Redskins lose, blame Taylor

SEATTLE - As the Seahawks ran back their second fourth quarter interception for the coup d' grace touchdown, Clinton Portis stared up at the scoreboard at what would be the final score: 35-14.

"Twenty-one points," he said. "What a huge F-U from Sean Taylor."

Yes, just as the Redskins credited Taylor with four straight wins to propel them to the post-season, they also blamed him for their loss last night to the Seahawks.

Reached for comment in Heaven, Taylor's immortal soul just shrugged.

"Truthfully, up here? Football ain't no big thing," Taylor said, strumming a harp and adjusting his halo. "Actually I'd totally forgotten about the game. I was just chilling with Tupac and Mozart, smoking some blunts, and Mo was like, 'Yo, click over to the football game.'

"It was 13-0 and I was like, 'I can't be having this.' So I helped out a little, gave them two touchdowns in like two minutes, and set up Shaun (Suisham) for the game-winning figgie. I can't help it if he can't hit one from 30 yards out, man. I'm just a new angel up here, I don't have that kind of juice yet. Now, Moses? Three points, for sure. But he's more of a baseball fan."

Win some, lose some...

Herm Edwards screws the Jets again!

The Jets tried their hardest to lose a stinker of a game on Sunday, but Herm, God bless 'em, tried harder. The Jets even had a holding penalty on the game-winning field goal to force a re-kick, and Herm calls a time-out to "ice the kicker"... as if Mike Nugent wasn't iced enough by celebrating a game-winning kick, only to be told he'd have to try it again from 10 yards further away.

If the Jets had lost yesterday, they'd be 3-13, tied with St. Louis for the league's second-worst record. That would have given them the third pick in the draft (because St. Louis had the same record, but against a weaker strength of schedule). Instead, they'll pick sixth. Dolphins, Rams, then a coin flip to determine Falcons-Raiders-Chiefs, then the Jets at No. 6. The Chiefs, if they had won, would have a coin flip to determine if they pick 7th or 8th, instead of 3rd, 4th or 5th.

The Jets have so many needs that they'll be able to get a useful player with the sixth pick, but still, you have to wonder if Eric Mangini didn't tell Nugent during the time out, "You know, wide right sounds pretty good right now..."

I really don't follow college football so I don't know who will be there at No. 3 and who will be there at No. 6.

Looking at various mock drafts, the No. 1 pick is almost always DT Glenn Dorsey from LSU; the second pick is usually RB Darren McFadden from Arkansas; and the third pick is often OT Jake Long from USC. After those three, there's Howie Long's kid (DE Chris Long of Virginia), a couple QBs (Brian Brohm, Matt Ryan) and a couple OTs (Sam Baker, Ryan Clady). Obviously you can get a very good or even a great player at the No. 6 pick, but it seems the drop-off in talent happens right after the third pick.

It's just bad luck that the Jets are picking third rather than sixth. I mean, you can't lose on purpose... right, Herm?

Well, that sucked

Last year, the Packers beat the Bears on New Year's Eve and I felt good about it. Yesterday, the Bears beat the Packers and I don't feel bad about it.

Last year's win was meaningless in the big scheme of things -- no matter what happened, the Bears had clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and the Packers had been eliminated from the post-season. But at the time we all thought it was Brett Favre's last game, so it was nice to see him go out a winner. It was nice to finish the season 8-8. And it is always nice to beat the Bears.

Yesterday's loss actually did matter, or at least, could matter. The loss means the Packers can't catch the Cowboys for the No. 1 seed, so if they make it to the NFC Championship game, we'll have to face them in Dallas. Ugh. Of course I'd rather be the No. 1 seed, but at least we now know we can rest everybody next week and we still get the bye. So while I'm not happy we lost, I'm not crying about it either. The Bear fans can celebrate their sweep of the Packers while we're preparing for the playoffs.

