He Who Laughs With More Superbowl Rings, Laughs Last

Mike Reiss came out swinging in defense of Brady as the better pressure QB. I guess I totally missed Dungy's comment about how he'd rather have Peyton in any situation, particularly a drive down the field in the 4th quarter.

How are those SB rings looking there, Dungy? Oh wait, you only got one? Could that be because your QB was one of the great chokers of our generation?

Seriously. Great end. Great game. Geaux Saints!

Articles that I'm just not even going to bother to read

Peyton Manning's Case for Being the Best Ever.

So you can't have it both ways. Either the ring is the thing, in which case Tom Brady is the best QB of this generation. Or the regular season performance is pivotal, in which case the 2007 Patriots are the best team of this generation.

In other words, the Pats are still #1, no matter which way you choose to cut it.

We're at the very start of the first. I'm liking the Saints' zest. GEAUX SAINTS!

And so it begins: Colts vs. Pats, Indy coverage

The IndyStar ran a story today about who is the better QB, Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. How this is even a contest, I don't know (also, how Tom Brady is only getting 13% of the vote, I don't know, but just wait until crazed New England fans uncover this story). They included lots of pretty stats, which are given in the attached photo. Here is my favorite comment so far:

'I'd MUCH rather have Brady and I'm a Colts fan! Did you catch Peyton's scared act yesterday? Two times it showed me he wouldn't do the little extras that a multiple super bowl winning QB needs to do. So many times over the years he could scramble and get the extra yards we need, but he's scared to take a hit. He looks like a scared kid when someone is about to touch him. Cases in point in the game against Houston: 1) He throws an interception and has a chance to get in front of a player and at least slow him down, if not make the tackle. Payton does his best impression of a matador and jumps out of the way at the last second. That could have cost. Second point - key drive late in the game, Peyton is flushed out of the pocket and gets scared and goes down rather than cut the ball up field and get us the crucial 2 yards we needed tha could have salted away the game. There is a reason Manning has only one Super Bowl ring and Brady has multiples and you saw why yesterday.'

(14-3 record in the playoffs....that is insane)

There was one stat missing:

SUPERBOWL RINGS: Brady 3, Manning 1.

Also, I know I'm biased and all, but is Peyton looking especially ugly in that graphic?

'Hater Nation' picks Patriots

Now, I am probably going to like any article entitled, 'Gomer Manning is a Piece of Crap,' in which the gents over at 'The Hater Nation' point out that Peyton Manning is the true score-runner-upper. But keep reading, because they also predict that the Superbowl will come down to Saints versus Patriots. This is not an impossible match-up and we will see what happens. But it's nice to see that we're still in contention near the half-way point of the season.

Delcarmen, what happened?

Manny just gave up another four runs tonight. That effectively blew the lead, although Bard was useful in finishing that off. The Red Sox had a 6-0 lead after the top of the third. They are now in the 7th, and the Royals are ahead 11-9.

I'm still not convinced that Bard is ready for prime time.

And Manny, I was on your side before! What happened?

PS - To ESPN: a big old EW for that Peyton Manning montage I just had to watch.

Take note, Colts fans

So ESPN, an organization that I don't care for, is making an all-decade team for football. I turn it over to Reiss:

"Today, the All-Decade offensive team is unveiled and the lone Patriot is quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady's three Super Bowl championships gave him the edge over Peyton Manning by ESPN.com decision-makers."

The ring, indeed, is the thing. And shows the better QB.

Why are you talking? Why? Why?

Apparently, all is not well in Colts Land. There are some difficulties in the transition from the Tony Dungy regime to now, including the fact that two of their coaches have retired. Of course, that is a great occasion for Peyton to go whining to the media:

“Somebody says one thing, then somebody else says another thing,” he said Tuesday after a minicamp workout. “I’m not sure everybody’s on the same page in this building. I’m just trying to focus on playing quarterback well.” --> so then shut up and don't talk to reporters

“I can’t tell you what’s going on. I will say I don’t think it’s been the most properly communicated scenario around here,” he said. “But we have learned to deal with change and have to be prepared to adjust.” --> it's not up to you to decide what's going on. You are the QB. There are other people in charge of the actual team.

