The only football game that matters happens tomorrow at 1 EST. Use this thread to make bets, talk smack or whatnot. Anybody who correctly guesses a score that does not involve the Colts winning wins a sixpack of your choice on me. We’ll work it out by email if it comes to that.
By the way, Pitt basketball remains undefeated at 13-0. Go ahead and call me a fair-weather fan, because I am, but Ronald Ramon seems like one of the most entertaining players to watch since Dennis Rodman retired and that’s only because Rodman was insane. If John wants to set a wager (say, a midnight blue 2004 Porsche Carrera 4s) on that Pitt-WVU matchup, we can talk.
Joey
35-21 Colts. Manning throws for 250 with 3 TD’s , two to Reggie Wayne, one to Marvin. Edge runs for 115 with a TD, and Cato June picks off Big Ben for a TD.
demimondian
You’re right. The only game which matters happens tomorrow at 4pm est. That’s when the Colts take their next step towards their inevitable confrontation with the Seahawks in the super bowl later this month.
Pooh
Joey Porter is an idiot. 45-10 Colts.
demimondian
27-13 Colts.
Pooh
Not to threadjack, but HOLY SHIT WAS THAT A BAD CALL.
Edmund Dantes
Horrible Call. At best it should have been Offensive Pass interference. At worst it should have been a none call.
Ozymandias
Hell fucking yes. Total BS. But I also need to kick the Pats in teh face for those fumbles.
Edmund Dantes
Yeah. Can’t blame the officials for the turnovers.
demimondian
WTF was the freaking missed call on false start on the F/G, tho?
ppGaz
24-20 Steelers.
I want the six-pack.
joshua
All these expectations of a Colts victory, even Super Bowl boundity, makes me think they picked up a new starting quarterback this week. But the trade deadline was week six. Let me check on this…
Nope. Peyton’s still starting, his throat’s still shrinking and Indy’s still goin’ home early.
Louise
I could use a drink!
27-24 Steelers.
Of course, the usual applies: if the Colts win, at least my truly wonderful parents are happy, and that’s something.
But really: if Denver wins this game? I’m going to be crazy for a Steelers win tomorrow. Talk about clearing a path for us.
Joey
Christ, you’d think that he was forty-five years old and had been in the league for 20 years. Not everybody can come into a situation where you have the best linebacking core in football, a great d-line, and even better DB’s. *cough*Tom Brady*cough*. He has the best record of any qb over the past six years, if I remember my stats right. This is the first year he’s had anything resembling a defense. It amazes me how quickly somebody can get a reputation for not being able to win “the big one.” The same people who were constantly talking about how awful Indy’s defense has been over the years are the same people who are always saying how much Manning chokes. Give me a damn break. There is no football team that wouldn’t take Manning, outside of NE, and that’s just because they like they’re overrated screen pass thrower.
Chris
34-31 Steelers.
Mr Furious
Damn! Pats go down to the Broncos. Not to sound like a Yankees fan who expects to win every year, but I was a season ticket holder in New england for years and moved to Michigan in 2001, missing the season and playoff run for the first Championship.
As you all know, this year the game is in Detroit (40 minutes away) and if they made it back to defend the title, I’m pretty sure my former season ticket holder-mate (now a big wig in NY who went to the three NE Bowls) would have come out to MI and found me a ticket… at least that’s how it happened in my mind…
Mr Furious
Oh, and I was looking forward to a little Furious-Cole Pats-Steelers smack…
Ancient Purple
17-10 Steelers.
Hard Cider in a six-pack better be available as well, Mr. Tim.
/stern look
joshua
Joey, let me explain:
Peyton Manning vs. “The Big One”
1994: Tenn v. Florida – Loss, 34-0
1995: Tenn v. Florida – Loss, 62-37
1996: Tenn v. Florida – Loss, 39-25
1997: Tenn v. Florida – Loss, 33-20
1997: Tenn v. Nebraska (final college game, a win may have netted them a share of the Nat’l Title) – Loss, 42-17
1999: Indy v. Tenn – Loss, 19-16
2000: Indy v. Miami – Loss, 23-17 (led 17-0 in 3rd)
2002: Indy v. NYJ – Loss, 41-0
2003: Indy v. NE – Loss, 24-14
2004: Indy v. NE – Loss, 20-3
In that entire span, Manning won one (1) “big game,” beating Auburn 30-29 for the SEC Championship in a game Manning tried to give away. Trust me, I grew up in Vol country and I’ve watched Manning for the last 11 years. When the pressure is on, he folds up like a lawn chair in a hurricane. If you need someone to pick apart a defense like a man throwing a football through tire swings, Manning’s your guy. If you need someone to win a game when it counts, look elsewhere.
