What Comcast has to say

Demond took it upon himself to contact Comcast and find out just what is going on with the Big 10 network fight. He received one thoughtful email, and then we replied with some counterpoints. We have yet to hear back on our objections. If you are interested in the conversation, you can find it here. As always we welcome your points of view and opinions.

The best it has ever been played?

Bill Simmons thinks the Patriots are in another stratosphere because they are blowing out team after team. "You haven't seen football played this well in a long time," he claims. He goes on to say, "As you might have heard by now, the Patriots are 6-0, they've outscored opponents by a 230-92 margin." Tom Brady threw 22 touchdowns during that span.

Wow Bill, that's unbelievable!

Unless you are a Colts fan, in which case such a run of excellence is a recent memory. Over six games in 2004 the Colts outscored their opponents by a devastating margin of 225-77. Peyton Manning threw 21 touchdowns in that stretch. The Colts were in the middle of an eight game winning streak. Indianapolis scored forty point or more in four consecutive games. Manning's play made it easy to forget about the defending champions who were in the middle of their own winning streak.

See what I'm getting at?

Monday morning - worse than usual

Avoid all forms of media today folks. It will only make you sick to your stomach.

Don Banks is hilarious today. "He'd never admit it in a thousand NFL Sundays, but for more than a few years now Tom Brady has chafed at the only slight he feels he's endured throughout his illustrious eight-year career." Brady hasn't had the numbers to make the Pro Bowl let alone have an MVP, until now. Now we have to start lying about how good Brady was in the past?

More crap on ESPN radio. Ron Jaworski was on there praising the Patriots. Fine. They deserve it. But the first thing out of his mouth is about their run game. He loves how they are so balanced and can run between the tackles. What? They averaged less than 3 yards per carry, and until garbage time it was much worse than that.

To make matters worse (or better depending on who you are) the Hoosiers are under fire again. Kravitz is calling for Sampson's head. I have a hard time getting too worked up about recruiting violations involving a dozen phone calls. I'm sorry, I just do. Also, I feel like the Knight-lovers just look for opportunities to whine "Knight was many things, but never a cheater!" Besides, IU did the right thing. They came down hard on Sampson. He said he would make compliance his first priority. He didn't, and now he looks like a liar. That's punishment enough. He is now one slip up away from the unemployment line.

Deshawn Zombie comments: Here's one to really piss you off. The editor of NFL.com has basically said it's foolish to think the Colts can beat the Pats. Yikes.

Also, the Jags have already been thinking about this week's game.

A quick comment on Dusty...

I wanted to weigh in the Reds hiring Dusty. Other than Homer Bailey realizing that his career will be over in another two seasons (see Prior, Mark and Wood, Kerry), this is probably the right hire. I said before the hiring another JV manager just because the team responded to a guy getting fired was the wrong course. Dusty took the Giants to the series (a rare feat indeed), and if it wasn't for Cubs fans not understanding the rules of baseball, he would have had the Cubs there too. He is also a three time Manager of the Year. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, his team melted down at the end of the season a few years back, but then again, it is the Cubs, so everyone was sort of expecting it. I'm not thrilled like I would be if they had waited out the Yankees and offered the job to Joe Torre or Joe Girardi, but this is a whole lot better than the last THREE managers have been. Remember, this is a team that has employed both Bob Boone and Ray Knight as managers in the last 15 years.

Dusty ain't that bad at all.

I'm out of it for a little while...

anyone care to finish one of my favorite quotes? Anyway, this is a quick to post to say that as we travel down to Florida, and subsequently enjoy some family time before the showdown in J-holeville, I won't be posting much (maybe just ONCE a day!). Anyway, I'll leave you with this semi-bizarre article that 18to88 reader John came up with. It's from the Boston Globe, so remember that as you puke your way through the Brady passages. This is an example of why everyone hates the Patriots. New Englanders can make a compliment sound like a slap in the face.

