the end of the game. For most teams, Omar, the end of the game was not coincident with the appearance of the first relief pitcher.

To lose Beltran at all would be a grievous loss but to lose him for a disgruntled attitude problem such as Cano would be unforgivable. I'd stop rooting for the Mets. That would be one step over the line for even this stout fan. If Beltran is requesting a trade, I'd be surprised. But, if he indeed is requesting a trade, I'd like to at least be aware of it.

It's not outrageous to think that Beltran may have had enough of Mets fans. He may be ready to move on. And the Mets do have an outfielder down in the minors who's probably ready. If this is the case, if Beltran is begging for a trade, I'd try to accommodate him, if just because the Mets do have a young fellow they've been bragging about for years.

But I'd only accommodate him if we could get equal value, or even nearly equal value. Robinson Cano is a Yankees problem they're trying to unload. Carlos Beltran is a legitimate star, the best all-around centerfielder in Major League Baseball. Equal value would mean a position player acknowledged to be one of the best in the game. Pitchers are too fragile.

The only player out there I'd seriously consider would be the Rockies Matt Holliday. Now he's a star. Not a centerfielder but a star. Holliday could provide even more than Beltran at the plate and adequately cover left field. He could be the clutch hitter the Mets have so desperately needed. There are no second basemen who could compare to Beltran at the plate, certainly not Cano.

It would be totally unacceptable to watch Carlos Beltran cruising around in centerfield for the Yankees, especially knowing that we received Robinson Cano in return. It would be a constant reminder of the Mets incompetence. I couldn't root for a team that had no brains whatsoever at the top.

Okay, enough about the Mets. After all, it’s November. The Giants play the Eagles Sunday night. It should be a nice game, totally different from the first Thursday night game we witnessed last night on NFL Network.

While we did get to witness the remarkable debut of Browns’ quarterback Brady Quinn last night, it was accomplished against a very suspect Broncos defense. That the Broncos managed to win the game was not so much a tribute to the Broncos as it was an indicator of how truly bad is the Browns defense. It was dramatic, though, and a kick in the face for Quinn in his Browns debut.

If you like defense, though, tune in to the Giants game Sunday night. Unlike the Browns-Broncos debacle, the quarterbacks won’t have ten seconds or so to get rid of the ball. There will be plenty of blitzes and plenty of scrambling by McNabb and Manning.

There will be legitimate running games displayed too. Both teams feature huge offensive lines and either powerful running backs, in the Giants case Brandon Jacobs and Derrek Ward, or shifty running backs such as the Eagles Brian Westbrook.

I keep remembering last year’s second game with the Eagles though, a totally boring affair, boring because McNabb had Giants linemen in his face all night long. But the most omnipresent of all was Osi Umenyiora, and he will not be on the field Sunday. That’s why I am picking the Eagles on Sunday to beat the Giants.

The Eagles will stop Jacobs and Ward, the self-styled Thunder and Lightning or Earth, Wind and Fire (with Ahmad Bradshaw). The Giants will try to stop everything the Eagles and McNabb do, but alas, they’ll come up short, if only because the Eagles will be hungrier, and have vivid memories of last year fresh in their minds. Oh, and did I mention the new Eagles cornerback from the Pats, a fellow named Samuel?

Oh, and let me not forget basketball entirely. The Knicks have been just as expected. Playing unevenly, playing out of control many times but they are moving the ball, going nowhere very quickly. The Nets can’t even say that much, at this juncture anyway, with all those young fellows.

Yes sirree…it’ll be a nice November and December, if you don’t expect too much. Most of the football action will center around the Cowboys, what with Tony Romo returning, but the real action will be right here in New York down the stretch.

So You Want Crazy?

So many sports going on and almost no focus this Election Day. How can sports compare with today's Obama-McCain duel? Even with Obama seemingly firmly in control, one must only think back to Bush's surprise win, and his steal of Florida, to keep tonight's interest solidly on election results.

Not that there's nothing happening, especially on the New York sports scene. The Mets picked up Delgado's option, thank God, and are, by all accounts, avidly seeking Brian Fuentes, if not Francisco Rodriguez, to shore up their bullpen. Shore up may not really be the right term; an entire replacement might certainly be in order.

Then, of course, there are the NY Football Giants, yes, your favorite team (probably) and mine, the GEEEE-Men. Even after a decisive win over the Steelers, and then the Romo-less Cowboys, who looked pathetic on Sunday, all the news is about the misbehaving Plaxico Burress, whose production has been down and who has (gasp!) missed meetings and practices (as Iverson says "It's just practice, man").

