What We Learned From Week Six of the 2013 NFL Season

by J-Dub and Meehan

Yet another week has passed in the sportsgasm that is the NFL season, and that means it is time for us to tell you some things you need to know without the self-serving spin those assbags at ESPN will never give you. We know this because if you think you can get real football information from guys like Mike Greemberg and Mike Golic, you probably also don’t know that Alfred Kinsey, author of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948), had a collection of 5 million wasps and could insert a toothbrush into his penis, bristle-end first.

You know that bit of knowledge just changed your life. Now, here’s some football facts that will do the same.

1) Your Official Dr. Kelly Brackett NFL Death Watch:

We started this bit last week, and it’s already time to mail out some death certificates.

New York Giants:

• Cause of Death: Chronic Turnover Syndrome
• Autopsy Report:  After eight interceptions in the fourth quarters of the first six games, Eli Manning is once again reduced to being the one in the family who’s going through a rough stretch.  This has caused Eli and the Giants to let their injuries absolutely destroy their chances of being successful.  The 2012-2013 New York Giants season has become the longest tip drill in history.

Jacksonville Jaguars:

• Cause of Death:  Self-inflicted gunshot wound to genital area
• Autopsy Report:  Even when it appeared that they were hanging with a good team, the Jaguars proved that they have no real firepower, except when it comes to shooting themselves.

Atlanta Falcons:

• Cause of Death:  Burst rectum from repeated anal rape with a sharp object
• Autopsy Report: The Falcons training center is starting to look like Jonestown 15 minutes after they made the Kool-Aid.  With the popularity of companies using temp services to provide labor for their short-term needs combined with the fact the Falcons are blowing out their knees putting on their shoes, the Atlanta Falcons medical staff now employs 15% of the U.S. population.

Oakland Raiders:

• Cause of Death: Hit by a semi loaded with flaming double-edged razor blades
• Autopsy Report: The fact that their two “best” receivers are Denarius Moore and Rod Streater means the offense ranks 27th in passing.  That translates to  gets you 7 fucking points a game if they are lucky.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

• Cause Of Death: Acute Schiano-itis
• Autopsy Report: Forget about the fact this team has more problems with MRSA than John Holmes had with AIDS.  Do we really need to do an autopsy on a team that has gone 0-3 at home and probably couldn’t beat the Jaguars right now.

Pittsburgh Steelers:

• Cause of Death: Old Age
• Autopsy Report:  Most likely available on the entire server Drunkathlete.com has allocated to Ben Roethlisberger. Sure, that’s not new stuff, but losing means all your foibles get rehashed by bloggers who do little more than eat Hot Pockets and masturbate to pictures of Linda Cohn. This death is even stranger from a franchise that both has no sense of urgency and usually doesn’t put up with this kind of shit.

2) Teams that Dropped to the Critical List:

Houston Texans:

We know, we know…There’s still ten games left in the season, and a lot can happen in that time, but let’s not kid anybody here.  This team is one re-run of Grey’s Anatomy away from a dirt nap.  There is no conceivable way that the Houston Texans play past December.  Really, getting the Rams at home should have been a fucking gift; instead, the Texans turned it into the Christmas tree that burns the house down.  Not only did the Texans lick more taint than Andy Dick in a Turkish bath house, they did so in a stadium and in front of a crowd meant to scare the shit out of opposing teams.   The  Texans looked uninspired, uncaring, and unworthy of January football.  Right now, we are calling the Texans will not make playoffs; you have to remember that it only took us both six weeks to bail on the team we had in the Super Bowl from the AFC. The only question really left in Houston is this the year finally the one which ends with the “Koob” getting fired.

Minnesota Vikings:

The horror that is the Vikings’ season really could be all 856 of those Friday the 13th movies. Just when you think it’s over, just when the sheriff shows up at the lakeside cabin and empties his 12-gauge through the face mask of the slasher, the killer pops back up, rips the sheriff’s face off and the horror continues. Put hockey masks on whichever heap the Vikings are trotting out as a quarterback and the concept becomes as clear as used Neutrogena.

