sfaJack

The Cotton Bowl is split 50/50 between OU/UT fans. It's hardly a home game. And though I've supported him pretty faithfully in the past, Mack Brown should resign immediately after the game if they lose again. Texas is in total control of their fate at this point and they probably won't have a better shot to get to the national title game. If they blow this...forget it.

Yeah, damn those choking Braves. They only pushed a loaded Astros team to the brink last year with a pitching staff of baling wire and duct tape.

Looked to me like the Packers couldn't go wrong drafting an OL with their potential high pick.

Dom Capers gets fired if the Texans lose to the Titans.

My "dream" results: Braves over Astros Padres over Cardinals White Sox over Red Sox Angels over Yankees My actual predictions: Astros over Braves Cardinals over Padres White Sox over Red Sox Yankess over Angels

The Cowboys have got to stop having all of their games come down to the last 2 minutes. My poor heart will not be able to take a full season of this roller coaster shit... Horrible playcalling at the end of the game by Sean Payton, btw. The short out to Glenn isn't so bad, but he's GOT to run that pattern into the endzone; even if he'd caught that ball, the Raiders still would have won because he wouldn't have scored or gotten the first. That said, I am stoked for the Eagle game next week. Maybe Roy will say hello to TO's ankle again...

Astros vs anybody else. I hate that team so much...

So a team that came back from 15-30 and fought 3 or 4 clubs all the way to the wire isn't allowed to celebrate the fact that they're one of only 4 NL teams in the playoffs? Please. If the Yankees had lost out the pennant to the Sox but won on the last day to take the WC away from Cleveland they'd be celebrating too. Stop trying to be such a fucking elitist. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Elitist???? The Astros have players who have won world series and players who have been to the playoffs numerous times. When they won the fucking Wild Card confetti was going off all over the field as the players acted like they won the World Series. I was happy for the Yankee players that they won the division but I didn't like seeing them pour champagne all over eachother in the clubhouse. I did like how they all hugged at the end of yesterdays game on the field. In my opinion only the team that wins the World Series should celebrate like that. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Yeah, no kidding. The Astros are calling themselves wild card champions. CHAMPIONS! You're not a fucking CHAMPION if you win the wild card--you're just the best of the also-rans. Plus, they really don't deserve it. They've got one of the worst owners in baseball, one of the worst managers in the NL, and maybe the worst offense of any team in the postseason. The ENTIRE reason for their success is Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte, and Lidge. If just one of those guys had been anything less than great this year, they'd have been done back in June. And yet they act like they're really fucking special or something...

Just to provide another update... Rita's big north turn on Friday meant the storm in my area was, thankfully, not more than a small tropical storm. All I got at my house was a good stiff breeze (some really gusty spurts), an inch of rain, and about 14 hours of no electricity. There was no Internet service until last night and the cable is still kinda screwed up, but all in all it went well. In fact, the only sign that there was even a storm in my neighborhood was that my neighbor's tree was leaning pretty far over on its side; otherwise, you wouldn't even know it happened. The only real downside I have now is that my parents have moved into my house for at least this week. They live east of me, closer to Beaumont and while their house is ok, they have no electricity. And we've heard today that it might be THREE OR FOUR WEEKS before they do. I can't handle my parents living in my house for a month...

Here's the view from my back porch five minutes ago...

Katrina was a Cat 4 at landfall, I believe. The wind is finally starting to really pick up here. We've had a few drops of rain, but nothing major yet. The storm is definitely on its way, though it appears Houston/Galveston will be spared a direct hit. I'm going out to take pictures here in a bit. Should be some interesting shots...

I really would, but it's not worth the effort. There's nowhere to go except the parking lots that are the freeways, and literally no gas to get there anyway. My brother (who lives about 30 miles east of me) and his wife left their place this morning about 8:30--when I talked to him about 5:30, they'd barely traveled 20 miles and are seriously worried they'll have no gas to get anywhere else. Even the mayor has said he hopes people can get where they're going quickly because their cars will become "death traps" once the storm hits. They're now apparently discouraging people from even trying to leave this late in the game. So I'll take my chances inside my own home. My windows are taped (not a piece of plywood anywhere to be found) and we've got plenty of water and food and other necessities. All of my important papers have been gathered and locked away safely and the yard is totally free of anything that could become a missile in the high winds. My only real concerns now are my back fence getting torn to hell and/or losing some shingles on my roof, but if that's the worst thing that happens during all of this, I'll consider myself lucky. But...I think...as of this moment, we'll be ok. The projected path is still showing landfall to be about 60 miles up the coast (east) of Houston/Galveston, so we'll at least be on the "clean" side of it if that holds. That's still A LOT of wind and rain, but I think we'll make it through ok.

And the Astros' offense isn't? Houston can be beaten in the first round, especially given how ineffective Clemens has been for the last month or so.

