Wisconsin On Suicide Watch

Following a(nother) head-scratching home loss as New Orleans took control of yesterday’s game, Packer Nation is pointing fingers and gazing at its navel this morning. Bob Wolfley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel sums up the harsh realities nicely:

After the way the Green Bay Packers played in the first week of the season, you thought National Football League observers would have consigned them to Irrelevant Squad status.

If a team receives that designation, it sort of disappears from polite football society. No one talks about you. No one sees you much; your games go to 2% of the nation.

The Arizona Cardinals, Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns are examples of teams that are reliably irrelevant year after year after year.

The Packers seemed to have played their way into that company in Week 1, but curiosity about Brett Favre’s status and fascination with the hard fall of a once-elite team managed to sustain national attention through at least Week 2.

Wolfley goes on to point out how at least one football analyst is starting to feast on Favre’s carcass:

“Actually, last season I thought Brett Favre would come back because I thought he had the physical skills to throw the football as well as anyone,” [Ron] Jaworski said on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.” “But watching him through the pre-season and the regular season opener last week, it’s obvious his physical skills have diminished. I watched the game on TV. I watched coaching tape. He’s had some opportunities to make plays with his arm. He did not, which is unusual for Brett Favre.”

Jaworski made his comment before Favre’s performance against the Saints, an outing that was more dynamic than the one he had against the Chicago Bears last week.

Wolfley goes on in his article to describe several ridiculous proclamations made by announcers and analysts regarding Packers players; the whole article is wortth a read.

The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison) takes a look at yesterday’s game through the eyes of one of the few Packers who is really playing well right now, defensive end Aaron Kampman:

Aaron Kampman was having a flashback. And considering how rare the good vibes are becoming for the Green Bay Packers these days, he was thoroughly enjoying it.

There the Packers veteran defensive end was Sunday afternoon, parked on an aluminum bench, looking up at a Lambeau Field scoreboard that was clearly in the home team’s favor, and smiling. He knew there was still work to be done, but 11 months after the fact, he was in serious deja vu mode.

Last year, his downtrodden Packers got their first victory of the season with a 49-point blowout of the visiting New Orleans Saints. And Sunday, they were well on their way again, staked to a 13-point first-quarter lead after the defense took the ball away on New Orleans’ first three possessions.

“It was great,” Kampman said. “I was sitting on the sidelines, and I was like, ‘OK, great. This is going to be just like it was when we got after them last year.’ And …”

Or maybe it’s just all the fault of the receivers, argues State Journal columnist Jason Wilde:

With the way the folks at ESPN seem determined to find a corporate sponsor for just about every SportsCenter segment, we humbly suggest the perfect one for any so-called highlights they show from the Green Bay Packers’ 34-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints Sunday afternoon.

Butterfinger candy bars.

Even the Packers’ hometown newspaper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, is turning on the team. As writes columnist Chris Havel:

Rookie mistakes are costly, especially when veterans are making them.

The popular notion is the Packers are a young team suffering through a rebuilding phase. The perception is far from reality. The fact is, veterans such as Brett Favre, Ahman Green, Robert Ferguson, Nick Barnett, Ahmad Carroll, Marquand Manuel and Franks weren’t at their best.

As a result, neither were the winless Packers.

Ahmad Carroll in particular has been a whipping boy during his entire tenure in Titletown. Fans love his exuberance, but that same exuberance leads to overcommitment and frustrating penalties. Carroll actually played well within himself yesterday, but still, it wasn’t a great effort by the Pack. Jaworski is wrong about Favre’s physical skills; Favre still puts plenty of grease on the ball, as evidenced by the fact that the mostly-green Packer receiving corps can’t hold on to the ball. But perhaps the best word on Favre in 2006 comes from Fox analyst Terry Bradshaw, as quoted in Wolfley’s column:

Bradshaw said Favre mentally had retired, but he will be starting for Green Bay at the end of the season, even if it’s a lost season.

“I believe Brett should have retired last year,” Bradshaw said. “I was disappointed when he didn’t. If you are talking about retirement, my friend, you have retired. Yes, he can still play physically. But mentally, I think he checked out three years ago.”

“fire mikemccarthy” as yet doesn’t yield any useful Google results. I suspect that may change before the day runs out. But apparently, Packers general manager Ted Thompson isn’t quite so lucky.

Vanderjagt Kicks 50-Yarder in Cowboys Debut

Mike Vanderjagt has quieted the critics, at least for now, as the most accurate kicker in NFL history kicked two field goals, including a 50-yarder that went right down the middle, in his Dallas Cowboys debut.

