Still High

Packers 31 - Lions 24

Brett responded to the naysayers last Sunday. Wow. A couple of the more impressive numbers: He had his 400th (and 401st and 402nd) TD pass and completed passes to ten different receivers. It brought to mind a certain game in which he completed passes to a dozen.

Something has been bugging me all week, though. There was one hurry-up play we called with about eight minutes left in the second quarter, when we were tied at 14. When Brett called "hut," we were set on the line and Detroit was running around, trying to get set. We were in the red zone and it was third down. Had the refs allowed the play, we'd have easily had a first-and-goal (Herron had basically wound up in the end zone with the ball). But a flag was thrown and a whistle blew and the play was stopped. Then, this:

Green Bay substituted on the play. Therefore, by rule, the defense is not charged a penalty for twelve men on the field.

WHAT?!!

I've looked at the play several times. FOX didn't have a great cameral angle on it because they were caught off guard like the Lions were, but you can clearly see that the Packers were set on the line and when the ball was snapped and the camera pulled back, a Lions player was still running off the field at the bottom of the screen (so on the Packers' side of the ball). That, to me, seems pretty clearly like too many men on the field. What Walt Anderson said, though, makes no sense to me. The fact that we substituted should have no bearing on what the defense does. If it does, then every defense would always be throwing an extra guy or two out on the field every time the offense has a substitution. If they get an interception or some other great defensive play out of it, rock on. If they get called for it, they just reference the Walt Anderson Rule from September 24th, 2006 and they replay the down.

The NFL's official play-by-play has absolutely no mention of this having occurred, BTW. I guess any penalty that gets waved off doesn't make the cut on that summary.

I heard Tausch interviewed by Steve "The Homer" True on the radio late this week, and they were both just as confused by the call as I am. That (and this blog post) is the only thing I've heard about it since the game, though, so either the rule makes sense to everyone else in the world, I'm not as good at searching with Google as I thought, or it's a conspiracy. You be the judge.

A couple of days after the game, Favre was voted Offensive Player of the World (it may be "...of the Week" but I'm not bothering to do the research right now). I'm looking forward to some more record-shattering by Brett in the coming weeks. Marino's got to be shaking in his flip-flops. I heard Bob Costas say that Brett got his 400th TD in the exact same number of games played as Dan Marino got his 400th: 226. 19 more and Favre surpasses Marino in total number of TD passes in his career. I'll give him three more games to get that done.

More importantly, nine more wins will push Brett over Dan in career wins as a starting QB. If it doesn't happen this season (and I'm not saying it won't), he's got next year, too.

This Monday night, it's the Eagles. I've already heard "fourth and twenty-six" five times this week, and that's sixteen times too many. Go, Pack. Go!

Sting in 'Studio'

Perfect storm. Sting's got a new album coming out (a bit outside the norm; it's 17th century pop music originally composed by John Dowland with accompaniments on the lute). According to this article:

Sting and Trudie... are off to Hollywood today: Sting is taping an episode of NBC'’s "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip,"” on which he'’ll perform selections from his upcoming "“Songs from the Labyrinth" album.

Sweet.

Fall Shows

As I write this, the best new show on television is airing on NBC: "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." I had the unique opportunity to receive a DVD containing all of NBC's new comedies and dramas (well, nearly all of them - it was still early and editing hadn't been completed on all of the new shows). "Studio 60" is the next great offering by Aaron Sorkin. As it happens, he happens to have collaborated on this one with his "West Wing" co-creator Tommy Schlamme. I've been a fan since before he decided to get all obvious with his political leanings (not that that changed anything with regard to my hero worship, mind you). A Few Good Men? Yeah, hello. "Sports Night"? Bingo again, my friends. Anyway, if you were too closed-minded and rightist to even give it a shot tonight, go screw yourself and then wise up and catch a rerun, dittohead.

"Studio 60" was on the 'Dramas' disc. On the 'Comedies' disc was the new John "3rd Rock was a Fluke" Lithgow/Jeffrey "I Sure as Hell Wish 'Arrested Development' was Still on the Air" Tambor vehicle "20 Good Years," which is crap, and some just wrong show called "The Singles Table" starring the guy who played either Harold or Kumar in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle... which is C... R... A... P. Wow. Anyway, "Studio 60" belongs on the 'Comedies' disc and the 'Brilliant Shows that at Least Have an Outside Chance of Winning Emmys because They're Not on FOX' disc.

Warning: The writing is not for the same audience as the Nightly News with Katie Fucking Courick (e.g., it's not written for a 4th grade reading level). If you don't like it, there is a very good chance that you are an idiot -- and not in a simple, debasing, I-lost-the-argument-and-I-want-to-belittle-you way... you are probably literally at an I.Q. at or slightly below that of our current American President, George W. "An Autistic Chimpanzee Fucked my Mom and All I Got was this Stupid DNA" Bush.

I'm not the first to blog about this show, or about any of the new NBC shows, I'm sure. I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of the DVDs that are handed out to potential advertisers because someone I know through my parents works for Bravo/Lifetime, which is owned by NBC/GE/30 Rock/whatever. I just love Bradley "Wisconsin Native Breaks the Big Time" Whitford, I want the show to stay on the air, and I know the soul has been sucked out of equally great and greater shows like "Firefly" and "Arrested Development" and "Picket Fences." Watch this show and enjoy it, you lemmings. NOW!

