Plankton

I hated the TCM remake, but there's a whole lot less with the Friday the 13th movies to mess up. As long as Jason is hacking up teenagers at Camp Crystal Lake, I'm happy.

Did anyone else notice that on 3rd & long from inside their own 2 yard line on that last drive, Joe Flacco really appeared to have stepped on the back line of the end zone before he threw? Me and my roomate both saw it and were callign for the safety, but it never happened. Sadly, no replay was shown either.

This was discussed after the game. They showed a replay and Flacco didn't step out. It was close, but he definitely did not step out. I'm surprised they didn't replay it during the game though.

Peyton wouldn't have been my vote for MVP, but IMO, he's one of several players this year who reasonably "deserved" it. I wouldn't have been upset with Michael Turner, Adrian Peterson, Chad Pennington, Philip Rivers, or James Harrison. Turner would have been my pick, but there's no clear winner like last year. You could make an argument for just about any of the major players who made it to the playoffs.

Speaking of Cassel... where does he go after this season?

If the Brady out 09 rumors are true, I hope he comes back another year. I have no idea who the Pats could get to step in.

I believe that Cassel has said he wishes to stay with the Patriots. A week ago I would have said that it was just wishful thinking on his part as long as Tom Brady is in the picture, but if Brady's questionable for '09, I wouldn't be shocked if they cut their losses with him and went with the younger Cassel.

It's an arguable move either way, but if both QBs can throw for about the same amount of yards on a good day, and one has health issues that could keep him out for a season, and the other is healthier and younger, I'd choose the healthier and younger QB.

On the other hand, Cassel could easily be next year's Derek Anderson. Assuming Brady's healthy, he's probably the smarter and more conservative choice. But if his health is up in the air all the way to the preseason, it might be a lot riskier to let a guy like Cassel go.

Crennel - only four seasons. The first one doesn't really count for ANY HC. It isn't his team. He then took his lumps with the guys he brought in during his second year. Last year (his third) the team showed their capability. I think Crennel had quite a bit to do with it. 20 wins in his first three years at the Browns ? Yeah, that's as good as it's been in a hell of a long time in Cleveland. Hell, the '02 playoff season wasn't even ten wins, and Crennel got them to ten last year. Yeah, this year wasn't good but I still think injuries and a people underperforming contributed to that more than Crennel's ability to coach. And please, you're using the Patriots as a comparison ? They are an anomaly. You're taking 4 years of building/philosophy against a decade. Hell, the Patriots are proven in their system/philosophy. If I remember correctly the deal with Cassal replacing Brady is exactly what happened to Brady when he replaced Bledsoe. Using the Patriots as an example here is a bit much considering NOBODY has been able to do what they have over the last 6-8 years. I know what you're saying though and there's certainly validity in it to a degree. But if we compared what all HC's do against the patriots, there'd be less than a handful of guys with jobs next year.

I admire the fact that your sticking up for Crennel because whenever a team is free falling, the coach is the first to get thrown under the bus while players and GMs get the benefit of the doubt. I agree 100% that the Browns had a lot of problems that was out of Crennel's hands, but if Crennel can't find a way to work around those problems, then why would the Browns want to keep him as a head coach? The players gave up halfway through the season, and you expect a head coach to be able to light a fire under his team. Crennel couldn't do it. I think he's a good coach, and not every coach needs to have the I-think-I-smelled-a-fart-and-I'm-pretty-pissed-about-it Bill Cowher scowl, but some teams need a coach that will stick a foot up their asses when they need it (I can think of another particular Ohio team that is in the same position). Crennel's a good coach, but obviously not the one Cleveland needs.

And there were also questionable decisions he made in games. In particular, early in the season, he called for a field goal instead of going for it on fourth down when they were too far behind with too little time left for that field goal to mean anything. He essentially threw the game away because, as he described later, he didn't want his team to be discouraged by not having a scoring drive. In short, he gave up so his team wouldn't feel bad. That's just stupid.

Also, he's struggled against division teams. He has never beaten the Steelers, and if you're consistently losing against the same team twice a year, something's not working out.

Crennel is a good coach and he hasn't been the entire problem (GM Phil Savage was first to be let go), but he wasn't working out in Cleveland. At a certain point, you have to make a judgment call and decide if this coach, good or not, is best for your team. And with his poor record, I think it's obvious that he wasn't working out.

I think I heard on PTI or Football Today that Tomlin said his starters will play, but of course that doesn't mean for the whole game. For the reasons Be gave, I'm guessing Roethlisberger will be out there for a half at most.

