TK
September-26th-2009, 03:01 AM
Inch By Inch
We all remember that famous speech by Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday. And for those that need a refresher, let’s take look back at it.
“I don't know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch. Play by play. Till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the **** kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.
Now I can't do it for you. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make. I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break
of the game every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the difference between WINNING and LOSING. Between LIVING and DYING.
I'll tell you this. In any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch. And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is. The six inches in front of your face.
Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That's a team, gentlemen. And either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do? “
There’s an excellent point in there. Ok, there are a lot of excellent points in there, however I want to focus on one of them. Football is a game of inches.
Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘What’s a Pacino movie have to do with the Redskins?’
Here’s what I’m getting at. There has been a lot of talk about the Front Office not having a plan. I disagree with that. We’ve constantly had a top rated Defense for years now. However, we’ve lacked turnovers. We’ve lacked a legitimate pass rush. All of these things get the Offense closer to scoring. Whether that be a touchdown or a field goal. Football is a game of field position. Inch By Inch if you will. The Front Office is playing this game to perfection.
Signing Haynesworth & drafting Orakpo will take care of that. Dipping into the Supplemental Draft & coming away with Jarmon was a nice fix for down the road as well. A bit of building for the future if you will. And if some of the reports I’ve been seeing are right, he very well may play himself into the line up sooner then expected.
Re-signing DeAngelo Hall does several things. First off, it opens the floodgates for getting the ball back into the hands of the Offense. Secondly, it just makes me happy. Living about forty-five minutes down the road from VT, and watching his entire college career, Hall is a guy I had wanted the Redskins to draft. Badly. Thirdly, DeAngelo gives the Defense another weapon that return a pick for a quick six points.
After last season’s punter-go-round, the Redskins somehow managed to land a key acquisition in Hunter Smith. When you have a punter that can coffin kick, you have a game changer. Especially when coupled with the above mentioned additions on Defense.
The plan here should be obvious. It’s all about field position and ball control. More turnovers equal a shorter field. Consistent punting equals a much longer field for the opponent to march down. Even if the Offense can’t get into the end zone, you’ve got stability at the holder position in Hunter Smith so they should come away with at least three when they can’t get six and an extra point.
Now that the dust has settled & the smoke cleared away, let’s revisit last week’s touchdownless win with Pacino in mind and see how this can be applied to the Offense. Here’s a Line from Pacino from the beginning of that speech.
“Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch. Play by play. Till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the **** kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.”
The Offense actually looked really good. Between the Twenties. However inside the Red Zone, they couldn’t catch rain with a bucket. This poor Red Zone performance resulted in something I don’t think I’ve ever actually witnessed before. A team getting booed after win. The net exploded about this and the ‘nit wit’ tweet all week. The media helped to turn this into everyone versus players and coaching staff. Portis had his say from it’s not Madden out there, to everyone’s on the hot seat, including the owner.
The team definitely had its’ back against the wall this week. Randy Thomas went on IR. The media and even some fans alike started picking the pathetic Lions to actually win their first game since the 2008 season. While paying attention from a distance throughout this tumulus week, the team has stuck together. Portis even defended Zorn and his play calling. A far cry from last year when he made his ’genius’ remark to John Thompson on 980.
A few days later as things kept getting worse and the storm cloud over Redskins Park was at it’s darkest, www.nfl.com put the Zorn and Campbell mic’d up video online (http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=300675
). When I watched this clip, I immediately thought of Denny Green’s “You think you know, but you don’t really know” bit from his post game meltdown a few years ago. I think that video opened the eyes of everyone who watched it. No longer did Zorn appear to be clueless and inept. No longer did Campbell seem to be the guy you just wished they’d bench or get rid of because you thought he wasn’t a leader or didn’t have any fire to his play. They also followed that video up with a video of the O-Line at dinner (http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=300875
), which if you haven’t seen it, you need to go watch it as well. You’ll hear how the O-Line respects Jason and believes in him. You’ll hear them acknowledge how much Jason has grown since last year in this system. You’ll also hear Randy and Chris hit the nail on the head regarding the media about them wanting the team to fail so they have something to talk about.
I fully believe that come Sunday, this team is going to unleash something fierce on the hapless Lions. They are going to fight their way back into the light. They will climb back out of the hell that was last week. There will be a blood letting this weekend as this team unleashes a week of their own personal hell upon the Lions.
Inch. By. Inch.
Hail.
More to come. Follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com) for updates throughout the weekend. @TKextremeskins.com (http://twitter.com/TKextremeskins)
EDITS & UPDATES
Ok. I was wrong. The game didn't turn out so well.
