Week of November 9th, 2009

The Good:
First off, the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts are in the driver seat in their respective divisions and conferences. So much so, that they could easily wind up as the representatives in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami. The Saints, coming off of their victory over the Carolina Panthers, are looking to go 9-0 for the first time, passing a 7-0 best start in 1991. The weird thing is they are doing it in a way that nobody expected. We all expected them to come out firing, outlast their opponents by simply outscoring them, guessing that Drew Brees would have 28 touchdown passes now, but in reality they are winning with an all-around team concept. Brees has 17 touchdowns (still 1st in the league), but also 7 interceptions placing him in the middle of the league at 14th. The running game has been consistent, coming in at 6th in the league. The offense is good, but not in the way we all expected. Their defense has made a lot of improvement.

The Colts are also doing what they seem to do each season, and remain unbeaten going into the second half of the season. The Colts have began at least 5-0 in 5 of the last 7 seasons. What makes this season so remarkable is that it is under a new head coach, Jim Caldwell. It has also helped the Colts brought back the recently retired Tom Moore and Howard Mudd. Peyton Manning has been terrific, completing 71% of his passes and throwing for 16 td’s to five different receivers. The defense has also done a good job of hanging on despite some injuries that could have been costly in a number of games, most recently the loss of safety Bob Sanders for the remainder of the season. The annual matchup between Tom Brady’s Patriots and the Colts will one of the best games of the year and say a lot about the Colts.

In case you missed it, the Pittsburgh Steelers absolutely dominated the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football last night. The Steelers defense is looking like the defense from years past and is at full strength with the comeback of a healthy Troy Polamalu. They held the Broncos to a dismal 242 total yards, only 27 on the ground, and the only offensive score they allowed was a field goal on the first drive of the game. The Steelers running game also had a vintage look to it as Rashard Mendenhall carried the rushing attack with 155 yards on 22 carries. Ben Roethlisberger had a decent game (233 yard, 3 td’s and an interception) and continued to show that he is the best quarterback picked in the infamous 2004 draft. The Steelers will look for some revenge when the Bengals come back to Pittsburgh next week for 1st place in the division. Pay close attention next week to this game as it is the second best game of the week and will be a physical matchup between two teams who hate each other.

This seems like it happened weeks ago already, but the final “good” thing in sports this week was the World Series victory for the New York Yankees. Some of you may be asking, “Why is this in the good category?” Well, I learned a couple of things from this year’s series that justify its placement. First, Alex Rodriguez is capable of hitting in the playoffs, so we get a full winter of not hearing about how bad of a deal the Yankees made to keep him in New York. Second, the season is over and we will get to see the Yankees throw money at free agents while casting away their used goods to teams who think they will have a legitimate opportunity to compete for a world championship next year. For example, Jason Bay will be a Yankee, possibly Roy Halladay will be a Yankee, Johnny Damon could possibly go back to the Red Sox, and Hideki Matsui could go back to Japan. And finally, baseball isn’t what it is unless the Yankees are winning world championships. It was 2000 since their last title and it felt like forever. Listen, I know there are a lot of Yankee haters out there, but you and I both know that we need the Yankees to be successful for the value of the sport. If the Yankees are bad, or not in the playoffs, the sport suffers. I heard a guy on the radio the other day say baseball has had the most turnover in teams that make the playoffs in the last 15 years than any other of the professional sports, so it’s not like the Yankees are hurting baseball with all of their spending and driving market values up to a point where small market teams cannot compete, look at the Twins.

The Bad:

I really only have one “bad” thing to mention about the previous week in sports, and that is the Big Ten Conference in football. Now, as many of you know, I love the Big Ten. I have been a Michigan sports fan for as long as I can remember, but in recent years it has fallen from grace, and it is going to take a lot for it to come back. Many of you are probably saying the Big Ten is just fine, even without Michigan, but you are mistaken. Yeah, Ohio State and Penn State have vastly improved and Iowa was #4 in the BCS last week, but if the game at the end of the season between OSU and Michigan isn’t for a conference championship then the conference as a whole is not going to have a shot at BCS title game. You need Michigan to be successful as much as I want them to be because as they go, so does the conference. If you’ll remember, in 2006 Michigan and Ohio State were #1 and #2 in the BCS going into the final game of the season. Many felt that regardless of outcome, they were the two best teams and could easily matchup in the BCS title game in January if certain things happened in other games in the final weeks of the season. Ohio State won 42-39 and eventually was beaten in the BCS National Championship game by Florida. If Michigan isn’t the number 2 team in the rankings at the time they played, Ohio State may not play in that game because some even had them leapfrogged at the end of the season in the BCS by Florida. As we know, strength of schedule comes into play in the BCS, which is why Boise, TCU, and other schools form non-BCS conferences will not get an opportunity to play for a national title, so if Michigan isn’t #2 Ohio State could have been leaped over by, not only Florida, but possibly another 1 loss team. In addition, the Big Ten is terrible right now because their university presidents are not letting them play games beyond the weekend of Thanksgiving. This is a “what have you done for me lately” system, and, frankly, teams that play two or three weeks later than the Big Ten are going to have stronger resume’s then an undefeated team from the Big Ten, sorry Iowa but you never had a chance. So, unless Michigan improves greatly over the next few years or the Big Ten adjusts its schedule to compete with the SEC, Pac-10, Big 12, or other conferences they are going to be the odd one out.

The Ugly:

The Kansas City Chiefs are in complete disarray and they have reached an all-time low this past week. They have released Larry Johnson from his contract, and it was a request by the fans of the Chiefs. It got so bad that the fans actually proposed that the team release Larry Johnson instead of letting him have a chance at breaking the Chiefs all-time rushing record, held currently by Priest Holmes. I don’t know why LJ thought it was okay to publicly bash his head coach, the organization, and the homosexual community for good measure, but if he was trying to get out of town, good move. However, it is going to be difficult for LJ to get signed on by another team for the amount of money he was making in KC. I predict LJ will end up with either the Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns, or Washington Redskins because they are the only franchises stupid enough to sign him to what he wants with no conditions in his contract that are behavior based. And let's not forget that his production is way down since he signed that contract with the Chiefs.  The way I see it, Larry Johnson and the Redskins deserve each other more than they know. At least with LJ in Washington, DeAngelo Hall has someone to tweet their problems with, and possibly someone to fight on the sideline.

The DeAngelo Hall incident brings me to my last ugly point of the week. How many times can this guy act like he does before someone cuts him loose. I understand his frustration and desire to win, but I find it coincidental that the last 3 teams he has played for have been absolutely garbage. DeAngelo, maybe you are the problem. Starting a fight with the opposing bench, and then going after the head coach, Mike Smith? Are you kidding? When you begin to go after the opposing teams coaching staff you have bigger problems than being frustrated. Hall has shown his problems throughout his career. He cried about not winning in Atlanta, he cried about playing for a terrible team in Oakland, and he is moments away from crying about Jim Zorn and the Redskins. In all actuality, it is really Dan Snyder’s fault for thinking that talent outweighs character. If that were true, the Redskins would be a dynasty because Snyder is always quick to pick up the high talent, low character player. DeAngelo Hall, Albert Haynesworth (if you remember Haynesworth stepped on Andre Gurode’s face during a game), and Jeremy Bridges (assault) all within the last year. The Redskins are a circus and will continue to be for some time. Like I said before, it is not Jim Zorn’s fault, but the owner’s.

Until next week.