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Ring Of Honor

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“This was the best sports weekend in Boston history,” a friend told me this morning. With the Red Sox up 2-0 in the World Series, and the Patriots setting the OFFICIAL NFL record for consecutive wins, he has an argument. But, it’s a bit of a stretch – I’d say any weekend a team wins a league championship (and Boston has won a few) would beat out this one. 

Still, the Patriots this weekend set a record with their 21^st consecutive win - that has never been done. They have won their last 18 regular season games. That has never been done. They have won their last six playoff games. That’s been done – but they’re working on tackling that one, too. 

A 13-7 win over the Jets at home certainly doesn’t seem like much. And the naysayers will be out in full force with the Pats visiting Pittsburgh and the new “greatest quarterback ever” this weekend. They’ll talk about the vulnerability of the Patriots’ run defense, their lack of star power on offense and the weak 16-21 record of the Patriots’ opponents (but, consider that their opponents are 16-15 in games they don’t play the Patriots). 

What has kept this winning streak going, and what will keep it going through the Super Bowl, is the attitude. They’ll beat you in the rain. They’ll beat you in the heat. They’ll beat you in the cold. They’ll beat you indoors. They’ll beat you on the road. They’ll beat you at home. They’ll beat you with their passing game. They’ll beat you with their running game. They’ll beat you with their defense. They’ll beat you with their kicker. They’ll beat you by 20. They’ll beat you by 1. No matter the circumstances, no matter how high- or low-scoring the game is, no matter what personnel is injured: they’ll beat you. 

I watched the games on Sunday at Champps in Durham, N.C., where I was visiting my college roommate, himself a huge sports fan and phenomenal athlete. We were both glued to the Browns-Eagles game, which ended up providing the day’s best finish. I was most impressed with Jeff Garcia. While his team lost in overtime, Garcia’s goal line dive to tie the game late in regulation reflected on his character as a “tough” football player and his desire to win. He certainly shifted my opinion on him – I just wonder if he shifted T.O.’s.  

Miami’s win is like a hot, married twentysomething who's a couple beers into the evening: just a tease. 

The excuse-makers for Drew Bledsoe were surely quieted this week with his terrible performance against the Baltimore Ravens. Time and time again, Bledsoe looked like a bad rookie, attempting stupid passes and holding the ball for three, four, five seconds while the defense collapsed around him. I mean, not only did he check off his receivers, but he even looked to throw to the referee, his trainer on the sidelines and the beer guy in the stands. When you play the Ravens and your quarterback has worse numbers than theirs, you know you’re in trouble.  

Always a fan of the fastest, most athletic players in the league, it was a hoot watching Deion Sanders run back one of Bledsoe's interceptions.

This is why I didn’t pick Indianapolis to make it to the playoffs. You can have the best offense in the NFL; but, when your defense sucks and you’re in the AFC, you’re going to have a tough time winning games. At 4-2, they are facing a schedule without a single breather the rest of the season – their remaining opponents are a combined 33-30 and all have a better defense than the Colts. What I don't understand through all of this is why their defense is so bad, when Tony Dungy was brought in to improve the defense. It's worse now than it was when he took over the team!

My fantasy woes continue. Despite being the top scorer by about 15%, my team is 4-3 and in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Part of that reason is a loss this week thanks, in large part, to Mike Holmgren. I have Shaun Alexander on my team. Arizona is allowing 120 yards rushing per game. Yet, just as he did last week at New England, Holmgren opts to throw the ball and throw the ball and throw the ball. Matt Hasselbeck goes 14/41 with four interceptions. Alexander, one of the best backs in the league, gets a meager 12 carries on which he averages 4.8 yards per carry. Hasselbeck averaged 4.8 yards per passing attempt. I’m wondering if Holmgren is shelving Alexander because 1) he has always wanted to make Hasselbeck a top quarterback, whether he was one or not, hoping he’ll look like Bill Walsh who could turn any QB into an All-Star and 2) Alexander is a free agent at the end of the season. Sitting at 4-3, if he doesn’t figure it out soon, he may be looking for another job. 

How did I ever forget cutie Craig Krenzel, who was at Ohio State last year? And what a lovely surprise to see him taking snaps for the Chicago Bears against Tampa Bay on Sunday – rather, a lovely surprise seeing him helmetless on the sideline, I should say. 

How do the Chiefs look like Chumps for five games, then put up 56 on the Falcons? Even better: How do they score 56 points and their quarterback, hottie Trent Green, doesn’t throw a single touchdown pass? I can only imagine how pissed Priest Holmes owners were in fantasy football when he went out of the game and allowed fantasy can’t-miss stud Derrick Blaylock to score three more TDs! Those three more TDs, in standard scoring leagues, would have put the Priest over 60 points – an unheard-of number. 

