Kronwall, Sioux Out

Last night in the Wings/Avs preseason game, Dan Hinote hipchecked Niklas Kronwall, and while no official word has come out on his injury yet, Coach/Badass Mike Babcock said that "He looks like he's going to be out for a while". That is very very disappointing, and overshadows another great game in net by Jimmy Howard. Kronwall was the brightest star of training camp and the preseason thusfar, and was looking like he was going to have a breakout year. Don Shane apparently just reported that he'll be out 6+ weeks, which is still promising because the first thing I thought of was "ACL Tear, done til March". Hopefully they'll have him back by the end of November.
UPDATE: According to MLive, who always seems to get the scoop on the Freep and Detroit News, Kronwall has some ACL and MCL damage, and will be re-examined on Friday. The team is hoping that it isn't season-ending. Ugh.

Howard allowed just 2 goals on 32 shots last night against a full-Avs team, despite having only one Detroit regular in the lineup (Niklas Kronwall...go figure. He wasn't even supposed to be playing but Rivers tweaked a groin). He wasn't listed as a star of the game, but by some accounts kept the Wings in it and stood on his head yet again. I've said it before, I'll say it again. He's Detroit's starter next year. He was an absolute steal in the second round.

On NHL.com, they have a link to a preview of NBC's Season Preview Show "Fresh Ice". NBC's coverage for the season will include not a stupid glow puck, but GOALIE CAM!!!! It's friggin sweet. Open the link in Media Player and check it out.

The NCAA announced today that it has denied North Dakota's appeal to be removed from the list of teams who are not allowed to use their Indian-offensive nicknames in postseason play. They did, however, allow North Dakota to still host the NCAA Hockey Tournament west regional without removing the Indian logos. But they will not be selected to host another postseason event, despite the Taj-Mahal they've got in Grand Forks. Ralph Engelstad must be spinning in his grave...unless he's too busy ethnically cleansing the afterlife.

F1 may be on the way outs as a racing series. Chrysler, Renault, BMW, Honda, and Toyota met today and said they're going ahead with plans for a breakaway racing series to start in 2008. They want more equality in a series that has long been dominated by Ferarri and is essentially governed by a dictatorship. FIA President Max Mosley said "'It is becoming in my view, increasingly unlikely that (a new racing series) will happen,''' Mosley said. He suggested the manufacturers and the teams lacked the financial resources to run a new series." according to TSN. Really? Chrysler, BMW, Honda and Toyota don't have enough finances to run a racing series? Methinks he's been into some of this Kool Aid.

The Hockey News put out a list of their top 50 NHL players, and inexplicably Robert Lang is omitted. How? The guy would have led the entire league in scoring in 03-04 but for a late-season abdomen injury. He single-handedly took the Red Wings to the second round of the playoffs, and damn near won them that series, despite a broken hand. The guy may not be as flashy as Kovalchuk or Hedjuk or Sakic or some of those guys, but he always produces, and I'm very excited to have him in the red and white for a full season.

Michigan was ranked #2 in both of the CCHA Preseason Media polls, behind Ohio State in each of them. Gotta say, that's probably right. OSU brought back most of their team, they've got a pretty capable goalie in Caruso, and Michigan has a lot of question marks. I don't agree with UAF being ranked behind UNO. Neither team loses a whole lot offensively, but UNO lost Chris Holt and that's a pretty tough loss to overcome. Especially to leave them at #5 in the preseason poll. UAF could be pretty good this year. If UNO had Holt back, I'd be tempted to put them at #3 but as it is, I think they're going to struggle. That said, I honestly don't know anything about their new goalie so I might be talking out of my ass.

And umm...that's not a typo. As of right now, the Michigan/MSU game from Yost on Oct. 22 is not on TV. And Comcast Local is slated for a MAC Football doubleheader. Might not have any live coverage for that one, folks. A lot of Michigan games on CSTV, which is nice considering our local cable provider still doesn't freaking have the station. It would also be nice to...oh I don't know....be able to see the 4 part special they're airing/going to air? about Jack Johnson. Grr CSTV! Grr Comcast!