And speaking of Iverson, you'll notice that the Pistons traded for Iverson, not Stephon Marbury, to replace Chauncey Billups in their backcourt. And a certain N.Y. Times sportswriter says the Knicks have to do something with Marbury. It's apparently more than his sensitivity can bear to see him sitting on the end of the bench, in shorts or in a snazzy 3-piece suit.

Life is crazy. It's always been crazy and seldom is it really fair. It's crazy that one of the Super Bowl heroes should get a nice contract extension and raise, and then seemingly lose all perspective, despite his teammates' pulling for him. But Burress will always be Burress, much as Manny has always been Manny. It can be painful to live with him, but it sure is nice to have him double-covered all the time.

It's crazy that one of the best Knicks guards should occupy the bench when lesser players run around not doing very much. But people make their own beds and Steph is on record as not willing to accept one penny less than the 21 million he has coming to him. And Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni is on record as wanting to play an up-tempo game with good defenders, hardly a Marbury forte.

You want crazy? How about the Browns benching their quarterback Derek Anderson for 2nd-year man Brady Quinn? Anderson's leading receiver, Braylon Edwards, drops more balls than he catches. His All-Star tight end is more concerned with staph infections, and their origins, than with playing. His defense can't stop the run (except, inexplicably, against the Giants) and two of his other potential receivers, Donte Stallworth and Joe Jurevicius, have been hurt. Not only that, but it's a short week, and the Browns need to play Denver on Thursday night. And a loss might kill this year's playoff chances for the Brownies. That's really crazy.

It’s crazy that the Pistons should trade possibly the single biggest reason for their success these last five years or so, point guard Chauncey Billups. Iverson certainly won’t take them over the top. I guess Iverson’s expiring 21 mill contract was a consideration, a huge one, but it certainly isn’t fair to Billups, or the rest of his teammates for that matter.

Of course, all this craziness pales in comparison to other more important considerations in our lives. Take the war in Iraq, for example. A pointless and unwinnable war, it killed and maimed our youth, drained our financial resources, weakened the dollar, and went a long way towards totally destroying our world image.

You want crazy? How about lending billions and billions of dollars to people who couldn’t possibly handle that kind of debt? And then bailing out these criminally-inept companies with our hard-earned money. And doing so without really consulting the populace; after all, we’re too stupid to understand the reasons and the consequences.

You want crazy? One of the questions on my ballot is whether we should take further action to make sure our legislators have to consult the public on any of their fantasy projects, not just some of them. The crooked politicians in New Jersey find a way around everything.

Crazy? How about paying huge site license fees for the right to purchase a seat to a Giants or Jets game? How about the folly of building a new stadium at all? None of these stadiums were really needed, not the Giants/Jets new un-named stadium, not the new Yankee Stadium, not the new Mets home(although it was time for Shea to bite the dust), and not the new arena in Newark that the Devils call home.

Crazy? How about a new stadium for the Rutgers football team? Don’t we have better things on which to spend our money? That this team plays totally forgettable football is not really the point. Who really asked for a new stadium?

Oh, and who can forget the Dallas Cowboys? Jerry Jones is getting a new stadium too, maybe the biggest of them all. Did he really need to take on a guy named Pac-Man? How was that helpful, except to make Terrell Owens look like Mr. Rogers in comparison? Backup quarterbacks? Not for Jerry. Surely, Brad Johnson and that other guy would be able to hold the fort.

Ah hell, I don’t care. Let Marbury stew on the end of the bench. Maybe he can chew on his money, or his contract, while he’s sitting there. Maybe he can contemplate the wisdom of getting himself an agent. I know he’ll enjoy watching Larry Brown come to town on Wednesday.

Play or sit Burress, I don’t care. Personally, I think the Giants would have a lot more trouble winning without him. It’s those long arms, and the speed, and the sticky fingers on those hands, and his teammates really do seem to like him. Is he an idiot? Probably, but I think he’s no crazier than Coughlin in the final analysis.

Yeah, life, it’s as crazy as the choices we have today.

Chase Utley - The Keystone Difference

Well, as I had predicted, it was the Phillies, but easier than I had thought, the Phils prevailing in five, not seven, games. But it couldn't have been more exciting. And today, as callers to the FAN's Mike Francesa discussed who the MVP of the Series should have been, nobody mentioned Chase Utley. And that's just plain wrong.