Speaking of which... As it stands now, the No. 6 seed will be the Redskins if they beat the Cowboys next week. If they lose, the Vikings are in with a win over Denver. If both lose and the Saints win, New Orleans is in -- but if all three lose, the Redskins are in.

The Giants have locked up the No. 5 seed, the Bucs are the No. 4 seed and Seattle is No. 3. So the sixth-place team -- let's say the Redskins -- will play the Seahawks, while Tampa Bay plays the Giants. If the favorites win, we get to welcome home Mike Holmgren while the Bucs get the Cowboys. Now that they're out of the Packers' division, I don't know much about the Bucs these days, but I'll be cheering like hell for them next month. Jeff Garcia to Joey Galloway! Hoo baby.

I don't care about George Mitchell

I don't care about George Mitchell. I don't care about the Mitchell Report (PDF Download). I don't care about steroids and I don't care who used them and when. I don't care that Andy Pettitte used HGH and I don't care that Brendan Donnelly hasn't slept since the report's release. I don't care.

There really isn't anything I am going to hear that will surprise me when it comes to performance enhancing drugs. I know doping happens. I know it is widespread and I am certain it will continue. There is too much at stake for it not to. The middling player will always try to gain an advantage to get ahead. This is why a LOT of the names linked to doping are guys you probably aren't familiar with unless you follow baseball very closely. They are guys that were clawing and scratching for any advantage they could find to either make the big leagues or stay in the big leagues.

Why?

It is really a very simple equation and can be traced very neatly back to the basic economic principle of supply and demand. Each major league baseball team has 25 major league roster spots and that is all. In order to qualify for one of these roster spots you have to be special. You have to be able to throw the ball faster than 99.9% of the global population or hit a ball harder than 99.9% of the global population or be faster, or throw farther, or be able to strike out a left handed batter in a crucial spot with your crafty veteran guile. You have to be special. Many players who make the major leagues have done very little but play baseball their entire lives. When finally reaching the pinnacle of their life's work it is very possible they will find they cannot cut it at the highest level. Then what happens? Desperation. Desperate people clinging to dreams of greatness or aging greats clinging to their years of glory will take whatever measures they can, legal or otherwise to stay in the game.

In some ways it is sad to see. In some ways it is the inevitable spawn of a business that takes in billions in revenue every year. Money drives behavior in our world and a lot of that behavior isn't good.

I also hate the hypocrisy that is found between baseball and football. Football has always had a "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'," attitude towards performance enhancers. Baseball is supposed to be above the same kind of behavior? Kind of a silly argument. I don't remember ever seeing Paul Tagliabue or Roger Goodell in front of a congressional subcommittee.

All that was achieved by the Mitchell Report was to catalog something that isn't terribly important and the report truly changes nothing. I was a huge baseball fan before the Mitchell Report, I am a huge baseball fan now, and I will be a huge baseball fan in the future. I believe most baseball fans would say the same.

D. Isaac

Thank you Philadelphia!

For the first time since 4th and 26, I can enjoy Philadelphia Cream Cheese again.

The Eagles pulled off the upset and beat the Cowboys today, and that, coupled with the Packers beating the Rams, ties the two top teams in the NFC at 12-2. Today's win clinched a first-round bye for the Pack; the Cowboys loss means we still have a shot at home-field throughout.

Yeah, by virtue of their ref-aided win against the Pack, the Cowboys have the tiebreaker, so they control their own destiny. We play at the Bears and home against the Lions, while they're at Carolina (on Saturday night) and at Washington.

We shouldn't need any motivation for a game against the Bears, but the Packers should come out flying after they beat us at Lambeau earlier this year. And imagine how fired up the Packers will be on Sunday afternoon if the Cowboys lose against the Panthers the night before?

The good news is we have a shot at home field throughout, which, after watching the debacle in Texas Stadium a couple weeks ago, can't be underestimated. The bad news is we can't rest anybody next week. But hey, that's what the bye week is for.

