CFFL Week 8

Can the season already be half over?  Hard to believe but some of us are thankful.....

Get the brooms out as there was almost a complete sweep of sweeping in the home and home series:

NORTH SWEEPS

Ferrets completed the sweep of their hated rival Crew 51-32, scoring the most points for the week.  The Ferrets can't seem to do no wrong.  Last week Manning and McGahee were on bye and had a rag tag of players in including Weeden and Gordon, who then hooked up for 10 point connection.  This week more byes, but no problem.  Chris Givens scores on a long bomb, Brandon Lloyd gets 2 more and Santana Moss scores as well.  Then to clean up the mess, Manning and McGahee combined for 18 more.  The Crew have fallen on hard times and are just not getting the production from Cutler and Marshall everyone thought.  Although 32 points was respectable, and would have beat 11 of the 15 teams this week.

Animals sweep their father the Chislers in impressive fashion as the wheels have fallen off of the Chisler bus.  Animals MVP Bears Defense has scored in 6 of 7 games this year and scored again this week.  Chislers only got points from Heath Miller and Greg "The peg leg" Zuerlein.  The San Diego Chislers came up with a big goose egg as Rivers, Floyd and Gates all were shut out.  The Animal victory puts them in second place at 5-3 one game behind the Ferrets.  The Chislers are still in the playoff hunt at 5-3 but better get their offense in gear or there is not chance for a repeat. 

SWEEPS IN THE EASTERN BLOC

In the Game of the Week, the Sinistars came back from a 36-30 deficit on SNF to sweep the Krauts.  After the half the Game was tied 30-30 when the Krauts took the lead with a TD catch by Denarius Moore to make it 36-30 in favor of the goose stepping Krauts.  Sinistars had one last chance in Eric Decker on SNF.  Decker produced and scored twice for the win 42-36.  Krauts waste a great week for Matt Ryan and Shady McCoy as they combined for 24.  Sinistars have been waiting for Stafford to wake up and he did as he earned Player of the Week honors with 18 big points!

Juggernauts swept a lifeless Russian Roulette team that have been focused on how the Hockey league can end the lock out and drop the puck on the CFHL.  Gronk is back and scored 12 points for the Juggs.  The combination of the Sweeps by the Sinistars over the Krauts and the Juggs sweep has now created a log jam in the East as all three teams are 4-4, when only a few weeks ago it looked like the Krauts were going to run away with it.  Whats that?  Ovens and showers are on?

MORE SWEEPS IN THE DEEP SOUTH

The younger Freeman brother swept his older brother as the Titans complete the sweep of the Dragons and have created a playoff opportunity for the Titans. (the Mayans might be right...) This week the did it by scoring only 15 points thanks to a Packer D TD.  The Dragons needed just one TD from Cardinal WR Roberts on MNF as only Rodgers and "Nina" Hartley scored.  Well instead of Roberts scoring Crabtree scored twice on the bench for the Dragons.  That stings.  One of the most dreaded things in fantasy football is to not make the right move in your lineup.  The Dragons truly felt the WRATH OF THE TITANS these past two weeks.

In another game the featured a team needing just one score on MNF to win the game the Bees outlasted the Mayhem 22-20.  The Mayhem had Frank Gore"'s knee" and needed just one TD from him to win.  The 49ers dominated but no TDs came Gores way.  Tom Brady scored 16 points for the Mayhem but got no help.  "Fat Kicker" scored 14 for the Bees and the difference was the 8 points from Brees.  The sweep has pulled the Bees into first place all alone one game ahead of the Titans and Mayhem.  Dragons playoff hopes are dimming with the late autumn sun set as they are 2-6.

WEST HAS ONE SWEEP AND ONE SPLIT (and of course some Twins)

The Crush get revenge from the prior week loss to the Bums and hammer them 47-29 as they get a big performance from Roethlisberger's 12 and Tynes 17 big points.  The running game seemed to be hitting its stride as Richardson and Forte both scored TDs.  Josh Freeman had a nice game in a loss with 12 points. 

The Twins complete the sweep of the Mafia  and move to a 2 game lead in West with a record of 7-1.  The Mafia needed a 12 point performance from Akers on MNF to win the game and came up 6 points short. Doug Martin continues to impress and this week scored 12 points to open the game and the Twins never looked back from there. 

As we head into the home stretch of the season almost every team is still in it.  The exceptions....Roulette at 1-7 gave up a long time ago and traded away their best player in RGIII, The Crew at 2-6 who have been hurt by the inept running game (Stephens-Howling, Woodhead, Wells, Helu, have been the starting RBs this year, pathetic), and the Dragons who have Rodgers but no one else. 

Favorites right now are Thomsen Twins who are 7-1, and either the Ferrets or the Animals.  Any team right now other than the mentioned above have a chance but these teams seem to be making the right moves and have the right players to make a big run.  Could it be a first ever Fantasy Bowl for the Animals or Ferrets?

NFL Week 7 Thoughts

My brief thoughts about Week 7's action and a peak into Week 8's match ups...

