There's Only One Way To Stop The Patriots or Colts

I don't mean to add to the hype surrounding this weekend's game between the undefeated Patriots and undefeated Colts this weekend, but let's be honest, it really is the only game this regular season that matters. They're the only two teams in the NFL that are playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The other 30 teams in the NFL are just jockeying for draft position.

If you've watched either team play this season, it should be obvious to you. Nobody can touch either of them. The Patriots are beating teams by an average score of 41-16. The 331 points they've scored in their first eight games is more points than Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, and St. Louis Rams have scored combined. Hell, they've almost outscored their entire division.

The Colts on the other hand, are undefeated as well, but they're only averaging a meager 32 points per game. Which helps explain why even though they're the defending champs, and haven't lost a game this season, they're currently 6 point underdogs at home against New England next week.

The Patriots and Bill Belichick have also taken a lot of heat around the league for "running up the score." On Sunday against the Redskins, the Patriots had a 38-0 lead at the end of three quarters, but that didn't stop them from throwing deep in the fourth quarter and trying to put more points on the board. It didn't stop them from going for it on fourth down either. They'd end the game winning by a score of 52-7.

As you'd expect, a couple of Redskins took exception to it. After the game Joe Gibbs said he didn't have a problem with what the Patriots did, but after the game ended he barely looked at Belichick as they shook hands, and Gibbs got the hell out of there.

Personally, I don't think it's possible to run up the score in the NFL. If it's a college game, and it's Michigan playing Appalachian State LSU playing Eastern Michigan and still trying to put points on the board in the fourth quarter even though they have a 72-0 lead, that's running up the score.

In the NFL though, it can't happen. These guys are all professionals. If you want a team to stop putting points on the board, stop them. That's all you can do.

Still, I completely understand why it's pissing teams off, and I wonder if Bill Belichick is really thinking this through. I mentioned it in last week's Spread Em, that the only way other teams have a chance to beat the Patriots is to take out Tom Brady. Everybody knows this, but these aren't the days of Butkus and Nitschke, nobody is going to try and kill Brady on purpose.

At least, they weren't going to try. The more the Patriots dominate their opponents, and embarrass them, the more likely it is to happen. At some point, somebody is going to snap and dive right at Tom Brady's knees.

They'll take the 15-yard penalty, and they'll take the fine, because in the end it's worth it. Without Tom Brady playing quarterback, the Patriots are just an average NFL team.

The same could be said about the Colts and Peyton Manning, but nobody hates the Colts enough to try and do it.

The question becomes, would it be acceptable to intentionally try and take out Brady?

In my opinion, hell yes it would. I'm not the only one that feels this way either. Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post and Pardon the Interruption agrees. He was asked about it in an online chat yesterday, and he admitted as much.

Tom Brady's Knee: I can understand Bill Belichick's desire to crush every team in the NFL, but why keep your franchise QB in there to do it? One cheap shot helmet to the knee and it's goodbye Super Bowl unless Cassell suddenly gets good.

Michael Wilbon: You're absolutely right. And if I was on the opposing team, I'd hit Tom Brady with everything I had as late as I could and take the penalty and join the fight that would surely follow. Football is a violent game and there's got to be somebody out there sharpening his fans for the Patriots Golden Boy in the 4th quarter one of these weeks.

I just want to make one thing clear though, I don't mean dive at his knees. Wilbon also made that clear later in the chat as well. I don't think that teams should take cheap shots at Brady and intentionally try and injure him, I just mean they need to do everything in their power to knock him out.

Think of the 85 Bears for a second. What was that defense's main objective? They weren't shy about telling you that their goal was to take out the quarterback. Knock his ass out, and when they bring in the backup, knock his ass out too.

This is what current NFL defenses need to do.

If you're a defensive lineman, and you have a shot to hit Brady right now, you have to put everything you have behind it, and lay him out. Drive him into the ground with your weight on top of him. Maybe you'll get lucky and dislocate his shoulder.

The one flaw with this theory though, is that you have to get to Tom Brady first. Have you seen his numbers this season? They're absolutely mind-boggling. Look at this line.

