the pinjockey

Eddie Griffin, F, Minnesota

The Philly/SD game concerns me this week. There are two outcomes, IMO: a.) the Philly defense realizes that the season actually started and plays as a great, very pissed off unit and stomps them or b.) the pass rush still does not come around and LT and Gates have a field day. It is a very dangerous game as the Eagles have historically had a hard time covering quality TEs (I'm excluding the Chiefs game since Gonzalez hasn't done anything yet this season) and they are up against the best here. And LT in the openfield on passes against Jones or Adams will very likely make me want to cry. This needs to be the game where Philly comes out early and establishes momentum, the last thing they need after the Dallas debacle is another slow start at home. I'm seeing a shootout in this one.

"Aw fuck, why me?!?"

THURSDAY Virginia Tech FRIDAY UAB SATURDAY Northwestern Virginia Wake Forest Iowa Nebraska Texas A&M Mississippi Connecticut Texas Alabama Vanderbilt LSU Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Virginia Tech/Maryland game? 65 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Texas Tech's Cody Hodges have against Texas? 310

Sarunas Jasikevicius, G, Indiana

Another funny note: they are going to have their organizational meetings next week. Nothing like having a meeting where your lame duck manager, lame duck assistant GMs, and a president who only does "15% baseball" set the future of the team. Would it be that difficult to delay the meetings 2-3 weeks (since nothing can really happen in that timeframe anyway) until you have the person who should be setting up the future available?

I think that is a given. Since he apparently didn't decide until this past weekend (after all of the "thousands of letters to the front office" reports). Granted I will assume that number was wayyyy overblown, but combine that with the attendance dropoff and someone had to go. More and more I am worrying that Amaro gets the job, especially if he gets Wagner signed. Everyone is saying either a.) they would never be that stupid (um, it is the Phillies we are talking about) or b.) if it was going to be Amarbuckle they would have just announced it at the Wade firing. But I don't agree with that either, if they want Amaro I think they will want to try and sell the fanbase on him so they'll have another dog and pony show like last offseason. Again, IMO, it plays to the whole idea that they really don't want to change. If they bring in a dreaded outsider, then Manuel and Amarbuckle are at risk, and I think that much change in one offseason scares the shit out of Monty. God I hope I am wrong.

THURSDAY Clemson FRIDAY UTEP SATURDAY Wisconsin Michigan State Central Michigan Purdue Missouri East Carolina Penn State USC LSU Louisville Memphis Nebraska Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the UTEP/Tulane game? 55 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Clemson's Charlie Whitehurst have against N.C. State? 220

PJ Brown

Am I wrong in being uncomfortable with the idea that an interim GM is going to be dealing with the Wagner situation? I am not fond of the idea of someone who is going to be in competition for the GM job being in control of negotiating with the star closer. Who knows if he will do something the can hurt the team to put a star next to his name (giving Wagner a guaranteed extra year, few million, FNTC, etc.). Anyway, with all the contracts they already have, if they could get Ryan for a couple mil/yr. cheaper I would prefer that. Do you really think Branyan would be that hard to get or were you saying it's the Phils who would be unwilling?

I am a little bit concerned about who will be the new GM. During Monty's press conference he was saying that the new GM will get to pick a manager, but you could tell that he really wants Manuel to stick around. That makes me think that anyone who comes in and tells him they would be willing to keep Manuel will jump ahead of the rest of the candidates. And the ones most likely to tell him that are the in house candidates that they really just need to ignore. Would Amaro or Arbuckle make bad GMs? No idea. But the Phillies desperately need to get someone from outside of the organization to bring a fresh perspective to the front office.

Well, the positive for their offensive philosophy is that being down doesn't really matter since they throw a ton anyway. The way you beat the Eagles is to get pressure on McNabb and force him to get the happy feet like has been happening today. Where would they be without Trotter? Simple answer. Fucked. Just take the Falcons ability to run at will from the opener and add that to their current problems. The problem with Terry Glenn is can you really give him the Moss treatment and throw a safety overtop him all day? Not really. Sheppard is supposed to be able to stay step for step with him, but he just hasn't.

