This is GRENAMIER.COM

For the first time, I’m participating in a fantasy football league. It’s hosted by the NFL on NFL.com and I believe our league was started by my softball coach.

I’ve enjoyed football for a long time, but being in a fantasy league really causes you to scrutinize the players as individuals. My buddy at work is right: when you play fantasy, you can’t just enjoy the games anymore.

There are two questions that I’m wrestling with right now. The first is whether Wes Welker is going to play or not this weekend. I got burned last weekend by starting Welker and not hearing that he missed the game until it was too late. At the moment, it’s believed he’ll play, but is a mostly-injured Welker going to be more productive than a somewhat-injured Steve Breaston? Are both better than Torry Holt?

The other question relates Brady vs. Flacco. Who’s going to have a better game – Brady versus the Falcons or Flacco versus the Browns? I still think Brady’s getting over his knee injury and facing a lot of pressure. The Browns are 0-2, but their pass defence hasn’t been as shabby as the record might suggest.

I suspect I’ll have to wait until almost game time to lock in my answers, but I’m open to suggestions.

After the kids go to sleep, after any pressing chores are done, and before I turn in for the night, there’s a moment of calm and silence. Just like right now.

I just like to sit in my chair, catch up on my Twitter and Facebook, and start decompress. Muscles, shoulders, arms, legs just unclench and my body melts into the seat. The house is very, very still now. All I can hear is the hard drive on this Mac softly spinning…

whirrrrr…

Once the runaway train of thought slows and pulls into the station, some of the issues I normally press into the edges start to move into the forefront. Did I take of this? When’s that due? Did the power bill get paid? It’s not on the bills magnet so Wifey must have taken care of it. Did I put away the food? What about the laundry… Being a worrywart is probably in my genetics.

whirrrr….

I like Twitter because it serves well as “background” noise for my sessions on the computer. There’s a rhythm and a variety to the Growl notifications that pop up. Sometimes a tweet catches my attention and draws me in, but normally it’s all there just to make web-browsing a little less sterile. There are occasions, however, when I want to turn off the noise and get back to a still pond. Just like right now.

whirrrr…..

I’m ready for bed.

Just as I got started into writing on the blog, I got hooked on Twitter. Following other people’s feed and tweeting into stream just seems to fill in that silence.

No matter where you go, you need some background noise to give your space some texture. The web is still a very sterile place and browsing it is still an artificial experience. Twitter and Facebook may or may not change the world, but at least it gives you the feeling that there’s some life or movement under the surface.

If you want to follow my Twitter feed, look me up: http://twitter.com/grenamier

I promise you that it’s getting updated much more often than this blog does.

Fighter planes could be much faster and agile than they are now, but their limits exist in flesh rather than steel and composite materials. Human pilots turn into peanut butter if the plane goes too fast, so a jet designer has to take this into account.
Apple announced the new Shuffle today and it’s really, really small. I have to reserve final judgement until I physically hold one in my hand, but I wonder if Apple’s gone too far.
The Shuffle is now too small to hold buttons that human fingers can press, so Apple did away with them on the unit. Now you have a control on the headphone cord and a voice to announce the song titles.
As far as the headphone cord controls go, I can’t imagine you’re happy if you have a favourite pair of headphones that lack the controls. You’re going to have to get used to the Apple buds or hope that some good third-party replacements are available.
The voice worries me. I’m a fast reader so I prefer to read text over listening to a voice message. When you listen to something, you’re stuck waiting until the whole message gets read. I hope that this feature doesn’t become intrusive, especially on long song titles.

All that said, I can’t wait to see these at my local Apple Store.

Haven’t written much since the divisional playoffs, but here it goes:

Steelers will win this one, but not easily at all. Let’s say they get this 17-14, and maybe ten of the Steelers points come off of turnovers.

I think Willie Parker is going to get contained, and the Cardinals defense should get to Big Ben for a couple of interceptions. Larry Fitzgerald should rip off the Steelers for a few big catches, but the overall strength of the defence should limit the damages.