By the way, the rest of that quote refers to the NE Pats who sealed the deal as the 2004 Colts with their shootout at Dallas today. It's hilarious how a team with no run game and no ability to stop the run is supposed to win in January in the cold. Geeze, maybe they should lose on Nov 4 on purpose. They don't have a cold weather team, and it'll be hi-freaking-larious when it comes crashing down. I can't wait.

Phil B. also has a great quote from Dungy on his blog about the timeout before a FG thing. Very good reasoning, Tony. I really wish that Bill Cowher had tried this tactic against Vandy. siiiiiigh

Cruelest month AKA Hell Tour 2007

The Colts were in great shape heading into the bye. However, after being forced to watch blow-outs by New England and Jacksonville it is easy to get the feeling that the AFC elite has gained ground on the Colts in a matter of hours.

We'll soon know where Indy stands in the conference. The next four weeks will help decide the Colts' playoff seeding.

@ Jacksonville (4-1)

@ Carolina (4-2)

New England (6-0)

@ San Diego (3-3)

That's correct. The Colts play three out of four on the road against teams who combine for a 17-6 record. The weak link, San Diego, is suddenly a team on a mission, led by the league's MVP. 5-0 could quickly turn into 6-3 if the Colts don't bring it next week in Jacksonville.

Finally, does anyone think it is a little strange that the Colts follow up a Monday night road game with ANOTHER road game against a team who is coming off a bye week? INSANE. I'm usually not a "They're out to get us" guy, but I'm with Bill Polian on this one. The Schedule Makers are nuts.

Deshawn Zombie Comments: The Colts have exactly ONE team left on their schedule with a losing record. Welcome to the N F freakin L. Every week is tough. Come January, this team will be well tested and ready to play. It's all going to be ok. . .

Bye Week Observations

• Houston vs. Jacksonville is playing out as expected. The difference in the game is a surprisingly gutsy move by Del Rio. After the Jags take a narrow 7-6 lead late in the first half, they try a successful on sides kick. A field goal results.


• Vince Young has a fumble and a pick, but Dan Dierdorf is still raving about his play. Luckily for Jeff Fisher the Bucs have had no success against the vastly underrated Titans Defense.


• Jacksonville and Tennessee are making a strong push for both wild card spots in the AFC. As I type this Vince Young pulls a hammy while running out of bounds. Kerry Collins comes in the game. Garcia puts Tampa up 7 points with a 70 yard score to Galloway.


• This would be a costly loss for Houston. They would fall to 3-3 in a tough division. They have struggled since losing Andre Johnson in Week 2.


• Let the hype begin. 4-1 Jacksonville hosts the 5-0 Colts in a battle for first place. David Gerrard is having an effective, but unspectacular year under center. That's all the Jags need out of him. The Jaguars are back to running the ball and defending the run. Boring.


• Kerry Collins enters for Tennessee. He is winging the ball all over the field. Maybe the Titan receivers don't suck after all. He is playing better than Jeff Fisher could have hoped for. He throws for 100+ yards and gives the Titans a chance to tie the game with 2 minutes to play. Ronde Barber has an interception overturned by replay for the second time in the half. Lendale White's touchdown run caps a 13 play drive to tie the game at 10 with one minute to play.


• The Jags love throw to their backs. On back to back plays Maurice Jones Drew and Greg Jones make grabs for a combined 52 yards. This really ends any chance Houston had of mounting a comeback. The Jags pour it on for a blow out win.


• Jeff Garcia leads an impressive field goal drive to win the game, 13-10. The Colts will play next Monday night for a two game lead over the entire division.


• The bad news: Jacksonville is in a groove. Get ready for the "375 yards rushing" crap from the media. This is a more important game than the New England battle next month. This is a potential watershed moment in the AFC South. Lose and Colts are no longer the undisputed kings of the South. They need a win to restore the natural order of things.


