Week 1 — Mon Sep 13 08:29:11 PDT 2010
From: Jeff
To: mnf@doobie.com
Date: Mon Sep 13 08:29:11 PDT 2010
Subject: It's Monday...
...and welcome to the season!
Wow, what an NFL Sunday this was. Several upsets. Two Texas teams doing what they do best (one being overestimated and sucking, one being underestimated and pulling off an upset). Jason Campbell losing another game.
Cincinnati went to New England, and lost the game before halftime, in a big stinker of a matchup. The Patriots went to the locker room with a comfortable 24-3 lead. Then Brandon Tate ran the second half kickoff back for a touchdown: 31-3. At some point in the third quarter, Carson Palmer, Terrell Owens (yeah, he's a Bengal this year), and Chad Ochocinco woke up. But it was too little, too late, and the Patriots held on to win 38-24.
The Colts and Peyton Manning went to Houston, threw for 433 yards and three touchdowns, and still lost 34-24 to the Texans. Second year Texans' running back Arian Foster ran for 231 yards, and scored three touchdowns on his own. The offensive line seemed to open up holes at will, and the defense got to Peyton more often than anybody expected. In short, the Texans showed up to play, and made a huge statement by doing so. The Texans are for real. At least this week.
If only San Francisco could make such a statement. This week our very own 49ers went to Seattle to take on the Seahawks, looking to establish themselves as a contender in the (admittedly weak) NFC West. Instead, they embarrassed themselves (and quite possibly anyone who calls themselves a San Franciscan), by losing 31-6 in a straight up rout. Alex Smith threw for 200+ yards, but he gave up two critical interceptions plus a fumble, and never found the end zone. Michael Crabtree caught two balls for a measly 19 yards. The team flew back from Seattle tonight, and immediately had an emergency team meeting in Santa Clara. There will be much profanity involved. And there better be some changes, because next week, the Niners are hosting New Orleans at Candlestick - for the Monday night game. San Francisco can not afford to stink this bad next in front of a national audience, even in the NFC West.
Which brings me naturally to Dallas, who went to Washington this week, and did everything they could to give the Redskins the game. Fortunately, they were successful. After a half of defense and each team kicking the ball away, the Cowboys lined up to end the half with a hail-Mary, prepared to go to the locker room down 3-0. But Tony Romo never got his long pass off. The Redskins got through the offensive line, and Romo chucked a near lateral to running back Tashard Choice. Choice got stopped by the defense, and instead of going to the turf and taking it to the locker room, he tried to fight the tackle... and found himself being stripped of the ball. Redskin cornerback DeAngelo Hall scooped up the pigskin and ran it back 37 yards for a touchdown. And that was just the ending of the first half.
The second half, well, there was a Dallas touchdown, cutting the lead to three... followed by a very ballsy Redskins decision to kick a (successful) 49 yard field goal, with a little under two minutes to play – giving the Cowboys the ball back at the 19, down by six points (had they missed the field goal, Dallas would get the ball at their 45, down by three). Tony Romo and the Dallas offense engineered a good one-minute drive, getting into the red zone, and started slinging footballs towards the back of the end zone, in the hopes of pulling off a miracle comeback. And on the very last play of the game, it almost looked like they'd done it – until you noticed the yellow hanky on the field.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Alex Barron, Dallas's right tackle, and the player who has committed the most penalties in the NFL in the last five years, continued his trend, by getting caught holding Brian Orakpo (for the third time in the second half). This was one of the most egregious holds in ages, Barron's arms were around Orakpo's neck, right in front of the umpire (really, it's one for a high school training video: “This is how not to block”). That penalty cost Dallas the game.
Things were not much better for the Raiders who lost 38-13 on the arm of Jason Campbell. Redskins fans rejoiced when Campbell was traded. Raiders fans scratched their heads, glad at least that Al Davis hadn't again embarrassed the Raider Nation on draft day. This will be the first of many losses for Campbell and the Raiders. While it'll take at least a year to get the JaMarcus stink out of Alameda, I'm not sure that incremental refactoring (where each new player transaction results in a QB who sucks just a little bit less than the last) is the right way to rebuild one of the worst offenses in the NFL. At this rate, the Raiders will be able to be 8-8 just before they move to Las Vegas.
And that brings us to tonight's doubleheader. Yep, doubleheader.
The Games
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Tonight, we've got two games.
First, at 4:00 pm pacific time, the perennially underestimated Baltimore Ravens go to New Jersey to meet with the now-used-to-TV-cameras Jets. Look for Jets coach Rex Ryan to have some colorful words to say about the Baltimore team that fired him. Look for holdout Darelle Revis to not live up to expectations. Look for a rookie mistake or ten from Mark Sanchez. Hope for an interesting game.
Then, at 7:15, the San Diego Chargers go to Kansas City, MO. Watch out for the all new Chargers roster. Look out for another piss-poor performance from Chief's QB Matt Cassel (who's likely to get fired if his performance doesn't improve this year). Wonder what this game could've been had San Diego not traded away their best players, in the hopes that their coaching staff can train a handful of rookies well enough to stay on top of the AFC West for another year.
The Line
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On Thursday, the Smart Money went 2-0, representing a 91% return on investment. The S&P has gone up 2.57% over the same timeframe.
The Jets are favored by two. The Over/Under is 36. The Smart Money takes Baltimore and the Over
The Chargers are favored by four and a half. The Over/Under is 44.5. The Smart Money takes the Over, and considered the Chargers.
The Bar
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There's a lot going on in sports today. Two NFL games. A handful of baseball games with playoff implications. In a town that's light on sports bars, this only means one thing: we need to go to only big one in town.
Pete's Tavern
128 King Street
Across the street from the N and T lines.
Kickoff is at 4:00, then again at 7:15. See you there?