Championship Weekend Monday Afternoon Punter

Championship Week Power Rankings

1.) Incy Colts

2.) N.O. Saints

Championship Week Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) Midway through the second quarter, it became clear that Peyton Manning had figured out the Jets defense. It was amazing to watch. He seemed to know everything the defense was doing. It was like watching a great Madden player going up against someone who doesn't know how to hide what plays they pick. The Colts would break the huddle, go up to the line, Manning would look around the field, audible, and then complete a 12 yard pass over the middle of the field.

2.) Manning's brilliance aside, bad job out of the Jets coaching staff not changing something up. Something. Anything. Do something that you haven't done before. Something that isn't on tape. It became obvious that their defense wasn't going to stop Indy anymore. This got me thinking...

3.) Every team should have a "Break in Case of Emergency" scheme. Something they practice , but never use until they absolutely need it. Like a 4-3 defense should be able to switch over to 3-4 when the opposition can't be stopped. Something to throw the other team off.

4.) Vintage Brett Favre last night. He went back to his gunslinging ways. With two minutes left in regulkation and the game tied, the Vikings had the ball. I texted Dasser right there predicting a Brett Favre pick. Sure enough...

5.) That was the best game I've seen Mark Sanchez play this year. Didn't look like a rookie in a championship game.

6.) Watching the Jets quite a bit this year, it seemed that too many teams didn't believe how good Revis was and would go out of their way to throw at Revis. Yesterday, Peyton played it the way it should be. Manning just threw to the open guy. That sounds simple, I know, but not enough QBs do that.

7.) Can someone on the Vikings hold on to the ball? It was ridiculous. And how do you have 12 men in the huddle AFTER a timeout? THAT set up the Favre pick. They had two conservative plays before that and, probably, would have had another one before the penalty.

8.) Tremendous route by Braylon Edwards on the long TD. First, he sold the run acting like he was blocking. Second, he sold the quick slant. The DB fell for both so badly.

9.) Vikings fans are going to cry about the refs. There was a questionable PI call in overtime. It wasn't the worst PI call I've seen. That's it. The call on the reception couldn't be overturned by replay. The fact of the matter was, the Vikes had plenty of opportunities to win the game, they just fumbeled it away.

10.) I think I found a flaw in having the booth call for replays in overtime. There were more replays in overtime than there were drives. There were as many replays in overtime as there were points. Tough to watch a game like that.

Limerick of the Week

To his critics Brett Favre gives the finger

He will forever in this league linger

But late in the game

It's always the same

He goes back to being the Gunslinger.

Peace

Wednesday Afternoon Reserve Punter

I saw this History Channel show about ancient Egypt and it got me wondering. The show talked about the pyramids, how they were built, but not too much about the inside of the pyramids. That got me wondering, what is fact and what's fiction when it comes to the pyramids? I mean, are the tombs just straight forward, or are there actually mazes, traps, and secret tunnels? I'd like to think it's the latter. If it is the latter, I wonder how all that was done five thousand years ago. I mean, I'm not sure we have the technology to do that now. Anyway, if it is, I wwould love to explore one.

Anyway, on to the WARP.

Divisional Week Power Rankings

1.) Indy Colts

2.) N.O. Saints

3.) Minny Vikings

4.) NYJ

Before I get to the thoughts I think I thought about thinking, an announcement: Starting next week until the end of the season, I'll be posting on Mondays. For a few reasons. First, my schedule on Tuesdays is annoying. Second, and more important, Bill Simmons has started to put out his podcast on Monday nights now and this week he hit on so many points I wanted to bring up. Now, I know that some of the people who read this also follow Simmons so you don't dont' want to hear me repeat something he already said. If I say it first, that's fine though. So rather than spend a lot of time on stuff he already covered, I'll just gloss over what I wanted to say.

Divisional Week Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) Norv Turner was terrible. First, he should've kicked it deep on the last posession. The Jets were set for an onside kick so there wouldn't have been a good return. If they have the ball on their own 20, they're not going for it on fourth down. That way, you get the ball back with a little over a minute to go down by three. That's do able. Also, the onside kick was a great one and SD still scouldn't get it. That only goes to show how tough recovering one is. Also, when NYJ had the ball, SD shoul've call timeout before the two minute warning. Granted, you only save a few seconds and it ended up not mattering, but every second is vital at that point.

