Musings of the Fall

Okay, the Week 2 NFL action is over and now we have additional perspective, but, if we had absolutely no perspective after Week 1, does one more game played qualify as an event worthy of contributing true perspective? I would say NOT!

Take the Giants, for example, please. They looked awful in their Week 1 loss vs. the Skins, a team I had termed “low so many years”. Then the Rams came to town after having had a fairly successful (for them) opener against the Eagles. (Well, it had been close for most of three quarters anyway). It wouldn’t have been surprising under those circumstances if the Rams had managed to beat the Giants.

Of course they didn’t. The Rams fielded what was perhaps the worst set of receivers I had ever seen on any field anywhere. In fact, I could expand my meaning somewhat to say that kids in the street playing “association” football have better hands. They played some of the worst football I’ve ever seen.

So, in the face of such great incompetence, you could have expected the G-Men to have looked pretty good. But they really didn’t. They just managed to survive against an incredibly inept team, one riddled with injuries and woefully short on talent seemingly everywhere.

So what does that tell us? Well, it tells me that the Giants still can stink out the joint, against anybody. They did manage to run the ball a bit. That was somewhat heartening, I guess. In truth though, the only truly good thing was their pass rush. Their secondary still seems clueless and their passing game was only just good enough to enable them to run the ball.

The Jints probably won’t face Michael Vick next week, a very good thing, but it hardly matters. The Eagles can beat the Giants with Vince Young or Mike Kafka at QB. The Eagles are chomping at the bit. The Giants spit the bit in Week 1 and haven’t grabbed hold of it since. That’s what happens to a team that doesn’t sign its best players.

As good as GM Reese had been in his first season, that’s as bad as he did this year. Losing Kevin Boss and Steve Smith to free agency was just unconscionable. Losing Eli’s center (and friend) was almost as bad. Their replacements just haven’t got it. Those guys couldn’t really be replaced. Talk about penny-wise and pound foolish.

But why belabor a point. The Giants stink. Coughlin stinks. Reese really stinks and even good ol’ Eli stinks. Who woulda thunk it?

Now the Jets are a much happier story. They signed everybody they needed. When the Giants abandoned Plaxico, the Jets came up with a contract for him. The Jets worst receiver is better than the Giants best, at least this past Sunday. The Jets have already won a game they should have lost. The Giants can only relax when that clock strikes zero.

But no team I’ve seen so far can say they have all their bases covered. The Eagles, for example, managed to lose to the Falcons Sunday despite their 10-point lead when Vick went to the sidelines. They’re supposed to be a dream team. If that’s true, it’s a bad dream indeed.

Ok, so I forgot about the Pats. Actually, I’d love to forget about the Pats. They may have some weak spots too but, if so, they’re not so immediately obvious. Unless you can call a two tight end offense a weakness, the Pats seem awesome.

But all of the above is based on two weeks performance. The only things I’m really sure of are that the Jets will be happy as clams and the Giants will look like the smiley face upside down.

Baseball fans can be happy that the wildcard races in both leagues have become true races. As this is written, our Mets are trying to put a damper on the Cardinals post-season hopes. And not only that but Cohen and Darling are interviewing GM Sandy Alderson as to the future of the franchise. Most notable from that talk was that October will be dedicated towards keeping Jose Reyes.

But the Cards and Giants are catching the Braves and the Rays are doing likewise with the Red Sox. With just about 8 or 9 games to go, these wildcard races will be going to the wire. The Rays, however, have much the worst of the schedule (and are now losing to the Yankees 5-0), but the Red Sox’s decline seems to just keep going of its own momentum despite the opponent.

If pitching truly does determine pennant winners, the Rays have a real shot but the Braves can pitch with the best of them, albeit not lately. The Cards may be the toughest of the National League bunch with Pujols and Berkman in the lineup and the best fans anywhere. The Cards just pulled ahead of the Mets in tonight’s game in their bid to remain just 3 games back of Atlanta who won tonight.

It always makes me a little sad when the baseball season winds down. It may be because it’s a harbinger of worse things to come, colder weather, the end of summer, barbecues and the Jersey shore. But it also marks the end of daily games in a sport that is played out day after day for 162 games. The NFL plays 16 games in 17 weeks and that’s all she wrote. We look forward to hype only for 6 days out of every 7.

All that inactivity would be broken up in normal years by NBA basketball. This year of course will be anything but normal as the owners and players dig in their heels. So it’ll be college basketball only and, if you’re a Seton Hall or Rutgers fan, there just won’t be much to think about. That’s assuming the Big East remains unchanged, a highly unlikely prospect right now.

Oh well, at least Curtis Granderson may still get MVP.

Who Wants It More.?

I’m still trying to come down off my high after that Jets win over the Patriots. I’m not even letting Francesa get me down. I did finally turn him off though. That show desperately needs Chris Russo back. At the very least, they should stop screening the callers who disagree with him. It’s really a one-sided program.

But what a feeling of elation for New Yorkers and Jets fans! To beat Manning and then Brady in successive weeks is an incredible high, but for Mark Sanchez to throw 3 touchdown passes against Bill Belichick and his vaunted Pats defense takes it up one more notch.

My chief concern, though, now is that the Jets will experience a natural letdown after not just one but two great upsets over the best quarterbacks in the game. I myself am even feeling a letdown. Why shouldn’t the Jets?

And it’s not only that. Playing the Steelers is like playing themselves. The coaches are alike, the philosophies are alike and the players are even somewhat alike in their personalities. Where’s the hate?

I was able to conceive how the Jets could beat each of those two teams, the Colts and the Patriots. I think their different styles of play made it an easy matter to distinguish the Jets strengths versus their opponents’ and formulate a plan based on playing to the Jets strengths, even if some of those strong points weren’t even so evident at the time, such as the Jets potential dominance in the passing game.

The Steelers are a totally different animal from both the Colts and Pats. Manning and Brady threw from the pocket, Roethlisberger throws well on the run. The Colts and Pats featured offenses based on precision and timing in the passing game. Messing up that timing was a key ingredient in the Jets wins.

The Steelers offense is based on running the ball. The passing game clicks mostly off Roethlisberger scrambles while his receivers just try to find a hole to sit in. Manning and Brady go down when hit. Roethlisberger does not.

My initial take on this game is for the Jets to think of Big Ben as a kind of monstrous Michael Vick. He’s not as shifty as Vick, almost no one is, but he’s almost as dangerous when he’s running around, not because he’ll run with the ball but because he’ll kill you with his arm, sometimes while being dragged down to the ground.

The key to winning this AFC Championship will then be to contain Roethlisberger, much as the Giants contained Vick for 52 minutes before they totally lost their composure. The Jets were terrific at making Manning and Brady move out of the pocket. I wonder if they’ll be quite as adept at containment.

The Steelers like to run the ball. And they always stop the run. Those are two things they are noted for. That differs hugely from what the Colts and Pats brought to the table. Once again the Jets may have to take advantage of their potentially strong passing game in order to move the ball down the field.

Although the Jets did beat the Steelers in Week 15, 22-17, those Steelers were playing without two starters on their defense, defensive end Aaron Smith and the best safety in either league, Troy Polamalu. Another key ingredient missing from that game was Heath Miller, their tight end and one of Roethlisberger’s favorite targets. That’s a big difference.

Another huge factor in that Week 15 game was Brad Smith’s opening kickoff return for a touchdown. The Jets were ahead 7-0 after 12 seconds. That’s a huge boost, one that the Jets can’t really expect to duplicate in this upcoming game. And let’s not forget a huge tackle in the end zone by Jason Taylor that not only put two more on the scoreboard for the Jets but gave them the ball as well.

Not that I’m being pessimistic but this game could definitely be the toughest playoff game yet. This Steelers team is made for the playoffs, made for cold weather, made to win games in December and January. They had some bad luck in that Week 15 game.

The current line on this game says the Jets are 3 ½ point underdogs, a spread that simply reflects the home field edge. These teams are pretty much dead even. The Jets have a superior offensive line and receivers. The Steelers have the edge defensively.

The Steelers running back, Rashard Mendenhall, rushed for 100 yards in just 17 carries in that Week 15 game. Both Jets running backs, LaDainian Tomlinson and Shonn Greene, did pretty well for themselves too, gaining about 89 yards combined, but that was on 23 attempts. Based on those stats, I’d expect to see a bit more of Mendenhall in this game. Whether the Jets stick with the running game remains to be seen.