Divisions leaders in the NFC: Giants at 5-2, Bears and Vikings in the North, Atlanta a 4 game lead in the South, and the 49ers in the West.  Probably the only surprise there would be the Vikings and where they are at as the Lions are in last at 2-4. The West seems a bit of a surprise, but I would imagine as the season plays out there will be a clear separation between the 49ers and the rest, much to my dismay.  The 49ers played a close one against the Seahawks but showed why they are the team to beat.  Gore had 131 yards on only 16 carries too. 




RAM TALK:  Well Ram talk is starting to become depressing, however they are exactly where I predicted them to be after 7 weeks, 3-4 and the rest of the schedule doesn't get much easier.  The Packers pretty much controlled the game and wasn't even as close as the 30-20 score indicated. Pettis scored a late TD from Bradford to make it 30-20.  The defense of the Rams, which had been strong the first 6 weeks of the season allowed Rodgers to throw for 342 yards, 3 TDs and no picks for a rating of 132.2.  Bradford still looked unsure in the pocket and they just can't stretch the field.  It seemed like "same old Rams".

And now they travel to London for a date with the Patriots.  And this is a home game for the Rams??  Oh brother!  I really wish the NFL would reconsider this international regular season play bull.  It truly is not very good for the teams that travel, specially the one where it is considerd to be a home game.  Give me a break!  Lets keep it in the 48 states please! 

 
It was a shame to see the Buccaneers lose in those awesome throw backs!  How can you not love those.  But Drew Brees and the Saints got the best of the Bucs who lead 14-7 and 21-7.  The Saints then rattled off 28 unanswered points!  Ouch.  The Buccaneers had a chance though at the end with 2 TD passes to the back of the end zone but were incomplete. 

In the AFC standings we have Patriots at 4-3, Baltimore at 5-2 but could be in trouble as the injuries are piling up, Houston 3 game lead in the South, Chargers and Broncos tied at 3-3 in the West.  Not too surprising.  However it is surprising the AFC east is as close as it is with all teams within one game of the Patriots.  That might be the only surprise there.  Look for the Broncos, as their schedule gets a little easier and Manning gets more comfortable to begin to make a good run in the second half of the season. 

WEEK 8:  There are a few interesting match ups for Week 8...First the Dolphins travel to the Jets and is a key game for playoff hopes in the AFC East.  Jets beat Dolphins in Week 3 in OT 23-20.  Will the Dolphins get some revenge?  I have no idea because I haven't been able to pick the Dolphins right pretty much all year...Atlanta goes to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles.  While the Falcons are still undefeated the Eagles are not to be taken lightly.  This will be an interesting game for Atlanta to see if they can win a key road game in the NFC....Giants / Cowboys in Dallas, could be the game of the week.  The Cowboys went to NY and beat the Giants on opening night of the season.  Giants are looking a lot better than that team back on Week 1, but do the Cowboys have the Giants number this year like the Skins did last year?...Brees vs Manning on Sunday night!  That's what I'm talking about!  Should be a great game with lots of offense. Can't wait for that one!

CFFL Week 7 Review

Sorry for the lateness of this but was out of town....in any event, here we go

Its mid way through the regular season and the home and home series are here. Some interesting games and some opportunities for some teams to make some big moves in the standings.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD?  Is there a changing of the guard in the North?  In the North Home and Home series its typically a sweep by last years two Fantasy Bowl teams Chiselers and Crew as they play the Animals and Ferrets.  As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast by Friend!"

The Animals, who have been on fire lately continued to roll and now have traded to improve their QB position and acquired RGIII.  They dominated the game against the Chislers and won 42-26.  The game really was never close ad the Animals got 8 from RGIII, 12 from Chris Johnson who hasn't done squat all year and then 10 from Suisham.  Is it finally the Animals year?



Now that statement should be used for the Ferrets who as one of the original franchises has never won a Fantasy Bowl.  Could this be their year?  The Crew didn't put up much of a fight and went down 41-18 as they were beat by Weeden and "Commissioner" Gordon, a "deadly" Browns 10 point connection (something you don't hear often).  2 TDs from Arian Foster certainly helped too.  The Crew are having some major issues.  A bad draft, poor season waiver moves, and they even started a WR that was on a bye while Cobb was on the bench with 12 points.  Wouldn't have mattered, but come on man!!!

Are the Titans on the move?  After defeating their brother the Dragons (in a series the Dragons usually roll through) they have now won 3 in a row, and are only a game behind the Mayhem and Bees.  Whats up with that??  Nick Folk was key in the 30-17 victory over the Dragons with 14 points.  The Dragons are the evidence that one player just can't win it all for you.  Aaron Rodgers has been lighting it up and threw for 3 more TDs this week, but got little help, in fact none.  5 points from the Dragon kicker and nothing from RB or WR.  That's not good.




PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Drew Brees earned player of the week honors throwing for 4 TDs as the Bees win game one versus the Mayhem 36-27 in a key series for the lead in the South.  The win by the Bees moved them into a tie with the Mayhem and now currently holds the head to head tie breaker.  As if the 16 points wasn't enough the Bees kicker "Fat Kicker" Janikowski booted 14.  Mayhem suddenly look very pedestrian like.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Twins and Mafia battled to the very end and it came down to both night games on Sunday and Monday.  The Mafia had a 20-11 lead going into SNF with a Romo TD pass, Shonn Greene and Vincent "Price" Jackson TDs and 4 points from Connor Barth "Half Man, half dog, I'm a Mog".  Twins had an usually low scoring day but had the Malachi-Green 10 connection to go on Sunday.  And the hit one!! That made the score 21-20, surely not enough for a team that had Megatron on Monday night right?  Wrong!  The Madden Curse lives on!  The Mafia couldn't get Megatron in the end zone and lose to the Twins 21-20.

In a game of teams that likely were not going anywhere, went into OT as the Juggernauts outlasted the Roulette giving them their 6 loss in a row...The Krauts who back in week 5 was sitting at 4-1 with a nice 2 game lead. Well that's all but gone and have dropped two in a row, this week to division rival Sinistars 27-16, moving the Sinistars only one game back. Leading scorer of this game? Kai Forbath with 11 points fro the Sinistars.  WHO????....Bums kept pace with the Twins and moved to 5-2 but it wasn't easy as they edged the Crush 27-20 with 7 points from Robbie Gould in MNF.

This week its another round of the Home and Home.  Can the Sinistars sweep the Kaurts and take the lead in the East...Who will take a commanding lead in the South as the Bees and Mayhem square off again...Can the Animals sweep the Chislers to keep pace with the division leaders...Crew suck..

NFL Week 6 Review

Last week I mentioned some teams that were just plain bad.  And one of those teams were the Titans.  And they go ahead and beat the Steelers on Thursday Night Football.  It became apparent that the Steelers' injuries have caught up to them and the Titans took full advantage, even if they were down by 10 in the fourth they managed to tie the game and have Bironas kick the winning field goal with time expiring.

Last week I mentioned that the Browns were terrible.  They then promptly upset the Bengals 34-24 behind Weeden who had a rating of 92.7 and surprise WR "Commissioner" Gordon, who has now scored 3 TDs in the past 2 games.


RAMS TALK:  Check these stats out: Total yards 462-192.  Total First Downs 22-12. Yards per play 6.7-3.9. Rams lose to Dolphins 17-14, but who do you think lead in all of those categories?  THE RAMS!  So how does a team that dominates like that lose like that?  I will tell you!  First of all the Rams have one of the absolutely worst redzone offenses.  They move the ball so well between the 20s but then they stall out.  And to make matters worse, Greg "The Leg" Zuerlein missed 3 FGs, his first of the year.  Could he be a head case?  First miss was after a timeout. Then he missed the next 2 he attempted.  Wind seemed to be a factor and all three misses were wide left. 

Well this potentially was going to a statement game for the Rams.  Had the Rams moved from that weak team to a challenging team by winning on the road, something they haven't done yet this year?  Well they couldn't do it in Miami.  Defense still played well, but they need to figure out how to get in the endzone.  You can't have Bradford breaking his back trying to sneak the ball in the endzone and that's your only option!  Come on man!  The good thing is, is that they are still only 1 game out of first in the NFC West...

Speaking of statement games, The Giants rolled into San Francisco and punched the 49ers, who have been doing the punching lately, right in the mouth 26-3.  This was thanks to 3 Alex "I'm not that good" Smith INTs.  49ers didn't rush for 100 yards, and barley passed for 200.  Apparently the Giants have the 49ers number and as the season progresses the teams that have that attention to detail begin to separate themselves from the rest (Coughlin and the Giants).

The Sunday Night Game had Aaron Rodgers pick apart the Houston Texans for 6 TDs!  3 to Jordy Nelson, 2 to James Jones, and one more to Crabtree (of course none to Cobb, on my fantasy team). Final score 42-24 handing the Texans their first loss of the season. Texans really couldn't do anything.  Schaub had a rating of 56.6 and Foster averaged 1.7 yards per carry (even though he had 2 TDs).  The Packers proved that they are a very dangersous team.  Don't read too much into this final though, Texans are still a Super Bowl Contender.

Monday night was a tale of two games.  First the Chargers dominated the first half with 2 TD passes from Rivers to Gates and a pick 6 on Manning.  This game looked over at half 24-0.  Then did the teams just change uniforms at half?  No, its just Manning and half time adjustments.  3 TD passes from Manning and 2 defensive TDs and 35 unanswered points later the game was over 35-24.  Incredible collapse by the Chargers, at home.  You can't expect to contend for a Super Bowl with that kind of performance.

CFFL Week 6 Review

In Week 6 we start to see a separation of teams, the good, the bad, and the ugly....

The Good:  Chislers move to 5-1 and do it with authority over the Dragons 67-29, running up the score when the game was over.  Even the week's Player of the Week, Aaron Rodgers couldn't help the Dragons with 24 points.  With the game over with late in the game at 47-29, the Chislers wouldn't call off the dogs and got 2 10 point connections from their San Diego Chisler combo of Rivers and Gates.  Rice and James Jones also got 12 each too.  They were just hitting on all cylinders.

