Dan Dakich Show Day Three

Saturday

10am SportsCenter


Rachael Nichols reports that Dwight Freeney is questionable for the Super Bowl with the ankle injury he sustained in the Jets game. There are questions regarding how this will effect his playing ability in the game because his speed will be off. Even if Freeney is a step slower, the Saints will still have to respect his abilities. If he's proving the injury is effecting his game then I'm sure we'll see subsequent double teams on Mathis and the Saints will more than likely open up more passing possibilities with a little extra pocket time for Brees, and that could be bad but I believe that Larry Coyer will plan and make the necessary adjustments like he has all year.

Bob Holtzman was reporting from the Pro Bowl and was getting opinions from various players. The overall consensus was getting to Brees and putting some pressure on him, which usually is the name of the game when the other team has a great quarterback. Interestingly enough when Tampa beat the Saints at the end of the year, they weren't able to get to Brees but they didn't allow big plays. That's usually a strong point for the Colts, but after seeing the two big plays that they gave up against the Jets that worries me a bit. On a positive note though, the Jets tried for big plays after that and were unsuccessful. Again, I'm going to trust in Larry Coyer to install a solid game plan to limit plays to 20 yards or less. There will be a few, but I fully expect Peyton and Co. to have a few as well.

There were a few good stats from this segment regarding the Saints...

-In 15 wins they averaged 36 ppg and won the turnover battle by going +22.
-In 3 losses they averaged 15 ppg and lost the turnover battle by going -5.

Other notes...

-After watching Serena Williams holding the Australian Open Trophy, I realized she has bigger arms than me. I think its about time to start hitting the gym hard...

-A big thank you to Kurt Warner for showing us all what someone can do if given the opportunity to succeed. In a world where we see so many people throw away their abilities, or never live up to them (Ryan Leaf) its heartwarming to see someone work through and overcome adversity. It would have been easy for him to throw in the towel but he kept fighting and showed everyone what they should do if given the chance. Thank you again Kurt and I hope the HOF voters get it right the first time.

Aaron

Dan Dakich Show Day Two

Edit...Sharper should have been Woodson in the last post. I rushed through it to get down what he said and got Sharper and Woodson mixed up.

Day 2

NFL Live...

After refueling (yes, I eat an early dinner and no, I'm not old) and walking in halfway through the show I came in and they were talking about the Saints defense vs. Peyton and the type of role Darren Sharper will most likely play. It basically boiled down to what it has all year long...Peyton will figure out what they're doing and then he will do what he wants and what is needed to win the game. It concluded with the trio agreeing on they might stop (stall) Peyton for a quarter or two but you won't stop him for the entire game. Personally, I think that if the Saints put just enough guys up front to stall the running game and play the pass first defense to allow the linebackers to come up and make a play on Addai/Brown is their easiest option, sounds easy enough anyway.

Rome is Burning...

Hard to get much out of a show that features a lot of sports stories in a very short amount of time. However, there were a few quick mentions...

Saints defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams, wants to put some "remember me?" hits on Peyton as they did on Favre last week. I'm sure the Jets had the same plan last week, but after the two early sacks my memory is vague on Peyton getting hit...I blame the beer. Also, don't we have one of the best, if not the best, pass blocking offensive lines? Should be a pretty interesting match up.

Note: This was brought up on Around the Horn and Cowlishaw, Paige, and Mariotti all agree that Peyton will eat them alive with that game plan. Woody Paige brought up a good point to add a couple extra in the secondary instead of trying to go after Peyton. I think its a great suggestion but as I've thought for awhile, when teams play the "pass first defense" it really opens up our running game, much as it did against the Jets when they did the same AND tried to get after Peyton.

Tim Brown joined the showed for a little one on one face time and talked briefly about the Super Bowl. When asked who he's going for in the game he said he "wants to root for the Saints, but its hard to pick against the Colts and Peyton because he has two weeks to dissect the Saints defense." He also joins the consensus of experts saying that Peyton needs another ring to be considered the best ever, but wasn't sure why that's a necessity because he has four MVP trophies. I REALLY have to agree with the latter, because its really difficult to overlook the entire body of work Peyton has put forth so far...and he keeps improving with each year, which is the scary part.

The 6 o'clock SportsCenter was pretty much a rehash of what the other shows have already said for the benefit of those who weren't able to watch the earlier shows. One thing the other shows didn't pick up was Darren Woodson saying that Reggie Bush could pose a huge problem for the Colts if he gets into man coverage. I find a problem with that. The Colts are a great tackling team and they're fast. As soon as one guy goes for the tackle, the others are there fast...'nuff said...

Here's a couple of interesting stats they showed on SportsCenter between Peyton and Brees...

-Each have 122 passing touchdowns in the last four years
-Each have 29 games with a passer rating of 100+ in the last four years
-Each have 6 passing touchdowns in the last two minutes of a half this year

Moral of the story? Each teams' secondaries have their work cut out for them in the Super Bowl.

Aaron

Dan Dakich Show

All apologies for the randomness, but I have no clue what I'm doing, so its time to get the snowball rolling...

