Brice's Blog

With yesterday's news that Vikings wide reciever Troy Williamson had reached an agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars about a trade, the era of Vikings fans watching catchable passes fall to the ground after hitting recievers in hands has apparantly come to an end. After his pathetic display this past season, including 2 terrible drops in the season finale, this should come as a blessing to all Purple fans. I can only hope that a change of scenery can help reguvinate his young career. Maybe he can have a career as returner... then again, he needs to catch a ball there too. But you never know, stranger things have happened, like the Giants winning the Super Bowl for one. I don't know who will be signed or drafted by the team to replace Williamson, but all I know is he should be able to catch the ball better. Than again, Bryant McKinnie could probably catch better. After all, he seemed to handle the bouncer at the Miami night club pretty well. (OK cheap shot). While on the topic of McKinnie, expect him to sit out more than a couple games this upcoming season for his incident. If the Vikes don't suspend him, NFL commisioner Roger Goodell surely will crack his whip on him. I can't help but wonder if this isn't the beginning of the end for McKinnie as a Viking either. With Vikings owner Zygi Wilf cleaning house lately of all character-problem players, such as Dwight Smith, I can't see McKinnie lasting too much longer in purple. After all this isn't his first brush with the law, since he was one of the 4 prominemt players identified in the "sex boat" scandal. I look at this as a good and bad thing. McKinnie certainly is one of the top run blocking tackles in the game, and with Chad Hutchinson and Matt Birk at his side, the left side of the line is excellent. But pass blocking, McKInnie is possibly the laziest tackle I have ever seen play the game. He gets beat more times than any high-caliber tackle I have ever seen. Maybe it's time for a change at left tackle, maybe not. I guess that is up to Wilf to decide if McKinnie is worth the off-the-field trouble.

Posted by Brice Lehner at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. Meaning It's the last chance to watch actual football until the end of August since Arena football doesn't really count. We've had 2 weeks to prepare, everyone knows the storylines of the game so there's no need for me to reiterate them. Everyone knows about the potential for 19-0, spygate, bootgate, Plaxico's prediction, Randy's restraining order and all the rest. But know it comes down to the simple question. Who ya got? Pats or G-Men? New England opened up as 14-point favorites 2 weeks ago upon beating the Chargers for the AFC Championship, and that spread has not gotta much smaller since then. Is it just me or does that seem like a really wide margin considering the Giants almost beat the Pats a little over a month ago now?

But, whether it seems like it or not, unfortunately, I do agree with it. I'm picking the Patriots to win by a score of 38-23. Brady's focused, had 2 weeks to rest, and the Pats are as motivated as ever to finish this thing off. So for all those Giants fans hoping Boston will stop haunting your city just as they have for the past few years, keep hoping, because it's only going to get worse tomorrow. There will be no need for the Boston Globe to cancel the 19-0 books that are already being printed and no need for Patriots' owner Robert Kraft to cancel his trademark on the '19-0.' It's going to happen, whether you want it to or not. This team is too good, and the Giants really are outmatched here. This will also be the worst secondary New England will have faced in the playoffs, and Brady will not be repeating his dreadful performance of 2 weeks ago.

So there you have it. My chance to go 7-0 in predicting the final 3 playoff weeks of the season rests on the greatest team ever completely their unbeaten season. I like my chances.

My MVP pick for the game is... surprise, surprise, Tom Brady. Although, if Brady does not win it, look for Wes Welker, Kevin Faulk or Laurence Maroney to pick up that award.

Posted by Brice Lehner at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I might as well start in the AFC, with the Patriots/Chargers matchup. I'm picking the Pats here to win, fairly easily. I will take the Pats over the Chargers 27-14. With the Chargers beat up from their game against the Colts last weekend, I can't pick a Chargers team that got clobbered by New England earlier this season to go up to Foxboro without a healty Philip Rivers, LT & Antonio Gates. Turner is a great backup to LT, sure, but you can't tell me Billy Volek or a not-100% Philip Rivers is gonna go into New England and knock off Brady at home, where he has never lost in the playoffs. Moss also plays his best coming off of a controversy, I expect him and Brady to hook up for at least one score in the first quarter. Pats roll in this one.

