{"id":667,"date":"2008-10-06T17:57:19","date_gmt":"2008-10-06T22:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=667"},"modified":"2008-10-06T17:57:19","modified_gmt":"2008-10-06T22:57:19","slug":"monday-afternoon-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/monday-afternoon-notes-667\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Afternoon Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few things occupying my thoughts:<\/p>\n<p>Monday Night Football is just a couple of hours away. I am torn in the game. The big thing that stops me from backing New Orleans enthusiastically is the loss of Sedrick Ellis. I have no idea what the impact of his absence will be, but I am very curious to find out. He&#8217;s really coming into his own, and he would have made it much harder for Minnesota to run. Since they can&#8217;t really pass, that would have been important. This isn&#8217;t going to be a classic game, but it is certainly an interesting one to consider. Talented but terribly flawed teams.<\/p>\n<p>As I write this the Rays are running away from Chicago and look to be heading to the second round. I really can&#8217;t wait for their series against Boston. The home field will be huge for them, and I like their chances of going on. I wonder what kind of odds you could have gotten before the season started on a Rays-Dodgers series. Strange, but true.<\/p>\n<p>I just read that Brian Westbrook has two broken ribs to go with his bum ankle. That&#8217;s a big blow for the Eagles. In my mind that puts them in the drivers seat to become the one NFC East team that doesn&#8217;t make the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>I laugh at Plaxico Burress. I&#8217;ve always thought he was a big baby, and that last game, with him out on suspension, sure didn&#8217;t do much to reinforce the myth of his irreplacability.<\/p>\n<p>Rich Rodriguez ripped his Michigan offense for their inept play over the last three quarters, and the lack of desire they showed. Good job, Rich. That was embarrassing.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Sanchez doesn&#8217;t have any structural damage in his knee. That&#8217;s good news. He&#8217;s sitting out of practice today and maybe longer, though, and he&#8217;s day-to-day for Saturday. I will be very interested to watch the line movement as things get closer to kickoff if his position is still unclear. As it is, a 25.5 point line against Arizona State seems pretty hefty. Think of how it would look with Mitch Mustain under center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few things occupying my thoughts: Monday Night Football is just a couple of hours away. I am torn in the game. The big thing that stops me from backing New Orleans enthusiastically is the loss of Sedrick Ellis. I have no idea what the impact of his absence will be, but I am very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,132],"tags":[486,484,488,482,427,198,485,483,150,487],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-football","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-mark-sanchez","tag-michael-westbrook","tag-mitch-mustain","tag-mnf","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-plaxico-burress","tag-rich-rodriguez","tag-sedrick-ellis","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-usc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}