Don't Get Too Excited About Week 3

Week 3 in the NFL was a sensational one ... that is already being way too sensationalized. Brett Favre is 28, not 38! The defending champs are no more! Tom Brady is great again! Drew Brees is a schlub, but Pierre Thomas will carry New Orleans all the way! (Okay, nobody's said that, but after what Brees didn't do for my fantasy team this week, I'm bitter.) Here's a few things to keep in mind when sifting through your NFL stories this week.

The NFC North looked strong at 4-0 this week ... But most divisions could do that with 3 games against the NFC West and 1 against the Redskins.

Titans and Dolphins apologists will tell you at 0-3, all is not yet lost. They're wrong. The Dolphins have to catch up to two AFC title contenders in their division and the Titans have to go 12-1 to catch up to the perennial 12-win Colts. Some food for thought for Tennessee fans: your schedule hasn't been that though. Neither the Steelers nor the Texans have a win outside of their game against you.

ESPN is going to try all week to convince you Terrell Owens is on the verge of a major breakdown in Buffalo. I don't like T.O. (pictured, right), but his press conference after the Bills' loss to the Saints made me angry, and not towards him. Terrible, terrible journalism. I've never heard so many loaded questions in my life.

Darrius Heyward-Bey is already being labeled as a colossal first round bust. For where he was taken in this year's NFL Draft, Heyward-Bey has been and will continue to be a bust. However, everyone knew that ahead of time, so is it fair? Did Heyward-Bey come out and say he was the best wide receiver in the draft? Or was he just a late first round prospect that the Raiders stupidly took at number 7? You already know this answer. Having the single worst starting quarterback in the NFL can't help his chances either.

Image source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/Terrell%20Owens%20Bills/Blainorama/terrell-owens2.jpg

Mock Draft: Picks 25-32

This is the end of the summary of the mock draft we held on Monday. The draft is officially less than 48 hours from now, so this is all I will say about it. Here's wishing the best possible pick to hometown Darrius Heyward-Bey, and let's see some trades. Trades are exciting. 

25. Miami Dolphins

Herman: Evander Brown (DT, Missouri)

Radecki: Vontae Davis (CB, Illinois)

Kiper: Malcolm Jenkins (CB, Ohio State)

McShay: Kenny Britt (WR, Rutgers)

Wright: Everette Brown (DE, Florida State)

- Notes: Another one with all five of us disagreeing, which shows one of two things: either A) the Dolphins are for real from last year and they don't have many holes and can draft for best player available, or B) the Dolphins last year were complete flukes and have tons of holes. I'm going for B. 

26. Baltimore Ravens

Herman: Darrius Heyward-Bey (WR, Maryland)

Radecki: Eben Britton (OT, Arizona)

Kiper: Vontae Davis (CB, Illinois)

McShay: Rey Maualuga (ILB, USC)

Wright: Darrius Heyward-Bey

- Notes: All of these make sense. Heyward-Bey is the tall, fast receiver the Ravens need. Britton would add stability to the right tackle position that the Ravens desperately need. Ozzie Newsome has already hinted at taking a corner in the first round, and Davis is a great talent. If Maualuga is still there, he will be hard to pass up. 

27. Indianapolis Colts

Herman: Clay Matthews (OLB, USC)

Radecki: Peria Jerry (DT, Mississippi)

Kiper: Peria Jerry

McShay: Evander Hood

Wright: Peria Jerry

- Notes: Defense, and more specifically, defensive tackle, is the running theme here. Only I, who thinks that Clay Matthews is too much of a value to pass up here, doesn't have the Colts taking the best defensive tackle available. 

28. Buffalo Bills

Herman: Eben Britton

Radecki: Phil Loadholt (OT, Oklahoma)

Kiper: Eben Britton

McShay: Eben Britton

Wright: Phil Loadholt

- Notes: Sense another theme? Getting rid of Peters makes tackle a glaringly obvious need here. Tyler and Wright had Britton off the board by now, or else I'm sure he would have been the pick. 

29. New York Giants

Herman: Hakeem Nicks (WR, North Carolina)

Radecki: Hakeem Nicks

Kiper: Hakeem Nicks

McShay: Hakeem Nicks

Wright: Percy Harvin (WR, Florida)

- Notes: Another seemingly obvious pick. Nicks would fill the void that Plaxico Burress's jailing will leave, and Harvin will give the Giants a dynamic playmaker. 

