Lions Dominate

A few quick thoughts:

-The Lions D-line is like a hockey team. They rotate every 2 or 3 plays. Lawrence Jackson and Willie Young were just as good as Avril and KVB, if not better. It was incredible to watch DEs with fresh legs on just about every play. Nick Fairley is faster than I thought. Corey Williams continues to play great. And Suh is the catalyst, the leader, and the superstar. That D-line seriously is the best in the NFL, because it legitimately goes 8 guys deep and they all play. Never seen anything like that before.

-Granted, the Bears offensive line is AWFUL, and Jay Cutler might be the worst QB in the league. He could have 5 All Pro linemen and he'd still find a way to get sacked.

-Hey Jahvid Best, good to see you again. It appears your speed is not completely gone after all. What a wonderful surprise. Hope to see you next week.

-The better Calvin plays, the more Chris Carter looks like an idiot. It's not even close anymore. The only question is whether Calvin will break the single-season record for TDs. You know he's got a 3 score game coming up soon.

-Chris Houston is the most underappreciated player on Detroit's 5-0 team. He is playing some shutdown defense in single-coverage. He does not look like the same guy from 2010.

-The commentators from Monday Night are worse than bad. Jon Gruden is abysmal. I've always known he was verbally challenged, but sitting through an entire game, listening to his mundane prattle after every single play, was sheer pain. Tirico and Jaworski were lousy too, but Gruden repeatedly stole the show, providing bogus analysis on nearly every play, calling guys by the wrong name, saying Eric Wright was Detroit's best coverage guy, saying that Titus Young has been a go-to guy on third down, saying that Jahvid Best had a great season last year. He clearly makes things up as he goes. Which is fine. Lots of crappy commentators have done that and they can get away with it because they are former players or coaches. But it's not just what he says, it's how he says it. Like crappy poetry. Like monotonous reading from a 3rd-grade level book. Like an ex-football coach trying to turn obvious observations into some kind of profound wisdom.

Example:

"Now here's a guy, Brandon Pettigrew, who is not a short guy. He stands 6 foot 8 or something in that range. That's a guy who, with his size, has plenty of value in the National Football League. I'll tell ya, Matt Stafford likes havin a guy like that on his team. Brandon Pettigrew. Tight end for the Detroit Lions."

-Detroit is home for the next two games, San Fran and Atlanta. The Niners are 4-1 and would be 5-0 if not for the famous Punctured Lung Comeback. They are playing inspired and Alex Smith has 7 TDs and only 1 INT. His transformation into a mistake-free game-manager under Jim Harbaugh has been surprising to say the least. Let's hope Detroit's defensive line can rupture that rhythm.

-I went 7-5-1 (7-6 straight up) on the picks, to improve just a little bit to 35-38-4 on the season, and a still solid 50-27 straight up.

-Lost the Fantasy A League, falling to 1-4. My fourth straight loss, all by 6 points or less, all incured on Monday nights. I will go chew on steel wool to console myself. Won the B league easily and lost the Cornerstone league because Bowe and BenJarvus combined for 51 against me. Went 7-2 in the other leagues. The Morgan Masterpiece is now 5-0 after a thrilling 167-166 victory over "in da club."

In other news ...

-Tigers lost in the 11th on a stupid grand slam. Down 0-2 in the series, Fister pitching tonight, the next 3 are at home. I'm expecting to win 2 of 3. We have to win tonight to ensure at least one more game for JV. If Fister wins tonight and Justin wins game 5 (which he will), that means we just need a heck of a game from Porcello tomorrow and we might head back to Texas up 3-2. I'm not giving up hope yet.

-NBA is locked out for at least 2 weeks. That's a nice way of saying there won't be a season at all. What a smame. With all the young talented 'good-guy' superstars in the league ... Durant, Rose, Griffin, Howard, Paul, Wall ... this is the worst thing that could have happened to the NBA. Not to mention the Kobe/Dirk/Duncan/Nash/Garnett crowd who are losing one of the last seasons of their careers. The lockout is a positive thing from only two standpoints:

-People who cheer for teams with no chance in the near future, like the Pistons.
-People who want to see LeBron go his entire career with no titles.

As a member of both groups, I'm strangely comfortable with the lockout. I'll miss fantasy basketball more than real basketball. Man, the Pistons must really suck for me to say that.

-Somebody threw a hot dog at Tiger Woods last week.

-Steve Jobs died and millions of people found out on Apple products.

-A month from today is 11/11/11. I'm rooting for that to be my daughter's day of birth.



Go Lions.