By Nabib Aminy
With the start of the NFL season this past week, I was elated because it’s that exact time when baseball is almost over after a thousand games with the real man’s game beginning this year with last year’s Super Bowl champs, the New York Giants, trying to repeat in the upcoming season.
The week’s main headlines were about how the Patriots were going to perform against the Jets without their captain, Tom Brady, how bad the Giants would beat the Rams, and if the Mets were going to push their division lead over the Phillies even more, or somehow choke like they did last year. Also in the headlines was how Michael Phelps fared on Saturday Night Live, which honestly doesn’t need any more mention because it was that bad. But anyone that wins eight gold medals gets a free pass in my book. Unfortunately Michael Phelps wasn’t the biggest laughingstock of the week, that award goes to Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan of the Oakland Raiders who had one of the best tantrums ever this past week after the Oakland Raiders lost 41-14 to the Denver Broncos. 
Moving to the NFL, the Rams felt their last game against the Philadelphia Eagles was an anomaly and that they had a chance against the Giants. Of course, you like that quality in a team and believe that they have a chance, but sometimes optimism shows the reality of how bad a team really is. Déjà vu for the Rams yet again in Week two and they looked even worse than they did in Week one. The Giants basically took the horns out of the Rams and made them look like sheep out there in a blowout win, 41-13. The only time the game was close was when the coin was tossed and the score was 0-0. Eli Manning was having a field day with the secondary of the Rams going 20-29 for 260 yards and throwing touchdown passes to Plaxico Burress, Amani “Its Not a” Toomer, and Ahmad “Barbaro” Bradshaw. The running game was unstoppable and statistically they had one yard less than the Rams had of total offense in the game, 201 total yards of the Rams compared to the Giants’ 200 yards of run offense. As Jim Rome would say, the Giants are “pha nominal.” The Giants are now 2-0 and go home to face the Cincinnati “Criminals” Bengals next Sunday on CBS at 1 PM. My prediction for that game is Giants 42-Bengals 14.
While the Giants seem to keep doing business without that much media attention, the Jets had the opportunity to show if they were actual contenders in the AFC East. Week two’s opponent was last year’s AFC representative for the Super Bowl, the much—despised New England Cheatriots. To those who don’t know, Tom Brady is out for the year and with that the AFC East is up for grabs. Out goes Brady and in comes Matt Cassel, who hasn’t started a football game ever since he was in high school, to take over the reigns of the Patriots offense. Even with Brett Favre, the Jets lost to the Patriots 19-10 and New England further added on to their NFL record for 21 straight regular season wins. There weren’t that many big plays like there were in the Giants game but as Jets CB Darrele Revis said, “yeah, it’s a lost opportunity. There were things we didn’t take advantage of, and we have to do that if we’re going to beat a team like the Patriots.” That basically sums up the Jets game. On 1st and goal at the 1-yard line, the Jets ran the ball three times without scoring a touchdown. You don’t have to be John Madden or an NFL expert here, but come on Eric Mangini; if you have Brett Favre you use Brett Favre to finish the deal in that situation. The lone touchdown for the Jets was by Chansi Stuckey from Favre.
The Jets are still games away from putting themselves on the level of playoff teams in the AFC. How many games they are away from being a playoff team is up in the air, but it’s not like they are that far away from that level. Limiting Randy Moss to two catches for only 22 yards is amazing, and the Patriots to only 19 points is very good as well, but they couldn’t stop the Patriots running game when it mattered in the fourth quarter. Penalties killed the Jets as well and Jay Feely missing a chip shot field goal doesn’t help either. Offensively, just give Brett Favre a little bit more time in understanding the offense and the mistakes he made in the game will turn out to be positives later on. Lavarneuas Coles said it best, “it’s only one game. Our season doesn’t hang on one game. We still have 14 more left to play.” Sure it’s one game, but it was a game that the Jets should have won. Next up for the Jets are the San Diego Chargers who just lost controversially in the most dramatic game this season against the Broncos 39-38. I don’t see the Jets beating the Chargers and here’s my prediction: Chargers 30- Jets 20.
Dreadfully moving onto baseball the New York Mets seem to be going through the same routine like last September in which they embarrassingly gave up a seven-game lead with 17 games left to the Phillies who made the playoffs while the Mets didn’t. After Sunday’s games the Phillies are a game in back of the Mets after my Atlanta Braves took the series from the Metropolitans. The Mets added onto their league leading blown saves, 27 to be exact, in both wins for the Braves. With 14 games left in the season for the Mets it is time to treat each game as a must-win because they got comfortable last year around this time and just blew it big time. If the Mets collapse like they did last year, this would be the first time since 1994 where a New York team hasn’t been in the MLB playoffs. The Knicks were actually good back then and the New York Rangers won a Stanley Cup in ’94. We shall see what the Mets do in the upcoming weeks but I really hope they don’t make the playoffs so Newsday and the New York Times stop reporting on America’s so-called “favorite” past time.
Moving onto the joke of the week, Defensive Coordinator of the Oakland Raiders, Rob Ryan, had one of those interviews that will be played in those Coors Light commercials in the upcoming future. That’s how bad it was, but it was hilarious with respect to what he was saying. This is coming after getting obliterated by the Broncos last Monday night 41-14 in which the Raiders defense clearly had no idea what was going on with defense. He also called out the head coach, Lane Kiffin, and to many players, considered him heroic for standing up for them, unlike the head coach who publically brought down the tea
m.
Here are Rob Ryan’s quotes from the interview and I advise every sport’s fan to find a video of it.
“I’m hired to be the coordinator. That’s what I do. If it goes great, that’s great. If it goes like fuck, you’ve still got the same damn guy up here. I’ll be the same guy up in front of you next week when we kick ass. But I’ll be the same guy if we stumble again. Hell, I’ve been through some tough times. Look at this (removes hat), I’ve got gray. This is that National Fucking Football League. You’re not going to be on point every week. Am I pissed off about Monday night? You’re damned right. It’s on me, and come on, guys, enough’s enough.”
Rob Ryan deserved an Oscar for his 18-minute tirade and there is buzz about him taking over the head coach position real soon. Great Job.
With that it’s a wrap like Christmas and until next time, keep hope alive, you are somebody.
The Stony Brook Press
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