teke184

My team in my work league: Teke's Tigers RB Deuce McAllister RB Rudy Johnson QB Tom Brady WR Roy Williams WR Ashley Leile WR Eddie Kennison TE Todd Heap DEF Carolina K Matt Stover Backups RB Frank Gore RB TJ Duckett WR Mike Williams WR David Patten TE Doug Jolley K Lawrence Tynes My overall roster is good but I made at least two screwups... 1. No backup QB for Brady because I was trying to get Kurt Warner or Steve McNair late and, when I didn't get them, I figured it would be better to wait until a different team cut one of their three QBs. (One guy picked up Carson Palmer and Drew Brees then, when he figured out that both had the same bye week, also picked up Kyle Boller) None of the remaining QBs looks to be worth a crap unless I want to dumpster-dive for Patrick Ramsey, JP Losman, or a backup who may or may not start, so I figure I'm better off waiting a few weeks to see who gets cut or making a deal with someone for one of my backups. 2. Three of my WRs have the same bye week. I knew that Roy Williams and Mike Williams were off on week 3 but, when I was trying to pick my last backup, my top choices left the board right before my pick so I got flustered and picked up the best available WR, Patten, only to find out that he was off in Week 3 as well. I'm trying to trade Patten or Mike Williams for either a backup QB or a different WR.

Getting back to Justin Vincent... He lost his starting job last year because everyone keyed off of him, which meant that no holes opened up for him to punch through.l Broussard, OTOH, is a bruiser who creates his own holes so he was able to take over. The bad QB situation also contributed to this, as they needed constant yards on the ground to make up for shitty decisionmaking by the QB and Broussard was always good for X number of yards while Vincent was hot-and-cold.

LSU news: Latest word out of Baton Rouge is that starting RB Alley Broussard has torn up his knee and will be out all year. This hurts because, despite the fact that 2003 Sugar Bowl MVP Justin Vincent can step in and start, Broussard was a hard-running bruiser who could create holes by knocking defenders out of his way. Broussard's loss hurts LSU's chances at a national championship, although an SEC West championship is still likely, and an SEC Title Game win is still a possibility.

Bored will give us a list of games to choose winners from each week. The winners of head-to-head matchups will be determined by the most correct choices by one of the participants. If the two teams are tied at picking the games, the game will go to a series of tie-breakers that Bored gets people to guess on beforehand. Tiebreakers are typically "How many yards will Jamarcus Russell throw for?" or "How many points, combined, will be scored in the Louisville vs. Boise State game?" When possible, he makes the primary tiebreaker something that is determined by the first game of the week, such as the rushing total for the star running back of the Thursday night game. That way, people will know whether they can win by tying the other team or if they have to be ahead by 1 or more picks.

I'm inclined to think it will be a player from one of the smaller schools (less competition - see how often a North Texas back had led the NCAA). If he's healthy, Memphis RB DeAngelo Williams would be a good bet, as would New Mexico RB DonTrell Moore. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Right line of reasoning, but I think you've mentioned the wrong players. For one, DeAngelo Williams got hurt in his bowl game last year and may not be 100% this season. My choice is Jamario Thomas, a sophmore at North Texas. North Texas only plays one top-tier team this year, LSU. The rest of their schedule includes a down Kansas State team as well as OK mid-major teams like Tulsa, Troy, and Middle Tennessee State, before getting to the true crap like Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, and Arkansas State. Given that Thomas rushed for 1800 yards last year, despite having games against Texas (Rose Bowl champs), Colorado (Big 12 North champs), and Southern Miss (Perennially one of the best defenses in the country), he should have a field day against some of the crap teams on their schedule.

Hrm... #5 LSU (teke184) 1. Washington State (Bravesfan) 2. Arizona State (Spicy McHaggis) 3. #6 Georgia Tech (Iggy McFly) 4. Tennessee (Kotz) 5. Oklahoma (Damaramu) 6. South Carolina (Cuban Lynx) 7. Florida (Agent Bond 34) 8. Auburn (Agent of Oblivion) 9. Connecticut (DragonLordKalba) 10. Texas A&M (Secret Agent) 11. Alabama (AlwaysPissedOff) 12. Nebraska (CarnvializComing) 13. #4 Syracuse (Canadian Chris) I'm getting off light as far as *pre-season ranked* opponents, although Washington State was only a 1-point win in the OxyCotton Bowl last year. However, the Big South was a four-way dogfight last year at the end, so it's tougher than it appears on the surface, and there are a lot of first-year teams on my schedule, so there's no telling how they'll do. This has the makings of a LONG season, depending on how the chips fall...

... Feely left the game with a bruised ass?

No matter how good Eli is, he won't be successful in New York until they sign an O-line to block for him. I just wish that the Giants were playing the Falcons this year so that Chad Lavolais could recreate one of the most interesting plays of LSU's 2003 National Championship season, when he threw an Ole Miss lineman onto Eli's foot, causing Eli to fall down and blow a critical fourth down. The funny thing was that no one could figure out why it happened at first, as it looked like Eli had just taken a prattfall onto his ass for no reason.

