GarageGabs

Ok, before I get into all the technicalities of this weekends (not that I usually do that) AFC Championship Game, I’d like to bring your attention to this post over at Kissing Suzy Kolber. I haven’t seen someone sum up my exact thoughts and feelings since church this past weekend.

Seriously, which of these teams do you pull for this weekend?

On the one hand, you’ve got the Patriots. Somehow after 3 Super Bowls, and a 12-1 playoff record, you grow tired of a team. Not to mention that the Patriots don’t play the most exciting brand of football….at least for non-Patriot fans. Bill Belichick is certainly not lovable. Basically, New England has become the San Antonio Spurs of the NFL…when they are in the playoffs, I don’t really care to watch them play. I haven’t actually pulled for them since they played the Rams in Super Bowl something another. That team was likable….Tom Brady was the wonder kid replacement for Bledsoe, Belichick was the success story that failed in Cleveland, and they ran out as a team in that Super Bowl, rather than individual introductions. They beat the Rams that year in a great game, and of course went on to win 2 more Super Bowls. They’ve become less likable, and more faceless along the way…robots of victory so to speak. However, one part of the Patriots existence has always tickled my fancy….They exist to beat and frustrate the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs!!!

Ahh, yes, Peyton Manning and his crew of bambi-like wide receivers….seriously, Marvin Harrison slides better than any quarterback and probably better than Jose Reyes. Twice they’ve ran into New England in the playoffs; only to discover that Manning is a creature of rhythm and timing. The Patriots ability to pressure Manning along with disrupting (often illegally, but who’s counting?) the timing of the Colts physically challenged wide receivers has led to the early exit of Manning and his crew….not once, but twice. Problem is, both of those contests were in New England. This year, Manning and crew finally get the home field advantage on the fast turf of Indy. Weather won’t be a factor. If Manning is able to advance to the Super Bowl I will no longer have reason or opportunity to continue my personal assault on his career. The media will generate this huge Pre-Super Bowl Peyton Manning Love Boat and half of America will jump on board…..including that guy you work with…you know, the guy that knows about 4 NFL teams but pulls for the Colts because he sees Peyton Manning on commercials everyday? Yeah him….he’s gonna give you hell about Manning and the Colts. Everyday during the 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl you’re going to have to see Archie Manning drool over his son’s new found success. You’ll see special interviews with the “Manning brothers”, and learn how this “football family” overcame all odds to become champions. Sound like a stretch? Well, it might be…but the fact is, you don’t know.

However, A Patriots victory is something we have all experienced in the past. Yes, it is tiresome and redundant, but we’ve all be immunized against the Patriot plague. The Patriots are like snake venom….if you get bit by them a few times, you eventually learn to ignore them. (Yes, I ignore snake bites, don’t you?) So, lets all get on the same boat and pull for the Patriots this weekend. Remember, Peyton Manning exists so we can call him a playoff failure.

With all that being said, I of course, am going to pick the Patriots this weekend. Lets see…..an ironic way for things to end would be if Manning actually played a good game…..but still came up short. New England 26 Indianapolis 24. Manning leads the Colts to a 24-23 lead VERY late in the game only to see the Patriots pull out a miracle in the end. That sounds heartbreaking enough.

Colts or Pats? I Prefer the Lesser of Two Evils (Kissing Suzy Kolber)

Thanks to the guys at The Big Lead I came across this fantastic YouTube video of Shawne Merriman at a Chargers rally before they played the Patriots this weekend. With all the talk of class, this video is very fitting. I think it’s time for San Diego to stop whining, as J.C. would tell me…..”You reap what you sew”

[youtube]yHyLlL01tGA&eurl=[/youtube]

Stay Classy, San Diego (Literally!)  (The Big Lead)

I felt pretty good in picking 3 out of 4 NFL winners this weekend and only narrowly missed a Seahawks win as well. Peyton Manning didn’t deliver the 3 TD’s I predicted, but the Colts were able to out field goal the Ravens Saturday 15-6. Seriously, has their ever been a kicker that’s more deserving of a roster space than Adam Vinatieri? How ironic would it be if this was the year the Colts make the Super Bowl…the year of a new run game, and an extremely porous defense….well, at least it used to be porous. The Colts D came away with 4 Turnovers Sunday and held the Ravens run oriented offense to just 83 rush yards. To think, just a few weeks ago, Ron Dayne had everyone predicting the Colts would be one and done.

