Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Another NFL week is (almost) in the books so here are my irrelevant thoughts:

  • The Panthers lost another tough one on the road.  Cam Newton is still playing well, but is making typical rookie mistakes.  He threw three picks yesterday while Pro-Bowl caliber running backs Jonathan Stewart and Deangelo Williams had 19 carries total.  Why they aren’t getting the ball more is confusing to me.
  • Meanwhile the Falcons look to finally get back on track by handing the ball of to Michael Turner 27 times.
  • The Colts lost another close game to the Bengals.  The Colts may be missing Manning, but Painter is playing pretty good football.  Manning has been hiding the deficiencies of the Colts running game and defense for years.  Nevertheless, the Colts were in it until the final two minutes when Pierre Garcon did his best Ronnie Brown impression and tried to lateral the football.  He lost it and the Bengals took it in to ice the win.
  • Andy Dalton and AJ Green are still looking really good for the Bengals while the running game is inadequate.  I don’t know if it’s just because teams are determined to make Dalton beat them or if the offensive line is really that bad at run-blocking, but the only productive back the Bengals have right now is Brian Leonard, who is their 3rd down back.
  • I wish I could have watched the 49ers/Lions game.  It looked like it was going to be good leading up to the game and it was.  The Lions defensive line looked mediocre in this game as Frank Gore tore it up.  Gore had 141 yards on only 15 carries. 
  • The Lions need to find a running game.  As impressive as this team has been, particularly on offense, they won’t continue to succeed with a one-dimensional team.  Stafford can’t throw the ball 50 times every week.  To make things worse, their starting running back (Jahvid Best) suffered (another) concussion.  Maurice Morris and Jerome Harrison are still on the roster, but with the trading deadline this week the Lions should look to find something else out there if they want to keep up with the Packers.
  • And that brings us to the fireworks after the game.  Coaches Harbaugh and Schwartz met at midfield after the 9ers win, which is customary, where they shook  hands.  Harbaugh then patted him on the back, with extra enthusiasm.  Watching the video, it looks like Harbaugh just tried to push him out of the way.  Schwartz said something Harbaugh.  Harbaugh’s reply seemingly pissed off Schwartz because Schwartz then chased him down the field.  They had to be separated by players and PR people.  Admittedly, I like both of these coaches.  I actually wanted Harbaugh to get the Michigan job this past winter (though Hoke is doing a pretty good job).  I like the fire and passion both of these men have and thought the ordeal was funny.  Schwartz likely earned a lot of respect from his players by going after Harbaugh the way he did.
  • The Packers continue to roll, dismantling the hapless Rams 24-3.  The Packers really could have poured it on as they had all 24 points by half-time, but took their foot of the gas and coasted to victory.  The Rams are just decimated by injuries this year anyhow. 
  • Call me crazy, but I believe the Packers will go undefeated this year and finally break the ’72 Dolphins perfect season mark, which would be fucking awesome because I’m tired of Mercury Morris running his mouth every fucking year some team gets close to going perfect.
  • The Bills lose a close one to the Giants, losing 27-24.  Both teams looked good in this one, included Ahmed Bradshaw racking up 3 rushing touchdowns.  Ryan Fitzpatrick made some uncharacteristic bad throws, which ultimately cost the Bills the game.  Hey, everyone has a bad day once in a while.
  • The Steelers beat the Jags 17-13.  The Jags were in it all the way to the end, with Blaine Gabbert throwing an incomplete hail-mary pass as time ran out.  Even though they got the win, there are still concerns for the defending AFC Champs.  First and foremost is why they didn’t steamroll the Jags.  The Jags are dead-last in offense and still scored 13 points on the “steel” curtain.  They did it with a rookie QB, no less.  Troy Palomalu is hurt again and Big Ben had another sophomoric day.  Rashard Mendenhall showed up to play, though.
  • Mike Shanahan’s decision to make Rex Grossman his starting QB finally blew up in his face yesterday.  The ‘Skins defense did their part by holding the high-flying Eagles offense to only 20 points, but the ‘Skins offense could only muster 13 points while Grossman threw 4 INT’s.  7 of those points came after Grossman was pulled and John Beck was put in the game.  Sure, Grossman looked pretty good in the preseason, but apparently Shanahan didn’t study Grossman’s history.  He’ll throw for 4 TD’s one week then 4 INT’s the next.  He’s erratic and undependable. Beck should’ve been starting from the get go.
  • The Texans are a much weaker team without Andre Johnson and Mario Williams.  Williams is out for the year, but Johnson should be back in a couple of weeks.  The Ravens pounded the Texans.  Flacco had his best game of the year passing for over 300 yards and his completion percentage for the year is finally over 50%.
  • The Browns almost pulled out a win in Oakland.  Oakland lost Jason Campbell early in the game to a broken collarbone.  He is expected to miss the rest of the season.  The Raiders winning score came on a fake field-goal.  Shane Lechler to Kevin Boss on 4th and 20.  That’s a ballsy call on Hue Jackson’s part.  The Raiders are now 4-2.
  • Reports surfaced all over the interwebs after the Raiders game yesterday that the Raiders really, really want to trade for Carson Palmer.  Hopefully they make some ridiculous offer to the Bengals and Brown has no choice but to accept it.  I’m tired of hearing about the Palmer situation.
  • Doesn’t look like Jason Garrett is going to last long as the Cowboys head coach.  Every week Jerry Jones has criticized Garrett publicly about his coaching.  It’s hard to win when your QB keeps giving the ball away…
  • Rumors are about that Chad Ochocinco may be cut from the Patriots.  He was only on the field for about 3 plays if I recall correctly, and I think it’s hilarious.  Douche.
  • Tampa Bay rebounded nicely after getting stomped by the 49ers last week, beating the Saints 26-20 at home.  They picked off Brees 3 times.
  • The Vikings are done.  They got spanked by the Bears, 39-10.  While it’s not all McNabb’s fault, they are not going to make the playoffs so it’s time to put Ponder in and see what he can do.  Ponder did get in during the 4th yesterday and moved the ball well but wasn’t able to get the team into the endzone.
  • The Jets beat the lowly Dolphins, then Mark Sanchez declared his team back on track.  Sorry, GQ, but you guys still looked horrible in that game.  The Dolphins were just worse.  Sanchez still missed a ton of open receivers and they couldn’t run on the Dolphins swiss-cheese defense.