The Good: Twins out dueled the Krauts in a battle of one loss teams 42-36, in a game that lived up to its billing.  Game was all tied up late until the Twins got 6 points from Kicker Shayne Graham.   "Malachi" Dalton and A.J. Green are becoming a deadly 10 point connection and hooked up twice for the Twins.  Krauts had a very balanced attack but just wasn't enough as "Shady" McCoy, Denarius Moore, Welker all had 6 points and Rudolph "Red Nose Reindeer" had 8 points.  They still have a commanding 2 game lead in the East.

More The Good: Ferrets improve to 4-2 and are becoming the come back kids as they scored 24 points to beat the Bees 41-23 in SNF and MNF games.  Manning had 12 and Foster had 12 points.  Ferrets continue to thank the Crew who encouraged him to not take Brady in the first round with Manning already on the roster and take Foster.  (Now if I only could have given myself good advice during the draft).

The Bad: The Crew's offense continues to struggle and only managed 18 Points (only 7 going into MNF) as the Mayhem cruised to a 28-18 win.  Bradford was the 7.  Stokely and Prater were the other 11 for the Crew, a team that starts a Woodhead, a Cobb, and a Chandler Bing.

The Bad: Juggernauts got hammered by the Bums 54-24 as the Bums got production from every starting spot except for one (including their defense), Freeman-12, McFadden-6, Fitzgerald-6 Hill-6, Rice-6, Walsh-12, Texans-6.  Juggernauts who have been hampered by the Kraut propaganda during the draft is truly starting to show as they got no scoring from any RBs or WRs.

The Ugly: How can only a 2 point loss be ugly?  It is when you lead by 10 going into MNF and you only face your opponents defense,  The Roulette, desperately needing a win to salvage the season, was confident going into MNF up 25-15 and the Mafia only had the Denver Defense, despite the Roulette benching one of the top QB in the league (RGIII) who ends up scoring 16 points vs only 4 from Flacco. Well Denver gets a fumble recovery for a TD, but surely they wouldn't get two.  Um yes they would as they picked Rivers and returned it for a TD, the very last TD scored on MNF.  Ouch.  Since then the Roulette have given up and are offering trades for picks...That's Ugly

In other games, Crush come back from being down 27-24 as Jordy Nelson catches 3 TDs on SNF and pulls out the win 42-33, both teams are 2-4...Animals trip up against the upset minded Titans, who for the second week in a row, pulls the upset against a team from the North, 21-18.

My Final Top 10 Led Zeppelin Songs

Well its been building up to this!  Here is the final 10 songs of my rankings of Led Zeppelin.

10. How Many More Times - LZ1 - What a classic bluesy rock song from Zeppelin and one of two anthems from LZ1 (the other being Dazed).  This song was over 8 minutes long, but listed on the original album as 3:30.  Jimmy did this to try to trick radio stations in playing it on air.  Pagey's guitar playing is perfect and he even breaks out the bow on this one as well.  Plant kills this song with the lyrics.  "Now I got 10 children of my own...I got another child on the way that makes 11! I'm in constant heaven"  The rhythm of this song is very ominous.  Great track! "They call me the Hunter!"

9. I Can't Quit You Babe - LZ1 - "So I'm gonna put you down for a while"  Pure blues riff here.  Just totally grove to it.  Bonzo is very strong on this one as he pounds the drums.  Nothing is better than Jimmy ripping those blues riffs and Plant screeching out the lyrics!  This was the top ranked song from LZ1

8. Nobody's Fault But Mine - Presence - Oh boy, hang on to your hats.  Bonzo will knock your socks off on this one!  When he takes off after Jimmy and Plant's great intro its all over with! BOOM!  Again Pagey and Percy team up for some vocal/guitar play off each other.  Robert on the harmonica too as it kicks into an absolute rage of a song.  You can just see Bonzo just destroying those skins! A purely powerful song, one of the most powerful songs in the Zeppelin arsenal. This is the top ranked Presence song. 

7. No Quarter - Houses of The Holy - Let us take a dark trip to the olden days.  This song is very dark and devious about not giving or accepting quarter (mercy).  Song gives me chills every time.  The way Jimmy plays that guitar and the opening key board play by Jonesy.  Then Plant's voice deep and mysterious.  Truly a John Paul Jones gem as it features him on the keys.  If you get a chance to hear the bootleg "Snow Jobs" a concert in Vancouver in 1975 they completely go into some jazzy jam session.  Amazing.  "Walking side by side with Death"  "The dogs of dome are howling more"  This is one of three songs in the top 10 for Houses of The Holy.

6. Ten Years Gone - Physical Graffiti - One of three songs in the Top 10 for Physical Graffiti is another chilling song that any person can take and make the meaning of this song their own.  Jimmy played so many Guitar tracks on this one (14 I believe).  John Bonham is very powerful but deliberate.  You can hear so much feeling in this song and Plant's voice.  "Changes fill my time, baby, that's alright with me..In the midst I think of you, and how it use to be"  All the lines can make the hairs stand up. 