2.) The hit on Warner. That's an ugly part of the game that you can't do anything about. The Cardinals can't cry about it because if Brees had thrown a pick and jogged towards the play, Karlos Dansby would've blown him up. That's just what happens.

3.) Great job by the Jets sticking with the run and being patient. They were getting nothing at first. All three and outs. Gradually, the runs became consistantly longer, until Green finally broke a big one.

4.) Thomas Jones ended the season with the third highest rushing total in the league with 1,402. I've never seen someone end a season healthy and statistically in the top three of his position lose his job so suddenly and publicly as Jones is right now to Shonn Green.

5.) Absolutely classless move by the Vikings running up the score on Dallas. Why, why do you have to do something like that? Not only do you go for it on fourth down, you go for it on fourth down twice when the game's already over. Not only do you go for it on fourth down twice when the game's already over but you pass. Not only do you pass, but you run a play action pass! Some people argue that just because the losing team stops playing doesn't mean the winning team has to. That's fair, but the winning team doesn't need to go out of it's way to embarass the loser. I'm not even saying pull your starters. I'm asking you play the way you would had you been up by ten at that point. If AP breaks a second down run for 50 yards, no problem. If Harvin takes a quick slant on thrid and five 70 yards, that's fine. If you pound AP on fourth and 1, okay. But there's no need to run play action fourth and three in field goall territory up by three TDs with under five left. None.

And the reason I won't put this on Childress like I did on Bellechick two years ago is that we found out who actually runs this team a few weeks ago. And Favre love is the reason there won't be such an outrage ove this.

6.) LDT 12 carries 24 yards. Darren Sproles 3 carries for 33 yards. Sproles long 22 yards. LDT long 4 yards. Sproles 3 receptions for 30 yards. LDT 3 receptions for 0 yards. So Sproles touched the ball 6 times and picked up 63 yards. LDT touched the ball 15 times and picked up 24 yards. Nice job Norv.

7.) Tony Romo and Wade Phillips should thank Nate Kaeding for taking them off the hook.

8.) CBS has to be thrilled with the title games. No matter what, they get a good Super Bowl. They'll get either New Orleans or Brett Favre ahainst New York or Peyton Manning.

9.) Jets @ Colts. The Jets are similar to Baltimore: great running game, good defense, shaky QB. The difference is, The Jets are much better against the pass than the Ravens. Peyton wan't great against the Ravens, he'll need to be against the Jets if they want to win. Indy's defense won't do the job they did against Baltimore. The Jets run game will make at least one big play and NYJ has superior special teams. Plus, the Jets are so ridiculously reminiscent of the 07 Giants. I'll take the Jets.

10.) Vikings @ Saints. Favre in his home dome will be different from Favre in a road dome. Minny's line better get to Brees quickly because their DB's can't stay with the Saints' receivers. The Vikes will need a big special teams play from Harvin, otherwise they won't be able to keep it close. Either way, the Saints are my pick.

Limerick of the Week

We ate almost done with all the waiting

As the football season is quickly fading

The Jets are still in it

Thought they'd be out in a minute

I really hate kickers the choke like Nate Kaeding.

Peace

Wild Card Week Tuesday Afternoon Reserve Punter

Went to go see Avatar yesterdat in IMAX 3D. Before I get to the movie, let me just say that I'm not a movie critic. I'm generally easy to entertain. There aren't that many movies out there that I totally hate. Minus Bubbleboy, of course.

With that said, Avatar was a really good movie. It was thoroughly enjoyable. The special effects were fantastic. Going to see it, I expected a movie whose only redeeming factor was the special ffects. I thought that was the main reason to watch it. I was totally wrong. I was surprised with how legit and well executed the story was.

My only beef with the movie, and it could be a big one depending on your point of view, was that it wasn't the most original story ever. The basic story has been done before, so it was pretty predictable. Still, it was well execute and very fun. I would recommend it.It was worth the, well actually Dasser had these movie passes so we got in free, but would have been worth the money spent getting in.

We got to the theater a bit late so we missed all the previews. The last preview, for Shrek 3D was just ending when we got in. We found our seats and sat as the movie had just begun. Dasser, however, missed the first five to ten minutes of the movie. I guess since there was now announcement saying "And now our feature presentation" and nor were there any opening credits, Dasser got a bit confused. After about 10 minutes in, he turns to me and asks, "This is a preview, right?" Turns out he'd spent that time playing with his 3D glasses seeing what kind of difference they made.