“I wouldn’t say I totally like the way it is right now. It’s not normal not having a full coaching staff,” he said. “I know we hired a couple of guys to come in, but these guys are learning." --> so then let them learn. It's May.

“I think the communication has been pretty poor in my opinion. But that’s what we’re dealing with. The hard work is what’s going on right now. That’s what will carry us through.” --> I was unaware that bitching to the media was hard work.

Here's what Tom had to say in contrast:

“I’m feeling great and just excited to be out there on the field, training with my teammates,” Brady said. “It’s always fun being back in this competitive environment and working with these guys to try to make 2009 our best season. It’s been fun to be back.” --> this is why you have 3 and Peyton has 1.

Précis of why I dislike the Colts

Note the key component here:

"More often than not, when a coach retires amidst success and his replacement is found within the staff, many of the other assistants will remain in place. [Jim] Caldwell has only partially stuck to that formula of continuity, with defensive coordinator Ron Meeks and special teams coach Russ Purnell having left the staff. Purnell wasn’t a surprise, but Meeks’ departure was interesting. With an overwhelming amount of money invested in the offense, Meeks’ units were typically pretty good as long as they remained healthy. Injuries to the defensive line and Bob Sanders hurt the Colts now and then over the last few years, but that also speaks to the lack of financial investment in defensive depth. Now, Meeks is replaced by Larry Coyer, an intriguing veteran coach who had a very respectable run as the Broncos defensive coordinator from 2003-06. But Coyer also had a wealth of highly paid defensive stars on those teams. With Peyton Manning eating up an absurd $21.2 million of the Colts’ salary cap, there won’t be any major defensive additions this offseason." This is from a Yahoo article about the AFC off-season generally.

So Tom Brady's salary is $14M (he and Matt Cassel together are taking up $28.5M of the Patriots' salary cap combined...yes, due to weird franchising logic, Matt Cassel is technically worth $0.5M more than Tom Brady right now. Don't think too hard about it). Apparently, Peyton Manning is worth 1.5 Tom Bradys. The irony being, of course, that Tom has 2 more Superbowls than Peyton.

In case you're wondering, Colts fans, that extra $7.2M could buy you some nice defensive players, which would pay off when Peyton is in the middle of his traditional playoff choke.

Guy Carbonneau unhappy with Carey Price

(I know, Superbowl was a week ago. Later today. It's been a hectic week, what with Bad Mormons in my crib and all).

The Canadiens are on the verge of a complete collapse, having lost 7 of their last 9 games. Not to mention that last night's loss was to the Leafs, which is clearly not okay. Guy Carbonneau seems to have one person in mind to blame from his quotes yesterday:

First, “we need everyone to play, and that includes our goaltenders,” said Carbonneau.

Then later, “Where do you want me to start? He gave up five goals.” (in response to a question about what he didn’t like about goaltender Carey Price’s performance against Toronto.).

Please tell me that we can get a 'playoffs?' rant soon with a Québeçois accent, because that would be awesome. (If you're curious, Jim Mora, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was bitching about Peyton. Yes. Really.)

Incidentally, 'backup' goaltender Jaroslav Halak was supposed to start, but was sick.

Peyton wins MVP

Really?

This is the most deserving player in the league?

Really?

Here is a pretty vomity article about how 'awesome' Peyton was this year, comparing him greatly with the 'awesomeness' that is Brett Favre.

Really?!?

Dare I dream?

Cleveland is ahead by 1 FG at the half: 6-3.

Okay, this is not much. But Peyton fumbled the ball on the penultimate drive from the 7 yard line when the Colts started with a full set of downs. They came away with no points. He was then intercepted on one of those 'throw it 'way down the field' passes to Dallas Clark.

Derek Anderson, the replacement QB for the Browns, is currently 7/8 with no interceptions and 40 yards passing. Naturally 40 yards passing is not much, but that's okay.

I have a terrible feeling that this game will end with the Colts pulling off some ridiculous play (see: their past few weeks) and winning. But for now I dare to dream.

Pats 48, Miami 28

Ahhhhhhh, much better. This is a relief on many levels:

1) We didn't get destroyed by the wildcat play. *golf claps*

2) We won against a division rival whose schedule is relatively easy for the remainder of the season.

3) We got over 500 yards again (two weeks running), but this time won the game.