I'm a Spoiled Little Brat

I think I just might be the only person in the world that has felt like he got punched in the stomach when he found out that he's got center-ice season hockey tickets.

My tickets for Michigan hockey this year are in between the red line and blue line on the end that we'll be defending twice. And yet I felt like throwing up when I found that out. The last two years I've been on the glass in the end where we play offense twice, and I absolutely loved it.

Any photo on MGoBlue that you see? I'm in there. Critical faceoff late in the game? There's Milan Gajic laughing at the latest sign on my dry-erase board. Finnish goalie? Here's a sign in Finnish saying that he's a sieve that ends up getting mentioned on INCH (Not as cool as being linked by Feldman, but still....). Whomping on Notre Dame, keep track of the number of goals scored in the season series on the dry erase board (Final total: Michigan 40, ND 7) and greatly embarass Chris Trick. AJ Thelen learned that he's fat and jumped into the glass to try and knock the sign down. AJ Thelen's mom stole that sign, and quickly learned that the Yost student section has each other's backs...as some random student ran over there and stole it back for me.
Where did Porno Moustache originate? Look no further than our group.

And now? I'm at center ice. My view of the game will be better. I'll actually get to see how we manage to give up goals on the far end. But making signs on the dry-erase board will have no effect since I'm not on the glass. I can't even cuss out the players on our team that I don't like (Thankfully Eric Werner is gone) since I'm right behind the Michigan parents.

Maybe I'll get to the game Sunday and find out that I really really like my seats. The ones on the glass weren't real conducive to having the slightest idea what was going on in the northeast corner of the rink, and it was sometimes tough even seeing the play around the north goal. This should make for having a better view of the entire ice, and I'll get to watch Jack Johnson more, which is always a good thing. But I can't help but already miss getting to watch one of the highest scoring teams in the country go to work for 2 periods, while at the same time having the best seat in the house to make fun of the opposing players.

I guess being in the house is what's important, right?

Another Stellar Football Weekend

Let's talk about Michigan first.

This season is sapping my excitement for football right out. I can't even bring myself to bitch and holler at the TV during Michigan games anymore because I know how they're all going to turn out. When Henne went John Navarre and sacked himself on the last play of the game, I just laughed (and Johnny did that on the same field the last time we played the Badgers). It was a fitting end.

If it weren't for the hockey coverage and The Fort message board, I'd probably be cancelling my Rivals membership right now, because I just don't give a damn about football recruiting anymore. How many years have we brought in these great classes, only to see it not pan out on the field. Burgess and Crable and Mundy oh my! We're set for the next 4 years. Except that Burgess is only now starting to become a decent linebacker, Charles Drake Mundy hurt his shoulder--not by tackling someone I assume--and it may have actually helped the team, and the only thing Crable has contributed was his absolutely hilarious "WHY WE ONLY GOT FOUR GUYS????" comment during a Michigan Hockey penalty kill. I'm fully confident that we could bring in 15 5 star guys next year and still manage to go 9-3 every year.

If we lose to Michigan State this weekend, as is looking pretty likely, there need to be some answers. That'd be 3 losses in the first 5 games of the season, 2-5 over the last 7 games, and we'd be able to say that we've lost our last game to MSU, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Iowa, and our bowl game. That's not an elite program. That's not a second tier program.

I love Lloyd Carr to death, but I'm starting to wonder if this shouldn't be the end of an era. I know the man has made back to back Rose Bowls, won back to back Big 10 titles, but holy crap. If it's not the end of Lloyd, it sure as hell better be the end of some of his staff. I know he said before the season that he'd never let anyone tell him what to do in terms of his staff, but something needs to be changed in this program.

