Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Technology Style
Sunday
January 11, 2004
Well, here I am, finally recovered from a not-so-fun bout of bronchitis. This proved to be a good weekend to lay low -- with some new purchases made (including a new desk and, get this, a bagless vacuum cleaner), this was a most opportune time to do a little housecleaning.
|  | | This is my brand new vacuum cleaner. |
While I stayed in, Scott Massey came by a couple of times. He beat me 3 out of 4 in NBA Live (though I had a chance to pull it all square in our finale last night -- long pass downcourt, 2.4 seconds to go, down one with Indiana at home versus Toronto, and I made the most tragic error of calling timeout with my big Slovenian, the 7'1" Primoz Brezec. Problem: I was out of timeouts! Shades of Chris Webber in the Final Four. Guess I was wearing the Bad Idea jeans on that one.
The feedback I had on my 2004 NFL Playoff predictions was overwhelmingly positive. But with my Super Bowl matchup teams both losing yesterday (Titans and Rams), I had this waiting in my Hotmail Inbox this morning:
From: Tom Henderson
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:20 AM
To: Lou Pickney
Subject: Any other Super Bowl picks?
Second thoughts on who will go to the Super Bowl now??
Great, now I'm getting heckled by strangers. I can only wonder what someone like ESPN Page 2's Bill Simmons goes through on that end.
That Titans loss last night was pretty tough to take. What went unnoticed by me (until looking at the breakdown later) was that the Patriots' two halfbacks, Antowain Smith (also known as "Antowain Stiff" by
Capital Punishers fans) and Kevin Faulk, both averaged 4.3+ yards per carry in the game. And while the Pats rushed for less than 100 yards as a team, it was enough of a balance to allow the passing attack to do just enough to get the win. Dammit. Now I'm pulling for a Colts/Packers Super Bowl matchup (though I can imagine the heat I'd get with Bubba over that for wearing my Peyton Manning jersey in the days leading up to such a matchup), but that would require both teams to get road wins in consecutive weeks. That's a tall order, for sure.
While the Titans' loss was depressing, there was some major unintentional comedy in seeing icicles forming on the moustache portion of Jeff Fisher's bizarro beard. Yet another reason to enjoy watching the game from the comfort of my Florida apartment (as opposed to the insanely bitter cold of the single degree weather in Foxboro last night).
As for the Rams/Patriots game, it was mentioned that there had been five double overtime games prior to that one, but they didn't go into details. I believe the Jets and Browns also did in 1986, and I know that the last ever home playoff game for the Baltimore Colts was a double OT loss (the infamous "ghost of the post" game vs. the Oakland Raiders on Christmas Eve in 1977). But beyond that, trying to find information on the other online has been next to impossible. I saw something about an AFL game in the early 60s that went to 2OT, but I'm not sure if that was one of the five in the list.
Two things you might've noticed about Fox's graphics from the game: the network dropped the whole thing of using the team logo next to the score (opting instead for the tradition abbreviation). Scott Massey didn't notice the change until I pointed it out to him (but then again, I often am one of the only few people who notice little changes on things like that). Also, because I guess Fox didn't expect a double OT game, they squeezed the words "Double OT" into their upper line in a way where to read it clearly, you'd need a widescreen TV. I suppose putting "2OT" didn't occur as an option to the chyron operator...
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