Week 15 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007
From: JeffTo: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Monday...
...and the Miami Dolphins are 1 and 13.
Congratulations to the fish for avoiding the dreaded bagel this season. They've got a lock on the first draft pick, too.
The playoff situation has changed just a little, with wins from Cleveland, Washington and New Orleans:
AFC:
In: Indianapolis (12-2), New England (14-0), San Diego (9-5)
Essentially In: Jacksonville (10-4)
Theirs to lose: Pittsburgh (9-5), Cleveland (9-5)
Could Spoil January in either Pittsburgh or Cleveland: Tennessee (8-6)
NFC:
In: Dallas (12-2), Green Bay (12-2), Tampa Bay (9-5), Seattle (9-5)
Essentially In: NY Giants (9-5)
Fighting for the final spot: Minnesota (7-6), Washington (7-7), New
Next week's Redskins/Vikings matchup in Minnesota is going to be a good one. So good, that NBC invoked the flexible schedule rules, so the game will be moved to the Sunday evening time slot.
And while the playoff picture might look more or less the same, we do have a new development in the NFL. Despite there being nearly 7 weeks of football left to play, it seems that this year's title of "NFL's biggest douchebag" is going to go to Bobby Petrino, former coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
First, a little backstory. In June of 2006, Petrino signed a 10 year, $17 Million contract with NCAA Football powerhouse Louisville - a very lucrative, long term contract given to him by the university precisely because they were tired of everybody trying to recruit the coach every December. In January of 2007, he left Louisville to become the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons -- a douchebag move in and of itself, but certainly not one of the caliber required to upset Michael Vick for this year's title. Petrino is an excellent offensive coordinator, and when he signed a 5 year, $24 Million contract with Atlanta, he was primarily coming to the NFL so he could design plays for Michael Vick. Oops.
Four weeks ago, Petrino decided that he would start Byron Leftwich at quarterback against Tampa Bay. This isn't an unreasonable decision for a coach to make, but perhaps he should've told the starting quarterback before telling the media. Joey Harrington learned of his demotion to the bench when he saw the coach's press conference. Classy, eh?
Three weeks ago, Petrino had T-shirts made up for all the players and staff. They had one word written on them: "Finish". As in, finish the season... finish what you started. Or something like that. It was one of those motivational, bonding exercises that coaches do.
Last Monday night, as the Falcons were losing to the Saints, there was a strange rumor floating around that Petrino had been hired by the University of Arkansas. It was loud enough that it caught the attention of Falcons' owner Art Blank earlier in the day. Blank asked Petrino last Monday if the rumors were true, and Petrino looked him in the eye and said that he would be coaching the Falcons in 2008.
On Tuesday (the players' day off), at about 5:00 pm, Petrino walked into the General Manager's office and resigned. He broke the news to Art Blank in a thirty second phone call, proceeded to give a brief speech to all of his employees (the array of trainers and assistant coaches and such), and wrote a 78 word letter, photocopied it, and placed it in each player's locker: http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/falcons/stories/2007/12/12/petrinoletter_pic_1213.html It has been reported that he didn't initially intend to give the speech to his staff -- the falcons' general manager convinced him to do it.
He then had the movers empty his office and his Atlanta home, and he left town under the dark of night. Unbelievable. I fail to see how it could be possible for anyone, anywhere in the NFL, to out-douchebag this guy this year. The title is his.
The Atlanta Falcons are a tainted, stigmatized team, and this is going to be a hard coaching position to fill. I suspect that Bill Cowers, Russ Grimm, and Steve Mariucci have all been sent bushels of peaches this week.
Similarly unbelievable was the weather in Cleveland on Sunday. Blizzard-like snowfall. Gale force winds. Field markings that were invisible under the white stuff -- and huge playoff implications for both the Browns and the visiting Buffalo Bills. This week, the Browns just outlasted the Bills. The weather killed both teams' offenses, but thanks to the foot of Phil Dawson, the Browns held on to win 8-0. With the win, the Browns are one step closer to making the playoffs (a win next week against the Bengals will clinch a spot). With the loss, the Bills are essentially out of the running.