Dave Ruddell
How about 28-24 Steelers? BTW, anybody remember when Gregg Easterbrook used to track the NYT attempt to predict final scores? They went something like 3 for 1000? I think that six-pack is safe.
timmy
It is almost MLK day. A nice article to celebrate with.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2269
Joey
Football is a team game more than any other sport. It’s idiotic to say that one player “Can’t win the big one”. All of the Colts games you mentioned, I saw. It was a team effort to lose each of those, especially the last four (I can’t blame them for losing to the Titans. It’s was Peyton’s soph year and Edge’s rookie, and they probably over achieved a little bit at 13-3). Every player is just as responsible. We heard all this crap about John Elway too. It’s completely ridiculous. Tom Brady gets all the credit for winning their Super Bowls, and that’s just as ridiculous. In football, one player does not win or lose the game. Unless you are a kicker, and it’s a 35 yard or under field goal attempt.
Mean Gene
I think this could be a breakout game for Big Ben. A game on the big stage where he has to go out and win the game instead of not lose it. He’s played very well the last few weeks, making big throws, putting up points. Indy’s hibernated the last six weeks, the Steelers have had to bite and scratch and claw to get this far. 30-27, Stillers.
Cable
Colts 31 Steelers 20
OR
If the Steelers decide to take out Manning’s Knee, then it’s
Steelers 24 Colts 21
:)
Far North
I just can’t believe the righteous indignation of the New England fans:
“We didn’t lose. The refs blew it.”
“Those were the worst calls I’ve ever seen”
“Official shouldn’t be allowed to determine the outcome of the game’.
How quickly patriot fans forget. I recall, “Brady back to pass, pressured, hit by Charles Woodson….fumble, Raider ball.” OK, 2 minutes left, we have a booth replay. “Upon further review, the play is ruled incomplete pass due to the tuck rule”.
So, the stupidest interepretation of a an NFL rule gave NE the ball back. They said Brady was trying to throw a pass. I’ve never seen a quarterback, not in the NFL, college, high school, junior high, pop warner, not anywhere have I seen a QB try to throw a pass with two hands. But the officials took the ball away from the Raiders after the Raiders had won. Not only that, but the officials overruled the call on the field, which was “fumble, Raider ball, based on that crappy evidence.
And now I have to hear from NE fans whine how unfair it all was today. I’d like to say, “what goes around, comes around.” But NFL “justice” has a long way to go before the Pats repay the football gods for their freebee against the Raiders. Pat fans must remember that shitty officiating is what go them to the “championship” level. Hell, if that tuck call goes the way is should have, Chucky stays with the Raiders and we don’t dissappear into oblivion. The Pats never win a damn thing. They don’t win 1 Super Bowl, let alone 3.
Now, that last paragraph is what Patriot fans sound like today. Heh, heh.
Far North
BTW, the tuck game I was referring to was the January 2002 playoff between Oakland and NE.
Doug
Belichick is an asshole. Just thought I’d share.
Doug
Colts cornerback Nick Harper questionable for today’s game after his wife knifed him.
Grotesqueticle
Rooting for the Stillers. Final score Indy 34 Stillers 13.
Sorry, John.
Kirby
Colts 386 – Steelers – 3
Pittsburgh is the city where professional athletes go to die.
Edmund Dantes
Far North
A.) It was the correct call according to the rules. It was not an interpretation. It’s explicitly written in the rulebook. A rule that hasn’t been changed. So it seems the rest of the NFL is okay with it.
B.) The replay also showed an Illegal Hit to the head by Woodson as he knocks the ball loose. A hit which wasn’t called. Yet, everyone that complains about the Patriots and that game always leaves that aspect out. It’s always “the Patriots were helped by a crappy officiating call”. Even though it’s explicitly written that way.
C.) Let’s also not forget the Patriots got jobbed back in teh day by a phantom roughing the passer call against the very same Raiders back in the day also. The difference being that the play wasn’t called according to the rules as opposed to this time when the play was called according to the rules.
So let’s get this straight. You are complaining because the Ref followed the rulebook explicitly? Also, as a Patriot fan, I’m not sitting here saying the Refs cost us the game. The refs hurt us, but they didn’t cost us the game. The turnovers cost us the game.
I love whiny Raider’s fans. Go watch the replay again. You can clearly see the hit to the head by Woodson. So in reality the play never would have stood if the Ref called the penalty. He didn’t, but he did call the play according to the rule book. Hence the game is referred to as “The tuck rule” game. Do you get the point? Even the derogatory name raiders’ fans like to call it by proves that it’s not about an interpretation of the rules, but about a rule that’s in the rulebook.
Try again though Far North.
Geek, Esq.
Well, after seeing the first few possessions,
Steelers 31, Colts 13
That is, if the Colts manage to improve their play. Otherwise, it won’t even be that competitive.
The Captain of the O
Looks like the Steelers are pulling a Rule 21 on the Colt’s offense.
Geek, Esq.
Rule 21?
Geek, Esq.
Oh the irony–the first Google hit I got for “Rule 21”:
http://www.baseball1.com/bb-data/rose/rule21.html
The Captain of the O
Actually I was making a political joke. Rule 21 was invoked by Harry Reid to shut down the Senate…Steelers shut down the Colts offense for most of the game…