Stuper Toilet Bowl (Part 3)

Ok as we move to the 1st round of my playoffs that are similar the way the NFL formats them with a Wild Card week, Divisional week, Conference Championship and then the Final Toilet Bowl Championship. No remember the way you advance is to be the worse of the two teams playing off. The 4 teams that by record that are flat out awful and get the bye week are Cleveland Browns (1-10), Kansas City Chiefs (3-8), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-10), and the St. Louis Rams (1-10). That leaves for the Wild Card week 4 match-ups Jacksonville Jaguars (6-5) and Buffalo Bills (4-7), (Please remember we started this in week 9 so I am not taking into account until the match-ups what the teams have done in the past few weeks.) the Oakland Raiders (3-8) and Tennessee Titans (5-6), Carolina Panthers (4-7) and Detroit Lions (2-9), and the Washington Redskins (3-8) and the Seattle Seahawks(4-7).

Jacksonville Jaguars (6-5) and Buffalo Bills (4-7) - Flat out the Jags are playing up to their potential, having the sheer luck now in their schedule to play: Rams, Chiefs, Jets, and Bills. They have now move into 2nd in their division behind the undefeated Colts and into Wild Card Contention. This match-up would be a rematch from November 22. I flat out think though that the Jags are a much better football team than the Bills. The Bills have now fired their head coach and have too many key injures on both sides of the ball to compete with them. And then you forget the biggest cancer in T.O. Even though the past 2 weeks has had good games he is always the cancer lurking ready to throw someone under the bus.

Oakland Raiders (3-8) and Tennessee Titans (5-6) - With Vince Young finally inserted into quarterback this team is rolling. They have continued to just win. They have now one 5 straight. While the Raiders who seem to be a team finally trying now that they have benched Russell. The Titans will be too much and ultimately give the Raiders the loss. I wonder if Al Davis is finally thinking about why he even drafted Russell who cant lead his own team and his own team even wanted him benched. The Titans owner on the other hand looks like a genius to force the head coach to play Young who has now won 5 straight and led them to victory this past week in a 99 drive that had them complete 4th down after 4th down to beat the Arizona Cardinals.

Carolina Panthers (4-7) and Detroit Lions (2-9) - The Lions are the Lions with only victories against the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns, both games at home for them. The panthers are horrendous as well with Delhomme now throwing 18 interceptions this year. Hit passes just look sometimes like punts giving the opposing team the interceptions gift wrapped. But I believe that Panthers do end up beating the Lions. They have more quality wins against Atlanta and Arizona. And I believe with the Lions defense that can’t stop anyone they will get the victory.

Washington Redskins (3-8) and the Seattle Seahawks (4-7)- Two of Seattle’s 4 wins were against the Rams which shouldn’t even count. They also have against the Jags and Lions. As much as I can’t stand the Redskins I think that Seattle is a worse team. The Redskins have finally started to play like a team. Well their defense anyway. Their defense will show up and beat the Seahawks who really do not have much going for them except their 12th man, the fans always supporting this dismal team. Even though the Redskins have a worse record they at least have been competitive in recent weeks having their defense play good football., to keep their offense in it. Now if they can just get their offense on the same page.

Stay tuned later on for Part 4 in this series!

Mike Mussina 1 year too late and 1 year too soon!

I grew up mainly in Virginia due to where my dad was stationed. Growing up a New York Yankee fan in Virginia is very hard to watch the teams that were airing daily during the summer. One of my best friends was an Orioles fan I believe mainly because at the time the Nationals were non-existent and even then who would really admit to being a Washington Nationals fan? So in the mid to late 90’s he was an Orioles fan and I was the Yankee fan. He had Cal Ripken to root for and I had Don Mattingly. The only games I would watch of the orioles even though sometimes they were the only sport on to watch were games when they played the New York Yankees and when a young kid who came from Stanford University by the name of Mike Mussina. He debuted for the Orioles in 1992 and I had always been a fan of watching him pitch. He was a thinking pitcher and was meticulous in what he threw because he was a small kid and not over powering like Roger Clemens. He was always known as a finesse pitcher with an arsenal of 5 pitches. I loved watching him pitch. Unfortunately despite his great career with the Orioles he always strived to reach the World Series which he was never able to do in Baltimore.