I think it's a dumb move on his part because even if Leftwich is in the entire game, I'm guessing the Steelers will run the ball more for three reasons. First, without a reason to play, they're probably going to want their backups to get some playing time, but they're also going to want to wind the clock down to avoid any injuries and to stay fresher for next week (especially if some of their starters play the whole game). There's no use killing yourself just to get some playing time. Secondly, their running game has been bad lately (they average about 100 yards a game), and because the Browns have had such awful run defense (29th in the league), this will be a good week to get things on the right track. And lastly, they ran a lot against the Browns last time. Roethlisberger only had 20 attempts (14 completions) and Parker had 28 carries.

It could really pay off if they want to see Leftwich throw a lot, but I'm going to guess that they'll be more interested in running the ball.

Slaton has had a bigger impact than Brown for sure. once teams figured out the wildcat Brown hasn't done as much. I'd also go with Rivers over Favre easily. Favre has a few good games with the rest subpar at best.

If you take away the 6 touchdown game against the Cardinals, Favre's year doesn't look anything more than solid. Thomas Jones has been the biggest impact player of that team, although to be fair, a lot of that has to do with Favre opening up the run for him. Either way, Favre over Rivers and Pennington is way off. Even for fan-voting, when you assume there will be some questionable choices, it's a hard sell. Peyton and Favre definitely made it on name value alone.

I like Steve Slaton over Ronnie Brown. When Brown has been good, he's been really good, but he's had 8 games with 50 or less rushing yards. Slaton's numbers are much better. And looking beyond the numbers, I'd say Slaton has had a higher impact for his team. If you take away the great story of the former 1-15 Dolphins being relevant again and the awesome wild cat offense, Ronnie Brown doesn't look much more impressive than Slaton.

Not that I have a problem with Ronnie Brown being in it. He's certainly been a key player for the Dolphins and has had a great season. I just like Slaton a little bit better.

It sucks that DeAngelo Williams didn't get in, but considering the competition, it makes sense. The NFC has a bunch of great RBs right now.

I would argue that Chris Johnson is a distant second place in the ROY race. Obviously Ryan is going to get it though.

Roethlisberger's in the discussion, but I don't think it goes much further than that. He has 12 INTs, which isn't that bad when you consider that 11 other QBs have the same amount or more. However, only four out of the 11 have less TDs (Flacco, Delhomme, Bulger, and Frerotte). They are also the only four players of the 11 to have less attempts. Every other QB of the 11 has more attempts and more TDs, and around the same amount of INTs (although, to be fair, Cutler, Frerotte, Brees, and Favre has 15, 15, 16, and 17, respectively, which is quite a bit more).

(The other 11, if you are curious, are Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Kurt Warner)

That's just pure stats though, but like damshow said, Roethlisberger is good in clutch situations, but he hasn't been an overall great player like others have. If you're a Steelers fan, you love having him on your team because you can count on him in when things get tough, but MVP? Come on. He's not even the MVP of his own team. I'd give that to Harrison, who is the best player in the best defense in the league. And their defense is by far the biggest reason they're going to the playoffs when you consider the INTs (12) and sacks (41--which is over 30 more than Brees and Cutler) the offense has given up.

Roethlisberger deserves credit for being able to overcome his and his offense's deficiencies in clutch situations, but he's not the MVP.

I like how you portray the Steelers as saints and the Ravens as nasty and evil. They're both going in with the same mentality defensively, beat the crap out of the opposing offense, there's no good or bad just two teams in a heated division rivalry looking to kick some ass, which should make for a very good battle.

To be fair, no one on the Steelers has ever used the word "murder" to describe what they want to do to an opposing player.

That's where my statement comes from.

That's just semantics. It's not as if the Ravens literally want to murder someone on the field [insert easy Ray Lewis joke here]. When football players say they are going to hurt/murder someone on the field, there's not a mountain of difference in their intentions. The Ravens want to murder Steelers' players just as much as I want to literally strike my wife when I say I'm going to kick her ass in Mario Kart. It's arguable that either team is dirty, but if the basis for the Ravens being dirty is the use of the word "murder," then the argument is entirely too subjective.

If you're arguing that 18-0 trumps 17-0 even if the Patriots lost the 19th game, then you're arguing that the Superbowl is the most meaningless game of the year in terms of having the best season. And that's just silly.

Damn. This is one of the few prime time shows that I really enjoy.

I just finished up season 1 last night and have been Tivoing season 2. I'd honestly hate to see it transition to a comic book because the actors made their characters. It just wouldn't be as likable. But if another network doesn't pick it up or a movie deal falls through, I guess I'll take what I can get just to see everything wrapped up. If they do a comic book, I hope they just tie up loose ends and let it rest instead of dragging it out.

You did. The last play was overturned.

It's 31-27 now... speaking of hallucinating... am I doing that right now, or is Kentucky's QUARTERBACK actually returning kicks and punts? I've never seen that before.

