Archive for October, 2007

A real football team?

Sunday, October 21st, 2007

I am not ordering my Super Bowl tickets just yet, but the Detroit Lions had a pretty impressive performance against Tampa Bay today.

It’s not he level of play that I am talking about. The Lions were outplayed on many levels by the Buccaneers, but they showed tremendous resiliency, an ability to capitalize on mistakes by their opponent and a knack of coming up with big plays at the right times.

Good teams find a way to win when they don’t play particularly well. That hasn’t happened with the Lions much in recent years.

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Playoff teams

Saturday, October 20th, 2007

Monroe, SMCC, Airport, Milan and Dundee have qualified for the state football playoffs. Flat Rock and Whiteford will wait until Sunday night to see if the computer spits out their names.

Here are some quick thoughts on the playoff teams and the hopefuls.

Monroe: What a run this team went on at the end of the season, winning seven in a row including the last four against playoff teams. The quick, aggressive Trojan defense is a joy to watch.

SMCC: This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Falcons after suffering heavy graduation losses. Jack Giarmo and his staff have done a wonderful job with this young team.

Airport: The Jets have developed such a great program that they expect to be in the playoffs every year. This might be the best offense I’ve seen at Airport.

Milan: Ron Spears has put together one of the greatest seasons for a Monroe County Region running back ever and the defense has improved dramatically over last season.

Dundee: It’s great to see the Vikings enjoying success again. Ryan Irwin is one of the real nice guys in Region coaching.

Flat Rock: I’d love to see the Rams slip into the playoffs. They are small in size and numbers, but play with tremendous heart.

Whiteford: Coach Jack Luettke didn’t sound hopeful about his team’s playoff chances Friday night. I hope he’s wrong. It would nice to see the Bobcats’ high-octane offense get to take the field for another game.

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Classy look

Monday, October 15th, 2007

I got a kick out of seeing Bedford soccer coach Kirk Brazeau wearing a suit and tie during Monday’s District game against Ypsilanti Lincoln.

Brazeau says he occasionally gets dressed up like that “for big games.”

It was kind of a throwback to the days when football coaches dressed in suit and tie on the sidelines. I liked it.

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Bold prediction

Monday, October 15th, 2007

I was just looking at the NFL standings this morning and have come up with a bold prediction.

The New England Patriots will win the AFC East.

What a pathetic division. The Patriots are 6-0 and have a five-game lead in the win column, four in the loss column. The rest of the division is made up of Buffalo (1-4), the New York Jets (1-5) and Miami (0-6).

The Patriots were very impressive Sunday in handling previously unbeaten Dallas fairly easily. Tom Brady is master of the game right now.

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Why was Kitna in the game?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

I really like the way Rod Marinelli is trying to reconstruct the attitude of the Detroit Lions. But sometimes his macho stuff goes a little too far.

It made no sense to have Jon Kitna in the game in the final minutes of Sunday’s blowout loss to Washington. Marinelli says he is driving home the point that his team is going to play hard on every down.

That’s fine, but there has to be a point where common sense takes over.

Kitna already takes plenty of hits. Subjecting him to even more when the game is out of reach is not good coaching. If Kitna gets hurt, the Lions can start planning now for another Top 10 draft choice (and, with Matt Millen in charge, it will probably be a wide receiver).

Why couldn’t the Lions play hard on every down in the fourth quarter of the Washington or Philadelphia games with the backup quarterback on the field?

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Nice work, Monroe soccer

Monday, October 1st, 2007

I covered Monroe’s soccer match against Dearborn today. The Trojans lost, but they played well in a 2-0 loss to a state-ranked team.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Monroe’s field and I came away very impressed. It has developed into a very nice facility. Coach Goran Cepo would like to have lights at the field, but everything else is first class.

This program has improved by leaps and bounds since in recent years. The team and the field have grown together.

Posted in Local sports, soccer | 1 Comment »