The regular season technically kicked off on Thursday with the Giants-Redskins game.  I couldn’t tune in for the kickoff and when I picked up the game, it was 16-7. And that didn’t change for the rest of the game. Not exactly the blockbuster match-up I’d be hoping for as the season opener but hey, it was football. I’m not complaining too much! Especially since I have Brandon Jacobs on my fantasy team. He rushed for 116 yards, though he didn’t score any touchdowns. Stupid Eli Manning. That kid is bound and determined to screw me over, season after season! He couldn’t have handed off to Jacobs for the only TD of the game, could he? No, Eli’s Coming had to run it in for the 1-yard score. And my dislike for him continues to grow, no matter how many Manning brothers commercials they run on TV.

So now’s a good time to mention that I’m playing fantasy football for the first time. I certainly watch enough football, I figured I may as well put that attention span to good use and join a league. My league was supposed to do a live draft (which I pushed for), which then got cancelled, and we then had an auto-draft at 5 in the morning the other day. I wasn’t happy. I got my quarterback in the very last round (round 15) and the computer drafted me Trent Edwards. Really? The computer thinks I wouldn’t have drafted a QB until the very last round? I mean, I know I’m a girl, but even I would have known to draft a QB by, oh I don’t know, the 3rd or 4th round!! Who waits til the last round to draft a QB? Apparently, ESPN’s auto-draft, that’s who. I made a trade for Phil Rivers, since I had about 12 RB’s to deal, and I now have to root for a quarterback that I despise. I know he’s got the question mark of the knee injury but you know, Luis Castillo certainly thought Rivers was brave and who I am to disagree with that?! He’ll be fine. 

So not only does the NFL season really get going in a matter of minutes, but so does my first fantasy football match-up. It’s a big day! Some may say I take these games too seriously, but I say pooh-pooh to that notion. You can never take football too seriously. And if any of my neighbors ask you that question, just back me up because I’m sure they get tired of listening to me yell at my TV. Football baby!! I’m a happy girl.

Let’s start, for proximity’s sake, with the picks made by the Dallas Cowboys. Overall, I’m pleased. I had a feeling they’d take Felix Jones and I’m glad that they didn’t trade up to get Darren McFadden. I know he’ll be an impact player, but the Boys already have Marion Barber and Jones will fill the role that Julius Jones was playing. I also had a suspicion that they’d look to take Mike Jenkins if he were still on the board when they had their second pick. The only thing that taints this pick is knowing that Jenkins will be playing along side Pacman Jones, assuming he’s reinstated. I questioned the Tank Johnson signing and things have seemed to work out so far on that deal. This one though? Whole other ball game. I don’t trust when Jones says he’s learned his lesson. I don’t trust that he’ll stay out of trouble.  The third player they drafted today was Martellus Bennett, the TE out of Texas A&M.  When I first heard his name called, I thought it was odd that they were drafting at that position in the second round, as they have quite a few options to go to. But then I remembered that they struck a deal with Miami to send Akin Ayodele and Anthony Fasano for the second and fourth round picks. And that got me thinking. Where is Jerry Jones’ head?

First he loses Tony Sparano to the Dolphins which, I suppose, is easy enough to defend because you can’t really hold a guy back from an opportunity to be a head coach. But wouldn’t you naturally be suspicious when the man who was coaching your team last year is now the VP of Operations there in Miami and he seems to be systematically stealing your staff and players? Does Jerry really have so little regard for Parcells’ football acumen that he honestly thinks he’s getting the better end of the deal on his stuff? I was impressed with Fasano this season. I think he’s going to grow into a really good player. And to only get two picks for those two players? Something seems strange. With the way Miami drafted today, and the players they’ve acquired this off-season, I honestly think things could be turning around for them. And Henne and Long are Michigan guys so I may just have to start paying attention to the Dolphins!    

