Okay, the NFL season is just about to kick off, with a game tonight between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. Much like the last time I glogged, we will start with a few pre game festivities. Hopefully, unlike last time, I will type just a tad bit better this time.
I will start the pregame with a quote of mine from June 29th of this year, from the comments section of my blog (which is why it sometimes pays to read the comments as well)
The quote was from the whole Chris Benoit double murder/suicide that I blogged about a while back. I didn't understand how the TV media could be so irresponsible to just blindly attribute everything to "Roid Rage", with little accounting for what "Roid Rage" actually is, or any facts to back up that claim. It made for good theater for a bunch of washed up has beens who got to do the TV talking head circuit, while in truth they had no better idea what had happened than the average man on the street. We were treated to the likes of Steve Austin's former wife Debra, going through the tearful recollections time and again of how bad it was to be married to Steve. Everybody else who had an axe to grind was invited on the shows as well, it made for great theater and for lousy journalism. I bring this up because this week, the results of the examination of Chris Benoit's brain were released. It turns out, he had suffered so many concussions during the course of his career that his brain had damage comparable with that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient, according to the results. Does this mean that he was just mentally incapacitated during the times of the killings? Not necessarily, but it does put another factor into the hopper. What we have here is a man who was brain damaged on steroids as well as other drugs and drinking at the time of the murders. Once again, to those of you that visit the page frequently, you were ahead of the curve, to those of you who just went with the Fox/CNN/MSNBC/Nancy Grace spin on things, you get to go to the back of the bus.
We have another .31 to add to the change meter total. so we are now up to $28.63. This thing is just moving right along these days. The total for my online surveys has bounced up a little as well, it is now at $7.95. Mind you, I have already redeemed $100 from them, so in truth that total is $107.95.
From a fantasy perspective this evening, I will be playing Joseph Addai from the Colts, my opponent has Marvin Harrison, also from the Colts, so during the course of the glog, I may chime in with fantasy football updates as well, time permitting.
It is once again very toasty warm in my apartment. Thankfully, I have some custard left from Rita's that I am now snacking on. We made a swap at work the other day and I never had a chance to eat this, given how hot it is right now, I am glad I waited. Cappuccino custard is very yummy as far as cool treats go.
It is my understanding that Kelly Clarkson will be part of the pregame festivities tonight. I wish she were part of my pregame festivities but that is another story. It's not that I care for her singing all that much, truth be told I don't find her voice all that impressive, rather when she sings I feel sorry for her. And there she is on my TV, I guess I will have to settle for that instead. Also, she seems to have put on some weight recently, which isn't a bad thing, certainly better than the anorexic look that is all the rage these days. I just looked at the TV, she definitely has some jiggle to the wiggle. Okay, enough with my guilty pleasures, we are about 25 minutes from kickoff.
Pogo badges suck this week. First it is a challenge week, where we have 5 badges as opposed to the normal 3 so we get to pick 3 from those we haven't previously finished, and two that Pogo picked. Mine were easy, I blew through the three I picked in pretty short order, unfortunately, Pogo picked two games, Hearts and Spider Solitaire which both suck. They will be tedious to get, that is for sure, plus I am still trying to close out Hog Heaven, where I am about 2000 pigs away from getting all of the game award badges in there. All told, I have won 455 badges in there so far but I have never won all of the game award badges that go with any one game. I think I will work on one of the badges I still need this week until kickoff, it beats listening to the gentle wailings of John Mellencamp, that's for sure. Well maybe some Pogo and some smack talking on the fantasy league message board. It is one of the many features we have on our league page, we have both a message board and an online chat option, though I rarely use the chat, I did use it on draft day because unlike a messenger program, there was nothing to download, which made things much easier from a connectivity standpoint. And some of the kids are already posting on the page, this could be a mucho fun year if we needle each other during games. Last year the message board was okay, but we mostly used it for informational purposes. Maybe later in the blog I will leave the address and you can read some of our musings, but I just think it would be boring to most of you.