• The good news: if the Colts can pull out a win they send the Jags off on a three game road trip.


• I propose a new statistical category. A "suck" is when you have a pick or fumble run back for a score. Tom Brady has tallied one suck this game. Philip Rivers just had one too. Dallas is very much in the game despite SEVEN first half penalties.


• Dallas has imploded with four more costly penalties in the third quarter. A pass interference gives the Pats first and goal. An offensive holding penalty destroys the following drive for Dallas. A roughing the passer penalty sets up a Patriots field goal. On the next drive an illegal shift kills a big gain to Owens. Later, on the first play of the fourth quarter a holding penalty kills a huge fourth down conversion. I've never seen anything like it.
  
• Incomplete pass to Moss in the end zone. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms should be censured as a result their poor work in this game. They have no idea what they are looking at on their replay screen.


• New England comes away with the victory, but there are some chinks in their armor. Their D gave up a generous 7 yards per rush. On offense they averaged only 2.5 yards per carry. Not a good formula come playoff time. Dallas played well on offense, but 12 penalties for 98 yards was too much to overcome.

950 86ed?

1.) WIBC announced early this week that it would switch its current content (news & talk) over to 93.1 FM (currently the horrible RadioNow). It will at least temporarily be known as WIBC FM.

2.) 1070 AM will now become a sports talk station with ESPN's content as its anchor programming.

3.) I was listening to JMV on 1260 WNDE on Friday and he discussed 1070's big shake up. He said he is surprised that ESPN is pulling the rug out from under Greg Rakestraw and the boys at 950. He was complementary of his chief competitor, but said he has no idea what this means for the future.

4.) As far as I can tell, ESPN 950 has yet to change its name or its programming. So that leaves us with some big question marks.

950 does a solid job. It has a far weaker radio signal than 1260, but it makes up for it with original programming and a focus on high school and college sports in Central Indiana. I'm not the biggest fan of ESPN's national weekday content. Mike and Mike are annoying. Cowherd basically admits he doesn't know that much about the NFL. Mike Tirico is classy, but boring. That said, I still listen every day when I'm driving around at work. It would be difficult to create ad revenue without these shows. That leaves me with doubts about the future of the station.

If anyone can shed any light about this situation hit us up at 18to88@gmail.com. I'm interested in finding out what the heck is going on.

Kind of like Sophie's Choice

Did I say I wouldn't write about Bill Simmons for the rest of the year? Sorry. But I have to bring up his latest bird cage lining effort. Read it and say it with me: No one gives a crap about Boston sports. The Celtics made a desparate PR move. The Pats are about to go 3 years in a row without a title, lamely forcing the media to say "they've won 3 out of the last 7 titles." The Red Sox, on the other hand, should win it all this year.

Thus, BS's column forces even proud Cleveland-haters like us to rethink everything we took for granted. We could never under any circumstances root for the Indians, right? Well, DZ will probably still root for the Red Sox in the ALCS. He really hates Cleveland. I do too, but buy me a LBJ jersey and direct me to the dawg pound because I'm rooting for the Tribe this week. It was a tough decision, but Bill Simmons made it a lot easier. Besides, we all know C-town will blow it in the Fall Classic.

Vince Young Files Vol 3

I think we were all a little amused at VY just winning this past Sunday. His team managed to survive his horrible 3 pick performance, and moved to 3-1. Check out the newest installment of our ever popular (at least with us) Vince Young files to find out whether or not he actually helps the Titans win. Hint: He doesn't.

Roughin the Passer.

A real horse collar tackle here. 15 yards and an automatic...oh wait, wrong sport.