Ok. It didn't turn out well at all. But let me back up a bit to the middle & then work back to the end, because the middle is more exciting since we all know how bad the end turned up.
I had landed at Detroit, went to call Art but my phone was dead. Figured no biggie as I had an extra, fully charged battery. Reached into my pocket to swap the battery out. Uhhhhh....it's not there. Checked the other pocket. It's not there either. My best guess is it either fell out in plane seat or was left in one of those TSA grey plastic trays are a security checkpoint. Not good. I find one of those mobile electronics shops in the airport & buy this thing from Energizer that is supposed to plug in & charge the phone off of a double A lithium battery. While waiting for it to get enough charge to call Art, I pick up the Detroit Free Press laying on the bench. HUGE write up in there about the KISS show the night before. I'm thinking to myself, Damn, missed it. I would have loved to have seen KISS again. I flip the page. They're playing again. Tonight. At Cobo. The same Cobo Hall where they recorded KISS : Alive at 35 years ago. And it seems like they're either going to close Cobo or tear it down here in the very near future.
Anyways, phone has enough of a charge now to call Art. When he arrives I inform we HAVE to go see KISS. Art wusses out as he'd rather see Biz Markie, who isn't playing in town. Or probably any town for that matter.
We check in & head to the room. Find the VT vs Miami game on TV. Hokies up 14-0. Turnover. Hokies now up 21-0. Things are good & somewhere DeAngelo Hall is most likely taking money from Rocky McIntosh who had been talking trash on Twitter about how Tech comes out to Enter Sandman but it was ok cause he liked him some Metalica.
We head down to the lobby to see what's going on. Run into Karl & chit chat about some stuff. Notice how unusually quit it is. The bar is quiet. The lounge where we're sitting at is quiet. There's a college game on the flat screen with NO sound. We begin to joke that we're not at a bar, but rather a funnel home. It's that quiet. Art & I order dinner. We go with the Angus burger & fries. As we're eating, Larry joins us who is quickly followed by Sonny. Sonny sits down between Larry & myself & starts stealing the fries off my plate with a 'You don't mind, do you?' he says with a grin.
After Sonny finishes my dinner for me, I leave Art with Larry, Karl, & Sonny to grab a cab & head to Cobo. I end up with an interesting cab driver to say the least. We talk cars & rock n roll the whole ride. He tells me was an engineer for Ford. He also tells me that the current GM Tower used to be owned by Ford until Ford moved out. When GM moved in, they never took the Ford sign off of the building. Rather they just hung the GM sign over the old Ford sign. I have no idea if this is actually true or not. But I do find it amusing. Cabbie also relates a story to me about how back in the 70's he once saw The Who with the Rolling Stones on the same bill for a buck admission. Inflation is a *****.
I reach Cobo, look across the river & see Caesar's Palace in Canada. The line to get in the building is 4 blocks long. This should be fun. I skip that line to head to the box office to grab a ticket. The box office is small & packed but the lines move fast. The box office tries to sell me the $200+ ticket. I ask them if they still have the $25 tickets. They do & I'm out of the box office & into the side of CObo where there is no line to get in. BuckCherry is already on stage rockin the place. I'm headed up to the top, straight back from the stage. Great sight lines here. As I'm walking around, some guy that works for the arena approaches me & asks if I'd like a complementary seat upgrade to a box seat on the side. This is a lot more then a $25 ticket so I take it & I'm 8 rows up off of the floor & 3 box sections back from the stage. Turns out they were filming the show for a future DVD release. Just like those photographed on the backside of the old KISS Alive album cover, I'm now a permanent part of KISStory.
Incredible show. LOTS of reviews & YouTube clips of it can be found HERE (http://www.kissonline.com/).
I grab a cab back to the Ritz. As I'm getting there, Sonny comes in from the big dinner talking about Buckeye Ice Cream. Before I can ask him who's fries he stole at the big dinner, Karl walks in with a bottle of wine in each hand that Art assumes he stole. And then it happens.
I spot him. And I know what tomorrow will bring. I know it deep down in the pit of my stomach. At this exact moment in time I know, beyond a shadow of doubt that the Lions will get their first win in forever when they play our beloved Redskins in the morning.
It's Tom Cruise.
He should change his name to Tom Curse because as far as Redskin fans are concerned, it's what we want to do to him because it's what he's done to our team. The Skins have never, ever won a game he's been at.