Not only was getting slam-fucked by the Panthers the worst showing of this ghastly Vikings’ season so far, but let’s talk about the really scary question we won’t dare mention. Suffice it to say that we know Christian Ponder was not the answer. Matt Cassel is not the answer, and if anybody thinks Josh Freeman is the answer, this unmentionable question will keep coming back to life like the horror movie slasher.

There’s actually a simple reason for this.  Instead of putting the slasher through a wood-chipper and setting the bits on fire, the Vikings continually think they can solve the problem by giving the killer a shaving nick, then going back into the cabin to the naked, horny teen-agers who get machetes through their eyeballs. Josh Freeman is just another in a long line of shaving nicks that have finally bled the Vikings out.

3) Week Six proved to be the Bye Week for Offenses

Just look at all the teams who had offensive performances like watching a blind seal work a Rubik’s Cube…

Houston Texans: The progression from Matt Schaub to T.J. Yates is like going from HIV to full-blown AIDS (Yes, that’s the second AIDS joke we’ve made. Go dig up Ryan White and cry to him if you don’t like it).

Oakland Raiders: To make our “blind seal” analogy work for the Raiders, the seal is not only blind, but is wearing boxing gloves and it’s flipper’s are loaded with pharmacuetical-grade cocaine.

Minnesota Vikings: Time for this week’s “Fun with Homophones” moment.  The Vikings are describing their offensive situation as being “week to week,” largely because that’s really what their quarterback situation is all about. But, it really could also be called “weak to weak.”

Tennessee Titans: One of several teams with exactly zero offensive touchdowns.  Their only touchdown came from the Seahawks’ decision to have a “Garo Yepremien” moment.  Only touchdown was a result of a single play that was botched from the get go.

Pittsburgh Steelers: See above, with the difference being Pittsburgh’s only touchdown came from a play that came off the chalkboard broken. Sure, the Steelers won, but beating the Geno Smith-led Jets is really just getting a ribbon at the Special Olympics.  Honestly, the only time the Steelers looked good in the air was on a single play where the Jets’ coverage was worse than CNN’s quadrennial election special.  What we’re saying is even Wolf Blitzer could play man coverage against the Steelers and he wouldn’t even need to change his Fruit of the Looms. 

New York Jets: Geno Smith is just a fetal Josh Freeman. Next…

Washington Redskins: We said this last week, and we’ll say it again. The “read-option” concept without the threat of a running game is about as dangerous as a girl scout with rubber numchucks.  A while ago, J-Dub did a piece chronicling the connection between the Washington Redskins and Andre the Giant.  If the Redskins don’t figure out their lack of offensive prowess soon, Robert Griffin III might start looking more like Andre Ware. 

4) Joe Flacco Is Being Reduced to $120 million Plankton

Everybody is just eating Joe Flacco up, especially large marine filter-feeders. The man who rolled through the play-offs last year like an apex-predator shark has now been reduced to microscopic plankton the the seas of the NFL. sure, he showed a flash of the Flacco of old yesterday with that two-touchdown comeback in the 4th quarter quarter against the Packers, but the fact he and the Ravens came up short has been a microcosm of the Baltimore season, especially since Flacco started doing those god-awful McDonald’s commercials.

The Ravens offense, led by Flacco, has been as impotent as Wilford Brimley chuffing anti-Viagra; we all saw it Sunday against the Clay Matthews-less Packers.  Baltimore didn’t get a first rushing first down until the end of the third quarter, and they still should have won this game because the defense was handing out more knee damage than the baseball-bat scene at the end of Casino.  The failings of the Ravens so far this season is all about Flacco.

5) The whole “Tom Brady/Peyton Manning” conversation is ridiculous, because Brady can win when it matters.