• Passing yards - 2,431
• Completion Per. - 74.2% (74.2%!)
• Passing TD's - 30
• Rushing TD's - 2
• Interceptions - 2
• Rating - 136.2

That's absolutely insane. The man is responsible for 32 touchdowns, and he's only thrown two interceptions. Do you know why his numbers are so amazing?

Because he isn't getting touched.

That's the flaw of the "Kill Tom Brady" strategy. Nobody can get to him. The Patriots offensive line is just wiping out defensive lines and linebackers. It seems that everytime Brady drops back into the pocket, he has about a minute and a half to find somebody open.

So that means every opportunity is crucial. If you have a shot to hit Tom Brady, even if it's late, you have to take it at this point. If you have a shot to hit Peyton Manning, you have to take it.

It's the only way anybody in the NFL has a chance to beat either of these two teams. If they don't do it, the rest of this NFL season will serve absolutely no purpose except for gambling reasons and fantasy football.

Though there are plenty of people who will tell you that's all the NFL is for in the first place.

Foul Balls

Brian Urlacher has a blog - Brian Urlacher and I have a lot in common. We're both athletic freaks, and we're both big time celebrities in Chicago. But there's another thing we have in common right now as Urlacher has started his own blog. You may have noticed that Urlacher has been pretty short with the Chicago media lately, limiting himself to one word answers, and kinda just being a dick. So he's started this new blog as a way to communicate with his fans, and answer questions from Fox Sports' Jay Glazer.

You’re at home against a terrible road team and you didn’t just lose, they walked through your defense. Is this as low as it gets for you?

This has been one of the most frustrating times of my career. The feeling after a loss like yesterday is terrible. It’s an awful feeling. You know going in that you have a great game plan but we don’t execute it. The coaches had a great plan for us, we just messed it up. We’re so inconsistent on both sides of the ball. Defensively? One day we stop the run, the next game we don’t but we do stop the pass. The next time out we’ll stop the run again but we can’t stop the pass.

I've no idea whether or not he's going to start posting YouTube videos of people getting hit in the nuts. Until then, he'll never be a real blogger.

Boras and A-Rod Are Douchebags - Scott Boras and Alex Rodriguez are taking a lot of heat right now for the timing of A-Rod's announcement he was opting out of his contract with the Yankees. They had ten days after the end of the World Series to decide what to do, and they chose to make the announcement during the middle of game 4 on Sunday night.

You see, they wanted to upstage the sports biggest showcase. Because, in case you weren't aware of it, they are more important than the game. As you'd expect, MLB is slightly upset by it.

"We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement," Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

"There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game," DuPuy said. "Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series."

I'm not sure I understand all the uproar though. Haven't we always known that Boras and Rodriguez are douchebags? Is this a shock to most people? Personally, the only way I'd have been surprised is if Rodriguez didn't find a way to steal the spotlight away from the World Series.

Oh, and Cubs fans? He's not coming here, so don't fool yourselves.

Donovan McNabb Plays The Race Card

I've always been a fan of Donovan McNabb - I even own a jersey - but his latest comments have caused me to lose a little respect for him.

If you were strong enough to survive last night's Redskins victory over the Eagles on Monday Night Football, you know why McNabb is taking a lot of heat in Philadelphia this morning. I mean, you can pick any one of the open receivers McNabb repeatedly overthrew, but I think the most important was the throw he missed that could have sent the game to overtime.

Philly's 0-2 and McNabb has looked bad. It's not fair to grill him because he's playing hurt, but it's Philadelphia. He's going to get booed. He should know that, but apparently Donovan sees another reason he's treated the way he is.

"There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra," McNabb tells HBO. "Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn't want us to play ... is low, so we do a little extra."

"I pass for 300 yards, our team wins by seven, [mimicking] 'Ah, he could've made this throw, they would have scored if he did this."

That's a quote from McNabb that will appear tonight on HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel."

Yes, Donovan, you're right. The only reason you're criticized is because you're a black quarterback. That never happens to the white quarterbacks. I mean, you never hear about Rex Grossman in the media. Chad Pennington never catches crap from Jets fans, all they do is cheer when he leaves the field with an injury.

Nobody ever gave Peyton Manning any flak before he won the Super Bowl.

Eli Manning? Giants fans love him!!

No, it's only the black quarterbacks like Donovan McNabb who are torn apart in the media. Shame on us.

