Beer Control Offense

It's OVER

2010-07-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

a decent run ... but will now be writing 2x a week here ...

The Key Play

tv viewing schedule and a football post.

A Lil Construction

2010-01-27T21:09:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd bring the look of my blog from 2001 to at least 2008, but somehow it looks like 1998. Still working out some of the kinks.

A beer or a Hokie one would be nice but that's beyond my bowfighting skills.

2010-01-18T23:26:00.004-05:00

4 things going on right now with the BCO

Beer

From BCO pix

That 5 week window where $10 drafts or $4 bottles (total wine) of Bells Hop Slam is now. Worth every damn penny, I got 18 bottles at my house. Though, I'd wish my wife would not knock over my glass spilling half of it. See link to the right.

Book

From BCO Pix2

I've been reading a lot lately ... well a lot for me. Cormac McCarthy's book "The Road" was pretty damn good. I have not seen the movie yet, but I hope it's good. The book is very grim and sometimes disturbing, but worth the read. If you do or have read it, follow these 2 links ... locations ... map.

Band

From BCO Pix2

Looking to use up an Itunes card, I googled albums of the year for 2009. Many had Animal Collective's "Merriweather Post Pavilion" in the top 5. Different and interesting, give it a shot.

Broad

From BCO Pix2

Rhona Mitra Yeah, I got stuck watching Underworld: Rise of the Lycans on late night HBO or Showtime ... not good but all was not lost.

Kiffin in Pictures by LSUfreek

2010-01-18T09:40:00.005-05:00

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. All I get is two ...

From BCO Pix2

thanks to my buddy Mike for the one above. This inspired me to post the ones by LSUfreek this season. kiffin is a goldmine!

LSUfreek for the ones below.
his twitter
his sportingnews blog

From BCO Pix2

From

a lil youtube Kiffin treat

by the way, scandal coming?
read this.

Hokie Bloggers Postseason Round Table Q & A

2010-01-12T21:24:00.003-05:00

From BCO Pix2

Gobblercountry, the interwebs finest Hokie blog has sent out his Postseason round table questions for us other (mostly lessor) Hokie bloggers to chew on.

His site is here and he can be followed on twitter here.

On to his questions and my answers.

From BCO Pix2

1. Do you think the 2009 season was a successful one for Virginia Tech?

First off I am disappointed, a bit, but not a lot. When you play big boy football the Sears Trophy is the prize everyone eyes. Unfortunately for all but a few, Florida, Alabama, USC, Texas and Oklahoma it takes a special season (VT '99) where all the chips fall right to play for that Walmart pedestal. Understanding that, I can look at the season outside that exclusive bubble.

VT went 10-3 with 2 of the losses to top 15 teams, 1 of them to the National Champion. The other ranked loss came on the road to the best performance of the year by the Yellow Jackets defense, that happens. The only bad loss (not awful) was on a Thursday night in Lane with a flat crowd (and team) to the North Carolina Tarheels. Those are the negatives. The positives, absolutely routing a bunch of teams, including some hated rivals and a thrilling, improbable win vs another top 15 team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. So 10 wins vs the hardest schedule that I can remember and finishing in the top 10 again ... yeah ... that's successful.

From BCO Pix2

2. Did Bryan Stinespring and the Hokie offense finally turn a corner in 2009 or are you still pessimistic about the future of the offense?

Yes, the O turned the corner, I am almost a believer. Stinespring is still going to have a few WTF calls each game and some games much more than few (see the 3 top 10 total defenses Tech faced this year) but you know, every team has those days. Someone tell me how Florida's offense looked vs Alabama or Texas's vs Nebraska or Florida States vs UNC (oops, well the first half anyway) ... they got shut down too. An experienced quarterback, better line play and the most talented running back Billy Hite has ever coached equals a formula for success for any offensive coordinator. Now if he can keep finding the right mix of going against tendency along with the base of the offense while using some misdirection this unit could be really special next year. Considering the lack of Tight End depth and experience along with a boat load of wide outs, this offense us going to see a lot of 3 wide receiver look (like against UT) and possibly be wide open. Not sure Frank likes that, but I got a feeling Bryan does! The key won't be so much 2010, but 2011 when Stiney has to break in a new qb and replace Ryan Williams.

From BCO Pix2

3. Can the inconsistency of the defense this season be blamed mostly on youth at linebacker and injuries to key players like John Graves or were other factors at play?

Yes, but I would like to add for a unit to finish 12th nationally in total defense and be inconsistent, then that's pretty damn good. Hail Bud!

Year in and year out, Bud's units have gotten better as the year progressed and the new starters learned what he wanted to do. No reason to expect his unit to be firing on all cylinders game one vs Alabama, though the owning of the defensive line was ominous.

Linebacker Barquell Rivers was solid all year but a step back from Brett Warren who was a step back from Vince Hall and that was the good linebacker situation. Jake Johnson failed to grasp the system and tackled poorly, giving way to undersized Lyndell Gibson who has much better instincts, but also limited. Gibson is not Xavier Adibi but he could be better than similarly built Mikal Baaqee. Unless Bruce Taylor or one of the redshirts step up, Bud will have to work around this unit for a couple of years.

Now to a favorite subject of mine, John Graves. One can not undervalue his performance to the team. Example A, look at the game tape vs Georgia Tech before he was injured ... dominating, blowing up their offensive line causing tackles for loss and being held on 50% of the plays. The defensive line was not the same that game or vs UNC due to his loss. UNC road graded one team all season with power running, the Hokies without Graves. Hell, he gutted out much of the second half of the season with a bum wheel. When finally healthy he destroyed the Tennessee offensive line in the Chick-Fil-A bowl. All that said, the Hokies need more than 2 every down defensive tackles, chalk that up to recruiting misses. I'd hazard a guess that VT would have beaten UNC with a healthy Graves and made the GT game come down to the very last minute. Yeah, I copped out that answer.

From BCO Pix2

4. Which player was the biggest surprise to you in 2009, good or bad?

Tough, tough question, easily the one that makes me stop and think the most. Consideration for the Good: Ed Wang, Ryan Williams & Rock Carmichael. The Bad: Greg Boone & Jake Johnson. Boone was injured for the first half of the year and Jake Johnson was so young, so I can't choose them. Wang had his moments of WTF, but in general he was really good, RW certainly surprised me with his ability but in the end it was Rock. Going into the season there were legitimate concerns on how good field corner would be as he and Cris Hill were fighting for the starting spot. I still remember reading Kyle Tucker's blog about how he was getting beat the week leading up to the Bama game. I was not feeling good about the situation. Late in the Bama game Stephan Virgil the starting boundary corner goes down and instantly my biggest concern was thrust into an even more important position, boundary corner. Well, I'd say he did quite well, keeping the spot for the rest of the season, even after Virgil came back. Rock finished with 5 interceptions and ended up being the best player in the nation's 11th rated pass defense. He made All ACC Honorable mention and has a great chance to make first or second team next season. Him and Jayron Hosley are going to be awesome next year.

From BCO Pix2

5. If the Hokies could go back and replay one of their three losses, which one would you replay?

Well, physically VT was beat by the superior team in Alabama so I'd rather have them play a team where they would be as good or better from a talent perspective. The UNC loss, strips away more the Lane Stadium at night (Thursday no less) aura. The Hokies were a better team all year but faced a bad match up offensively and struggled on defense surprisingly all night. However that's not the game I want. I want VT to have another shot at Paul Johnson's team. Not only because it was the division defining game but because beating the smugness of Paul Johnson is a simple pleasure in life, much like it was beating Jeff Jagodzinski. I want a few offensive plays back, I want John Graves back for the whole game, I want Bud to have a 2nd half game plan that was as brilliant but also different as his first half one was. This is splitting the difference, conceding the Tide was the superior team but also not going after the easiest win, Carolina. In the grand scheme of ACC things that game chose who was going to Tampa to play in the ACCCG.

From BCO Pix2

Bonus question: Write a haiku about Ryan Williams.
shake, rattle ryan
the mother fornicating
williams rolls for six

(yeah, i know not good.)

Bowl Collusion Series 4 Year Do-Over

2010-01-04T11:49:00.008-05:00

From BCO Pix2

Ok, lets get some things out the way. I like the bowls, I somewhat like the playoffs. I personally don't think the no. 8 team should have the right to play for it all. I do think the top 3-5 teams can usually make a case. In my perfect college football world, a plus one is the way to go. I think it would be a HUGE $ generator and why they morons that be can't see that, is beyond me (and you.)

The bowl system is never going to go away ... and good. I mean what Hokie doesn't feel good waxing Lane Kiffin? Or the noles sending off the neers? That said, with parity at the top, let's pair it down to 4 and see what happens. Sure some years there is a 5th team that should be involved ... tough titties and yes, some years a 4th team lucks in ... good for them.

I think the BCS is damn collusion making sure after all the Bowl games are played there is a clear no. 1 and nothing like the 2003 season when both USC and LSU had a split between the coach's and AP polls. This makes for some pretty poor other BCS games, highlighted by the the 2 lil engines that could, TCU and Boise State this year. These guys need to show the world they can play ... again. OU and Bama believe, trust me. I am going to show the last 4 years of BCS games, the BCS rankings, match ups, my gripes and how I would have set them up (without knowledge of how the games would play out i.e. who's overrated.) The top 2 seeds play in their normal BCS bowl, $EC in the Sugar, Big1+10 in the Rose, Big12 in the Cotton (hey I needed a 5th bowl and this one needs/will be brought back,) etc. This crazy idea is also taking into account the Rose Bowl isn't being a total douche about ... everything. I want more compelling match ups but will keep the conference affliations, as best as possible.

Initially I thought the Big1+10 got too many BCS games due to their traveling party size and past football glory, but in retrospect only 1 (Illa-noise) needed to be dropped and 1 actually should have been added (Wisky.) All BCS conference champions were kept in, though a couple ACC and Big East teams probably weren't deserving, which means at least 2 shit games were still played. Had to also consider teams w/small fan bases being paired up with traveling fan bases.

Another thing, I know part of it is the weak ACC but why does the Orange Bowl draw the short damn straw almost every year for shitty BCS games?

Well here's how I would have laid it out thru the years ...

From BCO Pix2

2009 BCS Final Rankings

Alabama 13-0
Texas 13-0
Cincinnati 12-0
TCU 12-0
Florida 12-1
Boise State 13-0
Oregon 10-2
Ohio State 10-2
Georgia Tech 11-2
Iowa 10-2
Virginia Tech 9-3
LSU 9-3

BCS Match ups
Rose Bowl: #8 Ohio State (10-2, Big Ten Champion) vs #7 Oregon (10-2, Pac-10 Champion)
Sugar Bowl: #5 Florida (12-1, At-large) vs #3 Cincinnati (12-0, Big East Champion)
Fiesta Bowl: #6 Boise State (13-0, WAC Champion, At-large) vs #4 TCU (12-0, MWC Champion, BCS #4, Automatic non-AQ)
Orange Bowl: #10 Iowa (10-2, At-large) vs #9 Georgia Tech (11-2, ACC Champion)
National Championship Game (at the Rose Bowl): #2 Texas (13-0, Big 12 Champion) vs #1 Alabama (13-0, SEC Champion)

BCO Gripe
TCU playing Boise State

BCO Match ups
Semifinals
Sugar Bowl: Bammer vs Cincy - ummm given what we know now ... a laugher though Kelly would still be there.
Cotton Bowl: Tejas vs TCU - would be an amazing game though UT fans would make up 80% of crowd

Other BCS
Orange Bowl: GiT vs Iowa - a ho-hum game
Fiesta Bowl: Boise st vs Florida - let Boise St 1 up their OU win by beating God and the Gators
Rose Bowl: tOSU vs Oregon - very good clash of styles matchup

From BCO Pix2

2008 BCS Final Rankings

Oklahoma 12-1
Florida 12-1
Texas 11-1
Alabama 12-1
USC 11-1
Utah 12-0
Texas Tech 11-1
Penn State 11-1
Boise State 12-0
Ohio State 10-2
TCU 10-2
Cincinnati 11-2

BCS Match ups
Rose Bowl: #5 Southern California (11-1, Pac-10 champion) 38, #8 Penn State (11-1, Big Ten champion)
Orange Bowl: #19 Virginia Tech (9-4, ACC champion) vs #12 Cincinnati (11-2, Big East champion)
Sugar Bowl: #6 Utah (12-0, MWC champion, BCS #6, Automatic non-AQ) vs #4 Alabama (12-1, At-large)
Fiesta Bowl: #3 Texas (11-1, BCS #3, automatic) vs #10 Ohio State (10-2, At-large)
National Championship: #2 Florida (12-1, BCS #2, SEC champion) vs. #1 Oklahoma (12-1, BCS #1, Big 12 champion)

BCO Gripe
nothing too egregious

BCO Match ups
Semifinals
Cotton Bowl: OU vs Bammer - part 1 of the $EC-B12 dance.
Sugar Bowl: Tejas vs Florida - part 2, sorta like a home and away

Other BCS
Fiesta Bowl: Utah vs Cincy - sorta dog game, oh well. Utah better travel.
Orange Bowl: VT vs Boise State - this would garner a lot of interest, not just in Idaho & Blacksburg
Rose Bowl: USC vs State Penn - tradition ... B1+10 annual USC ass kicking

From BCO Pix2

2007 BCS Final Rankings

Ohio State 11-1
LSU 11-2
Virginia Tech 11-2
Oklahoma 11-2
Georgia 10-2
Missouri 11-2
USC 10-2
Kansas 11-1
West Virginia 10-2
Hawaii 12-0
Arizona State 10-2
Florida 9-3

BCS Matchups
Rose Bowl: #7 Southern California (10-2, Pac-10 champion) vs #13 Illinois (9–3, At-large)
Sugar Bowl: #5 Georgia (10–2, At-large) vs #10 Hawaii (12-0, WAC Champion, BCS #10, Automatic non-AQ)
Fiesta Bowl: #9 West Virginia (10-2, Big East champion) vs #4 Oklahoma (11–2, Big 12 champion)
Orange Bowl: #8 Kansas (11–1, At-large) vs #3 Virginia Tech (11–2, ACC champion)
National Championship: #2 LSU (11–2, BCS #2, SEC champion) vs, #1 Ohio State (11–1, BCS #1, Big Ten champion)

BCO Gripes
Worst year by far. Kans-ass over Mizzou, Illa-noise over ASU, Orange getting the Turd bowl 2 years in a row.

BCO Match ups
Semifinals
Rose Bowl: tOSU vs VT - VT fans would gobble up tix to go west. Teams would mirror each other.
Sugar Bowl: LSU vs OU - a very nice matchup, but a home game for LSU

Other BCS
Cotton Bowl: Mizzou vs USC - Spread vs Proset in B12 territory
Fiesta Bowl: Hawaii vs ASU - dog game but ASU would sell the tix and Hawaii would at least make a game out of it.
Orange Bowl: ugga vs w Fn vu - rematch from 2 yrs earlier, thinking ugga would have revenge, while w Fn vu was motivated. Could have been classic.

Notes
Swapping VT and ugga would be very interesting, making a hot shit Orange bowl.

From BCO Pix2

2006 BCS Final Rankings

Ohio State 12-0
Florida 12-1
Michigan 11-1
LSU 10-2
Louisville 11-1
Wisconsin 11-1
Oklahoma 11-2
USC 10-2
Boise State 12-0
Auburn 10-2
Notre Dame 10-2
Arkansas 10-3

BCS Match ups
Rose Bowl: #5 Southern California (10-2, Pac-10 champion) vs #3 Michigan (11-1, BCS #3, automatic)
Fiesta Bowl: #8 Boise State(12-0, WAC Champion, BCS #8, Automatic non-AQ) vs #10 Oklahoma (11-2, Big 12 champion)
Orange Bowl: #6 Louisville (11-1, Big East champion) vs #14 Wake Forest (11-2, ACC champion)
Sugar Bowl: #4 LSU (10-2, At-large) vs #11 Notre Dame (10-2, At-large)
National Championship (at the Fiesta Bowl): #2 Florida (11-1, BCS #2, SEC champion) vs #1 Ohio State (12-0, BCS #1, Big Ten champion)

BCO Gripe
ND in

BCO Match ups
Semifinals
Rose Bowl: tOSU vs LSU - Part 1 of Big1+10 vs $EC
Sugar Bowl: Florida vs MissAgain - part 2

Other BCS
Orange Bowl: Wake Forest vs Wisky - shitty, wisky would run roughshed VT style over WF
Cotton Bowl: OU vs Looeyville - high octane O vs high octane O, the difference, 1 team had a D
Fiesta Bowl: Boise State vs USC - could you imagine USC fans with their noses in the air and how great it would be if BSU won on Statue of Liberty!

This was sorta fun to do, a pipe dream I know.

Awesome Weekend

2010-01-03T21:20:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I took a me break and the worst damn time ... Bowl season. The end of the college football 4 month holiday. No excuses. Hope everyone had a good holiday season, I did and got a lot better this past weekend!

From BCO Pix2

The BEATDOWN on Tennessee and Lane Kiffin was incredible, I love the new bowl preparation the team has shown the last 2 seasons. Apparently UT was very loosey goosey and missing curfew in the ATL, did not find that with this Hokie team. 3rd time was a charm! Chick-Fil-A champs! A lil note about the offense, after the loss to UNC, Beamer started putting more emphasis and practice time on the O. It showed. 5 straight games on scoring on the D in the 2nd half, seems to not have affected Foster too much.

From BCO Pix2

To make things sweeter (well more sweet then w Fn vu losing too) the Hokie Basketball team without AA Malcolm Delaney (injured ankle) beat Seton Hall by a Herculean effort by Dorenzo Hudson's 41.

Anyway, I am hoping to go back 3-4 years and do a review of the BCS, the Bowl Collusion Series. I have always thought it was rigged ... rigged in a way that the AP has to vote the winner of the BCS championship game no. 1. They don't want a USC/LSU situation of a few years ago where maybe the 3rd or 4th ranked team can jump up. So what we get is lack luster matchups and teams {cough} Kansas {cough} that don't deserve to be playing. Well, I am going to look at this and reset how it should have been set up. Better matchups, better ratings and more interest ... sometime this week. Case in point is Tomorrow's game, TCU vs Boise State. That shit sammich was forced on us and the Fiesta bowl on purpose.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 16

2009-12-23T23:17:00.001-05:00

Week 16, NFL season 2009. You remember last week’s “BOOOOYAAAAAAA”? Yeah, the book is saying that this week. Holy crap nothing went as predicted in week 15. Nothing.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

66.67% straight up picks for your office pool (126-63)

53.95% against the spread this year on recommended plays (82-70)

51.71% over-all including the recommended no-actions (106-99)

Thoughts for the past week:

*Last week was not good. Some tight picks went as expected, or were close enough to write off as good games. But I have some severe cases of WTF for: New Orleans (not covering -7.5 fine, but losing outright at home to lose undefeatedness?), New York Jets (7 points at home against a non-playoff NFC team from a southern dome outside in New York in December? 7?), Denver (ummm, you’re approaching Jekyll and Hyde status with Houston and Jacksonville, now losing at home to the Raiders, led by Jamarcus Russell?), Seattle (24-7 loss at home to Tampa, you officially suck, bad), and Minnesota (hey geniuses, double Julius Peppers).

*I went (9-7) in the straight up picks for your office pool. You didn’t win your pool. (9-7) a week after a (14-1) week. Wow. Just wow Jay.

*With the books, I got prison raped. I went (8-8) overall, but went (3-1) in my NO ACTION picks, meaning I got hammerdogpunched at (5-7) in recommended plays. Ouch.