The essentially-out-of-the-running Philadelphia Eagles went to Dallas and stunned the Cowboys 10-6. Their last two defensive performances against Dallas and New England are probably being heavily studied by defensive coordinators all over the country. It seemed like every other play, an Eagle got through the offensive line, and was making plays in the backfield. There were several other very noteworthy things that happened in this game. First would be Reggie Brown's unexpected leap into the oversized Salvation Army bucket on the sidelines -- this one's going on everyone's highlight reels. Second would be the thumb injury to Tony Romo -- it's sprained, and he'll play again, but a throwing thumb injury is a bad one to be nursing in January. Finally, at the end of the game, Eagles running back Brian Westbrook got behind Dallas's defense, and was headed for a sure touchdown, when he stopped and knelt down on the one yard line. Why not run up the score and pad his stats? Because Dallas was out of time outs (and because this isn't New England). By stopping on the one, the Eagles could assume the Victory formation, where the quarterback just takes a knee, and lets the clock run out. Had Westbrook scored, the Eagles would have kicked the ball back to Dallas. These sorts of smart plays are getting increasingly rare in the NFL.
Green Bay went to St. Louis and made short work of the Rams 33-14. This game is only notable because the 12-2 Packers are now tied with Dallas for first place in the NFC. If these two teams meet in late January (which is not unlikely), it will be the outcome of the next two games that determines whether the game takes place in a climate-controlled dome, or at Lambeau Field. Do you think that will have any influence on the outcome of that game?
Pittsburgh played at home this week, in crap weather, on a field that resembled a slightly frozen swamp. They lost 22-29 to the Jacksonville Jaguars. When the Steelers can't use their weather to their advantage against a team from Florida, then they barely deserve the playoff spot that they're barely holding onto. With this loss, they're tied with Cleveland for control of the AFC North. They're both pretty likely to get in, but who/where they'll play will be decided in the next two weeks.
And then there are the Redskins. The 'Skins went to a very windy New Jersey and soundly defeated the New York Giants 22-10, on the strength of Clinton Portis alone. The Giants are a team that's falling apart. Not only is QB Eli Manning becoming increasingly inconsistent, but his receivers are dropping balls, and the leading catcher (Jeremy Shockey) just suffered a season-ending leg injury. They can make the playoffs with a win, either next week in Buffalo, or at home against New England... but the poor Giants just look too broken to really be a contender. The Redskins, on the other hand are playing good football (behind the arm of third-string quarterback Todd Collins and the stunningly effective defense), and next week's matchup with the Vikings might end up being the game the decides the final NFC playoff berth.
Which brings us to tonight's game.
Tonight the 5-8 Chicago Bears go to Minnesota to take on the 7-6 Vikings in a game with unlikely playoff consequences. The Vikings, after winning their last four straight games, find themselves in control of their own destiny. Their 7-6 record is half a game better than 7-7 Washington and New Orleans. If they keep winning, the wild card is theirs. If they lose, even once, they're leaving an opening for the Redskins or Saints to take the berth instead. Chicago, on the other hand, is essentially out of the running, just one year after going to the Super Bowl. Rex Grossman is injured and out for the season. Brian Griese sucks. So, Bears coach Lovie Smith will be starting third-stringer Kyle Orton (though you can bet that Lovie told Griese this first, and in person). In a year where the Bears will almost certainly be hiring a free-agent quarterback in the offseason, the opportunity to see a third-year, third string player on a nationally televised game is reason enough for the game to be exciting.
The Line:
Minnesota is favored by 10. The over/under is 43.
Last week, the Smart Money went 1-0. It is now 11-5 for the season, representing a 31.25% ROI. The S&P 500 has gone down 1.6% this NFL season.
This week, the Smart Money takes the over.
The Bar:
Usually known for the other kind of Football, this lower haight
establishment has been a fixture on the sports bar tour since the
earliest days of the sports bar tour. Please don't smoke weed on the
back patio... they don't like that at all. Please do drink Guiness --
these guys pour some of the best pints in town.
Mad Dog in the Fog
530 Haight near Fillmore
Steps from the 6, 7, 71 and 22 'Mo busses.
Two blocks from the N.
(FYI: I'm going to skip this week -- we had an out-of-town guest in for the weekend, and my liver needs a day off.)
Kickoff is, as always, at 5:30.