Stats are great, I love them, but they’re probably more meaningful over a full season than in one isolated game, especially a playoff game that will determine who goes to Dallas for the Super Bowl. This game will probably be decided by individuals making plays in big situations, not by which running back or quarterback garners more yards.

The playmakers in that Week 15 game were obviously Brad Smith early and then Jason Taylor late. They were the big reasons the Jets carried the day. One could also point to the coverage by Revis and the rest of the Jets secondary on those two final shots Roethlisberger had at the end zone.

There’s no better playmaker than Polamalu, of course, and he’ll be back for this one. The Steelers have no lack of playmakers, including James Harrison, their deadly outside linebacker, and their very speedy wide receiver, Mike Wallace, who was pretty much shut entirely down in that Week 15 game, catching just one pass for 8 yards.

The Jets have Santonio Holmes, Darrelle Revis, Jason Taylor…..

It’ll come down to who wants it more.

Jets Beat Pats? It's Not Inconceivable!

Okay, I’ve had a few days to cogitate on this big Jets-Pats matchup in Foxborough and I keep coming up with the same answer…the Jets are and should be a prohibitive underdog. Why? Well, the easy answer is it’s the Jets-Pats in Foxborough.

The Jets did everything right last week in Indianapolis (following my prescription for winning exactly…ahem) except for that ridiculous third down pass, and thus emerged victorious. I’ve been enjoying the game even more immensely this week via the courtesy of the NFL Network and Inside the NFL.

But alas, the Pats are not the Colts. Belichick is not Caldwell and the Pats receivers are not the Colts receivers. They run the ball a little better too. I don’t give Brady much of an advantage over Peyton Manning but, when you consider the difference in their respective receivers, the Pats have a pretty fair-sized plus on their side of the ledger.

The Jets stopped the Colts wideouts virtually cold, allowing just the one long TD to Pierre Garcon. There were no other Colts receivers that could really be considered a threat, Tamme, the tight end or Blair White or well, anybody. The Pats biggest threats are at tight end and in the slot. When they play the two tight ends together, they’re really scary.

This game won’t be 45-3 but the spread is 8 ½ and it’ll be difficult for the Jets to keep it even that close. They can, of course, if they do everything right two weeks in a row. They can probably stop the Pats running game, or, at the very least, keep Green-Ellis and Woodhead in check.

But they’ll still have trouble covering everybody. After Revis and Cromartie, it’s just Brodney Pool and Eric Smith who can avert disaster. And, yes, the Jets can field as many d-backs as they want, but then they’ll leave themselves open to a Pats running game that’s scarier than that of the Colts.

The Pats defense, in terms of yards allowed, looks statistically to be pretty pedestrian. But their scoring defense is statistically much better. Their last two games were easy wins, against Buffalo and Miami, when they allowed just 7 points and then 3 points, but before that they laid one on the Packers 31-27. So the Pats defense can be had.

But the same cannot be said about their offense. The Packers have the best defense in the NFL and they gave up 31 to Brady and company. There are just too many weapons. But the Pats had extraordinarily good luck in that contest. Not only was Aaron Rodgers out, but they got a 71-yard kickoff return from a 303 pound offensive lineman too, after which Brady hit Aaron Hernandez for 6.

While it’s easy to say the Jets should just use the same formula Sunday as they used last week against the Colts, that is, run the ball, play keep away, jam the receivers, mess up Brady’s timing and keep the pressure on him at all times, I think that Sanchez will have to have a much better game and a much bigger impact on the game than he had in Indianapolis.

You’d have to figure the Pats scoring at least 30 points. Unless Sanchez can hit a few to several big plays in the passing game, I can’t imagine the Jets putting up 31. And, if Sanchez can’t throw the ball any better than he did against the Colts, this one could be over very early.

But the Packers reserve quarterback, one Matt Flynn, was the guy throwing three TD’s against the Pats 3 weeks ago, to Jones and Jennings and Kuhn. I could just as easily see Sanchez throwing 3 of his own, to Edwards and Holmes and Tomlinson, for example. Throw in a rushing TD along the way and you’re just a field goal away from 31. It’s not inconceivable.

So it’s conceivable that the Jets could win. It’s just not the most likely outcome. The preceding example, three TD’s passing and one rushing, would assume the Jets were doing everything right offensively, both running the ball and throwing a few over the top every once in a while. The Pats would probably have to make some mistakes…..not inconceivable.

I’d think the Jets would have to get off to a good start as well. That first play of the game sets the tone. A good play, then a good series, then a nice quarter, well, you get the idea, the Jets need to stay close from the opening kickoff, playing aggressively but under control, just like a good team.

At least two other factors might swing this game in a decidedly Green direction. One is hate. The other is Ryan’s unpredictability.

These teams’ hate for each other has been well-documented. In fact you could make a case for nothing ever having been as documented as has been the Jets hate for the Patriots and vice-versa. Brady hates the Jets, Cromartie hates Brady, it’s personal for Ryan, and on and on. One has to wonder what falls under the category of business as usual for Rex Ryan.

Hate can be a tricky thing though. In my own experience, some players just want to pummel their opponent, not particularly caring whether or not they make the play. Others channel that hate towards beating the opponent on the scoreboard, the place where it hurts the most. If the Jets can focus that unhealthy dislike on imagining the Patriots humiliation at having lost this playoff game, then only good things can come of it.

As for unpredictability, Belichick could be expected to have a clear advantage over just about any coach who acts as a reasonable person would act in similar circumstances. Rex Ryan doesn’t fit that mold. He might run because his butt hurts or pass because his pants are falling down. He proved that in the Colts game.

A passing game, hate and ridiculous coaching decisions might just make the difference. It’s not inconceivable.

Ridiculous to Absurd to Tawdry

Well, those Divisional Championships came out more or less as I had expected, in result if not in content. The Jets lost but didn’t really stay as close as I had thought. The Vikings, although they lost, did manage to cover the 3 ½ point spread.

That the way the Jets lost it was really painful is beside the point. I’d never have expected either a 45-yarder out of the wildcat or an 80-yard Sanchez to Edwards bomb. Neither did the Colts, for sure. I hadn’t expected a Jets lead at all, at any point in the game. But then I didn’t expect the Jets secondary to look like the Giants for long stretches.

Jets fans are filled with hope now for next year, and everywhere it seems there is already talk of how great Sanchez will be next year. Although I’d have to agree that he’ll be better, I don’t think he’ll ever be much better than he was down the stretch this year. He looked good and played about as well as a quarterback could play….including yesterday. He’s got great feet, a good brain, and an accurate arm.

Remember Dwight Gooden? He was absolutely great early on, and everybody drooled about how much better he’d become. It never happened. Drugs happened. Same thing with Strawberry. My only point with this is to be happy with what you have. Don’t expect much more. If every Jet had played like Mark Sanchez yesterday, they’d have come out on top.

The same optimism is being shown for the Jets in general….how a pass rusher would obviate the need to blitz so much, how another cover guy like Revis would shore up that unit, how a healthy Kris Chambers would solidify the run defense, how another wide-out would provide some better targets for the rookie.

Well, the game is football. Anybody can get hurt and they usually do. Shonn Greene is a perfect example. Joe Namath is another. He was way better as a young QB than he was later on as his knees got taken out in Detroit, I think it was. Then he became rather stationary.

I’m just saying that what makes Sanchez so exciting is his feet, which are attached to his legs, and he already sports a brace on one knee. I’m certainly not wishing him ill but unless he has the luck of Brett Favre or Fran Tarkenton, or even Peyton Manning for that matter, he really can’t be much better than he was in the playoffs this season. He could certainly get more opportunities to shine. That wouldn’t be hard, but I won’t count on him getting much better in absolute terms. He’s been great.

When I heard that Lito Sheppard wasn’t starting yesterday, I cringed. I gave up hope that the Jets could win. The Colts had Lowery for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pierre friggin’ Garcon made him look very bad. I can’t stomach corners who don’t look for the ball. That’s Lowery. I know the Jets were concerned about Sheppard against Manning, but give me a break….Lowery’s better?

