Victory Is Mine

NFL Notes

Very little live blogging the past two days as Jamie & co were over for the weekend for the UW-UCLA game. Anyway, on to my notes:

1) I can't believe the Saints gave up only 7 points. Offhand can't remember the last time it's happened, but it's been awhile. Defense looked pretty solid today. I was hugely disappointed with our runninng game for about 57 minutes. Then on the last drive Deuce had 4 carries for 63 yards or something to that effect (half his total for the day). I'm not going to allow that one drive to say that our running game is out of the woods yet, but it was great to see them pull that out when everyone knew they were ready to start running out the clock.

2) Typical Rams. Down 27-17 and with the ball inside the Giants' 10, they run a reverse and the Stephen Jackson handoff to the wideout gets garbled, they fumble, Giants ball, Giants move on to roll 44-24. BTW, Bulger threw another 62 passes today.

3) The Eli - Plaxico connection is looking better than the Peyton - Marvin one so far this year. As great as Eli looked today, I don't expect that to last the whole season, though Chirag may disagree.

4) The Vikings just look awful. Last week was just the typical "season-redeeming game against the New Orleans Saints" that at least 3-4 teams a year get. They're back to their garbage ways. The Falcon defensive line just blew up that O line all day, but even when he DID have time, Culpepper took way too long and had balls batted out of his hand or fell victim to the proverbial coverage sack. He was terrible today. The entire team was. The penalties and general stupid play make one wonder just how long Mike Tice really can keep his job. Will be interesting to see the Sports Guy's update on the "Mike odds" - odds on the various NFL head coaches named Mike to lose their job first.

5) How many people are going to try to pick up Dwayne Carswell for their fantasy teams without realizing that he is actually a tackle (#77)? Lined up at TE for those TD plays, but I'm guessing he's not going to be available, nor will he score much more if at all this year. He's fat now!

5b) How quickly has Denver gone from garbage team, one of the worst in the league, to solid team which can put together quality wins?

6) Anyone notice that the Chargers rolled up 24 unanswered points in the final 22 minutes on the Patriots to close out the game? It was actually a game for quite awhile there...in any event, I am finally conceding that the Pats are not the favorites to win the Super Bowl. They have just looked really sketchy for the most part this year. (Although that said, I'm sure they'll find a way to ruin the Colts' season should they get in their way in the playoffs regardless of how the regular season meeting turns out.)

7) While I was off thinking "The AFC is SOOOOOO much better than the NFC," there go the Chiefs blowing a huge lead at home vs the Eagles. Hats off to Philly for rallying after what seemed like a nail-in-the-coffin Dante Hall kick return for a TD in response to their first TD of the day (on which the Eagles even missed the XP). What a difference between Trent Green for the first 16 minutes and Trent Green in the last 44. Yuck.

7b) How quickly have the Chiefs gone from "for real this year, one of the best teams in the NFL" to "Here we go again - donde esta el defense?"

7c) Anyone who can explain T.O.'s touchdown celebration there, let me know. As Jamie said, "I got nothin'."

8) Dunno what to say about Mike Holmgren. He played that final possession in regulation not to lose, even leaving a timeout on the board. And expectedly, trusting your kicker to nail a 47 yarder on the road to win it as time expires isn't the best idea. And they lost.

9) I still can't believe Terrence Newman caught Randy Moss from behind.

9b) I also can't believe how awful the Raidah tackling is.

posted by Publius @ 11:06 AM