For only having two picks in this first day of the draft, I think New England fared pretty well, which is par for the course for that franchise. With their first pick, they got Jerod Mayo, which led to one of my favorite moments of the draft. Chris Berman did his best deadpan when asking what other teams would get flagged for next season. The answer? 15 yards for holding the Mayo…classic. This is why I love Boomer! Everyone has mentioned that New England needs to get younger on defense so I’m not going to point that out. But I think Mayo is a versatile player who will work well in the New England defensive scheme. They also selected Terrance Wheatley who will compete to replace Asante Samuel, which is not a small set of shoes to fill. Ok, well, maybe size-wise they’re small shoes, I mean Samuel isn’t exactly the biggest guy, but still, you get my drift…All in all, it was a rather unremarkable draft for the Pats, but that’s just how they roll, so we’ll just have to wait until the season begins before we can evaluate if they made the right choices.  

A few miscellaneous highlights from Day 1. I was really pleased to see Arizona select Rodgers-Cromartie. I think he’ll be a good player and AZ could use some help on defense. I like Ken Whisenhunt and want to see him succeed. And there seem to be so many good pieces in place for them that I’d loved to see that all gel. There will be a debate raging up until the season begins, and likely well into it, on whether or not Matt Ryan was the right selection for Atlanta. I think Atl couldn’t win with that pick. If they didn’t draft a QB, who are they going to pick up to lead that team? If it wasn’t Matt Ryan, who would be a better fit for that franchise? Brian Brohm? Um, no. And with them drafting a QB to replace Vick, they have no room for error because they already failed once in that department. So really, because that franchise has suffered enough, I’m hoping Ryan pans out. I liked him at BC, I thought the drive he engineered to come back and beat Va Tech was fantastic, and all you hear on him is that he possesses the intangibles needed to win games on the field. I think Baltimore got it right taking Joe Flacco at the 18-spot and good riddance to Brian Brohm in Green Bay. That was maybe my least favorite move of yesterday’s action. He’s no better than Aaron Rogers. So now you’ve got two so-so QB’s vying to replace a legend. Great move Green Bay. 

And now, the things I didn’t like from yesterday’s coverage. I didn’t like how ESPN essentially ruined the element of surprise on some of these picks. When Matt Ryan was taken, about 2 minutes before the announcement the cameras were focused on him as he was taking a call on his cell phone, then he hung up, hugged his mother (who was tearing up) and hugged his dad. Gee, let’s see, maybe he just saved a bunch of money by switching his car insurance to Geico, but I’m thinking the more realistic answer in that case is that the Falcons called and said they were taking him. So then we had to wait another 2 minutes while the analysts pretended to debate who Atlanta was going to take.  And this happened on quite a few occasions. I was already disappointed that we knew who the #1 pick was, even though I was ecstatic that it was a Michigan guy. For ESPN to ruin the picks multiple times was poor. They even managed to do that with players that weren’t sitting in the green room! I would think to retain maximum viewership, you’d hold everyone in suspense as long as possible. But alas… 

I also was nearly blinded by the atrocity that was Keyshawn Johnson’s outfit. It was bad enough that I had to text my best friend to see if he was watching and was as blown away as I was. And the combined verdict was that Keyshawn has lost it. I’m all for pushing the fashion envelope, but that green checked shirt was just bad, no doubts about it. We did however both  enjoy the hostility between Keyshawn and Steve Young. The dislike between the two is palpable and makes for quite an interesting time. Keeps things lively! On a separate note, I am officially hoping that we had a preview to next season’s MNF booth combination with ESPN pairing Tirico and Jaws with Kirk Herbstreit. Don’t know if Herbie would leave college ball to step up to the pros, but I think it would be a great combo. Anything would be an improvement over Kornheiser, but Herbs would really be a good addition. 

Who knows what Day 2 has in store. Mario Manningham is still on the board so I’d like to see where he ends up. We’ll see if the Cowboys pick anyone up to improve their offensive line. Day 2 is never as exciting as Day 1, but at least when the draft is done we can start looking ahead to the new season. It’s definitely going to be a good day! 

That being said, let’s take a look at the playoff games that have been decided. As I write this, San Diego is leading Tennessee in the fourth quarter and it’s beginning to look like the game is over. Even though they apparently can’t block for the NFL’s leading rusher on his team, they’re still winning. Oh wait, that’s right, LaDainian is on our team, maybe we should have him take an active role!