I almost made an event of this evenings kickoff, doing the traditional wings and beer with football route, but I need to conserve some cash for a rainy day, so instead I opted for reheated linguine and pepsi. Not quite the same I might add, but unlike hot wings, my butt won't feel like it is on fire on the crapper tomorrow morning.
KIckoff and we are underway, with the Colts taking possession of the football. ON the first play, Joseph Addai gets hit and is very slow in getting up, and in fact has left the field. The curse continues for my first round picks. The Colts go three and out on their first possession, after one carry by the backup running back and two incomplete passes. The Saints will take over after a punt by the Colts.
The Saints start at their own 20 and two carries, one by Deuce McAllister and one by Reggie Bush net 5 yards so the Saints have a 3rd and 5. And Drew Brees connects with Marques Colston for 9 and a first down. Two more Brees passes, one to Bush one to the tight end Eric Johnson and an end around by Bush and the Saints have yet another first down. The Saints have crossed midfield with a first and 10 at the Colts 48.
The Saints continue to march, on 3rd and 3 McAllister gets the first down on the ground, and Brees has yet to miss on a pass. Just as I type that, he misfires on 1st and 10, he is now 4 of 5 passing in the early going and have held the ball for over 6 minutes on this drive. The Saints try to covert on 3rd and 6 by running the ball but it fools no one and they are forced to try a 52 yard field goal which ends up wide left, meaning the game remains scoreless. Rumor has it Addai may be okay on the bench, but since he is a draftee of my fantasy football team, I will believe it when he is back on the field.
On the miss, the Colts will take over on their won 42 yard line with their second possession. Addai is back, woohoo, and he runs for 4 yards on 1st down. A third down pass by Peyton Manning connects with Dallas Clark get the Colts their first 1st down of the contest. The Colts continue to take advantage of the field position off of the missed saints field goal, they have picked up their second first down on an Addai run and are inside the Saints 30 yard line. 2nd and 7 from the 27 and Manning hooks up with Marvin Harrison for a touchdown, which is good for them, bad for me.
Crikey, I didn't even see that, my opponent is also playing Deuce McAllister of the Saints, now I have to pay attention to him too. By the way, I am trailing in the fantasy game 7-0 just as the Saints are trailing in the real game 7-0.
The Saints start their second possession from their own 20 yard line, and on 3rd and 3, Brees drops back to pass and the pass attempt is batted right back to him, so technically a complete pass to himself, but he only gets two after catching it and the Saints punt again.
Addai gets the first down carry and the clock runs out on the 1st quarter with the Colts leading the Saints 7-0.
The 2nd quarter gets underway the same way the last one ended and the result is a first down by Addai. The holes are starting to be there for Addai too, as two more runs by him get another first down. Addai leaves for a quick breather after carrying on four straight plays and his backup gets two carries as the Colts run the ball 6 straight times and on 3rd down, Manning completes a pass to Reggie Wayne, who promptly fumbles and the Saints pick it up and run it about 60 yards the other way for a score, so we are now tied Colts 7 Saints 7.
The Colts get the ball back at their own 20, hoping that the results are better than last time, when they fumbled away 7 points. Thankfully it wasn't one of my guys, fumbles in our league are -3 pts, which isn't a good thing at all. BY the way, in the fantasy game, I trail now 10-3, it took them an awful long time to catch up stats wise, considering that it is supposed to have real time scoring.
1st down and they go to Wayne again and he drops the pass. Not a good start for Reggie Wayne, two balls thrown to him, one drop and one fumble. The Colts drive ends quickly a 3 and out again. On the ensuing punt, the Saints get a 30 yard punt return and will start their next drive with very good field position at their own 47. On 3rd and 4, the Saints use the end around again, this time to Aaron Stecker and again it works for a first down. The Saints ultimately make the drive pan out for points, getting a 34 yard field goal, and they now lead the game, 10-7.
The Colts will once again take over on their own 20 yard line after the FG. The Colts manage one first down on the drive but again have to kick the ball back to the Saints .
The Saints on the other hand, didn't even manage a first down on their possession and for two of the leagues top offenses last year, we have seen only one touchdown between the both of them, with the other coming by way of the Saints defense. Not what one would expect from these two team with just 2 minutes left in the first half. In fantasy, I still trail 11-3.