5. Kashmir - Physical Graffiti - What a beginning!  This is truly one of the biggest anthems Led Zeppelin produced.  The feeling of this song is truly one of a kind.  Led Zeppelin at their Musical pinnacle.  They even brought in session players to play the strings and horns.  This song is about the wasted, wasted, wasted lands.  "All I see turns to brown, As the sun burns the ground. And my eyes fill with sand" This piece is truly a master piece. Plant completely kills it with his vocals.



4. The Song Remains The Same - Houses of The Holy - A completely groovy song that gets your feet moving from the very beginning as Jimmy takes off.  You can just see him gliding across the stage playing this one.  Plant on a high octaves in this one... "I had a dream...crazy dream"  "Everything that's small has to grow"  Now what was Plant talking about here?? Now I will admit that his song is probably higher then you would imagine but it was clearly influenced by the movie The Song Remains the Same as it was paired with the next song in the rankings. 

3. Rain Song - Houses of The Holy - Right after they rip into The Song Remains The Same, Rain Song settles everything down.  As far as I'm concerned these two songs must always be played together as they did live time and time again.  This song is about seasons of love.  A nice acoustic jam by Pagey. Jonesy on the Mellotron really gives it a feel of an orchestra.  Beautiful song with long musical interludes. "This is the summer of my smile.  Flee from me keepers of the gloom."  This one completely relaxes you...and then the end...BOOM.  Bonzo hits it hard and Plant belts it out!  Masterful. The highest ranked song from Houses of The Holy.

2. In My Time Of Dying - Physical Graffiti - Slide guitar please!  An almost 11 minute complete jam!  My god does Bonzo hammer those drums!  A true gem as it starts slow and bluesy and then thunders on as only Zeppelin can do.  Jimmy is just masterful in this one.  It builds and builds...until it completely explodes into a monstrous rock!  One of Bonzo's best songs ever.  "Saint Peter at the gates of heaven won't you let me in!"  Completely rocks out!  Pagey on the guitar is amazing as he mixes and switches them out rocking out! Plant shouting out "Oh my Jesus".  A journey and pleading to let them all in the golden gates, even if they..."only wanted to have some fun" Top ranked Physical Graffiti song.

1. Since I've Been Loving You - LZ3 - Well here you go.  The number one song.  Oh my goodness.  This song....what can I say. You really just need to listen to it.  This is the soul of Led Zeppelin.  When you hear it you can completely hear and feel so much soul and passion in this song.  Jimmy Page's best guitar work ever on this one. If you watch the movie Song Remains The Same his fingers fly so fast on the neck of his Fender.  "Since I've been loving you, I'm about to lose my worried mind"  Jonesy on the organ is perfect.  If you listen closely to the studio version you can hear Bonzo's base pedal squeak, which just takes you back to the days of unprocessed pure rock. "Said I've been crying! Oh my tears fell like rain" Chills every time. 

Thank you Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones for putting out this and every one of your songs.  There will be nothing like them ever again...........

NFL Week 5 Recap

Well I will have to say this week in the NFL started out great!!!


RAMS TALK! Nothing better then starting out the week with the Rams on Thursday Night Football and punching the Cardinals right in the neck!  And I will say this, its a lot easier watching the Rams on Sunday when there are all the other games going on.  When its just the Rams I hang on every play!   For a team that didn't score an offensive TD in three games, they came out and took them less than 3 minutes before Bradford hit Kendricks in crazy pass happy first drive. 

Unfortunately that would be about it after Danny "Queen" Amendola, who was incredible, broke his clavicle and was lost for the game and probably a good part of the season.  He was truly the blanket to Bradford's inner Linus.  Bradford couldn't complete a pass rest of the game.  Until he hit Chris Givens on a bomb of 52 yards! 

But the real story was the Rams Defense who quietly have become very good and nasty.  They sacked Kolb 9 times and will punch you right in the mouth.  Fisher truly has brought a new, nastier mentality to a team that hasn't had that kind of nastiness on defense since the Fearsome Foursome (which by the way is airing on NFL Network tonight at 8pm as part of their "Its A Football Life" series). 

Rams who are 3-0 at home and 0-2 on the road travel to Miami to face the Dolphins.  On paper should be a win for the Rams, but being on the road tends to always be a problem for the Rams. A win here will really put them on the right track.  We shall see!

The Dolphins are killing me in the Football Pool.  There is always a team that you just can't quite get right and this year its the Dolphins.  Last week I was the only person to take them against the Cardinals and it looked like I had that game won, but nooooooo!  Cardinals come back tie it and win in OT.  This week Dolphins traveled to Cincinnati and were clearly the underdog.  One person picked Miami, and it wasn't me.  What happens?  Dolphins win!  What the heck!?

There are clearly only a few bad bad teams in the NFL and they are as follows.  Jaguars.  Just got clobbered by the Bears 41-3 as their defense scored twice....Browns.  They are winless.  And even after going up 14-0 on the Giants they lose 41-27.  Trent Richardson is the real deal and the only bright spot on what could be called once again the "mistake by the lake"....Chiefs.  Yes Chiefs are bad even if they only lost 9-6 to Ravens.  I just don't see them winning many games.  Titans. They are slowly become bad and are 1-4 and just got hammered by Vikings.  Which of course I picked the Titans in the upset.  Turned out to be my bonehead pick of the week....