So after watching the Yankees win the World Series in 2000, he decided to make a team change to help him get to the ultimate show. And most players who want to accomplish this feat went to the New York Yankees. So after 10 years with the Orioles he became a New York Yankee. He actually made it to the World Series twice as a Yankee back in 2001 and in 2003 but never actually winning the ring. Sadly he went twice also to the College World series without a championship as well. He never won a Cy Young although he was a 7 time nominee. Was a 5 time all-star and 7 time gold glover. He spent 18 years in the league with a record of 270-153. He is 33rd all time in wins and 19th in strikeouts with 2813. Since joining the Yankees in 2001 he had at the time of his retirement in 2008 the most wins of any other AL pitcher. He is the 1st pitcher to ever win 10 or more games for 15 straight seasons. Now you can see why this pitcher was one of my favorites of all time. He was a complete and consistent pitcher. And 2 months then after attaining his first 20 win season, the oldest ever to complete that feat but watching the Yankees miss the playoffs for the first time in 13 years he announced his retirement. An as a Yankee fan I cant help now after watching the Yankees win their 27th championship that there was one man who was not on that podium, Mike Mussina. Who became a Yankee one year too late to win in 2000 and retired one year too early to win in 2009. But I will take this time to say thank you to Moose for being a class act and for all the years you have giving to the AL East. You should be a Hall of Famer!

Why the Cowboys SHOULD beat the PACK!!!!

Well my bestie who I have mentioned a few times on my blog has started talking trash about how her Green Bay Packers are going to beat my Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. Its true this is a big match up against 2 storied NFL franchises. But instead of just telling HER all the reasons why Dallas is better than Green Bay, I decided to dedicate an entry of my blog to it on my top 10 reasons why her Packers should lose to the Cowboys,

1.This time in Lambeau is not the NFC championship or "Ice Bowl" as it is also referred to as of 1967. For those that are not familiar with that game, the Ice Bowl was the coldest game ever plauyed in the NFL. It had a -47 wind chill. The Packers won the game 21-17 on a Bart Starr quarterback sneak on the 3 yard line with 16 seconds left on the clock. The Packers went on to win Superbowl II against the Oakland Raiders much to the disappointment of the Dallas Cowboys. This game will not be that cold this Sunday. It is supposed to be a chilly 44 and Dallas has a quarterback leading our offense who is from Wisconsin. So those are favorable conditions for a southern team.

2. Green Bay Offensive Line. Their o-line is flat out a wreck this year playing mix and match a lineman each game. It sure doesn't hide they are hurting when looking at the amount of sacks on Aaron Rodgers this year. They are on pace to break David Carr's most sacks in one year record. Rodgers is a mobile quarterback so its hard to explain 39 sacks without looking squarely at the o-line. But this week they are doing up against one of the better defenses in the league who can get to the quarterback.

3. T.O.-less locker room. Without Owens this year the team has not only come together but also taking accountability for their play on the field. You had leaders like Ratliff taking sole ownership for giving up 2 long rushes against the Eagles. And instead of putting blame on his teammates or coaches he took the blame. With him, Brooking, and Ware leading the defense and Rome finally starting to be a leader on the offense, it is starting to show on the field with wins. They are starting to use a scary term from the past superbowl championships and that word is TEAM. When you play as one the results come through.

4. Green Bay's pass defense. Their pass defense is banged up to go right along with that O-line. They have a safety questionable with concussion, Woodson nursing a hip, and linebacker Chillar out for the year with a hand injury. That leaves holes in a pass defense that has to go up against a hot spread defense that doesn't just rely on 1-3 receivers but more like 6-7. That makes it very hard to cover them with such a banged up defense.

5. Hawk can't cover Witten. Flat out the way Dallas has 2 tight ends that are all around players that block, run passing routes with speed and have good hands their linebackers can not match up. Especially Hawk. Bennett and Witten create such large mismatches.

