MFer

I'm pretty much the classic "root for the local team" guy. Of course having Barry Sanders, Grant Hill and Steve Yzerman playing in Detroit helped draw me in (the Tigers were shitty at that time but I rooted for them anyways). I've seen a bunch of highs with the Red Wings (4 cups since '97) and the Pistons (NBA title in '04, 6 straight ECF's) as well as many lows with the Tigers (bunch of losing seasons before 2006 including 119 losses in '03, meltdown in '06 W.S.) and the Lions (Barry retiring early, 31-82 under Matt Millen since '01), but I have and still will stick with these teams.

A lot of tough picks, but here goes… EHME over Smartly Pretty-I like Smartly’s defense a little better but I like EHME’s offense a lot better with Brown and Watters running behind a very good O-line and McNabb’s ability to make plays with his feet. VX over Brooklyn Zoo-I think the munber of dynamic players on VX’s defense will make the difference. Faulk will be huge in this game. Harley over CC-I could see this game being a shootout of sorts. I think Harley’s pass defense will fare a little better than CC’s, which gives him the edge. Both special teams are capable of making big plays so that could tilt things in CC’s favor but I’ll still stick with Harley . Just John over 909-On the other hand, this should be more of a smash mouth type of game. Hard to go against Montana but I just think that John’s defense is better. Bored over jwest-Like a couple others said before, I’m not thrilled with the offenses, so I think a big play or two will be the difference here. Bored has Moss on one side of the ball and LT on the other so I’m going with his team. TOOG over Tzar-Tzar defense is very stout, but like any other D, it can be had and I think TOOG has the offensive players to score enough points. Tzar looks like he should have a solid run game, but I don’t think Vick will be able to pass the ball effectively enough to win. Gert over Fokai-I love Fokai’s offense but Gert also has an offense full of playmakers. I think Gert’s back 7 on defense gives him the edge. Probably another high-scoring affair here.

Didn't we already do the "favorite teams" thread before? Anyways, I've been suffering with the Lions for most of my life, with the high points being Barry Sanders and first-round playoff exits in the 90's. William Clay Ford won't live forever though (or will he?) so there's still hope for the future.

I'm not a big fan of the burrito supreme, but they wouldn't let me substitute (fuckers). Also, the items vary from time to time (the cheesy double beef burrito, Club Chalupa, Queso Crunchwrap, and the Volcano Taco have all made appearances in the big box).

THURSDAY North Carolina at Rutgers FRIDAY Kansas at South Florida SATURDAY Navy at Duke Washington State at Baylor Michigan at Notre Dame Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech Oregon at Purdue UCLA at BYU Air Force at Houston Hawaii at Oregon State Southern Miss at Arkansas State Virginia at Connecticut Ohio State at USC Wisconsin at Fresno State Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Ohio State/USC game? 59 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will BYU's Max Hall have against UCLA? 233

Yeah, I should've clarified...really meant the later games (Heroes, Shadow, the strangely-named "Sonic the Hedgehog" from a couple years ago). I believe there's another one that's supposed to come out soon.

People seem to be down on the 3D Sonic games, but I actually enjoy the cheesy scenes and dialouge. Plus the action is still pretty sweet.

Funny story behind that ankle injury... Link

Yeah I know, that 37-26 game last year where Favre threw for almost 400 yards and Grant had his usual 100 yard game was a real heartstopper. You know, Detroit is the one team in the NFC North I have absolutely no hate for. I really want to see them do well, honest. Maybe once they get rid of Marinelli and Millen, they can find a real coach and GM and succeed. True, but it wasn't a complete slaughter job like most of us are expecting on Sunday. Really, the only time the Packers have blown out the Lions in Detroit the past decade or so was in 2004. But anyways, I just want to see a decent effort out there, not that no-tackling bullshit I saw last Sunday. Maybe Roy Williams or Calvin Johnson can provide at least a couple highlights.

I would tend to agree but Detroit generally plays well against the Packers at home plus you usually don't want to play an NFL team the week after they got their asses handed to them (cue joke about the Lions not being a "real" NFL team). As for the Shaun Rogers' trade, it techincally netted his replacement since the Lions used Cleveland's pick to draft Andre Fluellen (of course he was inactive for the Falcons' game, but that's another story). Right now Chuck Darby's the guy in Rogers' spot and he's a marginal player at best. Also, for some inexplicable reason, Marinelli started Travis Fisher over Leigh Bodden (you know, that one guy that they traded their best D-lineman for) on Sunday.

Couldn't have happened to a better guy

Don't worry, the Curse of Bobby Layne will be over soon and then...ah forget it

It's time to put the young guys in. The Lions' front 7 for the most part are comprised of undersized guys who should be backups and special teams players. Detroit has a number of rookies and 2nd-year players who should be playing in that front 7 as well as the O-line. Shaun Rogers became a scapegoat last year but I bet a lot of those Lions' players wish he was on their side now.