[II] Week 15 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	SD @ TENN	TENN -3.5	SD	SD	DOG	YES	Wait, SD is getting +3.5 here? I checked three sites and this line isn’t a misprint. I know TENN is still technically fighting for a playoff berth, but SD is the big man on campus around these parts lately.	SD 27-17 (SD outright win)
2	BUFF @ ATL	ATL -8.5	ATL	BUFF	DOG	YES	I think ATL and Brian Brohm (really?) win at home here, but I don’t like the -8.5 for a second. BUFF has a nasty habit of staying close in games they lose lately.	ATL 23-17 (Buffalo cover)
3	KC @ CIN	CIN -13.5	CIN	CIN	FAVE	YES	CINCY can still mathematically win the #2 seed in the AFC, and I don’t see KC derailing that. First home game since the death of Chris Henry, so they’ll still be some residual emotion and probably a small ceremony. CINCY wins going away here.	CIN 27-10
4	OAK @ CLE	NO LINE	CLE	N/A	N/A	NO	Another mandated NO ACTION pick here with no line available. Even Vegas doesn’t recognize this game as a viable game to watch or even bet on. [I assume the lack of line is because Quinn is out and Anderson is starting, and who knows who is playing QB for OAK] I think CLE wins at home here, but can’t put it against a line.	CLE 16-10
5	SEA @ GB	GB -13.5	GB	GB	FAVE	YES	Another week here with a couple two TD spreads. And I just can’t get off these favorites playing for playoff spots/seeding, and playing bad teams. Seattle got worked by Tampa last week (you read that right). Now they go to a pissed off GB team after getting caught at the end against PITT.	GB 34-13
6	BALT @ PITT	PITT -1.5	BALT	BALT	DOG	NO	This game has NO ACTION written all over it. All over it. Huge playoff implications, hated opponents, good history. This game is the game of the week to watch, but don’t bet on it with actual currency.	BALT 24-21 (Baltimore outright win)
7	HOU @ MIA	MIA -3.5	HOU	HOU	DOG	NO	Well looky here. Two of my Jekyll and Hyde teams are playing each other. With the same records. With the same playoff bubble. NO ACTION. Don’t touch it.	HOU 23-21 (Houston outright win)
8	JAX @ NE	NE -8.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	New England can still mathematically win the #2 seed, and more importantly the East. Jacksonville played their hearts out last week hosting INDY and couldn’t get it done. They’re dead in the hearts I fear. Brady, Moss, and Welker do their best Colt’s WR impressions on this bad secondary.	NE 30-13
9	TB @ NO	NO -13.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	Tampa gets the privilege of playing the pissed off Saints the week after they lost their undefeated season. And a game the Saints still need to secure home field throughout the playoffs. Sorry Bucs.	NO 38-10
10	CAR @ NYG	NYG -6.5	NYG	NYG	FAVE	YES	I’m fairly sure of the NYG win here. I was leaning towards CAR to cover the +6.5 and maybe even leaning towards a NO ACTION pick here (that the no line on OAK/CLE took). After watching what CAR did to MINN’s offensive line, and what the NYG did on Monday Night, I guess I’ll lean to the NYG here to cover the -6.5. I guess. Maybe.	NYG 27-20
11	DET @ SF	SF -10.5	SF	SF	FAVE	YES	I don’t like -10.5 at all here. I don’t. But I see a little bit of SF exercising some knocked-out-of-the-playoffs demons, and I don’t think DET scores more than 6. So the -10.5 becomes less fearful.	SF 20-6
12	STL @ ARI	ARI -13.5	ARI	ARI	FAVE	YES	Arizona can still win the NFC’s #2 seed, so they’ll be playing without the knowledge of MINN’s outcome yet, meaning still playing hard. And they won’t screw around with the Rams like they did the Lions. Zona BIG here.	ARI 30-6
13	NYJ @ INDY	INDY -5.5	INDY	INDY	FAVE	NO	NO ACTION here. The Jets need this game as they’re still mathematically alive in the playoff race. And the Colts locked up everything needed for the playoffs and will probably rest people. That said, I can’t in good conscience, pick against the 14-0 team against a rookie QB. I just can’t. Even though I can see the Jets squeaking one out here, I just can’t pick it. So NO ACTION.	INDY 28-20
14	DEN @ PHI	PHI -7.5	PHI	PHI	FAVE	YES	Philly will crush the Broncos little playoff dreams. Broncos run early had some weaker opponents, they’re finishing against some cream. Sorry Kyle.	PHI 27-16
15	DAL @ WASH	DAL -6.5	DAL	DAL	FAVE	YES	I’m a Redskin fan. And I don’t like what I’m about to type in the box to the right à	DAL 30-10
16	MINN @ CHI	MINN -6.5	MINN	MINN	FAVE	YES	Minnesota can still win the #1 seed, and can also still lose the #2 seed – and they’ll know both NO and ARI’s outcome pregame since they’re playing on MNF. And did I mention CHI is bad. Falling down bad, and getting worse.	MINN 27-13

--only taking 4 dogs this week.

--2 of the NO ACTION picks are dogs, chickening out on BALT and HOU road covers.

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

INDY – jumping back to #1 even if New Orleans came back to beat Dallas. Very impressive offensive show in Jacksonville. Get an interior lineman to step up and stop the run and I can’t argue against it being your ring in the SB.
SD – no one wants to play SD right now. No one. And they have recent history of winning in INDY in the playoffs. Gulp.
PHI – this is hard to type as a Redskin fan. I think Philly is the cream of the NFC right now. Not simply because MINN and NO lost, but the way they’re playing is just better overall right now.
NO – I want to take you out of the top 5 for that showing on Saturday night. Piss poor. But alas, you’ll probably still get to host throughout the playoffs.
MINN/ARIZ – MINN is coming down off the list, ARIZ is jumping back on. If ‘zona’s D makes their usual late season push, I think they could win the NFC if they had home field advantage. MINN needs to regroup, and quickly.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

KC – the Chiefs are still turning in their sleep, screaming nightmarishly, “Cribbs! Harrison! Cribbs! Harrison!”
STL – nice throwback jerseys Sunday. Represented them well. Not.
DET – please don’t draft another WR in the top of the 2010 draft. Draft some O Line.
CHI – yeah, I said it, on this list ahead of many teams with fewer wins. But for the way you’re playing, right this second, you belong on this list.
SEA – see 2.d. CHI description.

I think the Redskins need to draft offensive linemen, and ONLY offensive linemen with every pick in this year’s upcoming draft. Holy crap the Giants utterly destroyed the Redskins on the line on Monday night.
I think I have to admit I was wrong 2 drafts ago about a guy because of his size. This year’s playoff game breaker could be one Deschaun Jackson of the Eagles. No one can cover him one-on-one on any team. So if he’s doubled every play, watch out for the secondary game breaker, Brent Celek?
I think I can admit I got the chills and the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I saw Ocho Cinco catch that 49 yard TD and kneel in prayer for Chris Henry. He didn’t do a river dance, he didn’t propose marriage to a cheerleader. He knelt and looked up at his fallen friend. Then, even in the heat of an NFL game, couldn’t keep the tears back as he embraced teammates. It was raw unadulterated human emotion, and it was gut wrenching to watch.
I think I’m not changing my tune on the Browns’ rebuilding. That Cribbs guy is insane. He needs to touch the ball more per game. They should trade for Mike Vick, draft Tim Tebow, and run Vick, Tebow, and Cribbs in the backfield in a modified wishbone on EVERY play. Call it the Wild-Brown or the Brown-Cat. It would be amazing. Holmgren, look me up. I’ll OC for ya.
I think everyone owes Randy Moss an apology.
I think my non-football thought for the week is: Merry Christmas all! Um, I mean Happy Holidays all!
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to Louis Delmas of the Detroit Lions. Let me not take away from the importance and specialness of your 100-yard interception return for a TD against the Cardinals Sunday. Arizona was up 17-0 and inside your 10 going to make it 24-0. Your pick made it 17-7 and literally turned the game around. All worth a little celebration and a dance maybe, and normally exclusion from the JBA for the week. However, after the initial celebration and dance, you continued it on the sideline, helmet off, Troy Polamalu-like hair flowing, in a choreographed number for about another 30 seconds. Enough already. You’re on the Lions, you suck, you made one good play. This isn’t dancing with the stars.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to Steve Smith, WR Carolina Panthers. He had a good game on Sunday Night Football, helped the Panthers beat the Vikings. There were his usual highlights during the game, to include his usual near-fight shit talking bouts with the secondary of the opponent. (side note: trend here? isn’t this guy always near-fighting and was once suspended for fighting his own teammate?) Anyways, it was his post game interview that landed him here. Interviewing with the NBC on field reporter after the game (he was offensive POG, Peppers was defensive POG), she asked him about the shit-talking-near-fight with the cornerback. His reply, “yeah, you know what I’m saying, I told him, you know what I’m saying, that, you know what I’m saying, he’s #22, you know what I’m saying, this is me, you know what I’m saying, this is #89!” [gorilla pounding his own chest a la Sammy Sosa with the part about “this is #89!”] Ummm, Steve, you uneducated ghetto prick. What the hell, exactly, are you talking about? You know what I’m saying.

Good Bud!

2009-12-22T19:18:00.003-05:00

This was to be a southernpigskin column but I didn't write it fast enough or feel like doing more research, so this is it.

From BCO Pix2

It’s been almost a week since the announcement that Hokie Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster is going to be in Blacksburg for a long time and paid handsomely for it. Bud loves Beamer and Virginia Tech, but he also wants financial security. Seems he has gotten that, rumors of the balloon payment being in the millions if he stays 5 years at Tech. So in other words, the f$u’s, Florida’s, South Carolina’s and Alabama’s of the world don’t come marching into Blacksburg looking for Bud Foster as a coach again (unless of course you want him to interview for the Head Coaching job.) I wasn’t worried that Bud would take a lateral move, unless of course the money being offered him was ridiculous, to my surprise that crazy cash came from the VT athletic department. Kudos to VT Athletic Director Jim Weaver for getting this deal done and very creatively, I might add. No question Frank Beamer was on board with this, things don’t happen around the Hokie football program without his approval. Weaver doesn't have good personal skills but the man is very smart when it comes finances.

From BCO Pix2

As everyone knows, Foster has done more with less as the defensive coordinator at Tech since 1995. Don’t get me wrong plenty of talent, much of it underrated has come into Blacksburg but looking at it realistically it’s not Texas, USC, Florida and Alabama elite material. I must admit, thinking what Foster could do with Gator talent would be pretty awesome, but that’s not going to be in Blacksburg and I’m ok with that. His defenses are about attacking the other team with smaller, faster players, taking away the run and forcing them into either marching up the field 3-4 pass yards at a time or taking a chance and going for the big play. That big play goes the Hokies way as much or more as the opposition. His scheme did a major overhaul between the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Pre-2004 the defensive was heavy man with little zone and was becoming dated and attacked by many teams in 2002 and 2003. Then the switch to a lot of zone (cover 2, 3, 4 and inverted cover 2,) much of it out of the base look put in motion the Virginia Tech Golden era. From 2004 to 2008 Virginia Tech finished in the top 10 in total defense, just missing it this year finishing 13th. That’s why he is coveted, very impressive.

Bud wants to be a Head Coach at a BCS school, but I fear he doesn’t interview well enough or look like the sexy hire for those hiring. If a Head Coaching job comes along, he will take it but at age 50 he’s getting to the awkward age. Their loss, but it’s VT’s gain, maybe in more than one way. While not named Coach in waiting this could very well be the same thing in principal. Frank Beamer is 63 currently and will be 68 when the balloon payment kicks in for Bud Foster, hardly an age where he has to retire but certainly approaching an age where Frank will give it heavy consideration. One would think after paying the well loved Defensive Coordinator millions of dollars to keep him that Virginia Tech would not let him get away. Without saying the words, Bud Foster will likely be Virginia Tech’s next head coach whenever Frank Beamer retires. Blue collar, hard working and intense, that’s Hokie football.

For fun I thought I would do a list of what my all time Bud Foster defense would look like. Some spots are certainly arguable, I too much time considering them.

From BCO Pix2

Stud End – Darryl Tapp (02-05) hardest working Hokie ever? Relentless.
D Tackle – Jonathan Lewis (02-05) quickest DT with size, made a lot of plays his jr/sr yrs
D Tackle – Chad Beasley (97-01) underrated, but a helluva player, almost slid Carlton Powell here.
Rush End – Corey Moore (97-99) consensus AA, Nagursky & Lombardi winner, BAD ASS MOFO, my fave Hokie ever
Whip – Cody Grimm (05-08) smart, instinct made up for lack of size, 2nd fave Hokie ever
Mike – Vince Hall (04-07) smart, instinct made up for lack of speed, 3rd fave Hokie ever
Backer – Xavier Adibi (04-07) most versatile, athletic MLB Bud has ever had, allowed Bud to do lots of cool coverages
Field Corner – Brandon Flowers (04-07) 2x AA, yes he's the best boundary ever, but I think we could move him to field.
Rover – Torrian Gray (92-96) played both safety spots but was a very smart Strong, injuries robbed his NFL career
Free Safety – Willie Pile (99-02) smart, pretty fast and made few mistakes, knew what was going on
Boundary Corner – Jimmy Williams (02-05) most physical cb I've seen, consensus AA

VERY, VERY Late Yahoo Bowl Pickem

2009-12-18T07:29:00.002-05:00

From BCO Pix2

My apologies on the lateness ... I've been lazy.

Join, get friends to join ... whatever!

It's Yahoo, so you need an account ... link to bowl pickem is here.

Your group ID# is 38925
Password is: beer

From BCO Pix2

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 15

2009-12-17T11:51:00.002-05:00

Week 15, NFL season 2009. This is where I do my Stuart Scott imitation (not a lazy eye joke). I mean, BOOOYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. ‘twas a good week in the picks.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

67.63% straight up picks for your office pool (117-56)

55.00% against the spread this year on recommended plays (77-63)

51.85% over-all including the recommended no-actions (98-91)

Thoughts for the past week:

*Last week was good. Missed picks included not guessing correctly whether Houston would be Jekyll or Hyde this week, a 0.5 point miss on the Pats, the Vikings bouncing back stronger than I thought, and the Falcons sans Ryan and Turner hanging around stronger than I thought they could with the Saints.

*I went (14-1) in the straight up picks for your office pool. You won your pool. Arizona/SF was a tough pick, other than that, you won your pool.

*With the books, I got to play the man this week in the relationship. I went (11-4) overall and (9-3) on recommended action picks. Seattle and Cinci failed as dog covers for me, and New England and New Orleans failed as favorite covers for me.

[II] Week 15 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	INDY @ JAX	INDY -2.5	INDY	INDY	FAVE	NO	I’m making this a NO ACTION pick, as I admit to having about equivalent to absolutely zero read on the efforts the Colts are going to put out. Combined with JAX’s efforts as they’re still technically not mathematically out of the playoffs. Going to NO ACTION take INDY to win and cover for one more week I guess.	INDY 24-16
2	DAL @ NO	NO -7.5	NO	NO	FAVE	NO	Vegas puts out the perfect spread here. -7.5. Damn. I think New Orleans wins without problem. They’ll stay undefeated and Dallas can’t win in any months after November ends. But -7.5, that’s perfect. NO ACTION for me, I can see a late Dallas meaningless score to make it 30-23 instead of 30-16. Dallas sucks late in the year, but they typically don’t get blown out.	NO 30-16
3	NE @ BUFF	NE -6.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	New England got back on track last week winning over Carolina. There are some side stories this week in the news surrounding Randy Moss. Blah blah blah, nothing new there. He’s a high maintenance receiver having a bad day. I think Belichick and Brady have this offense ready and well tuned to show everyone they’re fine. They need this game too, it’s not just pride. They need to stay ahead of NYJ and MIA.	NE 30-17
4	ARI @ DET	ARI -11.5	ARI	ARI	FAVE	YES	Man, I don’t like an Arizona team coming off of a bad 7-turnover loss, staying on the road and heading east, to be favored by -11.5. But, alas, they are playing the Lions, eh? Hightower and Wells both have good games as the Cards play big brother this week.	ARI 24-10
5	MIA @ TENN	TENN -3.5	MIA	MIA	DOG	NO	Going to chicken out here, as I would have been putting my money on Chad Henne, and go NO ACTION. I think MIA and their playoff aspirations have them playing well here on the road, and come out with a close win. Contain Johnson at RB and I think the ‘phins can win on the road here.	MIA 24-21 (Miami outright win)
6	CLE @ KC	KC -1.5	CLE	CLE	DOG	YES	This week’s versions of something I won’t watch. Even with the NFL ticket, I’ll be skipping over this game in the game mix. I’d rather watch paint dry. Resurgent Cleveland D will be this week’s beneficiary of Matt Cassell’s misunderstanding of the importance of keeping the ball.	CLE 16-10 (Cleveland outright win)
7	HOU @ STL	HOU -12.5	HOU	HOU	FAVE	YES	It’s well known that Houston is a Jekyll and Hyde team to bet on, and one of my favorite NO ACTION picks. But they are at the Rams, who just got blown out 47-7 and they’re starting a rookie QB who’s college QB coach is…………Ryan Leaf. Yeah, that Ryan Leaf. When you’re done chewing that up and laughing, HOU is an easy pick here, even with the -12.5.	HOU 27-7
8	ATL @ NYJ	NYJ -6.5	NYJ	NYJ	FAVE	YES	When I first saw this line, I circled ATL to lose but cover the +6.5. They played a great game last week at home trying to derail the Saints. But that was in-division, at home. This week, without a 100% Ryan or Turner, they’re heading outside, up north, to a NYJ team with their own playoff aspirations.	NYJ 27-17
9	SF @ PHI	PHI -8.5	PHI	SF	DOG	YES	Philly wins here, no problem at home, but I don’t like the -8.5. Mike Singletary’s guys are also fighting for their playoff lives, and they rarely get blown out. Even with the West à East travel here, +8.5 is a lot of points, and I like the SF defensive line lately. They brought havoc to ‘zona’s backfield last week and will do some of the same to Philly this week.	PHI 27-20 (SF cover)
10	GB @ PITT	PITT -1.5	GB	GB	DOG	YES	Almost a NO ACTION pick for me this week. But I kept action on here with Troy still out for PITT. They’re just a different team without him. Also note that GB might get 7 or 8 sacks this week. PITT is toast, even with a little locker room in-fighting about quitting to boot.	GB 24-20 (GB outright win)
11	CHI @ BALT	BALT -10.5	BALT	BALT	FAVE	YES	I don’t know what’s worse. The fact that the Bears were once a playoff looking team and now they go on the road to an AFC borderline playoff team and become -10.5 point dogs? Or the fact that I didn’t blink at all at the -10.5 line and I’m action here on Baltimore at home?	BALT 27-13
12	OAK @ DEN	DEN -13.5	DEN	DEN	FAVE	YES	This rivalry probably has a better pedigree and history than this year’s version in Denver is going to offer. Taking the snaps for Oakland will be the $32 man Jamarcus Russell, or Charlie Frye. Yeah, from Akron? Brandon Marshall begins his quest to break his own receiving record against a team in full free fall.	DEN 30-10
13	CIN @ SD	SD -6.5	SD	CIN	DOG	NO	Rarely do I view the week’s game schedule and circle a game on first glance with such NO ACTION verve, than for this game. If Dallas doesn’t show up at all in New Orleans, this one here is clearly the game of the week (might be anyways). Looking forward to watching this one to find out who will truly challenge INDY for the AFC crown. I think SD wins at home, but I don’t like the -6.5.	SD 23-20 (Cincinnati cover)
14	TB @ SEA	SEA -6.5	SEA	SEA	FAVE	YES	Seattle at home against lesser to equal opponents is nearly lock-able betting. Tampa Bay is conveniently a lesser opponent.	SEA 20-10
15	MIN @ CAR	MIN -8.5	MIN	MIN	FAVE	YES	I originally thought that -8.5 was a little high considering how well Carolina hung with New England last week. Then I remembered Minnesota is better than New Enland.	MIN 33-17
16	NYG @ WASH	NYG -3.5	NYG	NYG	FAVE	YES	I want to take the ‘skins here. I want to take them to continue their streak of playing well against better opponents. But NYG is thick in the playoff hunt. And, they’ll be playing on Monday night with full knowledge of both Dallas’ and Philly’s outcomes from Sunday. Washington will keep it close for a while and can score (read, NYG can’t tackle), but Eli and the Giants pull away for a > 3.5 point win.	NYG 27-20

--taking 5 dogs this week, nothing shocking.

--2 of the NO ACTION picks are dogs, chickening out on the MIA@TENN and CIN@SD covers

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

NO – Lock up home field throughout the playoffs with a win this week. And, potentially greatly affect the NFC playoff picture if you do knock off Dallas.
INDY – hopping down to #2 with the guarantee that your starters will be resting. Especially in this short week with a Thursday game, you might take a loss at Jacksonville.
SD – watch out. No one wants to play the Chargers right now. They were meddling around 0.500 at the beginning of the season while they figured some stuff out. Consider them done figuring.
MINN –Back into a more solidified spot on the list. Beat a good Cinci team last week and I think are a game away from locking up a bye and home field (except for @ NO for the NFC CG).
PHI – This pick was going to be a split between ARIZ/PHI. As a tossup between the two, who actually battled in last year’s NFC CG. Then Arizona played dropsies with the ball on MNF this week. Philly’s spot it is.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

OAK – You beat the Eagles and Steelers, and get just about blown out by the Redskins? Back to the top of this list for that loss, and mainly because Gradkowski is hurt and that Jamarcus Russell guy might be playing again.
KC – Is there a Lemon Law in the NFL? I mean a Matt Cassell Purchaser Protection Plan?
STL – I mean, you have to at least try.
TB – That momentary blip off my bottom 5 team radar was an oversight.
DET – if Kevin Smith is out at RB, you are in big big big trouble against guaranteed blitz packages. Don’t hurry back Matthew Stafford, it could hurt.

I think how the Colts play out the end of their stellar regular seasons is wrong, for many reasons. First, I’m against resting the players for *this* long. If the starters truly do sit starting this week, they’ll have a near-month of rust to get off in the playoffs. That’s too long. Second, Jacksonville is still technically in the playoff hunt and from the speeches from the Colts coaches and executives, Indy could be seen as handing Jacksonville the win this week. It almost rings of collusion when Jacksonville is getting a freebie while their other playoff contenders might have a real opponent. I guess we’ll see this Thursday night.
I think they’ll be some fun off-season QB decisions for some teams. And I don’t just mean the good draft class (Bradford, McCoy, Tebow, Clausen, Locker?). That there Mike Vick guy might be playing himself into a more lucrative contract outside of Philly. Did you all see that 30-yard-bullet he threw in the first half Sunday night? Best throw he’s made in a long time (no pun, best throw in a long time for obvious reasons).
I think the league’s statistical #1 defense is Green Bay. I think Pittsburgh can’t protect Ben Roethlisberger, nor run the ball effectively. I think these two teams play this week. Rut-roh.
I think there’s a lot of prior-Superbowl winning head coaches out there, currently not coaching. Many of them are in the booth or on camera somewhere still, and can’t get away from the game. There are some bad bad teams in the NFL. Get out your checkbooks, owners.
I think this just sounds funny to say, in a Bad-News-Bears-kind-of-way. The Oakland Raiders, after losing starting quarterback Brad Gradkowski for the season, have to revert back to former starter Jamarcus Russell. In addition, for depth, they have signed former Buffalo quarterback J.P. Losman. Anyone else get the feeling the word “quarterback” here is a term used loosely?
I think I remember previous years it was more like 10 teams in each conference fighting for the last 2 playoff spots. This year, parity schmarity. In each conference, the playoffs are almost set, in week 14.
I think my non-football thought for the week is: Holy Trade Activity in Major League Baseball, Batman.
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to Nnamdi Asomugha and Rocky McIntosh, opposing defensive players in the Oakland/Washington game this past week. In the waning minutes of the 34-13 meaningless game, you both earned your Jerome Bettis stripes. “meaningless game” = it was 34-13, over by score:time remaining ratio, and between two teams mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. On the Redskins’ last possession, Asomugha made a good flip-causing tackle on the ball carrier, only to dance and strut around and let everyone know how good he is. Good enough to keep his team within 21 points is good enough for dancing I guess. On the ensuing drive, the Raider’s last possession, Rocky McIntosh did the same, celebrating a hard tackle at the end of a meaningless drive and meaningless game. Only this time, you were also celebrating a hit that injured the Raider. Class people, have some.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to Roy Williams of the Cowboys. First, you nearly land on the Jerome Bettis Award list almost every week. Stop acting like a fool after each catch, and I hate to break it to you, but every time you miss a ball it isn’t pass interference. Second, Shut Up. If any of you haven’t heard, Roy put the Saints on notice this week. And spouted off a bunch of other [what I deem over-]confident ramblings about beating them this week and then again in the playoffs. For one, you’re on the Cowboys, and it’s December, you ain’t winning. Second, don’t talk trash to the 900-lb gorilla team. Idiot.

