Week 10 Thursday Afternoon Punter

Vack from holidays!

Week 10 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) What a crazy ending in the Jags - Texans game. Man, every Gus Johnsons game! Good job by the NKnicks for distancing themselves from the Law of Gus Johnson. Now they just play boring games.

2.) Tie game. Overtime. About a minute and half left. Both teams with one timeout left. Ball within your own three. You got a choice. Run the ball and get a tie. Or go for a loss. What do you do? Well, if you're Eric Mangini, you go for the loss. He coached scared. You could get ripped for settling for a tie, but not for going for the win. Well, if you so badly want to go for the win, you should have gone for two at the end of regulation down by one. The Jets were desperate for the Browns to not run out the clock. Call me crazy, but I subscribe to the theory that what the other team wants you to do is generally not good for you. Horrible job there.

3.) That said, Jericho Cothery clearly injuring himself during a play, seeing his QB in trouble and sprinting to make a diving catch was one of the most remarkable things I've seen on a football field. More than the Hail Mary. The only thing that really beats it is....

4.) Michael Vick. It's not everyday you see a pro athlete look like he's on an entirely different level than his peers. That said, let's all calm down. It's been a couple of games. He might continue to perform fantastically, but let's see it first. I love the way he's playing, but now he's being talked about as if he's unstoppable. He's not the greatest QB ever, and even the greatest QBs ever have been stopped. I really hate saying this before he plays the Giants, though.

5.) I did love how people were talking about how the Cowboys offense is different now that Wade Phillips is gone. Jason Garrett had autonomy oer the offense anyway. The difference this week was that Jon Kitna looked like Peyton Manning.

6.) Mario Manningham's very talented. Home run threat. Reliable hands. Is going to put up big numbers while Steve Smith is out with injury. Giants should shop him after the season. Manningham's not a smart WR. Not nearly as much as Smith. Too many times I've seen him catch a pass near the sideline and bring his second foot out of bound when he had room to shorten his stride and get in, or run a thrid down route short of the marker (just pass the yellow line!), or, worst of all, catch a thrid down pass for a first down and then retreat behind the marker to try to break his guy and get tackled short. Don't get me wrong, he's a great number three WR and would be a really good number two, but I would like to see what they could get for him.

7.) I seriously reccomend going to NFL.com videos and watching the Anatomy of The Plays segments. Mike Mayock does a brilliant job breaking down every asoect of the play and shows you all that goes into a success. A must watch.

Limerick of the Week

The Knicks I continue to support
Though they're sucking on the court
Giants get torched by Vick
It all makes me sick
How long till pitchers and catchers report?

Peace

Week 9 Tuesday Afternoon Punter

Week 9 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) How can you not love the way Mike Vick is playing? He's finally playing the way we'd all hoped he would. Well, outside of those who thought he was an elite QB in Atlanta. The thing with Vick always was was that if he could ever develop into a good passer and use his running as one option, not THE option, he'd be a QB like we'd never seen. He seems to have become that. Unless they fear injury, Philly should lock him up now. You can't let a talent like that hit the market.

2.) The Cowboys worry me this week. Changing coaches in the middle of a season sometimes lights a fire under the players, especially those who'd quit on the old one. Dallas is not short on talent. If the Giants sleep on them, they could be in for an upset.

3.) Great win for the Jets. Down 10 with four minutes left. Sanchez bounced back from playing a bad game to help get the win. That's what you want to see from a young QB. I have to be fair, that's what I always harped on when Eli was young.

4.) It is funny, though, how winning a game makes people forget how bad things were uring the game. At one point in the Jets game, the Lions were up by three with first and goal just outside the five. The Jets lined up with too many men on the field and were forced to call a timeout. Then on second down, it happened again! They burned two timeouts in a close game with most of the fourth quarter left. That's terrible. Still, players are dumb. Say you're the player who realizes that you need to run off the field to acoid a penalty. Now the other team has first and goal at around the six. Now, you can try to run off the field, drawing attention to yourself and telling the offense to snap the ball for a free play, or cost your team a timeout in a close game. What should you do? The correct answer there is secret choice C. You should run up to the line and touch an ofensive player, get called for encroachment (a dead ball penalty), give the offense half the distance to the goal (3 yards) and save your vital timeouts. If you can't stop them from the three, you probably wouldn't have stopped them from the six. Timeouts are more important there than three yards.

5.) It is interesting how much people hate the BCS, yet talk about the NFL in the same way. This week I heard so many media people talking about which teams can win the Super Bowl and which potential playoff teams may as well go home. That's stupid. Anything can happen in the playoffs (Yep, you guessed it, I'm about to make a Super Bowl XLII reference). Just ask the 18-0 Patriots. I wonder how many media people were talking about the Giants as a team that could win the Super Bowl.

6.) I don't understand why the Browns refuse to commit to Colt McCoy as the starter. He's already at least as good as anyone on the team and has a high ceiling.

7.) The roughing the passer penalty against Philly when Peyton's helmet was touched was ridiculous. It should more of a judgement call, not so strict that allows for no interpretation. And the penalty on the Collie hit was even worse. That was a reaction to the result, not the actual play. You shouldn't throw a flag because a hit looked vicious or the hittee isn't getting up.

