End of.

Hey! Head on over to fastanimalsslowchildren.wordpress.com for my new blog. Sports stuff will continue, but other shit on there as well.
Cheers,

see ya.

Update

Hmm.  Apparently the phrase “cheers guys, keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s blog” was code for “go away and rethink my life.”  OK, that’s an exaggeration, but I’m thinking of changing the blog to something slightly more general, admittedly with a sports-focus remaining.  Wait and see.  It’ll be on a different wordpress site, so chances are the next thing on here will be a link to my new blog.

As a wise man once said, keep your eyes peeled.

See ya.

2010 Preview #3: Baltimore Ravens

I always forget the Ravens exist.  Not in a bad way, in case you were wondering.  I just kinda don’t factor them in to anything NFL-related.  For instance, you think of bad teams, you think Bucs, Rams, Lions, Raiders.  You think great teams, you’re thinking (begrudgingly) Colts, Pats, Giants, (and this year only) Saints.  I never factor Baltimore into that latter section, and I don’t know why, as this season they pissed all over the Patriots in the playoffs.  But that’s the nature of the NFL I guess.  It takes consistency to be recognised.  Give it two seasons, and if the Saints don’t make the Superbowl again this season will seem like it never happened.  Sad, really.

Aaaaanyway, lets take a look at how the Ravens are gonna shape up for next season.

The obvious first thing to look at would be their defense.  So here it goes:  They’re fuckin’ phenomenal.  Ranked 3rd in points allowed per game and yards allowed per game.  They’re the sort of figures the Bears wished they had.  They don’t over-rely on their D, it just naturally dominates.

Talking of dominating, the Ravens introduced a new aspect to their game this season with Ray Rice at running back.  Thanks to him they averaged nearly 140 yards rushing per game.  Which is awesome.

However, seguing nicely into my next section, looking at their offseason situation, any number of defensive players could be on their way out.  Practically every linebacker except Ray Lewis is on one or other Free Agency list, and the same goes for their D-line.  Lose a couple of players there and a number of things could change.

Interestingly, a fair few of their WRs are also on that list, which may be a bonus, as it gives them a chance to build on their team in the offseason and really make something of the offense.  I personally am a fan of Joe Flacco, I think he can get it done.  He just didn’t really have that one guy to throw it to.  Ray Rice was the leading catcher last season, and Derrick Mason followed him in the rankings, but the guy’s like 102, he can’t last that much longer.  They need someone in the draft/FA, and if they don’t get anybody then they will have yet another disappointing season.  Its just about impossible to get deep into the postseason without having quality in all areas of the game.

Hmmm.  I feel sorry for a few teams in the AFC.  The Colts, the Pats, the Chargers all dominate, and it must be difficult to be outside that group looking in.  The NFC doesn’t really have the same deal.  Hence all the random NFC teams in the past few Superbowls: Seahawks, Bears, Giants, Cardinals, Saints.  That’s a crazy random bunch of teams if you look at it.  The Seahawks and Bears dropped into nothingness after those games, and the Cards and Saints could well do the same this coming season.

What I’m trying to say there is the NFC is way more interesting than the AFC.  That might mean that the AFC is a technically better conference, but fuck it.  Everybody enjoys interesting games, and the thing I personally love about the NFL is that last year’s worst team could be next year’s best team.  But at the moment that seems more likely to happen in the NFC than the AFC.  Hence NFC wins.

Suck on that, non-existent readers.

Cheers guys, keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s blog.

See ya.

Update

Shit, make that Wednesday. Christ I’ve been busy/ill.
Plus the Ravens are not exactly a thrilling team.

Preview #3: Baltimore Ravens coming Sunday/Monday

Hey its the weekend! Gimme a break, non-existent readers!

2010 Preview #2: Atlanta Falcons

I was just about to come in here saying that I don’t like the Falcons because I remember them beating the Bears this past couple seasons.  Then I realised that just about all of the NFL beat the Bears the past couple of years.  So:  I love the Falcons!  I kid.  Actually, I think they’re a pretty solid team, and I’m definitely jealous of some of their offensive players.

Anyway, the team actually dropped from 11-5 in the ’08 season to a ‘lowly’ 9-7 this past season, and did not make the playoffs.  However, I think that a team like this is gonna keep posting at least a winning season for then next couple of years, purely on the basis of their talented offense.

