NFL
Week 8
Trick or Treat ????
by Ivette Ricco
November 1, 2004
Halloween IS my favorite holiday.
A day for making believe and pretending you're someone
or something else. It's a day to be a kid again and
play "dress up".
NFL games played in Week 8 were spooky, funny and
ridiculous. Halloween and the NFL, a perfect marriage
of the sublime and ridiculous, a wonderful way to
enjoy the game of football.
I
had my game face on Sunday as I watched football.
I was wearing a SpongeBob Squarepants mask.
Not scary enough you say? You're
right, but as a Forty Niner fan, it was the right
mask, for the right game, in the right year, for the
right team.
My mantra this season is simple
- Expect the worst, Hope for the Best, expect the
worst, hope for the best.
If murmured often enough this mantra offers a modicum
of solace as fans watch the Niners suffer their worst
season since 1978.
It's safe to say that the 2004 Forty Niners are among
the worst teams in the NFL. But...it could be worse.
They could be the Oakland Raiders, Panthers, or the
Dolphins. All those teams had high expectations for
this season. The Forty Niners and their fans...well
not so much.
They are not alone. There are some other unlikely
teams sharing the fans' derision, humiliation and
wallowing in the dark, dank, and smelly confines of
NFL hell.
Want the good
news or the bad news first?
The good news for the Forty Niners?
They're not the Raiders, Panthers or Dolphins.
More good news, they are striking a blow for fiscal
responsibility and salary cap control.
Other good news, the defense plays its heart out.
The bad news - the offense stinks up the place.
Other bad news, Ken Dorsey dumps off passes that seem
intended for vertically challenged receivers.
Other bad news? They can't locate their season with
a compass, or a global positioning system.
More bad news, Tim Rattay's series of injuries has
made it virtually impossible to determine his value
and progress.
Still more bad news, the young quarterbacks have clearly
been put in a difficult situation. They should be
getting hazard pay for the pounding they are taking.
In the category of continuing bad news:
We don't have a Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger,
David Carr, Donovan McNabb, or Daunte Culpepper. For
that matter we don;t have anyone resembling an heir
apparent to the Joe Montana or Steve Young throne
or even a facsimile of Jeff Garcia waiting for a chance
to play.
More bad news. The running game is ineffective. It's
hard to tell if the problem resides with Kevan Barlow,
or with the changing faces and trading places group
known as the offensive line. Either way the result
is frustration and ineffectiveness.
Here are some
other R.I.P. candidates.
Redskins 2-5: Joe Gibbs hasn't been
able to turn them around.
Panthers 1-6: Last year's NFC Champs are awful.
Raiders 2-6: New coach, new schemes, new players,
same old results.
Niners 1-6: Youth and inexperience equals painful
process.
Bears 2-5: Lovie Smith needs a new Quarterback and
more time.
Dolphins 1-6: Dave Wannstedt lost the team before
the season started.
Bengals 2-5: Some signs of progress but not there
yet.
Bills 2-5: New coach, same old Drew Bledsoe.
Tricks and
Treats
It's agonizing enough to watch your
team get spanked on national television, but oh my
gawd must we be subjected to ESPN's announcer's faux
pas?
Paul
Maguire identified Forty Niner running back Kevan
Barlow as Reggie Barlow.
He then closed the telecast by thanking his sidekicks,
with this insightful comment, "Thanks for spending
Thanksgiving with me".
What? Where the hell is this man's head? It's Halloween
idiot not Thanksgiving!
Forty Niner fans are looking for some sign that the
York/Donahue philosophy will work. Without a viable
quarterback the storied franchise will find it hard
to retain its loyal fan base. San Francisco voters
go to the polls on November 2, 2004 to vote on Measure
H. If they approve this proposition the Niners new
stadium plans may be dead. The fact that the team
is losing in a very ugly fashion may have severe consequences
at the polls.
The
Raiders are starting to look like the 4-12 Raiders
of 2003. In this their 10th year as the Oakland Raiders-redux
(they returned to Oakland in 1995) they have begun
to lose some of their most loyal fans. PSL holders
purchased 10 year "leases" in 1995 and my
sources tell me that many of them may jump ship and
not renew their PSL's in 2005.
If that happens the Raiders and Al Davis will look
for ways to extricate themselves from their acrimonious
arrangement with the City of Oakland.
The Eagles came away with another
win to go 7-0, the best record in the NFL. The Ravens
didn't give the Eagles much too work and did hold
them to only 15 points but without an offense the
Ravens just couldn't keep up with the Eagles.
The Steelers put a stop to the New
England Patriots' win streak. It was time. The Steelers
are one of those teams no one talks about but are
likely to give all AFC teams a real run for the money
if they stay healthy. Their young quarterback Big
Ben Roethlisberger has been a nothing short of marvelous
for the Steelers.
The Colts lost a shoot-out in Kansas
City to the resurrected Chiefs.The Chiefs are scoring
at will behind the passing of Trent Green and the
running of Priest Holmes. They out scored the Colts
(who lost 2 in a row) to improve to 3-4. The Colts
are now 4-3 and struggling to keep pace in the AFC
South behind the Jags 5-3 and the Texans 4-3.
The Broncos are showing some serious
cracks in their façade. They lost their second
game in a row to the Vick-led Falcons. In spite of
Jake Plummer's 499 yard game the Falcons and Vick
surprised the Broncos in Denver, 41-28.
The G-Men did it again to the Vikes.
They handed the Vikings their second loss this season,
and they did it in Minnesota. The final score, 34-13
highlighted a turnover free performance by Kurt Warner
and 101 rushing yards by Tiki Barber, who has managed
to hold onto the ball this season.
NFL Scores
Week 8
ARIZONA CARDINALS (2-5) 14
BUFFALO BILLS (2-5) 38
DETROIT LIONS (4-3) 21
DALLAS COWBOYS (3-4) 31
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (5-3) 6
HOUSTON TEXANS (4-3) 20
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS (4-3) 35
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (3-4) 45
NEW YORK GIANTS (5-2) 34
MINNESOTA VIKINGS (5-2) 13
BALTIMORE RAVENS (4-3) 10
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (7-0) 15
CINCINNATI BENGALS (2-5) 20
TENNESSEE TITANS (3-5) 27
GREEN BAY PACKERS (4-4) 28
WASHINGTON REDSKINS (2-5) 14
ATLANTA FALCONS (6-2) 41
DENVER BRONCOS (5-3) 28
CAROLINA PANTHERS (1-6) 17
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (4-3) 23
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (6-1) 20
PITTSBURGH STEELERS (6-1) 34
OAKLAND RAIDERS (2-6) 14
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS (5-3) 42
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (1-6) 13
CHICAGO BEARS (2-5) 23
Monday Dolphins vs. Jets
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