And the Jets are in that category.  In fact they are in the Circus Category.  I mean did you see them Monday night?  They are a joke.  Players are platooning in all the time.  Half the time they don't know what play they are running until its too late.  Tebow comes in.  Tebow goes out and leaves Sanchez with impossible 3rd downs.  Then when Tebow runs a wildcat and gets a first down and almost a TD, they hurry up and try it again...THIS ISN'T HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL, where you can run  the same play over and over.  Its the NFL!!  That team is a joke.

Truly the Elite of the NFL...Damnit, 49ers are.  I mean in two games they have a combined score of 79-3!  Its hard to find a problem with this team as painfully as it is for me to say.  Texans are right there too.  Running, passing defense, they all have it together as long as Schaub keeps both ears in tact.  Falcons, still undefeated and struggled against the Redskins, but was on the road and was a good tough win that builds character. 

CFFL 5 Week Review

Week 5 is in the books...

The Animals are hitting their stride and have won 3 in a row, thanks to their defense who has scored 5 TDs in the past three weeks!  This week they put up 53 on the Bees beating them 53-32, despite Brees' 16 points for the Bees.  Animals really won the game with three players, Victor Cruz "Control"  had 18 and shared MVP of the week honors, Percy Harvin had 12 and the Bears defense had 2 more TDs.  Animals improve to 3-2 and are only one game behind the Chislers. 

Game of the Week 1: Juggernauts beat Mafia 29-23 on a late game TD from Ryan Mathews.  Mafia's running game continued to be strong and "Pan down I want" Bush and Turner "The Burner" each had TDs. Vick and Phil "Survey Says" Dawson lead the Juggs with 8 and 9 points repsectively, but were still behind 26-23 going into SNF.  That is where Ryan Mathews scored and won the game in the final minutes!



Game of the Week 2: In a battle of division leaders the 3-1 Chislers took on South leading 3-1 Mayhem.  This was a close one throughout as the Mayhem lead 19-18 after the Sunday afternoon games with Tom Brady scroing yet again double digit points with 10, while Frank Gore's "Knee" added a TD. The Chislers were lead by 2 TDs from James Jones, taking full advantage of the injury to Jennings.  Going into SNF the San Diego Chislers got 8 points from Phillip "Jugghead" Rivers and took the lead 26-19.  But the Mayhem were not done yet and had Owen Daniels in MNF and got an early TD to pull with in 1 point 26-25 and only needed one more from Daniels.  Many trips to the redzone for the Texans but no Daniels TDs as Chisler luck prevails.  Ugh.

Upset of the Week: Titans upset the Ferrets 41-25! It was a Manning Brother Battle as Peyton for the Ferrets and Eli "Mouth Breather" for the Titans each had 12 points.  Foster for the Ferrets matched Bradshaw's 6.  The big difference was the WR's where the Ferrets got no production from their wide outs while Titans' Colston caught 3 TDs for 18 points to put the game away on SNF.


Player of the Week:  Two players shared the honor of Player of the week both scoring 18 points.  Marques Colston for  the Titans and Victor Cruz of the Animals.

In other games, Dragons upset the Crew 25-17 despite the 10 point connection by Cutler and Marshall.  It came down to needing a Jimmy Graham TD on SNF that never happened...Krauts get back at it dispensing the Crush to 1-4 and still lead the East by 2 games at 4-1....Sinistars get lucky and play the Bums beating them 18-11 as the Bums only points came from their Kicker Robbie Gould...Roulette followed suit but only score 9, all from kicker Justin Tucker as the Twins beat them 21-9...

Next Week's Game of the Week: Krauts travel to play the Twins.  Both teams are 4-1 and lead both of their Divisions.  Krauts are lead by Matt Ryan who has 58 points, second only to Drew Brees.  Twins are lead by a deadly 10 point connection with Andy "Malachi" Dalton and A.J. Green.  Should be a good one!

CFFL Week 4 Review

Some high scoring teams highlight Week 4 in the Cherry Fantasy Football League...

The Twins rolled over the Titans 52-14 lead by 14 points from Andy "Malachi" Dalton and 12 from Roddy "Rowdy" White, who was pissed off that Julio Jones was pronounced the #1 Fantasy option on the Falcons.  Throw in 6 more from Alfred "Mo Mo" Morris, Dwayne Bowe, and A.J. Green (nice 10 point connection) the Twins look very powerful moving to 3-1 and leading the Division with the surprise Bums.  Titans remain winless...what else is new?


Player of the Week: Tom Brady had a monster of a game scoring 18 points as the Mayhem dominated the Mafia 49-26.  Mayhem then get TDs from all but one of their skill position players (Gore, Jackson, Jennings, and Daniels).  This will begin the discussions of a new rule that could be proposed next year, not allowing teams to send in list and have friends draft team.  This league has seen too many times a team drafted off a list by another team have a better team then most.  What's up with that??



