Week 10 picks: Thursday games begin

By Jeff

Why are there Thursday games in the NFL? They suck. They're on the NFL Network, they conflict with my Thursday night television schedule (Watch Community!) and they are unfair for the teams that have to play them. The league is asking players to only have three days between games. The same league that says it's concerned about player safety. Let the hypocrisy that is the NFL continue.

Speaking of continuing frightening trends, I went a stellar 4-8-1 last week. That puts me at 53-71-5 at the halfway point for the season. If I were a head coach, I would have been fired three weeks ago. The big miss last week was New England covering the spread against Cleveland. In my defense, who saw that disaster of a game coming? With a quarterback matchup of Tom Brady vs. Colt McCoy, it seemed obvious who the victor would be. One more reason never to support or trust the Patriots. Belichick probably had money on the game under the alias Lucifer Beelzebub.

Week 10's picks are below and the home teams are in caps. By the way, I was too busy making fun of Jets fans to actually put in the line last week. I was picking them to cover and they didn't. Double fail.

ATLANTA (PK) over Baltimore: This should be a fun game. You have a lot of young talent on the Falcons offense and a lot of old talent on the Ravens defense. You'd think that would be an advantage for the Falcons, but that old defense of Baltimore is playing tough. They aren't getting a ton of turnovers, but opposing teams aren't getting a lot of points. Unless they're the Buffalo Bills. What?

Maybe he isn't getting targets
because he's missing the huddles.

INDIANAPOLIS (-7) over Cincinnati: Anyone else see Chad Ochocinco crying Monday Night? It's probably because he has more reality shows (3) than touchdowns this season (2). Burn!

Houston (+1.5) over JACKSONVILLE: It's weird seeing the Jags favored in any game. I don't care if it's at home against a struggling Texans team. And this is why my picks are atrocious this season. Instead of looking closely at each game, breaking down film and analyzing trends, I look at the players on each side and say there is no way David Garrard passing to Mike Sims-Walker and company should beat the Matt Schaub-Andre Johnson combo. Nevermind Garrard is coming off a great performance and Houston's secondary sucks. That stuff doesn't phase me.

Tennessee (-2) over MIAMI: Chad Pennington is back baby! That means Miami won't attempt a pass over 15 yards. Looking back at the numbers Kyle Orton is putting up in Denver, Brandon Marshall is probably banging his head off a wall somewhere. Or stealing footballs from children and punting them. And to be fair to Marshall, I can't honestly say I've never been tempted to do that.

Minnesota (PK) over CHICAGO: Old and busted Brett Favre vs. Younger, not nearly as good Favre. I'm taking old and busted Favre. Both coaches are probably going to be canned at the end of this year, so that adds a little more urgency to the game. Deep down, you know Chilly and Lovie are just trying to outlast the other one. They might already be trying to line up defensive coordinator positions for next season.

Not the reaction the Lions were expecting
when they told Stanton he was starting.

Detroit (+3) over BUFFALO: OK, the Lions are probably going to be starting Drew Stanton at quarterback, and no one should ever place money on Drew Stanton. But I just don't like having an 0-8 team favored to win. Plus, all it takes is heaving the ball up really high and letting Calvin Johnson go and get it. Is that really so hard?

New York Jets (-3) over CLEVELAND: This game better not be on TV. Seriously, don't even think about it, CBS!

TAMPA BAY (-6.5) over Carolina: Tony Pike might be starting this game for the Panthers. Tony Pike. All Steve Smith fantasy owners thought Matt Moore was bad. Tony Pike. That name only strikes fear into the hearts of Pitt fans. Low blow?

Kansas City (PK) over DENVER: Clock is ticking on Josh McDaniel's job. Not even Tim Tebow could save this man's job. But then again, I think Tebow is a false prophet. I could just see Daniel Day Lewis forcing him to admit as much. If you didn't see "There Will Be Blood", you saved two hours of your life, but didn't get this reference. Take the good with the bad.

St. Louis (+6) over San Francisco: The Sam Bradford Rams have yet to win a game on the road. The 49ers have won two games in a row. So why am I picking the Rams? Because I told people Troy Smith and the Ohio State Buckeyes were going to crush Florida in the National Championship game a few years back. I tend to hold grudges for long periods of time against those who have wronged me. Just ask any of my ex-girlfriends.

He's about as exciting as the
Cowboys this season.

ARIZONA (-3) over Seattle: Ugh.

