While it may have been lost in the buzz surrounding the Colts/Patriots Superbowl today, the Steelers are also playing this week, albeit tomorrow night.
At any rate, I am not sure who I want to win, but if I had to bet, my money would be on the Patriots.
Consider this an open thread (bumped up for relevance).
*** Update ***
I am so sick and tired of hearing about Colts/Pats. The announcers in the game I am watching (Bengals/Bills, go Bills!) just gave us a countdown to kick off.
Here is what I want. A blowout. By either side. Just to ruin the buzz created in the past three weeks.
A different Matt
I don’t want to freak anybody out, but San Fran is up 7. San Fran having their shit together is one of the signs of the apocalypse – let’s hope they revert back to form before they break the natural order of things and cause the to world undo itself.
A different Matt
I’ll see your update and raise you a sanctimonious screed:
Jerry Seinfeld and NBC have been trying to cram that stupid bee movie down my throat for like a month. Seinfeld’s everywhere, shilling for this, appearing for that, just generally omnipresent. Seinfeld was a great show and all, but I don’t think he should achieve some God-like status for it. So sure, the pats-colts coverage is ubiquitous, but at least the hype’ll culminate in something less insufferable than that stupid bee movie. This is one movie goer who’s too outraged to support Seinfeld’s first post-seinfeld adventure.
Also, John Clayton mails in his columns.
Ninerdave
Eh..go niners..
John Clayton is a tool.
merciless
I’ve enjoyed football much more this year since I’ve been able to follow the husband’s fantasy team online and not have to actually endure the games. Go Fighting Iguanas!
And a different Matt does not go far enough. I thought Seinfeld’s show sucked, and his whiny voice is like nails on a blackboard. If I go see a movie this winter, it’ll be Sweeny Todd with Johnny Depp.
jake
I too expect the Pats to win but because it’s hard being around A Fan in Deep Mourning I hope the Colts win.
Ugh
Damn you Cole! Pats-Colts needs to be the awesomest of awesomes as I’ll be missing both championship games and the damn Superbowl this year (though the latter is likely to be a blowout so no biggie).
I’ll have to root for the Pats just to see how smug Teh Editors can gets.
Cinderella Ferret
Colts? Pats? Steelers? Niners? Is this some sort of homoerotic rite of passage?
sherifffruitfly
We hear so much about it because the nfc doesn’t have any real competition, and this is the best matchup we’ll see until next season.
UberMitch
It is going to be a blowout, in favor of the Pats. I can’t wait until they start running up the score in the first half.
KC
Word about the pump-up this game is getting. I’m tired of it too, especially since I don’t care much for either team. That said, I’ve already got my six-pack cooling in the fridge. Hope the game is good; not expecting it to be though. Predicting a Pats blowout.
Far North
John,
The way to enjoy the Pat / Colts game is to turn of the TV sound. I’m going to pick up my accoustic guitar and watch the game without all the annoying “this is the game of the century” talk.
Proof of my loyalty to my team (or insanity) is that if they were on, I’d rather watch my Raiders play the Texans.
Thom
Yes – go Bills. 4-4 looks pretty good right now.
A different Matt
Holy crap, Denver’s taking a whoopin’. Didn’t they just play green bay to wire last week? WTF?
And the vikes are running wild. It looks like micheal turner and LT switched jerseys and are having one of their combined 3oo yard rushing days.
sherifffruitfly
Minn coach should get a new asshole ripped for not giving Peterson the carries to get the rushing record.
sherifffruitfly
My mistake on the Minn coach. Flipped to the other game too quickly. Congrats Peterson. He’ll get 2000 next year.
D-Chance.
Too bad most of us didn’t see the record. They left the game with 1:58 to go and Peterson sitting at 255.
jcricket
Patriots 7, Colts 3. Huge blowout so far :-)
demimondian
We got yer blowout over here in the Seahawks-Browns game. Sheesh. This is getting painful
jcricket
Go Seahawks!
And it’s now Pats 7 Colts 6. What a massive scoring game.
jcricket
Crappy 73 yard touchdown pass!
Michael van der Galiën
In real sports news, Ajax beat Roda JC today with 4-2. Goals:
1-0 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (22.)