The Saints-Vikings game was just ridiculous. The Vikings were better in every respect except for the turnovers. But you really can’t say that…turnovers are the biggest part of the game. So now we get to see the Saints play the Colts in the Super Bowl, the second-best NFC team for sure.

The only solace I can take from this game is that Favre got hit about a million times and looked bad in the game, especially down the stretch. I loved his cross-the-field INT to put an end to the regulation game. And I loved seeing him talk about retirement again…and his allusion to talking it over with his family. When you’ve already gone from ridiculous to absurd, what’s left…tawdry?

Let’s look at the game itself and Favre’s part in it. Favre blew a hand-off to Peterson from the ten-yard line that would have just about destroyed the Saints after Reggie Bush’s fumbled punt. Favre must’ve sensed Adrian may have scored on the play, meaning somebody besides him may have become the star. As it was, Peterson got three scores. Favre’s 2nd INT, as I’ve mentioned, closed any chance Minnesota may have had in regulation to win the game. His first INT was also in New Orleans territory just outside their 30-yard line. His QB rating for the day was 70.

Brad Childress deserved no better fate either as he managed to get too many men on the field at the critical juncture of the game, when the Vikings were in field goal range, only to be pushed out again, shortly followed by Favre’s INT. Furthermore, he never was able to control Favre.

New Orleans took the day and nobody was ever happier for that result than I was. But they didn’t do much against that great purple defense. They did take advantage of every opportunity though, or so it seemed. They won the turnover battle; they gave Brees time to throw; they played better than the Vikings on special teams overall, and they definitely held together as a team, something the Vikings can only wish for this Monday.

The Colts are currently 4 ½ point favorites to beat the Saints in the Bowl and I suspect that spread will only increase, especially if people start really analyzing these games. The Colts have everything, although you may say they have no running game. I think they elect to have no running game. They run only well enough to enable Manning’s play action passes. They have a terrific offensive line, a very good defensive line, and fast linebackers and secondary. All those assets are in addition to some very fine wide receivers, Reggie Wayne, Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon. The Colts are very similar to the Vikings in that they have all that versatility.

What the Colts don’t have, though, is personality. And, if I see any more colorless quotes from that coach of theirs…..UGH!!

Ground and Pound or Lost and Found

Well, these 2010 playoffs continue Sunday afternoon with Jets-Colts at 3 PM followed by the Vikings-Saints at 6:40 PM. I've been doing better than okay with these playoff picks so far, at 5-3 for the two weeks, but that doesn't minimize the effect on me of the surprising nature of some of these games.

Last week I had the Saints and my score prediction was even pretty close but, even though I had joked that it was possible, I didn't expect the enormity of the Saints rout of the Cardinals. I had the Jets to cover but certainly not to win and, of course, they pulled it out. I had the Cowboys and Ravens too and both teams were awful, more awful than I thought possible., the biggest surprises being the ferocity of the Vikings and Colts defenses, against both run and pass.

So here they come again....those very tough defenses facing off against very different teams and very different circumstances too. The Colts were home against the Ravens and they'll still be home for the Jets. The Vikings have to travel to New Orleans to face the Saints.

Sat 6:40PM – New Orleans Superdome

SAINTS -3 1/2 Vikings

The Saints will be at home again but can be had, especially if Darren Sharper is limited. If the Vikings can run the ball all day, the game will be over. If that Saints offense is on the sidelines for long stretches and then, when they do take the field, they find the likes of the Vikings defense facing them, it'll be a very tough day, home or away.

So, for the Saints, they'll need big days from Jonathan Vilma, and no-names Sedrick Ellis and (a real tongue-twister now) and Remi Ayodele in the middle. Somehow, I don't get an extraordinary boost from that lineup, especially if Sharper is limited. (Who knows really with these injury reports)?

I'm pretty sure Reggie Bush won't have quite the success he had last week (vs the Cards) against the Vikings. Brees will do the best he can without a running game, but the pressure from the Vikings, not to mention the situation, will wear on him. And my least favorite quarterback, Brett Favre, won't find the pass rush from the Saints any more troublesome than was that of the Cowboys. He may even have time to throw some kisses to his fans in the stands, yes, even in New Orleans.

The Vikings can run the ball too, bigtime, with a big, strong, fast fellow named Adrian Peterson.

Percy Harvin's supposed to be sick. I believe it but how sick can he really be? Sharper will probably be his old self too, but Favre won't have to throw. Third and three, he can still give it to Adrian. (as in yo). Can we say the same thing for Reggie Bush? I don't think so.

The over-under is at 53, with a 3 1/2 spread, so the great betting populace is saying the score will be around 28-25 in favor of the Saints. I say, "Nah."

The Vikes run and run and run some more. Favre will pass off the run, of course, if just to bolster his stats, and get a couple of TD's. Figure Peterson for two and they might even get a field goal here and there. I'm figuring the Vikes can score 31.

The Saints will have big trouble on the ground, and then there'll be all those big and fast Vikes defensive linemen in his face. I figure they can score 3 TD's tops and a field goal or two. That's 27.

I hope I'm wrong but logic says the Vikings take this game. I hate logic too. I'd love to pick the Saints. But all those Saints I mentioned will have to play better than I give them credit for right now. So, sadly.....it'll be:

Vikings 31-27




Sunday 3PM – Mall of America Field, Minneapolis

COLTS -8 Jets
I saved the best for last. I can't even call them "my Jets" although I would like to. My sorry-ass team is the Giants.

The Jets played their best game of the season Sunday to overtake the Chargers, who couldn't stop the run at all. I'd expect the Colts to do a better job. The pressure will then be on the rook to produce in the face of some very mean defensive linemen that even those big and talented Jets offensive linemen will have trouble handling.

Peyton Manning will be looking at the same situation (trouble running the ball) but he's been through it before. He'll be careful with the ball more often than not, and he may even throw it to some Jets once, but if he limits the INT's to 1, I figure he'll be able to put two in the endzone (to any of his receivers) at least and add a couple of field goals. That'd make 20.

Not that the Jets won't make a lot of stops. They'll have to. I'm expecting a lot of Jets punts because they'll need to pass more than run against these Colts, especially towards the end of the game. They'll run with some success and will most likely get a TD or even two, but only because they are pretty tough in the red zone. I just don't expect that many drives to take them into Colts territory.

I'd figure the Jets to get in scoring position a maximum of five times. But I'd be guilty of over-optimism if I didn't expect either a fumble or INT on one or two of those drives. Shonn Greene hasn't fumbled recently but that could easily change. And Sanchez had just the one pick against the Chargers but these are the Colts.

I figure the Jets for 2 or 3 field goals and 2 or just 1 touchdown. It'll be that kind of day. Figure the Jets to get 20 points tops. That result would take the game into an overtime period. More likely than not, though, there'll be some "lost and found" to go with that "ground and pound." And the Jets will get around 16.

But the game still has to be played and this game is almost eerily similar to the last two playoff games these Jets have played. They were about the same class of dog against the Chargers away and a lesser dog vs. the Bengals away but a dog nonetheless.

But they didn't play like dogs. They just played relentlessly. Ground and pound indeed. The Colts are a little undersized, they say. And I guess they could get ground down by this Jets running game too. But I just think the Colts won't fold. They faced a pretty tough Ravens running game and came out on top.

And then there's the outrageous fortune the Jets have experienced, with the ball bouncing crazily and the field goals going hither and yon. And there's crazy Rex Ryan to turn up the Jets. And I think he's just lucky too.

But, if I had to pick just one team, it'd be the Colts in a close one. Logic says the Jets will cover, as I picked them to cover and not win versus the Bengals and to cover but not win versus the Chargers. Geez, how many times can you roll seven? (And I sure hope they can do it one more time). But my brain says:

Colts 20 - 16

But if it can stay "ground and pound" rather than "lost and found" for the Jets, they'll do it one more laughingly ridiculous time.

A Simple System Simply Works

Wow, what can I write about on a weekend when Charlie Weis and Lawrence Frank both got fired, the Jets earned a hard-fought victory against Carolina using some seemingly cockamamie color-code system to direct their rookie QB, and two NFL games were decided by last-minute touchdowns thrown by the likes of Vince Young and Chris Redman? And let’s not forget Dennis Dixon.

