Week 12 Recap

Hey Peeps and anyone else checking in. A special "Hey" goes out to Hazel Mae.

So Week 12 is almost in the books - what have we learned?

Well, first off - defensive coordinators around the NFL have caught up to the league's managers; Ben Roethlisberger, David Garrard, Rex Grossman and Jake Plummer all lost this week, the latter has lost his job to a rookie. While managers won this week - Brad Johnson, J.P. Losman and Joey Harrington - all you have to do is look at their records to see that for the most part they are .500 teams. In the case of the Bears, questions are being raised about whether or not Grossman is the guy to get it done for them - unfortunately for Bears' fans, Option B is Brian Griese who isn't exactly what you would call a playmaker.

When it comes right down to it - I don't think the league's managers have the collective respect of their teammates to be looked at as real leaders. You can't win consistently if your QB isn't a playmaker - ask the Pittsburgh Steelers, the defending champs who are going to miss the playoffs this year. The stars lined up for Roethlisberger and the Steelers last year - but the league has caught up to this guy, and are making HIM beat them.

Roethlisberger, Grossman, Plummer - all front runners who manage games when their teams get a lead, but all pretty much incapable of bringing their teams back from deficits.

Second, this week was very telling in terms of teams that were thought to be contenders:

• The Broncos have pretty much given up on their season - with the announcement that Jay Cutler will be starting for Jake Plummer against Seattle, it is pretty evident that Shanahan knows he isn't going to get it done this year and is going to start planning for the future.
  
  
• The Giants collapse to the Titans, giving up 24 points in the 4th quarter en route to their third straight loss, pretty much tells you where this team is going. The Giants are banged up, but so are a lot of teams - playoff teams, contending teams, championship calibre teams find a way to get it done; the Giants haven't, and task master Coughlan is calling out his star QB for poor decision making.
  
  
• The Carolina Panthers can't be taken seriously - by anyone. Some football analysts were warning that the Panthers were capable of stringing a few wins together and being a factor in the NFC this year - not when you drop one to a Redskins' team without their best RB and their number one QB.
  
  
• As Dennis Green so aptly put it - "The Bears are who we thought we were, the Bears are the Bears, they are who we thought they were." Yet another Bears team with a great defence and an inconsistent offence that can't be trusted to show up week in and week out. The Bears 9-2 is primarily thanks to their weak schedule - they aren't as good as their record would have you believe. They forced FIVE New England turnovers and still couldn't get it done - paper tigers if you ask me.
  

We'll leave it at that for now and pick things up again later.

HAZEL'S THREE STARS
Asante Samuel of the New England Patriots leads off today's list. Samuel had three picks and they all influenced the game - he picked one off in Chicago end, he picked one deep in New England's end to prevent a score and his last pick put the game away for New England.

I know this one won't be popular with Pats' fans - but Indy RB Joseph Addai had a great game against the Eagles. Addai carried the ball 24 times for 171 yards and 4 TDs. That's got to count for something.

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Johan Holmqvist stopped 22 of 23 shots fired at him to lead Tampa to a 3-1 victory over the SenaTards - you know the rule when it comes to beating the Tards...you will ALWAYS get plenty of coverage here.


MONDAY'S THREE PLAY
We had an up and down kind of day yesterday, starting the day at + 330 for the week and finishing the day - $95 to leave the sheet at + $235. The Sabres and Colts both winning means that we made a few bucks on the day to finish the week at + $385. Our overall total for the first four weeks of the Three Play is + $715, which isn't bad.

New Jersey over Los Angeles - Devils are off to a tough start on the western road trip, expect them to get well tonight against the Kings. Lay $75 on New Jersey - $160.

Seattle -10 over Green Bay - Likely Favre's last Monday night game, blah blah - Seattle beats up on a bad Green Bay team tonight. Lay $50 on the Seahawks.

There you have it peeps - have a great one!

HAZEL'S MONDAY HOROSCOPE
You can do no wrong today so get things out of the way. Say what needs to be said and move on and upward. It's your time, so enjoy the moment. 4 stars

Hazel, I hope things are groovy in your world.

Song of the day on Hazelspeeps - wake up song this morning

Flagpole Sitter - Harvey Danger

Peesth Out...Buh Bye!