God the Lions look awful.

Also on that play, it looked like the ball never went into the endzone after the fumble, so ND should've had the ball on their own 1 instead of the 20.

This sucks...I've only had 3 differing games the first 2 weeks combined and I've lost them all.

What happened to AA? And how do you drink that much without dying (besides the fact that you're fucking Milky)?

Just sent mine in.

Surprised that no one mentioned Obama on O'Reilly's show.

Apparently, Ron Paul really had around 15 votes (from several different states), but he only ended up getting credited with 5 (the Alaska ones I think) because some of his other votes weren't acknowledged. Romney was credited with 2 votes from Utah. EDIT: Actually, after looking it up, Paul may have had 20-25 votes that went unrecognized.

THURSDAY South Carolina at Vanderbilt FRIDAY Navy at Ball State SATURDAY Georgia Tech at Boston College BYU at Washington Cincinnati at Oklahoma Mississippi at Wake Forest Air Force at Wyoming West Virginia at East Carolina Texas A&M at New Mexico California at Washington State South Florida at UCF Northwestern at Duke Minnesota at Bowling Green Miami at Florida Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Cincinnati/Oklahoma game? 52 Tiebreak #2: How many total yards (passing + rushing) will Florida's Tim Tebow have against Miami? 372

Someone wanna screenshot that clip of McCain winning the "Democratic nomination"?

I would imagine that the "few" are people that actually like this shit. There's probably D-League teams with better names, logos, and uniforms than this.

I think people are sleeping on Seattle partly because their division isn't that good and the fact that they probably won't do much in the playoffs anyway. Maurice Morris (in games that he had 10+ carries) went 113 carries for 462 yards (4.09) but he only had one game with more than 20 carries (28-87 against SF...). I'm not sold that he can be a feature RB and he has two backups in Jones and Duckett making the team essentially a RBBC. Duckett should be a good goal line back but he's been an enigma given the size (3.1 YPC in 2005 after a 4.9 in 2004). Julius Jones is essentially another Maurice Morris but not nearly as impressive. He's the very definition of a backup RB who should be good but like Duckett, has been enigmatic throughout his career. Matt Hasselbeck, as you mentioned, has back issues but he's probably the most underrated QB in the NFL. They don't have much depth at WR. Bobby Engram and Deion Branch are both injured and they lost Ben Obomanu to IR. Now they're stuck with Nate Burleson and three young players in Courtney Taylor, Logan Payne, and Jordan Kent. Burleson's a good #2 WR but it remains to be seen if he can handle the #1 role and it remains to be seen if the young guys can step it up and make plays until Engram/Branch get healthy. They're limited at TE (John Carlson, Will Heller, and Jeb Putzier) which is usually a strong feature of their team. Carlson is an adequate receiver & blocker but Putzier can't block and Heller's been a back up. As for their defense, it is solid for the NFC but it's not nearly as good as most teams. They had 8 games where they allowed 20+ points and seem to be up and down like a yo yo during the season. They allow 21 points one week, 3 the next, and 21 again after that. They also lost to "easy" wins in Arizona (23-20), Carolina (13-10), and Atlanta (44-41 in W17 with nothing to play for) last year and it remains to be seen if they can win the games that they should win while doing well against the top tier teams. Outside of 2005's 13-3 record, they've never been "dominant" W/L wise and are the equivalent of the New York Giants. Good team that with the right amount of luck, can surprise and fight for a SB but won't consistently be in the NFC Title picture year in and year out. Even if it's a RBBC situation, that's a lot better than what "Soft Shaun" Alexander was giving them. The Seahwaks have won at least one playoff game the last 3 seasons (including an NFC title in 2005) plus it would be very tough to beat them at Seattle if they can get home-field advantage. As for Dallas, I'm thinking that this is finally the year that they get over the hump (especially with the nature of the NFC where it seems to be a different team every year), but I can't be too sure based on them blowing it the last couple seasons.

I'm not ready to say that the Vikings will win the division but I definitely think that Packer fans shouldn't get too comfortable. I think Jackson has a chance to be pretty good and that would make a huge difference in Minnesota. Green Bay will have around 10-11 wins and Minnesota will finish one or two games behind them. On another NFC note, I don't know why everyone's sleeping on Seattle (no pun intended). Morris was pretty good last year and adding Jones, Duckett, and the rookie Forsett will make the run game way better than it was the last 2 years. Hasslebeck's got a back issue but it sounds like he'll be fine. I think they have enough WR depth to hold down the fort until their main guys get healthy. They also have a ton of talent on defense (Kerney, Tatupu, Peterson, Hill, Trufant) with good depth.