NFL Championship Game Preview: ABF--Anyone But Favre

Well, here we are. One Afternoon of football away from figuring out who will be playing on football's biggest stage.

Jets vs. Colts

The Jets are definitely the surprise team of the playoffs. I keep picking them to lose. However, they keep winning. The have a coach who is on the complete opposite of the Subway diet (Rex Ryan), they have a rookie quarterback who didn't exactly light the world on fire (Mark Sanchez). They almost didn't even make the playoffs.

The Colts have been the dominant AFC team this year. If they would have gone for perfection and not let Curtis Painter play a half against the Jets, the playoff structure would look much different and the Jets wouldn't even be here. Originally, I thought bad karma would catch up to the Colts here and they would lose the AFC Championship game. That was assuming San Diego won their match-up against the Jets. While Peyton Manning isn't mister big game, his superior skill and extensive playoff experience should be enough to get past a Jets team that hasn't been this far in over a decade.

Colts 31 Jets 10

Saints vs. Vikings

Should be the more interesting of the two games. The Saints are looking to get to their first Super Bowl..........ever. The last time the Saints were in the NFC Championship Game they got clobbered by the Bears. Three years later and they get another chance against another team that I despise (Vikings) and their starting QB who has gone from my favorite player to least favorite player in two short and tumultuous years. While the spot for my favorite NFL team will NEVER be up for grabs, the Saints have a chance to be my second favorite team by bringing the Vikings season to a bitter end.

The last time Brett Favre got this far in the playoffs, the Packers had every chance to win but ultimately failed when a threw an interception RIGHT AT a second string player from the Giants. Point being Brett Favre has been the opposite of clutch for the past 12+ years. That and the Vikings always find ways to not win games, Saints in a rout.

Saints 56 Vikings 10

Sports/Music Crossover: Soundgarden

Well, considering it is Monday, I was going to preview the week's NBA Action. However, I totally spaced out and didn't realize that there was an NBA triple-header today. My Bad.

However, I am going to run a column whose concept has been floating around in my head for the last couple weeks. Ever since the announcement that one of the more prominent 90s Seattle Grunge Bands Soundgarden is planning to get back together after a 12 year hiatus. Time to vaguely connect some of their songs to what's going on in the Sports World.

"Power Trip"--Me being 1-0 in Vegas

Last weekend was my first time in going to Las Vegas. Normally, I don't gamble or bet on sports but under the thinking of When In Vegas combined with the Bucks playing Golden State on Friday, I decided to place a wager on the game.

It didn't look good at first considering the Bucks were giving 3 1/2 points and they were down by as many as 13 at one point. Fortunately for myself and the Bucks this ended up being a smart investment as the defense-optional Warriors folded and the Bucks won by 9, doing more than enough to cover in the process.

"Ugly Truth"--Brett Favre/Vikings

In light of the Vikings rout over Romo and the Cowboys, the Ugly Truth is that the Vikings are one win away from winning the Super Bowl and two wins away from what would be by far the worst sports fan moment in my life. To see Favre and his disloyalty be rewarded with a Super Bowl victory......Drew Brees seriously needs to step up not only for the Saints but for the state of Wisconsin as well.

"Outshined"--UC Davis Basketball

A couple weeks ago, I was randomly surfing the internet and saw that ESPNU was airing a UC Davis basketball game against UCSB the next night. Not only was it a chance to see a basketball game between colleges located in two cities that I had visited the week before, it was a chance to see the college I went to on national TV (it might have been the late game on ESPNU with like 2 other people watching...but I gotta take what I can get)

Thinks didn't look too bad in the first half as the Aggies and Gauchos were tied at halftime despite sloppy play on both ends. Then the second half happened. Then that tie game turned into a 20-point deficit. Fail.

"Rusty Cage"--Chargers

The Chargers had lots of time off between the end of the regular season and their fail against the Jets. They must have been extremely rusty since they somehow found a way to lose to what has got to be one of the worst, most mediocre teams to ever make a conference championship game.