Top Five Coach-of-the-Year Candidates:

There are probably 10 guys who could legitimately be on this list. Four of these guys have been in the doghouse at some point in the last 12 months – the other hasn’t lost in as long. Yes, Andy Reid and Steve Mariucci have surprised. But these five have all done something special . . . 

1) Marty Schottenheimer, San Diego. There is no way in hell the Chargers should be 4-3 with the third-highest points scored in the League. Plus, whether it was Marty or the front office, bringing in Keenan McCardell to replace Reche Caldwell was a stroke of genius.

2) Tom Coughlin, New York Giants. At 4-2, the Giants are presently sitting on a playoff spot. While many people (including me) thought Kurt Warner was done, he has crafted an offense around him and Tiki Barber that methodically moves the ball and hits key big plays.

3) Bill Belichick, New England Patriots. Yes, they were a Super Bowl favorite coming into this season. No, 6-0 isn’t a surprise. But, this man is the best coach in the league and one of the best ever. Not many coaches could lure the likes of Ty Law back into the team-oriented fold and keep his players focused not on records, but on results.

4) Bill Cowher, Pittsburgh Steelers. He should probably be higher on the list, but for now he’s here. His use of Duce Staley and Jerome Bettis has been masterful, his rookie quarterback is playing lights-out and this team is again believing in itself.

5) Butch Davis, Cleveland Browns. This team was predicted in the cellar of the division by almost everyone. Yet, Davis has newly acquired Jeff Garcia playing well despite the loss of Kellen Winslow in the second game. He somehow has running back-by-committee working. And, when Quincy Morgan wasn’t working out, he wasn’t afraid to make a trade. Look for the Browns to play spoilers all season.

Jim Buzinski

--Athletes are often rightly accused of being apolitical, but at least on the San Francisco 49ers, many players do seem to care about the upcoming election. An informal poll taken by my friend Roger Phillips, beat writer for the Oakland Tribune, found the Niners as divided as the country. 

His survey found 13 players who supported John Kerry for president and nine who supported President Bush (15 refused to comment). The Kerry supporters included backup quarterback Ken Dorsey, who happens to be dating a niece of vice presidential candidate John Edwards. In a case of perfect political symmetry, left tackle Kwame Harris supports the liberal Kerry while right tackle Scott Gragg supports the conservative Bush. 

The most vocal anti-Bush player is linebacker Jeff Ulbrich. ``Iraq is a big [reason]," he said. "My wife's brother was in Iraq. He came back and told me a lot of the things he had seen, his perspective about it, which kind of reinforced all my thoughts about it, that Bush was handling it wrong over there. ... And the tax thing was huge with me. I thought Kerry put it really well in the debate when he said, `The tax cuts were for guys like me and you, and not for the people that need it.' "

Bush’s biggest supporter seems to be Gragg. ``The biggest thing is he's a man of character," Gragg said. "He's a man of conviction. Just like football, you can second-guess someone on Monday, but he's the one who has had to make those tough decisions on Sunday, basically."

Overall, though, Phillips found that politics haven’t affected locker room chemistry, even on a team that’s 1-5. "It's all in good fun," said Harris. "We don't attack one another. If you like to keep yourself informed, you have something to say about our current affairs." But tight end Eric Johnson, a Kerry supporter, said he and Gragg no longer talk politics because "We've got to keep our tight end-tackle relationship intact."

--It’s not often that a kicker riles a crowd, but Indianapolis Colts fans have found an unlikely new villain in 6-1, 190-pound rookie Jacksonville Jaguar kicker Josh Scobee. After drilling a 53-yard field goal that proved to be the game-winner in the Jags’ 27-24 win over the Colts, Scobee hit the ground and acted like his leg had just been amputated. He writhed in apparent pain and lay there for a few minutes.

But as the teams started to get ready for the Jags to kick off, Scobee bounded up as if he’d been healed by Jimmy Swaggert. He raised in arms in a mock way towards the crowd, which prompted CBS analyst Dan Dierdorf to say: “Hey kid, you’re a rookie. Put your arms down and head to the bench.”  

--Scobees heroics and histrionics were all part of a key game that saw the Colts miss a chance to go  2 ½ games up on the Jags in their division. The key to the game was the inability of the Colts defense to stop the Jaguars from regularly marching down the field. The time of possession tells it all: Jags 34:25 vs. 25:26 for the Colts; despite this, the Colts outgained Jacksonville. In the third quarter, the Colts had the ball for only seven plays. Indy’s offense was explosive but the Colts just didn’t have the ball enough.

