Week 17 — Mon, 1 Jan 2006

From: Jeff
To: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Monday...

...and the only football on TV today is college ball.

Here's the Playoff situation:

AFC:
1. Indianapolis (14-2)
2. Denver (13-3)
3. Cincinnati (11-5)
4. New England (10-6)
5. Jacksonville (12-4)
6. Pittsburgh (11-5)

NFC:
1. Seattle (13-3)
2. Chicago (11-5)
3. Tampa Bay (11-5)
4. NY Giants (11-5)
5. Carolina (11-5)
6. Washington (10-6)

Next weekend, there are four games. #6s will go to #3's stadiums, and
#5s goes to #4's stadiums. All of these should be good games.

This year, the #6 teams are especially exciting. Pittsburgh's won it's
last four games, and has beaten the Bengals in the past. Washington's
won its last five games (back when it was 5-6, I put it in the "fooling
themselves" category), and the Redskins/Buccaneers game was the one that
the 'skins should've won but lost due to bad officiating (the NFL
Officials' head office levied a $4500 FINE on the referee of the game in
question)

But I'm ahead of myself here. Lets talk about this week's games -- or
at least the ones of any importance.

The Redskins beat Philly... to nobody's surprise. The Eagles haven't
played decent football since week 4, and the fact that at one point they
were up by 10 points was really the only unexpected event in the game.
(I was lucky enough to get stuck in LAX due to weather, and watched most
of it from the bar in terminal #7). As has been the case for most of
this season, it was the Redskins truly awesome defense that carried the
team... and if they can shut down the front line at Tampa Bay, they're
likely to win at least one more.

Carolina spanked Atlanta 44-11 to show the country that indeed the
Panthers are playoff material (though we already knew that Atlanta
wasn't). I think that the rest of the NFL analysts are finally
realizing that Michael Vick is a one-trick-pony, and his aging knees
aren't going to let him grow into a horse.

Tampa Bay beat New Orleans 27-13, ultimately on the strength of the Bucs
defense. Coach Jon Gruden again shows that he can run some interesting
West-Coast style offensive plays, while relying on simple, tough, East
coast defense to clean up the slack.

And although the New England/Miami game was technically meaningless,
there was a piece of football history there. With 6:10 to go in the
fourth quarter, the Patriots scored a touchdown, and instead of lining
up in a traditional extra point formation, backup quarterback Doug
Flutie lines up in a shotgun position -- and then takes a few steps
backwards before catching the snap, bouncing it off the turf, and
kicking it straight through the uprights. Yes... Flutie kicked a drop
kick, and got the extra point. This obscure play hasn't been attempted
since two weeks after Pearl Harbor (by Ray McLean of the Chicago Bears)
-- and it may have been Flutie's last play as a professional football
player. It seems like a fitting end to the career of a player who's
given the game such history, for the NCAA, CFL, USFL, and NFL. Way to
go Doug! Have some Flutie Flakes on us this week.

What else happened this week? No fewer than six coaches are packing up
their offices today: Mike Sherman (Green Bay), Dom Capers (Houston),
Mike Tice (Vikings), Jim Haslett (New Orleans), Mike Martz (St. Louis),
and Dick Vermeil (Chiefs). Vermeil retired, all the rest were canned.
Mike Tice was sacked less than 90 minutes after his game ended.

It's expected that many of those teams will be looking closely at
Washington's Defensive Coordinator, Gregg Williams. This does not bode
well for next year's Skins.


The Smart Money:

The Smart Money ended the season 16-12, which considering how it
started, isn't a bad feat. Had you placed a $11 bet on each of the
Smart Money's picks, you would've risked a total of $308, and it would
have returned $336, for a profit of a mere $28. That's a return of 9%
over a 17 week season. The S&P 500 returned a little over 2% over the
same time period -- slightly better than it returned for the entire year.

I will be publishing the Smart Money's playoff picks this year, but like
the teams involved, I'm reseting the SM's record to 0-0.


Hope everybody had a good season... I look forward to seeing y'all at
the first episode of ESPN's Monday Night Football, with a 5:40 pm
kickoff on Monday, September 11th, 2006.

-Jeff

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