Real Sports Talk with E-Money

What a difference a week makes!

All of a sudden preseason hockey is underway, the Red Sox have some how made the playoffs, and the New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills (making meteorology professor Dr. Eric Hoffman extremely happy).

The Patriots went into week 3 thinking that they were playing an improved Bills team compared to the previous few years, but I can't imagine that they anticipated losing to them. Going into this game, the Patriots had beaten the Bills 15 consecutive times (the last win being when Lawyer Milloy was a Bill and Sam Adams has an interception return for a touchdown), and obviously came into this game with confidence. Tom Brady had Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski to create a 21-0 lead by the middle of the 2nd quarter, and appeared to have the Patriots on their way for an easy win, but the Bills had other ideas. Upon Tom Brady throwing four interceptions and Rian Lindell doing his best Adam Vinatieri impersonation, the Bills ended up winning. Despite not winning this game, the Patriots shouldn't be in any type of panic, and will still ultimately make the playoffs. The biggest surprise to me this week was the New York Giants beating the Philadelphia Eagles despite having more injuries then a Shawn Thornton/P.K. Subban fight. The Eagles, who back-up quarterback Vince Young called "a dream-team" are suddenly 1-2 and have a Swiss-cheese defense. Michael Vick has a deep bruise within his non-throwing hand, and DeSean Jackson has been limited this year, making me think that his contract situation might be part of the reason behind his sub-par performance so far this year. Philly should be able to rebound and ultimately make the playoffs this year, but it should be interesting to watch how this team develops (or regresses) this year. As far as individual play went this week, I was shocked to see how many catches Wes Welker had against the Bills. It isn't very often that receivers have over a dozen catches in a game, LaDainian Tomlinson scored his 160th touchdown (only Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith have more touchdowns in their careers that aren't quarterbacks) of his career against the Oakland Raiders last Sunday. That is some impressive company. The last NFL related thing that I have to day for this paragraph is that I think the Eagles, Packers, Saints, and Rams will be the division winners in the NFC (Lions and Bucs as wild cards) and the Patriots, Ravens, Texans and Chargers will be the division winners in the AFC (Jets and Steelers as wild cards).

What has happened to the Red Sox? If you read this section on a weekly basis, you have seen that I have thought that the Sox would have no problem getting into the playoffs despite their September struggles. As of Tuesday night, the Sox were hanging on by a thread (you get it, sox, threads) to their lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. After a 6-18 September (as of Tuesday) the wild card lead has become non-existent, and the Rays have caught the Sox. Despite most "experts" saying that the Rays were "eliminated" back in August, the chances of them getting into the playoffs was quite prevalent. The biggest difference between both teams in the closing weeks of the regular season were the pitching staffs. The Red Sox starting pitching has been subpar at best in September, while the bullpen has been awful (there is no sugar coating it). Tampa's pitching staff has been awesome coming down the stretch despite being one of the youngest staffs in the league, and not having any big names within the rotation or bullpen. If the Sox get into the playoffs (somehow) they will be eliminated in the first round. On the other hand, if the Tampa Bay Rays get into the playoffs, they could make it into the World Series because of the momentum that has carried them as of late. As far as playoff picks go, my sidekicks (meaning the other sports writers) and I will be making our picks next week.     

As far as the NHL goes, it is nice to see some preseason games going on, as opening day is next Thursday with the banner getting put up at the TD Garden in Boston. The game that night should be a good one, as the Philadelphia Flyers come into town. Expect one heck of a hard-hitting game that should go down to the wire (if you want to get into the NHL this year, I STRONGLY recommend this game). Tim Thomas, Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic and Patrice Bergeron all return this year, and look poised to not only put the Bruins back into the playoffs, but also puts them into contention for back-to-back championships. The NBA doesn't have much new news, as the lockout is still on-going, and no progress seems to be happening (or occurring) in the coming weeks.

In other irrelevant (though I find interesting) sports news

-I know it won't happen, but wouldn't a Bills/Lions Super Bowl be awesome? Both areas might be the two cities in the United States hit hardest by the economy, and both teams successes this early in the year must be doing wonders for the respective areas.

-Michael Vick, Chris Johnson and Peyton Manning received over $100 million in guaranteed money in each of their contracts this year, and all three have all either had subpar seasons (Johnson) been hurt (Manning) or both (Vick).

-Despite having a broken rib, Tony Romo played awesome on Monday night against the ‘skins. Romo's most impressive play might have been when he was about 20 yards away from the line of scrimmage (after a bad snap) and completed a 3 yard pass.

-Miami's big three announced that they will be holding a charity game at Florida International University to raise money for educational support in South Florida/ Some huge names are expected to participate (Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Rajon Rondo among many others), and it is nice to see that Miami's big three does have a heart and will help out southern Florida kids. The only question is when will we see these players again?

-I am not sure why Texas A&M went to the SEC conference.

-LSU deserves to be ranked #1, look at whom they have played thus far.

-The Minnesota Vikings have lead all three of their games, and have 0 wins to show for it

-The Kansas City Chiefs are the worse team in the NFL, and I think LSU could beat them

-Between the three quarterbacks for the 15th ranked Baylor Bears (mainly Robert Griffin III), 14 touchdown passes have been thrown. The catch? The three quarterbacks have only 13 total incompletions.

-The New York Jets need to shut up, and play.

-Matt Hasselbeck is quietly having one hell of a season for the Tennessee Titans, passing for more yards so far then Aaron Rodgers, more passing touchdowns then Phillip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger and a better completion percentage then Drew Brees and Matt Schaub.

-Nice to see Jay-Z talking about the future of the New Jersey (soon to be Brooklyn) Nets. Jay-Z stated that the new arena and the team itself will be extremely fan friendly, and that he plans on opening the arena with his own concert next September.

-Best NFL game of the upcoming week? The Steelers traveling to Houston

-How ironic was it that Clint Bowyer ran out of gas at Loudon this pass Sunday, to give the lead over to Tony Stewart? My pick to win at Dover this weekend is A.J. Allmendinger

-Next week I will give my regular season awards out for the MLB

Non-sports information of the week

-Isn't it unreal that next week is already Columbus weekend?

-To all of the people who volunteered at New Hampshire Motor Speedway last week, awesome job and despite waking up early it was (in my opinion) fun.

-To anyone hiking Mount Washington with the AMS club and myself on Sunday, good luck and I hope you last for the whole thing.

-I have to say, meatloaf made by Sodexo is one of my personal favorites.

-Am I the only one that wonders how long will the trees under the bridge that crosses over the Pemi?

-I wonder how long it will be before those pumpkins will end up on top of the clock tower……..

‘Till next week I'm outta here……….