early on....

....there was a questionable call made by the officials on the field, which was later messed up further by the replay crew.

i'm speaking of course, about the T.O. "catch" where the sideline official ruled his forward progress was stopped, and thus the ball that was stripped away by al harris would still belong to the cowboys.

there are 2 problems here.

#1, owens never had possession of the ball to rule the play a catch.  therefore, his forward progress should have been a moot point.  GB coach mike mccarthy challenged the play, after the refs ruled owens' forward progress was stopped, and all harris' strip would not give the packers the ball.  unfortunately, the replay officials upheld the call on the field that it was a catch.  i dont remember what the down and distance would have been had they ruled it an incomplete pass, but i'm positive it would have been better than what was given to them by ruling it a completion, and forward progress stopped.

#2 is that, since they fudged the play by blowing the whistle, ruling it a completion AND forward progress stopped, harris ended up with a delay of game penalty for spiking the ball as he was running to he sideline after what he was 100% certain was an interception, or at least a strip/fumble recovery.

now, in no way am i saying this one bad call (actually, 2 on one play) cost the packers the game, but it sure didnt help matters.

also early on, GB was using a terrible game plan on offense.  instead of spreading the cowboys out with their 4 and 5 wr sets, they were using a 2-back, 2-wr, 1 te set frequently, and tried throwing deep (into double coverage i might add) out of those formations.  it didnt work.

on favre's 1st interception, someone (darryn colledge i think) missed a block and a defender came right up the middle with a full head of steam looking to run right over favre.  instead of looking to dump the ball off or throw it away, #4 tried heaving it 50 yards or so downfield (into double coverage i might add)....he came up well short (i'd say at least 12-14 yards) of his intended target, and the ball was caught like a pop-fly by a SS going out into short center field.  colledge should get plenty of blame for missing the block, but favre deserves quite a bit as well for even attempting to make that throw.

the o-line was generally not very good all game, and they get the blame for favre being knocked out of the game.  i will say that anyone who thinks GB lost that game because favre went down in the 2nd quarter should think again. he was playing terrible, as evidenced by his 5-14 with 0 TD's and 2 INT's prior to leaving the game.

from the cowboys perspective (gimme a break, i'm just sharing my opinions here)

i dont know if the cowboys game planned as if charles woodson was not going to play, or if they put together a package of plays in case he didnt.  either way, they took advantage of matchups at times when al harris wasnt on t.o. and sent him in motion forcing (i didnt think they HAD to switch, but they did) 1 of the other packer DB's to pick him up.  on one particular play, i believe owens and harris were matched up, but t.o. went in motion and became the slot receiver.  harris let him go, and another player was supposed to pick him up.  that player ended up being a.j. hawk.  now, hawk is a pretty good athlete, and has decent speed, but should NEVER be stuck in man coverage against a WR with even average speed, much less very good speed.  t.o. burned him like last night's dinner...of course there was no safety anywhere in sight, and romo found him for roughly 40 yards (i believe that particular play went for 42).

several times throughout the night the cowboys put t.o. in motion, and every time harris passed him off to a guy who had no chance of covering him.  granted, harris didnt have a great game when he was matched up (would have looked alot better had that play early on gone his way), but at least he was in the same zip code as owens when he did cover him.

now, back to woodson.  i'm not saying that had he played, we would have shut owens down, but i have to believe that, if bob sanders has any brains at all, he would have devised a scheme so that when t.o. did go in motion, the DB harris would be passing him off to would have been woodson, not jarrett bush, tramon williams or frank walker.  maybe, just maybe they eliminate 2 or 3 of the big plays and make dallas work a little harder for what they got.

later on....

there was one pass interference call i disagree with.  a dallas WR was sprinting down the field toward the end zone, and his and the defender's feet got tangled up and they both tripped.  THAT to me is incidental contact.  now, prior to that there was some hand-checking, and even a couple grabs (holding?) by the DB.  why not call the holding, especially since the ball was well over the receiver's head?

a 40+ yard pass interference call is huge.  the 5 yard holding call would have still given dallas an automatic 1st down.

how about that aaron rodgers kid?

ok, i'm not going to sit here and claim he's the 2nd coming of favre.  that's just stupid (so any packer fans that think that, stop it).

what i will say is, for a guy who basically hasnt played in a game that matters in almost 3 full years, he stepped in and played pretty well.  i'll also say that, in the future when favre starts a game 5-14 with 2 INT's, i'll be pulling my hair out when mccarthy refuses to pull him and see if rodgers can do even a little better.