As a “big game” quarterback, Tom Brady is now, and will always be better than Peyton Manning.  Sunday was just the latest example why. And Sunday we saw exactly why. When 98% of guys who’ve started at quarterback in the NFL  since the mid-1980s would have hung their head and declared the moment a loss, especially after that bizarre Bill Belichick 4th-down call that should have lost the game for  New England, and after the Patriots’ most experienced wide receiver got hurt, Brady gutted up and led the shell of the Patriots’ on a game-winning drive over a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the New Orleans Saints.

Meanwhile, Peyton Manning went out and stumbled through an ugly win against an even uglier team in Jacksonville. It was obvious during large stretches during that Bronco-Jaguar game that Manning was mailing this one in, particularly when he gift-wrapped that pick-six to Jacksonville linebacker Paul Pozlusny. While we could, we won’t bore you with yet another rundown of Peyton Manning’s “big-game” failures. Instead, let’s just look at the moments of truth we saw on Sunday.

Peyton Manning looked pretty mediocre against a team of NFL rejects, all while he has an offense stocked with weapons suited to his liking; meanwhile Brady has an offense made from a slightly-better class of NFL rejects whom are 5-1 largely for no other fucking reason than Tom Brady. But the biggest moment came in the 4th quarter in New England, when not only did Brady pull out the most-improbable of victories, he did so after throwing one of the most hair-brained and confusing picks you’ll ever see leave his fingertips.  Brady is headed to the Hall of Fame based on his ability to be a big man in big situations, even if his team has done a wonderful job of failing him in the past few years.

Now, having said that, it is important to point out the Patriots may easily be the worst 5-1 team we’ve ever seen, and we sure as shit understand there are a ton of haters out who want to jump all over the Patriots, and to many of you, we have this to say…

6) There are far too many Patriots’ fans who are stupid Yuppie fuckwads who prematurely bailed on this team.

Gillette Stadium in the 4th quarter.

What happened yesterday in Gillette Stadium proves what J-Dub said about a lot of Patriot fans a long time ago.  The fact the tens of thousands of “Patriots Fans” heard Brady’s comeback drive on their car radios is an absolute fucking disgrace.  The “wine and cheese” crowd in Foxboro decided “beating traffic” was more important that hanging around for the outcome of a game that could prove pivotal in New England’s entire season.  Yeah, we get they may be the worst 5-1 team ever, but the fact remains they are still 5-1.  Considering the fact the Patriots were within a score of winning against a Super Bowl contender, and that the Broncos are going to lose eventually means many so-called “Patriot Fans” bailed on a moment which looks to have HUGE play-off implications.

Despite that, they turned their back on a guy that has led them to three Super Bowls; a guy who got the ball back two separate times with a solid chance to win after the “fans” headed for the parking lot.  All you had to do was wait for the obligatory “crowd” shots during that game to see that least half the “crowd” left in the middle of the 4th quarter.  People like this make us here at SBM want to force feed them their own methane gas.

The “I want to beat traffic” people are all useless pieces of shit who shouldn’t even be at sporting events in the first fucking place.  They should all be at home looking up what Cat Stevens changed his name to after he converted to Islam. These are the same assholes who wanted to get out of that parking lot because despite their “hardcore big city mentality” there is a hole in their soul that would widen substantially if somebody were to scratch their Prius. Worse yet, their Dave Matthews Band CD might skip and they might spill some Samuel Adams “Autumn Northeastern Liberal Prick” all over their cargo shorts.

These people are not real fans. These people couldn’t name position players, they’re there because their cousin (who follows the remaining members of Grateful Dead around the country) got tickets. They figured since the dank from Vermont wasn’t coming in until later that night, they might as well go a football game because it would increase the number of times they said “Hell yeah, dude” without getting punched in the throat.

