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Nick Collins Intercepts a potential Romo TD pass

Watched the game at Betty Jo’s, my traditional place to watch games since I don’t have television. It’s never too busy there and the beer selection and popcorn are always good. I don’t have many friends who are football fans, and the ones I do know I don’t feel too comfortable around. They get too rowdy and lack the swagger of a fan who shows the right kind of sportsmanship.

The Packers lost 27 - 16, which shows it was closer than it actually was. Whatever Sunday night magic there is, the Packers definitely don’t have it. The only time I can recall a Sunday night game they won since its been implemented was the 2006 win against the Chicago Bears, and that’s when they rested most of their starters (although the game did reflect how Sexy Rexy would play in the Super Bowl). The game seemed to be a pretty evenly-laced game going in, but the biggest problem I feared was that the Cowboys would run over us rather then attack through the air. Sure enough, they did just that. The Packers’ run defense is obviously horrible. If I recall, a majority of our healthy down tackles are more pass rushes than run-stoppers. Who knows when Justin Harrell will get back to the line-up, and who knows how well he will do. So far he seems to be a bust.

Terrell Owens was held to just two-measly catches. It was a good idea to put Charles Woodson on him who seems to match in size. While I respected Al Harris, he is overrated to some regard because of his age. T.O. should of had a few more catches, but he drops a lot of balls for a player of his caliber. Tony Romo played fine, but not as good as Aaron Rodgers although the numbers don’t show it. I don’t see how you can intentionally ground the ball twice, he should have better pocket presence. I guess he may had been told off at one point early in the game when he took a sack when he could have clearly thrown it away. Rodgers directed a few great drives (most ending in a field goal), but was under a lot of pressure, which unfortunately resulted in him tripping up under his own feet.

The Cowboys are clearly the superior team. I hope this loss gives the Packers a perspective. I think the Packers have the most potential, but they still have to come together and round-off the edges. For a young team, coming off a 13-3 season can make you lose your focus.

Speaking of young, Aaron Rodgers is only a year-older than me. FUUUCCK, I feel old.

On a lighter note, I need Chris Chambers to score two touchdowns and have a 100-yd game for me to win fantasy this week.

I had a really great birthday.  I think it was my most favorite, I am glad I stayed in town.  I don’t even know where to begin. One thing for sure is I’m replying to all the facebook messages people left me.  The long journey to that goal will begin shortly!

Currently sitting in the library on a bean bag, and I must be doing it wrong because I can’t breath.  Odd I know, but since its the library any breathing I do I worry that someone will hear it and be irritated.  Paranoia?  Probably, but all I know is that if I quit breathing…I’ll die. That’s a little fact of life right there.

Went to my first Winona State football game in three years.  It was a fun time, it was misting but felt like it was perfect weather.  I promised myself I would attempt to go to a few games for recreation.  It’s too bad I will be missing the homecoming next week.  All my friends will be having fun, but I think I will have a lot of fun camping with my brother and his fiancee.  I do hope to make it back though.

Later tonight I have to meet up with my group partner so we can form our debate around the question “Does human nature make security a primary concern in politics?”.  We will argue that yes it does.  The tricky part is, I don’t see how anyone can argue against it, but hopefully we can come up with some arguments from the opposition

Packers won today.  Can’t believe the Lions came all the way back.  The play-calling on defense and offense is really questionable, which basically just gave the Lions the points.  You have to give credit to the defense for winning this one again, granted Rodgers played well and Kitna collapsed under pressure.  I actually feel bad for Jon Kitna, not just because he is on the Lions.  He has a strong desire to win, but its just not the right environment for him.  He gets too frustrated and that drastically affects his play.  Next week we see the Cowboys take on the Packers.  I have little doubt that Aaron Rodgers will perform well just like last year.  I would like to see the game as “payback”, not because they beat us last year, but because they couldn’t meet us in the NFC Championship game for a real rematch.

Last night we had our fantasy football draft.  I feel pretty good about my team, I picked up Adrian Peterson (both infact).  One pick I was lambasted for was picking Aaron Rodgers as my quarterback.  Some probably thought I was just being bias as I’m a packer fan, and others said I could have picked him up in the 14th round.  Jesse tried arguing about value picks, which I could agree to but I was taking a chance.  When I normally pick players, I take into account the players that are around them.  This is especially true for quarterbacks.  This is the same thing I did last year when I picked up Tom Brady.  He was already good the year before, but with the addition of Randy Moss, I knew there was going to be something great.  Hell, last year, both Mannings went before Brady until he landed on me in the 4th round.

Look at Brady, he threw a couple touchdowns last year…how many was it, 50?  And in our league, we don’t get negative points for interceptions.  To most fantasy leaguers, they are just picking name recognition and what their fantasy cheat sheets are.  My argument for Aaron Rodgers is that he has the best damn wide receiving corps. in the NFL, and the youngest, and the best at YAC (yards-after-the catch).  Favre was blessed to have receivers like that, and he was right when he said it was “the most talented” team he had ever been on, and that says alot for a guy who lived with the 1996 Packers.   Also, with the defense being questionable, I expect the defense to give up alot of points and the offense is going to have to make up for it in a short amount of time.

So when I am picking a quarterback, I am not picking him because based on his durability and his stats.  I’m picking him because the people around him and the philosophy of the coach.

So when I pick Rodgers, I’m saying that Driver, Jennings, Martin, Jones, Lee, and Grant are going to raise hell with the West Coast Offense system.

Oh…and I got Derek Anderson for my back-up.  Hells yeah.

One focus I want to make my blog is probably sports. To me, sports is synonymous with the phrase “Football”. Okay, I’m only bullshitting. I have been getting into sports much more these past few years than I ever have. I wound up subscribing to Sports Illustrated all of a sudden. American football is an entertaining sport. I had a conversation with a random towney bar patron. It was during the time of the Euro Cup I was wearing my Germany team-soccer jersey when he shouted at me and told me the Netherlands would win it all. We got into the mechanics and entertainment between soccer and football. By George, he was right. Not that the Netherlands would win, but that American football is a far more interesting sport than soccer. He boiled it down to that fact that the strategy and play is predetermined before the ball is even snapped. Sure there is some strategy to soccer, but falls way short of the team-effort of an American football team. I would entertain this thought a bit longer, but I am sure some friends of mine would whole-heartedly disagree with me.

Right now I am looking forward to the NFL regular season. The Green Bay Packers are looking questionable, and not because Brett Favre isn’t under center. The defense is really in trouble. I had previously wrote in disgust that they tried “bribing” Favreback in retirement, but it turned out that things weren’t being handled that way. Speaking of Favre, I actually read an interesting quote on the front of USAToday, refering to Hilary Clinton.

“Sometimes dealing with the Clintons is like dealing with Brett Favre, They’re very good players and they’ve got a great record, but sometimes you’re not sure what they really want.” - Leon Panetta, Clinton’s former White House chief of staff

Funny.  I will have to make a post about politics later!