We're losing more regularly, we haven't escaped our first road game unscathed since I was a freaking senior in high school, and I've got my degree from U of M now. We're staring 4 out of 5 against Ohio State in the face. We've lost 3 of 4 to ND. We've lost 3 of 4 bowl games. And on top of that, we're a freaking underdog against Michigan State. What dude?

What do these numbers have in common: 31, 34, 28, 45, 30, 28, 38? Those are how many points we've given up in our bowl games since the national championship year. That works out to a 33.4 average. That's not acceptable.

As for the game itself....first off, anyone harping on Michigan going for it on 4th and goal from the 1 and not getting in should punch themselves in the face. I understand some people saying that on the road, you take the points. But I also don't believe for a second that when Henne and co. stayed out on the field that nearly every Wolverine fan out there wasn't applauding the decision, and saying that Lloyd finally got some balls. It didn't work, so be it.

The 9 second field goal...Lloyd said that he wasn't aware that they put time back on the clock. Well if he didn't, then he's dumb. Just dumb. It's a dead ball penalty but you don't think they're going to put time back on the clock? If he thought they weren't putting time back on, then he should've been in the refs' face to get him to put time back on. Not an excuse.

Henne still looks awful. I can't believe how that guy has regressed. Breaston is invisible, and Manningham should be starting. If Breaston is that banged up, maybe he should stop fielding every damn punt that's skipping along the ground before he gets himself killed.

I still love how Max Martin runs. If that kid could just hold on to the damn ball.........We miss Mike Hart bad. I think a healthy Hart will go a long way toward making Henne and the others look better, but there's still no reason that we shouldn't have beaten that joke of a team by 10+ points.

The defense looked pretty good again I thought. It was just at the end of the game when they had been on the field for the whole half that they started to fold. Next week is the big test though. We'll see then if they've actually learned anything in the last 8-9 months. I'm worried.

As for the Packers, I could pretty much just repost my post about last week's game, "The Little Things" because it was the same thing again. I'm going to say this again. The NFL needs to do something about these turnovers that can't be reviewed. The Packers lost 7 points because of it. They ruled Griese's arm was coming forward and blew the play dead (very late I might add) as an incomplete pass. Too bad the replay showed it wasn't even close. That should've been a fumble and touchdown. But they couldn't even get the ball when they reviewed it. Sherman's challenge was upheld and the result was a loss of 7 yards for the Bucs. Yippee. There's just no arguing that something needs to be done about that. If instant replay is supposed to correct huge errors by the refs, then they need to find a way to review down by contact rulings, and plays where they rule the QB's arm was coming forward. 7 points is the difference in that game--and it would be in a lot of NFL games in this era of parity. They can't take plays like that away from teams every week and not expect it to have an impact.

Favre needs to realize that the team he plays for just isn't that good, and instead of trying to carry them to a victory every week, just rein it in a little bit, and not force things. They can't overcome 2 or 3 picks every single week. He needs to stop throwing the ball up for grabs when he doesn't have JWalk there to come down with it. The defense is much better than I thought it would be, but there's nothing you can do when the Bucs run 22 plays in Packers territory out of 25 in the first half.

The guards are horrible. There's just no room for Ahman Green to run. I wonder how much longer they can go with Will Whittacker at RG, especially when their 4th and 5th best offensive linemen are sitting on the bench in Kevin Barry and Scott Wells. Sherman has to be considering the idea of moving Tauscher to RG and putting Barry in at RT. I know they don't want to do that, because it would basically eliminate their U-71 package, but to be honest, it hasn't worked at all this year. I think teams have figured it out a little better, and it's kind of obvious when they run to the side of the 3rd tackle every single time. They don't pass out of that formation, they don't run to the other side in that formation. Yes it helps to have a 6th offensive lineman in there, but when 2 of them are crap and the defense knows where you're going to run, the benefit goes away in a hurry.

Wells looked pretty good at center last year, and they were projecting him as a guard. He's gotta be better than Klemm. Klemm is pretty good as a pass blocker, but that guy can't move and they need someone that can do that for their run plays.

