The AFC and NFC Championships are here and at this point I'm not going to waste your time. I'm just going to say I'm rooting for the Saints to go all the way. New Orleans, please win the Superbowl.. please!!!
Ok. Read on if you want.
AFC - I turns out I actually hate the Jets less than The Colts. Amazing isn't it? Amazing but true. To be honest I really don't hate the Jets that much. For me it's just an AFC East rivalry thing with them. I dislike Miami more than I dislike the Jerzey Boyz. However, I really do hate the Colts. A lot. Really it's Manning I dislike. And really, it's the Manning suck-up show that I truly dislike. Plus all those non-stop commercials he seems to be in. Anyway.. can you believe I used to like The Colts back in the day? Like when Jim Harbaugh was their QB, playing with the big cut on his chin. Well those days are long gone.
NFC - Well I already said I want the Saints to win the Superbowl so…
(I wrote this post at 6:30 AM waiting to pick my daughter up from a kid-activity. God it's early for a Saturday.)
Let's just start this post by getting this out of the way right now. I hate every team in the AFC. There are zero AFC Teams for me to root for this year. WAH.
Ok got that out of the way.
AFC
Balmer / Indy:
This choice is kind of like asking which would you rather have, a kick in the head or a kick in the nuts. I guess I'll go with the kick to the head option and take Balmer. Really anybody but Indy is what it all comes down to at this point.
Jersey Boyz / San Diego:
This choice is only slightly easier to make than the one above. As much as I dislike the Jets, I will admit that Rex Ryan seems a likable guy. However, I'm still not rooting for his team. It's the JETS for chrisssake. San Diego… as far as I'm concerned the team is fully of whiny bitchy babies who over-celebrate their accomplishments or complain and point the finger when things don't bounce their way. Believe it or not the Chargers were once one of my primary back-up teams. Now I loathe them. However I do have some measure of respect for Chargers QB Philip Rivers after he came into Foxboro a few years ago and gutted out the AFC Championship game on a bad leg while the awesome and ultra-classy Ladania Tohmalaua (spelling, whateverz) sat on the bench with his super cool Darth Vader helmet on and sulked the game away.. Rivers may be somewhat of a tool, but he's got guts and sometimes guts is enough. Plus he's playing against the Jets. So in case that long winded explanation did not make it clear, I'm rooting for San Diego.
NFC
Dallas / Minnie:
Ok normally this would be a no-brainier because I generally like the Vikings. They've never done me any harm and are a traditional backup team for me. Unfortunately that does NOT go for Brett Farve. I generally DIS-like Brett Farve. A lot. So that throws a big old wrench in everything. However, despite Farve's presence I will still root for the Vikes, even though it causes me a lot of stomach churn to root for a Brett Farve helmed team. The rationale here being that Vikes fans deserve some joy in their lives and they've never won a Superbowl, unlike America's Team Dallas. F them. Can you imagine having to listen to that America's Team crap for a year if they made The Big Game?
Zona / Nawlinz:
So this is another sucky choice because these are the two teams in the whole thing that I actually LIKE so of course they are playing against one another.. The Football Gods love their little games don't they? My heart says Arizona but my head says New Orleans, simply because I think they'd have a better chance to beat whoever wins the AFC. I can't decide. I'm going to flip a coin. Heads Arizona, tails NO. It's heads.
Whatever. Go any NFC team.
This post brought to you by:
Bookmaker bonus code
Wow the Patriots gave up an 83 yard Ray Rice touchdown to The Ravens on the very first play of the game and as amazing as it seems, things have actually gotten WORSE since then. It almost does not seem possible, how badly the Patriots are playing right now in all three phases. It's actually indescribable. And this is a playoff game for fuck's sake.
The Ravens are up by 24-0 as the 1st quarter comes to a merciful end. Holy crap this is horridly bad.
All I can say at this point is I hope the Patriots will at least put up a fight and not roll over. Losing a playoff game at home would be painful enough, but losing because they flat out quit would be worse.
I have faith in this team. No more typing time to send all possible positive vibes out to Foxboro.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
somber update:
Alright. Well. The game is over. The Pats lost. Spotting a team 24 points in the 1st Quarter is not a good way to win a playoff game. So there you go. The team simply did not have that spark and I kept waiting for them to fight back a little more. It just didn't happen. There was no counter-punch to the Ravens attack.
I thought Edelman played his guts out, Kevin Faulk was obviously not giving in, Brady kept fighting.. congrats to those guys. I can't really say I saw that fighting spirit from many other guys though, unfortunately.