Anyway, on to the TARP

Wild Card Week Power Rankings

1.) S.D. Chargers
2.) Indy Colts
3.) N.O. Saints
4.) Dallas Cowboys
5.) Minny Vikings
6.) NYJ
7.) Arizona Cardinals
8.) Baltimore Ravens

Wild Card Week Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) The Jets and Ravens won their respective games with running and defense. Who knew that still worked?

2.) I do not understand how, three times this year, the Cowboys shut down DeSean Jackson. Now, more than ever, I wish I had coach's tape, and the abillity to understand coach's tape, just to try to understand what they did to stop him.

3.)Packers fans need to stop crying about the refs. It happens. Like when the Giants blew a huge lead against the Niners and then on the last play of the game they botched the snap on the potential game winning field goal only to have the holder roll out and throw a perfect pass to a lineman deep downfield who was then flagged for being an intelligible reciever downfield only that he had actually lined up as an elgible reciever so instead pass interference shoud have been called on the defender who tackled Seubert who was an eligible reciever and the Giants should have gotten another shot from inside the ten but they didn't because the refs decided to call inelligable reciever down field on A GUY WHO WAS FREAKING ELIGIBLE DAMMIT!!! STUPID REFS, GET YOUR CALLS RIGHT! KNOW WHEN A GUY'S ELIGIBLE AND NOT ELIGIBLE!!! ... AHem. So as I was saying, Packers fans, get over it.

4.) Wow, thank God the Packers made that comeback. Otherwise this might have been the worst playoff weekend ever. Outside of the weekend when the Giants played the Niners and the Giants had a big lead and...

5.) I think the Eagles shoud keep McNabb, but it doesn't look like they will. And as a Giants fan, I'm glad to see him leave the NFC East. He will, of course now, go to the Redskins.

6.) Wow, 1-3 last week. Just the kind of accurate analysis you've come to expect from the TARP. And on that note...

7.) Cards @ Saints. This is a fascinating matchup. The Saints offense isn't what it was earlier this year. I'm not sure what happened to it. I'm guessing Brees is under more pressure than he was before. I do think the Saints turn it around this week and their defense outplays the Cards' D. So the Saints for the win.

8.) Ravens @ Colts. Coming into the playoffs, I didn't think the COlts would win a single game. Now, however, they've gotten a good matchup. I think Peyton'll put up points and Joe Flacco won't be able to keep up. Colts take it here.

9.) Cowboys @ Vikings. I'm so annoyed that we no longer have a shot at a Packers - Vikings matchuip. The Cowboys are hot. They've looked ridiculously impressive the past few weeks. Still, you have to take this with a grain of salt. The Cowboys have the Eagles' number. They 're just a bad matchup for Philly.Still, I think the Vikings are ready to be picked off here. Cowboys take it.

10.) NYJ @ SDC. The Jets are starting to scare me. They've got the smell of last year's Cardinals. Of all the teams left, they've got the most "Nobody believed in us" potential. I'd like to see Sanchez win a game for them before I begin to believe. If they were playing Indy, I might have picked them. But the Chargers are a buzzsaw right now. I don't see them losing this quickly. Chargers are the pick.

Limerick of the Week.

After this weekend thereis a gaping hole
In the very center of my suffering soul
The Boys won a game
The Jets did the same
I will now go lick a frozen flag pole.

Peace

Wednesday Afternoon Reserve Punter

I need to admit, I am completely ignorant when it comes to history, especially modern. It's really embarrassing. I am fascinated with the entire Nixon administration, but really know very litte about it. An example of my ignorance: When reading/ watching "Watchmen", I never understood the correlation between Dr. Manhattan helping the US win in Vietnam and Nixon having more than two terms in office. I really know very little about Vietnam. For this I blam the schools. Every year that I'd take history, the class would end before we really covered the 20th century. So along with my ignorance of Vietnam, I know very little about World War I.

I will say, though, it's funny how the story of history is penned by those who won the wars. Perfect examples are the American Revolution and the American Civil War. They're both basically the same war. In both wars you had one faction of people (the colonies, the South) that wished to leave the nation they belonged to and create their own. The difference between the two was the winner. In the American Revolution, the revolutionaries won so that's what it was named. In the Civil War, the government won so it wasn't called a revolution, but just a Civil War. I'm sure histories riddled with such things that I'm mainly ignorant about.

