The Most Important Day Of All-Time

On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to ever walk on the moon. Over the next 13,344 days, the inhabitants of Earth waited for a similarly historic moment that would unite all of humankind in peaceful harmony.
Through war, disease and famine, the world persisted, knowing that one magical day in the distant future they could look back on their since-alleviated suffering and know it had not come in vain. Sadly, the 1970’s passed with nary a glimmer of hope. For a brief time in the next decade it appeared that the film career of Patrick Swayze might lead to the promised land, but then he starred in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar and society’s dreams were crushed once again. The Y2K scare had people hoping salvation was on the other side of the millennium but all that was there was Carson Daly interviewing the drummer from No Doubt. And after 9/11 we wondered whether tragedy, and not rejoicing, would be the reaction to our generation's seminal moment.
Well, my friends, you can stop wondering, because that glorious day has finally come. Break out the bubbly, cease the fighting and stop coveting thy neighbors wife: This afternoon the world has become a better place to live, for Chris’s Sports Blog has welcomed it’s 100,000th visitor.
Little did the anonymous hero at LaSalle University in Philadelphia know that by deciding to procrastinate from doing actual schoolwork and clicking on their bookmark for Chris's Sports Blog (at least that's what I hope happened) he (or she) would become a footnote to history. It's sort of like absently walking into that city's Independence Hall 220 years ago looking for a bathroom at the very moment our founding fathers were signing the Declaration of Independence and instead of finding the latrine getting handed a pen by Thomas Jefferson. That's how damn monumental this event is.
Years from now on January 31 schoolchildren will have the day off, car dealers will hold "Chris's Sports Blog 100,000th Visitor Anniversary Blowouts" and Trienta y Uno de Enero will exceed the celebrations of Cinco de Mayo.
When Chris’s Sports Blog began on January 8, 2004, only a prescient few could have imagined the impact it would have on society. Like many other of history’s great success stories (the Roman Empire, Catholicism, Krispy Kreme) Chris’s Sports Blog started out with a dream. A dream and a short piece on Joe Gibbs. (I believe Rome’s was written by Josephus.)
It was from that dream that a provactive ethos first evolved. By writing daily about a subject as trivial as sports, I dreamed of subtly changing the world from the outside in.
No problem was too small. When I ripped on Donovan McNabb with clever nuance, I dealt with racism head-on. My seeming enmity for Duke was a clever riff on America’s class system. And with reflections on the sexual preferences of Derek Jeter, I challenged the stigma of homosexuality so prevalent in our culture. This morning, Brokeback Mountain was nominated for eight Academy Awards. The only coincidental thing about that is its truth. Think about it.
The visitors were scant, but doggedly loyal, in those first few months. Soon, after some links were exchanged and Nicollette Sheridan got naked with Terrell Owens on the intro to Monday Night Football, the hits began to pile up. With people constantly Googling phrases like “J.J. Redick backne” or “Derek Jeter hate” or “Is Ed Hochuli hung?” the daily count eventually hit 100 visitors and then quickly went past 200 with effortless grace. As Britney Spears went from white-hot to white-trash, I became America’s new sweetheart.
For some, Chris’s Sports Blog is a workplace diversion, a place where one can immerse themselves in some anti-Duke rhetoric and bathe in the healing light of Eli Manning-themed rants. For others, Chris’s Sports Blog is simply a way of life. And that is all you ever need know.
Today, on one of the most important days in Earth's four-billion year history, I would like to thank you, the readers of Chris's Sports Blog for coming back day after day, week after week, over-punctuated rant after over-punctuated rant. You are the lifeblood of this site and for that I am grateful. (I'm totally kidding, of course. You should be thanking me for having free daily access to my brilliance.)
In commeration of this specialist of special days, three readers who came to the blog on day one and have been here ever since sent along their best wishes. My mom wanted to write also, but I figured I'd spare you from a 25-line note about how I need to find a nice Greek girl.

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The Wolfman
San Diego, CA

Chris, from the time the Skins signed Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith and you were positive that they were headed to the Super Bowl, I knew that you needed a place where you could share your sports wisdom with the world. As you hit this milestone I want to offer you congratulations. The blog has come a long way since the days you were unable to use chrischase.com due to it already being taken by a large black man. You may be wondering right now where you can go from here. How do you top this achievement? I know you have had trouble figuring out if you still love the blog as much as you once did. But my plea is that you don't hang it up so that all of us working can go to your website during the day and read your posts and just sit back and realize how much you love writing the blog. Hell, you're like a kid out there, ranting and raving about Eli Manning and Trent Strickland. Don't retire Brett, um, I mean Chris, we need you to show us how to have the youthful exuberance that many of us have lost. Maybe some have done it better, but no blog writer ever has had as much fun as you have out there. Honestly though, I have a new found respect for you writing this thing every day after trying to come up with this little paragraph.

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Falkow
Philadelphia, PA

Dear Chris,

I don't know what i would do at work every day witout your hilarious commentary and wacky betting theories. Some writers start to lose their edge after 100,000 visitors, but you seem to be able to keep rolling in the laughs no matter what the subject matter. And at the end of your mail bags when you write things like "yup, these are my readers." Well, hee hee hee, LOL, that just never gets old.

Your pal,
J Bug

p.s. Oh wait, that was my letter to Bill Simmons. Forget all of that, especially the part where I made use of the acronym "LOL". In lieu of another, appropriately addressed, letter, I'm sending along a photo of you (right) I have on my mantel and often engage in conversations with. It's from the day you fought a nunchaku'd Chuck Norris with only a half-eaten can of Pringles and still managed to kick his ass. Those 21 slash marks on your arm are for the number of tears of infinite sadness you licked off of Chuck Norris' defeated cheeks after he realized he was no longer the toughest man in the world. And even though I'm sure your mom has long-since switched from "don't smoke" to "why don't you find a nice Greek girl" as her dominant instructive mantra, I'll still mention that the cigarette is unlit and was merely a prop in the photo. The only thing you smoked that day, my friend, was Chuck Norris.

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J. Nicholls Redemer
Danville, CA

In honor of your special day, I've written two poems:

Filled To
Over two years have gone
since we argued over Derek Jeter.
More so for spite, I decided to defend
him and the Yankees organization.

With vigor and courage I stood
fast against hurled abuses. Hands
clenched in agony seeking unknown
statistics to proves points now pointless.

Sarcasm led to anger, Anger to judgement
judgement to wrath. That soothing balm
possesed by time's healing hand has yet
to rest upon, and mend, my brokeness.

And only one thing has he convinced me
of his many diatribes, acerbic witicisms,
general rantings, and dubious prognostications.
That one single thing? Derek Jeter is gay.

Bursting
In the course of human history,
few come to see
enraptured prose spilling from the page
in sublime melody.
A world muddied by moral corruption,
chaotic religious fundamentalism
and seeking solace
in its purposelessness
can find peace,
especially during work,
and unity, 'cause everyone
except 'Baza hates Duke,
In Chris' Sports Blog.
To you a debt of honor
remains beholden to us for
all of history.

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"To you a debt of honor remains beholden to us for all of history." I think that pretty much says it all right there. Goodnight. God Bless. And Hail to the Redskins.

Weekend Thoughts

- It seems that every time one of the major American sports leagues gets to their final game or series, a story comes out that one of the cities involved has already made plans for their victory parade route. Outrage and shock ensues from the opposition who gives the obligatory quotes about how this only fires them up more and other nonsense like that. Then, those morons on Around the Horn banter back and forth about the ramifications of such karmic meddling. The other team's city government will put out a smarmy press release that says something along the lines of, "unlike [opposing team's city], we will wait until the game is finished to determine any celebration plans". This happens all the time. Super Bowl XL has been no different.
While I certainly don't think cities should be broadcasting their parade routes and setting up barricades 24 hours before the game starts, it's only natural to plan ahead. What, may I ask, do these outraged folks expect Seattle to do: Throw together a parade that will draw 500,000 people at the last minute? Parades and victory celebrations are major undertakings and shouldn't be done the morning of the event.
Despite what Pittsburgh says, there's no way their city government hasn't at least discussed plans for what they'll do should the Steelers win. It would be irresponsible not to.

- It pains me to say this; oh how it pains me to say this, but J.J. Redick has become an other-wordly shooter in the past 12 months. Before, he was a great spot-shooter but was merely average when he wasn't curling off screens or standing open on the perimeter. Now he's draining shots with two hands in his face, hitting off-balance prayers from 25-feet and single-handedly leading Duke to a #1 seed and deserved top-ranking. As I said last week, the Blue Devils are absolutely beatable if a coach will accept the fact that Redick will score 40 and instead decided to clamp down on the rest of Duke's disappointing lineup. Even so, that doesn't change the fact that J.J. is the most valuable player in the country right now. And loves men. (What, you didn't think I was going to praise J.J. for a paragraph without getting any dig in, did you?)

- How is the press not playing up the whole "the two best players in college basketball are white" angle, by the way? Because that would be racist? Sort of like this?

- Does ESPN have a contractual obligation with the NCAA to overpromote women's college basketball at all costs? From the shot of the Tennessee's women's player that leads off ESPN's HD promo to the countless hype for the Duke/UNC game this weekend that nobody outside a seven-mile stretch on I-40 cared about to the constant placement of a women's basketball story on the #2 slot on ESPN.com's Headlines section, it's all getting ridiculous. How is "UNC is No. 1 in AP women's poll for first time" the second biggest story of the afternoon? NOBODY CARES. And why does women's ball get more play on ESPN.com's new design than men's basketball? That "spotlight" thing at the bottom of the page has more stories about women's basketball than it does men's at the moment (2-0 right now, it was 3-1 yesterday). ESPN: nobody cares. You know this, we know this. Stop trying to force women's basketball down our throats. It's not going to happen. The sport has been given countless opportunities to work its way into the national spotlight and has failed miserably on every occasion. Women's basketball can be popular at a local level (think Knoxville or Storrs), but will never succeed nationally for a whole number of reasons, but mainly because it's simply painful to watch. Let's stop pretending people care about women's hoops. This means taking the scores off The Bottom Line, changing the design of ESPN.com so the women's college basketball page isn't easier to find than the men's page and taking that Tennessee chick off the HD promo. It's one thing to have to look at Stu Scott's glass eye in the glory that is high-definition. It's a whole other to see the network give publicity to a sport that's much less popular than bass fishing.

- Note to Brett Favre: When you make up your mind about playing next year, then we'll care. Until then, go back to redneck alley with your 47 lawnmowers and shut up. And please take Theo Epstein with you. Man, somebody needs to bring that smug, self-righteous attention-hound down a notch or two with a good ass-kicking. Then, afterwards, they can remind him how lucky he is the player's union nixed the A. Rod deal. Because if that never happened, Theo would rival Dan Duquette as most hated man in Boston. Of course, when both Hanley Ramirez and Andy Marte become perennial All-Stars in three years, that might happen yet.

- By the end of the decade, I think it will be safe to say Tiger Woods is the greatest athlete of all-time. It might even be appropriate to do so now.
In his prime, Michael Jordan didn't dominate like Tiger has over the past seven years. And Jordan's championship run had been done before, and bested, by Bill Russell's Celtics. But Tiger is doing things even Jack Nicklaus couldn't have dreamed of. He won the Buick Invitational yesterday after missing 13 fairways on Thursday and three-putting three holes in the final-round. No other player in golf can win a tournament without their "A game". Tiger can win with his "C+" game.
Roger Federer, perhaps the only other athlete in an individual sport to be able to do that, also won without his best game yesterday in his match against Marcos Baghdatis. Maybe Federer was just in awe of Baghdatis' lady-friend, but he looked remarkably human in the Australian Open final, yet still won in four sets.
He and Tiger are perhaps the best to ever play their respective games. Yesterday they showed why.

- It's an exciting week at Chris's Sports Blog. The lineup:
Friday: Super Bowl Preview
Thursday: My Annual Frivolous Argument For Art Monk's Inclusion In The Hall Of Fame
Wednesday: Chris Answer PTI's Questions
Tomorrow: That, My Friends, Is A Surprise

ThankSKINving

The Washington Redskins will visit Dallas to play the Cowboys in a Thanksgiving night game to be broadcast on the NFL Network, according to The New York Times. The NFL will exclusively carry eight Thursday and Saturday primetime games on its flagship network in 2006, beginning with the Thanksgiving night match-up. Sean Taylor reportedly is upset at the move, as most Florida prisons don't get the NFL Network on their cable package.

The State of the Redskins

When Joe Gibbs returned to the Washington Redskins two years ago, critics questioned whether the coach who won three Super Bowls before the age of free agency would be able to compete in the current day NFL with its yearly salary-cap induced roster upheaval and unfettered player movement. Such worries were surprising, since the old Gibbs won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks, running backs and defenses. Granted, those Redskins had the same offensive line and receiving corps for most of the ‘80s, but Gibbs, more than most coaches of his era, was totally prepared to cope with the world of free agency.
It’s ironic then, that stability has been the theme for the current Redskins since Gibbs’ return. Instead of overhauling the roster last off-season, as was standard practice for Washington teams under Daniel Snyder, Gibbs attempted to keep many of the same players on the roster in the interest of continuity. Familiarity, he believes, breeds confidence which, in turn, breeds winning.
So for the second straight off-season, Washington will attempt to keep the status quo at Redskins Park. No sweeping changes are necessary, no free-agent binges required for a team that was a few plays away from the Championship game in 2005. The hiring of Al Saunders will greatly improve the offense and with a few re-signings and maybe a free agent or two, the Redskins are poised to enter 2006 as the favorites in the NFC.

Quarterback
Just five months ago, Patrick Ramsey was the Washington Redskins’ quarterback of the future. The four-year veteran out of Tulane performed decently in 2004 and entered 2005 as the starter despite a ragged preseason and lingering questions about his decision-making ability and footwork. Mark Brunell outplayed him in training camp, but the old vet’s 2004 was such a disaster Joe Gibbs knew he had little choice but to go with the younger, stronger quarterback to begin the season, even as many observers believed Gibbs never wanted Ramsey and would be looking for any reason to make a switch. Their conspiracy theories were further fueled just 19 minutes into the season when an injury to Ramsey forced Brunell into action. After an ugly 9-7 win against the eventual NFC North champion Chicago Bears, Brunell was named the starter.
At the time there was a lot of hand-wringing over whether Gibbs was “fair” to Ramsey and whether the decision to re-insert Brunell into the starting lineup would pay off. There are no such doubts today. As I contended before the season, Gibbs always knew Patrick Ramsey couldn’t be his starting quarterback. He took too many sacks, made too many mistakes and would never be able to get a first down with his feet. Still, it was a necessary, if disingenuous, move to start the year with Ramsey considering how poorly Brunell played in 2004.
Steve Smith deserved his NFL Comeback Player of the Year award, but if there was an honor for Most Shocking Comeback, Brunell would have won in a landslide. It’s easy to forget just how awful he was in 2004; his throws had no zip, it appeared he never got set before throwing and there was just a general sense of unease every time he dropped back to pass. Eight months ago, it appeared signing Brunell to a $43 million deal would go down as one of the worst free agent deals in NFL history. Some feared it would sink the comeback of Joe Gibbs. Consider: In his nine years as an NFL starter, Brunell’s QB rating was between 82 and 91 in each season. In 2004 his passer rating was 62.9.
But a funny thing happened on the way to FedEx Field in 2005; Brunell looked great in the preseason. There had been talk during the previous year about how injured he was and how his bum knee was the cause of his problems, not a precipitous drop in talent. All that seemed to make sense as Brunell looked like he had found a fountain of youth in the off-season.
Everyone knew he was better than Ramsey, but Gibbs still had to stick with Patrick if only to appease his players who wanted to see what they could do with the younger QB before settling on the old one. The Redskins got lucky Ramsey went down early in the season; it might have been two or three games before he got pulled otherwise and Washington needed each of their three straight opening-season wins they got with Brunell.
Now, Ramsey is as good as gone from Washington. During Al Saunders’ introductory press conference, Joe Gibbs mentioned how lucky his quarterbacks, Mark Brunell and Jason Campbell, were to be working with such an offensive guru. Not once did Gibbs mention Ramsey’s name. If they’re lucky, the Redskins will get a mid-round draft pick for him.
Brunell is firmly entrenched as the starter in 2006, but the controversy-lovers in the Nation’s Capital will be calling for Jason Campbell at the first sign of trouble next season. They’ll point to how Brunell broke down at the end of 2005 and will incorrectly infer the 36-year old can’t make it through a season healthy. Whether that’s really the case is probably irrelevant to them.
One thing is true though; Mark Brunell was totally ineffective in the team’s three January games. But it’s important to remember why: Brunell re-aggrevated his chronic knee injury in the team’s second-to-last game of the season and was playing on that injury for the rest of the year.
In the two games before the Giants Nick Greisen plowed into his knee, Brunell was 19/31 for 275 yards, 6 TD, 1 INT and a stellar 116.3 QB rating. In the two games after suffering the injury, Brunell was 16/40 for 182 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT and an anemic 41.9 QB rating.
It wasn’t as much a matter of Brunell breaking down because of his age than it was him breaking down because he suffered an injury that could happen to anyone. That knee will always be a problem for Brunell, but he seemed fine on it before the Giants game. As long as his knee stays healthy, there’s no reason to think Brunell won’t be too. (Maybe that’s a big if, but no more than the Falcons hoping Michael Vick stays healthy.)
With Ramsey gone, Jason Campbell will move into the backup role. Campbell worked closely will the now-departed Bill Musgrave every day this season and should be ready to go if Brunell should be unable to play. With Saunders freeing up Joe Gibbs from play-calling duties, Gibbs and others will have more time to work with the young Campbell too. Mark Brunell will start the season, but it’s naïve to think Jason Campbell won’t get at least some playing time at some point in 2006.
The team will likely grab a veteran to be their third-string QB. Not too many high-profile guys will willingly sign on for that role, so it could be slim-pickens. Among the possible names: Charlie Batch, Todd Collins or Tim Hasselbeck.

Running Back
With different blocking schemes to run behind, Clinton Portis experienced a return to form this year after a disappointing 2004 campaign. Portis broke the Redskins rushing record with 1,516 yards and found the endzone 11 times.
By the end of the season, though, Portis was beat-up with a variety of ailments stemming from his 352 carries and all the punishing blocks he threw in pass protection. Unlike many backs (Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson), CP enjoys throwing vicious blocks on defenders. But that comes at a price, as his late-season shoulder problems showed.
In 2006, the Redskins need to cutback on Portis’ carries, inserting Ladell Betts into the lineup on more downs. Betts had 89 carries this year, but needs to get that total up to about 120 to give Portis some rest so he can be fresh for a playoff run. (It’s no surprise Portis’ two highest rush totals in 2005 came in weeks where Betts was out with an injury.)
Al Saunders never runs the same play twice, so having two effective backs should help with his element of surprise. I’m no fan of alternating possessions between running backs; I just think Portis could stand lowering his carries to around 290 or 300 and avoid running into traffic in the middle, which is Betts’ forte.
Third-string RB Rock Cartwright is a free agent and shouldn’t draw too much interest from the rest of the league. He’s not a vital component of the team, but in the interest of stability, the team should make a concerted effort to re-sign him.

Wide Receiver
There are two key positions the Redskins need to address this off-season and wide receiver is one of them.
In a year in which Santana Moss broke the Redskins record for receiving yards, Chris Cooley broke the record for yards and receptions by a tight end and Clinton Portis bested the team’s rushing mark, the fact that Washington receivers not named Santana grabbed just 48 catches is unacceptable.
By the end of the season, Santana was drawing double and triple coverage, yet the Redskins other wideouts couldn’t get open enough to catch a single ball. In the year’s final five games, those other WRs caught just three passes. Total.
David Patten was an unqualified bust, snaring just 22 balls for a 9.9 yard average before suffering a season-ending injury in November. His complaints about not getting enough throws didn’t exactly endear him to teammates and coaches either. (You want more balls? Get open then. And when you actually manage to do that, hold onto the ball.) The ex-Patriot is signed for two more years and, while he could return to the ‘Skins, it certainly won’t be as the #2 receiver.
Taylor Jacobs, the final legacy of the immortal Steve Spurrier era, makes the Eagles receiving corps look like All-Pros and he will most definitely be gone. James Thrash is a fine #3 receiver, but should never be anything more than that. His special teams value makes him a likely candidate to return.
There’s little doubt Daniel Snyder will make a push to sign the most coveted free-agent wideout on the market, Reggie Wayne, to be his #2 receiver. The Colts will make every effort to re-sign him (apparently, if it should come down to re-signing Wayne or Edgerrin James, the Colts would go with Wayne), but Snyder has been known to make Corleonesque offers in the past.
Reggie would likely command big dollars from a mediocre team like the Titans or Ravens to become their #1 receiver, or he could sign with a proven team with a chance to win for similar money and become their #2. What he does is anybody’s guess.
With the prevalence of Redskins players from The U (Moss, Portis, Sean Taylor), my hope is that they’ll tell Reggie how much they love playing for Gibbs (Moss and Portis practically get teary-eyed talking about their Hall of Fame coach) and convince him to sign here. Such a scenario has become the talk of D.C. so much that when I told my mom Santana was on Wheel of Fortune and she saw Reggie Wayne on the show also, she exclaimed, “I bet Santana’s telling him to come to the Redskins!” Whether or not they’ll have enough cap room to lure him remains to be seen.
Watching Snyder operate over the past seven years, I’ve learned never to put anything past him, so I guess there’s a chance Reggie Wayne could be in the burgundy and gold next season. Still, I think he’ll stay in Indy with his choking dog quarterback, content to succeed in the regular season and flame out in the playoffs.
If Wayne doesn’t sign, expect to hear a lot about Antwan Randle-El. If that’s the case, expect to read a lot (on this site) about how that would be a terrible signing and won’t help the Redskins at all. I like Randle-El a lot, but he’s no #2 receiver. He’s the quintessential big-play threat as a third wideout. In that role, I love him. As a guy you need to catch a difficult ball on a big third down, not so much. The problem is, it’s a pretty weak list after Wayne, so Randle-El will certainly draw attention. A guy like Joe Jurevicius would fit in well in Washington, but his asking price could skyrocket if he catches a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Keenan McCardell was originally drafted by the Redskins in the 12th round of the 1991 draft. He could return to Washington to finish up his career. Or, the ‘Skins could attempt to find a #2 receiver in the draft, but without a first-round pick, that could be difficult. If none of that works, there’s always Rod Gardner.