How to Pick Your Beer

2009-12-16T21:14:00.003-05:00

From Sloshspot.com here.

Do you ever have trouble deciding what would be the perfect beer to drink? Have you ever wondered why other people drink the beer they do?

Fairly accurate. Enjoy.

By the way, I have a Stone IPA case ordered just for my personal consumption. $45 for 24, damn!

Army-Navy

2009-12-12T12:30:00.003-05:00

From BCO Pix2

Army taking the 16 and to win out right at 2:30pm on cbs.

From BCO Pix2

Big question will Nike give Army cool uni's and never make Navy look like captain Stubing again?

From BCO Pix2

Season Picks

straight up 5-3 to date 70-42 --- 63%
ATS 6-1-1 to date 51-59-2 --- 46%

OUCH

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 14

2009-12-11T14:48:00.001-05:00

Week 14, NFL season 2009. This is my recovery week after getting hammer-dog-punched last week. And it’s my, I’m on work travel so it’s short, week.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

65.19% straight up picks for your office pool (103-55)

53.12% against the spread this year on recommended plays (68-60)

50.00% over-all including the recommended no-actions (87-87)

Thoughts for the past week:

*Last week sucked. None of the big dogs covered. In fact, some of them lost. Even the good teams that beat up on bad teams didn’t cover. Cinci/Detroit for example: Cinci was never in jeopardy of losing this game, Detroit had no chance. But Cinci “only” won by 10.

*I went (9-7) in the straight up picks for your office pool. You got hammered too if you copied me. You lost to that guy in accounting that picked teams based on where he has family living throughout the country. “I have an aunt that lives in Oakland, they can probably beat Pittsburgh”. Last Friday you’re laughing at his idiocy. This Tuesday he’s taking the pool money.

*With the books, I just flat out got Munson-ed. (6-10) against the spread this week. Ouch. Just….ouch. I cherish the (1-3) in NO ACTION picks this week because it brings the week to (5-7) against the spread. I apologize for these numbers. I’m embarrassed.

[II] Week 14 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	PITT @ CLE	PITT -9.5	N/A	N/A	N/A	NO	Work travel caused this missed game pick. And I’m not going to lie to you; I probably would have taken the Steelers to bounce back after losing to Oakland last week. So it’s NO ACTION by luck.	N/A
2	NO @ ATL	NO -10.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	The Saints and coach Sean Payton have already come out and said they’re going to play hard, play the starters, and go for undefeated. This aids my efforts as a game picker guy. I think this game was circled as a stronger test on the road in the division before Matt Ryan and maybe still Michael Turner were banged up.	NO 30-16
3	DEN @ INDY	INDY -6.5	INDY	INDY	FAVE	YES	And immediately on to the anti-Saints, the undefeated until we feel like resting our guys Colts. I think mathematically this is the last or second-to-last week they have to try. I think they can take next week off if the Bengals lose and/or Chargers lose this week. Note this pick is based on my thinking that the Colts are playing for real for real.	INDY 30-20
4	SEA @ HOU	HOU -6.5	HOU	SEA	DOG	YES	If I had gotten in my PITT/CLEV pick in, in time, this probably would have been my 4^th NO ACTION pick for the week. Two reasons, [1] HOU and JAX are my NO ACTION kings anyways, [2] SEA on the road is a crapshoot too. I’m seeing a late score by Seattle for a backdoor cover.	HOU 23-20 (Seattle cover)
5	CAR @ NE	NE -13.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	-13.5 for a team coming off two losses? I mean, the Patriots win here no problem, but -13.5? I guess heading home after those losses and the other team’s QB is out, I can’t argue with Vegas.	NE 38-16
6	BUF @ KC	PICK’EM	BUF	BUF	DOG	YES	Wait, this is a real NFL game? It will be on TV? Even Vegas took the game off and just said F*ck It, pick’em.	BUF 14-10
7	DET @ BALT	BALT -13.5	BALT	BALT	FAVE	YES	Baltimore will have many points more than Detroit.	BALT 33-10
8	CIN @ MINN	MINN -6.5	MINN	CIN	DOG	NO	I’m a chicken, NO ACTION. Game of the week, with a lot of playoff implications in both conferences. Cinci is approaching securing 2^nd place in the conference behind INDY for home games in January. Minnesota is coming off a loss at Arizona and needs this win to get confidence back and to add another nail in the GB coffin.	MINN 27-23 (Cincinnati cover)
9	NYJ @ TB	NYJ -2.5	NYJ	NYJ	FAVE	YES	I wish I was still checking lines on Tuesday morning’s and throwing large sums of money on lines that open wrong. This line opened at TB -3. The money has moved it to NYJ -2.5. Wow. Jets win easily here, maintaining their playoff hopes.	NYJ 24-13
10	STL @ TENN	TENN -12.5	TENN	TENN	FAVE	YES	Don’t know what to think of this game. I think TENN has a little “it’s just the Rams” hangover, as well as some let down since their little win streak is over. But, I have to say, it’s just the Rams.	TENN 27-10
11	MIA @ JAX	JAX -2.5	MIA	MIA	DOG	NO	Why can’t JAX and HOU play each other every week in an unpickable game? Oh, this is close enough. NO ACTION for me. I think the ‘phins on the road here, as they still have playoff dreams too. And they’re getting 2.5 points.	MIA 20-16 (Miami outright win)
12	GB @ CHI	GB -3.5	GB	GB	FAVE	YES	GB got a big win on MNF, following MINNY’s loss last week. This is a big game for GB’s season. Especially if this is played with the knowledge of a MINNY slip up to CINCI. Oh, and Jay Cutler is Chicago’s QB.	GB 24-16
13	WASH @ OAK	WASH -0.5	WASH	WASH	FAVE	YES	The well played 57 minutes that the Redskins had against Dallas, Philadelphia, and New Orleans were great, but they are not as important to Jim Zorn’s career as this game. You have to go win on the road against a team you can beat. Career game for Zorn this week, seriously	WASH 17-13
14	SD @ DAL	DAL -2.5	SD	SD	DOG	NO	It’s December. Means two things outside of holiday stuff. San Diego is winning. Dallas is losing. Going NO ACTION here because I’m hoping it’s not my heart wanting Dallas to lose more than my head says they will.	SD 27-23 (SD outright win)
15	PHI @ NYG	NYG -1.5	PHI	PHI	DOG	YES	It was this game or SD/DAL getting a NO ACTION pick. So this one is action on Philly to take it on the road. NYG played well last week and can really shake up the division with a win. But, I see Philly trying to pull away here and run with the division. Especially if DAL falls to SD.	PHI 27-23 (Philly outright win)
16	ARI @ SF	ARI -3.5	ARI	SF	DOG	YES	Another great primetime game. I think an Arizona win here closes that divisional race. They should win, and their now annual find-a-defense-in December train should win. I’m taking SF to cover as it’s a cold/windy low scoring affair.	ARI 20-17 (SF cover)

--holy crap I’m taking 7 dogs [and CLE already won as one]. Parity schmarity?

--and the other 3 remaining NO ACTION games are dogs too.

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

INDY – Enough losing into the 4^th quarter. Ended Vince Young’s little comeback tour this past week. Look to me to be the strongest team right now.
NO – Only #2 here because you’re still technically undefeated. But it took a gift wrap from the Deadskins to make it happen.
CINCI – List shake-up. Not a wholly impressive win over lowly Detroit this past week, but you’ve got a helluva easy schedule remaining and look to be sitting pretty for the other AFC bye in the playoffs.
SD – Like I said last week, peaked way earlier this year than normal. Might have a dog fight on your hands with Denver, but I think you prevail.
ARIZ/MINN – List shake-up again. Just like last year, Arizona peaks at the end of the season when they find that other unit, the “defense”. Minnesota’s effort worried me here. Arizona punched them in the mouth and Minnesota responded like a submissive puppy.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

CLEV – Brady Quinn showed flashes of brilliance against the 4^th string SD defense who went into prevent-mode in the middle of the 3^rd quarter.
KC – No offensive identity. Looked like a team who hadn’t practiced together before.
STL – Most pissed off man in America, Steven Jackson. Draft him some blockers.
WASH – If these games were 57 minutes long instead of 60, you’re going to the playoffs.
DET – you’ve got to protect Matthew Stafford better or you’ll living on this list for years to come.

I think I watched the single worst officiated game I’ve ever watched on Monday night. It seemed to me the referees were determined to get on TV. They were calling pass interference penalties for nothing. I think there were literally seven or eight called for the game. That’s just ridiculous.
I think I admit I’m rooting for the Colts and Saints to make the Super Bowl, undefeated vs. undefeated. Then we can stop hearing year and year about Mercury Morris and the Dolphins keeping their champagne on ice. I’m not a Dolphin hater per se; I’m just tired of hearing about the infamous champagne. I mean, it can’t be that good of champagne anyways, seeing Mercury on the Just For Men commercials and all.
I think Jon Gruden is the best football commentator right now. ESPN did well to lock him up and keep him off the sidelines for a few more years.
I think if I wasn’t in Canada this week I could have made it to the Redskin’s tryout to be their kicker. I think I could make a 23 yarder.
I think I know I’m biased, but that was awesome to see this past week what the Eagles did [and let Vick do] at Atlanta. Good for Michael and good for the Eagles to help it along. Michael probably needed a good game and a hug after all this.
I think my write up this week is lacking, and I’m ok with it. I have spent the week outside of Toronto on a job site. It’s cold. -8 Celsius cold. And it’s snowing, sideways. And my hotel has intermittent interwebs. I’m going to have another Molsen before bed and this writeup is short, eh?
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to Leron Landry of the Redskins. You were having a pretty good game bottling up the Saints. I probably wouldn’t have considered you for the JBAward this week, but the repetitive celebrations you took on yourself just seemed kind of ironic as Robert Meacham ran behind you for the game tying score in the 4^th quarter. Save all the celebrating for when you have more than 3 wins.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to the media. Tiger Woods y’all, it’s all good y’all. Really though, tired of hearing about it. Shut up.

CFB Odds n Ends

2009-12-08T18:08:00.006-05:00

My Heisman Top 3

From BCO Pix2

Ndamukong Suh - most dominant non Roid aided {cough} Steve Emtman {cough} DL, I have seen in college.
Toby Gerhart - best running back in college this year.
Golden Tate - dominant, dominant wr, had he been on Tejas or UF he'd easily be invited to NYC

My Top 8

From BCO Pix2

bammer - going to rape Tejas and break the horn off in their arse
TCU - the best, most complete team in Tejas
Florida - good team but flawed and just got railroaded, VT style by bammer
Tejas - soft D, no run game, not that good
Nati - awful D, very good O, may be better than Tejas. Losing Kelly, ruh-roh.
Boise State - 1 game schedule at home. Really how good are they?
Oregon - improved a lot on O, D got worse, much worse.
GiT - Needed a number 8, either them Iowa or tOSU, none were sexy.

Season End ACC Coaches Power Ranking

From BCO Pix2

where were they at the mid season point? here.

Frank Spaziani - b.c., shitty qb situation, lost a bunch of D stars ... kept winning, bowl bound.
Paul Johnson - GiT, His O destroyed about everyone this season. D needs to catchup to be a MNC contender
Frank Beamer - VT, A really tough sched with 1 mediocre UNC loss, keeping the Hokies out the BCS
Randy Shannon - da U, Flawed team, but he has them going the right way, next year ... look out.
Dabo Swinney - Klempsum, changed the culture, mentally tougher he did well, now the next step.
David Cutcliffe - dook, turning the m around, losing some valuable sr's, will they be better next year?
Butch Davis - UNC, amazing D, inconsistent but usually shitty O
Jim Grobe - WF, underachieved and now losing the best qb Wake has ever seen. Slipping?
Tom O'Brien - NCState, I know they had injuries and the O was really good but damn!
Ralph Friedgen - dead man walking, large buyout keeps him around 1 more year.
Bobby Bowden - f$u, 2nd most wins ever and you are forced out, not good. he clearly lost it.
Al Groh - uva, never had it.

ACC Bowl Matchups

From BCO Pix2

Bowl Game		Date/Time	Site	Matchup *selection indicated is AFTER BCS	TV
	Meineke Car Care North Carolina vs. Pittsburgh	Saturday, Dec. 26 4:30 p.m.	Bank of America Stadium Charlotte, N.C.	ACC vs. Big East	ESPN
	Emerald Boston College vs. USC	Saturday, Dec. 26 8 p.m.	AT&T Park, San Francisco, Calif.	ACC vs. Pac-10	ESPN
	Gaylord Hotels Music City Clemson vs. Kentucky	Sunday, Dec. 27 8:30 p.m.	LP Field Nashville, Tenn.	ACC vs. SEC	ESPN
	Champs Sports Miami vs. Wisconsin	Tuesday, Dec. 29 8 p.m.	Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium Orlando, Fla.	ACC vs. Big Ten	ESPN
	Chick-fil-A Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee	Thursday, Dec. 31 7:30 p.m.	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Ga.	ACC vs. SEC	ESPN
	Konica Minolta Gator Florida State vs. West Virginia	Friday, Jan. 1 1 p.m.	Jacksonville Municipal Stadium Jacksonville, Fla.	ACC vs. Big East/ Notre Dame/Big 12	CBS
THE ACC IN THE BCS
	FedEx Orange Georgia Tech vs. Iowa	Tuesday, Jan. 5 8 p.m.	Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.	ACC Champion vs. BCS At-Large	FO

a cut n paste from theacc.com

At first glance I think the ACC will go 3-4 in the bowl season, just sucking the life outta the conference and the next tv contract some more. da U, Clemson and GiT will represent, everyone else ... no.

Monte Kiffin vs Bryan Stinespring ... really? However, I do want to see what the ass clown Lane has to say next (more good work by LSUfreek.)

From BCO Pix2

Will think more about it later.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 13

2009-12-03T16:56:00.004-05:00

Week 13, NFL season 2009. Are we enjoying this football season? I am enjoying my weekends more than ever, but I’m not that excited any more all week. I work with too many old dudes who don’t wanna talk (argue) football.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

66.20% straight up picks for your office pool (94-48)

54.31% against the spread this year on recommended plays (63-53)

51.27% over-all including the recommended no-actions (81-77)

Thoughts for the past week:

*Another week where mid-day Sunday I felt better about my picks than they ended up. First, I can’t do math and thought all four day weekend that I covered with the OAK pick at DAL, then when I looked at it on Monday I realized DAL covered….. Then TENN went on that wacky 99 yard drive to screw me on my ZONA pick. CINCI laid an egg at home to CLEV. And Jake Delhomme out JayCutlered Mark Sanchez to screw me there.

*I went (11-5) in the straight up picks for your office pool. Might have kept you in the running. I only regret taking NE on the road at NO. Wow New Orleans, just wow.

*With the books, I stayed ok. Boo. Went (8-8) overall but (7-5) against the spread on the recommended picks. That’s (1-3) in NO ACTION plays. Which is how it should be, knowing which games to avoid.

Season 2009, Trains I’m on:

*Peyton Manning

*Drew Brees

*Brett Favre

[no wonder the league’s 3 best teams have these three guys slinging the ball]

Season 2009, Trains I’m not on:

*Jake Delhomme (you……………..suck)

*Jay Cutler (try your team’s receivers once, just once)

Season 2009, Crow to eat:

*Michael Crabtree

*Larry Johnson, 100+ yards in Cinci already?

[II] Week 13 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	NYJ @ BUF	NYJ -2.5	NYJ	NYJ	FAVE	YES	I’m liking Thursday night NFL lately…..but this week has the PAC10 Championship Oregon v Oregon State on Thursday. Needless to say Jets/Bills is not enough to get me off the college game. Resurgent Bills under Fitzpatrick not enough to overtake a Jets team with still active playoff aspirations.	NYJ 24-17
2	STL @ CHI	CHI -8.5	CHI	CHI	FAVE	YES	I can’t believe I’m taking Jay Cutler and his band of pissed off WR’s by 8.5. But I just don’t see Kyle Boller rolling into town with the nearly winless Rams and winning on the road outdoors as a dome team. I expect Olsen and Knox to have big days as Jay tries to only throw to Bears.	CHI 23-6
3	TB @ CAR	CAR -6.5	TB	TB	DOG	YES	I actually waited for this line until post time. I expected it to fluctuate downward with the news that Jake Delhomme is out. In which case I was contemplating taking the Panthers at home (well, their D at home). But it stayed up at near a TD. I’m going to try the Bucs on the road here against CAR and a back-up QB.	TB 16-13 (TB outright win)
4	HOU @ JAX	JAX -1.5	HOU	HOU	DOG	NO	I flipped the coin on this game about 12 times. Both of these teams are really Jekyll and Hyde all year. If Houston could play 2 straight games or even 4 straight quarters, they’d be pushing INDY for the division. Jacksonville is nearly as dynamic. Mathematically, practically speaking, the winner of this game is still in the wildcard hunt and the loser is out. So neither team should give a lackluster effort. Taking HOU on the road here in a NO ACTION pick. Tough game.	HOU 24-17 (Houston outright win)
5	DEN @ KC	DEN -4.5	DEN	DEN	FAVE	YES	Denver was the toast of the NFL at (6-0) under Kyle Orton and Josh McDaniel. Then, reality struck and the Broncos didn’t look that good. Their D wasn’t as dominant and they were falling. Last week they handled the NYG at home and look to stay back on track at KC this week. KC got slaughtered by SD last week and Matt Cassell just isn’t the same without Mr. Belichick.	DEN 23-16
6	TENN @ INDY	INDY -6.5	INDY	INDY	FAVE	YES	All week I’ve been thinking about this game. Can TENN stay on this playoff run win streak? Is VY for real? What’s with INDY losing every game into the 4^th quarter and then deciding to turn it on and win? Will Coach Fisher wear a Peyton jersey to the game? And all week I’ve been telling myself I think INDY wins but TENN keeps it close and probably covers the -6.5. Then I started typing up this document. INDY will be fine.	INDY 30-17
7	PHI @ ATL	PHI -5.5	PHI	PHI	FAVE	YES	Game will be overshadowed by MVick’s return to ATL. I’m anxious to hear the welcoming committee of thousands at the game. Oh, yeah, and there’s a game going on with big playoff implications. Game probably looked a lot better on paper before Matt Ryan hurt his foot and will be out. I think I would’ve taken Philly on the road here, even prior to the knowledge of Ryan’s injury. Now I take them to cover -5.5 on the road no problem.	PHI 27-19
8	NO @ WASH	NO -9.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	I was talking with a friend all week about this game. We were talking about how the Saints blew out NE at home. And they’ve been blowing everyone out. And they haven’t really had a letdown game yet this year. And how WASH hangs tighter with everyone they’re not supposed to. And how WASH was gonna cover this game as NO had their “letdown” game but still won. We were talking all week about taking WASH plus the +14.5 they were gonna get. Then it came out at NO -9.5. Dammit.	NO 31-20
9	OAK @ PITT	PITT -14.5	PITT	PITT	FAVE	YES	Pittsburgh wins this game if you or I are their QB, so Dixon or Big Ben will be fine. I don’t like the -14.5 but I have a nasty feeling the Steelers will be out to prove to the world that everything is fine in that locker room after concussion-gate. To cover the -14.5, I basically feel PITT’s O needs to score 20.5 points, because OAK will be lucky to have 6 of their own.	PITT 24-6
10	DET @ CIN	CIN -12.5	CIN	CIN	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Another AFC North squad at home against a horrible opponent, favored by ~2 TD’s. Another game HJB takes the favorite. All the numbers and spread sheets I run for NFL games/picks (you should see them, I’m a nerd), say that CINCI isn’t that overwhelming of a home favorite here. But, they do scream that DET is that much of a road dog this year. Alas….	CIN 27-9
11	SD @ CLEV	SD -12.5	SD	SD	FAVE	YES	One of my top 5 teams against one of my bottom 5 teams. Hm? This would have been my lock matchup over CINCI if SD was at home here. But I’ve got to think the trip East will hurt the Chargers a little bit right? Rivers and LT continue their onslaught on O, and the SD D seems to be back. Brady Quinn and company don’t scare me much against that -12.5.	SD 27-10
12	DAL @ NYG	DAL -2.5	NYG	NYG	DOG	NO	I’m chickening out to make this game a NO ACTION pick. Everything about this game says Dallas, except my gut. Tom Coughlin will have his guys ready, and Giants’ stadium isn’t exactly an easy place to play for NFC East opponents. I’ve just got a feeling about telling the Giants a division foe will come to their house and be favored.	NYG 24-21 (New York outright win)
13	SF @ SEA	SEA -1.5	SF	SF	DOG	NO	Seattle always wins at home. Except against San Fran, who has so little travel and no time zone switch I guess it just doesn’t matter as much. The numbers still want to favor SEA at home here, but I’m going gut again and making this dog pick a NO ACTION pick as well. San Fran will control with a short passing game and will try to bottle up the new guy Forsett.	SF 23-17 (San Fran outright win)
14	MINN @ ARI	MINN -5.5	MINN	MINN	FAVE	NO	I’m confused by this line. The numbers say MINN by 7. But the line opened and hovered around MINN by 4 all week. Then once the news become more “official” that Warner was to play for ZONA, the line leveled back to MINN -5.5. Both of those movements in the sequence are backwards to what I would think. Was the money in Vegas holding off for the line? Were the casinos assuming Warner out? It’s just backwards so I don’t like the line. Someone out there knows something I don’t. I think MINN covers but I don’t like this game, NO ACTION.	MINN 30-20
15	NE @ MIA	NE -3.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	I have 5 words for your betting advice. These 5 words are all you have to know on where to put your money this week. “THE PATRIOTS LOST LAST WEEK.”	NE 30-17
16	BALT @ GB	GB -3.5	BALT	BALT	DOG	YES	Green Bay has improved their record recently by protecting Aaron Rodgers. Now their left tackle is hurt again and they are welcoming the Baltimore Raven D into town. This game has big playoff implications for both teams. I see a low scoring affair here with the defenses having better nights than the offenses. I definitely like BALT to cover here with the +3.5, but I’m also taking them to win.	BALT 27-24 (Baltimore outright win)

--only taking 5 dogs this week

--and 3 of the 4 recommended NO-ACTION games are dogs

--maybe funny to only me, but all 5 dogs I’m taking this week, I’m not just taking them to cover, but to outright win. That would be odd if it happens to all 5.

