Week 6 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007

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

...and Brett Favre wasn't the oldest player throwing touchdown passes this week.

47 year old Morten Andersen didn't throw one either.

But Vinnie Testaverde did.

Last Sunday, Vinnie was doing the same thing that every New Yorker was doing: watching the Jets/Giants game in his living room, icy-cold Schlitz in hand. Considering his history as a Jet, I'm willing to bet that he was tossing expletives at Chad Pennington faster than the Mets can earn themselves a vacation. As far as he was concerned, his playing days were over. But it was not to be... In the week that followed, not one, but two teams called him and offered him a job: Arizona and Carolina. With the outbreak of season-ending injuries going around this year, coaches are looking in living rooms all over the country, and thawing out some of the relics.

The Carolina Panthers started the year with two decent quarterbacks, and a rookie that was learning the system, but isn't ready for the NFL yet. In week three, Jake Delhomme (the starter) hurt his elbow, which ended his season. Backup David Carr stood in for Jake. David Carr used to play for Houston (in fact, he was the first player ever drafted by the Houston Texans), where his performance could best be described as disappointing. Last week, while being sacked by the New Orleans Saints, David Carr hurt his back. It's unclear the extent of his injury (he did come back into the game in New Orleans), but it was serious enough for the Panthers to bring in Vinnie Testaverde to start against the Arizona Cardinals.

And boy were they glad to have him there to dispatch the Cardinals 25-10. While the Cards' five turnovers probably are what made the difference in the game, Vinnie put up pretty impressive numbers (20-for-33, 206 yards, one touchdown, no turnovers). The touchdown came on a 65 yard pass to Steve Smith (who was 8 years old when Vinnie first played in the NFL) that looked like the classic Testaverde long balls of yore. So, while his numbers alone are enough for you to take notice (they're better then Favre's, Romo's and Palmer's this week), the fact is, the old guy looked pretty good out there. He certainly looked better with less than a week's practice than David Carr has ever looked. The word "Playoffs" was mentioned in the Charlotte News and Observer this morning. Given the state of the American education system, I'm not sure they are even capable of saying "Quarterback Controversy" in North Carolina, but at least they'll get an extra week to learn: The Panthers have the week off. Vinnie's going back to Long Island to embarrass his teenager. The Cardinals go to Washington.

*Sigh* Washington. The Redskins defense had completely shut down Favre and the Packers for the entire game, ultimately holding them to just 225 yards in total offense. But in comes Santana Moss, who more or less loses the game for the entire team, through a combination of dropped passes (at least three), a fumble that lead to a Packers touchdown, and even a poorly timed penalty. Final Score: 17-14, Packers, in a game that the Redskins had complete control of until Moss's fumble. At least Sean Taylor helped Brett extend his career-interceptions record (Taylor picked off two). The Redskins have one of the best defenses in the game right now, especially against passing teams -- but it's their offense that's losing football games -- not scoring at all in the second half? unacceptable. Sometimes the best defense really is a good offense, apparently, and the 'skins better get their act together on that front soon, or their season will be over. Hopefully the hapless Arizona Cardinals will help with that next weekend.

The game of the week was the battle of the undefeated. The New England Patriots went the Dallas, and issued a beatdown to the Cowboys (starting the game with a quick 14 points, and ending it with a 27-3 rout during the last 25 minutes of the game). Although the 48-27 final score seems lopsided, the game was actually much closer than the final would indicate -- at least until the middle of the third quarter, when the Patriots started that 27-3 run, and showed the crowd why they're probably the best team in the NFL at the moment. Dallas looked good out there too, despite losing by 21 points, and they showed most of the country that the Cowboys are for real this year. I say "most" of the country because this game was not on the air in most of California (to see how notable this is, go to the awesome NFL Maps site), because the NFL wants us to watch the Raiders, even when a better game is on. New England goes to Miami next week (watch the over/under on this game), Dallas hosts Minnesota.

The 6-0 Patriots and 5-0 Colts are the remaining undefeated teams. The Rams and Dolphins are both 0-6.

The Raiders/Chargers game, in numbers:
53 - The number of yards the Raiders gained rushing.
198 - The number of yards that Charger LaDainian Tomlinson gained rushing.
2 - Raiders Touchdowns.
4 - LaDainian Tomlinson touchdowns.
0 - Points scored by other Chargers.

It's enough to make a Raiders fan want to violate the terms of his parole.

And with that, let's go to tonight's game.

Tonight the 3-2 New York Giants go to Atlanta to take on the 1-4 Falcons on the Field Turf of the Georgia Dome. (With all of the injuries and police activity surrounding Atlanta, it's the second-string team that's 1-4. The starters are still 0-0).

This game is probably going to be about the Atlanta offensive line. If they're as porous as they've been the rest of the year, then QB Joey Harrington will be examining that Field Turf an awful lot tonight. The Giants are an improving team that's picking up momentum, in the hopes of being a contender (with Dallas) for control of the NFC East. The Falcons are just trying to stay alive.

The Line:
The Giants are favored by 3.5.
The over/under is 43.5

Last week, the Smart Money lost. It is now 3-2, representing a 14.5% ROI. Since the beginning of the season, the S&P 500 has gone up 4.75%.

This week the Smart Money takes the Giants, on the strength of their defense alone.

The Bar:
Tonight, we're going to go over the hill into the godforsaken Noeurekastro lowlands of 24th St to an establishment so committed to daylight drinking, it has a skylight. Fortunately, they've got lots of good beers on tap including some Belgian imports, and supposedly allow outside food.

One reader described it as "solid". You may feel free to hold him to that standard this evening.

The Valley Tavern
4054 24th Street (between Noe and Castro)
Two and a half blocks from the J-Church (get off on 24th, walk west).
Six (far more fabulous) blocks from the Castro station (walk south on Castro to 24th, turn left).

Kickoff is at 5:30. See you there?

A side note:

I'd like to commend the Atlanta Falcons front office on producing one of the nicest Press Books I've seen in quite some time. The Press Book is the writers'/commentators' cheat sheet on the game (yeah, like I know off the top of my head that Vinnie Testaverde and David Carr are the only #1 draft picks to ever play on the same team at the same time). Without it, every color commentator would talk about Dennis Miller's hair.

Most of them look like this week's Giants book.

Very concise, if dry reading, full of well presented facts and tidbits, but looking like historic crib notes for a newspaper guy (I can see the coffee and nicotine stains on the pages, even before you print the PDF)

And then, there's Atlanta's

I'll let it stand on its own.

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