The defense though...man. If they can get Jim Bates some talent in this offseason, I'd love to see what he could do. They did a great job on Cadillac until the last drive, and the pass defense didn't do too badly either. They're exactly middle of the pack in YPG, exactly middle of the pack in PPG given up, and middle of the pack against the pass and against the run. And that's with an extreme lack of talent. The only thing missing is takeaways. They've only got 1 in 3 games (though 2 were called back by down by contact and shouldn't have been). But that will come with more playmakers on that side of the ball. They need another pass rusher and they need a playmaker in the secondary. I'm fully convinced at this point that Bates is the answer, and I hope they can keep him around long enough to let him make a true impact.

I can't believe the parallels that are running between Michigan and the Packers. If you told me before the year that GB's defense would be 14-16 in most major categories, and that Michigan's defense would play the way they have, and they'd combine to lose 5 of their first 7 games, I would have been shocked. These were two of the most highly regarded offenses in the country and neither has performed even close to expactations. It's disappointing.

I'm not sure what else can go wrong for the two of those football teams. Losing on a missed PAT after you lose 10 points directly from bad no-calls (an intentional grounding flag was picked up that would've knocked the Bucs out of FG range and forced a punt). Ugh.

One more note: You don't always get to hear this kind of thing in the crowd, and it's one of the reasons that I like timing the Michigan soccer and field hockey games so much. In the monsoon yesterday at the Michigan soccer field, Steve Burns put in Tolo Olowolafe with about 20 minutes left in the game. The ball went in on goal and Olowolafe pulled up. The goalie ended up bobbling the ball, and Burns yelled "Tolo! Play that ball right into his hands, he's bobbling everything!"

With just over a minute left in regulation time, Jake Stacy played the ball into the box, the goalie came diving out to play it and it skipped off his hands. Olo was chasing the ball down and after it came off the goalie's hands he had a wide open net for the winning goal. Big win for the Wolverines to open the Big 10. They lost 5-0 to Northwestern last year in the B10 Tourney and the Wildcats returned pretty much their whole team. Nice win in those conditions, capitalizing on their only shot on goal of the game.

Starting to get excited about hockey. The Wings are looking great in the preseason, and Michigan hockey plays their first exhibition game on Sunday. Nothing like dropping 15 goals on a Canadian team to help you forget this joke of a football season. That game could get really ugly. Toronto lost 15-1 to Lake State last season. I'm looking forward to it.

NHL Preseason...it's FANtastic!

I didn't get to watch too much of the Wings/Avs preseason game thanks to the Lost double-dip on ABC, but I watched a good portion of the Wings/BJs game last night. I know you can't take too much from a preseason game, but a few thoughts from the last couple of nights:

-First off, IT'S SO GREAT TO HAVE HOCKEY BACK!!!!!

-I wouldn't wish a groin injury upon any man, but the longer I can go without seeing Chris Osgood in the Wings' net, the better.

-Niklas Kronwall..wow. That kid's a player. I don't care if he was playing against mini-mites out there, it's obviously. You may not be able to tell a ton from preseason games, but you can tell this kid is a stud. And playing in Sweden's Torpedo system for a few years isn't going to hurt him with the new rules in the NHL. He's already taking full advantage of the lack of 2 line passes. At one point, he shot a pass from his own goal line down the ice to Draper at the opposing blueline for a breakaway. And since it was Draper on the breakaway, you know how that one turned out.

-Jimmy Howard is going to be good too. He let in a softie, but the talent is there for that kid to be a big game goalie. The game tonight isn't on, but we're up 2-0 on Dallas after 2 and I guess he's kept the Wings in the game (which is very believable with the roster they're using tonight...Holmstrom and Schneider are the only regulars in the lineup).

