Week 5 — Mon Oct 12 12:37:05 PDT 2009
From: Jeff
To: mnf@doobie.com
Date: Mon Oct 12 12:37:05 PDT 2009
Subject: It's Monday...
...and welcome to San Francisco, Mr. Crabtree.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, the holdout has ended, and Michael Crabtree is now officially a 49er. You may remember that I wrote a little about him back in the Hall of Fame week, because he believed that a five year, $20 million contract (with $17MM guaranteed) was far too low. However can one afford to live in San Francisco without being guaranteed to earn $23 million... over four years? Last week, he signed a contract guaranteeing him $17 million over the next six years -- though he could earn up to $40 million if he meets all of his incentives. He'll be a free agent at age 28. If he is traded before then, the terms of this contract will likely follow him to his new team.
Not bad, considering he's a 22 year old Texas Tech dropout who hasn't played a down in the NFL, has never had to outrun Champ Bailey, didn't participate in training camp, and didn't even run in the NFL's winter combine (in all fairness, he was injured -- but for most non-graduating college players, missing this event would mean playing another year in the NCAA). Crabtree was an amazing slot receiver in the Big-12, and hopefully will be able to translate his talent into great success in the NFL, starting on October 23rd against the Texans. Unfortunately, the NFL has a long history of crushing the hopes of rookies who don't play four years of college ball before moving up to the higher impact and faster pace of the NFL.
San Francisco has a bye week this week, so he's got two weeks to get integrated into the offense (and the rest of the offense has two weeks to get used to the idea of four-receiver spread formations and the like). For the first few games, look for him to be used primarily as a decoy, running crossing patterns to bring the bulk of the defense into the center of the field, allowing for more effective sideline passing, sweeps and screens. (Or not, allowing for easy 5-8 yard short passes over the middle). Once he's had some playing time, you'll probably see his routes start to get deeper. Now, if only our quarterback was capable of throwing the ball to him.
The Atlanta Falcons came to San Francisco this week and crushed the Niners 45-10. The home team was booed off the field at halftime, down 35-10, and it only got worse from there. The offense was inept. They clearly miss Frank Gore. Shawn Hill was terrible, completing 15 of 38 for 198 yards and an interception. The defense let the Falcons run up 477 yards of offense and earn 28 first downs (and, of course, the five touchdowns). Fortunately, the Niners play in the NFC West, so their 3-2 record (and 3-0 divisional record) is good enough to remain on top of the division for at least another week. Next week, the Falcons host the Chicago Bears for the Sunday night game. The niners have a well-timed week off.
The Denver Broncos welcomed the Patriots to town, and beat them 20-17 with an impressive come-from-behind win in overtime. That means the Broncos are 5-0, for the first time in 11 years. They have a rookie coach, whose controversial trade for Chicago's (2nd string) Kyle Orton did not enamor him to his new town. And now, you're hearing the F word an awful lot... as in "franchise quarterback Kyle Orton". Orton completed 35 of 48 for 330 yards, 2 TDs and one INT, but more importantly, he moved his team down the field consistently when he needed to. Meanwhile, the Denver defense held Tom Brady to 215 yards (19 of 33, 2 TDs), and almost completely shut down Randy Moss (1 catch, 36 yards). The game started off looking like a Patriots runaway (they took a 10 point lead early, and it was 17-7 at the half), but the second half belonged to the Broncos, who managed to tie the game with 5:21 to go, and then put up one of the best defensive stands they've managed this season to take the game to overtime. Denver won the coin toss, moved the ball down the field, and kicker Matt Prater booted a field goal from 41 yards out to win the game (it was a huge kick, and would've been good from at least 10 more yards out). Tom Brady and the Patriots never touched the ball in overtime. With the loss, the Patriots fall to 3-2. They host the 0-5 Tennessee Titans next week. The Broncos are 5-0 (!!), comfortably in control of the AFC West, and go to San Diego next Monday night.
The NCAA's overtime rules guarantee that each team will get the ball at least once. The NFL's don't (and usually, the team that wins the coin toss wins the game). Considering that the league likes to change the rules to suit Tom Brady, it makes you wonder whether this game will be the turning point for the NFL's sudden death overtime, as you simultaneously hope that is the last time you have to see Denver's gold and brown striped throwback pants.
