Sup? Yes, I’m back. No, please, hold your applause till the end. Well, this is the first of I hope many end-of-game-week review and round-up posts. You’ll be able to figure out what I do before the important games start, which is always nice. If you didn’t know, what I do is go into it with the plan to give a detailed analysis of the week’s action, only to end up making fun of the funny pictures that have emerged from the games. Well, as long as we both know where we stand….
I’ll start off by mentioning that I was 7-9 on my predictions for Preweek 1, which isn’t great, frankly. But, as that guy said on that Simpsons episode, ‘when you’re right 52% of the time, you’re wrong 48% of the time’.
Yeah, that guy. Oh, I have to come up with my own 'guaranteed win' thing. Ideas in the comments, please.
I’ll do my predictions the day of the first game of this Preweek, which is……Thursday. Why did I put the pause while I was checking the day into the blog? Anyway, onto the first of my brilliant items, one which I hope will make a regular occurance, but probably won’t.
Headline of the Week:
From NFL.com: ‘Jets, All-Pro C Mangold closing in on record deal’
Well, at least he’s now got a backup plan if the whole NFL thing stops working out.
'ROCK ON, NICK! Rock on...'
For those of you that don’t understand, the article is about the Jets seemingly coming to financial terms with the disgruntled Nick Mangold, in giving him an NFL record contract for a Center, allegedly worth $55 million over 7 years. Good on the lad.
Play of the Week:
I’ll admit, I haven’t seen all of the games that happened this week, but I think I can be safe in assuming that this is the best thing that happened in any of them. Hell, I’m half convinced it’s the best thing that’s going to happen all season.
Well, I suppose we’d better get on with the games. Let’s start at the beginning. Makes sense.
Indianapolis 20 - 34 Buffalo
After a promising start to the game, with 5 TDs in the 1st quarter, things kind of fizzled out, with only 20 points scored in the next 3 quarters between the teams. An interesting point is Curtis Painter outperforming Peyton Manning, throwing for 6 more yards than the 4-time MVP in 9 fewer attempts. Manning also threw an INT (which was returned for a TD by the Bills’ Terrence McGee) and Painter didn’t. This Painter is the same man who fumbled the ball for a TD on his first professional play from scrimmage last December. I know it’s preseason, but it’s still something, I guess…
New England 28 – 10 Atlanta
Unlike the last match, this one was nice and even. A TD per quarter for the Patriots, 2 passing, 2 rushing. Maybe a little too even….Nah, seriously, despite Brady publicly announcing this week he hates the Jets, it’s nice to see Wes Welker back. I’ve always had a soft spot for him, in a non-Brady Quinn way. A tiny white guy having the most receptions over the last 3 years combined in the entire NFL has to garner respect. Last year he had 123 catches in 13 games. Most impressive.
An image of Tom Brady looking a bit like some diva singing kid. Seemingly the most negative image of him on the internet.
Philadelphia 9 – 22 Cincinnatti
Passing fans won’t have been happy with this outing, with 7 INTs thrown between the two sides. So that’s how I’ll sum up this one. Bengals starting QB Carson Palmer threw 2, one of which was just a poor pass, the other less so, intercepted when Chad Ochocinco was body-checked off the ball. Eagles starter Kevin Kolb threw no INTs, on the other hand, and generally looked good in the pocket. And Michael Vick carried on where he left off last week, managing to throw more INTs than completions on 5 attempts.
Baltimore 23 – 3 Washington
Baltimore’s defense looked very impressive here despite the absence of safety Ed Reed, limiting experienced QB Donovan McNabb to 11 completions and an INT on 26 attempts, partly due to the new-look Redskins O-Line. But the star play was this 51-yard gain on a fake punt by Ravens safety Hiruki Nakamura, which set up Baltimore’s first TD.
Pittsburgh 24 – 17 New York Giants
New York played well, considering that they only had their 3rd string QB available, starter Eli Manning still on the sidelines after his head injury last week in the win vs the Jets, and backup Jim Sorgi also suffering a shoulder injury in the same game. All 3 Steelers QBs played well, with Dennis Dixon looking the most impressive, completing 7/8 passes for 82 yards, with Byron Leftwich completing 3/6 for 95 yards and a TD, and incumbent starter Ben Roethlisberger at 6/8 for 76 yards and an INT. Remember the QB competition is between Leftwich and Dixon, as Roethlisberger is suspended for a few games due to troubles in his personal life.
Yeah, those troubles....
Kansas City 15 - 20 Tampa Bay
Matt Cassel looked very impressive for the Chiefs, throwing for 125 yards and a TD on 14 completions from 19 attempts. On the other side of the coin, Bucs starter Josh Freeman broke a small bone in his throwing hand in the first quarter of the game (that’ll teach him to hold his KFC too tightly). Oh shit, that sounded incredibly racist. I just heard it how you must have read it, and that’s not good….I meant the small bone he broke was a chicken bone, trying to subvert the expected ‘he broke his hand’ statement…. Unwittingly, I have bought into the whole ‘black people love fried chicken’ stereotype, and I have implied he was holding a chicken leg so hard he broke his hand. Although that is quite funny. Maybe that’s what I meant all along….
Racism is NEVER funny, kids. Also, why are you reading this, kids? GO TO BED!
Miami 27 – 26 Jacksonville
Overall, a very good game in Jacksonville, particularly for Dolphins TE Anthony Fasano. 1 quarter, 2 catches, 66 yards, 2 TDs. Chad Henne looks to solidify his place as the Dolphins’ starting QB, throwing for 151 yards and 2 TDs in one half. Chad Pennington also played well, throwing for 54 yards and a TD on 3 completions. What are the odds of him winning comeback player of the year for the 3rd time? It’s a cert, surely? It is due after all, him having won it in 2006 and 2008….
Oh yeah, in the interests of fairness, the Jags did alright, an’all.
I went through many pages of image results before finding a result that wasn't the Jags logo or a Jags shirt or another team's cheerleaders. Even then, it wasn't interesting.
St. Louis 19 – 17 Cleveland
Speaking of things that aren’t interesting, the Rams played the Browns a couple of days ago. Bradford carried on being a bit crap, the Browns kept on looking surprisingly good, yet not getting the result. Points were scored. 36 of them, maths fans. Oh, wait! There was an interesting thing that happened. Ben Watson made a very good touchdown catch.
Well, I’ll leave it there for now. These reviews are taking longer than I thought they would. I’ll do the latter half of the week with my predictions on Thursday. Until then, ciao!
You may now applaud.
