COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA - NOVEMBER 12, 2010

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 11/12/2010


COOL ATHLETE NAME:

FLUB OF THE DAY



On Friday’s Morning Show (11/12) on 1560 KGOW, John Granato said that this upcoming week was #10 of the College Football season. John is better than that. The college season starts a week ahead of the NFL, so this week is actually Week #11 or then how could TCU and Auburn be 10-0, Akron be 0-10, and Baylor be 7-3 going into this weekend, if this was Week #10.

Guest experts also continue to flub. Also, on Friday’s show, John and Lance’s weekly guest, Adam Kaplan, said Atlanta QB, Matt Ryan is 17-1 at home in the Georgia Dome in his three-year NFL career. He forgot to add in last night’s home win over the Ravens, as Ryan is actually 18-1 at home.

This isn’t a flub, but it’s laziness and ignorance. On Thursday afternoon (11/11), on SportsRadio 610, Rich Lord said that the Texans and Titans were tied for the toughest schedules this season based on last year’s records. Well, it’s the middle of 2010, not 2009, so why couldn’t Rich look at the records for the first nine weeks of 2010 to get a better picture of who has the toughest schedule. If he did, he would have had a different answer. For example, the Cowboys who are on this year’s Texans schedule were 11-5 last year, but 1-7 this year. That’s a big swing. The Raiders were 5-11 last year, but 5-4 in 2010, another big swing. San Diego was 13-3 last year, but 4-5 in 2010. Indy was 14-2 last year, but is 5-3 in 2010. Get the idea, Rich.

Even Erin "the Fantasy Girl" Skelley flubbed on the SR610 Morning Show on Friday (11/12) when she said that Craig Biggio was from the New Jersey area when she was told by John Lopez that Craig was a big Washington Redskins fan. Bidge is actually from Smithtown, LI, NY, though he did go to Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ.

Here are some other present or past hardcore Redskin fans that might surprise Erin and perhaps you, including some NFL players: Matthew McConaughey, Sugar Ray Leonard, Dale Earnhart Jr., Ron Jeremy, Byron Leftwich, Drew Bledsoe, Jim Brown (the football analyst/host), Damon and Keenan Ivory Wayans, Wanda Sykes, Richard Petty, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Sean Astin (Rudy), Larry King , Christopher Meloni (Stabler from Law and Order: SVU) Tim Legler (former NBA player), Ben Stein (actor/political advisor), Scott Van Pelt (Sportscenter anchor), Tiki and Ronde Barber, Hootie and the Blowfish (except Darius Rucker), Oliver North, Connie Chung, Maury Povich, Gene Hackman, Jerry Stackhouse, Julius Peppers, Sandra Bullock, Manny Ramirez, Paul Tagiliabue, Rachael Ray, Jim Lampley, Anthony Anderson, Brad Johnson, and Carmelo Anthony.

And of course, on Friday's (11/12) show on Sports Talk 790, Dylan Gwinn confused the two Harbough brothers, Jim (Stanford coach) and John (Baltimore Ravens coach). Mighty One, John is the one who currently coaches in the NFL.

IT LOOKS LIKE THE COWBOYS ARE DONE FOR 2010!

One of the big topics of local sports talk earlier this week was that Jerry Jones bit the bullet and fired Wade Phillips this week after a dreadful showing on Sunday Night Football last weekend. I believe Jones was sincere in saying for weeks that he did not want to name an interim coach for the Cowboys because he knew that interim coaches really do not turn things around all that often. However, the Cowboys did not play hard on Sunday night and that was clear to just about everyone who saw the game. So Jones put Wade Phillips out of his misery on Monday.

Here is what Jerry Jones has to wish for. He has to hope that Jason Garrett can replicate the late Wally Lemm as an interim coach. In 1961, Lemm inherited the Houston Oilers when the team had a 1-3-1 record. In the final 9 games of that season, the Oilers record was 9-0. Garrett cannot match that record since there are only 8 games left in the 2010 season. Good luck to him going 8-0.


Garrett has been the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys for three seasons now. The offense this year has not been as bad as the defense has been, but the offense is hardly a model any other team would seek to emulate. Through 8 games, the Cowboys have a total of 605 yards rushing; that puts them at 31st in the NFL, ahead of only the Denver Broncos. The Cowboys have scored exactly 2 TDs on the ground. Compare that to Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Browns; by himself, Hillis has 644 yards and 7 TDs. Garrett has lots of work to do with this team and some of that work needs to be done on his own offense.

THE PEANUT GALLERY CONGRATULATES JOE PA ON WIN #400!

Last week, Joe Paterno won his 400th game at Penn State beating Northwestern,  35-21. Paterno’s first season as head coach at Penn State was 1966 – he had been on the Rip Engle’s staff for a while prior to taking over there. Here are some things that Wiki/Google said happened in 1966 to put perspective on how long it has been: 



The US Supreme Court issued the Miranda Decision.
The NHL expanded from 6 teams to 12 teams.
Texas Western’s five Black starters beat Kentucky for the NCAA title.
John Lennon said of The Beatles, “We’re more popular than Jesus now.”
England won the World Cup.
The Cultural Revolution began in China.
Caesar’s Palace opened in Las Vegas.
Ronald Reagan became Governor of California.

I was a second-round draft choice of the U.S. Army.

