Thursday, January 14, 2010

Randomness While Hoping Jay Leno Doesn't Take My Blog Away

Before I start the post, I'd like to take the time to show my support to the people of Haiti and those Americans of Haitian descent who are dealing with the devastation after the earthquake there, particularly one of my best friends.

-NBC this week has really proven to be the dumbest of networks. Following an embarrassment of an announce team they put together for the Jets-Bengals, now this Leno-Conan issue has completely blown up in their face. They too quickly wanted to keep Conan from leaving to another network, so they rushed him into the Tonight Show slot. When Leno didn't want to leave, they gave him the 10pm slot, screwing Conan and their affiliates in the process. Now, NBC wants to get everything back to how it was, with Leno late, followed by Conan and Jimmy Fallon. It's such a mess, you'd think Jim Dolan was in charge of NBC.

-Harrison Ford's film legacy should be as the best at finding roles which he can utter famous lines in serious movies. His latest one was so received, it has it's own YouTube clip before the movie comes out. Not even Jack Nicholson is as good with finding these roles, despite two famous lines. Not when you consider Indiana Jones, The Fugitive and Air Force One.

-Now to sports, let's start by saying I completely agree with Kevin Iole in his column about the failed Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. It's everyone's fault. Yes, I include you Floyd, you're the bully, with Pacquiao's career and reputation damaged by this. Meanwhile, Bob Arum and everyone else are just vindictive fools who'd rather have a pissing match then make money. An agreement should of been made, it wasn't because just like in Kindergarten, everyone involved couldn't get along with others.

-I'm going to make this a two-part Randomness, with Babe of the Week tomorrow. First things first, I've starting contributing at Gonzo Ball, the official SBN site for Seton Hall men's basketball, though I would probably post other sports should someone at SHU do something noteworthy. I started with covering last Thursday's loss to Georgetown and should write more posts as the season goes along. So be sure to follow me there, as well as the outstanding founder of Gonzo Ball and the soon-to-be official cast of writers.

-Time for my picks for Saturday's Divisional Playoff games. Let's start with the soon to be high-scoring fest in New Orleans, as the Saints take on the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals will score on the Saints unless Kurt Warner has a stinkbomb of a game (which is very possible, though in playoff time, not as likely). However, when will the Cards stop Drew Brees and the Saints offense, at home no less. I think this plays like the 1999 game between Warner's Rams and the Vikings with Cris Carter and Randy Moss. The Rams won that one 49-37 because their offense was a little better than the Vikings that year (since Jeff George was the Vikes QB). I think the same thing happens today, except against Warner here. Saints (-7.5) over Cards; final score: 41-31.

-In the nightcap, Baltimore goes to Indianapolis (gee, where did we hear that one before) with the Ravens coming off a dominating performance against a clearly inferior Patriots team. The Colts, on the other hand, staggered into the playoffs after losing their last two games, ending a 14-0 start. The manner in which they lost seemed to infuriate everyone, since the Colts sat their starters, giving the Jets a win which put them into the playoffs. People always look at the Ravens defense and figure they will play a close game, and give Manning trouble. However, historically, Peyton Manning has gone 7-2 against Baltimore, the two losses in the only two years the Colts missed the playoffs in the Manning Era (yes, it includes one in Jim Mora's final season, the week after the "PLAYOFFS" rant). Also, Manning has thrown 17 touchdowns with only 5 interceptions with a 65 percent completion and a 103.8 QB rating. These stats tell me that Manning has the Ravens number and add the fact that the Colts are the best at primetime (which this game is being played), I have to think the Colts take care of business. Especially once the Colts know that they just need to make Joe Flacco beat you. Colts (-6.5) over Ravens; final score, 27-10.

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