The Seahawks, Jaguars, and Giants are officially moving onto the next round of the playoffs. If San Diego wins today, the Jags will play New England and the Chargers will get Indy. From that standpoint, I hope Tennessee comes back somehow and plays the Pats next weekend. I worry about the Jacksonville match-up against my Patriots. That’s a gritty team and David Garrad has been playing really well (save for the two picks last night). I don’t think Tennessee has what it takes to beat New England, but I could see Jax upsetting them. Truthfully, though, there’s probably not a match-up possible that I wouldn’t be nervous about because playoff football is different than regular football. I’m just glad that Big Ben will be going home. I like Mike Tomlin and would have loved to see him win his first playoff game as a coach but I’m over Big Ben and his reconstructed face. I think he gets too much credit for what is a run-first team’s success.

I was glad to see Tom Coughlin get a win today. I think he’s a good coach and has really done a 180 by all accounts and has earned the respect of his players. I still haven’t given up all hope on Little Manning and I keep thinking that maybe this is the season where he makes the leap. We’ll see…I think Dallas might whoop up on them, but maybe it’s wishful thinking. The G-Men have momentum and Dallas sort of stumbled into the playoffs battling injuries and the malaise that comes from locking up your division at an early stage. If TO is healthy, it certainly is a much greater likelihood that Dallas will come out on top. I’m not thinking Terry Glenn or Sam Hurd will be the ticket to the NFC Championship game.

It’s a disappointment that, of all teams, the Seattle Seahawks were the team that ended Washington’s emotional run to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks are so mediocre that I just can’t ever believe that they were actually in the Super Bowl. They’re not a great defensive team, nor will their offense inspire any confidence. I had admittedly jumped on the Redskins bandwagon after seeing how they rallied following the horrible death of Sean Taylor. That shows their character and it’s telling of Joe Gibbs’ ability to re-focus a team after tragedy. Now, if somehow it had been Redskins-Cowboys in this first game, then ok, maybe I’d be ok with the loss. But the Seahawks? Who even likes them outside of the Pacific Northwest?!

I’m wondering if Antonio Cromartie is part chameleon. Does his jersey color change to the opposing team’s sideline? Because quite a few teams this season have gotten confused and have thrown the ball right to him. Or is he just that good?

Monday night is a big night for me. I’ve got some pride on the line as I did a bowl pick ‘em and it all comes down to whether or not LSU wins and covers. I felt great about that pick when I made it. That was before Michigan played spectacularly against Florida in the Capital One Bowl. The Big Ten never plays against the SEC with that kind of speed! I haven’t liked LSU all season and have been quite critical of the praise that they’ve received. My fear is that they let teams hang around too much and that they will win but won’t cover. Let me just say, I need this win. So, while I will regret that this is in print and I might delete it after the season ends, Geaux Tigers!!

First, we’ll start with Heisman presentation. I knew Tebow would win, and really, he deserves to if you’re awarding the trophy to the best college player, which is how it’s supposed to be decided. Chase Daniels played himself out of contention by losing twice to Oklahoma. Patrick White did the same, losing to Pittsburgh in the final game before the votes were tallied. Now, granted, White was hurt in that game and the loss doesn’t sit squarely on his shoulders; if anything his absence in that game underscores his importance to the team, but the Heisman is not the MVP award. Injury is the same thing that prevented Dennis Dixon from getting more attention. Colt Brennan didn’t really ever seem to stand a chance. It was almost as if the Heisman voters felt badly that they knew Hawaii would get left out of the BCS Championship game so they decided to throw Brennan’s name into contention as a consolation prize. This year’s Heisman was always a contest between Tebow and Darren “Run DMC” McFadden. McFadden would hands-down win the award for best nickname in football, but sadly, that’s not a category in consideration for the Heisman. McFadden will be an excellent running back in the pro’s, despite the knock on him that he runs too vertically, but you can’t ignore Tebow’s touch down numbers, especially when you think about how many of them were rushing touch downs. So he is the victor and has earned a little breathing room. Which, after that speech last night, it sounds like he needs!

