« Wallace Stevens and me: Penelope poems | Main | Media, blogosphere agree to blackout news of kidnapped U.S. journalist; Father of LSD maintains at 100; Organic castle game; Key to the night sky to cost $399 »

January 9, 2006

7-day forecast for Denver; In London and Denver, Florida and Indy, Pats get respect

AP
After a warm January, the only snow in balmy Denver Saturday was on the distant mountaintops.

National Weather Service 7-day forecast for Denver:

Saturday: .Mostly clear. Highs in the 50s. Lows in the lower to mid 20s.

It was 69 degrees there Saturday, tying the record.

In a survey on its weather blog, ABC Channel 7 asks if readers "want more of this very warm January weather. 53 percent voted "Yes, I hope it lasts until spring.

(NWS foresees for Providence, "Saturday Night: A chance of rain showers before 9pm, then a chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low near 31. Chance of precipitation is 40%.").

American Football: Belichick conducts Patriots' campaign with perfect timing: Nick Halling of The Independent (U.K.) waxes tweedy:

When it comes to finding success in the post-season, there is no substitute for experience. Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, and Joe Gibbs, his counterpart with the Washington Redskins, have each won three Super Bowl titles, and on Saturday night that experience proved vital as their teams prevailed in two gritty play-off matches.

The Patriots looked ominously powerful in disposing of the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-3 and, on this evidence, appear well placed to mount another championship run. New England have won three of the last four titles, and may be timing this year's challenge to perfection.

Ominously powerful. We like that. (Maybe he arrived late.)

Denver Post: "Is this who Denver fans wanted for their Broncos for the AFC second-round playoff game Saturday night at Invesco Field at Mile High?"

Nevertheless, the Patriots start the week as 3 1/2-point underdogs. Perfect.

Never mind that 3 points is the customary value of home-field advantage. The World Champs as underdogs is too juicy not to milk for a pumped attitude.

10:34 a.m.

Journal/Glenn Osmundson
Number 22, Asante Samuel, and his Patriot shadow celebrate his fourth-quarter touchdown. Pats beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 28 to 3 yesterday in wild-card playoff game in Foxboro. Samuel picked off a Byron Leftwich pass and took it 73 yards for a touchdown.

Jacksonville gives chowdah heads a laugh: A bizarre reaction from David Whitley at the Orlando Sentinel:

It would have been the most upsetting upset in recent NFL history. But the class warfare made it special.

Boston is home to Harvard. Jacksonville is home to Whitey's Fish Camp.

Boston is where the Articles of Peace with England were written.

Jacksonville is where Gimme Three Steps was written. That's the attitude Jacksonville faced from everybody from bookies to Kennedys. How great would it have been to see the bumpkins rise up and snow on New England's uppity parade?

The whole thing has a stinging, sullen, resentful tone that imagines New Englanders as rich fops. The Patriots unite everybody here -- from the stool-squatters in the dingiest burnout bars to the tailgaters with wicker picnic baskets, we all whoop and groan together.

Get over it. It's not about class. Your coach played Limpy the quarterback way too long.

From Bob Kravitz at the Indy Star -- the Colts home paper -- comes, "Patriots no longer look so ripe for the picking":

As long as this team is breathing, it's a threat to reach the Super Bowl. It doesn't matter if half of the team's buses get lost on the way to the game and end up in a back alley in Fort Wayne. Somehow, Belichick, now 12-1 in the postseason, will take a couple of peanut vendors and a parking lot attendant, teach them how to play defense and win the football game.

They've still got the pedigree. They've still got the experience; the 53-man roster includes 37 who own at least one Super Bowl ring. And, oh yeah, they've still got Brady, who is 10-0 in the playoffs.

And dates models/starlets.

Not that we're jealous.

Well, we know Indy is jealous, jealous of those Super Bowl titles. And if Cincinnati beats Pittsburgh today (4:30 p.m. on CBS), the real Super Bowl happens under the dome at Indy next Sunday.

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 1:58 AM | Permalink