Thursday Morning Mahatma

Helping a president elect get elected has been indeed a trying time for this big time advertising executive so the recent entries of TMM have been limited. Actually, I've just been lazy.

No matter, due to popular demand, your favorite football column is back and better than ever. Actually, no. It’s still going to be the same blowhard-filled, grammatically incorrect, fairly obvious rants about this past week of football but it's the thought that counts.

Let’s start off with the Lucky 13 power rankings.

1. New York Giants (7-1). The only worry you have to have as a Gint fan is that they are playing this well in early November.

2. Tennessee (8-0). The win over Green Bay further emphasizes that this team’s “try to win it in the 4th Quarter” is a recipe for eventual disaster.

3. Carolina (6-2). The quietest 6-2 team of all time?

4. Pittsburgh (6-2). For a 6-2 team, they look really shitty sometimes.

5. Washington (6-3). Jason Campbell got owned.

6. Tampa Bay (6-3). Are they really good to overcome a 21 point deficit on the road or is Kansas City really that awful?

7. Philadelphia (5-3). A very quiet 5-3 and still in the thick of things.

8. Baltimore (5-3). I’ve blasted this team many times and will continue to do so but coming back down 14 with a rookie QB and running back is indeed impressive. Derek Anderson not so much.

9. Atlanta (5-3). They aren’t a playoff team are they?

10. New England (5-3). Still hanging around despite loss to Colts.

11. Arizona (5-3). Already won the NFC West by default.

12. Chicago (5-3). Impressive comeback of the week Part III.

13. New York Jets (5-3). Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve. Farve.

Random Thoughts on Week 9:

Good to see Joey Porter continuing to woof. Joey is entering the twilight of his career. WHAT? He has 11.5 sacks to lead the league so how can he be nearing an end? Well like all of these 30+ year old stars always have a sort of last hoorah (see – Jamal Lewis last year) before they revert back to old man form. Porter for the past two seasons has been the guy getting solo blocked by 215 lb running backs. When he returns to his 7.5 sack form don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Good to see Antonio Bryant turn his career around. Bryant was a special player at Pitt but never seemed to have a worthy enough QB. In the pros, It’s been Bryant who hasn’t been worthy enough but at least he gets it now unlike WVU ‘s own Piss Henry.

Good to see QBs being used as receivers in back to back weeks. I wonder why teams than complain that they have no QBs. Perhaps there are fewer receivers?

The Brady Quinn fiasco is one of the more amusing things to happen in some time. Over the past couple of weeks, Derek Anderson has come back to playing somewhat respectable football. The problem for him is that he is purely the epitome of the Browns struggles. Winslow has been a problem, their star receiver leads the leagues in drops, their number 2 receiver hasn't played in 5 games, their number 3 is on IR, their running back was old two years ago. Anderson may not have been playing great, but it's not like he's been the only problem. If Braylon Edwards doesn't drop that long bomb, then Derek Anderson's numbers against Baltimore would have been: 18-for-33, 300 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT, 27 points on the scoreboard. Is it really that bad against the Baltimore Ravens?

My other issue with this is why have Brady Quinn start now on a short week. Quinn is the QB of the future and all but wouldn’t say next week probably be better for all of this? Although, with the way the Broncos defense has played, you might assume that maybe starting against a shitty defense won’t be all bad after all.

It’s good to see Daunte Culpepper back in the league but signing with Detroit might be one of the dumber ideas one to have.



In the Titans beating the Packers, there is one thing to remain optimistic about for teams playing that defense. Ryan Grant, who has blown horse chunks stats wise this season, had a fairly respectable day rushing the football avg. 4.3 yards per carry. That’s not bad especially against that monster flaming thumbtack defense.

The NFC West continues to be the joke of the league. When oh when will the teams in it be somewhat talented. Every year one is average and the other three are HORRIBLE.

Lastly, I was thinking about this the other day. We can definitely say that this league is a defensive league. Often times, teams only score points because their defense is (see- Titans, Ravens, Steelers, etc.) Teams are moving away from the risk taking and now relying on ball control. What gives? Dominant offenses were fairly common even a few years ago but are there any dominant offense around now? Talent wise you could say Dallas, Giants, Colts can make it happen but right now there isn't an offense out there that can beat these far more dominant defenses now. Should teams, instead of trying to be all Colts like, maybe take a page of some of the 3 yards and a cloud of dust teams from the past. What would Bill Cowhard say in a time like this? Oh right, It’s a fine line.

Weekly Complaint From the Media of the Week:

Yahoo.com

“The Ravens (5-3) creeped to within half a game of AFC South-leading Pittsburgh (pending Monday night’s game at Washington) by running off 24 consecutive points in the final 16 minutes of a 37-27 comeback triumph over the Browns,”

Doesn’t this guy have an editor? Let alone a compass or global atlas? Pittsburgh/Baltimore aren’t in the South there Mujumbo.

Enjoy that top 10 pick of the week:
Adios to the Jacksonville Jagoffs. You figure losing to Cleveland was/is an aberration but then to turn that around and to lose to Cincinnati with Ryan Fitzpatrick? The one dimensional nature of that offense is rearing its ugly head and David Garrard is proving not able to handle the task. Fred Taylor is also officially done. The Jags allowed three sacks to the Bungs that couldn’t even sack the Steelers two weeks ago. Moreover, they only sacked Ryan Fitzpatrick once as he continues evade their pass rush. You also made Cedric Benson look good again. Injuries are only part of the story and can’t be a valid excuse when you have teams less healthy than you are beating teams they are supposed to be.




Douchebag of the week:
Jabar Gaffney – quite the Gaff indeed.

You just got to feel bad for…:
Raider fans. You know things are bad when your fans cheer after you make your first, first down – in the third quarter.



Grasping at straws of the week:
"We still have seven games left. We can still end up at 8-8," Palmer said. "You never know what can happen in this league. I've only been in it for six years, but strange things happen. You can't say right now that one team can or can't make the playoffs. You could find a way to slip into a wild-card spot at 8-8. I'm not going to say it's going to happen, but I'm not going to say it's not going to happen. So all I can do is to continue to rehab and get as healthy as possible."

Ah nothing like the monthly moronic Palmer statement.



College Football games that I'm interested in:
Thursday has TCU vs. Utah but really that’s not a sexy matchup in the least. Both teams are ranked but this is more an audition for the insight.com bowl rather than a BCS bowl ...still Utah might get in there.

Alabama @ LSU could be interesting but LSU doesn’t have a good QB and the Tide are beasts.

Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma State on Saturday night which could be very interesting to see how the Raiders do when they are the hunted. I think they’ll hang on.

Cal goes to USC to face the Trojans also on Saturday night. The condoms need to get some help if they want a national title but they should still win the Pac-10.