Monday, October 20, 2008

Weekend Review


WHO WAS AWESOME

1. Matt Garza. And David Price. And BJ Upton. And Evan Longoria. And Willy Aybar. And all the Rays. Awesome bounce back from that crushing loss in game five to come back and win in seven to head to the series to lose to the Phillies. How insanely good was Garza? And Price, shutting the door in the 8th and 9th, despite not even being a relief pitcher and not even being in the majors until September? This team is loaded, and this will most definitely not be their last playoff appearance. Delmon Young better get his shit together.

2. Gopher Football. Congrats to the Gophers on getting themselves ranked in the top 25 (#25 to be exact) and 24th in the BCS rankings. Certainly a great step up from last season, no doubt. With the schedule they have remaining they have a chance to end up going 11-1, it shouldn’t be expected, but it is within the realm of possibility. Would that be enough to get to a BCS bowl? A lot would have to happen with the teams above them, but I don’t think it’s out of the question. In any case, they should end up at a top tier bowl, probably against an SEC team where they’ll get crushed, but it wouldn’t be an embarrassment to anyone. This season has already exceeded most people’s wildest expectations for this team. I’d love to make a smartass comment here, but I just can’t. I’m pretty happy over here.

3. Tennessee Titans. Now 6-0 and basically making it look easy. Yes, I said they wouldn’t be very good this year, but that was with Vince Young at quarterback. Once you get Kerry Collins involved, all bets are off. He’s nothing special, but he does a pretty good job of taking care of the ball and keeping them in the game (exactly what Young doesn't do) so that top shelf defense and solid running game can beat down a team. Chris Johnson looks very AP-like so far and can break one at any time, and FatDale just keeps running into people and falling down until they get so tired and worn out from having 300 pounds bouncing into them over and over again they can barely stand. Note: his 80 yard TD run doesn’t mean he’s good, it just means Kansas City is really THAT bad.

4. Texas Longhorns. Damn dude, those are a couple of very impressive back-to-back wins by the Longhorns, following up last week’s win against Oklahoma with a 56-31 stomping of #11 Missouri in a game that wasn’t even that close. Texas QB Colt McCoy has jumped to the lead of the Heisman race, going 29-32 for 337 yards and 2 TDs (with 2 more rushing). Read that again. 29 for 32. Those are video game numbers. Texas still has a ways to go, with games against Texas Tech, Kansas, and Oklahoma State still to go, but they’ve certainly staked their claim as the best team in college football.

5. Mewelde Moore. I've written before that Mewelde is better than Reggie Bush, and once again I've been proven correct. The Steelers have finally given him the chance to be a feature back he deserves thanks to a few injuries and he's rewarded them big time. Yesterday he rushed 20 times for 120 yards and 2 TDs with another touchdown receiving. Reggie Bush? 9 carries for 55 yards and no touchdowns, and is so bad at scoring TDs that they gave the ball to some white guy named Mike Karney to score their one yard TD. "But what about receiving?" you say. "He's so valuable in the passing game" you say. Really? 1 catch for 5 yards. Mewelde had five catches. And a TD. The previous week, Mewelde went 17 carries for 99 yards, while bush was 14 carries for 27 yards. Case closed.


WHO SUCKED

1. BYU. Yes, this happened on Thursday but whatever, it still counts and it helps strengthen my belief in the DWG Jinx, since I highlighted BYU and their easy road to a BCS Bowl a couple of weeks ago. Of course, they went out on Thursday and got beat by TCU, and got beat badly at that, 32-7 ending their something like one hundred game winning streak. Cougars QB Max Hall threw two picks and was sacked seven times (sacked only once previously this season) as BYU rushed for a total of 23 yards while giving up 410 total yards to the Horned Frogs. Yeah, that’ll do it.