Matt Ryan has definitely proved himself to be worth the 1st round pick money the Falcons paid him.  However, Roddy White is his main guy, and he’s probably the first part of their promising offense that will retire, as he’s 28 already and receivers lose their pace real fast around the 30 mark.  Michael Jenkins is their only other true receiver, and he is of similar age.  We have a similar problem with Tony Gonzalez.  He had an absolutely stellar season, and will probably continue (like White and Jenkins) to be the linchpin of the Falcons’ offense next year.  But, he’s 33.  He ain’t gonna be around much longer.  Give it two years and every player who picked up serious receiving yards (running backs not included) last season will be gone.  Then Ryan will be in trouble.

Anyway, talking of running backs, Atlanta remind me of Arizona in that they have that position down pat.  Michael Turner didn’t post huge yards last year, but he was sharing the ball with Jerious Norwood and Jason Snelling.  So, if all them guys are putting up numbers, you are sorted.  They can also all catch the ball, so that will help as their receiving numbers inevitably drop off over the next couple of seasons.

Their D is OK.  Their linebackers all played pretty well in ’09, especially Curtis Lofton.  They also have Mike Peterson, who’s only gonna be a help in that position.  However, outside of that is not amazing.  Their safeties seem to play OK, but beyond that I’m gonna say that their cornerbacks are pretty much crap, with the exception of Brent Grimes, who had 6 interceptions last season.

Thusly, my main prediction is CB in the draft/free agency. Both sides of their line are pretty much set, so I don’t see that being too much of a priority.  Beyond the secondary, I guess they’ll be looking for a couple of receivers that they can work on over time.  They’re not after a superstar just yet, but will need one in the not-too-distant future.  I guess they’ll also be after some special teams players, as Matt Bryant must be about 6 months away from retirement (just like cops in movies, get it!).

With regards to who’s on their way out this offseason, nobody of much note is on the Free Agency lists.  It’s a definite contrast to the Cardinals’ situation that I talked about yesterday.  Norwood and Snelling are both restricted FAs, but the organisation’ll keep hold of ‘em if they know what’s best for the team.  And that’s about it.

So, if the management can pick up a tasty cornerback in the offseason, they could turn this defense into something special enough to make some headway.  Offensively, I think they don’t have a problem (yet), but they may need some motivation on defense to stop ‘em getting run over every game.  If you look at the box-scores for last season, there were a lot of high-scoring games (Cowboys, Saints, Redskins, Panthers, Giants to name a few).  That needs to stop if they wanna succeed.

This post was kinda dull, so I apologise.  Its harder to rip the shit out of a team that actually have promise.  So far on the jokes front all I got is this picture:

Get it?!  The joke is that Roddy’s an asshole.  I kid.  Vick just made a mistake man.  He was wrongfully imprisoned.  Sometimes sarcasm can go to far; this time I’ve gone so far I’m not sure what I actually mean.  Enjoy!

See ya.

2010 Preview #1: Arizona Cardinals

This is a nice easy one to start off with.

So I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Kurt Warner went and actually retired!  And at the ripe old age of 51.  I kid, he just looks that old.  Important notice to all young NFL quarterbacks, one day you will look like a Kurt Warner-Brett Favre-Peyton Manning hybrid.  You have been warned.

Anyway, so Matt Leinart’s shitting his pants right now, and perhaps rightfully so.  I honestly believe he isn’t good enough for what the Cardinals’ organisation want from next season.  Thus, my rash and hilariously uninformed first major prediction is that Arizona will be shopping around for a new QB this offseason.  The only way that won’t be a factor is if Leinart has a bitchin’ off-season/training camp over the spring/summer period.  Unlikely.

Anyway, moving on to some more general stuff, the Cards’ GM won’t be happy with ’09.  They made it to divisionals, but were blown away by the Saints.  With everyone aware that this was gonna be Warner’s final year, it was do or die this past season, and they fell short.

The good aspect of their season was definitely their running game.  Tim Hightower and Chris “Beanie” Wells were impressive, and will be a big part of the team next year no matter what happens.  Of course, it will be interesting to see what they’re like without a quality QB under center.  Its Joseph Addai syndrome!

Talking of losers, we can now segue nicely into the players the Cards may lose this year in free agency.  Brief overview: it’s pretty messy.  First casualty is Karlos Dansby, who the team have franchised the past two years.  Whether they choose to again is kinda up in the air (for reasons I’ll explain later), but either way he is a key part of their defense, and will be a huge loss if he doesn’t return for 2010.

Moving on, we also see kicker Neil Rackers in the unrestricted FAs section, who has actually been playing well the last couple of seasons.  Him, Anthony Becht (TE), and Jerheme Urban (WR) are a couple more noticeable players who may be on their way out.  Steve Breaston (you know, that guy who isn’t Larry Fitzgerald or Anquan Boldin) is a restricted FA, but you have to figure they’ll snap him up ASAP.  There’s also a bunch of unknown backups in there, 15 in total.