Now to the NFC. Could the NFL ask for a better storyline for a Superbowl? The goliath Patriots going up against the huge underdog Packers, led by America's favorite quarterback Brett Favre. Talk about a ratings stranglehold for The League. Unfortunately, it never has a way of working out like that for the NFL. Just ask the Saints last year when they were supposed to go face the Colts. Or ask Peyton Manning all those years everyone wanted to see him in the big game, until he met someone named Tom Brady year after year. This year I'm seeing much of the same thing happening. Im picking the New York football Giants in an upset over the Packers. While Im sure some will accuse that of being a pick based on me hating Green Bay by birth rites, seeing as I am from Minnesota where it is state law to hate the Pack and everything related to our eastern neighbors, but this really is not the case. Let the record show I did pick the Packers to win the NFC Norht at the beginning of the season, and predicted a beatdown last week against Seattle. I just see the end of the line for the fairytale season this week. The Giants are hotter, almost unbeatable on the road, and have the style to knock Brett Favre around. The cold, frigid temps at game time favor the pounding style of the G-men more than the Packers. Ryan Grant should see more carries than normal, but it will still be on Brett Favre to carry the load. And with the Giants having the best pass rush the Pack has seen since, hmm, the Bears and Cowboys (both losses), Favre will see a full day of Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora. And the last time these two teams matched up, the outcome may have been a little misrepresented. The game was 14-13 Packers heading into the fourth, before Favre and Co. put up a TD to make it 21-13. Not neccessarily time to sing just yet, but when the ensuing kick return is fumbled by Bradshaw, the Packers but up another score to make it 28-13, and out-of-reach to the G-men. Giants out for revenge in this one, I'm taking New York to walk into the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field and upset the Packers 24-20.

Posted by Brice Lehner at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

All season I've heard people critizing the New England Patriots for the incident in week 1 of this season known as "spygate." Recently, Earl Campbell announced his feelings on the matter.

"I think if I was the commissioner, I would fire him," Campbell said. "And I'd also fix it so he couldn't coach in the NFL anymore. And those teams that played (and won three Super Bowls), I'd consider that a tie. The other teams would get a ring, too." He later went on to say that there should be an asterisk next to the Patriots 16-0 regular season record and the Super Bowl this season if they happen to complete the 19-0 season.

Let me just start by saying how much I like and respect Campbell as a player, but here I think he is so off-base with his comments that it's not really even funny.

To say that New England's three Super Bowls should be discredited is absurd. New England was caught, and penalized, THIS YEAR. Had they been caught six years ago doing this, I would maybe listen to an argument for this. But they weren't. You cannot just catch someone for something and punish their past because they MIGHT have done it in the past.

As far as this seasons 16-0 record being given an asterisk, that is even more absurd to me. First of all, I don't think there is anyone in the world that believes that Jets, who were the worst team in the division not named the Dolphins, would have beaten the Patriots if NE had not taped them. The Jets stink. They were never going to win that game, probably not even if Mangini was the one taping the Pats. Then, under the watchful eyes of the NFL the rest of the season, with Goodell looking on carefully to make sure NE isn't continuing that practice, guess what...THEY STILL WON. They have been 16-0 since the spygate game, including Saturday's victory over Jacksonville. Obviously the incident of taping an oppenent really didn't mean that much the Belichick and the Patriots success, considering not only have they won every game since the incident, they have thoroughly dominated half of those teams. many of those 16 victories were over before halftime. And the Pats won all the close games they were in too, such as Philiadelphia, Baltimore, NY Giants, Jacksonville, etc. Dominated a weak oppenent is one thing, but you can always tell the truly great teams by their ability to win the close games. If those tapes really meant the world to New England's success over the past decade, then why haven't they fallen off after getting that "advantage" taken away? Why are they playing EVEN BETTER, and never losing, since it happened? I'll tell you why. BECAUSE IT DIDN'T MATTER. That team is as good as they are because Brady is simply that good, because Belichick is simply that good, and their ownership and front office are simply that good at running the team and finding the right players. Having Randy Moss really isn't even an excuse any more. The Patriots beat the Jaguars, who were annoited as the team of destiny that was going to knock off the mighty Patriots, with Randy Moss having just ONE RECEPTION. Just one, and the Pats still won.

