Be Excellent To Each Other

Not far from the pre-season games, and theres been some interesting moves... the most surprising being retired Packers legend, Brett Favre unretiring and being traded to the Jets. Thus simultaneously making Madden 09's cover obsolete, and giving the Madden Curse another chance to strike.

madden curse keeps strinking, but indeed, a weird trade, the press was full of it....

since the admirals gave up last year, i kinda lost my interest, but go New Orleans!

My support for The Bengals and their lack of success will continue to go hand in hand.

Though I also like the Colts and New England, just for their style of play. Peyton Manning is a legend (and has won me a few fantasy leagues in his time).

http://www.edge-online.com/news/madden-curse-strikesea

new england? those masters of video tape?

as normally, i support teams from new amsterdam, as that seems right, except when they're the yankees

Ah the Cincinatti Bengals (or alternatively the Ohio State Penitentiary Bengals)...

Peyton Manning is out, recovering from having an infected bursa sac removed... almost certainly out for the preseason, maybe the first couple of games as well.

Some interesting rule changes this year. No more 'force out' call should swing things back towards the defense on passing downs.

Not sure about the radio for the defense, or the removal of the 5 yard facemask penalty.

Oops, eant to say something about this earlier... on the face of it, it looks like a stupid trade, but when you think about it, Favre is a veteran earning megabucks, he might very well retire again at the end of this season. Short term, Favre is the pick, but he is not a long term solution in any way shape or form. The Packers currently have three young QB prospects, and in 5 years the Packers QB will be one of them in some shape or form. From the point of view of Green Bay, they might as well let Favre go, use the money on some other parts of the team and be in better shape down the line.

Oh, the trade makes perfect sense for the Packers, but as a Jets fan I've no idea what they're thinking. They've filled up this offseason on veterans with a couple of seasons left in the tank (Kris Jenkins, Alan Faneca, Calvin Pace, the fullback from Kansas whose name eludes me, now Favre) as if the team were just a couple of leaky holes away from being a Soup Bowl contender. Some of the moves are more defensible than others - Faneca should help bring along the talented young o-line, for example, and the team are pretty much sending the message loud and clear that they don't think Kellen Clemens is ready to start - but generally these are the kind of pickups you make when you feel your window of contention is closing and you need just a little more help to get over the hump. I'm not seeing the Jets as that kind of team at all.

Weird.

The Jets... Well, there is potentially value to having Favre around, especially with a young, inexperienced QB also on the same roster. And the Jets can always use more people through the turnstiles of the Meadowlands, especially as the Lombardi currently resides over in Giants Stadium (*knowing wink*).

Out of interest is there NFL coverage on terrestrial TV this season?

I recall five US showing some highlights that I kept missing last year and the BBC doing the Superbowl but can't find an indication of this years plans on five's useless website.

As far as I know, Five gets Monday Night games live, till the end of the baseball season, BBC gets Superbowl and the London game, Who knows about the playoffs.

The BBC Superbowl coverage was awesome, I hope they do a similarly good job this year. I am a Mike Carlson fanboy though.

Tom Brady Is Injured! Pats Season Suddenly Shakey! I'm Typing in Headlines!

Everyone should be a Mike Carlson fanboy. Particularly given that the other is the double-act Kevin "Never Knowingly Interesting" Cadle and Nick "No-Nothing Bozo The Non-Wonder Dog" Halling.

Although Sky's two-games-at-once red-button coverage is excellent.

The Broncos completely destroyed the rubbish Raiders last night!

Gogogo Aaron Rodgers!!! He showed enough to me last year when he stepped in for 3 quarters against the Cowboys and played like a seasoned pro... he backed it up last night against the Vikings, and he has clearly been watching and learning while he has been sitting on the bench all these years instead of just having a snooze. That alone speaks volume about his professionalism, and with such a deep receiving corps I am optimistic that the Packers can go at least 10-6 this year and make the play-offs again.