Well, it’s easy really. I don’t really care that much about Notre Dame or Charlie Weis. I figure both parties will make out just fine, thank you. And Lawrence Frank is better off going elsewhere, given the bad roster and bad luck he has been handed. Lawrence Frank will come up roses if it’s true that good things happen to good people.

And all I can say about Vince Young is that I was wrong about him. I’ve been thinking for five weeks now that he’d be a total failure. I’ve been thinking he’s just another one of these great college QB’s who couldn’t make it in the big time. But he lead that Titans team down the field twice from deep, deep in his own team’s territory to ultimately come back and win the game…twice.

And it was great that a backup QB you never hear “boo” about stepped up in a big situation to lead his Falcons team to victory, and on fourth down no less. Chris Redman did just that yesterday to keep the Falcons in the playoff picture, for at least one more week anyway.

And I was amazed as Dixon kept the Steelers in the game against the Ravens for about 4 ½ quarters. He did it on short notice too, as Big Ben Roethlisberger’s headaches occurred only Saturday.

But, without a doubt, the best prospect for discussion is the color-code system that Rex Ryan and the Jets concocted to keep a rein on their rambunctious quarterback, Mark Sanchez. It seemed too simple and a little silly. How confident could we be that the Jets made the right pick? I mean, did this guy ever play football? Was USC always ahead?

For his part, Sanchez was exultant after the victory and was only too happy to heartily accept the color-codes. That at least shows some humility. He may eat franks on the sideline and he might “diss” the entire NYC media population but he does readily accept direction and, too often this season, blame.

But for once there was no blame. Not that he lit up the joint, an impossible feat given the conservative plan, but he did throw for some yardage, not a lot, and he only threw one interception. He didn’t fumble one time.

Two things bother me a little though.

For one, this system worked great in a game their defense easily controlled. Jake Delhomme, as I had foreseen in my last words on the subject, threw the ball all over the yard. His only problem was he didn’t discriminate on the color uniforms to which he threw the ball. The Jets were only too happy to catch it when he did. The Jets took the early lead. The closest the game got was 7-3.

So when was the code any color but red? I mean, maybe he had an amber somewhere along the line, but the predominant color all night had to be red. What happens when they have to give him the green?

The only other troubling thing is that he’d need the system at all. But hey, maybe a rookie QB, who’s had to digest all this new information week after week, needs the focus, needs the hand-holding, to keep his tenuous hold on reality in a game that can be chaotic at best.

I just hope he understands the game a little. A lot of millions went his way. There were reservations from his USC coach Pete Carroll as to whether Sanchez was ready for the NFL at all. Hopefully, Pete was wrong about Sanchez. He’ll be the face and future of our New York Jets for many years to come. He started the season on fire but has stumbled through too many games, games his very tough defense deserved to win.

It’s great to have an athletic quarterback though. Just watching him avoid the rush and take off once in a while gives me hope for the Jets in the future. He’s really not all that accurate, at least not thus far, but he throws very well on the run, and, hell, Eli Manning isn’t all that accurate either, not like his big brother.

And some NFL experts would undoubtedly say he’s too short.

(As this is written, Drew Brees has been beating up the Patriots. Drew is just a hair over 6 feet and seems to manage quite well. They’re now ahead by 38-17 and it’s great to see the Pats get their noses rubbed in it a little. The Saints are now just running the ball into the line so as not to embarrass them any more than they’ve already been. I love sweet justice).

But the point is that, short or tall, a real quarterback has other resources to beat you with. Sanchez seems to have some of them, if not all of them just yet.
Rex Ryan seemed to think so too, and was challenged to find a way to deal with Sanchez’s wilder impulses. He seems to have found just the thing. If it takes a little more communication with the sideline to make the rookie a top-flight quarterback, I’m on board with that.

Maybe when the color does change to green, he’ll respond. The last two Jets games will be against the undefeated Colts and the top defense right now, the Cincinnati Bengals. But the next three, at Buffalo, and then against Atlanta and Tampa Bay, are certainly winnable, especially if Sanchez is working in red mode, or even amber.

Sometimes things that work very simply simply work. Rex Ryan has found a system that’s a lot like that.

Good But Boring-Bad But Funny

You can’t say it hasn’t been entertaining. The Jets are a bad soap opera. The Giants are just, well, I don’t really know what they are. They beat the Falcons. That’s definitely a good thing. But, beyond that, it’s really hard to say anything more.

But you know I will.

Even a casual observer would have to agree that, at the very least, the Jets are a very entertaining team. The quarterback is a nut job, the head coach is even funnier and everybody else just tries to keep their heads up. And that’s okay. Anybody who really expected playoffs this year was just dreaming.

The Giants’ defense stinks. That’s really all you can say. But, with Eli firing bullets and lobs and showing a magnificent touch, and with his bevy of receivers seemingly open all the time, we could really see some shootouts in our future, and that’s not a bad thing either.

I guess that’s the biggest difference between these two teams. The Giants play a great football game, on one side of the ball at least, but they’re a bore off the field. The Jets turn in stinker after stinker on the field, but they’re a barrel of laughs off of it.

Did anybody expect the Jets to beat the Patriots again? I know I didn’t. I did think they’d beat the spread, which was 10 ½, a ridiculous spread, given that the Jets beat them the first time they played.

My mistake was that I thought they’d attempt to cover Wes Welker. At the very least, I figured they’d harass him coming off the line, or knock the bejeezus out of him when he caught the ball, thus discouraging him from perpetrating any further aerial offenses against them.

But that didn’t happen. Welker ran here and there unmolested. When he caught the ball, which was quite often, he either ran for big yardage or hit the ground before he could be pummeled.

And, last but certainly not least, the rookie quarterback started bad, came back a little, and then totally came undone.

But that’s what Bill Belichick teams do to rookie quarterbacks. That Sanchez somehow escaped that fate in the season’s first matchup with New England was nothing short of miraculous. Sanchez tried to win the game, though, and along the way, he threw a perfect long pass to Cotchery in the end zone that brought the Jets back to within 10.

But he started the game very badly by throwing that INT that went for a touchdown. That’s a killer for a team to start the game in a 7-point hole right off the bat. But he brought the team back before imploding and, all in all, I’d rather watch him than his backup. The kid still shows a lot of promise. He reminds me of Joe Montana in a lot of ways, the scrambling, the arm, the demeanor….he just needs the same head, and that will come.

Rex has promised to address his young QB’s turnover problem personally. That’s what makes you love him. It may not be the right thing to do but ya gotta love the attitude. Rex has taken as many shots as has Sanchez, and he’s apparently taken them to heart.

So the Jets are a riot, if not a successful one.

The G-Men are a playoff contender but a boring one. I still don’t think they’ll make it to the playoffs though. Their defense won’t allow it. When their opponent has needed to score, they have scored. That’s not a good sign. And, while Eli was able to take advantage of the sieve of a Falcons pass defense, I can’t imagine he’ll be able to do the same this Thanksgiving against the Broncos.

Philip Rivers and his Chargers did though. But they have a strong defense and a better running game. They have LaDainian, we have Twinkletoes. They have Sproles, we have Bradshaw. Their offensive line blocks for the run as well as the pass. Ours blocks quite well for the passing game but the holes just aren’t there in the running game, and even the powerful Bradshaw can’t run through a wall.

Regular readers may wonder why I keep picking on Jacobs. Well, aside from picking up that 4th and 1 against the Pats in that wonder-filled Super Bowl, he’s done nothing up the middle. He has no explosiveness whatsoever, runs high and doesn’t have that much leg strength. What he can do is build up a head of steam and really roll, once he gets an opening.

That’d be great if they used him a little differently, I guess, but the Giants don’t. And they usually have better options in Smith and Manningham, Nicks and Boss and, well, just about anybody else….Hedgecock?

So I can’t be bullish on this Broncos game. We won’t be seeing Simms, we’ll get their first string of Kyle Orton, and the Broncs do have some receivers who can hurt us, Marshall and Gaffney and Royal and a nice tight end who can catch. The Broncs will be able to pass and they may even be able to run. They also have some nice defenders against the passing game, aka Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. Hell, Ty Law is their second-string corner.