The late game on Saturday produced a lot more offensive fireworks as the Saints held off the Eagles, 27-24. My game ball in this one has to go to Deuce McAllister. Duece has been all class, all year as he watched his role become somewhat diminished with the arrival of phenom Reggie Bush. The guy was total blood and guts on Saturday as he ran for 143 yards and a TD, and caught 4 passes for 20 yards and another touchdown. Not to mention, it was McAllister who iced the game with his tough running late in the 4th quarter. Congrats to the Eagles on one heck of a season, they overcame some serious adversity this season…however, for anyone that wasn’t able to watch the game, this girl was able to make it on to live television for about 8 seconds:

So, with 2 wins already in hand, I felt pretty confident rolling into Sunday….well, not really, I picked both road teams to win on Sunday. Seattle really should have beaten the Bears. Instead, they lost 27-24 in overtime. They had chance after chance at or past midfield and just couldn’t make that one play to get them over the hump. I gotta put the loss on Matt Hasselbeck and his bobbled snap on a 4th and 1 play late in the 4th quarter. Interestingly enough, the one game I missed on the weekend, was the one I cared least about, so lets move on.

Never count out the Patriots in the playoffs….never, ever, ever do it. That’s why I picked them to win vs. the favored Chargers. The Patriots rally from a 21-13 4th quarter deficit included a Tom Brady TD pass, a tricky 2 point conversion, and a field goal by a guy named Stephen Gostowski, and ended in a 24-21 win over a team that many felt was the class of the NFL. Another funny thing about my prediction was the last line I typed…“You stay classy San Diego”. Honestly, I had no idea much of the post-game talk would involve class.

LT, man, I love you to death, you are a classy guy, but give me a break. I can understand him being upset at the way the Patriots celebrated but I don’t understand him saying it was the whole Merriman thing that pissed him off. I mean, lets be honest…Merriman did his “sack dance” after each of this NFL leading 17 sacks….was he acting like he had been there before? Was he showing class? Did Tomlinson rush onto the field and stop Merriman from taunting opposing teams? As for Tomlinson taking a stab at Belichick, I don’t know….maybe he knows something we don’t. Like I mentioned before, Belichick doesn’t emit niceness. Long story short….Wanna run out on the field and bust up a group of guys that are celebrating on your logo? Fine by me. Wanna blame the behavior on the coach? Again, ok in my book. Wanna say you were defending the honor of someone taunting someone else’s taunt? Nah, that doesn’t work.

Stay tuned for picks for this weekends Conference Championship games.

New York Jets 16  New England 37 

Not a lot to say other than I told ya the Jets would be one and done.  I wasn’t exactly going out on a limb in making that prediction, but it’s cool to be right from time to time.  The real story out of this game was Patriots coach Bill Belichick shoving a camera man (youtube video) so he could get his man-hug on with Eric Mangini at the end of the game.  I will admit, he shouldn’t have shoved the guy, but people comparing this to the Kenny Rogers shoving a camera man thing are going a bit to far.   Also, if you’ve ever seen Bill Belichick, is there little doubt that he is a jerk?  He doesn’t come off as the coolest guy on the planet.  Anyway, Belichick did apologize for the incident.