Now, onto the college basketball season. In an attempt to fill the void left on Saturday afternoons for me now that college football is on hiatus, I watched a little b-ball. Michigan was playing Duke yesterday and I had hopes that maybe someone had re-wound the time to 1989 when U of M actually had a decent hoops team. Alas, I was sorely disappointed. I remember the announcers yesterday commenting that it was somewhat impressive that Michigan was only 5 points behind Duke, at Cameron Arena, and that was maybe 5 minutes into the game. Then I watched Mich miss about 5 shots in a row, completely fail to rebound on offense or defense, and the lead widened to about 20 points without blinking. At that point, I changed the channel. Looks like the basketball season will be even less kind to U of M than the football season, if that’s even possible. Although, the hoops team does have a coach, which at the moment the football team can’t even say, so they do have the leg up there. 

It’s been reported that LSU has granted Les Miles permission to interview with U of M after the SEC Championship game this weekend. It’s also being said that LSU will hold their own set of talks with Miles to convince him to stay put in Baton Rouge. Personally, I hope he ends up making the move north. With the lack of success that Nick Saban is having at ‘Bama (which I don’t entirely blame on him in his first season) I think it’s become clear that, while Saban is a good coach, maybe he wasn’t the only reason LSU found success. I think Miles could bring some needed passion back into U of M football, though I think anyone could do that after Lloyd Carr. Nothing against Carr, I just think he had lost his spark. Probably stayed on a season too long, maybe two. So reviving the excitement around that program hopefully won’t prove too arduous a task for his successor.

One thing you know Miles learned from watching Saban flounder in the press is that Miles has NOT denied that he’s interested in the Michigan job. Smart man. Judging by the fact that there’s a clause in his current contract that explicitly lists U of M as the one school he cannot leave to go coach lest he want to pay a $1.25 mil buyout, it sounds like LSU must have known that the Michigan job was one that would always be on Miles’ radar.  

On a separate note, I feel the need to reiterate my growing excitement over tonight’s contest between Green Bay and Dallas. As predicted, I have heard countless details about the comparison between Favre and Romo and how everyone respects the hell out of Favre, yada, yada, yada. Enough with the chit chat. I am ready for the game. I think it’s going to be a close, high-scoring game, but I really think Dallas will come out on top. Not because I’m a homer, which I am quickly becoming when it pertains to the Boys, but because I just think Dallas has the better team. I think Marion Barber will have a phenomenal game and I’m betting on at least two touchdowns thrown to TO. Final score? Green Bay 31, Dallas 38. Here’s hoping I’m right!

Today is a day of shame. Today was the contest between Michigan and Ohio State. This is a game we, as U of M fans, live for each year. Don’t get me wrong, the bowl games are great. But the Ohio State game is equally important, maybe more important in a crappy season where you know the bowl bid won’t be a good one. I knew that OSU would be favored this year. Heck, they have been for the last 5 years. But in this type of rivalry, it doesn’t matter how you’ve played all season. You always have a chance. Or maybe not, as the Michigan players seemed to prove today.

It was an ugly game from the beginning. Cold, rainy, and altogether unpleasant looking. Early in the game OSU quarterback Todd Boeckmann dropped the ball with no one even pressuring him so I was hoping maybe the weather would affect them more than it did us. But really neither team could get any offense going. Mike Hart and Chad Henne played, though I can’t help but wonder if Henne hurt their chances of getting a win more than he helped. What absolutely killed the Wolverines though is Mario Manningham’s multiple dropped passes. But I can’t peg the entire loss on him. Michigan’s defense apparently doesn’t realize that when you go to tackle someone, the goal is to bring them down to the ground! They seem to want to just bump their guy and hope he loses his footing and falls. Forget wrapping your arms around a guy and dragging him down to the ground; today the players seemed more concerned with trying to be Bob freakin Sanders and they just wanted to hit their man and hope they stunned him. Note to U of M defenders: you’re not Bob Sanders! That guy knows how to follow through on a tackle. And if he hits you in the middle of the field, you can be darn sure you’ll drop to the ground. So between the defense forgetting their sole purpose on the field and the offense never finding a rhythm, it was a tough game to watch. The final score was 14-3, Ohio State. Hence the reason I feel shame today. I was even heckled as I headed to the movies later in the day, trying to erase the bad memory of the game. Some guy told us he was sorry for what Michigan endured today, then said Go Bucks! as he was walking away. And all I could do was shake my head because he had every right to do that. I freakin’ hate bragging rights when I don’t own them.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s ashamed of today’s outcome. Lloyd Carr has scheduled a press conference for Monday and is expected to announce his retirement. So the speculation will swirl about who his replacement will be. Les Miles? Urban Myer? Perhaps Cam Cameron, who would probably accept a position at Notre Dame rather than staying with the Dolphins. It will remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, LSU won their game, quite handily I might add and Oregon lost theirs. (Note to self…retract your statement in your earlier post where you said Oregon was a better team than LSU) Kansas won, and so did Missouri and as I’m typing this, Oklahoma is getting their butt whooped by Texas Tech, so it looks like the BCS will rank Kansas #2 and Missouri will likely move up to #3. Since those two teams play each other next week, it should be an interesting match up to look forward to. And this hot potato game of contending for the National Championship will continue until the regular season is over. I know the Big Ten won’t represent their conference there, so my support swings to the Big Twelve, since that’s the region I live in. And that leaves me with three words to close this post. Rock. Chalk. Jayhawk, baby. Ok, that was four…

