This has been a week of things happening that I didn't see coming. The Browns beat the Giants. I didn't see that coming. I discovered that Chris Rock has a brother who looks quite a lot like him, except more GQ, and who is also some sort of comedian and who has some show on Comedy Central. It's kind of like Eddie Murphy's brother, except without a memorable skit on the Chappelle Show. I didn't see that coming.

I'm not really going anywhere with that. It's just happenstance that I saw the commercial for the Tony Rock show before I started this writeup. Just like it's happenstance that Chris Rock's Bigger and Blacker is playing on TV right now. It seemed like the world was telling me that this was a Rock family sort of night. Or, at least, Comedy Central was telling me that.

But I can't really lay down some quotes from Bigger and Blacker. It's just not appropriate. On second thought, maybe I just should have written this thing about Little Big Planet. There's nothing inappropriate about that game. Heck, it's downright cute! It's just happenstance that a Little Big Planet commercial just went by on the TV a few seconds ago.

Now, at first glance, it appears that I'm writing this intro stream-of-consciousness-style based on whatever happens to be on TV, that I have no focus, that I'm just plain not trying. But that's only half true.

In reality, I have this whole thing tied together. I bet you didn't see that coming (see, I tied it together right there).

Now, let's see what we didn't see coming with the results*.

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Head Coach: Red Hickey

Key Losses: QB Y. A. Tittle, HB Hugh McElhenny, HB Joe Perry, SE Billy Wilson, LB Ed Henke

Key Additions: WR Bernie Casey, DT Roland Lakes, DE Clark Miller, DB Jimmy Johnson, QB Billy Kilmer

Discussion:

Thinking about how the game has changed in such remarkable ways since 1961, I'm just curious to know what you think the most significant change in the way the game is played or coached or run has been in your lifetime. For a lot of people, Free Agency is obviously the end-all gimme answer, but I'm wondering how people feel is you scratch just a little deeper than that.

I think in my lifetime, I feel as though I've seen an honest transformation at the quarterback position. And don't get me wrong, the game is still a (mobile) pocket passer's game and I don't put any stock in the pundit-favorite idea that the quarterback has gone the way of the runner, but... [to see where I'm going with this, read to the end]

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I think it's only fair that if I blamed Fooch for picking all the easy games a few weeks ago, that I should also blame him for picking all the hard games this week. I don't think that a single person even predicted the correct outcome in more than half of games. Think about that: even with the New York lock over Seattle, NOBODY (I think) so much as got the winner right in more than 3 games.

So, you know, thanks a lot, Fooch!

Disembodied Voice: Yeah, Fooch is a jerk!

My, that was uncalled for. I'd apologize, but I make it a point not to apologize for voices which my body is clearly not the source of. We'll just have to hope that whoever it was who said that comes clean, and makes up for being so unjustly rude.

Disembodied Whistling: [onomonopoetic whistling noise]

-

All that crap aside, I think we finally have proof that the football gods, as well as the baseball gods, have a sense of humor. And more than that - that all of them are laughing at me:

"I took Pittsburgh just because I thought that of two bad teams, Pittsburgh has shown a little more this year and their defense is a lot better. That was the one I waffled on the most, though, by far. The homefield team scares me (homefield RULED the day last week)."

 - howtheyscored said this. Word for word. No embarassing grammar mistakes or anything. Just believe the blockquote, already.

You can see the joke they're playing on me here. Arizona aside, I picked every single other game this week to the home team - largely because I was playing into the homefield advantage that had killed me the week before. And those jerk football gods screwed me for it!

To think, if I just would have kept my fat mouth shut, San Francisco, New Orleans and Philadelphia would have won and I would have had 3 perfect scores! Next week... next week I'll beat the system....

At least my Fantasy Football team finally won a game! My next goal for the fantasy football season: win another game.

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... and the beginning of the next?

I think with the baseball season over and some of us already suffering withdrawl from San Francisco Giants baseball, we've been blowing off most of our steam by using one of the great McCC pastimes: sarcasm. And don't get me wrong. I mean, I'm totally down with that.

I just think it's time for an honest off-topic FanPost. Just, kind of, get away from the Giants a little, since they're not playing anymore. Get away from baseball a little, since it's not being played by any worthwhile teams anymore (okay, you can still pay attention to the Rays, and always the "team playing the Dodgers").

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If you think about it, the Prediction Games are a lot like that guy who just crossed the English Channel on what was essentially a jetpack. I mean, really, that was pretty darn cool. He flew. Using a jetpack. If you don't think that's cool, then you must be from the future, when they have jetpacks and you're used to it.