I have heard enough of this garbage saying the Pats deserve an asterisk, or to have the Super Bowl trophies taken away, or even the Belichick should be canned and banned from the NFL like he's Pete Rose. That is pure garbage and anyone who is thinking like that is insane.

Posted by Brice Lehner at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the first entry of my new blog. The blog will still be news, but now it will more focused on my opinions on the news rather than just the facts.

Now that the NFC Championship game is set and Eli Manning and the rest of the Giants are getting ready for their trip to Green Bay next weekend, I'm sure the focus of discussion this week will be on the team the Giants defeated to take that trip to Wisconsin. That team would be the Cowboys.

All week the only thing anyone heard about was Tony Romo's weekend getaway to Cabo with celebrity girlfriend Jessica Simpson. Romo was basically slammed by everyone in the media other than Katie Couric for his vacation with Simpson. And now that the game is over and Dallas lost, the first headline I read on Yahoo! tonight following the loss read something like "Another Romo mistake costs the Cowboys." The headline was in reference to Romo's interception in the end zone with under one minute to go in the fourth quarter.

I couldn't help but think how completely unfair that was. It seems as though the media was looking for any excuse to blame Romo's trip to Mexico for the loss. As someone who watched the game, it really didn't seem that Romo was very distracted by a few days off soaking up the Cabo sun. Romo played pretty well actually. Romo was not the reason the Cowboys lost this game. As Terrell Owens said after the game, "we lost as a team." Owens is 100% right here. You win as a team and you lose as a team. And give credit to Owens too. Owens publicly stood up for his quarterback when he knew Romo was being wronged. After being critized for throwing Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb under the bus, Owens has so far been a model teammate in Dallas, and continued to show it Sunday.

But no, if those who are looking to slam Tony Romo for the 'Boys loss, maybe you should pay a little more attention to the game and see what really lost the game. How about penalties? Dallas was flagged ELEVEN times in the game, while the Giants were penalized only three times. Or how about dropped passes? With around one minute to go in the third quarter, Romo scrambled around and put a very difficult through right on the money to Patrick Crayton. The only problem was, Crayton forget to actually catch the pass. I believe this was really the defining moment in the game. The play was on 3rd down, forcing Dallas to punt following the drop, and Crayton would not only have had the first down with the reception, but would have been able to run for about seven years with the open field he had in front of him. On the punt, Giants returner R.W. McQuarters returned the punt into Cowboys territory, resulting in a touchdown scoring drive capped off with Brandon Jacobs punching it in from the goalline and expressing his displeasure with the playclock in the back of the endzone.

Even the stat column was in favor of 'Big D'. The cowboys domintated the Giants running the football with Marion Barber III, who had over 100 yards in the first half. Dallas put up more total yardage offensively than the Giants, they had more time of possession than the Giants, they picked up more yards per carry than NY, they were more efficient on 3rd down than the G-Men, and they picked up more first downs than Eli and his crew.

So far all of those Romo-haters looking to throw him under the bus for Dallas's loss, shut up! Romo is not to blame, Jessica Simpson is not to blame, and his weekend getaway with Simpson is not the culprit. They just lost. And last time I checked, tight end Jason Witten was with Romo in Mexico, and nobody questioned his focus on the game. Witten also played well Sunday, just for the record.

Posted by Brice Lehner at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)