Week 9 — Mon, 5 Nov 2007

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

...and yes, that probably was the game of the year.

Because if the Colts and Patriots meet again this season, it'll be in January, 2008. I imagine by now, you already know that the Patriots won 24-20, after having trailed for all but the final three minutes of the game. Tom Brady more or less slept through the first half, but someone managed to wake him up with about 9 minutes to go in the game, and the Patriots down by 10 points. Brady basically just kept throwing the ball at Randy Moss over and over and over, and he just seemed to keep catching them. Two touchdowns and a couple of Peyton Manning fumbles later, the Patriots come out on top. How do you think it feels to be in the Raiders back office, knowing that you traded Randy Moss for a fourth round pick last year? The Patriots are 9-0 and have next week off. The Colts are 7-1, and are going to San Diego for next Sunday's night game.

The Detroit Lions are 6-2, after blowing out the Broncos 44-7, and have established themselves as a real contender in the NFC North (currently the 7-1 Packers are on top of the division). Yes, you heard that right -- I did say Detroit. They're playing very physical football, and they've managed to get both their running and passing offenses going full-throttle. People are actually looking forward to the Thanksgiving matchup between the Lions and Packers. Neither team was expected to be much of a contender this year. The Lions are going to Arizona next week. The Broncos have fallen to 3-5, and are headed to Kansas City.

Both winless teams (St Louis and Miami) remain winless. Both of them had this week off.

The 5-3 Redskins had much more trouble with the 1-8 New York Jets than they should have. The two seemingly mismatched teams, with offenses that are inconsistent, at best, battled each other to a 20-20 tie at the end of regulation. Two possessions later, a 46 yard field-goal (one of five for kicker Shawn Suisham) gave the game to the Redskins. Most of the Redskins offense came on the feet of Clinton Portis (196 yards of it, plus the go ahead touchdown in the 4th quarter). While it's nice to see that he's (finally) putting up numbers that makes the trade for Champ Bailey look a little better, it's hard to watch the rest of the Redskins offense look so bad. The Redskins host the struggling Philadelphia Eagles next week, and the Jets are taking the week off.

The notable game next week is going to be the Dallas/NY Giants game at 1:15 PST. They're battling it out for control of the NFC East (Dallas is on top at 7-1, NY just behind them at 6-2 -- the winner of next week's game will be in first place). This week Dallas dispatched the Philadelphia Eagles 38-17. It was pretty much a blowout the whole way through, and most of the fans left in disgust at halftime -- prefering a Geno's cheesesteak over the stink of the Eagles.

But why was I talking about next week? What about tonight?

The Game:

Tonight, we have an AFC North matchup, as the 4-3 Baltimore Ravens go to Pittsburgh to take on the 5-2 Steelers on Heinz Field (which is consistently rated as the worst DD Grassmaster field in the league). This game is all about control of the division. If the Steelers win, they'll have first place all to themselves. If they lose, they'll have to share it with the Ravens and the 5-3 Cleveland Browns (who beat the Seahawks 33-30 in overtime this week).

It's going to be between 30 and 40 degrees and rainy in Pittsburgh tonight. Brrr.

The Line:
The steelers are favored by 9. The over/under is 36.

Last week, the smart money went 2-0. It is now 7-2, representing a return on investment of 48.5% The S&P 500 has returned 1.71% over the same timeframe.

Tonight, the Smart Money takes the over, and considered the Steelers, who haven't lost a Monday night game since 1991.

The Bar:
I'm tired of arriving at a venue and finding that they're showing the game without sound (for those who we haven't seen in a while, this happened the last two weeks). So tonight, we're going to go somewhere that's guaranteed to be all about the Steelers game. It's either a cover version of, tribute to, or just a big ripoff of Pittsburgh's famous Primani Brothers -- our very own Giordano Brothers!

Giordano Brothers
303 Columbus Ave @ Broadway
Steps from the 20 and 41 busses. Within a block of the 30, 45 and 12.

Kickoff is at 5:30.

See you there?

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