So now it's time to re-tool and get ready for another year. The Pats had a good year. Hey they went 10-6 and won the AFC East, they made the playoffs so despite the outcome of today's game, they were a good, playoff team. As a fan that's what you want. Obviously I wish The Pats could have advanced but as much as I may want them to, the Pats can't win the Superbowl every year.
One thing the Patriots seemed to search for all year was consistency. This was an erratic team. There are all kinds of factors that contribute to that, both on the field and off the field.. I won't go into my opinions on what some of those factors might be, I'll just say that hopefully next season they will regain that consistency that was missing this year. On the superstitious side, one thing I will be glad to see is the nautical blue uni's and Flying Elvis, all year long. Until then… one more time.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
This post brought to you by:
NFL Parlay Betting
What a difference a year makes, eh? Last year The Patriots were 11-5 and wound up on the outside of the playoffs looking in. Making things worse, they were probably better than several of the teams that edged them out.
This year, The Patriots are 10-6 and are AFC East Champions. That's one of the things ya gotta love about the NFL. Every year things are different.
I'll tell ya, missing out on the playoffs last year, that sucked. Fully. So this year I am feeling so upbeat and am just psyched for The Pats to be back in and competing for that chance at a Superbowl. A lot of people don't give the Patriots much of a chance, but as has been shown year in and year out, anything can happen once you make it into the Playoffs. So lets do this.
It's about a 1/2 hour till game time.
It seems like all of the talk and print and what-have-you out of the lame-stream media has been 110% focused on Julian Edelman this week. All I've read all week is how Edelman is going to have to step in for Wes Welker after his truly unfortunate injury and how is he going to do it, how are the Patriots going to adjust, what happens to their offense… yadda yadda yadda. On one hand it's kind of annoying. Since when were the Patriots a one man team? On the other hand, it keeps the focus on that one aspect of their game and the rest of the team can go about the business of prepraration without harassment. It also gives the Patriots some motivation, since it's been made clear that the prevailing lame-stream opinion is that they can't win without Welker. At least that's how I interpret it..
Alright it's like 15 min till game time. As Tom Brady once said so eloquently, 'We're baaaa-aaack!"
Enough with the typety-typing. See you on the other side.
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
This post brought to you by:
types of football bets
It's Playoff Time! Yay!! And The Patriots are back in the tourney as they like to call it. Extra Yayz!!!
So here's who I'm pulling for this weekend, other than The Pats.
AFC
New England / Baltimore: I think this is clear. Look around you.
Cincinnati / The Jersey Guys: No Brainer once again (Cincy).
NFC
Dallas / Philly: Philly. C'mon, I can't root for the C'boyz. Even though The Pats are the team of the 00's, I still can't bring myself to cheer for the team of the 90's. I can hold a grudge my friends. Maybe if Jessica Simpson were still on the sidelines.. Is she still on the sidelines? I don't pay any attention to that stuff. I'm sure Tony Romo's got a hottie rooting for him somewhere over on the Dallas sidelines, other than Wade Phillips, but he doesn't count. I'm rooting for Philly.
Arizona / Green Bay: Another pretty easy choice, Arizona. I always root for the teams that have been down for a long time, kicked around as doormats of the league forever and now have finally risen to the top. I know the feeling of rooting for a team that was bad for a looong time and then finally finds it's stride and wins three Superbowls, two of them back-to-back (*sniff* Patriots, Team of the Decade… sorry, where was I? I just got a little dust in my eye..) That's why I'll always root for teams like Arizona, New Orleans, Cincy, over teams like Dallas, Green Bay or The Steelers. (Of course, I know that's how a lot of people feel about my team now, but I'm ok with that.)
GO PATRIOTS - TEAM OF THE DECADE (get used to it because I love typing it)
This post brought to you by:
Handicapper Reviews
The Patriots can clinch a playoff berth by winning one more game. Hopefully they will get that done today. It's hat and t-shirt day, if they get it done against the Jags. A win today will also give them an opportunity to rest up a bit next week before the playoffs begin.
This Jags team will be tough, as will the Texans next week, so let's just put the worry out of our mind and get some t-shirts and hats today in our last regular season home game.
Where did this season go? It goes by so fast..
GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE
Three games left and all are playoff critical. The Pats still need a road win this season and getting it in Buffalo in December is going to be a tricky prospect. I have been wondering what the weather is like up there all weekend. It's snowing here.. a-gain, dammit. It was supposed to start yesterday afternoon but when I went to bed without seeing a single flake last night I thought we were going to luck out. No such luck. I awoke to it coming down this morning. Ug I hate it…
I got so sick of reading about the Randy Moss saga this past week. Every time I went into google reader to get an update, it seemed like every post was about Moss' performance last Sunday. Give me a friggin break. Talk about making a whole lot of something out of a whole lot of nothing.. It's getting so I can't read Pats news sites any more.. since they seem to report less and less news and more and more plain b.s.