30. Tennessee Titans

Herman: Alphonso Smith (CB, Wake Forest)

Radecki: Darius Butler (CB, Connecticut)

Kiper: Percy Harvin

McShay: Vontae Davis

Wright: Darius Butler

- Notes: Wider receiver and cornerback are the biggest needs for the Titans, and it's not even close. However, wide receiver has been a need for such a long time, it's hard to see them finally addressing that need now, so cornerback is the choice for most. 

31. Arizona Cardinals

Herman: Larry English (OLB, Northern Illinois)

Radecki: Knowshon Moreno (RB, Georgia)

Kiper: Larry English

McShay: Donald Brown (RB, Connecticut)

Wright: Chris "Beanie" Wells (RB, Ohio State)

- Notes: If Wells is still there at 31 for the Cardinals, they may seize up out of pure joy. More likely they will go for a runningback like Brown, or they may take the risk and go for Larry English, an underrated pass rush out of Northern Illinois.

32. Pittsburgh Steelers

Herman: Alex Mack (C, California)

Radecki: Alex Mack

Kiper: Eric Wood (C, Louisville)

McShay: Max Unger (C, Oregon)

Wright: Vontae Davis

- Notes: Center is the likely choice for Pittsburgh here, although is Davis is still on the board, Pitt definitely could take him to add a quality cornerback. 

And that's that. I'll be following this up on Sunday with the winner and percentages for everyone. Just so everyone knows up front, this is how scoring will work. One point for every player taken in the spot the drafter said he would be taken in. Once again, we're going to work off numbers here, not teams. That's how I'm getting rid of the trade aspect. I'm intrigued to see how this pans out. 

Notable Pictures from the Weekend

I want you to get the context of this picture. I took it while on the bus, so I was sitting on the right side. It was as we were making a left turn. As you can see, the light was red, but we were turning anyway. The cop there is stopping traffic so we could pass. I think everyone that saw the bus pass by thought we were the actual players. 

Suggs; to get his attention, I actually yelled out "Hey, Sizzle!" I think he enjoyed that. 

Very nice and respectable pre-game

About this time, the "Let's Go Ravens" chant you heard started. 

If you want more pictures, check out my facebook. If you don't have one, or aren't friends with me on facebook, leave me a comment with your e-mail address, and I would be more than happy to send some to you. There were about 60 total, including some more good ones with players (Ngata, Mason, McGahee, McClain, Flacco, Johnson, Washington), and some shots of and around the hotel in which we stayed. 

Weekend Recap: VIP Style

This weekend, as some of you know, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Ravens-Miami game in Miami as a "Ravens VIP." It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I tried posting pictures with this, but I guess it would be too long, so I'm just going to asterisk things that have a picture to go with them and do a post immediately after this with the pictures I wanted. 

First, there was the so-called "VIP" treatment, which usually involves getting like a bagel and cream cheese on the flight (we did get that, by the way). The Ravens don't mess around with VIP, though. VIP means walking down stairs from the plane on to one of three coach buses. 

VIP also means police escorts. Meaning six police cars in a constant rotation around the three buses, blocking intersections*. 

And, of course, happenstance, not the Ravens, guaranteed this one, but being in Miami in January was nice, too. 

VIP also meant - and we didn't know this at the time - that we were staying in the same hotel as the Ravens. They checked in through the basement, so we didn't see them then. However, my sister and I stalked the hotel lobby from 4 to 6 and saw practically every player on his way out with other guys or a date out to dinner. 

A couple notes about the players, now. The nicest were Suggs (who actually stopped while he was in a hurry somewhere to take a picture*), Mason (who thanked us for coming down to support the team), and McGahee (the only Raven besides Flacco to smile). The rudest? Corey Ivy. As if he wasn't terrible enough on the field - and he's too small, slow, and weak to play in the NFL - the guy cussed out a little kid asking for his autograph. 

Side note here: Also in the group were some of the players' wives and, presumably because of his good friendship with Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, Maryland basketball Coach Gary Williams. Williams couldn't have been ruder. We were in line at the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting to go through security, and somehow Williams ended up in line between me and my father. The line wasn't moving anywhere, Gary didn't have anything to do or anyone to talk to, and we weren't rude. We tried talking to him like he was anyone else that was in line with us. We just introduced ourselves, and I told him I was a Maryland student and a big fan. No "How's school? How's classes? You like it? Go Terps?" anything. Just an "Okay." I congratulated him on the Charlotte victory. Got a noncommittal head nod. Told him I was excited to attend the GT game this Saturday afternoon, and how it was fortunate the Ravens game wasn't until 4:30 so I could do both. Got a grunt about how GT plays them tough. What? I'm a student at your school and wasn't bothering you. But anyway.