Tight End/H-Back
Chris Cooley established himself as the premiere tight end/fullback in the NFC this season. That Alge Crumpler (?!), Jeremy Shockey, Desmond Clark and Mack Strong made the Pro Bowl over him further exposes the Pro Bowl roster as the biggest fraud in sports. No matter. Shockey can have his Pro Bowl spot, Cooley will take a playoff win.
The second-year man out of Utah State is a jack-of-all-traders on the football field and off. He catches, he runs, he scores, he blocks on both the inside and outside and he gets cheerleaders fired about having intimate relations with ‘em. In short, I love Chris Cooley.
I have man-love for Mike Sellers too, but not as much as Joe Gibbs does. The Hall of Famer always has a rough and rugged guy lining up in the backfield and opening holes for RBs and Seller is his guy this time around. Teams have to pay so much attention to Sellers the blocker that he is left alone when he roams up the field, which led to seven touchdowns this season. Robert Royal is a free-agent and should be brought back, again, for the sake of continuity. Royal redeemed himself late in the season after a case of the dropsies plagued him early on.

Offensive Line
In last year’s State of the Redskins address, I made the point that Joe Gibbs’ first season back with the team ended before it started when Jon Jansen went down with a season-ending injury in the first quarter of the team’s first preseason game. The offensive line was never the same after that.
This year, the Dirtbags were everything everyone believed they’d be last year. Jansen, Randy Thomas and Casey Rabach dominated the line of scrimmage, while Derrick Dockery was much improved in his third season. Chris Samuels was streaky, as usual, and simply isn’t as good as his massive salary indicates he should be. Far too often Samuels gets beat on the outside by defensive ends and exposes Brunell to hits he can’t afford to take. Simeon Rice, in particular, totally ate Samuels up in both match-ups this season.
The injury to Randy Thomas in the Cowboys game killed Washington, particularly in the Divisional Playoffs when 43-year old Ray Brown went down with cramps and ex-center Cory Raymer was pressed into guard duty. Thomas is the forgotten man on the line, mainly because you never hear his name called during games. He gets the job done quietly and controls his area with ease. His return from a broken leg will be eagerly anticipated.
Even with Samuels’ deficiencies and high salary, he should return along with the rest of the line. Joe Bugel always says lines get better with time and experience, so it stands to reason 2006 will be the best year yet for his Dirtbags. The only thing the front office needs to do is get some depth so injuries to any of the lineman won’t be as devastating as it was this year. Not that replacing Jon Jansen or Randy Thomas will ever not be devastating.

Defensive Line
Cornelius Griffin was the Redskins defensive MVP in 2005. When healthy, opposing teams had great difficult running against Washington. Fellow tackle Joe Salave’a also battled injuries, but was greatly improved in his second year with Gregg Williams. They form a dominating middle of the line for Washington.
The problem on the Redskins defensive line was on the ends. Very rarely would the line ever get pressure with a four-man rush, something that’s crucial in Williams’ defense. With the linebackers and corners playing a soft-zone, pressure on the QB is pivotal for turnovers and coverage sacks. Without any pass rush, mediocre QBs like Eli Manning and Kerry Collins picked the Redskins apart.
Look for Washington to draft a D-end with their second-round pick (assuming they don’t package that pick, Ramsey and a future #1 to move up this year). The free-agents at the position are uninspiring, unless Snyder can find the money to sign the Titans’ Kyle Vanden Bosch or the 49ers' Andre Carter.

Linebackers
With Patrick Ramsey already stepping out the door, the Redskins biggest question headed into the off-season is what to do about LaVar Arrington.
Arrington hasn’t been healthy in two seasons, has clashed with coaches, was benched earlier this season and filed a grievance against the team (since dropped) for allegedly removing $6.5 million from his contract. At this point. LaVar will count a team-high $12 million against the cap in 2006 if released, but only $7 million if retained. If they do keep him, LaVar would likely defer some money to future years, lowering his cap number even more for 2006. This would enable Washington to sign some free agents (Reggie Wayne, perhaps). If LaVar is let go anytime before July 15, the ‘Skins would eat the $12 million but be clean in 2007.
LaVar has repeatedly demonstrated his big-play capabilities during his time with the Redskins, but his early-season benching was due to his resistance to playing within Gregg Williams’ system. LaVar has the reputation of a freelancer who often overruns plays, a big no-no in schemes were player positioning is of the utmost importance.
According to published reports, Arrington would be willing to restructure his contract to give the Redskins some additional cap flexibility. Whether this is just posturing on LaVar’s part remains to be seen, but I do think he would prefer remaining with the Redskins. Any contract he signs with another team won’t approach the money he’ll be getting if he stays in Washington, which could be the main reason for his change of stance. (Weeks ago it appeared there was no shot LaVar would return.)
Ideally, the team would renegotiate a contract with LaVar and he would return. In spite of his dislike for him, Williams has to realize the Redskins defense is better with LaVar on the field. Arrington certainly isn’t worth the money he’ll get if he stays, but the ‘Skins are getting a steal with Marcus Washington (six years, $24 million), so they can afford it.
Whatever does happen, people will claim they saw it coming all along. “He was never going to leave,” or “of course he had to go, it was obvious” will be popular stances depending on which direction the team decides to go. At the moment, it’s a mystery. I have no clue what the Washington Redskins will do with LaVar Arrington. If I had to bet, I’d say LaVar stays, mainly so the ‘Skins won’t have to stomach eating up 1/8th of their cap to a player not on the roster. But if he goes, it won’t be a shock. The problem with releasing a guy like LaVar is that he’ll be so motivated to prove the Redskins wrong he’ll sign with an NFC East team just to play them twice and end up with something like eight sacks and four interceptions in those two games. LaVar is no Kwame Brown, he can turn it on when he wants to. Hopefully he’ll want to here.

Secondary
The Redskins need depth at cornerback in a big way. Carlos Rogers should show vast improvement next season and if Shawn Springs can stay healthy, the pair will form a formidable duo at corner. Walt Harris will be fine as a nickel back, but with the injury-prone Springs, Gibbs and Vinny Cerrato need to bring another player in just in case.
Hopefully our long, local nightmare will end and Ade Jimoh won’t be re-signed, but the coaches love him on special teams, so expect to see Jimoh back in uniform blowing coverages and face-guarding against the dredges of the NFL’s receiving corps.
Aside from getting Sean Taylor some anger-management courses and hiring the writers from Prison Break to concoct an elaborate scheme to get him out of prison should he be convicted at his upcoming trial, there’s not much work to be done at safety.
Ryan Clark is hardly my favorite player, but he should be re-signed because of his familiarity with Gregg Williams system.

Special Teams
Cut punter Derrick Frost. It should have been done yesterday. Actually, it should have been done back in September, but that’s neither here not there. Frost made Kelly Goodburn look like Ray Guy. How many 17-yard punts can a team survive, particularly one with a streaky offense? The team claimed Frost was necessary because of his ability to hold for their kicker, but how hard can it be to catch a ball and put the laces out? Couldn’t a trained seal do that? Get rid of that shank-punting putz, draft All-American Ryan Plackemeier from Wake Forest or sign that guy from the CFL everybody’s been talking about.
John Hall also has to go. Anybody who gets paid $1.4 million shouldn’t be missing critical 36-yard field goals in playoff games, nor should they have lingering hamstring issues that causes them to miss five games during the season. Either find a kicker in free agency (Vanderjagt, perhaps) or bring back Nick Novak. And I wouldn’t mind firing special teams coach Danny Smith either, but since I”ve been preaching the whole “stability” thing, that would kind of be hypocritical. Just get rid of Frost and Hall and we’ll be cool, Danny.

Thursday Thoughts

- How 'bout those national championship contenders from West Virginia losing to 7-9 Marshall last night? Nothing says "threat to win the NCAA Tournament" like dropping a game to a team who has already lost to the likes of Evansville (5-13), Appalachian State (8-11), South Carolina State (5-12) and Tulsa (7-10).
The loss was particularly surprising to Mountaineers forward Kevin Pittsnogle who actually guaranteed victory before the game. Way to go out on a limb, Broadway Joe. Why is the second-best player on the #9 team in the country guaranteeing wins against sub-.500 schools? Shouldn't victory just be assumed? I mean, I realize Pittsnogle is an uneducated hillbilly, but is he that dumb where he doesn't understand why guaranteeing victory over freakin' Marshall is a ridiculous (and classless) move? Best case scenario, his prediction was correct and he just looked like an idiot for vowing his team would win a game in which it was favored by 18 points. Unfortunately, for him, he was wrong and now looks like an ever bigger idiot (and overrated doofus) for vowing his team would win a game it had no business losing.

- In March, when Florida is a #6 seed and gets upset by Old Dominion in the first round, people are going to wonder how the hell the Gators ever got to be ranked #2 in the nation.

- Do you think anybody outside Pittsburgh or Seattle would notice if they didn't play the Super Bowl this year? I've never been a fan of the two-week break before the game, but this year, said break is killing what little hype this game had.
Not that Carolina/Denver would have been a showstopper, but at least we would have had pre-game stories about Jake Plummer's mustache and Steve Smith's antics instead of Jerome Bettis' homecoming and Matt Hasslebeck's poise (and by poise I mean lack of hair). Somebody get arrested for soliciting a hooker, please! Liven this party up a bit.

- If the success of this Greek can't convince ABC to order a full-season of John Stamos' smash-hit Jake In Progress, I don't know what will.

- Well, if Stamos' show doesn't work out, maybe ABC can develop a pilot with Marcos Baghdatis' girlfriend. Let's just say she makes Maria Kirilenko look like Andrei Kirilenko.

- Michael Vick believes Virginia Tech overreacted by dismissing his brother, Marcus, from the football team. Said Vick, "this never would have happened to Roy Mexico!"

The Problem With Prosser

Even early in his career, there was never any doubt Keanu Reeves was a terrible actor. His lack of theatrical chops were on full display when he starred opposite the finest thespian of our time, Patrick Swayze, in Point Break. In the 1991 film, Reeves stared and winced his way through his portrayal of Johnny Utah and almost single-handedly sunk the seminal bank robber/surfer film of this generation. At that moment it became evident Keanu hadn't done much acting when playing Ted Logan in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Ted was Keanu. Keanu was Ted. And we, as a society, were doomed.
But even though everyone knew Keanu had less range than Manny Ramirez playing left field, he always managed to exceed those low expectations with an even worse performance in his next film. In Speed, America was supposed to believe Keanu could diffuse bombs and match-wits with a master criminal despite sporting a haircut and steely glaze that suggested he'd have difficulty crossing the street without getting hit by a taxi. After Feeling Minnesota debuted, the state had an identity crisis that resulted in the gubernatorial election of one of the bad guys from Predator. Al Pacino played Satan in Devil's Advocate, but it was Keanu that had led moviegoers into the depths of hell.
With each subsequent movie, Keanu managed to get worse. In one film it could have been his inflection on a key line, in another an ill-timed, creepy stare that ruined a pivotal moment. Either way, Keanu could do it all. He was versatile in his crappiness.
Yet today, Keanu Reeves still manages to land plumb acting roles and is a millionaire dozens of times over thanks to the inexplicable popularity of those terrible Matrix movies.
His success should be inspiring to Skip Prosser, another man who strives for greatness while toiling in the barren depths of mediocrity. Prosser's Wake Forest team dropped a must-win game last night against Florida State and now appears bound for the NIT for the first time during the coach's tenure in Winston-Salem. Just like Reeves, Prosser has enjoyed a small measure of success in spite of his tremendous failings. But his charade is almost up. It has become clear Skip Prosser is the reason Wake Forest basketball has gone from ACC contender to way off the bubble in six short weeks.
There's been a lot of rumors swirling about the future of Skip Prosser, but after last night's home loss further exposed him as the worst coach in major Division I basketball, how could any university possibly want him? This would be like hiring Ken Lay to run your new energy company.
Wake Forest has the second-most talented team in the ACC, but are second-to-last in the conference standings. Even with a stellar 2-guard and dominant big man, the Deacs have no discernible offensive gameplan. They always seem content to let the shot clock run down to 12, then try to force up a shot in double-coverage. Nobody ever moves without the ball, passing is relegated to tossing it around on the perimeter and picks are set so lazily defenders often step around them with ease.
Prosser supporters (a group which probably consists only of Skip's mother and wife - especially since my buddy Scott, the eternal Wake basketball optimist, has recently boarded the Prosser hatewagon) will say the team's apparent lack of offensive strategy is due to their penchant for running an up-tempo offense. I suppose that argument could have been made last year (unsuccessfully, since you still have to have a half-court offense for all the times you're forced to run a, gasp, half-court offense), but without a true point guard, Wake can't even be considered an up-tempo team this season. Especially when they rank 7th in the ACC in scoring offense. Every time Wake is forced to get in a half-court set they're like Chris McCray on his way to class: Lost. And that's all on Prosser.
On the rare occasions when Wake runs actual plays that work (feeding the ball inside to Eric Williams), they abandon them soon after. Williams always seems to get a quick four or six points in the middle, taking advantage of mismatches against smaller, slower defenders. Then, just when it looks like he's ready to break out for a 25/15 game, the Wake guards totally forget about him. This happens more times than you'd imagine.
Perhaps the worst part of Prosser's offense is its lack of vision. When Prosser calls a play, there never seems to be a "Plan B" should the initial call fail to work. If the main play isn't there, Wake seems lost and the possession nearly always results in a bad shot or turnover. For example: Yesterday, the coach called a ridiculous timeout on a key possession late in the second-half. After the TO, with Wake down three, they inbounded with 11 seconds on the shot clock. Prosser's play was designed to get Eric Williams a one-on-one match-up in the paint, but when FSU brought down another defender to help out, Big E panicked and quickly kicked the ball out to Michael Freakin' Drum who ran over to help out at the last second.
Watching that play, it was obvious Wake fully expected Williams to have an easy run to the basket since there was no contingency for anything else. A good coach would have called a play that would have had Justin Gray or Harvey Hale lined up behind Williams so a defender would have to leave a good shooter alone if he wanted to double-up the big man.
But Skip Prosser doesn't think about such things. He's like the chess player who only looks to make the best move at the time; never anticipating what will happen down the road.
Drum quickly turned the ball over, FSU went down the court and hit a three and the game was essentially over.
Amazingly, Wake's offense wasn't the worst part of their game last night. Defense has always been a problem for Skip Prosser teams, but it was excusable when they'd put up 90 points a game and lead the nation in rebounding margin. Without stars like Josh Howard and Chris Paul though, the Deacs can't get by with subpar defensive efforts.
Defenders are made, not born. Watch any Duke team if you disagree. Certain skills, like steals and rebounding, are instinctual, but things like playing a zone, boxing out, positioning and footwork all come from practice and coaching. It speaks volumes about Skip Prosser when Wake Forest is the worst team in the ACC at all those fundamental defensive techniques.
FSU won the game last night, in large part, to the Deacs inability to grasp those basic fundamentals. If you look at the box score you might think the 'Noles just got hot from downtown and the Deacs were powerless to stop it. But watching the game told a different story. FSU got hot because they were left wide open. On their eight first-half three-pointers, maybe one could be considered "contested".
Nobody was guarding FSU's shooters because of a defensive switch Prosser made. Early in the first-half, when the game resembled a track meet, he decided to change to a 1-3-1 zone in hopes of slowing the game down by clogging the middle and forcing FSU to work the ball around the perimeter. Like many of Prosser's ideas, this wasn't a bad one, in theory. The problem was, Wake hasn't played a 1-3-1 in ages and the players were totally unprepared to run it. Leonard Hamilton's team had no problem breaking the zone; they would throw one or two passes at the top of the key, feed the ball inside, watch Trent Strickland collapse in the middle (as he is supposed to) and then immediately kick the ball out to a wide-open player on the perimeter. After FSU ran the same exact play twice (successfully) on their first two possessions against the 1-3-1, you'd have thought Prosser would have changed up the defensive set. He didn't. The Seminoles proceeded to run, again, the same exact play five more times, each time with their shooter even more wide open than before. Trent Strickland was unable to recognize what was going on and his coaches apparently didn't either. The non-existent awareness coupled with Strickland continually biting on the lob into the middle like a rat getting electrocuted by a fake piece of cheese, led to 29 FSU first-half points. No adjustments were made until halftime and by that point, FSU already had a double-digit lead.
For the Deacs to be 1-5 is a travesty; especially when less-talented teams like UVA are 4-2 (with an, admittedly, easier schedule thus far). No other ACC school, besides Duke, has two All-ACC candidates like the Deacs and few teams in the young league are as seasoned as Wake Forest. If they could play any defense at all and run some semblance of an offense, the Deacs would be at least 4-2 in conference play. Instead, they're way off the bubble at the moment and will need a miracle (or Skip Prosser falling off the top of Wait Chapel) to get an NCAA berth.
It's no wonder Chris Paul turned pro after his sophomore season; he couldn't risk playing another year with Skip Prosser as his coach. Paul loved Wake Forest. He was a hometown hero and the most popular man in the city. College basketball is made for guys like Chris Paul. But he had to realize playing under Prosser could lower his stock and cost him millions. He had to go to the NBA, thus giving up the dream of leading his school to the Final Four.
I truly believe Paul would have stayed in Winston-Salem if he thought the Deacs could have won the National Championship this year. Luckily for him, Paul was smart enough to realize that would be impossible as long as Prosser was the coach.
Remember; Prosser didn't get to the Sweet 16 without Chris Paul, even when the Deacs were a #2 seed in their ACC Championship season of 2002.
Even with Paul, the Deacs struggled in the NCAA's. Had CP not bailed Wake Forest out with his heroics in a first-round game against VCU his freshman season, they would have had an early exit. The next round, Wake faced Manhattan and were again saved by Paul. Last season, the Deacs were down to #15 seed Chattanooga at halftime before Paul keyed a second-half run to give Wake the victory. In each of their last three NCAA Tournament wins, Chris Paul saved Skip Prosser. He couldn't afford to risk millions to do so again in his junior season.
Now, Paul is tearing up the NBA, averaging nearly 17 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds in his first season. He should be a lock for the All-Star team after leading the lowly Hornets to more wins in the first-half of this season than they had during the entire 2004/2005 year (with the same team pretty much in-tact). The Rookie of the Year Award is as good as his. Most great college players experience growing pains in the NBA. But Paul is arguably more dominant than he was in college, yet another sign of Skip Prosser's inability to harness talent.
Just 14 months ago, the Wake Forest basketball program was celebrating their first #1 ranking in school history. Now, they're fighting for their NCAA lives. When they don't make it, athletic director Ron Wellman needs to make the tough decision to get rid of Skip Prosser. He is a great recruiter, graduates most of his players and is a good man, but he's taken the Demon Deacons as far as he can. They've peaked. Few teams have ever done less with their talent than Wake did last season. This year, the talent level is down in Winston-Salem, but not so much so that the Deacs should be close to the bottom of the ACC.
It's time for Skip Prosser to go. Good riddance when he does.

The Tuesday Ten

1) How dumb do you have to be to become ineligible as a senior basketball player at a big-time university? Chris McCray is in a unique position to answer that question, becoming the first senior starter from a BCS-conference to lose his final semester of eligibility due to academics since the adoption of stricter grading rules from the NCAA three years ago. His loss is a devastating blow to Maryland's season and, with more possible suspensions on the horizon, could lead to the Terps watching the NCAA Tournament from home for the second straight season.
McCray's failure to get a 2.0 last semester is mind-boggling in many respects, but it's absurdity is compounded when you think of all the morons from Maryland's basketball program who have managed to pass classes in the past. John Gilchrist somehow stayed eligible for three years and he'll be lucky to be homeless by the end of the decade. Steve Blake, for as much as I love him, can barely string two sentences together. Nik Caner-Medley is lucky if he can get one out that doesn't refer to where he's from and how unbeatable he is. I'm not sure if Steve Francis even realized Maryland offered classes. Yet all those guys stayed eligible. Conversely, Chris McCray, in his second-to-last semester couldn't even keep a C average despite all the resources in the world to guarantee he would do just that.
With all the help and assistance athletes at big schools get, it would seem nearly impossible to fail out. These guys get help from professors, access to tutors and have coaches breathing down their necks to make sure they keep afloat academically.
Some tutors do all the work for their students. The more conscientious ones will sit down and work through every question or problem with their athlete until an assignment is done. When it's time to study for a test, the tutor usually knows exactly what to review.
For McCray to fail out, he must have not gone to any class and skipped appointments with tutors. Becoming ineligible was probably as much work for him as staying eligible.
This is nearly all McCray's fault, but Gary Williams has to share in some of the blame too. How did he, or any of his assistants, not know McCray was in academic trouble? And if they did, why didn't they do anything about it? Don't they get progress reports? Don't they talk to professors? Don't they make sure the players attend class or meet with tutors? Failing out just doesn't happen, it's a process. These days at Maryland it's apparently an ignored one.
My cousin George attributes the problems in College Park (rumors continue to swirl that McCray won't be the last Terp to become ineligible) to the departures of long-time Terp assistants Jimmy Patsos and Dave Dickerson. Those coaches, Patsos in particular, were all over the players, sometimes even walking them to class to make sure they would attend. When they left, Patsos to Loyola (MD) and Dickerson to Tulane, Williams had to hire inexperienced guys like Michael Adams and Keith Booth to join him on the bench. The results speak for themselves.
Maryland is likely done in the ACC now. McCray, while far from a star, was their most consistent player of both ends of the floor. Fan favorite Mike Jones will step in, but he's as inconsistent as he is spectacular, and the former will lead to more losses.
Maybe McCray should have had an easier major but I suppose criminal justice will serve him well when he inevitably has to defend himself at some criminal trial in the future. Remember, McCray was arrested back in August after refusing to leave the scene of a fight and then fleeing. That doesn't even make sense. Why would you refuse to leave the scene, then flee it? And at what point did the fleeing turn from a recommendation into a felony?
Officer - Mr. McCray, we're going to need you to leave the scene now.
McCray - F*** no, pig! I do like Puffy said, "can't nobody take my pride, can't nobody hold me down! Oh no. We GOTSTA keep on movin. Uh-huh, uh! Take that, take that, take that." (Mike Jones does the Mase dance in the background.)
Officer - Mr. McCray, please leave or I'm going to arrest you. I'm not asking for much, just walk away and we won't have a problem.
McCray - YOU walk away, fascist. I know my rights. I pay taxes. (Mike Jones whispers in McCray's ear.) I COULD pay taxes.
Officer - This is your last warning Mr. McCray, if you don't begin walking away, I will be forced to arrest you. I don't want to do this because it involves paperwork. You don't want to do this because it involves me arresting you for simply not taking 50 steps to the left.
McCray - Lock me up then. What, you think I can't take it? I'm a man, I ain't no boy. I'll do twenty standing on my head. You wanna give me the chair? Strap me up boss!
Officer - (Sighs as he reaches for handcuffs. Clearly put out, he slowly begins...) You have the right to remain -
McCray - Peace out, bitch! (McCray takes off, top speed, down Route 1.)