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

MINN/INDY/NO – Pick one. Bet on them to win. Win money. Rinse, repeat.
See (a.)
See (a.)
CINCI – In control of the AFC North after going (6-0) in division. Would have to fall flat on your face to lose a playoff bye, let alone a divisional home game.
SD – Welcome to the top 5. Peaked way earlier this year than normal. Normally you make a late-save-Norv’s-job run but miss the playoffs. This year you’re in control of your own destiny.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

CLEV – I don’t know what to say here. You’re bad. And I don’t see that changing against SD this week.
KC – Matt Cassell treated the ball like it had herpes last week. Ummm, Matt, you want to hold onto that thing a little better.
CHI – Until Jay Cutler gets something fixed in the head, his strong arm is a useless appendage.
STL – Even as I wanted to take you off this list, there’s that guy again, Kyle Boller.
OAK – Bruce Gradkowski does not remove you from consideration on this list.

I think I have the coolest wife. I was watching New England at New Orleans with her this past Monday night. And in the second half, when New Orleans went on that scoring binge of 3 (4?) straight scoring drives of less than 90 seconds, in the 3^rd quarter. She looked at me shaking her head at Drew Brees’ work and said only two words, “at will”.
I think my wife is right. When the Saints are on, they’re sick. I cannot wait for MINN vs NO this January. Guaranteed to be in a dome. The new greatest show(s) on turf in a battle royale.
I think I’ve said it before, but I have to reiterate. How bad is the normal QB play in the NFL nowadays??!?!?!? How can there not be 32 good QB candidates on the earth? These guys are millionaires: Brady Quinn/Derek Anderson, Jamarcus Russell/Bruce Gradkowski, Jake Delhomme, Jay Cutler, Mark Sanchez, Kyle Boller…….shall I go on?
I think to add to my point in #5, there’s an interesting read on ESPN[dot]come right now. Written by the missing link from humans to aliens himself, John Clayton. Meep meep. You can’t tell me he doesn’t remind you of the alien that Bugs Bunny always fought. Meep meep. Anyways, he broke down “good” and “bad” QB’s in the NFL. “Good” starting QB’s are like 70% winners [they play each other sometimes], and those same “good” QB’s are 80% winners when they play against “bad” QB’s. Staggering numbers. I mean, there’s NO parity. Look at the records of Manning/Favre/Brees against say Quinn/Boller/Russell. Not hard science.
I think I’m really truly torn on the NFL’s concussion issue(s) right now. Football is a man’s sport, it’s violent, they don’t hide this. Every play, every player is WILLINGLY risking life and limb. And they make millions and MILLIONS of dollars to play a GAME. Are they “our” pawns enough that we could demand more of them? Is the huge gorilla in the corner the fact that Hines Ward was right about Ben Roethlisberger? No one wants to talk about it, because it’s the current hot issue, and perhaps Hines should have never gone public with it, but was he right? Did Ben pansy out of the biggest game of the PITT season so far under a condition that *normally* NFL players have played with, to include Ben himself in the past.
I think this week’s non-NFL note has to be about Tiger Woods. OMGWTFBBQ Tiger? I mean, you’ve got to hide that crap better than that. I mean. Umm, you’re a horrible guy. I will say, in the most respectable way possible: I don’t understand why these young stud athletes, with millions of dollars and fame and fortune, constantly on the road, get married so young. I’m not suggesting they should all be Wilt Chamberlain and all, but I don’t get why they marry so young in their situations.
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to Kelley Washington of the Baltimore Ravens. In last Sunday’s game against the Steelers, you had a 15-yard catch for a first down on Baltimore’s first drive (your only catch on the night). Note, you have 27 catches all year, roughly 2 Wes Welker games’ worth. On this 15 yard catch for a first down, one would have thought you just made Santonio Holmes’ Super Bowl winning catch based on your celebration. Actually, I think Santonio celebrated less in the Super Bowl. Get back to the huddle and act like an adult. Maybe they’ll throw you the ball more.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to Hines Ward. Wait, wait, wait, now I know this differs from my sentiment in #6 above. I’m not going to wax poetic anymore on what I think about NFL players playing with concussions. But I will say to Mr. Ward. Shut the hell up (to reporters). There are some things better left unsaid (to reporters). If you need to have a team meeting, or a sit-down with Big Ben, do so. But shut up when you’re dealing with the media frenzy that is 2009 all-access-reporting-on-everything.

College Football TV Viewing Guide Week 14 (Mega- Conference Wheaties Edition)

2009-12-02T12:10:00.015-05:00

The regular season ends for all but the service academies this weekend. Soak it in, cause only 35 games left after Saturday. The holiday season of college football is almost over. :(

Unfortunately, my Hokies are off this week, shut out of the ACCCG and trips to Mons Venus by a couple below avg Bud Foster days vs GiT and UNC. The good news, almost every game this week is Cleveland Steamer hot! Easily on paper the best batch of games in a somewhat disappointing season of good games. Like the grand finale of a fireworks show, the CFB gods are letting us go out with the biggest bang.

From BCO Pix2

It really could not have worked out better, not only do we have the $EC, ACC and B12 Championship games but the Pac10 and Big East are set with games where winner takes all (trip to a BCS game.) The best Thursday night game of the year, a game that really matters between 2 teams, Oregon State and Oregon ... that hate each other ... the Civil War.

From BCO Pix2

I'd be remiss if I did not mention the coaching drain on cfb. No, not because good coaches are leaving, but characters that I love to ridicule are leaving me with just Kiffin, Wanny (who I can't touch this year) Stewy and the Zooker. Gone are Ole Dadgumit Bobby B, Mark Mangino, Charlie Weis and algroh. Couple that with loss of UT's Phat Fil last year and my targets for personal scorn are drying up.

Bobby B, finally got scalped this week, should have happened 2 years ago. They tried to guide him out, but he wouldn't leave. In essence he was let go, he probably fought it some, but guessing he reflected some and realized ... that he sucks now. He HAD an amazing run, Dadgumit made f$u what it was (14 straight top 5 finishes with superior athletes) and now currently is (mediocre trash with bad assistant coaches and overhyped uncontrolled Florida talent.)

Without him I am lost on how to write about the noles. My parting shot that I have verbally, if never written about Dadgumit won't be good, if you are a fan. I've always thought him to be a hide behind the Bible hypocrite who somehow fooled a bunch of people and all of the media with his southern charm and phony jokes. His 90's f$u teams had more boys will be boys criminals than Florida and Miami combined and it wasn't close, somehow he got by unscathed. If you were a star you got the Warrick or Jano treatment if you weren't you got the Coles treatment. I was not fooled, that said I will miss him cause I now fear f$u might actually be good again. The noles are down 3 head coaches, Dadgumit, the Associate HC Chuck the Chest and Asst HC Mickey Andrews (with his very outdated schemes) and only have 1 man to guide them in Jimbo ... they might go places. Let's hope not.

Dadgumit is an inspiration to all, see this youtube video to get fired up and kick some ass, Seabass!I think the f$u just did an execution on Tuesday!

Last week's picks and to date tally:
straight up 6-2 to date 65-39 --- 63%
against the spread 2-6 to date 45-58-1 --- 44%

If I gambled on my picks thru the season I would have a broken arm, neck in a brace and missing the finger between the middle and pinky on my left hand (which would make me a natural for the shocker.)

The Games and Picks Thursday, December 3rd Defacto Pac10-CG
16theotherotherOSU (8-3) [+10] at 7Oregon (9-2) 9:00 pm espn
The Civil War is must see tv, my pick to be the 2nd best game behind the $ECCG. Everyone knows how much better the Ducks are now than they were vs Boise State in game one, but the same can be said for the Beavers. This shouldn't be a layup game. Speedy play makers all over the place, Rodgers, James, Rodgers, Masoli, etc can all house it at any time. The anti-$EC game, points and more points. Stay up late for it. These guys don't like each other and with the added gasoline called winner to the Rose Bowl to this game and it's gonna be testy!

From BCO Pix2

Saturday, December 5th Defacto Big East-CG
5'nati (11-0) at 15 P.I.T.T. (9-2) [+1] noon abc
For a few weeks I have thought the Panthers would beat the Bearcats, even with Wanny as coach? After the loss to the neers and their stock slipping a bit, am I still confident? No, but the game is at home, they are way more physical, the ND/Kelly rumors and the 'nati D being exposed weekly is giving me confidence. Kelly is a top 10 coach whose star is rising. Someone be it ND or another is going to pay him a lot and very soon. I can't joke Wanny this year, his team has played very well. For the sake of my soul, I want 1 more good game out of his crew.

From BCO Pix2

23w-Fn-vu (8-3) [-2] at RUTSgers (8-3) noon espn
The slowly declining neers are trying for a 10 win season after finally getting Stewy's statement win (the OU Fiesta bowl game was more DickRod's scheme than him.) First go into the always friendly shithole called Piscataway, NJ and win then win the bowl game against possibly former neer coach and current huckster Ole Dadgumit in the Gator Bowl. Part of me wants them to burn like their couches, but the other part wants me to win at least this week giving Stewy more ammo to be their coach for algroh like long time. RUTSgers is a dog team on the road, but fairly stout at home. Should be a close game.

C-USA-CG
ECU (8-4) vs 21Houston (10-2) [-1] noon espn2
Making this simple. The Pirates avg O vs Cougars below avg D ... 31 pts. Houston's very good O vs ECU's above avg D ... 35 pts. Hope I am wrong.

From BCO Pix2

'zona (7-4) [+7.5] at 18SoCal (8-3) 3:30 pm abc
The battle of Pac10 leftovers ... probably sucks for Trojan fans to hear that but it is the truth. Zona can score and will on SoCal but likely not enough. I just hope we are lucky enough to see a terse Stoops/Carroll handshake at midfield like the ones he got from Slick Rick and Hardballs. The Pac10 needs more bad blood and it seems like it's going that way. The other schools are tired of taking Pete's shit and that's a good thing. Way to have some backbone you left coast stoners!

$EC-CG
2bammer (12-0) [+5.5] vs. 1UF (12-0) 4:00 pm cbs
The GoY, it's the finals played in the semifinals ... otherwise known as the $EC Championship Game. For most of the year, I thought bammer was better, then the Tide turned and Florida was better only to find their best pass rusher (they rarely blitz) is out the game with a boys will be boys moment ... a DUI. All things being relatively equal, give me the team with the best qb and leader. Damn, it's not close in that regard. That tells me Saban will have to scheme his ass off vs the Gators and hope that Tebow doesn't beat them like he did last year. This game could end up being a very ugly, defensive struggle like many $EC games tend to be, but I don't want to miss a minute of it.

From BCO Pix2

ACC-CG
Klempsum (8-4) vs. 10GiT (10-2) [-1] 8:00 pm espn
This game is for the $EC 7th place. No effin' luster now that the Gamecocks and dawgs smacked around my conference's division winners. Pretty embarrassing ... again. An early season rematch where GiT got up a few scores early to be shut down the 2nd half as Dabo Swinney's Tigers should something Tommy Bowden's never did ... fight, toughness and never give up. They will use that game as a confidence booster for this game. On the other side CoY PJ will get his boys a choppin' again this week and the offense will rebound. I think GiT wins, better offense, better coach and more battle tested coming from the far superior division. The question to me is ... will it be close? It's about the D, the ugga game version or the Hokie game version (really effin nice that they saved their only good D all season for the Hokies!) If Spiller were a true running back and not Reggie Bush lite, I could think about picking Klempsum more.

Big XII-CG
22Nebraska (9-3) [+13.5] vs. 3Tejas (12-0) 8:00 pm abc
Take a look at this Tebow homer blog about the Tebow vs McCoy comparison here. Ignore the stuff about Tebow, focus on what is important. McCoy hasn't played a top 20 D & only 2 top 40 ones. The Huskers are almost elite and are a top 10 D. Make no mistake about it, they will slow down the Horns and likely a lot. Pelini knows how to defend the spread pretty well and the rb's are only slightly above avg for Tejas. Beat the shit out of Shipley and make the other wr's beat them. After watching aTm slice thru what was supposedly a good Tejas D gives me hope that the Huskers can score too, not a lot but enough. In the end, it's just hope though, as I think it will be 28-21 or something like that for the Horns. I want them to lose, I think TCU is the better team.

From BCO Pix2

Gonna be busy myself Saturday night as the Holiday party season starts but I won't start attending til after 7:30 when the most important game is still on. Very amped for the Civil War and the Battle for the Souf! Happy viewing, the only thing left is Army/Navy, 25 shitty bowl games and 9 good bowl matchups!

Fantasy Football - Collegiate Style

2009-11-29T22:02:00.004-05:00

From BCO Pix2

A few ACC Bloggers got together (I missed the draft, guessing others did too and rarely touched their teams after) and had a $EC/ACC college fantasy football season. Quote ...

Champion

Nov. 29, 2009

Gettin' Better 1 Beer @ a Time won the ACC Bloggers Championship by a score of 147 to 91 over Open Fridge. Ryan Williams led the team in scoring in the championship round and he also led the team in scoring for the season. Congrats once again to Gettin' Better 1 Beer @ a Time on a terrific College Fantasy Football Season. Hope to see you all next year!

The guys who made it happen on my team ...
3rd best QB, Ryan Mallet (Ark-&-ass)
1st & 5th best RB's Ryan Williams and Montel Harris (b.c.)
2nd, 6th & 8th best WR's Donovan Varner (doook,) Darvin Adams (Auburn,) & Greg Childs (Ark-&-ass.)
TE & K were revolving
UNC and Klempsum carried my D

I thank them all, specially the best RB in the league ... RMFW.

From BCO Pix2

I'll be back ready to take all comers and I might make the draft this year. Oh, by the way Mallet and Williams were picked up on waivers.

CHECKMATE

2009-11-28T23:32:00.002-05:00

From BCO Pix2

I will miss algroh, probably heard he read a poem at his after game press conference, I think it went like this ...

I get up, and nothing gets me down.
You got it tough. I've seen the toughest around.
And I know, baby, just how you feel.
You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real
Oh can't you see me standing here,
I've got my back against the record machine
I ain't the worst that you've seen.
Oh can't you see what I mean ?
Might as well jump. Jump !
Might as well jump.
Go ahead, jump. Jump !
Go ahead, jump.

Sometimes, you just gotta stick your face in the fan.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 12

2009-11-25T11:08:00.002-05:00

Week 12, NFL season 2009. Quick write up this week on the shortened week for Turkey Day. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

69.08% straight up picks for your office pool (105-47)

53.45% against the spread this year on recommended plays (62-54)

52.23% over-all including the recommended no-actions (82-75)

*Went (12-4) straight up for your office pool. This might’ve won you your week, as I predict just about everyone missed Cincinnati at Oakland and Pittsburgh at Kansas City – and Carolina/Miami and Houston/Tennessee were coin flips where both road teams won.

*Again, in watching the games on Sunday, man did I think I had a great day brewing against the spread. I had a great day picking the favorites as straight up winners, but dogs to cover, in many of the close games of the day. But I ended up (9-6) against the spread and (6-6) if you take out my NO ACTION games. Ouch. (3-0) in those. Note the SD/DEN game isn’t in the calcs, as there was no line. And I got that one right, dammit.

*I got beat up by those same CINCI, PITT, CAR, and HOU games, and of course the egg the Cowboys laid. Only other spread game I lost is I thought the Vikes were due for a letdown (win but not cover) against the Seahawks. Apparently Matt Hasselbeck had other plans.

[II] Week 12 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	GB @ DET	GB -5.5	GB	GB	FAVE	YES	Green Bay figured out how to keep Aaron Rodgers off his arse, and they win. Hmm? Detroit played their hearts, knees, and shoulders out to beat the Browns last week and now will pay for it on the short week to prepare and rest up. Green Bay rolls here and gets to eat turkey happy.	GB 24-10
2	OAK @ DAL	DAL -14.5	DAL	OAK	DOG	YES	Dallas wins at home here. But I don’t like -14.5 one bit. Hell, they’ve scored 14 points the past two weeks. And Oakland seemed to get a little boost from the Bruce Gradkowski factor. Dallas wins here no problem, but I’m not seeing blowout. And Tony Romo’s back is a possible issue, so if they do start to pull ahead it’ll be a run-clock-fest.	DAL 23-13 (Oakland cover)
3	NYG @ DEN	NYG -6.5	NYG	DEN	DOG	NO	NO ACTION pick here for a few reasons. I like NYG generally more here with DEN having the Orton-Simms issues and the fact they’ve been getting blown out lately. But NYG has a short week to prepare, to go on the road out west to Denver, in the thin air, at night, and Denver owes us a bounce back, right? I mean, right?	NYG 24-20 (Denver cover)
4	INDY @ HOU	INDY -0.5	INDY	INDY	FAVE	YES	Indy has been scraping by lately (4 wins by a record 10 points). And Vegas is noticing. Only -0.5 on the road at Houston (which is essentially a pick-em game)? Wow, I’ll take that -0.5 and run to the bank. Houston has notoriously given Indy fits, so they’re not looking past them to next week. Manning, Wayne, and Clark get back on track here. Houston had trouble with Tennessee’s D line on Monday night. Now I’d like you to meet Mr. Freeney and Mr. Mathis.	INDY 30-20
5	TB @ ATL	ATL -11.5	ATL	ATL	FAVE	YES	Tampa’s little honeymoon with the new QB didn’t last long. And ATL is in a near-must-win situation here for their playoff chances. -11.5 is a little more than I’d like to see, but ATL won’t be screwing around.	ATL 24-10
6	MIA @ BUF	MIA -2.5	MIA	MIA	FAVE	NO	Going to pansy out here to a NO ACTION pick. Miami is playing well, despite the loss of Ronnie Brown. But they’re notoriously horrible up north in Buffalo. But they’re the better team. But Buffalo has the whole first home game under the new coach thing. But he’s just an interim coach. But……..NO ACTION.	MIA 23-17
7	CLE @ CIN	CIN -14.5	CIN	CIN	FAVE	YES	Brady Quinn officially spent his 2009 load last week in the shootout in Detroit (I can’t believe I just typed that, “shootout in Detroit” re: CLE/DET…) And for his efforts, he gets to go pick himself off the ground 13 times at a pissed off Cinci team after they ate dog shit at Oakland last week. I would have like to see -13.5 and not -14.5. But I don’t think it’ll matter.	CIN 30-13
8	ARI @ TENN	TENN -0.5	ARI	ARI	DOG	YES	Tougher call than I would’ve liked here with TENN going on a little run lately. They should’ve lost to HOU if HOU had a kicker (he didn’t just miss the one at the end of regulation). And I’m seeing the start of the end-of-the-year ‘zona run here at TENN. This would be a decently big road win for them and they’re getting a pick’em game for their troubles.	ARI 23-17 (Arizona outright win)
9	SEA @ STL	SEA -2.5	SEA	SEA	FAVE	YES	Seattle got blown the hell out in Minnesota last week. St. Louis and Kyle Boller are not Minnesota.	SEA 20-10
10	CHI @ MINN	MINN -10.5	MINN	MINN	FAVE	YES	Speaking of not being Kyle Boller. Is Brett Favre really doing this? How long ago should he have had elbow/shoulder surgery? Go check out the different between Jay Cutler and Brett Favre’s TD:INT ratios. Ridiculous. I want to keep worrying about > 10 point spreads for the Favrikings, but won’t doubt them anymore.	MINN 30-17
11	CAR @ NYJ	NYJ -3.5	CAR	CAR	DOG	NO	Which QB will do their best Jay Cutler impression and which team will be able to run the ball well enough to ensure their QB doesn’t do the Cutler thing? I’m going to side with the veteran QB Delhomme not f*cking up as much as the rookie Sanchez who is quickly spiraling into the proverbial tank. NO ACTION here as I wouldn’t bet Canadian money on this game if you paid me to.	CAR 23-20 (Carolina outright win)
12	WASH @ PHI	PHI -9.5	PHI	PHI	FAVE	YES	The ‘skins were this close last week to shutting out the Cowgirls in Dallas. That would have been a season changer. Now I fear they’ll be spent emotionally and get blown out in Philly against a team trying to win some homefield playoff dates.	PHI 27-13
13	KC @ SD	SD -13.5	SD	SD	FAVE	YES	Will Jekyll or Hyde show up this week for the Chargers? I think they’ll be ok here, especially with Ladanian Tomlinson being relevant again. KC beat up Pittsburgh last week but has to head on the road here to a hot SD team’s house. -13.5 is a little much for me but I think SD will be pushing to overtake Denver here. Especially since they get to watch Denver on Thursday night and know their fate heading into this game on Sunday.	SD 27-10
14	JAX @ SF	SF -2.5	SF	SF	FAVE	YES	Jacksonville is the other Jekyll and Hyde team in the league right now. And I don’t like them heading on the road out to SF. I see another low scoring affair here for both teams and SF pulling it out in the end. Gross, that came out wrong. Pick up these two kickers for your fantasy teams this week.	SF 23-16
15	PITT @ BALT	BALT -0.5	BALT	BALT	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Locking up against Pittsburgh. Yep. I think this is a no-brainer this week. Sorry Stiller fans. Big Ben still has thoughts he might be batman, but will play. That D just isn’t the same without Troy, just ask Matt Cassell and company. And the Ravens have got to be pissed after last week’s game where they had the Colts. Pitt can’t protect Ben enough, and now you have an angry Raven D. You won’t like them when they’re angry. Stretchers might be needed often in this bloodbath.	BALT 27-23
16	NE @ NO	NO -3.5	NE	NE	DOG	NO	I am looking forward to this game the most of any college or pro game this weekend. Aside from hoping my Hokies send Al Groh out from UVA with a 63-3 shellacking. I cannot wait to watch this game. You have no idea. Going to be a friggin barn burner. Take the over. I’m laying off NO ACTION here. Saints have an injury or two in the secondary and I think that’s the difference here. I can’t wait. Wes Welker for MVP?	NE 31-30 (New England outright win)

--taking 5 dogs again this week

--3 of the 4 recommended NO-ACTION games are dogs

College Football TV Viewing Guide Week 13 (Rivalry Reek Edition)

2009-11-24T11:59:00.009-05:00

Everyone shed a tear ... not for the jerk in hooville leaving but the end of the college football holiday season. Only 2 more regular season weeks left.* Even in a down year filled with less intrigue it's still sad to think it's over. Just yesterday I was walking thru the ATL enjoying the sites, sights and sounds.

