Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The Rundown



A new writer addition to the Irish Road Drinking team has given new life to this writer for putting out posts. I'm not going to lie. So in celebration of the Steeler victory and on the eve of the Election Night Drinking Rules I bring you a Rundown of the Pittsburgh Sports.



First off Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans for winning the World Series. I know we love to give a hard time to Philadelphia but let's give credit where credit is due. The Phillies ended 100 seasons of misery by the city in sports futility. Too bad we can't say the same about the Cubs ... what am I talking about. Screw the Cubs. But seriously if ever a city was ready to party Philly is it. And boy do they know how to party!







Runhigh: "Guess its not the city of Brotherly Love anymore."


Penn State had a rough weekend despite not playing. How does a #7 team jump you in the polls if you're idle? It Boggles my mind? Texas Tech goes from 7 to 2 after beating Texas on a lucky last play at home. If it was at Texas it would have been game over by the 3rd quarter. But the Lions get jumped in the polls because of a "weak schedule." The Beat OSU away!!! This is with Beanie Wells playing and Terrel Pryor aclimated to the OSU system so don't give me the USC beat them rap. Because we all know that USC playing a home against an Ohio team with a depleted offense is different than USC playing in the Horshoe when OSU is at full strength. In my mind Penn State deserves the #2 ranking.

Weathering the storm of 16 straight losers is tough. Pirates writer Jennifer Langosch tries to answer the tough (and obvious) questions.


The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to less than a stellar start this season. Currently they are tied for second in the Atlantic Division with the Devils but way down at Seventh in the Conference. Runhigh was decent enough to remind me that they were one game under .500 last year at by Thanksgiving so lets not hit the panic button yet.

It appears that Alexander Semin is jealous of the Pens Captain Sidney Crosby though. Let's not sugar coat this crap. It wasn't anything lost in translation. It was straight up one douche bag jealous of somebody elses talents. Big whoop Semin. So you have 16 points so far. Any one can go on a hot streak. Real talent lasts the whole season. We'll talk 60 games in when you're 47th on the rank of points leaders. Oh yeah ... a common rule of thumb is to get your team into a position where they'd make the playoffs if the season ended today before you go and talk shit. Otherwise you end up sounding like you do right now ... another whiney little bitch!


Finally in the Obama vs. McCain bowl it looks like the Democrats have won ..... I mean last nights game when the Steelers visited the Redskins the Steelers prevailed 23-6. Hockey Guru's inaugural post on our site proved to be very accurate. The men of Steel came away with a win of more than ten points. Unfortunately our boy was short of the 38 point parlay prediction by 9 points. I don't think anybody would have guessed quite a defensive masterpiece that our team displayed. I know I didn't think the Redskins would hold us to 23. The MVP of the night had to be the defense. You couldn't single out anyone from it. With 7 sacks, 2 INT's on Campbell (the first two against him all season), and holding the Redskin offense to 3-15 on third down conversions it was an all out thrashing. Not to mention the 4th and goal from the one-yard line that the 'Skins passed from. Runhigh summed it up best when he said "What does it say about the Steelers D that the Redskins are afraid to run the best running back in football when only needing one yard." It says the Steelers stuffed Jacobs on four plays from the goal line last Sunday and it scared the crap out of Zorn. Pussy!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Steelers by 10

I'd like to thank the guys "On Irish Road" for inviting me to write on their blog. It is always a pleasure to expand my contribution areas and work with new people.

That being said, I'd like to talk about tonight's Monday Night Football game showcasing the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins. The Steelers are coming off a home loss to the defending champion New York "Football" Giants. Ben Roethlisberger and crew are 5-0 against everyone beside the NFC-East; there they are represented by a lousy 0-2 record.

There is no doubt that the NFC-East is the best division in football, but what does that mean to everyone else? For the Steelers, it means that they are still a top team in the league. When you lose tight games to top teams, you can't count it the same as a loss to the Lions (see Irish Road's previous post).

Even with the Steelers' dominant defense, Clinton Portis will most likely break the 1000 yard mark in tonight's game. Portis, who leads the league in rushing, continues to be the dominant back that he has in years past. Despite Portis' impressive play, Jason Campbell will play as tonight's x-factor. The Steelers have a banged up secondary and the mobile Campbell is yet to throw an interception on the year. If the Steelers' D can live up to their reputation, this will be a much tougher game for Campbell than he has seen to this point.

For the Steelers to win, they will need to keep Washington's front seven away from Big Ben. If Pittsburgh can establish the run and adjust to the pass rush, they will win the game. Roethlisberger is extremely affective when throwing to Heath Miller and the Steelers will need to utilize him as a check-down receiver in tonight's game.

Prediction: Steelers 27 - Redskins 17

Gambler: Parlay the Steelers on the money line and over (38). You won't need the points tonight and the payout will be greater for doing so.

Detroit Lions - The Ultimate in Suckage

So last week I find out my buddy Chasser made a 150 push-up bet with my other friend in the pre-season that the Lions would make the playoffs. We laughed about it before the end of the Lions game last week when they lost and ran their record to 0-7. Chasser of course wanted to keep trash talking so he claimed that the Lions would run the table over the final nine games and finish with a 9-7 record and still make the playoffs. Being the antagonist that I am I told him that the Lions would be lucky to win one game let alone their final nine. I felt a bet stirring so I gave him a line of 2.5 on the Lions win total for the season. If finished better than 2-14 he would win. A 2-14 record or worse meant I would win. The bet? 500 push-ups. We all think that pain infliction is a better bet than monetary loss.
So Yesterday the Lions give me a scare by knocking out Kyle Orton and coming back from 10-0 to take a 20-10 lead. But of course the Lions being who they are blew a 10 point lead to Sexy Rexy in the second half and now sit at 0-8. Well only six more losses for them and my buddy has a tough bet to settle. But in good fun I wanted to give this little video tribute to Chasser's team that I pulled off of YouTube.


Sunday, November 2, 2008

NFL PICKS: Week 9



Halloween Hangover is now affecting me two straight weeks. Let's hope it's not going to do the same to Ben Rothlisberger who last week played like he was drunk off his ass (at least that's what he needs to tell people for that horrible performance). So this Week I'm only doing the Picks again without my usual banter. Plus I need to sober up enough so I can start drinking for the football games. Anyways, On to the Picks!

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2nd

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills (-3)

Bills -3

Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears (-9)

Chicago -9

Jacksonville Jaguars (-4) at Cincinatti Bengals

Jaguars -4

Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland Browns (Even)

Browns

Green Bay Packers at Tennessee Titans (-1.5)

Titans -1.5

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-6.5) at Kansas City Chiefs

Cheifs +6.5

Arizona Cardinals (-3.5) at St. Louis Rams

Rams +3.5

Houston Texans at Minnesota Vikings (Even)

Vikings

Miami Dolphins at Denver Broncos (-1)

Broncos -1

Atlanta Falcons (-4) at Oakland Raiders

Falcons -4

Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants (-8)

Giants -8

Philadelphia Eagles (-5) at Seattle Seahawks

Eagles -5

New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts (-1)

Colts -1

MONDAY NOVEMBER 3RD

Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins (Even)

Gotta Be the Steelers Baby

Last Week's Record: 4-9-1

Season Record: 57-57-1