Monday, October 3, 2011

The good, the bad, and predictions

It was a good day for Detroit sports fans. The Tigers beat the Yanks and the Cowboys self-destructed in Arlington to hand the Lions an improbable win. Prognosis: The stars have aligned perfectly for the Lions so far this year. Next week's Monday night game against the Bears will be a big show garnering national attention, but it's really not that important. It won't get interesting until the Packers come to town on Thanksgiving. Aaron Rodgers and Co. won't take them lightly like they did last year. Assuming both teams stay healthy until then -- that will be the true reality check.

It was a bad day in Philly. The Cardinals came back from being down 4-zip to beat the Phillies and the Eagles squandered a 20 point lead to lose to the 49ers. Prognosis: Falling behind by a wide margin early in games seems to be a formula for winning lately -- but I wouldn't recommend pursuing that strategy as a game plan too often.

Over the weekend, UM pulverized Minnesota to the tune of 58-0 and MSU went down to Columbus and finally beat the Buckeyes 10-7 -- minus a certain head coach and QB you probably heard of, plus a few more starters finishing up their suspensions. Prognosis: The UM-MSU game will be hyped in this state, but neither team is even Top Ten caliber on the national landscape. Brady Hoke was a great hire for UM, but depending so much on a running QB won't get it done against good teams. Give him a couple years to get his own personnel and let's see what happens. State fans may get all geeked about UM coming to East Lansing in a couple weeks, but they're not the worry. The following week Wisconsin comes to town, and their QB might be the best kept secret in the country. That guy is a younger version of Michael Vick with his escapability, running, speed, and great throwing arm. The Cheesers are really good on both sides of the ball and their only weakness appears to be the lack of a decent placekicker. The following week the Spartans have to go to Nebraska and those guys are the real deal too. If they beat both those teams they'll likely jump into the Top Ten, but I think they're gonna get hammered 2 weeks in a row. Prognosis: UM and MSU both wind up in lower tier bowl games.

The Red Wings are about to start the season, but that won't become interesting until after the Super Bowl is over. Prognosis: Wake me up when the playoffs start.

The Pistons? Are they still around? Do you care? Prognosis: They're terrible. New owner Tom Gores needs to clean house, including Joe Dumars,  and start over.

I think there was a PGA golf tournament in Las Vegas and somebody's probably playing soccer or tennis somewhere. Prognosis: The US will never be any good at soccer because all our gifted athletic kids dream of playing on a big stage for big bucks. Ain't gonna happen in soccer. As for the other 2 sports, where players can actually use their hands? Next April, at the Master's golf tournament in Augusta, just might be a defining moment for Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. If he's to mount a comeback, that will be the time and place to show it. It he misses the cut, it might be time to stick a fork in him. The best have crashed before. The first tennis major is the Australian Open. I've never seen it. Time zones being what they are -- it must be shown in the middle of the night or something. Funny, I can remember watching the America's Cup yacht races several years ago that happened somewhere around New Zealand, I think, but could never figure out how to tune in the tennis from Down Under. Beats me. Maybe I'll have to wait to see them slip-siding away on the clay at the French Open.

On a personal note -- summer's over. The leaves are starting to fall, the equivalent of a kiddie sized Chinese army will invade my front porch on Halloween, and then things will only get worse. Prognosis: Winter sucks.

(This has no place in a sports blog but so what? Here's a standing ovation to Andy Rooney, the long-time curmudgeon of 60 Minutes, who did his last broadcast earlier tonight at the age of 92. If I ever grow up, I want to be just like him. Prognosis: That ain't gonna happen either.)

NASCAR's "chase" next time. Prognosis: It's too complicated. The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method would be a lot better.

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