Another note about the players, and this is the biggest cliche I'll give you tonight. They're huge. You knew that, I know. You don't know how big, though, until you get next to them in street clothes. Terrell Suggs could very well be the most jacked human being on this planet. And I kid you not when I tell you that one of Haloti Ngata's legs is about the width of both of mine put together. 

The rest of the weekend went as I expected it would. We went to the game. Miami, for their credit, was rocking that stadium at the beginning of the game. It was louder than it is in M&T Bank Stadium most Sundays, although a few extra thousand people couldn't have hurt that. They also did a nice pre-game ceremony, with Darius Rucker singing the national anthem and a field-sized flag stretched out*. 

I will say, though, Dolphin fans - probably because they don't go to their regular season games - are some of the least intelligent in the NFL. I had one guy to my left trying to convince me the Ravens got lucky when they beat the Dolphins by two touchdowns earlier in the year. After Derrick Mason's catch with about a minute left in the first half, a guy diagonal from me was screaming his head off about "throwing the flag" and couldn't comprehend when I told him that they couldn't do that. After Chad Pennington threw the incompletion on 3rd and 26 towards the end of the game, nobody around me knew that the force-out rule wasn't even in the NFL anymore, so it was a rightful incompletion. Also, Miami fans can secure season tickets next year by only paying a $100 dollar deposit. In Baltimore, you have to wait on a list for about 15 years, and that's not even near the longest in the NFL. One final note about their fans: they don't know when to cheer. They were louder while the team was on offense than on defense, and after the team got down, they stopped cheering for pretty much the rest of the game, save the Ronnie Brown touchdown grab. That being said, it didn't matter, because, by the end of the game, it was all Ravens fans anyway*. 

My actual game analysis will be in my next post, either today or tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures. 

Looking Back

With so many sports going on at once, how can you keep track of them all? You don't have to, but I will. Every Monday* I will look back and hit briefly upon the five story lines that stuck out from the previous weekend. *Editor's note: I know it's Tuesday, and this happened twice in a row. Forgive me. 

1. It's a shame that Texas Tech-Texas was on Saturday night, because I was not able to watch it. College students go out on Saturday nights. I was at a Halloween party. If this game was on a Saturday afternoon, I would have watched and most certainly enjoyed. But I digress.

What a terrific game with such enormous implications. In one amazing catch and run by Michael Crabtree (pictured), so many things happened at once that it is hard to believe. Instantly, all my gushing about Colt McCoy goes for naught; Graham Harrell one-upped him. Texas is now no longer a lock for the national championship; Texas Tech is now slated for the game with Alabama. If Texas Tech loses any more games, the Big 12 - by far the best conference in America - will probably be devoid of a team. 

2. The NBA season tipped off, and then people realized that they don't care about the NBA until March at least. Although one blockbuster deal already happened - Allen Iverson to the Pistons and Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess to the Nuggets - you can tell by looking around arenas everywhere that even die-hard NBA fans don't care about their teams yet. Nonetheless, listen for a preview tomorrow.

3. Did baseball happen? I don't remember a season that was so quickly forgotten about before this one. The Phillies had their glory for two days, highlighted by Chase Utley's "World ____ing Champions" (warning: explicit content), and since then we haven't seen any "season in review" or anything like that. I suppose it was such an odd season that people didn't know how to revisit it, so they just didn't. Can't say I'm really upset.

4. These NFL happenings get me excited for the rest of the season:

- The AFC East race: Is Miami the best team that just happens to have the worst record?

- The NFC South race: Will either the Bucs or Falcons have enough to hang with the Panthers?

- The AFC North race: Can Baltimore continue to make Pittsburgh nervous?

- The NFC East race: Will the Giants lose enough to give the Eagles and Redskins a chance?

5. These NFL 

happenings I have already heard too much about it and will continue to:

- Rex Grossman has to play a few games because Kyle Orton is hurt.

- Derek Anderson (pictured) is terrible and Cleveland made a decision they should have made in Week 4.

- The Colts and the Jags are playing below expectations. They've been playing that way for 8 weeks and probably will continue to.

- Anything about the Cowboys

(Photo Credits: AP)