6. Tony Romo is undefeated in the month of November. As bad as he plays in December and January without a playoff win to his name, he is surprisingly undefeated at 14-0 in the month of November. Also he is coming off his 4th straight 300 yard game. So he is not going into this game without chemistry with his receivers including Roy Williams.

7. Dallas defense is healthy and hungry for sacks. Ware and Ratliff and the rest of the defense are coming on strong after having a slow start without a sack in the first few games. Now they have compiled 20 sacks this season. They stay in the quarterback's face all game, keeping him out of rhythm that eliminates the deep bal. Ask Eagles’ receiver Jackson how many yard he got against the Cowboys mainly because they stayed in McNabb's face all game. By doing that the defense compiled 4 sacks, 2 interceptions.

8. Razorback formation. This Dallas’ new look formation finally showing signs of life this past weekend, has created headaches for opposing defensive coordinators. Named after Felix Jones’ alma matter because most of the time it has him taking the direct snap. Our o-lineman Davis is paving the way for Jones, Barber, and Choice leaves so many possibilities of where the ball is going when they line up in this formation.

9. Green Bay’s rush defense. Lately their rush defense has been able to hold the run. But this week your not going up against Tampa Bay the worst in the league but the Dallas Cowboys whose 3 headed monsters are looking to have a breakout game. Bash, Flash, and Tash (Barber, Jones, and Choice) have not had many big opportunities but with a banged up Green Bay defense they are looking to have a monster game.

10. Finally The Green Bay Packers Lost to Tampa Bay Buccaneers! They let the game get away from them with a rookie quarterback leading the Bucs and gave the Bucs their first win of the season. They are a banged up football team and to let a team that ESPN has ranked dead last in power rankings beat you when you are trying to catch up to the Minnesota Vikings who are 3 games ahead of you in the division just equals the Dallas Cowboys should beat the Green Bay Packers to give them their 3rd straight loss.

Enjoy the Game yall!!!

Stuper Toilet Bowl (Part 2)

Well I did the AFC’s bottom of the barrel and now its time for the NFC. A lot of them are pretty self explanatory. (All the stats were compiled as of before Week 9)

1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-7)- Even after they got their first win against Green Bay last week it did not stop them from making this list and being at the top of the list for me. They have great players on paper but with the new coach and mix and match offensive line they have not been able to produce any of it into a win. After starting the season 0-7, they finally benched their quarterback and have started to plan for the future letting their top draft pick out of Kansas State Josh Freeman take the snaps from now on. But I do not see the teams losing getting any better. They still have to play New Orleans and Atlanta twice along with the Jets, Panthers, Dolphins and Seahawks who all are hit and miss teams you don’t know what team will show up. Their defense ranks 30th in the league and their offense ranks dead last in the NFC in total offense. I don’t know if a rookie will be able to maintain the one win streak and turn around this dismal offense against some tough teams.

2. Detroit Lions (1-7)-Well even with their one home win against the dismal Redskins that we will get to in a minute and having a better record then last year. They are still just not a flat out competitive football team in the NFL. By starting their Rookie Stafford, they were conceding that this will be a challenging rebuilding year. Their fans though are not pleased and even booing the rookie who ranks 22nd among quarterbacks and been sacked 12 times in the course of the year. They have no running game and a core of young unproven receivers. Along with that their defense ranks dead last in the NFC. Management knows that they have a long way to go and this year is just not going to get any easier. They are what their record is a BAD football team.

3. St. Louis Rams (1-7)-Well their only wins is against the Lions (which when the Lions making this list do we even count it) and have lost to Seahawks and 49ers who are in their division in shutouts. Their offense averages almost 17 points per game while their defense ranks 29th in the league averaging giving up almost 28 points per game. Their hard knocks keep s getting worse with their new coach and diminishing offensive line now without their pro-bowler Pace anymore. The only bright spot on this team is Stephen Jackson.