2. Football in the state of Michigan. Wow, where to begin? The Lions didn’t bother to show up until the second half, falling behind 21-0 to the Texans before making a game of it and losing in the end 28-21. They are on an almost inevitable course towards 0-16, and I see no possible way to break it – except maybe against the Vikings in week 14. The Spartans have a great opportunity to show they are a quality team going up against the Buckeyes, and lay a complete egg, getting rolled 45-7, taking their season from “potentially special” to “who the hell cares.” And the Wolverines, whose entire program is basically in the crapper right now, have a huge chance to score a quality upset win against Penn State after going up 17-7 in the second quarter. Then Penn State scored the next 39 POINTS to end up winning 46-17, not only getting a victory but covering a spread that looked completely safe with two minutes remaining in the second quarter. Good thing they at least have the Pistons. And Red Wings I guess. I think they’re good.

3. Minnesota Vikings. Good lord, what the hell was that? One of the worst offensive teams ever (outside of AP of course) manages to somehow miraculously score 41 points and they lose? I know their special teams is brutal, so it’s not surprising they gave away some free points, but what about the defense? I thought this year’s version of the Vikings’ defense was supposed to be a cross between the 86 Bears and the 2000 Ravens? It sure didn’t bother the Bears and Neck Beard, who threw for 286 and two TDs. To be honest, it felt like a whole lot more than that. There was never a point where the Vikings defense looked like they even had a prayer of stopping the Bears. At least they have a bye coming up next week to try to figure out what the hell is wrong.

4. Dustin Pedroia’s nickname. I recently learned that Boston fans call him “Destroyah.” Like, if you were unfortunately born in Boston and have that retarded ingrained inability to enunciate, and you tried to say Destroyer instead of saying it like a normal human person you would say it so it rhymed with Pedroia. Horrible. Worst nickname since Steve Esselink started going by “Sunshine.”

5. Indiana Jones. Yeah, we rented that new movie about the Crystal Skulls and all. I gotta tell ya, I can’t believe they waited twenty years and THIS is the script they came up with. Brutal. Not so much the script, but the idea was brutal. The really frustrating thing is that it felt like an Indiana Jones movie. The action, the archaeology, the music, everything was like Indiana never left, except for the god damn retarded faggy plot. I think what happened was Lucas and Spielberg got some guy and said, “You make this movie for us but here is your plot and you can’t deviate and here are some plot points that go with it that you have to hit.” And that guy took the crap they gave him and did a phenomenal job. But it’s still crap. Although that fictional guy who I made up just there deserves an oscar or emmy or whichever one goes for movies.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

WWWWWW, You missed a couple items from the weekend. What was good. Me going 7-1 with Billy's money on college football games saturday night. Billy can now retire thanks to me. And the Gophers sweeping St. Cloud State in hockey. Mike Carman scored 2 goals and you don't even mention him....nice fan, fag!

Who sucked. Moma dawgers hockey team dropping to 1-3 on the season and having some guy from Mankato State score a pure hat trick on short handed goals. I am sure she will recap it for us in her weekly blog.

Anonymous said...

Snake you are now added to the list of people that I am going to kill.
Just for that you get Burger King for lunch today. Dollar menu... Jerk


WWWW I will send my post to the DWG email so be prepared...there may be alot of crying involved.

Snake=Dead

Anonymous said...

For "who sucked" you also left out how Snake followed up his brilliant performance on Saturday with some stinker prop bets on Sunday.

Anonymous said...

Not sure if you guys have already heard this but Jeff Dubay was arrested this weekend for Meth.

That would explain his rapid weight loss, hyper activity and obnoxiousness.

Anonymous said...

Actually the chowds pronounce it Pedroi-r and destroyahhhhhhhh. F'in chowds, gotta love em, plus I herd dat der chowda was wicked awesome right now.

Anonymous said...

BTW, Jeff Dubay is a loser and if anyone is praying for him to recover from an addiction to meth that resulted from a need to keep weight off they should be shot. God I couldnt be more sick today listening to all the whining on KFAN and all the comments posted to the strib online. Also, am I misremembering or did someone here break the story that Dooobs was on leave earlier in the year for a rehab stint for meth?

Anonymous said...

He was on leave earlier this summer because he couldn't keep the cork in the bottle.

