Ol' Reliable

Wow what a finish to the Minnesota Vikings game. They faced the San Francisco 49ers in Minnesota. The Vikings were down by four with less than ten seconds to go. They were at the San Francisco 4o and they had time for one more play. So what does Brett Favre do? He rolls to the right and throws the ball on a rope to Viking wide reciever Greg Lewis in the back of the endzone for the game-winning touchdown. The Vikings won 27-24.

How did it happen? How could Brett Favre do it again? The only answer I have for you is because he is Brett Favre. He just somehow finds a way to comeback and win games in the forth quarter and overtime. With all the criticism of Favre this offseason, I'm glad to see the move pay off for the Minnesota Vikings. That last second play is part of the reason you bring in Brett Favre. He just finds ways to win games for you.

All I can say about the man is "WOW!"

Favre never fails to amaze me.

This win improved the Vikings record to 3-0 with a big matchup against the division rival Green Bay Packers next Monday. This will be a big game for Favre as well as the Vikings. Favre is going to face his former team who he played with for 17 years. Emotions will be high on both sides. I think Favre will play very well and the Vikings will improve to 4-0. I just have a feeling.

Having Brett Favre on my team, the Minnesota Vikings, just gives me the feeling that this will be a special year for the Vikes. Why do I feel this way? Because of the sort of plays Favre makes like Sundays last second touchdown pass by Mr. Consistent at the end of the game. He can always be counted on for a few special plays like this throughout the season. How great it is to have Ol' Reliable Brett Favre on my favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings.

Hawks Best in the Big Ten?

Well, Saturday was a great day to be a Hawk fan. They upset the fifth ranked Penn State Nittany Lions 21-10. And to make it even better, the game was at Penn State! How great the game was. A defensive struggle for the entire game. And what turned the tide in the game? A blocked punt by Iowa defensive end Adrien Claiborne returned for a touchdown. This made the score 11-10 and the Hawkeyes never looked back. This win propelled the Hawkeyes into a rank of thirteenth in the nation.

So does this win make the Hawkeyes the best team in the Big Ten? I believe so. Even though this was the first game of the Big Ten season, the Hawkeyes looked very good and showed that they could not only play with the best in the Big Ten, but could actually beat them.


The Hawkeyes have an extremely difficult schedule this year. They were at Penn State, and will be at Michigan State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State. They should win all of their home games the rest of the year. The biggest challenge at Kinnick Stadium, the Hawkeyes home field, will be the twenty third ranked Michigan Wolverines. In my opinion, they are extremely overrated having inched out a victory against Indiana, not the strongest team in the Big Ten, and should have lost to an overrated Notre Dame team. They will beat the stumbling Michigan State Spartans and the Wisconsin Badgers, but will have a big challenge against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Ohio State. If they can be unscathed heading into this pivotal game, I feel they could beat the Buckeyes. This victory would most certainly cap a undefeated season and a Big Ten title, with a trip to a BCS bowl or even the national championship.


Now don't get me wrong, the Hawks have a long way to go, but I feel this will be a special year for the Hawkeyes. They proved they are a great team, now they just need to show it week in and week out. They have a stout defense. They just need to have a more consistent offense. If they can remain a consistently solid team every week, I have no doubt in my mind that they will be the best in the Big Ten this season, and could possibly even make the national championship game in Pasadena, California this January.

Concert Life on the Floor

So this weekend I'm going to a Dave Matthews Band concert. I have a general admission ticket. In case you don't know, general admission tickets are tickets that get you on the floor of the stadium, but you don't have an assigned seat. This means that you have to get there early to get a good seat.

This made me wonder. Why would you get general admission tickets in the first place? The only reason I can think of is if you are going to get there early and you want to get close to the band. But for me, I'm not getting there early, so I will probably be towards the back, and what will feel like a mile away from the stage.