2) Wake Forest has an absolute must-win game tonight in Winston-Salem against a feisty FSU team that barely lost to North Carolina two nights ago. (That FSU has to play two games in three days is the result of poor scheduling brought on by expansion and a terrible (for the schools and fans) Sunday night TV deal with Fox. If a team is forced to play the Sunday night game on Fox Sports Net, they should have off at least until Wednesday. I mean, there's nothing we can do about John Swofford's greediness, it's already ruined the ACC forever. But at least give some breaks to teams that are forced to play the horrible TV deals you negotiate, jerk.)
The Deacs are in must-win mode after blowing a big lead at N.C. State on Saturday. Up 13 at the under-four TV timeout in the first half, soon-to-be ex-Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser pulled most of his starters so they wouldn't pick up any cheap fouls. In theory, it was an alright idea. But in execution... That's another story. Prosser's lineup was: Harvey Hale (freshman), Shamaine Dukes (freshman), Kevin Swinton (freshman), Cameron Stanley (sophomore, might as well be a freshman) and Eric Williams (senior). After it was clear Prosser's lineup would be ineffective (which, to any rational person was the moment they stepped on the floor. For Prosser, it should have been after the missed Wake dunk, three-point NCSU play, five-second call on Wake, NSCU three-pointer progression), he should have called timeout and put his starters back on the floor. Instead, he watched State end the half on a 12-4 run, cutting Wake's lead to five. After that, the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
Of course, all of Trent Strickland's contested three-pointers shot with 29 seconds on the shot clock on huge Wake second-half possessions didn't help either. How Strickland continues to get minutes is mind-boggling. But so is Skip Prosser's existence.
(If you want to be sick (or amused, depending on your rooting interests) look at the assist-to-turnover ratios of Wake players. Seven guys have even or negative ratios, while Justin Gray has a stellar 1.1:1. Ouch.)

3) My hatred of Duke is well-documented. I think they're easily beatable this season, are getting no help from their heralded recruiting class and have the single-most overrated player in college basketball playing center for them. However, that doesn't mean they should have fallen to #2 after a hard-fought loss at Georgetown.
My hatred of college basketball polls is second only to my hatred of Duke. How, may I ask, is Boston College ahead of Maryland in the coaches poll when Maryland beat Boston College? In the same poll, how is four-loss Georgetown unranked after beating the #1 team in the nation, but five-loss Louisville is up there despite having exactly zero wins against the RPI top 75??? Are they really trying to say Louisville is the 22nd best team in the nation? Hell, they aren't even the 22nd best team in the Big East!
Anyway, Duke lost a tough one to a good Georgetown team in the last seconds. Connecticut lost to a mediocre Marquette team in the first minutes. UConn has nice wins over Gonzaga and LSU while Duke has great wins over Texas, Memphis, Indiana, Maryland and N.C. State. It kills me to say this but, at the moment, Duke is still the #1 team in the country.

4) That doesn't mean they're going to win the whole thing though. Georgetown provided the blueprint for how to beat Duke: Let J.J. Redick get his shots and points and make sure guys like Lee Melchionni and Sean Dockery don't beat you. When teams focus too much on Redick, they inevitably leave much less talented guys open on the perimeter. Even a scrub like Lee Melchionni can hit open shots, so put a body on him and force him to miss. Redick can get his 35, and he will. But concentrating too much on him makes everyone else better. Treat Redick like Melchionni and Melchionni won't turn into Redick.
Duke's other four starters are, simply put, not very good. Greg Paulus is playing like a freshman, and a mediocre one at that. Josh McRoberts has been putting in solid minutes, but is getting banged around when matched-up with bigger bodies. The combination of Melchionni, Dockery and DeMarcus Nelson can be easily handled, as Georgetown demonstrated.
Let Redick shoot and stop everyone else. It's a recipe for victory against Duke.

5) You'll notice I didn't mention Shelden Williams anywhere in the description of how to beat Duke. There's a reason for that: The most overrated player in Duke history is simply a non-factor in big games. Marco Killingsworth, Eric Williams, Cedric Simmons and the combination of Brandon Bowman, Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green all abused The Slumlord in their respective match-ups, and held Shelden to mediocre offensive numbers as well. Williams is a defensive sieve and deserves a defensive player of the year award about as much as Shaun Alexander deserved his MVP.

6) Speaking of that Georgetown-Duke game, did anyone see that dude in the wheelchair rush the court when the final buzzer sounded? The Hoya students were quick to get on the MCI Center floor after Greg Paulus turned the ball over in the final seconds of the game (so much so that two guys totally ate it on their way out) and about three seconds after the mass of students congregated at the center circle, some guy in a wheelchair came tearing down the sideline and rolled, top-speed, to mid-court where he stopped on a dime and began waving his arms madly in the air. One or two people came over to him to exchange high-fives, including one who also attempted to give him an awkward man-hug. I watched this over and over again thanks to the magic of DVR. Man, it was so awesome. Too bad he didn't run over J.J. Redick on his way out though.

7) I enjoy watching women's tennis more than most, so I tend to be a little ahead of the trends when it comes to discovering the hot new player before the MSM jumps on it. Back in 1997, when most people thought Anna Kournikova was a Tolstoy novel, I got up early to watch her play a 4th-round match at Wimbledon and called at least five people to tell them to turn on their sets to see the bouncy blonde with the cherubic face. A few years ago I did the same when Maria Sharapova was advancing at the U.S. Open. Last week I made my first "turn on the TV and check out this hot, Russian blonde" call since then; for my new tennis muse Maria Kirilenko (right). In the words of Falkow's man-crush Matthew McConaughey, "alright, alright!"

8) I really want to care about the World Baseball Classic. I really do. But if everybody is dropping out because they're afraid of getting hurt and rules are changed that compromise the integrity of the games, isn't this just a grander version of the NFL's Pro Bowl?

9) I mentioned this yesterday, but Kobe Bryant's 81 point explosion was such a much bigger story than the NFL Championship games, yet for some reason the media relegated Kobe to second banana status behind Shaun Alexander and Jerome Bettis. One more time; boring Championship games happen every year; 81 points in an NBA game happens once every 50 years. Sports Illustrated gave Shaun Alexander the cover this week and put Kobe above the banner. It should have been the other way around.

10) In his MMQB Fine 15, SI.com's Peter King ranks the New England Patriots at #4, one spot ahead of the Denver Broncos, the team that eliminated New England from the playoffs. I guess that's to be expected though... King has Louisville at #3.

Championship Game Thoughts

Back in 1921 the NFL (or American Professional Football League, as it was known then) decided its champion at league meetings instead of on the field. Those meetings were only slightly less boring than yesterday's awful championship games.
My buddy Jaffe texted me midway through the Seahawks game and succinctly summed up the day: "Two crummy games," he wrote. I can't remember the last time I, or anyone else I know, used the word crummy in any other fashion except to describe Saltines. But yesterday it was oddly fitting. The games weren't totally boring, per se. They weren't terrible. And they weren't necessarily unwatchable either. They were just crummy.
Sadly, there's a strong likelihood the Super Bowl will turn out the same way. Playing away from their cozy, acoustically-enhanced home stadium against the best defense they've seen all year, Seattle should struggle offensively against Pittsburgh and will be unable to stop Ben Roethlisberger on the other side of the ball.
Seahawks fans and ESPN analysts desperate to say something will talk-up the team's easy win over Carolina and make the incorrect assertion that this was the sign of a great time peaking at the right time. In reality, though, yesterday's game was simply the final confirmation that Carolina has been a maddeningly inconsistent squad in 2005/2006 who also happened to play their worst game of the season in their biggest game of the season.
Remember, this is a Carolina team that lost to three non-playoff clubs during the year and struggled with the likes of Green Bay, Arizona, Detroit and Buffalo (combined winning margin in those four games: 12). They also lost their third-string running back early in the game and had their star defensive lineman, Julius Peppers, rendered essentially useless by a shoulder injury.
At no point during yesterday's contest could you look at Seattle's team and think, "wow, they're really good." Beyond the no-brainer decision to lock double-coverage on Steve Smith (you hear that, Ron Rivera?), Carolina's wounds were all self-inflicted. Each of Jake Delhomme's three interceptions were of the "what the f---?!" variety and John Fox's seeming refusal to change-up his defensive schemes crippled the Panthers. (Despite 19 of Alexander's runs going left - compared to nine up the middle and just six to the right - Fox (and defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac) kept overloading the defensive left. He also continually matched-up linebackers on Jerramy Stevens, who burned Carolina for three crucial first downs and the opening touchdown of the game.) In fairness, Carolina, like Washington before them, went into Seattle beat-up and exhausted from over a month of playoff-pressure football.
Earlier in the day, Pittsburgh simply manhandled the Denver Broncos. The Steelers' pass rush forced Jake Plummer into making mistakes and Ben Roethlisberger was flawless against the vaunted Broncos secondary. Like most recent AFC Championship games, this one was decidedly unmemorable (there hasn't been a "good" AFC title game since 1996, when Pittsburgh last made it to the Super Bowl after a Hail Mary from the Colts' Jim Harbaugh's fell incomplete at Three Rivers). Only the ridiculous commentary of Phil Simms stands out (just when I think I can't hate Phil Simms any more, he opens his mouth and says something even dumber than before. At least Bill Walton knows he's a joke and embraces it. Simms thinks he's the NFL's colorman laureate.)
I'd be remiss if I didn't delve into the real reason behind Denver's loss yesterday. The efficiency of Roethlisberger, Denver's inability to get their ground attack going and Jerome Bettis' apparent deal with Touchdown Jesus all appeared to benefit Pittsburgh yesterday, but it was clear why Pittsburgh is advancing to Detroit while the Broncos are left to wonder what might have been: Mustaches, or lack thereof.
The football gods appeared to make lip-ticklers a prerequisite for Super Bowl invitees; both coaches in the big game, Bill Cowher and Mike Holmgren, adorn their face with Selleckian masterpieces. It should come as no surprise that in this, the year of face-hair in the NFL, two mustachioed men will coach on the sport's grandest stage.
If Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer had not foolishly decided back in September to fill in his beard, rendering his mustache impotent, he would likely have replaced the square-jawed Cowher as the AFC's lip-hair representative. Plummer seemed to know this before the game and seemed powerless to stop his mustache-less fate: CBS apparently took new pictures for the photos that accompany a player's statistics and personal information before the AFC Championship game. As it was Plummer's original, mustache-laden, photo (see above, top right) that started the whole "Plummer porn-stache" craze in the first place, this was deeply troubling. What was worse was that in the new photo, Plummer's beard was on full display. And instead of looking like a "porn star on angel dust", as his old photo was once described, Plummer looked pensive, almost as if he was looking off into the distance longing for the a simpler time when his mustache brought him those Samonsonin powers which enabled the Broncos season to get off to a roaring start.
Now, more than ever, it is important for Jake Plummer to bring back his mustache. After all, a bearded Jake Plummer has lost one AFC Championship game. A mustachioed Jake Plummer is undefeated.

- I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about a certain Ed Hochuli question every time the massively-gunned referee made a penalty call yesterday. But since I'd rather be a liar than cop to wondering whether that was just a kick-up of the pleats or something else entirely bulging from Hochuli's mid-section, I'll say I certainly wasn't thinking about a certain Ed Hochuli question every time the massively-gunned referee made a penalty call yesterday.

- Eighty-one points?! EIGHTY-ONE POINTS?! That's just freakin' ridiculous. That's the only way to describe it. It's unbelievable.
You realize Kobe's going to score 100 this season, right? Am I the only one who thinks this is going to happen? I can't be. Consider: The Lakers have played exactly half their schedule and Kobe has already gone for 81 (EIGHTY-ONE?!) and 62 (in three quarters). In January he is averaging 45.5 points per-game and a whopping 35.9 for the season (since Wilt retired in 1966, only Jordan has more in a season - 37.1 in 1987.) In his last 15 games, Kobe has scored in the 20's twice (the same amount of times he's gone over 60) and has gone over 40 seven times. He's gone over 50 four times during the 15 games. In contrast, there have only been four 50-point performances by the rest of the league all season.
In an up-tempo game that's close (and maybe goes to overtime), why can't Kobe drop 100? Sure, it's not likely, but up until a month ago I would have said 81 was too.
One more thing; I don't care if both Championship games were amazing yesterday; Kobe's 81 has to be the top-story on all the sports Web sites today. Teams go to the Super Bowl every year, NBA players score more than 80 points once every half-century. (Note: As of 1:00 p.m., Kobe's 81 is the top story on ESPN.com.)

Championship Game Picks... And Beyond!

Maybe it's because the Redskins lost last weekend or perhaps it's because I have no particular rooting interest in either championship game or it could be due to the fact that I'm anxiously awaiting the inevitable jailhouse call from The Wolfman (whose life unraveled following the last Bears divisional playoff blow-up in 2002), but I have absolutely zero interest in Sunday's NFL championship games.
Of course I'll watch both games and, as I detailed yesterday, it'd be sort of cool to see the Broncos win for purely selfish reasons, but I really couldn't care less about either contest. Granted, I would rather see the Panthers beat the overrated Seahawks, but it's not going to ruin my Sunday if they don't. And I like Bill Cowher, Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger, but my dislike of Mike Shanahan isn't enough to counterbalance that, so I'm rooting more for a close, exciting AFC Championship game than anything else.
It's tough to imagine both home teams losing on Sunday; Denver is one of the toughest places to play in the league, while Qwest Field gets loud as well (but is overrated as an intimidating stadium). Since the Broncos and Seahawks are a combined 18-0 at home this season, picking against them both is kind of ridiculous.
I've been picking against the Seahawks all season and want to continue that trend, but the loss of DeShaun Foster and a banged-up Julius Peppers (at best) gives Seattle a slight edge in their game against Carolina. But I picked the Panthers to win the NFC back in September, so I'm going to stick with them today.
The Seahawks defense will be eaten alive if they decide to blitz Jake Delhomme, so they'll need to come up with a different gameplan than they had against Washington. Clearly, they can't let Steve Smith do what he did against Chicago, but double-teaming him will leave the middle open for Nick Goings who, while not DeShaun Foster, is more than capable of carrying the load for Carolina.
Shaun Alexander will continue his playoff woes and Seattle will struggle playing catch-up, something they haven't had to do a lot this season. Look for a big day from Ricky Proehl too.
Pick: Carolina Panthers 35 - Seattle Seahawks 20
Like I said above, I don't think both home teams will lose this weekend, so if I could make this pick contingent on what happens in the other game I'd pick Denver if Carolina wins and Pittsburgh if Seattle should get the W. Of course, this game is on first, so this wouldn't make sense, even if it did make sense in the first place, which, of course, it does not.
The Broncos are still getting disrespected, even after man-handling the two-time defending Super Bowl champions and forcing Tom Brady into his worst big-game performance ever. (On Tuesday I asked why Brady wasn't getting ripped along with Peyton Manning for his pathetic playoff performance. Later that afternoon, the great Dr. Z did just that.)
Unlike the Seahawks, Denver has actually earned the respect they claim not to get. The Broncos played a difficult schedule and have dropped just two games since the middle of September; at the Giants (on a last-second TD) and at Kansas City.
I've been on Pittsburgh's bandwagon since that week they seemed dead in the playoff race but I'm scared by Bill Cowher's record in AFC Title games (1-4; how is this not a more-reported statistic) and by the Steelers fatigue factor (this is Pittsburgh's seventh-straight "playoff" game. Granted, the final three games of the regular season were against Minnesota, Cleveland and Detroit, but the Steelers have still been in "must-win" mode since a week before "Lazy Sunday" debuted.)
It should be close and on a neutral field I'd probably go the other way (and if Pittsburgh wins it won't be an upset), but I'm going to go with the Man of La Mustache-a and Denver.
Pick: Denver Broncos 23 - Pittsburgh Steelers 21

- I love - LOVE - the Al Saunders hiring by the Redskins. I'll get into it more next week during my third annual State of the Redskins address but will say this in anticipation of the inevitable Len Pasquarelli column which proclaims Saunders' arrival in Washington a sign that Joe Gibbs has lost it: Joe Gibbs hasn't been a success in everything he's attempted in life because he's an egomaniac. He realizes the best way to build a successful team/organization/family is by surrounding yourself with good people. During his first stint in Washington, Gibbs had Richie Pettibon, Joe Bugel, Jim Hanifan and other great coaches to work with. When he built his NASCAR team, Gibbs was new to the sport so he hired people who had been associated with racing for their whole lives. Today, Gibbs Racing has three Winston/Nextel Cup titles. As for his family, Gibbs has said he could have never put long hours into football without the love and support of his wife Pat. In all aspects of his life, Joe Gibbs has great people around him. The hiring of Al Saunders adds one more.
Do you think a coach like Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick would ever hire a guy like Saunders; an ex-head coach turned revered assistant? To egomaniacs like them and Brian Billick, bringing in Saunders would be like admitting defeat. But to Joe Gibbs, the Saunders hiring was a no-brainer. Al Saunders has presided over the NFL's best offense during the past half-decade. He will bring new schemes, formations, drills and ideas to a Redskins offense that struggled towards the end of the 2005 season.
Along with Gibbs, Don Breaux, Jack Burns, Bill Musgrave and Joe Bugel, Saunders will be part of a braintrust with over 100 combined years of NFL experience. Together, it would be foolish to believe those coaches won't have the Redskins offense at the top of the NFL next season. With that revamped O to go along with Gregg Williams' D, the Washington Redskins have to be considered among the early favorites in the NFC in 2006.

- People reach this blog via interesting Google searches all the time - you'd be amazed (and disturbed) to see how often "Shavlik Randolph naked" used to bring people to Chris's Spots Blog. (I've always worn it as a badge of honor that I'm the #1 listing for "J.J. Redick backne".) Yesterday, though, a web surfer from Michigan clinched the award for "Greatest Google Search To Get To This Page Ever". I can only imagine what sort of information said web surfer expected to find when they Googled: Is Ed Hochuli hung?

- I'm no hockey fan (and that's putting it mildly), but I have to say that Alexander Ovechkin is one of the most exciting athletes I've ever seen play live. Seriously. Every time he touched the puck last night in the Capitals-Blues game, the MCI Center buzzed with excitement. The Octagon's first period goal was routine by his standards, but beautiful nonetheless. And the 20-year old made his goal in the shootout (a great innovation for the NHL, by the way) look so routine it was easy to overlook how difficult it really was. Not that I have any clue what a difficult shootout goal looks like, but that crossover couldn't have been easy.
I'm done talking about hockey now. I think I need a shower. And a haircut. And I definitely need to get rid of this Molson Ice that suddenly appeared on my desk.

- Did anybody else see Steve Smith on PTI's "Five Good Minutes" this week? Near the end of the interview, Kornheiser asked the diminutive receiver how he was so good despite being so small. Smith gave a quick smile and said (I'm paraphrasing), "around the house my wife doesn't think I'm too small." After convincing myself Smith couldn't have meant what I think he meant, I rewound it to see if I could make any further determination as to his intended implication. After careful deliberations with The Wolfman and Falkow, we've determined Smith was, indeed, proclaiming himself to be quite Hochulian in the crotchal region.

Skip to the U (of Cincinnati)?

