KingPK

It's not even understated; it's miniscule on the part of Glenn; he played like two games the whole year and was an absolute non-factor in the playoffs. The only positive he brought was that him not playing allowed David Patten to come in and become one of Brady's favorite receivers, and basically one drive on the part of Bledsoe (when he came in for Brady in the championship game and threw a TD; he was your basic Bledsoe for the rest of that game and it was the D and special teams that finished the job). I guess you can credit Bledsoe for biting his tongue and (publicly, at least) not making a big stink over being benched, but I will always view Drew Bledsoe as a bit of a bust because he was supposed to be what a guy like Peyton Manning is today instead of turning into another in a sea of mediocre/decent QBs.

As an aside, I saw Josh Radnor on a Law & Order repeat on TNT the other day. Nice hair.

Look at the new dart. I like new dart.

Sure, but I'm just saying that the Bears will have much fresher legs with a two week rest as opposed to a team that had a game on the opposite coast the previous week and only had three or so days of rest. Manning can wear them out, but it's going to take a lot more to do it.

This'll probably be the last post in this thread, but I'd just like to point out how amusing it is to see the rats fleeing the Patriots ship in the papers today: Brady has been to his last Super Bowl Belichick sucks (Part I) (Three guesses as to who wrote this one.) Belichick sucks (Part II) They've got two first round picks, a young core of players (Brady's only going to turn 30 this year) and had a team "rebuilding", without" the clutchiest kicker that ever clutched" (Gostkowski in postseason: 8 FGs attempted, 8 made) "with no receivers" and "linebackers too too old and slow to do anything" make the title game. Yes, some of those things came back to bite them, but the point still stands. They aren't going anywhere.

It wasn't just the title game; Indy's towards the bottom in return yardage allowed for the season, so Hester may have a good chance to break one or two good ones. Saying this comes down to Grossman sucking vs. Manning dominating is not looking at the matchup deep enough. I don't care if anyone calls this an excuse, but as the second half progressed, New England's defense was dropping like flies due to exhaustion, forcing them to put in second and even third string guys that Manning tore apart. With two weeks to rest up, I doubt that we'll see many Bears defensive players stumbling off the field sucking wind like Hoovers after a couple of long drives (though it'll probably be warm in Miami).

Awesome episode. "You fly man! Wooooshhhhhh!" "Can you keep it down?" (Quieter)"Woooshhhhh." How Linderman fits into all the stories is going to be interesting to find out. As the episode went on, I started to get the feeling that the idea that Peter causes the explosion was actually another swerve, but I guess he has a confrontation with Radioactive Man and absorbs his powers that way. Anyone call the paper company number because it's on the website as well. You can also watch last night's episode with commentary from some of the cast.

After seeing that offense last year, this guy's got a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG offseason/training camp ahead of him.

Wow.....Wayne Palmer sure didn't get elected because of his ability to give a good speech.

Someone's apparently never seen Bill Belichick before. Joe Torre wasn't exactly Mr. Sunshine in 2004, was he?

In two weeks, you will hate everything about Miami, Manning, black coaches, defense, and Rex Grossman. Have fun!

This is really the first year I've watched this show regularly, so I want to catch up. I have Netflix for two more months, so I'm going to go through the DVD sets. Which season should I go with first, 1 (since it's the first), or 2 (since a lot of people say it's better with the Jim and Pam story and all).

*Switches from Football Mode to Baseball Mode* So....how is that Matsuzaka dude going to do this year?

In that vein, I think I'm going to have a little something as well.

I'm excited about this returning...but unfortunately Jack Bauer has taken my heart so Heroes is going to have to wait until I hit NBC.com on Tuesday or Wednesday. I hate scheduling conflicts.

I'm not going to follow a damn second of the hype this year. Everyone will probably just pick from the usual three subplots: 1) Two black coaches (yes, it's historical, we can understand that) 2) Peyton becoming Football God with a win (he'll be above Marino, I can tell you that) 3) Rex Grossman: is he tEh suxxorz and the Achilles Heel for Chicago? Also, please Chicago, NO SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE II: ELECTRIC BUGALOO!

Alfdogg....as a heel....in Boston.....after tonight's game? C'mon Alf, it's RIGHT THERE for you.