NFL Network...

I'm calling an early TKO on the NFL Network for information due to their coverages of Senior Bowl and Pro Bowl practices...yes, practice.

Their site doesn't give much insight on much other than blogs regarding off season chatter, a.k.a Kurt Warner's retirement press conference that is announced for Friday.

Hopefully there will be more from the NFL Network tomorrow.

ESPN Website...

Not too much talk about the defensive side of the game. Both offenses are so prolific its difficult to overlook that situation. There's still plenty of time for this debacle to brew before the Super Bowl.

NFL Live on ESPN...

Not much on here either. Kurt Warner retirement...McNabb staying in Philly or not...Colts/Saints traveling back and forth for the Pro Bowl. Knowing how ESPN is, the biggest story will be how the players feel on the Pro Bowl being the week before the Super Bowl this year and how it will effect the playing surface and the players traveling down a day early.

Quick mention on how Shockey will effect the defense of the Colts...

Sharper...no real effect due to injury.

Schlereth...physical guy who will get in defenders faces and can make a difference.

Since there's not much on the ESPN and NFL Network front I'll switch to unconventional methods of seeing what people are saying/thinking about defenses. I went and checked out the Vegas odds for the game and right now its the Colts as a 5 1/2-6 point favorite with an over/under being 56-56 1/2. Suffice it to say that they're looking at roughly the same outcome of the NFC Championship game as far as points on the board are concerned.

Checking out pro-football-reference.com there are some very striking similarities between these two defenses based purely on the numbers and even then the numbers and and NFL rankings don't separate each team that distinctively. Granted the league rankings separate each team but anything plus or minus 50-100 yards moves you up or down pretty dramatically like you said on your show today...err yesterday by the time you read this today.

One stat I came across regarding the defenses is that the Saints are holding their opponents to 21 ppg and the Colts are holding opponents to 10 ppg. The big difference is the Colts have faced great running teams with weaker offenses and the Saints have faced, in my opinion are much more prolific passing teams in comparison to the Ravens and the Jets. The Vikings still have a beast of a running back with Adrian Peterson, but with Favre how can you not pass when the man is doing what he's done for the last thousand years.

That's all I could really find for today. With suspensions coming down for Arenas and Crittenton, Warner retiring, the Pro Bowl debacle there hasn't been much talk about the defensive side of Super Bowl...at least from what I've been able to find out. Personally, I think Dilfer hit the nail on the head when he said both defenses were great at being on dimensional for stopping the run or pass and haven't really shown much success for a more balanced offense...which I think the Saints do have. I'll let this brew in the heads of sportswriters across America tonight and let you know my findings tomorrow.

The most obscure stat I did find was on the offensive side of the ball. That is Addai had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 for the regular season. One pass, one completion, 22 yards, one touchdown.

Aaron

I don't know

Friends...

Is it wrong to think I'm being setup by a couple of friends that have decided to take their friendship to the next level by seeing each other? The only reason I ask is because I've slept with the female friend. It is out of the realm of possibilities that they're trying to concoct a scheme to try to hook me up with someone out of their own guilt because my buddy thinks he may have taken something away from me? Or both of them for that matter?

If that is the case, then I will be a tad pissed off because I don't take kindly to people trying to interject shit into my life. Fuck that, I'm alone because I have a lot shit floating around in my little head and I don't think I'm ready for that. So why would two people think that I would want that?

I'll put this theory to test this weekend. Its my buddy's birthday celebration and the setup chick will be there so I think I'm going to sabotage this shit before it gets out of hand. How am I going to do that? No clue yet, but I have a few ideas running around rampant in my head right now.

On another note...

The Colts are back in the Super Bowl. I NEVER thought I would seem them make one Super Bowl, let alone win it...and now we're going back again? That's just insane, and to think about what Peyton has to to this franchise and city for that matter. He has taken everything on his shoulders and has exceeded all expectations...well, probably except for his. If we end up winning this Super Bowl and he says he's done then he will be without a doubt damn near everyone's mind the best quarterback that EVER played the game.

Favre...

Son of a fucking bitch I'm already tired of hearing about this old fuck and its only been one fucking day!!! I don't get it, they lose the game and everyone is all about him. Umm, hello...Peyton just DESTROYED the number one rated defense in the league and everyone wants to talk about how bad Favre just did?!?!? Give me a fucking break!!!

Super Bowl...

This should be a pretty interesting game. The media will make it out to be Peyton vs The city he grew up in. Fuck that, make it about the game. You know, the two teams that will be playing each other. Two VERY good teams with extremely talented quarterbacks. If Peyton and Brees double up and choke the living hell out a reporter for making this game something it isn't, then they need a medal for choking that guy/girl out. Just my thoughts...and now onto the longest two week wait of my life...ugh...

So...

So for almost 2 months I've been weaning off taking Zoloft and for almost 2 weeks I've been completely off of it. This has been without a doubt in my mind one of the hardest things I've had to deal with in the past 5 years. I'm much more irritable and angry the majority of the time along with random dizzy spells, disorientation, and lack of concentration.

