The Sports Rumors

Today’s Rundown 9/7

*The Colts absolutely smashed the Saints last night with a 41-10 whipping.  The game was tied at halftime with a score of 10-10 but the Colts came out with a 74 yard drive in the third quarter, en route to scoring 34 unanswered points.  Peyton Manning looked a little off in the first half but lit it up in the second.  He finished the game with 288 yards passing and three touchdowns.  Drew Brees meanwhile, struggled and threw for less than 200 yards along with 2 interceptions.  The Reggie Bush-Deuce Mccalister duo teamed up for less than 100 yards rushing.  The Saints offense didn’t even reach the endzone.  The only touchdown came on a Jason David interception runback.  That was the lone highlight for the ex-Colt as he was abused by Wayne and Harrison.  It’s only the first game so you can’t read too much into it, but the Colts defense looked great.  They were fast, energetic, and hard hitting.  The Saints offense looked lethargic and confused.  The wide receivers couldn’t get open and Brees was hurried more often than not.  I predicted the Colts to cover the 6.5 spread, which they did, and for them to be a 30 point per game team, which it looks like they are.  Just wanted to throw that out there for my critics.

*Louisville played Middle Tennessee State last night and won 58-42.  I think it’s more noteworthy to point out that they allowed a team like Middle Tennessee State to score 42 points on them.  The game was actually close for most of the duration before Louisville pulled away towards the end of the fourth quarter.  The Louisville offense looked great once again and Brian Brohm clearly looks like the best quarterback in college football through two games.  And yes, I do know that he has played two cupcake teams but 9 total touchdowns in two games is impressive no matter who it’s against.  To put that in perspective, #9 Virginia Tech’s quarterback Sean Glennon threw 11 touchdowns all year last season.  I don’t have a good feel for how good Louisville really is yet as a team, given that the defense had such differing games in two weeks.  The offense is clicking but the defense is a question mark as of now.  I’ll tell you one thing for sure; West Virginia will eat Louisville alive if they play even remotely close to the way they did last night…whether the Cardinals’ offense is on point or not. 

*Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terry Glenn’s health is in great jeopardy right now.  There were some reports last week that Glenn might be out for the season with a leg injury and now reports have surfaced that he’s out for two weeks, although the Cowboys have only officially ruled him out against the Giants.  I think the Cowboys have a chance to make a real run this year but that is IF they have a healthy Glenn.  People forget, because he’s a quiet guy, that Glenn was the more productive receiver last year than Terrell Owens.  I don’t like Dallas’ odds long term without Glenn.  They’ll still crush the Giants though.

*Speaking of the Giants, a lot is being made of this Tiki Barber-Tom Coughlin-Eli Manning nonsense.  If you haven’t heard, Barber has stated in his book and publicly that one of the reason’s he retired was Tom Coughlin.  He goes on to also knock Eli Manning, calling his leadership in the huddle abilities “comical”.  Okay, I understand it’s his job to analyze teams and what not.  But don’t be a complete asshat and call out a coach who is already under enough scrutiny as it is in the media capital of the world, and say he’s the reason you retired.  That’s garbage.  If you didn’t want to play for Coughlin, you could have asked the Giants to move you.  You could have sat out.  There are a number of things you could have done.  No one retires because they’re having a hissy fit about the coach being too mean or tough.  Secondly, calling out third year quarterback Eli Manning like that is such a sellout move.  I’m not an Eli fan and I do think he’s overrated, but he has a team to lead; the team you just left after playing 10 seasons with them.  You’re going to throw him under the bus like that when you know everyone on the Giants will read what you’ve said?  That’s petty.  What’s comical is the way Tiki Barber was the biggest distraction and loudmouth last season by constantly talking about how he wanted to retire and be Matt Lauer’s sidekick on the Today Show.  I don’t mind ex players being analysts on TV.  In fact, I enjoy their insights.  But Tiki Barber comes across as an arrogant know-it-all.  Maybe Barber has forgotten how he couldn’t carry the ball more than three times without fumbling until Tom Coughlin came along.  Maybe Barber has forgotten that he fumbled 4.8 times a season on AVERAGE from the years 2000-2004.  Of the 24 fumbles, he lost 16 of them.  Maybe he’s forgotten that Coughlin came along and helped develop a better technique for him to carry and took his fumbles down from 5 in 2004 to 1 in 2005 and 3 in 2006; the same Tom Coughlin he’s throwing under the bus today.    

***Update for my sports betting junkies:  The remaining 4 games that I am picking versus the spread will be up later tonight.  So far so good; 1-0 start with the Colts game.  I’m going for a 5-0 week.  Check back tonight. 

 (Seriously?)