Tag Archives: nfl week 17

One game left…

One game to go in the regular season, and it’s pretty important for the Chargers. While their seeding is set (they’re #3 by virtue of their defeating the Raiders today), it’s unclear who they’re going to see in their playoff game next weekend. Whoever they see won’t make it easy.

If the Titans beat the Colts tonight — a real possibility, as Indy has nothing to really play for in terms of seeding — then they travel to San Diego to see the Chargers. You might recall a few weeks ago the Chargers needed a furious comeback and a LaDainian Tomlinson score in overtime to escape the Titans. However, the Chargers of late have realigned themselves and began playing the kind of furious defense that they were known for last year. They’ve also started involving Tomlinson, the newly-crowned NFL rushing champ, in the offense again, something that utterly failed to happen in the first few weeks of the season. I think the Chargers can win this rematch, but it won’t be easy. Titans coach Jeff Fisher knows what it takes to get a team ready to drive far in the playoffs and to a Super Bowl.

The Chargers would need to really rely on their defense to come through if they end up getting the Browns — they’ve got a pretty furious offense. Derek Anderson has been surprisingly good this year (except in the would-have-been clincher against Cincinnati last week). Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow are both legitimate receiving threats, and Jamal Lewis is running the ball as well as he has in his career. Cleveland’s also given up 382 points this year, so their defense is suspect…that would be a pretty high-scoring affair, and I get the feeling with the way the Charger defense is playing, Derek Anderson would have some issues.

The Titans are on now…we’ll know before the day is out.

16-0

The New England Patriots have just completed the first undefeated 16-game regular season in NFL history. The Giants gave ‘em a game for the first half, but the Patriots pulled away and really won it in the way that they do it — aggressive, always attacking, never relenting. Unbelievable. The Patriots won by forcing mistakes, like they have all year.

Unbelievable. Time will tell if they make it through the playoffs, but Brady is unflappable…it will take a titanic effort to topple the Patriots in the playoffs. But the AFC is an unbelievable conference — you never know. Any given Sunday (or Saturday), anything can happen.

But tonight is historic. I recorded it — glad I did. Amazing.

P.S. A note about the Giants: they came out and played a very aggressive first half, pressuring Brady and not making it easy for him. Eli Manning played some of his best football of the year. But where did it go wrong in the second half? What is it about the Patriots that brings about ridiculously bad clock management in NFC East teams? How do you burn almost a minute trying to get your guys to the line in the two minute drill? Those little things separate the wheat from the chaff. They won’t go far at all with a disaster like that when it counts. Expect Tom Coughlin to really ram the two-minute drill down his players’ throats as they prepare for their wild card game next weekend.

Rainy days are here again

248nm Reflectivity KCHS

It’s nice to finally get some rain around here for a change. We need whatever we can get. The green and orange blobs — if they hold together (which doesn’t always happen) — will definitely soak us for a bit. And that’s OK — it’s more of an excuse to stay in and code and do stuff. :) Continue reading →

Another late night on the Internet(s)…

You know, with my return to work just a few short days away (Tuesday, to be exact), I really should be working on getting my sleeping patterns in better alignment. However, with New Years’ tomorrow night, perhaps this will work out to perfection. Tough to say. I’m still debating on what to do. I’m leaning toward the walking to a random bar thing though. At least it’d be something out of the house for a change.

In any event, last night was the night of bullet points. Tonight, paragraph-sized blurbs, sans bullet points, but with bolded subject headings in all caps.

FOOTBALL: So Week 17 has arrived, and the Giants, for all intents and purposes, are in the playoffs. Three NFC East teams in the playoffs…pretty amazing how that all went down. Wow, the NFC is a terrible conference. With this in mind, the Panthers need to start Brett Basanez tomorrow, though it appears Jake Delhomme is healthy and will go. Meh. Low-impact game in New Orleans. It’s interesting; if the Panthers lose tomorrow, this will mean that in every even year of the John Fox Era (2002, 2004, 2006) they will have gone 7-9. Every odd year brings at least an NFC Championship appearance. So, by virtue of mere year numbering, things are looking up in Carolina next season. :)

I fully anticipate the Chargers finishing their season 14-2 with a win over Arizona tomorrow. Then again, the Cardinals have actually started to put together something resembling decent football, though this week they’ll be without Leinart. I hope Marty leaves the starters in — maybe play LT a little less in favor of Michael Turner (this may be blasphemy, but letting LT have half the game off in favor of Michael Turner doesn’t really take that much away from the Charger offense — Turner is a fantastic runner in his own right and would be a starter on over 3/4s of the teams in the NFL) — but he needs to give Philip Rivers time to tune himself up for the playoffs. He certainly could use it, though the comeback win in Seattle was more than encouraging.

One random college football thought: Tommy Bowden hasn’t been fired yet? LOL.

PERSONAL WEEK OFF REFLECTION, ETC: It’s been nice to have a week off, though I’ve felt kinda crappy for most of it. Maybe it’s the whole being sedentary and wandering around the house thing. Who knows. It’s been a nice break though. I’d like to think I actually accomplished a few good things, especially with rearranging the room. I really do like it better, but there is one thing that is blowing my mind: My Bluetooth mouse has not performed very well on this side of the room. In fact, I relocated the receiver to the monitor which has made it better but there is still some interference over here that is nuts. I’m tempted to get an RF meter to see what’s going on, though that’d be one expensive tool (though it may be worth it in the future as well).

One thing that didn’t happen was the relocation of the Nightwind server to my room in favor of Healer running the weather station, but that will be postponed indefinitely as I continue to work out the power situation. I also need to change the light bulb of the overhead light. Not having the overhead light is — wait for it — low value. Though I will say this: I hate replacing overhead lights that are extremely high up. First, I have a thing about ladders — not a big fan. Second, this is one of those glass things I have to carefully rotate off, and yeah…ugh. That’s going to be fun.

MOVIES I WILL CLAIM TO BUY IMMEDIATELY BUT NEVER GET AROUND TO DOING SO: Snakes on a Plane comes out on DVD January 2. I never saw it in the theater, so I totally missed out on the cult aspect of it. I’ll still probably get it, though — just not on January 2nd. I’m not sure when I will — depends on when my impulses find Amazon. :)

COMING UP: I’ll be working on a “2007 Predictions” post of some kind to be scheduled for later on today, I think. That could very well close out the blogging of 2006, though!

Catch you all later…

J