Can our G-Men win in a shootout? I don’t think so. The only way they win this game is if they’re able to run the ball and stop the passing game. I don’t think they can do either. (I just deleted a whole passage ripping Sheridan, the defensive coordinator in name only, a new butt-hole). But who’s to blame when the defense has no clue?

Almost everything else NFL-wise went my way though this past weekend so I’m not complaining. My picks against the spread went 9-6, and, better yet, my best bets were flawless and I finally won my imaginary ten bucks. I won in both my fantasy leagues and still have a shot at the playoffs.

Not the Giants.

An NFL Upside Down Day

The world turned upside down yesterday. I didn’t even notice until I saw a team that was behind trying not to score against a team that was ahead trying to let them score. Then I watched a press conference that kicked off with the subject presenting a statement that outlined the key points of the game, followed by his implication that no further questions could be expected after his fine exposition.

Then, as if to reaffirm a ridiculous point, I watched a good defensive team with a 6-point lead go for a 4th and 2 from their own 28 yard line with just a little more than 2 minutes left on the clock. The team’s gamble went down the tubes as their delighted opponent scored a touchdown and extra point, leaving their bewildered opponent just 13 seconds to do something about it.

Of course, everybody knows what I’m talking about. The Jets defense, blah blah blah, wonders of the modern football world, whose spokesman just about a month ago asked how the media could dare to ask a question that didn’t hint at his team’s greatness, were trying their best to allow the Jaguars to score.

The Jags were down by two points with time swiftly running down. They were driving through the Jets defense as if they were seashells caught in a wave from a Nor’easter. They couldn’t stop the run and they were clueless against the pass, a team on the run, a beaten defense whose best option was to concede the touchdown quickly so that their offense would have time left to score.

Of course, they screwed that tactic up too. The Jags, immediately detecting the ruse and needing just a field goal to win, proceeded to fall down at the one, and then run around in circles for a few downs so as to totally run out the clock as they kicked the winning field goal.

Witnessing this whole thing was disgusting if you had any good feeling for the Jets at all after their high-mindedness of the preceding weeks. That they could continue their braggadocio even after having lost several games in every conceivable fashion seemed unreal. They were a team in denial.

Well, they know who they are now. Thank all the football gods. They found out who they were in that last Jacksonville drive when they went belly up. Their self-proclaimed great defense had no thoughts of forcing a fumble or getting a pick, or stopping the Jags dead in their tracks to force a long field goal. They just gave up.

Yeah, I know all about the strategy. I know it could have worked out, as unlikely as that seems to me now. But I hate the whole idea. It stinks, it smells bad. If I were a true Jets fan, I’d be embarrassed by the very notion.

A team has to have a personality. The Jets personality had become that of a strong defensive team. After three undefeated weeks followed by strong defensive efforts in several unfortunate losses, that personality was still largely intact….but not after yesterday. Now, they’re just a bad team, no good on offense, no good on defense and certainly no good on special teams.

The theme I kept hearing after yesterday’s disgraceful exhibition was that the team needed to finish, meaning that they had to stop losing games in the fourth quarter. And while that is certainly true, it isn’t the whole story. The Jets need better discipline all around. They need better communications before, during and after the game. They need to somehow accommodate for their lost presence in the middle of their defensive line. And they need to catch the ball.

They probably can’t accomplish all those things this season. But what they can do is try to re-establish a personality, even if it’s that of a brash but formidable defense. The Jets can either fortify that defensive line or change their schemes somewhat to make up for that weakness. They’ll then be something again, that something being a strong defensive team.

I won’t mind terribly if the Jets have a losing season. I rather expect one now. What I would mind is to see a team that is lost, a team that doesn’t know what it is or what it is trying to be. Yesterday’s tactics smelled of that.

As unlikely as it seems to me, Bill Belichick was guilty of the same mistake. He drank whatever Kool-Aid Peyton Manning was handing out and decided that the probability of his offense making a fourth and two exceeded that of his defense stopping Peyton Manning and the rest of the Colts offense on a final drive.

By doing so, he fired up the Colts defense and, unavoidably really, alienated his own defense. That may play into the hands of the Jets or some other opponent down the road for the Pats. If he punted, he may still have lost the game. But Manning would have had to be great once again against a strong defense. And he’d have had to take his Colts a long way, probably around 65 to 70 yards.

But he didn’t give his defense that opportunity. It’s too bad really. It’s out of character too. A man noted for his brilliant defensive schemes decided to gamble it all away on one offensive play, and in so doing, he challenged another good defensive team to be great. It was upside down, inside out and backwards, for anyone really, but especially for Bill Belichick.

And that’s probably the reason it didn’t work.

I’d like to see the world righted again. Rex Ryan should have a dominant defense and so should Belichick. A rookie quarterback shouldn’t be dictating terms to the media, even if he were a good quarterback, which Sanchez so far hasn’t really shown.

I’m quite sure Belichick would have punted against the Jets.

And Horse of the Year should be a tie. Both Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra proved their greatness.


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A Lost Sunday

It was a lost Sunday. For the Giants and Jets, that is, and anybody silly enough to root for them. I knew the Giants would be in trouble, facing Drew Brees & Company with somebody named C.C. Brown at safety and, well, I never put much faith in Dockery. The Jets were a surprise flop though, losing in miserable fashion to one of the worst football teams in the league.

Mark Sanchez has regressed a lot from the quarterback he was against New England. It’s a shame really. He’s aiming the ball. He’s doing almost everything required of a quarterback badly. He even made Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills horrible quarterback, look good, a feat I would have thought was impossible before yesterday.

For the Jets, the game wasn’t the only bad news. They also lost Kris Jenkins, their huge defensive tackle, to a fairly serious knee injury. So there goes the run defense for the rest of the season too.

And it’s easy to second-guess but I would have got Sanchez out of there. He was clearly dazed and shaken, and not likely to come out of it, which he didn’t. He seems to have lost any confidence he may have had, and clearly, it’s time for a change. At the very least, it’s time to institute some rules, like Joba rules, in a way. Three picks and he’s out.

Not that it even makes a difference anymore. Any team that could lose so easily to one of the worst teams in the league cannot be expected to win many more. Forget the playoffs, forget even mediocrity, this team is bad, bad, bad. Of course, any team with a bad quarterback will be bad. We can only hope that the regression of Sanchez isn’t a reflection of the coach’s ability. Most people like Ryan, and I do too, but maybe he shows too much confidence in people? It’s optimism gone amok.

I have to admit that, while the Giants clock was being cleaned, I was enjoying every bit of it as my fantasy team roster includes Brees, Colston and Shockey. They all had their way with the Giants, especially Colston, who seemed to just outduel anybody covering him for the ball. I knew he was good but I didn’t realize he was great.

The Giants made every Saint look great though, so it’s hard to tell how really good Colston may be from yesterday’s game. I have to think the result would have been much different if there had been any kind of coverage at all. All I saw was guys in blue running with guys in gold, but when the ball was in the air, the guy in gold went up and got it. The blue guy stayed cemented to the ground.

Just about everybody who could have caught a pass caught one. Not just Colston and Shockey, but Meacham, Moore….Well, seven different players scored touchdowns for the Saints. It was pretty much a massacre.

It was sad to see Eli do so badly in his hometown. Equally as sad was to see him lose his cool with running back Ahmad Bradshaw, who zigged when he should’ve zagged on one play, resulting in horrific pressure on Manning and ultimately, an interception.

There is hope for the Giants though. The Saints may be the best team in the league, and they had an extra week to prepare for this game. They exposed every Giants weakness, quite often actually. But the Saints offensive line did its job pretty well too, keeping what had been a fierce defensive front in check all day. Even a hint of defensive pressure up front could have made a big difference.

I’ll try to take solace in the fact that, as bad as the locals were, there were some other teams that looked just as bad or worse. The first team that comes to mind is the Eagles, who lost to the awful Raiders, but the Titans were absolutely humiliated by the Patriots and the hapless Redskins lost to the previously winless Kansas City Chiefs.

The most revealing statistic of them all might be the fact that the Redskins had faced a winless team in each and every game they’d played this season but had only won two of them. Harried Skins head coach Jim Zorn was relieved of his play-calling responsibility yesterday and quarterback Jason Campbell was finally relieved at halftime in favor of Todd Collins, who at least led the Skins to some field goals.

