NY Giants – Mid-Season Opinions

I wrote this for my other blog about a month ago and figured I should put it in TSD.  Enjoy.

K-Wil

Well, it’s more than halfway through the 2008 NFL season, and there are some things that surprise me as well as some things that I expected. I did not expect the Titans to be a 9-0 team… not at all, especially with Kerry Collins at the helm. I did expect the Giants to be doing well at this point of the season, although not 8-1… they are playing very well and I am pretty happy about that.

First off, the Giants really need to buckle down and play tough football to finish the season with a good record. They have the hardest schedule in the NFL from here on out (as of 11/11/08) and I don’t expect that to change. The NFC East is the best division (although the NFC South seems to be pretty close and might take the second wildcard) in the league, and the last 3 division games are going to be as hard as the first 3… with the exception of the Dallas game. I’m not necessarily worried about that though, as they beat Pittsburgh without playing their best football (luck and a terrible long snapper had a small part in the victory) as well as beating Dallas and Philadelphia. They really choked against Cleveland, who had their backs against the wall and needed a win. The Giants don’t have any games left against teams like that this season, which is good because they seem to thrive against good teams and win the close ones this season.

Quarterback – Eli Manning has really impressed me this season. He has had games were he’s made plenty of mistakes (Dallas), but has kept his head and rallied the team as well (Cincinnati). 14 TDs isn’t too much, but I am more impressed with his only 6 INTs, considering he threw the most in the entire league last year and still won the Super Bowl for his team. He is showing that he can only get better, which is very good for Big Blue.

Running Back – Phenomenal. Using 3 RBs, the Giants have the second best rushing game in the league, and that says a lot about the offensive line. With the “Earth, Wind and Fire” threesome of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw, defenses have no idea what to expect at any given time, and this gives a huge advantage to the Giants. Jacobs will pound through the line, while Ward will be a faster option, and then Bradshaw will come in with speed as well as the ability to break tackles. He just needs to hold onto the ball a little better and he will get more carries and have even more success as a NY Giant.

Wide Receiver – Great depth here. Burress has been a royal pain in the rearend this year, but Toomer has been extremely reliable. Steve Smith is also playing very well and is Eli’s 3rd down man. He has done great in this role this year, picking up from the amazing job he did in the Super Bowl last season. Domenik Hixon has also stepped up, having a huge game (over 100 yds and a TD) against Seattle when Burress was suspended… and he only played in the first half because of a concussion. Even Sinorce Moss (and Mario Manningham too) has seen some garbage time and scored 2 TDs, and when he’s getting the ball, you know everyone is getting it.

Tight End – Kevin Boss has been slow this year, but is starting to pick things up recently. Can’t really comment on him too much at this time, except for the fact that he has played very well in the last couple games. I think he will start to pick up and play very well throughout the rest of the season.

Offensive Line – Simply outstanding. The main reason for the Giants success. They are playing great in every aspect this season. They are the best part about this Giants team, and are the sole reason for the 8-1 record in many respects.

So far, the offense looks outstanding. Just need to keep the turnovers down and I think that they could break some team records this year for sure. Could have two 1,000 yard rushers in the same backfield in Jacobs and Ward, which would be great.

The defense is very impressive as well this year, considering they lost so many high profile members, such as Michael Strahan to retirement, Gibril Wilson and Kawika Mitchell to free agency, and Osi Umenyiora to a season-ending injury.

Defensive Line – Tuck and Kiwanuka have played very well at the end position, with 14 sacks between the two of them. Even Dave Tollefson has stepped it up and played very well when filling in for any of the ends. Robbins and Cofield have done a fantastic job plugging up the middle and helping to stop the run against dangerous players such as Brian Westbrook and Marion Barber, who were completely shut down.

Linebackers – The shakiest part of the defense this year, with veteran Danny Clark in there, as well as rookie Bryan Kehl. Antonio Pierce has done a fine job of directing these players though… and if that’s the weakest part of the defense this year, I will be happy enough. They are still playing adequately and good enough not to surrender too many short yardage plays, but they need to be wary of those good receiving tight ends that will eventually come their way.

Secondary – Michael Johnson has been impressive, as well as rookie Kenny Phillips, both at safety. Having a veteran such as Sammy Knight will only help them, considering the experience that he has in the league. I think the corners have played fairly well, especially Corey Webster, who they should try and lock up after this year (since he is a FA). Aaron Ross is a great player and will only get better, but he has to learn not to take so many risks, only to get burned by them soon after. Sam Madison is still playing well for his age, but it will probably show later in the year. However, with the lack of play that he has gotten this year, I am hoping he is geared toward the playoffs and will step up big if the Giants make them.

Special Teams – 5 words: Jeff Feagles and John Carney.

(couldn’t even find him in a Giants uniform)

That’s really all I have to say for now… GO GIANTS!

WE’RE BAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!

The Sporting Dudes started in the Fall of 2007 between K-Wil and myself, MVP, in our senior year of college.  TSD faded as we focused concluded college as drinking games, liquor runs and evenings at the bar took over.  Now that we are both settling into our non-college life that will consume us for the rest of our lives, we have some time and it’s time to take the defibulator to TSD and revive it.

In case you are new to TSD, let me discuss where both of us are coming from (that’s what she said).

At TSD you are going to get a wide range of opinions of different topics in sports.  Even though K-Wil and I share many of the same favorite teams, I would like to say we vary in our opinions, knowledge and passion of the sport.

K-Wil’s sport is football, mine is baseball.  In college K-Wil prefers college football, I prefer college basketball.  K-Wil likes hockey, I think I would rather be one of Michael Vick’s dogs than watch an NHL game on TV.  I love the business side of sports while K-Wil prefers the old-fashioned integrity of the sport.  

I hope TSD becomes a part of your daily sports reading rituals as you should value our opinion over everyone elses.  (I’ve been called cocky.  I think its more about being self-aware)  There will some new aspects to TSD as we have more time and more capital.

-MVP

Rockie Mountain High

The month of October couldn’t start any better for Major League Baseball.  Last night’s game between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies was phenomenal and ranks as one of the top games this season.  There was so much drama going into the one game tiebreaker that sports fans were torn between watching playoff baseball, and watching Monday Night Football.  I chose to watch the playoffs because when the calendar turns to October my location turns to the coach in front of the television.  For those who chose to watch baseball they witnessed an unbelievable start to the postseason.  The Rockies entered the game having won 13 of 14 games to even have an opportunity to have a chance at the playoffs. 

 

The pitching match-up: NL Cy Young favorite Jake Peavy against Josh Fogg.  Josh who?  Fogg, you know the pitcher with a career record of 60-60 and a 4.90 ERA.  He was facing Peavy, who lead the National League in wins (19), strikeouts (240), ERA (2.54) and WHIP (1.06).  We certainly know who had the advantage on the mound.  The Rockies had home-field advantage and were in the midst of a historical comeback.  Personally I wanted the Rockies to win.  They hadn’t been to the playoffs since 1995!  To put that in perspective, since the Rockies last made the playoffs the single season homerun record has been broken – twice, The Yankees have won four World Series Championships, the Red Sox ended an 86 year curse, there are two expansion teams – the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays, Alex Rodriguez has hit 511 of his 516 career homeruns and the era is known as the Steroid Era.  This is the Rockies team that last made the playoffs before last night:

 

C – Joe Girardi

1B – Andres Galarraga

2B – Jason Bates

3B – Vinny Castilla

SS – Walt Weiss

OF – Dante Bichette

OF – Larry Walker

OF – Mike Kingery

Bench – Eric Young, Ellis Burks, John Vander Wal

 

Since 1995 Joe Girardi has won Manager of the Year, Andres Galarraga battled cancer, and Eric Young is on Baseball Tonight.  How can you not root for this team?  If I haven’t swayed you yet to jump on the Rockies bandwagon, please read the following article from the Rocky Mountain News about how the team is playing for Todd Helton who before last night had never been to the playoffs: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/mlb/article/0,2777,DRMN_23924_5706395,00.html

 

September was a magical month for the Rockies, hopefully October will be just as kind.

 

-MVP

MVP’s Week 4 NFL Picks

Houston Texans @ Atlanta Falcons – Houston Texans

New York Jets @ Buffalo Bills – New York Jets

Baltimore Ravens @ Cleveland Browns – Baltimore Ravens

St. Louis Rams @ Dallas Cowboys – Dallas Cowboys

Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions – Detroit Lions

Oakland Raiders @ Miami Dolphins – Miami Dolphins

Green Bay Packers @ Minnesota Vikings – Green Bay Packers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @  Carolina Panthers – Carolina Panthers

Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers – San Francisco 49ers

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Arizona Cardinals – Pittsburgh Steelers

Denver Broncos @ Indianapolis Colts – Indianapolis Colts

Kansas City Chiefs @ San Diego Chargers – San Diego Chargers

Philadelphia Eagles @ New York Giants – Philadelphia Eagles

New England Patriots @ Cincinnati Bengals – New England Patriots 

K-Wil’s NFL Picks: Week 4

All right, week 4 rolls along and here are my picks…

• Houston Texans @ Atlanta Falcons = Houston Texans
  
• New York Jets @ Buffalo Bills = Buffalo Bills
• Baltimore Ravens @ Cleveland Browns = Baltimore Ravens
• St. Louis Rams @ Dallas Cowboys = Dallas Cowboys
• Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions = Detroit Lions
• Oakland Raiders @ Miami Dolphins = Oakland Raiders
• Green Bay Packers @ Minnesota Vikings = Minnesota Vikings
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Carolina Panthers = Carolina Panthers
• Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers = Seattle Seahawks
• Pittsburgh Steelers @ Arizona Cardinals = Pittsburgh Steelers
• Denver Broncos @ Indianapolis Colts = Indianapolis Colts
• Kansas City Chiefs @ San Diego Chargers = San Diego Chargers
• Philadelphia Eagles @ New York Giants = New York Giants
• New England Patriots @ Cincinnati Bengals = New England Patriots

Leave me some comments if you agree/disagree, and if you’d like to post your picks, create a thread in the forum.

Signed up for a forum…. register!

Just registered for a forum but didn’t set everything up yet… that will probably come this weekend at some point. Register so we can all talk about sports, and get some other people to come because there’s always a good argument that can be had about sports.

The Sporting Dudes Discussion Forum

Sorry about the longer URL, until we get better with hosting/domains and all that, we have to use the free versions. This one supposedly has ZERO ads, which is why I chose it, because ads can be annoying as hell. Although, ads are necessary to make money to keep the site running, so who knows how long this will last. But if this gets more traffic, we will definitely be buying space and a domain. Just register for the forums and I will get them set up later.

-KW

Postseason Madness!

The month of mid-September to mid-October may only be rivaled by the month of March as the greatest 30 day period in sports.  March Madness is unbelievable, but folks, we have postseason madness now.  It is the last week of the baseball regular season and National League teams are battling it out for the wild card.  Combine baseball postseason craziness with the NFL, college football and NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Championship Series and the sports fan has a permanent seat location in front of their television, or in front of The Sporting Dudes to break everything down.

The American League teams are set with just home-field advantage and series matchups to be decided.  If the season were to end today the Yankees would be traveling to Cleveland to face the Indians and the Los Angeles-Anaheim-California Angels would play the Boston Red Sox.  The American League is actually very simple when you compare it to its National League counterparts.  This is taken from an article by Jayson Stark of ESPN about the National League postseason race: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3038686

Personally I would love to see a five-way tie.  Every team is so even in talent that Major League Baseball is challenging the NFL is degree of parity.

Let the postseason madness continue.  Who knows, maybe the Colorado Rockies can become baseball’s version of George Mason.  That is, if they can emerge out of the five team pile-up in the standings.

 

-MVP

And Mike Vick is at it again! I got some advice…

I’m going to make my first post in light of recent occurrences… not as much analyzing, but offering advice to a certain NFL player.