As the Skip Prosser-to-Cincinnati rumors have intensified from internet gossip to mainstream scuttlebutt, one person has been oddly silent about the whole affair: Skip Prosser.
The Wake Forest coach, in a unique position to confirm or deny the tale of his impending departure from Winston-Salem, has yet to comment on the situation, a curious decision that leaves his true intentions open for questioning.
Earlier this week I supported Peyton Manning's criticism of his offensive line because I thought he told the truth. Did people expect him to lie, I asked? But in Prosser's case he should lie. It's a need-to-lie situation, even if he's signed a pact with the Bearcats in blood. Prosser is still the coach at Wake Forest and is under contract for seven more seasons. More importantly, his team is in the midst of a critical ACC-stretch that will determine whether they make their sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The last thing the Deacs need is the uncertainty about their coaches future distracting them from their season.
Prosser's silence on the subject also makes recruiting more difficult. For all his faults as a coach, and there are many, Prosser is a top-notch recruiter who has scored commitment-coups by signing All-American players from North Carolina; players who, in the past, would have gone to Chapel Hill or Durham. But how effective will Prosser's sales pitch be to prospective players with these rumors floating overhead? It's one thing for a recruit to hear Prosser claim his allegiance to Wake Forest in a living room. Coaches would guarantee their first-born child to get a letter of intent, so his promises are unlikely to carry much weight during a visit. If he made a statement in a press conference that he intends to honor his contract at Wake Forest, however, it would send a message to the current players and recruits that Prosser is devoted to the Demon Deacons. Even if Prosser plans on bolting, this is a statement he has to make. Some might criticize him if he vows to stay and then leaves in April, but he has to act in the best interest of his current team right now, not his future one.
If Prosser does go, the question becomes, does his departure hurt or benefit the Wake Forest basketball program?
It's no secret I loathe Skip Prosser the coach. He had the most talented team in the country last year (yes, more talented than eventual national champs North Carolina) but couldn't even make it to the second weekend of the Tournament. Two years before, with ACC Player of the Year Josh Howard, Wake won the ACC regular season title but also failed to advance to the Sweet 16. Skip's teams have no defensive strategy and run their offense at an undisciplined, frenetic pace that works with star players (Chris Paul, Josh Howard) but suffers when the Trent Strickland's of the world have to play major minutes.
When teams force Wake into playing a half-court game the team struggles mightily, often holding the ball for twenty seconds before a guard tries (and inevitably fails) to take a defender off the dribble. Whereas great coaches like Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams can adapt their systems to their available talent, Prosser forces his talent into his system, even with players who clearly don't fit.
One of my main gripes with Skip the coach was on display last night in Wake's game against Georgia Tech. Up 27 points midway through the second-half, the Deacs began slowing the game down, a direct departure from the up-tempo play that got them ahead by such a large margin. Without a true point guard or any real offensive sets, turnovers and poor shots followed. In a seven-minute span, GT cut the lead to eight and had a chance to get it to five before Wake took back over the game, eventually winning by 15.
This type of conservative play has gotten the Deacs in trouble before (last year against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament being the prime example), but Prosser has yet to alter his approach. Wake Forest thrives on pushing the ball; they are rendered ineffective any other way. A good coach would see this. Skip Prosser does not.
He's not all bad though. When Dave Odom brought the Demon Deacons back to national prominence after a twenty-year downturn, he did so largely with unheralded recruits like Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Josh Howard (McDonald's All-American Rodney Rogers was an exception). Recruiting was tough for Odom and he left Winston-Salem, in part, because he was upset with his inability to compete with Duke and UNC for blue chippers.
But Prosser proved that Wake could compete with, and even best, their Tobacco Road rivals. Eric Williams, Justin Gray and, most importantly, Chris Paul, were McDonald's All-American's from North Carolina and each was recruited heavily by the state's basketball powers. UNC, in particular, made a huge push to sign Gray. When he and Williams both signed with Prosser it sent shockwaves through the basketball community. A Prosser departure would cause the Deacs recruiting to take an immediate hit. If a good recruiter and coach is hired to fill his place, there's no reason to think it would stay that way though.
So who would replace Prosser at Wake Forest? The hot rumor has a three-way trade, of sorts, going down. Prosser would go to Cincinnati to fill the vacancy left by Bob Huggins. Huggins would, in turn, go to West Virginia to take over for John Beilein, thus giving the Mountaineers a marquee name and one capable of driving the team's graduation rate into the single digits. Beilein would then fill-out the menage-a-trois and end up in Winston-Salem. \
I'm on the fence with Beilein. Either his team overachieved last season in their run to the Elite Eight (they upset Prosser and Wake Forest in triple-OT along the way) or they underachieved all season (WVU was a #10 seed, after all). I also don't see Wake looking to a guy from West Virginia either; they tend to grab coaches from ACC schools or small, private universities like their own. Who knows how real this rumor is, but it sounds way too convenient to be anything more than a fantasy.
I hope Skip Prosser takes the job at Cincinnati and Wake Forest hires a young, talented assistant from somewhere in the ACC. It's time for a new coach to come in and teach players how to play basketball as a team, something Wake has never done under Skip. He's been great for the university and I'll wish him the best wherever he goes, but the Deacs have maxed out under his tutelage.

- You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? This one (below) is worth a thousand viewings of Funny Girl. Paulus and Dockery's rear-embrace made the back page of today's Washington Post, leading me to believe sports editor Emilio Ruiz-Garcia has the same feelings about the... preferences... of Duke players as I do.

The Mustachioed Gray Lady

I've always disliked the Denver Broncos. John Elway is my least favorite football player ever, Mike Shanahan seems to be an overrated, pompous know-it-all and I always thought the team's old uniforms were among the worst in football (until their new ones debuted, that is). Even with all that, part of me is actually rooting for Denver to win Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
I figure with so much media attention surrounding the Super Bowl, there is a decent chance somebody will bring up the ol' Bring Back Jake Plummer's Mustache Petition during the two weeks preceding the game if the Broncos should make it. After all, there's only so much you can write about Shanahan's struggles without Elway or Mike Anderson's time in the Marines before you're forced to go with a story about internet petitions devoted to resuscitating the lip-whiskers of a quarterback with a reptilian nickname. And while I joke, I actually don't think this is as far-fetched a possibility as you, dear reader, might believe. With all the ridiculous questions that get asked on media day, don't you think there's a chance that at least the gay interview guy from The Tonight Show will ask Jake about it? No? So it's just me then? Anyway, since I figured the petition's 15 minutes of fame were long gone, this possibility almost has me pulling for the Broncos. (My hatred of Elway will never allow that though.)
Yesterday, my theory was proven correct (sort of) when The New York Times ran an article about the facial hair of Plummer and Ben Roethlisberger and mentioned the petition (although I was referred to as "one blogger"; I think it's that infamous Times anti-Greek bias at work once again). While I had a great time doing radio interviews and getting name-dropped in various news outlets back when the petition drew national attention back in October, the mention in the Times is easily the highlight of the whole escapade. I mean, it's the freakin' New York Times! The only thing that could top this is if Playgirl names the 'stache Mr. February complete with a centerfold shot of it in all its lip-tickling glory.

Later today: Thursday Thoughts (Including: How Skip Prosser is killing Wake Forest basketball. And me.)

The Miseducation of Michelle Wie

Last week, 16-year old Michelle Wie missed the cut by four strokes at the Sony Open, the fourth time in her career the young professional failed to play the weekend in a men's event despite unyielding hype that she is the future of golf.
By not playing on the weekend, Wie was also unable to notch her first victory on any professional tour, men's or women's, which puts her behind teenage peers Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, who have both won more than once on the LPGA.
If her ultimate goal is to get rich through marketing and advertising, Michelle Wie is an unqualified success. No athlete in history has ever received so much hype and cash for doing so little. But eventually the novelty of seeing Wie in a men's event will wear off, if it hasn't already, and the public will realize they're getting duped into believing Michelle Wie is something other than good copy.
Wie has to learn to crawl before she can walk. At this point, though, she's trying to break out into a sprint and is, predictably, falling flat on her face. She only has herself (and her parents) to blame for this. Playing in men's events before learning how to beat women is sort of like joining the NBA out of middle-school. It's an interesting story but does no good in the long-run. There is still plenty of time for Wie to recover, but sacrificing junior golf events to tee it up with Vijay Singh could be devastating to her career.
I've written about the miseducation of Michelle Wie a few times on this blog and today will revisit two posts on the subject.

June 27, 2005
Michelle Wie is a wonderful golfer and one day could become as successful as Annika Sorenstam. But at this point in her life, the 15-year old Wie might not even be the best female amateur in the game, let alone someone who could legitimately compete against men. Her final round blow-up yesterday at the U.S. Women's Open showed, once again, that Wie is more hype than substance and should also serve as a reminder to the media that there are plenty of other women deserving of the ink that undeserved goes Wie's way.
The headlines out of Denver on Saturday night all focused on Wie, despite the fact that she was tied for the lead with two other women, including another teenage amateur. One shot back was Paula Creamer, an 18-year old who has actually won an LPGA tournament, something Wie has yet to do.
So why all the hype for Wie? If it's because she's only 15, then why wasn't anyone talking about Morgan Pressel, the 17-year old who was tied with Wie for the clubhouse lead Saturday night? It certainly can't be because of past successes, because Wie has win zilch on the LPGA Tour, and only has a victory in one tournament of significance, the 2003 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links, which is, arguably, the least prestigious championship on the USGA's calendar. (Wie failed to defend her title last year, losing to a Chinese amateur in the finals.)
The main reason the media is in love with Michelle is because Michelle is in love with herself. Repeatedly stating her goal of playing in the Masters, accepting sponsors exemptions to PGA events and declaring herself ready to play with the men, despite an inability to win against women, has only perpetuated the belief that Wie is a great player. She isn't a great player... at least not yet. Wie has the talent and determination to become the best female golfer who ever lived, and she could very well accomplish that one day. At the moment, though, she seems to be trying to sprint before she can crawl and that may very well end up being a career-killing move. (Guess I should have read this one before repeating the crawl/sprint analogy above.)
Earl Woods knew exactly what he was doing when he let Tiger dominate the USGA Amateur events during his teenage years. After winning three straight Junior Amateurs, it would have been easy to cash-in and throw Tiger in some PGA events to make a quick buck. But the elder Woods knew that to succeed in golf, it is crucial to know how to win. It sounds cliched, but in individual sports like golf and tennis, talent can only take you so far. With the ups-and-downs of golf, winning becomes a mentality, and the only way to develop that is to gain experience. Tiger ended up winning three straight U.S. Amateurs after his Junior wins, and joined the Tour the next year. He followed up the 1996 U.S. Amateur title with a victory at The Masters in 1997. The decision to have Tiger learn to win against his peers before taking on the pros will turn out to be a billion-dollar decision.
Michelle Wie, on the other hand, hasn't beaten anyone. And, without reading too much into her final-round 82, maybe the killer instinct all the great golfers have isn't there.
She's only 15 though and she is a wonderful golfer with loads of talent. But at this point, Michelle Wie is simply one of many young female golfers trying to become a star on the LPGA Tour.
Once she wins something, she will become deserving of the hype. Until then, the press needs to focus on golfers who are more about performance than potential.

September 22, 2005
Jennifer Capriati was winning the junior titles at the US Open and Wimbledon at the age of 13. By 14 she had won a tournament on the WTA Tour. Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer, also teenagers, have both won on the LPGA Tour after winning countless junior events.
Michelle Wie, conversely, has won exactly zero stroke-play events on a national level (junior or otherwise). Her only win was in the least prestigous USGA event, the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links, a match-play tournament. That's quite a resume. Granted, it is tough to win a tournament you're not in, which is why Wie's trophy case is virtually empty. She has clearly been ducking Pressel, Creamer and Brittany Lang over the past few years; what other reason would she have not to play in the U.S. Women's Amateur, an event she would easily win if she was, as some have suggested, the future of golf? But Wie didn't play because she was afraid of losing, and therefore, losing millions in endorsements. No coroporation would pay Wie money if she lost in the 2nd round of the Women's Amateur. So she sat out (intelligently) to protect her image. This is fine for Michelle Wie (you'll notice I didn't criticize her going pro; she deserves to cash in). But clearly Wie and her father have not watched tape of Tiger's amazing comeback in the 1996 U.S. Amateur when he was three back with six to play. Woods ended up coming back to win his third-straight Amateur and, in the process, helped develop the killer instinct that has led him to ten major titles early in his career. Wie hasn't had those experiences.
Even with her meager resume, ESPN and other media outlets breathlessly hype Wie while ignoring Pressel and Creamer, girls who have actually won something in their career.
I'm not saying Wie won't be a great golfer. I'm sure she will, even though I think her father's plan to keep her out of junior events will end up being detrimental to her overall development as a player. You have to know how to win a golf tournament. Michelle Wie has no clue. Learning against the best golfers in the world is quite a baptism by fire, don't you think?
I'm sick of all the hype Wie gets when she has done absolutely zero to deserve it. So what if she hits 300 yard drives? If she can't win, it doesn't matter whether she hits it 400. And by the way, don't act like Wie hasn't done everything in her power to attract all this hype. She brought it, and the pressures (which she has collapsed under repeatedly down the stretch at major tournaments) that go with it.

Tomorrow: Is Skip Prosser destroying or saving the Wake Forest basketball program?

The Tuesday Ten

1) Nick Harper has to score a touchdown on the Jerome Bettis fumble recovery. Ben Roethlisberger made an amazing tackle, yes, but he was only able to make said tackle after Harper inexplicably cut back to the middle of the field during his run instead of turning to the outside where he would have had a clear path to a sure touchdown. The only guy Harper had to beat on the right was an offensive lineman, but he instead made the quick decision to cut left and ran right into Roethlisberger's outstretched arms. Mike Vanderjagt might have blown the field goal, but Harper's gaffe cost the Colts the go-ahead touchdown.

2) Like most of the free world, I can't stand Mike Vanderjagt. That he is referred to as "the most accurate kicker in NFL history" despite missing on the two most important field goals of his career (Sunday and in the 2004 season opener at New England) is sort of like calling Alex Rodriguez "the most feared hitter in baseball" when you can count his clutch hits on one hand. Hitting FGs in blowout wins over Houston is nice, but it's how you do in the clutch that defines a kicker. Just ask Adam Vinatieri.

3) Yesterday I called for the repossession of Shaun Alexander's MVP award. You might want to throw Lovie Smith's Coach of the Year in there too.
One guy on the field for the Carolina Panthers was capable of beating the Bears single-handedly, and Chicago let Steve Smith do just that. Wilbon had it right on PTI yesterday; the Bears were arrogant all week and seemed to assume they would beat Carolina just because they had done it before. To leave Charles Tillman in single-coverage on Smith for the bulk of the game was the worst coaching decision since the Bills started Rob Johnson over Doug Flutie in a playoff game six years ago. The Wolfman knows what I'm talking about, in both instances, sadly.

4) Earlier this year when ESPN, USA Today and various other national media outlets were doing stories on the success of black coaches, I criticized such pieces for their glaring hypocrisy. Each story focused on how guys like Marvin Lewis and Tony Dungy were coaching teams with the best records in the league and how they no longer needed to be considered black head coaches, but were instead just "head coaches". Race, it was argued, should no longer be part of the equation when evaluating coaches, quarterbacks or anything in sports.
But if race really "doesn't matter" anymore, why print the stories in the first place? Don't write "we've moved beyond race" in a story that totally proves we haven't. If that were really true, such an article would be unnecessary. You can't have it both ways, I contended. If race shouldn't be discussed when talking about the many merits of coaches like Lewis and Dungy, as is argued, then their success shouldn't be newsworthy simply because of their skin color.
Conversely, if you're going to write stories about how black coaches did well in the regular season, then it's only responsible journalism to do a follow-up story to discuss how black coaches went 0-3 in the playoffs this season, including two losses in which those coaches were absolutely out-classed by the guy on the other sideline (Smith by John Fox, Dungy by Bill Cowher).
Before you call Jesse Jackson on me, let me reiterate my point: The color of Marvin Lewis' skin has nothing to do with anything football-related. And Smith and Dungy's blackness had nothing to do with their losses this weekend. I'm just saying I wish the media would stop referring to them as "black coaches". But that won't happen, despite repeated pronouncements to the contrary. So if that's the case, then those coaches failure in the playoffs is just as much a story as their regular season success. I contend that neither are news-worthy, but editors nationwide apparently disagreed.

5) NFL referees are incompetent, spineless hacks. The overturning of the Troy Polamalu interception was the single-worst moment in the history of instant replay. Even 147-year old Dick Enberg could tell Polamalu picked the ball clean and fumbled on his way up; apparently the only person who didn't think so was the ref on the field. His baffling explanation for overturning the call ("his knee knocked it out while still on the ground") brought screams of "that's not even a rule" from me, just when I thought I had screamed myself out during the previous day's Redskins game. I can only imagine what fans in Pittsburgh were doing; I suppose I probably would have broken something via a thrown remote control if I rooted for the Steelers (I often move small objects that can be flung during crucial points in the game for fear of cracking my 55-inch screen with an errant throw.)
Joey Porter said he thought the call was part of a vast NFL conspiracy (years back I claimed the tuck rule, which kept the hated Al Davis out of an AFC Championship Game, was part of the same conspiracy) and while he'll likely be fined for that, what else are we supposed to believe? That the ref on the field actually thought it wasn't an interception? It took him about four minutes to make the call too, during which he was talking an awful lot into a headset. Will this be the NFL equivalent of Nixon's 18 1/2 minute gap?
There are a few ways to stem the tide of terrible officiating: 1) Suspend referees who make awful calls. 2) Designate an official in the booth to determine replay decisions. Going from watching the game live in real speed to looking at a slow-mo replay on a monitor under a hood has to be disorienting and is ridiculously, and unnecessarily, time-consuming. College football has a replay official and it takes about 1/5th of the time to review the plays. 3) Fire Mike Pereira, whose appearances on the NFL Network make him look like a spokesman for the North Korean government. When refs know the senior head of officiating will have their back no matter how bad their calls, they're more likely to make those bad calls.
One last thing about the refs; it's nice the NFL admitted the Polamalu call was incorrect, but I guarantee no such apology would have been given if the Colts had gone on to win. It's easy to admit a mistake when it didn't cost a team the game.

6) How 'bout those Manning brothers?! Peyton couldn't win the big game in college (yet somehow Tee Martin took essentially the same team to a National title the year after he left) and now has proven it wasn't just the Pats that had his number in the pros. No player in recent memory will have more to prove in 2006 than Peyton Manning. With Edgerrin James and Reggie Wayne eligible for free agency, Peyton might have blown the best chance he'll have at a Super Bowl in a long time.

7) Not that it was all Peyton's fault, mind you. He wasn't the only one on the field who didn't show up. Everyone has been criticizing Manning for calling out his offensive line after the game, but what did everyone want him to do, act like they did a great job of protecting him? The man told the truth, he didn't throw his teammates under the bus. The Colts O-line sucked. They played like diddly-poo. Playoffs?! They weren't even ready for the pre-season. So why is Peyton getting ripped for this?
The press always wants players to "tell it like it is." Then when they do, journalists jump down their throats. On one hand, the press complains that every player has gone through so much media training that post-game press conference are essentially worthless. Nobody says anything controversial because they've been trained to give the most bland statements ever and, as a result, the mandatory interviews are good for nothing except generic quotes for game stories.
In the rare instance when a player actually says something that's remotely critical of anything, the press jumps on it and immediately lambasts that player for being a bad teammate/player/human being.
Peyton told the truth. Had he defended his offensive line and said the blame was on him, people would have called him disingenuous. Tiki Barber told the truth when he said the Giants were outcoached against the Panthers. A few year's back, Vijay Singh criticized Annika Sorenstam's involvement in a men's tournament. Singh, not the most likeable guy on the Tour, was turned into the sport's arch-villain. The media always rips on golfers for never taking a stand on anything. Vijay did and was practically run out of the country.
With that reaction, plus the recent outcry over Manning and Barber's non-controversial and factual statements, what motivation does any athlete have for speaking their mind? Michael Jordan knew that; years ago when Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt was running for the North Carolina Senate seat against Jesse Helms, many reporters questioned why Jordan wasn't campaigning for the black candidate. He famously responded, "Republicans buy sneakers too."
Maybe Peyton Manning should have lied and said his offensive line did great and dished out a few cliches about how it was a team effort and crap like that. And Tiki could have kept his thoughts about bad coaching to himself. But if the media wants players to speak their mind, then jumps on them the minute they do, the whole exercise of post-game press conferences and interviews becomes meaningless. Tony Kornheiser left his lucrative show on ESPN Radio because he hated interviewing athletes for this very reason.

8) Imagine how much we'd be ripping on Jake Plummer today if it had been him, and not Tom Brady, who had thrown a horrendous interception that turned a probable 13-10 lead into a 17-6 deficit. Just because Brady has been fortunate enough to be the quarterback for Bill Belichick's defense he gets a free-pass for throwing a season-killing pick in his opponent's endzone? I didn't realize Super Bowl MVP awards were "Get Out of Jail Free" cards.
Brady's pick, and poor overall play, crushed the Pats, not the Asante Samuel call or the five turnovers.

9) Speaking of getting a free-pass, Champ Bailey essentially stopped running at the end of his 100-yard interception return. The momentary slow-up allowed Ben Watson to catch up to him and lay that vicious hit that might or might not have popped the ball into the endzone. Regardless of how great a play Watson made, it wouldn't have been possible if Champ wasn't showboating into the endzone. (No, he didn't slow up because he was tired.) Leon Lett will never live down doing the same thing in a Super Bowl rout, so why is nobody on Champ's case when that play could have totally changed the complexion of the game?

10) If Denver and Carolina should win their respective Championship games, and we are blessed with a Jake Plummer vs. Jake Delhomme Super Bowl quarterback match-up, is there any way the NFL can get both Jake and the Fatman to take part in the pre-game coin toss?

Divisional Playoff Review

I'll be posting periodically throughout the day, adding reviews of each of the weekend's four games. Keep checking back for thoughts on the Redskins loss, Steve Smith's big day, Peyton Manning's surgical procedure to have a monkey placed on his back and how the altitude, full moon, proximity to Friday the 13th, El Nino and everything else in the world but Tom Brady contributed to the Pats "dynasty" ending. (Note: You can't have a dynasty when you miss the playoffs one of the years said dynasty was supposed to be reigning. Did the Ming's in China let the Tang's take over for a year?)
Because of the holiday, I might not finish up until late, especially if going to Best Buy and Popeye's takes up too much of my time this afternoon. If that's the case, everything will be up early tomorrow.
I'm still reeling from the Redskins and Wake Forest losses. I need a little time to decompress (read: spend $300 at Best Buy and gorge myself on chicken strips).
Enjoy the day off if you have one and enjoy work if you don't, suckers.
(9:16 a.m.)