Sick of the Comcast ads

I gotta tell you, I don't really care who wins the pissing match between the Big 10 network and Comcast, but Comcast's latest commercials are driving me nuts. Stop telling me how many games you are showing 'for free'. First off, they aren't free if I pay for cable. Secondly, it's demeaning to say, "you don't really need those IU games, because we are playing all the NFL Playoffs!". I'm not saying that they should cave to the Big 10, I'm just saying they shouldn't treat us like idiots. They accuse the Big 10 Network of being misleading, but so are they. Those commercials make it sound like they are doing us a favor by playing so many games, and how dare anyone not be grateful to them for serving us so faithfully. Plus, the voice of the guy doing the commercials is condescending. I hate being talked down to, and really hope Comcast takes it in the shorts with people switching to DirectTV, for no other reason than they are annoying.

Demond Sanders: This has been bothering me for months. Of course, they are pulling this stunt right in the middle of the only Hoosier football season worth watching in 20 years. They have until the start of the basketball season to get it settled or I'm switching to DirectTV. I already have one good reason to switch: NFL Sunday Ticket. If they give me two good reasons it's over.

I hate Comcast's moronic commercials, too. Listen to how they word it, "We already show the best of these games." They are referring to the best of college football in general, but in context they make it sound like the B10 Network is re-airing games Comcast already shows. Jerks.

When is a vacation not a vacation?

On Tuesday I'm taking my first week off work since March 2004. For the record, that's an astonishing 1,290 straight days without a vacation. So where do I choose to go when I want a week of peace and quiet? Jacksonville, of course. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with these fine citizens:


Nice call, Deshawn Zombie.

Bye Week Blahs

It's Thursday, and instead of trying to keep my eyes in the backfield, I relegated to pounding out another edition of the Vince Young Files. Siiiiigh. Here's stuff I'm finding around the web today...

Mike Sando throws out a couple of lists about who are the toughest players to game plan around. Dwight Freeney, Harrison and Wayne show up on the list, but the unquestioned #1 is #18. I agree with one footballoutsider reader who thinks that Manning and Brady shouldn't be on this list. You can't keep the ball out of their hands. If you force the Colts to run, have you really controlled Manning? I think that Randy Moss is the toughest guy to game plan against, because of the whole freakish height thing. I don't think you can really do anything about a QB, unless you station a linebacker between him and the center. Although that would conceivably lead to a lot of offside calls.

There's a nice article in the Dallas Morning News about spiraling QB ratings. It also has some cool Colts related stuff in it, along with kind words for AG.

CHFF says the Colts are the number one offense because of a janky point differential system. Didn't FO just say this two days ago using complex stats that analyze every play? Oh well, it's good to be first, I guess.

I wondered if this might not happen: Whitlock is banging the drum for local legend Jeff George. I go back and forth on Whitlock, but his undying devotion to his boy Jeff George is endearing to me.

Clark Judge loves Dallas Clark. Geeze who doesn't? The man is a beast.

ESPN 950s Greg Rakestraw was on Jeremy Green's podcast today. Greg is good. JG is not. Ever.

Reader Stan also threw us this terrific interview of Tony Dungy in the Minnesota paper.

Go Play

18 Plays is up for this week. As always, you can download it here. Or go to ITunes to subscribe. We won't be doing a podcast next week simply because there won't be a game and we'll be on the road to Florida, so stock up 18to88 while you can.

More good stuff from readers

Alert 18to88 reader Stan writes:

don't know if you saw this last month.

"If Leinart slips, he'll have running back Edgerrin James in at least one ofhis ears.James played seven years in Indianapolis with Peyton Manning, who is maniacal in his preparation, and James isn't shy about sharing stories of Manning's work ethic with Leinart."I want to ride all the way to the top with him," James said. "I won't let him breathe or give him a chance to slack off. I'll be in his ear constantly, regardless of how he takes it. I really don't care how somebody takes something."This is what we got to have. I've been around the best quarterback in the game, and if you want to be the best you have to do what the best do. And there's only one person on this team who knows what the best quarterback has been doing. I was there for seven years and I know everything, and Matt's going to know everything."