"Half"--Tim Tebow

When will Tim Tebow's Super Bowl Ad run? First Half, Second Half or Halftime? Either way, finding out that Tim Tebow will be in a Super Bowl ad is not something I consider good news. The last time I was watching a live event involving Tim Tebow, things did not end very well for me. I thought we had seen the last of him (for now) but he gets one more high profile spot before he becomes the next Ryan Leaf. I just hope this isn't used as an excuse for announcers to replace a given team's name with Tebow on their scoreboard. I hope they don't randomly show him randomly screaming from the stands and then cutting away to someone's defense coming on to the field. I hope i'm not dumb enough to drink every time the word Tebow is mentioned......again.

"Black Hole Sun"--2010 Royals

Wow, Dayton Moore really wants to be known as the most inept General Manager in baseball. He has taken great strides to get this title with some of the players he is bringing on to his team in 2010. With stars such as Scott Podsednik and Brian Anderson I don't see how the Royals are going to take the baseball world by storm. They even signed 3-time all star Jason Kendall to a two-year contract. I don't know how this could possibly go wrong. Oh wait, yes I can.

"Never Named"--Packers-Cardinals Playoff Game

With Arizona finally having that habit of giving up 45 a game catch up to them, we should reflect on the bizarre, wild playoff game the week before and come up with a nick-name for it. Should it be the "Defense Optional" game, the "51-45" game, the "facemask-no call" game or is there a better name for it?

"Zero Chance"--Jets

Or what it looked like they had. A month back, it looked doubtful they would even make the playoffs. Somehow, they are now a win away from the Super Bowl. They catch a few breaks here, a Colts team resting for the playoffs, a Bengals team that tanked because they didn't want to face the Texans, a Bengals team that no showed in the playoffs, a Chargers team undone by some bad kicking (and the accompanying tactless Wikipedia edits) and now they face the Colts team that rested everyone early that allowed this snowball chain of events to start. But c'mon they have Mark Sanchez at QB, they still got zero chance.

NFL Divisional Preview: Who Knows, maybe i'll correctly pick a game this week

So, last weekend's Wild Card ending was soul-crushing in so many ways. For the second time in three years, the Packers end their season by losing a game in OT......but the show must go on

Cardinals vs. Saints

Hey, the Cardinals are who we thought they were, The Packers defense took the weekend off and handed it to them. The Saints are struggling but anytime you got Drew Brees at QB you have a chance to light up the scoreboard. Plus both of these teams are equally capable of being utterly incompetent on the defensive end. The Packers and Cardinals may have combined to break a bunch of playoff records last weekend. I wouldn't be shocked to see those same records being broken this weekend. Definitely a lot of potential for an Arena Football Style score.

Saints 70 Cardinals 56

Ravens vs. Colts

Not sure which direction I want to take here. I'm still not sold on the Ravens being Super Bowl bound despite their win over New England. The Colts are way more talented but since their starters haven't gotten serious playing time in almost a month, they probably won't bring their A-game. Colts ain't going all the way but they at least live to see another week.

Colts 28 Ravens 14

Cowboys vs. Vikings

It would be totally sweet if these teams could lose to each other. There is absolutely nothing redeemable or likable about either team and their QBs (Romo and Favre). A match-up between two QBs who horribly under perform in the clutch, either way whoever wins is getting ambushed by the Saints. Since Tony Romo has never held the Packers hostage I will begrudgingly pick him to win his second playoff game.

Cowboys 17 Vikings 10

Jets vs. Chargers

So they Jets have a nice little win streak going and somehow found their way to the second round. They were playing a team from Cincinnati which these days is a victory for the opposing team regardless of it's the NFL (see above), College Football (my body is probably still mad at me for this one) or College Hoops (i've seen Cincinnati's basketball team choke in the clutch twice in the last week in a half while working out at the gym).

In addition to being immensely more talented, the Chargers have played so well, they couldn't lose even if they wanted to. Another advantage for San Diego is they play the weakest team that made it to the second round.

Chargers 35 Jets 21

What I found most important about the weekend in football

Things I drew from the weekend of action:

Packers Win, Bears Lose, Vikings Lose (Finally)

There's not much that can be drawn from the Packers win today. The fact that the Packers blew out the Browns 31-3, Rodgers had a good game, Ryan Grant got 148 yards but they were playing the Browns so that was to be expected. The Packers now sit at 4-2 but playing the Lions and Browns aren't the best barometers for whether this team is a contender or pretender. We'll get a better answer when the Packers have their highly anticipated rematch against the Vikings.