Just to recap, Cole Hamels was voted the MVP. He won Game 1 and was the starting pitcher in Game 5, that the Phils went on to win. But, as Francesa pointed out, he was really just 1-0 for the Series. And, as he reviewed the batting stats for Phillies in the Series, he basically said, "well, there really was nobody else".

Spoken like a Yankee fan. Yankee fans are all about home runs. That's all they know, except perhaps for batting average. Those were the categories Francesa reviewed. And I had to wonder whether he even watched the Series. He mentioned Carlos Ruiz, the Phils catcher, and he mentioned Howard's production in Game 4. He pointed out a few others and totally ignored Chase Utley, except to point out that he did make an excellent play in Game 5 when he faked a throw to first and threw a runner out at home.

What he neglected to point out was that that play kept the score tied. Utley had made the game-changing play and Francesa missed it totally. Fielding doesn't count to Yankees fans. Nor does running for that matter. And they love the designated hitter. Idiots.

I probably shouldn't let this bother me so much. After all, Utley was only 3 for 18 in the Series. But let's review. Utley scored five runs, walked five times, stole 3 bases and made the game-deciding fielding play in the final.
His 4 rbi's won two games, Game 1 and Game 3, which were both won by just one run. Of the four Phillies victories, I figure Utley was the key player in three of them. In the 10-2 laugher in Game 4, Utley really didn't do that much. But then, he didn't really have to.

In Game 1, the opener in Tampa Bay, when a tone needed to be set, if ever there was to be a tone, Utley stepped up to the plate in the first inning against the Rays top pitcher, Scott Kazmir and promptly smacked a two-run homer. Those two runs held up for the entire game until Ruiz plated the winning run on a ground ball late in the game.

In the pivotal Game 3, back in Philadelphia, Utley set the tone once again. He drove in Jimmy Rollins in the first inning and then he and Ryan Howard hit back to back solo homers in the bottom of the 6th to extend a 2-1 lead to 4-1. Those runs prevented the Rays from ever taking the lead when they came back in the 7th and 8th to tie the game.

Game 4 was the laugher, of course, the Phils winning it 10-2. But, before it was a laugher, Utley scored the run that extended a 1-0 lead to 2-0 in the third. And he was on base for Howard's drive in the Phillies 8th that ensured the Phillies win.

In the all-important Game 5, a game that had to be won lest the Series go back to Tampa, Utley followed Werth's walk in the first inning by getting hit with a pitch. He was therefore on base when Victorino singled both him and Werth home to take the critical 2-0 lead, once again in the first inning, once again helping to break the Rays back before things really even got started. The Rays would finally tie the game in the top of the sixth to make it 2-2, which, of course, allowed the game to be suspended, setting up its dramatic resumption.

Of course, in the resumed game, Jenkins and Werth put the Phils immediately ahead in the bottom of the sixth, and Utley struck out in that inning against the tough Rays lefty J.P. Howell. Things looked bad in the 7th after Baldelli's homer tied the game, only to be followed by still another Rays hit and a sacrifice that put the winning run on 2nd base in the person of the pesky Rays shortstop James Bartlett.

If Utley had been looking for an opportunity to change the momentum, he found it almost immediately. His counterpart at second base for the Rays, Akinori Iwamura, whose misplay of Werth's Texas Leaguer had put the Phils ahead an inning earlier, hit a hard ground ball to Utley's right. Utley, sensing that he had no play on the speedy Iwamura at first, nevertheless faked the throw to first, inducing Bartlett to break hard for home. Utley then made a very nice throw to Ruiz to nail the runner and end the inning still tied at 3-3.

Pat Burrell's double and then Pedro Feliz's single later put the Phillies ahead again, of course, and the Phillies wouldn't relinquish that lead. J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge made sure of that with some fine pitching.

But Utley tried his utmost to extend that Phillies lead once again in the eighth, drawing a walk off the tough Rays lefty reliever Price with two outs. Utley then stole second base to put himself in scoring position for Howard once again. That Howard struck out isn’t really the point. Utley put himself in position to make sure the Phillies would prevail.

There's no doubt in my mind that Utley played a key role in this Series. As did Ruiz and Werth and Howard and Feliz, and all those tough Phillies pitchers. But all those momentum swingers by Utley were hard to miss. Not to mention all those double plays that more often than not cut down the Rays tough B.J. Upton.
Second base is called the keystone for good reason. Chase Utley drove home that point. It was the keystone difference in this 2008 World Series.

