Quad Blogs

THE WEEK SEVEN NFL PICKS

Phillies down 3-1 to the Giants. Am I severely concussed? No, the Giants deserve a ton of credit. They’ve pitched better, hit better and have been better overall. The Great Offensive Funk of 2010 has re-emerged. Not fun. I don’t have much to add to the “What The Phils Must Do To Win” discussion. It’s fairly obvious. I feel confident in Halladay’s ability to dominate tonight but it’s all about the offense and their ability to rise to the occasion. I will add this: the Giants are getting the kind of breaks the Phils got the last two years. In 2008 and 2009, the dramatic game four would’ve gone the Phillies way. Not this year.

ONTO THE PICKS!

I had a fairly forgettable week six of the NFL season. I went 9-5. A couple of close games didn’t go my way. My overall record is a so-so 53-37. Blah. But now, the Eagles are considered as one of the top 5 teams in the NFL. What a wild and wacky year.

Atlanta over Cincinnati

-The Falcons looked awful against the Eagles. Atlanta solidified 2010 as the year of the unimpressive teams. Experts jumped on the bandwagon faster than fans in Texas jumped on the Rangers bandwagon. Many declared Atlanta as the absolute favorite to be the number one seed. Of all the experts in all of sports, the NFL experts are the worst–which is amazing because half of the experts are former players. Experts and color commentators speak only using the second person and the information is rather poor. I’ve cut NFL pre-game shows from my sunday schedule. Instead, I watch EPL soccer on FSN. As for the Bengals, when the top two receivers have a reality show and seem to CARE about the REALITY SHOW more than their team then the chances of winning on Sunday decrease dramatically. I wonder if Marvin Lewis bludgeons himself in the head sometimes.

Washington over Chicago

-Actually, as I think about it, there is a tie between NFL and NBA experts for the worst. With NBA experts, they only cover half of the league while forgetting that a whole other half exists. As for this game, no one cares about the Bears anymore nor the Redskins.

Philadelphia over Tennessee

-I wonder what WIP would’ve been like had someone from the future returned to inform them that the offensive line would consist of King Dunlap, Todd Herremans, Mike McGlynn, Max Gean Gilles and Winston Justice. Herremans and Justice are consistently consistent. The other three have done a nice job. King Dunlap deserves a gold sticker for holding his own against Atlanta. As for the QB situation, I think Kolb should’ve never lost the job. I loved the win against Atlanta. The team showed alot. The defense did well. The run defense is going to get a great test this week with Chris Johnson. I have no complaints about the Eagles this week.

Kansas City over Jacksonville

-I actually watched portions of that Monday night game. Bad times. If Buffalo cuts a QB in favor of Havard, is he worth signing? Trent Edwards can’t get the job done. I think the Jaguars continue to play for Del Rio. I figured the team would quit on him following the Philly game. They are a mess though. And Kansas City earned my respect despite blowing a 10 point lead and losing the game. Their division is bad and the entire NFL isn’t too great. The Chiefs need to win this though. If they don’t then the NFL experts will yell incoherently about the Chiefs. And where the hell did that Dwayne Bowe performance come from? Every week in fantasy, I face some team whose player explodes and, of course, the player comes nowhere near matching the stats the following week.

Pittsburgh over Miami

-This NFL season is wearing me down. I get more excited about an October Thrashers/Sabres game than I do about the NFL. The NFL is more responsible for the violence because they endorse it and sell it. Sports writers are hypocrites as well when they write scathing pieces about the violence in the NFL. Without the NFL, half of these writers wouldn’t have jobs or they’d be terrible hockey writers who tear down the sport because players fight. If people have an issue with the NFL, stop consuming the sport. Walk away. And the NFL and its owners should scrap plans for an 18 game season if they want to make the game safer. The league is absolutely sending mixed messages to the players.

New Orleans over Cleveland

-When the NFL Network guys are praising the Browns for the heart when they lost 28-10, one knows that they are latching onto to any new angle to yell about. The Saints looked better last week. The Browns defense won’t roll over. They’re a physical bunch. Saints should watch game tape of the Panthers game and avoid letting an inferior team with a green QB remain in the game.