4) Randy Moss got three touchdowns. *loud up and down cheering*

However, in Also Important News, the Jets soundly beat the Titans, 34-13, lending credence to my new theory that Mangini has sold his soul to the Devil. So the Jets are now 8-3, we are 7-4, Miami is 6-5, and Buffalo (after destroying Kansas City) is 6-5. As Bill will undoubtedly remind us in this week's press conference, there are still many games to go and we need to just take them one game at a time and etc, etc, etc. You could actually make a good Mad Lib out of it:

"Well, today we played against a ______ (adj.) team. There were some ________ (adj.) moments and there are certainly many areas where we can _________ (verb). Next week, we'll be playing another _________ (adj.) team that is playing as ______ (adj.) as any other team in the league. We will just take it _____ (number) game at a time, because it ____ (verb, cong. 3rd person sing.) what it _______ (verb, cong. 3rd person sing.)."

I'm curious to see which SD will show up tonight (and for that matter, which Indy team). Peyton threw 12 interceptions against SD in two games last year. Twelve. To put that into perspective, and choosing a quarterback at random, Tom Brady threw for eight total during the regular season of 16 games. Eight.

Observation: Brandon Meriweather was consistently 3-5 seconds behind all plays for most of the game. However, during the fourth quarter, Bill was seen on the sidelines talking to him. Next drive Merriweather comes out and gets an interception. Bill, KEEP TALKING TO HIM!

I can't really state it any better myself

One of the front page stories on nfl.com:

'George: No give-up in these Pats

Loaded with legitimate excuses, the Patriots could have taken a "what-else-would-you-expect" mentality had they fallen off the map. Instead, they're back in a familiar spot.'

Thomas George goes on to say that after losing the first-round pick (okay, but we did still have a first-round pick), almost going 19-0 (but falling short), having the greatest quarterback in the history of the game get injured (that characterization is, admittedly, mine and not his, but he does state a similar notion), and the laundry list of other injuries, the Patriots have earned the opportunity to go, say, 3-6 and still be able to look in the mirror in the morning.

Or maybe they could even be, oh, I dunno, 5-4 and wouldn't have their star quarterback calling the fans 'spoiled' to the press. I'm trying to find a citation to back me up on this. It happened. Traces of it are to be found on the internet.

(Now, okay, we were called spoiled fans, at least by Ellis Hobbs, for booing at the team at the Miami game earlier this year. However, as an extremely loyal viewer for the past five years, that was one undeniably painful game).

Pats vs. Colts

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again: the New England Patriots meeting the Indianapolis Colts. Last year I thought that this was the game that would end the win streak. However, the Pats prevailed.

Now we are in a very different situation than pretty much any of the recent match-ups between these teams. The Pats are 5-2, and coping with some pretty significant injuries -- it's worth noting that those losses came to Miami (mandatory in even-numbered years: see 2004, 2006) and San Diego. Okay, the Miami thing is not so worth noting, even though they did beat Buffalo last week, which tells us that they can be a threat even to a top team. I would say the San Diego loss is more crucial here. San Diego is in a weirdly parallel situation to the Colts: they are under .500 to start and their decline is not due to any obvious reason. If the Colts lose tonight, they will both be 3-5. They have their starting QB. They have most of their players. And yet they are not the dominant team that they have been over the past couple of years. In short, both San Diego and Indy should have been contenders, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that this season they are not.

Yet the Chargers destroyed the Pats 30-10 in what was a particularly painful game: we were beat on the long ball and Cassel was sacked four times. The Chargers played the Patriots in the past four seasons even though they are in a different division and I have to think that having pretty thorough reports on the team must have helped. So one school of thought might claim that the Pats could be in trouble this week because formerly strong teams that know them well can target their weaknesses accurately.

After seeing Indy collapse in their game last week, though, I feel like the Patriots may have the upper hand in this one. Faced with a strong defense (and Tennessee has allowed the fewest points on average this season), Peyton really fell apart as the game went on. I think that the Pats can bring enough pressure for the whole game to seriously inhibit him -- provided we don't get beat on the long ball like last week.

And if we do have to get beat on the long ball, can we please not have two of our secondary players running into each other because that was just embarrassing.

I missed Texas vs. Texas Tech last night because I was at a bar watching dueling pianos. No further comment.