What happened to the Eagles at Oakland is beyond me. I knew Oakland was capable of fielding a very decent pass defense, what with the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL residing in their secondary (Asomugha got hurt), but I didn’t realize they could stop the run. Evidently, it was not a big part of their game plan.

The Eagles did lose their offensive tackle, Jason Peters, in the first quarter, which probably doused any Eagle thoughts of running. But McNabb was sacked six times, indicating some really big problems up front. And Akers missed two field goals, McNabb called a timeout he didn’t have, and they still should have won that game.

The Cowboys had their bye week and got to watch everybody else lose. Not too shabby. They’re coming off two fairly good weeks of play, having lost a close one to the undefeated (for now) Broncos and having beat the Chiefs by six in Kansas City. They get an extra week to prepare for the very tough Atlanta Falcons next week, and they seem to have found a wide receiver they didn’t know they had.

The Yanks had the day off after beating the suddenly sorry Angels and seem a 50-50 chance of winning still another at 4PM today, Pettite vs. Saunders. Arod’s been great; he saved the game Saturday.

The Phils killed LA behind Lee to go up 2-1. They’ll face Wolf tonight behind big Joe Blanton. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dodgers tie the series.

Two New Guys and an Old Guy

Two new guys and an old guy, that was pretty much the story Sunday in the NFL.

We got to see rook Matt Stafford lead a hungry team to a looooong-awaited victory over the hapless Skins, so embarrassing to the media, if not the team itself, that many sports shows seem to be calling for the ouster of their seemingly unbeleaguered head coach.

And our own Mark Sanchez, who faked the Titans out of their jocks and threw a little looper TD pass to his tight end, then he put his head down on a scramble and forced his way over the goal line. Then he stunk the joint out for a quarter or so as the Titans came back. No problem, Sanchez just didn’t let them take the game away, coming back to thread the needle to Cotchery on a slant.

And, then, we saw ancient Brett Favre thread the needle with two seconds left to a little-used wide receiver at the back of the end zone to beat a deserving young 49er team. We saw it once, we saw it twice, we saw it again and again, and I know I’ll be seeing some more of it before another Sunday blessedly appears.

Taking that last game first, I was rooting for the young 49ers. I’m just coming off a trip to their fair city, I’ve picked them to win their Division crown (so to speak, I never saw the crown but I’m sure it’s a heavily-bejeweled one, at least as valuable as those boxing championship belts), and I have to admit I’m rooting for Mike Singletary.

The Niners played those Vikings really tough for the entire sixty minutes, yes, including even those last two seconds. Adrian Peterson ran hard but didn’t really kill them, their offense was good enough to put some points on the board against a tough Viking defense, and every Niner seemed to be taking care of business, just as you’d expect from a Mike Singletary representative.

But they played the game a little too conservatively at the end, going three and out in those critical two minutes, leaving time for a grizzled old gunslinger to take a good team down the field. They relied on their defense, which had done the job over and over again all day long. But, when you do that, you leave the door open.

Favre snuck in the door. He completed passes to just about everybody, Rice and Harvin, Shiancoe and even Berrian to take them all the way down to the 32 yard line with just about 12 seconds left.

Then the big bad wolf blew the 49ers house in. The play was designed so that he could step up and then slide to his right, and he could fire a line drive that would be harder to defend. He stepped up and slid around and then threw long enough to eat up ten seconds on the clock as Greg Lewis snared that liner with just two seconds on the clock.

“You have nothing to be looking at the floor for!” Singletary shouted after the game. “You didn’t steal anything! You didn’t do anything wrong! OK? We’re going to get better! We’re going to get there! We will see them again in the playoffs, all right? You hold your head up!”

That Mike felt that was necessary is good enough for me. It had to be said. That team just played a great game. Another young quarterback, Shaun Hill, had thrown 2 TD passes to tight end, Vernon Davis. The special teams blocked a field goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown. The special teams did give up a TD on a kickoff though, and that big play alone could be blamed for the loss.

I really don’t like Favre. Giving credit where it’s due though, that was one great drive and one great play. Maybe nobody else in football does it just that way, not either Manning, not Brady, not Rivers, not Roethlisberger. His arm is back this year, and that’s really my biggest problem with him. He was perfectly happy to play last year for the Jets with a torn biceps. After all, he had to save his precious “never missed a game” record.

And really, all these woops retirements, and all the Green Bay-Vikings melodrama, in addition to ruining last season for the Jets. None of any of that sits too well with me. And the sweetest thing that happened last year for me was the Pennington and Dolphins thrashing of the Favre-led Jets to win a playoff spot.

But he was himself on Sunday. His arm is back. He’s still got the same head though and the Vikings will have to take the bad with the good. It might be enough to take them to the playoffs, especially the way Green Bay has been playing. And Chicago might have something to say about the finish as well. I’ll be rooting for anybody but the Vikings.

That the young Sanchez has been able to propel his Jets to the top of the heap in the AFC East, and beat the Pats in the process, is almost doubly sweet because he’s the guy replacing Favre.

Yeah, it’s been nice seeing a young whippersnapper run around and throw bullets and say all the right things too, unlike his ridiculous teammate Scott, But a swashbuckler isn’t exactly what the Jets may need. And that TD run, as much as I liked it, qualifies him as one.

But those USC quarterbacks ain’t too shabby, Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart and now Sanchez. You could see them hangin’ with D’Artagnan at the local pub. And Francesa says he’s “cavalier” with the ball.

Finally, you have to like a youngster who can light up an entire city, if just for a day, and that’s what Matt Stafford pulled off in Detroit. That Washington team he beat really isn’t as bad as it looked. Look for Detroit to win a few.

On Joba And NFL Jobs

Okay, I think I’ve really had it now. I’m going to take my Joba Rules shirt and burn it. What am I saying if I wear his shirt…..that I’m a sissy boy? It’s okay, Joe, take me out after three, watch every pitch, call every pitch and then take me out whenever you feel like it, whenever the mood strikes you, because I’m SOOOOO happy to be a Yankee.

What a wimp!

I’ll trade you for an old David Wells shirt, another big guy but he had some uh, canoles? Really, it’s sickening. Joba had been the only Yankee I liked and now that feeling’s out the window too.

I’m just glad that I didn’t buy one of those exorbitant tickets to the game. Imagine laying out all that hard-earned cash expecting to see Joba and getting him for just 3 innings, no matter that he just gave up a couple of runs. I mean, what about truth in advertising? Isn’t a “start” supposed to be something in particular? Anyway, if I had the poor judgment to buy a ticket, I’d be asking for a refund now.

And then Joba makes it worse by saying he’s fine with it. I don’t know, Joba. You lost me. I mean forever.

The Yanks appear unbeatable right now. Looks like that 140 mill paid off. Teixeira, Sabathia, Burnet, what’s not to like? The one weak spot was Mitre and then he goes and delivers a quality start. Relief had been a problem and then, lo and behold, Hughes becomes Mr. Lightsout in the 8th.

Jeter’s locked in, and he’s been locked in for a long time. Damon’s hitting them over that short wall with regularity; a juiceless Arod’s delievering less but still enough to get by. It’s sickening really. You have to look pretty hard to find a weak spot; in fact, it’ll be a fruitless search.

Argh, enough about the friggin’ Yankees. I’m just glad the Rangers wooped their butts. There’re some real men down there in Texas, just as you’d expect.

And now I see some articles to the effect that the Wilpons’ management of the Mets club isn’t affected by the huge losses they suffered in the Madoff soaking. Yeah, sure. And still nobody knows how much they really lost. They don’t have to tell. I mean, that’s fine, but if the losses have been so insignificant, why not let anybody know how bad it was or wasn’t.

I won’t dwell on the Mets. It is amazing, though, how many hits it takes to score a run with these new guys. Day after day, you see numbers like 13 hits, 4 runs and if you’re a Mets fan, you don’t know whether to be happy for the hits or unhappy for the runs.

This weekend was all about football. The Jets and Giants put on a good show but it’s hard to really judge whether the Jets are that good or the Giants are that bad. I know I saw a lot of bad things as a Giants fan. I surely didn’t see any Plaxico look-alikes. Hakeem Nicks made some nice catches though.