St. Louis over Tampa Bay

-The Rams solidified their status as an average NFL team. Good for them. The Bucs have some more growing to do.

San Francisco over Carolina

-Wow. What a horrible game. John Fox will start Matt Moore because he doesn’t want to kill Jimmy Clausen’s career. Poor Matt Moore is a sitting duck though. I don’t envy Panthers fans. How did the team get this bad–so bad that Devin Thomas will get some snaps at receiver this weekend?

Baltimore over Buffalo

-The Bills defense has -3 points through six weeks in my one fantasy league. Doesn’t that sum up the entire team? I wonder which fan base is more bummed out: the Bills or the Manchester United fans? Wayne Rooney wants out. Rumor is he wants to cross town and play at the Eastlands for Man City.

Seattle over Arizona

-The Seawks are an average team as well. Average, of course, is more than enough to win the NFC West. Max Hall starts his second game for the Cardinals. Max Hall seems like the name that would belong to a main character in a Disney Channel half-hour comedy.

Denver over Oakland

-Kyle Boller and Jason Campbell split reps this week. Boller should start. He breathed life into a horrible Rams offense last season. If Boller gets the nod, Campbell probably begins his new career as the third QB on the depth chart. As for Denver, Orton should grow a massive beard like Jake Plummer did a few years ago. That would be awesome.

New England over San Diego

-Unfortunately, all of the good players on the Chargers offense are hurt. I won’t write off the Chargers because of they usually turn their season around. I like the Patriots. I like the return to their old style of offense. The defense remains a work-in-progress.

Minnesota over Green Bay

-This game might captivate the nation. Not me though. The Packers have been clobbered by injuries. The media cares more about Favre’s cell phone and his consecutive starts streak. I’ll repeat myself: the NFL season is wearing me down. Favre will beat his old team because of injuries yet again. Regardless of the result, Rodgers is the better QB and the Packers will be in much better shape down the road than Minnesota.

New York Giants over Dallas

-The world will shed tears of joy if the Cowboys fall to 1-5. The Dallas faithful will chant for God Quarterback, Jon Kitna, to save the season. Allright…maybe not. This game will be decided by the quarterback who does not make the crucial 4th quarter mistake. Unfortunately, Manning is more prone to do that this year but Romo always likes to surprise his fans with a terrible turnover.

Last Week: 9-5

Overall: 53-37

Quick Note: I posted my Terriers review this morning. Please read. Terrific show.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK

Last night on Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls was inches from death. Literally. Had his cameraman and director of photography, Simon Peay, collided with Bear’s head, Bear would have died.

Thus far, the new season of Man Vs. Wild has been insane. He’s flirted with death in every episode. If he isn’t swimming with sharks, he is fighting a crocodile for a fish in North Queensland waters and, if he isn’t fighting a croc then he nearly dies in a situation that he and his crew are supposed to have complete control over. As I talk about this episode, the reader will learn the exact situation that put Bear and his cameraman inches from death. The situation might surprise you.

This episode got me thinking. Bear’s been filming Man Vs. Wild for three years now. I think the man is addicted to this lifestyle now. Perhaps he isn’t but this episode featured survival methods Bear has done multiple times in the past already. Any loyal fan knows this.

This week, Bear was in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia. Instead of the usual, Bear and the crew created different survival scenarios such as a blizzard, an avalanche, icy waters and a glissade down a mountain. Bear wanted to demonstrate how to survive the most catastrophic situations in the bitter cold. He sure earns his paycheck with this episode, folks. Here are the usual highlights:

-The first scenario was an avalanche. In Patagonia, Bear witnessed an avalanche but did not get caught or buried in one. In this scenario, Bear will bury himself beneath 12 feet of snow to simulate an actual survival situation. Most people die buried 2 feet under. The crew set off four explosives to create the avalanche because Bear wanted to time how long it’d take for rescuers to rescue someone trapped. The information he attained from this exercise was used for his own situation. Bear decides he’ll bury himself alive for 12 minutes under the snow. The proper medical equipment is hooked up to him so he can be monitored; meanwhile, he has a device to make his breathing fit into the scenario as well so that oxygen slowly disappears as time passes. Right off the bat, Bear is flirting with death because if the diggers can’t get to him quickly when the time comes, Bear could die.