--Jacksonville quarterback Byron Leftwich continues to impress with his toughness  and accuracy. The 5-2 Jags have won all their games in the final minute, the kind of thing that makes a team think it’s never out of it. 

--There was a weird scene as the Colts readied for their final drive. Wide receiver Reggie Wayne and quarterback Peyton Manning were jaw-boning and suddenly Wayne shoved Manning as receiver Brandon Stokley stepped in between them.

We're not sure why it happened, since the Colts said it was no big deal. "Nothing, nothing," Manning said. "Everybody's competitive out there. Reggie's one of my favorite players on the team. He was frustrated that we were in a tough situation and I was, too. So it's a non-issue." Said Wayne when asked about the shove: ""You saw that? I didn't see that." Team president Bill Polian said the incident was simply "fodder for all the pro football Oprahs."

--Bonehead play call of the week goes to New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington.  The Jets trailed the unbeaten New England Patriots, 13-7, with 2:40 left in the game and the ball at the Patriots’ 30 facing third-and-5.  Pennington called an audible, changing a pass to a draw play by Curtis Martin. But the Patriots stuffed the play for a
3-yard loss. The Jets on 4^th-and-8 wound up throwing an incompletion. Bet the Jets think twice about letting Penningto audible again. Note: I had originally blamed the bad call on Jets offensive coordinator Paul Hackett, not realizing there was an audible. I stand corrected.

--Bonehead play call of the week runnerup goes to the Carolina Panthers. Trailing the San Diego Chargers, 10-6, with 3:29 to play, and facing 3^rd-and-10 at the Chargers’ 30, the Panthers called a running play up the middle for no gain. A desperation fourth-down pass was incomplete. I'm not sure why coaches try to get cute instead of putting their players in the best position to win.

--Bonehead coaching decision of the day goes to the highly overrated Mike Martz of St.Louis. The Rams had just stopped the Dolphins and were about to force a punt or a long field goal on 4^th-and-18 late in the first half of a 7-7 game. Martz, though, accepted a holding penalty on Miami, putting the Dolphins back 10 yards but repeating third down.

Martz paid for it as Miami quarterback Jay Fiedler went deep to Randy McMichael on a 42-yard touchdown and Miami never trailed in going on to win its first game. To top it off, Martz made the defensive call on the touchdown, a blitz. "That's the only time I've ever called a play on defense, and it goes for a touchdown,''  Martz said. "I guess that's why I don't coach defense.''

--I had suspected the Atlanta Falcons were not as good as their 5-1 record going into Kansas City indicated. They had not faced a tough schedule and their ranking of #1 defense against the run was because they had not faced a top-notch running game. This was proven true in their 56-10 loss against the Chiefs. The Kansas City running game, behind an awesome offensive line anchored by Willie Roaf, rushed for 271 yards and an NFL-record single game eight touchdowns (four each by Priest Holmes and Derrick Blaylock). Said Falcons coach Jim Mora sarcastically: "I am honored to be a part of history."

--Boy, was I wrong about the Philadelphia Eagles, now 6-0. I picked them second in the NFC East and said they wouldn’t make the playoffs. It is apparent that right now they are head and shoulders better than anyone else in the generally weak NFC. The Eagles would be solid favorites over any NFC team and have the inside track on home field throughout the playoffs. But for a team that’s lost three straight NFC title games, it’s Super Bowl or the season has been a bust.

--The Eagles won a 34-31 overtime thriller against the Cleveland Browns on David Akers’ 50-yard field goal. Philly survived a furious Cleveland rally capped by a late touchdown run by Jeff Garcia. 

--A sidelight in Cleveland were all the anti-Terrell Owens signs (“T.O. Has B.O.” etc.). Owens caused a stir this summer when he strongly implied that Garcia was gay. "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat," Owens told Playboy.

Owens took matters into his own hands Sunday after scoring a touchdown. He went over behind the end zone and tore down a sign that had a picture of a rat and the words: “T.akes O.ne to Know One!” It was a bush league move by a bush league player who is sensitive to even the slightest amount of criticism. Owens seems to feel that it’s OK for him to say or do anything, no matter how outrageous, but he takes great offense if anyone calls him on it. He’s a great talent but seemingly insecure and definitely immature. 

--With six minutes to go in their fourth game two weeks ago, Seattle led the Rams, 27-10, and were well on their way to starting the season 4-0. But the Seahawks collapsed and lost to the Rams in overtime. They then went and lost to New England, and on Sunday looked awful in losing at Arizona, 25-17. Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was a pitiful 14 for 41 for 195 yards and four interceptions. Seattle looked like NFL royalty after three games and like road kill after the last three.

--My Top 5:

1. New England 2. Philadelphia 3. Jets 4. Indianapolis and Jacksonville (tie) 5. Pittsburgh