1-1 Roland Lamah (38.)
2-1 Luis Suárez (42.)
3-1 Albert Luque (46.)
3-2 Anouar Hadouir (76.)
4-2 Dennis Rommedahl (90. + 1.)
Ajax is the number one in the Dutch competition, followed by Feyenoord.
Equal Opportunity Cynic
@Michael van der Galiën:
I’m all for soccer as a sport some other country besides the US actually cares about, but jeez…. Dutch league? At least our for-domestic-consumption-only sports have tens of millions of fans to watch. :)
Now if you posted Spanish or Italian scores, I’d have your back. English, probably not.
jake
Speaking of hype, WTF was the point of all the Favre-fluffing last week? The way they were going on about him you would have thought he’d died.
And before the Packers fans pile on, this isn’t about Favre, this is about the horror of sappy tributes to players during football games.
sherifffruitfly
Great indy/pats game – however it ends up. Definitely a Rocky-esque slugfest.
nightjar
Browns 30 Seahawks 30 SD OT
The cardiac kids are back in town.
Far North
Favre is overrated and always has been. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, is worthy of the amount of praise that’s been heaped upon Favre the past one-and-a-half decades. How many truly good seasons, let alone great, has Favre had in the past 6 or 7 years?
whatsleft
What’s with only giving Maurice Jones-Drew the ball FIVE times during the whole game? My Gawd the Jags-Saints game was painful to watch the first three quarters of before changing to something more interesting…
And Pats/Colts was actually very good, Mr. Grumpypants.
UberMitch
Pats v. Colts was only a good game because of openly biased officiating. In a fair game, the Pats cruise to victory.
UberMitch
By the way, isn’t Cole a Steelers fan? I want more solidarity with blatantly biased officiating in favor of the Colts. Need I mention that incomprehensible and indefensible “not an interception” call in the 2006 AFC Championship?
Svensker
Is that before or after Belichick gets back from buying his new Spycam at BestBuy?
(Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Jets fan, here. Ooof.)
Bob In Pacifica
All the hype leading up to the Niners-Falcons game was a bit much, but the game lived up to what we thought was coming.
UberMitch
Jets fan, here.
I can’t wait for Week 15, when the Pats hang the first 100 point game in NFL history on the Jets, and Belicheck takes a swing a Mangini after the game. Its gonna be the best game ever.
Mr. Sifter
hey, if anyone wants to read my entire rambling on what is going on in Pakistan, please check http://www.standingbeforethefire.com Here is a bit of it.
Musharraf’s words for justifying his actions sound eerily familiar. It seems he has learned aplenty from the American right. The courts are guilty of “judicial activism,” his actions were necessary due to the specter of “Islamic extremists” at time when the nation is at a “dangerous” juncture. To be clear, his suspension of the constitution, firing of the chief justice, and enactment of martial law is a far greater attack on civil liberties then anything the Bush administration has done. Still, if you take the administrations logic on why liberties should be curtailed to its logical conclusion we end up with what is happening in Pakistan. Safety eventually overcomes all other competing interests as the threat to life becomes greater and greater.
Mr. Sifter
alright, I just realized this is a sports thread and not an open thread, my bad. I am watching the eagles losing 21-7 to the cowboys. This is painful to watch….
A different Matt
Yeah, bob in Pacifica, Warrick Dunn finally had a hundred yard game. On 27 carries. Against the niner vaunted “misdirection D,” where the defense confuses the offense by not pursuing the ball carrier.
I liked the 49ers better when they had an owner with a gambling problem. See, back then, the niners had that rarest of things in professional sports, an owner invested in the actual winning of his team.
Dreggas
Was the spot sponsored by the top pharmaceutical companies, especially those that make the best pain killers?
Punchy
A-Rod wants 35 Mill as the basement. As the start of negotiations.
I’m not sure I’ve seen such an egregiously greedy cocksucker in my life. I can only pray that Boras gets sodomized by a pack of monkeys.
timb
If this is true, then the Colts are 0-2 in games with “blatantly biased officiating” and should ask the league to stop with the bias. Patriots talk all week how they are “going to be physical” with the Colts receivers and then are shocked, SHOCKED, when they get called for it.
