There are two kinds of wakeup calls in life. A good wakeup call occurs when you hit rock bottom — say, losing to the Oakland Raiders — before you realize that you’ve made some mistakes and start responding to adversity.
The Philadelphia Eagles did just that on Sunday, pounding the New York Giants into pudding. The game was over by halftime when the Eagles led 30-7.
Now, it might just be my Cal Poly bias, but Eli Manning looks like he could use a certain 6-foot-6 receiver out there. The Giants were one of the worst red zone teams in the league last year. This year they’re even worse at 28th and despite throwing the ball to six or seven receivers, former Mustangs receiver Ramses Barden has yet to get a chance to prove himself on the field.
While the Eagles responded to their wakeup call of a few weeks ago, the Denver Broncos just received one of the negative variety.
Sometimes when you’re riding high nothing can go wrong. You’re invincible, on top of the world — and then reality brings you crashing down. You get a wakeup call that convinces you that you’re not the amazing team you thought you were.
But aside from the people drinking the Bronco Kool-Aid and the team itself, did anyone actually think this Denver team would go into Baltimore and leave with a win?
I think Kyle Orton averaged 0.01 yards per pass attempt in the game. At some point, that conservative playcalling isn’t going to work — like when you’re down by 20 points.
Still, we’re halfway through the season and Orton’s only interception is to Randy Moss. And I’ll give him some leeway on that, because he probably traded for Moss in Madden 10 (doesn’t everyone?) and thought he was at home playing Xbox 360 momentarily.
NFL chickens out versus World Series
Was anyone else annoyed when they flipped to NBC for the Sunday night game and realized it was cancelled because they didn’t want to compete against the World Series?
I certainly was. Look, I enjoy baseball, especially during the postseason, but can I make up my own mind on what I watch?
Sunday night football is like an American tradition. It’s like having turkey for dinner on Thanksgiving – you just do it, even if you can’t stand turkey. And you continue to stuff down that turkey regardless of how bloated you get.
Just like I watch the Sunday night games every week, regardless of what two potentially terrible teams play and I watch it to the bitter end.
So if it’s a Sunday night in November, chances are, I’m watching a football game. Instead, I was forced to watch what luckily turned out to be a great baseball game.
Even the notoriously feisty NHL punked out and didn’t play in the evening. Sadly I think I’m the only one west of the Mississippi who still watches hockey anyway, so I guess that San Jose tilt with Carolina didn’t drop much in the ratings.
Still, can you imagine if the NFL had put Favrebowl II up against the World Series? I think we’d find out really quick where the hearts of American fans lie.
Everyones Favre-ite quarterback
Speaking of Favrebowl II … Ok, we get it Brett. You’re the best. We got it. The Packers should have never traded you. You could still be quarterbacking for them. We completely understand.
Now that you’ve proved that point and won’t be seeing them again this year, can you please revert back to the borderline average quarterback you’d become over the past few years?
Seriously, this ‘feel-good’ story doesn’t leave me feeling very good. Now, I’m a Chicago Bears fan, so my hatred of both Green Bay and Minnesota runs deep, but I couldn’t help feeling just a little bit sorry for Aaron Rodgers as he was getting pummeled towards the end of that game on Sunday.
He was doing his best Favre impersonation even. He’d take a huge hit from someone, get up limping and then continue to play before taking another huge shot. He even threw some terrible balls into double coverage just like Favre. Then he’d take a hit and stay down for a minute, then get up and come out for the next series.
Does anyone even doubt after all this that Favre played that year in New York just so he could get to Minnesota and do exactly this to Green Bay?
Well hats off to you Brett, you win my vindictive ex-employee of the century award.
Game of competitive losing
As I was scanning the scoreboard this morning while watching the Bears game I saw one score that piqued my interests for all the wrong reasons.
It read: St. Louis 3, Detroit 2.
Now don’t get me wrong, I was already watching one of the worst teams in NFL history already (the Browns), but I almost couldn’t resist turning it over to two teams with a combined 1-12 record coming into the game.
Wouldn’t it have been poetic justice for two horrible teams to end a game with a 3-2 score? It would have been like the Cardinals beating the Tigers in an interleague baseball game.
Like many horror movies, the game was so bad that it turned out to be unintentionally good.
How many times have you seen a guy run out of the end zone only to run back in and get tackled for a safety? It was brilliant.
As Deion Sanders remarked on the NFL Network, “Doesn’t this seem like a AAA-level football game?”
The best quarterback on the field was St. Louis kicker Josh Brown who threw a 57-yard touchdown pass, throwing against his body while running. He was the only player to throw a touchdown.
Ultimately, Steven Jackson led the Rams to their first win in 17 games. Jackson is second in the NFL in rushing on a team that is unlikely to win another game this season. He must be in some serious back pain having to carry an entire franchise on his shoulders.