ODDS AND ENDS:

1. The Raiders/Chiefs game last week was truly a throwback game. Both teams are in contention for the division title; both are playing well; a game between the two of them in November meant something other than positioning in the Top Ten for next year’s draft. Moreover, the players obviously got well into that throwback thing too. In the game, there were a total of 27 penalties for a total of 240 yards. Just like the good old days of Raiders/Chiefs football.


2. The Buffalo Bills lost to the Chicago Bears in Toronto last week. That brought the Bills’ record in “home games” there to 0-3. Of no consolation whatsoever to the Bills, they have lost their last three games this year (to the Ravens, Chiefs and Bears) by only 3 points each. As they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

3. The Miami Dolphins had been living in a “bizarro world” up until last weekend. They were 0-3 at home and 4-0 on the road; that just does not happen in the NFL. They got things straightened out last week and lost a road game in Baltimore.

4. The Vikings entered last weekend’s game with a total for six sacks for the season. Against the Cardinals, they collected six sacks in one game.

5. When Randy Moss catches a pass for his new team, the Tennessee Titans, he will be the only player in NFL history to catch a pass for three different teams in the same season.

6. TJ Houshmandzadeh of the Baltimore Ravens has caught 597 passes in his career. If he catches three more this week, he will join two of his teammates (Derrick Mason and Anquan Boldin) in the “600-catch Club”. Only once before has one team had three players on the team all with 600 or more receptions; that was the St. Louis Rams back in 2005 when Isaac Bruce, Marshall Faulk, and Tory Holt were on the team.

7. Ball State beat Akron 37-30 in a battle of bad teams. The loss left Akron with a record of 0-10. They are now the only winless team in Division 1-A football because New Mexico found a way to beat Wyoming, 34-31.

8. Last Saturday night, Kansas State demolished Texas, 39-14. Texas got all of its points in the 4th quarter when the game outcome wasn't in doubt. Remember when the "experts" had Texas as a “Top Ten” team in those stupid pre-season polls. Oh, by the way, what does the home loss to this Texas team say about Nebraska?


9. Texas Tech beat Mizzou, 24-17, last weekend. It was not all that long ago when Mizzou was undefeated, ranked between #5 and #7 depending on the poll you liked and folks were talking about them coming out of the Big 12 with an undefeated record thereby inserting themselves into the national championship picture. This loss makes them 7-2 and irrelevant to any national championship discussions.

10. When considering teams like TCU and Boise State that have played less than robust schedules, no one ever points at Oregon. The combined record for Oregon opponents so far this year is 30-39.

11. Boise State beat Hawaii 42-7. Kellen Moore merely threw for 500+ yards in this romp and Moore left the game in the 4th quarter for a sub. Boise State’s total offense for the game was 737 yards; every time you looked up, a Boise State player was running free with the ball tucked under his arm.

12. Navy beat East Carolina, 76-35, last week. Navy had only 75 yards of passing offense and scored 76 points. Think about that stat for a while. On the other side, the East Carolina QB, Dominique Davis, threw for 435 yards and five TDs with no interceptions and lost the game by six TDs.

CRIER'S CORNER

NBA ACTION



Yesterday’s Record ATS: 1-0
Cumulative Season Record ATS: 31-10


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):


HOUSTON at INDIANA* (Under 215.5)
Another devastating loss to the Rockets as Aaron Brooks will be out for several weeks with an ankle. Then on Wednesday, Yao Ming injures his leg and is not expected to play for about a week. Pacers off a game in which they hit 20 shots in a row and were up by 39 at one point vs. Denver. That won’t happen tonight. INDIANA, 95 -91


PHILADELPHIA (+9) over DALLAS*
Take Philly here and the points as they could be up for this game. Nowitzki is a little banged up and 76ers picking it up after losing first 4 games. They gave the Thunder all they could handle on Wednesday despite 3 starters being in foul trouble. Andre Iguodala has a legit chance to play tonight for visitors, but he has been dealing with a tendon injury. Elton Brand leading team scoring, off the glass and in blocks and steals. Philly has been putting the ball in the hoop thanks to good decisions by point Jrue Holiday. DALLAS, 105 -104


SACRAMENTO at PHOENIX* (Under 215.5)
Steve Nash is pretty amazing at his advanced age. He’ll have to score more this year with Stoudamire in the Big Apple, but he has pieces around him who when they step up, can make big shots. These are the kind of games Suns have to capitalize on, since they will be hard pressed to hang with the elite teams this year. Kings just got beat by lowly Wolves. PHOENIX, 103 -96


COLLEGE HOOPS ACTION


GEORGETOWN (-1) over OLD DOMINION*
John Thompson III’s ’09-’10 Hoya edition was younger and less mature than this one, and this is a return match of a home-and-home – lost by the Hoyas in front of their faithful in their ’09 opener. The place you lost it is the place to get it back, as Old Dome’s Blaine Taylor has repeatedly demonstrated he’s willing to take a lump or two early to arrive at his preferred destination in February and March. GEORGETOWN, 70-62.


SYRACUSE* (-10.5) over NORTHERN IOWA
Panthers great success story last year, taking out Kansas on the first weekend of the NCAAs, but coach Ben Jacobson’s seen three guys from that squad move on – and they were worth over 33 points and 14 rebounds a game. Ouch. Under the conditions, looking for Jacobson to win a game-pace battle with Jimmy Boeheim in the Carrier Dome appears a tall order. SYRACUSE, 83-64.

 

MIKE IN DA

HMW


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