Despite the final score (33-14) and the accolades for Brett Favre breaking Dan Marino's yardage record, this game was pretty close until about midway through the third quarter, when Favre hit Greg Jennings for a big TD to make it 27-14.

Steven Jackson had a huge game. A couple times I did the fist pump after seeing him get tackled after "only" five or six yards. Marc Bulger also had a better game than it would look in the boxscore, as both his INTs to Atari Bigby were flukey tipped balls. Don't get me wrong, the Packers should have won the game, but it wasn't your usual 33-14 laugher.

So onto next week. Bring on the Bears!

Better luck next time?

I and every true Packer fan woke up this morning with a sore right elbow. Sympathy pains for Brett Favre? Yes, but mostly from throwing the remote at the referees on TV. I'm going to spend the next hour watching Animal Planet and rooting against the zebras.



I can't completely blame the refs, nor the injuries - Favre, Charles Woodson, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila - but obviously both were factors. The game-calling in those first 20 minutes was atrocious, especially when you see how well the dinking-and-dunking was working later in the game. And why did we decide we couldn't run against the Cowboys, even when they were dropping five guys back into coverage? Every play-action, Ryan Grant runs untouched while Favre heaves into double coverage. It didn't make any sense. Not going for it on fourth-and-inches in the fourth quarter also was a dumb call. Yeah, Mason Crosby kicked the figgie and we needed two scores, but I would've gone for it.

But the refs blew three huge calls. Al Harris stripping the ball from Terrell Owens, but no, it was uh... huh. The horrible spot in the fourth quarter that led to the field goal - it appeared Grant had the first down. And the ridiculous pass interference call when Miles Austin whined and whined until a flag came out 30 seconds - literally, if you didn't see the game - after the play ended. All were terrible calls. If just one of them goes our way, maybe the outcome is different.

I guess the news with Favre is as good as we could have hoped - he expects to be back for their next game, which isn't until Dec. 9. As for Woodson and KGB, I expected them to play last night, so who knows.

Worst of all it almost guarantees we'll be back in Dallas for the NFC championship. We have four games left - home against Oakland, at St. Louis, at Chicago, home against Detroit. We could (should?) go 4-0 against that slate, which leaves us at 14-2. But the Cowboys are at Detroit, home against Philadelphia, at Carolina, at Washington. They too could run the table. But maybe they lose one - that still leaves us tied, with the Cowboys holding the tiebreaker. So we need to win out and have the Cowboys go 2-2. Possible, but not probable.

I guess I have to be a Lions fan next week...



Wow, two lions videos in one post. Maybe it's a good sign for Detroit!

Will the status quo be good enough?

The Yankees are putting the band back together.



I was hoping for two out of the big three - Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada - and they got all three. And Andy Pettitte is still flirting with retirement, but he might be back, too. For all the talk after the Cleveland series about the end of the dynasty (which has been pronounced "ended" every year since 2001), the 2008 Yankees may be the same team as the 2007 Yankees.

Guys like Steve Phillips like to say that's not good enough. The Yankees can't be as good as they were last year -- they have to be better. Because, after all, they didn't win the World Series last year, so they have to try to be better, right? (Yes, these are the same guys who say every year that the Yankees are stupid for thinking they can win the World Series every year.)

But which 2007 Yankees will these 2008 Yankees be? The first half of 2007, when their Opening Day starter was Carl Pavano, and when the rest of the rotation was whoever could make the next train from Scranton?

Apparently Phillips thinks the Yankees will tie the Major League record they set last year by using 10 different starters (six of them rookies) in their first 30 games.

Let's remember: At the end of May, 22-29. At the end of September, 94-68. That's 72-39 -- a .649 winning percentage. Over a full season, that's 105 wins.

The same team, but with a better manager, a full year of Joba and Hughes, and a reasonable, non-record setting number of injuries? I'll take the status quo.

All I ask is a decent lefty in the 'pen... and better bug spray.