Rosstradamus Returns from London

There’s blood in my mouth cuz I’ve been biting my tongue all week…but I’m back from London and the Giants/Dolphins game with much to report. Since the G-Men had a bye this past week, what better time to tell the tale?

The game was at 5pm local time…giving everyone plenty of time to enjoy some adult beverages beforehand. Nice. On our way to the game, which was ridiculously easy to get to, we noticed an abundance of different NFL jerseys. We saw a Redskins Clinton Portis shirt 10 feet away from a Broncos Portis shirt; I think every NFL team was represented and I’m not exaggerating. There were tons of fans at Wembley Stadium at around 3pm, but there was no tailgating to be found. Instead, it was more of a carnival atmosphere—fans were at a novelty, not a sporting event…everyone was in a good mood, but you could tell that the Brits were not really into the GAME aspect of the game. Whenever I travel anywhere to see a sporting event, I’m always struck by how much better the facilities are than those in NY and Wembley was no exception. There was more than enough room everywhere—from the staircases and the corridors to the seats and the bathrooms. There was no bumping into anyone, no cramped knees while you sat down, and everything was clean…it was a pleasure to see what we SHOULD be getting for our overpriced tickets as opposed to the cramped, dirty, roach motels we have in this area. Man, we’re getting ripped off here. But I digress. The seats we had weren’t the best, but they still gave us a view of everything with no problem. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow us to get beer in less than a half hour. The English beer lines were brutal, caused by too many cooks in the kitchen: attention England, you don’t need one person to pour, one person to hand the beer to me, and one person to ring up the sale. For 5 quid a beer, streamline that shit and get me to my seat! When we got to our row, it took a few minutes to make our way to our seats as there are 50 seats per row. Not good when you want to leave to use the loo. As we were getting ready for the pre-game festivities, we looked around us, trying to figure out who was a fan and who was there for the show; were there fellow New Yorkers sitting near us, or were they folks from the East End wearing Giants gear? As it turned out, the American presence was much less than I expected. I’d say there were maybe 15,000 American fans there, and only a couple sitting near us. This made for a surreal in-game atmosphere. Fans kind of knew when to cheer, but didn’t really understand the game. Most importantly—Wembley was a stadium full of people who didn’t care who won or lost. Sure, they had been told who to root for—the Dolphins were the home team—but they reacted like they were at a tennis match not a football game. Occasionally the crowd would get into it when there was a long pass or a good run, and when the PA announcer cried, “That’s another Miami Dophins…” the crowd was annoyingly conditioned to respond, “First dowwwwwn!!!” But it was not a spirited audience. I could blame the sluggishness of the game, or the weather (from which we were shielded) but I won’t. I’ll blame the NFL. The idea of having teams play abroad is not going to succeed, at least not for a long time. The foreigners who attend these games simply do not care enough. No matter how wonderful we think our football is, we can’t force the English or anyone else to invest the time, emotion, or money necessary to be a true fan of what to them is a bizarre sport. Think about it—do Americans (other than me and a couple of my friends) care enough about English soccer to spend a lot of money and time on it? This Giants game was treated like an event and people everywhere love an event. However, when no one cares who wins or loses, it ain’t a proper sport—especially in sporting-mad England. Sure, there were some locals who were into it—we met an Irishman who told us about the upcoming college draft, and who he thought would be the number one pick—but for the most part the game itself was secondary to the spectacle. Much like the high school outcast, the NFL can throw a party and everyone will show up. After all, there’s beer and other partiers… but, also like the outcast, the NFL can’t force people to like them or include them in THEIR next party. The NFL has wildly overestimated their world-appeal and although they’ll sell a lot of tickets wherever they go, it will be for a one-off EVENT, not the interest of the SPORT itself. There’s a big difference. To sum up: the game stunk, the atmosphere was surreal, the English know how to drink, throw a party, are very hospitable, but they will never embrace the NFL on a full-time basis. Bank on it.

Back to the States:

