In
This Issue:
Current
Standings
Still the One, but for how long?
Usually, by this point in the season, one of our FBH-ers starts
to run away and hide with the overall lead. For a few weeks, it looked
like the panther-walking Rob Tringali was going to
fill the 2005 frontrunner’s role, but a new wrinkle seems to
be developing this time around. Rob still holds the lead, but jumping
up to join him are Jess “Wearing ‘The Pants’
to pick now, are we?” Ruble and Jame “Monkey
Trouble” Howell. As we near Week 9’s halfway
mark, the members of the lead pack are at least 4 games ahead of the
rabble but all within 3 of each other. Nice work, folks.
Baseball Trey is the only one in the top 10 who hasn’t
gotten a shout out so far so here it is…Wassup, dawg?
With last week’s comments being pre-empted by the annual
Halloween issue, I think I showed an impressive degree of restraint
by not e-mailing everyone to announce that I had escaped last place.
With 18 wins in the last 2 weeks, I’ve pulled ahead of not only
Wouter “Baloe” Van Zutphen but also Jeff
“Beer Nuts” Burns. Fair warning; I’m coming
after the rest of you. Next stop, .500!
Week 8 standouts were: 10 wins -- Baseball Trey,
Beth “Mrs. Bartman” Wong and Scott
“Bull” Conner; 11 wins – James,
and the Banners, Becky and Dyalan (who all lost on
Pittsburgh on MNF).
Week 7 overachievers were: 10 wins – AB “Hokie”
Halstead, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Yeager,
Ken “No, we don’t do everything together”
Davis and your beloved Commish; and taking
the cake with the best result of the season, a spectacular 12-2, was
the lovely and talented Miss Jess.
(Almost)
Halftime Report
Points, but not Extra Points
As we’re nearing the halfway point in the season, it seemed
like a time to take a break from my typical Jets- and Cowboys-based
diatribes to have a look around the entire league. (Sorry Arizona
Cardinal fans, still no soup for you, though.)
In many ways, my FBH record for example, this has been a bizzaro season.
Teams who were expected to dominate, instead, hibernate. Surprise
performers emerge from the discount racks or rookie packaging. Okay,
maybe you figured Houston would be 1-6 by now. You may even have guessed
Green Bay was due for a down year. But who would have figured:
• Defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles have been plagued
by horrible starts this season, especially when they travel. In the
first quarter of road games this year, they have been outscored 55-0.
Last week at Denver, QB Donovan McNabb began with 12 incomplete passes
and an interception (and you do not want to get Bronco fans going
on the “IN-COM-PLETE!” bandwagon). Overall, Philly is
in last place in the NFC East at 4-3 and one of those wins was thanks
to a miracle blocked FG returned for a TD with 3 minutes to go.
• Tampa Bay would start out 5-1, then lose to 1-5 San Francisco.
(If you picked SF last week, I’m giving you a demerit.)
• New Orleans would start out 2-6. Okay, I’m guessing
none of you predicted major US cities would need to be evacuated either.
• Chicago tied for first in the NFC Central, while Minnesota
is 2-5.
• The Packers have scored 158 points and given up 139 points
but have a 1-6 record.
• Baltimore (2-5) is looking up at the first-place, 6-2 Bengals.
• New England, despite being atop the AFC East, has looked anything
but dominant, no matter how many ads Tom Brady’s in.
• Drew Bledsoe is the #1 rated QB in the NFC.
• The Jets are in last place at 2-5 and the Giants are in first
place at 5-2
• Speaking of the G-Men, Eli Manning has more TD passes (13)
than his brother Peyton (11). (Well, hey so does Mark Brunell (12),
for that matter.) In fact, the Giants lead the NFL in points scored
with 209.
• Speaking of the Jets, Chad Pennington, who played his last
game in September, still leads the team in TD passes. While we’re
at it, Chargers RB Ladanian Tomlinson has more TD passes than any
Jets QB and more overall TDs than the entire Jets team. Grrrr…
Now, a few words about the 7-0 Indy Colts and their prospects for
the second undefeated season in NFL history. Indy is #1 in lowest
points allowed so far with 77 (just ahead of Chicago with 81 and TB
with 87). Tony Dungy, one of the NFL’s top defensive minds,
has finally had a chance to build his defense up (like he did in Minnesota
and Tampa Bay) but this time from scratch. Despite playing seven offensively-challenged
opponents so far, the Colts Defense is playing lights out. It almost
makes us forget what the team can do on the other side of the ball,
almost.
So will they go undefeated? No way. I’m not saying that because
I’m a Miami Dol-fan, either. The NFL league it just too tough
and balanced. Even an average opponent can beat the best team on any
given Sunday. In the history of pro football, only 36 teams have started
a season with seven wins. And thirteen of those teams lost their 8th
game.
Indy’s schedule to this point has been softer than Zsa Zsa’s
fur. Their past opponents have a combined record of 17-34 and only
one team (Jacksonville) has a winning record (4-3). The only two Colts
wins with “street cred” came at 2-5 Baltimore in week
1 and vs. Jacksonville in week 2.
The rest of Indy’s season string is not so kind. Expect them
to win the much-publicized trip to Foxborough this Monday night, but
road games in Cincy, Jacksonville and Seattle plus home games against
Pittsburgh and San Diego loom.
I’m not saying Indy is not the favorite to win it all this season.