Kent State's QB is starting to do the same thing. I'm not sure, but Josh Cribbs may have done the same thing when he was the QB there.

Considering how hesitant Mike Brown is to shake things up when the team is around the .500 mark, that would be more of a curse than a blessing.

Bengals making history! WOOO! 1-8-1!

At this point, that is honestly somewhat relieving. At least the defense is improving.

If you don't like Muppets Christmas Carol then you have no soul.

My wife hates that movie and refuses to watch it with me, but that mostly has to do with her being creeped out by the Muppets. She also hates Groundhog Day, so her movie opinions are clearly wrong.

Detroit still hasn't given up on Drew Stanton being their future starter, so I don't expect them to be hunting around for anything more than a backup. San Francisco will definitely be looking, and I think Minnesota would be stupid not to. A guy like Derek Anderson may be prone to taking too big of risks, but the Vikings don't need a guy who will lift the team on his shoulders, they just need someone who is a legitimate deep threat (which Anderson is) so that it opens up their running game for Adrian Peterson. I think the candidate fits the bill, so if they don't go for him, I'd be surprised.

Chicago will probably shop around for a backup, but Orton has just about locked up another year as a starter. And even if Warner retires after this year, Arizona will probably be willing to start Leinart, so they'll be looking for a backup at most.

And yeah, Tampa Bay is such a toss up. Who knows what QB they'll be interested in by the off season? I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rams looking either. And depending on Hasselbeck's health, the Seahawks might be as well.

The way I see it, the teams that should be aggressively searching for a QB are San Francisco and Minnesota, with Tampa Bay being a big possibility as well.

And on the subject of impossible - but why the hell not: Buttercup's Baby.

Anyone?

I've been waiting for that book forever. In 2004, William Goldman promised to have it done by 2009, but he said in an interview a year ago, "I desperately want to write it, and I sit there and nothing happens and I get pissed at myself. I got lucky with The Princess Bride the first time, and I'd love to get lucky again."

I need to read that book.

This week in football

-The Giants now lead the NFL in every meaningful rushing category, including yards (1,520), average per attempt (5.15) and average per game (168.9). In fact, you have to go all the way back to the 1954 49ers, a team that fielded two Hall of Famers in the backfield (Joe Perry and Hugh McElhenny) to find a team that ran the ball as effectively with so many different players as the Giants do.

-With a win over the Jets Thursday night, Bill Belichick would have joined the list of 10 winningest coaches in NFL history, knocking Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs out of the No. 10 spot.

-The Bears (an original NFL team from 1920) and the Packers (who joined the NFL in 1921) meet for the 175th time this Sunday, making it the most-played regular-season rivalry in NFL history. The Bears hold an 89-79-6 edge in the series. Believe it or not, they’ve met just once in the playoffs – a western division tiebreaker after both teams went 10-1 in the 1941 season.

-Kurt Warner has completed 70.62 percent of his passes this year, which puts him on pace to rewrite the single-season record set by Cincinnati’s Ken Anderson back in the strike-shortened 1982 season (70.55 percent).

-With 462 yards of total offense against the Jets Thursday night, Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel easily surpassed the top mark his predecessor Tom Brady had produced in his Hall of Fame career (412 back in 2002).

I heard on ESPN yesterday at work that Cassel's going to be a free agent in the off season. With Derek Anderson (probably) going to a different team too, it will be an interesting off season.

Even against the 30th ranked pass defense, it's impressive for Collins to throw for 289 (nearly 100 more than his best game before this week). His completion percentage was also about 75%, much higher than his average. It's good momentum going into some of their more challenging games (Steelers and Colts) at the end of the season. I'm not sure if I quite see them as a Superbowl team, but the arguments against them are becoming less and less each week.

I think a sequel to the Fifth Element would be good. I'm not a huge fan of the original, but I agree that the world is really intriguing.

I'd love to see another Beetlejuice. He's such a great character that could be explored much more. As long as Tim Burton made it, I would be excited.

Also, I always wanted to know what happened to Peter after the events of the original Dawn of the Dead. It would be interested to see where he and the zombified world was 30-some years later. And as far as journeymen go, I would be thrilled to either see a movie about Seth Gecko after the events from From Duck Til Dawn, or a movie about the Gecko brothers before the original.

Some more stats:

-Clinton Portis leads in rushing yards (995), with the person many people projected at #2, Adrian Peterson, a pretty decent distance behind him (823). Meanwhile, the popularly projected #1, LT, is ranked #12 (551), although he has been playing through a toe injury. His former back-up, Michael Turner, is ranked #3 (794).

-Portis also has the most rushing attempts (200), which is 24 more than Adrian Peterson and Michael Turner.