We come back to game action, and the Colts are on the march. A long pass to Dallas Clark gives the Colts a 1st and 10 all the way down to the Saints 32 with 1:30 left in the first half.
First down and Addai runs for another first down on an 11 yard gain. An incomplete pass and another Aadai run and it will be 3rd and 5 from the saints 18 with :48 left, the Saints taking a timeout. The Colts fail to convert the 3rd down and settle for a 33 yard field goal, so the score is tied at 10.
Saints ball on the kickoff, they will have a 1st and 10 from their own 31 with 38 seconds left. Brees hits Colston for a first down on an 11 yard pass and we have another timeout. A penalty and then a run by Reggie Bush just runs out the clock and we go to the half with the score Colts 10 Saints 10. In fantasy, I picked up another point, I only trail 11-5, which I can live with playing only one guy versus my opponents two tonight.
I am making note of the fact that the league hasn't credited Reggie Wayne for the fumble in the first half. I hope I don't run into problems this year. Our first year with this particular service went without incident, last year we had issues with lineup submissions being accepted even though the lineups should have been illegal by league rules. I sent a trouble ticket in, but there is no guarantee that they fixed the problem. Mind you, we did change a rule last year, from having your entire lineup in prior to kickoff of the first game to letting teams change starters up until kicoff of each individual plaeyrs game and that may have had something to do with it, but avreview of the rules checked out, so it was definitely a technical glitch on ntheir end. I just hope we don't have more of those glitches this year.
I didn't pick an Asshat last week, I do have one I just haven't written it up yet. Might as well do that while I am here. 2nd half kickoff, the Saints get the ball on their own 33.
The Saints will go three and out on their first possession, which means I have more time to do my Asshat thing. The Asshat actually relates to my last glog, the preseason glog of the Steelers Eagles game. NBC covered the game nationally, but after the game came the late local news. One would think this would be time for news, right? Not on our NBC affiliate, Channel 11, which spent the first hree stories on the following, a recap of the game, even though the game was preseason and didn't count for anything in the standings, the second stories was going to bars to see what the local drunks thought of the game and of the Steelers chances this year and the 3rd was a breaking news story, their was low water pressure at the Heinz Field and the Steelers may not get to take showers after the game. Thankfully they had a sports guy on the scene to let us know in fact that the team could take showers. This was the first three stories of the newscast, news apparently losing it;'s m,eaning entirely but the Asshat is still quite defined and it is defined as the WPXI Channel 11 News.
The Colts have taken possession and after a short gain on first down, Manning throws a screen to Addai for a first down, a reverse to Dallas Clark also gets a first down and a deep pass to Marvin Harrison gets yet another first down and the Colts are 1st and goal at the Saints 2 yard line. On second down, Addai goes over from the 2 and we have a Colts touchdown. The score is now Colts 17 Saints 10.
The fantasy game is now tied at 15, thanks to Addai scoring for me. This is much better than when he was laying on the turf one play into the game..
The saints have the ball back after the score and on first down, Drew Brees is lucky to not have the pass picked off. On second down, a run by Bush for -2 and now 3rd and 12 and teh saints offense has yet to show anything after the opening dricve where they missed the field goal. A penalty makes it 3rd and 17 instead and the saints just opt to run the ball and will punt it back to the Colts.
Fantasy baseball update, I am now in 6th place, my hitting has went south again, thankfully my pitching is still holding up enough to possibly get me some money back this year, if not my entire entry fee.
Back to the game, the Colts are marching again, they have driven all the way down to the Saints 29 yard line after the punt and first and 10 from the 29 takes only one play to convert for the Colts as Manning finds Reggie Wayne for the TD, which is redemption for the earlier fumble and the Colts extend the lead to 24-10. In another fantasy note, on that drive, Joseph Addai goes for 100 yards rushing for the game, and I am feeling a little better about my first round pick right now.
