We’ve all had them. They are the weekends
where you leave work a bit early on Friday, take a look at
the schedule and realize that more than one of your teams
could make some serious noise. You’ve got a rivalry game,
a chance to move into first, or maybe a big fantasy matchup
coming your way. It’s a momentum swinger. If the weekend turns
out well then your entire month is made. If it goes poorly
then you just feel like packing up and going home. Well, I’m
coming off the latter choice right now. Going into the weekend
I had the chance to see the Cubs move into first place with
a sweep of the Pirates, the Gators move back into the top
15 if they could beat the Vols and a chance for my fantasy
football team to move from 3rd to 1st with a win over the
top team in the league.

Ahh for what could have been. The Cubbies
managed to drop back-to-back games to the Pirates, costing
them a chance to tie the Astros and make up ground on the
Marlins and Phillies. They did get it together behind Mark
Prior and Aramis Ramirez to salvage the split, but it’s still
a disappointment. Now, you can’t count on any Tony Larussa
team to keep it together down the stretch, so I wasn’t counting
on the Cardinals to help out the Cubs. (Incidentally, why
doesn’t anyone ever talk about Larussa choking down the stretch?
Bobby Cox gets some well deserved criticism, but face it,
what has Larussa done since 1989?) We all know that Tony’s
gonna find a way to choke in the big game, but amazingly enough
the Cards managed to win 2 of 3 on their home turf. That was
the silver lining. The Gators got crushed in the swamp by
the Vols and I didn’t even have cable to watch the game. So
that left Sunday to swing the weekend one way or the other.

Well, Sunday started off badly and got
worse. Priest Holmes scored 2 quick TDs against my fantasy
team and I kept watching the Steelers be unable to score.
By the end of the early games things were still close thanks
to big days by Eddie George and Mike Vanderjat, and I thought
I even had a chance. Then the choke artists came. After dominating
the Redskins for 3 quarters the Giants let them back into
the game and in the process gave Rod Gardner a touchdown against
me. Right about the same time St. Louis was collapsing against
the Seahawks and giving Matt Hasselback a great game. Then
to cap it off, Jay Fiedler single-handedly ended my hopes
by overthrowing a wide open Chris Chambers on 2 potentially
big plays that would have given him well over a hundred yards
receiving and a couple of touchdowns.

So what do you do when your sports weekend
goes horribly awry? Well, the main thing that helps is to
think of the teams that you don’t like who ended up in even
worse shape. Let’s look to the top 10 of college football.
Ohio State played yet another squeaker, opening the door for
other teams in the top 10 to move up into the top 5. Michigan,
coming off a huge win over Notre Dame, suddenly forgot how
to play football against a Ducks’ team that is just waiting
until it gets hammered by USC. Georgia only needed to beat
an overrated LSU team to stake an early claim to the title
hunt but couldn’t turn back the Tigers. And Kansas State changed
things up big time, this year deciding the choke early at
home against the Thundering Herd of Marshall instead of choking
at the end of the year. The Phillies had a shot to overtake
the Marlins for the wild card by sweeping a bad Cincy team
while Florida toiled against the Braves. They couldn’t take
care of business and find themselves still staring up at the
Marlins going into this week’s big series while feeling the
breath of the Cubs on their necks at only .5 games back. The
Atlanta Flacons had a chance to salvage a great start to their
season after blowing last week’s lead to the Redskins by studying
up on the tape of Carolina but instead got blown out by the
Bucs. And those lovable losers, the Detroit Tigers, just needed
to win 2 games this weekend to all but take 121 losses out
of the equation, but alas, they now need to go 5-2 this week
just to avoid tying the Mets.

None of these teams that had a big chance
managed to come through in the clutch. Do I find that comforting?
Does anyone find it comforting to sit back and think, “Well,
at least my rival lost too?” I don’t think so. It’s a nice
thing, but no substitute for winning. Fortunately for some
it’s early in the season. Those NFL teams sitting at 1-2 can
take some comfort in the knowledge that starting 2-0 last
year was almost a guarantee to not make the playoffs. Only
the Raiders started 2-0 and found themselves in the post-season.
In fact, the Titans started 1-4 and went deep into the playoffs
behind McNair’s near MVP performance. Now, don’t get me wrong;
some teams have reason for concern. Marshall is gone for the
Rams, who at 1-2 may now be done. The Patriots despite being
2-1 have lost so many defenders to injury over the last 3
weeks that they could very well look back at week 10 and be
3-7. The Buffalo Bills are down to only 1 healthy running
back and their pass protection was non-existent for Drew Bledsoe
against the Dolphins. And the Eagles coming out of the bye
week still haven’t figured out that for all Donovan McNabb’s
skill, they cannot win with receivers who never command a
double team.

So what now? Well, there’s only one thing
to do after a weekend like this. Huddle up, regroup, find
a bar to watch your baseball team make that final push for
the playoffs and wait for Saturday. It’s probably homecoming
for your alma mater and time to prep for a great Sunday of
football.

FUN N’ GUN

— Congratulations to Brian Mitchell
who passed Jerry Rice as the NFL’s all time leader in combined
yardage on Sunday. And congratulations to Jerry Rice who passed
Brian Mitchell as the NFL’s all time leader in combined yardage
on Monday.

— The NHL’s pre-season got underway
this weekend following the league’s announcement that it had
posted a loss last year of $300 million. They’re now spending
76% of revenue on player salary. My question is, with ratings
in the toilet, how many people will miss hockey when the lockout
begins in January?

— What’s wrong with the Heisman this
year? Phillip Rivers has the numbers and has looked good,
but NC State’s record will prevent him from winning. Chris
Gamble has been great for OSU, but with teams afraid to throw
at him he won’t have the numbers to win it. Is it Eli by default?

— And finally, I make the official call
that Eric Gagne will win the NL Cy Young. Just because.

Until next week…

-
Mark

Last 5 posts by

• The Balance - April 1st, 2005
• Fantasy Time - March 14th, 2005
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• Mark's 2004-05 NFL Preview - Part 8: The NFC East, The Playoffs & More! - August 25th, 2004
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