Who Called Doc Brown?

It seems like the world of sports has jumped into the Delorian and turned the clock back to about 2000 or 2001. Randy Moss has 7 TD catches through 4 games, Daunte Culpepper scored 5 TD's by himself on Sunday, and Brett Favre looks like he's 27 not 37. If not for the fact that the Mariners were in the playoffs in both '00 and '01, I would be convinced we had time warped. But alas we are home for another October to watch what seems like every ex-Mariner play on other playoff teams.

Here's a quick list of ex-M's in this year's Playoffs: Mike Timlin, Jason Varitek, David Ortiz, Ron Villone, Alex Rodriguez, Asdrubal Cabrera, Brian Fuentes, Yorvit Torrealba, Lou Piniella, Bob Melvin, Freddy Garcia, Jamey Moyer, Jose Mesa, Greg Dobbs, Randy Johnson and Jeff Cirillo.

While I admit that I am glad that most of these guys are no longer with us, this is still a long list of guys that will be busy this fall, while our team is fishing and golfing and watching football.

But let's move on from the M's to a more happy topic, the Hawks. They look good. Maybe I'm not as crazy as I looked in late August when I predicted that they would win the Super Bowl.

One more thing on the M's. I was really really wrong about that prediction....jeez, playoffs? Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs. I won't take any crap about jinxing them though, they suck, I had nothing to do with that.

Back to the Hawks. They are one botched hand off away from being 4-0 and they looked really sharp on Sunday. Not that holding the 49er's offense to 3 points is all that impressive, especially when they had to play Trent Dilfer for most of the game, we will still give credit where credit is due. Julian Peterson is on his game, Rocky Bernard is back to his 2005 form and now that Trufant is back on the left side he is playing like he did in his rookie season. Let's look at strengths, weaknesses, and things people need to know and should shut up about.

Strengths:

-Matt Hasselbeck. His passer rating is over 100, he is completing 67% of his throws, and he is as healthy as he was 2005. All of these things lead to wins.

-Dieon Branch. For everyone who said that trading a first round draft pick for him was a bad idea, how does that crow taste? He is perfect for our offense. We throw slants and outs. We are a dip and dunk offense, and he is the perfect short pass, slot receiver. He's gonna catch 85 passes, and 10 TD's. And above all, he seems to be high less than 75% of the time, which gives him a huge edge over Darrell Jackson.

-The Defense. Lofa Tatupu, Julian Peterson and Leroy Hill are quite possibly the best linebacking core in the NFC. We actually have safety's (Russel and Grant) who know how to tackle and catch and they have yet to let any receiver get behind them all year. The only weakness is the Jennings/Wilson corner platoon. They are undersized, but they are both very fast and very athletic, and if our only defensive weakness is one corner, I am happy.

Weaknesses:

-Shaun Alexander, and his inability to run. Although our O Line isn't what it was in 2005, it is vastly better than it was in 2006, if not only because Walter Jones is actually healthy. That said, Shaun Alexander sucks. He hits the hole about as hard as an 8 year old girl hits a soft ball. He dances and tip toes and waits for the play to develop, then he takes three steps and falls before the contact.

-Shaun Alexander, and his inability to catch. He has a broken hand, so his already terrible receiving skills are now even worse. With two healthy hands he couldn't catch a cold in Alaska, now he's a paraplegic in the middle of a lake. He's dead, and he will be our downfall.

-Shaun Alexander, and his inability to block. Why not just put in a wet paper bag on passing plays, at least that way maybe the defense will slip on it or something. My advise to Shaun is to move to Spain, become a matador because that is how he blocks, buy a villa in the hills and make olive oil. Olay!!

Things people need to shut up about:

-Our Scoring. We don't have a big play offense, so accordingly we are not going to score 40 points a game. We play a very conservative version of the west coast that thrives on time of possession, running, and accurate passing. That said, when we win we will have the ball for two thirds of the game, and we will only score 20-30 points. But...we will win most of the time if we execute the offense correctly. So far so good, so shut up.

-Josh Brown. Franchising a kicker is, in most cases, unacceptable. But when your kicker won four games in the previous season on last second kicks, franchising him is a totally defensible action. Josh Brown is good. He is consistent. And above all he is clutch. There is no substitute for a franchise with a cold blooded kicker. Thus we franchised our cold blooded kicker.