Hate to say I told you so...

I've never been a fan of Jay Cutler. Let me say that straight out. Sure, it's easy to say that now that he's whining at T.O.-type levels, but really, I've never liked him. He's too much of a diva on and off the field. If I remember correctly, he had his little fight or tantrum with Philip Rivers because Rivers "rubbed him the wrong way." That very well might be a direct quote. Leave the prima donna crap in high school Jay, this is the big leagues. On the other hand, since I can remember, I've respected the Broncos organization, especially since often you can tell a team by its coach (obviously here I'm talking about Mike Shanahan). As much as Cutler is acting like a 233 pound toddler and coach Josh McDaniels has shown the coaching experience of a toddler with way less passing yards, would it be too rash to suggest the Broncos front office is the one at fault here? It's not even a long, twisting series of mistakes, it really comes down to just a handful.

Fundamental Mistake #1: Mike Shanahan gets canned

This was one of those moments at the end of last season when I started figuring out the world is going down the tubes. Screw the economy, Mike Shanahan losing his job scared me so bad I hid in my closet for three days. Shanahan's not a guy who leaves an organization because he gets fired. As far as I'm concerned, he's in that class of coaches who leaves when he wants to leave. Can you really blame the Broncos bad 2nd half of the season on him, when all 50 of their available halfbacks got injured and they were basically recruiting the oversized kids at the Denver YMCA, and your star QB has ONE legitimately pro-bowl caliber game in the last six weeks of the season? (And don't forget the showdown the last game against the Chargers when it was do-or-die for Lady Cutler, who choked and the Broncos proceeded to get routed 52-21). Anyway, that's a lot of ranting for saying firing Shanahan was a dumb move.

Fundamental Mistake #2: Hire that McDaniels guy

This is obviously connected to Fundamental Mistake #1, because you can't make this mistake without making the first. Josh who?? I don't care who he was the assistant waterboy-towel-cleaning coach for, this guy has ZERO head coaching experience, and somehow somebody expects him to treat situations like this professionally? Even if he was the QB coach in New England, the most potentially damaging thing he had to worry about was Tom Brady getting ambushed by paparazzi when he was out with his even more famous squeeze. Tom Brady might be more famous than Jay Cutler, but Brady's all man, and the same goes for Matt Cassel. If the Broncos expected the transition to go smoothly, they obviously were more than ready to make this mistake.

Fundamental Mistake #3: Keep Jay Cutler

This one might be the most surprising, but you heard me right. Given mistakes #1 and #2, keeping Jay Cutler is a mistake for two main reasons. The first has to do with McDaniels' lack of experience as a coach. If you are at the helm of a new team all of a sudden, obviously changes have to be made. If McDaniels was actually considering trading for Matt Cassel (like Cutler says he was) he should've manned up and done so instead of whispering it around and letting it spread as a rumor instead of as an official statement after having gone through the proper channels, i.e. talking to management, talking to Cutler, talking to the Patriots, traded for Cassel, and THEN let the media and anybody else outside of those people I just mentioned know about it. Anything else sounds like a teenage girl gossiping about what boy she likes and telling half the class instead of telling the boy himself. Second, I'd rather have Cassel on my team than Cutler, plain and simple. Sure, Cutler passed for a gazillion yards last season, but he also was NOT dependable when he needed to be, while Cassel started his first game since elementary school or something (you know the story, look it up) and would've gotten the Pats to the playoffs if it hadn't been for those meddling Dolphins. Plain and simple: Cassel won more games than Cutler while getting paid less and making less annoying whining and crying baby noises, if any at all. And after all of this mess, now the Broncos have missed out on Cassel and will have to deal with Cutler somehow more professionally than they have been since McDaniels was hired. Good luck.

-J

Lakers "defense"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUENlW0s0Ow

Is it me, or are the Lakers consistently responsible for the next suspension-worthy flagrant 90 foul in the NBA? If you haven't seen the video, watch it here. Notice that it's the end of the 3rd quarter (still lots of basketball to play), and the Lakers are getting blown out 83-55, and Rudy Fernandez goes off on a breakaway that you just have to live with if you're playing defense, the only guy with the skills to cleanly block that shot was Kobe Bryant and he was clear on the other side of the court, and Trevor Ariza swats at Fernandez like he's a little Spanish mosquito that just sucked the blood out of you, your family and possibly your dog.