What We Learned From Week Four of the 2013 NFL Season

by J-Dub and Meehan

Yet another week has passed in the sportsgasm that is the NFL season, and that means it is time for us to tell you some things you need to know without the self-serving spin those assbags at ESPN will never give you. We know this because if you think you can get real football information from guys like Chris Mortenson and Adam Schefter, you probably also don’t know that every menu item at Denny’s is 40% Soylent Green.

Mmmmmmmmm…Denny’s!

1) The reports of the demise of the San Francisco 49ers might have been a bit premature.

For the entire week leading up to Thursday night, all we heard about was how Colin Kaepernick is not really a good quarterback and how the 49er defense can’t stop anybody with out Aldon Smith.  Yeah, about that…funny, but somehow we stopped hearing that shit come Friday morning.

Clearly, they didn’t need Aldon Smith to beat the sorry-ass Rams, and it’s even more clearly a good thing that Smith’s liver is getting a little “me” time anyway.

As far as the offense was concerned, the lesson learned here was that Colin Kaepernick is not the entire 49er offense. Anquan Boldin rolled through the Ram secondary like a Vicodin through Amy Winehouse, but the real difference was Kaepernick’s ability to rely on Frank Gore, who racked up a rushing average of 7.65 yards per carry.  See, the dirty little secret nobody who keeps talking about “read-option quarterbacks” wants to admit is is that the entire “read-option” concept only works when there’s a running back that keeps defenses worried about the threat of the run. Russell Wilson has Marshawn Lynch, Michael Vick has LeSean McCoy, and Colin Kaepernick has Frank Gore.

SBM Exclusive Feature: Sports Doppelgangers, Volume 17

Not only does he look like television’s most famous mono-syllabic butler, he is every bit as charismatic. He may be a world champion (and soon to be a very, VERY rich one at that) but the dude is so painfully boring his own father calls him dull.

And according to NFL films he is also apparently one of the dumbest creatures on God’s green earth.

(Read the rest here..)

Super Bowl XLVII Prediction: Potato Chips

As in who cares? Its the Ravens and 49ers. Its two brothers staring at each other, each trying to look more puzzled and confused than the other. It’s listening to two insufferable fan bases who know more about crabs and oysters than football. I’m fairly certain I speak for most of the NFL when I say: Nobody gives a shit, now go make me some crab cakes.

For me the NFL season ended two weeks ago. Even the alternative to this match-up would have been annoying. Matt Ryan and Tom Brady are two of the more fake, pre-programmed Ken dolls the NFL PR department has churned out in decades. Had the Falcons advanced we would have had to listen to the vomit-inducing nickname “Matty Ice” a few million times. (And by the way, that nick name sounds like the stage name for the world’s first openly gay rapper, not an NFL quarterback.) If Brady had advanced the term “passing the torch” would be uttered more often than the coverage of the Olympics. The sale of hand lotion and Kleenex in the Bristol, CT are would have skyrocketed, so nobody is more disappointed with SB XLVII than the folks at Lubriderm.

Read the rest here.

The Definitive Dubsism/Sports Blog Movement Super Bowl Preview

Now that we are down to a head-to-head match-up, there are three categories to analyze.

1) What Vegas Thinks

Anybody who loves to bet knows professional gamblers pay attention to five key statistics:

To continue reading, click here…

SUPER BOWL WEEK IS HERE AT LAST, BUT SOMETHING DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT‏

Super Bowl Media Day was CRAZY…

by Ryan Meehan

Super Bowl week is here, and as NFL fans we are all looking forward to the biggest game of the year and all that goes along with it.  This year seems like it’s a little bit different, and there’s no one reason why the Super Bowl seems less appealing than it has been in recent seasons.  Instead, I believe that it is a set of assorted factors that I would like to discuss individually so we can take a look at why we don’t feel as excited as we usually do. 

SBM Exclusive Feature: Sports Doppelgangers, Volume 14 – The Super Bowl Edition

Today’s installment features players from the two teams who will meet in Super Bowl XLVII.

The Baltimore Ravens:

1) Offensive Guard Jah Reid and Redfoo from LMFAO.

