Weekend reveiew
I hate Auburn. I'm not going to bitch about the officials, since we had our chances and didn't take advantage of them. I'm just happy that Les had the team ready and we put up an awesome effort on the road. We're clearly still a top ten team, and I think the outcome would have been reversed in Baton Rouge. Congrats to Auburn, I hope Florida and Georgia beat 'em!
I'm just at a loss for words with the Saints. Yeah we just played two pretty terrible teams but to come out with wins on the road with THIS defense boggles my mind. I expected 4-5 wins all season from this team. Now with Tampa looking so bad, having three Ws by the bye (week 7) seems very possible. The biggest story yesterday was Brees' ability to come back from that gawd awful start: fumbles on the first two possessions and a pick deep in GB territory on the third. So we spot GB a quick 13-0 lead and all signs point towards our being well on the way to a repeat of the 52-3 annihilation they handed us last year. And yet we turn it around - WITHOUT any gift idiot plays from the aging Brett Favre - and
win 34-27. Somehow, after two games, we're 10th in the NFL in total yards per game, 7th in third down conversions, and 6th in fewest penalties (with #s 1 and 2 playing in tonight's game so we may wind up even higher).
And now, some random NFL observations, some of which I'm sure
my roommate will pontificate on at length this week:
NBC's Sunday Night football pregame show is terrible. The music is more fitted for the Olympics. Bob Costas isn't a good highlight guy - my roommate agrees with me here. Dammit, I just miss PrimeTime.
CBS is using the same graphics for NFL and college football, it seems. Wow, way to be original guys.
Fox dropped the annoying robot sound from Week One. Thank God. And the halftime graphics which were inexplicably garbage the last couple years are finally gone, and the halftime show is now watchable.
I can't believe how bad so many teams are this year, and more than that - the fact that the Saints thus far ain't one of them. I don't know whether these defenses are insanely good or the offenses they're facing are just gawd awful. I guess the Bears and Ravens get the benefit of the doubt for having a proven history, but the Chargers for instance I'm waiting on. The Raidahs - led by former Aint Aaron Brooks - and Titans are by no means juggernaut offenses. I emailed the roomie yesterday (again, he's on an NFL broadcast crew so not here during games) at halftime of the afternoon games, and of the five, there were four shutouts in progress and one in which the trailing team had put up 3. Anyway, thus far in the season we have:
1. Tampa with 3 points through 2 games
2. Oakland with 6 points through 2 games
3. Kansas City missing Al Saunders (OC who went to Washington) much? 10 points vs Cincy at home and then 6 at Denver. Yikes.
4. Denver, traditional machine on offense, with only 19 points (and one TD) through two games.
5. Ditto Carolina.
I'm glad ESPN gave us the drawings of what Big Ben's inflamed appendix looks like. I was just dying to know, assholes.
Ok Ok Ok, I'm back
Sorry for the absence through the first couple weeks of the season. Couple quick thoughts:
1) ESPN Sucks. The graphic this afternoon on the main screen was celebrating how tonight is the greatest day in, like, forever! Because it's football on ESPN! The poll on the main page was even "Are you ready for some football??" with a simple Yes/No answer. Given 90% of the country has already seen their team play, I just find this celebration of MNF idiotic. The self-promotion just has to stop. They dominate televised sports. Now it's just getting annoying. Quit it, idiots. Also, they overcharge for everything, their magazine is too big, and their anchors suck. Of course,
EDSBS discussed all of this last year on November 29th, and the thread is
still getting comments.
I have a clearer version of this if you don't believe me, fools.2) LSU's performance this year has been beyond anything I could have imagined. I had concerns going in about 1) Offensive line cohesion; 2) Front seven ability to create pressure; 3) Russell cutting out the idiotic decisions; 4) It's Les Miles, do I even have to mention brain-dead coaching?; 5) Ability to seal the deal - which admittedly had been answered emphatically with our season-ending romp of Miami in the Peach Bowl - but who knew how that would carry over?
We've turned the ball over 5 times this year, on two punt returns vs ULL and a couple fumbles and a pick in the AZ game. So that needs to be cured, and damn quickly. But every single other aspect has been superb. I would like to think that the fumbles will go away against Auburn since we'll be more focused (i.e. all the turnovers vs AZ came after we were up 24-0), but I know better than that.
Clearly ULL and Arizona aren't teams to use as a measuring stick against most anyone above I-AA ball, but nonetheless given our problems executing in the past I'm all smiles going into the Auburn game. Despite our tremendous talent, I'd chalked Auburn up as a pretty certain loss before the season; now I dare say I have hope that ole Les can pull this off.
3) I was blown away by the Saints performance versus the Browns on Sunday. I caught 30 seconds of Around the Horn today and they were discussing how great Reggie Bush looked against the Browns. Bill Plaschke mentioned that it's a 5 compared to what he will do, and I have to say I agree. Reggie got a lot of tough yards, which was different than what we were used to seeing out of him in college, but nothing flashy. I suppose from that aspect it was almost a let down. But he was a huge cog in the win for us.
Nothing to argue with Bush's 120 yards rushing and receiving and another 20 on punt returns, but my biggest props go to Deuce McAllister. I thought he'd lost it prior to the knee injury last year; afterwards, I was certain he was done. After 22 carries for 90 solid yards (i.e. no 50 yarders skewing the average), it appears like Deuce has regained something pretty close to his old form. I think it's safe to say we all knew Reggie could play in this league; what we
didn't know is how well Deuce would look in real action. What a relief.
Still a stud.Meanwhile, I suppose it's a testament to how poorly prepared the Browns were that our defense just dominated them in the first half - the Browns didn't get a first down until 28 minutes into the game. Our inability to execute in the redzone made it a closer affair than it should have been given our respective first halves, so hopefully we can work on that.
Honestly though, I'm not even sure I care if we fix it; my expectation all along has been for a 4 to 5 win season at best. Getting one in the books in week one, on the road, against what seemed to be an up-and-coming squad (at least defensively), is just super. Juuuust super.