Coming into Sunday's Bears-Bengals game there was the sub-plot of Cedric Benson alleging that he was blackballed by the Bears and that this caused it to take longer for him to get his second chance. Regardless of whether or not these allegations are true, Benson made the Bears pay by racking up 189 yards and helping the Bengals blow out the Bears 45-10

Well....it was a matter of when...the Vikings finally lost to the Steelers. Brett Favre started to show signs of being in last-season form by throwing a 4th quarter-pick six to close out the game.

49ers QB Controversy Brewing:

Going into today, it was a given that Shaun Hill had a grip on the 49ers QB job and Alex Smith was penciled in as one of the biggest draft busts in the past few years. Well, thats not how things looked today. After a terrible first half, Hill was benched and Alex Smith was given a chance to see what he could do. While he didn't bring the Niners all the way back...he threw 3 second half TDs turned a sure-fire blowout into a game that was interesting up until the final minute.......

Withe the 49ers struggling, it should be interesting to see how this affects the rest of their season. Does Shaun Hill get another chance to make something out of the football season or does Alex Smith get a shot of redemption?

Saints keep on keeping on:

For a while, it looked like the Dolphins were going to pull off a major upset against the undefeated Saints. However, the Saints demonstrated an ability to play through adversity and from behind to keep their record unblemished.

College Football Thoughts:

TCU won yesterdays only game between two top-20 teams by destroying BYU yesterday. They were (somewhat) awarded by the BCS rankings by bypassing Boise State to get to 6th in the BCS rankings.......also their victory over Clemson looks better after Clemson upset the Hurricanes

Still the BCS rankings weren't good to the TCUs/Boise's of the world. TCU is ranked behind an Iowa team (that squeaked by a perennially average Michigan State team) and a 1-loss USC team that lost to an improving but still mediocre Washington Squad......Boise took care of business and they were "awarded" by being dropped to 7th...............much of this talk is probably counter-productive as the championship game is likely to be Texas vs. Alabama/Florida

Well......Game 6 of the ALCS is about to start..........here's to a good game and the Angels forcing a 7th game

Lots of stuff to talk about.....some NFL, some BCS, some Playoffs?!

Alright, so Saturday was a pretty busy sports day where the Angels-Yankees game overshadowed a pretty good slate of college football games. Today was a strong follow up to yesterday but with no one particular event overshadowing the crowd......my observations from the day in sports

The Saints can and will beat anyone in the league

Going into today, the one non-Packers game that I anticipated the most was the Giants-Saints game. Both teams were undefeated and the upper-hand in the NFC was at hand. The Saints ended up winning the game 48-27. The final score does not do service to how one-sided this affair was. Dree Brews and Marques Colston had their way with the Giants defense. It is scary how good the Saints are with their high-octane offense complemented by a competent defense. At this point, I wouldn't be shocked if the Saints go marching to their first Super Bowl this year.

The Vikings have got to lose at some point.......

The Vikings were thiiiissss close to choking in the 4th quarter against the Ravens. The Vikings D had a bad breakdown in the 4th allowing the Ravens to get back into the game. Joe Flacco had an excellent game and deserved to win this one. If only their kicker would have made the last-second field goal. Still, there is no way Favre keeps up his strong performance this year.....they've narrowly escaped defeat twice and their defense hasn't exactly been top-shelf.

The First BCS Standings are out.....

The top 3 are Florida-Alabama-Texas as expected. While the voters are stretching to place less deserving one-loss teams to pass Boise State on a weekly basis (USC replacing Virginia Tech in this regard)....I was glad to see Boise State being 4th in the BCS standings.....they were dropped to 6th in the AP despite winning their game last week......seriously if two of the top 3 lose, Boise stays undefeated but Boise gets passed up by a 1-loss team...that will only escalate the calls for a playoff.......weak conference or not...if a non-BCS team is one of two teams to run the table they at least deserve a chance to prove they are worthy of winning a national championship....