Apparently, getting to kick field goals in the Cowboys’ 27-10 win over the Redskins after being kept inactive for the regular-season opener at Jacksonville was more than a big deal to kicker Mike Vanderjagt.

After Sunday night’s game here at Texas Stadium, when he went two-for-two on field goals with a 26-yarder as well as a 50-yarder, Vanderjagt said waiting for a chance to “quiet the critics” was harder than the kick that’s haunted him since last season.

“It was 100 times harder than missing a kick against Pittsburgh,” Vanderjagt said about waiting for his Cowboys debut in a regular-season game. “It was real hard to take. It was real hard to deal with. I came to a new team, and I just wanted to kick – the reason I was here. And when you’re not provided that opportunity it’s kind of discouraging.”

This week, Vanderjagt got his chance, and he took advantage of it. He said he thinks he broke the supposed curse that had been hovering over him since missing the 46-yard, last-second kick that would have send his Colts into overtime in a second-round playoff game last season against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“It was a little nerve-racking at first, but once I got the little short one under my belt, that was certainly a good way to start,” said Vanderjagt, who signed the three-year, $5.4 million deal with the Cowboys in the off-season. “And certainly extra points make you feel good. And any time you can hit a 50 (-yard field goal), it’s certainly going to help your confidence. I never doubted my ability, but you’ve got to make sure you still have it. And I felt good about how it went.”

As a Cowboys fan, so did I! While I was never worried that his career was permanently derailed by missing a rather long field goal in a playoff game, I had some concern about the nagging injury and the nagging by the head coach. It looks like both are past him, at least for now.

Terrell Owens Breaks Finger, Out 2-4 Weeks

T.O. broke his finger at the beginning of last night’s game between the Cowboys and Redskins but did not tell anyone until the game was almost over.

Terrell Owens will miss from two to four weeks after breaking a finger Sunday night in the Dallas Cowboys’ 27-10 victory over Washington.

The controversial wide receiver broke his right ring finger and will need surgery; he said it’d be Monday, but the team said it also could be Tuesday. The Cowboys have a bye next week.

Owens said he was hurt on the first or second play of the game, but didn’t tell anybody until the fourth quarter. He said it was a “fluke thing” and occurred when he was blocking. “I think my hand got caught on a guy’s jersey or something. I kind of felt something weird with it,” Owens said. “I just kind of felt like I jammed it. I kept playing.”

Owens, who missed much of training camp and the preseason because of a hamstring injury after signing a three-year, $25 million deal that includes a $5 million bonus and a $5 million salary in 2006, struggled against the Redskins. Owens flubbed a pass in the end zone on the opening drive – the first of three drops. By game’s end, he was getting his hand X-rayed, his stats sealed at three catches for 19 yards.

While Owens wasn’t sure when he got hurt, he drew a personal foul penalty on the Cowboys’ first offensive snap of the game for an illegal block. On the dropped touchdown, Owens said he was trying to gather in the ball when cornerback Mike Rumph knocked the ball away. “I didn’t really have my full strength in my hand, so I think that probably may have contributed with him punching it out,” Owens said.

It just might. It’s hard enough to catch a ball when someone is mugging you without a broken hand.

It’s football. Players are in pain all the time and I’m sure T.O. didn’t realize his finger was actually broken. Even jams are excrutiatingly painful.

Years ago, I remember a then-recently-retired Lynn Swann being interviewed and saying that if you want to know if you’re ready for the NFL, have someone throw you the ball. And have someone else ready to whack you with a baseball bat while you’re trying to catch it. That’s probably not much of an exaggeration.

Vikings Kicker Throws TD Pass, Kicks Winning Field Goal

Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell threw a 16-yard TD pass to tie the game and then kicked the game-winning field goal in OT.

Ryan Longwell caught the pitch, rolled right, let the ball go and connected with Vikings tight end Richard Owens for the game-tying score. With Longwell’s three field goals and a clutch touchdown pass on a fake — plus a defense that forced nine punts — the Vikings showed again that they don’t need a flashy, high-flying offense to win.

Longwell’s 16-yard toss to Owens, his first career touchdown pass, tied the game in the fourth quarter. Then his 19-yard kick with 7:25 left in overtime Sunday gave the Vikings a 16-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers.

“Ten years in, I finally got one,” said Longwell, grinning broadly and gladly answering dozens of questions in the locker room. He also made field goals from 22 and 27 yards.

