Dave’s Football Blog

The projector on the wall was tuned to the ABC HD channel, and it looked gorgeous. Unfortunately, the manager had to switch it back to standard def, because there was no audio.

On the other hand, the reuben in here is top-notch, and the rest of the gang here is giving thumbs up for the grouper…

ESPN just reported that Minnesota Vikings QB Daunte Culpepper tore his ACL yesterday and is out for the season.

One of the bartenders is wearing a Tony Siragusa jersey. I have to give him crap later…

I nearly ended up at the Carolina Ale House two Sundays ago, but ended up at the Original Steakhouse & Sports Theatre instead. This is the third sports bar down by the South Square district of Bull City, and I’m hanging out with some friends I haven’t seen in a while and staring directly at a digital projector screen that may or may not be HD, but looks pretty damn good either way.

They’re playing some cheesy tunes over the speakers here: “I Wanna New Drug,” “Finally,” Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations.” My buddy Albert is totally distracted by this. Should be a fun night…

I have a lot of issues I still have to cover regarding this week’s games — the return of Tedy Bruschi in New England, the emergence of Marion Barber III in Dallas, the bunch-up in the NFC South, the collapse of the Buccanneers’ running game, the rodeo cowboy who’s now quarterbacking the 49ers, and the continuing issues I have with Carolina’s running game.

But first things first. It’s another Monday night in Pittsburgh. Billick’s Bastards are coming to town, minus Ray Lewis, minus Ed Reed, and minus any semblance of an offence. Bill Cowher is 13-0 in Monday Night Football games in Pittsburgh. (CORRECTION 11/01: Cowher was 10-0 in MNF home games going into this one.) Regardless of what you may think of the collapsing Baltimore Ravens, Cowher isn’t taking this team lightly, but that may be because of the state of the division. Cincinnati beat Green Bay yesterday, and Pittsburgh, still a game behind the Bengals, need this win to keep pace in the division race.

Time to saddle up and head out for this one…

Deep in Lions territory, Jeff Garcia threw an interception to Charles Tillman, who returned it for the game-winning touchdown. The defense wins it for the Bears just a few plays after Kyle Orton missed a wide open Muhsin Muhammad by a 12 Mile.

It’s just another Sunday in Detroit…

Jamie Mottram will begin deflecting… now.

Nicole’s favorite running back gets 24 carries, 206 yards and 1 touchdown. Giants beat the Redskins, 36-0.

Meanwhile, Chicago and Detroit have just gone to overtime, because nobody wants to be the one-eyed bastard in the land of the blind.

Sorry, Peter. It wasn’t your team’s day.

Jake Delhomme: 21-for-30, 331 yards, 3 TDs.

Steve Smith: 11 catches, 201 yards, 1 TD.

Stephen Davis: 17 carries, 40 yards, 2 TDs.

Total yards for Carolina: 456. Second best in team history.

As one-sided as this game was, the lack of production out of Davis outside of short-yardarge situations still bothers me. DeShaun Foster looked a little better, and Nick Goings only played in garbage time. Davis continues to average less than 3 yards a carry and still lacks the pop at the line he had two years ago.

The Panthers didn’t really need Davis today, though. They had Steve Smith, who was flat-out brilliant against Fred Smoot, who must be feeling like his dog died right about now after all those penalties and mistakes. Don’t let anyone tell you this is an after-effect of the whole sex cruise scandal, either. Smith is just that good. Tight end Michael Gaines proved to be a pretty effective receiver today, too, catching two long ones for 68 total yards.

And with Daunte Culpepper down for an unknown period of time, things in the MPLS just can’t get much worse.

As for Carolina, this was just the tune-up they needed going into next week’s big game against Tampa Bay. They will need to get more out of their running game next week, though. Tampa’s corners will perform a lot better than Smoot did today. They certainly can’t do any worse.

If you have Steve Smith on your fantasy team, you’re probably buying drinks for your buddies right now.

Smith now has 11 catches for 201 yards and a TD. Meanwhile, Smoot committed a couple of penalties on the Panthers last TD drive that kept it alive for ‘em. The only way things could get worse for Smoot is if he ended up joining Daunte Culpepper in the trainer’s room — adding injury to insult, if you will.

With about 7 minutes left, Carolina’s up 38-7.

The only thing more one-sided right now is the Giants-Redskins game. New York is pitching a shutout, leading 36-0 at the end of the third. Joe Gibbs has gotten desperate enough to put Patrick Ramsey in the game to run the 2-minute offense.

Why does anyone come to Hooters on a Sunday afternoon?

The atmosphere…

Fox just put up some stats on Vikings’ nose tackle Pat Williams. His favorite movie? Scooby Doo.

Big Pat is big enough, however, that I feel no urge to speculate on his possible attraction to Freddie Prinze Jr. wearing an ascot. Perhaps it’s just time for someone to release some better movies in UMD format for Pat’s PSP. Or he needs to learn a few hacks for it…