I wonder if Ariza is just "young and inexperienced" and isn't smart enough to just challenge Fernandez without assassinating him or if it's a tactic coming from Guru Jackson. Either way, this is probably the closest Fernandez has been to death since he ran with the bulls in Pamplona (though I'm still checking up on whether he was even there either), and it was a sissy swat by a player with the defensive skills of the Detroit Lions (that's right, I said it).

Here's my favorite part. Obviously, this is a Flagrant 2 foul and Ariza deserves a suspension (which he didn't get, Lamar Odom did instead for leaving the bench). Still, fast forward to about the 2:35 mark on the video when the crowd finds out it's a flagrant 2 foul, and check out the one Lakers fan in the Kobe jersey standing there and obviously saying the call is garbage (though we all know that isn't the word he used). Is he serious?? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Obviously that kid is from some third-world place where basketball is played in nuclear sludge and "defense" is another word for clotheslining a player on his way to the basket and he's at the game because he won a contest sponsored by the NBA or UNICEF or the Ronald McDonald House allowing him to watch his favorite player live from the second row. That or (and here's what I really think) this guy's a moron, along with the rest of the Lakers fans who flagrant foul after flagrant foul can't believe how badly the league picks on their poor defensless players who really have nothing resembling defense in their basketball repertoire.

Bottom line: Ariza should be suspended. Not that it would hurt the Lakers that bad, but it's the fair thing to do. And that fan too. Suspend him too. Indefinitely. Or put him in basketball camp against Ariza during his suspension.

-J

Week 16 Picks

Well, sorry we didn't post last week's picks, but here are our picks for Week 16:

COLTS - Jaguars
Ravens - COWBOYS
BENGALS - Browns
Saints - LIONS
DOLPHINS - Chiefs
Cardinals - PATRIOTS
49ERS - Rams
STEELERS- Titans
Chargers - BUCS
Bills - BRONCOS
TEXANS - Raiders
JETS - Seahawks
Falcons - VIKINGS
EAGLES - Redskins
PANTHERS - Giants
Packers - BEARS

"Big Baby" Davis' Tantrum

As promised, here's the clip of Glen Davis' growing pains with papa Garnett.

NFL Week 14 Picks

Here they are, as usual the winners are in ALL CAPS

Raiders - CHARGERS
Browns - TITANS
Jaguars - BEARS
VIKINGS - Lions
Texans - PACKERS
Bengals - COLTS
Falcons - SAINTS
Eagles - GIANTS
Dolphins - BILLS
Chiefs - BRONCOS
JETS - 49ers
PATRIOTS - Seahawks
Rams - CARDINALS
COWBOYS - Steelers
REDSKINS - Ravens
Buccaneers - PANTHERS

Week 13 Picks

Here are our picks for Week 13, this week's expert was Matt, our guest host for Episode 4:

TITANS - Lions
COWBOYS - Seahawks
CARDINALS - Eagles
COLTS - Browns
DOLPHINS - Rams
49ers - BILLS
Panthers - PACKERS
SAINTS - Bucs
GIANTS - Redskins
FALCONS - Chargers
STEELERS - Patriots
Broncos - JETS
Chiefs - RAIDERS
Bears - VIKINGS
JAGUARS - Texans

Tom Who?

You're familiar with the Patriots' star quarterback, right?...'bout 6'4'', decent looking kid from California, makes a habit of throwing several touchdowns and several hundred yards each game and the occasional rushing TD....that's right I'm talking about Matt Cassel (what were you thinking?). I don't know about you, but for all the whining everybody did about Tom Brady going down in Week 1, Cassel has sure picked up the slack and then some. To quote Mr. Randy Moss, Cassel's been playing some hellified ball.
If you're still not paying attention to the Patriots this season, you better open your eyes and pay attention. In the last 2 games, Cassel's been...well...Brady-like. Before Sunday, only 4 quarterbacks in NFL history threw for 400 yards in back-to-back games, and Tom Brady isn't one of those guys. Sure, the Pats aren't 11-0 at this point, but they're surging in the AFC and making a valid push at another great season. Cassel almost single-handedly beat the Jets 9 days ago, throwing for 400 yards and 3 TDs, while leading the Pats in rushing with 62 yards. He followed that up by throwing another 3 TDs to Moss, 415 yards, completing almost 70% of his 43 passes and rushing for a TD.
I'm in no way suggesting the Patriots need to look to trade Tom Brady, don't get me wrong. However, if I'm Matt Cassel and things keep going this way, I need to start at QB for somebody in the NFL (hey Philly, I'm pretty sure Matt knows ties can happen!). Anyway, the Pats have another tough game this week against the Steelers, and it'll be mainly up to Cassel to keep his trade value going up.