h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And there are those days when it just blows chunks to be right.

Just once, in my life, I'd like the Chickens to prove me wrong and play consistently throughout a season/game/half/quarter.

My first prediction regarding coaching changes this year is that Holmgren will be on his way to Atlanta for next year.

And thus the dream has been tainted and slightly chipped. Dallas was shut out by Tampa. I mean, not just beaten.. They were shut out. No points at all... Parcells will not be happy about that, I tell you.

I was surprised to see that Houston kind of held their own against Indianapolis last night as well. Okay, so Indy scored 24 unanswered points there to seal the win, but still. They did well. And I was impressed by their rookie running back.

Corey Dillon was inactive for the Cincinnatti game yesterday as well. I think Nick and Kevin should have watched NASN before they went on the air, cause Nick didn't have any clue whether or not Dillon was hurt or not. The NFL Sunday Countdown stated about an hour and a half before the game that Dillon had been in a car accident but wasn't injured. However, he was made inactive since he failed to show up before the teams had to be announced and since he wasn't there, they didn't put him on the active roster. In the mean while, Nick was desperately trying to find out whether or not he was seriously injured. Had I remembered their SMS number, I'd have sent a text telling them about it. Then again, maybe not.

Halling was p*ss*ng me of royally yesterday. Having spent all season telling us the Bengals were rapidly improving, and implying that the Chickens weren't all that, he still tried to paint the Bungles win as some amazing upset.

Ah well, at least we get to take it out on his weak arse Steelers next week...

Fiedler's Fizzle, don't read this until you see the game!

5

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1

go!

If you want to talk about inconsistency, let's look at the MNF offering. The Dolphins were absolutely dominant in all phases of the game in the first half. The Chargers decided to stuff Ricky, so we got it done in the air, with great help from a defense that gave us great field position all game.

Second half was cover-your-eyes ugly. The defense was still great, but where, oh where, did their offense go? With offensive ineptitude and terrible punting giving the Chargers prime field position all half, it was only a matter of time before they scored. The announcers repeatedly revisited the theme about the fantastic Miami redzone defense versus the pathetic San Diego redzone offense... but it takes a herculean effort to stop a pro team from the 1. The Miami D deserves a ton of credit for stopping the Miami O from giving away the game despite their best/worst efforts.

The most glaring change from the first half to the second was the play of Chris Chambers. Ricky was beginning to find gaps to run through, but he wasn't productive enough to move the chains by himself. Griese was still throwing a pretty good ball. But the receivers, and especially Chambers, weren't catching them. It didn't look like he was running his routes with any conviction, either.

Griese 13 of 14 and 3TDs in the first half.

In all seriousness, who'd you go with Jay or Brian?

Because our television coverage of the NFL sucks, I really can't evaluate Fiedler. But those who feel they can say that his problem is he's not connecting on the long ball.

Well, Griese completed a lot of passes last night, but only one of them was a long completion... and that one was mostly yards after the catch. It wasn't until the second half that they tried to open things up more (to be fair, you don't have to open things up if you're opening every drive in the red zone), and they weren't connecting... and it looked more like lack of effort from the receivers than the QBs fault.

I think Griese played well last night, and if the evaluation of Fiedler is correct, then I guess Griese deserves to start. But if the WRs don't start playing all 60 minutes, it won't make any difference.

Decision's been made... hence the name change. You may see FF back if Fiedler returns to the lineup but it's obvious Griese will have to play poorly to lose the job... 3 more good games will cement it, and as those are against Indy, Tennessee and Baltimore, it would be impossible to remove him for the rest of the year...

He did look pretty sharp though didn't he. The ball left quickly with some zip and was super accurate.. a number of times Miami receivers were able to get some RAC yards. We haven't seen that in Miami for a while...

Here's to hoping it was Griese's ability and not just the result of a poor team with their minds on other things....