At this point, I head to the bar because now I need a drink. And things get even more surreal. Sitting at the bar, it's Chris Hansen of 'To Catch A Predator' fame. That's it. I'm calling it a night before it gets any more weirder around here.
SUNDAY GAMEDAY
Art & I head out to Ford Field & beat nearly everyone else there. Which is amazing since we had to park in a parking garage & walk about ten blocks to get there. We pass through security & head upstairs. Art is setting up while I'm looking for coffee. I don't find coffee but rather the swill they call coffee. After about two cups of it I go to check the seating chart. Odd that Art has a seat, but I don't. We joke that I should just take Karl's since he never uses his anyways. So I don't seat up my laptop. Which as it turns out saves me thirty bucks. Art sets up his laptop & is greeted to a screen requiring him to pay thirty bucks for internet access. This is a first for both of us at any stadium. Even Philly isn't this cheap. Times are indeed tough in Detroit.
We go to grab breakfast. They're not serving any. So we wait for lunch. We'd have been better off going out to the concourse & buying lunch. They served the equivalent of Chef Boyardee out of a can and microwaved it. It was disgustingly awfull.
I head downstairs & outside to get some pre game shots. Across the street, Lions fans are tailgating in a parking garage. That has got to suck. I spot an Ed Reed jersey, an Aikman jersey & a Chargers jersey. It looked like the cowboy fan was at least turned away. So good job for security.
I head back in & down to the field to see whats going on. I run into this (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/3964315825_705bfb944e.jpg)*guy who I hope is enough to cancel out this (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3964308637_84200db7df.jpg) guy. Which may have worked, but I think this (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3964332993/in/set-72157622356135481/) may had have something to do with it. So obviously we'll need reinforcements (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3965062578/in/set-72157622356135481/). Doc Walker, while wear his Steelers suit, gives this idea a thumbs up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3965137752/in/set-72157622356135481/).
Two signs the game isn't going to our way. Campbell get s the bad snap to start the Skins first possession. And then later on Stafford's scramble that set up the touchdown. What crowd there was, came alive at the scramble play by the first overall selection in this past years Draft. It also seemed to take all of the wind of the defense's sails. Then again a drive of almost 100 yards & giving up a touchdown isn't good either. Our D doesn't act like the way it should act. If you want to watch a D that acts the way ours should act, go watch a Saints game. Williams has those guys flying to the ball & attacking just like the way they did when he was here. Hopefully he's on a one year contract there.
Haynesworth goes down. At first I think maybe he's just winded. The the stretcher rolls out of tunnel by me. I could tell you the first thought that came to mind but it won't pass the filters here. It did rhyme with duck duck duckity duck though if you feel like trying to figure it out.
At the half, I run up to grab a fresh battery for the camera. This one is here & not lost, unlike the cel battery from the previous day. Going back down the tunnel, I see Big Al (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2582/3964634013_9dc617bed7.jpg) coming back to the field. Portis greets him first as he makes his way back to the sideline with a smack on the ass (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/3964636675_255427e0db.jpg). I try to focus in on Al when the D goes back onto the field. Through the camera lens I kept seeing he wasn't getting double teamed. He was being handled one (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3965514204_1a7dcbff03.jpg) on one (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3964743007_b24ebf3195.jpg). Not sure if this was the entire time or not as I haven't yet been able to bring myself to watch the game on the DVR. But it did look like he was playing hurt & maybe shouldn't have been back out there.
Even when there was a last second chance to win, the feeling on the sidelines was it should never have had come there being one. Then the Lions put their Freak of Nature (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2576/3965559546_c359b29d8a.jpg) in on the final defensive play to assure theirselves a win.
All in all, this was a bad game by a bad team. And a bad team that for all intents & purposes shouldn't be a bad team. If they can't beat the Bucs this weekend, then it's time for an interim coach. For Zorn to survive I think he needs to do what Spurrier did. Bench himself & give up the play calling. Zorn sets nothing up. It's like throws plays against the wall to see what will stick. There is zero strategy to his play calling. He doesn't rope-a-dope anyone into a false sense of security by showing one play several times to set up a play for when they actually need a go to play.
Check out Pictures (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/sets/72157622356135481/) or the Photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/sets/72157622356135481/show/).
We all remember that famous speech by Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday. And for those that need a refresher, let’s take look back at it.
“I don't know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch. Play by play. Till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the **** kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.
Now I can't do it for you. I'm too old. I look around and I see these young faces and I think I mean I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make. I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not. I chased off anyone who has ever loved me.