That special-teams trick by Minnesota (2-0) trumped the one used by Carolina (0-2), which had a 13-6 lead with 10 minutes left in regulation before coach John Fox called for a throwback pass by returner Chris Gamble that ended poorly for the struggling Panthers.

Bonus: He’s on my fantasy team, too!

Five Duquesne Basketball Players Shot

Five Duquesne basketball players were shot by a man they tried to calm down at a dance.

Five Duquesne basketball players were shot on campus early Sunday, leaving at least one critically injured, after some of them tried to calm a man who apparently had been disruptive at a dance, officials said. Police searched for the gunman, and the downtown school stepped up its round-the-clock police protection with armed university police officers guarding dormitories and other buildings.

Two players had been walking near a dormitory when they encountered a man who apparently had been disruptive at a student union dance, authorities said. The players attempted to pacify him and walked away but were shot. Players who rushed to their aid were also shot.

In critical condition was forward Sam Ashaolu of Toronto, a transfer from Lake Region State College and a cousin of former Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon. Ashaolu was shot in the head, a Duquesne source told ESPN.com’s Andy Katz. His parents were traveling to Pittsburgh on Sunday to be with their son.

In serious condition was Stuard Baldonado of Colombia, a transfer from Miami Dade College who was considered the school’s best recruit. Baldonado was shot in the elbow and the bullet entered his body, the Duquesne source told Katz.

Also hospitalized was Kojo Mensah, a guard from New York City who averaged nearly 17 points last season at Siena College before transferring. He was believed shot in the shoulder, but his condition was not released.

Treated and released were Shawn James of New York City, the nation’s leading shot blocker last season at Northeastern University before transferring to Duquesne; and Aaron Jackson of Hartford, Conn., a guard who is one of only two returning players from Duquesne’s 3-24 team last season.

James, an NBA propsect expected to be Duquesne’s top player when he becomes eligible in the 2007-08 season, was shot in the foot but no bones were broken. Jackson was shot in the hand.

Terrible.

Weekly Miami Dolphins prediction

The Dolphins play host to the Buffalo Bills this afternoon. Both teams stand 0-1 for the season.

Miami looked lackluster at best against Pittsburgh while Buffalo almost beat New England. These teams have a long history, including that Dolphins’ Offensive Coordinator Mike Mularkey was the Bills’ head coach just last season. I played ball against Mularkey 30 years ago when we were both high school students in Broward County Florida. He at Northeast High School and myself at Deerfield Beach.(Another present day coach who Deerfield Beach faced off against, is the current U of GA head coach Mark Richt who went to Boca Raton High School)

Back to the Dolphins and Bills. The series has been pretty predictable, Miami wins at home, Buffalo will win at home if the game is played during the winter. Both teams have lots of question marks, but Miami is better. It isn’t time for Dolphin fans to panic yet. My prediction- Miami 24 Buffalo 10.

Update- Boy that game was ugly. Buffalo 16, Miami 6. What was Culpepper thinking when he threw the INT at the end of the first half. TWO Bills stood in the line from Culpepper to the intended receiver. Both of the two INTS Dante threw against Pittsburgh were bad ideas too. Throwing into double coverage, or not thinking that a LB would just stretch his arms into the path of his pass to intercept it.

I predicted at the end of 2005 Miami would have a losing season. Many prognosticators were predicting big things for Miami this year, while I was skeptical about last year’s 6 game winning streak. I changed my prediction about Miami’s season, now after two games I’m wondering if my initial impression was right.

NFL Offenses in Preseason Mode

Rick Gosselin argues that teams’ reluctance to expose their stars to injury risk during the pre-season means that they are still essentially in preseason mode the first four weeks of the season. Since quarterbacks and receivers don’t get many reps at game speed, he observes, “Little wonder defense is always ahead of the offense in September.”

Agreed. Of course, that begs the question: Why have a four game pre-season, then, if it’s not going to be used as intended? The answer, obviously, is money: Teams can force season ticket holders to pay for two extra home games at full price for the privilege of buying the eight regular season games. It’s a lousy deal but most teams have waiting lists, so the owners are getting away with it.

Cowboys-Redskins Rivalry Not Dead

Brad Sham says that, while the rivalry isn’t what it once was, the rivalry between the Washington Redskins and Dallas Cowboys is far from dead.

The NFL used to have some of [the juice that makes high school and college sports rivalries so passionate] when the world was smaller. Dallas-Washington wasn’t always a rivalry, because the Washington franchise played for 28 years before there even was the Dallas Cowboys. So Dallas coming into the league in 1960 wouldn’t have created a rivalry all by itself.

