Packing HEAT

Alright you got me...I failed to write an additional blog post last week about the woes of the Packers' loss to Atlanta and the struggles that the Milwaukee Bucks are having finding any sort of chemistry. But I've got good news! I'm back. Besides that, I was in attendance last night in the Bradley Center for the clash between the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks. When I purchased my ticket for this game way back when they went on sale in early September, I expected two things: Firstly, I planned on the Heat having a record somewhere in the neighborhood of 18-3 or 17-4 and the Bucks AT LEAST hovering around .500. Second, I expected the game to be sold out within days of the tickets being opened up to the public. You're going to be disappointed to hear that neither of these things were even close to occurring...I'll have more on this experience later as it wasn't completely unfulfilled. And if you're greedy and searching for even more reasons to feel warm and fuzzy inside, the Packers stomped the yard in Green Bay on Sunday, but did it wearing possibly the ugliest ensemble of clothing I've ever seen. Also more on this later. Last but not least, the Wisconsin Badgers were officially selected for the Rose Bowl! I think I've spent enough time drooling over them, but this accomplishment certainly shouldn't be overlooked and I'll preview their matchup with TCU when the showdown is drawing closer. Let's get the boredom out of the way and see how I did on picks two weeks ago while taking a look at who I picked in week 13 (ditto for Kyle).

(DAVE) (KYLE)

Houston @ PHILADELPHIA (-8.5)
NEW ORLEANS @ Cincinnati (+6.5)
CHICAGO @ Detroit (+3.5)
San Francisco @ GREEN BAY (-9.5)
JACKSONVILLE @ Tennessee (-3.5)
Denver @ KANSAS CITY (-8.5)
CLEVELAND @ MIAMI (-4.5)
BUFFALO @ Minnesota (-6.5)
WASHINGTON @ NY Giants (-7.5)
OAKLAND @ SAN DIEGO (-12.5)
ATLANTA @ TAMPA BAY (+3.5)
Carolina @ SEATTLE (-5.5)
ST LOUIS @ Arizona (+3.5)
Dallas @ INDIANAPOLIS (-5.5)
PITTSBURGH @ BALTIMORE (-3.5)
NY JETS @ NEW ENGLAND (-3.5)

Last week/Overall:
Kyle: 8-8/94-82 (7-3-2)
Dave: 10-6/89-87 (3-7-2)

WOOOO! BACK ABOVE .500!!!! Oh wait...I got beat this week, so I have no chance of winning the week-by-week contest. I guess there's always the overall record prize/pride. Let's get on with it then, shall we?

Let's begin with Sunday and the emotional roller coaster known as the Green Bay Packers. Fortunately for the collective hearts of Packer fans across the nation, Sunday was only frustrating up until midway through the second quarter because of the slow start our offense had. Eventually, Aaron Rodgers continued his dominance of late and the Packers stormed ahead in the second quarter and never looked back. I'll be the first to say that I didn't really like how our defense looked for a second week in a row, especially when it comes to our linebackers' ability to cover tight ends. This is something that Dom Capers will hopefully address in the coming weeks, but overall Green Bay's D has kept them in every game and that's all you can really ask for. Incredible will power was shown by Donald Driver on a particular play (I think everyone knows what I'm talking about) in which Driver caused both a 49ers defender and tight end Andrew Quarless to launch over him. It was not only an unbelievable play, but hilarious enough to cause me to start laughing hysterically. What got everything started was the dime from Rodgers to Jennings in the second quarter which resulted in the Packers' first score of the game. Thanks to San Fransisco jumping offsides for what seemed like the billionth time of the season, Green Bay had a free play and A-Rod made 'em pay. The Packers outscored the 49ers 24-3 in the second half, leading to a final score of! ... Packers 34, Niners 16.

All seemed well and good in Packer land, but the happenings around the rest of the league didn't exactly go as many had hoped. Pretty much every team ahead of Green Bay won their game. You may get the impression that there aren't that many teams ahead of the Packers...well I've got news for these people. There are six teams either 'ahead' (NFC West...what a joke) or tied with the Green and Gold and as of now, WE'RE OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS! It's hard to believe. I think you could ask just about anyone around who is knowledgeable about the game of football and they would agree that Green Bay is a top 8 team in the league. In fact, the ESPN NFL Power rankings show the Packers ranked one spot ahead of the Bears! While it's obvious that Chicago is the inferior team, they do lead the division so this kind of comes as a surprise to me. Let's forget about the entire playoff picture and focus more on the division race. The way I see it, both of these teams will find themselves in the post-season when it's all said and done. I've analyzed both teams' schedules, and my thinking is that the Bears will only manage to pull out one of their next three games (NEW ENGLAND, @ Minnesota, NY JETS). By the way, isn't it nice that they get both of those AFC East foes at home? God I hate the Bears. I will say that they are facing the Vikings at a rather difficult time compared to when they were at their most vulnerable like the Packers. As for the Packers' schedule, I would be disappointed with anything worse than 2-1 (@ Detroit, @ New England, NY GIANTS). This would mean a showdown for the division title and guaranteed home playoff game on January 2nd at Lambeau...get your popcorn ready.

Before I get to my trip to Milwaukee last night, I wanted to pass on some Milwaukee Brewers news. In my opinion, the Crew made a great move and dealt top prospect 2B/C Brett Lawrie for Toronto Blue Jays ace Shaun Marcum. Before any of you have a hissy-fit over the Brewers giving up one of their best young talents, consider this: we are set at both second base (Rickie Weeks) and catcher (Johnny LuCroy) for quite awhile in my opinion, so the Brewers probably felt like he was expendable. Also, WE ARE IN DESPERATE NEED OF PITCHING!! This guy is an unheralded stud who is in his prime that will help us right away (stats here). And he's cheap...that's always good. Also, the Brewers traded Kyle's boy Carlos Villanueva over to the Blue Jays as well a few days back for a player to be named later (still waiting on that one). You can take a look and see how this affects what I believed our pitching staff would look like in 2011.

Okay. Now to the Bucks. Like I said before, it wasn't as hyped up as I believed it would be back before the season began, but my friends Will and Boom along with myself decided to make the trek anyway. It was exciting to get to watch Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and Mr. Quitness himself take the court together. Unfortunately, Milwaukee is still missing some key players in Carlos Delfino and Drew Gooden, and this hampers this squad more than you would think. By the way, the way LeBron warms up for a game would get just about anyone cut from their respective basketball team. Queen James felt it necessary to throw himself an alley-oop at least three times before he went out to the corner and attempted to drain three pointers while running out of bounds. Not exactly what I would call working on your fundamentals, but if I was that good I would probably do something similar. During the introductions, James and Bosh were booed (LeBron more heavily) while Wade was welcomed warmly because of his epic run to the 2003 Final Four with Marquette. Not only is this well deserved, but I can't believe I strung together five words in a row that start with W in the last sentence. The game itself wasn't the most exciting because of the Bucks horrid shooting and the crowd couldn't really get into the game much. However, we somehow found ourselves down by just three midway through the fourth quarter. All hope was erased after a brutal stretch of basketball from Milwaukee over the last six or so minutes and the Heat won by 10. It wasn't a total failure of a night, though, as Boom managed to catch a t-shirt even though we were seated in the upper deck. Good for you, Boom. Overall, it was a memorable experience despite the loss and I think that as the Bucks start getting back some more of their key players, they'll turn the corner and become a playoff team yet again.

Go Pack, On Wisconsin, and Fear the Deer.