And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know when you get old in life things get taken from you. That's, that's part of life. But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff. You find out that life is just a game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game life or football the margin for error is so small. I mean one half step too late or to early you don't quite make it. One half second too slow or too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break
of the game every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch. We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch. Cause we know when we add up all those inches that's going to make the difference between WINNING and LOSING. Between LIVING and DYING.
I'll tell you this. In any fight it is the guy who is willing to die who is going to win that inch. And I know if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch because that is what LIVING is. The six inches in front of your face.
Now I can't make you do it. You gotta look at the guy next to you. Look into his eyes. Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That's a team, gentlemen. And either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's football guys. That's all it is. Now, whattaya gonna do? “
There’s an excellent point in there. Ok, there are a lot of excellent points in there, however I want to focus on one of them. Football is a game of inches.
Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘What’s a Pacino movie have to do with the Redskins?’
Here’s what I’m getting at. There has been a lot of talk about the Front Office not having a plan. I disagree with that. We’ve constantly had a top rated Defense for years now. However, we’ve lacked turnovers. We’ve lacked a legitimate pass rush. All of these things get the Offense closer to scoring. Whether that be a touchdown or a field goal. Football is a game of field position. Inch By Inch if you will. The Front Office is playing this game to perfection.
Signing Haynesworth & drafting Orakpo will take care of that. Dipping into the Supplemental Draft & coming away with Jarmon was a nice fix for down the road as well. A bit of building for the future if you will. And if some of the reports I’ve been seeing are right, he very well may play himself into the line up sooner then expected.
Re-signing DeAngelo Hall does several things. First off, it opens the floodgates for getting the ball back into the hands of the Offense. Secondly, it just makes me happy. Living about forty-five minutes down the road from VT, and watching his entire college career, Hall is a guy I had wanted the Redskins to draft. Badly. Thirdly, DeAngelo gives the Defense another weapon that return a pick for a quick six points.
After last season’s punter-go-round, the Redskins somehow managed to land a key acquisition in Hunter Smith. When you have a punter that can coffin kick, you have a game changer. Especially when coupled with the above mentioned additions on Defense.
The plan here should be obvious. It’s all about field position and ball control. More turnovers equal a shorter field. Consistent punting equals a much longer field for the opponent to march down. Even if the Offense can’t get into the end zone, you’ve got stability at the holder position in Hunter Smith so they should come away with at least three when they can’t get six and an extra point.
Now that the dust has settled & the smoke cleared away, let’s revisit last week’s touchdownless win with Pacino in mind and see how this can be applied to the Offense. Here’s a Line from Pacino from the beginning of that speech.
“Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch. Play by play. Till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me and we can stay here and get the **** kicked out of us or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell. One inch, at a time.”
The Offense actually looked really good. Between the Twenties. However inside the Red Zone, they couldn’t catch rain with a bucket. This poor Red Zone performance resulted in something I don’t think I’ve ever actually witnessed before. A team getting booed after win. The net exploded about this and the ‘nit wit’ tweet all week. The media helped to turn this into everyone versus players and coaching staff. Portis had his say from it’s not Madden out there, to everyone’s on the hot seat, including the owner.
The team definitely had its’ back against the wall this week. Randy Thomas went on IR. The media and even some fans alike started picking the pathetic Lions to actually win their first game since the 2008 season. While paying attention from a distance throughout this tumulus week, the team has stuck together. Portis even defended Zorn and his play calling. A far cry from last year when he made his ’genius’ remark to John Thompson on 980.
A few days later as things kept getting worse and the storm cloud over Redskins Park was at it’s darkest, www.nfl.com put the Zorn and Campbell mic’d up video online (http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=300675
). When I watched this clip, I immediately thought of Denny Green’s “You think you know, but you don’t really know” bit from his post game meltdown a few years ago. I think that video opened the eyes of everyone who watched it. No longer did Zorn appear to be clueless and inept. No longer did Campbell seem to be the guy you just wished they’d bench or get rid of because you thought he wasn’t a leader or didn’t have any fire to his play. They also followed that video up with a video of the O-Line at dinner (http://www.extremeskins.com/showthread.php?t=300875
), which if you haven’t seen it, you need to go watch it as well. You’ll hear how the O-Line respects Jason and believes in him. You’ll hear them acknowledge how much Jason has grown since last year in this system. You’ll also hear Randy and Chris hit the nail on the head regarding the media about them wanting the team to fail so they have something to talk about.
I fully believe that come Sunday, this team is going to unleash something fierce on the hapless Lions. They are going to fight their way back into the light. They will climb back out of the hell that was last week. There will be a blood letting this weekend as this team unleashes a week of their own personal hell upon the Lions.
Inch. By. Inch.
Hail.
More to come. Follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com) for updates throughout the weekend. @TKextremeskins.com (http://twitter.com/TKextremeskins)
EDITS & UPDATES
Ok. I was wrong. The game didn't turn out so well.
Ok. It didn't turn out well at all. But let me back up a bit to the middle & then work back to the end, because the middle is more exciting since we all know how bad the end turned up.
I had landed at Detroit, went to call Art but my phone was dead. Figured no biggie as I had an extra, fully charged battery. Reached into my pocket to swap the battery out. Uhhhhh....it's not there. Checked the other pocket. It's not there either. My best guess is it either fell out in plane seat or was left in one of those TSA grey plastic trays are a security checkpoint. Not good. I find one of those mobile electronics shops in the airport & buy this thing from Energizer that is supposed to plug in & charge the phone off of a double A lithium battery. While waiting for it to get enough charge to call Art, I pick up the Detroit Free Press laying on the bench. HUGE write up in there about the KISS show the night before. I'm thinking to myself, Damn, missed it. I would have loved to have seen KISS again. I flip the page. They're playing again. Tonight. At Cobo. The same Cobo Hall where they recorded KISS : Alive at 35 years ago. And it seems like they're either going to close Cobo or tear it down here in the very near future.
Anyways, phone has enough of a charge now to call Art. When he arrives I inform we HAVE to go see KISS. Art wusses out as he'd rather see Biz Markie, who isn't playing in town. Or probably any town for that matter.
We check in & head to the room. Find the VT vs Miami game on TV. Hokies up 14-0. Turnover. Hokies now up 21-0. Things are good & somewhere DeAngelo Hall is most likely taking money from Rocky McIntosh who had been talking trash on Twitter about how Tech comes out to Enter Sandman but it was ok cause he liked him some Metalica.
We head down to the lobby to see what's going on. Run into Karl & chit chat about some stuff. Notice how unusually quit it is. The bar is quiet. The lounge where we're sitting at is quiet. There's a college game on the flat screen with NO sound. We begin to joke that we're not at a bar, but rather a funnel home. It's that quiet. Art & I order dinner. We go with the Angus burger & fries. As we're eating, Larry joins us who is quickly followed by Sonny. Sonny sits down between Larry & myself & starts stealing the fries off my plate with a 'You don't mind, do you?' he says with a grin.
After Sonny finishes my dinner for me, I leave Art with Larry, Karl, & Sonny to grab a cab & head to Cobo. I end up with an interesting cab driver to say the least. We talk cars & rock n roll the whole ride. He tells me was an engineer for Ford. He also tells me that the current GM Tower used to be owned by Ford until Ford moved out. When GM moved in, they never took the Ford sign off of the building. Rather they just hung the GM sign over the old Ford sign. I have no idea if this is actually true or not. But I do find it amusing. Cabbie also relates a story to me about how back in the 70's he once saw The Who with the Rolling Stones on the same bill for a buck admission. Inflation is a *****.
I reach Cobo, look across the river & see Caesar's Palace in Canada. The line to get in the building is 4 blocks long. This should be fun. I skip that line to head to the box office to grab a ticket. The box office is small & packed but the lines move fast. The box office tries to sell me the $200+ ticket. I ask them if they still have the $25 tickets. They do & I'm out of the box office & into the side of CObo where there is no line to get in. BuckCherry is already on stage rockin the place. I'm headed up to the top, straight back from the stage. Great sight lines here. As I'm walking around, some guy that works for the arena approaches me & asks if I'd like a complementary seat upgrade to a box seat on the side. This is a lot more then a $25 ticket so I take it & I'm 8 rows up off of the floor & 3 box sections back from the stage. Turns out they were filming the show for a future DVD release. Just like those photographed on the backside of the old KISS Alive album cover, I'm now a permanent part of KISStory.
Incredible show. LOTS of reviews & YouTube clips of it can be found HERE (http://www.kissonline.com/).
I grab a cab back to the Ritz. As I'm getting there, Sonny comes in from the big dinner talking about Buckeye Ice Cream. Before I can ask him who's fries he stole at the big dinner, Karl walks in with a bottle of wine in each hand that Art assumes he stole. And then it happens.
I spot him. And I know what tomorrow will bring. I know it deep down in the pit of my stomach. At this exact moment in time I know, beyond a shadow of doubt that the Lions will get their first win in forever when they play our beloved Redskins in the morning.