Upset of the Week: Animals upset the undefeated Krauts 47-19.  Not only an upset a butt kicking of the goose stepping Krauts.  "Stump the" Schaub had 8 points, "Beast Mode" had 6 and Victor Cruz "Control" had 6 more.  What was a killer for the Krauts was the Animal Defense the Bears scoring 2 TDs to turn this game into a rout!  Thankfully for the Krauts the entire division lost and they still have a 2 game lead in the East and continue their dominance of the Eastern Bloc.

Game of the Week: In a stunning comeback the Crew score on late Monday Night TD when it appeared that all was lost.  Going into Monday night, the Crew got some scoring from some unusual sources.  Chandler "Bing" got two scores and Danny Woodhead got one after just signing with the Crew.  Sinistars Jamaal Charles "In Charge" got two scores as well and Eric "Double" Decker scored a late second half score.  Even though Crew kicker Prater kicked 13 points, Sinistar kicker Alex Henry matched it on Sunday Night.  So going into Monday Night Crew was down 37-31 and needed at lest 2 TD passes from Cutler or a 10 point connection to Marshall.  The game went on and on and only 1 TD pass going into a fourth quarter where the Bears were well in control of the game and really needed to just run the clock out.  But Cutler found Marshall wide open on the 20 and Marshall scampered in for the score and the come from behind Crew Victory!!

The Ferrets caught the Roulette on a down week as RGIII only had 6 points and they got no points from their running backs of Peterson and BenJarvus Green-Eggs and Ham.  Ferrets taking the field with the number one offense continued that trend with 12 from Manning and 10 from Gostkowski.  Thought this was going to be the game of the week, but turned out to just be an easy win for Ferrets 34-13.

Chislers rolled over the Juggernauts 44-26 as 24 points came from James Jones and Matt Bryant.  Phillip "Jugghead" Rivers also threw 2 TD passes as the Chislers kept pace with the Ferrets in the North at 3-1. Listening to Chisler owner cry all day about not getting any points from his Ravens (12 points), and Charger players (8 Points) he still manages to score 44 total points.  STOP IT!!

Week 5 Game of the Week: In a week with lot of above .500 teams taking on sub .500 teams the only real match up is the Chislers (3-1) at Mayhem (3-1).  Mayhem are clearly a loaded team (Thank you Dragon owner Randy for that) and the Chislers have the uncanny Chisler Luck and depend on Ravens and Chargers, well mostly (see above).  Has another chance of being a high scoring battle.  Might come to the Chargers on SNF.

NFL Week 4 Review

While Week 4 didn't have that many fantastic finishes it was sure another fun filled weekend in the NFL....

Starting on Thursday in a not so thrilling game the Ravens took down the Browns as was expected, however the Browns did put up a good fight over a flat Raven team coming off an emotional win over the Patriots a week before.  Boldin had a huge game with 9 catches and 131 yards.




RAMS TALK! Well the Rams welcomed into town their bitter rival Seahawks who were coming off of a Monday Night loss...oh wait that was a win..over the Packers.  The Rams defense continues to play tough and held the Seahawks to only 13 points and after "Beast Mode" Lynch scored the first touchdown they held them out of the end zone the rest of the day.  Wish I could say more about the Ram offense other than they sure no how to move between the 20s.  But some trickeration helped them score their only TD with a fake field goal.  Speaking of FG, Greg "The Leg" Zuerlein was money again, breaking the Ram record for longest FG at 58 yards, only to break his own record a little bit later with a 60 yarder, all right down the middle.

Fear the Stach!  Fisher has certainly brought a different mentality to this Rams defense that after four games are 2-2 and in each game have been in it.  Week one they let the Lions score 2 TDs on their last two drives to win the game and the game versus the Bears they were hanging in within one score until Bradford threw a pick six.  This week they play the undefeated Cardinals on Thursday Night Football.  Should be a good one!

What happen to the Bills?? Up 21-7 and then the Patriots go nuts and score 5 unanswered TDs to completely kick the Bills ass. Guess some things never change do they? Same with the Lions who after a promising 2011 season were suppose to take it to the next level. Maybe not. Losing on the road to Titans and now at home the Vikings, who after beating the 49ers would, you expect to be flat, but they weren't and beat the Lions in Detroit...same old Lions.

In Atlanta the Falcons had a scare against division rival Carolina who took them to the very end of the game and 99 yards, well only had to go 60 for Matt Bryant to kick the game winning field goal.  Thank you Roddy White who caught Matt Ryan's bomb from the end zone to put them in position to do just that.  Is this finally the year for the Falcons?  Ryan looks great and has the top two WR duo in the league.  But don't we say that every year and each year the bow out early in the playoffs?

Texans also continue to roll and look to be the top of the AFC.  Could it be a Falcon vs Texans Super Bowl?

The Dolphins let me down after saving me a game last week.  Karma?  I had them pegged to beat the Cardinals and I still don't think the Cardinals are all that yet.  I was right for 59:48 minutes of the game when the Cards tied the game to send it to OT.  The Dolphins lead 13-0 and 21-14, but the game had to go into OT where Feely kicked the winning FG for the Cardinals to keep them undefeated.  DOH!