Meanwhile, the Colts take on the bullies of the NFL (with the most obnoxious fans) without half their OL and their best receiver and come within a few minutes of victory with Aaron Morehead as their go-to receiver. Odds are the Pats won’t get those breaks come January in Foxboro.
UberMitch
Right. Or breaks like the PI calls on Hobbs and Moss, or that what are the fucking odds Addai run.
D-Chance.
The halftime show of the Sunday Night Football game was a farce. NBC is determined to push the global warming melodrama (We’re all gonna DIE! Film at 11.) to the point of doing week-long specials where they’re burning tens of thousands of jet fuel to send their crews all over the world.
In honor, or in sympathy, of this all-important issue, NBC Sports decided to do the halftime show… in the dark. They left on the screens with the show logo, let’s not be silly here… can’t turn our back on that self-promotion despite the impending end of the world. In fact, this was such a somber moment that Collinsworth and Olbermann couldn’t contain their emotions. Giggles and snickers ruled the day. Picture… a darkened studio, candles on the desk, Collinsworth waving around a flashlight, and Olbermann wielding a glowstick.
Cue to the heroic hosts of the Today Show; Matt Lauer in the Arctic, standing next to an igloo (heh); Al Roker in Ecuador; and the chick in Antarctica (where she said it was 50 below zero, send some global warming love her way, please!), all with accompanying camera crews, all doing their best to leave as small a footprint as possible. In Al Roker’s case, small footprints aren’t possible.
Not to say that this fiasco continued downhill, but Lauer almost had to scream out, “STOP LAUGHING!” at Collinsworth and Olbermann, who were both STILL having their jollies in the darkened studio while Laurer was trying to be dead serious in logging his report and pimping tomorrow’s program. Lauer chided the duo, whom finally quieted down (maybe their mics got cut?).
Watching the newsguys and network trying to put over the seriousness and the immediacy of the issue (and promote all the “special investigations” over the next week) while the two sportsguys were undercutting them by treating the whole thing a one big joke was hilarious. A great moment in television from the Peacock Network.
timb
UberMitch Says:
Right. Or breaks like the PI calls on Hobbs and Moss, or that what are the fucking odds Addai run.
Not sure the Colts can be blamed for the Addai catch and run…I will say the call on Moss was weird. he pushes off on almost every jump ball, but he clearly did NOT push off on that pass. But, I’m not sure how that helps your argument, since the Patriots scored within two plays, e.g. the call did not hurt them.
It was Gaye who was called for PI on Wayne and he ran into Wayne without looking for the ball, which impeded Wayne progress to the ball. Did he mean to get in Wayne’s way? No, he was looking for the ball, but get in the way he did.
This is what I mean by “obnoxious” (well, that and the 100 point thing). The Patriots are an awesome team, they come to Indy and, despite being surprised at the improvements in the Colts defense, gut out a win. You would imagine Patriot fan would be all excited. But, no Patriot fan wants to complain about the officiating?
And, mitch, you aren’t the only one; “you people” are everywhere complaining about officiating. You have the strangest inferiority complex the world has ever seen. You have dominated the NFL most of this decade and you have the most amazing collection of talent I’ve ever seen, yet you revel in beating people by 48 points, and complain about officiating in victories?
By the way, we should note here, that when I say the Pats won’t catch those breaks in January, I am in way suggesting the Colts will win. A healthy Colts team wins today, but in Foxboro in January?
Yeah, somehow I don’t think they have offense to stay with the Pats. It felt good to type it, but afterwards I realized how ridiculous that suggestion was.
But, a boy can dream of unseating the evil empire, can’t he. The Pats are sort of like Bush/Cheney, if Bush/Cheney were competent.
UberMitch
You’re forgetting that Pats fans are, to a man, Red Sox fans first. If you are a Red Sox fan greater than 3 years old, your entire psychology towards sports is warped and twisted into something that cannot be adequately described in a blog comment, and possibly even with words. Pats fans approach the world through the frames they have been trained into by the Sox.
To quickly sketch, it may be fair to blame the inferiority complex reaction of Pats fans to this stirring victory on Mookie Wilson, Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone, etc., etc.