From atl

Anyway it's full blown Rivalry week, a few started last week, a couple go next week (highlighted by a possible stellar Civil War) but this is the meat of it. I initially went chalk with all the picks, scratch that, so I made a couple changes. Not like it's going to hurt my stellar winning %'s. Since the ACC is doing so well nationally at the end of the year, 5 ranked teams ... I had to knock us down a peg or 2. I will not knowingly get Lucy'd.

From BCO Pix2

Been awhile since I did not include the Lone Star Showdown, Tejas vs aTm, but the aggies suck too much. Also no "Clean, Old Fashioned Hate", GiT/ugga, who knew the Dawgs would suck ass (being the $ec changes are a coming there.) Some pretty good games otherwise, highlighted by games featuring coaches that might not be long for their jobs ... call again on Monday groh, Weis and maybe Dadgumit while it's possible Meyer or Harbaugh may go take the Notre Dame money.

Last week's picks and to date tally:
straight up 5-3 to date 59-37 --- 61%
against the spread 3-5 to date 43-52-1 --- 45%

i am algroh A.W.F.U.L. but I get to come back next year, you aholes.

This Week's Games:

Friday, November 27th
2bammer (11-0) [-10.5] at Auburn (7-4) 2:30 pm cbs
The Iron Bowl. Part of the Big Rivalry 3 (Army/Navy, tOSU/MissAgain) the annual game that leaves the state of Alabama dumber than when the game started, which one would think is hard they keep finding a way. Brawls, cheap shots, unnecessary comments bout daughters, wives and moms all from the same households at times. Physical, tough, mean and dirty ... pure $EC football. Gonna make for good tv while in my backyard with the cornhole and beer going. Nick Satan is not about to mess up here and the $EC refs will clean up whatever his team doesn't take care of.

From BCO Pix2

9P.I.T.T. (10-1) [-1.5] at w FN vu (7-3) 7:00 pm espn2
The Backyard Brawl. If not for a mental vacation in the 4th qtr vs NCState, the Panthers would be undefeated. Win here, beat Nati next week and this team is going to a BCS bowl. Hell, with 2 losses still might go BCS bowling (take note, State Penn and Pitt play awful scheds ... leads to BCS games?) w Fn vu would like nothing better than to return in kind the regular season ending they received in 07. Let's review, if the neers had beat Pitt, they were going to the Mythical National Championship Game. Even with a bogus Big East fix is in home ref job (above $EC levels,) Pitt beat the shit out of the Pat White and neers. Made em curl up, cry and force DickRod out of town with a trail of shredded documents behind him. The 1 thing holding me picking w Fn vu to do this .... STEWY!!! He's a clown, you can't have an elite program and pay your top guy less than $800k. Mickey Mouse.

From BCO Pix2

Nevada (8-3) at 6Boise State (11-0) [-12] 10:15 pm espn2
The Darlings of the media face a fairly decent Nevada team. Yes, the Wolfpack lost to the Fightin' Irish to start the season, but they've improved and would probably sucker punch the Irish too at this point. If ... IF, BSU takes them for granted Nevada can win. A lot of the football nation will be watching (unless passed out from binge drinking and overeating) as it is the only game in town, not on the NFL Network. BSU can impress and outdo the Horned Frogs with a 3+ td beat down.

Saturday, November 28th
18Klempson (8-3) at Souf Kackalacki [+3.5] (6-5) noon espn
Battle of the Palmetto State. Dabo Swinney's kitties have a bite, while the Game cocks looks like they have already came and went. USC-e will try to make it an ugly $EC affair, cause nowadays that is synomous with the Ole Ball Coach (JUST RETIRE ALREADY!) While Klempson is gonna try and get 1 last push for C.J. Spiller's Heisman campaign. A great game here and he can get a trip to New York ... maybe. The Tigers don't want to lose the week before the ACCCG, especially to their bitter rival, but they don't want injuries either. USC-e has nothing else but some shitty bowl so they got nothing else to play for.

f$u (6-5) [+24.5] at 1UF (11-0) 3:30 pm cbs
The Sunshine Showdown is still midday for Urban Meyer but looks like a quarter to midnite for Dadgumit. UF is going to win, but f$u will score some points. Tebow, like everyone else will make his O look spectacular vs f$u's D. This isn't nearly as fun as the 90's when Dadgumit and the Ole Ball coach were in their primes. Use to get a group of us together, we all picked a side (Go Gators) and after every score, the ones cheering the side scored on would do push ups or run laps or something stupid physically stupid while drunk. I vividly, in my drunken haze remember crab walking a parking lot and jumping in Lake Anna. Good times, I miss this game meaning something. Tebow mania is almost over ... all this for a virgin?

From BCO Pix2

17da U (8-3) at Souf Florida (7-3) [+7] 3:30 pm abc/espn-gp
An ACC/Big East bragging rights game. da U best be paying attn, the Bulls feel like the lil brother and want to show what they can do, reference what they did to f$u. Their D is fast and can play. Their qb is the kind that traditionally give the Hurricane's scheme fits. This is going to be a good one, keep an eye on it. Big East still wanting respect ... 6 years later.

14VT (8-3) [-13.5] at uva (3-8) 3:30 pm espn
The Commonwealth Cup. We all know Beamer will do bout anything for a buck, threaten to go to UNC, shill for Nike, Cadillac and Kroger commercials, a crappy restaurant, etc ... anyone here want to pool our monies together so we can get him to say "Checkmate muthafucka" when he and algroh meet after the game? I loathe groh, his face, his voice, his attire, his convoluted coach speak that only Stiney can understand, his sea of orange, his coattails super bowl ring, really ... I could go on for a bit. I will say 1 thing positive about him, his team NEVER quit. Even in avg to below avg years, they play hard annually .... just not well. Both are a credit to him. The hoos have not beat Tech since my last visit to C-ville for a game (2004.) They want this very badly and will play with nothing (else) to lose. Good thing this game is the game Beamer almost always has the Hokies up for. Let's send algroh out in style, being serenaded by a 20k Hokies as he walks off the field back to the NFL as a position coach somewhere.

From BCO Pix2

ND (6-5) at Stanford (7-4) [-8.5] 8:00 pm abc
The Legends Trophy. Raise your hand if you think this is the face of Legend below! Let's look at the Parcells/Belicheck coaching tree of Losers: Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, algroh and ... Charlie Weis. Hmmmm that's millions and millions of dollars made off the backs of those 2 fellows. They best get a helluva Christmas gifts each year. Hardballs and Toby Gerhart are going to show ND what it's like to be a man. End of an era, an avg era ... lucky for the Irish they are the only premier program with a job opening so they'll get someone good this time and not their 5th choice.

From BCO Pix2

Happy Turkey Day and enjoy the weekend of Rivalry and Hate.

* Army-Navy game now pushed way back for Tv, 12/12.

Special thanks from LSUFreek, he's pretty amazing. His Sporting News collection is here, can also be found on EDSBS.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 11

2009-11-19T17:00:00.003-05:00

Week 11, NFL season 2009. I think I’m done with football until they modify the roughing-the-passer rules. These pansy calls are atrocious. I actually just got a 15-yarder for typing “roughing-the-passer”.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

68.38% straight up picks for your office pool (93-43)

53.85% against the spread this year on recommended plays (56-48)

51.41% over-all including the recommended no-actions (73-69)

Thoughts for the past week:

*Mid-day Sunday I sure as hell felt like I was having a better day than I was. Then Monday morning when I reviewed the scores and I found I was pretty mediocre. Blah. Surprises: Washington over Denver, Green Bay over Dallas, and Cincinnati over Pittsburgh. Big “wow” to those three.

*I went (9-6) in the straight up picks for your office pool. Well that sucks. You just lost your office pool to the receptionist who picks teams that have a pigment of Red in their uniforms.

*With the books, I stayed flat. Boo. Went (7-7) overall but (5-6) against the spread on the recommended picks. That’s (2-1) in NO ACTION plays. Sigh.

* I’m still positive for the year, barely, depending on the vig you’re paying. I don’t have the feelings for it this year like I used to. I used to be able to pick 6-7 against the spread without blinking, and then research and think about the rest. Split those in the second category for a 10-4 or 9-5 against the spread. No more.

Season 2009, Trains I’m on:

*Peyton Manning

*Drew Brees

*Carson Palmer

*Tom Brady

*Brett Favre?

[the “Trains I’m on” category has been temporarily renamed to the “Veteran White Quarterbacks” category?]

Season 2009, Trains I’m not on:

*Clinton Portis, Jason Campbell, Jim Zorn (I beg of you, beat Dallas)

*Larry Johnson (LOL cut)

*Jay Cutler (try your team’s receivers once, just once)

[II] Week 11 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	MIA @ CAR	CAR -3.5	CAR	CAR	FAVE	YES	Thursday night game. Ronnie Brown out for the year. I guess MIA will run Pat White now in the wildcat and Ricky will be the every down back. Even if D’Angelo is out for Carolina I think James Stewart will be fine. I’m shying away from Flipper here on a short week adjusting to no Ronnie on the road. Would love to see -2.5 and not -3.5 but I’m still on the Panthers at home here.	CAR 23-16
2	WAS @ DAL	DAL -10.5	DAL	DAL	FAVE	YES	As a Redskin fan, surprised by the victory last week, heading into the rivalry game, I want to take them here at Dallas – especially getting 10 points. But I can’t. Dallas looked like a bag of cat crap last week and is back down in the playoff bubble. I think Dallas comes out here pissed off and blazing and easily covers the -10.5.	DAL 27-13
3	CLE @ DET	DET -3.5	DET	CLE	DOG	YES	I’m not paying Michael Buffer any royalties. But don’t worry, no one is screaming anything about getting ready to rumble for these two. Here’s some advice. BET THE UNDER. One of those cases where I think it’s bad, real bad, and low. So that extra -0.5 on that field goal makes me sway to the dog.	DET 10-9 (CLE cover)
4	SF @ GB	GB -6.5	GB	SF	DOG	YES	This could be a great defensive battle. Neither offense has been lighting up the scoreboard, or able to protect their QB. Both D’s have been bringing heat on the opposing team’s QB lately. I’m seeing some defensive scoring here. I like GB at home to win no problem; I don’t like the -6.5 though.	GB 24-20 (SF cover)
5	PIT @ KC	PIT -10.5	PIT	PIT	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Jamaal Charles had a little post-Larry-Johnson coming out party last week. Um, PITT run D > OAK run D. PITT has already made their rougher than normal practice schedule this week public news, after losing at home to CINCI. Unfortunately for KC, they just happen to be next up.	PIT 30-10
6	ATL @ NYG	NYG -6.5	NYG	ATL	DOG	NO	I’ve described before how I usually have my 4 NO ACTION games picked out before I do any line or spread picks. Originally CLE/DET was a NO ACTION game until I saw two different sets of notes I had going for this week – on one set I had reasons written up to take NYG and on the other I had reasons written up to take ATL. Translation: now a NO ACTION pick. If Michael Turner doesn’t play toss this pick out the window.	NYG 24-23 (ATL cover)
7	NO @ TB	NO -11.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	I almost took Tampa to cover here. New Orleans didn’t cover at St. Lou last week, and Tampa did against Miami (with Ronnie Brown). Then I didn’t take Tampa to cover. I think I was actually thinking Tampa when I was just typing “N.O. \| FAVE \| YES” to the left. Who am I kidding? New Orleans has been getting by just-getting-it-done and they’re in the right part of their schedule for it to be this way.	NO 31-13
8	BUF @ JAC	JAC -8.5	JAC	BUF	DOG	NO	I’m totally laying off this game. Even if the Bills didn’t undergo the league’s first coaching change this year and fire Jauron this week, I don’t know how much I would have liked -8.5. I mean, what if they were up 7 late. MJD would just take a knee on the Bills’ 1. Seriously though, don’t know which Bills team shows up with the coaching crap going on. NO ACTION here.	JAC 20-13 (BUF cover)
9	IND @ BAL	IND -0.5	IND	IND	FAVE	NO	Man, Vegas sure knows how to tweak a team’s emotions. This line has got to piss the Ravens off. We think you’re good. We think you can hang with the Colts,……..almost. They’re going to barely beat you in your house here. I’m taking the Colts here in a NO ACTION game. Obviously Peyton vs. Ray and Ed will be fun to watch. I just don’t know if the lately-lowly-Raven-O can score enough to make the Colt-O-slowed-by-Raven-D matter.	IND 30-27
10	SEA @ MIN	MIN -10.5	MIN	SEA	DOG	YES	I’ve got a nasty feeling about a Viking let down here. I mean, I just moved them to #1 on my top 5. Murphy’s law right? I don’t think this game is ever in real jeopardy for the win, but I’m seeing Seattle stay within 10 for some reason. We get to watch another week of 8 in the box for AP, can Favre continue to find Rice and Harvin?	MIN 27-20 (SEA cover)
11	ARI @ STL	ARI -8.5	ARI	ARI	FAVE	YES	After St. Lou covered the Saints last week at home, I first leaned towards them covering again. Then I looked up some stats on the Cards/Rams. Then I remembered it’s Warner vs. his old team. I think the Cards are up here to help Kurt smash them. The Rams can only hope to keep feeding Steven Jackson and keep the Cards off the field, but I see -8.5 easy.	ARI 27-13
12	NYJ @ NE	NE -10.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	Everything about this game says closer than -10.5. Divisional game. Jets D improved. Jets not out of playoffs yet. Blah blah blah. Now think about any of Belichick’s career games after a loss. Let alone after an embarrassing loss. It’s a shame the Jets just caught the wrath, bad luck scheduling having the Pats this week. I almost locked this one up. Take the over, the Pats might cover themselves.	NE 41-20
13	CIN @ OAK	CIN -9.5	CIN	CIN	FAVE	YES	Look up “trap game” or “let down game” or “hangover (with respect to football)” in the dictionary and it’s this game. Cinci, coming off the sweep of the Ravens and Steelers, heading out to Oakland to play the hapless Raiders. I was actually contemplating taking OAK to cover until I read about the QB switch. I think that CINCI D is playing well right now and I don’t see Bruce Gradowski changing that.	CIN 27-9
14	SD @ DEN	NO LINE	SD	NO LINE	FAVE	NO	No line out yet with Orton’s ankle injury. Mark me down here, I’m taking SD to win even if Orton plays. The Broncos are turning down, and fast. SD is turning up, and fast. If Chris Simms plays, I’m flying to Vegas specifically to legally bet on SD anywhere up to -24.5. Has to be NO ACTION because of the line L SD would have been an easy cover here.	SD 27-17 (Orton) SD 38-13 (Simms)
15	PHI @ CHI	PHI -2.5	PHI	PHI	FAVE	YES	Philadelphia players will have 29 catches this Sunday night. 26 by the receivers and 3 by the defenders. LOL at Jay Cutler in prime time. Go look up his stat differential on games not in prime time vs. that of his on Thurs/Sun/Mon nights. Atrocious. Oh look, a Sunday night game. I’ll take Philly here, even on the road with the -2.5.	PHI 27-20
16	TEN @ HOU	HOU -4.5	HOU	HOU	FAVE	YES	Probably would have been the 4^th NO ACTION game if I didn’t have to make SD/DEN NO ACTION because of the whole no line to bet on thing. TEN has definitely resurged here lately and Vince Young is playing well. To say the least, I’m admittedly surprised by Vince’s play. And that Chris Johnson guy…..wow. I’d love to ride the wave of TEN’s recent successes, but have to lean towards HOU at home here off of a bye. I’d feel better about -2.5, but whatevs.	HOU 29-23

--only taking 5 dogs this week

--only 2 of the 4 recommended NO-ACTION games are dogs

--holy crap I’m taking some road winners, SU and against the spread

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

(After 10 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

MINN – Of the ‘big 3’ (Minny, Indy, Nawlins), I have MINN on top despite having the loss because of the way they’re beating people. I think on a neutral field today MINN would be favored -3 over INDY and NO.
INDY – huge win over NEW ENG this past week in 4^th-down-gate. Still undefeated, but not impressing lately. Need a signature win not based on a late call by the other team on 4^th down.
NO – still undefeated, but not wowing anyone anymore. All too close of a game at the hapless Rams this past week. The Saints’ games have a ho-hum, just getting by, feeling to them.
CINCI – HUGE huge win in PITT last week. Defense really played well and shut Big Ben down. Just think, they’re a freak tipped pass in week 1 (Stokeley, Broncos) from being 8-1.
NEW ENG – I can’t drop you off the list for a 35-34 loss to the undefeated Colts. Very abnormal clock management and time out management by a Belichick team, though.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

(After 10 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

DET – Beat CLEV at home this week. Please.
OAK – you lost to KC. Jamarcus Russell to Darrius Heyward-Bey? LoLs.
CLEV – Beat DET on the road this week. Please.
TAMPA – even winning late in the 4^th, not once did I think you had it against Miami this past week. Not once.
BUFF – uh oh. Old school TO rears his ugly head. You got blown out in TENN, ……BLOWN OUT. I don’t like the looks of give-up. First coach fired in ’09.
Others receiving votes:

KC – beating OAK doesn’t clear you off my list.
CHI – lose this week at home to Philly? with a couple completions to Philly DB’s?
WASH – hail victory? Wow. Surprised me. Grab a win at Dallas this week and Zorn keeps his job?

I think the dictionary is funny sometimes.

Brady Quinn [brey-dee] [kwin] – not good in any manner or degree. Of poor or inferior quality, defective, deficient. Inadequate or below standard. Not satisfactory for use. Inaccurate, incorrect, or faulty.

I think you should watch the ESPN Monday Night Football pre-game and broadcast [minus the inclusion of one Keyshawn Johnson]. Seriously though. Ditka on the pre-game and Gruden doing the color for the game. They’re both priceless as commentators. Just great great stuff. When asked last week what he thought of the Jacksonville RB coach telling MJD to down the ball at the 1 to run out the clock and kick a field goal (while still losing) without the head coaches’ approval – Ditka said, “He’s fired. Not after the game. Not next week. Fired. Leave the sideline now. No check, no contract clause. He’s fired.” Quality American television.
I think I’m going to save you all from reading any more about Belichick’s 4^th down decision and talk more about something else. Like the Bengals. Sweeping through the AFC North. Swept Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Just playing lights out ball right now. I have a lot of respect for their wins this year, some tough hard fought games. But I did hear them get disrespected on a network show last week after their win in Pittsburgh. I don’t think it was meant as an insult or think it was underhanded, but after their win in Pittsburgh, one of the postgame shows said they were playing well, they are playing “Steeler Football”. Ummm, no. This year they’re playing “Bengal Football”. They’re (2-0) against Steeler Football.
I think if you ever doubt anyone who questions how there aren’t more than 32 good quarterbacks in the entire league, or in the world, you’re missing something. If you ever have any questions, just look up and watch a tape of the Broncos/Redskins from Week 10, November 15, 2009. Kyle Orton goes down with an ankle injury. Chris Simms comes in to replace him. You know that phrase, “couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn”?
I think I heard some interesting stuff on the radio the other morning. It had to do with winning percentages of teams on certain games when they have a 300+ yard passer, a 100+ yard rusher, and/or a 100+ yard receiver. I did a little dabbling research myself and found it to be pretty astounding. I might delve more into it for the rest of this year and maybe last year’s stats too – and maybe get to a real post with a bunch of data. But it was pretty damn telling how important a 100+ yard rusher is WAY more important than a 300+ yard passer, which in turn is WAY more important than a 100+ yard receiver – when looking just at did that player’s team win the game he put up said stats. At first glance it makes sense because if you’re losing you’re throwing more – but not to the winning percentages (or lack thereof) I found in my quick stat look this week – at how blatantly skewed the winning percentages are for rusher > passer > receiver.
I think my non-football thought of the week this week is for your TV viewing pleasure. Criminal Minds on CBS is a sick show. Because of the inherent repetitiveness of the CSI’s simply because of the basis for the storylines, I think Criminal Minds has passed the CSI’s in drama/plot lines. If you don’t watch it now, toss Criminal Minds in your DVR queue.
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to a now double recipient this season. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t stand the excessive celebrations. [don’t ask regarding my hypocrite tendencies, but Ocho Cinco is ok in my book. Maybe it’s because there’s props or plans or scripts, rather than just getting overly-jiggy with it for celebration of one’s accomplishments] Anyways, this week’s recipient, his second award this year, goes to Donnie Avery of the Rams. The (1-8) Rams. Nice touchdown catch. Your 4^th this year? So if you get 6 points for every score, x 4 = 24 points scored. Yep, you dance for more than a second for each point scored. You’re awesome. Quit the choreography and get back to sideline and help the team be better than (1-8) jackass.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award also goes to another multi-time recipient. One Keyshawn Johnson. How does this guy have a paying job that requires him to speak intelligently and with proper pronunciation? How? This past week on Monday Night Countdown prior to the MNF game, Keyshawn repeatedly called the Bengals coach “Marvin Harrison”. Ummm, it’s Marvin Lewis. Then, when trying to explain that something “isn’t that hard” to do, he kept pronouncing it, “isn’t that whored”. So Keyshawn, it’s HARD, sounds like the R sound. Does he mail out birthday cords? Mow his yored?