The Saints vs. Packers  turned out to be a much better game than expected as the Saints looked like the old Saints and went toe to toe with Rodgers and the Packers.  But the Packers prevailed with a late fourth quarter Rodger TD pass to Jordy Nelson.

As of now the NFC has Falcons and Cardinals at 4-0 but Cards doing it with smoke and mirrors (Kolb, really?).  Eagles lead the East  at 3-1 after defeating the Giants Monday night.  And they looked so mediocre through the first 3 weeks. Minnesota and Chicago are tied in the North at 3-1 while Packers and Lions trail them...would have thought that would have been the other way around before the season started. 

The AFC has only one undefeated team at 4-0 and that's the Texans that have been doing it on all aspects of the game.  The rest of the teams in that division only have 1 win each.  Browns 0-4, that's about right, while the Ravens and Bengals lead at 3-1. Chargers lead the West with the Broncos one game behind, and with Manning in Denver should prove to be an interesting divisional battle. The East is interesting with 2 teams at 2-2 (Patriots, Jets, and Bills). 

My Led Zeppelin Ranks 11-20

Well here we go Zep Head!  We are heading into the top 20, so only one more post to my top 10 Led Zeppelin songs!

20. The Battle of Evermore - LZ4 - Just an amazing story telling song with Pagey on the Madolin.  Great piece.  Once again their J.R.R. Tolkien influence shows in this song with the classic lines "The drums will shake the castle walls.  The ring wraiths ride black".  Sandy Denny was the guest vocalist on this track and was from a british folk band Fairport Convention. 

19. Immigrant Song - LZ3 - Funny that one of their hardest songs is on one of their most acoustic albums.  This song just rocks and you can almost see and feel the wind blowing the snow off the ice covered peaks of the mountains.  "Hammer of the Gods"  "We are your overlords"  Some of the lyrics in this song completely defined who Zeppelin was to its fans.  Plant opening the song with those chanting screams is chilling.

18. What Is And What Should Never Be - LZ2 - A really cool song with the low blues beat with Plant quietly singing and Jonesy on the bass fires into a heavy rock session with Jimmy kicking in and it goes back and forth.  Just another example of the talents this band had.  Can't beat the Page bluesy guitar and slide.  The end of this song just completely rocks.

17. Stairway To Heaven - LZ4 - Okay lets hear it.  "What do you mean its only 17 and not number 1?"  Yes I know and I completely love this song but because of the overplaying of it, it has diminished it some for me.  But with that being said It certainly is one of the greatest songs ever to grace the radio airways.  The beauty of this song is that each person can take it and make it mean something to just them and could be different then someone else.  Jimmy's guitar playing and versatility is amazing on this song.  From acoustic to electric seamlessly.  The words do "make me wonder"  "There's a feeling I get when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving" Favorite lyric.  This was my highest ranked LZ4 song.

16. Whole Lotta Love - LZ2 - Is there a more memorable opening guitar riff then this one?  I think not.  And wasn't this the staple of every concert encore for them that would turn into medleys and all sorts of crazy jams and Jimmy making some wild sounds with the theremin, the black box he played with on stage moving his hand closer and farther.  Chills run down my spine when Plant his that final note "Loooooooooooooooooovvvvvvvveee" and Bonzo hits in on the drums. Powerful song!

15. The Lemon Song - LZ2 - A great rocking blues tune influenced by early blues artist Howlin Wolf and Robert Johnson.  The rawness of Jimmy on guitar is great and Jonesy really is slapping that bass.  I mean just listen to that guitar solo!  Wow.  Plant has his deep raspy blues voice on.  "I should have quit you babe, such a long time ago."  "Squeeze me baby, until the juice runs down my leg"  Classic! My topped ranked LZ2 song, beating out Whole Lotta Love.

14.  Tangerine - LZ3 - A song about love at its most innocent stage.  Jimmy Page is masterful once again on guitar.  And the part where he hits in with the whining guitar is truly great.  A song that was often played as a semi acoustic set live.  A short song but so well put together.  These are the songs that give me the chills 1-20. 

13. That's The Way - LZ3 - Another great acoustic jam, played live, came right after Tangerine on LZ3.  Just love Plants voice and his lyrics on this one.  Lots of great songs came from that time on the Wales country side.  This one might have been one of the best.  Pagey completely kills it on a very mellow but wonderful piece in the Zeppelin catalog. 

12. In The Evening - In Through The Out Door - Another unmistakable opening to this song with Bonzo on those drums and Pagey using more drone effects...Then Plant screams out "In the evening!" and the song explodes!  Bonham just hammers the drums to kick it off.  This was the top ranked ITOD song. 

11. You Shook Me - LZ1 - Oh my god Jimmy!  The guitar on this one is incredible.  Another blues influenced song that was written by Willie Dixon and played before by Muddy Waters.  Man if you want some killer rock blues this one does it complete with Jonesy on the organ as well.  Plant gets on the harmonics.  And the call and response play between Pagey's guitar and Plant is a classic and would be done again with Dazed and Confused.

Well there you have it....next will be the final rankings and the top 10 Led Zeppelin Songs.