It's Called Fall For Falling On Your Face

By: Nate Gordon

Those good 'ol Bums. Once falling on their face at Ebbets field now imploding this fall in Chavez Ravine and on a TV or Radio near you. While I gotta sit by and listen to the band wagoners awake for another Orange County/ Golden State Angels playoff run, me and the rest of Los Angeles are stuck without October baseball. The Dodger pitching staff has been lackluster the last 2 months and the bats have been far from consistent. This shit hit the fan and the the whole second half of the season was summed up by Jeff Kent's remarks on 710ESPN with Kevin Kiley (D'Marco Left the show for opportunities in the NFL and good luck to him. Kevin isn't liked enough to be a sure thing in the time slot so they didn't name the show after him, I find this funny.) Jeff stated "...some of the younger guys didn't approach this last Rockies series like professionals and it showed... now we are out of the race..." The Dodgers were cleaned out by the Rockies and the D'Backs and are all but eliminated from playoff contention. Like they always say Dodger Fans, Wait 'Til next Year.

In other baseball news Milton Bradley tore his ACL while being tackled by his manager who was trying to restrain him during an argument with the 1st base umpire. I almost am lost for words about this, after watching the video several times it seems like the 1st base Ump says something pretty offensive because the 1st base coach for SD goes to get in the Umps face instead of turning to restrain Bradley. Things got escalated and as the skipper tried to hold Bradley from going after the umpire Milton's knee gave out and he collapsed onto the field. This whole story is something that could only come out of the 'Dennis Rodman/Carl Everett/J.R. Rider/Milton Bradley/Albert Belle/Kyle Turley/John Rocker File'. You never hear about Ken Griffey getting picked on by an ump to get his blood boiling, then having his manager so worried about Jr. going after the ump that he tries to hold him back resulting in an injury. You don't even hear about this happening to Sheffield, only someone like Bradley could be this ridiculous. The question is now how is Bradley's career affected and how might he be compensated for this freak accident?

Switching sports quicker then Smush Parker can turn the ball over I got a thought or two about Lovie Smith and the Bears situation. All the NFL experts and pundits have been writing in their articles and blogs and saying on TV that Lovie has to bench Rex. In every one of these 'original' pieces they mention how loyal Lovie is and how he needs to quit his loyalty and make a switch at quarterback. I'm going the other way with this, Lovie Smith is a loyal man by nature, it's part of his personality. If Lovie feels that his team is better off with Grossman at quarterback then I support his decision to keep 'Sexy Rexy' under center. Smith has to bring his locker room together and unite them behind Rex otherwise he might have some trouble, but don't change who you are as a coach to appease the pundits, stick true to yourself Coach.

How do I spell vindication? K-I-F-F-I-N. After last Sunday's debacle in Denver i went to Gillis's place to collect on a debt of 20 dollars owed by one Steve Dodge thanks to a 5 1/2 point spread bet I took in the Raiders/Broncos game. I was met with Dodge's 'all hail Shanahan' cack riding for an hour and not one dollar from his Hebrew hands. Despite my argument that Kiffin makes sound adjustments and had engineered back-to-back comebacks Dodge brought up the damned timeout and debunked my 'Kiffin is a good coach' argument. I thought this was stupid that a good move by Shanahan would mean that Kiffin was a bad coach, but most things in Steve's world make little to no sense. Either way Kiffin pulled the same move on the Browns this week that Shanahan pulled last week and when I called Steve to talk trash and feel vindicated I found his phone going straight to voice mail, that a boy Steve, showing those true Blue and Orange colors.

A quick final note on the Raiders, their next 4 weeks are @ 0-3 Miami, BYE, @1-2 San Diego and H vs. 1-2 Kansas City. The Raiders could be 3-3 after 7 weeks, in '06 they were 1-6 and in '05 they were 2-5. Also I love how aggressive the secondary players are but Michael Huff has to read the play fake better because he left the DBs without inside help on 2 occasions in which Derek Anderson couldn't convert.

All stats in the next section are from NFL.com

My top 5 Quarterbacks through 3 weeks -

AFC:
1.Tom Brady
The numbers and SC highlights say it all.

2.Carson Palmer
9 TDs and 300+ YPG/AVG.

3.Peyton Manning
1 INT 66% comp + 873 yds

4.Matt Schaub
76% comp and HOU: is 2-1

5.Ben Rothlesberger
TD/INT ratio 6:1 29 comp for 1st down.

NFC:
1.Bret Farve
His teams 3-0 and his TD/INT ratio is 6:2

2.Tony Romo
TR: TD/INT: 8:2 and 15 plays +20 yards

3.Jon Kitna
980 yds and 68% comp

4.Donovan McNabb
158.3 QB Rating in week 3... that's perfect

5.Jeff Garcia
66% comp 0 INT and TB is 2-1.


My top 5 Running Backs through 3 weeks-

AFC:
1.Lamont Jordan
5.1 yds/carry 18 runs for a 1st + 116 yd/gm

2.Willie Parker
leads NFL in yards (368) and has 5.0 avg.

3.Jamal Lewis
5.8 yds a carry and 307 yds, mostly against CIN.

4.Travis Henry
302 yds. 5.0 yds/carry and 9 kids

5.Joseph Addai
271 yds, 15 rushes for 1st and 4 TDs

NFC:
1.Brian Westbrook
5.7 yds/carry and 1/3 of his carries go for a 1st down.

2.Shaun Alexander
91 yds/gm, 2 TDs and 275 yds.

3.Marion Barber III
256 yds, 6.4 avg, 4TDs

4.Adrian Peterson
AllDay had 16 rushes for 1st downs and 271 yds.

5.Edgerrin James
2 TDs and 277 yds.

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