Hail to the Redskins

Last night capped off my best football week ever. Even without the huge fantasy win (BTW, I ended up in second place this week for points, not first...one guy had Tiki Barber and Duce McAllister come up big last night) last night's Redskins game was probably the most satisfying one I've seen in at least 10 years. In fact, it's really the only satisfying Redskins game I can remember watching, save for their Super Bowel win in '91. Sure, they've had some solid wins in the last several years, but this was special. The Cowboys have pulled off miracles against us time and time again, and for us to do it to them, at their house, on the night they honor their favorite players (Aikman, Smith, and Irving) was something I was starting to think could never happen. Here's hoping they can keep the momentum going, even through a bye week, and finally give Washington fans something to be excited about.

FF Week 2 Report: Ownage

“As a child, Vin Diesel could be found staring absently across a large gorge. When asked what he was doing, he said he was going to burn the bridge down. Well I'll be a flyswatter's Aunt Sally if he didn't sit there for 14 years waiting for that bridge to be built, and when it finally was he torched it and was gone in the blink of an eye.”

That’s right; Vin knows how to be patient.  Despite a terrible opening performance in Week 1, The (Vin) Diesels dominated the competition in Week 2, defeating The Homestarmy and scoring enough points to beat any other team in the league as well.  And there’s more to come – the point totals are incomplete as of this writing, pending the results from tonight’s match up between the Redskins and the Cowboys.

So what was the difference?  Well, I attribute the win to a couple of minor coaching decisions, and the awakening of a few key players this week.  First, the coaching decisions.  The Chicago Bears defense out-scored the Pats defense last week, and their match up against the Lions seemed like a good one to exploit.  I was right, in a big way.  6 points allowed, 2 sacks, 5 interceptions, 1 blocked kick, 1 touchdown, and a partridge in a pear tree all adds up to 31 fantasy points for the week.  Only Donovan McNabb produced better results this week.  My other good decision was the acquisition of Willie Parker of the Steelers from Free Agency – he scored me 13 points this week.

Vick and Muhammad each scored me about 11 points, and Shaun Alexander came out of his Week 1 doldrums to rack up 16 points for yours truly.  Thus far, my only starters who didn’t score in the double digits were Vanderjagt with 5, and Boldin, who had enough yards for just shy of 8 points, but never saw the end zone.  The big question for tonight is:  Will Portis and Cooley give me the additional 3 points I need to break 100 for the week?  I’m thinking yes.

Looking ahead to next week, I’m up against the Dark Knight Detectives, who also have a 1-1 record, and are struggling with Daunte Culpepper as their QB.  Vick left his game early with a hamstring injury, so that’s my big question mark for the week.  I’m not sure where I’ll go if he can’t play, as Jake the Snake Plummer isn’t performing all that well.  For now though, I bask in the glory of victory.

I hate Jerry Jones

Watching football today, I saw Verizon’s commercial for their new V-Cast service a few times.  It features Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, bragging about his owners perks (including his Texas stadium-shaped hot tub, which as I heard someone wisely point out, is basically shaped like a toilet seat) and his Verizon cell phone with V-Cast. Here’s my question:  What is Verizon smoking?  Verizon (originally Bell Atlantic) serves the Atlantic coast with its service.  All of the football teams in the NFC East, save the Cowboys, are on the Atlantic Coast.  Any fan of an NFC East team that isn’t the Cowboys, HATES the Cowboys, with extreme passion.  Given all this info, does it really make sense for Verizon to be running commercials featuring the owner of the hated Cowboys acting like a stuck-up jerk?

Listen to Mae

Even if you don’t know me all that well, you probably still know how much I love good music.  For me, ‘good’ and ‘cool/loud guitar parts’ usually go hand in hand.  My favorite band of the moment is a group called Mae.  They’re a Christian band from Norfolk, VA (not too far from me…), and have plenty of really great (and loud) guitar parts.  They’re one of the growing number of Christian groups that doesn’t make a big deal of their religion, instead letting it come through their lyrics in subtle ways, making them more attractive to the mainstream music community.  They’ve got pretty strong ‘emo’ tendencies, but there’s plenty of rock in their albums to go around.  Check out their site to listen to some samples – my personal favorites are “Embers and Envelopes” and “All Deliberate Speed” off of their first CD, Destination: Beautiful, and “Painless” and “Anything” off of their more recent offering, The Everglow.  (As usual with my music tendencies, these are some of Mae’s more rocking tracks)

If you like what you hear, check out This Day and Age, who have a pretty similar sound, though they aren’t Christian.  And if you REALLY like what you hear, and you live near me, I’m hoping to see them at the Norva in Norfolk on the Friday after Thanksgiving.