Thought I'd add an update here... Several folks in my neighborhood (in NE Houston) are sticking it out, including me. The family across the street tried leaving for the mother's parents' house in Louisiana this morning, but made it exactly six miles down the road in an hour and a half before coming home. They said there's no way they'd have enough gas to get anywhere, so might as well stay home. We're tenatively planning a huge block party for Sunday afternoon/night, provided the storm is over by that point. Those same neighbors even went to Kroger a mile away and came back LOADED up with beer. Yay. The good news that has been mentioned now is that the storm has apparently taken a sharp, unexpected turn north, putting its landfall point somewhere between Port Arthur and Lake Charles, sparing Houston and Galveston of the feared direct hit and putting us on the "better" west side of the storm. We'll still probably get lots of wind and rain, but maybe the destruction of some areas that was feared won't happen. Obviously, with nearly 36 hours to go before landfall that can change, but we're all hopeful at this point. The freeways are a wreck though. I was thinking of going to my aunt's house in Austin very early this morning, but it was taking up to 20 hours to make it that far at the time and that just didn't seem to be a good idea, especially with no gas to be had anywhere. I'm glad I stayed here because there are people stranded with either empty gas tanks or overheated engines everywhere. About 33 hours to go...

Yep. Here All the models they keep talking about down here show the direct hit being more towards Matagorda, about 100 miles south of Houston. That would be better than a direct hit, but it still puts most of the Houston area on the dirty side of the storm.

Oh, I know. You'd just think he'd have learned SOMETHING about coverage by now, in his fourth season. The Cowboys need to make a linebacker out of him anyway. Put 10 pounds of bulk on him and turn him loose.

There is at least something to that whole "too much football" argument. Some NFL games drag long enough as it is; automatically adding another full quarter to that for overtime could get a little tedious. And if you think people bitch about TV cutting away from a game early to show a late game now, wait until they miss an entire overtime period. I'm with Lushus on the sudden death thing. Knowing that the game could end at any time is pretty dramatic to me. Plus, you've already had 60 minutes to win the game--if not now, when?

Same here. I was in Wal-Mart (in Humble) yesterday at 3:00, and the wolves had already descended and pretty much destroyed the grocery section of the store. The lines weren't too long, but they had like 30 checkout lanes open. It was insane...and this is the north end of town that shouldn't be too affected by the storm. The local media isn't helping by constantly comparing this storm to Katrina though.

I just got back from Dallas. That game last night was really unbelieveable. I've never seen a team look so poor offensively for 56 minutes and then light up the scoreboard twice in less than two minutes like that. It's unreal that Roy Williams failed to get back deep enough and help Glenn out on the second Moss TD. It's unreal that Keyshawn's late first down catch was nullified by a fucking holding penalty (the real death blow for the Cowboys). Stupid mistakes killed them. Why the Cowboys quit being aggressive with their defense late after being in Brunell's face all night is a wonder to me. Mike Zimmer does that shit way too often. Arg.

You mean the Marlins that won 91 games and the Angels who won 99? That's not "slightly above average" in my book. The NL wild card THIS year will be slightly above average...

Yeah, I'm not rich either. At the moment, I've only got about $1000 just lying around (and I'm a cheap bastard who doesn't spend anything I don't have to). The fact that Ripper had 13k stashed away at one point is very impressive, and WAY more than most people ever have (including me). I guess I'm just blown away by the fact that so many people have $0 in the bank. There was a lady at work last week who blew out a tire and claimed she didn't have the $75 it was going to cost to get a new one. That was totally amazing to me; how hard is it to come up with $75?

I don't know about that. I'd say there's a lot of people who don't even have 10% of that amount in savings. I base this assumption on some of the sob stories I hear from coworkers and the like when "unexpected" expenses pop up and they have no money to pay for it, no matter how small the expense is... Anyway, good luck with the job hunting Ripper.

I think he can hold up, for two reasons. One, the Cowboys' o-line, while not spectacular, isn't horrible. Two, if Julius stays healthy and Parcells' offense runs like it's supposed to (i.e. ball control), Bledsoe won't have to do too much. Either way, he's DEFINITELY an upgrade over Vinny. The only way he's not is if he blows out his knee against the Redskins and Tony Romo or (God help us all) Drew Henson has to play the rest of hte year.

Like who? The Cardinals? Rams? Lions? Panthers? The only one of those I'd say is clearly better than the Cowboys is the Panthers, so who's going to finish ahead of them? The difference is that the Cowboys of last year wouldn't have even been in that game Sunday, Antonio Gates or not. Vinny would have thrown a pick instead of that second TD to Keyshawn, and there's no way their defense would have held the Chargers off on their final drive. That they found a way to win says a lot about how improved they are. This year's Cowboys are more talented, more athletic (something they badly needed), and tougher. Are they going to the Super Bowl? Probably not. Do they the potential to be really good, especially in the NFC? Yes. Will they be that good? We'll see. I know that I'm looking forward to finding out.

The Astros are the luckiest team in baseball. There is no other way to describe it. An error keeps the inning alive and then Biggio, who is having a horrible post-ASB run, especially on the road, hits a homer as Wagner gives up a run in consecutive games for only the second time all year. It's unbelieveable. They're not this good.