18-26 for 210 yards and 1 TD is a pretty good game for alot of QB's...and rodgers did it in roughly 2 quarters and change (that sounds dumb, but not any dumber than 2 1/2 quarters)

he was poised for the most part, was able to scramble for some good yardage, and most importantly, didnt give the ball away.  i think the packers may have a pretty decent QB for the next 10 years, assuming favre doesnt come back AGAIN, and rodgers says "f u green bay" and demand a trade (i wouldnt blame him if he did either).

final thoughts

i really thought the packers had a chance to win that game going in.  i was hoping favre had finally gotten to the point of not getting too hyped up for a nationally televised game (even if 75% of the nation couldnt see it....i wont get into that here).

i was also hoping both teams would have been at full strength, so injury excuses wouldnt be made (ok ok, i'm guilty of it, but at least i didnt say having woodson would guarantee a GB win, and i also said rodgers played better than favre, so stfu).  i'm sure some cowboy fans would have been crying about their CB being hurt had they lost the game.

aside from most of the 2nd quarter, that f'd up "forward progress" call, and the final score, it was a pretty good game to watch.  i'm actually content knowing as poorly as we played for stretches in the game on offense, defense AND special teams, that we only lost by 10.

as i told a co-worker, who actually agreed to work for me so i could stay home...the worst part about the game other than the final score, was the absolute horrible announcing by bryant gumbel.  i blogged a month or so back about him saying he'd be worlds better this year...well, he's not.  if possible, i think he's actually worse.  at least 3 times in the opening minutes of the game, he referred to the cowboys as the packers, and never corrected himself until the 4th or 5th time (and i'm guessing chris collinsworth elbowed him in the ribs so he would realize he messed up).

i'm hoping for a rematch in the nfc championship game.  although it's not likely to happen, i'm even hoping it's played in green bay (he11, i dont even think the packers will make it that far, but i can dream).

finally, i'm giving props to the cowboys for their game plan, tony romo for his stellar play, and the team for winning the game.  you earned it, and that's all i've got to say on the subject (until someone leaves a comment, to which i will try my best to answer....and remember, i was trying to be objective, so you do the same).

- without devin hester, would anybody care about the bears right now?

- if GB manages to win in dallas (and look good doing so), and brett favre plays huge, will it all but lock up his 4th mvp award?

- the patriots can be beaten.  philly came close, but in the end they didnt have quite enough talent, and didnt make enough plays to finish them off.

- st. louis is an embarrassment to the nfl.  the dolphins are awful, but st. louis keeps finding ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

- did kurt warner get hit in the head once too often?  a QB should never hold onto the ball as long as he did in his own endzone.  the fact that it was in overtime when he did it tells me he's almost qualified to play for the rams again.

- sal paolantonio wrote a book in which he rates joe namath as the most overrated QB in the history of the nfl, and brett favre 2nd.  while namath had 220 INT's to 173 TD's in 3762 attempts to favre's 430-something TD's and 200-whatever (yeah, i know he has that record too now), i dont quite get how favre is overrated.  and its not because i like the guy either.

at any rate, i never saw namath play, but i also never understood why he was considered a great QB either.  now that i know his stats, its mind-boggling to me.

- what's this deal about the packers and a "bounty"?  from what i understand, the DB's offered $500 to the DL if they held adrian peterson under 100 yards.  then all he11 breaks loose when peterson gets hurt on a tackle by al harris (a DB by the way).

i may have already said this, but if that little $500 dollar thing is a big deal, then no qb should ever be allowed to buy his o-linemen rolex watches for protecting his prima-donna butt all season.

- ohhhhhh raider fans...where are you?

- i read something somewhere that the bulls are distracted by the kobe trade talks.  it's not that they stink, it's just the distraction.  look, i'd buy the theory that scott skiles is purposely finding ways to lose in order to make john paxson feel he has to make that deal happen before i'd believe the players are just too distracted by the talks.

- some clown thinks the bucks should trade for stephon marbury as a 'steady veteran with leadership skills'.  i dont think this guy knows anything about marbury.

