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NFL YTD: 9-5-2 last week

The advent of week 2 has the league swirling in controversy yet again with the big story being accusations of spying/cheating by the New England Patriots. Lost in the fray is the minor miracle of Bills backup TE Kevin Everett slowly regaining some sensations throughout his body. Also forgotten is the overall sloppiness of the play throughout the league. The belief that at this point in the season, the offense is behind the defense holds some water, but in my opinion, the combination of an unnecessarily long preseason and the fear of injuries leads to a long layoff between exhibition games and regular season games. As a result, the starters who should be protected, are yet instead visibly rusty when its time to play.

Week 2 picks:

Houston +6.5 @ Carolina

Atlanta +10 @ Jacksonville

Indianapolis -7 @ Tennessee

San Francisco+3 @ St. Louis

Green Bay pk @ New York Giants

Buffalo +9.5 @ Pittsburgh

Cincinnati @ Cleveland +6.5

New Orleans @ Tampa Bay +3.5

Minnesota +3 @ Detroit

Dallas -3.5 @ Miami

Seattle -3 @ Arizona

New York Jets +10 @ Baltimore

Kansas City +12 @ Chicago

Oakland +10 @ Denver

San Diego +3.5 @ New England

Washington @ Philadelphia -6.5

Finally! The NFL is here, and that means an end to a whole summer of speculation, Michael Vick, and the stagnant baseball pennant race.

At press time, the Thursday Night Opening Kickoff game between the Colts and the Saints only served as a reminder that the defending champs, are a force to be reckon with. Though everyone is ready to anoint the reloaded New England Patriots as the next champs, I contend that the Colts remain the favorite until further notice.

On the flip side, I truly believe the NFC Champs, the Chicago Bears will take a step back this year, with the loss of their top RB, and the fact that they are still left with the wildly erratic Rex Grossman.

Of course I will be rooting on my favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys to go deep into the playoffs this year, but objectively I see a healthy Seattle Seahawks team playing in that weak NFC to contend strongly. The Cowboys lost the architect of their current team, Bill Parcells to retirement in favor of 3-4 defensive guru, Wade Phillips who has the enviable job of returning America’s Team (arguable) to the glory of a Super Bowl Championship. They return a stout defensive team with slight question marks to the secondary, and depth at nose tackle. Offensively, they are loaded at all the skills position and have added size and strength to the offensive line. Of course, the Cowboys will go as far as their pivot, QB Tony Romo. I look for Romo to lead this team to prosperity in his 2nd year as a starter and put behind him the memory of that infamous field goal bobble that cost the Boys’ playoff game last year against the Seahawks.

In the AFC, I don’t see anyone nearly to the standard as the Colts and the Patriots are in terms of quality of the QB leading the team, a solid running game, strong D, and two exceptional coaches. Attributes that the other teams could not boast. So with those two slugging it out, I believe the Colts will do enough to get by T. Brady and the Patriots. Super Bowl Pick: Indianapolis Colts vs. Dallas Cowboys (a TV network’s ratings fantasy come true)

Week 1 picks considered with a spread system. (ahem) That is if gambling were legal outside of Nevada:

*Picks in bold with spread.

New Orleans +6 @ Indianapolis (note: made this pick before seeing how the Colts seemed to be better off without both starting CBs from last year’s team who were let go. Their replacements played solid, and the run D looked very strong against the combo of Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister.)

Denver @ Buffalo +3

Miami @ Washington -3

Cleveland +4.5 @ Pittsburgh

Tennessee @ Jacksonville -6.5

Kansas City @ Houston -3

Philadelphia @ Green Bay +3

Carolina @ St. Louis -1

Atlanta +3 @ Minnesota

New England -6 @ New York Jets

Tampa Bay @ Seattle -6

Detroit +1.5 @ Oakland

Chicago @ San Diego -6

New York Giants @ Dallas -5.5

Baltimore @ Cincinnati -2.5

Arizona @ San Francisco -3

Holocaustal canine crimes committed by a strong-armed, fleet-footed public figure, hardwood arbitrators guilty of racketeering, rampant chemical substance abuse amongst genetically altered giant headed freaks, and a video game icon’s namesake gone insane inciting a bloody melee in a secluded establishment that specializes in exhibiting unclad gyrating females.

With the right negative spin, any story can make headlines and cloud the world of sports. From Michael Vick’s infamous dog-fighting controversy, to the NBA referee betting scandals, to steroid abuse in baseball, and to Pacman Jones’ strip club shootings; it’s a wonder why anyone watches sports anymore. Lost in the mix, everyone conveniently forgets that all athletes/referees are humans, men capable of mistakes and temptations. Sports ideally should be nothing more than entertainment. A past-time designed to be an outlet from the problems of the world, devoid of politics and the under-handed tactics of corporate America. Yet here we are, swirling in storms of controversy, politics and business acumen driven by money. The summer of 2007 shrouded by a few bad men couldn’t end soon enough.

