It's The Second Week of Deer Camp....

And The Vikings Suck Hard Core...

Sad how that is becoming a yearly thing for Dainty and Co....

Rambling after week 9...

So what should I discuss this week.....hmmm?  Anyone?  Ok, I guess I will do some talkin' (more accurately typin') about the upcoming BIG divisional games in week 10.  I'll throw some random Peter King-esque NFL thoughts out there and if I remember, get another Top 10 list at the end....so that's my goal at this point but there are NO guarantees here that I will stick to any of what I just said, but you most likely had a premonition that I wouldn't anyways.

So here we go....

First off, let's look at the "If the playoffs were today...." scenerio.

Bulldog Champion - Little Red Horse (7-2)
Husky Champion - Team Tang (5-4)
Bison Champion - Fantasy Superior (6-3)
Wildcard - Flying Hellfish (6-3) [*beats out Smitty due to 1st wildcard tiebreaker which is running total win %]

Before I start, keep in mind that the final bye week is this week, with Denver, Miami, Oakland and San Diego players hitting the PlayStation this weekend...

So let's start our look at this week's matchups with the Bulldog Division.  Team Juice (4-5) finds himself on a 5 game losing skid.  Even Portis's passing TD couldn't get Juice past our Fantasy Superior in week 9.  This week Juice's squad goes up against fellow PHS coach Jon Carlson and the Little Bastards who are on the rise lately.  The LB's are on a two game win streak and have put themselves in a position to make a run at the wildcard and possibly at the Bulldog Division title.  Juice isn't too far out and doesn't ever give up, so look for him to put up some stiff competition for that big score that both he and Jon are after.  The bye weeks look to hurt Juice more than Jon, with LT2 and Elam taking a seat out of Juice's regular starters while the LB loses no one, but with McGahee filling in, Juice only loses a half-step at most.  I'd say this will be a tight matchup, and will leave the predictions to the Fantasy Superior's column.

The other Bulldog Division matchup is a huge one....for both parties.  Jason's Little Red Horse is coming off a 100+ loss to Air JC's squad in week 9.  Boy that 8th win is sure a tough one to pick up for Jason.....and the 7-7 season is not yet out of the question, although if I were to put a wager down, I'd bet he gets at least one more win if not 5.  The LRH will face up with Smitty's red hot Fat British Pigeons who are now on a 3 game win streak after taking down Husky Division leader Tang in a tight week 9 contest (thanks to Dainty's sucking last night).  This should be a great matchup as Jason has essentially his whole starting lineup (minus the TE) and Smitty has all his guys to pick from.....and that's the story here.  If Smitty can pick the right guys each week from all those RB's and WR's he has, he will have a great chance at picking up his franchise's first ever postseason victory.

On to the Husky boys.  Ben's Team Nookie is still sitting at the bottom of the standings, but since the rest of the division doesn't seem to want to win (Jonny and Wong are on 3 game losing streaks while Rico is on a 2 game slide), Nookie finds themselves only 2 games back of the division lead and suddenly has been putting up some points.  This team was almost written off with all the injuries, but Brees, Tiki, D.Jax and the Marcuses (Robinson and Pollard), not to mention Ray-Ray and Co., have turned Ben's MASH unit into a point machine in the past 3 weeks.  Just FYI, Ben's weekly points have gone as such....64, 89, 74, 69, 59, 55, 105, 113, 147.  Quite a swing there, and just in time to face Rico's Team (Arizona) GOO.  Rico's team is all Peyton, all the time.  After watching the Colts rip up the Vikes last night, I am even more impressed with that offense.....don't get me wrong, I can't stand Peyton, but that offense is fun to watch.  Edge could have ran the ball every play for 8 yards a pop.  Heck, they could have told the Vikings where they were running it and got at least 5 each carry.  And back to Cutts....how many of us laughed when he took Emmitt (my hand is in the air on that one), no way we could have thought Emmitt would be a solid #2 fantasy back at this point of the season, much less at this point of the decade.  If Rico can get some consistent numbers out of his WR's, he's got a great team for the postseason, but this week I think he'll have trouble with Nookie's squad, but then again, we'll let Jugs come up with the prediction.