I won't bother to find the post where I brought up the 2004 Red Sox. Famous last words because New England essentially pulled off the football version of the 2004 ALCS. What an embarassment by that defense. Using the "San Diego beat us up" excuse doesn't fly because the Colts played the friggin' RAVENS last week and it didn't seem to effect them too much tonight. This exposes the linebacking corps as having lost a step and are getting too old to be effective. Still, you're telling me that Dillon or Maroney couldn't have converted a 3rd and 4 against a rush D that they had some success on instead of McDaniels pulling a Billick and calling this: 3-4-NE 46 (2:30) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short right to 80-T.Brown (21-B.Sanders). If McDaniels accepts the Raiders job, I'll drive him to the airport myself because he did the SAME EXACT thing in the first game in basically abandoning the running game and trying to make it a shootout (Belichick deserves some of the blame as well, but Josh is the O-Coordinator). This is WITH A FIFTEEN FUCKING POINT LEAD, too!! Perhaps the Colts would have stiffened up, but that kills the clock and lets the defense get a bit of a damn breather. Peyton played his ass off and deserved it, but at the same time, geez, what a fucking chokejob. EDIT: I gotta say, the Bears D may have found it's fastball again, so this SuperBowl matchup has me intrigued. If Grossman can pull his head out of his ass, this'll be a closer game than everyone thinks.

Geez, just dive on the fumble and secure it instead of picking it up and trying to make the big highlight reel play.

I thought the game was starting at 3:30? Guess they don't want it to stretch into the start of the AFC game. FOX starting a game not only on time, but EARLIER? *Dies*

Snuffy the Greek. I'm pretty comfortable with the picks/scores I made earlier, but I wouldn't be outright shocked to see the other teams pull it out.

(C&Ped from "the other place") Ok, my picks and rationale: Saints/Bears - You know, I want to just pick with my heart like everyone else seems to be doing, but I didn't with my AFC pick, so I'm not doing it here. We've got a dome team coming outdoors in bad weather against a team with a good (but a bit depleted) defense and an offense that hinges on which Rex Grossman decides to show up. Seeing Shaun Alexander able to bust plays right up the middle would be kind of worrying if I was a Bears fan, but I think the passing game will probably end up being a wash because Rex loves throwing it long and the Saints are a bit susceptible to that (the Eagles game). Regardless of the weather, I think Brees and Rex both have pretty decent games. This one will come down to who can run the ball better on a slowed track; Reggie Bush will probably come into play on a couple swing pass plays, but Deuce will probably end up carrying most of the running load. This is actually a pretty tough game to decide and will probably end up being the better of the two games....so maybe I'll go with my heart after all. Saints 26, Bears 21 Patriots/Colts - I came across an interesting blog entry that looked at teams with below average defenses during the season that won it's first two playoff games with defense. In the third, they all reverted back to the norm. I'm not sold on this sudden Colts defensive "resurgence", I'm just not. Kansas City and Baltimore decided on a game plan, saw that it wasn't quite getting it done....and kept to it anyway. It wasn't the Colts rush defense that beat Baltimore; the Ravens averaged 4.2 yards per rush in that game, it was most likely the Colts not respecting Steve McNair's or his receivers' ability to make plays, putting a ton of pressure on him, and just waiting for him to fold like a cheap tent. As we saw last week in San Diego, in an atmosphere that was just as hostile and loud as the one they'll face in Indy on Sunday, Tom Brady had probably the worst three and a half quarters of his postseason career, but, partly thanks to Troy Brown taking advantage of another instance of Charger stupidity, sucked it up and make the plays when he absolutely had to. New England is not afraid of going on the road; they actually have a BETTER road record (8-1) than home (6-3) this year and knocked off the #1 team in the AFC (and, arguably, the NFL) on the road. If Manning plays like he did in their regular season matchup and they are able to force more turnovers than they give up, the Colts will have a great shot at winning this game. If New England can hold on to the ball, mix in runs and play-action pass to keep Bob Sanders guessing when he should sprint in to stop the run or stay back and play coverage, the "demons" will continue to haunt #18 another offseason. Patriots 30, Colts 20

And the Chargers were a better team than the Patriots (and Colts, arguably) this season. I know nobody wants to get into this arguement again, but just because you are the better team, that doesn't automatically mean you will win (especially in today's NFL).

It's the same with the Colts. I mean, they definitely can get it done, but most of the "rationale" I'm reading is "It's just a gut feeling", "It has to happen sometime" and my personal favorite "It's Peyton's time!!@!@1" I mean, the Red Sox "had" to get past the Yankees some time, but it took a damned 3-0 comeback to do it! Just because you think the Law of Averages has to catch up with them sometime, that's not a valid opinion as to why you think they can win. Give me tangible REASONS. Besides, wasn't LAST year "Peyton's time"? Home field throughout, a better defense, facing a team they beat in the regular season. How did that work out? Even if Vinatieri is there and makes the kick.....that only sends the game to overtime, so they still could have lost.

The Producer's Cut of tonight's episode is up at NBC.com/The_Office. Oscar: "Part of me wants the people in this office to have learned their lesson and just shut the hell up....and part of me thinks 'You know what? Keep talking because I would love a home theater.'" Another thing I love about this show is Jim's facial expressions. Especially when he looks at the camera with a look like "Can you believe this shit?"