New England beat the Colts. Was anyone surprised? The deal is this: Indy was outplaying the Pats—not dominating, but certainly outplaying—through three quarters, but not for one second did I think the Colts were going to win the game. New England hung in there…almost as if they knew they would take over in the 4th quarter. It reminded me of Rocky IV when Drago’s manager would shout out the “sign” to crush his opponent after Drago had been toying with the tomato can. Brady and his teammates got that sign with 9 minutes left. After Manning scored to make it 20-10 in favor of the home team, Brady hit Moss twice for 70 yards, then Welker twice, the last one for a TD. 20-17. All of a sudden, the game was on the line and here’s what the Colts did on their next drive: committed two penalties, when they only had four the whole game and allowed a sack of Manning—a rarity at any time—and punted. New England goes right down the field to take the lead. Indy then allows another sack of Manning, resulting in a fumble which ended the game. This timely play from New England came despite the fact that they had not been tested all season. Even though they had not been challenged, Brady & Co never panicked. They always knew they would have a chance to win the game if they stuck to the plan. Say what you want—Addai was a monster, Harrison didn’t play, the game was close—blah, blah, blah…when the game was on the line against their nemesis, the Colts didn’t play like champions. At home, with a 10-point lead, with 9 minutes left? You’ve gotta win that game if you want to call yourself the best. Everyone thinks that another meeting between these two is a certainty. I don’t. I’ll say they won’t play again this year. Someone will beat the Colts in the playoffs before they get to New England.

Ahhh, the Jets. This week, it was a different conductor, but the same music…the music of losing. The Jets started the game with a Leon Washington kickoff return for a TD yet still managed to lose. Kellen Clemens played well, 23-42 for 226 and a TD, but not well enough to win. The reason? Thomas Jones. He ran for less than 4 yards a carry once again, but this time the fault lay with Eric Mangini. He felt Jones should get a mere 13 carries. I have no idea why. Why did they throw the ball so much instead of running Jones? Only 13 totes for a back in a close game seemed odd to me, and I’m sure to Jones as well. I’m fairly certain that Clinton Portis didn’t care why he got 36 carries for his team, especially since he gained 296 and had a TD in leading his team to a much-needed win. It’s become boring to even write about this team, much less watch them. Enough.

Even the biggest Brett Favre haters must admit—the Packers have been impressive, especially their back-to-back road wins in Denver and KC, the latter on short rest. The People’s Team now sits at 7-1. That’s crazy! What’s more impressive is they’re doing it without a running game. Green Bay is dead last in the league in rushing, but their defense—which held Larry Johnson to less than 3 yards a carry and yields less than 94 yards a game on the ground—is leading the way. And of course, number 4 ain’t playing that badly. But…despite the accolades, he’s not playing that well either. Check it—13 TDs and 8 interceptions. He’s had more picks (6) than TDs (5) in his last 4 games…but the team keeps winning. The rest of the Packers are feeding off of the energy Favre brings to the team, and if you watched the Packers last season, you’d have seen the same thing—he moped his way through the season until the last few games. As Favre’s energy and enthusiasm go, so go the Packers…that is, if their defense plays this well. As for the Chiefs, I think I’ve finally figured them out. They’re in the group of 20 NFL teams who are mediocre, who fall in the 7-9 or 9-7 range. With a few bounces, a couple of these teams will make the playoffs as fodder for the two or three good teams…anyway, the Chiefs might be one of those teams—especially with the way the rest of their lousy division has been playing.

Yeah—I’m talking to YOU, AFC West! San Diego has to be at the top of the “how can they suck this bad?” list. Many will say you can sum their struggles with four letters: N-O-R-V, but his bad coaching is only the tip of the iceberg. I don’t like what I’m seeing out of Philip Rivers. When teams like Minnesota are able to take Tomlinson out of the offensive equation, Rivers has been called upon to lead his team to the end zone…he has not done so and the team has lost games as a result. Add to that, a defense that has woefully underperformed and you have a disappointing team. Um…30 carries for 296 yards and 3 TDs for Adrian Peterson? How can a defense on a supposed elite team give that up? It can’t, and they’re clearly not an elite team. San Diego has Indy, is at Jacksonville, hosts Baltimore, and has trips to KC and Tennessee upcoming. They’ll never make it out alive. As for the Vikings, they may have AD, but they also have Tavaris Jackson. I’m giving Rivers a hard time for walking around with an 82.9 QB-rating and a 10/8 TD to interception ratio…well, what can I say about Jackson who has a 50.6 rating and a 2/5 ratio? Come on Mr. Childress! What’s the deal? In the words of Judge Smails, “The man’s a menace!” He’s killing this team! They have a great, not a good, a great run defense and perhaps the best RB in the league right now. Yet they won’t make the playoffs because while you CAN win with a mediocre QB, you can’t win with one who should be a backup in the CFL. I’d hate to see Peterson waste his most productive seasons running behind this palooka.

