Monday Morning Cornerback Week: 22

Great, great football weekend. The games were few, but the quality was excellent. Look at me talking like I’m from Harvard, lol. Anyway, here are my quick cuts and jukes from this weekends games.

College

East vs. West Shrine Game

It’s like the the ugly step child to the Senior Bowl. Everyone that wasn’t invited to the Senior bowl plays in this game. A lot of second tier players to be honest. Well, second tier in terms of the recruiters minds.

Some studs could come out of this years game. Freddie Barnes, Dennis Pitta, Bradon Carter, Alterraun Verner, and Max Hall should all be drafted in this years class. (If you are a true fan of football you should know these names, if not, Google em! We’ve got bigger NFL fish to fry).

NFL

Great games! Let me start off with that. I wish I bet money on the games, because I was right on both lines, Colts -8.5 and Vikings +3.5 and Vikings-Saints over 54. The only one I missed on was the Colts against the Jets being under 40. I learned my betting lesson a long time ago, so I’ll stick to the air betting glory.

Manning vs. Rex Ryan

I mean that’s what it came down to right? Was Rex Ryan and his heat blitzing missile defense going to be able to defeat Peyton Manning? For the first 28 minutes it looked like he was going to, but in reality it was just Peyton feeling out the defense.

The key was Ryan’s defense being able to show Peyton something new, which they did at first. After the first half, the Jets’ game plan was an open book that Peyton had read from start to finish, memorized, wrote cliff notes, and was ready and prepared to ace the test which was the second half. Of course as you know, Peyton passed the second half test with flying colors, leading the Colts to a 30-17 victory.

Reggie Wayne wasn’t shut down, but more or less held in check by Darrelle Revis. Peyton didn’t trip, he just found his second and third options both of which were young stud wideouts Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon (coolest name in the league).

Garcon balled out and made Ryan’s benching of Lito Sheppard in favor of Donald Strickland look foolish. Garcon out played Strickland in every which way shape and form and outside of Manning’s wizardry with the pigskin, Garcon was equally an integral figure in the Colts victory.

The Colts' defense played ok. They played well enough to win at least. They definitely need to get ready for Drew Brees. Mark Sanchez looked good. He did what he was asked to do. It simply came down to a Jets' offense not made for shootouts and a Jets' defense unable to stop the Colts' offense.

Vikings vs. Saints

There is not much to say about this game. If you lose five turnovers, you are probably not going to win. I really don’t want to hear any of the “better team didn’t win” arguments. The better team doesn’t turn the ball over five times do they?

You can tell me everything you want about the Vikings marching the ball up and down the field having more total yards etc. They turned the ball over five times. They kept anywhere from 6-14 points off of the board by turning it over twice inside the Saints' 10 yard line.

Adrian Peterson is my boy, but he has got to take care of the football. Not rocket science to him or anyone else. I know him well and he will get that taken care of.

The Brett Favre pick at the end was fitting. I mean, you live by the Favre you die by the Favre. I hope people don’ turn their backs on him either. Neither Sage Rosenfels nor Tavarris Jackson would have gotten the Vikings as far as Favre got them this season.

Neither do I want to hear the naysayers pointing the finger at Favre saying I knew he shouldn’t have come back and salivating at his misfortune. What’s wrong with a man doing something he loves? At least he has the guts and courage to stand up to critics in his weakest moments and admit his mistakes.

I’m just taking a wild guess, but I’m willing to bet money that half of his critics and naysaysers don’t have an ounce of the heart that Favre has. Look at the man, he had to peel his 40-year-old self off of the ground time and time again yesterday and still make good throws until his last one.

Overall, the games were both good. The East-West Shrine game gave me a few more quarters of football to watch this season before I have to say goodbye to the 2009-2010 season. I have 12 quarters left for this year with the Senior Bowl, Pro Bowl, and Super Bowl. My hope is that these next three games are the best three games of the entire football season, which I doubt will happen. As long as the Super Bowl is as good as the previous two years have been, I’ll be just fine.

That’s all I got,

Ricky Writer

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