Now, don't get me wrong, general admission seats can be awesome. You can see your favorite band up close, and you can sometimes get stuff like a guitar pick or something. I just don't think being shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of strangers is my kind of concert, although I can live with it if I'm in the front. So, how will I avoid this? I guess since I'm not going really early, I will be towards the middle and can somewhat avoid the chaos that is the front-middle section on the floor. When it comes to a spot on the floor I want to be either in the way front or towards the middle-back.

One good thing about being on the floor is that you get a better concert atmosphere. On the floor everyone is rocking out. Girls are on guys' shoulders and some have had a little too much to drink and are dancing like there's no tomorrow. You can't experience these kinds of things from reserved seats up off the floor.

So which one should you choose, a reserved seat or a floor seat? Well, I think that if you are going to a concert purely to just listen to the music, then reserved seats are for you. But if you want to get a great concert experience while listening to the music as well, floor seats are your calling.

So, I guess I am kind of looking forward to my time on the floor. I may not be the most comfortable person in the world for those few hours, but I'm sure I'll have a great time anyways.

"Above: Dave Matthews Band's Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King album cover. Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com

Typo

Sorry week two is wrapping up not week three.

The Fantasy Football Experience

Well as Week Three of the NFL is wrapping up, I feel I should talk about a football experience that doesn't directly involve watching the game. You may be asking yourself how something could be a football experience yet you don't have to watch the game. Well, what is this experience? It is fantasy football.

Before the season starts a fantasy football fanatic like me gets my draft picks ready for the upcoming fantasy draft. Then when draft day comes, I try to pick a team that will get me a lot of points so I can win my fantasy league. You may be asking yourself, why would you want to create a "fantasy" team and see how many points they get? I would respond with the simple fact that it is very fun to participate in. Sure it may sound kind of boring to the non-fantasy fanatic, but to a fantasy fan like me it is something to look forward to all week.

You keep track of injuries, hot players, and cold players all in the hopes of putting together a team with the highest point total that week. You may be thinking, how do these points work? Well each player on your team gets points and then you add them together to get your team total. The goal is to have a higher team total than your opponents team total. If you do you get a win and if you don't you get a loss. It's almost like you are participating in an NFL season online with your friends.

I am pretty proud of my picks this year for my fantasy team. I'm undefeated right now and am on my way to 2-0.

You may be thinking, "Wow this guy's a nerd."

Well I can respond by saying you can't judge until you actually try it. I know I find it very addicting and I am constantly checking my team's point total throughout the day on Sunday to see if I'm winning or losing and by how much.

Even though this is my first year doing fantasy football, I'm already addicted to it. It is very fun and very interesting in many different ways, and just two weeks into this fantasy season, I already love fantasy football and the fantasy football experience.

Happy Hawks

Well it was a very happy weekend for Iowa Hawkeye football fans. The Hawks are now 3-0 after their win yesterday over the Arizona Wildcats. They have looked very impressive so far in their wins over state rivals Northern Iowa and Iowa State, as well as their win yesterday. Sure Iowa's quarterback Ricky Stanzi hasn't been very sharp. Sure Jewel Hampton, Iowa's starting running back is out for the year because of an injury. All this doesn't matter as long as the Hawks keep winning as they have so far.

Sure Jewel Hampton will be missed this season, but two freshman running backs, Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher, are filling in just fine so far this 2009 season. This was a big concern for the Iowa Hawkeyes coming into this season. Last year's running back Shonn Greene, was one of the best in the nation and was picked in the 3rd round of the NFL draft by the New York Jets. They also have talented junior wideout Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and freshman wideout Kennan Davis, a Cedar Rapids Washington alum.

What is even more exciting for Iowa football fans like myself is that Stanzi will eventually do better and the Hawks will be that much better when he does. Their defense is also very sharp giving up less than 300 total yard of offense to the Arizona Wildcats yesterday. Some studs on the defensive end are safety Tyler Sash, four interceptions in three games, linebacker Pat Angerer, has a million tackles already this season (give or take a few), and a beastly defensive line.