I think this all goes back to the pre-season rankings and the importance placed on them. All of the analysts get together before the season, before a single meaningful snap has occurred, and they rank who they think is going to be good for the upcoming season. I understand that watching teams practice and scrimmage can offer some insight into what they might look like when facing actual opponents. But until the season starts, how can you postulate accurately on who will be good? Look at my beloved Wolverines pre-season ranking. They started the season as the #5 team in the AP rank. As happy as it made me to see that, it looked farcical after the contest with Appalachian State. Even more so after the rout by Oregon…So now Michigan is being punished when compared to other 2-loss teams because they were beaten by an unranked Division I-AA team. I do understand the ramifications of this happening to a traditional powerhouse team like U of M, but if they had started the season at a lower ranking, it probably wouldn’t have quite the impact that it has now. So that leads me to my main contention and that is I’m not sure we should rank college teams, in any ranking system, until at least 6 games into the season.

This is one thing that the BCS gets right. But consider that the BCS formula includes the AP ranking that begins before the season, and once again pre-season rank becomes a factor. Take LSU and Oregon. You could probably land on either side of the fence of the argument over which team is better. My money says Oregon, having watched them both play. LSU has needed last-second victories in too many games for me to believe they’re the #2 team in the country. I suppose this is as appropriate a time as any to state that I believe strongly in margin of victory as a factor in ranking teams. This is one reason why it doesn’t bother me that the Patriots continue to thump their opponents by such a large margin instead of sending in second-string players in the second half. Beating a team by 3 points or 6 points as time is expiring, especially when that team is not ranked, doesn’t impress me. Now, I know, I wrote earlier about the great comeback win that BC engineered over Virginia Tech so you’re probably thinking I sound like a giant hippocrate at this point. But if you re-read that entry, nowhere did I say that BC should have maintained their #2 ranking simply because they won. It took two scores in the final 4 minutes of the game to win but for the first 44 minutes of that contest, BC was dominated. That’s not a hallmark of a #2 team. I’m not saying you can’t trail your opponent at any point in a game and still be considered top-tier, I’m just saying LSU has let too many teams hang around too long for me to give them the edge over Oregon.

I propose that we eliminate pre-season rankings altogether. Let the season start, let the teams start playing their games. Let’s see how they look a few weeks into it. Then, let the BCS formula kick in, and at that point, if the AP ranking is a factor, no biggie. Because the pre-season, artificial ranking has been removed and it’s a clean slate at that point. I just don’t like to see teams have inflated rankings because they were good last season. It’s the same reason I nearly steered my car into on-coming traffic this morning when I heard Phil Simms on Mike and Mike saying that San Diego is one of only a few remaining teams that could challenge Indy or New England. San Diego. Really? The same San Diego that gave up 500+ yards to the Minnesota Vikings? Or maybe the same San Diego that doesn’t remember that LaDainian Tomlinson is one of the greatest players in football right now…They’re a team that could challenge the Pats or the Colts? Pittsburgh I’ll give you. Not San Diego.

Tomorrow I’m going to delve into the Patriots quest for perfection as there is a wealth of discussion occurring on the subject and I feel the need to weigh in.