It's Tom Cruise.
He should change his name to Tom Curse because as far as Redskin fans are concerned, it's what we want to do to him because it's what he's done to our team. The Skins have never, ever won a game he's been at.
At this point, I head to the bar because now I need a drink. And things get even more surreal. Sitting at the bar, it's Chris Hansen of 'To Catch A Predator' fame. That's it. I'm calling it a night before it gets any more weirder around here.
SUNDAY GAMEDAY
Art & I head out to Ford Field & beat nearly everyone else there. Which is amazing since we had to park in a parking garage & walk about ten blocks to get there. We pass through security & head upstairs. Art is setting up while I'm looking for coffee. I don't find coffee but rather the swill they call coffee. After about two cups of it I go to check the seating chart. Odd that Art has a seat, but I don't. We joke that I should just take Karl's since he never uses his anyways. So I don't seat up my laptop. Which as it turns out saves me thirty bucks. Art sets up his laptop & is greeted to a screen requiring him to pay thirty bucks for internet access. This is a first for both of us at any stadium. Even Philly isn't this cheap. Times are indeed tough in Detroit.
We go to grab breakfast. They're not serving any. So we wait for lunch. We'd have been better off going out to the concourse & buying lunch. They served the equivalent of Chef Boyardee out of a can and microwaved it. It was disgustingly awfull.
I head downstairs & outside to get some pre game shots. Across the street, Lions fans are tailgating in a parking garage. That has got to suck. I spot an Ed Reed jersey, an Aikman jersey & a Chargers jersey. It looked like the cowboy fan was at least turned away. So good job for security.
I head back in & down to the field to see whats going on. I run into this (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2608/3964315825_705bfb944e.jpg)*guy who I hope is enough to cancel out this (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3964308637_84200db7df.jpg) guy. Which may have worked, but I think this (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3964332993/in/set-72157622356135481/) may had have something to do with it. So obviously we'll need reinforcements (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3965062578/in/set-72157622356135481/). Doc Walker, while wear his Steelers suit, gives this idea a thumbs up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/3965137752/in/set-72157622356135481/).
Two signs the game isn't going to our way. Campbell get s the bad snap to start the Skins first possession. And then later on Stafford's scramble that set up the touchdown. What crowd there was, came alive at the scramble play by the first overall selection in this past years Draft. It also seemed to take all of the wind of the defense's sails. Then again a drive of almost 100 yards & giving up a touchdown isn't good either. Our D doesn't act like the way it should act. If you want to watch a D that acts the way ours should act, go watch a Saints game. Williams has those guys flying to the ball & attacking just like the way they did when he was here. Hopefully he's on a one year contract there.
Haynesworth goes down. At first I think maybe he's just winded. The the stretcher rolls out of tunnel by me. I could tell you the first thought that came to mind but it won't pass the filters here. It did rhyme with duck duck duckity duck though if you feel like trying to figure it out.
At the half, I run up to grab a fresh battery for the camera. This one is here & not lost, unlike the cel battery from the previous day. Going back down the tunnel, I see Big Al (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2582/3964634013_9dc617bed7.jpg) coming back to the field. Portis greets him first as he makes his way back to the sideline with a smack on the ass (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2623/3964636675_255427e0db.jpg). I try to focus in on Al when the D goes back onto the field. Through the camera lens I kept seeing he wasn't getting double teamed. He was being handled one (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3965514204_1a7dcbff03.jpg) on one (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3964743007_b24ebf3195.jpg). Not sure if this was the entire time or not as I haven't yet been able to bring myself to watch the game on the DVR. But it did look like he was playing hurt & maybe shouldn't have been back out there.
Even when there was a last second chance to win, the feeling on the sidelines was it should never have had come there being one. Then the Lions put their Freak of Nature (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2576/3965559546_c359b29d8a.jpg) in on the final defensive play to assure theirselves a win.
All in all, this was a bad game by a bad team. And a bad team that for all intents & purposes shouldn't be a bad team. If they can't beat the Bucs this weekend, then it's time for an interim coach. For Zorn to survive I think he needs to do what Spurrier did. Bench himself & give up the play calling. Zorn sets nothing up. It's like throws plays against the wall to see what will stick. There is zero strategy to his play calling. He doesn't rope-a-dope anyone into a false sense of security by showing one play several times to set up a play for when they actually need a go to play.
Check out Pictures (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/sets/72157622356135481/) or the Photostream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/extremeskins/sets/72157622356135481/show/).