Also, he wasn't arrested for meth, he was arrested for Methamphetamine Precursor Drugs. Basically he had a trunk full of cold medicine. Looks like Dubay was also a cook!

Anonymous said...

Question - After Garza won the ALCS MVP award it appears at first glance that the Twins definitely got the short end of the stick after year one of the Garza/Young trade.

Garza is immerging as a top of the rotation starter and showed that he is also a big game pitcher by giving up 1 earned run in 14 innings against Boston.

The question is, do people think that the Twins are still better after the trade?

The Twins currently have 5 fairly young starters who all pitched effectively this year. How much of an impact would Garza of had on the Twins 2008 success?

On the flip side how would the Twins have faired without Delmon in the lineup this year? With Cuddyer out this year we would have been looking at an outfield of Gomez, Monroe, Span, Pridie or Kubel. This would have caused a hole at DH if Kubel would have been the regular left fielder. Possibly opening a spot for WWWWW's guy Bonds.

I would like to hear what the ubber nerds, WWWWW and Sidler, think about the trade after the first year. Would the Twins have been better off not making the trade? Would we have went after a DH like Bonds if we hadn't done the trade? Would the Twins be on day 2 of a major champagne hang over if they hadn't done this trade?

Anonymous said...

God Dawg,
Why dont you write a book about it.
Find something constructive to do with your life.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you can really compare what Garza has done in Tampa with what he might have done here. As we all know, he is a major head case (even sees a sports psychologist), and he had so many clashes with management here I don't know that he ever would have reached his full potential here. I recall an interview where he even ripped the Twins a bit for the approach they were taking with him and said how he was much happier this year. I think this is a classic case of a guy needing a change of scenery to be able to take the next step in his career.

Anonymous said...

I've written about the trade twice, both times voicing my concern about Delmon's potential:

http://downwithgoldy.blogspot.com/2007/11/meet-new-twins-including-2010-al-mvp.html

http://downwithgoldy.blogspot.com/2008/05/twinsrays-trade-25-of-season-later.html

Snacks' point about Garza probably not reaching his full potential here is a very valid one. The Twins don't do a good job of getting the most out of guys who don't fit the "Twins mold."

I don't think the Twins would have been that much better without the trade, but subbing Garza for Perkins and moving Perk to the 'pen would have helped. So would Bartlett's D up the middle.

Here's my opinion on Delmon--there is more evidence against him developing into a big-time power threat than there is for it. His .405 SLG is lower than 2007, which was lower than 2006, which was lower than 2005...

It doesn't help that his defense is brutal. If his brother is any indication, his athleticism might not stick around with age.

Anonymous said...

Potential aside, I was curious if the 2008 Twins were better off with Delmon's current skill set and contributions in left field. Or do people think that the 2008 Twins would have had more success with Garza in the rotation, Perkins in the bull pen and a free agent DH and terrible left field options of Kub's, Monroe or Pridie.

I don't think Garza has a legitimate beef with the Twins handling of his development. They told him that he can't get by just throwing fast balls. As evident by his post season success he had all of his pitches working, which is what the Twins were pushing for. The Twins also told him to get a grip on his emotions. He then went out and sought therapy with a psychologist. It sounds like he finally did what the Twins had been asking of him.

Anonymous said...

they wouldn't have been any better. I'm too lazy to look up Garza's season stats, but I'm not hearing his name come up in any cy young talk. Let's not forget just because of these great back to back playoff starts that he is wildly inconsistent and has tended to put up just as many 2.2 ip, 8 er games as he has gems.

Anonymous said...

Garza was inconsistent, but his stats after coming back from an early injury are significantly better than those before. But his K rate dropped vs. last year, and he had the benefit of a great defense behind him. That will help his numbers quite a bit.

That said, I'd much rather have him in the rotation than either Perkins or Blackburn.

And I don't think the Twins would have brought in a competent DH or LF if they hadn't traded for Delmon. There's no history of them doing a good job of finding someone to fill a hole like that. Jacque Jones or Shannon Stewart probably would have been the starting LF without Delmon around