Brian's Journal

Gotta love #3

by Brian

Gotta love Matt Stover! The man is money. 46 yarder to win the game with no time left on the clock. It doesn't get much better than that finish yesterday. Granted it would have been nice to have avoided the whole comeback by the opposition thing again, but a win is a win. Seventeen NFL hometowns would love to have a 2 win one loss team heading into week four. It is possible that the Ravens will be 6-1 heading into their bye week.

A lot of the talk I have heard regarding the Cardinals comeback yesterday focused on the Ravens defense. Samari Rolle was inactive and another CB, David Pittman was not healthy. We're also missing one of our, and one of the leagues premiere pass rushers, Trevor Pryce.  For the most part they dominated the first three quarters of football hurrying Matt Leinart and except for one big run, completely shutting down the Cardinals running game.

I would have liked to have seen the Ravens be able to get a few more first downs and eat a little more clock at the end of the game. Musa Smith appeared to have totally blown his blocking assignment on a crucial third down play in the fourth quarter that led to Boller getting creamed from his blind side. Got to hand it to the Cardinals for going into the no huddle offense. With the defense unable to substitute and the injuries to our secondary, not to mention Boldin is one of the best NFL receivers, the Cards were able to move the ball at will.

It appears that the running is coming along nicely and our defense is still one of the best in the game. If we can just exchange some of these field goals for TD's, we'll be OK. Special teams, which get better as the season goes on, look like they may decide a few games for us this year. Trust the coach,keep the faith.

Just a quick note about my fantasy football teams this year. As I predicted, Tom Brady is one of if not the best fantasy QB this year and has me at 2-1 in that league. My four stud receivers are keeping me in the action in one of my other leagues. I'm up by sixteen points going into the Monday night game and I have Lendale White vs. Marques Colston for my opponent. I'll go to 2-1 in that league also. WNST has a free auction league where you can win gift certificates and prizes. There are currently 804 contestants and yours truly is in an astonishing 5th place, only 22 points out of the top spot.

Sandy is in Recovery

by Brian
Sandy has had her surgery and is recovering nicely. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. All of the cards, e-mail and food and flowers have made her feel really great. Pictured at right is a photo of Sandy prior to surgery. The baby is my friend Steve's child. He stole the show. Once word got around that a baby was in the pre-op room all of the nurses wanted to hold him. Baby energy is awesome!            

Diver Down

by Brian

With Sandy's surgery set for this Wed, we decided on a quick jaunt to New England. One of our stops was in Portland Maine where we met the interesting fellow you see pictured with us on the left. He is the doorman at this really nice restaurant that is actually a boat floating in the harbor. DaMillo's is this huge boat. It can seat 600 people for dinner. The food was outstanding. I had a Lobster stew that was incredible. Sandy ordered the Lobster Bake which was a small meal consisting of lobster, steamers(steamed clams), chowdah(chowder),salad, dessert and coffee. I had a fried seafood medley of scallops, shrimp and clams. We eat well while on vacation.

The city of Portland is a neat little city. We tooled around the harbor area. There are many neat little shops and a lot of night life. Quite a few coffee shops as well. The architecture is a mixture of the old and the new, providing a unique cityscape.

On the way up we, we drove along route 1 and stopped along some quaint little Maine shore towns. They are really neat. There is just something about the New England shore towns that are really quaint. If you get a chance you may want to take a vacation up there sometime.

If you are in the Portland area, be sure to ask for our diver friend. He will be happy to accommodate you for a touristy photo-op.