-Rookies Chris Johnson (715) and Matt Forte (641) are #3 and #7. Darren McFadden (341) is #31, although he has been dealing with injuries.

-The Ravens' three-headed rushing machine consisting of Willis McGahee (351), Le'Ron McClain (347), and Ray Rice (339) rank #28, #30, and #32. They combine for 1,037 rushing yards.

-The Bengals and Colts are the only teams to not have a RB crack the top 41 in rushing yards, although Cedric Benson (241), Chris Perry (253), Joseph Addai (248), and Dominc Rhodes (262) are all close. Addai, who was out a few games due to an injury, and Benson, who first played briefly during week 5, are on pace to top #41 Fred Jackson (278), who has been getting less attempts lately.

-Six players tie for most interceptions (4). Two of them play for the Packers (Nick Collins and Charles Woodson) and two others play for the Titans (Cortland Finnegan and Michael Griffin). Collins and Woodson have two TDs. Finnegan has one.

-Glenn Holt (Cinci) has the most returning yards (860). He ties with Brandon Middleton (DET) for second most attempts (34).

-The Steelers have 32 sacks, the most in the NFL. The Chiefs only have 4, the lowest.

-Green Bay dominates when it comes to interception yards. They have 446 yards and 5 TDs to go along with them. The Browns are a distant #2 with 227 yards and 1 TD.

-Thanks to a handful of monster games, Andre Johnson leads in receiving yards (834). He is second in receptions (60--Houshmandzadeh is first with 61). They both tie with 3 TDs.

-Anquan Boldin has 8 receiving TDs, the most in the NFL. Calvin Johnson and TO trail with 6 apiece. However, Calvin Johnson has more receiving yards of the three: 682, compared to Boldin's 514 and TO's 467. Boldin and Johnson's YPG are almost identical (85.7 and 85.3), while TO trails with 30 yards less. They've all fumbled and lost the ball once.

-Jason Witten still leads in TE receiving yards (549), but Chris Cooley (529) and Owen Daniels (528) are closing in.

-2007 MVP candidate Randy Moss ranks #19 in receiving yards, barely above tight ends Cooley and Daniels.

-Kurt Warner has the second best QB rating (104.2--right behind Rivers' 107.8), the third most yards (2,431--behind Brees' 2,563 and Cutler's 2616), and the third most TDs (16--behind Cutler's 18 and Rivers' 19).

-Brett Favre leads in interceptions, with a total of 12. That nearly doubles recently benched Derek Anderson's 7. Favre, however, beats Anderson in yardage (1,812 compared to Anderson's 1,454) and TDs (15 to 9).

-Jay Cutler has by far the most attempts (342). Brees is at a distant second (304). However, Cutler has played one more game than Brees.

-Of the QBs who have been active for almost the entire season so far, JaMarcus Russell has the least yards: 1,289. He also has the worst passer completion percentage in the entire NFL (48.6).

-Speaking of passer completion, the only quarterbacks who have completed less of their passes than Kerry Collins are Russell, Matt Hasselbeck, Derek Anderson, Tyler Thigpen, and Dan Orlovsky. Jon Kitna is right ahead of him. However, he's tied for second with Jeff Garcia for least interceptions (2). Jason Campbell is #1, who threw his first two of the season last week.

-Dallas has committed the most penalties (71), creating the biggest gap between any two teams (Cleveland is #2 with 63). New England has the least (24). Green Bay, however, has the most penalty yards (575), and Houston has the least (209).

-The Jets, Cowboys, and Seahawks have made all but one of their fourth down attempts. The Steelers, Chiefs, and Eagles have only made one of theirs (Pittsburgh has the most attempts of the three: 7).

-Tampa Bay has found themselves in the most third down situations (132). The 49ers are last with 91. However, they lead in fumbles along with Dallas and Cinci (13) and are in a three-way tie for second most interceptions (11, with Denver and Dallas).

-The Titans have the best giveaway difference (+10). Denver has the worst (-11).

And tough luck Tennessee, you beating the Packers sends them to .500 which means they're not a quality team so the Titans are obviously still riding their easy schedule

Hey, when you beat a team at this point who is .500 or below, it's nothing to brag too much about. You're in pretty good company.

That being said, based on a ranking system like that, the Titans aren't going to look great no matter what. There aren't too many games in their schedule where a win would look really impressive. I suppose individual arguments could be made for the Texans, Browns, Bears, Jets, and Colts, but that's all contingent on the rest of the season for those teams. The only definite big challenge left is the Steelers. Which also means that when they do most likely lose to a non-Steelers team, people are going to rag on them like crazy. They're not going to have an opportunity to gain any legitimate respect until the playoffs.