If not, they could always find a sucker to take him off their hands in exchange for someone they need. This sometimes works out in their favor (JT O'Sullivan being sent to Green Bay as as part of the deal for Mike McKenzie) and sometimes doesn't (running off Jake Delhomme, who went to the Super Bowl the next year with the Panthers).

I haven't heard much about him lately... I think he has some screw-up tendencies like Brooks but, unlike Brooks, they're mostly done off the field. I think he's got the tools to be a great NFL quarterback as long as he doesn't get kicked out of the league for being an idiot in his personal life.

Air McNair is good but the numbers that Volek and Bennett put up at the end of last year were so good that it's hard to argue against putting Volek back in. I'd consider trading McNair to a team who needs a veteran QB then bringing in some cheap talent to help fill out the roster.

Oh please, give BOTH the Bears and Titans credit, they can beat the Browns in Cleveland. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I give credit to the Bears defense. Their offense is questionable until Grossman can go a few games without getting killed, which is the fault of the O-line. As for Tennessee, I have no faith in them at the moment because they dumped a tremendous amount of their roster for salary cap purposes then signed about twice as many undrafted free-agents as anyone else in the league. Given that they don't seem to have a direction right now, other than letting Travis Henry run the ball, I'm not sure they could beat Cleveland.

The kicker wasn't shitty... the only kicks he missed last year were all in that LSU game to start the season and LSU's special teams had the knack for getting great kickers to blow easy kicks. The season before, LSU had gotten Ole Miss and Georgia's all-world kickers to blow important field goals that were little more than chip-shots. A few weeks after the Oregon State game, LSU played Auburn at Auburn and HAD gotten the kicker to blow the extra point, but Auburn got to rekick because of a bullshit leaping call against LSU.

In reference to Cleveland being the consensus worst team in the NFL, that's what happens when a team drafts shit for five straight years. This year's not going to hurt Romeo's long-term prospects, so if I were him I'd look at this season as an experiment to figure out what he can use out of the current roster and what positions need attention next offseason. Pretty much, they need to see if Suggs or Droughns will be their starter at RB, if Dilfer can lead the team (survey says: HELL no!), if their overhauled D-Line could stop a paraplegic, and so forth. When everything's said and done, they'll probably end up with the #1 pick in the draft, which they'll use on Matt Leinart, then they'll see how they can go about dumping all the dead weight off their roster and finding people who belong in the league to replace them. Give Romeo about three years and he'll have them winning at least six games a year, which isn't great but is better than the 2-14 record they'll probably get this year. (I see them winning only their games against the Bears and Titans, both of which are in Cleveland. The rest of their games are against ass-kickers like the Ravens, Colts, Steelers, Vikings, etc.)

True, but that's what happens when the kids grow up to become lawyers. Maybe THAT was the hidden danger in those 50s Rock and Roll songs...

That's provided that Charlie Rogers doesn't get a papercut and end up in a body cast... Mike Williams and Roy Williams are good enough to drag production out of Harrington, but having Rogers to complete the stacked WR set means that they'll be able to stretch the coverage thin enough to put up some point. TE Marcus Pollard MIGHT help the equation, but that depends if his production last year had anything to do with *his* quality instead of the fact that the guy thowing balls at him was Peyton Manning. If Rogers goes out and Mike Williams isn't ready to step in as the full-time WR2, this could be the year that Joey gets canned, adding another name to the list of huge QB busts coming out of Oregon.

I'd add the SF 69ers to the pile of "can't make it to the playoffs" teams. They've been gutted by the owner's cheapskate attitude and the fact that they got less than market value for some of their good players that they traded, such as TO. Hell, I think they cut a lot of good players for the sole reason of slashing the budget, which isn't the way to run a football team. On the plus side for them, if they get the #1 pick this year they'll be able to trade down more easily since SOMEONE will decide they want Matt Leinart to be their QB of the future. Won't directly do them a whole lot of good though.

I don't see Atlanta pulling it off... Unless Michael Vick learns to add some distance to his passing game, people will continue to put a spy on Crumper and to stack the box to take out Vick, Dunn, and Duckett. I think this may end up being Minnesota's year if Philly's too decimated, as I don't really see another huge contender emerging in the NFC. Seattle's a clusterfuck right now because they had so much turnover in the offseason and didn't even have a GM for the beginning of the offseason. St. Louis has the parts on offense but I don't think they'll pull it all together this year. Give Stephen Jackson another year or two and keep Marshall Faulk healthy as the third-down back and they'll be a contender. New Orleans is so inconsistent that it's hard to predict what they'll do, although it's a safe bet that they'll fuck up at exactly the wrong time, such as in the last 2 minutes of a playoff game. Carolina's offense is iffy mainly due to the littany of injuries that stacked up last year. If they can keep one or two healthy running backs and have a wide receiver step up in Muhammed's place, I think Delhomme IS capable of putting together a great run. Green Bay is falling apart right now, as Farve's game is aging, Ahman Green is an injury concern, Bubba Franks and Javon Walker are holding out, and Donald Driver is not known for stepping up in big games. They're of playoff quality by default but they don't appear to be of Super Bowl calibur. Hell, this past few years has reminded me of my youth, when Buffalo was the AFC's designated jobber every year because no one else in the conference could stack up against the worst NFC playoff teams.