4. Washington Redskins (2-6)- As a HUGE Dallas Cowboy fan nothing makes me more happy then to see the Deadskins on this list. Their only wins are against teams already on this list the Rams and Bucs. They have this year given first wins to the Lions, Panthers, and Kansas City. All these 5 teams have made this worst of the worst list. Daniel Snyder has single handedly run this team into the ground. He hired a guy 2 years ago who has never been a coach at any level of the game not even pee wee football in Jim Zorn. And now that they have seen how he cant help this team win, they have now stripped the head coach of play calling and given them to a man who a few months ago was calling out numbers in a bingo hall. You can’t make this stuff up. They are 28th in total offense only scoring 14 points per game but they have a pretty decent defense that ranks 9th in the league. They just can’t seem to make a good defense win football games though. Now that they have played 8 games and they still have 8 more to go against some pretty tough teams not only in the division (Cowboys twice, @ Philly and against the Giants), they also have the Chargers, Saints and Denver left to play. IT doesn’t look like it is going to get any better. We are only waiting to see who Snyder will bring in to coach them next. I’m thinking maybe a priest to help pray for a win. Hey it might work.

5. Carolina Panthers (3-5)- Their wins are only against Deadskins, Bucs, and Cardinals. The Cardinals is the only decent win they have. They pretty much are dying by the amount of picks Jake Delhomme who at the time after 8 games has only 5 touchdowns, a 62% passer rating, and 13 picks. They have the 23rd ranked defense allowing 25 points per game and only scoring 19 points per game. Room for improvement but just still in the bottom of the barrel in my Stuper Toilet Bowl.

6. Seattle Seahawks (3-5)- You are what your record is and right now you are at the bottom. In my opinion this team is good when Hasselbeck is in the game and playing well. They have no running game and need him to help pull their offense out and unfortunately since making the super bowl a few years back he has been a walking mess of injuries. Their wins are against Jaguars, Rams, and Lions. ALL have made this worst of the worst list. They need to step it up mainly in offense only scoring 21 a game and pretty much giving up the same amount per game.

But stay tuned next week and see who I think is the worst team in the NFL.

Congrats to the New 2009 World Champions NEW YORK Yankees

I live in New York and am a HUGE Yanks fan!! I got to experience for the first time a championship living in the city. A Picture is worth a thousand words so i am going to just put my Congrats with a few pics....

Phillies PHAIL BIG time!!

A few pics i took from the Victory Parade

2009 WORLD CHAMPS, #27 feels SOOO GOOD!!

Stuper Toilet Bowl (Part 1)

My bestie who reads my blog regularly requested that I do my own midseason predictions for how the 2009 NFL season will turn out with playoff. I thought about it and I do plan on doing one next week so stay tuned but I am going to add a little twist and do a complete reverse of the playoffs that have the good teams make the playoffs. I am going to make my own bad playoffs with the worst teams in the league. Everyone recently has made the comments of there are some really good teams this year but then there are a lot more really bad teams. A lot of the teams have issues from management all the way down and a lot just have issues with the players not playing up to their potential. In my bad playoffs there will be 4 division losers and then 2 wild cards. The worst 2 teams will gain byes and the way you advance to the next round would be to just lose which all these teams have gotten used to. The team that is the worst of all in my opinion at the end should not even be in the NFL no more. They should do like with the premier soccer league where the bottom 2 teams get dropped down to the lower league and the top 2 teams in the lower league get promoted. Maybe we should send some of these teams down to the CFL or NFL Euro. But this will be different then my other blogs where it will be in 3 parts. First AFC, then NFC, and then how my playoffs come out.



AFC division losers:

1. Cleveland Browns (1-7)- This team has flat out dysfunction written all over it. They are just a flat out bad football team and are regressing with each game they play. A lot of this is due in part to having an owner who is swayed by public opinion and hits a mental panic button often. They fired their coach and GM last year so they bring in Kokinis who then brings in his friend Mangini. Mangini and him then devise a plan to bring over 9 overrated and play below their potential ex-Jets who the Jets were happy to see leave. Mangini tries to impart some of his power by fining a player $1700 for a $3 bottle of water in the hotel. They do not know who to play at quarterback Quinn or Anderson. The only win they have so far is against the Bills. The game itself was the worst I have ever seen. The game was 6-3 with the winning quarterback only completing 2 of his passes and had a quarterback rating of 15%. The win was not as a result of their offense or defense but the special teams namely in my opinion their punter who gives their opponents bad field position that their defense always blows. Their defense is ranked dead last in the league. They are averaging giving up over 400 yards a game and 26.1 points to their opponents. They only have 5 offensive touchdowns all year which has them ranked 3rd to last in the league in that stat. They are just an all around bad football team. But remember just 2 years ago this team WAS 10-6 with 5 pro bowlers that they have now traded Edwards and Winslow.

