Life and Stuff

Something is very wrong in the Big Easy. One year after using the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina as motivation that rode them all the way to the NFC Championship Game, the Saints have gone back to to their losing ways. You would have thought that the long anticipated return to the Superdome would have given the Saints some life right? Well it gave them nothing to be proud of. When you saw Reggie Bush giving his teammates a motivational speech that ended with his mates jumping up and down like they had just been selected as contestants on "The Price is Right," that would have been enough motivation to make them win right? I certainly thought the Saints were going to get off this mini snide to start off the season, but boy was I wrong. 5 Saint turnovers, including 4 interceptions thrown by Drew Brees, gave the Titans all they would need to defeat America's favorite sentimental team. I would have totally disagreed with you if you told me a month ago that the Saints would start 0-3, their offense was too good, their defense was good enough, and they were clearly a team on the rise. Now, it seems like they have reverted back to their old ways again. Since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, no team who had made the conference championship game the previous year and subsequently started the following season 0-3, has ever made the playoffs. The Saints look like they will continue that trend, it certainly is a shame. However, there were plenty of positives in the NFL this week, including an NFL record being tied, an NFC offense finally showing what they're capable of doing, and a team that put 38 points on the board for the third week in a row.

• Schmuck of the Week Award this week goes to one of my favorite people in all of football, Al Michaels. There is not a better play by play guy in the sport, however, he guaranteed that the Bears Cowboys game would be a good one. As we all know, the Cowboys coasted to an easy victory, oops!

• When you've only scored 2 offense touchdowns in three games, have a game in Dallas next week, and have just lost your best offensive player to injury, do you think you still have a chance? Forget about the Rams, the days of Warner, Martz, and the greatest show on turf are long gone.

• The Cardinals lost their first game by three, then won their second game by three, this week against the Ravens they lost by three. Anyone want to wager that the point differential in the Cardinals game next week will be three?

• Nice to see Kurt Warner still alive and kicking. I thought he was off signing football cards at a memorabilia show somewhere, milking the 1999 seasons for what it was worth. Based on his play Sunday, I smell a quarterback controversy in the land of the cactus. Oh never mind, Brenda Warner just called up the Phoenix sports radio station and said her husband jammed his finger while pulling on a lawnmower cord and he won't be able to play on Sunday.

• Did you see what the Jets had on the sidelines to help them out on Sunday? That's right, a video camera. I wonder where Eric Mangini got that idea from?

• Do you remember on that old Nickelodeon show "What Would You Do" the segment in which the people would come on stage and have a card placed on their heads? They would then have the choice of doing what was written on the card or going to that pie pod thing? I would have loved to have seen Eric Mangini go on there. His card would have read, "Admit you're jealous of the Patriot's success." Even if he chose not to admit it, it would still be worth it to see him get four pies in the face while wearing goofy looking goggles and an ugly smock.

• Dolphins LB Jason Taylor in trying to explain his poor play in Sunday's loss to the Jets said, "I didn't get to the quarterback, I suck right now." This has been another poorly thought out quote from the people who brought you duh.

• Don't say I didn't tell you about Randy Moss having a comeback year at the beginning of the season.

• There's no truth to the rumors that the over/under for the Pats in next week's game against Bengals game is 38 points. The Patriots will now be on TV-38 for the rest of the season, and that .38 Special will be performing at halftime during the next home game.

• While watching the E-A-G-L-E-S crush the L-I-O-N-S, I came to the conclusion why the birds put up so many points, it was the uniforms.

• Once upon a time, there was a team named the Atlanta Falcons. They had just made the playoffs for the first time since God knows when and thought they were set for life with a guy named Chris Miller at quarterback. Therefore, they traded a brash rookie to the Green Bay Packers who had stunk out the joint in Atlanta and who no one thought was any good. 15 years later, that brash QB has won more games than anyone and is about to break Dan Marino's record for career touchdown passes. The last I heard, Chris Miller is working the overnight shift at "Best Buy" as part of the Geek Squad.

• You can't help but not love Brett Favre, who was more concerned with the fact that his team won than tying a record. He's a real team player.

• Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the only QB's that can methodically lead a scoring drive down the field and get all the players involved. It was a great effort by the Texans, but the fact that Manning had too many good offensive weapons at his disposal, lead them to come up a little short.

• Rex Grossman is such a bad quarterback that the Bears are thinking of having open auditions for his replacement. Among the notables auditioning, Jim Belushi, Bob Swerski, and Keanu Reeves's character in "The Replacements."

• Watching a Browns Raiders game is like going to a double feature at the drive-in comprised of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Ishtar."

• If I were Romeo Crennell, I would not want to see Lane Kiffin in a dark alley. Kiffin showed major guts by waiting until the very last second to call a time out and negating a Phil Dawson game winning field goal for the Browns. The next kick was blocked, giving da Raiders da victory. That was a smart and gutsy call by the rookie coach. Somewhere in America, Al Davis was smiling.
  

• I'll bet more than one Bronco fan wished that John Elway was on the field playing after seeing Jay Cutler's play on Sunday.

• You know things are not right for your team when DeAngelo Hall gets penalized for being abusive to the officials. Carolina used that penalty as a springboard to overtake the Falcons and drop them to 0-3, proving yet again that stupidity always results in payback.

• The personification of courage this week is the Giants defense. After giving up a ton of points in the first two games, they held the Redskins scoreless in the second half, allowing the offense to pull out a close victory. At least for now, they are relevant within their division again.

• Until next week, here's hoping you'll catch Dance Fever, so long.