2) Quarterback Joe Flacco and this guy from the video game “Assassin’s Creed.”

We have more on the Ravens as they did have their own edition in this series.

The San Francisco 49ers:

1) Offensive Tackle Alex Boone and Bam Margera from MTV’s “Jackass.”

2) Offensive Tackle Joe Staley and cartoon villain Snidely Whiplash.

3) Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and internet meme Justin Tsimbidis.

SBM Exclusive Feature: Sports Doppelgangers, Volume 1A – The Baltimore Ravens Edition

100% of the credit for these sports look-alikes goes to fellow Sports Blog Movement member Patrick Young who offered these in the comments section of the inaugural post in this series. The problem was they were way too good to leave buried in a comment thread.

With that, here are three hilarious Baltimore Raven Doppelgangers:

1) Center Matt Birk and “The Simpsons” Schwarzenegger rip-off Rainier Wolfcastle

2) Quarterback Joe Flacco and “Sesame Street’s” gay curmudgeon Bert – don’t even try to tell me Bert and Ernie didn’t push those twin beds together when the cameras weren’t rolling

3) Professional Injury Victim Terrelle Suggs and “Fat Albert” flunkie Mushmouth

One Play Doesn’t Make A Game

(Kyle Williams picture courtesy of http://www.newsday.com)

The New York Giants and the New England Patriots are in the Super Bowl again against each other. The last time they were facing off in the Super Bowl, the Giants knocked off the Patriots in 2007. But instead of the attention being on these teams and their Super Bowl rematch, the attention has been focused on three select plays that supposedly won their conference championship games.

In the AFC Championship game, the Baltimore Ravens were playing their hearts out. They even went as far as to hold Patriots quarterback Tom Brady without a touchdown pass(22/36, 239 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs), which was a shocking feat. Sure, Flacco threw an interception, but for the most part, he didn’t play too bad(22/36, 306 yards, 2 TDs). But the burning image in everyone’s minds from this game was the kick heard round the Northeast. Snap, set and kick. All-Pro kicker Billy Cundiff sails a potential game-tying kick to the left and the Ravens come up short. Now many will say he was the goat, but we need to look at a few things here. The Ravens are a physical football team and their best and most important weapon on their offense is running back Ray Rice. Rice had a great season(291 attempts, 1364 yards, 12 TDs), but when it counted most, he wasn’t able to provide that consistent running threat that the Ravens usually have(21 carries, 67 yards). This means one thing: the offensive line was not getting it done up front. When the Ravens are getting it done up front, they are getting to the next level of the defense(linebackers), providing Ray Rice running lanes. Another thing that you will want to look at is that wide receiver Lee Evans missed a touchdown catch as well. He got stripped by Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore on what most thought was a for-sure TD catch. Moore simply had the drive to make the play more than Evans.

In the NFC Championship game, the Giants made their big field goals when they needed them. But the fielding of a couple kicks seems to have caught the public’s eye. San Francisco wide receiver/return man Kyle Williams was subbing for the injured Ted Ginn, Jr. as the punt returner. He let one kick brush off his leg and the Giants got that fumble and turned it into a 17-14 lead on the strength of a Manning to Manningham touchdown throw. Then he was returning a punt in overtime and he was stripped and the Giants recovered that one as well. The Giants took that fumble and turned it into a game-winning field goal. People began to bombard Kyle Williams’ Twitter account with death threats. But what I want these people to take a look at is the amount of third downs the 49ers converted: 1. Yes that’s right. They only converted 1 third down into a first down. The struggles of the San Fran offense and the inability of their defense to contain Cruz in the first half are all reasons that the team lost.

My point in displaying all this information is simple: one play doesn’t cost a team a game. A missed block here, a missed read on a coverage, and a missed tackle contribute just as much to a loss as a missed field goal and a muffed punt do. So before people blame the loss on one play, look at the whole picture, not just the fragments of a loss.

-Mike Patton