2. Kansas City Chiefs (1-6)- Granted this team has a new coach, a new quarterback and traded away their future hall of fame tight end Tony Gonzalez. Needless to say it is a big rebuilding year for them. They also have a whiney running back who shouts off at the mouth about the coach and whoever else will listen, using politically incorrect grammar. He has the fans wanting him to not even break their all time rushing record and to just let him go. But they also rank in the bottom 5 in almost every category on both sides of the ball. Their only win is against the Washington Redskins and we will talk about the Deadskins when we get to the NFC.

3. Tennessee Titans (1-6)- They have benched their starting quarterback and have now brought in the head case and not always together Vince Young (pains me to say that about Young since he is a Longhorn) at the demand of the owner. I like Fisher as a coach and think that he has one of the best in the league but his team is struggling. They finally got a big win last week against the Jaguars. I personally don’t think that their record represents them entirely. They have had some tough games that were close against the Steelers that they lost by 3, against Houston that they lost by 3, and lost to the Jets by 7. Winnable games that came down to the wire that they just did not finish. Now they have also got shellacked by Patriots 59-0 and by 28. So don’t get me wrong in this league you are what your record is and they are just not that good a team looking at their record and where they were last year at this time sitting undefeated. They are 18th in the league in total offense, and dead last in defense . Their defense right now is hurting right now without Haynesworth and is giving up almost 400 yards of total offense a game almost 300 yards a game on the ground.

4. Buffalo Bills (3-5)- Coming out of the AFC east they are just at the bottom of the barrel with that division. Team Obliterator (T.O.) strikes again only older and slower and just not helping this football team. But the most humor i did have was this post game interview where it was killing him to be on his best behavior. 

The team though has lost to the Browns and that in itself is bad and has beaten 2 teams Tampa Bay and Carolina that you will see later on why they are just bad averaging double digit losses. Granted this team is injured and banged up without a lot of their defensive starters and their starting quarterback has been sidelined with a concusion. But the game against Carolina that they won. They were dominated on all aspects of the game but one Jake Delhomme turning over the ball and in a result had them pull out the win. They rank 29th in offense which is why they are losing games but their defense is helping slightly even banged up ranking 17th in the league. They just got the short end of the stick with them making it based on beinf the worsth in their division.


AFC Wild Cards

1. Oakland Raiders (2-6)- Al Davis continues to make this team worse and worse with his decisions as the owner and GM. Your coach likes to hit women, your quarterback has the worst completion percentage in the league and is about to eat himself out of a job. When you had a good veteran to back him up in Garcia and when he did better than Russell you cut him because you wanted Russell to be your starter no questions asked. No one on your team takes accountability and it shows in your record. I think it was a fluke win that they beat the Eagles. And the only other team you beat was the Chiefs. But have now lost to Denver, Houston, Giants and Jets all by more than 20. They have only 2 passing touchdowns, and rank 24th in defense and dead last in total offense. This team is just dysfunctional from the top down and will continue to be. They have won only 25% of the games they played since they made it to the super bowl in 2002.

2. Jacksonville Jaguars (3-4)- This team has started to turn it around but they are right now what their record is and that is a team below .500. But there are signs of them turning it around with Jones-Drew coming on, Gerrard ranking 17th in the league among quarterbacks. They need to get better on defense where they rank 25 but offensively they rank 11th. Showing signs of life beside the 2 horrible games against Seattle and Tennessee. They have beaten the Texans and Stealers. Show signs of life and can turn around this season with their offense. They only made it because they are the only team left in the AFC to have a below .500 record.

Stay tuned later on in the week to see who is going to be in the Toilet Bowl for the NFC.