More Football Follies

Articles providing quotes by Chargers players are having them saying things to the effect that a) they "did some things right," b) "did a few things wrong," and c) "we'll be fine."

Well, no. For two games now the defensive secondary has totally sucked. While we have been up against two good defenses, the offense has been clumsy and out of synch most of the time. Palming that off with platitudes is not going to result in winning future games.

My wife says the loss to the Patriots was a "wake up call." Maybe. Only if someone hears the alarm clock and gets out of bed. Nothing said by anyone on the team suggests to me that such is the case. Farve knows how to throw passes and he has receivers that know how to catch them. Past performance suggests that the Chargers are pretty helpless against that combo. We'll see tomorrow if the Chargers heard the alarm clock.

Blacked out

I'm in Salt Lake City for the weekend, so I won't see the game until I get home and can see it on tape. I would see it, but there is a game in Denver at 2PM so NFL rules prohibit televising a game in SLC at 11AM because Denver is considered a "home team market" here. So if a division rival is on television at 11, people in SLC will not go to the game in Denver at 2, but if it's blacked out in SLC they will. The NFL never looked at a map and noticed that there's a whole range of huge mountains between Denver and SLC. It's not a short drive.

The rule applies even when the game they are protecting is sold out. To protect attendance at a sold out game in Denver against Jacksonville at 2PM you black out a San Diego / Green Bay game in Salt Lake City at 11AM. Figure that out, if you can.