*MAN LAW ALERT*  

I would like to institute a “man law” that coaches can no longer hug and or kiss other players or coaches.  It always turns out badly.  Handshakes, Jersey Grabs, and Facemask Grabs are accepted.
  NO 

  YES 

  DEFINITE NO 

  YES 

  NO 

  NO 

  YES
New York Giants 20 Philadelphia 23

  Kickers are allowed to do this 

Finally, from the world of irony.com Philly continues to win, without the services of Donovan McNabb.  The irony in it all?  Jeff Garcia, the quarterback Terrell Owens first scorned, is leading the team Terrell Owens secondly scorned, while at the same time Owens is sitting at home, and the quarterback he secondly scorned watches from the sidelines.  No Owens….No McNabb….no problem.

Probably the biggest news out of this game was the Giants granting Tom Coughlin a one year extension despite the tailspin.  Maybe they figure that no Tiki Barber will mean less distractions next season?

I’ll go through these games in chronological order:

Kansas City 8 Indianapolis 23
That loud noise you heard Saturday was the Kansas City Chiefs offense crashing to planet earth.   1 of 11 on 3rd downs, 126 total yards of offense, and just 32 yards rushing from Larry Johnson provided the Chiefs a one way ticket back to Kansas City after making an improbable playoff appearance.  The Chiefs did manage to pick Peyton Manning 3 times, but it really didn’t matter with their grounded offense.

Dallas 20 Seattle 21 

You know it’s getting bad when I start posting jokes on the Cowboys.  I’m not going to go into a lot of detail over this game, everyone saw what went down.  Tony Romo has become the butt of everyone’s jokes, and to be quite honest, well…SO WHAT?  The guy was anointed a hero for several weeks and  didn’t seem to mind that, let’s see how he handles some negative press.

So, just in case you live in a cave….here is a video of what happened to Tony Romo:

Now that you’ve seen the moment…..here are all the jokes I can find mocking it:  (It takes moments like these to remind me just how much people love to hate the Dallas Cowboys)

Every Romo Hurts   A youtube video composed of pictures of Romo’s rise and fall from grace along with some fitting music.

Romo Reenactment    Some guy that appears to still live with his parents does a poor rendition of the play.

Jesus Inspirational Statue:  Gotta thank the guys over at DEADSPIN for coming up with this gem of an idea!

Custom Tony Romo McFarlane Figure:  This is a for real item up for bid on E-bay.  Once again, gotta thank DEADSPIN for finding this auction.  I’d love to own this piece of history, but the bidding has already reached $108.00, which is too rich for my blood.  Seriously though, you should click on the picture below to check out the rest of the photos of this rare item.

Of course, Tony Romo wasn’t the only story coming out of Dallas.

Terrell Owens fired his publicist, Kim Etheredge.  Anything T.O. does is news. Everyone remembers Kim for saying “T.O. has 25 million reasons why he should be alive”.  To be totally honest, I’d have fired her as well as she was apparently the one that got all the suicide talk started.

The rumor bus has started up as to the fate of Bill Parcells and Terrell Owens:

AP Story, per ESPN 

John Clayton 

Not much time today, just wanted to get picks in for today’s Wild-Card round. I will say that I think Dallas finds more and more creative ways to chunk games than I have ever seen.

Jets @ New England: I’ll take the Patriots, 20-13

NY Giants @ Philadelphia: Giants, 27-17  Just too fitting for the Eagles to make all that noise and then bomb in round 1.

After all of these really cool College Bowl games, who in their right mind would want to watch a football game that actually means something?  Personally, I couldn’t tear myself away from watching the “Lost” season 1 box-set so I haven’t watched a single minute of college football in 2007…other than highlights.  But that’s just me.

Anyway, tomorrow heads up the first day of the NFL’s famous Wild-Card Weekend….I think we’ve got some pretty intriguing matchups, here’s a look at tomorrows games
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If you read my Week 17 picks and predictions you know that I pretty much bombed on this weekends predictions. Hey, at least I picked Green Bay! Anyway, this was a pretty wild weekend in the NFL, lets check out the run down and take a look at next weekends Wildcard Playoff Round.

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