Seattle Seahawks 20 – Washington Redskins 10
Do you think when Shaun Alexander got home after his franchise’s first playoff victory in 21 years, he hid his MVP award in a crawl space so Associated Press goons couldn’t repossess it after the Seahawks proved their “star” running back isn’t even the most valuable player on his own team, let alone the league?
I’ve been on the anti-Alexander bandwagon for a few years now, but I never realized just how inconsequential I found him to be until he went down in Saturday’s game and I was actually disappointed. I, a Redskins fan, was upset when the league’s MVP went down with an injury. And not because I respect the game and don’t want to see my team luck into a win, no… I don’t have nearly that much integrity. My disappointment over the Alexander injury stemmed from the fact that he’s not very good and having him off the field actually hurt my team’s chances of winning. Some MVP.
When Tony Siragusa [eventually] reported Alexander was doubtful to return after suffering a concussion, my thought was that Mercury Morris was a tougher match-up for the ‘Skins because of his elusive style. Alexander had done nothing with his first six carries (he gained just nine yards) and it was clear his plodding, straight-ahead running style wouldn’t work against the Redskins front four, just as it hadn’t the first time the two teams met.
Can you imagine anybody on an opposing team being upset if Tiki Barber, LaDainian Tomlinson, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or, as they proved last week, Carson Palmer went down with an injury? (Not that Steelers fans were rooting for Palmer to get hurt, but you know they were pleased when Jon Kitna came sauntering into the game.) Of course not. Those players are their teams. Shaun Alexander is a product of his offensive line, a mistake-free quarterback and an easy schedule.
Some will claim his absence simply kept the contest close and had he been in the game, Seattle would have won by more than ten. But that’s doubtful. Gregg Williams made the decision that if the Seahawks were going to win, Matt Hasselbeck would have to do it himself. The Redskins were geared up against the run and snuffed it out all day. Hasselbeck rose to Williams’ challenge, performing flawlessly and putting his team in a position to win, but, in the end, his first playoff victory was due more to Redskins mistakes than it was to anything his team did on the field. In short, Washington didn’t make plays on Saturday. That’s why they lost.
During their six-game winning streak, the team made the key interception, caught the poorly thrown pass, bounced to the outside on a run at the last second and were on the receiving end of some fortuitous bounces and calls. In Seattle, none of those things happened.
Carlos Rogers dropped a sure interception that would have turned into a sure touchdown to put the Redskins up 10-0. The pick would have dramatically changed the game, but Rogers couldn’t hold on.
Mark Brunell was shaky again, his knee injury making it difficult for him to plant his back foot. On one key third down, he threw a ball high to the sure-handed Chris Cooley. It was a bad pass, to be sure, but Cooley has snagged worse throws all season. This time it bounced off his hands and the Redskins had to punt.
With eight men in the box, Clinton Portis had little room to run. On the rare occasions when a hole opened up on the offensive line, CP was either a little late hitting it or just missed it altogether. In the playoff-clinching win in Philly, Portis turned a two-yard loss into a game-winning 22-yard touchdown. Against Seattle his longest run was seven yards.
On a key 3rd and 10 in the second quarter, Matt Hasselbeck threw a nine-yard pass to Darrell Jackson deep in their own territory. Jackson was hit immediately after the catch, one yard short of the first down marker. Remarkably, the line judge moved the ball up a full yard-and-a-half (I watched this one on replay five times to make sure I wasn’t being crazy), giving Seattle a key first down. Against Tampa, the officials ruled Marcus Washington wasn’t touched by Cadillac Williams on a fumble recovery that eventually resulted in a Sean Taylor touchdown. Saturday, bad spots and baffling holding calls didn’t give the Redskins any additional help.
Even with their poor play, Washington was still in the game late in the 4th quarter, until John Hall missed a chip-shot field goal which would have put the ‘Skins down four. Seattle drove down the field, hit a field goal of their own, and won by ten.
After making the playoffs and winning a hard-fought road game in Tampa, anything after that would have been gravy for the Washington Redskins and their fans. A team nobody expected to contend in the NFC put together a year-end six-game win-streak, would have won the division if not for a bad call in Tampa (and had the NFL office not pulled out all the stops for the Giants and a Manning) and gave the conference’s top seed a scare in the divisional playoffs.
With this season’s success, Joe Gibbs has laid the ground work for 2006. Slipping into the Wild Card and hanging tough in the playoffs won’t be enough next season; Gibbs and the Redskins fully expect to contend for the Super Bowl. With three titles already to his credit, anybody who doubts him clearly doesn’t know Joe.
(Update: 12:09 p.m.)

Divisional Playoff Picks

Washington Redskins (+9 1/2) at Seattle Seahawks
Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
Yesterday I gave ten reasons the Redskins can beat the Seahawks. In the interest of balance, here now, five reasons the Seahawks can beat the Redskins (notice I didn't say total balance; I'm no tightrope walker, people).
1) Seattle is playing at home, where they are 21-4 over the past three seasons.
2) The Seahawks are coming off a bye and have all their key players healthy.
3) With Darrell Jackson, Bobby Engram and Joe Jurevicius, the Seahawks depth at receiver could present match-up problems for the Redskins depleted secondary.
4) Shaun Alexander led the NFL with 1,880 rushing yards this season.
5) Seattle led the NFL with 50 sacks on the season.
You'll notice one of the reasons wasn't "Seattle is a better team," a sentiment which has been popular on TV and the internet over the past few days. I refuse to believe Seattle is a better team simply because they had three more wins the Redskins. They might be a better team, but if they are, it's not because of their record. Seattle played teams with a combined 110-146 record while the Redskins opponents were 138-118. Washington went 5-1 in the NFC East, a division where three teams finished with winning records. Seattle went 6-0 in the NFC West, where everyone else except them finished with a 6-10 record or worse.
It's not Seattle's fault their schedule is so weak, but it certainly has to be taken into consideration. Had they played the Redskins schedule, Seattle would have been right around 10-6 or 11-5, just like Washington. With a potent, efficient offense and a suspect defense, the Seahawks are sort of like the Giants, minus the overrated, mistake-prone quarterback.
That quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, will be the key to the game tomorrow. An overlooked man nationally, Hasselbeck has quietly put together a stellar season and is the definition of a game manager. He won't win many games by himself, but Matt Hasselebeck won't lose many either. And as Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson have shown in recent years, a quarterback like that can lead a team to a Super Bowl win.
Driving into work today, I was thinking about who I was going to pick in this game. Anytime I need to think about who I'm going to take in a Redskins game, it's a clear indication I'm going to pick the other team. My dreams the past two nights haven't helped. (About six or seven times in my life I've dreamt that the Redskins will win a big game and they always have, but that dream always takes place the night before said game. I've never dreamed about a loss. But for the past two nights I've dreamt that I was watching this playoff game and the Redskins got throttled both times: 38-3 two nights ago and 21-1 last night. (Yeah, I don't know about that "1" either. Sadly, it wasn't the most impossible dream I had this week; on Tuesday I had one where I hooked up with Beyonce. Man, that was a sweet, sweet dream.) That, folks, is not a good omen.)
Anyway, I was batting around different scenarios in which each team would win: Clearly the home-field advantage and rest gives the Seahawks a huge edge in this game. If they win, it will be because of those two things, coupled with the fact the Redskins have played six essential playoff games in-a-row and are beat-up on both sides of the ball. Since Randy Thomas went down, old-man Ray Brown has done an admirable job of filling in, but it might be tough to get the run established with him in there. If the 'Skins can't get the rushing attack going, this one will be over in a hurry.
But the Redskins can win if they can stuff Shaun Alexander early (much like they did in their first meeting and to Cadillac Williams last week) and get some pressure on the quarterback. Matt Hasselbeck isn't going to make mistakes on his own so Washington will need to force him to.
As always, turnovers will likely be a deciding factor. In their Wild Card game, Washington recovered two fumbles that bounced around for what seemed like ages. They got the breaks. If it happens again, they can advance to the NFC Championship. If Mark Brunell throws another ill-advised pick, or Chris Cooley gets fumble-itis or Antonio Brown steps foot on the field, advantage Seahawks.
Like I said before, sixty minutes ago I had no clue who to pick and that meant I would end up going with Seattle. I decided to open the Washington Post sports page before writing today to see if there was any news that would sway my weathervane one way or the other. There, on E2, I found it. The Post had solicited a guest column from a writer from The Seattle Times. Steve Kelley was writing in response to a Tony Kornheiser "columnette" which appeared Monday, in which TK took playful jabs at Seattle and their football history, but made no predictions about the outcome of the contest.
Kelley's response was a strange mix of liberal-venom ("Last week Washington's offense was as misplaced as Iraq's WMDs", "Dick Cheney is from Pluto") and chest-pounding braggadocio ("...There's really little to fear from this weekend's visitors"). Much like the analysts whom I criticized yesterday for not even giving the Redskins a chance tomorrow, Kelley seems to already know the outcome of the game before it's played.
Now, maybe Steve Kelley is The Times version of Mike Wise and I shouldn't view his opinions as a barometer of public sentiment in his fair city. (Anyone who is familiar with Steve Kelley, please let me know.) But after reading that, I started to get the feeling that maybe Seattle is a little overconfident headed into tomorrow's game. If so, it would have a lot to do with their inflated 13-3 record, but probably more to do with the Redskins pathetic effort against Tampa last week. How could you not think the Seahawks would run over a team that could only muster 122 yards of offense?
That's why I think the Redskins are going to catch 'em sleeping tomorrow. Clinton Portis is going to break a run early, the defense will set the tone with a quick turnover and the Redskins will contain Shaun Alexander and expose him as the overrated, selfish stat-hound he is. Nobody expects the Redskins to put up much of a fight in Seattle. Fortunately, they won't have to.
Washington 23 - Seattle 16

New England Patriots (+3) at Denver Broncos
Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
Tom Brady can kiss my ass. For the past few years I always felt bad about hating him; people would tell me, "how can you hate Tom Brady, he's so great?!" and "there's nothing hatable about Tom Brady," and "Chris, you have anger management issues," but I still couldn't help it. I always felt Brady was one of those "right place at the right time" kind of quarterbacks and wasn't all that great. Surely, other QBs would have done just as well in New England. One of my favorite comments is "who was Joe Montana's kicker?" Most people can't answer, the others only know it's Mike Cofer (and Ray Wersching before him) because of "Tecmo Bowl". This leads to my payoff line, "you see, unlike Tom Brady, Joe Montana didn't need a kicker to bail him out time and again (rimshot!)" But I've overcome my not-at-all petty dislike of him to realize Tom Brady is a great quarterback. He can still kiss my ass though.
Disrespect? Seriously? You think you're disrespected? This subject has been beaten to death like the 2005 Philadelphia Eagles, so I won't go into it any more except to say this: On the cover of Sports Illustrated this week, there is an inset with all four divisional playoff match-ups listed, along with a picture for each. Every picture is of a player from the team that earned the bye: Washington at Seattle: Shaun Alexander; Pittsburgh at Indianapolis: Peyton Manning; Carolina at Chicago: Brian Urlacher; New England at Denver: Jake Plummer. And by "Jake Plummer," I of course mean "Tom Brady" because that's who the picture was of, despite all the disrespect he gets.
If you want to talk about a disrespected team, look no further than the Denver Broncos. All they did was finish 13-3 in the toughest division in the AFC, three games better than the Pats did in the worst division in football, yet nearly everybody is picking Denver to lose on Saturday night.
The Pats-sycophants in the media will trot out Brady's 10-0 playoff record (which would be something like 4-3 without Adam Vinatieri and the ridiculous tuck-rule, mind you), but that won't help him at high altitudes in front of one of the loudest crowds in football.
Some people are picking this game based on the following query: Which quarterback would you rather have: Brady or Plummer? The answer is simple, of course. But the question is misleading. This game won't just be decided by the quarterbacks, which is why my question is more relevant: Which team would you rather have on Saturday night: Denver at home or New England on the road. That's an easy one too.
Denver 31 - New England 20

Pittsburgh Steelers (+9 1/2) at Indianapolis Colts
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
I'll be honest; with all my thoughts focused on the Redskins game, I totally forgot the Steelers were playing the Colts until I saw Ben "Beardo" Roethlisberger on PTI yesterday. Seriously, I don't know how I'm going to make it until 4:30 tomorrow. Booze worked well for me last week, but I'm on antibiotics now for a sinus infection and there's that big label on the medicine that says no alcohol, but I'm pretty sure that's just a suggestion.
Anyway, why do I have the feeling this game will be closer than 9 1/2? I think the Steelers are pretty good and the Colts haven't played a meaningful game in over a month.
Much like my prediction for the Maryland/Duke game the other night, I'm going to say that this one will either be a Colts blowout or a last-second Pittsburgh victory. Let's go with the former.
Indianapolis 38 - Pittsburgh 14

Carolina Panthers (+3) at Chicago Bears
Sunday, 4:30 p.m.
I'm not going to be able to watch much of this one because I'm headed to the Wake Forest/Maryland game in College Park, which is a shame because not only am I seeing my two teams battle to see who can break their two-game losing streak, but I'm going to miss the most entertaining game of the weekend. (I'm a sucker for defensive battles.)
Last week I picked Chicago to go to the Super Bowl, much to the chagrin of The Wolfman, who immediately called and said something along the lines of, "thanks alot, a**hole. Why'd you have to go and pick the Bears." That pick directly contradicted my preseason prediction of a Colts/Panthers Super Bowl. Now that I've covered my bases, any result in this game will result in me saying, "I told you so!"
The Bears were going to be my pick up until about 30 seconds ago, but I just can't get the thought of their 2003 divisional playoff home loss to the Eagles out of my mind. That season, Chicago came from out of nowhere, won their division and stumbled at home after earning a bye. It just seems to familiar.
I'll be rooting for Chicago (unless the Redskins do, indeed, win tomorrow, in which case I'll be pulling for Carolina), but think Carolina will do enough to advance. And I should be getting a call from an agitated Wolfman any minute now.
Carolina 12 - Chicago 7

Last Week: 3-1 (straight up and against the spread)
Season: 184-76

Ten Reasons The Redskins Can Beat The Seahawks

To listen to anyone in the media, the Washington Redskins have about as much of a chance of upsetting the Seattle Seahawks as Angelina Jolie's child has of growing up well-adjusted. It's not surprising that people are picking Seattle (the Seahawks should be big favorites in the game), but many analysts are actually guaranteeing the game won't be close.
Some schmo on ESPN.com named Matt Williamson hosted a chat on Monday and said there is "no chance" the Redskins can win. No chance? The same way there was no chance Broadway Joe and the Jets could upset the Colts in Super Bowl III? Is that the same chance Buster Douglass had to beat Mike Tyson or the 16 1/2 point underdog New England Patriots had of upsetting the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI?
Saying a team has no chance to win a game is utterly ridiculous unless they're playing the Globetrotters. That's why they play the games, as Chris Berman is fond of saying. If there was "no chance" of Washington winning, nobody would watch the game and analysts on TV certainly wouldn't be talking about it.
There's a big difference between being "not likely" to win than having "no chance" to win. Every year the NCAA Tournament sees teams that had "no chance" to play on the weekend doing just that. Upsets happen all the time. To listen to fools like Williamson, the Redskins beating Seattle would be like a #16 knocking off a #1. In actuality, it'd be like a #11 besting a #6.
So of course the Redskins have a chance. It doesn't mean they'll win or that it will even be close, but when Saturday's Divisional Playoff kicks-off in Seattle, the score will be 0-0. And at that point, the Washington Redskins definitely have a chance.
My prediction will come tomorrow, but until then, here's ten reasons why the Redskins can beat the Seahawks.

1) Excluding their meaningless late-season games with the Colts and Packers (W and L, respectively), the Seahawks have played four teams with a winning record and have split those contests. The Redskins, meanwhile, have played eleven teams with a winning record and are 6-5 in those games.

2) The Seahawks two wins against teams with winning records came via monumental gaffes by their opponents. In week 7 against Dallas, Drew Bledsoe threw an ill-advised last-second interception that set up a game-winning Seattle FG. Five weeks later, in another home game against an NFC East opponent, Giants kicker Jay Feely missed three makeable FGs in the 4th quarter and overtime. Don't tell me Seattle is invincible at home.

3) In his nine games against teams with records worse than 6-10, Alexander is averaging 131.1 yards and 2.33 touchdowns. In four games against teams with winning records, Shaun Alexander is averaging 85.5 yards and .5 touchdowns. If A. Rod doesn't play in the World Baseball Classic, maybe Shaun A. could take his place, seeing as they both love piling up stats against inferior opponents but never seem to get it done in big games.

4) Everyone talks about how difficult it is to win a Wild Card and Divisional Playoff game on the road. And they're right. Only twice since the NFL expanded to a 12-team playoff in 1990 have teams won road games in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The last team to do it was the 1996 Jacksonville Jaguars. Their quarterback? Mark Brunell.

5) Joe Gibbs has a career 18-5 record in the playoffs and is 19-4 in games played in January.

6) The Seahawks franchise has not won a playoff game since 1984, the longest such current drought in the NFL. Under Holmgren, Seattle is 0-3 in the playoffs, including a home-loss last season to the underdog St. Louis Rams.

7) Mike Holmgren is a very good coach, but he wasn't won a playoff game without Brett Favre. Joe Gibbs, on the other hand, is a very great coach and has won playoff games and Super Bowls with Jay Schroeder, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien.

8) Seattle tackle Walter Jones is one of, if the not the, best offensive lineman in football. This should help quell Philip Daniels, but the strength of the Redskins d-line is not on the outside but in the middle with Cornelius Griffin and Joe Salave'a.

9) The Redskins have played four "rematch" games this season (Dallas, New York, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia). In the first games against those teams, Washington went 2-2 and was outscored 95-66. In the rematches, Washington was undefeated, outscoring the opposition 118-57. Gibbs took them from a 29-point deficit to a 61-point advantage, a 90-point turnaround. This leads me to #10, the most important fact on this list:

10) Week 3: Washington 20 - Seattle 17. It's one thing to think the Redskins won't win. But to think they can't, especially in light of the fact they've already beaten Seattle this season, is absurd.
Picks tomorrow.

Answering Questions Directed Towards Someone Else

Earlier this morning, Chris Mortensen hosted a chat on ESPN.com. Now, I'll answer some of those questions as if they were directed towards me.

Tristan (Hamden, CT): Should the Redskins voluntarily suspend Sean Taylor one game for his conduct last week? I was impressed that VT kicked Marcus Vick off the team, when will NFL teams start taking similar action? (With the exception of Philly's stand against T.O.)
Chris (Chris's Sports Blog): I was impressed by Virginia Thug's decision to kick Marcus Vick off the team too. My, what integrity that institution has, waiting until after the football season to dismiss their star quarterthug who had already been arrested for giving 14-year old girls alcohol, marijuana possession and received eight subsequent speeding tickets. Apparently those violations weren't major enough to kick him off the team, but that menacing "driving with a suspended license" charge was.
The suits at VThug are as big a bunch of hypocrites as there are in college sports (and there are many). They used Marcus Vick to get to the brink of a BCS game (which would have netted them a multi-million dollar payout) until the team had their inevitable late-season choke job. (Does Frank Beamer hire Bob Shrum every November?) Then the Hokies couldn't distance themselves from Vick quick enough after the bowl game.
If they were going to kick him off the team, they should have done it last year. But integrity has nothing over football at Virginia Tech.
As for the Redskins; no, the shouldn't suspend Sean Taylor for their game against Seattle. The ejection Taylor received from the Wild Card game was enough of a "field penalty". I would have hit him with a much bigger fine than $17,000 though. About five times as big.
[Update, 4:59 p.m.: Video proof of the interminable stupidity of Sean Taylor]

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Eric DC: Mort, who do you see as the front runner for the Green Bay coaching Job?
Chris (CSB): Wait, Job is in the running for the Packers coaching job? I knew there were minority hiring requirements in the NFL, but I wasn't aware teams had to interview guys from Biblical times too.
I don't know what Job's resume looks like, but he is a pretty righteous dude and has certainly been through a lot. The main thing going against him is Green Bay GM Ted Thompson's fear that God will kill off all the Packers if Job is hired just to prove a point to Paul Tagliabue. And maybe He will start a flood in Kiln, Mississippi and force Brett Favre to build an ark that will house two of every lawnmower on earth.
These are the risks you have to consider when debating Job's merits. Of course, he's still a lot better choice than Mike Martz.

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Briam Santiago (il): Do the bears have the offense of unit to beat carolina? The defense cant do it all for the bears.
Chris (CSB): Yes Briam (if that is your real name), the Bears have enough offense to beat Carolina. They did it a few weeks back (remember that 13-3 game?) and they can do it again. Will they? That's a story for Friday's blog.

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Brad (VA): Who do you like better Washington or Seattle?
Chris (CSB): Well, I actually "like" like the Redskins and I'm going to send them a note in third period to ask if they like me back. I so hope Chris Cooley checks the "Yes" box!

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Ken (Macomb, IL): Is Marcus Vick undraftable now?
Chris (CSB): This makes the rather large assumption that Marcus Vick was once draftable.

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Dave (Hollywood): Mort: What is the use of the injury list if coaches are going to just lie? Bruschi did not play because he was not healthy enough to, and yet he was dressed for the game. Aren't there rules about this in the NFL?
Chris (CSB): I love that somebody living in Hollywood wants to lecture someone about integrity. That's like Marion Barry running a rehab clinic.
Anyway, Dave, don't you know the New England Patriots aren't held to the same standards as every other team in the league? If Bill Belichick wants to lie on the injury report, he can! Come on Dave... These are the Pats! Everyone might disrespect them, but damn if we won't circumvent the rules to give them every discernible advantage to win!

