The Ashes

Use and abuse my thread if you want to. Use and abuse me if you want to. I am beyond despair. Just ignore me while I curl up in the corner.Actually I had a friend over from LA for Xmas while the cricket was on and I attempted to indoctrinate her by forcing her to watch the nightly highlights with me. She had this very American view of the game as some sort of contest in genteel politeness between two teams of immaculately clad Victorian style gentlemen each trying to outdo the other only in terms of manners whilst watched by a couple of colonial major types between snoozes.Seeing 90,000 abusive raucus Aussies yelling obsenities whilst their team threatened to break the arm of an England batsmen (both in a literal verbal sense and in deed with the ball being bowled at his body at close to 100MPH) wasn't what she was expecting.When I showed her an actual cricket ball and she saw on TV the players being hit by fast bowlers she couldn't believe that this was all just an accepted part of the sport.

Your proposal is acceptable. Consider your thread and yourself abused. Oh, and as you have requested, you are now ignored.That's what you get for cavorting around Holy Christmas, and the Holier Ashes, with some floozie from LA leaving your friends and compatriots hanging here with no one with whom to commiserate.But, I suppose you are back now so that compensates to some small degree. A very small degree. Miniscule, actually.

A defensive struggle in the rain in Seattle with Seattle taking the game 23-15 over New Orleans. Down 23-8 N.O. scored with 45 seconds left. Now only down by 8 (a touchdown and a 2-point conversion for the tie) NO kicks and recovers an onside kick. A sloppy finish for NO when an illegal forward pass ran out the clock. Russell Wilson looked great as Seattle quarterback while Drew Brees struggled until late in the third quarter. Marshawn Lynch, Seattle's star running back, ripped the heart out of the NO linebackers. They had to gang-tackle the guy and he still carried 3-4 of them on his back for additional yards. Still NO defense kept Lynch checked in for the most part ... except for 140 yards a 2 touchdowns! In unarguably the loudest stadium in the NFL, Seattle's 12th Man, the fans, did their part causing multiple delay of game penalties and early timeouts by New Orleans flustered by the noise. Seattle will play host to either San Francisco or Carolina next Sunday. Good game that was closer than the score shows.Wow. New England over Indianapolis 43-22. This one wasn't even close. The surprise? With Tom Brady, one of the best QBs, known to have a laser rifle for a passing arm, New England put ALL their running plays into the book. The New England Patriots, get this, are a smash mouth running team! After all the injuries and personnel issues during the season hampered their famous passing game, this post-season the Pats put it on the ground and ruled the gridiron. New England hasn't looked this good for years. Forget Indianapolis. Andrew Luck didn't have any as he turned the ball over with 4 interceptions.Thirteen straight trips into the playoffs and 3 Super Bowl wins all on the passing arm of Tom Brady. Now, with Brady's arm as strong as always but with questions in his receiving corps, the Patriots show up with a grinding running game reminiscent of the Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 70's. Look out NFL!Edited by AZPaul3, : More stuffEdited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

San Francisco at Carolina. Winner goes to Seattle to face The 12th Man next week.San Diego at Denver. If Denver wins then New England comes to Denver for next week. If San Diego wins then fuck the game in New England next week cuz the whole universe will come crashing down on our heads and put an end to all existence.

Carolina held its own the first half then decided to give up the second half giving San Francisco a 23-10 win. Carolina quarterback Cam Newton was off target, confused by the San Fran secondary, interception and sack prone putting up a fat 0 points the second half. Kaepernick, however, was on target, confident and mobile leading the 49ers to their third straight Conference Championship game. Good defense on both sides but the lack of even minimal offense by Carolina left the San Fran offense with the only momentum in the game. San Francisco travels to division rival Seattle next Sunday. As division rivals the 49ers and the Seahawks split their two regular season games.San Diego decided to wait until the 4th quarter to start playing football scoring 17 points in the quarter. That was the only scoring for the Chargers. Denver wins 24-17. Payton Manning is too good to give three quarters to and then expect to beat him. Even recovering 2 onside kicks and Phillip Rivers' best passing of the game were not enough. Denver had the game well in hand from the start and never looked back. Against San Diego's great defense the Broncos' offensive play was adequate but nothing stellar which should give Denver fans grave concerns. Next week in Denver Tom Brady and the Patriots come to town for the Conference championship game.You got it. Brady v Manning again. With New England's new-found smash mouth rushing game Denver is on notice.San Francisco at Seattle? Who cares. And fuck New York. The Real Super Bowl will be next week in Denver!The Pats at Broncos will be The Game! Either it will be a close tight slugfest both on the ground and in the air or New England will blow the Broncos into the next star system. After that the other Super Bowl will be a letdown.

Thanks for the updates. I've been out-of-the-loop on my football following this year. I'm voting New England.
I don't think they're as all-powerful as you seem to suggest here, but Manning just isn't very mentally stable against Brady... so he'll lose, again I care Although I'm a Miami fan... I've found the NFC to be more fun to watch than the AFC for the last few years. AFC seems to lean on the quarterback too much where NFC seems to build more balanced teams.
I think Seattle will win, and then take the Super Bowl. 'Cause they're better than the other guys.