- the bucks beat cleveland, the lakers and dallas in a week.  still, people think mo williams wont pass (at least 2 double doubles in a 4 game stretch), andrew bogut cant rebound or defend (double digit rebounds in at least 3 games that i know of, and 3 consecutive games with 4 blocks).  what some people are starting to notice is that michael redd is improving his defense, rebounding and passing.  of course, a few others still think the only way milwaukee will go anywhere is if they trade him away.

- the knicks are still a joke, and nobody's laughing more than me.

- just when you thought the college football season couldnt get any wierder....mizzou and WVU are the top 2 teams in the country, and LSU, USC, texas and florida all have at least 2 losses.  if it stays the way it is now, and mizzou and WVU play for that NC, it might finally get the BCS to tweak the system, but it shouldnt.  it's their system, and having 2 teams that may not be attractive to tv audiences or advertisers is NOT a good reason to change it now.

- i seen the score of the nebraska/colorado game on espn's bottom line and thought they accidentally put in a basketball score.  65-51?  i dont know how good either of their BB teams are this year, but i'll bet $10 one of those teams cant score as many points as their FB brothers.

- if OSU does manage to get into the NC game, who really believes illinois will get invited to the rose bowl?

- anybody see the cincinnati reds signing francisco cordero before it happened?  wow.  4 years, 46 million with an option for year 5.  man, the brewers could have really used him back, but i'm glad they didnt go insane and offer that kind of deal.

- so A-Rod can now earn up to $305 million total in his new contract if he passes each of the top 3 career HR hitters while still a member of the yankees.  so much for the idea that he wouldnt be able to get $30 mil/year without the help of an agent.

- i do find it ironic that so many in baseball...owners, GM's, bud selig's band of merry morons....continue to talk about how contracts are out of control, yet the owners keep giving the go-ahead on ridiculous contracts that GM's keep throwing around, and MLB continues to approve them.

preface:  let me start by informing the 7 people who care (his words, not mine) that Merc has been without internet service since...well, shortly after the last time he posted anything on his blog.  all i can say is, it must really blow when your employer takes away your internet priveleges, even on break.

now, for the good stuff

nfl

- can we now conlude that the jets were a bit of a fluke last year, and that eric "mangenius" mangini isnt the 2nd coming of bill belichick after all?  well, we thought chuck weiss was too i guess.

- where are all the raider fans who were so certain the silver and black were back when they were all over Merc's nfl prediction post? (contributed tidbit)

- do i have to admit now that the cowboys are better than i thought?  i'm guilty of underestimating them, and so is Merc.  on the other hand, who (other than the T.O. jock sniffers) really believed he'd be a model citizen this season?

- tony romo, you ARE ready to be a prime-time nfl quarterback.  forget what i said about you not being able to get past that botched hold in the playoff game against seattle last year.  but rest assured, if i could, i'd be personally informing every GB defender to whisper that reminder in your ear every chance they get.

- patriots NOT running up the score on 4th down in the 4th quarter of blowouts?  i'd believe that they were actually giving their opponents a chance if they were using the backups instead of leaving brady, moss and co. in to pad their stats, which is what it really amounts to.

- i refuse to admit GB is an elite team.  those of you who are familiar with me know how things usually turn out when i admit a team i cheer for is good.

- the rams still stink, but lucky for them they play in the worst division in football (i dont care what anyone says, the nfc west blows).

- i gotta feel bad for priest holmes.  the guy put 2 years into coming back from a serious neck injury, only to retire today after re-injuring his neck.  too many guys who are completely healthy dont put that kind of effort into their entire careers.

nba

- maybe it's because i'm working 3rd shift now, but am i the only one who thinks the season is boring so far?

- shaq got benched for being lazy on the court?  i have to say i'm shocked.  i didnt realize shaq played before christmas.

- there still isnt anyone more annoying than steven a. smith.  if you took his hyper, blabber mouth and combined it with mike tirico's almost zombie-like personality, maybe...just maybe you'd have a tolerable, knowledgeable sports analyst.  eh, probably not.

- where are the knicks fans who swore the addition of zach randolph = playoffs and 50 wins?  i dont want to hear the excuses about isiah and his harrassment suit, marbury and his "if i aint startin', i dont wanna play" attitude, or anything else.  none of this is new, and you all thought they could overcome this stuff before...nothing has changed.  they're simply not a good team.

- chris paul is injured...again.  as i said in a comment on another post, he's a beast...when he's healthy.  am i the only one who is beginning to think he's injury prone?