College Football TV Viewing Guide Week 12 (Never Give Up Edition)

2009-11-18T21:16:00.006-05:00

I almost mailed it in ... like the Terps and Jayhawks but I did not. Oh so close to making this a quickie shit viewing guide, but I am going to gut it out. I will say the subpar season and the awful weekly matchup games have made it tough. "The Play" above keeps me coming back for more ... you never know when your heart is going to get ripped out or when your team makes a miracle comeback and shit houses their band for extra salt to the wound.

From BCO Pix2

By the way I am still laughing at a couple of things. The first one is how mad Pete Carroll is at Hardballs for going for 2 up 48-21 last week. Umm, this from a coach who RUNS IT UP on ANYONE. Hey Pete, suck it up and STFU. Also from last week, I like the Ole Miss joke about puke Orange's recruiting coordinator and ex-Ole Miss coach, crazy cajun Ed "Wild Boy" Orgeron "He still can't get a win a game in Oxford!" (read that link, funny as hell.) LSUFreek's gif above is amazing as always. Follow him on twitter, a must!

On to this week, the GoW is .... ummmm ... no damn clue. Just keep watching, I am sure 1 or 2 will be great. By the way, who let uva on tv other than Raycom. Sure Clemson needs a win to clinch the ACC Atlantic but the hoos don't deserve tv time, unless they are playing the Hokies obviously.

From BCO Pix2

No Thursday game for the viewing guide, A BCO first, but "I'm a MAN, I'm 40" vs "THIS IS Big12 football, it's NOT INTRAMURALS" makes for a slightly interesting storyline. Then the reality of good players, coaches and homefield advantage will smack the shit out of the Buffaloes in the first 10 mins and we'll all be DVR'ring Californication, Dexter and Curb episodes we have missed.

Last week's picks and to date tally
straight up 5-3 to date 54-34 --- 61%
against the spread 5-3 to date 40-47-1 --- 46%

better, but I suck. Acceptance stage.

The Games:

Saturday, November 21st
UNC (7-3) [+3.5] at b.c. (7-3) noon espn2
Note to self, Never Ever count b.c. out. Lose a coach, no biggie go to the ACCCG. Lose a great QB and all your RB's, no big deal go to the ACCCG, lose another HC, gain an old as shit OC, lose the DPOY, 2 first day NFL draft DT's and have the worst starting QB situation in a BCS conference to start the season ... in contention for another trip to the ACCCG. Big Props. Butch Davis also deserves a mention, he has turned the program around, mid season after a devastating loss to f$u, outstanding D and an improving offense. This game should be a great defensive matchup.

whatagainistheOhioState (9-2) at MissAgain (5-6) [+12.5] noon abc
Rivalry week has begun, well at least for the Big1+10 schools. No one is giving MissAgain much of a chance ... again. Reminds me of VT vs uva. Subplot, DickRod is in some hot water ... how much? Not clear, but likely gets 1 more season. Lets be honest, he's a bad fit at MissAgain, it will not end well. Next stop Miami of Ohio or something like that. However, I do know if he wins vs tOSU, then all is forgiven. tOSU plays like VT, ball control and needs the defense score or set up scores to run it up on most teams. Buckeyes win but likely won't cover. DickRod will pull out all the stops but his D is shit.

From BCO Pix2

OU (6-4) [-6.5] at Tejas Tech (6-4) 12:30 pm fsn
One of 2 matchups between underachieving Big 12 teams. OU looks improved now that Jones is settling in or maybe cause the competition is borderline South Dakota H.S. quality. Ida know. Even if I were home, I would not watch, I just need 8 games for this Viewing guide. Mailed this one in, but hope to snap out of it further down the guide.

LSU (8-2) [+4.5] at Ole Miss (7-3) 3:30 pm cbs
Pop quiz ... which coach has ridden the recruits of his predecessor? If you answered both, you win. Les is well less, but he did get a Mythical National Championship with Nick Satan's bunch (even if those Bayou Bengals were a so-so champion.) Only thing the Nutter has done is get the hopes up of a beleaguered, think they are on the same level as LSU, Bama and UF programs fan base. I like Houston Nutt but maybe I was a bit too high on his coaching ability. Anyone who plays 7 games with an offensive system that makes Bryan Stinespring look like Gus Malzahn before changing it to fit the skill set of his players ... isn't that great. Les in a couple years has proven, he can't bring in as good of talent as Saban, can't keep the team discplined as Saban nor surround himself with as good a lot of assistant coaches as Saban. He however can make almost just as much money as Nick Saban, so my friends ... Les is (worth way) more than you.

From BCO Pix2

NCState (4-6) [+19.5] at VT (7-3) 3:30 pm espnu
It's Senior day, give this lot a big loud ROAR, specially my boy Cody! This game is featuring the best H.S. qb from the state of Virginia in 2006 ... Russell Wilson. Huh? Taylor is the better athlete but as QB, it helps to be able to see the play before it happens, read the defense and deliver in a timely matter. At this point whether by natural ability or schooling (it's not the talent around them, VT trumps State there) Wilson is better. You better be damned sure he wants to show VT they should have recruited him and that he was better than Tyrod. doook and State where his only offers. State has a trash D, like Maryland bad but their O is good and at times very good. Relatively high scoring and entertaining. I'll be there in another epic up and back game, drinking lightly (relatively) and cornholing!

From BCO Pix2

KState (6-5) [+16.5] at Nebraska (7-3) 7:45 pm espn
Ummm .... ummmmm .... ummmmm. Yeah, 2nd one mailed in. Garbage IN ... Garbage OUT.

Oregon (8-2) [-6] at Zona (6-3) 8:00 pm abc/espn-gp
Should be a entertaining game, up and down the field as only the Pac10 can. Oregon can score on anyone not named Boise State and Zona is much improved even in the loss at Cal last week. The Pac10 is easily the most balanced and best conference in CFB, but with no true elite team (ACC '08 like.) If you can watch this game, do so ... Oregon's offense when on is a thing of beauty and easily my favorite offense in college football.

Cal (7-3) at Stanford (7-3) [-7.5] 9:30 pm vs
Another Pac10 gem, Toby Gerhart is a badass mofo. Runs straight, upright and hard. No dancing, man up for him, if you don't you'll get trucked. Another great game and he's headed to NYC. 27 Years ago ... "The Play" top 5 greatest moment in CFB history happened. Think the trombone play still curls up like a bitch when he sees him self Gerhart'd on every replay? Hang onto that Golden Bears, you aren't winning this year. I hope Hardballs runs it up and goes for 2 on Tedford too. Both these teams are pretty good and it's a big rivalry between nerd schools, loser has to give up their interactive Guitar t-shirt and Pokemon collection.

From BCO Pix2

Alright, I need my beauty sleep, got a smoker with wings, oysters, beer and BIG 12 FOOTBALL tomorrow night. Have safe travels all. Made the playoffs in the ACC bloggers fantasy college football group. Need to beat down some b.c. eagle guy to move to the finals. RW, Montel Harris and Auburn QB Chris Todd need to take me to the Championship game.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 10

2009-11-13T14:22:00.005-05:00

What’s up? Week 10, NFL season 2009. This week’s edition is a celebration of the downturn of my season. And the immense, I told you so feeling, I’ve had building for a couple weeks.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

69.42% straight up picks for your office pool (84-37)

54.84% against the spread this year on recommended plays (51-42)

51.56% over-all including the recommended no-actions (66-62)

Thoughts for the past week:

*That “I told you so” feeling I’ve had brewing for a couple weeks is because I’ve been treading the line on a lot of big favorite lines. I just couldn’t bring myself to take some of these dogs in these games [extreme lack of parity in the league right now]. But these lines for the favorites have been creeping up, and up, and up. Years past, a -6.5 line was the normal “big” line for the week. It was on the high end for the week. This year, there’s been a consistent level of -13.5’s, -14.5’s, and even a couple -16.5’s. And, the “normal” favorite line has creeped to -9.5 and -10.5, away from the old standard -6.5. And, I predicted correctly. I got hammered this week with a bunch of favorites winning by 3 to 7, instead of 10.

*I went (9-4) in the straight up picks for your office pool. Well that sucks. You just lost your office pool to the receptionist who picks teams based on her feelings that somehow a Cardinal could beat up a Bear. You might be doing well for the whole season, since you get 9 or 10 wins a week, but you haven’t won any weeks.

*With the books, I got hammered. Went (4-9) overall but (2-7) against the spread on the recommended picks. That’s (2-2) in NO ACTION plays. Sigh.

*All these damn big spreads. I hate it.

Season 2009, Trains I’m on:

*Peyton Manning

*Drew Brees

*Carson Palmer

*Tom Brady

Season 2009, Trains I’m not on:

*Clinton Portis, Jason Campbell, Jim Zorn (debacle)

*Larry Johnson (LOL cut)

[II] Week 10 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	CHI @ SF	SF -2.5	SF	--	FAVE	NO	I can’t even lie to you and tell you I had SF at home here. This game was going to be a NO ACTION game regardless of Thursday game or not. Both of these teams needed a win badly, and both have quarterbacks that have a fondness for giving the ball to the other team. Knew it was going to be close, can’t tell you I would’ve taken SF	--
2	DET @ MIN	MIN -16.5	MIN	MIN	FAVE	YES	Dammit. Another near 17 point spread. I have no fear the Vikings win here. Coming off of a bye, hapless Detroit coming into the Metrodome. But 17? Geez. I’m fearing a 27-13 here. But I can’t take the Lions, I just can’t.	MIN 37-13
3	DEN @ WAS	DEN -3.5	DEN	DEN	FAVE	YES	Denver fell back twice from (6-0) versus the Ravens and Steelers. Not too horrible to worry about yet. I’m seeing a bounce back here, with the Bronco D getting 6+ sacks and 3+ turnovers. It’s just a bad year to be a skin fan. I mean, bad decade.	DEN 27-10
4	TB @ MIA	MIA -9.5	MIA	TB	DOG	YES	I’m thinking Miami doesn’t have any problems here at home for the win. I don’t like the -9.5, though. Tampa was playing inspired ball against GB last week, loading up emotion on the rookie QB Freeman and feeding off his good play. So, I’m picking them to stay within the 9.5 here.	MIA 24-17 (Tampa cover)
5	BUF @ TEN	TEN -7.5	TEN	BUF	DOG	YES	Yuck game, not the blegh game of the week though with KC and OAK squaring off, but close. Tennessee looks like they’ve righted the ship, and like Tampa, feeding off the emotion of the QB switch to Vince Young. Again, I like TENN to win at home here no problem, but I don’t like the -7.5. Buffalo can play boring on O and tight D and stay within the TD here.	TENN 16-13 (Buffalo cover)
6	NO @ STL	NO -13.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	Another huge spread. I’m actually glad to see NO closer to 14 than 17 point favorites. Had less to talk myself into staying on a huge favorite. Even with the 13.5 to play with, I can’t take STL here. NO is too good. Which 3 different receivers will have TD’s this week from Brees?	NO 34-6
7	JAC @ NYJ	NYJ -6.5	NYJ	NYJ	FAVE	YES	When I first saw this game, I said to myself I’d be taking the Jets at home, as long as the line isn’t -6 or worse. Then the lines come out. Of course. -6.5. I don’t think the Jets dominate here, but I think coming off their bye week they’ll have enough playing on the defensive side to hold the Jags down. Gonna take the Jets at home here off the bye.	NYJ 27-17
8	ATL @ CAR	ATL -1.5	CAR	CAR	DOG	YES	This game is the one I can’t explain my feelings on it, but for some reason my feelings are strong enough to not make it a NO ACTION game this week. Atlanta won last week, but not looking pretty. Carolina appears to be back on the rise, playing well – and their D is playing nasty. I’m seeing Carolina locking down Michael Turner and Matt Ryan not picking them apart. Game will be close and low scoring.	CAR 20-17 (Carolina outright win)
9	CIN @ PIT	PIT -6.5	PIT	PIT	FAVE	NO	Let me explain this to you. DO NOT BET ON THIS GAME. I like PITT to win at home here. I think the Bengals can do it, they’re playing great this year. I just don’t see it happening in Pittsburgh. And I don’t have a problem picking PITT to win at home here, I just don’t like the -6.5 so it’s NO ACTION.	PITT 27-20
10	KC @ OAK	OAK -1.5	OAK	OAK	FAVE	YES	I’m not going to talk about this game. I’d rather eat paper.	OAK 13-10
11	DAL @ GB	DAL -3.5	DAL	DAL	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Lock it up. Dallas’ D is playing well, and shut down Philly last week. Green Bay couldn’t block the Golden Girls from sacking Aaron Rodgers. I’d love to see -2.5 here instead of -3.5 on the road, but I don’t think it’ll end up mattering as Ware and company will be living in Rodgers’ lap.	DAL 30-17
12	PHI @ SD	SD -1.5	SD	SD	FAVE	NO	Another good matchup I think I’ll avoid as NO ACTION. If this game is in Philly I’d take Philly on an action pick. But with them losing at home last week and now having to travel to the West Coast, I’m thinking the Chargers can cover here at home. Philly has two defensive starters out after the Dallas game, and SD can be big and physical with their TE and WR’s all being 6’4” or bigger.	SD 24-19
13	SEA @ ARI	ARI -8.5	ARI	ARI	FAVE	YES	Some betting advice for this game. Take the over. I originally didn’t like the look of -8.5 here. But after some consideration, I think Arizona puts it on them here at home and they’re going for early nails in the NFC West’s proverbial coffin.	ARI 33-20
14	NE @ IND	IND -2.5	NE	NE	DOG	NO	I wouldn’t bet on this game if you gave me money to bet on it. I’d just keep the gift money. Juggernaut game to decide some playoff home field, and two great QB’s facing off. I think the Colts will be fine at home for a while. But, Brady and company will eventually spread the field and be fine, with the Colts having ¾ of their starting secondary out on injury. With two rookie CB’s starting for INDY, I’m seeing a lot of Moss deep, Welker short mismatches.	NE 30-27 (New England outright win)
15	BAL @ CLE	BAL -10.5	BAL	BAL	FAVE	YES	ESPN is not happy they got this Monday night matchup. More than half of America’s TV’s won’t be watching the second half of this blowout. I don’t like -10.5 on a road team. But it’s at CLEVELAND……Flacco and Ray Rice will have huge days. Brady Quinn will not.	BAL 27-10

--only taking 4 dogs this week

--differing from my norm, only 1 of those 4 dogs is a recommended NO-ACTION

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

NO – I don’t have much to say here, and I don’t see it changing this week at STL.
INDY – yearly event against New England. Barring a blow out I don’t see either team leaving the top 5.
MINN – already in my top 5, coming off of a bye, hosting Detroit. Yum yum gimme some.
NEW ENG – see, INDY, above.
PITT – gotta be in my top 5 now. Won a huge game at Denver on Monday night. Don’t let it go to your head, lose this week at home to Cinci and it’s those Bungles on this list.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

WASH – You………..are…………bad. And as Smokey would say on “Friday”, Clinton, you got knocked the F^CK OUT!
KC – Bad team. Bad coaching. Bad play. Now, in a purely “classy” move I haven’t decided if I agree with or not, you cut problem child Larry Johnson (probably deservedly) when he is ~85ish yards short of the franchise record for total yards. LOL.
DET – Had a better team beat in Seattle this past week. Then Matthew Stafford channeled his inner Mark Sanchez and matched the rookies in now both having a 5 pick game in their opening campaign.
OAK – You had a week off to discuss the legal fate of your coach, and work on your rookie QB. And, you get to come out of the bye hosting KC. One of you crotch stains will get a win.
CLEV – hosting Baltimore this week on Monday Night Football. I’m taking the old Browns, i.e. the Ravens, to win by 30. Percentage of the crowd in Cleveland in a paper bag mask? 40%

I think I talked about it a lot last season. But I can’t get off the subject now, not after watching all the games this past week. They have GOT TO review the roughing the passer rules again. This is tackle football people. If you can’t hit the QB, just put him in a yellow jersey and make a rule that states you can’t hit him. Some of the roughing the passer calls this past week were embarrassing that they’re considered penalties. They hit harder in women’s soccer.

I think I’m laughing at the Packers right now. You thought you were good. You thought had a chance at the North division. Then the Minnesota BrettFavre’s swept you. You thought you might have a shot at the wildcard. Then you went and gave Tampa their first win. You suck. And here’s why. You’ve given up 37 sacks already. Aaron Rodgers might be good. But no one gets anything done from their butt on the ground. 6 sacks and 3 picks versus Tampa? Playoffs? Playoffs? You want to talk about playoffs?
I think one of the league’s biggest surprises this year, to include surprising me, is Cedric Benson. Good for him. Much maligned out of Texas onto the Bears, and then onto the Bengals. He’s kept his name out of the limelight (no off the field crap, no Terrell Owens crap at practice). And all he’s done is go out and be 2^nd or 3^rd in the league in rushing thus far. And, he’s done it against the Steelers and Ravens too. Over 100+ yards twice against Baltimore. Unheard of. Good for you Ced.
I think the Colts need to shut the damn roof for 1:00 games. If you’ve seen either of the last two (home) games for the Colts, you’ve seen some of the worst sunlight affecting NFL games, ever. Missed passes, WR’s not even seeing the ball. It’s been little league. Shut the roof. Play football.
I think the NFL needs to hide the fact that the networks and money rule them, a little better. I mean, we all know it does. But hide it a little better. Don’t bend the rules so obviously. The Colt and Pats are about to meet for the 7^th straight year. They are not in the same division. The out of division, in conference, scheduling is supposed to rotational throughout the other divisions. Not 7 straight to one out of division opponent. And, they always play in the first two weeks of November. “Sweeps” weeks for the network TV wars. Shame shame NFL, for allowing the bending of the scheduling rules and TV to run your ship so blatantly.
I think my non-football thought of the week this week is: I have two!

You need to go to youtube.com and search for “New Mexico Women’s Soccer Fight BYU”. Go watch it. Trust me. Just flat amazing stuff.
Sammy Sosa, what…………..the…………………..f^ck? You’re looking rather Caucasian lately.

This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to Nate Burleson, wide receiver on the Seahawks. A couple things here. [a] you shouldn’t be looking much to celebrate in your game against Detroit, you’re playing the Lions for Chriminey’s sake. [b] you don’t get to celebrate every single catch. You’re a friggin wide receiver in the NFL. You get paid to catch the ball. A 4-yard gain on first down is not reason to dance, it’s merely 2^nd and 6. Stop dancing. Please.
This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to Tony Siragusa, former Raven, commentator for Fox. Speaking of the roughing the passer penalties being levied (again) this year……this week’s JSU Award goes to fat boy Siragusa. In watching the Redskins/Falcons game this past week, there was one of those “roughing the passer” calls when a Redskins’ lineman hit Matt Ryan AS HE WAS THROWING THE BALL. So it wasn’t late. It wasn’t vicious. And it wasn’t a hit led with the helmet. It was literally a plain-Jane-standard NFL hit. And they got flagged 15 yards. And fat boy Siragusa, who is only famous for two things. One, now a commentator, his sideline reviews of the stadium food selection for the city they’re in. And two, knocking Rich Gannon out of the playoffs when Tony’s Ravens knocked the Raiders out. Tony hit Rich late, led with his helmet, drove Rich into the ground and then ended with all his weight (roughly 350 pounds at playing weight?) on Rich. Tony this past weekend on the hit in question, “you can’t drive through the quarterback and put all your weight on him”. Yeah Tony, good call, you can’t. You’re famous for that, you fat piece of crap!

College Football Viewing Guide Week 11 (Full On Parity Edition)

2009-11-11T19:52:00.004-05:00

From BCO Pix2

Some decent games, no barn burners. I'll be watching the Hokies on the interwebs ... choppy and with interruptions. Uggh, game 3 on espn360. Does the world wide leader now hate us? Battle of brands, as I and others mentioned earlier this week. I don't get too mad about it, could be worse could be uva and nike couldn't give 2 rats asses about you. I hope it is not a distraction to the team.

From BCO Pix2

The 3 games that I am interested are 'nati and their undefeated/Big East dominance run, TCU and their BCS Chanpionship Game potential buster and if doook can do the unthinkable and beat GiT and move into a tie in the ACC Coastal standings.

The Stanford - SouthernCal game could be really good as well.

No Pitt-ND game, ND can't lose to Navy at home with NFL talent littering the Offensive side of the ball and make a viewing guide. Can't happen. The Irish are losing 1, likely 2 more games. Who will be their coach next season?

On to the mini preview and picks ....

Last week's picks and to date tally
straight up 4-4 to date 49-31 --- 61%
against the spread 0-7-1 to date 35-44-1 --- 44%

God effing Awful. Seriously, my picks couldn't more disgusting unless I went Jimmy the Greek on you with explanation on athletes genetics.

No Thursday night game ... I can't watch RUTSgers vs Souf Florida, a trash game. The Bulls have 1 win vs a bowl eligbile team, w Fn vu, RUTSgers is ass, period. Watch only if bored.

The Games

Friday, November 13th
w effn vu (7-2) [+10] at 'nati (9-0) 8:00 pm espn2
It is Friday the 13th ... I am going against all I know is right, I am picking the neers to win. Brian Kelly (next Irish coach?) is an impressive coach and has done as good job as any coach this year or last. They have not played a hard sched, but neither has the neers. The neers can be passed on and Kelly can turn me into all Big East QB in a matter of mins. That's bad news for the cousins, but after last weeks game vs UConn, 'nati can be scored on as well. Gonna be another shootout. I can't pull for w Fn vu but if they do win, it would not bother me ... as you will see later on in the preview.

