connoisseur series500

What's the peak in an undefeated season? Pats were playing their best ball midseason, but then other teams started playing their hearts out in order to stop them. Giants had a good deal of luck to win the Super Bowl game on the final drive. They had to survive a miracle non-interception, a miracle avoidance of a sack, and a miracle catch where the ball landed on the receivers midsection while he was flat on the ground. I blame the football gods for the Giants victory. The Giants victory was deemed from above. It didn't really indicate any particular Patriots shortcomings.

That was a great article on Wyeth. I've seen a few of his pictures in museums and have always liked his work. I'm also a fan of NC Wyeth, his father. I do see some technical similarities between the two.

Good point. Don't forget that Arizona defeated the Steelers last year @AZ. I remember watching the game. It was a tough big hitting game. This Super Bowl might be more interesting than we imagine. On paper, the Steelers should be big favorites, but Whisenhunt knows the Steelers very well.

Donovon McChoke is totally incapable of winning a big game. I don't think he ever will.

The In Between is worth keeping, Agg. Hopefully, you have another copy somewhere.

I'm really happy to hear this news. Keep on truckin' Bruce!

I think Baltimore will beat Pittsburgh. The Steelers are the better team, but I can't see them beating Baltimore three straight, even if Suggs can't play.

Pain in the rear for Patriot fans. These coaches haven't exactly had a terrific record after leaving the Pats. I'm kind of high on McDaniels though. The latest trend in the NFL is to go young with your coaches, and we've had several fine ones recently. I think of Jim Harbaugh, Ken Wisenhunt, Mike Tomlin, and the Dolphin's coach as good examples. Mangini is also young, but he sucks!

Playoff Pool results: Nojjy 6-2 SS1 5-3 JH Deeley 4-4 Vajjy 4-4 TD 3-5 Agg 3-5

Interesting article from ProFootball talk. I'm convinced that the Patriots finished only 11-5 this season and missed the playoffs owing to a record 15+ players placed on injury reserve and others who were not on IR but were too injured to play. NO EXCUSES FOR INJURIES Posted by Mike Florio on January 10, 2009, 8:36 a.m. From Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News comes an article that should be required reading for everyone who follows the NFL. Not enough of us consider the impact of injuries on the overall performance of a team, and on the assessment of the achievements of a given team based upon health or a lack thereof. Case in point: The starters for the 2008 Ravens missed 64 games due to injury, the fourth highest amount in the league. On defense, the starters were gone for 46 games. And yet the Ravens went 11-5, made the playoffs, and beat on the road a Dolphins team that lost starters for only 25 games. Though injuries are a fact of life in the NFL, health is a key component to the overall success of a team. That said, the teams that can overcome injuries via depth and coaching have truly achieved something significant. And, likewise, teams that stayed healthy but who stagnated require even greater scrutiny as to whether they’ve accumulated the wrong players, or whether they haven’t done a good job of coaching them up. Case in point — the Patriots lost 64 starter games to injury, the same as the Ravens. Like the Ravens, the Pats won 11 and lost five. The Jets were the healthiest team in the league, with out 12 starter games missed. But they won only nine games, triggering the termination of coach Eric Mangini. Gosselin also looks at the relative health of the past ten Super Bowl winners. Typically, the team that’s standing at the end of the year was one of the healthiest teams for the rest of it. The only Super Bowl champs not in the top ten were the 2004 Patriots (No. 19), the 2006 Colts (No. 23), and the 2003 Patriots, who finished dead last with 87 games lost to injury. In each of those cases, the teams were able to overcome a rash of injuries — possibly because they didn’t wallow in self pity or make excuses. Like the Ravens this year, the ‘03-’04 Pats and the ‘06 Colts pushed the next guy onto the field and continued to expect the same degree of performance from the sub as they did from the starter. And maybe that’s the key to dealing with injuries. Sure, a team needs to have capable backups. But a team also can’t afford to adopt a “woe is us” attitude when, for whatever reason, they experience more injuries to starters than other teams. In our view, using injuries as an excuse for poor performance only leads to more poor performance. It reduces the accountability of everyone in the organization — from the G.M. to the coach to the assistants to the players. Perhaps that’s why the Broncos tanked down the stretch. Yeah, they lost a flock of running backs to injury. But this was/is an offensive system that created a revolving door of 1,000-yard rushers over the past 14 years. Instead of listening to the announcers and the writers who were willing to write off the season as an aberration, every person in the organization should have accepted the situation as the ultimate challenge. Do injuries affect a team’s overall performance? Yes. Maybe that’s because too many teams allow injuries to affect their performance, by using injuries as the safe harbor for missed assignments, errant throws, untimely fumbles, and dropped passes.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

How late we talkin? Happy Birthday!!!!

I agree that's a better pool format, for at least a couple of reasons: a) Far less chance of ties; b) Higher weighting of later, more important and (sometimes) harder-to-pick games; c) My wild card week picks shit the bed, which would have counted less under your format. But it'd be more work to administer...Seems like we barely scraped together a playoff pool as it is. I'll score it whatever way people prefer. We have seven people participating in the pool. If we get a majority of four or more to support the new scoring system, I'll do it that way. Unless we hear from anyone else, it looks like we have only two votes so far for this scoring system.

This weeks games: Baltimore @ Tennessee San Diego @ Pittsburgh Philadelphia @ NY Giants Arizona @ Carolina

Week one results: Noj 4-0 Vajerzy 3-1 JH Deeley 2-2 TD 2-2 SS1 2-2 Agg 2-2 Tapscott 0-4

San Diego just owns Indianapolis. What can you say?

SS1 has sold his soul to Pittsburgh!

Funny stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rmtO9_wzlI

I've always dug "El Hombre," and I love Trudy Pitts' work so much that I started a thread on her once in the B-3 section. Not to be missed is the Martino/Pitts Legend of Acid Jazz compilation. It stands as probably my favorite in the entire series of LOAJ. I've got "East" and "Strings" and "Desperado" and all that, but "El Hombre" is the best, I think. Here it is: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=32805

Happy Birthday Marty!

shanahan is the second best coach in the nfl. the denver owner has rocks in his head. I was thinking the same thing, Aloc. Shanahan is the second best coach in the NFL to Belichick. I would rate Jeff Fisher up there as well and maybe Tony Dungy. These guys have a long history of success. Best of the young coaches: perhaps Mike Tomlin and Jim Harbaugh.

Not so fast. There is talk about the Lions going after some new management and coaching. We already know that they own a fistful of high picks in the draft. Teams can turn around quickly in the NFL.

tie breaker can be points scored in the Super Bowl.

Wild card weekend schedule: Indianapolis @ San Diego Baltimore @ Miami Philadelphia @ Minnesota Atlanta @ Arizona Declare your picks. I'm sitting this one out, as I'm exhausted from a long season and want to enjoy my victory. But I'll be the fellow to tab the scores. If you guys favor anonymity, then you can pm your picks to me. And I'll post them on game day.