- Thank you Brett Favre!!
- We're still swimming above sea level, but barely. This is actually my low point of a typical season. Late weeks are my weak point. I can't tell who's still competing, who's gonna choke under pressure, who's gonna put it all together. But I hope to figure it out because I really want to finish above .500, and Jason does too.
- Games in no detail: Mia-Buf (Mia 1-6 at home, enough said), Cle-Cin (T.O. gets hurt and Bengals actually win, go figure), Car-Ariz (not even trying to figure out that shit), Dal-Wash (let's see Grossman rack up meaningless yards and points against a real defense), Hou-Tenn (one team showed up, and it wasn't Houston).
- Like clockwork, the "Poise Alarm" went off on San Fran once things started to get tight last Thursday at San Diego. I'd like to pat myself on the back for calling the Vincent Jackson Explosion, and once he scored on the Chargers' 3rd play, one got the feeling that it would be a long night for the Niners. They responded well by driving down the field and getting a FG, which they gladly removed due to a SD penalty and resulting 1st-and-goal. But once they got stuffed on 4th down and wound up with no points, the shit hit the fan. DE Justin Smith got himself tossed for shoving aside a referee. Alex Smith and the offense went off the rails and couldn't find any more points until garbage time. And Coach Psycho lived up to his name by angrily throwing his red challenge flag on Jackson's 3rd TD catch, then kicking the flag for some unknown reason. No comment on the fact that SF wasn't eliminated from winning their division by virtue of going 5-9 after this drubbing. But how scary are the Bolts, who managed almost 400 yards of offense with no Antonio Gates or Malcom Floyd?
- So much for the best team in the NFC, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, whose myriad defensive injuries finally caught up with them. Anytime you can say "Big day for the Lions offense," you know you done fucked up. 433 yards of total offense for the Detroit Lions! And 10 catches for Calvin Johnson, who I guess would be leading the league in catches and targets if Detroit could play the Bucs every week.
- Thank you Brett Favre!!
- Oh, don't cha just love the backdoor cover thanks to the onside kick return for a TD? That's what the Colts gave me and everyone else with a chubby for Peyton Manning, who looked like his old self. It was a weirdly officiated game, the weirdest call being a clear false start flag on Jacksonville that was picked up after the running play call didn't work and it would have been 4th down. The Jaguars got to replay 3rd down and converted. But Indy hung in there and really stepped it up on defense, shutting down the Jags running attack when they had to while springing some big runs of their own. It should go without saying that the Colt resurgence in the passing game will get a big test having to go without the slot receiver that Peyton clearly trusted the most, Austin Collie, who caught 2 TDs in his return from a concussion before having to leave with a concussion. Whether it's Garcon, White, Tamme, or some guy from the stands, Manning has to find someone else he believes in to catch his passes when Reggie Wayne is being taken away as an option if the Colts are to win out and go back to the playoffs.
- There's only one reason Baltimore could outscore New Orleans in a high-scoring game, and that's Ray Rice. 233 yards of offense and 2 TDs from the RB position...awesome. The question for the Ravens is, can he do that again? They didn't hold down the Saints defensively despite getting the INT to seal the deal; Drew Brees threw for 267 and 3 TDs. Basically, Baltimore has to have Rice perform like that against any team with a modicum of offensive talent in order to compete with them.
- And now, the damn near craziest game I've ever seen, Eagles-Giants. There's so much to take from this game, it's almost impossible to sort out what's more important than the other stuff. Let's see if I can do it in under 10,000 words: Devastating performance from the Giants defense the first 45 minutes. They hit Michael Vick whenever they could and even got penalized for dirty play, but they knew that they had to punish Vick if they wanted to give him any pause when he wanted to run. Whoever #23 was for Philly got toasted by Eli Manning and whatever WR was running on the left side, opposite Asante Samuel. The first 3 TD catches by New York were against 23, Dimitri Patterson. They targeted the weak link of the Eagles secondary and took full advantage. The last Giants TD was Eli taking advantage of a DeSean Jackson "fumble" that shouldn't have counted because he was touched by a defender before he hit the ground and lost the ball. NY went up 31-10 and it seemed to be over. Everyone knows what happened from there--28 straight from Philly, capped off by a Houdini act from Jackson, muffing a punt before running it back for the game-winning TD. Blame whomever you want for the loss, but I gotta give credit to Vick, who got the fuck beat out of him for 3 quarters and still found the juice to crank it up in the 4th and make play after play after play with his arm and legs. Did New York shut it down mentally or did Vick and the Eagles storm back and take it from them? Don't know, but the effects of that game mentally may make the difference if these two teams hook up again in the playoffs.