From BCO Pix2

Saturday, November 14th
GiT (9-1) [-10] at doook (5-4) noon espn
A Blue Devils win here would put the ACC Coastal in a 4 way tie. H ard to believe and must really chap some coach's ass in C-ville. Don't expect it, don't get your hopes up Hokie fans. GiT is going to run over, thru and around doook. Doook will mount a good passing attack on the vulnerable secondary of GiT but it won't be enough. They should just be happy to be better than Maryland, uva and NC State.

Florida (9-0) at Souf Kackalacki (6-4) [+16] 3:30 pm cbs
The Old ... Ole Ball Coach is hosting his alma mater and program he built once again. I wonder if he ever sits back and wonders if the Daniel $nyder cash was worth it. He could have easily just stayed in Gainesville, not leaving his office to recruit stud players and won 10 games a year. Now he forced to the 3rd tier of the $ec scraping to get 7. Even Urban has to smile at his fortune and should make him pause should he ever think about leaving UF.

From BCO Pix2

Iowa (9-1) at whatagainistheOhioState (8-2) [-13.5] 3:30 pm abc/espn
Cinderalla slipper broke right as Ricky Stanzi's ankle did, what looked like a Big1+10 Championship lock 2 weeks ago now looks like the Citrus Bowl. Left for dead, waitOSU is back, looking to take the conference championship again (reminds me of VT from last year.) The O while not all world, looks improved from a few weeks ago and the pendulum is swinging hard in the Buckeye's direction. So I hope all the Iowa fans Rocked out with their Hawks out early in the season cause it's over now. Reality is a bitch.

Stanford (6-3) [+11.5] at SouthernCal (7-2) 3:30 pm fsn
No balls ... I have no balls. I so wanted to pick Stanford last week and did not. Sigh. Another change and I pick SouthernCal. lol. It's sorta how it works, just cause team A lost to team B who beat team C, but that doesn't mean team C is going to beat team A. I think Stanford's Toby Gerhart is a stud and will get some yards but not like last week, 223 vs the Trojans. Barkely will rebound and have a good game, I expect a close one. The Pac10 is easily the deepest conference in football this year, all but Wazzou State and UCLA are at least solid.

From BCO Pix2

da U (7-2) at UNC (6-3) [+3.5] 3:30 pm abc/espn/espn-gp
UNC outside of a couple halves has played lights out defense. The kind of defense that is going to give da U problems. Believe that. Now can the slowly improving Tarheel O put enough points on the slowly degrading Canes D? This is a matchup of strength on strength and weakness on weakness. Should be an entertaining game, could go either way. Best 3:30 ACC ABC game in weeks.

From BCO Pix2

Zona (6-2) [-1] at Cal (6-3) 7:00 pm vs
Who deez teams? Wildcats under the radar all season, now that Cal has choked away the promise of a really good season it's time for them to win and look impressive doing so. One of these teams is going make a big move up, will keep my eye on this game to see how they look. I honestly don't much about 'zona, mark this down as a learning experience. Due to Jahvid Best's injury, I can't take Cal, though there is always a chance the wind blows down hill and gets the opposing team stoned.

Utah (8-1) [+17] at TCU (9-0) 7:30 p.m cbsc
I am full on the TCU bandwagon now. I want them to win out, I want 'nati and Tejas to lose and TCU to sneak in the BCS Championship backdoor. Man, that would piss off the powers that be, wouldn't it. Chaos would rule, the BCS 6 would be shaken to the core. Utah will give TCU a better game than BYU did but TCU can smell it now. This is the last true test, they will be ready. Go Horned Frogs.

From BCO Pix2

Bonus Game*
VT (6-3) at Maryland (2-7) [+17.5] 1:00 pm espn360
I think VT wins without much trouble, but picking them to cover the spread means the D has to score or set up scores. It's very possible this week as the Terps start a freshman qb, Bud eats these guys up for dinner. Wondering what the Terps strateegerie will be to stop the Hokies running game. That's always a fun chess match, isn't it? Either way, 30-40% of the stands in College Spark will be filled with Hokies with 80% of their vehicles likely to vandalized by the time the game is over. Hey Terps, basketball season is here and you should have a top 4 ACC squad again, enjoy it. Here are the true Hokie Combat uniforms.

From BCO Pix2

The regular season is starting to come to a close ... enjoy the games, hopefully the big games will be entertaining this week and not the other games, like last week. I can make 1 lock prediction ... it's a beer drinking, cornhole playing, snow crab eating weekend!

From BCO Pix2

* not included in picks

A Lil SouthernPigskin Sumthin

2009-11-10T20:30:00.004-05:00

A short column I wrote last night for southernpigskin.com as the Steelers came back to lay it on the Broncos.

From BCO Pix2

Link here.

Writing less this year, part is the new job cropping over a hour off my day due to the commute and my new sleep schedule (in bed at 11:30 as opposed to 12:30.) Also, the dreaded Hokie malaise. Just not feeling it this year. Other than my man crush Cody Grimm and Ryan Williams, not much is getting me excited. To make matters worse, the season has been ... dreadful. Less excitement than usual, no great teams and a shit load of above avg teams. You'd think anyone winning any week would be great ... it isn't. Anyway, I need to think of other things to write about for Southernpigskin. I also am to write about Maryland and uva too but, what more can I say "They suck ass and their coaches are dead men walking?" I could skewer the Hokie offense ... but why? It's not going to get me anywhere but more pissed off.

From BCO Pix2

Anyway, the Nike vs Under Armour uniforms is bout the best thing going for this Hokies - Terps matchup. Maryland is the worst team in the ACC and to be honest, it's not close. Will be interesting to see if their ACC no. 1 rush defense is cause teams just pass at will on them or if it's legit. It's not like they won't know what's coming, Ryan Williams straight ahead. I do like the experimental, one off uniforms. I'd do away with the shoulder stripes, but I like the gradient coloring, I think the numbers look real cool.

From BCO Pix2

More info on the Nike Combat Unis by Dr. Saturday here. The link to all 10 unis here. I love mizzou's and like the f$u uniforms. I also love the whatisagaintheOhioStateUniversity pants, but I have a soft spot for ugga and tosu gray pants.

Friends of the Program has a pretty good take on it, here.

ECU Game Day

2009-11-08T21:33:00.003-05:00

My quick thoughts of the ECU game ... all personal nothing about the game. You saw it, you read about it, uninspiring, but we'll take it. I'd have pics but the wife thought a great storage place for the camera was her car.

From BCO Pix2

C&A Chicken and BBQ in Sunbury makes very fine eastern carolina bbq but shitty slaw. The cook, "who don't do that register thingy" had bout 25 scabs on her arms. Meth?
Tailgated at a church. Paid them 10 bones and we were allowed to get drunk on the property of Jesus. Interesting.
Dirt and myself lost in cornhole ... twice. One was in his late 60's, the other 60 yr old split his throws with his 8 yr old grandson. Damn. The did have a wooden statue painted and dressed as pirate with eye patch and sword. Upon further inspection, it was a Jewish wooden carving, his Jewish hat was painted purple. Weird.
Found some big money Pirate club Donors ... well we found their unlocked car and camera phone. Seems Hank's mother-in-law now has a nice camera phone photo of a couple white asses. One cool Pirate guy, bought a used Ambulance for $3k and turned into the utlimate tailgate vehicle. Very impressed.
ECU fans were pretty good in general, though a group of punk students fbomb chanted a couple 50ish year old Hokie fans. Unfortunately they did not do that to me when I walked up, I was ready to be more creative than "Eff the Hokies."
Many, many fans dressed in black, looked ok. A few goons (mostly dudes in their 40's) dressed as pirates. That was fucking awful, I expected them to bust out in SpongeBob chants at anytime.
The stadium was not loud. I've heard it louder at Dowdy-Ficklen. Was not electric either, I expected it to be rocking and have an energy about it ... it did not.
PSA: When talking trash to an fan of your opponent, A) do not talk about his wife and B) Keep 1 eye on him at all times. One silly hokie was jawing with an older Pirate fan, the Hokie noticed the Pirate was wearing a wedding ring and commented something along the lines like this, "Oh, I see you are married, she must be ugly as shit." While laughing and not looking, he next found a right cross square on his nose. There will be blood followed as he and friend fell 2 rows forward. Once he got up, dazed he was oozing blood. Dumbass. Both got escorted out and apparently not arrested as a friend of his stayed to watch the game (friend of the year) and gave us updates as he headed to the hospital.
Pirate logo at midfield was hot. Could not make out the helmets from our seats way up. Part of me likes the Pirate mascot the other part thinks it would get real old, real fast to just say "Arrrrghhhh" as my only chant.
The drive out and home was an easy 2 hours, save the smell of Dirt's ass, the 15 min stop in the convenience store and the spilled beer of Hank's when he passed out all in the backseat. Saw a nice 8 point buck on the drive home, 6 feet from the road.

From BCO Pix2

That's most of it, nothing major save the getting beat down by old dudes in cornhole and the busted nose 1 row in front of me. Still got that visual, blood mixed with mucus just hanging out his nostrils.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 9

2009-11-06T17:30:00.002-05:00

What’s up? Week 9, NFL season 2009. Before you feel bad about your football viewership and fandom – pretend you were me, and you’re a Hokie and Redskin fan. Sad panda.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

70.00% straight up picks for your office pool (77-33)

58.33% against the spread this year on recommended plays (49-35)

53.91% over-all including the recommended no-actions (62-53)

Well this past week was the “beat Jay’s face in edition”. All those huge spreads and heavy favorites finally caught up with me, and it wasn’t a good week to ride the heavy favorites. I just couldn’t sign up for any of those big dogs (by spread) this past week and got burnt a couple times by games that were closer than they should have been.

I watched every game this past week and I was very unimpressed. Except for Minnesota/Green Bay, which was an AWESOME game, it’s like all the other games and teams knew they were second fiddle this week to Favre gate on TV. And they played like they were second fiddle. There was a lot of sloppy play throughout the league and the games weren’t that good. Especially the other 4:00 slots opposite the Vikings/Packers.

Thoughts for the past week:

*I went (8-5) in the straight up picks for your office pool. Well that sucks. You just lost your office pool to the receptionist who picks teams based on her favorite colors.

*This lovely trend continued with the books, I got hammered. Went (6-7) overall but (4-5) against the spread on the recommended picks. That’s (2-2) in NO ACTION plays. Sigh.

*I don’t like (4-5) (44.44%) on recommended plays. That’s the book taking back some of last week’s (7-2) week.

*Took some losses, but my biggest surprises were: INDY not covering SF at home, SD not covering OAK at home, and JAX not handling TENN on Vince Young’s first start this year.

Season 2009, Trains I’m on:

*Peyton Manning (wow)

*Drew Brees (approaching Peyton wow status)

*Carson Palmer /Tom Brady (rehabilitation wonders)

Train Watch List (could be going in either the right or wrong direction):

*New England other than Tom Brady (didn’t move either way on a bye week. Stomp Miami at home this week in division and I’m buying your train tickets)

*Joe Flacco/Baltimore (big win against Denver last week. Do it again against Cinci this week and you’re back, in my eyes)

*Pitt plays at Denver this week (winner to the good list, loser to the middle class)

Season 2009, Trains I’m not on:

*Braylen Edwards (show me the endzone against someone not named the Dolphins.)

*Clinton Portis, Jason Campbell, Jim Zorn (debacle)

*Larry Johnson (now you’re anti-coach tweeting and slinging gay slurs. Classy. Joe Pa must be proud.)

[II] Week 9 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	BAL @ CIN	BAL -2.5	BAL	BAL	FAVE	NO	I really really really wanted to take the Bengals here at home. But I couldn’t. I think the Ravens showed some defensive fire last week against Denver, and they’re not going to get swept in division by Cinci. Will be a great game, but no who dey this week. NO ACTION.	BAL 27-23
2	MIA @ NE	NE -10.5	NE	NE	FAVE	YES	New England off of a bye, with a week to prepare for the wildcat, at Foxboro. Tom Brady is good. Wes Welker and Randy Moss are good. I think Miami makes this fun for a half, but can’t hang in there.	NE 34-20
3	KC @ JAC	JAC -6.5	JAC	JAC	FAVE	YES	I think Jacksonville looks to bounce back from a loss at TENN last week, and KC coming to town is just the remedy. Only thing better might be Tampa or Washington coming to town. I wish this wasn’t –6.5 and more like -2.5 – but I’m still leaning towards JAC here.	JAC 17-10
4	GB @ TB	GB -9.5	GB	GB	FAVE	YES	Speaking of Tampa. Green Bay looks to keep pace with Minnesota (or more likely the wild card chase). Tampa is just not good, and Green Bay will show it. Aaron Rodgers needs better O line play, and he’ll pick apart the Tampa secondary.	GB 27-6
5	WAS @ ATL	ATL -9.5	ATL	ATL	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Speaking of Washington. Yes, I am locking against my favorite team. Atlanta played a great game on Monday Night against the Saints, but in the end couldn’t cut it. Nothing like the Zorn-Snyder’s coming to town to get you healthy.	ATL 27-6
6	ARI @ CHI	CHI -3	ARI	ARI	DOG	NO	This looks like it could be a great game. I have these two teams pretty damn close in personal ranking. I’m taking ‘zona to outright win here with Warner being a tad better in the pressure of the 4^th quarter than Cutler is. Which secondary will show up and which team will abandon the run first?	ARI 21-20 (Arizona outright win)
7	HOU @ IND	IND -8.5	IND	IND	FAVE	YES	Shoot out of the weekend. I think the Colts get their air assault back on track after a sluggish game against SF last week. Houston might make a couple waves with flashes of passing of their own, but the loss of Owen Daniels kills them here. I’d probably consider locking this one up if it were -6.5 – but I’ll still roll the Colts at -8.5.	IND 30-20
8	CAR @ NO	NO -13.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	Saints, good. Panthers, not. Saints, don’t turn it over, flourish on causing and taking advantage of opponent’s turnovers. Panthers, turn over kings. Saints big at home here.	NO 38-13
9	DET @ SEA	SEA -9.5	SEA	SEA	FAVE	YES	Another week of huge spreads. Another week of me not even flinching at the dogs. Jesus. Detroit, of having just given STL their first win (at home in Detroit), gets to go on the road to a notoriously hard place to play. Seattle looks deceivingly good here, remember it’s Detroit.	SEA 27-10
10	TEN @ SF	SF -4.5	SF	SF	FAVE	YES	San Fran played a great game but came up short at the Indianapolis Mannings last week. They get to go home and run that wicked blitz package at Vince Young all day. Chris Johnson versus Frank Gore might make this fun to watch, but SF is fine at home here.	SF 24-13
11	SD @ NYG	NYG -4.5	SD	SD	DOG	NO	Another great game. The teams that traded QB’s. Rivers for Manning. I think the game falls here to SD passing to Gates and Jackson is > NYG secondary. Me and you could pass on the Giants right now. They’re leaky. NO ACTION. I’d take SD at home for action, but fearful of the east coast trip here.	SD 24-20 (San Diego outright win)
12	DAL @ PHI	PHI -2.5	PHI	PHI	FAVE	YES	Huge game in the NFC East. Defaulting to the chalk and ~-3 you get at home. I like Philly here in a tight game in Philly. Dallas gives up too many big plays for me to like their chances to slow the game down and grind out a win. And it’s about time for a Romo implosion. It’s been a couple weeks.	PHI 27-23
13	PIT @ DEN	PIT -3.5	PIT	DEN	DOG	NO	Making this juggernaut a NO ACTION pick for me. But I can’t wait to watch it. GREAT GREAT game. Total battle for some home field advantage in the playoffs, in week 9! I have this image of a tight tight game, up and down the field. A defensive score for both teams. I see DEN covering at home, but Big Ben driving PITT for the game winning FG late.	PITT 26-24 (Pitt cover)

--only taking 3 dogs this week

-- conveniently, all 3 of those dogs are recommended NO-ACTION

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

NO – beat a good Atlanta team on MNF. Closest thing to a “scare” for the year.
INDY – 18-14 at home versus SF off of a bye doesn’t have you jump NO.
MINN – up to #3 with a big win at Green Bay this past week. Pssst, Percy Harvin is good.
NEW ENG – (5-2) coming out of the bye week, hosting a divisional foe. Beat them and keep rolling to a couple home playoff games.
PITT/DENV – these two face each other this week. In accordance with my little newsletter here, this is a HUGE game. I mean, 5^th spot on my top 5 list is at stake. Man these MNF games are well scheduled this year.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

WASH – was Daniel Snyder crying to that reporter when he was apologizing to the fans?
TAMPA – not even competitive in your losses. Quick, NFL fans out there, name the Tampa starting QB.
DET – you gave STL their first win, and put up 10 points at home. You’re not good.
OAK – say it with me now. Bruce Gradowski. That bundle of syllables is better than Jamarcus Russell. Face it. Cut bait.
CLEV/KC – these two organizations are nearing WASH level of shambles. CLEV is firing GM’s and have players speaking out against the coach. KC had a tumultuous bye week with similar player/coach issues.

I think the Giant’s demise recently is kind of a surprise. Atypical sloppy play from a Tom Coughlin team. And very surprising how many assignments they’re blowing in the secondary. When they were sitting at (5-0), the Giants were my number 1 team, because they were just chugging along and were winning in boring fashion. But it was their style, blah blah blah, oh look 30-6 us. Now they’re sloppy and undisciplined, and it shows in a three game losing streak.

I think everyone involved in Brett Favre’s NFL career over the past two seasons, is better off this season, except the Browns. Packers: they’re happy with Aaron Rodgers and are continuing to move on. Jets: they’re happy with Mark Sanchez and a new coaching staff. Vikings: duh, their QB last year was Tarvaris Jackson. Browns: unfortunately, part of the end of Favre’s career with the NYJ and the injury controversy, this might have been a catalyst/trigger for the ousting of Eric Mangini, which landed him in Cleveland.
I think my current Super Bowl prediction is Saints / Patriots. I think the Saints can beat the Vikings if the game is in New Orleans. And I see them over the Eagles. The AFC goes through Pittsburgh or New England, and right now currently I see NE > PITT. I also reserve the right to change my mind every week for the next 8 weeks.
I think I hate fantasy football this season, I’m just saying.
I think the schedulers for the Sunday night and Monday night games need to be commended. Minus the Eagles/Redskins a few weeks ago – these two time slots have been BEAST games all year. Well done.
I think my non-football thought of the week this week is that my thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved in the tragedy in Ft. Hood, Texas. Another senseless act. So sad. I truly hope that this is an isolated incident and his Muslim heritage truly is a coincidence.
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to two people again.

Another first win for a horrible team. Another first win for a head coach. Another nonessential Gatorade bath. The Rams should be ashamed giving coach Steve a fruit drink bath. (1-7) is still (1-7).
Did anyone else see Miles Austin’s TD celebration for the Cowboys against the Seahawks this week? If you’re going to try and “dunk” the football on the uprights like Lebron, ensure you can actually get there. How sad to see you finger rolling it up there when you came up short.

This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to everyone, including me. Thank God Favre-Gate is over. Enough about it already. Ok, he was a Packer forever. Ok, he left. Ok, he plays in the same division and is fighting the Packers now. Enough. I’m glad the two MINN/GB games are done. Barring a meeting in the playoffs, this “saga” is done until next year. Since he is playing again next year right?

College Football Viewing Guide Week 10 (Exposed Edition)

2009-11-04T18:26:00.006-05:00

From BCO Pix2

I love this new logo, very creative

As I have mentioned a time or 6, College football is having a down year, it's not as exciting. Parity is not a good thing, sure anyone can beat anyone but where is greatness? I hope this isn't a trend but the '07 and now '09 seasons are going to crown a so-so team. Last year any of the top 5 teams would have wiped the turf with this year's Florida, Bammer or Tejas. Having said that, Oregon just scored on SouthernCal again. Holy shit, batman that was a beat down that I enjoyed thoroughly!

From BCO Pix2

For whom the bell tolls?

There is only 1 marquee game this week (no Big1+10 matchup will marquee for the forseeable future.) It's LSU making a trip to the always friendly Bryant-Denny Stadium in Alabama. Bammer started out like gang busters on the Hokies but have slowly lost steam as QB McElroy has been game filmed a bit. That said Les Miles won a national championship with largelY Nick Saban's recruited talent. Now it appears Les isn't recruiting or coaching as well as ole Nick. It's a $EC West division deciding game between 2 top 10 teams (though LSU is likely a bogus one.) It's easily the game of the week.

From BCO Pix2

WhatwastheOhio State University makes a trip to Beaver Stadium to play State Penn, which could make for interesting tv as well. Oregon at Stanford, intrigues me. Will the Ducks be a lil flat? Will Stanford a very physical Pac10 team punch Oregon in the mouth and make it a slugfest or do the Ducks keep trucking looking like the best team in the nation? Klempsum at f$u will eliminate 1 from the cripple fight which is the ACC Atlantic race, making it a 2 team race with the b.c. iggles (AGAIN!)

Now to my Hokies. It's official VT has been exposed. Not only are they are not a national championship caliber team but they aren't even a college football power this season. The offense shits the bed too often, the D is soft when it matters most (4th quarter.) Big plays and running up the middle have become standard practice against Bud's unit this year (and likely next.) The O for all it's talent, still can't pass block and can't game plan what to do when there is 7-8 defenders in the box and the defensive ends stay home, making Tyrod a pocket passer. That doesn't surprise me ... not one bit. However, I never expected in the beginning of the season for the Hokies to have taken a relatively large step back on defense. They aren't trash mind you ... just sorta slightly above average. Let me try to reason why ...