The New York Giants hosted Oakland and to nobody's surprise, routed them 44-7. Oakland QB JaMarcus Russell showed us again what the worst rated quarterback can do with the worst rated offense. He went 8 for 12, throwing for 100 yards, with three fumbles. He was sacked six times. Giants QB Eli Manning played for most of the first half, completing 8 of 10 passes for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns, before giving the game to reliever David Carr. It's still unclear the extent of Eli's heel injury, and what he'll be able to do against a competent defense (we'll find out next week), but he clearly took it easy this week, because that's all that he needed to utterly destroy the Raiders' defense. The Giants go to 5-0, and will be playing against the 4-0 Saints in New Orleans next week. Oakland comes home and hosts Philly, probably to a non-sellout crowd.
St. Louis hosted the Vikings this week, and got completely outplayed by Minnesota. The Vikings scored two touchdowns in the first seven minutes of the game, and just had to hold on from there. It wasn't difficult. The Rams turned the ball over four times (three of them were inside the 10, and the fourth was a fumble returned 50 yards for a touchdown). Over the last three weeks, St. Louis has allowed 109 points to be scored against them. They have scored 27. The only way this team could get worse is if they were sold to a fat-assed, racist, drug-addled, self-important windbag. The Vikings are 5-0 (the first time that Favre has ever started 5-0) and host 3-2 Baltimore next week. St. Louis is 0-5 and heads to 2-3 Jacksonville to play in what will be the least watched game so far this year...
...at least in the NFL. Did you know there's another professional football league? No? Well, you're not alone. On Thursday night in Las Vegas, a crowd of 14,000 watched the Las Vegas Locomotives defeat the Bay Area Redwoods 30-17, in the upstart UFL, a curious 4 team, 12 game "league" that's starting this year. It was on a TV network named versus, which most people have never heard of, and is currently in a contract dispute with DirecTV. Satellite viewers will have to download this game if they want to watch it. Many, if not most, of those 14,000 tickets were comp'ed (not only because it's Vegas, but because it was the first game of the new league, so everyone who had anything to do with the league's creation was in the audience). There may be a game with four-digit attendance later this season.
The Pittsburgh Steelers went to Detroit and brought their fans with them. Lured by the easy availability of Lions tickets, thousands of Steelers fans made the 4 hour drive to Detroit's Ford Field... and at times were actually louder than the fans cheering for the home team. Late in the fourth, down 28-20, Lions QB Daunte Culpeper brought his team to the Steelers' 21 yard line, and then the crowd got loud. The linemen on the HOME team couldn't hear the snap count, and let Pittsburgh's defense get through to sack Culpeper three times in a row, pushing the Lions back to about the 50, and ending all chances of a Lions' victory. I've never seen anything like it. The Steelers are now 3-2, and hoping to pick up momentum when they host the 1-4 Cleveland Browns next week. The Lions go to Green Bay.
And that brings us to tonight's game...
The Game
Tonight, the 3-1 New York Jets go to Miami to take on the 1-3 Dolphins on the same Prescription Athletic Turf that was played on during the Monday night game in week 2. It is unusual for a stadium to have two Monday games so close together (and when you include a week 13 Sunday night game, and this season's Super Bowl, it seems that Miami has a much higher than average number of national games this year). This week, instead of Jimmy Buffett and free beer, the tailgating crowd will be greeted with Latin singers Jesse y Joy, and the opportunity to win a GMC truck that gets 17 miles per gallon. ¡Arriba!
Miami is playing hurt, after losing Chad Pennington for the season to a shoulder injury. Backup QB Chad Henne is a reliable passer, and was being groomed to be the team's starter sometime in 2010 or 2011, but he's really not ready for the big games yet. Meanwhile, the Jets have the best rookie QB that the league has seen in quite some time (First round draft pick Mark Sanchez). Most of the game is going to be focused on the performance of these two passers.
The Line
The Jets are favored by 2.5. The over under is 36.5.
Last week, the Smart Money went 2-0. It is now 7-2 for the season, representing a ROI of 48.5% over five weeks. In the same timeframe, the S&P 500 has gone up 3.7% and the US Dollar has gone down 1.5%.
This week, the Smart Money takes the Over and the Jets.
The Bar
This week, we're headed to a new place, in an old neighborhood. Named after a fictional dentist of dubious character and no medical training, this place has been open for a little more than a year, and has quickly become a stop on many Polk Street crawls. Monday tends to draw a more subdued crowd, and the drink specials, ample seating, and lots of TVs should make this a good place for tonight.
McTeague's Saloon
1237 Polk @ Bush.
Steps away from the 19 Polk bus.
Within a block of the 2,3,4,17,47 and 49 busses.
Still pretty close to the California St. Cable Car line, and the 38 Geary.
Kickoff is at 5:30. See you there?