Sinorice Moss showed nothing. Manningham showed even less. Hixon, Smith, none of the “regulars” showed anything, unless you count the ability to drop the big one. This questionable attribute was displayed by Smith and Hixon for sure, and Manningham was only consistent in that he dropped nearly everything.

The depth chart right now is scary. Hixon and Smith are the starters backed up by Manningham and Moss. The third string shows Nicks and David Tyree, the Super Bowl hero, who didn’t play. Smith is great as a possession receiver. It looks as if he’s a long way from catching the long ball. Hixon is a decent backup, that’s all. Moss and Manningham should be cut. That’ll give Nicks and Barden their chances.

The Giants tackling left a lot to be desired too. On the Sanchez pass to Chansi Stuckey, Stuckey broke three Giants tackles with no trouble at all….as if they weren’t there. Coming off his disappointing showing against the Ravens, Sanchez looked great against the G-Men so the question becomes obvious, i.e. “how bad are the Giants”?

But you have to like Sanchez. He seems to read the defenses, he delivers the ball right where it needs to be, and he seems to be a leader. There’s not much missing, is there? There aren’t even any nits to pick.

So, all in all, everything’s rosy for Gang Green going into the 4th week of exhibitions. Having a quarterback everrybody believes in is half the battle in football. Of course, as Thomas Jones pointed out, it’s still the exhibition season, but still…..

Other than the locals, I watched several other exhibitions, if, for no other reason, to watch for good fantasy sleepers. My draft was Saturday morning, and Brady’s injury Friday night pretty much locked me up on Drew Brees as my number 1 pick. Not just because Brady was nicked up, but because his line didn’t hold up. The final straw was Belichick giving absolutely no indication as to the severity of the injury.

Brady looked great though. I have to hand it to him. He and dandy Randy Moss seem to still have that magic that carried them to so many td’s and so many yards back in 2007 before Brady was hurt. He could have looked even better, too, except that Wes Welker didn’t play.

The Packers certainly look impressive as do the Saints. The Steelers haven’t lost much either. As for individuals, Matt Cassell, KC’s new QB , was hurt already. And I almost felt bad for Josh McDaniels, Denver’s new coach (from the Pats again), who was made to look foolish in the Broncos’ exhibition versus da Bears.

Kyle Orton just isn’t Jay Cutler, that was all too obvious as Cutler ate up the Broncos and Orton did very little, and then got hurt. Then there’s the new NFL idiot, Brandon Marshall.

The Beat Goes On

The Mets saga conTINuuuuues. Just when you’ve decided not to watch, even on TV, here come the Mets again, the Mets you expected, well, maybe not expected exactly, but the team you know they could be, iff they would just pitch once in a while.

Well, pitch they did, well, Pelfrey sure did. It seemed as if he was suddenly unhittable. How nice for him. I just wonder where the heck that pitcher goes every fifth day? It’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Pelfrey. Maybe he can only whip the San Francisco’s of the world?

Then there was this kid Parnell. He sure did very nicely in his first start ever. The kid has some speed and some stuff too. Hell, he could be the number two starter. I got almost excited as the Weather Channel guys at the prospects of that new tropical storm, or the Republicans after helping kill any healthcare changes.

Anyway, in the short term, there’s somebody besides tired old Livan friggin’ Hernandez and the crazy lefty Perez to throw out there. The depth chart now reads Santana, Pelfrey, Hernandez, Perez and Parnell. That’s not too shabby really, they sure are all different. It’s just that you’d like to see some more consistency, y’know?

But starting with the last game vs. Arizona, the Mets are on an impressive run. Crazy Ollie pitched that last game and allowed just one run in 5 1/3 impressive innings. Even the atrocious reliever Sean Green couldn’t lose it for him. Then it was Parnell with the shutout, a shaky Santana which is still not horrible, and then Pelfrey’s little gem. A Mets fan could get used to this.

And just when you thought the baseball gods had forgotten about the Mets, here they came with one more salvo, leveling the one remaining core guy, good ol’ David Wright. It came in the form of a shot to the head, of course, that nobody thought was intentional, but….still. There may have been a feeble attempt at retaliation as roly-poly Bengie Molina was hit by a pitch much later on, but you can never really get even for your rock going down for the count. With a concussion, he may as well be lost for the season, especially this season.

Fernando Tatis is now our third baseman, backed up by a fella named Andy Green, who is, surprise, surprise, a very light-hitting guy indeed. But the lineup against the Giants on Sunday was Pagan, Castillo, Sheffield, Francoeur, Tatis, Murphy, Santos and Anderson Hernandez, which can be a pretty entertaining group. I’m looking forward to seeing if Livan can get by SanFran’s Joe Martinez.

Oh, but just to keep things in perspective, the Mets are 55-62, 12 games back of the Phillies in the NL East and 9 ½ behind the Rockies for the wildcard. And they’re way way back on that list too. It’s good that football season is almost upon us, unless of course you’re a Yankee fan.

The Yankees are way ahead of Boston and are 41-18 at home, the best home record in either league. They lead Detroit in that respect by a game but Detroit has a losing record away from home. The Yanks are also 33-26 on the road. They have the best overall record in both leagues, Mark Teixeira is being touted for MVP and Jeter just passed Luis Aparicio for most hits be a shortstop. So what’s not to like?

Aside from this innings thing with Joba, there’s almost nothing left to criticize. You see little chinks now and then, like Sergio Mitre maybe not being that good, and I suppose Chad Gaudin hasn’t really proven anything yet. And now Matsui’s a little banged up.

But with the Yankees, if they’re close through 6 or 7 innings, you get the feeling they’re going to win the game. There are not that many teams you can say that about.

The big news in the American League is the Texas Rangers. It looks as if they have the staying power to outlast Boston for the AL wildcard. They put them away yesterday head-to-head after losing a tough one a day earlier. And with the same pitcher to close things out, Frank Francisco, who had a 2.01 ERA before Boston lambasted him for 6 big runs on Saturday.

Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Josh Hamilton…the Rangers have got a hell of a team and even the pitching is holding up. It’s a pitching staff put together by a real man named Nolan Ryan, who pees on pitch counts. This team stayed together and played well, even after losing Hamilton and Kinsler to injuries for, in Hamilton’s case anyway, a good portion of the season.

The Red Sox seem a mess compared to what they had been. Between injuries to key players like Matsuzaka and Wakefield and performance funks from the likes of David Ortiz and the shortstop position, the Red Sox are hanging into the race by the tips of their fingernails. And their confidence had to be shaken by the sweep the Yanks laid on them.

So things should be quite tolerable for the rest of the baseball season, even for a Mets fan. When boredom really sets in, we can just tune in to the NFL station and watch some exhibitions. For me, I’ve been checking out the quarterbacks for fantasy purposes, especially QB’s who changed teams or whose team was enhanced by some key additions.

In Buffalo, I watched Trent Edwards looking good throwing to Lee Evans, even with Terrell Owens out with a bad toe. On the other hand, the much-ballyhooed Jay Cutler looked lousy with da Bears and Kyle Orton didn’t look that great in his exhibition. Tony Romo looked as if he was trying a bit harder to stay in the pocket and looked pretty good while Donovan McNabb seemed to have an easy time of it in his few minutes on the field.

Then there’s Mark Sanchez. And we’ll see Eli tonight!

Overthinking the Easy Ones

How many times have we seen it before, with other teams, with other middle-relief guys who try on the closer's hat? They don't have a prayer. So it was with the Mets last night as they wasted a fine performance by Johan Santana and a 3-run lead to lose the opener of their three-game set with the Phils, 8-6.

What I don't understand is why Santana came out of the game at all. He was doing quite well, thank you. I can understand saving your starter when you have your closer in the bullpen, but when you don't, bite the bullet and have your starter try to finish the game, especially if it's one of the biggest games of the year.

But Jerry Manuel didn't do that. He decided to see what he had in his pen. He found out. He thought Duaner Sanchez could be a closer. Wrong! After three straight hits off Duaner, he went to Joe Smith, who did manage to induce a harmless ground ball that Reyes flubbed.

Why he took Smith out is another mystery because his replacement, Pedro Feliciano, did worse. In fact, nothing Manuel did last night worked out in any way, shape or form. Except for starting Santana, it was all down hill from there.