Peyton Manning Is Gonna Whoop Tiki Barber's Ass

Move over, Lauren and Heidi, you are so yesterday, there's a way cooler new feud over at Peyton Place!

Oh my God, you haven't heard?

Okay, basically Tiki went on some pre-game show and dissed ex-teammate Eli, saying he lacked leadership skills, so, like, Eli freaks out and says some shit about Tiki not being such a great leader himself and that he was phoning it in last season, then Tiki gets all "What do you mean, I didn't give 100 percent, you spineless douchebag!"and then Eli realizes Tiki could snap his neck in two and backs off and everyone figures it's cool, then next thing you know, Peyton gets in Tiki's face, yelling, "Nobody messes with my baby brother, dickwad!"

Or something like that.

Here ya go, Peyton, get it off your chest.

“Ex-players truly become ex-players right away, the No. 1 job is to criticize players. I’m pretty defensive of all quarterbacks. Eli is my brother. I’m very loyal to my family. I’d rather you criticize me. I don’t think anybody knows what it’s like to be a quarterback except a current quarterback. Sometimes former quarterbacks forget what’s it’s like. You cannot play quarterback at any level — you’re in a leadership position. To do it for three years in high school, three years as a starter in college, taking your team to the playoffs — you are a leader and you’re a good leader.

“It’s supposed to be a code, teammates to teammates. That’s the problem we’re going to have with ex-players going to the media. When I retire, I know what I don’t want to do.”

Of course not, dude. You'd never stoop to be a media whore. You're way too classy for that.

Peyton Manning Is Funny

Most people know this already. All you have to do is turn on the television, and within five minutes you'll see an example of it.

So I made a point to record Saturday Night Live last night since Peyton was hosting, and I was not disappointed.

There were a few funny moments on the show, including Peyton dancing, but the funniest was easily the first skit of the show.

Peyton-SNL
Uploaded by tim4902

I know that, as a Bears fan who got to watch Manning pick his team apart in the Super Bowl, I should hate the guy. But I just can't. And it's not just because he's my quarterback on my fantasy team either. Though it helps.

Hooray for Scantily Clad Women

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is out today.

I'm not going to buy it, I mean, why would I when I can look at all the pictures in it right here for free? In fact, the only reason I mention it is so that I can post some gratuitous photos of half naked supermodels.

If you didn't already know, Beyonce is on the cover this year. If you don't believe us, look for yourself.

Here's a cool picture of Veronica Varekova. She's married to a hockey player, and hockey is half a sport, so it counts.

And of course, there's my favorite, Marisa Miller.

Of course, I'm going to have to do something about Marisa posing for pictures with Peyton Manning's guy, Kenny Chesney.

Peyton has been calling me all day in tears over this.

Super Bowl XLI Gave Us a New Peyton Manning

No, I don't mean the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, I'm talking about the newest Peyton Manning. The one in Decatur, Illinois.

Meet the man formerly known as Scott Wiese, who made a bet with his friends last Friday night.

Wiese... had pledged to his friends that if his beloved team did not win Super Bowl XLI on Sunday, he would legally change his name to the man who led the Indiana nemesis to victory. "A bunch of friends and I were talking one night before the game, and there was a little alcohol involved," said Wiese, 26. "I made the bet, and now I've got to keep it." ...Wiese had signed a solemn pledge in front of some 200 people Friday night in Katz Piano Bar in downtown Decatur.

Wiese Manning kept his end of the bargain, and on Tuesday he entered the Macon County Courthouse to have his name legally changed to Peyton Manning. That is just the first step in the process, though. Wiese Manning The Dumbass still has to appear before a judge and explain to him why he can't go on living as Scott Wiese.

I'd say explaining to the judge that Scott Wiese was stupid enough to make such an idiotic bet would be a good start as to why he no longer wants to be Scott Wiese.

(Photo courtesy of the Herald & Review)

Super Blow

I'm sitting here this morning still in a bit of a daze after yesterday's Super Bowl. I'm not even sure what I want to say about the game.

It sucked. I know that.

Maybe it was a good thing that the rain gave us all somewhat of a blurry picture throughout most of the game, saved me from seeing just how bad that was.

I'm sad, pissed off, and numb all at the same time.