Stan was also responsible for the Minnesota article and these great quotes from the Bucs about #18. Thanks man. Very nice work.
Wow, that's awesome. Just one more reason everyone around Indy will always love and feel good about the Edge. I really appreciate all you sending in cool articles from around the country. Keep it up! We've gotten some good stuff from everywhere this week!

Guess who has the best offense in football?

Yeah, you got it. The Horse rolls on in this week's Footballoutsiders.com DVOA ratings. The Colts sit at #2 over all, and #1 in offense (10 on D). Again, it's amazing to me that there even exists a Manning/Brady debate. Brady has had unquestionably the five greatest games of his career right? He has been on fire for five weeks. And guess what? He still can't pass Manning in DPAR and Manning is still running a more efficient offense. And this is a normal season for #18. One guy's absolutely insane, Randy Moss induced best is not as good as another guy's typical season. Hmmmm.

Also there is a nice photo of Dungy/Manning after the Tampa Miracle on SI. Tony's got this look on his face like, "Are you kidding me? This guy is amazing."

Demond Sanders: Don't forget that Manning has now played 6 quarters of football (30% of the current season) without his #1 receiver.

For those that care...

here is a fascinating article about the US Women's Soccer team and the controversy surrounding their ignominious exit from the World Cup. I know what you're thinking: "Seriously, women's soccer? If I read this article, a giant can of beer might fall on my head". That is undeniably true, but here's some reasons that you should read it anyway:

1. It involves a chick with the coolest name ever. Hope Solo? Are you kidding me? She might be the daughter of Han and Leia. That's pretty freaking sweet. If women's soccer had more players named Solo, Skywalker, Organa, or Palpatine I might give a rip about it.

2. It involves the humiliation of a team that was sort of over hyped by the media (I'm looking at you ESPN).

3. It shows some of the problems with thinking that women's soccer will ever be a serious sport in this country.

4. The actually controversy was pretty cool. A player openly mocking her coach for one of the worst decisions in the history of sports is compelling. Then, they had the temerity to suspend her for the final game. ARE YOU SERIOUS? She was just saying what everyone else was thinking. Seriously, if anyone actually cared about women's soccer, this decision has to be up there with Grady Little not yanking Pedro or Travis Best deciding he was going to take the last shot against the Lakers in game 4 of the 2000 finals.

Run 3 Times!

You heard it here first: I reversed field and began rooting for the Dallas Cowboys tonight late in the fourth quarter. That doesn't happen often. Usually I know who I'm rooting for and why, but the Buffalo Bills deserved to lose tonight. That was terrible clock management. With 6:21 to play the Bills had a 3rd and 8 down in the red zone. Instead of running the ball, using clock, and kicking a field goal Buffalo decides young Trent Edwards should drop back and try to make a play. Instead of an eleven point lead it's an interception. Amazingly Dallas bails them out with a fifth Romo pick.

With 3:50 seconds left in the game the Bills are up 8 points with the football. Its third and long and they have the opportunity to run 40-odds seconds off the clock by running Marshawn Lynch up the middle for no gain. Instead they pass. Incomplete. Clock stops. Dallas is left with an eternity and they use every second of it, scoring twice to win the game.

Coach Dungy says most NFL games are lost and not won. The Bills proved this tonight. NFL coaches are extremely busy, but they would do themselves a favor by reading Greg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback once in a while. Sometimes all you need to do is run the ball three times into the line and everything will be okay.

Unfortunately this leaves Dallas in a bad spot. They are coming off an emotional win on a short week of rest. Their reward? The New England Patriots. Sounds like trouble to me. Then again the Pats are a part of the AFC East. Which is just. . . wow. . . horrible.

Stay classy, Mike Vrabel

The Cleveland Browns O-line is mad at Mike Vrabel of the Patriots for diving at Joe Thomas' knees in the waning seconds of the contest. I could not find a video of the alleged cheap shot on YouTube, so here's a random clip of Tom Brady embarrassing himself at camp. Enjoy.