The handwriting was all over the wall, even before that sad ninth inning. They sent Endy Chavez home twice to get thrown out, one time with nobody out. It just didn't make sense. It seemed as if they were tempting fate, asking themselves "what can we do to turn a ridiculously easy victory into a damaging and embarrassing loss?"

Once again I’m left to contemplate what a strange game is baseball. A team that seemingly had everything going for it entering a series, a team that pretty much had its way with the Phils for eight full innings, loses it in the ninth in spectacularly horrid fashion, thus losing not only THIS game but also any momentum it had going in.

Okay, I’m done now. Coulda shoulda woulda. So Jerry Manuel blew a game. He’s won way more than he’s lost, and maybe he had this one coming. Who knows what Santana said to him after his eight innings on another hot, humid night at Shea? Who knows why he took out Smith, the only guy in that ninth inning who did anything right?

Last night Manuel lost much of the faith I had in him. The biggest game of the year was in the bag. He gave it back. Santana had thrown 105 pitches. He felt fine. Wagner was hurt. Sanchez had pitched two big innings on Sunday. I don’t understand what he was thinking. No thinking was required.

I can’t even discuss it anymore. A team as stupid as this one doesn’t deserve to win anything. Manuel thinks wins are cheap. He’s never heard the old saw “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

So the game that was in hand is now lost. Now the Mets face the Phils with lesser starters, less confidence and still no closer. The Phillies now have the edge in this all-important series. The Phillies delivered the big hits. The Phillies made the plays in the field. The Phillies have everything but the manager who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

There must have been an old Willie handbook in the dugout, that one entitled “How to Lose Games with the Better Team”.

How many games can a team give back over the course of a season and still win? This team has given back about 20 games on the season. And counting.

Can they turn it around? Yeah, sure they can. With Delgado scorching the horsehide off the ball, and with horses like Beltran and Wright in the lineup, anything is possible. They have the best starters in the league. But it’s less likely for sure. It’ll take a little time to get over such a bad loss.

That Reyes reverted to making the big mistake doesn’t bode well either. His decision to reach for the second base bag when a flip to Easley would have done nicely kept the rally going strong. Instead of being up two with two men on and one man out, it became bases loaded once again with nobody out.

Although I understand the switch to Smith when Sanchez wasn’t doing the job, I don’t comprehend at all the switch to Feliciano. Smith had done his job. He got a ground ball when he needed it. Why switch to Feliciano? And then Heilman once the game was irretrievably lost.

But it was really all over much earlier. That would be when Santana came out of the game, much to the Phillies delight. The guy who had frustrated those heavy-hitters all night long would be on the bench. Wagner wasn’t a possibility. The Phillies licked their lips in anticipation. They could win this game after all. And did.

Of course there is a flip-side to all this. All Manuel really did was put the game in the hands of his relievers. It didn’t work out, but many would say he made the right move, all those pitch-count people, all those folks with fresh pitchers at the end of the season, for teams that will have lost way more than they will have won.

I’m already regretting all the nasty things I’ve said. Manuel hasn’t made many mistakes since he’s assumed the reins from the dead team he took over from Willie, a team with tired veterans, with a shortstop always looking over his shoulder, and with cleanup hitters gone bad.

So we Mets fans have to be patient with a mistake, even if it did come at the worst possible moment, against the worst possible opponent. For once, Manuel overthought the situation, and was caught counting chickens down the road, saving his ace for some game in October.

He just forgot that you first have to get to October.

Big Series at Shea

The Mets did it again last night, they impressed the heck outta me. Everybody's doin' sumthin' - Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Delgado, but also guys like Duaner Sanchez, Ramon Castro and still another Reyes named Argenis. They came back and then held on to beat the Reds 7-5 and everybody played a part. What a nice way to come to Shea....against the team sharing the top spot with them in the NL East!

Even though Mike Pelfrey, after about a month of superior pitching, finally came back to earth, the Mets just did what needed being done to keep themselves in the game and then put some pressure on their opponents. Duaner Sanchez was my favorite last night, although Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado made good cases for MVP’s of the game.

Big Series at Shea ! When was the last time we felt that? I mean, actually feeling GOOD about it? Johan Santana is just 8-7 this year, but you have to feel pretty confident with his matchup against the Phils newly-acquired Joe Blanton.

Then it’s John Maine against Brett Myers, and neither of them are lighting it up statistically, but I’d rather have Maine. On Thursday, it’ll be brain against brawn as the surprising old Jamie Moyer matches pitches with the brilliant but erratic Oliver Perez.

So, the Mets starting pitching will be good, the relievers have been pretty steady, all things considered, and, for once, the lineup seems pretty formidable too. For power, we have Wright, Delgado and Beltran. And a bunch of pains in the neck, led by the biggest pain of them all, Jose Reyes.

Reyes has now scored 71 runs, is batting .300 and even has 10 homers and 43 rbi’s. If triples mean anything to you, he is the all-time Met master of the triple. He’s stolen 33 bases. Yeah, Jose can be a HUGE thorn in any opponent’s side, and did I mention he’s a pretty flashy shortstop too?

Yes, the Phils have a big job ahead of them. Not that they don’t have some formidable weapons themselves, guys like Utley and Howard and Rollins, Werth and Jenkins. But are they jelling like the Mets are right now? That would be a decided NO.

I almost hate to say it. The managerial change energized these Mets. Big-time. Even though they would seem to be missing a couple of pieces. Like a couple of outfielders. But the fill-ins have been pretty amazing.

Damian Easley at second base has been steady Eddie, Fernando Tatis provides another pretty serious power threat when he’s swinging the bat well, and Marlon Anderson seems to finally be coming back to the land of the living. This new Reyes is another guy they plug in at second, in the field and in the lineup too, and he just keeps delivering.

Jerry Manuel has been a lifesaver, seemingly providing EXACTLY what these guys needed to perform as a team. You can feel the confidence boost as a palpable thing. Same guys, different level. When the game is on the line, they get tough.

One surprising statistic from Sunday’s game is the 32 men the Mets left on base. The Reds left 5 men on, yet the Mets were able to pull it out. This is a game the Mets could surely have lost in the old days. The old Mets wouldn’t have been able to overcome that much adversity.

Of course, you have to play the games. It’s great to count chickens but you have to keep performing. But you get the feeling that this team will keep it up. They’re having fun. They’re winning. Even when they aren’t at their best.

Against the Reds, it was like a game of who’ll blink first. And yesterday, after a couple of big strikeouts and Met plays in the field, it was the Reds who would bat their eyes. It was an error in the field that propelled the Mets to the victory, Edwin Encarnacion’s bad throw to second short-circuiting a potential double-play while scoring a run for the Mets.

Baseball is a funny game, a game of fine nuances that most people miss, if it weren’t for some fine analysis by guys like Keith Hernandez. There’re quite a few decisions being made on every pitch. It’s the combination of all the variables that produce the result. In the case of the Mets, those results have been very good, so they’re combining those variables really well.

It’s not just Jerry Manuel either. It’s that new pitching coach Warthen, who seems to be helping Oliver Perez especially, and it’s Omar Minaya, who’s juggling these guys in and out, Argenis Reyes and Nick Evans especially as of late.

What are some things to worry about? (I wouldn’t be a Mets fan if I didn’t worry about SOMETHING).

I worry that Santana will serve up some home run balls to those Phillies bangers, not just Howard and Utley, but Rollins and Jenkins and Werth too. And then there’s Met-killer Pat Burrell.

I worry about the Mets coming home to Shea, despite the fact that they’re 28-18 at home. I’m hoping the fans can keep their cool through any rough spots. This team doesn’t need to have any reservations about themselves. This is a team that rolls when it’s feeling it, and a bunch of booing never helps anybody “feel it”.

I worry about the Marlins too. They’re 7-3 in their last ten games and they’ve got some fearsome hitters, all young and feisty. And they just beat the Phils 2 outta 3. They have their own pains in the neck, no one bigger than a guy who has scored even more runs than Reyes, a guy named Hanley Ramirez.

And I worry that, should the Mets NOT win the NL East, they’ll have a little trouble making the playoffs. Both the Cards and Brewers in the NL Central have better records than the Mets. They may not catch the Cubs but they’ll be serious contenders for the wildcard.