Even the formerly straight-up, just the facts Mike Riess seems to have become ESPN-ized.. I guess it can't be helped, since it says ESPN on his pay-check now.
It's affecting my newspaper too, Patriots Football Weekly. With all of their writers blabbing on the various sports talk radio stations these days, I'm starting to see that influence creeping into the writing.
Ah well what can ya do. Turn the TV on and turn the radio up for Gil and Gino.
GO PATS!!
Hey what's up evera-body. Sorry I haven't written in a while. Thanks to anybody out there who still keeps this thing on their read list.
I'm just sitting here watching what has so far been a very frustrating Patriots game. The offense has shown a few occasional signs of life, but mostly they've been sputtering along. It's been a very 'WTF' kinda game. I've got Gil and Gino on the radio, as I always do, and even those guys, who are almost always upbeat, have been voicing their frustration with The Patriots play in this one.. Defensively The Pats have been hanging in. Hopefully that will continue and the offense will get on track.
With four games left, the 4th Quarter of the season is here. Anybody following the team doesn't need me to tell you this is the critical stretch. Thankfully we've got the night games out of the way, we've got those damn throw-back games out of the way, (give me Elvis and the Nautical Blue uni's any day, any time) time to focus in and bear down. The AFC East is there for the taking.
I've been watching this team a for long time, though lotsa ups, and lotsa downs, and I've always tried to keep things on an even keel. First and foremost goal number one for me every year is always a winning season. The Pats can get to 8 wins today. Right now all I want is to get that check mark out of the way. One game at a time.
The Pats are up by four as I write this, 14-10. With the way our offense has been performing in this game, this one is certainly not a lock. We need to put another score or three on the board here in the last 12 min..
GO PATS
The throwback thing continues this weekend with The Pats facing the team formerly known as the Houston Oilers. At 0 - 5, Titans fans are probably taking a week to enjoy their team pretending to be somebody else.
Despite being up against an 0 - 5 team this week, this is a game that makes me a little nervous for The Pats, primarily BECAUSE they're playing an 0 - 5 team.. I mean The Titans / Oilers gotta win a game eventually I figure.. hopefully it won't be against The Pat Patriot adorned Patriots.
One thing that makes me a little less worried is that I seem to recall that The Pats always played pretty well against the Oilers. (I'm not going to look it up for fear of breaking the spell..)
One interesting thing to note, it's FRIGGIN SNOWING here!!! What??? We had our first snow of the season on Friday and it's snowing now. Once again, WHAT??? It's good for football but it's really bad for my psyche. Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, March. Count em up that is SIX FUCKING MONTHS OF SNOW AND WINTER CONDITIONS. I haven't got my lawnmower put away yet. The patio furniture is still out. The shed is still in summer configuration with the snow-blower stuffed in the back where it belongs.. ACK!!
In order to give the Pats a hand, I have appealed to The Football Gods with some nice, hot chili, some fresh guacamole, a fireplace fire, and of course the usual candles, Lucky Patriots Fleece Blanket, Superbowl 36 Beer Mug and other Patriot paraphernalia, so I'm doing my part as the 12th Man.
GO PATS
The Pats could have won that game yesterday, but playing in Denver, I can't really say I'm all that surprised that they found a way to not win. It's an away game in Denver after all where the Patriots are now 9 - 18. To be honest when I looked it up I was surprised to see that we had actually won that many games in Mile High, The Patriots Personal House of Horrors.
Ug.
I don't want to sound like I'm ragging the team, because that is not my intention. I'm just flummoxed about The Patriots and their continuous difficulties playing in that city. What is it about Denver?? There is no other place in the league where The Patriots seem to consistently perform so badly. What is it about that place??
Whatever it is about this jinx, I don't like it. So there.
And I know this is not a popular view, but I hate those throwback uniforms. Ok maybe 'hate' is too strong of a description… I don't hate the old uniforms I just hate seeing this current Patriots team wearing them. Keep Pat Patriot in the past where he belongs and let us enjoy him as a nostalgic reminder of the team we rooted for through thick and thin. I like Nautical Blue and Flying Elvis, thankyouverymuch. I don't see Pat Patriot on any Superbowl rings. How many throw-back games are left anyway?
Next up, Tennessee, where the Pats will hope to keep one of those streaks going. I won't say what it is. Superstition.
GO PATS