- speaking of paul, his hornets are in the news again about possibly moving...again.  it was a bad idea to move from charlotte to new orleans in the first place (if the JAZZ couldnt make it there, what made anyone think another team could?).

- which brings us to the sonics, and their potential move to ok. city.  this looks like a race to see which of these 2 teams can get there first.  my gut tells me if the sonics get there first, the hornets will be headed to seattle.  and if this happens, expect a fight over seattle keeping the name "supersonics" like cleveland did when art modell slithered out of town.

mlb

- so far, the brewers have signed randy choate (heard of him, not impressed, and i dont think i'm the only one) and traded johnny "i only run fast when i hear the dinner bell" estrada to the mets for G mota.  this is what we need.  trade a lazy, overweight catcher who couldnt throw out my 300 pound sister on her hover-round stealing 2nd base for a relief pitcher who stunk last year AND got suspended for steroid use.

- latest rumor is milwaukee is in the torri hunter sweepstakes, and may move bill hall to 3B and ryan braun to LF if hunter is signed.  makes me wonder though...they moved hall to CF to get him in the lineup every day when they could have simply moved him to 3B last year and started grooming braun for the OF then.  so now, they want to move hall AGAIN, back to the infield, sign a CF'er who could cost $12 mil/year, and move yet another IF'er to the OF. (for those who dont know, corey hart used to be an IF'er too)

- so the yankees dump joe torre, re-sign A-Rod, rivera (i think...may not be finalized yet) and posada (talk about picking the right year to hit 50 points above your career average).  looks like pettitte and clemens are (finally) done, and hire joe girardi as manager.  sorry, but i just dont see that young pitching staff and the same position players as last year getting the job done with girardi instead of torre.  of course, i couldnt see torre doing it either.

- wherever andruw jones goes, he'll eventually wind up back with the braves.  greg maddux, when and if he ever decides to retire, will do so as a member of the braves as well.

- poor barry bonds.  the yankees dont even appear interested.  you know you've hit rock bottom when the royals are mentioned as one of the most interested teams.

- poor cubs.  there's a cub fan on the brewers message board who predicted they'd sign A-Rod, mike lowell, and trade for carl crawford (among other ridiculous ideas) and so far none of them has happened.  of course, this guy also believed not having new ownership in place wouldnt stop them from spending whatever it took to get these guys.

- tampa bay dropped "devil" from their name and will now be known as the "rays".  i think a rule should be instituted that says their roster must be comprised of at least 7 players (and 1 coach/manager) named ray.  lets start with ray durham and ray king.  maybe hire ray liotta as bench coach?  (contributed tidbit)

- jimmy rollins won the NL mvp.  i actually would have voted for him.  Merc says holliday got jobbed and believes fielder lost out in part because his own teammate, ryan braun, won ROY by stealing several RBI chances for prince.  i cant argue with that i guess, but i'm not complaining that he didnt win.

college football

-not that i'm complaining (really, i'm not), but how does wisconsin beat michigan by 16, and still be 1 spot behind the wolverines in the poll?

-i say if kansas finishes the season unbeaten, they should play for the nat'l championship.  forget SOS, who they played or where they played them.  they'd be the only team from a major conference to go unbeaten, and that should be enough to warrant a bid to the title game.  (this, as has been my curse, should result in them getting pummelled by whoever it is they play this weekend)

-why is lloyd carr still getting more heat than charlie weiss?  if ANYBODY should be fired as a college fb head coach, it's weiss, then bill callahan, then carr.

-side note on the nebraska mess:  i'm calling it now (assuming the position hasnt been filled yet, which i have no clue at the moment)....barry alvarez will be offered the A.D. job.  i'm putting the odds at 50/50 that he takes it.

nba

-would the milwaukee bucks please decide if they're going to be competitive on a consistent basis within the next week?  i'm sick of seeing the box scores, where they beat the tar out of toronto one night, then get hammered in their next game by houston.

-following in the tradition of my personal curse, FSN is now carrying 70 bucks regular season games this season.....and i'm working 3rd shift.   thanks guys.  at least you listened to my complaints and did something about it.

-everyone insisting the celtics will win 70+ games (or go unbeaten) please shut up.  as good as they are right now (which is way better than i thought they'd be, record-wise anyway), they're not going to win 70 games, and they're still not going to win the championship.  even if they do get past the pistons and whoever else decides to be a force in the east, the spurs will likely be waiting for them in the finals.  sorry, but tim duncan, parker, ginobili (who i absolutely despise), bowen, finley and even fabric softener oberto are still a better team than the big 3 + whoever else boston can put on the court.