The Saints take over, this time from their own 14 after the kickoff. Finally the Saints get a first down, their first of the second half. as they are being outgained in yards 140 to 25 this quarter. A 2nd and 4 gets coverted as well, and the Saints have a little bit of a drive going here, though even if they do score, they have to wonder if their defense can stop the Colts, something they haven't done since the middle of the second quarter. The Saints continue the march, Reggie Bush converting a 3rd and 1 by just getting past the first down marker. After two plays though, the Saints are looking at a 3rd and 9 and a false start will change that to 3rd and 14 with less than a minute left in the 3rd quarter. The Drew Brees pass on 3rd and 14 is intercepted and the Colts will take over with the ball at the Saints 47.
One play into the drive and its a pass to Reggie wayne again, and the Colts are down to the 16 yard line. That play will conclude the 3rd quarter with the Colts leading 24-10 and looking to score again. After 3 quarters I trail in fantasy 17-16.
The Colts face a 3rd and 9 two plays into the 4th quarter and they can't convert the 3rd down, so they will have to settle for a field goal attempt and from 33 yards out it is good and the score is now Colts 27 Saints 10.
The Saints get the ball back, starting from their own 20 after the kickoff. A short lived drive, the Saints go 3 and out again and will punt the ball back to the Colts, who have scored on all three of their second half possessions and 4 consecutive possessions overall going back to their last drive of the second quarter.
The Colts ahve a 1st and 10 from their own 33 to start their next possession. Two running plays later and it is 3rd and 3. The Saints need a stop here and they don't get it, the clock will keep running and the failure of the Saints defense to stop the Colts in the second half continues. On second a 6 the Manning throws deep again to Reggie Wayne and its another Colts touchdown on 45 yard pass. The extra point is good and I don't know if the fat lady is singing, but Kelly Clarkson may be coming back out really soon. Colts 34 Saints 10
The Saints will take over again on their own 20 yard line to start this drive and I am thinking I could go for a nice cold beverage right about now. A first down for the Saints on a dump off to the running back, in this case Aaron Stecker. The clock is down to 9:30 left in the game and finally the Saints are moving the ball, though on short passes underneath the Colts looser pass coverage, what with a 24 point lead in the 4th quarter and all. I sought confirmation on Kelly Clarkson's backside on the league message board and at least one other owner agrees with me, it is definitely bigger.
Just as the Saints put a couple of first downs together, Drew Brees has the ball stripped out of his hands and the Colts recover the fumble. This game could end at anytime now, we all know how it will turn out.
The Colts come out and two running plays later they have yet another first down. The advantage of the Saints not being able to stop the Colts at this point is that the clock should keep running at the point in the contest, which is perfectly fine with me. News flash bulletin, the Colts have to punt, for the first time in the entire second half. andthe punti is fielded on the Saints 11 yard line where they will take over first and 10 trailing 34-10 with 4 and a half minutes left in the game.
The Saints have managed a couple of first downs here, but nothing of any merit yardage wise and the clock is down to the 2 minute warning. And I trail in my fantasy league now 19-17. That not too bad since I stil have 10 guys left this week versus my opponenets 9.
Well, this just sums up the Saints offense tonight, Brees is picked off again, and the interception is returned 82 yards for a touchdown. Colts 41 Saints 10. Thankfully there is just 55 seconds left on this disaster of a game. And it's a final, I am sure I left some plays out there at the very end, probably because I had lost complete interest in this massacre of a game.
Now I just have to look forward to the eats at work tomorrow. It is againa First Friday in the office, which means we have a themed lunch of some sort, usually the food and the theme don't go together at all. The theme is, suprise, football and we get to wear jerseys to work instead of office attire, so I get to break out ye olde Dre Bly Pro Bowl jersey instead of a semi dress shirt. I just hope they go the classier route with the food and not pizza. last time they actually had a really good lemon chicken and lots of fixins so there is hope, but if they stay on theme and just do like tailgate food, pizza could rear it's ugly head again. That would suck unless they order some pierogi pizza, that might be enough to satisfy my palate. Anyway, bed time from here, no glog Sunday night, think I will just watch the game instead. Nite all.