Also in the Husky D, Wonger's boys will face off with Jonny's boys.  Is Wong's luck running short?  His QB's are spitting out points like crazy with both Hasselbeck and Delhomme going for 29 last week, but then Wong only got 3 total out of his RB's since Dillon and T.Jones were both on the shelf with bad wheels.  Needless to say, Wong didn't quite get too many points on the board and ended up losing a tight one to the LB, 70-69.  Jonny's team remains in the lead of the Husky Division after dropping his 3rd game in a row....(hmmm, has the Husky D taken over the Bison's title as 'Worst Division in the BIG?'....I think so).  Daute is struggling without Moss out there and Sammie Morris is forced into the starting lineup with Duce's injury.  That isn't pretty for Jonny's team who was carried to the division lead by the 5 TD games of his QB.  With the Vikings headed to Packerland this week, look for another disappointing game out of #11 in the white jersey.  One of these two teams will break their 3 game skid while the other will just keep the snowball rolling downhill away from the postseason and towards lottery land.

Moving on to the Bison Division.  Well, finally this division is looking a little better.  No, not nearly as good as the Bulldog Division, but much better than past years when the division leader was 4-5 at this point.  Of course the exception to this is Mike's Inside Straights who have been drawing dead for a few weeks here.  The Straights are the only BIG team to not hit the century mark this season even once (Nookie is next from the bottom and he's hit 100+ 3 times), so I'm going to refer to them as "Eight High" from here on until they either put up 100 or get a W....either way.  Even more wonderful news for Mike is that; a) Moss is out longer than expected, b) Bennett was outplayed by O.Smith and c) Pennington is out for a couple weeks.  Mike has never lost more than 9 in his 4 BIG seasons....we'll, I'd bet every dollar I could get my hand on that he will see 10 losses this year.  Mike get's to take a shot at the Fantasy Superior this week.  Jugsie's boys are rolling.  He's on a 5 game 100+ streak (tied with Jason as the longest current such streak in the league) and has won those last 5 as well (which is the longest current winning streak in the league).  Adding Shockey to this lineup is just not fair, but I say that as his division counterpart of course.  Unless Priest goes down for the year, I suspect to see Jugs battling Suomala for the Bison Title.

Finally, a Pike Lake Elementary/Civil Engineering battle between Suomala's Flying Hellfish and the Air JC squad is our sixth matchup of week 10.  Unfortunately for Suomala (and 'woo-hoo' for me), Denver and San Diego have byes this week.  That means Suomala loses Plummer, Griffin, Droughns, Gates and Denver's D/ST.  But unfortunately for me (and 'woo-hoo' for Suomala), he still has McNair, Edge, Dunn, Eric Johnson and New England to fill in those spots.  So, this team is pretty much stacked....and if Gates continues to lead the league in receiving (and he very well may), Suomala's team could be unstoppable.  JC has gotten off the schnide in the past three weeks going 3-0 even while Jamal was serving his 2 week (+ his bye) suspension.  Now with Jamal back, signs of life out of Santana and Todd Heap ready to roll, JC will look to make a run at Suomala and Jugs.  This game is huge for both teams.  Suomala needs the win to keep up with the certain win for Jugs this week (yea, I'll make that prediction any day, sorry Mike, but I think even you know it), and JC needs the win to pull even.  This should be a great battle in the Bison D.

So after looking at these matches, it should be a great week and stretch run for the league.....let's move on to some random thoughts....