There were so many things that I just didn't get while watching that game. Why didn't they give Thomas Jones more carries? He only averaged more than seven yards a carry. Why did the defense play so damn conservative? It was obvious pretty early that it wasn't going to work, Peyton was dinking and dunking to death.

The fact that the defense also seemed to forget how to tackle sure didn't help much either.

Then there was Rex.....

That was the Rex that couldn't show up in this game, but he did. He dropped two snaps, and threw two horrible interceptions. Rex basically did everything in his power to go out there and prove all of his doubters were 100% correct about him.

Yes, Rex is no doubt going to take the majority of the heat over this loss, which he should after the way he played. But this was the entire teams fault. (Ok, not Devin Hester. Thank God for Devin Hester.)

It was the defense's fault for being too conservative, not tackling, and just never getting the Colts offense off the field.

It's also the defensive line's fault. For the Bears conservative scheme in last night's game to work, the front four were going to have to put pressure on Peyton Manning. They couldn't do that. Manning had all day to find his receiver. The one time we got pressure on him early, he found Reggie Wayne wide open for a 53 yard touchdown pass. (Danieal Manning was too busy helping Urlacher and Briggs triple cover Dallas Clark for some reason.)

It was Ron Turner's fault for outdumbing himself. The key for the Bears offense to do well in this game was to not put it in Rex's hands, yet that's exactly what he did. From our very first snap on offense it should have been nothing but Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson.

From the start of the second quarter on, the Bears did absolutely nothing right, and they didn't deserve to win the game.

They got beat by the better team, and the much better quarterback.

So congratulations are in order for Peyton Manning, who I've always been a fan of, for finally getting his Super Bowl win that most of us thought he'd never get.

It would have been nicer if Manning could have gotten it next year, or done the John Elway thing, and wait until he's about to retire before doing it.

So, yeah.....when's Spring Training start again?

Bill Belichick is a Sore Loser

We've no doubt that Patriots coach Bill Belichick is a great coach. You don't have to look much further than the three rings on his fingers earned over the last five years.

But as a human being he tends to leave a little bit to be desired.

First there was the incident with Eric Mangini after the Patriots lost to the Jets earlier this season. He refused to shake his former assistant's hand cuz he was pissed at him for a whole lot of idiotic reasons. The foremost being, Mangini broke his heart.

Sunday night he did it again, blowing off Peyton Manning after the game.

Peyton stalled reporters for his post-game interviews looking for Belichick so he could shake his hand. He was also looking for Tom Brady, but Dreamboat ran off the field immediately to shake off the pain in Gisele's arms. (We can't blame him.)

When Manning finally found the coach, Belichick acted as if Manning wasn't even there. He didn't make any eye contact and instead just stuck his arm out, barely shook Peyton's hand (if ya blinked, you missed it) and kept going.

To Manning's credit, when interviewed after the game, he couldn't say enough about how classy the New England Patriots organization was. He even went as far to say wonderful things about Brady and Belichick, despite being blown off by both.

Then, during the "Losing Coach Interview," always done after a championship game, Belichick gave another of his classic performances.

Maybe LaDainian Tomlinson was right.

Peyton's Turn

Unlike a lot of the blogosphere, we don't hate Peyton Manning.

In fact, we like him.

Of course, a large reason is that he's the quarterback on our fantasy team, but even when he wasn't, we still liked him.

That's why, still drunk on the Bears' victory over the Saints, we were happy to see him finally win the "big game" that everyone long wondered if he was capable of.

Early in the second quarter, it seemed certain that wasn't going to happen. When Asante Samuel was returning an interception 39 yards to give the Patriots a 21-3 lead, we couldn't help thinking, "Christ, Peyton really is screwed in these games."

Then the Colts came out in the second half and staged the biggest comeback in championship game history.

Still, the Patriots led the Colts for the first 59 minutes of the game. But with one minute left Joseph Addai walked into the end zone to give the Colts a 38-34 lead.

Sixty seconds to see if Tom Brady could do it again.

He couldn't.

Marlon Jackson intercepted a Brady pass with 17 seconds left, and sent the Colts to the Super Bowl.

It's a wonderful story for Peyton Manning, Tony Dungy, and the rest of the Colts.

But we're hoping their wonderful story ends the same way the Saints' did.

And now begins the longest two weeks of our lifetime.