Sllaacs Picks - Week 3 - Aaron Rodgers Arm, John Kitna's Head, JaMarcus Russells' Arm and Head

So I took the arm of John Kitna over the arm of Aaron Rodgers.  Looked OK up until the fourth quarter.  So with info from that game last week filed away in the old Brain Box, I submit my picks: 

Dallas @ Green Bay.  I think the popular pick would be to take the Packers at home in this game, but I will take Dallas for the simple fact that they are the better team, and have the best receiver in the NFL - Terrell Owens.  30-17, Cowboys win.

Raiders @ Buffalo.  The Bills are 2-0 against bad teams (Seattle and Jacksonville), but their defense looked good in both games.  Despite the victory over the horrible Chiefs last week, and the wonderful distraction that is RAIDER MANAGEMENT, Oakland will get blown out in N.Y. to the tune of 28-12, Bills win. I think we can look for more Alex Smith-like numbers from J. Russell in this game, and more blame on the receivers.  

Let's just watch when, how and where JaMarcus delivers the ball on each pass attempt and ask ourselves how many Hall of Famers Brett Favre has thrown to over his career.  Here is a short list* of some of Favre's most notable receivers:

TD's

Antonio Freeman 57

Sterling Sharpe  41 

Donald Driver  36

Robert Brooks   32

Bubba Franks  29

JAVON WALKER   19

Mark Chmura   16

Dorsey Levens   16

Greg Jennings 14

William Henderson 13

Keith Jackson   11

Edgar Bennett  10

Don Beebe 4

Mark Clayton 3

Andre Rison   1

 

*the above is an Arbitrary Listing, for complete stats, CLICK HERE.

In the end, it's all about the Quarterback.  David Carr has a career 59.7 completion pct. and led the NFL in 2006, before being relegated to the bench last year in Carolina - largely due to mobility "problems", read; shitty Offensive Lines.  Who was he throwing to when he was with the Texans?  Exactly.

Detroit @ San Francisco.  Here is one game the Niners SHOULD win, (Might be a long while before you read that type of statement regarding SF in this blog again).  The Lions gave up 34 points to the woeful Dirty Birds, then gave up 48 to the Pack, ( That latter game being blown out of proportion a bit since Kitna went nuts with the throwing of the picks).  Point is, Offensively or Defensively the Lions have a 50-year history of giving up points to opponents at a rate that stunts the hell out the teams' annual efforts for success.  Right now in Detroit, you already got receivers bitching about Martz being fired and the Lions running too much.  

No matter how often we bitch about the current state of our teams in the Bay Area, at least we're not living in Michigan.  In short; the Lions sucked, suck and will suck some more.  

Niners win, 35-17.

P.S. Heard a rumor on KNBR 680 AM (SF):  Kiffin won't be fired until the Raiders lose one.  So, this Monday, 6am Eastern Time?

Sllaacs

Carrying the Torch

As a sports fan, I love the Olympics.

As a UC Santa Cruz alumnus, I hate hippies. They're the reason everyone thinks Santa Cruz is flaky and stupid. I once had an encyclopedia salesman, sitting in a booth at the Contra Costa County Fair in 1992, ask me if Santa Cruz wasn't a "hippie farm."

Well, it's fucking not. And neither is San Francisco, despite what Fox News tells you.

But this picture says it all. A bunch of white hippies waving Tibet flags and smelling bad. The worst was a stupid cliche of a girl I saw wearing baggie pants under an embroidered skirt, walking around with a stoned, smug look on her face and tearing up a plastic, Chinese flag. Oh, she was also wearing, with no apparent recognition of the irony whatsoever, a NorthFace jacket.

Most of the people down there are Chinese-Americans from San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area who are stoked to have the Olympics in the country of their forefathers and mothers. The last thing they need is a bunch of white assholes trying to assuage their guilt over Iraq and Guantanamo Bay by taking it out on China for, among other things (again with no trace of irony in their earnest sloganeering), torturing people.

Every day, I watch huge tankers floating towards Oakland to be unloaded. Those huge ships mainly come from China, and I've never once seen Richard Gere on the Embarcadero prostesting them.

Never once.

Update: SfGate.com has continuing coverage. They moved the route to the Marina toward the Golden Gate Bridge, prompting this bit of hysteria from Supervisor Aaron Peskin:

"Gavin Newsom runs San Francisco the way the premier of China runs his country - secrecy, lies, misinformation, lack of transparency and manipulating the populace," Peskin said. "He misled supporters and opponents of the run. People brought their families and their children, and (mayoral officials) hatched a cynical plan to please the Bush State Department and the Chinese government because of the incredible influence of money.

"He did it so China can report they had a great torch run," Peskin said. "It's the worst kind of government - government by deceit and misinformation."

Awesome. Come to think of it, I do seem to remember Gavin rolling tanks down Market Street to crush all the people protesting against Gay Marriage a few years ago. Just like the premier of China runs his country!

Turns out people can also hate the torch run because China is, after all, still "Red China:"

...[A] San Francisco man named Kevin Johnson, 48, walked into a crowd of torch supporters and began yelling, "Communists!" The crowd encircled Johnson and the confrontation escalated when Johnson pulled a Chinese flag off a man's backpack. Then, someone grabbed Johnson's throat and another person punched him in the face before police intervened and walked him to safety.

"I know it sounds racist, but if they want the Olympics in China they should go back to China," he said.

You're right, Kevin, it does sound racist. You ignorant prick.

Look, I get it, people love the Dalai Lama. I even own a Mac. But I still think we Americans should solve our own problems before we start pointing our fingers at other countries.

The best sign I saw all day was being carried by a man in a suit down California Street that said, "First things First: U.S. Out of Iraq."

A's vs. Boston in Japan - A Horrible and Complicated Waste of Time

The Oakland Athletics played in Japan against the Boston Red Sox in a two-game exhibition that actually counts in the American League Standings. The series turned out to be a split, which was good for both teams, as Japan is a long way to go to get swept. Amazing waste of time though. The Japanese know all about Baseball by now, I think, and there is absolutely no need to send MLB teams there to play at all, let alone in games that count in the standings. But it was done - Damn you, Bud Selig. With that money-grabbing crap-fest over, the A's and Red Sox will come back to the U.S. to play out the rest of Spring Training before beginning the regular season again. So if you are keeping score at home, that's; U.S. Spring Training, Fly to Japan for Spring Training, Open the Regular Season in Japan, Fly back to the States, Continue Spring Training, Start Regular Season again.

Awesome.

Richie Harden looked as impressive as always, which means that if his history holds true, he will pitch like Cy Young right up until he gets injured for the season.

And can the Giants look worse? That team is going to be a spectacle to behold in S.F. this year.

Sllaacs