Yet when we as fans, leave the problems to the lawyers, the bickering to the radio shock jocks, the slandering to the columnists, and the opinions to the rabid arm-chair QBs filling up their blogs with endless banter (wink wink); sports is what it ultimately is. Sports becomes an excuse to gather with your friends and cheer on your favorite teams, or even root against much hated rivals. Sports becomes comradery, be it between buddies, family, or even strangers. There is nothing quite like a dozen postpubescent college boys gather around a 13 inch television in a tiny dorm room just to see Dirk Nowitski (before he spoke fluent English), Steve Nash (when he was known more for his atrocious moppy hair than his MVP-caliber game), and Michael Finley (before he was a role player, but instead an everyday starter playing heavy minutes) upend the Utah Jazz (when they still had John Stockton and Karl Malone). Standing in line 3 hours before kickoff among thousands of other collegiate drunks at 9am just to see a football game is well worth it especially when you are a part of 50,000 fans crowded in Jones Stadium (before it was Jones AT&T Stadium) screaming and cheering for an exciting football game. In the end, you realize sports in general is bigger than anyone, any one individual. It is a concept borne of competition, sportsmanship; a bonding experience indescribable until you taste the thrill of winning, and the sour disappointment of losing.

When we leave the adult problems of the world outside the lines, we are left with just the game, meant to be played as boys play it in neighborhoods all over America. At it’s purest form, sports is nothing more than kids playing catch, pickup games, and backyard two-below with the only goal being to win, have fun, and maybe pick up some scars along the way. Chicks dig scars.

Week 2 of the young NCAA football season concluded with 3 things clearly evident in my opinion: the University of Southern California, Louisiana State University, and Oklahoma University are clearly head and shoulders above everyone else in the college football world. By default, USC is still number one, but much is still desired to be seen from them after their bye week. This weekend’s much anticipated matchup against Nebraska will shed some more light on how much longer USC can hold off the rapidly rising LSU Tigers, fresh off of two dominating wins against Mississippi State and Virginia Tech, respectively. No other team so far in short a time has made more noise than the Tigers, playing tough D (allowing ONLY 7 total points so far), and putting up 40+ per game. OU on the other hand, endured a tough 2006 season that began with their starting QB being kicked off the team, peaking with the NCAA admitting the officials jobbed them out of a win at Oregon, and ultimately ending with being on the wrong end of a Statue of Liberty play against the smurf turf upstarts of Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. More uncertainty surrounded the Sooners at the beginning of the season when their starting QB job was still up for grabs days before the first game. Behind redshirt freshmen Sam Bradford and their stout defense, the Sooners exceeded expectations by dismantling mid-major North Texas, and proceeded to blow out the Miami Hurricanes (a shell of their former selves) making a strong deserved case to be number 3 behind USC and LSU. Keep an eye on WR Malcolm Kelly, Bradford’s accuracy and continued growth will only pad the stats of possibly the best wide receiver in the country (well other than Crabtree of course, see below).

For the sake of sanity, we won’t even touch on the circus that is Notre Dame and Michigan. As for the rest of the top 25, only the defending champs, the Florida Gators, and the high octaned California Bears stand out in my mind as strong candidates to make strong pushes for a BCS bowl and/or even the National Championship game. The Texas Longhorns do not look as strong with noted concerns in the secondary, but the gritty win over TCU last weekend will go a long way towards building momentum and confidence for their annual Red River Rivalry vs. OU on October 6th. West Virginia’s cupcake schedule highlighted by their recent win 48-23 over the lowly Marshall Thundering Herd (a closer game than the score indicates as Marshall led for large chunks of the game) does not impress me enough to consider them BCS contenders even though they have a good chance to run the table. Same old story though, doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, the BCS is infamously controversial in placing undeserving teams on the big stage vs. snubbing out other unlucky schools. However controversy begets conversation, and thus is a perfect seed for overly opinionated football junkies to have something else to gripe about ;) Continuing along the lines of mediocrity, Louisville’s explosive offense has not missed a step with head coach Bobby Petrino’s departure to the NFL to coach the Atlanta Falcons. They have scored 73 and 58 respectively in their first two games, problem is their D gave up 42 against Middle Tennessee. Not a good formula for a potential contender when you are vastly unbalanced on both sides of the ball.

Nevertheless, if you don’t give a hoot about balanced football, strong defense, or even a solid running game, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are your best ticket for a high scoring game where there’s a better chance of seeing drunk TTU students removing steel benches from their OWN stadium than seeing a handoff to a RB. You could make a case for Hawaii having a more exciting offense, but:

1) Hawaii plays their home games at 11pm or 12am midnight on Saturdays, and that’s sadly become past my bedtime, so I don’t get to watch them as often.

2) Their schedule is easier than my last (err well you get idea).

3) (Speaking of easy) The Rainbow Warriors’ shamelessly whoring out QB Colt Brennan for the Heisman Trophy is mildly annoying if only for the fact that their D is atrocious and their level of competition allows Brennan to put up ridiculous numbers that are basely skewed.

4) While saying you got whaled on by a team called the “Rainbow Warriors” is plenty fun, that’s nothing compared to saying, “you’ve got crabs” after getting burned by the Red Raider’s newest wideout sensation, Michael Crabtree.

5) I am a homer and realize we are no different than Hawaii in our reliance on our passing game due to our mediocre D and lack of effort to have a running game. However we play in substantially tougher conference which (should) qualify our quality of play.

However I could imagine the Vegas lines for a potential Bowl game matchup between Hawaii and Texas Tech to have the totals around 120.5 or so.

I’d still take the over. :)