Note: Watching all those shows on DVD without commercials (and, in some cases -- like with "Studio 60," in fact -- without finished opening credits) a couple of months early makes prioritizing the fall season much, much easier. In a nutshell, "Studio 60" and "Heroes" will last. I'm on the fence about "Kidnapped" (I was wrong about the equally-seemingly-short-term-gainy "Prison Break"). And "Friday Night Lights" is incredibly boring -- and I love football -- and "Raines" and "The Black Donnellys"... eh.

A 'Better' Loss

Packers 27 - Saints 34

Well, it was certainly more fun to watch this week's game than it was to endure last week's. The first quarter was exciting. Kampman rocked the house with three sacks. Favre and Driver had some good connections -- Driver (in his 100th game) had one run-after-catch that may have been his best ever for a gain of 48 yards. Jennings got us our first TD of the season, and Brett spread the ball around a lot -- Fergie and Herron had TDs, too -- and threw himself another 300-plus-yard game.

But, yeah, we lost. So there's that.

Meanwhile, Ryan Longwell (now a Viqueen) passed for a TD to tie Minnesota's game against the Panthers, and then kicked the winning field goal for them in OT. Yeah, you just can't avoid the feeling that it's going to happen to us. I just really hope that, if it does, he gets it out of his system in our first meeting instead of in the prime time match on the NFL Network -- in the Packers' last home game of the season -- in December.

But enough negative thinking. I got enough doomsday talk about Favre in the pre-game shows. He's still just really enjoyable to watch. If we had a better team this year....

Remembering

Packers 0 - Bears 26

This blog is now just over two years old. Nothing much has changed about it, apart from the reduction in the frequency of posts (although I predicted that from the start). I'm pretty sure I'm at a steady readership of three (thanks for reading!). I'd like to have a better blog, but I really don't know how I would go about making it better without spending a significant amount of time and/or money, so I'm afraid you're stuck with this.

It's also September 11th. It's been five years now since the day that changed America. I've been to Ground Zero twice since then, and today I went onto CNN's website for some reason to relive some of the more horrific moments. The '9/11' documentary was on again last night, and I flipped through that once or twice, too. I don't know what it is about that collection of events that draws me to want to put myself back in those moments, as terrible as they were, but in my mind it's just important. I can't explain it, so I'll stop trying.

Speaking of zero... yeah, the Packers got shut out. For the first time in Brett's career. At home. Things just aren't good. If you look back to some of the games I wrote up here, you'll see what I think was the watershed again just about two years ago: The Favre vs. Manning game against the Colts was telling and significant. Since that game in particular, the pit of my stomach has gradually spewed forth worse and worse feelings of doubt and remorse. Yes, we pulled the treepeat that year, but recall that we could only beat the Viqueens twice that season, and we needed to beat them thrice. All the good streaks began ending right around then. The end of the no-scoreless games streak is especially hard to swallow at the moment. That's not just one guy, it's a whole team failing together.

Okay, I'll hop off my doomsday machine. I know we still have some amazing games to look forward to this year, and I hold out hope that our young O-line will gel a bit more throughout the early part of the season and prep us for a run later this fall. To end on a positive note: So far this season we are undefeated in games in which we score points.

Four-Fer: Packers Preseason

Preseason
Packers 3 - Chargers 17

Same preseason opener as last year, except we lost this one. Luckily, it wasn't at home. I was in Michigan, stealing broadband internet from the neighbors and using a free account from Real.com/NFL.com's NFL Field Pass to listen to the game on my work laptop. I took several extended breaks to go walk out on to the dock and watch the Perseids.

Preseason
Packers 38 - Falcons 10

That was more like it. Home game, big plays, big win. I was in Michigan for this one, too, still stealing broadband and exploiting the Real people via a brand new free account (same name, address, and credit card, but a different email address - what geniuses they are over there in New Dheli or wherever). Much more hooting and hollering this time, and much less getting up and walking away from the computer in disgust. Felt pretty good.

Preaseason
Packers 17 - Bengals 48

Yeah, didn't feel quite so good. This one, I got to watch... unfortunately along with everyone else in America... on ESPN with the new crew, 'featuring' Tony Kornholer. All three of the guys were fat ladies singing over the end of Favre's career as evidenced by his performance in this game. Shut up, you douchebags.

Preseason
Packers 21 - Titans 35

We finished the preseason with the same team this year, too. Bookends to a lackluster intro, but punctuated here with a brilliant two-play Favre series: 89 yards to 'The Jennerator' (from? Western Michigan - go Broncs!) followed by a 3-yard handoff to a guy named Green. Brett bowed out after that and the third- and fourth-stringers embarrassed themselves for the remainder of the game.

Actually, I'd forgotten the score ended up being that close. I had begun the game in a training room on the west side of Madison that perplexingly had absolutely no television reception, despite the fact that I could see both channel 27's and channel 15's antennae out the window of said training room. My 13-inch antenna-less color TV was almost completely bereft of a signal. I considered stealing Epic's bandwidth and signing up for yet another free week-long trial of NFL Field Pass with another fake email address, but then a fellow Training TL saw me in the hall and said two words that re-centered me: Old Chicago. I packed up and we hit the bar, where the reception was crisp for the second half debacle, but the Octoberfest was flowing. Talk turned from the doomed fate of this year's Pack to 'raise day,' and my doldrums quickly faded once a phone call was made, the online bank account was checked, and the news was shared that I was now making a veritable shitload more than I had been making just a day earlier.

Those kinds of surprises are always welcome. Given our schedule this season, I'd say the Packers might have a couple of surprises up their sleeves, too. Tonight, on the eve of the 2006 NFL season, and I'm counting on it. I will at least guarantee that we'll string together a better season than 4-12. Here's hoping we kick things off right with another ritual trouncing of the Bears on Sunday.