As for the Brett favre thing, I think the Packers did absolutely the only thing they could do given the corner that he painted them into; still, good luck to him and I hope he does ok with the Jets (decent enough start on Saturday, but then I could play QB and beat the Dolphins so not reading too much into it). I think the Patriots are about to trade for him though

PS. I like Mike Carlson too. I don't mind Nick Halling, although he is a bit statty and always gives me the impression that he is trying to show off how much he knows about the game to compensate for the fact that he is British and therefore supposedly ignorant about it. Kevin Cadle isn't meant to be interesting, he's just supposed to anchor the whole thing down, but he isn't actually very good at that so I would happily take him outside and shoot him.

The thing about Mike is he's not afraid to show off his breadth of knowledge. He'll happily talk about pro-wrestling, or the CFL, or movies or whatever. (Mike is a big pro-wrestling fan) He's not just a great NFL talking head, he's very interesting to listen to in general. He's also very good at explaining the game to the audience, which is essential for British TV. I've been following the game for years, and there's stuff I don't know about. I only just learned that a team that has just been scored on may elect to kick rather than receive the ensuing kick-off. Which is never seen, but it exists as a rule.

His college football anecdotes are great too. I liked the one where he was telling us about the various signals they use, and how in college the right tackle was a big dumb git who couldn't remember the playbook, and before every snap, Mike would point at the guy the right tackle was supposed to be blocking and shout 'Him!" (Mike played tight end, so lined up to the right of the RT on most plays) and how no team ever took advantage of this. (there is a tendency to get tied up by 'so every play, the tight end has pointed to the guy the RT is blocking just before the snap... but what if this time its a fake' type thinking)

And he can be genuinely funny.

The Ravens should have gone with that the last few years.

And man, the Raiders looked terrible. They seemed to be able to run the ball early, but totally abandoned that after about the second series when they found themselves ten points down. It's totally impossible to judge if Jamarcus Russell is any good or not when the other side can just pin their ears back and come after him every play and his receivers are completely incapable of hanging onto the ball.

Meanwhile, the Broncos just threw the ball to whatever side D'Angelo Hall was covering. It was like the tactics you'd use in a Madden game.

De'Angelo Hall, 24million dollar contract, gets toasted for 146 yards by rookie receiver Eddie Royal. He's a) really shit, and b) really glad Marshall wasn't playing.

Packers v Lions was a weird one last night... can someone please tell the Packers to stop taking the 3rd quarter off? They've got away with it twice against the Vikings (who can't throw) and the Lions (who can throw but toss a coin as to which side catches it)... against better teams they will get badly burnt if they ease up when ahead.

Aaron Rodgers still looked mighty fine though; it was more a question of offensive play-calling that hurt the team rather than anything he did especially wrong. Some of the plays last night really did look like Brett Favre was still there... the first TD pass to James Jones when he scrambled away from pressure in the pocket and made the play, and the good old playaction roll-out and launch downfield to Greg Jennings (twice). It's nice to see that they still feel able to use the whole playbook even with a rookie at QB and don't have to cut down their system because he's struggling to cope.

Cowboys should be a big test next week though, looking forward to it already

In non-Packer news, it's good to see the top AFC teams not having it totally their own way so far this year... largely injury related, true, but teams really are competing against the Patriots and Colts this time around. It's not as flashy to watch as Randy Moss catching 4 TD passes a game, but it is more dramatic if you like close games that go into the 4th quarter still in the balance.

Last thought - why the chuff is John Gruden so quick to ditch quarterbacks no matter how well they do for him?

My Sky went down, which meant I didn't get to see anything but the Monday night game. Grrrrr. Pity, I'd have loved to see the Arse-Kicking-Contest-Between-Two-One-Legged-Men San Fran at Seattle game.

The thing with Green Bay is that they're so loaded with talent everywhere on the team (other than arguably the secondary) that they're the ideal team for a young quarterback to step into. I had some cash on the Packers -3.5 and the Giants -8.5. Both looked safe as houses for the first half, then both fell asleep in the third quarter and nearly gave me a heart attack before rallying late.

On the other hand, I've watched the Jets for far too long to have any concerns that backing New England +2.5 was anything other than free money. I was annoyed I couldn't get good enough odds to make it worth putting money on Tennessee as 1.5 point dogs against the Bengals, though.

