Monthly Archives: October 2011

Weekend Thoughts – 10/27-10/30

Once again, I have to go off-title here and talk baseball.  This World Series deserved it.  So a few thoughts from the Fall Classic before a couple random football notes.

  • We can all make fun of FOX for various reasons – Buck and McCarver being the easiest and most logical – but the “Final Out” montage they do where they have a camera on basically every single player plus the manager and show their reactions to the final out as it’s happening is really cool.
  • Not taking any credit away from St. Louis, but why is the team that lost its division by six games and finished with a record six games worse than its opponent at home for the final two games of the World Series?  Mr. Selig, I think it’s time to re-visit the All-Star game rule again.  No one cares about it so why should it have such a profound effect on your most important event?  Embrace the apathy, Bud!
  • Ironically enough, it was St. Louis’ chief rival who provided them with the very homefield on which they won those last two games.  Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder hit a homerun off C.J. Wilson in the All-Star Game to lead the NL to “victory” (in quotes because if no one cares, is it really a victory?)
  • Speaking of C.J. Wilson, has anyone ever seen a pending free agent pitch so terribly in the postseason.  He pitched like he was allergic to money.
  • Does anyone know what city David Freese is from?  Good for the hometown kid, but he certainly got the “Jerome Bettis at SB XL in Detroit” treatment.
  • Ron Washington is a class act.  The interview right after you take your defeated team into the locker room could almost be classified as cruel and unusual punishment, and Washington did a great job of walking the line between being sad in defeat and giving credit to the victor.

Click here for the rest of this weekend’s thoughts

Fantasy: Weekly Hunches – Week 8

Each week, millions of fantasy football players around the world scour many sites to look at rankings in order to decide which players in their lineup to start and which waiver additions would help their squad.

This weekly feature will make some bold predictions that will highlight typically average players who I believe will outscore players better than them in most weeks.  I’ll use the rankings of Rotoworld.com, ESPN.com, and the site for which I write — footballguys.com.

Quarterbacks – Tim Tebow (Rotoworld #11 / ESPN #11 / FBG #8) over Matthew Stafford (#7 / #5 / #11)

I’m not entirely sure when the two more well-known sites among these ranking services are going to get on board with Tebow. Yes, he was terrible for 55 minutes. But guess what – he became a top-10 guy in five minutes. As the offense gets more and more geared toward him, he’ll have more than five good minutes (good PTI tribute with their 10th anniversary earlier in the week).

Stafford is nicked up coming into this game, but even if he weren’t, I’d still be picking Tebow here. Champ Bailey was Darelle Revis before Revis was, but many don’t realize he’s still that good. Bailey will hold down Calvin Johnson to a much-lower-than-normal day of production, which will force Stafford to look to his #2 WR – something Detroit really doesn’t have as of late. Look for Brandon Pettigrew to have a decent day though.

I’d even lay 7 points with Tebow if this matchup were handicapped.
Click here to see the rest

College Football Lucky Seven – 10/28

This year, I entered a college football pool where 20 people select games each week.  We pick 7 games Against the Spread.  Below are my seven picks.  If lines look a little off, it’s because our contest lines come out each Wednesday so they may have changed by Friday when the picks are due.

Nebraska -4 vs Michigan State
This is the first game in what I’m calling “Overreaction Saturday.” By now we’ve all seen the Michigan State Hail Mary 1,239 times. Call me crazy, but I see a hangover coming. If you want a little bit of actual analysis here, Nebraska’s run game should help keep Kirk Cousins off the field and deny him proper rhythm.

Missouri +11.5 at Texas A&M
Texas A&M is back after two big blowout wins – the most recent of which was over Baylor. Mizzou got worked in a game that even Gus Johnson’s magical announcing powers couldn’t keep close. Mizzou isn’t as bad as they’re record, and QB James Franklin is a player capable of leading the team to enough points to keep this close.
Click here for the rest of the picks

Bad Moments in Mainstream Media – Dr. Lou and Stink

Last Sunday morning, I woke up to a re-run of Saturday Night’s College Football Scoreboard.  ESPN decided for the 1,134th time (1,134 too many in my opinion) to do the “courtroom debate”  gimmick.  The topic: whether home field advantage in college football has an impact on the game.

The “lawyers” were Lou Holtz and Mark May.  Despite him being painful to listen to, I’m almost always on Holtz’s side (because Mark May speaks in a proper voice but says things so painfully idiotic that I nearly throw the remote at the TV).  This time, however, Holtz was making the argument that home field advantage was not, in fact, an advantage.  (I guess they only call it that for fun.)

Dr. Lou’s argument was that visiting players are so focused, they don’t get affected by the noise and can more effectively concentrate on the gameplan.  While I hate to come off trying to sound smarter than a “doctor,” the phrases “letdown game,” “hangover game,” and even “upset” wouldn’t exist if focus wasn’t lost from time to time.

Even Mark May – a man on FnB’s Top 5 “Must Mute” list – made the incredibly logical, “the defense rests” point of saying that gambling lines are set based on the very premise of home field being an advantage.  FnB realizes that ESPN basically forces its analysts into taking stances on certain topics to fill air time, but this one flat out insults its viewership.
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Fantasy: Weekly Hunches – Week 7 Review

Each week, millions of fantasy football players around the world scour many sites to look at rankings in order to decide which players in their lineup to start and which waiver additions would help their squad.

This weekly feature will make some bold predictions that will highlight typically average players who I believe will outscore players better than them in most weeks.  I’ll use the rankings of Rotoworld.com, ESPN.com, and the site for which I write — footballguys.com.

View my Week 7 Hunches HERE to see how I broke down each matchup.
Click here to see how I did