It is also a good time to be playing well, because next week Big Ten conference (Iowa's conference) football begins. And who do they take on to open Big Ten play? The Penn State Nittany Lions a very tough football team and one of the best in the Big Ten. We will have to play our A game next week, and if we do I think we could pull the upset and beat Penn State. This could be a jumpstart to the Hawkeyes season and could propel them into a January bowl or possibly a BCS bowl. I think the keys to winning next week would be to not turn the ball over, and to keep the Penn State offense at bay. If we do these two things I feel we could win next week. The game will no doubt be a great, but I hope the Hawks can pull out a win. GO HAWKS!!!

Blue October in Chicago?

As you may know, the MLB regular season is soon going to be over. My favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, are 9 1/2 games back from the St. Louis Cardinals in their division, and they are 6 1/2 games back from the wildcard leading Colorado Rockies.

In case you don't know, there are two leagues in the MLB, the American League and the National League. There are 3 divisions in each league. The West, Central, and East divisions. Each division winner gets a playoff spot, and the two remaining playoff spots go to the team with the highest record for the second place team in a division for both leagues. The Chicago Cubs are in the National League Central.

Do I think the Cubs will make the playoffs this year? Probably not. There are only around 15 games, give or take a few, left in this year's regular season. For many Cubs fans, this year has been a big disappointment. With the third best record in baseball last season, and with the same team plus a few additions, the Cubs figured to be a lock in the NL Central this season. But what do they do so far this year? They are only 7 games above .500. They have been playing good recently, but I think this came a little too late. As I am a Cubs fan, I am hoping that they can prove me wrong, but I don't think the Cubs will be playing baseball come mid-October (when the playoffs are). It didn't help that the Cardinals picked up Matt Holiday, who has been red hot since wearing Cardinal red, midway through the year. Or the fact that they have the MLB home run leader, Albert Pujols.

Should they have been better this year? You bet they should of. But this is why the Cubs have not brought a World Series Championship to the north side of Chicago since 1908. They have talent, but talent does not alone bring a World Series Championship to Chicago. How I wish it did, though. The Cubs are very talented this year, but have failed to consistely win. Although the baseball season is pretty much over for the north-siders, they should keep cool because next year is a whole new ballgame.

The Piano Man

Today, while I wasn't watching football, I spent my Sunday running my fingers up and down keys. No not car keys, piano keys. What a wonderful thing to do. Sit down, relax, and let loose your favorite songs on a big grand piano.

I enjoy playing the piano. I feel that it's very cool to be able to play recent tunes that you know or tunes that are challenging, piano classics on the piano and just listen to the music you are making. Which genre do I enjoy playing more? I guess it depends, but in general it would have to be recent tunes, singing usually omitted. I just thinks it is very cool to be able to play songs on the piano that you have heard on the radio earlier in the day. Some artists that I enjoy playing include: John Legend, Jack Johnson, and Diana Krall. They are mostly relaxing songs that are very enjoyable to play. I like to just pick out a song from one of these books and just lose myself in the song.

When I get a song down pretty well, I sometimes enjoy singing to them, since they are songs I know fairly well. I also think it's pretty cool to put the whole song together and hear how I sound.

My parents always said piano lessons would make me a well-rounded kid. At first, as a little kid, and didn't know how I felt about piano, but now I am glad that I stayed with it.

A time when piano payed off was, when in middle school, my friend and I were asked to each play a song for our vocal concert, while our peers sang. Since we did this, we did not have to sing in the concert which was very cool. I never can forget how cool I thought it was that I was accompanying my whole middle school choir and they all got to hear the cool tune that I played on the piano.

Now after years of practice, I now can proudly call myself the piano man.

NFL Week 1 Recap (excluding Monday's games)

Well, it's Sunday night. Earlier today the Vikings had their first regular season game of the 2009-2010 season this afternoon, and all I have to say is this, the Vikes rule!