NEW YORK GIANTS (-13.5) over Dallas: Is anyone on the Cowboys trying anymore? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah, that line was funny 20 years ago when the Cowboys were consistently good. Burn No. 2!

PITTSBURGH (-4.5) over New England: Homer pick. The Patriots are coming off an embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns. They are going to be up for this game. Then again, the Patriots haven't played a quarterback of Ben Roethlisberger's caliber this year. No, Brett Favre, Mark Sanchez and Joe Flacco are not at Roethlisberger's level. They don't extend a play like he does. I expect him to exploit the Patriots secondary.

Philadelphia (-3) over WASHINGTON: Michael Vick vs. Donovan McNabb Part II. OK, the first showdown wasn't very exciting. Vick got hurt early and McNabb played poorly. It didn't come close to living up to the hype. Now, McNabb has Rex Grossman lurking in the background and ready to take over the 2-minute drill. How can the Eagles take this game seriously when there is a possible Grossman sighting?

The Clash - Garageland

NFL midseason awards

By Jeff

Not a big fan of midseason awards, but I'm feeling kind of lazy today. You can only take so much from eight games of the season. Just look at the Denver Broncos last year. They were 6-2 after eight games and Josh McDaniels was looking like Coach of the Year. Since then, he's won like four games and is looking like a good candidate to be fired at season's end.

So here we go!

MVP: Peyton Manning

Arguments could be made for Phillip Rivers and Tom Brady. Rivers is the only thing keeping the San Diego Chargers in contention, while Brady is showing that Randy Moss was expendable to the New England Patriots. But neither has played at the level of Manning this season. He has passed for more than 250 yards in all but one game this season, and he had 244 in that one game. His teammates are dropping like flies, yet he will probably still lead them to another AFC South title.

Offensive Player of the Year: Arian Foster

OK, he probably won't win it, but Foster has been amazing this year. He's leading the league in rushing and has picked up the slack for the struggling Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson. Unfortunately for Foster, it looks like the Houston Texans are going to miss the playoffs again. If they do make the playoffs, he has to be considered a dark horse for MVP, even though he is not a quarterback.

Defensive Player of the Year: Lawrence Timmons

Go ahead, call it a homer pick. But if you have watched any Steelers game this year you know he is playing out of his mind. He has 78 tackles, two interceptions, three sacks and six forced fumbles. What isn't in the stats, is that he seems to be in multiple places at one time. So many of his tackles have come when it looks like the ball carrier is about to break a big play. He played a big role in the Steelers getting off to a 3-1 start without Ben Roethlisberger.

Comeback Player of the Year: Michael Vick

This is strictly as a player. I'm sick of people saying what a great redemption story Vick is. It's a great football story. He went from jail, to back up, to playing some of the best football of his career. But I don't think a person's achievements can redeem them for killing dogs by drowning, electrocution and hanging. If he were to open or make large donations to no kill animal shelters, then I would call that redemption. Until then, this is just a good sports comeback.

NFC Rookie of the Year: Sam Bradford

I didn't expect him to play as well as he has. The St. Louis Rams are already 4-4 this season, which is more wins than the team had in the past two seasons combined. Even if they lose out the rest of their games, he has been better than advertised.

AFC Rookie of the Year: Maurkice Pouncey

He probably won't win, but he has been the most consistent lineman the Steelers this year. While the team lost it's starting tackles and has had both guards miss time this year, Pouncey has started every game at center and done an incredible job. Not as easy task, yet he has made it look easy.

Coach of the Year: Bill Belichick

I hate him so much. I refuse to say anything nice about him, but he will win. I'm done.


CCR - Looking Out My Back Door

Phillips fired, more to come

By Jeff

Unless you don't pay attention to sports, or football at least, you know that the Dallas Cowboys canned Wade Phillips as their coach this week. Phillips led (Not sure we can use that word) the Cowboys to a 1-7 record and won just one playoff game in four years. Which is one more than the team had in the past decade combined. Reports said that Phillips was a players' coach, meaning he took it easy on his team and didn't preach discipline. It's probably why the Cowboys have none this season.

Yes, he's that cool.

So with Phillips gone, how secure are the rest of the league's coaches?

Fort Knox: These coaches can go to bed each night and know for sure they will have their job when they wake up. It would take a sex crime or an eight-game losing streak to finish the season for there to even be a chance they don't return to their teams next year.