Ok, should I go into NFL coaching consulting?  I would specialize in explaining the value of time outs.  Mike Tice would be my first contact.  Let me refresh your minds....  Last night, early first quarter, the Vikings burn 2 time outs.  The first I think was on the drive when they followed the 8 steps backwards, 2 steps forward, punt theory of screwing up a game.  Then on defense, when Peyton (or mainly, Edge) was running over them like a Rail over a Golden Bear, they used one on defense cause they no-huddle had them off balance.  WAS THE NO HUDDLE A SURPRISE TO SOMEONE?  Dear lord, I hope not.  So we were 4 minutes and some odd seconds in the game and the Vikings had; a) gone backwards 3 and out on their first possesion, b) done a great impression of swiss cheese, and c) not realized that Indy was gonna score 7 no matter what they did on that drive.  Now, flash forward to the end of the 2nd quarter.  Vikings have the ball, driving to try and put 'er in the endzone for 7 before half.  But because of piss poor clock management, and lack of timeouts because of horrible use of them earlier, they had to settle for a FG.  I am a huge believer that all timeouts should be saved for the end of half drives.  Big deal if you have to take a 5 yard penalty early in the 3rd quarter for delay of game, that timeout is much much much more valuable with 33 seconds left in the game than are those 5 yards.  Similarly, if you are on D.....too many men on the field?  Take the penalty.  Too few men on the field?  Take your chances (most of the time - but this is piss poor preparation, which is another topic).  Challenge a close play that you could win?  (Nope, again, most of the time)  I can't stress enough how valuable those timeouts are to have at the end of a half.  It cost the Vikes the game last night and game management like that are what separates the well coached teams (as Indy is) from the poorly coached teams (as the Vikings are the past few weeks).  This is not at all limited to the Purple jerseys....many many many teams could use consulting services on this subject and week in and week out I find myself just in amazement at how coaches and QB's and defensive players waste those precious timeouts.

Anyway....was anyone as happy as me to watch TO tail McSuck up and down the sidelines on Sunday?  I could have watched that footage looped for hours.  The only thing that could have made it better was to have Dono whip around and hit Terrell so hard that he would knock the 'dumbass' right out of Owens.

How about Belichick?  Wow, what a game with a LB catching a TD pass (and a heck of a catch at that - 2nd best of the week behind Roy Williams's one hander), a K throwing a TD to a WR who also started at nickel back.  Just shows how good a coach is when a team has huge injury holes and they still go into one of the toughest places to win on the road (STL) and knock the crap out of Martz.

What about Big Ben (I'm still avoiding typing his last name)?  He's pretty good, but I'd quit with all the comparisons of him to any past superstar QB or for that matter comparing the Steelers to any dynasty teams.  He's playing on a team that has a great running game and excellent WR's.  He's playing on a team that is always ahead and has an awesome blitzing defense that gives the O great field position.  Don't get me wrong, he's getting the job done which is wonderful for a rookie, but let's let him go through some hard times to see what he is made of before we crown him the next Marino/Montana/Elway/etc.  Similarly with the Steelers....yea, they beat up NE and Philly, but both those teams were primed for let downs.  Remember that both those games were at the Kerry Compound in Pittsburgh and I think that a healthy NE and Philly could take Pittsburgh at their respective home fields, but with Pitts schedule of Cleveland, Cinci, Washington, Jacksonville, Jets, Giants, Baltimore and Buffalo left, I don't see why they won't end up with 13+ wins and home field in the AFC.

Off the subject, but you wonder what life is like as a graduate student here at Michigan Tech?  Well, I spent this morning doing some work in the lab, where I spilled some mineral oil on the floor.  I got that all cleaned up with a bunch of paper towels (a whole big industrial roll) that we threw in a cardboard box.  My boss then asked if we should go burn them....I took about half a second in saying sure.  So the middle of my Tuesday was spent walking out in the woods to an abandoned mining building of some kind (they are all over the place up here) and burning a cardboard box full of oil soaked towels.  Quite a deal....

Anyway, back to football.  My final NFL comment is a quick one to make you think about how sad the Vikings are.  Last week we got worked at home by a team that this past week lost at home to the Bears.

And finally, on to tonight's Top 10 list.  From the home office in Houghton, Michigan....

The Top Ten Signs Your Football Team Won't Be Playing in the Super Bowl

#10 - WR's idea of a double-move, is to put his left foot in and take his left foot out

#9 - Their home games are played in the parking lot of the local VFW.

#8 - The guys use a mouth full of gummy bears instead of mouth guards.

#7 - Players refuse to tackle for fear of ruining their manicure.

#6 - Coach is in excellent shape from repeatedly throwing and picking up headset.

#5 - Team uniforms are made from duct tape and old flannel shirts.

#4 - When team takes the field, the majority are carrying a case and a bag of pretzels.

#3 - Players keep asking coach to, 'put the punter in more'.

#2 - Instead of eye black, lineman use chocolate syrup under their eyes.

And the #1 sign your football team won't be playing in the Super Bowl....

#1 - Your team mascot is a Fighting Nimrod (*actual Watersmeet, Michigan high school mascot)

Need I say more?