Week 6 — Mon, 17 Oct 2005

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

...and the powerhouse teams are starting to show themselves.

Four teams have started the season 5-1 or better (Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Denver, Tampa Bay) Four more are 4-2. Most of the rest of the league is uninspiring already.

Witness Denver this week. The New England Patriots came to Denver this week, and got spanked by the Broncos offense and Jake Plummer. Plummer threw for 262 yards (including one play for 77 yards) and hasn't thrown an interception since week 2. The game ended with a 28-21 score, but it was hardly that close. At halftime, the score was 21-3, and the only reason that Tom Brady was able to move the offense in the 4th quarter was because Champ Baily got hurt. 5-1 Denver plays the Giants next week. 3-3 New England gets a much needed bye.

We move on to the sad saga of the Displaced New Orleans Saints of San Antonio. The Falcons and Saints played a great game, and fought to a 31-31 tie late in the fourth quarter. With seconds to go, the Falcons lined up for a 41 yard field goal... which they missed, seemingly sending an already good game into overtime. Unfortunately, the Saints were called for holding on the kick, and the re-kick from 36 yards was good, ending the game with a 34-31 Falcons win. Saints coach Jim Haslett called the penalty a "flat-out bullshit call" when talking to reporters after the game, which is likely to result in him writing a penalty check to the NFL. The Falcons go to 4-2, Saints to 2-4.

The Bengals are for real. They went to Nashville this weekend and beat the Titans 31-23, in what was really an example of textbook football. Cincinnati drew only four penalties for the entire game, and didn't give up a single turnover. If they can stay healthy and keep playing like this, they're going to beat a lot of teams. The 5-1 Bengals host Pittsburgh next week, in what should be a great game.

Speaking of Pittsburgh, what happened? This week, the once heavily-favored Steelers lost in overtime to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Steelers backup QB Tommy Maddox got picked off three times, and fumbled away a chance at a potentially game-winning field goal late in the 4th. The boos from the fickle Pittsburgh crowd rained down on Maddox all day long. He had them coming. Pittsburgh is 3-2. Jacksonville is 4-2.

The Houston Texans continue to look for their first win. Last night, they embarrassed themselves on a national ESPN game, by losing 42-10 to the Seahawks. Seattle was able to get 31 first downs, 6 touchdowns and only punted once, against a seemingly useless Texan defense. Houston hosts Indianapolis next week (which might draw a 20+ point spread).

Which brings us to tonight's game.

The Game:

Tonight the sole undefeated team, the 5-0 Indianapolis Colts are hosting the 2-3 St. Louis Rams on the new Fieldturf in the RCA Dome. Formerly the Hoosier dome, it was built to be a multipurpose facility, hosting trade shows, basketball, concerts, monster truck rallies, and so on. When configured for football it holds about 60,000 people. Look out for chairs flung from Bobby Knight's luxury suite.

Last year, the old astroturf in the RCA Dome was overwhelmingly voted the worst playing surface in the NFL. The second worst? St. Louis. Both were replaced for this season.

Sadly, this isn't likely to be much of a game. Despite being such a douchebag, Peyton Manning has been a stunningly accurate passer this year. His receiving corps are first-rate, and even the Colts' defense can put up quite a stand. This team, as a team, is a surprisingly good one (though I'll still never forgive them for sneaking out of Baltimore). The healthy momentum caused by an easier-than-average early schedule sure doesn't hurt either. On the other side, the Rams are just a stunningly average team. They don't play bad football, but they don't play great football either. The Colts should make fairly short work of them.

The Line:

The Colts are favored by THIRTEEN. The over/under is 51.5.
The badly-in-need-of-a-comeback Smart Money is 2-9 for the season. (ouch!) Tonight it groans and takes the Colts and the Under.

The Bar:

We haven't been to this one in a while. It's been serving the needs of sports fans since 1996, and quite a few people are surprised that it's still there.

Steff's Sports Bar
141 2nd Street @ Minna

2 blocks from the Montgomery Street Station.
Steps from the southbound 15.
Within a couple of blocks of the 14, 30, 45, 9, 76, and northbound 15.

Kickoff is at 6:00.
See you there?

---