I been sitting here just wastin' time...

From the healthy, Norton virus protected notebook of your commish.  Tuesday October 9th, 2007 10:49 AM

Rambling after Week 5...

Thanks to Kid Rock for that....not so much of the drinking and smoking, but more of the thinking and trying to free my mind today.  Yes, the time on these Ramblings is before noon, and Yes, it is a slow day at the old Arrowhead Concrete Works.

So....how am I filling my day.  Well, I started off by working on an Excel macro that will run some cost calculations on some of our raw materials used to make concrete.  Oh, I know, living the dream.  On the positive side....Jon said my Halloween costume can be my normal clothes - that's right, I could be a huge nerd.

Speaking of huge nerds....episode #3 of The Big Bang Theory was another good one last night on CBS.  Perfect mix for a good comedy - (1) a group of people that anyone can laugh at (well, at least anyone who is not a physics major in the ivy league), (2) a lead character to associate with as he tries to go after (3) a super hottie living across the hall.  Realistic....yes, well, except for the blonde.

Some crazy finishes to NFL games this week.....both the Sunday and Monday night games were pretty much over when I went to sleep, then I see online the next day that the Packers and Bills both lost.  Wow.  Dallas had no business winning that game.  None at all.  Romo was HORRIBLE.  Tav Jax like almost.  (not quite Joey Heisman, but as close as one can get without sliding down that slippery slope)

Favre should have stayed undefeated, but his honeymoon might be over.  If (and that's a big IF) Brett can keep his turnovers down like he had the first 4 weeks, the Packers will win the division (and I can't believe I'm typing that....not so much as a Vikings fan, but more as a believer that the Packers would stink up the joint).  Otherwise....well, you saw how that went Sunday.

And an interesting note.....a lot of people have made the comparison that Romo is a "young Favre" and that Favre is an "old Romo".  Interesting to see that they both are living and dying off the deeper pass game -- and it's too bad more teams aren't like that, it makes for better football watching.

I suppose I'll talk somewhat about the BIG here too.  I'm trying to get the Ramblings done here so when I get home tonight I can keep working on my Ark.  The water here has been goofy.  People keep saying, "we need it since the water tables are down".  I guess I hadn't heard much about people's wells having trouble, but maybe they are.  I was happy with the dry weather - no lawn mowing, no muddy driveway and no need for my sump pump to run.

So, yea, with the BIG.  Mike once again wins to stay undefeated at 5-0.  Suomala once again loses to stay, i guess, defeated at 0-5.  All else are in-between.  Ok...Ok....a bit more analysis....

Week 5 was a bit low scoring....how low you ask?  Well, at 995 points total, its the 2nd lowest we've ever had - only Week 7 of 2001 was worse.  Juice and Jonny broke the 100 point mark, but that was it.  On the other side, Suomala is now on pace to score a Josh Turner level low 871 total points.  That would shatter Jonny's record by 110 points.  And that, would be amazing.....well, amazing to those of us that pay attention to this thing we call FFB.  (others in your life might not care so much - for example, if at the dinner table, the married guys were to blurt out, "honey, The Flying Hellfish are only averaging 62.2 points per week!"  I think Larry Stauber can recommend a good divorce council).

So what else is going on......JC, LB's, Mike and Juice have all been at 90+ for all 5 weeks.  The Bulldog's are averaging 107, the Bison are at 94 and the Huskies at 92.  Hmmm.....nothing new there.  Also this week, JC became the second team to get 70 career wins (Juice moved up to 74, Smith is at 69, Jugs at 68).

Some good matchups coming this week.....Smitty (2-3) meets up with the LB's (2-3) in a battle of the league's top scoring teams.  Yep, that's right, our 2 top scoring teams are both 2-3.  Since it's pretty much mid-October, we're about due for a big fight on the message board about luck and what not.  These two guys should probably start that topic out -- especially the one that loses what will likely be a high scoring match and goes to 2-4.

On the other side of the Bulldog Division, Juice (4-1) gets a shot at Jason (4-1) for the outright division lead.  This is Jason's chance to break out and have a good shot at the Bulldog Championship.  Either way, this is almost a must win for these guys to keep anywhere near the division leader who will be 5-1.

In the Husky D - Kinger continues to roll with a 2 game lead and averaging 110 a week.  Although on the cautious side, Jack's team has hit the injury bug hard.  His super stud duo of Marvin and Andre are now both hurt, leaving Berrian and Bruce as his only options.  If King can sneak by Jonny this week and open up a 3 game lead, that might be enough cushion to have time to wait and get back his stud WR's for the playoff run.  Jonny's team comes off a big win over Scottie, but has big questions at RB.  Similar to Jack, Jonny's stud combo of Shaun and Maroney are not getting it done and leave AP and Dunn as other options.  I'd bet more on AP to help Jonny than Berrian to help Kinger.

The other Husky matchup puts '01ers up against each other.  Scottie (or should I say Tom Brady) gets to go up against Ben (or should I say.....umm, not sure who Ben's best is right now).  The RB combo of Addai (injured) and Henry (high as a kite) are not turning out to what Ben had hoped.  Similarly for his WR's Evans and Galloway.  Scottie pretty much has three guys -- Brady, Reggie Bush and Dallas Clark.  Clark has the week off, Brady has a tougher matchup and who knows about Reggie.  Still, I'd place my money on Ben going 0-6.

Finally, to the Bison.  Mike is still going at 5-0.  I'm not even looking it up, but gotta be his best start ever.  Curious to how he did it this week?  How about his QB, RB2 and K combining for 4 points.  The other guys went 19, 16, 18, 24, 16 though....so he's got that going for him.  Mike gets his 1st shot at beating up the Flying Fish for the year this week.  Suomala's team is plain not good.  Drew Brees....at this point would have to be the worst keeper ever (that didn't get hurt, mind you).  I'm guessing only pride is keeping Phillip Rivers out of the Fish lineup.  This should be an easy one for Mike....but nobody goes 0-fer in this league....do they?

To finish it up, one of the (usually) premiere rivalries in our league....Jugs vs JC will fire up this week.  Good start at 2-0 for Jugs, but 0-3 in the last weeks against some good competition (combined 13-2 record).  Even still, Jugs will need some more production out of his big guys....last week Jugs had 81 - not too bad.  Unless you look and see that his TE, K and D/ST combined for 60 of those points (and who says K's and D's don't matter?)  JC moved to 4-1 with a gimme over Suomala.  Week 6 will not be pretty though.  With Roethlisberger, Gore, Wayne, McDonald and Reed on byes and Boldin potentially still on the shelf with a leg issue, this maybe one of the worst weeks ever.  My money is on Jugs - or a small miracle.

So closing time....well, 4 o'clock anyway.  Not that I got much done today here, but at least this. 

Need I say more?

BIGFFBL senior writer Jeremy Carlson sounds off whenever he feels like it on www.bigffbl.com