Whatever dignity the Titans had left is gone....

The first few weeks of the season the Titans were 0-3 but they were at least competitive in their losses. The last couple weeks, things had gotten progressively worse. Today, they bottomed out. I didn't know it was physically impossible to give up 5 touchdowns in a quarter in an NFL game but the Titans proved it was possible today. This is the thing you normally see when Florida schedules some cupcake 1-AA team...........seriously, when I saw that New England went up 45-0 scrolling across the bottom of my tv....I pretty much did a double take.....this goes to prove that any given year a team can go from 13-wins to a laughing stock and vice versa.....

At least today...the Dodgers weaker pitching staff is coming back to bite them

When I previewed the Dodgers-Phillies NLCS series, the one thing that stuck out to me is the discrepancy between pitching staffs. The Dodgers had been getting by on Randy Wolf, Vicente Padilla, etc. However, when your facing Cliff Lee in the playoffs, you can only go so far. The Dodgers started Hiroki Kuroda started and abruptly got rocked for 6 runs in 1 1/3 innings....as a result, the Dodgers have had no realistic shot to go up 2-1 in the NLCS...that combined with the Dodgers offense no-showing leaves the Phils up 8-0 in the 8th and the Dodgers moving one-step closer to having their season ended by the Phils.........

What is it with NFC teams losing to the laughingstocks of the NFL

This is something the Redskins have turned into an art-form. They have found ways to lose to the Chiefs, Lions and Panthers.........not exactly the most imposing schedule. But their divisional rival Eagles one-upped them this week by losing to the Raiders. The Raiders haven't shown this much fight since Tom Cable confronted his assistant in the pre-season. The Eagles may still have a winning record at 3-2 but any team that loses to the Raiders can NOT be taken seriously and from here I see the Eagles joining the Redskins in irrelevancy this year......and for the Redskins, their bad loss puts Jim Zorn one step closer to getting fired........

Sports/Music Crossover Column: Alice In Chains

Just recently, one of my favorite bands from the 90s, Alice In Chains released their first album since the mid-90s. You all know what this means.....time for another Sports/Music Crossover column where I use songs from Alice In Chains to discuss recent developments in the sports world that I want to discuss but not necessarily devote an entire post to with that it's time to rock out

"Down In A Hole"--Winless NFL Teams Browns, Titans, Chiefs, Panthers, Buccaneers and Rams

Well these teams are down in a hole for sure. 4 weeks into the NFL season and they are yet to win a game. Some of these teams are a victim of bad luck (Titans) others are in legitimate danger of being the second 0-16 team in NFL history (Rams, Chiefs, Browns) but all have the common theme of this being a lost season. For these teams they are unlikely to be talking about playoffs and probably talking about who they can draft to turn around their fortunes in 2010.

"A Little Bitter"-- Myself after Monday's Packers-Vikings game

I can take the multiple retirements. I would have eventually forgiven the Jets stint. This is the culmination of one of the most unforgivable acts in sports. When Favre signed with the Vikings I thought to myself it's okay he's got nothing left, the Vikings will be terrible anyways....well the Vikings are 4-0 Favre schooled the Packers D...and it looks like for the second straight season one aspect of the Packers (the O-Line) is going to doom a talented team to a terrible season. On the bright side 3/4ths of the season is still left the Packers have a bye week to recover and if recent history holds up.....the interception parade will eventually begin in Minnesota.

"Lying Season"--Dez Bryant-- failure to disclose interaction with Deion Sanders

Well this officially ends Oklahoma States one chance at greatness. Dez Bryant was THE star player of an Oklahoma State team that was supposed to have its coming out party. Instead, Dez Bryant doesn't disclose/lies about meeting with Deion Sanders and he is now ineligible to play. For Oklahoma State it's back to another few decades of going 7-5 and playing meaningless bowl games two days after Christmas. On a personal note, it puts my fantasy team in flux as he was one of my best players and I have to scramble to find someone to replace his production.