Limerick of the Week

In July I was crushed by The Decision

October forced me to make a World Series revision

My picks were bad

Still, not as sad

As seeing Wade Phillips exiled from the division.

Peace

Week 8 Tuesday Afternoon Punter

So the Giants won the World Series. Doesn't matter. This brings up the age old philosophical question: If a team wins a World Series and no one sees it, does it matter? More importantly, if a team wins a World Series and it's not the Yanks, then did that season happen?

No and no.

My bitterness aside, game four is what was most important about this series and the coming offseason. With the Rangers down 2-1, Tommy Hinter started instead of Cliff Lee. Cliff Leem who was the answer for the Rangers. More important than game 4 is that if the series went 7 Lee wouldn't have been available. I don't see why Lee could not pitch game 4, Hunter 5, Wilson 6, and Lee again on 7. Oh of course, Cliff Lee has never pitched on 3 days rest.

I hate that point. Pick whatever workhorse pitcher you want; Halladay, Sabathia, anybody, they hadn't pitched on three days rest until the first time they did. Every pitcher had never pitched on short rest until he did. Manuel refused to do it to Lee last year and Washington id the same this year. Makes me woner if Lee isn't saying that he can't go. If that's the case, than he's no ace. Apart from that being a wicked rhyme, it's also true. An ace needs to demand the ball whenever his team's down. I thought Girardi should've started Sabathia in Game 4, followed by Burnett, Pettite, and Sabathia.I don't know why that didn't happen. Supposedly he didn't want anyone else on short rest, so having forseen that issue Pettite should've pitched Game 2 and he'd have been on normal rest on game 6. That's not the point, anyway. The point is, that after Giving the Yanks a very good start on Game 5, Sabathia told Girardi he was available to relieve in game 6... on one day's rest. He's not the only ace that would do that. Any ace would. I think Lee didn't.

On another note, I was beginning to think that the idiotic moves plaguing the Knicks for the past decade were over. I thought we were in the dawning of a new era. The "New New York Knicks" as their calling themselves, would be different.

I was wrong.

For the past decade, consistently the best part of being a Knicks fan was getting to hear Gus Johnson call 50 more games than most people do. Not only did I get to hear Gus Johnson on a regular basis, I got a different Gus Johnson. I got Gus Johnson rooting for my team announcing the games. He was way more over the top than he usually was. He had John Sterling type catchphrases for each players ("My name is Al Harrington, and I make baskets!"). It was amazing. I was looking forward to getting to hear Gus Johnson calling the action for a quality Knicks team. No such luck. For some reason the Knicks decide to let Gus go. I don't get it. I feel betrayed. This is more inexpl;icable than them trading Ewing. For me to say that, well, you could see how hurt I am by this. On to the TAP.

Week 8 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) Randy Moss would be a Jet today if the Jets had their way. Unfortunately for them, they don't have first priority. So he probably wouldn't end up there, but man what a perfect fit.

2.) As for Childress cutting Moss. I think he was sick of hearing everyone say he didn't have the guts to bench Favre and tgus was the ramatic way to prove them wrong. It's like if a guy became so desperate to prove he wasn't having money problems that he pulls a 100 dollar bill out of his pocket and tears it to pieces. It doesn't really prove anything, just that you're an idiot. Now you're out a 100 dollars for nothing.

3.) A Chargers Vikings Super Bowl, man I gotta stop making predictions. Or predict a Jets and non Giants Super Bowl.

4.) Mike Shannahan thinks we're all idiots. He benches McNabb at the most critical point in the game for whatever reason and brings in Grossman. Maybe that could've worked, maybe the backup QB kick starts the offense and they march own the field. Still doesn't mean it's the right move. Especially if you're going back to McNabb as the starter. Even more especially if your ace in the hole is Rex Grossman. Then after the game he tries to drown everyone's criticisms in some football jargon, throwing around words like "two minute offense terminology" As we all know, the two minute offense is simpler than the regular offense. Running plays are all but eliminated. That's half the playbook. Also, it needs to be simple enough to call at the line, in a hurry, I don't think it can be all that complicated.

5.) How can you not like Josh Freeman? Ahem, "When you look at this guy, here's a guy who's a football player. A football player in the National Football League that wins football games." I think black guys deserve some of that too. Eight career wins, six fourth quarter comebacks. Impressive.

6.) Watched the NFL redzone channel for the first full Sunday this week. That thing is awesome. I mean if the Giants aren't playing, game breaks are my favorite parts of games, this channel is all game breaks. Absolutely worth the money, or the time to find it online, which I may or may not have done.

7/) Nice job by Rex Ryan throwing his punter under the bus after a terrible fake punt. Ryan said the punter has the green light to go whenever he wants. That's a you problem. You don't give punters or kickers green lights, and if you do you make sure you give them the re light when it'd be moronic to go. They're punters. Not QBs. Don't give them authority.

Limerick of the Week

Off the team did the Vikes Moss kick

I guess he and Childress didn't quite click

Now he'll sign with the Pats

The we gotta say congrats

To BB for somehow getting a free draft pick.

Peace