Little bit of this, a little bit of that...

A lot of stuff is going on around the sporting world, and I'm back to give my thoughts on a few topics that are floating around inside my brain...

- I'll start by following up on Greg Paulus's progress to date. If I were to give him a grade, it would be an A-. Why? Because he has proved to be an adequate game-manager, and he has also shown the ability to push the ball downfield. In last week's game against Northwestern, Paulus went over 300 yards passing with a pair of touchdowns to lead the 'Cuse to their first win of theDoug Marrone era. Aiding Paulus's development has been receiver Mike Williams, who is proving to be a one of the Big East's elite receivers (over 200 yards receiving last week). If Paulus can limit some bad decision making, I'll drop that minus sign next to the A.

Staying on the topic of Orange football, let me give mad props to Doug Marrone (mad props is my slang term for tons and tons of credit). This guy has already completely changed the atmosphere surrounding Syracuse football. I think I speak for most Orange fans when I say that watching a game no longer feels like pulling teeth; instead, it actually feels like Syracuse has a legit chance at winning each time they take the field.

- After two weeks of regular season NFL action, I have drawn two conclusions: Rex Ryan knows how to run a defense, and the San Francisco 49ers are sitting pretty.

Let's start with the 2-0 49ers. Look at who they have beaten in the first two weeks: Arizona AT Arizona, and Seattle at home. San Francisco is already a leg up on the two teams thought to be the best in the west. All the 49ers have to do now is take care of business against the lowly Rams, and the division looks to be theirs. Here are some of the remaining games on their schedule: at Philadelphia, at Minnesota, at Indianapolis, at Houston (which now seems like no gimme), and at Green Bay. Assuming they can take care of business at home and steal two of these tough road games, the 49ers will surely be a lock for one of the top playoff seeds. Give Mike Singletary a lot of credit for turning this team around.

How about Rex Ryan? This guy is money, and he's making the Jets look like serious playoff contenders. Their defensive motto has to be something like "we don't give a rat's behind what you think you're gonna do against us, we're gonna come after you play after play until that clock says 0:00" (only I'm sure the actual motto contains a couple dozen expletives, none of that "rat's behind" nonsense). Seriously, the Jets defense has been in non-stop attack mode for the first two weeks, and it has them sitting at 2-0 and atop the AFC East. Marky Mark Sanchez has also looked better than average, sending a message to Pete Carroll (check my archived post on the Carroll/Sanchez disagreement when Sanchez left school early).

- Speaking of Pete Carroll, how about the goose egg his Trojans' laid this past weekend at Washington? Alright, so they didn't get shut out, but they definitely looked horrible. Aaron Corp looked like a high school JV quarterback, and their defense couldn't stop the Huskies when it counted. Could the Pac-10 race be a two team race between Oregon and Cal? It certainly looks that way now.

- My quote of the week goes to ESPN's Mike Sando, who said this regarding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ranking of 28th in ESPN's weekly power rankings:

"The Bucs have allowed 900 yards in their first two games. They even made the Bills look good."

Ahh, Mr. Sando, how right you are. Giving up 33 points to the Bills offense is no easy task. Thank you for providing me with a dose of weekly humor.

2009 NFL Preview

The National Football League's regular season kicks off tonight, as the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers begin their quest for a repeat against the Tennessee Titans. Without further ado, here is my division by division breakdown:

AFC East Champion: New England Patriots

- As much as I hate to predict success for that bozo named Belichick, the Patriots will come out on top of a very lack luster division for two reasons: Tom Brady, and Dean Pees. Pees has been the defensive coordinator with the Patriots since 2006, and he will have that unit playing well week in and week out. Sure, Richard Semour, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, and Rodney Harrison are all gone, but the Patriots know how to reload instead of rebuild. Plus, they have an extremely potent offense to lean back on.

AFC North Champion: Pittsburgh Steelers

- The Steelers are the trendy pick to repeat as Super Bowl champs. I'm not ready to make that prediction just yet, but I am confident that they'll come out on top of the AFC North. Baltimore will be strong again this year (I'll give them a Wild Card playoff berth), and don't be surprised if Cincinnati turns some heads, but the Steelers are definitely the cream of the crop. If Willie Parker and Rashard Mendenhall can stay healthy throughout the regular season, look for the Steelers to lock down the #1 seed and home field advantage heading into the playoffs.

AFC South Champion: Houston Texans

- Right about now, you all probably think I'm nuts. The Texans have never made the playoffs, and here I am picking them ahead of the Colts and Titans. I started thinking about this prediction a while back, and more and more it seems like the Texans have a legit shot at stealing the division. Think about this: In Indianapolis, Tony Dungy and Marvin Harrison are gone. In Tennessee, Albert Haynesworth is gone. In Jacksonville, David Garrard and Maurice Jones-Drew are expected to carry the load (no more Fred Taylor). In Houston, Matt Schaub is healthy, they have an up-and-coming running back in Steve Slaton, arguably the best wide receiver in the game in Andre Johnson, and two difference-makers on defense in Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans. I gotta believe that if the Texans are gonna make a move, it's gonna happen this year.

AFC West Champion: San Diego Chargers

- The Chargers win the West by default. The Chiefs are in rebuild mode, the Raiders are well...the Raiders, and the Broncos are still learning how to deal with life in the post-Shanahan era. Here are the only two ways the Chargers fall short of a division championship this year: Phillip Rivers turns the ball over more than he should, and/or Shawn Merriman beats up a couple more bisexuals.