Todays matchup, as I previously explained, was against the Cleveland Browns. The game started out with not very much scoring, and at halftime the score was Cleveland Browns, 13, Minnesota Vikings, 10. This was a very disappointing start to the season, in my opinion, for the Vikings. However, I was not worried, because I know what the Vikings are capable of this year. The Vikings started the second half strong with a touchdown, and the rest is history. The Vikings, led by Adrian Peterson's three rushing touchdowns, ended up winning the game 34-20.

Brett Favre looked good in his Vikings debut with a passing touchdown and no interceptions, and Percy Harvin, the Vikings first round draft pick in this year's draft, had three catches and his first NFL touchdown. A big storyline in this game was the Browns scoring their first offensive touchdown since Week Nine last season, even though they got this touchdown towards the end of the game, when the Vikings had their reserves on the field.

Elsewhere in the NFL, Philadelphia quarterback, Donovan McNabb broke his rib, and rookie Matthew Stafford had his first NFL start for the Lions today in their loss to the New Orleans Saints. Tonight, the Chicago Bears are facing off against the Green Bay Packers in a divisional showdown. This will be a very interesting game, because it will show what each team is made of, and helps picture what the Vikings have to look forward to this season. So far the game is very surprising. What was thought to be a shootout between Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, has turned out to be low scoring with a lot of defense. What a great game! Who will win? I hope the Bears, but we'll see. This season as a whole is stacking up to be a great one with a lot of teams legitimately competing for eight playoff spots and a chance to make it to the Super Bowl.

Overall, the Vikings looked pretty impressive, and I am very excited for the coming season and to see what the Vikings are really made of.

NFL Opening Night

Tonight's the night! The NFL is back. What a great matchup too! The Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl Champions last year, against the Tennessee Titans, best regular season record in the regular season last year at 13-3. It has been seven long months since the Super Bowl ended in February and the wait is over. Another exciting season of National Football League football is about to begin. Even though neither team is my favorite, (that spot is filled by the Minnesota Vikings), I am still extremely excited to see this opening night matchup matching two teams with intriguing story lines against each other. Can the Steelers repeat as NFL champions? Can the Titans build on their 13-3 record last year and make it to the Super Bowl? I, along with you all, don't know the answers to these questions as I am not physic, and I'm sure none of you are as well. But I sure want to stick around to find out the answers to these intriguing questions.

Then, after the game tonight is complete, NFL weekend will begin. The matchup I'm looking forward to the most is, of course, the Minnesota Vikings (my favorite team) against the Cleveland Browns. The Minnesota Vikings had an interesting offseason, as you all might have heard. Brett Favre is a Viking! Will this put them over the top and into the Super Bowl? I think so. They have a Hall of Fame quarterback, good wide recievers, the best running back in Adrian Peterson, a great kicker, and a beastly defense. Other contenders in the NFC North (the Vikings division) are the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, and the Detroit Lions. I think this is going to be the Vikings year.

The Chicago Bears made a big noise this offseason by bringing in Pro Bowl quarterback, Jay Cutler. This improves the quarterback position on their team by tenfold. And who did they give away? Kyle Orton, an incosistent middle of the road quarterback. Da Bears may have improved their quarterback situation, but they will not be on top of the division come the playoffs. In fact, I feel that they will finish in third, only ahead of the Lions, the laughing stock of the NFL last year with a 0-16 record. I'm not saying the Bears are bad, they're ok, but this isn't their year. The other major contender in the North would be the Packers. They are a very good team this year and will probably win the wild card, but they will not win the division. Aaron Rodgers is getting better and better, and they have a good running back in Ryan Grant, but I don't think they have enough to beat out the Minnesota Vikings in the North.

What a great weekend of football to kick off this 2009 NFL season.

Blogging Intro

So I'm here thinking about what to write in my first blog. My brain isn't completely functional yet, as it is early in the morning. This blogging is all new to me, but sounds very interesting and I figured I should give it a try.