'o8 Orion Martin > '09 Nekos Brown... Martin was better at the pass rush and run stop, had to be accounted for. Brown is drop off, making Worilds doubled every time.
'08 DT > '09 DT ... Graves injuries doesn't help, his lack of bulk hurts and no jump fwd, if anything a slight step back. Getting railroaded lately.
'08 Warren/Sturdivant > '09 Rivers/Johnson/Gibson ... Bud is asking the linebackers to do less, so their heads aren't swimming, that means limiting his D calls. Also physically this group might be less than last year's group. Not shedding blocks or sensing the plays like the last 5 years
'08 Martin/Grimm > '09 Grimm ... Grimm is getting worn down. Helluva a player but he isn't super big or super athletic. Last year Cam Martin split time, letting him recharge, this season it's all on my fave Hokie.
'08 Kam = '09 Kam ... good and bad, from game to game, series to series or play to play. He is not a FS, the team doesn't really have one, but they got 3 very good Rovers. :(

Cornerback play is as good as ever and the Rover position is solid even if unspectacular.

This in my opinion is why the Hokies D has stepped back. Expect ECU to run the middle, making the linebackers react to the read option after getting thru the DL. Then once they get use to that, ECU will change up, roll the pocket. After some of that, how bout some straight drop back passing? I gotta feeling they are gonna keep changing it up on VT.

From BCO Pix2

On to the mini preview and picks ....

Last week's picks and to date tally
straight up 3-5 to date 45-27 --- 63%
against the spread 2-6 to date 35-37 --- 49%

Right as I climbed over the gamblers mendoza line, I stunk it up DickRod style and fell right back. It's not gonna be my year, I fear. Will have to redeem myself during the bowl season.

Thursday, November 5th
VT (5-3) at ECU (5-3) [+13] 7:30 pm espn
Ok, let's get down to it ...

Why ECU will win

electric crowd, itching to prove they are better than the big boys.
big hosses up front on D to shut down the run game.
a gameplan to attack the middle of the defense with the qb and rb's & big play wide receiver to go to when VT pinches down.
they smell blood in the water

Why VT will win

desperate wounded animal, haven't lost 3 in a row since 2003
Ryan Williams is the best player on the field and wants to prove last week was a fluke.
Pirates have an awful pass defense
Revenge/redemption from last season's loss and this season's mini implosion.

Tough, tough game to call. VT is more talented (but not a lot more.) The atmosphere in Dowdy-Ficklen will be crazy, like in 2000, where I robbed the Professor from seeing VT hang 17 on ECU before we even got in from the tailgate. Sorry. VT has to score early a couple times to take it out of them (last 2 games, VT could not get that done and that was very costly.) The DL are going to have to play like crazed dogs, because if relying on the linebackers is and will not get it done. Going against trend, I think the VT answers the bell, I think the D plays better but not lights out and VT wins but I wouldn't bet on them covering the spread with Financial bailout money. This game could go a hundred different ways. I will get to see VT in their white throwbacks, that's the only good thing, I know for certain.

From BCO Pix2

Saturday, November 7th
uva (3-5) [+13.5] at da U (6-2) noon raycom/espn-gp
Pretty much this on the guide cause I wanted a nooner and I enjoy the algroh watch. He's gone unless his team wins out, might as well watch him stand on the sideline befuddled and angry with that hoo look on his face while you can.

From BCO Pix2

Navy (6-3) at ND [-11] (6-2) 2:30 pm nbc
Navy beat Wake without passing but then lost to Temple. Wow, not making the ACC look good here. It's not a good game, like most on the list but it's possible Navy railroads the shitty Irish D and keeps it interesting. That said, ND is going to tune up that Navy D, Clausen to Tate is good for 200 yards and 2 TD's. I know ND always plays Navy, but look at this schedule and future ones ... scheduling for success. Almost 7 gimmees each year, all fat boy needs to do is get 3 wins to go to the BCS game. Cheesy.

LSU (7-1) at bammer (8-0) [-7.5] 3:30 pm cbs
Another hated $EC rivalry that has a lil extra with Nick Satan, architect of 2 LSU National championships now doing his best to ge a statue near Bear and Gene. The Tide play has been unimpressive of late but still ticking off W's. LSU has been winning unremarkably as well, but 1 loss to UF in a game where the Tiger O was shut completely down. Look for more of the same while bammer runs considerably better vs the Tigers than Florida did. The game is about talent, discipline and coaching, a push in the former and a clear advantage in the last 2. Roll Tide Roll.

dook (5-3) [+10] at UNC (5-3) 3:30 pm espnu
The winner is bowl eligible. Doook could be bowl eligible on their 9th game of the season. DAMN! Tied for first in the loss column w/GiT in the ACC Coastal. Wow. That is over VT, da U and UNC. WOW! Doook, wins this game and it sets up next week's game vs GiT as the Coastal champion. ummmm, Wow. Butch on the other hand, finally got his program's first big ACC win at the expense of my Hokies. Can he build on it or will he do what he usually does and find a way to choke on it? That UNC D is littered with NFL players, many will be starters. You'd think they'd win ... right?

From BCO Pix2

WhatwasThe Ohio State (7-2) at State Penn (8-1) [-4] 3:30 pm abc/espn
State Penn with their 2nd hard game of the year (sorry, MissAgain does not count) vs wwtOSU and their shitty, VT impersonating O, Occasionally big timing it vs bad teams but always shitty vs good ones. More of the same, State Penn will shut it down and do just enough of offense to win by a touchdown or so. wwtOSU is lucky this is not a night game or it could have get ugly.

Oregon (7-1) [-6.5] at Stanford (5-3) 3:30 pm fsn
Will the ducks let down? Can the Ducks keep playing fast? Will Stanford be more discipline vs the power/speed/downfield spread? Can stanford bludgeon UO and shorten the game? This could end up being a UO blowout or a great game going down the wire.

From BCO Pix2

f$u (4-4) [+8.5] at Klempsum (5-3) 7:45 pm espn
Down, Up, Down, Up ... that could be described as either team's season so far. So which is it? It's like a damn coin flip. Not the greatest game but one I am curious about. DE Bowers for the Tigers is out and that's a huge loss. QB Ponder is hurting but he'll play and light the world on fire ... again. If his backup, Va Beach's own E.J. Manuel comes in, it's a huge drop off and the game could become unviewable. f$u has an atrocious D, I wonder if the announcement of DC Mickey Andrews stepping down at season's end will fire em up? They better be or C.J. Spiller could very well tune 'em up.

You may ask, what about the ABC 8 o'clock game ... well that lil 3 headed monster is ..

UConn at 'nati 8:00 pm abc/espn-gp - suck ass game
OU at Nebraska 8:00 pm abc/espn-gp - decent game but hardly worthy of the time slot.
SouthernCal at zona state 8:00 pm abc/espn-gp - same as above.

Trash games at 8, blame ABC/ESPN or the season? BCO has a date night and won't be missing not watching college ball Saturday night.

From BCO Pix2

Will see some of you in Greenville, as I do a half day, drive to the game and then drive back to work again on Friday. Lonnnng day, but tailgating and BBQ from a small but well thought of place near Sunbury will make it worth it.

HokieJayBee's NFL Week 8

2009-10-30T23:08:00.002-04:00

What’s up? Week 8, NFL season 2009. Almost half done L. Although with my Hokies falling to GT and UNC, I will admit my NFL fandom percentage has increased, despite the fact that I’m a Redskin fan. Shhhhhhh. One note: Fire Bryan Stinespring.

[I] 2009 Season Stats

Season Totals:

71.13% straight up picks for your office pool (69-28)

60.00% against the spread this year on recommended plays (45-30)

54.90% over-all including the recommended no-actions (56-46)

Last week was the “Really?” edition with strong teams not playing the part against some weaker opponents. This week I pretty much have no complaints.

Thoughts for the past week:

*I went (9-4) in the straight up picks for your office pool. Not for the spread, missed Carolina, Atlanta, Chicago, and NYG to win. Don’t feel bad about Atlanta or Chicago as I had them to outright win as dogs. And I guess the Giants at least played a worthy opponent. But Carolina? Wow, you suck. You and Tennessee are now dead to me, I can’t hang on any longer knowing “you’re better than that, just had a rough schedule to start”.

*I did however make bank this week with the book. Went (8-5) overall but (7-2) against the spread on the recommended picks. For you mathematicians, that’s (1-3) in NO ACTION plays as well.

*This means two things. One, I’ll friggin take a (7-2) (77.78%) week every week on recommended plays. That’s good money. Two, I’m back to at least knowing which games to avoid. Or at least which games I might like a dog in, but it’s a good matchup so I’ll avoid it (chicken out).

*My two losses against the spread on recommended plays were caused by Houston going in cruise control too early against the Niners on a back-up QB, and by the Carolina Punters.

Season 2009, Trains I’m on:

*Peyton Manning (wow)

*Carson Palmer /Tom Brady (rehabilitation wonders)

*Steelers (this spot was the Vikings’ last week. That PITT defense is looking more like last year’s D already. One week with Troy Palomalululoulalaloumalulamoola back.)

*Saints (down 24-3 early in Miami. Psssssssssssshhhh.)

*Broncos (I admit it now. Hi, I’m HokieJayBee, and I like the Broncos. Uniforms.)

Season 2009, Trains I’m not on:

*Michael Crabtree (could be your last week on this list, drum rolllllll)

*Braylen Edwards (now the assault charges come out, lovely)

*Clinton Portis, Jason Campbell, Jim Zorn (debacle)

*Matt Forte (no longer watch list, I sold my Forte tickets this weekend.)

*Larry Johnson (now you’re anti-coach tweeting and slinging gay slurs. Classy. Joe Pa must be proud.)

Train Watch List (could be going in either the right or wrong direction):

*Tom Brady/New England (94-7 over their last two games. Of course you can’t move onto the train list for beating two winless teams in that manner, but still….)

*Joe Flacco (we’ll see this week out of the bye with undefeated Denver in town. Beware of one Elvis Dumervil.)

[II] Week 8 Picks/Comments – Enginerd Table

GAME		LINE	OFFICE POOL WINNER	SPREAD WINNER	FAVE OR DOG?	ACTION?	HEART / COMMENT	PREDICTED SCORE
1	SEA @ DAL	DAL -9.5	DAL	DAL	FAVE	YES	I don’t care about Romo and this Miles Austin guy. For Dallas opponents, I’d be more wary to see that Dallas D back and playing well. On top of that Seattle is notoriously horrible on the road, and their best O lineman is out for the year. I’m also seeing a breakout game from Jason Witten with Miles Austin getting all that attention from the safety. I would consider locking this up at -6.5, but not a lock up at -9.5.	DAL 27-16
2	HOU @ BUF	HOU -3.5	HOU	HOU	FAVE	YES	Two teams matchup here that are tough to read this year. The Bills have been playing their hearts out to try and save Dick Jauron’s job. Houston is my Jekyll and Hyde team for the year already. I’m just not seeing the Fitzpatrick led Bills scoring enough to keep up with Houston’s passing game. If Slaton doesn’t fumble, the Texans might roll big.	HOU 24-13
3	MIN @ GB	GB -3.5	MIN	MIN	DOG	NO	Great game. Favre-fest part II. At Lambeau this time. Don’t really know how I feel about this one, and I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you. I think Favre and company, getting the win in round 1 of this match in Minnesota, have less pressure to win here. I think GB is under the gun here to keep up in the division and will be tighter. I’m taking MINN to outright win on the road because the Packers still have a horrible O Line and the Vikings are still strong up front on D.	MINN 27-24 (Minnesota outright win)
4	STL @ DET	DET -3.5	DET	DET	FAVE	YES	Both these teams suck, and they’re both so littered with injuries that Vegas originally didn’t have a line out this week. I assume waiting on the status of Bulger/Stafford/Culpepper – and Calvin Johnson. Unless a solid line comes out before print time, I’m going to take Detroit at home here and take credit for a win if they win and whine about the lack of line if they lose.	DET 13-6
5	MIA @ NYJ	NYJ -3.5	MIA	MIA	DOG	NO	Another great divisional game, another chicken out. The Wildcat is in full effect, and the Jets are banged up, up front on D. The Jets have a great secondary, but Miami won’t be throwing much. And Mark Sanchez will be back home here to face a tough divisional game rather than against Oakland like last week. I see the Dolphins slowing this game down and grinding it out on the road. Either way, close game and I’m making it NO ACTION.	MIA 24-23 (Miami outright win)
6	SF @ IND	IND -12.5	IND	IND	FAVE	YES	The Colts are good. -12.5 doesn’t scare me here at home, with a West Coast team coming in on a QB switch and a banged up RB. Peyton Manning will throw for 325, 3 TD’s, no picks. Colts win.	IND 31-17
7	CLE @ CHI	CHI -13.5	CHI	CHI	FAVE	YES	How can this line be bigger than the Colt’s line? Either way I see Chicago bouncing back at home after getting smoked at Cinci last week. The Bears will be fine at home against a bad Browns team. The -13.5 worries me slightly, but I honestly can’t willingly say aloud, “I think the Browns will cover.” Because I stick to only taking 4 NO ACTION picks per week, I’m sticking action pick here with the Bears at home. This bet says more about the ineptitude of the Browns than it does about the Bears.	CHI 24-6
8	DEN @ BAL	BAL -3.5	DEN	DEN	DOG	NO	Another great great game. Despite my recent love for Denver, I can’t take them on an action pick here. With that Baltimore D coming off of a bye week, this game is going to be tight and close either way. I think Denver can win a tight game with their own big time D, but I’m still a little worried to see Kyle Orton on the road here against a tight D.	DEN 20-17 (Denver outright win)
9	JAC @ TEN	TEN -2.5	JAC	JAC	DOG	YES	When I first saw this line, I thought it was JAC -2.5, and I still was going to take the Jags. Then I noticed I read it wrong and it was TENN -2.5. Chuckle. I know TENN is coming off of a bye, but they’re in shambles. Do you think Vince Young has a decent game against JAC’s D? I don’t see them stopping Garrard and MJD enough to stay competitive, even if V Young doesn’t cost TENN the game.	JAC 20-17 (Jacksonville outright win)
10	OAK @ SD	SD -16.5	SD	SD	FAVE	YES	Wow. A 16-17 point spread in an NFL game? In a divisional game, even if it is the AFC West. And, I shy not away. San Diego rolls at home here. Oakland is bad and San Diego has to keep pace with Denver. San Diego will be focused here.	SD 27-6
11	NYG @ PHI	PHI -0.5	NYG	NYG	DOG	NO	Great game = chicken. We’ve proven that. I almost felt like tossing a coin here, but I just see the NYG going back to running, and running, and running. Philly is hurt with the lack of Brian Westbrook, so the Giants can leave an extra LB or SS in pass coverage to try and neutralize Philly’s wideouts.	NYG 24-20 (New York outright win)
12	CAR @ ARI	ARI -9.5	ARI	ARI	FAVE	YES [LOCK]	Locking up the Cardinals heading back home here after a big win at the NYG last week. Carolina is on the verge of benching Jake Delhomme and I think this loss and 3 more picks will do him in. Arizona’s D is coming into last year’s playoff form and this offense has so many weapons.	ARI 27-7
13	ATL @ NO	NO -9.5	NO	NO	FAVE	YES	New Orleans has had some big games this year. This is their first prime time game of the year, and I don’t think they’ll disappoint. Atlanta is coming off getting smoked by Dallas and I think the Saints will try and distance themselves in the division with a statement game. With 2 starters out in the Atlanta secondary as well, I don’t see New Orleans not scoring 40,…..again.	NO 40-26

--taking 5 dogs this week

-- conveniently, 4 of those 5 dogs are recommended NO-ACTION, making all 4 NO-ACTION picks a dog, again. trend?

[III] 10 or so things I think I think.

I think these are my top 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

NO – I have nothing more to say than, at no point, even when I saw 24-3 Miami this week in the second quarter, did I think for one millisecond that you would lose.
INDY – you’re playing better than New Orleans right now, but against lesser opponents.
DENV – up to #3 in my top 5? Wow. From chicken to Bronco lover. Prove me right this week in Baltimore.
NEW ENG – I don’t know what to say here. (5-2) going into the bye week, just straight stomping mud holes in people. I’m not claiming anything Super Bowl related yet, but they sure as heck ain’t losing this division to the Jets, ‘phins, or Bills.
PITT – big win this week against the Vikes. That defense looks back, and looks mean. Straight into a bye week too, to get even more healthy in the secondary.

I think these are my bottom 5 teams right now:

(After 7 weeks I’m able to start claiming there’s an order here.)

WASH – you have two more wins than some other teams in the league, but there sure as hell isn’t another organization in as bad of a place as you right now.
TAMPA – not even competitive in your losses. Quick, NFL fans out there, name the Tampa starting QB.
DET/STL – you two shitstains play this week. I guess I can move the winner off this list?
TENN – heading home this week after a bye, to host a divisional foe. Lose this and you’re looking at 0-16 or 1-15, fur reels.
CAR/OAK – I can’t decide who to put on here……I guess I’ll go with whomever benches their starting QB first. If your coach and organization are benching them and giving up, I guess I can safely list you in my bottom 5.

I think too much has already been made about Jeff Fisher of the Titans wearing a Peyton Manning jersey to a charity event. First, the charity event was for an organization for Tony Dungy (Peyton’s former coach), so it was at least a relevant player from another NFL team. Second, who cares? It’s a shirt. A friggin shirt. Maybe the Titan’s players offended their coach would wear the shirt of a rival quarterback should go out and earn some respect to get their own shirts worn in tribute, rather than whining about this.

I think sometimes you should worry less about tricking your opponents and worry more about lining up and running a play you’re good at, or have the personnel for. Bigger, better, stronger, faster. The Vikings had the ball at the Steeler 6 inch line at one point last week, 1^st and goal. And they only ran Adrian Peterson one of the three plays before kicking a field goal. Trying to run play action throws on the other two. Umm, if you’ve already conceded that you’ll kick the FG on 4^th down, no way you don’t just run the best RB in the league at the goal line three straight plays. Horrible coaching.
I think I have a new favorite wide receiver. Wes Welker is the definition of steady. 8-10 catches a game, maybe a touchdown here or there. EVERY week. Never hear him talk in the media. Never hear him whine. And my favorite part, he doesn’t try and break every play to the sidelines or risk going backwards to make a move. He makes the catch, finds the defender, finds the first down marker, and dives forward for that extra 3-yards, EVERY time he touches the ball. Solid.
I think it’s funny that when things are going well for the Bears or Giants, people love how stoic and unwavering Jay Cutler and Eli Manning look, respectively. But, when things are going bad, or more specifically when they’re running for their life with no O-line protection, those same people bitch how flabbergasted, pouty, and out of place those same QB’s look. What?!?!? That’s the same face! That’s Magnum, and Blue Steel. That’s the same face! Both these teams have bigger worries trying to stop the opposing team’s QB ripping their secondary apart than to worry about facial expressions of their QB’s in a loss.
I think I’d like to welcome back a couple pass catchers to league, or at least to point of their stats being meaningful at all. Welcome back, Chad Johnson (Ocho, Whatever) and Jeremy Shockey. Good to see you back in relevance.
I think my non-football thought of the week this week is that Major League Baseball couldn’t root for two better line-ups in their World Series. I’m not going to get into TV viewership or fan-bases or general feeling from the nation on NYY vs. PHIL – but for just two great teams with stacked line-ups meeting up – this could be a great series. Hate for either the Yanks or the Phils aside, you have to admit these two teams have a couple murderer’s rows to pitch through.
This week’s Jerome Bettis Award goes to wide receivers on both teams of the Monday Night Football game this week:

2^nd year man, 2^nd round pick, Devin Thomas catches a touchdown to bring the ‘skins within 2 (or 3?) scores. Super pre-choreographed dance ensues, to include some flying-like-a-bird motion as you run off the field. Now, I almost gave you a pass, as this was your first NFL touchdown. But I can’t. The ‘skins suck, and you’re losing a game, badly, at home, on MNF. Get to the sideline and prepare for your next drive, chump. Celebrate later with your family. 2^nd round picks have more than one TD in their 23^rd NFL game.
The second award this week is part Jerome Bettis, part Martin Grammatica award, for celebrating and hurting yourself during said celebration. So I’m not so much saying that Deshaun Jackson didn’t deserve to celebrate his second of two long TD’s last night, as much as laughing at him straining his foot doing his TD dance. He had to leave the game for x-rays/MRI’s from the little diddy. He returned for a couple plays late in the game to test out the foot and appeared to be ok, but still funny as crap. TD dance danger level > playing NFL football danger level.

This week’s Just Shut Up Award goes to Larry Johnson. I don’t even need to expound on this one. Long story short, frustrated player, anti-coach tweeting, gay slurs at reporters. Grow up, cock bag. Google “Larry Johnson Twitter” if you want to read more. My JSU Award this week is to Larry personally, but in a more broad sense these athletes need to be a little more careful with all the media outlets and technological advances now. Twitter/Facebook/etc. are not your friend.

Ruh-Roh

2009-10-29T23:22:00.003-04:00

Quick Thoughts

That sucks but having seen the D get shredded all season, not that surprised. That sorta sucks, not being surprised. This actually diminishes GiT a lil. If UNC can run on tech ....

The O

UNC played the bammer/nebraska defense with NFL quality players. This did not surprise me.
DL 2nd only to bammer in talent though no Cody, Suh type studs.
Carter is a freak.
O for 2 games in a row did not take advantage of good, early field positon.
Williams is still my boy
Get off Randall is tons better than Tyrod Taylor. Ummm, Randall midway thru his Jr year ... was not.
Decent receivers but a game breaker would be nice.

The D

UNC's OC did an amazing job attacking Bud.
Foster is trying and doing things but the team is limited.
Nekos Brown had 1 play all night, the first one.
The DT's are getting owned now by UNC (who has a below avg OL) bammer, Nebraska and GiT previously owned them. A trend.
The middle linebackers are average at best, combine that with a below avg VT DL, bad news.
Kam is not a free safety
Corners are fine as is Cody Grimm.
Really can't be argued, it shows week in and week out.

ECU will not be easy, I can easily see a loss here. Their OL, QB and RB will test the front 7 of the Hokies big time.