So far I've learned a couple things about myself. I've learned that I haven't really had much tact when dealing with much of anything the last couple of weeks, but sometimes you just have to speak your mind and that's what I've been doing. So far it's cost me a "friend" and I use that word extremely loosely. I've known her for a while but we only recently started talking. Apparently when I told her what I was going through it seemed to be a little too much for her to fully understand. So last night I get a random text saying how "I'm missing out on friendships" and all that jazz by being this way and I honestly don't want to be this way, but its what I have to deal with for a little bit. I'm not sure why its so difficult to understand that someone is going through a tough time and will only talk to people that they're closest to...not so much on here, but its a place to vent. Needless to say, I probably could have handled the situation slightly better, but after a couple weeks of the same shit over and over I had enough and so be it, what happens...well, happens. I'm pretty sure that this will put a strain on a relationship I have with a buddy of mine that I've had for 20+ years...I just hope he can remotely understand because he's like a brother to me and his family is like my family.

Another thing I've learned is that while I usually spoke what was on my mind most of the time, I'm not really holding back what I say to anyone. It may look like I'm lashing out or picking fights with people, but its been a long time coming for those people.

Right now it just seems I'm at wits end with almost everything and I'm extremely certain that this will pay off in the long road. No more feeling like a zombie and taking a fucking pill every night of the week and being dependent upon it to make me "happy".

Fucking Hostile

Now that I'm home and I cracked open a beer (my first in almost 2 weeks) and lit a smoke I have to do something to get this shit out of my system.

Ever since yesterday I've felt an uncomfortable weight on my shoulders. No clue how it got there or what the fuck its from, but its there for whatever godforsaken reason. While at work today, I might have stumbled across why I'm so damn irritable and hostile the last couple days, so here it is in list form and in no particular order...

1. I'm finally breaking my body free of Zoloft... Yes, I take Zoloft and have been taking it since the middle of 2003. It stemmed from huge anxiety and depression that hit me like a ton of bricks when I found out that my roommate at the time was coming home from deployment and the "relationship" that I started with his girlfriend while he was gone was coming to an abrupt end. Then to put a nice fat ass cherry on top of all that, she was pregnant. Did I ever tell my roommate? No. Will he talk to me to this day? No.
2. Lazy fucking people at work... I know this is a short work week, but damn everyone feels the need to talk ALL day and not work. I hate, hate, hate laziness at work. We're there to work and make a living and not bullshit all day and talk about Obama's Health Care Plan.
3. Obama's Health Care Plan... Yep, I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm 100% against the idea because I know what its like to be part of socialized medicine from my Air Force days. Granted that was on a small scale, but it still blew more than a whore during 1/2 price Wednesday's. I don't understand the big rush to get this done. I understand they want to get it pushed through so they can have it on their political resume, but they should at least PRETEND to want to get it right. I'm sick of everyone's argument that "Canada and England do it and look at them." Yeah, look at them come over here and get the treatment they feel is far superior to what they have in their countries. Then what people don't realize is that if you get cancer in Canada or England you have a far less chance of surviving than you would if you got treatment here. Then another thing people don't realize is that this is probably a huge distraction for the Cap and Trade agreement they're trying to get going so they can rape us in our ass on stuff like electricity, gas, and fuel. This is one thing that will quietly get pushed through and leave EVERYONE dumbfounded and people like Al Gore rich off his already rich ass. Thomas Jefferson said it best, "A government big enough to give everyone everything they want is big enough to take everything away from everyone." Need I say more?
4. Halo withdrawals... Granted after a 5 day weekend I have huge issues with getting back into the swing of things, but for some reason I REALLY don't want to be at work...I REALLY want to be playing Halo all day. Does that make me sound like a loser? Yes, yes it does but its a hobby/addiction of mine and if that could pay the bills then I would love to quit the hell I work in everyday.
5. Apparently I bitch every time I talk... I know you can't tell it from this, but I don't really bitch ALL the time...just a good chunk of the time. This is pretty much the word on the street at work. We had a training class today and I swear on my life that I wasn't bitching, but the lady in charge of it said I was bitching the entire time. Apparently she has no sense of humor because I was making fun of people who couldn't crimp butt connectors or wouldn't shut the fuck up (see number 2). Yes, we actually had a training class on how to crimp butt connectors, aka 90% of our job. And yes, there were people in there that couldn't do it and they work on the same trucks I do. Apparently they make too much money or I make far too less in contrast to those assholes.

I think that pretty much covers the shit that is for some reason looming over my head and sitting its fat fucking ass on my shoulders. I do think that my ability to get decent sleep is affecting me too, but that's my own doing after the 5 day weekend and my body doesn't want to get back to where it needs to be.

That is all...for now...

...

I was going to write something, but I'm not sure I have the motivation right now. A long day of driving has made me even more tired than I usually am at this point.

My right thigh is still killing me after almost 2 weeks and I'm tired of endlessly what seems to be fighting for my job.

I just want everything to slow down for a little bit so I can breathe and smell the roses every once in awhile.