Enjoy the game!

Hooray for the Ravens for their 13-10 victory over the Titans. I expected a more dominating performance by Baltimore’s defence, although they did a great job forcing some very uncharacteristic turnovers from Tennessee. You wonder how things would have turned out if Chris Johnson hadn’t gotten hurt. I’m pretty sure the Ravens would have adjusted eventually, but not before getting into a hole. It might not have come down to that Stover field goal to win the game in the end. Tennessee will have a long offseason to ponder the missed opportunities.

I’m going to miss at least the first half of the Cards/Panthers game because the kids and I are in the middle of our bedtime routine. And come on, you know the Cards are going to lose. Especially with Boldin inactive for the game. Who’s gonna bail you out now, Warner??

Well, I told you not to put any money on my picks. And I’m sorry for all the football posts so early on. This isn’t a football blog, really!

Still, I have to wonder what just happened here. I’m probably not the only one who’s surprised by Arizona’s resounding victory, but all signs were pointing to a big Panthers win. Carolina was healthy and unbeaten at home this season. They also had a balanced offence that could march like the Romans and good defence. Arizona was thought to be a one-dimensional team that couldn’t run and couldn’t play defense. Sure, they beat the Falcons last week, but that win came against a rookie quarterback and featured a run game that even the Cardinals didn’t know they had. If they had known Edgerrin James could still run like that, they wouldn’t have had him riding the pine so much during the season.

So boom – 33-13 and the Cards win. Are they that much better than their reputation, or did Carolina simply shit the bed? After all, every team looked great against Detroit this season. Lots of struggling teams lined up against Detroit and suddenly found themselves on the “right track” again, only to find themselves struggling again the following week.

I’ll give Arizona some credit. The things that everyone said they couldn’t do, such as defense and running the ball, they did well against good teams in the playoffs when it counted. They’re not the crap team I thought they were, and I completely forgot about Larry Fitzgerald. That said, I’m not ready to jump on the Super Bowl bandwagon just yet.

Jake Delhomme and the Panthers blew this one. Even setting aside the 5 turnovers Carolina committed, the team suffered a total failure of coaching and leadership here. Not the kind of failure warrants making a change to the coaching staff, but more of a four-quarter brain cramp. Carolina came into the game seemingly well prepared and in a dominant state of mind as evidenced by the opening drive. Arizona did, however, have a game plan for neutralizing Steve Smith and the Panthers run game. Fair enough.

The coaching failure comes in not being able to recognize how Smith and the run were being neutralized and making the adjustments necessary to unjam the guns. Great coaching in the playoffs depends on making those adjustments. That Steve Smith finished the game with just two catches (one of which was in garbage time) and that the Panthers managed only 75 rushing yards shows that the Panthers never figured out the combination to the handcuffs.

The leadership failure came in how the team dealt with the adversity. They got off to a great start, but fell apart after things turned sour. In times like that, a team looks to its leaders to be assured that there is a steady hand on the wheel and some clue of where the boat is going. Well, tonight the boat was sinking and we saw Delhomme getting increasingly frustrated instead of focused. I might be unfair because I didn’t see the whole game, but it seemed clear to me that once the game started tipping the wrong way, there was no sign that Delhomme was going to be able to elevate his play or his team.

So the Cardinals are probably better than I thought, but I’m not ready to hand them the Vince Lombardi trophy yet. We’ll see how the Eagles and Giants look on Sunday and weigh the Cards’ chances then.

One thing’s for sure. Arizona is dangerous and no one will be taking them too lightly next week.

I’m no football expert, but here are my predictions for the games. You might wonder how I come to these conclusions. Are they the end of result of countless calculations? Intense multi-variate analysis? No, this isn’t FiveThirtyEight. I use MAH GUT! Seriously, don’t put any money on these picks.

Baltimore at Tennessee (Saturday, 4:30 Eastern)

From what I see, Tennessee is favoured by three points right now. Am I reading that right? Pffft – Baltimore is going to take this one.