The Tuesday Ten

With the final Chaz Rankings appearing last week, I figured this site needed a new permanent feature on Tuesdays. Actually, I just figured that having a permanent feature takes a lot less effort than coming up with something new every Tuesday. Plus, I'm a sucker for alliteration. Onto the ten!

1) Man, Virginia Tech is really classing-up the ACC. I'm sure glad John Swofford caved and let the dirtiest program in college football into the premiere conference in America just to get a football championship game that didn't even sell out. Money can buy lots of things John, but it can't buy back the ACC's reputation which has taken a huge hit since letting in Virginia Thug.

2) Billionaire Gives $165 Million to Oklahoma State Athletics. Well, that should cover both Eddie Sutton's player payments for the next three years as well as JamesOn Curry's inevitable bail money.

3) Skip Prosser really is the worst coach in the ACC. It took him until midway through the second half of Sunday's Duke game to figure out that J.J. Redick needed to be defended by a taller, quicker, more athletic player who tries to do reverse windmill jams and misses instead of a smaller guard who would get knocked off the play via the plethora of illegal moving screens Coach K employs.
How Prosser didn't yank Strickland out of the game immediately after his blown dunk is also beyond me. He needed to have his ass chewed-out on the floor in a humiliating fashion after that hotshot play (which would have cut the deficit to three. Instead, he missed and Duke, of course, hit a three-pointer to extend their lead to eight. It was a devastating five-point swing and the game was never close again).
And don't even get me started on Harvey Hale. Oh, don't even get me started. I've seen third graders throw crisper passes.

4) You know how police stations have mug shot collections they'll show witnesses and victims of crimes in case the suspect they saw matches up with anyone whose been arrested before? Do you think the Blacksburg PD just uses a copy of the Virginia Tech Football Media Guide?

5) At this point, do you think Marcus Vick has his bail bondsman on speed dial?

6) The top eight teams in last week's Chaz Rankings were: 1) Indianapolis; 2) Denver; 3) Seattle; 4) Pittsburgh; 5) Chicago; 6) New England; 7) Washington; 8) Carolina or, more succinctly, the final eight teams remaining in the NFL playoffs. It's no "Detroit Lions will win the NFC North," but it's close. Pretty damn close.

7) Will Vick's first illegitimate child come out of the womb with one of those house arrest ankle bracelets on?

8) If Marcus Vick gets drafted by an NFL team, look for said team to immediately deal him to the Portland Trail Blazers for Ruben Patterson and a felon to be named later.

9) I saw this last week but, with all the football talk, didn't have time to mention it: High School Boys Team Beat U.S.A. Women's Hockey Team. It reads almost like an article from The Onion, right down to the attendance figure of 1,500.
A few years back somebody, I can't remember who, told me he thought the Connecticut women's basketball team could probably beat a few Division I men's teams. After staring at him for a solid 30 seconds, I made the prediction that not only could the UConn women's team not beat any Division I schools, but they wouldn't beat any Division II schools either. "Not only that," I said, "but they would get wiped by a good number of high-school boys teams, as well." Well, you can imagine how little we accomplished in our ensuing debate. I'm pretty sure it resorted to name-calling very early on.
I wish I could remember who I had this conversation with (It sounds like some crazy theory my buddy Phil would have, but his are more along the lines of "Suzy Kolber is hot" not "Suzy Kolber could take LeBron James in one-on-one") because I'd send that person this story with a note attached that read, "a million-and-a-half or he don't come back." No wait. That's what I'd write on a theoretical ransom note. On this one I'd just write, "Game. Set. Match."

10) SI.com's Richard Deitsch is at it again. In his latest column, the man who once proclaimed Paul McGuire the best color analyst in football, says networks need to start hiring women as play-by-play announcers. He writes:

Miami Herald reporter Barry Jackson, one of jewels of the South Florida newspaper, offered a terrific examination last month on the dearth of female announcers. This sentence stopped me cold: No network is using a woman in the booth for the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball. As Jackson astutely pointed out, nearly all of the analyst jobs go to former players and coaches, especially for the major men's team sports. (Emphasis his)

First of all, how did that sentence "stop him cold?" The media critic for Sports Illustrated wasn't aware there isn't a woman in the booth for any of the major sports? (And, for that matter, it's time we stop referring to hockey as a major sport.) How is this surprising? Doesn't everybody know this?
And Deitsch must have a low threshold for what he finds astute, if he thinks that some guy pointing out that all the analyst jobs go to former players and coaches is worthy of that adjective. Didn't Jerry tell George this more than a decade ago on Seinfeld?
I wonder if Deitsch really thinks they need more women in the broadcast booth, or if he's just saying it to impress some chick he's trying to get with. An announcer should never be bigger than the game (which is the problem with Dick Vitale). When you get a woman in the booth, it will become all about her and viewers won't be able to focus on anything else because they're thinking of how weird it is that there's a woman in the booth.
As Brian Fantana said, "Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies. I mean they rev my engines, but they don't belong in the sports broadcasting booth!" (OK, I kind of paraphrased the last bit of that, but the point is the same.) While I know plenty of women could do a fine job as a play-by-play announcer, it just doesn't work. Pam Ward isn't terrible on ESPN, but she's totally unwatchable. Meanwhile, Kenny Albert is terrible on FOX, but I don't change the channel just because of him. I had to actually stop watching a Maryland football game earlier this season because I couldn't listen to Pam Ward's voice. It's irritating. It's out of place. It's just not right. I suppose somebody could make the argument that if other networks started making women play-by-play announcers everyone would get used to it. Maybe. But I doubt it.
Anyone who hears Pam Ward call ESPN college football games (man or woman) says, "what the hell is this?" The same thing they say when reading the drivel of Richard Deitsch.

Monday Afternoon Cornerback: Wild Card Edition

Washington 17 - Tampa Bay 10
Even though it might come as a shock to Steve Young and Tom Jackson, the Redskins did win their Wild Card game in Tampa on Saturday, despite a historically anemic performance by the team's offense and quarterback Mark Brunell, in particular.
Young who said afterward "[this offense] can't work in the playoffs" (um... It just did Steve) and Jackson, who laughed when the 'Skins stats were being read, failed to grasp the concept that it doesn't matter how a team advances in the playoffs, as long as it does. The oft-repeated offensive futility record the Redskins bested (or worsted) on Saturday (fewest yards by a winning team in a playoff game) was previously held by the 2001 Ravens. All they did that year was win a Super Bowl. I'm not saying Joe Gibbs and the Redskins will have a similar fate, but everyone always says "defense wins championships" for a reason. And if the Redskins can keep stuffing the run and holding opposing teams to ten points, even that ugly offense won't be enough to stop them.
This is not to say Washington should be proud of their offensive effort from Saturday. They were absolutely pathetic. If they have a similar offensive performance in Seattle they'll get run off the field. But the point is, the Redskins, not the Bucs, advanced to the Divisional Playoffs, no matter what two talking heads on TV think.
Some other thoughts on the contest:
1) Chris Simms played an excellent game. At this point he is leaps and bounds better than a certain more-heralded, similarly-bloodlined young quarterback (Eli Manning). But, as the Wolf once said, "let's not start..." Well, you know how it goes. Simms threw interceptions on his first and last passes of the game; the first set-up the Redskins opening touchdown, the second clinched their victory. Both passes were tipped at the line of scrimmage, just like four other Simms passes throughout the game. These tips didn't happen because the D-line got to the QB, they occurred because Simms didn't have enough lift on his passes. And that's all on him. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is a trend and six times is just f-ing ridiculous.
And, sure, Edell Shepherd should have caught that perfectly thrown ball from Simms late in the fourth quarter. (And he did drop it, folks. More on that in a minute.) But Simms missed an even-more-wide-open-in-the-endzone Shepherd on the very next play, so let's not have any pity parties for him.
Simms also made one of the biggest bitch-moves possible in the 4th. As he was running out of bounds to avoid a hit, Simms taunted Marcus Washington by making a "bring it on" motion with his hand. First of all, that's just lame. But it's so much more lame when you're running out of bounds to avoid a hit. I have no problem with quarterbacks (or any player) doing this - running OB, not taunting - but don't mock a guy and immediately hide behind a rulebook. That's like making fun of a convict whose behind bars or throwing stuff at a tiger at the zoo. You wouldn't do those things if there were no bars or protective windows, so don't do it when you have them. This is the old "don't talk smack if you aren't prepared to fight" credo that's repeated at bars by drunk friends to their even drunker friends every weekend. It's why I'm partially glad Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson whooped some ass last November in Detroit (even though it was the wrong guy) and why I'm proud of Clinton Portis' mom for punching a woman who threw beer on her in Philly. People at sporting events do things because they assume nobody will retaliate. And when they do, they act surprised.
Anyway, Simms is a punk. But, unlike Eli, at least he's pretty good.
2) Sean Taylor probably spit on Michael Pittman. I've watched the replay many times and, while I don't see any actual spittle fly through the air (unlike the Roberto Alomar, Bill Romanowski and Roger McDowell incidents, where you could see the loogie on tape), it seems pretty clear Pittman reacts to getting hit with spit (closing his eyes and flinching) the moment before he throws his punch. Whether or not this was a result of SeanTay actually hawking one up and letting it fly or simply spraying it instead of saying it, we'll probably never know. (My buddy Horo spit on me about two dozen times during the game because he did the latter and I didn't eject him from my place.)
For what it's worth, I'd guess Taylor probably just spit whatever was in his mouth at the time quickly using his lips instead of the back of his throat.
Spitting is disgusting and deplorable and should definitely be punished by ejection. But why is a harmless, albeit nasty, expectoration an ejectable offense while potentially injurious infractions like spearing with the helmet, late hits out of bounds, chop blocks and helmet-to-helmet hits just 15-yard penalties? Those plays can end seasons and careers. Spitting just dampens your face a tad.
Reports indicate that Sean Taylor will not be suspended for Saturday's playoff game against the Seahawks, and that should be the case. With the only evidence he spit coming from Michael Pittman (hardly a reputable source) and Mike Carey (a good, trustworthy referee who was looking at Taylor the whole time, yet officiated the most poorly-ref'd game of the season - Ravens at Lions), the ejection, plus a hefty fine, should suffice as punishment.
With the understanding that I agree Taylor deserved to be flagged and ejected if Carey saw him spit, the decision not to throw a similar flag on Pittman for punching Taylor in the head after the incident is a travesty. It doesn't matter what Taylor does to Pittman, a player cannot throw a punch in an NFL game. Pittman deserved a 15-yard unsporstmanlike conduct penalty and an ejection. Just because he was retaliating doesn't make it right. Just because Taylor was wrong, doesn't make it right. There is no rule in the NFL books that say a player can punch somebody just because he was spit on. Taylor could have insulted Pittman's mother, pimp-slapped him or driven on the field in two stolen ATV's and shot him in the kneecaps and Pittman still would not be allowed, by rule, to retaliate. Think about it this way: If Player A throws a punch at Player B and Player B responds by throwing a punch of his own, both players are ejected (assuming the referee sees both). How is the Taylor situation any different? Because spitting is a more disgusting act?
Carey messed up and no explanation from the NFL will convince me otherwise. You throw a punch, you're out of the game.
3) Marcus Washington was down on the fumble recovery that eventually ended up with a Sean Taylor TD. It looked like Cadillac Williams stuck out his leg and touched Washington while he still had a knee on the ground. However, this is not the same as the Alstott two-point conversion since there's no indisputable evidence that Washington was down. You can never tell if he has possession of the ball until after the contact is made (it looks like he does, hence my thinking he was down, but you can't actually see it, you can only infer) and at the angle that best shows Cadillac sticking his leg out, it's difficult to tell if he actually did make contact. Had Washington been ruled down (and if said hypothetical was a reviewable play, which it wouldn't be), it would have been tough to overturn. But he wasn't, so it was, indeed, tough to overturn.
As for Edell Shepherd's endzone catch; any Bucs fan who thinks that was a catch (like Phil Simms) is blinded by their love of their team. It wasn't a catch and Mike Carey explained why.
And, unlike with the Alstott play, the game wasn't totally decided because of that call. The Bucs still had a chance to come back from the Marcus Washington ruling, they just didn't.
4) Mark Brunell is hurt. He won't say that, but he is. It's likely the same injury that hobbled him last season and rendered him totally ineffective. Brunell is a tough guy and, unlike Donovan McNabb, doesn't need to justify his poor play by blaming it on an injury. But at some point being tough and taking one for the team turns into a detrimental move by a guy who is selfishly keeping himself out there. Brunell isn't there yet, but he's close. I love Brunell and want him out there, but if his injury begins to adversely affect the team in Seattle, Joe Gibbs might have to make a move to Patrick Ramsey. And I just can't believe I typed those words.
5) Give me guys like Clinton Portis and Tiki Barber any day over the Larry Johnson's and Shaun Alexander's of the world. The blocks Portis was throwing on Saturday, bad shoulder and all, were so crisp, so clean and so hard it was amazing a running back was laying them. Portis knocked out Derrick Brooks for crap's sake! Johnson and Alexander view blocking like eight-year olds look at lima beans.
6) I've tried to be low-key about the Redskins for fear of sounding like Bill Simmons, but I have to say: I'm so freakin' giddy I can hardly stand it. I wish I was a bear and could hibernate until Saturday at 4:30. I don't know how I'm going to make it until then. If I didn't hate flying so much, I'd go out to Seattle, visit my sister and see the game, but I'm going to stick with tradition, watch at my place with Horo and be jealous of my mom and sister who will be in attendance, decked out in the Redskins gear I'm going to buy them later this afternoon. This will be my sister's second game with child (she's due in late-March), and the 'Skins won the first, so I'm hoping my still-in-the-womb niece will be a lucky charm. My brother-in-law is a Pats fan. I told my sister yesterday that after this playoff game there's no way this child will be anything but a Redskins fan.

New England Patriots 28 - Jacksonville Jaguars 3
In the beer-soaked euphoria following the Redskins win, I, admittedly, didn't see too much of the Jags/Pats contest. The little I did catch indicated it was one of the least impressive twenty-five point wins I've seen in a while (or maybe it was so impressive that it was unimpressive in its impressiveness).
Down 14-3, Byron Leftwich threw a perfect pass to Jimmy Smith on a crucial third down and the normally sure-handed Smith just plain dropped it. That pretty much summed up the Jags day. (Smith must have been hanging out with Trent Strickland.)

Carolina Panthers 23 - New York Giants 0
A teacher at the school I'm working at is a big Giants fan. Throughout the season we've gone back and forth about the virtues of Elisha Manning, the misuse of Tiki Barber and other Giants-related issues. He, of course, thinks Elisha isn't too bad but also isn't too good and, while he's certainly not like others who think the youngest Manning is already on-par with his brother (cough, ESPN's Eric Karabell, cough), he thought Elisha could lead the Giants well in the postseason.
As we passed each other in the hall a few minutes ago he said, "Well, you were right, I was wrong." Vindication is sweet, my friends.
All season I've been writing about how Elisha Manning is not yet a great quarterback, good quarterback or even average quarterback. He has been decidedly below-average all season and his pathetic flame-out yesterday against the Panthers proved it to everyone. Whether they choose to admit it is their own choice. Elisha was the worst starting quarterback in the playoffs (by far) and has a tremendous ways to go before he can be put in the same paragraph as his brother.
Unlike a few of his picks this year, each interception Manning threw yesterday was his fault (he had a fair number of bobbled-catches that turned into interceptions earlier this season) and the third one, in particular, came on such an ill-advised pass I had to rub my eyes and make sure Aaron Brooks hadn't knocked Elisha out Enrico Palozzo-style and taken his place.
After the game there was little talk of how poorly Elisha played, which seems about right. All year all anyone could talk about was how great Eli Manning was and how the Giants offense was unstoppable and how Jeremy Shockey was a future Hall of Famer and blah, blah, blah, then when they choke at home in the playoffs, nobody says a damn word.
The guys on FOX chose to give praise to the Panthers defense, deservedly, and rip on the Giants defense, also deservedly. (Nick Greisen played one of the worst games at linebacker I've ever seen. He overran plays, missed tackles, took terrible angles toward the ball carrier and was just generally miserable all day.) But after putting Elisha on a pedestal all season and discussing how great he was, you have to criticize him when he plays poorly because they damn sure would have been all over his jock if he had had even a 12/25, 2 TD day.
And, with the warning that I'm about to sound very Peter King-ish: Way to show up for the playoffs Plaxico Burress. You've always been terribly overrated, mainly because you give up on about half the plays you're in on, and you've always been a sort of malcontent, whether at Michigan State or Pittsburgh, but you had everyone fooled this year because everyone was so concerned about stopping your team's real superstar, Tiki Barber, that you were largely left alone and had a nice season. But your true colors came out yesterday when you didn't make it through ten minutes of the game before throwing a temper tantrum. Granted, your QB makes Jake Delhomme look like Johnny Unitas, but you were facing single coverage all game and you couldn't even get a single catch? Man up. And take the cornrows out. What is this, 2001?

Pittsburgh Steelers 31 - Cincinnati Bengals 17
Only in Cincinnati can a team playing their first playoff game in 15 seasons have their All-Pro quarterback get knocked out of the game after throwing his first pass (which went for 66 yards). I'm no fan of the Bengals (or of all the fickle fans who packed the stadium. I have crazy love for all the true fans who stuck it out over those 15 years, mind you, but 24 months ago Paul Brown stadium was getting paid crowds of 50,000 and games in Cincinnati were blacked out on television and now they have all these fans in the stadium? I'm not stupid, I know people love a winner and a winning team always will have more fans than a losing one, but it always ticks me off nonetheless, just like when I see these new-found Redskins fans who couldn't have given a crap about the team 12 months ago), but you have to feel bad for the team and their (true) fans who waited so long for a playoff game and then lost all hope when their quarterback went down. The look on Palmer's face as he was getting carted off the field said it all.
However, I hope Bengals players, coaches and fans don't convince themselves they lost this game because of Palmer's injury. This team needs a lot of work on the defensive end if they want to compete and blaming a loss on an injury to a player who wouldn't have been on the field when the Steelers were dropping their 31 points is dangerous. Cincinnati needs to realize that while the Palmer injury was devastating and very well could have cost them the game, he wasn't part of a defense that allowed 144 yards rushing and bit on a trick-play that you could see coming from a mile away (I'm looking in your general direction Ifeanyi Ohalete). I believe Marvin Lewis is too smart to think that, but his players and front office better realize it too. Because if they believe the Bengals are close just because they hung tough with Pittsburgh even with Jon Kitna in at QB, it will be the worst thing that could happen to this franchise. (Well, not worse than David Klinger or Ki-Jana Carter). Without help on the defensive side of the ball, Cincinnati will be looking at another early playoff exit next season, Palmer or not.

Wild Card Picks: 3-1 (Straight Up), 3-1 (Spread)

Wild Card Picks

Washington Redskins (+2) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
Two years to the day after his return to football was confirmed, Joe Gibbs leads the surging Washington Redskins into Tampa for a rematch of the best game of the NFL season.
Normally, I don't read any column by Thomas Boswell or Michael Wilbon in The Washington Post before I write my entries; many times they'll cover what I want to say and, inevitably, do a much better job of it. Today, though, I read the lead to Boswell's column about Gibbs and couldn't help myself:

Few events in Washington sports remotely approach the buzz before a Redskins playoff game. When Joe Gibbs also happens to be the coach, that anticipation builds to a climax akin to the roar of a jet aircraft by game time.
If you think your heartbeat is a bit irregular during the next day, if your mind keeps flicking ahead to 4:30 p.m. in Tampa tomorrow instead of attending to matters at hand, then your odd behavior just means you have a keen sense of Redskins history.

Pretty much summing up my entire week with that second paragraph, I had to continue on. (Wilbon is the best deadline columnist I've ever read (as evidenced by his wonderful time-strapped piece on Vince Young that appeared in yesterday's early editions), but Boswell is the preeminent analytical columnist is the country. My buddy Jaffe, a great writer in his own right, refused to read Boswell for years despite my repeated recommendations. When one of his professors at the Columbia School of Journalism spoke of Boswell's greatness, he caved and has since become a fan.)
Boz hit on a lot of the points I had wanted to discuss today, but also did his research to back them up. Some excerpts:

• In 1987, the Redskins were a flawed team that needed December wins by four, four and three points to make the playoffs. Few expected much of them, despite an 11-4 record (a strike cut the regular season one game short). The 49ers (13-2) were the league power. You think the Colts are hot now? Frisco won its last three games by 124-7. Meanwhile, the Redskins played a dozen games decided by a touchdown or less....What chance did the Redskins have, starting the playoffs on the road against Mike Ditka's Bears who, over the three previous seasons, had gone 40-7? Of course, the Redskins won the Super Bowl -- by 32 points. A team with cohesion and character, but modest talent, became a champion.
• Variations on this saga were the rule, not the exception, during Gibbs's first tour. The '82 Super Bowl champs had to win four postseason games. The '86 team was a wild card yet beat the 14-2 Bears in Chicago to reach the NFC title game. Both the '90 and '92 Redskins were only wild cards, yet won their first-round games on the road. Year after year, the Redskins improved in December, then went deeper than expected in January.
  Compared to Gibbs teams of the past, the current Redskins haven't done much yet, though a five-game winning streak to reach the playoffs is certainly a good start. After the win over the Eagles, it was clear that many Redskins may not yet grasp what Gibbs and his staff consider "normal." They were pretty giddy over a fairly modest accomplishment... "There are guys like LaVar [Arrington] who came a year after we went to the playoffs [in '99] and have not been there," said Jon Jansen. "They've worked hard and deserve all this."
  All this?
• Though he'll never say it, Gibbs fully expects to go to Tampa and beat the Bucs. Why? Because for starters, the Bucs are not terribly good. The Bucs' strength is defense: No. 8 in points allowed. If that's their edge, it's not a big one. The Redskins were No. 9.
  More important to Gibbs is that the Bucs spent most of their season playing down to the level of an extremely weak schedule while the Redskins spent their year trying to play up to the level of a tough schedule. The Bucs played seven games, nearly half their season, against teams that lost 12 or more games -- the worst patsies in the NFL. Yet they only outscored the league for the year by 26 points. For an 11-5 team, that's lame. The Bucs lost to the horrid 49ers and Jets, barely beat the lowly Packers by a point and the even worse Lions by four. Three weeks ago, New England undressed them, 28-0.
  Meantime, the Redskins played 10 games against teams with nine wins or more and outscored the league by a respectable 66 points. They also beat three division champions: Seattle (13-3), Chicago (12-4) and the Giants (11-5).
• Few things please Gibbs more than preparing for a revenge game against a team that beat him earlier in the year. This season's turnabout against the Giants -- from an 0-36 loss to a 35-20 win -- is an extreme example. But throughout his 14 seasons, Gibbs's teams have improved by an average of 17 points in their rematches against teams that previously beat them. That's far beyond any normal statistical probability. The most obvious explanation is that Gibbs and his staff learn a whole lot more from studying the film how they lost that first game than you learn from studying how you beat them.
• After the Eagles victory, several Redskins prepared to douse Gibbs with Gatorade. Trainer Bubba Tyer, an old hand from the Gibbs I Era, contemptuously knocked the bucket over. First, don't give Joe pneumonia when he needs to work 20 hours a day. Second, get serious. If you play for Joe, you don't celebrate being in a three-way tie for the 11th best record in a 32-team league.
  "We know we're going to have a tough road," Gibbs said of the coming playoffs, "but we're thrilled to be in."
  Funny, he said "a tough road," not "a tough game." Does sneaky old Joe think he may visit more than one city this January?