What a team does in its previous year's bowl game means absolutely squat when it comes to the following season. I think that has a lot to do with everybody picking Texas to win the Big 12. The last memory everyone has of Oklahoma wiping USC wiping the floor with them. But let's look at some examples: 1. 2003 Cotton Bowl: Texas passed all over LSU. The next year, LSU had one of the top pass defenses in the country en route to a national championship. 2. 2003 GMAC Bowl: Miami (OH) destroyed Louisville. The next year, Louisville was a dropped interception away from playing in one the BCS games. 3. 2002 Insight Bowl: In a reverse case, Pitt beats Oregon State 38-10 and hold future first round draft pick Steven Jackson to about 30 yards rushing. This game was supposed to be the springboard to a top-10 season for Pitt. The next year, the run defense couldn't stop anybody and Pitt finished out of the top 25. I remember that Ohio State lost to South Carolina the year before OSU won its championship. There are numerous other examples if one wishes to look them up. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The LSU loss to Texas doesn't quite represent the state of that team that year... The starting QB, Matt Mauck, had broken his leg against Florida and his backup, Marcus Randall, had to run the offense for the rest of the year. To say that Randall's run was disappointing would be an understatement. While he had an ESPY-award winning throw to Devery Henderson called the Bluegrass Miracle, that WAS a last-second victory over a rather bad Kentucky team. Mauck's leadership, which was severely underrated at the time, is what gave the offense cohesion and, without him, it was very hard to keep anything going. When Mauck came back the next year, everything started clicking and they went on a great run to the title. As for the pass defense, I think that some injuries to the secondary had forced the Tigers to start playing true freshman at Cornerback and Safety, which is what allowed Texas to have a field day in the Cotton Bowl. However, the experience those players got, combined with Saban's coaching throughout the next season when they became starters, helped them turn into one of the best defenses in the country.

Nintendo's problem has been that their exclusive third-party support has always been lacking in comparison to the Playstations, X-Box, etc. This is partly due to the fact that they use "specialty" media to store their games (cartridges on N64 vs. CDs for PS1, mini-discs for GameCube vs. DVDs for PS2 and X-Box). If their next model uses a standard form of media and gets good third-party exclusives in addition to their excellent first-party Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc. series of games, they COULD become the leader of that generation of system. Given recent history, though, I'd say they'll do something that will accidentally piss off third-party companies, which will limit their third-party games to the same stuff that's ported across all three platforms.

I think there will be some Mack-lash at the time of the final poll this year after Mack whined his way into the Rose Bowl last year through a PR campaign... Not that Texas wasn't impressive in winning the Rose Bowl, but the method he used to get there was something I thought he wouldn't stoop to.

Playing the Heisman mode right now. My player is a pocket passer that I named Ron Mexico as a goof. I got between a 2500 and a 3000 on my passing drill and one of my three offers was, coincidentally enough, Virginia Tech, the alma mater of the REAL Ron Mexico. Ron put up between 4000 and 5000 passing yards as a freshman and led VT to the national championship but he didn't win the Heisman... His primary wide receiver (Justin Harper?) won it instead did because the receiver set the NCAA record on receiving yards and didn't have all of those sacks, missed passes, and INTs like Mexico did. (To explain about the misses and INTs, I've owned the past 3-4 NCAA seasons but hadn't put more than about 4 games in since 2002, when I was using the Rohan Davie to Josh Reed connection at LSU to put up record-setting point totals) Going into my Sophmore season now and I'm the pre-season favorite for the Heisman as well as for the national title. My goal is to win three Heismans, 4 ACC titles, and 4 national championships if possible, then buy a copy of Madden 2006 and bring Ron in as Aaron Brooks' replacement with the Saints if I can pull it off.

The reason *I* can believe it is that my family is connected with all the tax breaks that movie productions get in LA, which has actually made it feasable to film some movies that had trouble raising money. It worked out in the case of Ray, but I'm not nearly as hopeful about this dog.

That's total bullshit. USC has as much claim to the title as LSU did. They dismantled the #4 team in Michigan at Rose Bowl while LSU struggled to beat an injured Jason White. The media found it fit to call USC the champions. Don't ever fucking downplay their accomplishments. The wrong team went into the Sugar Bowl and it was proven in the Rose AND Sugar Bowl. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't even start this fucking shit with me... The Trojans did not win the *BCS* title in 2003. They won the AP title which was not the generally accepted title going into that season. As for LSU "struggling" to beat OU, did you actually watch the game or did you only look at the final score? If you watched the game, LSU pretty much beat OU from pillar to post but OU lucked out and got 7 of their points off of a blocked punt. OU's offense never really got started, as the D-line had White on his ass most of the night and the secondary picked off several of his passes.

The ICP have a TON of these, but the one that sticks out in my mind is from "Fat, Sweaty Betty", in which they refer to a girl they know as being bigger than Yokozuna. Hell, one of their albums is called "The Great Millenko", IIRC, based off of Prof. Boris Malenko, Dean's father.