Looking now to positions they’ll be looking to fill come draft and free-agent-signing time, I have to go with QB as the highest on their list.  Leinart is a douchebag who already screwed up his chance at proving himself.  I see him at back-up next year, if the team even keep him.  Receiver and running back are both pretty much set, which is handy, and their defense is top-quality, if aging (in made-up-stats news, their 3 linebackers have a combined age of 159).  Linebacker may have a look in, as there are bunch potentially on the way out.  A similar situation seems to apply to their offensive line and tight ends.  My wild-card prediction is that they may go after another CB in the draft.  One more top-quality player in that secondary and Arizona’ll have the sort of pass defense that could pick off Jay Cutler in their sleep.

So there we have it, a whole bunch of stuff about the Arizona Cardinals: a team possibly in trouble after Warner’s departure, but also with the potential for a decent 2010, provided they don’t lose it all in the off-season.  I would say watch this space, except I would end up saying that after every one of these posts.

Note:  I mentioned earlier about the uncertainty around franchising players this season, and that’s because of the damn labor talks mess.  I don’t really know what’s happening with restricted/unrestricted free agents either, but I’m going with what Wikipedia sees as right.  I know it changes if no deal is reached, so apologies if some of my facts are wrong in a couple weeks.  I’ll apply the same rules to all my future 2010 preview posts, just to keep consistency.  Damn unions.

See ya.

Yeah, I know, it’s the off-season.

So the season is officially over.  You can smell the desperation of a true football fan when they are already discussing the NFL draft, despite it not starting until 22 April.  I, as yet, am not yet at that stage.

Give NFL.com time to come up with a few mock drafts and I’ll be all over it.

However, as I’m not there yet, I’m gonna be bold and ambitious and do a weird sorta team-by-team preview (one-a-day…ish), which’ll include how they fared this past year, what their free agent situation is, what they need to acquire in the offseason, etc.  It will be alphabetical on the basis that otherwise I’d do all the interesting teams first and ignore the Bills and the Raiders.   I keeed.

I can’t promise it’ll be comprehensive, but with any luck it’ll be fun.  So, prepare thyselves for *checks Wikipedia for the alphabetically first NFL team* my first post: Arizona!

See ya.

Check this out.

Ahem.

To the three or so people who are even aware that this blog exists, I implore you to read and support the following shindig.  Talented musician and excellent Simply Syndicated podcaster Craig Bevan is currently partaking in the UK’s Live and Unsigned competition.  Check it:

:::::::PRESS RELEASE:::::::

Craig Bevan from Leeds has wowed the judging panel and sailed through the audition stage of Live and Unsigned.  Craig will now be competing against the other most talented bands and artists in the country at the live shows of Live and Unsigned 2010 – all in a bid to be signed!

Craig battled against hundreds of auditionees to secure a spot in the live shows and now has the opportunity to prove that he is the best in the region.  Acts that have made it through auditions will now take part in a live head to head battle in front of thousands of spectators and a professional judging panel to progress to the Live and Unsigned Festival at the 02 in London.

Live and Unsigned is the biggest original music competition in the UK for unsigned bands and artists. Attracting over 30, 000 entries in the past three years, it has set itself apart from its predecessors by offering and promoting originality.  It’s now established as the definitive music competition for original acts and is open to all genres of music from Heavy Rock to Rap.

Chris Grayston, Events Director of Live & Unsigned explains “This competition really is worlds apart from X Factor and other TV talent contests – we’re all about originality, Live ability and credibility.  We don’t accept demos or submissions and everyone auditions live.  We’ve got some fantastic prizes up for grabs this year in a £60, 000 prize pool so there’s a lot of opportunity for everyone entering and not just the winners – that, along with the Festival means 2010 will be the biggest competition yet!”

All the acts that audition in the competition are battling it out for the chance to play at the Live and Unsigned Festival at the 02 in London! Which gives acts the chance to perform at the ultimate live music venue in the country.  The overall winner of the competition is offered a recording and management contract with Future Music with an investment of up to £30, 000 to release their single.  The winners will be crowned the UK’s best unsigned act in front of a capacity crowd on the main stage of the festival.  A&R and celebrity judges last year include former Sex Pistols Manager Malcolm McLaren, pop RnB star Dane Bowers and Radio 1’s Annie Nightingale.  Radio 1 DJ Greg James has already confirmed for 2010.

Acts will of course be competing for two main prizes, which include a management contract with Future Music and the opportunity to design and develop their own clothing range with Extreme State.  On route the competition offers a comprehensive winners prize pool and acts will have the opportunity to win some fantastic prizes including Marshall state of the art amps, development through recording studio time in some of the UK’s finest studios and seminars and courses with ICMP.  Other goodies up for grabs include an Extreme Element experience day, a year’s worth of Extreme State clothing and MUZU.TV will be contributing an all expenses paid trip to Dublin to film a music video and play at a festival.

