Week 7 — Mon, 24 Oct 2005

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

...and did you notice the football game on Friday?

Yes, due to predictions of Wilma's Florida arrival, the NFL moved the Miami/Kansas City game from Sunday afternoon to Friday night. Wilma, of course, decided to wait until this morning before cruising across south Florida. The groundskeepers at Dolphins Stadium are pumping out the field as you read this.

As to the game, well, only a few people saw it, because CBS refused to preempt their Friday night prime-time lineup outside of the Miami and Kansas City areas. It wasn't even live on the satellites (though it was shown delayed on the NFL network on Sunday night). Kansas City, despite arriving in Miami a mere 6 hours before kickoff, controlled the game from start to finish, and won 30-20. KC is 4-2 and trying hard to stay competitive.

Indianapolis continues its undefeated season, after rather sloppily beating Houston 38-20 and covering a 15.5 point spread. At halftime, the score was 14-14, mostly due to sloppy ball handling on Peyton Manning's part (one fumble, one INT). But lucky for Peyton, the Texans offense self-destructed in the second half... unable to gain a single yard for the entire second half. Actually, they lost 4 yards. The Texans look to Cleveland next week in the hopes of finally winning one. Indy has their bye next week.

Our own San Francisco 49ers aren't faring much better than the Texans. They went to Washington on Sunday and got crushed 52-17 (in a game with a 36 point over/under). Poor Alex Smith got sacked 5 times, fumbled three times, and threw an interception to Sean Taylor. Even if the Redskins offense hadn't been uncharacteristically on fire, there's just no way to win with stats like those. Every year, there's a young quarterback that comes out and amazes the critics. This year, it's not Alex Smith. Smith and the 1-5 49ers come home to play Tampa Bay next week, and the 4-2 Redskins go to NY and play the Giants.

Also down in the doldrums? The Green Bay Packers, who played their hearts out against a similarly crappy Minnesota Vikings. After going into halftime with a 17-0 lead, the Packers watched their lead evaporate. Down 20-17, the Packers drove the ball to the 29, where they kicked a field goal with 24 seconds left, tying the game, and certainly forcing an overtime. Nobody expected Vikings kicker Paul Edinger to boot a career-long 56 yarder with 2 seconds to go. Thanks to that field goal, the Vikings go to 2-4, and the Packers to 1-5.

The San Diego Chargers appear to have come down with Chargeritis again this year. Symptoms include self-destructing in the final minutes of a game to turn a well-earned win into a stunning defeat -- this week against the Eagles. So, with 3 minutes to go and a 17-13 lead, the Chargers attempt a 40 yard field goal, which is blocked, and returned for a touchdown. On the very next possession, on the Eagles 19, Chargers wide receiver Reche Caldwell fumbles the ball. The game ended 20-17 Philadelphia.

The Giants beat Denver by one point, 24-23, late in the game, in what was probably the most exciting game of the week. For the second week in a row, Eli Manning led the Giants offense to a victory late in the fourth quarter, this time completing a 76 yard drive in just under two minutes. Denver's 5-2 record is still enough to keep the lead of the AFC West, and the NFC East is essentially a four-way-tie between 4-2 and 4-3 teams, including the Giants. Also notable, Denver's three game no-turnover streak is over, but only on a technicality. During the final kickoff with no time left on the clock, Denver's players were trying to lateral the ball around in the hopes of scoring a miracle touchdown. One of those laterals landed in the hands of the Giants.

So this week, it looks like the teams to beat are: 7-0 Indy, 5-2 Denver, 5-1 Tampa Bay, 5-2 Seattle, and 4-2 Pittsburgh (who beat the Bengals this week). There are a lot of other 4-2 teams who are fighting to get on this list including Philly and Atlanta, and a couple of 3-3 teams who nonetheless are still probably playoff bound (New England comes to mind).

Which brings us to tonights game.

The Game:

Tonight the 2-4 New York Jets go to Atlanta to take on the 4-2 Falcons, in what's looking like a battle of the medical staffs. You see, the Jets have lost both of their real quarterbacks, so they thawed out 19 year veteran Vinny Testeverde and handed him the ball. The Falcons have lost 1/3 of their defense, especially in their linebacker contingent. Both teams are doing a good job with the personnel that they've got, but neither is thrilled about their roster. The Falcons want this game, so they can show the NFL that they're still a contender (and a 5-2 record would put them on that list, at least this week, but a 4-3 doesn't). The Jets want to show the fans that Testaverde can still win games, and this is their chance to do it to a national audience.

Emotions should run high. It actually should be a fairly decent game, played on the Fieldturf inside the Georgia Dome.

The Line:

The Falcons are favored by 7.5 The over/under is 40.

Last week, the Smart Money went 1-1, which is about as good as it's been lately. It's now 3-10 *groan*. Tonight, the Smart Money takes the over.

The Bar:

There's no more baseball on Monday nights. Hooray!

Tonight, we're taking advantage of that fact to visit a more baseball-oriented establishment downtown, that comes complete with free hot dogs on Monday nights.

Beale Street Bar and Grill
133 Beale Street (b/w Mission and Howard)
2 short blocks from the Embarcadero Muni, around the corner from the Trans Bay Terminal... if you can't get here, you're not trying.

Kickoff is at 6:00.
See you there?

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