Mike Tomlin, Bill Belichick, Jim Caldwell, Mike Smith, Sean Payton, Rex Ryan, Jeff Fisher and John Harbaugh

Bank Vault: Not quite as secure as the inhabitants of Fort Knox, but pretty close. They would need to screw up big time for the rest of the season to not return next year.Or they coach the New York Giants and they are evaluated every week. Some of these coaches got in the vault by taking some pretty terrible teams and already matching or passing last year's win totals.

He'll drop a level with another loss.

Tom Coughlin, Steve Spagnuolo, Tony Sparano, Ken Whisenhunt, Raheem Morris, Mike Shanahan, Andy Reid and Todd Haley

House safe behind ugly painting: The coaches here are doing OK, but are not as secure as they first appear. Basically, their teams have overachieved and they could finish the second of the half season with lots of losses. It could be because they punched out an assistant, they are a college coach pretending to be an NFL coach, a team executive wants to return to coaching or their job depends on if they make the playoffs or not.

Lovie Smith, Mike McCarthy, Tom Cable, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak and Eric Mangini

I actually pictured him landing at Wendy's.

Bike Lock: The only thing stopping you from stealing the bike is you're not sure you want to take the five minutes to do it. No one would complain if these coaches were fired, but they might keep their job because the organization realizes the team couldn't win with anyone. They might also keep their job because the team's general manager is known as "The Lord of No Rings."

Jim Scwartz, Jack Del Rio and Norv Turner

Leaving the keys in the car in a bad part of town: Kiss them goodbye, these guys are gone. Their players hate them, they make poor decisions on a daily basis or they badly underachieved. It could also be all of the above.

Marvin Lewis, Mike Singletary, Brad Childress, Josh McDaniels, Chan Gailey and John Fox (Not really fired, just not renewed).


Big Country - Heart and Soul

Pittsburgh's best pizza tour: Harry's Pizza

By Jeff

The funny thing about this week's pizza tour stop is I never really considered going to Harry's Pizza in McMurray before. First, my friends and I love Jersey Mike's, and it's in the same shopping center as Harry's Pizza. So when we go out that way, it's usually for subs, not pizza. This prevented us from ever experiencing the wings place or hot dog stand across from Pizzaz over the years. Both places have since closed and it is now a Cash-4-Gold site. I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. It could be worse. It could be a Donut Connection that is really a front for illegal gambling. Oh wait. It already was that.

No hair. Just deliciousness.

Second, who wants to eat at place with Harry in the name. Yeah, the spelling is different, but it still makes you think they put hair in the pizza. Thankfully, they didn't.

Well, upon doing searches for good pizza places in Pittsburgh, Harry's came up frequently. As a result, Swan and I made a visit there last weekend. This was the first stop on the tour where we got the pizza to go. The place was packed and we didn't feel like waiting for an hour.

Before I get to the taste, I will point out that Harry's was the most expensive pie on our tour so far. A large pepperoni pizza came out to $17 and change. It's a pretty decent size, but is still on the pricey side.

The cheese had some extra seasoning sprinkled on top. It was green and added a nice flavor. Don't ask me the specific spices in the mixture. I couldn't tell you. Because we got it to go, the cheese was already in that more solid stage, which didn't take away from the taste at all.

Usually I am a sauce guy. It's typically my favorite part and makes me come back for more. With that being said, the cheese was the best part of the pizza and it stood out the most. Not that the sauce was bad. It complimented the cheese well, it just wasn't anything special.

The crust was very good (for crusts, at least). It was thin, so you know I was digging it. The best part was it had a nice crunch to it without being burned at all. That's the key to a good crust. If you burn the crust, it takes away the flavor from the rest of the pizza, and who prefers the taste of burning when eating pizza?

Once again, the pepperoni's were small, but delicious. Small pepperoni's are awesome. They create little bowls of grease. It's beautiful!

Overall, Harry's did not disappoint and ranks right up there with Giovanni's and Campiti's. I'll give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Weezer - Getchoo (Rare Live Studio Session)

This may be tasteless, but...

By Jeff

... This has to be what's going through Carson Palmer's mind every time he plays the Steelers.

Palmer has never been the same.

Tonight should be a fun one for the Steelers, or this post is going to come back and bite me in the ass. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

Foo Fighters - Breakout

Motivation to get through Monday

By Jeff

Mondays suck. If you're like me, it's a struggle to get through them. Well here's a little motivation to help you. If this speech doesn't send shivers down your spine and want you to go kick some ass, you have no soul. I didn't just make that up. It's actually been proven by scientists at CERN.