The Broncos finally have an offense sorted. 80 points in two games! Go Cutler! (as an aside, why is Jammer still the Chargers' no 1 CB? he's shit, and always has been. Gets caught looking into the backfield, plays the man instead of the ball in coverage, lets receivers get outside on him constantly. got toasted on Sunday.)

Shame about the D.

The New England Patriots were destroyed, at home, by that well-regarded offensive powerhouse... the Miami Dolphins???????

So another year, yet another Raiders coach. Seriously, what the fuck is Al 'Palpatine' Davis on? It takes a two or three seasons to install an NFL scheme, it takes a while before the coaches have the sort of roster they need, personnel wise. Davis keeps sacking them, and so the Raiders have been in a constant rebuilding phase for years, starting to get the right players in... wham! The head coach is gone, and the right players are now the wrong players. They have no core to build on. And this is from a Broncos fan. I should be happy that the Raiders are useless, and look to be useless for the forseeable future, but it kinda makes the whole concept of a rivalry fall apart when one team is that bad.

Really great London game... any game that comes down to 37-32 and a last second 'throw it to the end zone and pray' type situation has to be good.

saints are doing nice, new orleans should win something after katrina..

im thinking the colts can go all the way.
The only teams I see doing well in the playoffs are the giants, steelers or the colts and maybe the cowboys if they can make the playoffs and romo staying fit
Its a shame that 5 are stopping their coverage tho no more nat and mike

I think we can safely remove the Cowboys from that list...Baltimore on the other hand looked excellent (again) on defense and pretty good on the offensive side.

yeah dallas are out of it now
I still think that the steelers could go all the way
Cant see the ravens sustaining this form through the playoffs

The Steeler's offense just seems so anemic most of the time.

Their defense is solid tho
And big ben can grind out a result against any team
And they are gonna get the home field advantage - titans have lost it in the last few games

Reasonably close at the moment. Superb TD run by the Titans, although it was nearly ruined by a 'DeShaun Jackson' moment.

/EDIT: Well in the end it wasn't close at all, the Titans stomped on them and on a number of terrible towels.

If I was to pick a contender at the moment I'd go for Carolina (cue them losing tonight to the Giants).

carolina have no passing game
But I spose it does set up the play action to catch teams out.

We'll probably end up with a manning v manning superbowl at this rate!

Great match last night, Carolina, really should have won but the Giants ground game was immense. Proper football weather as well.

The Broncos are throwing the season away quite spectacularly. I'm betting the Chargers beat them in the last game. *sob*

Though to be fair, they're on their 7th choice running back, but that's no excuse for the mockery that passes for their defense.

Yeah I can see the chargers clinching the division, but would either the broncos or the chargers get very far in the playoffs, I really dont think so

The Broncos are the best team ever, you'll see! All they need are a couple of great DTs, a better Mike, maybe a safety or two.... and a RB made of titanium.

Anyway, lets look at the most important thing this weekend. Will the Lions become the first team in NFL history to go 0-16???

Perfect season is going to happen

They just have to believe they can do it. Go Lions! (Spread is currently 11 against the Lions, methinks Vegas is being seasonably charitable to the Lions)

GB 14, Cowardly Lions 7 at the half! The perfect season is on!

NOOOOOOOOOO...14 all in the 3rd. What are you doing Detroit?

The Lions....


LOSE... the first perfect 0-16 season in NFL history!!!!!!!!

haha yay!

Im sure nat and mike on five will be pleased about that later

So we have:

Panthers
Giants
Vikings
Cardinals
Eagles
Falcons

in the NFC, and:

Steelers
Titans
Dolphins
Chargers (booo hisss)
Ravens
Colts

in the AFC.

There's what self belief and a commitment to excellence gets you. GO LIONS!

The Lions are so bad they even lost bye week. I'm calling it 0-17.

1 - I thought the Indy game was on telly now.

2 - WHAT A FRIKKIN' TOUCHDOWN!!!!!

Shock loss for Indy there, against a busted up San Diego team. They really are the Anti-Manning.

Loved the Arizona win. I was always a fan of Kurt Warner and Edge back in the day, so it's nice to see them doing well.

Can't really see either of those teams winning their next game, but I'll be cheering on the Cards.

Woo! and also hoo!