Jevon Kearse has become awful and they still get no production from the other DE, Michael Lewis is looking lost for some reason and Lito Sheppard last year was a big play CB, now he just gives up the big plays. The middle of their defense (DTs and Trotter) is playing very well, notice all pressure comes up the middle and runs to the outside have been gouging them.

Serenity picks Rafer Alston, G, Houston

THURSDAY Georgia Tech FRIDAY Syracuse SATURDAY Indiana Michigan Texas Air Force Missouri TCU Tennessee Nebraska Louisville Purdue Colorado State Colorado California Penn State Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the N.C. State/Georgia Tech game? 48 Tiebreak: #2: How many rushing yards will Syracuse's Damien Rhodes have against Connecticut? 125

13. Dangerous A 14. razateca 15. MarvinisaLunatic

Josh Smith, G, Atlanta

10. Alfdogg 11. Krankor 12. pinjockey

You know it is funny

I wasn't too concerned about him,

Fuck all y'all who saw this movie during the preview screenings while I had to wait it out. First things first........DINOSAURS~! If the dinosaurs weren't sitting around I was going to be pissed. Well not really, but it was still awesome. I'll echo Anya's thoughts in regards to: Also, I loved the scene where: The only thing I was dissapointed in was Also, this movie was all about Summer Glau. Anyone who does not think she has star quality after seeing her (even moreso than Nathan) carry this is nuts. Obviously I loved the movie. both times (had to see it a second time). Side note: I also learned that if you tell a bunch of adolescent punks in a firm tone to shut the fuck up, they pretty much wet themselves in a hurry. Do not screw around with my Serenity movie going experience.

FRIDAY Pittsburgh SATURDAY Michigan State Virginia Tech Navy North Carolina Eastern Michigan Minnesota USC Iowa State Florida Oregon State Oklahoma Louisiana Tech Notre Dame Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Pittsburgh/Rutgers game? 42 Tiebreak #2: How many yards passing will USC's Matt Leinart have against Arizona State? 280

THURSDAY Utah SATURDAY Penn State Purdue N.C. State Ohio State Clemson Mississippi Western Michigan Virginia Tech Colorado State Michigan Memphis USC LSU SMU Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Air Force/Utah game? 45 Tiebreak #2: How many total yards will Virginia Tech's Marcus Vick have against Georgia Tech? 300

An in shape Corey Simon certainly has value, but I think the play of Darwin Walker and Mike Patterson is getting overlooked. Darwin Walker, on monday, was every bit of what an in his prime Corey Simon was and Patterson was only slightly behind. The DTs were a couple of the few players that showed up for the whole game. It is going to be hard to tell until next week, because Mike Labinjo flat out sucks and isn't a 10th of what Trotter is. Sad considering he is supposedly one of Jim Johnson's boys. He can't hit a whole, find a runner, or find his cover responsability to save his life. And Ike Reese's money was insane, because he was barely a linebacker when he was here. He was only the nickel linebacker through process of elimination (read: Simoneau blew). And I can't picture spending that much on a special teams player.

That isn't Corey Simon, though. Corey Simon was a pass rushing DT, not a gap clogging, take up 2 OL DT. Trotter is better at crashing a line to blow a play up, not necessarily the sideline to sideline player that you have to keep the OL off of him. IMO, the reason they had the extra blockers was, as I said earlier, they were able to put a TE on Kearse. If you can play a TE on Kearse and let you line play against the DTs, Kalu, and the linebackers you can pretty much do what you feel like. There is certainly value in the Casey Hampton's of the world who are big guys that take up space and let the LBs roam. When Simon is taking up space, though, it just means he is fat an unproductive, not a great run stopper.