The theme of Boswell's column was, "this is nothing new for Joe Gibbs." The man has a 16-5 career record in the playoffs, which includes three Super Bowl wins with three different quarterbacks. (Only Bill Parcells has won a Super Bowl with two different quarterbacks, and that was only because Phil Simms got hurt in 1990, forcing Jeff Hostetler into the starting role.)
A problem might arise is Gibbs' team doesn't share his desire for something more, but there's every reason to believe Gibbs will have them ready to play tomorrow in Tampa. The Bucs are a good team and, as evidenced by their controversial 36-35 over Washington earlier in the season, can put up a bunch of points in a hurry. With a battered Redskins secondary practically begging to be thrown on, the Bucs could seize control of the game early if Chris Simms is on. I don't think that will happen though.
Defensive stars Cornelius Griffin and Sean Taylor missed the first Bucs game; CoGriff's absence being particularly surprising since the Redskins still shut down Cadillac Williams without him. When Griffin missed the first Giants game, Tiki Barber ran wild through the Washington line. In the rematch, Barber didn't get much of anything going, mainly because Griffin was clogging up the middle. If Tampa couldn't run against the Redskins without CoGriff, it stands to reason they won't be able to do so with him.
Taylor has been much improved in his sophomore season. Though still susceptible to biting on a big play, his closing speed should give Simms some pause before throwing deep. But all it takes is one or two big plays to change a game, and Tampa certainly has the capabilities to make those plays.
But it was Boswell's comment about Joe Gibbs and revenge games that will keep Bucs fans up tonight. In week 8 of this season, the Redskins were destroyed by the Giants 36-0. Two months later, Washington wiped the field with New York 35-20. Week 2 in Dallas, the team struggled for 56 minutes against Dallas, extending their opening-season touchdown drought to nearly eight quarters before two quick strikes gave the 'Skins the W. Washington's offense had no such trouble in the rematch with the Cowboys, putting up five touchdowns in a 35-7 rout.
Joe Gibbs is a master of X's and O's. There isn't a wrinkle in the Bucs defense schemes that he won't discover and exploit tomorrow. Earlier this week a reporter asked Gibbs if he'd rather face a team he's yet to play or have a rematch in the playoffs. He responded that he'd rather play a team for the first time. It was one of the few times you'll ever see Joe Gibbs lie.
The Redskins played their second-worst defensive game of the season against Tampa in their first meeting while the Bucs had their best offensive day. Both are unlikely to happen again tomorrow.
At this exact moment two years ago, it would have been unthinkable that the Redskins would be in a Joe Gibbs-coached playoff game 24 months later. His return was unimaginable. But he came back to not just to sneak into the playoffs, but to win another Super Bowl. It probably won't happen this year, but it will happen. Gibbs is that good.
It was his return that was the impetus for the creation of this blog; indeed not coincidentally, this site's two year anniversary is on Sunday. The first two entries were about Gibbs' return. As I reread them today for the first time since then, I was reminded of the sheer excitement surrounding his comeback and why everyone in the D.C. area was so sure he'd succeed.
Even with a loss tomorrow, Joe Gibbs has quieted the critics and solidified his place in the discussion of the NFL's greatest coaches of all-time. The Washington Redskins might not win tomorrow but, frankly, I don't think Joe Gibbs has even considered that possibility.
Washington 28 - Tampa Bay 20

Jacksonville Jaguars (+8) at New England Patriots
Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
Everyone likes to discuss how easy the Jaguars schedule was, but they fail to mention Jacksonville beat more playoff teams than New England (3-2) and had just as many wins against teams over .500 as their Wild Card opponent.
While the Jags were 3-3 against playoff teams (including two losses to Indy), New England was 2-3 and also had losses to Kansas City and San Diego, two teams not good enough to qualify in the AFC.
Yet for some reason the only question headed into this game is, "how much will New England win by?" Sure, they'll probably win, but this game won't be as easy for them as people expect. The Pats have no secondary (they ranked second-to-last in pass defense), yet they were near the top of the league in interceptions. Jacksonville, however, threw the least picks of any team in the NFL (6, only three teams were in the single digits).
Jacksonville's front four should have no problem controlling the line of scrimmage against a Pats rushing attack which averaged the third-worst yards per carry in the NFL. Holding New England's passing game in check should prove more difficult, but the Jags do have one of the AFC's top pass defenses.
In their games against teams with winning records, New England was outscored 226 to 191. Five of their ten wins came by seven points or less and the only time they beat a team with a winning record by more than seven was in their 28-0 blowout of Tampa. New England isn't close to the team they once were; if the Dolphins had made the playoffs with the same resume, they'd be favored by two or three in this game. I suppose the oddsmakers give Belichick four or five points for winning three Super Bowls. But those were close games too. Don't be shocked if the Jags pull the upset. But look for New England to squeak out a win, but not cover.
New England 20 - Jacksonville 17

Carolina Panthers (+2) at New York Giants
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
You never really know whats going to happen in any NFL game, let alone a playoff game, but there are more unknowns about this game than normal.
- Can Carolina's Jekyll and Hyde run defense stop Tiki Barber?
- How will Eli Manning play in his first postseason game?
- Will DeShaun Foster be able to run through a depleted Giants front seven?
- Which Carolina team will show up: The one that blew out Atlanta or the one that nearly blew up in Dallas?
- If the Giants should win, will the NFL move their Divisional Playoff game to New York?
These are just a few of the many questions surrounding this contest. Like I said, you never really know how a game will turn out, but I have absolutely no clue what will happen in this one. Nothing, from a Panthers blowout to a Jay Feely 55-yard game winner, would surprise me. OK, maybe Feely actually making a kick would. But you get my point.
After a whole lot of back and forth, let's go with the Giants to win, but Panthers with the points.
New York 30 - Carolina 29

Pittsburgh Steelers (-3) at Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, 4:30 p.m.
Earlier this week, some analysts on ESPN suggested the Bengals deserved to be favored over the Steelers at home after winning the AFC North and splitting the season series. These guys failed to realize betting lines have nothing to do with entitlement and are all about getting the most action. Those guys in Vegas just don't set lines arbitrarily, there is a tremendous amount of thought and research that goes into each number. And, as Dr. Z says, when one seems as out of whack as this (getting three points at home after winning a division over the very team you're set to play is a whole lot), always listen to Vegas.
Carson Palmer and Cincy have had a great year and there are plenty more to come. But Pittsburgh will run, run and run some more, controlling the clock and advancing to face Indianapolis in a rematch of their game earlier this season.
Pittsburgh 38 - Cincinnati 24

Divisional Playoffs
Washington over Seattle
Chicago over New York

Indianapolis over Pittsburgh
Denver over New England

Conference Championships
Chicago over Washington

Indianapolis over Denver

Super Bowl XL
Indianapolis Colts over Chicago Bears

Season Record: 181-75

NFL Awards

MVP: Carson Palmer, Cincinnati
Unlike Major League Baseball, the NFL has an offensive player of the year award in addition to the MVP honor. Many people consider the awards one and the same. I am not one of those people. A Most Valuable Player should be exactly that; the player most valuable to his team. An offensive player of the year is the best offensive player, period, regardless of value. This is why I would have voted David Ortiz as the A.L. MVP this season, while giving A. Rod a theoretical OPY. A. Rod was better, but Ortiz meant more to his team.
In the NFL this season there are four players whose value to their franchise was immeasurable: Tiki Barber, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Carson Palmer. At one point or another during this week I considered casting my vote for each of these players. Here are the arguments for each:
Barber - Elisha Manning has been a detriment to the Giants this season. He is dangerously erratic, makes the wrong throw at the wrong time and has his coaches so blinded by his hype that they constantly call his number while ignoring the best overall running back in football.
Make no mistake, Eli might get the love in the press, but Tiki Barber is the backbone of the Giants. His numbers are staggering (2,390 total yards, 11 TD - he'd have more if the Giants coaches realized Barber is a better goal line back than the overrated Brandon Jacobs), he is a pounding blocker, he creates holes when there are none to run through and is an excellent pass catcher out of the backfield. Without Barber the Giants might be 5-11.
Brady - Brady is so disrespected, it's amazing I even thought of him. He might receive this award because disrespect breeds MVP votes, but he doesn't deserve it. Brady is great (and devilishly handsome, despite his butthole-chin), but the Patriots are not. They finished one game ahead of the Miami Dolphins and went 10-6 in the weakest division in football. You'll hear all the talk about how the Pats were so injured (did you know New England is the only team in the NFL ever to suffer from injuries?), how they have no receivers and how their running game is in shambles. My question is, how is this different than any other New England season? They won a Super Bowl with Antowain Smith as their RB, for crap's sake!
Just because the Pats are injured doesn't mean Brady deserves the MVP. His team lost two more games than the Jacksonville Jaguars. And that's gotta count for something.
Manning - Take Peyton Manning away from the Colts and what do you have? The Oakland Raiders. Just because he didn't have 49 TD passes and break the record for passer rating like last year, people think Manning had a subpar season. But subpar for Peyton is phenomenal for everyone else. He deserves consideration for this award, even though he's unlikely to win.
Palmer - First in touchdowns, first in completion percentage, second in passer rating, fourth in yards and the only Bengals quarterback in the past decade-and-a-half to lead Cincinnati to the playoffs. Carson Palmer is the best #1 draft pick since Peyton Manning and will have the Bengals in Super Bowl contention for the better part of the next decade.
He had the best season of any quarterback in the NFL and won 11 games in a tough division without any semblance of a defense. And that's the reason Palmer gets my MVP vote. Take him away from the Bengals, and they'd be hard-pressed to compete with the Browns. Rudi Johnson is good, but Palmer makes him good that way. Chad Johnson is great, but look how effective stars like Randy Moss are if nobody can get them the ball. Without Palmer, the Bengals defense would have kept them out of most games. With Palmer, the offense was good enough to compensate for them. That's why he's the MVP.

Offensive Player of the Year: Tiki Barber, New York Giants
For all the reasons listed above. Barber is a triple-threat; running, receiving and, most overlooked, blocking. Barber is the heart of the Giants, and if I needed one back for one game right now, I'd take him over everyone else in the NFL without thinking twice.
At this point you're probably wondering why I haven't mentioned Shaun Alexander. With 1,800 yards rushing and 28 touchdowns, you'd think he'd be atop everyone's MVP ballot (the NFL just announced he won the award). He's not on mine, nor did he deserve this award ahead of Tiki for a number of reasons:
1) He runs behind the best offensive line in football.
2) His touchdown record is overrated. Touchdowns, despite contrary indications elsewhere, are not overrated. But consider: Of Shaun AlexanderÂ’s 27 TD runs: 18 were of three yards of shorter. Five of which were above 15 yards.
Larry Johnson had 20 TD runs, 7 of which were three yards or shorter, seven of which were above 15 yards.
Tiki Barber had nine TD runs, none of which were under three yards, five of which were above 15 yards.
I'm just not that impressed with goal line carries. Should Brandon Jacobs be rookie of the year because he had more touchdowns than Cadillac Williams? Stephen Davis had three more TDs than Tiki Barber. Does that make him more valuable?
3) The Seahawks think Mercury Morris could run just as well behind the o-line, which is why Shaun Alexander has yet to receive a sizable contract. When his own team doesn't deem his essential enough to reward him, why should I?

Defensive Player of the Year: Brian Urlacher, Chicago
Dwight Freeney was so good he made Robert Mathis into an All-Pro. The Giants duo of Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan were excellent against the pass, but struggled with the run. The entire Jaguars d-line played at a Pro Bowl level. Marcus Washington didn't make the Pro Bowl, but will likely be an All-Pro. And anybody on the Bears defense, from Nathan Vashar to Charles Tillman could earn this award too. But Urlacher made a transformation this season from a guy with limitless potential to a guy playing up to it. His numbers aren't huge (probably because the Bears don't give him 15 tackles per game just for showing up, a la Zach Thomas) but that's because he was drawing most of the blocking attention, freeing up his teammates to get the sacks, interceptions and tackles. I've given Urlacher a hard time in the past, but not this year. He lived up to the hype and is the main reason Chicago went 11-5 and won the NFC North.

Coach of the Year: Lovie Smith, Chicago
Tony Dungy shouldn't receive this award for coaching the Colts to a 14-2 record. The Colts should be 14-2. It would be a terrible coaching job if they weren't 14-2. Dungy is a great, great coach, mind you. But so is Joe Torre; it doesn't mean he should win the MLB Manager of the Year everytime the Yankees have the best record in baseball. They're supposed to be good. Just like the Colts.
There are six viable candidates for this award, as I see it: Joe Gibbs, Mike Holmgren, Marvin Lewis, Nick Saban, Mike Shanahan and Lovie Smith.
Holmgren, Lewis and Shanahan, while deserving, don't make the cut because they coached talented teams into the playoffs. It doesn't make them any less worthy of the award, but coaching the Broncos to a 13-3 record is not nearly as impressive as coaching the Dolphins to a 9-7 one. (Although taming Jake Plummer deserves some sort of Nobel Prize.)
That leaves Gibbs, Saban and Smith. Nick Saban did a great job in Miami this year with Gus Frerotte at QB. Had they made the playoffs, he'd be the Coach of the Year, hands down. They didn't, so his day will have to wait. Most knowledgeable people knew Joe Gibbs would eventually turn the Redskins around. But a five-game win streak to get into the playoffs surprised even his biggest supporters. The resurgence of Lovie Smith's team, however, shocked everyone. When Rex Grossman went down, everyone assumed the Bears dark-horse chances went with him. But Smith developed the best defense in the NFL and had an offense that was good enough not to lose.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Cadillac Williams, Tampa Bay
Kyle Orton did an admirable job leading the Bears to the playoffs, but without Cadillac, the Bucs would be watching this weekend's games from their homes.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Lofa Tatupu, Seattle
Maryland's Shawne Merriman got all the hype, and it was well-deserved. But he played like a rookie; a stud rookie, mind you, but a rookie. For every huge play, Merriman had an overrun or took a bad angle. Up in Seattle, Tatupu was the leader of the Seahawks defense and played like a veteran from week one.

Comeback Player of the Year: Mark Brunell, Washington
There are three real candidates for this award and voters with different voting criteria could cast their ballot for any of them.
Those who believe this honor should recognize players who come back from a life-threatening health scare should vote for Tedy Bruschi. (Oh wait, the Pats are too disrespected for anyone to vote for their players.) But this award isn't about who had the most health problems in the offseason. Just because you make a comeback doesn't make you comeback player of the year. The honor should be bestowed on players who make comebacks and do so at a high level. Bruschi played well, but most of the people voting for him would have done so even if he played like [insert the name of the linebacker on your team who you can't stand; Warrick Holdman for me]. The award isn't for biggest injury overcome, it's for a surprising comeback that resulted in great play. Bruschi fits only one of those criteria. (Plus, if you're going to vote for the guy who had to overcome the most health problems, why not cast a ballot for Michael Vick. Dealing with 47 STDs isn't easy, people.)
The other two candidates are Brunell and Steve Smith. I have no problem with anyone voting for Smith. He came back from a gruesome leg injury to lead the league in receptions, yards and receiving TDs. That's a comeback. My vote went to Brunell, though, because while Smith's resurgence was spectacular, it wasn't all that surprising. Sure, nobody thought he'd put up the numbers he did, but broken bones heal, so thinking Smith could return to his high level of play wasn't too far out of the question.
Mark Brunell, however, returning to Pro Bowl form after a disastrous 2005 campaign was absolutely unthinkable and that's why he's my 2005 Comeback Player of the Year. The Redskins QB, who started the year backing-up Patrick Ramsey, had a Pro Bowl year (despite two quarterbacks with lesser numbers and talent getting the nod), throwing for 23 TD against only 10 INT. His 85.9 passer rating was good for 3rd in the NFC. Compare that to last year where Brunell had an anemic 63.9 rating and a TD to INT ratio of almost 1. Brunell wasn't just bad last year, he was terrible. If you had said 12 months ago that Brunell would be the second best QB in the NFC and lead his team to the playoffs, people would have said you were insane. Everyone, including myself, was looking at the Brunell signing as one of the biggest contract blunders in NFL history. (Granted, it turns out Brunell was injured for much of 2004, but still... He looks totally reborn in 2005.)
In addition to the arm strength returning, Brunell used his legs to help key the Redskins playoff run. He might not have the speed he once did, but on a handful of occasions, Brunell has run for a key first down for the 'Skins. His 22-yard scamper on Monday night in Dallas was forgotten after two two subsequent TD bombs, but without that run, the Redskins wouldn't be in the playoffs.
Anybody who wants to vote for Smith has my blessing. But Mark Brunell is the Comeback Player of the Year.

Most Surprising Team: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
After following up a Super Bowl victory with two non-playoff campaigns, the Bucs were the most overlooked team in the league headed into the season. Even the surprising Bears had a little hype, thanks to their defense. But Tampa had none. A Griese at QB, a rookie RB and old man Joey Galloway as the big-play threat? It's no wonder they didn't. But Monte Kiffin's defense stepped up once again and Cadillac Williams was as good as advertised. And with Chris Simms making big plays at the end of the season, Jon Gruden's team was the surprise of the NFL.

Most Disappointing Team: San Diego Chargers
The Philadelphia Eagles would get a lot of votes in this category, but when you suffer as many injuries as they did (and have had as good a run as they have had), a 6-10 season isn't disappointing as much as it was inevitable. Just like the T.O. situation.
San Diego had no injuries to speak of, but couldn't beat the Dolphins and Chiefs when it mattered most. I'm not one to call for a coach's head at the first sign of trouble (Mike Sherman getting fired was preposterous and even though I loathe Brian Billick and think he's not a good head coach, I supported Steve Bisciotti's decision to retain him). That being said, the Chargers need to fire Marty Schottenheimer. San Diego had one of the two best RBs in football, the best tight end and a top-six quarterback and barely finished above .500. Their schedule was tough, but so was Denver's, Kansas City and Washington's, and they all had ten wins or more.
San Diego has gotten as far with Marty as they're going to get. It's time for a change. But, man, just think of how great they would have been if Elisha Manning hadn't been a crybaby and had decided to play there. They'd have to build a new stadium just to fit all the Super Bowl banners inside!

Vince Young Makes Michael Vick Look Like Akili Smith

Semi-Interesting Facts from the ESPN.com NFL Stat Page

Quarterbacks

- Elisha Manning had a lower passer rating than David Carr, Kelly Holcomb, Trent Dilfer, Chris Simms, Drew Bledsoe and Kurt Warner.

- Elisha's 52.8 completion percentage was good for 31st in the league, behind such stars as Aaron Brooks (55.7), Brooks Bollinger (56.4), Joey Harrington (57.0), Kyle Boller (58.4), Josh McCown (60.4), David Carr (60.5) and Brett Favre (61.4).

- Elisha had the second-most interceptions of any NFL starting QB (17).

- David Carr was sacked an NFL-high 68 times, 19 times more than runner-up Drew Bledsoe (who was sacked ten more times than the 3rd most-sacked QB, Kerry Collins).

- Michael Vick ran for 597 yards in 2005, but lost 201 on sacks.

- Vick had fewer passing yards and touchdown passes, a lower completion percentage and QB rating, more interceptions and fewer wins than Mark Brunell. Vick was elected to the Pro Bowl, while Brunell was not.

Running Backs

- Jamal Lewis had two more fumbles lost than touchdowns.

- Lewis had fewer touchdowns than Ciatrick Fiason, LaBrandon Toefield, Dominic Rhodes, Jonathan Wells, Marion Barber, Brandon Jacobs and Samkon Gado.

- Mike Alstott ran for 1,152 fewer yards than Reuben Droughns but had four more touchdowns.

- Droughns ran for fewer touchdowns in 16 games than Larry Johnson did in 16 minutes on Sunday.

Wide Receiver

- Among those with more receptions than both Terrell Owens and Randy Moss: Jerry Poter, Laveranues Coles, Chris Cooley, Donte Stallworth, LaMont Jordan, Antonio Bryant, Eddie Kennison, Bobby Engram, Andre Johnson and L.J. Smith.

