Football weekend

Alright, those picks turned out to be a little dicey, but week one is always crazy and I think I have a little better handle on the teams now, so hopefully next weeks picks will be a somewhat better. I don't feel too bad though because everyone picked the Rams to win over the Niners, and after witnessing the Rams destruction of the Lions in the pre season, I thought that game would be a walk. I thought wrong, and underestimated the complete incompetence of Mike Martz. Another important thing I learned this week is that Jake Plummer sucks, a fact which is now compunded by the fact that hes also on my fantasy team..........Yuck. Also why does Joey Harrington take so much more heat than David Carr. I know Carr started off on an expansion team, but Harrington was essentially thrust into the same situation, going to a team that was coming off a 2-14 season, AND had Marty Morninwheg as a head coach. Which reminds me is their anything more disturbing than being a Lions fan and seeing Marty patrolling the sidelines for a potential Super Bowl contender. Is there any way we can warn Eagles fans of this guys complete ineptitude. I know he was a consultant for them last year and they still managed to reach the Super Bowl. All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be surprised if this was a weekly exchange at Eagles headquarters.

Coach Reid: "I know the Detmer kid is a smart guy and really has an excellent understanding of the West Coast offense, but Donovan is a proven winner and is so much more of a threat with the ball in his hands."

Marty: " Yeah, yeah thats great but I had his Koy's brother while I was in Detroit and he was a genius, he taught me all kinds of important things, like how to tie my shoes and how to spell my name.

Reid: (cell phone ringing) "hang on Marty I gotta take this."

Marty, miffed about the cell phone ringing angrily drives off on his motorcycle.

Moving on, this was a big weekend for me football wise as I attended both the Michigan-Notre Dame game and the Lions game. First the Michigan game. I thought Michigan might have been a little overrated coming into the season and probably weren't the number 3 team in the country this year. But I never thought they would lose to Notre Dame at the Big House. I did think it would be a close game because of the intense rivalry between the two winningest teams in college football history, but once again I was certain Michigan would prevail. Of course they didnt. I got the first inkling something might be wrong while watching a replay of the Raghib Ismail game on ESPN classic, and after Notre Dame moved down the field and scored like nothing on the first drive I became even more worried. But mostly because I thought the two teams would be swapping touchdowns all day and that the Michigan defense was still going to be a problem. Wrong. The defense played great after that opening drive, but the offense..........blah. Henne looked terrible, and for the first time that I can remember he looked rattled, or rushed, not to mention he came down with a severe case of Navarre-itis in which he got at least five passes tipped at the line of scrimmage. And the pass he threw near the end zone that was intercepted was atrocious. I mean he couldn't have been more locked on to Ecker, I was sitting in the complete opposite corner of the stadium and knew who he was throwing it to. Also Mike Hart got hurt, which was huge, because as good as Grady looks, he just doesnt have the shiftiness and game breaking ablilty that Hart has...........yet. Breaston was non-existent again, which leads me to my final point, the coaching. Im not sure if Carr is in charge of play calling, but the Lions playbook on Madden has more plays and variety than the Michigan offense. Let me give you the four plays Michigan runs. Halfback dive, Halfback screen, Wide Receiver Screen, Wide receiver curls and five yard outs. Vertical passes............ pfft, what do you think this is the 1940's. I wouldnt be surprised if next week they just scrapped everything and dusted off the single wing. Actually that wouldnt be all that bad because then maybe, just maybe, Breaston would get more than 5 touches a game. I've tried to stick up for Carr but there were more rumblings than ever following this weeks game, especially with the botched instant replay call where they didn't rush out and take a quick snap, and all Im saying is you have to think that theres got to be a powerful booster/alumnus who might be getting a little disenchanted with Carr, and next thing you know Lloyd, your beating Dave Wannstedt with your Ball State Cardinal team a la Frank Solich. But even I could beat Dave Wannstedt but you have to repect the mustache, and as a quick note is their a cooler looking word than mustachioed?

On to a more positive note at least the Lions looked good on Sunday afternoon, especially the defense, which either was that good or Brett Favre is now that bad. I can't believe Favre has been around for 15 seasons. 15 seasons! I feel so old now. I mean him and Griffey are the two athletes around today that make me feel 30 instead of 21. Is there any doubt that Favre's career is going to end in a 62-7 playoff rout at the hands of the Seahawks, a team he would have owned 5 years ago, like Dan Marino going down to the Jags. Or even worse, if the Orioles, I mean Packers, are like 4 and 9 heading into the final few weeks and they decide to start Manny Alexander, I mean Aaron Rogers in his place. Anyways Im now taking bets on the outcomes of Brett Favre's with the opening line for being carried off the field after winning a second super bowl at 10,000-1.

Ill talk more about the game in my next post because Ive got a bunch of reading to do for law school, which by the way totally sucks, but I do have this to add quickly. I love R.W. McQuarters, especially his name because it sounds like it could be the name of one of Uncle Scrooges rivals on Duck Tales. I also like how all the scary homeless guys in Detroit look exactly like McQuarters, with the long crazy dreadlocks, not to mention the fact that he had like 10 picks in his one season with me on Madden (like all the other homeless guys in Detroit), because for some reason he was the starting free safety, but I had to let him go because he held out, and I take a hard line against holdouts in my Franchise....................because its real................isnt it?