The prediction games are a lot like that, because they are also pretty cool. Man, I'm the best at analogies. You know what else I'm the best at? Segues*. Segues that are also analogies. Check it out:

When the year 2000 came around, a lot of people who grew up back when the year 2000 was the distant future and it was popular to think that in the year 2000 we'd have warp drive and jetpacks and stuff thought it was a funny joke to go around saying, "where's my jetpack?" That's a lot like wjackalope. See, when Tuesday came around, a lot of wjackalope who grew up back when the prediction game results were posted on Tuesday mornings and it was popular to think that Tuesday morning would be when the prediction game results would be posted thought it was a funny joke to go around saying, "where's my prediction game results?"

Well, people, there's your jetpack.

Well wjackalopes, here's your prediction game results.**

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Head Coach: Red Hickey

Key Losses: No Key Losses

Key Additions: TE/SE Monty Stickles (Draft, 11), T Len Rohde (Draft, 59), G Mike Magac (Draft, 16)

Discussion:

The Commissioner of the NFL is a position that I like to think about. I feel lucky to have grown up with an NFL run by Paul Tagliabue. Long before I was paying attention, Pete Rozelle probably did more for the league than any other single person that comes to mind. And needless to say, I find the current commissionership of one Roger Goodell to be a bit of an entertaining train-wreck.

It's probably boring discussion fodder, but it fascinates me, and I could stand to know about 300x more than I currently do.

So, then, Commissioners: Reflect fondly (hell, or negatively) on the days of old, or just bitch about Roger Goodell, the second-most clueless man in charge of a major sport today. And don't think the other sports aren't fair game - I don't know anybody who doesn't like comparing Bud Selig to any number of things, and David Stern's reputation seems to be really hurting these days.

Yeah, sorry for the boring discussion topic. League Commissioner Gossip Hour FTW!

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"And verily, on the third day the results shall be given, and they shall be good."

 - Isaac Bruce

That's a direct quote, you know. I talked to him after the game this week. He actually said that. Or something like that. Or, well, something in that ballpark, anyway. There were "shalls," and later on somewhere there were "thous." I'm not sure what the whole thing meant, but I'm pretty sure the gist was about the Niners Nation Prediction Games, and how they were, are, or will be good.

Frankly, I found the whole interview very confusing.

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If you don't usually read through these, I highly recommend at least skipping to the short profile on Leo Nomellini toward the end. Four months ago, I didn't even know this guy's name. Even after Fooch did a front page profile on him for our All-Time Team, I still didn't realize just how good he was. Turns out he's just one of the greatest players in NFL History. 

Head Coach: Red Hickey

Key Losses: HC Frankie Albert, TE Gordie Soltau (Retire)

Key Additions: No Key Additions

Discussion:

Leo Nomellini is a legend in the history of the NFL, but he's also a bit of a forgotten name among modern fans. For a guy who was named the top defensive tackle in the first 50 years of the entire NFL, I don't really know many people who would even recognize his name.

So, in honor of "The Lion," we're going in two directions with this one: 1) Toughest player you've ever seen play the game, and 2) Most underrated or unfortunately forgotten player.

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Let me tell you, I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate an exciting 49er win against a division opponent than totally kicking all of your asses at my own game. And in my head, that's exactly what happened. In my head, you're all surprised to find that I came away with six perfect predictions and was awarded the Niners Nations Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence, got a totally free T-shirt, and ran off to Paris with my girlfriend to live the rest of our lives freeloading off the unsuspecting French.

That's not what happened in real life, though. In real life, what happened was probably a little closer to the way this all turned out in wjackalope's head. As for how the rest of us did, check it out immediately following the jump.

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So the cold, dead, buried corpse of this Cal game isn't even cold or dead yet, but it's a 4 score game (assuming no two-point conversion) with 6 minutes to go, and I'm just left wondering... unsure... wondering what went wrong.

Cal never even had an inch in this game. For most of the day, Best had run for NEGATIVE yards. Maryland spent the whole game eating the clock and shredding the game on the ground.

Kevin Riley's line looks fine, but the early turnover is probably a clearer indication of his play today than the late, almost meaningless touchdown. The defense was pitiful. I just don't know what to think. I was getting excited for this season. Kevin Riley looks like a stud. Best looks like a stud. The receivers were playing good ball and the defense made a little bit of a case for itself against a decent Michigan State team.

I thought this might be the year to get excited. The QB trash we've dealt with the last 3 years finally looked like it was over with. The national expectations were low after consecutive disappointing seasons, but the talent was there.

Bah... another heartbreaker for the Bears. There goes the national ranking.

NOTE: I just held off on posting this because Cal scored a shit ton of points in the fourth quarter to make it interesting and I actually thought they were going to have a chance, but yahoo box score didn't tell me there were apparently no timeouts and before the screen had the time to 30-second refresh, it was over. :(

On the bright side, it's not the end of the world. We'll look back at this game and laugh when we beat USC later in the year.