Next in the disgraceful AFC West pecking order comes Denver. “If you play at the level we did, you get embarrassed,” Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. “I’ve been embarrassed a couple of times this year. Now, we find out what we’re made of.” No Mike, we found out what you were made of THIS week. Coming off of a tough loss on Monday night to the Packers, your Broncos came out and stunk up the joint in Motown to the tune of 44-7. In a game they had to win to keep their playoff hopes on the front burner, they showed zero mettle. Zero moxie. Zero balls. You wanna tell me Jay Cutler got hurt? I wanna tell you that Cutler has been nothing special, and so what if he got hurt? Ramsey came in and did exactly what Cutler would have. Perhaps those who laughed at John Kitna’s preseason claim that the Lions would win at least 10 games need to get their apologies ready because the Lions are well on their way. They scored two TDs passing, one rushing, and two with their defense against the Broncos—the wealth is being spread in the Motor City!

And then we have the Raiders. When your team gives up 122 yards on 21 carries to Ron Dayne and loses a game to a QB named Sage, what more is there to say? McCown is awful, it’s time for JaMarcus. Why is it that people who watch the game can see that a team needs to change its QB way before the team does it? The Jets, the Raiders, the Vikings—what is it about changing a QB? It’s SO clear to the average fan that these teams need (in the Jets case ‘needed’) to make a change…is it the fear of admitting failure? Is it the fact that they’re so involved in the situation that they can’t look at it properly? All of you teams—and you know who you are Minny and Oakland and others…make the change sooner than the Jets. It’s OK to admit you made a mistake, but it’s not OK to be stubborn and cost your team its future.

Speaking of teams with QB “situations,” how about the Buffalo Bills? J. P. Losman returns and leads the Bills to 479 yards of offense and a win over the dreadful Bengals. Rookie Marshawn Lynch ran for 153 yards on 29 carries and also tossed the go-ahead TD pass to Robert Royal. Not a bad day at the office. That the Bills are 4-4 is impressive to me, considering the QB carousel they’ve been on for several weeks. The Bills have proven to be the opposite of Denver—after that “no adjective can do it justice” loss to Dallas, the Bills have responded with three straight wins, and could move over .500 with a win in Miami this Sunday. Credit needs to go to head coach Dick Jauron for keeping the team believing. Now the Bills are going to fight it out with—gasp—the Browns and Chiefs for a possible wild card. Yikes. Oh don’t worry Marvin Lewis, I didn’t forget your crap team in all of this. What the hell does a coach have to do to get fired? The team has zero discipline, they underachieve every season, especially on defense which is where the coach’s “expertise” is supposed to lie, they whine and snipe at each other…forget asking why Lewis hasn’t been fired—there isn’t even a DISCUSSION about him being fired! Is it racist to discuss firing a black head coach, is that what the football world is scared of? Come on. The guy hasn’t gotten anything out of a team with loads of talent on offense, and he’s failed to upgrade the pathetic defense in five seasons…what am I missing here? 2-6 is a disgrace for that team, and someone needs to answer for it.

Atlanta beat San Francisco. All you need to know is Frank Gore didn’t play due to an injury and Jerrious Norwood didn’t play because Bobby Petrino is stubborn. These two teams are unwatchable…and, as it turns out, un-writable.

Tennessee is 6-2 after disposing of the disappointing Panthers. I’m fairly certain that Vince Young will be the beneficiary of too much credit, and comments like, “He doesn’t have the numbers, but all he does is win games…” But the fact of the matter is this: the Titans are winning DESPITE Vince Young. You can tell me winning is the only thing that matters, but then you have to go on about how great a QB like Trent Dilfer is—after all, he won a Super Bowl. Young’s numbers are not just poor, they’re destitute. His career passer rating is 65.2. Kyle Boller’s is 71.8…Funny how Boller isn’t praised as much as Young. Young has 15 TDs / 21 INTs in his career. In 2007, he’s rocking a 61.5 rating to go along with his 3 TDs and 8 INTs and in his last 5—a 44.2 rating and ZERO TDs and 6 INTs. I’m sorry—but I have to ask: why is everyone praising this guy’s play? This team wins because of its defense, which held Carolina to under 200 yards of offense, and a revived running attack. Not because of a QB with a lot of college accolades and little on his pro CV. They’d better hope Young improves or they’ll be on the outside of the playoff picture despite their current record. As for the Panthers—one stat sums it up for me: Steve Smith, 3 catches, 15 yards. That simply cannot happen and the fact that it did means two things. One, they don’t have a QB who knows what he’s doing or how to win, and two, the Panthers’ season is not going to end with an NFC South title. I don’t care what you have to do—if you’re David Carr, you MUST get Smith the ball or at least try to. Some of the blame lies with coach John Fox (who will be fired when this team fails to win 8 games) but Carr needs to take the major hits here. The Titans also recorded seven sacks—more than they’ve had in two years and Carr was the QB then! Perhaps the Texans offensive line took too much of the blame over Carr being sacked all the time in Houston. The Panthers would be better off with Vinny in there.