I’m not really counting on Joe Flacco to have a great game. He’s got good nerves and a great arm and he’s had success this season, but the playoffs are just different enough that I think the rookie’s only going to make a positive contribution for half the game. Either the first half or the second half, but I’m not sure which one. Maybe he has jitters that take two quarters to clear, or maybe he comes out gunslinging and the Titans make a halftime adjustment that staples Flacco to the turf every other play.

But none of that matters. Baltimore’s defense will come out like a beast. The Titans won’t be able to run the ball and Collins won’t be able to save them against the Ravens secondary.  I’m not a believer in McGahee because he’s been tainted by his stint in Buffalo, but he and McClain will get the job done.

Prediction: 17-7 Ravens. Baltimore stuffs the Tennessee running game and Joe Flacco buys every member of the defence a steak dinner.

Arizona at Carolina (Saturday,  8:30 Eastern)

The Cardinals had everyone scratching their heads after last week’s victory over the Falcons. I barely remembered Edgerrin James was still on that team. Was that running game a fluke? That’s the key question. If James and the Cards have another game like that brewing somewhere up their asses, then they’ve got a life. Otherwise, the Panthers will make this ugly.

Running the ball effectively is a prerequisite for playoff success. That can’t be emphasized enough. There are other things like turnovers and special teams that I also believe are keys in the postseason, but this game is all riding on Edgerrin James. No pressure, buddy.

Prediction: 24-10 Panthers. Yeah, it was a fluke. But Warner goes down throwing.

Philadelphia at New York (Sunday, 1:00 ET)

By now you know I love the running game and New York has Earth, Wind, and Fire. But Earth is coming off that bum knee and even with the bye week, knees only heal so much. The Giants really need him in this game. Without him, they’ve been really uneven down stretch. Philadelphia, in contrast, has been resurgent. They needed big help to get into the playoffs, but only because the whole middle portion of their season was a disaster. The Eagles look like a real threat to go all the way, as long as they stay healthy. Westbrook especially, although if he gets bottled up for most of the game like he did last week. McNabb

Eli Manning finally got some respect in last year’s playoffs, but I still don’t think he’s good enough to win this all by himself. He needed Plaxico Burress’s big body to cover up a lot of throws that weren’t quite on the money. The Giants are all about balance and ramming the ball down your throat. They’ll do that if Brandon Jacobs can play four strong quarters.

Prediction: 27-17 Eagles. Mah Gut tells me Philadelphia rides on their momentum and New York finds out they can’t suddenly turn it on when they need to just like that. 

San Diego at Pittsburgh (Sunday, 4:45 ET)

That was an impressive victory over the Colts last week, but the Chargers always have Peyton’s number. Pittsburgh has everyone’s number, at least when they’re on defence. The Steelers will win the overall defensive battle for yardage, although I think San Diego will win the battles on special teams and turnovers. Scifres is the greatest punter I’ve ever seen too, and Roethlisberger is either going to throw picks or fumble as he’s being sacked.

Sproles will try to run his ass off, but I can’t help thinking he’s going to be like a mosquito on the windshield of a speeding Dodge Sprinter. Willie Parker isn’t really that little, but he still doesn’t scream out “Pittsburgh football” to me. I miss Jerome Bettis. Anyhow, Parker should be decent but not good enough to take pressure off of the concussion patient.

To me, though, this one rests on the amount of pressure that Pittsburgh sustains on Philip Rivers. He’s one of the best pocket passers in the league but God have mercy on him whenever he’s in a hurry. If Rivers gets the chance to set his feet and step into all of his throws, he’ll be shooting pennies at hundred paces. If he has to make too many of his throws on the run or across his body before he’s ready, then a lot of balls are going to hit the ground.

Prediction: 24-21 Steelers. It’ll be a close one, but when it counts in the end, the Pittsburgh D will stiffen up and save the game.

Whoot! There it is! See you Sunday.