John's Minions
We’d have to agree with timb there, please just say “good game” and shake hands, wierd crap happened on both sides (one handed catch by Moss anyone?) and the Pats won fair and square, let’s see how they do when Harrison’s back on the field.
Chuck Butcher
Browns 33 Seahawks 30 and my day is complete, what the hell a Browns fan is doing out in the sticks in NE OR is questionable, but…yippee
Svensker
Yeah? You and whose mutha, huh?
Actually, there’s a pretty good chance of that if the Jets D continues its stellar performance, but at least we have some blood pumping in the QB spot now.
But Belli is a classless swine. Really good coach tho.
Michael van der Galiën
@ EOC: but we’ve got hundreds of thousands of viewers and fans, in the millions actually. Not as much as the Spaniards have, but hey, not bad.
What’s more; we’ve got the talents. The big leagues buy our players. Schneider, for instance, recently moved from Ajax to Real Madrid.
O, and don’t fuck with Ajax. We’ve got hooligans.
Bombadil
Dutch hooligans? Hard concept to get my head around. On the other hand, getting stomped by wooden shoes would be painful.
Rudi
Those DFutch hooligans are really dangerous after leaving the “coffee house” in the Lithuanian tie-dyed basketball teeshirt. Mushrooms and herb makes them really hungry.
Kevin
Just want to speak on behalf of the non-obsessive Pat’s fans. What a game, it was genuinely surprising how good the Colts defense was. I was getting tired of the whole blow-out / running up the score thing. It seems like teams who play that way inevitably lose the close games. So I hope play some more tough games in between now and the playoffs. BTW, yes Belichick is an arrogant ass but given some of the clowns who have coached the Patriots in the past, I’ll take him.
Abe Froman
Yep it took till week 9 for me to finally let got of the Iggles season. I feel sorry for Andy Reid. He’s had one bad week.
Punchy
Not to be The Ass, but he’s known about his kids’ drug issues for a long time. Years, I’ve heard. They’ve been scofflaws for quite some time. Reid doesn’t deserve this, but at the same time, he seems to have taken precious little time off to address it.
Now both his sons are roomates in the pokie. Mom must be so proud.
Michael van der Galiën
@Rudi: damn right.
Bombadil: lol. Yeah – don’t mess with people who wear wooden shoes.
Bombadil
FWIW, Bill Parcells was far more arrogant, and a bigger ass.
Fe E
Adrian Peterson: Holy Shit.
nightjar
Probably the same thing a Browns fan is doing in SW New Mexico. 5 and 3. incredible
Bombadil
The Browns have fans? Who knew?
zzyzx
That Seahawks game pissed me off so much I ended up going on a 5 mile walk to calm me down. Literally.
jcricket
Half a yard? You can’t get half a yard? Crappy no good offense.
zzyzx
What was worse is that I saw that coming and was screaming at the tv for a punt, even though I know that going for it what the right call.
Chuck Butcher
There are some odd confluences w/Browns, I grew up in Ohio during the Ryan/Brown era, I’m in NE OR, my son went to Oregon State U at same time Anderson. 5-3, lets wait awhile before getting too crazy, but cool.
Far North
One phrase for all you Patriot whiners: The Tuck. Remember that one? That was the game the Raiders won after Brady fumbled…only the officials said Brady didn’t fumble, rather he threw an incomplete pass. If that was a pass attempt, the FOX news is liberal. The game was over but the Patriots were GIVEN a cheap bullshit call. So quit complaining over a couple of PI calls that didn’t go your way. You Pat fans got the ultimate officiating gift. Many NFL fans, including Raider haters, rate that officiating call as the worst of all time.
gogiggs
I dunno, I’d say the worst call of all-time was in the Super Bowl two years ago when Matt Hasselback got penalized for tackling the man with the ball, after he threw an interception.
As far as the Browns go, it’s nice to be 5-3, but let’s remember that three of those wins came against Cincinnati, Miami and St. Louis, combined records: 2-22. Against the two good teams they’ve played, Pittsburgh and New England, they lost 34-7 and 34-17. The Browns are still not a good team, they’re just no longer one of the worst teams in the league.