Previous winners of the competition include Kiddo 360 who went on to pick up a Vodafone Live Award, B-Kay and Kazz who broke into the top 30 charts and last year’s winners from Glasgow The Detours who have just signed an exclusive clothing deal with Extreme.

The winners of 2010 will be thrust into the media spotlight through television, radio and the press and will have the opportunity to tour the UK.  The tour involves as many as 100 gigs across the UK including the chance to perform live at some well-known festivals. One contestant who has caught the judge’s eye this year is local talent Craig Bevan, now competing in the Regional Final.  Craig made it through the auditions at The Willows in Salford, Manchester amongst hundreds that queued for their turn in front of the judges.  Craig is now preparing for the live show on the 7^th of March at The Willows for the opportunity to progress towards the Live and Unsigned festival at the O2 in London.

For more information go to the website www.LiveandUnsigned.UK.com. Or better still come down and support local talent; you can purchase tickets on the door or from Craig personally.

You can see some more stuff at craigbevanmusic.com.  Get involved!!

Cheers.

Saints 31-17 Colts

Wow.

I made a number of sweeping gestures in my earlier post about how this was gonna be a boring game.  The first quarter of last night’s game told me that I was spot on in my prediction.  The rest of the game spat on that prediction and told me to go fuck myself.

The Colts came out onto the field playing like the Colts we all know and despise.  Basically, they bitched all over the Saints’ D for 15 solid minutes.  After a well-earned field goal and a frankly impressive TD pass from Manning to Garcon, the game looked set to be a simple case of AFC>NFC.

The second quarter was a completely different story.  I know the commentators and analysts were all over this little stat like a frickin’ rash, but the Colts only had 6 offensive plays in the entire second quarter.  Six!  The Saints settled into an easy rhythm, with Brees throwing the short passes all over the field and the running game making short but important yardage when it needed to.  It only got ‘em 2 field goals, which is a little disappointing from all that possession, but it could’ve been worse after a failed 4th-down attempt at the Colts’ 1-yard line late in the quarter.

Half-time came, some wrinkly people hoarsely coughed into a microphone for 10 minutes, and we were back to game on.

This is where I give Sean Payton some fuckin’ credit.  The man’s got stones.

The Saints had rhythm going into the half, and I guess they really wanted to keep that going, as the opening kick off by the Saints was a nifty onside kick that caused the biggest ball pile-up I have ever seen.  I think even some coaches got involved.  There were definitely a few refs down there wrasslin’ for the ball.  Anyway, the long and short of it is that the Saints actually got the ball back, after about 15 minutes of three 180lb guys trying to physically lift fifteen 300lb guys off of each other.  So Brees was back in the hot seat, and Sean Payton looks like a fucking genius.

Now I know in these circumstances that the situation arises where, if they get it back, the coach is God’s gift to football, and if they don’t then he’s a game-throwing loser.  But hey, the Saints just wanted that ball back.  They wanted to keep Manning on the sideline looking like a dejected Herman Munster with a Colts cap on.  And boy, did they capitalise.  A damn-near perfect screen pass to Pierre (what’s with all the Pierre’s in this game?) Thomas gives the Saints 7 points that they desperately needed, and they had the lead.

Colts drive next, and at this point its worth giving some credit to the Colts’ offense.  The drive immediately following Thomas’ TD drive ended up in Addai picking up a TD on a four-yard run.  The big thing I gotta say about that though, is that it was a nearly flawless 76-yard TD drive.  Most teams are lucky if they get one drive a game as good as that.  The Colts had two, as Garcon’s TD in the first quarter was the culmination of a 96-yard drive!  So there was some great, great play from the Colts in this game, no doubt.

However, that was the last time the Colts got on the scoreboard, and some very time-draining drives, another field goal,and a TD catch from douchebag tight end Jeremy Shockey meant that the Saints ended up with a 24-17 lead in the fourth quarter.  The Colts attempted to claw back some points, but a rare mistake by Manning three minutes from time gave Tracy Porter an important pick, which he returned for an amazing 74-yard TD.  31-17.

Game over.

So to conclude my over-lengthy SB recap, I can see that my prediction was way, way off.  I guess the game was made interesting as a result of the early lead by Indianapolis.  It meant the Saints had to rally to get back in the game and that certainly lent some excitement to proceedings.  But, it was also really good just to watch two fantastic teams play each other.  May next year’s Super Bowl be just as exciting.