The Association NFL: MMPG 10/9

By Craig Kwasniewski and Brett Edwards

Time for another edition of MMPG. For clarification, Brett is in italics.

1. "You gotta be fucking kidding me!"

After one of Bledsoe's interceptions, TO was caught saying this on the sidelines to one of the Dallas coaches, followed by the predictible Joe Buck/Troy Aikmen exchange:

"It's a tired act isn't it," Said Aikmen.

"It just continues, doesn't matter what uniform he's wearing."

Look I'm not a T.O. fan by any means, but I have to agree with T.O. after this one. Bledsoe just threw a pass 10-yards short of T.O. into triple coverage. What the hell was Bledsoe thinking? So what was T.O. supposed to do?

Are you talking about that pass that was picked on the 10-yard line? That should have been a touchdown, and yes was short armed by a good 5 yards. AND on that play, Bledsoe actually had time to make the throw, unlike most of the rest of the day when he was running for his life. Bottom line for the Cowboys is that they need much better O-line play or they will continue to see sacks and interceptions, because Bledsoe has ZERO mobility. Which is why Tony Romo may be a better option this season. He's not better than Bledsoe, but he's almost as good and way more mobile, and considering the lack of pass protection it may be the way to go.

2. BTW – The DAL-PHI was NOT a good game. Three turnovers in the first 5 possessions. Bledsoe killing Dallas drives by taking sacks and throwing int's, and they still had a chance to send the game into OT because of a stupid pass interference on a fourth down and 99 play for Dallas. Which is more overrated? The NFC East or our success in the Iraqi War?

YES that conference is overrated (East coast bias), but it was actually as exciting a game as you can ask for! Not extremely well played (lots of turnovers), but lead changes, long pass plays for TDs, and DAL even pulled a 4th and like 28 out of their ass and had a chance to tie at the end! Seemed pretty exciting to me.

3. Is Brian Griese the new Jim Sorgi? Here's the big difference between the media's favorite team, the Indy Colts and the Chicago Bears: The past three seasons Indy kept Peyton in the entire game, running up the score trying to improve their BCS ranking. The Bears, knowing that the championships are won in January, rested their starters as soon as possible. So instead of gaudy Indy numbers, you get closer games.

Um, closer games like 40-7???? Please Bears fan. Let's see CHI rest all of their DEFENSIVE starters as well, then we'll talk.

You got me there... but still 40-7 and clearing the bench for the fourth quarter.

4. Speaking of Indy, they are a seriously flawed team. They BARELY beat one of the worst teams, starting the second worst QB in the NFL and at home. IND has no running game, can't stop the run and their special teams coverage is HORRIBLE. Yet, still people will talk about Peyton rallying his team to victory. This will all come back to haunt them against quality opponents.

Well, I agree that IND has problems, but as bad as they played they still got the W. So while the media will continue to fillate Peyton Manning, real NFL fans know that the Colts have a lot of work to do to get through the rest of the AFC.

5. The NFL needs to start tracking turnovers that lead directly to TD's. Who would lead the league? Drew Bledsoe, Jon Kitna or Brett Farvre?

Probably Favre, but more importantly this needs to be trackable for Fantasy purposes! It would be great to give a QB negative 9 points for a pick (-3) that leads to a TD (-6). They really need to come up with a way to track this.

6. Speaking of Kitna, I guess God is a Vikings fan. How else do you explain the Jake Plummer-like turnovers. The one off a sack that led to a TD can happen to anyone, but the falling down flip to the DB with the game on the line was inexcusable! Will this lead to a Kitna questioning his faith? Does he denounce God and go on cocaine and stripper bender? Just once, I'd like to see these God-guys loose it and fall off the wagon. Just once!

7. BTW – The Indianapolis Colts have an "AFC Finalist" banner! During a timeout in the TEN-IND game they were talking about the Colts recent success and showing all the banners and suddenly I saw it…WOW!!! Talk about embracing failure! They should pull a Utah Jazz and put Manning's grill on a banner with his playoff record under it.

Speaking of timeouts, did you see the DirecTV commercial at halftime, the one where IND is beating TEN like 28-3, and Manning is telling you to get DirecTV so you don't have to watch the rest of the blowout? Freaking hilarious when the actual halftime score was TEN up 10-0! I bet Jeff Fisher played that thing on an endless loop all week to get his team ready.

8. Holly Kordell Stewart batman, does Vince Young suck!!! For the first time in NFL history, a player received more compliments than passing yards. His numbers were: 10 of 21 with 63 yards passing and 1 INT and that didn't explain it all. With roughly 14 seconds left and driving the for a field goal to win, Young (with zero timeouts) scrambles for 12 yards rolling out of bounds. The play takes the clock down to 2 seconds with the ball at TEN's 40 yard-line, basically sealing the game for IND. Instead of pointing out that TEN could have thrown the ball twice in the same time span, Young is being praised for his veteran moxie. Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the ball travel faster in the air than on the ground?

9. As you know, I took NE in the knockout pool and I was seriously worried about my chances when I saw that Culpepper was not starting for MIA. That was until I saw Joey Harrington line up under center and started spraying around INT's… easy money. Besides the Raiders, is there a more sorry QB situation in the league than MIA?

First of all, believe it or not a healthy Harrington is way better than a broken Daunte. Second, I talked to you during that game and you were gripping a little when it was only 13-10. And as you know, I had IND in the pool so I was gripping a little more, especially when Manning threw a pick in the red zone midway through the 4th. I'm living a charmed life in that pool with TWO one-point wins in 5 weeks.

10. That Reggie Bush runback was OVER-RATED!! All he did was run to where the wall was set up and sprint untouched to the end zone! YES he's fast, but he didn't make one move or break a single tackle on the entire run. The credit should go to the blockers on that one, not to Bush. Hell, I could've ran down the sidelines with a wall set up like that...

11. The Raiders are headed for 0-16!!! I thought they had a chance against SF, especially after KC ROLLED SF 41-0 last week. SF was even trying to give the game to OAK after failing on not one but two fourth and inches in the redzone. And still the Raiders got killed by possibly the fourth worst team in the NFL (OAK, TEN, DET). The DEN better not be the first team to lose to OAK next week!

DEN will not lose to OAK. Shanahan hates the Raiders, and will never let that happen. The Raiders still have a home game against HOU later this season, so that might be their one win. But for all intents and purposes, is there anything better than Raiderfan having to deal with their team being the WORST in the league? Now we know why they all wear costumes to their home games, it's because they're embarrassed to be seen there. Monday night prediction: DEN 20, BAL 6.

I agree with that. BAL is very overrated!