Anyway, on to the WARP.

Week 17 Power Rankings

1,) S,D, Chargers
2.) Indy Colts
3.) N.O. Saints
4.) Minny Vikings
5.) G.B. Packers
6.) Dallas Cowboys
7.) Baltimore Ravens
8.) Philly Eagles
9.) N. E. Patriots
10.) Zona Cardinals
11.) Cincy Bengals
12.) NYJ

Week 17 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) I'm not sure I've ever seen such a talented team quit the way the Giants did the past few weeks. If you compared to those performances to earlier ones, it was obvious that they'd mailed it in. Disgraceful. I put more effort into watching the game than they did in to winning it.

2.) Embarassing how the Jets got in to the playoffs. They're last two games were against teams that rolled over for them. How does that make Pittsburgh feel who had to play a real Cincy team twice. What about Houston, who had to play a full strength Indy twice? Now, it's not the Jets fault. They took advantage of the situation, but it does bring light to the fact that something's wrong here. I'm not sure that it can even be fixed, but it just felt wrong.

3.) People who're pointing to the Wes Welker injure to back their arguments that Indy did the right thing benching its players are so ridiculously wrong. The circumstances are entirely different. Indy was going for a perfect season, the Pats were going for a three seed. Moreover, injuries can happen anytime during a game. So the argument should be made that Peyton shouldn't even dress for the games. He could get injured in the first half. Now, these teams have earned the right to play the games how they want to. It's just my opinion that going for a perfect season is something special.

4.) Up 35-0 in the third quarter against a Giants team the clearly didn't care, the Vikings came to a fourth and goal. And went for it. And scored a TD. Why? Why not just kick the field goal? The Giants players probably weren't embarassed as they didn't care, but the Giants coach sure cares. Why try to embarrass him? That's just wrong.

5.) Has anyone ever gone from the fantasy scrap heap to next year's potential top five pick quicker than Jerome Harrison?

6.) Three rematches from last week this week. I've thought about it and decided I've no idea whcih way that swings things. All three games were blowouts. All three teams that were blown out weren't fighting for their playoff lives. So, either the winners have the confidence edge going into the next game, or they're overconfident. I'm not entirely sure what the pattern would be so last week's games will have little effect on this week's picks.

7.) NYJ @ Cincy. Some people are pointing to the fact that Cincy's starters were mostly in and got destroyed to argue that NYJ are the better team. I'm not sure about that. While Cincy's starters were in, they were playing with the urgence of a team that had nothing to play for. I don't think they showed the Jets anything offensively or defensively that they'd use in the playoffs. Whereas the Jets, on the other hand, did tip their hand some. They ran the option to great success. There's no way that that should be the case this week. If a single option play gains more than eight yards, Marvin Lewis should be fired before they line up for the next play. Plus, you've got the Shancize on the road in the playoffs. Cincy's the pick.

8.) Philly Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are hot. The Cowboys are scary. The Cowboys have beaten Philly twice already. I don't know if McNabb's going to have back to back off games. I don't expect Maclin and Jackson to be held in check twice in a row. Philly's too good to be swept. Plus, the kicker diffference scares me. Eagles are the pick here.

9.) Ravens @ Pats. The loss of Welker cripples the Patriot offense. Moss has never been accused of being a big game performer and now the focus of the Ravens D will be on him. I'm not convinced the Pats can run the ball and Rice and Willis should have big games. Ravens are the pick.

10.) Packers @ Cards. I'm not sold on the Cards. They've been a better road team than home. Warner's been hit or miss. On the other side, the Packers seem to be peaking. They're giving Rodgers enough time now. Of course, if Larry could come close to what he did last postseason, the Packers probably won't win. But I could see a big Woodson play here. Plus, I'm elfish and would love to see a Packers-Vikings playoff game so the Packers are my pick.

Limerick of the Week

In the postseason there are no guarantees
It doesn't matter what your expertise
I must confess
It has to impress
How Chad Ochocinco heals his knees

Peace

Week 17 Tuesday Afternoon Reserve Punter

Alright' I am not going to be able to post this today. so this week Ill be writing a WARP. sorry.