-what's the latest kobe/laker drama?  ooops, today the drama in LA centers around some comment phil jackson made regarding brokeback mountain.  i dont know what he said, and i dont care.  funny that a guy who lives up in the hills of montana (i think it is) would be making jokes about brokeback mountain.....makes you wonder why his hips and knees are in such bad shape....too many sheep that kick perhaps?

nfl

-if the packers finish the season 14-2 (i'll give you the dallas game, regardless of how good dallas or GB is, they simply dont win in big D), will they get a little more respect from the media?  this is another thing i really dont worry too much about, but i have to laugh when 2 teams with 2 losses are above them in the power rankings.  heck, even the giants were above us prior to losing to dallas for a 2nd time this season....even though GB clobbered them at their place early in the year, and the giants feasted on bad teams like the dolphins and falcons.

-bryant gumbel says he'll be a better commentator this year.  seriously, when you're as bad as he was last year, there's only 2 ways to go...straight up or sideways.  he then went on to say that 'nobody comes to a game because of who the announcer(s) is/are.'  you are partly right there skippy, but i can tell you this much:  i have turned a game off more times than i can count because of who the announcer(s) is/are.  you sir, are one of the reasons i wont be watching any nfl network games other than GB @ dallas.

mlb

-A_Rod is now negotiating personally with the yankees?  yeah, this is good news.  i was getting worried there wasnt anything else to talk about without my daily yankees/a-rod/steiny jr./scott boras gossip.

-so, in a league thin on good starting pitchers, why are teams reportedly pushing to trade their best starters?  i can sort of understand the twins and santana thing, what with them staring at a major rebuilding project, and the bad blood between santana and the front office, but what about the brewers and ben sheets, the "Rays" and scott kazmir, the indians and sabathia, etc?

i'm sure each situation has it's reason(s) behind it, but the one i really dont get is kazmir.  on the other hand, if the brewers are serious about shipping sheets out, i'd trade him straight up for kazmir and be ecstatic about it.

-mariano rivera turned down 3 years and $45 million?  what does this guy think he's worth anyway?  wait, let me guess....he's using the fact that joe torre is no longer the manager as a bargaining chip (again)?

random idea of the day

i cant believe nobody has done this yet....why is there no fantasy blogger pool?

200 bloggers are put into a draft (you can play even if you're one of those bloggers), and the rest...well, i dont know how the draft thing works.

anyway, points are awarded based on your player's (bloggers you drafted) being chosen BOTD, MIP, on the recent comments list, most commented list, number of comments made by everyone except you (if you own said blogger in the fantasy pool) and the blogger him/herself, etc.

if somebody sets it up, i get the credit and the #1 pick in the 1st round (any guesses who i'm going to pick?).

- fans of an nba team ripping another for winning 60 games, when theirs is lucky to win 45.

- believing that an 0-4 start for a projected playoff contender is cause for panic.

- believing that a 4-0 start by last year's lottery loser (you know, the team that lost on purpose hoping to get the #1 pick...that ended up with #7) means they're championship material.

- thinking michigan winning the B10 and thus an automatic BCS bid is a good thing this year (considering their 0-2 start, loss to D1-AA apple dumpling state, and recent failures in bowl games).

- giving an award with "slugger" in it to ichiro over curtis granderson.

- curt schilling agreeing to an incentive-laden contract with the red sox after seemingly not on the best of terms with the club, while joe torre had nothing but good things to say about the yankees...until they made a "disrespectful" offer to him.

- the picture of jonathan papelbon on the cover of that sports magazine (SI i think), where it looks like he's squatting and trying to squeeze one out, and you can clearly see his bulge.  i'm thinking they could have maybe gotten a better photo for the front cover.

- how the bucks could lose to the magic and the incomparable (in su(kiness) j.j. redick, then hold the bulls to 72 points, and chris bosh to a single free throw in routing the raptors.

- kelvin sampson used to be president of the NABC (national association of basketball coaches...or something like that), a group that was determined to crack down on rule-breaking coaches, especially in the area of recruiting.

- having to quit your job because you cant afford the gas to drive to work every day (getting real close to having to make that decision if gas keeps going up).

- sleeping less because 7-8 hours leaves you tired all day long.