Can you all believe it? Mike Vick got into legal trouble… guess there’s a first for everything. Hell, next he’ll probably set up an underground dogfighting ring and brutally murder the dogs because they don’t win, probably by hanging or drowning or some other gruesome, torturous death… nah probably not, he wouldn’t be able to do that and live with himself… would he?

Mike probably went to hang out with Ricky Williams, who’s probably been toking it up in Canada all year, discussing his plans to return to the Dolphins. Why would you ever want to return to the NFL when you can play in the prestigious CFL for the Argonauts? Ricky Williams, give it up chief, you aren’t even good anymore. It’d be one thing if you were an addict and still good (Michael Irvin and the rest of the entire Dallas Cowboys team in the 90s minus Emmitt Smith…. how else do you think that they put up with that annoying turd called Moose), as you know that we don’t care what people do off the field, as long as they produce on field. But Ricky, you are a fat useless piece of garbage (I could have been more harsh), so stay out of the NFL. Even Jay Feely doesn’t want you on his team, and when a kicker is even allowed to talk to the media besides when he pulls a Scott Norwood, you should listen.

But anyway, we aren’t here to discuss Ricky Williams, so let’s get back to you Mike. I got some advice for you, and I hope you take it to heart. I’m out here to help you, even though you were committed to Syracuse and then backed out of that commitment. Oh well, at least we don’t have CONVICTED felons that played at our school…

All right, here’s what you can do to get back in the NFL. Now that you were indicted AGAIN, you might be spending a couple years behind bars. Worried that you might get fat and out of shape? Don’t worry… you’ll be running away from big angry dog loving men (would you know that this type of person makes up the majority of prisons around the USA) that don’t even care that you herped up that woman and called yourself Ron Mexico. These guys probably already have that, along with gonorrhea, syphilis, AIDS… you name it, they probably have it. You might want to think of some new names though when you have to get your meds, as everyone knows Ron Mexico now… how about Pedro Antarctica or Johnny Zimbabwe? Just a few suggestions. But don’t worry, you’ll stay in shape and mostly STD-free, as long as you can pull off feats like you did in Minnesota as the prisoners are chasing you around the yard… good thing that this doesn’t depend on completing short passes, right?

This is the only thing you can do Mike… run… so take advantage of your athletic ability because obviously, it didn’t pay off in the NFL. Well I guess it somehow did for you… Arthur Blank paid for it, but man, he could have just gotten a cheap running back to put in your place, and it still might have been an upgrade in accuracy. But Mike, just don’t drop the soap because all that running will be in vain… I would say that you don’t wanna get sacked in prison, and you don’t have your line to throw under the bus for that one, either.

When you get out of prison, you’ll be a changed man. I’m sure you’ll find Jesus like everyone else does when they get out of the big house (don’t know why it takes you all so long to find him in the first place) but if you’re anything like Ricky, you’re craving for “tree” – as Jim Rome likes to call it – won’t be gone. So don’t get busted buying from dealers Mike, you’re already in hot water. But when you take it out of your fake Aquafina bottle (you know, the one with the hidden compartment that you took into an airport) and do your thing, you need to understand that you’ll probably fail a drug test. Here’s my advice:

First of all, Call Onterrio Smith.

 

Onterrio was the RB for the Vikes and knows first hand what it’s like to be an NFL player and caught with drugs… he’s still suspended! But Onterrio didn’t use his own urine for drug tests… nope, he used the “Whizzinator.” What is the Whizzinator, you might ask? Well, you can check it out here, but I have provided a picture and I think you could probably figure it out from there.

So there you go Mike, you can use a your fake manhood to pass a drug test! You are on the road to recovery. Now all you have to do is make a team. That shouldn’t be all that hard right? Oh wait, I just realized that you can’t throw and you really couldn’t in the first place… and even though you were chased around by the inmates, you aren’t in shape anymore… at least not football shape. Well Mike, it was a good run while it lasted… as that’s all you can do. Guess we’ll be seeing you in jail again; you couldn’t keep out while making your $100+ million dollar contract and having to play football everyday, so I would imagine you couldn’t stay out when you don’t have anything to do anymore. Well, be careful Mike, and good riddance.

- K Dubs