Bad Guys 133, Good Guys 132.  I lost my fantasy semifinal by one (bleepin') point.  To be more specific, I came up five yards short on Monday Night Football.

  • "I'm not saying anything; you will just twist my words," Joe McKnight said. "You've all (ruined) my life."  Accountability 101.
  • In the spirit of accountability, I bailed on my typical lineup with Greg Jennings to go with Laurence Maroney.  It cost me three points.
  • Thank you Jim Zorn!  I have not laughed that hard in a while.
  • In case you missed the post-game, the goal of the play was to distract everyone by sending the entire team to the left and then throw it to the center who is an eligible receiver at the end of the line of scrimmage.  I much prefer the way they ran it.
  • With Mike Shanahan unofficially officially hired as the next Redskins victim head coach, Jim Zorn should have given the finger to Daniel Snyder after running that play.  Actually, the play speaks for itself.
  • Great tweet by Giants beat writer Ralph Vacchiano: "There were a minimum of six penalties on that play, none of them flagged by the officials. Redskins also pull off impressive double: having at least five ineligible guys downfield, and not one of them within 15 yards of where the pass lands. Remarkable."
  • And the coup de gras, there were only two seconds left in the half, so if the pass had been caught, the Giants would have tackled the receiver and ended the half.  Honestly, it was the moment of the season.
  • If you never made it to the second half, Brandon Jacobs and Albert Haynesworth squared off, threw a combination of punches and drew a combined one 15-yard penalty between them (on Haynesworth) with no ejections.  Walt Coleman's crew must have had trouble spotting the 6'4", 264 pound running back.  Good news for Jacobs, he finally made somebody miss this season.  Maybe he should be a boxer.
  • Like Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning is at his statistical best when his team is at their worst.  He does not want to throw for 300+ yards because his team is built to play power football on offense and defense.  Nevertheless, Manning's passing attack has been the only salvageable aspect from an otherwise lost season.
  • Mike Holmgren will get the Browns on track.  Like Bill Parcells, Holmgren is one of the best minds in the game as long as he is focused on one task, coaching or personnel.  He has a left tackle, a return man and a not a whole lot else.  Eric Mangini is not long for that job.  There are two active coaching trees in the NFL, Holmgren's and Parcells'.  Mangini is a Parcells guy through Belichick.  Expect a Holmgren guy like Marty Mornhinweg to get another shot.
  • I watched the highlights of the Bulls blowing a 35-point second half lead to the Kings last night.  Strangely, it did not seem that momentous.  Basically, the Kings dramatically outplayed a bad Bulls team for the last 20 minutes.  I hope Vinny Del Negro is renting.
  • The Yankees traded Melky Cabrera and prospects for Javier Vazquez, who was last seen in pinstripes when he gave up a grand slam to Johnny Damon in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.  He has a career 4.52 ERA in the AL as opposed to 4.02 in the NL.  More recently, he pitched to a 2.87 ERA in 2009 in the NL and a 4.67 ERA in 2008 in the AL.  To be clear, he is a back of the rotation starter.  With that said, he has pitched 198+ innings in 10 straight seasons.  His durability is his greatest asset to a Yankees rotation that looked awfully thin before the move.
  • As for left field, welcome home Johnny Damon?  I hope so.  Please no Jermaine Dye...
  • Judging by the activity, there are only four teams playing next season.  Like college football, we can boil baseball down to one sentence right now.  New York, Boston and Seattle will battle to play Philadelphia in the World Series.