MONDAY AFTERNOON GAMEDAY ... ON WEDNESDAY

I know I’ve been horrible at updating this blog recently, but that should change starting today, as I’ll be back to updating close to every day. And, at least for one week, Monday Afternoon GameDay will arrive next week on Monday – that’s right, Monday. I never thought Jet games would hurt the blog so much, but admittedly, it has. That doesn’t mean I’ll skip out on them, but I’ll make a better effort to sit in front of a computer and get GameDay and other updates to you as soon as possible.

Needless to say, I was at the Jets-Patriots game Sunday at the Meadowlands and got some major sunburn. It was hot, boiling hot, and my face paid the price. Starting tailgating before noon, and that may have been a little too early, at least for my skin’s sake, but it was all good leading up to Brett Favre’s (AP photo, top) home debut. This was about as excited as I’ve been for a home game in a long, long time. But before the kickoff, the Jets pretty much did everything they could to ruin that excitement.

First, the speakers in the stadium were barely audible. We couldn’t hear any announcements, interviews, or even when to stand for the national anthem. We just guessed that we were supposed to stand when the lead singer from Lifehouse started to sing the anthem. We did hear him sing, but that was from an on-field mic. When the stadium did the team introductions, they did the right thing, having each individual starting offensive player introduced – meaning the place would explode when Favre made his entrance. But the Meadowlands screwed that up as well, as no one introduced the players (or, if they did, nobody heard them). They only showed a shot on the big-screen of the player. That is when we knew someone was coming out. The place did explode when Favre ran out onto the field, but it could have been so much better.

As for the game, Jay Feely (AP photo, right) really changed the complexion of the game when he missed a chip-shot field goal to open the game. The Jets took the ball downfield, but came away with nothing when the recently signed bum, I mean kicker, missed. And we all know about the three runs into the line when the Jets had a first and goal from the 3. One pass would have been nice, but the Jets blew a huge opportunity there.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that I and most Jet fans dislike Bill Belicheat, but the hatred in the stadium for him was palpable. I don’t know if it came across on television, but twice the chants of “a-hole” were unbelievably loud – one came when the Patriots switched from offense to punt formation on a fourth-down play in the first half, and the second was when a Patriot players was “hurt” when the Jets were trying to go hurry-up later in the game from inside the five yard line. Obviously, the fans (yes, me too) were livid with what was an apparent fake injury that slowed the offensive push. The Jets scored their only touchdown of the game anyway, but the player was booed and then the chant started again at Belicheat.

The crowd exploded when they did score, but the defense couldn’t make the stop on the ensuing drive, and the Patriots kicked a field goal to put the game away. The Jets did have a shot late, but couldn’t get it done. So, the talk about the Jets ascending to the top of the AFC East will stop cold, which is probably a good thing for the Jets. Now they can go to San Diego on Monday night and steal a game they have little shot at winning.

I know there has been a lot of talk today about how bad the fans are at Jet games, and I have to say that, at least where I was, everyone behaved on Sunday. There were a couple of Patriot fans that were loud and talking crap, and Jet fans responded (yes, me too), but there were no fights or anything like that. I have been to games where fights break out and opposing team’s fans are pelted with stuff … but the latter is only for the people that make an ass out of themselves and challenge the home team (no, I don’t throw stuff, or fight). Root for your team, but don’t bring attention to yourself, otherwise you’re just asking for something bad to happen.

Alright, let’s hit some quick topics that have been in the news for the past few days. We’ll call it …
1st and 5 … because the Jets defense just got called for another penalty against the Patriots.

* It was great seeing the Mets lose last night to the Washington Nationals, bringing back memories of last season’s collapse. If the team blamed Willie Randolph for that collapse, who will get blamed this year? The Mets have no big-time, clutch players. If they did, they wouldn’t have lost 1-0 to one of the worst teams in baseball. If only the Brewers were playing well, the Mets might have been cooked already. But the Mets are lucky Milwaukee is going in the tank. We’ll see if the Mets show up tonight.

* Guess who the starting quarterback is in Minnesota? It’s Gus Frerotte, who will replace Tarvaris Jackson in the starting lineup. It’s funny, because two weeks ago on Mike Francesa’s NFL Now show on WFAN, Phil Simms was saying that Jackson was going to be a star. I thought Simms was crazy, but maybe he was on to something, he is CBS’s lead analyst, after all. But I guess I was right. By the way, does anyone believe that Frerotte is still in the NFL? Wow.

* I think the Jets just got called for another penalty.

* This could be the only year in recent memory where the National League playoffs will be more intriguing than the American League playoffs. With the Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Phillies on tap, there is a lot of interesting potential matchups. You’ve got the Cubs quest for a pennant, the Joe Torre-Manny Ramirez connection in Los Angeles, and the Mets and Phillies are always interesting stories. In the American League, we have the Angels, Red Sox, Rays and White Sox. Yawn. I don’t care if you’re a Red Sox fan, you can’t say any of those matchups will be a good watch. Not having the Yankees in the postseason hurts baseball, and you’ll see it this October. The Yankees don’t deserve to be there, but it would be more exciting with them there.

* My fantasy football teams went 3-for-3 this week and racked up a ton of points along the way. My big-money league got back on track with a big victory, surviving a late push by Marion Barber on Monday night. Anquan Boldin’s huge day – and I’ve got him on all three teams – was the reason. In my other two leagues, I scored the most points overall in each. In my NFL picks against the spread this week, I went 5-8-2. Not good. Last week I was 9-7, moving me to 14-15-2 for the season. I’ll try to get those picks posted here on the blog, as right now, they are in the Sunday Herald Press.