-The Wings have such a nice balance back on defense. Schneider, Lidstrom, Kronwall, Delmore and yes Fischer can all move the puck really well. Then they've got Lilja (who I haven't seen yet...he's hurt), Chelios, Rivers who are all solid in their own end (not to say that Lidstrom and Schneider aren't!). Delmore can really move the puck, but that kid can't play a lick of defense. Think Danny Richmond here. He had 3-4 real bad giveaways. They don't call him Any Elmore for nothing....no D at all. And there is the reason that he was struggling to catch on despite pretty darn good offensive numbers.

-Lang is just a pure sniper. Everyone seems to forget that he's on the team, and he's really probably their best forward. It's going to be really nice having him in the lineup for a full season. Lang/Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Lidstrom/Schneider power play? Yes please.

-Hudler looked great. Our badass coach thought he played well, but that it was an effort that was overdue.

“I said, ‘Are you the guy I saw at the start of camp, or are you the guy who’s competitive right now?’” Babcock said. “If you are prepared to compete and you have that skill level you are going to be good.

“I watched him a few times in the minors last year and he wasn’t good at all. He has to decide.”

“Hudler had some jump today, but why doesn’t he play hard all the time? If you can be good one time, you can be good all the time, so what’s going on there mentally?”

-Tomas Kopecky looked pretty good last night too. This was a guy who was right up at the top of our prospect rankings, and has gone into a tailspin since then. He played pretty well last night though. He's going to need a lot more of those efforts if he's going to make the league, but at least it was something.

-Franzen has 2 tonight. I wish I could see this kid. It's 2-2 now. Howard's given up 2 in the third. But keep in mind we're playing NO ONE tonight. I'd be pissed if I paid to go to that game and see the Grand Rapids Griffins play.

-I love the new rules. Absolutely love them. There's no reason that 2 line passes and tag up offsides shouldn't have been in the game all along. We're going to have some sub 2 1/2 hour games this year. They're just flying along.

-In other preseason action, tonight Eric Nystrom got his first NHL "goal". Congrats Ny! I hope he makes the Flames. I guess Danny Richmond scored for Carolina last night too. If he makes their team, am I required to put him on my Michigan team in NHL2k6 when the roster update comes out?

-Tambellini practiced with Michigan yesterday after getting sent down by the Kings. No word on if Red was grunting in his office, and putting a scope on him the whole time.

-Next Sunday is the Michigan exhibition opener against Toronto. If they use that screwed up rule about having the center line determine when the zone is cleared, after the blueline is gained, Michigan is going to score 15 goals and our power play is going to be like 80%. I can't wait. It's always fun to bust on the Canadian teams and then piss em off by not playing their anthem.

-The IndyCars are at Watkins Glen, love those road courses! They had rain today, and I kind of hope it rains on Sunday there. I love watching races in the rain and it's been forever since I've seen one. I just bought a piece of Bryan Herta's 2000 racecar on ebay. Whooo!

"He said 'We have a deal'"

According to Mlive, TSN, and Yahoo, Pavel Datsyuk is coming back to the Red Wings "Unless [ken holland] has a major curve thrown at [him]"...

Cool.

If it happens, I'll boo his ass for the first game, and after that I'll welcome him back with open arms. I'm fine with a two-year deal and I'm not sure why Holland was so dead-set against it all along.

Greenstin played him like a fiddle.

Michigan's Walking Wounded and an I Told You So to NASCAR

In Lloyd's press conference today, he stated that Ryan Mundy is likely out for the year, due to a shoulder injury that obviously didn't come from tackling someone. He then had this classic answer to a question about the rest of Michigan's walking wounded:

On Michigan's other injured: "I can't tell you. Until we practice … every week you've got a new game plan, different challenges. We've got to be prepared to go with people who have practiced. Whether or not any of those guys will practice, I can't tell you.

"What I can tell you is, I haven't had any reason to believe they will, or won't. What I'm saying is, they all want to play. They were all getting treatment yesterday [Sept.18]. They all were getting treatment this morning, this afternoon.

"I know this – every one of them will do everything he can do to be prepared to play. Now, Doug Dutch came down with a 103-degree temperature last Friday and was ruled out of the game. I expect Doug back."

What a roundabout way of saying absolutely nothing! I love Lloyd.

Also today, NASCAR announced their penalties for rough driving and using naughty words in yesterday's race. Robby Gordon got docked 50 points for trying to back his car into Michael Waltrip after a wreck and almost nailing Tony Stewart (which would've led to a fight, and it would've been awesome since Stewart would've gotten his ass kicked) then proceeding to throw his helmet at Waltrip's car. Oh, and he said a dirty word. Waltrip got docked 25 points for a naughty gesture. And Kasey Kahne got docked 25 points and put on probation for the rest of the season for drilling Kyle Busch after Busch wrecked him.

NASCAR dipshit President Mike Helton had this to offer:

“There have been a growing number of incidents lately where drivers have taken matters into their own hands. Such unsafe and inappropriate behavior has to stop,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. NASCAR will use whatever means necessary to stop it.”

And Mike? Where did this all start? Oh yeah, at Bristol when you let Dale Jarrett "take matters into his own hands" and didn't do anything to him, even though he ruined Kevin Harvick's season in the process of getting revenge on Ryan Newman. He could've nipped it in the bud, by simply parking Jarrett for the rest of the race like I suggested (not here...because I never felt like writing about my favorite driver getting his season ended for no reason, but in a profanity-laced tirade to my father after the incident). Helton's an ass-clown. Whoops, I used a dirty word. I guess that's a 25 point fine in my NR2003 season. Crap.

The Red Wings open the exhibition season tonight against the kind-of-sort-of defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. Do they still get to be the defending champs? Have they kept the Stanley Cup all this time? Inquiring minds want to know.

Not pictured in the MGoBlue photo gallery from the men's soccer game yesterday is a picture of the Kentucky coach absolutely spazzing after getting ejected, telling the official "I'm going to send the tape in and they'll see what a cheater you are!" to which the ref replied "The only thing that they'll see is that you are a lousy coach." High comedy. Also not pictured are the refs arriving late, and the UK coach getting carded for freaking out about it.

The Little Things

"The little things, the little things mean everything"-Matthew Ryan

Quick thoughts about the Wolverines game before I get on to the Packers:

--It's hard to tell too much based on the competition, but I really like the way Max Martin runs when he's not fumbling. I also like how Manningham looks, and I liked the Antonio Bass at QB sets. It was nice to see Breaston almost take one to the house.

--I didn't like Michigan putting Leon Hall back returning punts when we had a 45+ point lead. If there's one player on this team that we cannot afford to lose, it's Hall. So why expose him back there in garbage time?

I don't have a whole lot else to say about that game. Henne wasn't great again, and I could've done with a couple more deep balls to try and work out his timing with Breaston, but apart from that they did what they needed to do. Won big, played good defense, got a lot of guys some significant PT. As long as the injured offensive linemen are good to go next week, I can't complain about that game.

And I whole heartedly agree with Mgoblog. That was by far the best halftime show I have ever seen. Whoever came up with that should be very proud of themselves, because it was frickin hilarious. And pretty much everyone I overheard thought the same thing.

Onto the Packers game:

My biggest pet peeve in football that in the NFL, there's no way to review a play in which the runner is ruled down by contact. This goes back to Jerry Rice's fumble in the 1999 Wild Card game against the Packers, which was ruled down by contact. If it was called correctly, the game is over. Instead the 49ers win on the last play. Now back then, instant replay didn't exist so it didn't matter so much. But six years later, that particular call continues to irritate the hell out of me.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen it, where a player is ruled down by contact and on the replay shown, it turns out that the ball came out. What's irritating is that on almost every other turnover, replay can be used to determine if a change of possession should take place. Did the guy actually intercept the pass? Did he get a foot (or two) in bounds? Was the QB's arm coming forward? Did the running back's knee hit the ground before he fumbled? All of those things can be reviewed and overturned. Except for "did the player fumble before his knee hit the ground". The only idea I have to fix that is for the ref to let the play play out, then issue his ruling on the field. If he thinks the guy was down, let the fumble play out, then blow the whistle and say "the ruling on the field is that the player was down by contact" and let the coach challenge if he thinks otherwise. That way, there's at least still an option to review it.

I thought my team finally caught a break with that rule in the Notre Dame game. Much to my chagrin, in college that play is apparently reviewable, provided that the fumble is recovered before the whistle blew. If I'm not mistaken, if Henne's fumble occurred in an NFL game, it would not have been reviewable.

Today, it made a difference in the Packers/Browns game. Cleveland fumbled, GB recovered. It was ruled down by contact. The Browns got a free field goal out of it, and the difference in the game was two points. Now, I'm not stupid enough to think that if Cleveland turns it over, Green Bay automatically wins by one. So much happened from that point on, that it's impossible to say how the game would have played out (it's not like the 49ers/Packers playoff game where the game was over if the right call was made). But that brings me to the title of this post. The Little Things.

Basically what it comes down to is that Green Bay is not a good enough team to have things like that go against them. They're not good enough to have a team be given three free points. They're not good enough to overcome a red-zone interception of Favre, taking away 3 if not 7 points. They're not good enough to continually give teams free first downs on illegal contact calls (legit or not). They're not good enough to have their rare forced-turnovers taken away (either by penalty (Al Harris) or by a quick whistle (the fumble).

The margin for error is so slim with that team, that these little things just add up. When you combine the 3 free points Cleveland got with the 3 points Favre threw away when he tossed that jump ball up (not to mention the 7 points Cleveland scored on the ensuing play), and add it to 4 potential points that were taken away when Driver was clearly interfered with on a third down pass that he didn't miss by much, you're talking about 1o points (or 17). Some teams can overcome that. Unfortunately, mine is not one of them. And it's too bad because that's a game that could've been won. Better teams don't make mistakes like that, and better teams don't need a perfectly officiated game.

That said, barring a tie in either game tomorrow, there will be only 3 teams in the NFC sitting at 2-0. And they're still only 1 game out of first in a bad, bad division. 7-8 wins may end up taking the NFC North, as all four teams are pretty bad. Especially the Vikings, holy crap. But as much as I want GB to rebound and win the division for the 4th straight year in a row, it might be best if they just hit rock bottom for a year. They'll have 30-40 million in cap space for next season, and adding an impact player or two through the draft might be just what the doctor ordered.

The other thing that really bugs me (and this goes for any sport) is consistency with the officials. I don't care if you want to call it illegal contact every time there's contact after 5 yards. I don't care if you let it go unless it makes a difference in the play. But for Crissakes, call it both ways. It's not that hard. There's no excuse to let things go like Driver getting pushed off his route 15 yards downfield when you've been calling penalties on the defenders the entire day. It's just stupid. Oh, and it bugs me when coaches can't figure out whether to go for 1 or 2. It's not that hard, and you're paid hundreds of thousands--if not millions of dollars. It's just math and common sense.

Random fact about the Packers game: Favre now has the record for most TD passes in a single stadium with 181 at Lambeau. He passed Elway's 180 at Mile High today. And he joined the 50,000 passing yard club. That's roughly 28.4 miles. Yikes.

Hockey SID Matt Trevor is putting up "Getting to Know You" profiles of all 11 hockey freshmen. Some of the quotes in there are just hilarious. The best part of the feature is at the end of each one, he tests them on how quickly they can name the other 10 freshmen.

Datsyuk still hasn't made up his mind, but the silence out of Russia leads me to believe he ain't coming back.

Nascar is cracking down on people wrecking other drivers intentionally 3 weeks too late. They parked Kasey Kahne for the entire race today, after he wrecked Kyle Busch. I'm sure Kevin Harvick is saying "Thanks a lot" after Dale Jarrett ruined his season at Bristol and only faced a 2 lap penalty. Junior, Harvick, and Gordon got a nice jump on next season...all finishing in the top 15.