While buried, Bear tells a story about a close of friend of his who died in an avalanche. Bear adds softly that he doesn’t like avalanches. As he sits, the oxygen leaves the air. He has a tough time breathing. Eventually, he’s suffering. But the time elapses and the diggers get him safely. He compares the oxygen returning to his lungs to a light that goes on in a dark house. It sounds like a description being near death through suffocation because, as Bear tells us, suffocation is what kills someone trapped underneath an avalanche.

-The next scenario is a massive blizzard. Bear experienced this while in Iceland. For this, the crew had two huge fans along with small weather stations to make sure the conditions were blizzard-like. Bear advises against fighting the blizzard because the wind will kill you. One must take shelter. The shelter is the snow itself. What one does is dig a deep hole so that it shields you from the wind. I’ve seen Bear implement this method several times in the series. Nothing new with this scenario of surviving a blizzard unless you’re a first-time viewer, in which case you learned something.

-The icy lake was next. Bear never seemed to enjoy himself when he plunged into icy waters in the Arctic Circle or Siberia or anywhere. The plunge and the swim has to be torture. Naturally, Bear is wearing a heart monitor to track his BPM. Simon has a thermal camera to show how cold Bear’s body gets. Bear has to swim 80 feet in the water. Before diving in, he says the icy waters are different when he’s in ‘journey mode’ because he doesn’t stop to think; however, diving in like one dives into a swimming pool is a different beast. He dives in and then surfaces quickly because the trick is to slow one’s heartbeat down because the cold water sends the body into panic mode. Every time Bear went into icy waters, he always made sure he calmed his heart rate down because cardiac arrest is a risk. His BPM drops to 88. He spends nearly five minutes in the water. In his narration he describes the body’s way of surviving by decreasing blood flow. On the surface, his body temperature fell from 88 degrees to 32 degrees.

When Bear leaves the water, his number goal priority is preventing frostbite. Bear rolls in the snow as a way to dry his body (hey it works and he’s done it before) before putting his clothes on. He must start a fire or else he might die from blood flow. Bear gets a fire going quickly and then makes himself tea. As he sips his tea, he RETIRES from diving into icy waters. It’s about time, Bear. He admits he always hated icy waters.

I wondered: can a regular person survive what Bear just survived? He must be in superior shape. He’s climbed Everest twice after all. CHIME IN with your opinion in the comments.

-After three insane challenges, Bear settles down to show the viewer how to make good shelter in a bitterly cold place. The show flashbacks to Siberia when Bear spent a night in minus 30 degree temperatures. Now, personally, I’d like to live in a shack in Siberia. I digress. Bear builds a great shelter and a great fire. In the morning, we find out his shelter was 66 degrees (thanks to the fire and the way he built the shelter) while the British Columbian night had temperatures in the low-20s.

-The final challenge is the icy glissade. In the Yukon, Bear lost his footing and slid down the mountain. Bear wanted to determine the speed of someone doing this as well as the length it takes to stop the slide. Bear tells a story about his wife and son who nearly fell off a cliff but stopped just shy of the edge. I’m not surprised The Grylls family climbs cliffs in Bear’s downtime.

From when Bear began to dig his hands into the snow to stop the slide until he stopped, the distance was 180 feet. Bear stresses the importance of being aware of your environment so no one falls off the edge of a cliff. The second time, Bear uses an ice axe to stop; meanwhile, Simon follows Bear on a sled from behind. Once Bear stops, a white cloud of snow hides Bear from Simon’s sight. Simon collides with Bear. The camera breaks and the crew thinks one or both of them could be dead. Good God. Luckily, Simon did not nail Bear in the head. The crew thinks Bear’s femur might be broken. Simon’s nose is busted. Bear is teary-eyed. Simon talks about the fear he felt. The two are airlifted to a hospital.

An insane ending in yet another insane episode of Man Vs. Wild this season. I hope I never see a glisside again on the show nor a dive into icy waters. I will welcome the return of swimming with sharks or fighting a croc for fish OR staring down 200 elephants and WINNING.

Next week, Bear is in The Caucasus Mountains. In which country? Who knows. Hopefully it is матери России.

THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK