Be Excellent To Each Other

rick, note to self: you don't know squad about american football, don't do predictions..

Whoops, both top seeds fall down, go boom. I bet the the Packers fans watched the Pack O destroying Atlanta and thought 'thank fuck we let that Wrangler wearin', Mower ridin', interception throwin', penis textin' old son of a gun go'.

In other news: Wow. Didn't see that coming.

I'd like to say that was fun, but it really really wasn't. It was pretty much unrelenting agony from the first minute to the last. On the other hand, it was the single best Jet performance of the Rex Ryan era, and in the conversation (alongside the Divisional Round shellacking of the Colts a few years back) for the single best game I've ever seen the team play. So there's that.

At the beginning, I thought we'd rue David Harris not having the sense to angle his interception runback toward the sideline, and the subsequent missed FG. At the end, I thought we might rue Shonn Greene not having the sense to take a knee at the 1. Drives repeatedly stalling just outside FG range were a major worry. But other than that they barely put a foot wrong. Awesome, awesome stuff. For the second week in a row Rex Ryan resisted the urge to blitz, played coverage and let the outstanding secondary do its job against a receiving corps it didn't match up with particularly well. The way he managed the 4th quarter was perfect - realising the clock was the Jets' best defender so not trying to be a hero and not allowing the safeties to get sucked up to the line of scrimmage as the Patriots ran and passed short to grind up the field. Brian Schottenheimer only called one play all day that made me want to punch him in the cock, which might be partly due to the fact that Brad Smith was injured but I'll take what I can get. Sanchez isn't a great quarterback by any means but he had two awesome throws and did a great job of giving his playmakers a chance to show their stuff - LDT's nous, Cotchery's nose for the first-down line and outstanding broken-field running, Braylon Edwards' size and strength and Holmes' amazing field awareness and body control.

That was a good old-fashioned top-to-bottom arse-kicking and no matter what happens now (which for the record will probably be Pittsburgh winning the Soup Bowl followed by this Jets team being broken up by age and free agency) that game has pretty much put me all-in on Rex Ryan. Before last week I suspected that he was just an overrated blowhard who couldn't get away from that bombs-away defensive style that was always going to get sussed out by quality offences. Turns out he's a blowhard who can actually coach. I'll take that.

In summary then: fuck you, Wes Welker.

Even though I had to follow pbp, I loved the Steelers-Ravens match. First time my boys have conceded 21 in the first half and then won, in playoffs. Jets won?! Damn. Have to delete my hate-filled Pats rant now.

Highlights of this week's games on BBC 2 right now. Bloody confusing all of this channel 4 to ESPN to BBC rubbish. We need proper coverage in this country!

espn america...

Pittsburgh vs Green Bay in Dallas for the Superbowl.

Come on Packers, you can't let the Steelers win another one.

Agreed!

Yay - No Jets.

Boo - Steelers.

Thankfully, the Packers do seem to be rather competent.

yay, classic franchises! 1933-1919!

Can I just say "yay"

And go to sleep.

Awesome game.

The Vile Steelers have been defeated by themselves.














Har-Har.

I like to think that the Steelers were defeated by Roethlisbergers dodgy facial hair.
It'd certainly put me off if I had that on my face.

Seriously, it looked like a tramp had found his way onto the field.

Had a bet in week 4 that the Steelers would win the Soup Bowl at 11-1. Laid it off just before the AFC Championship Game. Quite pleased with myself this morning.

so you could cash in a bit after afc by stopping the bit?

nice game, saw the highlights on packers.com , pleased with the small town team win..

Oh, wasn't the half time show rubbish? Visually impressive, but they always are. And its not because I don't really like the Black Eye Peas, I don't really like Springsteen, McCartney or Prince, and they knocked it out of the park. (And I do like The Who, and they were terrible last year)

I had a cheeky bet on Hines Ward's performance last night and walked away with a £50 profit. Yay for winning money.


I thought it was pretty good, but then again, I worship Slash. I could cope with Fergie butchering "Sweet Child o mine" as I was too busy laughing at Slash pointedly looking at her arse the entire time he was on stage.

Fergie hasn't aged well, at all. Jesus.

It was beyond terrible.

I just wished they'd have found a key, and stuck with it. Prefereably one that features in the actual song, but whatever, anythings better than that.


Other points from the game:
Doesn't A.J. Hawk just look like a linebacker? He could walk off the field and straight into Dumb American College Comedy #203, and fit right in.

One of the most expensive stadiums in the world! Shame the field absolutely sucks. It would have got MVP if the Steelers had won.