Sticking to the NFC South, how about those Saints? Hard to imagine this team was 0-4 a month ago, but they were. The offense is back to where it was, and that’s Drew Brees’ doing. He threw for 445 and 3 TDs Sunday against Jacksonville. True, the Jags have been hit by injuries, but that doesn’t alter the fact that New Orleans is back, and that they will win their division. Hell, I’ll go so far as to say a trip to the NFC Championship game is in their future. If Reggie Bush continues to improve, who’s a clear favorite to beat them in the NFC? Dallas? Maybe, but that’s it. You don’t think they can do it? Go look at their remaining schedule and tell me they’re not going to win 10 games. Go on, I’ll wait………………. See? I told ya! I only expect the Saints to get better as they gain momentum and regain the belief they rode to last year’s remarkable season. Bush has shown dramatic improvement to me—he’s running with a decisiveness now, the tentative way he approached the line of scrimmage is (hopefully for Saints fans) a thing of the past. When he and Breese are on, they feed off of each other’s success, and the offense reaps the benefits. Sure, the defense gives up too many big plays, but hey—only one team is perfect in the NFL and doesn’t play in the NFC. Everyone has it’s warts in the inferior conference. Jacksonville would be OK if they played in the NFC, but they don’t. They’ve suffered a ton of injuries and are slowly crumbling on both sides of the ball. Quinn Gray is only the latest of QBs who have been given a shot in the NFL, only to prove that a real starting QB is perhaps more valuable than we even imagined! The not-so-mighty Quinn threw a couple of nice passes, but if you saw his 80-yard TD to Reggie Williams, you know anyone could have thrown it. They need Garrard to come back in a hurry, or their season will be over: 3 of their next 6 games are on the road at Tennessee, Indy, and Pittsburgh. Ooooof.

Tampa Bay beat Arizona, but explain this to me…Arizona had 23 yards rushing, Kurt Warner went 10-30 for 172 yards and 2 INTs, and the Cardinals had the ball for 16:53…not in the first half, IN THE GAME! Despite this and the fact they didn’t turn the ball over, the Buccaneers won by only 7 points. How is that possible? I’m sorry, but I refuse to take a team seriously when it can only manage to win a game like that by a TD. You had the ball for over 43 friggin’ minutes Tampa—what the hell were you doing with it to score only 17 points? You can’t win in the playoffs like that, and I’d like to nominate Tampa Bay as a candidate as a first round blowout victim…if they manage to make the playoffs. Gruden needs to open it up and trust Garcia a bit more—there are weapons for him to use! Galloway is having an explosive season. Let him and Garcia take some risks. I know the Bucs are in first place at 5-4 but they have no shot at the division if they don’t take the reins off. The Saints will fly right by them, starting December 2nd when the gang from the Crescent City gets their revenge for the week 2 crush job the Bucs pulled on them. Once again, the Cards are…well, the Cardinals. Their offense was abysmal and without it hitting on all cylinders, this is a five win team. You think they’re getting better with a new coach and philosophy…they beat the Steelers and the Rams to go 3-2…then they promptly lose 3 in a row. Ho hum. Edgerrin James continues to show that he’s always been overrated—a product of the Colts’ offense. The supposed future of the franchise, Matt Leinart, is out for the season and there will be (deservedly so) a ton of questions asked about his future come February. Sigh. Same old Cardinals.

Ladies and gentlemen…the Cleveland Browns are 5-3 and can start using the playoffs as a motivating tool. I love this team. They are fun to watch, and when was the last time you said that about a Browns team? Even when they were decent and fumbling games away to John Elway’s Broncos, they weren’t fun to watch, Webster Slaughter notwithstanding. But come on! And they’re doing it with a QB who wasn’t considered good enough to beat out Charlie Frye to start the season! Brady who? Please. Derek Anderson is going to the Pro Bowl; after Brady, Palmer and Manning—who’s playing better in the AFC? Wow. That’s a great story, isn’t it? Braylon Edwards is likewise having a terrific season, and Kellen Winslow, Jr. is on a pace to register 1,300 yards from the TE position. Not bad. This team gave New England a pretty good game, and the way they’re playing right now...they have visits to Pittsburgh and Baltimore in the next two weeks, and if they can get a split, they’ll be 6-4 with six games left…and I swear to you—all six of those games are winnable. I’m not saying they’ll win them all, but they can certainly win 4 or 5 and that would give them at least 10 wins. Perhaps it is the Browns who will be the Saints of ’07? As for the Seahawks, how many times do I have to tell you that they’re soft before you nod in agreement? The Browns could NOT run the ball against Seattle, but the Seahawks still couldn’t stop their offense. Shaun Alexander was again ineffective before breaking down…you want one line to sum up how soft this team is? Here ya go: In overtime, in a game they need to win, a game in which they were up 21-6, the Seahawks had a 4th and 1 from the Browns 44 and they failed to get that yard against a team with a terrible run defense. That’s gut check time, and sometimes teams show you that they have no guts. Seattle’s done this time after time. A change is needed there.