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Red Hot Phillies May Only Need Five

Wow. What can you say? The Phillies continued their drive towards the World Championship last night by embarrassing the stumblin' bumblin' Rays in Game 4 by a score of 10-2 to take a 3-1 lead in the Series. After eking out just a 1-run victory in Game 3, it seemed the guys in the home reds might just finish these hotshot Rays in five games.

Over the weekend, the Phils hurlers Moyer and Blanton outdueled the Rays Garza and Sonnanstine while a little-known guy named Carlos Ruiz showed why he can be added to the list of nobodies to star in a World Series. And Ryan Howard showed everybody why he's Ryan Howard.

But last night it was all about Joe Blanton. He was friggin' magnificent. It's so good to see a guy come up big in the World Series. He not only pitches great, he hits a home run too. Now, this shouldn't have come as so much a surprise as it was. Joe had actually helped win 9 of the 13 games he pitched for the Phils since he was acquired from the A's in July. And any fantasy player knew how good he was.

But Joe was lost in the whoop-de-doo over the Rays starters and the Phils ace, Cole Hamels. And he was only the fourth starter behind Hamels and Myers and Jamie Moyer, who is about a hundred and three years old. So big Joe looked like he meant business last night as he pitched 6 strong innings for the NL Champs, surrendering just two solo home runs. Oh, and he cranked a low fastball over the fence in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-2 Phillies. The place became electric.

This self-proclaimed pundit thought it would be the Phillies in seven when this whole thing started. But I didn't count on Jamie Moyer coming up quite so large in Game 3. I figured that game for the Rays. And I thought either Myers or Blanton could come up big. But it seems like everything is going the Phillies way.

The Rays are having some trouble in the field as of late. When had that last happened to the sure-handed Rays? When they do make a play, the umpires miss it. But between Longoria and Iwamura, they've produced adventure to rival some Indiana Jones movie. And then Ryan Howard came to life with two dingers, and Jayson Werth came back to life too.

And then there's a guy like Carlos Ruiz behind the plate for the Phillies. Ruiz just took over a large part of this Series from Game 2 on. Just when the Rays have finished with the likes of Rollins, Utley, Werth and Howard, here comes Carlos Ruiz. It's really been kind of comical. The Phils catcher got the game-winning ground ball the other night and has been just a real pest since Game 2.

But, here's the funny part about baseball. The worm could turn at any time. Now the Rays are up against the wall. And the Phillies have been riding high. And , while the Phils have their ace Hamels going one more time, the Rays Scott Kazmir ain't exactly chopped liver. And, if the Rays get Game 5, it's back to that monstrosity of a ball field in Florida for Games Six and Seven. The Rays would like that.

Would they ever. Then it would be just a matter of winning two straight at home. With Shields and Garza on the mound. They would have to like their chances.

So the real key is tonight. If the Phils can't win this one tonight, they might have to wait another twenty years or so to win a World Series. Not that they can't beat Shields and Garza in Tampa but can guys like Moyer and Myers do it again? I don't even want to think about it.

But it would make this Series one for the ages rather than just a footnote in Red Sox history. In five games, it’ll just be the year the Rays shocked the world but fell apart against a veteran Phillies team. In seven games, it’s something else entirely, and maybe guys like Longoria and Upton and Pena make more of a mark on this Series.
<>If the Phillies really are a smart veteran team, they’ll realize that Game 5 might be the now or never game. They’re hot now and have the Rays on the run. Let the team that beat the Red Sox live one more day at their peril. <>

I’d still like the Phillies to win this thing, even if they do lose tonight. I sense that they’re a team that’s ready now. The Rays have too many excuses for a breakdown with that much youth on their squad, no matter who’s on the mound. And the Phillies do have Utley and Rolo and big Ryan Howard. And that little sparkplug of a Victorino whose “I Got It I Got IT I Got It” is the loudest in either league. <>

But for a New York fan, even a rabid National League and Mets fan, who’d like nothing better than a World Series victory for the team that knocked off his team, yesterday wasn’t all about the baseball. There was a whole lot of football being played in Pittsburgh by the defending champion Giants. And the Jets managed to play a bit more football than the lowly Chiefs.

As well as the Giants played down the stretch, I did see the single ugliest play I’ve ever seen by a secondary man in safety James Butler’s horrible coverage on Roethlisberger’s long pass to Nate Washington. Not only did he appear to just let his man run by him, but when he caught up, he pirouetted away from his man.
<>The Jets are just awful. But not as awful as a Herman Edwards team that ran three into the line when they desperately needed a first down. Count your blessings, Jets fans.

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