Both teams were very average on the night. I'm surprised that Green Bay just chucked the towel in on the running game. Some draws or pitches could have been effective with the Steelers aggressive D. Oh, and screens. I was expecting a bubble screen to go for a big play. All the short throws Rodgers made were check downs.

It also amuses me that Aguileras bone crunchingly awful rendition of the national anthem is the No1 bit if news due to her getting it wrong.

You are bizarro-me!

Apparently Christina Aguilera got the words to the national anthem wrong.

it's also quite astonishing.. how many time does the average american have to listen to it every week.. all sports games.. school beginnings.....

they had a fun madden curse unveiling at sports nation this morning (vick v peyton)

and that lockout, eh.. what do you make of it?

...Oh and the Draft is tonight. ESPN if you've got it.

Predictions: Bills pick a load of stinkers again.

I'm predicting the Giants will have another mediocre year.

The Bungles have drafted top WR, AJ Green. Undoubtedly, this means Chad Ochocinco will be leaving. I think I'm going to cry.

In other news, the Browns have traded picks sensibly and the Falcons have gone mad.

ochocinco is an association football player these days, isn't he

interesting how the draft was all QB's cam newton first overall

Aye. I think that much was obvious from his Twitter account, which in the fw days prior to the draft was him repeatedly asking the Bengals to draft Green so he could leave!

I shall miss him, but hopefully he can be traded for something useful, like a decent running back, an O line that can provide coverage and holes for said RB, or a replacement for Arsehat Palmer.

Well, that was an utterly confusing preseason, but the new season has started and things appear to be business as usual. I'm watching last night's Green Bay - New Orleans game and both sides look awesome on the offense. Aaron Rodgers just looks unstoppable. Oh, and the new kickoff rules seen a bit crap.

Prediction Time then:

Super Bowl winners: Patriots
Runners Up: Eagles
Breakout Team : Lions
Most likely to go 0-16: My silly Bungles

It'll be amazing if he goes to a team where someone already wears 85.

-edit- hah, whoops. Looks like that was an old post. He's gone to the Patriots.

One of the Patriot's young tight ends had the number '85, but after Chad gave a bunch of money to charity he gave the number up. It'll be interesting to see how Ocho fits in there - will he give up his silly diva ways in pursuit of the Super Bowl?

Who needs ya, Chad?

Bengals are 1-0, baby!

Superbowl here we come!

So confident. Especially as we're talking about a victory over the BROWNS.

Shock of the first weekend: Not Houston beating Indy, but the Bills destroying Kansas City. Either the Bills got good or the Chiefs got terrible.

I have no false expectations over the Bengals. Anything above 1-15 is a bonus.

I have mixed reactions to the first weeks results. My bets for this season are the Lions, Chiefs and Bungles. Lions were very impressive in beating Tampa - if Stafford can stay fit, they'll make the playoffs hopefully. Chiefs look abysmal so that money is down the drain. Bungles winning is great, but I can't see them winning much more even if their schedule is piss easy.

It does appear as if Green Bay and New England will take some stopping though. Over 500 yards for Tom Brady

lions would eventually start winning some games eh.. like green bay a lot.. cracking game that..

Okay... its clearly one of those seasons. Already.

Indy are really bad, aren't they?

Shockingly poor. They are a one man team and he is broken.

Did anyone else see Tebow come on for Denver? They thought he was coming on to replace Kyle Orton so the crowd went mental but then they realised he was coming on as an emergency receiver and they quickly shut up

But the Bungles still managed to lose despite impressive performances from the rookies Green and Dalton

Yeah, Denver were down to two healthy recievers.

As to Indy, I think they're screwed, They've built their team around Manning. They haven't had a decent running game for years, their line is not built to run block. Indy runs the ball to keep the opponents honest, usually. Manning's deep threat is gone. Teams will be running man schemes, and dare Collins to throw it deep. On the other side of the ball, the Indy run defense has been gradually getting worse every season. Their degensive plan has usually been 'get a couple of scores, force the other team to get into a shootout with us, let our quick pass defense make plays'.

Holy crap, Death has finally made Al Davis' death stick.

WHO DEY!

It's amazing, isn't it? I love my Bungles and I thought they'd be awful this year but a 3-2 start with the rookies Dalton and Green looking like veterans and THE NO. 1 DEFENSE in the league... I can't wait to see the big battles with Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

saw saints-panthers this year.. great game, with a good cam newton and luckily a saints win..

On my way back from Wembley. That was a rather entertaining game.

Feel a bit sorry for the losers, mind.