- Matt Cassel started slow for Kansas City, and then his teammates sped things up and showed why they would be so dangerous in the playoffs--speed to burn on the perimeter. Boy, did they take to the track in St. Louis. The Rams D doesn't deter anyone, I acknowledge, but the Chiefs looked like they were playing at a different speed when Dwayne Bowe got free for a catch or Jamaal Charles turned the corner or Javier Arenas and Dexter McCluster got blocking on punt returns. Scary team on a fast surface. The Rams can still win that shit division, BTW.
- Thank you Brett Favre!!
- Did the Seahawks' Matt Hasselbeck just have a bad day in getting picked off twice and fumbling once against Atlanta before getting yanked? Or did the Falcons force him to make mistakes? Regardless, the story is Atlanta continuing to beat the teams they're supposed to, running off 3 road wins in a row for anyone who thought they couldn't win away from the Georgia Dome. The opponents were less than stellar. Can't wait to see what they do this Monday night back home hosting the World champion Saints. The Seahawks can still win that shit division, BTW.
- You figure out the Jets, cause I just about give up. I've never seen a naked bootleg work so well over and over again. Just when you think it's fine to bury them and declare them deceased, they win in Pittsburgh for the 1st time ever. Guess they just love going into hostile environments and proving the "haters" wrong--they're now 6-1 on the road this year after winning 2 road playoff games last season. The 2 main reasons for this win, in my opinion, are both on the Steelers. The Pitt D has always looked a lot less fearsome when safety Troy Polamalu is missing, as he was Sunday. They have to fill his role without taking away from everyone else's role on that talented defense. And Ben Roethlisberger has to get rid of the fucking football. Those last 2 throws into the end zone at the end of the game took about 45 minutes, and who knows which WR may have been open on his original route if Big Ben would let go of the rock.
- The Tim Tebow Error began in Oakland with a long TD run and TD pass. Wow, guess he proved his critics wrong, huh? No. Not at all. That run was against one of the NFL's most pathetic run defenses, and that pass into double coverage is intercepted by someone who's not blind. He played like I expected from there, bouncing around guys when he couldn't find open receivers and making more terrible throws. It took the Raiders a while to figure out how to keep the lead for good on Tebow's Broncos, but one play spotlighted how easy it was: A swing pass in the flat to FB Marcel Reece resulted in a 73-yard TD pass for the Raiders. The LBs and DBs he swerved and slid past looked like they were stuck in quicksand. Pay attention, fantasy geeks--that Denver defense has absolutely quit on this season.
- Thank you Brett Favre!!
- New England, #1 in everyone's power rankings, almost to an Aaron Rodgers-less Packers team because Green Bay was gutsy in electing to kick off to start the game, then recovering a surprise onside kick, setting the tone of balls-out no-fear football early. They also almost lost because pass-rushing was a lost concept to their defensive line, and GB replacement QB Matt Flynn had all day to throw before NE started blitzing and creating pressure. The Packers showed why they had enough talent to be considered a pre-season favorite in the NFC, but came up short in the end. Game effort, but the Pats figured out a way to win, which is something they're in the habit of doing. I'm already amped up to see if they can do it this year in the playoffs.
- Have I mentioned that I LURVE BRETT FAVRE?!? Only because his country ass craved the Monday night spotlight so much did I have to take the Bears to cover a big spread over the Vikings, and once they dribbled his head off the ground and (hopefully) knocked him into a retirement community, that game was over. Bear Down!
YTD Records--Dre 114-107-3, .516; Jay 111-110-3, .502
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