Week 8 Tuesday Afternoon Reserve Punter

Just came from fulfilling my civil obligation of voting for one jerk who doesn't give a damn about me, nor can relate to me at any level, over another jerk who doesn't give a damn about me, nor can relate to me at any level, on the sole basis that Jerk A is affiliated with the political party that seems less likely to run this country to the ground. Oversimplified? Possibly. Ignorant? Probably. Mostly National? Definitely.

I'm glad election season's over. Absolutely hate political ads. They're so obviously slanted and contain zero pertinent information. What all political ads boil down to is two things. First, they'll basically slander the opponent by taking one thing he or she said out of context, blow it way out of proportion, and somehow tie that in to everything the opponent stands for. Oh and the opponent's image will always, ALWAYS, be in black and white and he'll be making some weird face. Then they'll show whoever the ad's for in full color interacting with families, mostly children, without a coast and the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up. How that means I should vote for him, I don't know, but apparently it works. Truth be told, the more ads I see for a politician, the more I begin to dislike him.

Okay, first a disclaimer before this week's TARP: My family pulled one of it's vintage scheduling screwjobs on me and I was unable to watch any football on Sunday. None. So, unfortunately, I won't be able to analyze the games as brilliantly as I usually do. Most of this will be from box scores, highlights, and other columns.

Week 8 Power Rankings

1.) N.O. Saints
2.) Indy Colts
3.) N.E. Patriots
4.) Pittsburgh Steelers
5.) Minny Vikings
6.) Denver Broncos
7.) Cincy Bengals
8.) Philley Eagles
9.) Atlanta Falcons
10.) Baltimore Ravens

Week 8 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) As much as it would have sucked, I wish I'd seen the Giants game. I could have give you a better thought of what I think they did wrong. Fortunately, though, the answer seems clear: Everything. I've no idea what happened to Manning. He started off the season tremendously, but has faltered the pass two games. The Saints exposed the Giants safeties and every team knows it not. They still can't get pressure. Speaking of which, I'm done with this whole moving defensive ends all along the line to confuse the offense and get more pressure. No. It's a like the Wildcat. You can be successful with it, but if that's all you have you're in trouble. They need to get back to lining up traditional tackles in the middle to get a push and have the ends try to come around the edge.

2.) "If Favre does play this year, the Vikings will lose at Lambeau" Just the type of foresight you've come to expect from the TARP.

3.)- 9) Really should've known that Young would play well. He's a prefect candidate for the Jeff George Phenomenon (someone else has probably printed this, sorry for that. But I have had this idea for a while). This happens when a physically gifted QB who's been a backup for a while finally gets ino the starting lineup after much clamoring by the fans. The QB will usually have to have a different skill set than the starter, but will almost always have one fatal flaw. The backup QB gets in and defenses aren't really ready for him and he goes on a hot stretch. This stretch varies in time. It could be a few games, half a season, a whole season. It's just until one defense finally says "Wait a minute, he's Jeff George!" and capitalizes on his fatal flaw and everyone remembers why he was a backup.

Notable Jeff George phenoms : Kerry Collins, Alex Smith, Old Randall Cunningham, Old Warren Moon, Doug Flutie, Tommy Maddox, Derek Anderson, Kent Graham, Jeff George (Washington), Jeff George (Minny), AJ Feely, the Detmers, Rob Johnson, Quincy Carter, Trent Edwards, Danny Kanell, Chad Henne, Vinny Testaverde, Jon Kitna

The key to the Jeff George Phenomenon is that defenses should not be ready for him at all. That's where Eric Mangini messed up trying to hide who his starting QB was at the start of the year. If he'd said at the start of training camp "Quinn is our guy" and didn't waver at all, Anderson would have performed when Quinn was pulled. Hiding your starter nullifies all Jeff George potential.

Of course, there are players like Brady and Warner who go on to play really well. They're not Jeff George phenoms, they were great QBs in hiding. They were given a shot and they showed their talent. You have to disappear in to relative obscurity to be a Jeff George Phenom. You disappear on to some team's roster waiting to for your chance to be reborn as another Jeff George Phenom.

10.) Was it cheap that I wasted so many numbers on one topic? Yeah, probably, but again didn't see the games, don't get paid, and the Yanks are in the World Series. Any complaints should be sent to my editor.

Limerick of the Week

The Giants were destroyed by the Eagles
Mistreated like a team full of Smeagols
Don't see how.
They swin it all now.
They're best player's Jeff Feagles.

Peace.