A Frustrating Loss, But Not That Bad

There are many alternate universe's where the Packers won that game yesterday. Where Charles Woodson and and Tramon Williams catch those balls. Where Brandon Chillar doesn't pop Hines Ward 7 yards off the line of scrimmage. Where both challenges go the Packers way. Where Cullen Jenkins holds on to Big Ben. Where the refs realize that that Steeler receiver who got popped in the back of his head fumbled the ball and that it was not an incomplete pass. Where Mason Crosby isn't a head case.

Anyway, the Packers are still in pretty good shape, even after a tough loss. The can probably take care of business by beating a Seattle Seahawk team that looks like it has given up. They still could get some help from the Redskins tonight. If you're going to lose, losing to a team that's not in your division on he road is probably the way to go.

That said, there were some worrying trends in this game. Mainly:

1. The way to beat the new "psycho" defensive lineup is apparently to run a circle route out of the backfield. Mewelde Moore and Rashard Mendenhall both torched the 1 DL lineup with this strategy.

2. If you max protect (or just have a giant doofus QB won't go down) you can create a one-on-one matchup with either Jarrett Bush or that Bell kid, and that ain't good.

3. Dom Capers defense appears much more adept at stopping the run than the pass, and we may really miss Al Harris going forward.

4. The reason Aaron Rodgers is targeting Jermichael Finley so much is because he doesn't drop passes. Hear that, every other receiver on the team?

5. This really is a game of inches. That Steeler FG nicked the inside of the upright. An Aaron Rodgers pass deep down the middle to Donald Lee nicked a LBs helmet just enough to make it a tough catch. The Jeremy Kapinos punt that actually nicked the top of the pylon, resulting in a touchback. There were a ton of close calls in this game.

At least it will be exciting, right?

Screw You, Eric Mangini

Dear Eric Mangini,

I, and many other fantasy football players had Jerome Harrison pegged as a sleeper this year. Our reasoning was as follows:

1. He's actually pretty good.

2. He's obviously better than Jamal Lewis and only a moron wouldn't see that.

3. He appears to be better than random RBs off the street.

Why you did not play him over Jamal Lewis will remain a mystery forever. When Jamal Lewis got hurt, you still didn't play him. What did he do to you? Did he sleep with your daughter or something? Or are you just an idiot.

Anyway, had you played Mr. Harrison a bit more, you may have won a few more games. You definitely would have allowed those of us who drafted Mr. Harrison to start him over one of their more mediocre RBs these past two weeks, which would have put us in the fantasy league Super Bowl. But since you're such a freaky weirdo about the guy, no one really had the confidence to stick him out there because you could have benched him at any moment. So screw you.

Get bent,

Paul