Fly Eagles Fly…on the road to victory….hahahah!!! I love it when the Eagles stink…and I’ve been doing a lot of loving lately. Hey now. This team is done. Through. I don’t mean this season, I mean forever. McNabb’s run as the leader of this bunch is over. OVER! As my brother, Mattradamus, said to me during last night’s game, “When McNabb succeeded in large part due to his mobility and then he loses that mobility…what’s left?” I’ll tell you what’s left—losing, whining, making excuses, and joy for all NFC East fans. That’s what’s left. It’s funny, because when you look at McNabb’s stats from last night, they don’t seem that bad: 27-46 for 264 and a TD with 2 INTs. Not great, but not bad. However, if you watched the game, you know that McNabb was awful. Here’s what he did in a division game, against a bitter rival, in a game his team had to win, at home…On the FIRST PLAY he ran, McNabb fumbled. It wasn’t one of those bone-jarring hits from the blind side; it was McNabb not taking care of the ball. Dallas took over and scored a TD to go up 7-0 before the Philly fans had a chance to boo. The teams then exchanged TDs and Dallas led 14-7 with 2 minutes to go before halftime when the following happened: The Eagles had a 3rd and 10 from their own 17 with 1:33 left in the half. McNabb throws an atrocious interception to Kenny Hamlin and three Marion Barber rushes later it’s 21-7 Dallas. Game, set, and match. Now I’m not saying Philly should have sat on the ball with 1:33 left, although that’s arguable. What I’m saying is that a QB who has been in the league, who has been to a Super Bowl, needs to understand the situation there. You cannot, under ANY circumstances, throw an interception. As soon as he did it, ya know what I thought of? I thought of that kid from Cal, the young QB who failed to throw the ball away in the final seconds, letting the clock run out before his team could kick an easy field goal. But he’s a college kid who wasn’t even a starter. McNabb is a much-praised QB on a professional team—he needs to act like a pro. Yet once again, he failed to. Between him and Andy Reid, have they ever met a moment of truth and not spit the bit? Bad interceptions, impossibly poor play calls, poor clock management…it boggles the mind! Also boggling the mind were the amount of times that Terrell Owens, the scourge of Philly, was left wide open. I don’t mean a couple of steps open, I mean the kind of open where the receiver raises his hand in a signal of disbelief. Dallas has it going on. Their offense is scary and when Tony Romo starts to get his swagger on, they are impossible to stop. He’s got options galore and a running game which is underrated. Marion Barber—man that guy bangs the hell out of the line when he runs. He runs so aggressively, it must be a joy to block for him. On defense, Ware and Ellis are enough to disrupt any offense, especially flimsy or one-dimensional ones like Detroit and Green Bay. Only a team who can score in a variety of ways, like the Giants or Saints, can beat this Dallas team in the playoffs…that’s why one of them will be playing in Dallas for the right to go to the Super Bowl. Laugh now…drop your jaw in amazement later.

Imagine being a Ravens fan. Come on. That offense is so pathetic…when the announcers are questioning why Steve McNair is still in the game…when McNair can’t throw the ball more than 10 yards, and even when he does, it’s a lob…How in the world can Brian Billick have him in there at all? McNair is pathetic at this point—he cannot play in the NFL. It’s embarrassing. I know he’s been a “warrior” and plays hurt and all that crap, but enough is enough. Put Boller in there—if you don’t, I have to question what your priorities are, Mr. Billick. Your team is above .500 and in contention for a playoff spot—it’s not as if McNair is the future! What can you expect out of that defense when the offense literally gives up more points than it scores? Sooner or later, Ray Lewis is going to punch Billick out and order McNair to stand down…and good for him when he does. The Steelers looked like they want a piece of New England. I know Ben Roethlisberger threw 5 TDs, but the Steelers’ MVP was clearly James Harrison. I haven’t seen a defensive performance like that in a long, long time. He had two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and interception and 2 1/2 sacks…in the FIRST HALF! His hit on Ed Reed was a 10 out of 10 and was typical of the Steelers’ effort as a team. Everyone rocked out last night and they made one thing clear—they will HIT New England when they play them. Looking at New England’s schedule, Pittsburgh looks like the team to put an end to the unbeaten run, and if they play like they did last night…who knows? I’ll be watching.