Well, it wouldn’t have except for the way the Cowboys arrived. Not to bore you with too much history, but for the youngsters in the audience (under 40?), Washington owner George Preston Marshall was voting against a Dallas entry in the league until the Cowboys’ first owner, the impish and unmatched Clint Murchison, acquired the copyright to the Washington team song. Murchison literally held Hail to the Redskins hostage for the vote that allowed Dallas in the league, and of such stuff are rivalries made.

[...]

Once there is history, the history can’t be erased, and Dallas and Washington have more of it than any two teams in football. That’s why Cowboys receiver Terry Glenn, who has participated in this rivalry for only four years now, says “It has a feel to it like when you were kids playing cowboys and Indians. I felt that getting ready for the first time I played in it. And growing up, Dallas and Washington was always one of the games you knew about and watched.”

What the rivalry lacks is the intensity of the days when George Allen paced the Washington sideline, licking his lips, allegedly sending spies to the Cowboys’ North Dallas practice field. It lacks the fire of a provoked Harvey Martin throwing a funeral wreath into the Washington locker room after beating those Skins in 1979, convinced he tossed the circular flowers back from whence they came from. But that doesn’t have anything to do with the teams. It has to do with the industry.

Hall of Fame coach John Madden will handle the telecast of Sunday night’s renewal with partner Al Michaels on NBC. Speaking on the Cowboys Radio Network on Tuesday, Madden, who knows a thing or two about rivalries, said, “I don’t think it’s dead. I think all rivalries in the NFL have lost a little because of free agency. Players, and coaches too, move around so much more than they used to. They haven’t grown up in the culture. But as far as rivalries exist in today’s NFL, I don’t think there’s much question Dallas and Washington is probably the best one.”

And the reason it is so, dear reader, is you. You’re the fan. You care about Dallas-Washington and Dallas-Philadelphia more than you do about Dallas-Jacksonville. It’s a division opponent. There is history. Maybe you watched with your dad or aunt or grandpa. Maybe there’s a game in the history that stokes your furnace. Maybe you just hate the way those nasties hate your team and you by extension.

I agree. With players and coaches regularly moving from team-to-team these days, it’s not like it was in the 1970s. Heck, Bill Parcells has been the head coach of four teams in only two NFL divisions, moving from the NFC East Giants to the AFC East Patriots to the AFC East Jets to the NFC East Cowboys over his career. And there are a players who have played for both the Cowboys and the Redskins.

Still, as a Cowboys fan now living in Redskins country, I feel the passion that ‘Skins fans have when it’s “Dallas Week.” I hear it on talk radio and read it in the papers.

Interestingly, though, the NFL team whose jersey and other paraphenalia I see most around here, other than the Redskins’, is the Cowboys’. By far, in fact. That’s despite the fact it’s been a decade since the ‘Boys last won anything.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

Its official: the Braves will not win their division this year, ending their title streak at 14 seasons.

Its quite an accomplishment, as James noted. However, now that it is finally over, I figured I would post a bit of a celebration.

Because for me, that streak reminded me, every year, that the Pittsburgh Pirates would not win while the Braves did it again.

It has been frustrating. Ever since Sid Bream brought the last post season (and the last winning season) the Pirates were in to a close, the Braves have just kept on going. As they piled up victory after victory, I began to hate the Braves more than any other team in Major League Baseball. More than even the Yankees (though not by much). For me, even now, it will always be the Braves. Whenever I hear their name in the news, I always hope that news of a loss accomponies it, espicially if they are playing the Pirates.

How can I hate the Yankees more, when the Pirates beat them in the last World Series they played them in? When my only baseball post season memories are of the Pirates losing to the Braves? To be fair, they lost to the Reds in my lifetime, but for some reason, I have no memory of that season – I was very young at that time. This was my first real exposure to pro sports. I remember staying up late and watching the games. I vividly remember the Tomahawk chop, the silly gimmick the Braves used to hype up their fans, and wondering why we didn’t have anything like that for our team. I vaguely remember the inability to get the last out in that last series. However, in my youthful optimism, I thought that the Pirates would return to the post season, and hopefully make the World Series. Little did I know . . .

In any event, its over, and this Pirates fan says “Thank goodness”. Now if only the Yankees would stop buying up division titles, I’d be a much happier baseball fan. I do respect the mark the Braves have made, and will give them more credit than I will give the Yankees if they reach that mark (and will actively root against that). However, I had to contribute my side of this story.