"Got Me Wrong"--Philip Hughes/Yankees Bullpen

So this morning I finished my post previewing the Yankees-Twins series. In this post I gave the edge to the Twins bullpen and didn't speak too positively of the Yankees bullpen beyond Mariano Rivera. A funny thing happened, I go to the gym and the Yankees-Twins game is on, Hughes comes in the 7th inning in a 6-2 game with 2 men on Mauer on Deck facing Orlando Cabrera, they get into an epic match-up where Cabrera is fouling off pitch after pitch....and Hughes strikes out Cabrera on a 3-2 count....effectively stopping the Twins best opportunity to get back into the game.....for at least a day Hughes has proven me wrong.

"Over Now"-- MLB Regular Season

As always it was a fun ride but all things come to an end eventually. For me 2009 will be remembered for a few things. 1) MLB Networks rookie and breakout season. 2) My first extended encounter with MLB.tv.........probably one of the greatest innovations in recent memory and 3) Stunned that Braden Looper somehow led the Brewers in wins 4) Zach Greinke's amazing season.....I don't care how bad the Royals are, Greinke deserves the Cy Young Award 5) Pablo Sandoval's breakout season........it's not every year a player comes through that can go yard off of pitches that aren't even close to being strikes.....

"So Close"--Tigers/Braves

To the teams who got their playoff hopes crushed last. To the Tigers....you were up 7 games in September....even worse, your going to be mentioned in the same sentence as the '07 Mets.....OUCH.

To the Braves...you kicked it into high gear too late...you were hanging around the fringes of the race...got hot for a few weeks....the only mistake you made was not being in the NL Central where you could play .500 ball for 140 games only to get hot for the last 20 or so games.

"Again"-Trevor Hoffman

Well we were barely one day into the off-season and the Brewers wasted no time in re-signing Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman had an excellent season as a closer in '09. I can't wait to see Hoffman closing for the Brewers again in '10 as they try to bounce back from a lackluster season.

"Put You Down"--Twins over Tigers

The Tigers had things like a commanding lead in the AL Central and in the AL Central Tie-Breaker game...but with the Twins finding new ways to win on a daily basis...they were able to put down the Tigers and get into the playoffs

"No Excuses"-- University of Houston Defense

Alright so the University of Houston isn't a defensive juggernaut. They are known more for their high profile offense. Still, it is inexcusable to give up 58 points to a weak UTEP team. It would be one thing if they gave up this amount to an elite team such as Texas, Oklahoma, etc....but UTEP is not what would be considered an elite team.......i've watched them in "action" a couple times and they are not what I would call an offensive juggernaut. Thanks for trying to break the BCS-Barrier this year Houston and next year, come back with a competent Defense........In terms of Non-BCS schools.....TCU and Boise are the last hopes.

My two cents on Favre

Well, its that time of the year again, three months before the start of football season. This makes it prime season for ESPN to turn into the Brett Favre (un)retirement watch network. Since I've been writing exclusively about sports and being a die-hard Packers fan, I guess that means i'm adding myself to the multitude of voices and opinions regarding this circus.

This retirement speculation has been going on for about five years (give or take). Prior to his first retirement, it felt like nothing more than network-generated speculation.....no harm no foul,they need something to talk about and this was their choice......during these years my take was he'll think it over for the beginning of the postseason, come back and things would be business as usual. My other take on it (which has been proven wrong) is that once he announces his retirement, that would be the end of it.

However, the events of the last two summers has turned the phantom retirement to the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Since the saga of last summer is mostly old news and was shoved down everyone's throat I will skip this part and go on to discuss his current flirtations with joining the Minnesota Vikings.

While I feel non-threatened by his presence on a rival team since he is over the hill and Aaron Rodgers has proven himself to be more effective than Favre currently, speaking solely as a fun there is still is a sense of betrayal.

This was a guy who QBed my favorite team from 4th grade until I graduated from college (and this even though I didn't graduate until I was almost 25)....he won a super bowl and provided many clutch you tube worthy moments along the way.....which is why I can't help but stand in confusion as he seems determined to play for the Vikings.... when he was playing for the Jets, that was one thing...I don't really care if he pursues playing opportunites elsewhere, but when your blatant about playing for and only for one of green bay's arch-rivals thats just not cool.....but hey it's his legacy he's wasting and his alone I just do not see why its worth it...

So thats my two cents on Favre for better or worse.....