LiveBall Sports

Let’s hit these where it hurts.

Season record to date: 13-19.  Ouch.

Browns at Ravens

I’m thinking you’re going to get a great wire to wire effort out of the Browns,  but since I bothered to employ The Wire as a descriptive term about a football game, you know I’m going with Baltimore.

Titans at Jets

I think the 0-2 Titans are just a better team than the 2-0 Jets.  They are more fundamentally flawed than the Jets are, but they also have all the firepower in this match-up.

Giants at Bucs

Here’s your upset special in the early games.  The Giants put safety Kenny Phillips on IR to go along with a completely embarassing list of injuries in the secondary.  I think Byron Leftwich gets his first win as quarterback of the Buccaneers, and they will prevent the Giants from starting 3-0.

Packers at Rams

The Rams are getting better, and the pass rush of the Rams vs. the poor pass blocking of the Packers makes an interesting match-up that could spell an upset in this game.  Until the Rams show 60 strong minutes of play though on both sides of the ball, I’ll sit with the Packers.

Chiefs at Eagles

No Brian Westbrook?  No Donovan McNabb?  That will make it tougher, but I’m still on the Eagles.  Dwayne Bowe is out for the Chiefs

Falcons at Patriots

This is an interesting game, but as Matt Ryan went through his schedule last year, he did not see a whole lot of creative defenses.  I think the Patriots defense, much-maligned to this point, will offer up some variations that the Falcons have not seen, and despite a slowish passing game, the Patriots will win comfortably.  This team never loses two in a row.

Washington at Detroit

With Randy Thomas out, the Redskins will struggle on offense, but they have a nice remedy this week in the Lions.

49ers at Vikings

My blowout pick of the week.  Nothing goes right for San Francisco in the Metrodome.  Extra prediction: neither of these cities have a team in the MLB playoffs.  Vikings roll to 3-0.

Jaguars at Texans

I’m not sold on the Texans quite yet, although they can make a believer out of me with a convincing win to go to 2-0 in the division and drop the Jags to 0-3.  Until then, I’m taking Jacksonville.

Saints at Bills

The Bills are a good September team, but do you think they will slow down the Saints?  Do you really, really think they are going to stop the Saints?  Yeah, I don’t think so either.

Bears at Seahawks

With the entire Seahawks roster banged up, I’ll go with the Bears to get a victory in which they will lead from the 2nd quarter on.

Steelers at Bengals

A lot of experts are seeing a Bengals upset, but with an inconsistent offense that will need to score 21-24 against the Polamalu-less Steeler defense to be in the game in the 4th quarter, I’ll take the champs and ask the Bengals to prove they can take care of business at home.

Dolphins at Chargers

Miami is going to 0-3 for the second time in three years.  Unlike 2007, the rebound is coming.  They just aren’t a match for the Chargers.

Broncos at Raiders

The Broncos have ridden their defense to 2-0, and now that defense faces it’s biggest challege: the Raiders.

Yes.  The biggest challege to date for the Broncos defense: JaMarcus Russell and the Raiders.  Oh boy.  It’s still going to be a long season in Denver if they do not win this game.

Colts vs. Cardinals

Can I pick against Peyton Manning two weeks in a row?  No.  No I can not.  So it’s the Colts.

Panthers vs. Cowboys

The Panthers have not been very good this year.  But with Marion Barber looking like a scratch from this game, this becomes a great matchup for the Panthers.  Limited interior running game for the Cowboys, a lot of passing in this game, and a Cowboys defense that has zero sacks and limited pressures in two games.  Ick.  The Panthers add to the length of time the Cowboys will have to wait to win at Jerry-world.

As a Royals fan, I can promise you that consecutive losing seasons are completely tolerable as long as the organization continues to operate in a professional manner, while doing what it can to improve itself.  For so many years, this is exactly what the Oakland Raiders were, in and out of the regular season.  The Raider Mystique was one of the few sports intangibles that had real-world application.  Al Davis created a brand that sold itself to the nation.

But these Raiders, though improving, have no mystique anymore.  Six consecutive losing seasons have drained what pride the Raiders might have had left after Super Bowl XXXVII.  And, so it’s a story about the primary player for the Raiders in that game that suggests that the Raiders still do not get it, and perhaps never will.

The Raiders have barred CBS broadcaster and former MVP and Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon from their facility.  Or at least they tried to, until they found out that such a ban is explicitly impermissible by NFL policy.

Money quote, courtesy of Davis-lackey John Herrera.

As to the Raiders’ reasoning, Herrera pointed to Gannon saying the organization “should just blow up the building and start over.”

Herrera is apparently more sensitive than his incredibly confrontational history with at least one reporter suggests.

“We think in a post 9/11 world, that’s not a very proper thing to say,” Herrera said.  ”It’s uncalled for.  [Gannon] seems to be a guy who can’t get over the fact that he played the worst Super Bowl game in the history of the game and he wants to blame everybody but himself.”

Um, wow.

Where do you start with this guy?  Well, first of all, any organization that isn’t a complete circus would dismiss him from the organization immediately.  There’s a lot of misunderstandings and misinformation in the sports world that paints people to look a lot dumber than they really are, but it’s really hard to take what Herrera said out of context.  The man is an idiot, and this isn’t the first time he has proven it.

Secondly, I disagree that this came directly from the top.  The ban?  Probably.  It’s safe to say that Al Davis and Rich Gannon aren’t on great terms.  It’s probably not as ugly as the Marcus Allen situation, but hating certain former players is part of his charm.  But the mishandling of the situation probably isn’t coming from the top.  Davis may be a bit sophomoric in his ways, but this is as much about Herrera as it is Davis.

Thirdly, has Gannon actually been critical of the organization?  Not really.  He’s a good analyst and he put into words what we’re all seeing about current Raiders passer JaMarcus Russell, and it’s not like members of the coaching staff aren’t being equally candid.  Gannon has praised the Raiders organization when it has been relevant, and he’s criticized them when that has been relevant.  Like, you know, a member of the media.  He’s just a bit closer to the situation than most.

There’s something to be said for the Raiders wanting to be different, but their insistence of undying loyalty to an organization that consistently wins nothing year in and year out suggests that it’s management is becoming increasingly thin-skinned and frustrated with their inability to improve.  And like most bad organizations, the Raiders have made a complete mockery of their history and principles, all while ignoring the fact that perhaps if they took some outside advice, they might not have the worst quarterback situation in the NFL.

But if Herrera wants it to be his way or the highway, I say we oblige him.  Let’s take the four years where Rich Gannon started all 16 games for the Raiders, and let’s throw them out.  After all, that was an embarrassing period in Raiders history, complete with a super bowl meltdown.  Now, you have an organization that hasn’t had a winning season since 1994.  16 seasons of Gannon-neutral ineptitude.

Commitment to excellence, boys.