Monday, September 20, 2010

09/20 Quickie: Vick, Jets, NFL Week 2

Today's Names to Know: Mike Vick, Brett Favre, Cooper Manning (apparently), Wade Phillips, Mark Sanchez, Brandon Jacobs (helmet), Bruce Gradkowski, Kyle Orton, Mike Tolbert, Tyler Colvin, Mark Dantonio, Troy Tulowitzki, CC Sabathia and More.

Week 2 in the NFL is so great, because so much is so hyped after Week 1, then you get the "just when you think you understand the NFL this season..." counter:

*Mike Vick is the new uber-star of the league, to the point where the biggest storyline of this week is whether Andy Reid actually benches his winning QB for the concussed, ineffective one.

*Favre: Ouch. We had the Dolphins-Vikings game on locally in NYC, and so I got the chance to watch Brett Favre's latest implosion up close. And the schadenfreude was no less narcotic than ever.

*Cowboys 0-2, too: Wade Phillips hasn't been fired... yet. But it is an inevitability.

*All those doubts about the Jets after the opening-week loss to the Ravens? They shut up the haters with that decisive win over the Pats. Sanchez and Brady went "Freaky Friday" on us.

(Darrelle Revis injured hamstring: Everyone kind of had to see this coming, right? Consider for a second that the Jets really started to roll AFTER Revis went out.)

*Manning Bowl II a rout: The most interesting Manning-related thing about the game -- otherwise a rout -- was that Cooper Manning and Ashley Manning suddenly dominated Google.

(Otherwise, the only interesting non-Manning related thing about the game was when Brandon Jacobs tossed his helmet into the stands -- inadvertently, he claims. Suspension?)

*What a shootout in DC: You're loving life if you had Matt Schaub in your fantasy league. Gotta feel for Skins K Graham Gano -- he had that OT game-winner NAILED, 'til Kubiak iced him.

*Wait: Suddenly the Bengals' D is stout?

*Wha...? The Bucs are 2-0. The Bears are 2-0. The Chiefs are 2-0. The Steelers are 2-0 with a 4th-string QB. Bruce Gradkowski is a hero. And Kyle Orton was awesome.

*This week's Rookie of the Year? Jahvid Best.

*Ultimate Fantasy Stud That Likely Was On Your League's FA Wire Throughout the Day: Mike Tolbert. (All you Ryan Matthews fans better have hit the waiver wire already.)

(Other fantasy studs: Darren McFadden -- yes, really/finally; LeSean McCoy; Matt Schaub.)

More:

*MLB Injury of the Year: Tyler Colvin, impaled by a piece of broken bat. That's one of those scenarios you always knew could happen -- it's pretty scary to watch. After scoring, Colvin was taken to the hospital, and his season appears to be over. Here's to a full recovery.

*Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio had a heart attack after MSU's thrilling "walk-off" OT win over Notre Dame? I don't blame him. (Although he DID call the thrilling play.)

*More CFB: Alabama is clearly the best team in the country.

*I'm sticking with TCU at No. 2, after they mauled a pretty good Baylor team.

*Oklahoma and Nebraska both did a lot to prove their elite status (of course, both have make-or-break games against Texas coming up soon that define their seasons).

*Biggest "status-raising" win of the CFB weekend? Arizona over Iowa.

*Next week's Game of the Week: Alabama at Arkansas, followed closely by Oregon State at Boise State.

(See my BlogPoll ballot here.)

*Troy Tulowitzki. (Despite the Rockies' loss -- that I was disappointed he didn't put up a multi-homer game yesterday shows what kind of month he is having.)

*Aaand, the Giants are back in 1st in the NL West.

*Said this yesterday, in case you missed it: I'm a "King Felix for Cy" person, but I suspect that CC's 20th win sealed up his AL Cy bid. Most voters like that kind of win-total milestone.

*I don't have big expectations for Don Mattingly in LA. (But I will for Joe Torre with the Mets.)

*Blog Font Survey: Enough people disliked the Arial font switch -- roughly the same number that really liked it -- that I am probably going to switch things back. However, almost every redesign in the history of the internet has been met with "Hate it! Switch it back!" from a fair number of people. Let's live with it for a week and re-vote on Thursday. Hopefully, some/many of the "hate it" folks will slide over to "ambivalent, at worst."

-- D.S.

1 comment:

Sean McGurr said...

I read the blog entirely through an RSS feed, so the font change isn't noticable to me at all.

I suspect this is true to many readers.