The Triumphant Return/ Monday Mix-Up

Hello faithful reader... er I mean readers. Yeah, that's it, readers (all 3 of you)! After a long, well deserved vacation I return during the peak time of the sports year to fill your heads with opinions and thoughts from my swollen brain and destroyed Ego.

Let's Start from the beginning,

Last Monday I was exposed to quite possibly the worst 30 seconds of my life as a sports fan. After a weekend of watching my Yankees give a young, inexperienced team loads of confidence in Game one of the ALDS and having flashbacks of the previous two seasons I went into Monday with my only thoughts being how excited I was to get drunk and watch MNF. I won't lie and tell you I thought my beloved Bills had a shot, no, i'm a realist. I went in thinking I am gonna get so hammered and just enjoy the atmosphere. Then, 3 minutes in we take the lead and begin defensive domination of a highly overrated NFL team in a piss poor conference. Then it began to fall apart and at around 12:15 est I was informed that my Yankees had succumb to the Indians. not even a minute later Nick Folk's second field goal from 53 yds split the uprights and I sank into my seat until I was informed I had to leave the stadium by security. That is the most I will ever speak of this game. Also, I'm not gonna waste my breath on the QB situation. I'm going to enjoy my bye week.

Big Choke Season Rankings
Just a few thoughts on the first BCS rankings of the season and the thoughts floating around the internet.
1. Ohio State - I used to be a big OSU fan, that was during there upset over miami and the andy katzenmoyer days (aka. my youthful ignorance). however, i will discuss their deserving the number 1 spot. Ohio State has played 7 games. 2 of those seven were against teams in Non-BCS conferences ranked in the bottom 20 and a 1-AA school. That's almost 50% of their schedule against poor competition, some of which were close games. The other games were against a young, but up and coming Washington team and two mediocre big 10 teams. I know i'm from the north and shouldn't hate on the big ten but honestly, the SEC is the dominant conference in football. Bitch and complain about having no undefeated team, but when you play South Carolina, LSU, and Florida in back to back to back weeks then you talk trash. That's one hell of a stretch. With a conference that large, teams are forced to play more conference games than anyone in the big ten and have less opportunities to schedule powder puff teams. I've heard everyone talk about how Kentucky sucks and all this, but think about it reasonably, they were once considered the worse team in the SEC West and now are in the Top of the class with other big name SEC Teams. That is an incredible feat and shows the depth of the conference and all of the bandwagon Big Ten fans should choke on their greasy food. As a result, OSU has benefited. Give the AD credit, he realized he had a young QB and a Young team and scheduled a softer non-conference schedule. Gone are the days of OSU v. Texas in week two, and what a smart decision that is. I give credit where credit is due and scheduling those games during two years of a team that was peaking was brilliant and realizing your young team needed warm-up games to build confidence and subsequently scheduling Akron, Kent St, and Youngstown state was a good choice. Now with all the premier teams weeding each other out due to insanely difficult schedules along with the help of a brave bunch of 4.0 students at Stanford, OSU is sitting pretty. The only question is for how long.

2. University of Southern Florida -
What is there not to love about this team. I mean say what you will, and I know DG2 is not a big believer in how things are (He's an OSU fan), but I am in love with this team from Tampa Florida. I may be biased since one of my best friends goes to USF along with two of my cousins being alumni. Or perhaps it's because of the week i spent down their last new years eve surrounded by booze and hot cheerleaders at a USF thumping of Wake Forest in Hoops. But either way I have been telling everyone this year all along that USF was gonna do big things. I stated at the beginning of the season that of the Big 3 in the Big East (Rutgers, WVU, Louisville) USF would take down 2 of them. Well 7 weeks in and they've toppled one, a #5 ranked WVU, whom they dominated. Throw in a Upset of then #12 Auburn, who went on to beat #3 Florida along with other wins by an average of 20 pts in a BCS conference and you have the makings of a solid cinderella story. Again as a realist I won't sugar coat it, yes i had big expectations but even yesterday I was saying #2 in the AP was awesome, the benefit of being cinderella but didn't think a BCS #2 would happen. When it did i called my buddy right away and confirmed my seat firmly on the bandwagon by purchasing a USF #8 Jersey. Then I purchased tickets to the USF game up in Cuse. But not to get ahead of my self, but with a win Thursday in NJ against a solid Rutgers team, USF can make a statement. Then with the rest of the season filled with solid competition from an upstart Big East along with weaker schedules in the Big Ten and the heat of it all in the SEC and Pac-10 USF could solidify a spot down the stretch and perhaps an unheard of run at the Nat'l Championship and a weeks vacation in Arizona for me and that friend. Now that's a cinderella story!


Lost Letters I stumbled across
Dear Lawrence Maroney,
Hope all is well and that you are healing up nicely in New England. Watching is not the same without you on the field producing. I hope you get well very soon and look forward to seeing you on the field again getting lots of touches.
Sincerely,
Peyton Manning (and my touchdown Record)


Dear Mike Martz,
Hey, long time no talk. How's things going? Things here are just ok, I'm having a tough time living up to all the expectations that I have. This offensive coordinator thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I miss you, hope to hear from you soon and maybe if things don't work out there in Detroit you can come move to Buffalo with me and help me out at work.
Love always,
Steve Fairchild

ps. Thanks for making me look so good in St. Louis


Dear AD (all day)
Nice work up there in Chicago the other day. But remember, anything you can do I can do better.
Sincerely,
LT

Dear Eli Manning,
Please throw for 400 yds and 5 touchdowns spread out like this.
Ward - 100 and 1 Touchdowns (plus 100 on the ground and 1 TD)
Burress - 200 and 2 TDs
Shockey - 100 and 0 TD
Amani Tommer - 0 and 0

Sincerely,
DG1's fantasy team
(down 70 pts with manning and ward and the giants D vs. Amani Toomer)


alright, that is all for the monday morning mix-up here from my 40h/wk job.

Till Next Time,
DG1