By Craig Kwasniewski and Brett Edwards
We at The Association love the NBA. But our second love is definitely gambling and no other sport is better for gambling than THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE. Combine the DirecTV NFL Package, a Fantasy Football team, a $100 knock-out pool entry, a blog site and an opinion and you get our new weekly feature...
Monday Morning Point Guard
Now we're not diversifying into an NFL blog site (theleagueblog.com?), but with NBA news at a rather minimum (unless you consider NBA D-League tryouts newsworthy) we decided to give some brief takes on Monday morning regarding our favorite teams (Bears and Broncos), our gambling interests and any random thoughts from Sunday. When the NBA regular season starts, we'll roll this into a NBA weekend review column.
BTW - For the first run just pretend it's Monday and to clarify who's writing what, Brett will be in italics.
1. Did you watch the Ravens game? HOLY CRAP that was a lucky win! They got totally killed in the first half, to the point of Frye heaving up jump balls as he was getting killed by the Ravens D and Winslow was making circus catches. It was also one of those games where the CLE players, coaches, and fans reacted to every play as if it was the EFFING SUPER BOWL! I watched until BAL cut it to 14-12, then went to the gym, and the last thing I saw was CLE on like the 10 yard line about to put the game away, so I figured it was over. But that's why you pick against bad teams, they find a way to lose. So like I said about the strikeout pool, this seemed like a tough week, but the teams that were supposed to win eeked out victories.
(Many people took BAL in the strikeout pool this week.)
I'm guessing that you picked BAL in the strikeout pool. Because there's no way in hell you should be watching that game. I heard that BAL won at the last second, but I had no idea that CLE basically pissed the game away. BAL's not that good. GOOD defense and a below average QB. But unlike 2000, the defense is good but not historically good.
Still, I give it 2 weeks before the 1985 Bears/2000 Ravens comparisons start flying around the radio.
2. Regarding the Bears, I'll take a road win against a good division opponent any day. The Vikings aren't a playoff team, but they're 8-8 or 9-7. Though you have to love the whole "Brad Johnson is a great QB because he makes no mistakes!" bandwagon. Wasn't this guy deep on Tampa Bay's bench at the beginning of last season? How did he suddenly become the next Rich Gannon?
Some seriously bad coaching by Minnesota down the stretch. 82 seconds left with the ball at their own 41 and a third and 7, they run the ball for 5 yards. Obviously, they lose a lot of time on the play. So on fourth down they heave a pass downfield into double coverage hoping to get an interference call (Indianapolis' secret weapon)... no dice. Game over and STILL you have Colin Cowherd saying that Minnesota is well coached and the Bears aren't all that good. FUCK YOU!!!
Cowherd was doing the same thing with Notre Dame this morning...he gets mad when he piles on a team (ND this year, the Bears last year) and they turn out to suck, so then he just rips them the rest of the year. CHI is a good, solid team, I would put them a close 3rd in the NFC behind PHI and SEA. And CHI may end up being better, we shall see. Good road division win though.
3. Is there bonus fantasy points for spleen removal? If so, then I'm not paying in the fantasy league!!!!!!
I think it was actually a vag removal, he's played horrible this season.
4. You need to trade Alexander FAST!!! Up 35-0 against a reeling Giants team and the Seahawks still couldn't run the ball. This had the potential 135 yards 2 TD's writing all over it and I think he had 47 yards on 20 carries. And this is against a crappy Giants defense.
Tell me about it, I knew this last week and had 3 offers but none were that great. I'm still trying...
Editor's note: This entry was emailed to Brett on Monday morning, not knowing that Alexander was to be out indefinitely for a fractured foot.
Editor's note 2: Brett drafted Alexander first overall in our league. Given that his first pick last year was Dante Culpepper, I'm suggesting he change his team name to Draft Like Kupchak.
5. Carson Palmer is the new Brett Farve. Turning the ball over to enhance his own stats. 4 TD passes and 3 turnovers!
6. Broncos win... so what'da think....
Broncos D rules. Also, I was yelling "fuck you" to the Pats most of the night for all of their BS trick plays that didn't work. They think they're so smart, but Shanahan OWNS Belichik, I think he's only lost to him once in like 7 tries. Also nice to see the poise of Plummer continually converting 3rd and longs from deep in their own territory. Very nice win.
7. "Hail to the Redskins, hail to victory, hail to the Redskins, fight for ole D.C.!!!" How am I the only one in the strikeout pool to pick the Skins over the Texans? Gibbs would not start 0-3, it's the freakin' Texans, Portis was going to play and it's the freakin' goddamn Texans!!!
Easy to say once the games have been played, but still nice pick.
8. So I was watching the NFL Network's highlight show... now understand that it's a homer network so nothing critical will ever be said about anyone during the show. So the commentator's (some REALLY fat dude) compliment for Dante Culpepper against the NFL's third worst team (Texans ARE the second worst) is that Dante didn't make too many mistakes. So a good game from Dante is a game where he doesn't fuck up too much?
Miami should have lost yesterday just to screw over the people for actually betting on Dante!
9. The whole "Raiders will win over BYE" joke was completely played out. I loved how a lot of people telling the joke were pulling a muscle patting themselves on the back for such hijinks. I'm sure they're GREAT practical jokers! Still, Raider fan shoots back with one of two responses, "whatever... we'll still go 14-2" or "at least we've won three Super Bowls, bitch!!!" (As it kills them knowing that they're a 2-14.)
10. Finally, big ups to New Orleans for beating a good Falcons team. But seriously, given the situation there's no way New Orleans were going to lose. The NFL even rolled out some Dick Bavetta-esque calls throughout the game to ensure the victory.
The best part was Joe Theisman obviously missing the ESPN memo about not pointing out bad calls that favor New Orleans. In the second half one of the refs threw a flag on New Orleans for pass interference only to have Bavetta mysteriously pick of the flag after the play, no penalty. Theisman kept saying that a thrown flag by a line judge must mean some kind of penalty... obviously the stun gun wasn't working on Theisman and Tirico tried feverishly to change the topic.
Coffeenerdness: I bought a... screw it, we'll let King have that one.
Thank your for sharing your wonderful article. I very agree with your views from here.
Posted by: Air Jordan | July 19, 2011 at 08:41 PM
Thank your for sharing your wonderful article. I very agree with your views from here.
Posted by: Air Force One | July 19, 2011 at 08:45 PM