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It’s Been Quite a Week… And There is a Game Thursday Night

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s been quite a week in the National Football League.

Minnesota Vikings’ wide receiver Sidney Rice will return to the lineup in Chicago on Sunday after recovering from hip surgery that kept him out of the lineup for the first nine weeks of the season. Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Stafford is out for the season after re-injuring his throwing shoulder. And Indianapolis Colts wideout Austin Collie has a concussion from that massive hit he took in Philadelphia last week and he won’t play against Cincinnati this week.

Brad Childress is still coaching in Minnesota, but Wade Phillips is no longer in Dallas. The new coach in Cowboy Town is Jason Garrett, who does have a slight connection to Winnipeg. In 1991, the year after Blue Bombers head coach Mike Riley led the Bombers to their last Grey Cup, he left town to take over as head coach of the World League of American Football’s San Antonio Riders. His quarterback was Jason Garrett. After the Riders and the WLAF folded, Garrett went on to play QB in Ottawa. The connections are weak, I’ll grant you, but they are still connections.

This week, the NFL schedule starts on Thursday night. Tomorrow I’ll post all of our picks for Week 10. In the meantime, here’s Dr. Football with a look at Thursday night’s game in Atlanta:

Baltimore Ravens (6-2) at Atlanta Falcons (6-2) Line: Falcons by 1.5

The NFL kicks off its Thursday Night Football series with a very good game featuring two 6-2 teams coming off wins in week 9 and playing on a short week. The Ravens have it double tough; the Falcons are dominant at home and the Georgia Dome crowd will be its usual raucous self. Ravens QB Joe Flacco who had a strong game last week, completing 20-of-27 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns,  will once again have to go to the air, a task made easier by the fact that Atlanta’s secondary is lousy (ranked 31st in the league). Flacco won’t have much success on the ground as the Falcons are very good against the run; no opponent has rushed for more than four yards per carry against them since Week 2. The Ravens had problems once they got into the red zone last week only coming away with one touchdown against the Dolphins. Atlanta is an impressive 17-3 on its home field since the beginning of the 2008 season, including a perfect 4-0 this season.

Dr. Football: FALCONS TO WIN AND COVER.

The Coach: FALCONS TO WIN AND COVER

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Bombers Win Again (Just As We Called). It’s going to Be Fun in the Playoffs.

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Wonder what all those misguided fans (it’s not their fault, they just read daily newspapers) and the thin-skinned Winnipeg mainstream media think of Mike Kelly today?

Didn’t that Bomber ream look terrific on Monday in their 38-28 road shellacking of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats? Pretty much as we called it, by the way.

I will reiterate, Mike Kelly is the best coach the Bomber organization has seen since Mike Riley. And there IS a Grey Cup in his future. Probably sooner than later, too.

Monday, Michael Bishop threw three touchdown passes as the Bombers won their third straight game, improved to 6-8 and pulled into a second-place tie with the Ticats in the Eastern Division.  The Bombers have four games remaining, three of them in Winnipeg and with a victory this week against B.C. at Canad Inns Stadium, they might just eliminate the crossover playoff format.

Can anyone say, “10-8?” Granted that would take two wins over Montreal, but right now, I wouldn’t call that impossible.

Monday, Bishop went 21-for-38 (not great) for 356 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions (not at all good). Bishop also lost one of two fumbles as the Bombers once again turned it over too many times.

However, since Bishop took ownership of this football team and Kelly weeded out the wideouts who didn’t want to play (Armstrong and Bryant), this football team has come together. Unlike the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl, the Bombers can now score enough to overcome three turnovers.

Monday, Adarius Bowman had 10 catches for 213 yards and two TDs while Brock Ralph had five catches for 98 yards and one touchdown and even Lenny Walls got into the act with a fumble return for a TD. Until the Bombers went into a strange prevent-defence type of thing in the fourth quarter, they completely dominated that football game.

Still, based on the e-mails I receive from many fans — and the argument I had with my old friend Joe Daley last week — a lot of Winnipeggers simply hate Mike Kelly. Still.

It’s an odd thing, but when I mentioned earlier that Winnipeggers would rather have an outgoing, humble coach they liked, even if he couldn’t win, as opposed to a guy who was blunt and honest even when blunt and honest hurt, but knew exactly what he was doing and won football games, it appears they would indeed rather have the lovable loser.

It’s weird, but it’s Winnipeg.

And no need to worry. Those fans will still have fun in the playoffs.

(Don’t forget to listen to Coach Kelly with Tom & Joe this week on 92-CITI-FM.)

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