NFC East Champion: Philadelphia Eagles

- Arguably the best and most competitive division in football. The Eagles lost a lot in the offseason with Brian Dawkins headlining the list of departures, and the injury to Stewart Bradley leaves their linebacking corp somewhat thin. But, as is the case with many teams, if the Eagles can stay healthy, they can win the division. I don't see Michael Vick having that big of an impact this season, but Philly can win without him. The Giants will be the biggest test for the Eagles, with a solid running game and an emerging deep threat at receiver in Hakeem Nicks (plus a healthy Osi Umenyora and Justin Tuck on defense).

NFC North Champion: Green Bay Packers

- While everyone is busy talking about #4 in Minnesota, Stafford in Detroit, and Cutler in Chicago, the Packers are steadily flying under the radar as a very good looking team. Aaron Rodgers impressed last year, and looks to improve this year with Greg Jennings and Donald Driver as his go-to receivers. If Ryan Grant can step his game up and give the Pack a legit running attack, look for the offense to put up elite numbers. In their first three preseason games, Green Bay's defense posted 11 interceptions, eight sacks, and eight forced fumbles. Sure, it's only preseason, but if the D can put up numbers close to that in the regular season, the Packers have a very good shot at the #1 seed heading into the playoffs.

NFC South Champion: Atlanta Falcons

- The big question for the Falcons will be on defense. Can their defense stop Drew Brees and the air attack of New Orleans? Can they slow down DeAngelo Williams and the ground-and-pound of Carolina? The defense may not have to put up shutouts week in and week out, with Matt Ryan under center and Roddy White at receiver (not to mention Tony Gonzalez at tight end). Oh yeah, and they have some guy named Michael Turner who led the NFL last year with 17 rushing touchdowns. The Falcons surprised everyone by making the playoffs last year - this year, their appearance will fool no one.

NFC West Champion: Arizona Cardinals

- The NFC Champs from a year ago will win their division in '09 because of two things: Warner to Fitzgerald, and Warner to Boldin. Pretty much all Kurt has to do is put the ball anywhere near those two, and let them make big plays. When the Cards aren't airing it out, they have Tim Hightower in their backfield. You're probably thinking "who the heck cares about Tim Hightower?" Well I, for one, care about Tim Hightower, and whenever I saw him play last year it always seemed as if he was pounding the ball down some poor defenseless defense's throat. If Arizona can make enough plays on defense, they can make another deep run in the playoffs.

Randy Couture is the coolest badass I know

I stumbled across this UFC 102 pre-fight blog and have now decided that Randy Couture is undoubtedly the coolest dude in the UFC.

September ALREADY?!

Well my summer has officially flown by, and here I am pondering the MLB playoff race, the college football season which officially kicks off tomorrow, and of course the NFL.

- First, I gotta mention my experience in Rochester this past weekend. I was fortunate enough to witness my first roller derby "bout" between the Roc City Roller Girls and the Tri City Rollers. I was skeptical at first, thinking this would just be some kind of lame exhibition featuring women on roller skates. But let me be the first to tell you that it's alot more than just women on skates.

There is strategy and scoring (which I'm not going to attempt to explain) and a ton of wipeouts and hard hitting. It's also somewhat of a freak show, with crazy nicknames (such as Resident Eva and Lippy Wrongstockings) and uniforms to enhance the show. The cool thing is that players, fans, and coaches all accept this borderline freak show status, acknowledging that this uniqueness is what sets roller derby apart from other sports. So if you ever feel like watching a bunch of women bang into each other and slam onto a concrete rink, check out the Roc City Roller Derby.

- Alright, so I said way back when that the Giants would turn heads in the second half of the Major League Baseball season. And wouldn't you know it, here they are one game behind the Rockies for the NL Wild Card lead (they were tied yesterday, but San Fran ran into a buzzsaw named Cole Hamels last night).

I was watching Baseball Tonight the other night and Dave Winfield picked the Rockies to win the Wild Card because their top three starting pitchers are ridiculously good. When I heard that, I said out loud "wow Dave, are you on drugs?" Think about this for a minute - the Giants have what many consider to be the top two starting pitchers in the game (Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain - check them out in the upper right corner) and Barry Zito has been lights out since the All-Star game. In his last nine starts, Zito has only given up 12 total runs, and gone at least 6 IP in seven of those nine starts (and 5.2 IP in one of the other two). ALSO the Giants just swept the Rockies in a three game series by sending Lincecum, Zito, and Cain to the hill on successive days in San Fran. I'll acknowledge that I'm a little biased in favor of the Giants, but you can't argue with the series sweep. So listen Mr. Winfield, don't feed me a bunch of crap when I'm just trying to catch up on baseball scores and standings, OK?

- The college football season starts tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the top-20 matchup between Boise State and Oregon (however, I'm not looking forward to being blinded by the "smurf-turf" of Bronco Stadium). I'm also looking forward to "Da-U" (Miami) facing off against Florida State on Monday night - nothing like a traditional inter-state rivalry to kick off the season.

- I'm planning a quality NFL preview for later this week/early next week. Got any predictions? Sleeper teams? Stat lines for Tom Brady/Michael Vick/Adrian Peterson/Brett Favre/Mark Sanchez? Lemme know what you think.