Kenny Loggins - Nobody's Fool

Mad props to Columbus Crew fans

By Jeff

This blog has always been a supporter of soccer. Having played my entire life, very few things frustrate me as much as people hating on the sport. Critics call it as sissy sport and constantly trash it for being boring. I get that people have their own opinions, but it's hard for me to understand how individuals can say soccer is boring, when there is constant motion. Baseball has players standing around doing nothing the majority of the game, and football has 25 to 40 seconds of idleness between plays. I'm not making fun of football and baseball, just pointing out that there is a lot of downtime during games.

There was no yellow smoke when I was there,
but it was still intense.

I attended a Columbus Crew (MLS) playoff game this weekend with Joe and Swan. It was great. The stadium wasn't sold out, despite it being a playoff game, but the hardcore fan section helped make it one of the best crowds I have ever been a part of. There was constant cheering and standing. In fact, there were signs throughout the section saying that cheering, standing, singing and playing instruments were encouraged. And when I say instruments, I mean about five drums, not lame cowbells.

Was it as intimidating as seeing a sea of Terrible Towels flying at Heinz Field? No. But there also wasn't anyone telling anyone else to sit down. At the last Steelers game I attended (Season opener against Tennessee last year), there were several lame fans who asked me and my friends to sit down so they could see the big screen. Then there was also this crazy woman who went crying to the usher every time the two young men in front of her stood. Thankfully, those guys were not forced to sit. Anyway, there was no chance anyone at the Crew game was telling someone else to sit down, which is exactly how it should be. You want excited fans getting into the game, not people who fall asleep (Another thing I've seen at Steelers game).

Now, there were so stupid fans at the Crew game that were spouting off profanities non-stop and clearly had no idea what they were talking about. It was really annoying, but the didn't ruin the game.

That trip took up all Saturday, but there are still some other stories from the weekend.

• I don't think the two goals Marc-Andre Fleury let in Saturday night were terrible. He didn't have much of a chance on either of them. But why was he starting the game after starting Friday night? He shouldn't have been in the game in the first place.

• I hope Pens fans realize how lucky they are to have Sidney Crosby. Not just the success he brings to the team, but the overall level of play he brings. Saturday night was a perfect example. I caught the encore, and Sid seemed to be everywhere. If only the team can get Evgeni Malkin going.

Someone told TK his stick
was made of black licorice.

• I still don't think very much of Tyler Kennedy, but he had a great road trip. The effort from TK is never lacking, just production.

• Good to see Mark Letestu score the game-winning goal in Saturday's shootout. He hadn't had a point since October 18.

• I'm thinking Utah was not worthy of their Top 5 ranking, hence TCU destroying them 47-7. Not quite as close as Mike predicted, but a win is a win! 

• If I were a Penn State fan, I would be excited for Joe Paterno and win No. 400. While I am not excited, you can't deny the significance of the achievement. Also, I wish I had the power to tell my employers to get the hell out of my house if they tried to fire me. Bad ass.

• Remember that whole Jenn Sterger/Brett Favre drama? That sure disappeared quickly.

Woooo! We needed a late comeback
 to beat the Cardinals!

• Speaking of Favre, should the Minnesota Vikings really be that excited that they came back to beat the Arizona Cardinals at home Sunday? As I said earlier, a win is a win, but a near loss to Derek Anderson isn't something I would brag about or view a possible season salvation.

• The Miami Dolphins were on in Pittsburgh again this weekend. They are really boring to watch.

• Detroit Lions players and fans should never make fun of kickers again. The Lions upset the New York Jets Sunday if Jason Hanson doesn't get hurt and Ndamukong Suh misses the extra point.

• Matthew Stafford is hurt again. Detroit can't catch a break, can they?

• The Pittsburgh Pirates have narrowed their managerial search to Clint Hurdle and Jeff Bannister. One hold a career record of 534-625 and the other has never managed before. Despite Hurdle's run to the World Series in 2007, I can't say I'm excited for either to take the reins.

• The Walking Dead is my new favorite show on television. Who doesn't love an hour of zombies every week? 

Pretty sure this was before the
Cowboys hit the 1-7 mark.

• Blog contributor Mike Z. would be the first person to die in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Fact.

• Usually I don't bring up specific fantasy football matchups. No one really cares. But I annihilated RJ this week and he is contemplating retirement. Mostly because my team in that league is really bad.

• The Dallas Cowboys have lost their past two games by a combined score of 80-24. Awesome.

• Steelers play the Cincinnati Bengals tonight on Monday Night Football. Check back for a live blog of the game. Just kidding. 

Led Zeppelin - Tangerine