- The Lions heralded first-round trio, Charles Rogers (#2), Roy Williams (#7) and Mike Williams (#9) had three more catches combined than Rod Smith (undrafted).

- Marshall Faulk had more catches and the same amount of receiving touchdowns than preseason fantasy star Nate Burleson.

- Marvin Harrison led the NFL in TD receptions for the first time in his career.

- Derrick Mason had three touchdowns in 86 catches. Redskins H-Back Mike Sellers had seven touchdowns in 12 catches.

- Koren Robinson had only one TD this season, on an 80-yard catch. Mike Sellers had seven TDs this season and had 72 receiving yards for the season.

- Redskins receivers other than Santana Moss had a total of 48 receptions, 519 yards and zero touchdowns. The 'Skins two H-backs, Mike Sellers and Chris Cooley, had 83 receptions, 846 yards and 14 touchdowns.

- Washington's much-hyped Taylor Jacobs had four more catches than Sellers had touchdowns.

Defense/Special Teams/Other Facts

- The Giants' Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan had more sacks than the entire Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints.

- The San Francisco 49ers finished last in the NFL in total defense and total offense.

- Dante Hall finished the year 14th in kick return average and 22nd in punt return average.

- The New York Giants played nine home games this season. All other NFL teams played eight, except for the Saints, who had seven.

- Texas will win tonight. At least they better. I've got $270 on the line.


Tomorrow: NFL Awards
Friday: Wild Card Preview/Predictions

The Chaz Rankings: A Look Back

If there's one thing I hate, it's when people are held unaccountable for their sports predictions. (Well, actually, if there's one thing I hate it's smelly hippies. But this is number two.)
Every chucklehead on the internet and TV makes his preseason NFL picks (with the obligatory dark-horse division winner like Arizona) and never revisits them after the season unless that dark-horse division winner actually wins the division, whereupon said chucklehead won't shut up about how smart he is for picking it. Of course, said chucklehead will always fail to mention he had said dark-horse division winner playing said team with a top-five draft pick in the conference championship.
But here at Chris's Sports Blog, I hold myself accountable for crappy predictions and will revisit some of them today. In compiling the final Chaz Rankings of the season, I've included an excerpt about each team from my NFL Preview back in early September. Some of my thoughts looks quite prescient today, others make me look like Sean Salisbury.
Either way, at least I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. Not that this makes me a real man, mind you, just more of a man than Len Pasquarelli.

1) Indianapolis Colts
Final Record: (14-2), Predicted Record: (13-3)
What I Thought Then: The best quarterback in the NFL will finally captain the best team in the NFL this season.
What I Think Now: Not since John Elway and the Broncos entered the 1997 playoffs has a team had been under more pressure to win the Super Bowl than the Indianapolis Colts. After a 13-0 start had people chattering about an undefeated season, Indy cooled off in December, dropping two of their final three meaningless games.
A possible rematch with the defending Super Bowl champs awaits, and while everyone will be quick to point out Indy’s playoff woes against the Pats, it’s crucial to remember this is the first time the Colts will play at home in the recent series and, more importantly, they’ll have a bye while New England plays in the Wild Card round, a role reversal that greatly favors Indianapolis.
I picked the Colts to win it all back in September, and I’m sticking with that pick now. Indy is the team to beat.

2) Denver Broncos
Final Record: (13-3), Predicted Record: (8-8)
What I Thought Then: Despite Peter King’s “Plummer for MVP” campaign, the Broncos QB is still an erratic gunslinger who makes ridiculous decisions when flushed out of the pocket. The Broncos barely survived Plummer’s mistakes last year. They won’t this year.
What I Think Now: While Peter King’s “Plummer for MVP” campaign is still equally ridiculous, Jake The Snake (no doubt buoyed by the heralded national campaign to bring back his mustache) was the NFL’s most improved player in 2005 and is the reason the Broncos have a first-round bye. Of course, having two runners rush for over 900 yards doesn’t hurt either.
Mike Shanahan has yet to win a playoff game without John Elway, and he’ll have his hands full this year with (likely) either the Steelers or Bengals. The Broncos are one of the most overlooked 13-3 teams in recent memory and have virtually no buzz entering the postseason, which might not be a bad thing. (There’s probably still people out there who insist the 9-7 Chargers are the better team.)

3) Seattle Seahawks
Final Record: (13-3), Predicted Record: (6-10)
What I Thought Then: Mike Holmgren’s last game with Seattle will be in the place he made his name [Green Bay].
What I Think Now: Clearly, I missed the boat on the Seahawks, but I’m still not buying their alleged greatness. There are exactly zero teams in the NFC playoffs who are scared of Seattle, and with good reason.
Of their 12 “real” wins (the meaningless W over Indy doesn’t count), Seattle beat exactly two teams with winning records (Dallas and New York), and needed miracles in both to do so, despite playing at home. The team’s two “real” losses both occurred to playoff teams (Jacksonville and Washington). The rest of the Seahawks schedule reads like the top of Mel Kiper’s draft board: Houston, Tennessee, Green Bay, San Francisco, Arizona, etc. That’s not their fault, but such a weak schedule doesn’t bode well for battles in the playoffs. That Seattle has homefield throughout is clearly a plus, but I don’t think they’ll get to play the NFC Championship at home regardless.

4) Pittsburgh Steelers
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: If Willie Parker runs well, the Steelers will come close to last year’s success. If not, it could be a long, disappointing year in the Steel City.
What I Think Now: Oftentimes, the #6 seeds in the NFL playoffs are teams that back into the postseason. This year is different. Pittsburgh and Washington are on four and five game win streaks, respectively, and are two of the more dangerous teams left in the hunt for the Super Bowl.
The Steelers are favored at Cincinnati, despite losing 38-31 to the Bengals the week after Thanksgiving. With a healthy Ben Roethlisberger, their stacked defense and The Bus running people over like he did back when Notre Dame actually won bowl games, Pittsburgh, not New England, is the real threat to the Colts in the AFC.

5) Chicago Bears
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (4-12)
What The Wolfman Thought Then: The Bears will struggle as Kyle Orton starts at quarterback for the Bears, but he is an improvement over any of the other replacements the Bears tried in the place of Rex Grossman. As long as the offense can move the ball some, the defense should keep the Bears in most games but growing pains will probably make for a lot of close losses this year.
What I Think Now: All off-season I touted the Bears as my sleeper team. But once Rex Grossman went down, I jumped off the bandwagon, failing to realize I never was basing my prediction on the strength of the Bears offense, but due to their stifling defense.
Chicago’s D lived up the hype and had one of the more dominating seasons in recent memory. With an A+ defense, the Bears can survive with a C offense, especially in January at Soldier Field. Chicago has already played and defeated two of their possible Divisional round opponents (Carolina and Tampa) and matches up well with the other (New York – the only team the Bears can’t play in the second-round is the Redskins). With Seattle vulnerable, Chicago will be rooting for the Seahawks opponent in hopes of playing the NFC Championship at home. If they do, look for the Bears to make their first trip to the Super Bowl since 1986.

6) New England Patriots
Final Record: (10-6), Predicted Record: (11-5)
What I Thought Then: The loss of offensive coordinator Charlie Weis will hurt the Patriots more than you’d imagine. The Pats don’t blow anybody out, and while there’s nothing wrong with that (a win is a win), their tendency to play close games means New England never has much room for error. Without Weis in the booth making major mid-game adjustments (as he has done countless times over the years), the Pats figure to drop a few more close games than they have in the past.
What I Think Now: Barring another tuck-rule miracle or Donovan McNabb choke-job, Tom Brady will lose the first playoff game of his career within the next two weeks.

7) Washington Redskins
Final Record: (10-6), Predicted Record: (9-7)
What I Thought Then: Joe Gibbs didn’t make it to the Hall of Fame because of his racquetball prowess, he made it because he is one of the best coaches of all-time and, dammit, he’s going to turn this team around in 2005.
What I Think Now: If not for a blown call at the end of the Bucs game, the Redskins would have:
a) won the NFC East
b) finished 11-1 against the NFC
c) earned a first-round bye
d) defeated every division winner in the NFC
As it is, they have to go back to Tampa to avenge that loss. It’s a winnable game, but not if the ‘Skins depleted secondary makes Chris Simms look like his father, as they did last time.

8) Carolina Panthers
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (11-5)
What I Thought Then: The Panthers will rebound from their disappointing injury-plaugued 2004 campaign and win the NFC.
What I Think Now: The Panthers are like a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in ugly teal uniforms. Just when they appear dead (giving up 200 yards on the ground to the Cowboys), Carolina comes out and plays one of their best games of the season with their playoff lives on the line. Going to New York is no easy task, but the Panthers should make it a game.

9) Cincinnati Bengals
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (9-7)
What I Thought Then: If Carson Palmer can make the leap, the Bengals will make their first playoff appearance since 1990.
What I Think Now: Granted the games were meaningless, but ending the year getting outscored 74-30 by the Bills and Chiefs is not the best way to head into the playoffs.
Carson Palmer has been outstanding this season (more on that later in the week), but the Bengals need to shore up their D if they want to make a serious run at the Super Bowl in 2006. They have no shot in 2005.

10) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (5-11)
What I Thought Then: If Cadillac is more Escalade than Catera, the Bucs could be the surprise of the NFC.
What I Think Now: If Chris Simms can avoid making mistakes, Tampa can make some noise in the NFC. (By the way, not all NFL internet writers are spineless as I suggested above; the always-solid Pete Prisco engages in some self-flagellation over his Raiders/Eagles Super Bowl pick. Prisco encourages readers to send e-mails to rip him about the pick. I sent him one congratulating him for having the stones to bring it up.)

11) New York Giants
Final Record: (11-5), Predicted Record: (6-10)
What I Thought Then: The Giants aren’t bad, they just aren’t very good. A weak offensive line should stunt Eli Manning’s growth, but if they can stay healthy, there’s no reason New York can’t get to nine or ten wins and contend for a playoff berth.
What I Think Now: The Giants still aren’t very good; they needed help from the NFL and favorable quirks in scheduling just to make the playoffs. Of course they can beat Carolina to advance to the NFC Divisional Playoffs, I just don’t think they will.

12) Kansas City Chiefs
Final Record: (10-6), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: You can stuff your Larry Johnson’s in a sack. If Priest isn’t healthy, neither are the Chiefs.
What I Think Now: I also thought nobody would go see that Narnia movie. (And Carl Petersen needs to shut up about expanding the playoffs. It’s a terrible idea (for every 10-6 that would be rewarded with a 3rd wild card spot, ten 8-8 teams on three-game losing streaks would get in) and reeks of sour grapes. Get some guys that can tackle and maybe you won’t need a 7th playoff spot to get in.)

13) Jacksonville Jaguars
Final Record: (12-4), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: … Until then the Jags will have to win games with their defense and not lose them with their offense. Too many times last year a Jacksonville fumble or late interception cost them a game. I think this year they work out the kinks and get that extra win to put them in the playoffs.
What I Think Now: Only one of the 16 writers who made preseason playoff predictions on ESPN.com had the Jaguars in the playoffs. And nobody had the Jags in and San Diego out, like I did. (Sorry for the Simmons-esque braggadocio, but after reading that Larry Johnson line, I wept openly. Although, I did write that anybody drafting Priest in their fantasy draft had to take Johnson by the 5th round, so I wasn’t totally stupid.)
The Jags have been my “sleeper” team for two seasons, but now that they’ve finally made the playoffs, I don’t envy their trip to New England. Although if they can keep the Pats rushing attack in check, Jacksonville could surprise some people.

14) Miami Dolphins
Final Record: (9-7), Predicted Record: (5-11)
What I Thought Then: Gus Frerotte isn’t as bad as you think.
What I Think Now: And neither is Nick Saban, apparently. But he is a huge jerk, like Jim Mora Jr. and I will always root against him, despite the fact that the Dolphins have always been my favorite team in the AFC.

15) Dallas Cowboys
Final Record: (9-7), Predicted Record: (8-8)
What I Thought Then: Even though Julius Jones seems poised to join the list of the game’s elite running backs and the addition of Marco Rivera will help a rickety offensive line, Bledsoe is enough of a liability to keep Dallas out of the playoffs in what could be Bill Parcells final year as head coach.
What I Think Now: Parcells stays, but it’s tough to imagine Drew Bledsoe doing the same.

16) San Diego Chargers
Final Record: (9-7), Predicted Record: (9-7)
What I Thought Then: Everything went perfectly for the Chargers last year. Drew Brees was great, L.T. ran wild, Antonio Gates had a season for the record books, the team’s rush defense was fantastic and the starters remained relatively injury-free. Much like Carolina in 2004, it’s hard to have everything go your way for a second straight season which is why I have the Chargers missing the playoffs, just barely.
What I Think Now: Let’s get one thing straight: The Chargers aren’t the best team to ever miss the playoffs. I don’t know which team is, but the 1979 Redskins were definitely better than the 2005 Chargers, so there’s at least one. In that year, the ‘Skins headed into a week 16 contest vs. Dallas almost certain of making the playoffs. If they won, Washington would win the NFC East and earn homefield advantage. If they lost, Washington would still get the Wild Card, provided Chicago didn’t beat the Cardinals by more than 32 points. The ‘Skins had a 13 point lead over their archrival with 2:20 left in the game, but gave up two TDs and lost a heartbreaker 35-34. One thousand miles north, Chicago scored a late TD against St. Louis to make the final score 42-6, a 36-point win, which gave the Bears a four-point advantage over the Redskins in point differential.
In 140 seconds, the Redskins went from 11-5 and NFC East Champs with homefield advantage to 10-6 and out of the playoffs completely. The Chargers lost at home to freakin’ Miami.

17) Minnesota Vikings
Final Record: (9-7), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: Somebody has to win the NFC North.
What I Think Now: The NFC North is a mess; the Bears are poised to rule that division for the rest of the decade if they play their cards correctly.

18) Cleveland Browns
Final Record: (6-10), Predicted Record: (3-13)
What I Thought Then: At least Clevelanders can give their full attention to LeBron after January 1.
What I Think Now: From the little I saw of Charlie Frye, I think he could be the real deal.

19) Philadelphia Eagles
Final Record: (6-10), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: Philly’s defense will be their Achilles heel this year. Since the NFL switched to the four-division format, the Eagles are an unbelievable 16-2 against their NFC East opponents. With Julius Jones, Clinton Portis and Tiki Barber in the division, the Eagles will give up a lot of yards on the ground to their rivals and will lose as many division games this year as they have in the past three combined.
What I Think Now: Philly fans are really terrible. Listening to sports radio up there on the way home from the game Sunday, you would have thought the Eagles had just wrapped up their fifth straight losing season instead of their first since 1999.

20) Baltimore Ravens
Final Record: (6-10), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: The Ravens are far from a [playoff] lock, but that defense is good for at least eight wins. It’s up to Boller to get them to ten.
What I Think Now: And I thought Boller could do that? Was I drunk when I wrote that preview? I had faith in Kyle Boller? What the hell is going on here. Next I’ll read that I wrote Mike Martz was a genius.

21) St. Louis Rams
Final Record: (6-10), Predicted Record: (9-7)
What I Thought Then: Mike Martz is an idiot.
What I Think Now: Phew!

22) Arizona Cardinals
Final Record: (5-11), Predicted Record: (7-9)
What I Thought Then: This is the year the Arizona Cardinals will put it all together. I mean it, this is the year. [A few paragraphs later…] You didn’t actually believe what I wrote up there, did you? That just seemed like what everyone says when talking about the Cardinals.
What I Think Now: The entire Cardinals team had fewer rushing yards than Reuben Droughns.

23) Atlanta Falcons
Final Record: (8-8), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: With the bizarre release of Peerless Price, who was hardly a great receiver but much better than anyone on the roster, Michael Vick won't have any legitimate targets to throw to, which will lead to another mediocre season that will be overlooked because of his unbelievable highlight reel.
What I Think Now: Arthur Blank and all Falcons fans should be disgusted after Atlanta players completely dogged it in the final game of the season. If I were Blank, I’d can Jim Mora Jr. and cut every non-essential player just to make the point that you can’t give up on your season just because you don’t make the playoffs. For the Falcons to get blown out by 33 points against a Carolina team whose number they’ve had over the past five years is a disgrace. It’s one thing to lay an egg in a game played minutes after finding out you’ve been eliminated from the playoffs as Dallas did Sunday night. It’s understandable that the Cowboys were deflated and couldn’t muster up the emotion to get a W. They prepared all week thinking they had a chance to control their own destiny, but it was snatched from them. But Atlanta had eight days to get over choking in Tampa and should have been fired up at the thought of keeping their division rival out of the playoffs (like Philly was in their game against the Redskins). But instead the Falcons gave up. It was a disgusting effort for a disgusting franchise. No wonder they’ve never had back-to-back winning season. Losers.

24) New York Jets
Final Record: (4-12), Predicted Record: (8-8)
What I Thought Then: If Chad Pennington’s shoulder injury isn’t fully healed, the Jets could be in for a long season.
What I Think Now: The Jets QB situation will be one of the more interesting subplots of the off-season. Do they stick with Pennington, make a trade for Philip Rivers (is he even on the market now, with Drew Brees’ impending surgery?), trade up for Matt Leinart, take Vince Young at #4 or give Broadway Joe a few shots of whiskey and tell him there’s a Suzy Kolber kiss in it for him if he can lead the team to the playoffs?

25) Buffalo Bills
Final Record: (5-11), Predicted Record: (6-10)
What I Thought Then: J.P. Losman, who succeeded Patrick Ramsey at Tulane (not a good omen, folks), is essentially a rookie and if he is anything like Ramsey, Willis McGahee will never get any room to run.The Bills defense, led by the underrated Takeo Spikes (think LaVar Arrington, but with harnessed talent) figures to keep them in most games, but unless Losman has a Roethlisberger-like season in him, the Bills playoff drought will hit six years.
What I Think Now: If Willis McGahee still thinks he’s the best RB in the NFL, he should call up John “I was better than Chris Paul, Raymond Felton and Jarrett Jack” Gilchrist and form a rap duo called Deluzion-L.

26) Oakland Raiders
Final Record: (4-12), Predicted Record: (7-9)
What I Thought Then: Norv Turner makes Mike Martz look like Vince Lombardi.
What I Think Now: Norv Turner makes Mike Martz look like Vince Lombardi.

27) Detroit Lions
Final Record: (5-11), Predicted Record: (10-6)
What I Thought Then: In spite of my better judgment, the Detroit Lions are Chris’s Sports Blog 2005 Team du Anee. Take out your life savings, bet it on the Lions to win the whole damn thing and think of me when you’re lounging in Cabos San Lucas tipping cabana boys with hundreds of pesos earned on the strength of Joey Harrington's arm.
What I Think Now: I also enjoyed the taste of Crystal Pepsi and thought it would would one day topple original Coke as the world's most beloved soft drink.

28) San Francisco 49ers
Final Record: (4-12), Predicted Record: (2-14)
What I Thought Then: Mike Nolan, as he has done in every coaching stop during his career, will fail as 49ers head coach. Mark it down: By 2008 Nolan will be out of a job.
What I Think Now: Wow, that seems a bit harsh in retrospect, but I still have no faith in Mike Nolan to turn things around in San Francisco. And Alex Smith just looks awful (as I predicted before the draft).

29) Green Bay Packers
Final Record: (4-12), Predicted Record: (8-8)
What I Thought Then: This could be the first season where Favre throws more picks than touchdowns. Watch it happen.
What I Think Now: Favre’s final numbers: 20 TD, 29 INT.

30) Tennessee Titans
Final Record: (4-12), Predicted Record: (7-9)
What I Thought Then: The wheels are going to fall off the Titans this year and the same will happen to your fantasy team if you put any faith in Drew Bennett.
What I Think Now: Is it just me, or is Norm Chow’s failure the second most underreported NFL story of the year? (Behind the NFL giving the Giants 105 home games, of course.) I’m not saying Chow’s offense isn’t going to eventually work in the NFL, but don’t you feel like if this was anybody besides the first Asian coordinator in NFL history, there would be tons of stories about how yet another college guy couldn’t get it done in the NFL? I mean, they were writing that about Steve Spurrier before he had even started his first training camp! And USC didn’t miss a beat without Chow when many thought they’d be lost without him. Again, I’m not saying Chow is destined to be an NFL bust, but for all the hype that accompanied his hiring, he deserves some criticism for a subpar freshman year.

31) New Orleans Saints
Final Record: (3-13), Predicted Record: (8-8)
What I Thought Then: Deuce McAllister and Joe Horn are two potential All-Pro’s, but unless Brooks can chill out a bit, the Saints will once again finish the season below .500.
What I Think Now: A better coach wouldn’t have had his team believing they were Katrina’s biggest victims. Haslett’s team did, and that’s why they never had a shot this season, particularly after the NFL did them no favors by moving that game to New York. (Remember, the Saints had defeated the Panthers on the road in week 1. Had they played that second game in the south, they would have given the Giants a game, maybe won and maybe their season would have turned out differently. Instead, they let the New York-centric league office get to them and began turning themselves into martyrs.)

32) Houston Texans
Final Record: (2-14), Predicted Record: (7-9)
What I Thought Then: David Carr, Domanick Davis and Andre Johnson are like a poor man’s Peyton, Edge and Marvin. A really poor man’s.
What I Think Now: OK, a homeless guy’s.

It's Joe Gibbs' World

Worst 3-0 team in history, Don Banks? Joe Gibbs would ruin his legacy by coming back, Len Pasquarelli? Well, the greatest football coach in NFL history proved 'em wrong, leading the Washington Redskins to a stunning five-game win streak and into the playoffs for the ninth time in his 14 years on the sidelines.
I'll have more on the Redskins run to the postseason and all other week 17 action tomorrow, but today I'm decompressing from a long weekend that included watching the 'Skins clinch a playoff berth in person up in Philly.