That 12the Man is mighty powerful and I agree that the
Seahawks will most likely take out the 49ers without too much consternation.As for New England? This is football and hyperbole is not just expected but required. I'm doing my part. Still, Belichick seemed to just poof his new offensive line up out of the turf. There were hints last season but nothing this season that said the Pats would get the ground game together in such a stellar fashion. I didn't use the analogy to the Steelers lightly. The misdirection plays with pulling guards left just for Blount to run right led by the right tackle and end (who started out pulling the safeties out of position headed upfield) were straight from the Steel Curtain days. I think maybe McDaniels dug up an old copy of the Steeler's playbook burried in Chuck Noll's back yard.If the Indianapolis game wasn't a fluke, and it didn't appear so, then Denver has a whole big bunch of re-work to do with their linebackers and secondary and how do you do that knowing Brady's laser is still charged? My heart wants to, and will, root for Manning but my head is still spinning from the smashing execution of the ground attack New England put up this week.Even with a whole lot of respect for the talents of Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch, given New England's new mojo, if the two meet in New York I gotta go with Brady/Blount. If Denver finds a magic talisman to ward off the Patriot's new rushing spells and ends up in New York with the Seahawks ... well ... then we'll talk.

Just wanted to get some written prophecies in.I've been right with all of my picks this playoff series and just wanted to see how I do if I actually make my picks before the games Actually, I thought KC and Cincinnati were both going to win. But I was just off by a round on when SD and Indy were going to lose... Shitty man, great coach. I like Manning over Brady as well. He makes better commercials
I don't think New England has the team to do it all this year. I think it was more Indy making them look good than it was them actually working together. Aren't they down a bunch of guys right now, or something?
I just think New England is all over Manning's head. And, well, a thinking quarterback isn't very good without his head...
So... my guess is that NE will take Denver. Yeah, certainly isn't one-sided
I was thinking Russell's kinda young still... but he did get some playoff experience last year.
I'm a bit of a sucker for a good defence, too.We'll see, we'll see.

Brady? Commercials? Does Tom even do commercials?Other than the bad ones, I mean? You mean other than Vince Wilfork, Rob Gronkowski, Jerod Mayo, Sebastian Vollmer, Tommy Kelly, and, now Brandon Spikes?It's OK, though. In 2003 and 2004 the Pats went into the Super Bowls without 5 and 6 of their premier starters too. They won both of them. Belichick has a history of selecting and developing his depth chart beyond what other teams do.As for Indianapolis making them look good? When I watched the line I saw a whole lot of timed pulls, misdirection routes and disguised picks very well coordinated. In that 4th quarter play where they packed the right B gap and took out both linebackers with an elegant set of picks, from the tackles no less, I was grinning from ear to ear before Blount even shot the gap to go 70+ yards. Not just because it worked but from the skill of the execution. I saw a lot of nice down field picks on passing routes and some good stunts and pulls on running plays during the season from around the league but I hadn't seen anything as pretty as that Patriots play in years. It was a joy to watch.That's what concerns me. They looked so damn good.Still, this is football. And I've been known to be wrong ... more than once ... actually quite often ... every week.So, as you say, we'll see.

Heh... not that I know of. But Manning sure is funny in all the extra stuff he does For sure, when one game is making the decision... we'll just have to see who comes out to play.

In fact, [insert your favourite team here] won the world championship (or equivalent) and you personally scored the winning touchdown/goal/run.

I predict Denver and Seattle with Seattle taking the Lombardi trophy.

All right, Big Spender. Got you down for 2 cents.

Well, that was an unexpected, and pleasant, surprise. Denver controlled the game from the opening drive to the victory formation at the end. The Patriots never got any momentum going. Brady had the same issues with his receivers that plagued him all season with route misreads.This game, however, the Bronco's defense had found their magic talisman to New England's running game. Actually, talismen: "Pot Roast" Knighton and Shaun Phillips. When they weren't stomping on LaGarrette Blount they were stomping all over Brady. This was supposed to be a much closer game but Manning took control and the Pat's defense could do nothing but watch. After a punt in Denver's first drive the Bronco's scored in every following possession. The Patriots managed to keep the Bronco's to 2 touchdowns but the 4 field goals took them down. There was no stopping Payton and Tom could not get going.26-16 Broncos. Denver's next stop is in New York Feb 2. Edited by AZPaul3, : No reason given.

Now that was a football game. Who dominated, 49ers or Seahawks? Defense or offense? Running game or passing game? The answer - all the above!Just when San Fran's offense starts to show it's power the Seahawks defense ruins their drive. On the next series when the Seattle D looks like it would push the 49ers off the field Kaepernick hits and hits again and again pass, run, run, pass. And the same back and forth with Wilson and the 9ers D. All facets of both teams taking the spotlight. Back and forth scoring right to the last.With San Fran threatening to steal the game in the last seconds the Seahawks intercept in the endzone. Hell of a finish to a great game. Seattle 23 to 17.This is the game that was supposed to have been played in Denver. This was football!Numbers 2 cents is still in play. Good call.The Pro Bowl game next Sunday. Kind of a consolation game for the selected "best" players in the league. Who cares.Sunday, Feb 2, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, home of the New York Giants, Super Bowl XLVIII (that's 48 for those of you who are not Roman) in what could be a blizzard ... or just a crisp cold day, the Denver Broncos meet the Seattle Seahawks.This assumes the GW bridge will still be open.