Nor am I saying they are not good enough to win against all of their
remaining opponents. They just have too many good teams left to play
for one not to come out on top, at least once, in the remaining two
months of the season.
So, if Indy wins the AFC, who wins the NFC? That is a helluva question.
I’ll admit to not even having a good gut feeling on that one.
Right now, it’s down to about a half-dozen teams. All right,
I'll go ahead and say it. Cowboys: NFC Champs. If I'm wrong, sue me.
NFL
Happenings
Halftime-ish
We're
half way-ish through the NFL season, and what more can be said about
the season so far that Roy hasn't just said? For me, the 2nd half
of the season will be like watching the World Series: My team ain't
in it, so I'm just gonna sit back, and enjoy the drama of whatever
happens.
Last
week's cop-out PPP question asked "How disappointed are you
that I can't come up
with a new question for the PPP this week"? As it turns
out, there are several (7) of you out there who feel that [Your]
"life means nothing without the PPP". That's so sweet.
The PPP and I are flattered. Two people declared they were "mildly
disappointed", while 3 others said they could "live
without it for one week". One person said that he or she
"ignores it every week, so who cares". That's just
mean. But 4 of you got it right when you responded with "What's
the PPP?" That is such a Zen-like answer. Just what is
the PPP? That's a question I ask myself every week. And this past
week, I didn't have an answer.
Extra
Points
Maybe the best 3 minutes in Football Happenings?
[
What about that Halloween retrospective Ralphie put together last
week? Fantastic! I had almost forgotten about the “Bob as the
Hockey Streaker” photos. Great theater!
[
For those of you who have forgotten the details of the fated streaker’s
saga, he did, indeed, navigate the treacherous Plexiglas boards and
make it down to ice level without personal damage. Soon after he began
running, however, he fell (guess those socks didn’t provide
enough traction) and hit his head, thereby knocking himself unconscious.
His night still ended with a flourish though, being strapped to a
medical backboard in his altogether in front of thousands of fans.
Who says Canadians are boring, eh?
[
Speaking of hockey, the “New NHL” games seem to be more
up-tempo, but I’ll admit being slow on the uptake about coming
back into the fold. Because I consider myself a fairly devoted hockey
fan, I’m not sure why I’m having that reaction. The Dallas
Stars have started the season well enough, I suppose, despite the
appearance of some uneven commitment to winning puck battles. My childhood
team, The New York Rangers, is even playing well. (It’s still
strange to think that they have Jagr…) I suppose to truly enjoy
hockey, it requires an emotional investment and I’m feeling
a bit bruised in that area after the lockout. Or, it’s just
that I’ve replaced hockey with “America’s Top Model”
in my TV viewing schedule (Isn’t Jayla such the major bee-otch?).
I guess it’s going to take them some time…
[
Wasn’t that the most exciting four-game World Series ever?!
All well-played games – each one a nail-biter. And I don’t
want to offend, but it was National League style, my personal favorite
brand of action. It would be nice if Houston, which has a large nucleus
of young players, is back to win it in the near future, this time
sans Clemens.
[
Most bizarre occurrence in this year’s fall classic? Unruly
White Sox fans taunting the Astros Wives, at times using obscenities.
Though regrettable, that might be expected. Where it gets weird is
one male fan actually slapped Patty Biggio (wife of Houston’s
Craig Biggio) and ran away! What this feckless villain did not know,
however, was Patty is a Jersey girl and she chased him down. Tom
“Wolfman” LeDuc had the best remark on the situation
(I’ll try to be as faithful to the original quote without the
benefit of notes): “Being married to a Jersey Girl myself, I’m
surprised the guy didn’t draw back a bloody stump.”
[
There was also some call among our little e-mail group to allow Patty
to exact revenge by chasing the offender around in her Camaro with
her big hair jutting out of the T-tops.
[
Too bad for Patty it wasn’t A-Rod trying to slap her –
being the post-season, in all probability, he would have swung and
missed.
[
Fantasy Football update: After 8 weeks in the NFL European Fantasy
2005 League, The Glasgow Fightin’ Haggis (Ken and me)
is tied for first place with the Belgian Beer Nuts (Jeff “Boo-urns”
Burns) with 6-2 records. Those miserable Belgian bastards
took us to task in week 7, winning 80-60 but we vow to have vengeance
in the playoffs! Will “Ryker” Wong’s
Venetian Blinds has the highest point total so far (and is one game
off the lead), while defending champion Boobie’s
“Stinky French Cheese” is pulling up the rear, having
suffered along with his QB Daunte Culpepper’s star-crossed season.
Sacre bleu!
[
Rutgers held serve for homecoming last weekend, defeating Navy 31-21
and, thereby, improving to 6-2 on the year. RU hopes to further solidify
its bowl game berth hopes by defeating Big East conference-mate South
Florida this Saturday. Although The SFU Bulls have a 3-3 record, they
are ranked above the Scarlet Knights in the Sagarin Index and should
represent a stiff challenge. After that, RU faces two more Big East
opponents, traveling to Louisville to face the favored Cardinals before
hosting the underdog Cincinnati Bearcats. It’s not hyperbole
to state that the coming weeks are literally among the most important
in Rutgers football history. So get your saddle shoes, bear skin coat,
megaphone and pennant out of moth balls and root, root, root for the
Knights!
