Week 12 Stats of the Week

Stat of the week No. 1: The Kansas City Chiefs had their fifth game with 200-plus rushing yards, which are the most 200-yard games in a season since setting the franchise record with eight in 1978. In addition, Jamaal Charles became the fastest player in Chiefs history to reach 1,000 rushing yards doing it in just 158 carries this season.

Stat of the week No. 2: Jacoby Ford finished with 329 all-purpose yards, a Raiders rookie record, and tied for fourth-most by a rookie since 1960. Ford had a 101-yard kickoff return making him the first rookie with two kickoff returns of 94 or more yards since Devin Hester in 2006.

Stat of the week No. 3: Roddy White became the 12th wide receiver in NFL history with at least 80 receptions and 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons. Andre Johnson became the 1st wide receiver in NFL history with at least 60 receptions in each of his first eight seasons.

Stat of the week No. 4: The Buffalo Bills tied an NFL record with their third overtime loss this season. Buffalo is the fifth team to lose three games in overtime in a season and the first since the 1997 Cardinals.

Stat of the week No. 5: Tom Brady has thrown 20 or more touchdown passes for the eighth season, which made him just the fifth quarterback in NFL history to accomplish the feat. He also had his second career game with a perfect passer rating becoming just the fifth player since the merger with multiple games with a perfect rating.

The Atlanta Falcons take control of the NFC and other NFL thoughts

(1) After defeating the Green Bay Packers to improve to an NFC-best 9-2 record, the Atlanta Falcons are starting to look like a team that possesses that special something that differentiates elite teams from good ones. It may be hard to put your finger on that special quality that all great teams possess, but it is easy to see that something is different when a team starts to exhibit it. When a team starts to click like the Falcons, a lot of people look first to the atmosphere in the locker room as a reason for their success. Chemistry is the word that starts to get thrown around because it is nearly impossible to consistently win games in any sport if the locker room is fractured or in a state of disarray. I think it is pretty clear that the Atlanta Falcons have a harmonious clubhouse, which means a lot of credit should be given to General Manager Thomas Dimitroff for assembling the right pieces, Head Coach Mike Smith for molding the pieces correctly on the football field and the veterans on the roster for policing the behavior of the team from week to week. Keep in mind that the Atlanta franchise had never had back-to-back winning seasons before the arrival of Dimitroff and Smith and now they have put together three consecutive winning seasons. I think the lion share of the credit should go to Dimitroff for making decisions based on his natural instincts backed up by thorough research rather than listening to naysayers that didn’t think Mike Smith was head coaching material or Michael Turner was capable of being a full-time starter or Roddy White didn’t deserve superstar money.

In addition to the great decisions from the front office, the Falcons are getting great leadership on the field from the most important position in the sport. Matt Ryan has been everything that he was expected to be and more since joining the Falcons before the 2008 season. He has provided stability for a franchise that was kicked in the stomach twice by Mike Vick’s dog-fighting conviction and Bobby Petrino’s cowardly return to the college ranks. On the field, he has proven to his teammates that he has the necessary toughness, preparation and skill to be a successful quarterback in the NFL. He has taken his game to a whole other level at home by compiling a 19-1 record in the Georgia Dome, which tied Danny White for the best winning percentage in a player’s first 20 starts at home during the Super Bowl era. As a result, Ryan has the Falcons working on a five game winning streak, which is the longest streak since 1998, and a six game winning streak in games decided by a touchdown or less. Great teams protect the home field and find ways to win close games and no team is doing it better than the Atlanta Falcons. The confidence that they have going right now is being fueled by Matt Ryan’s ascension into the upper echelon of NFL quarterbacks, which has Atlanta feeling like they are going to win every game. It is the reason that the Falcons were not concerned when Green Bay scored the tying touchdown with just 56 seconds left in the game. Roddy White said it best after the game: “We’ve got Matty Ice. Ice cold. He just keeps moving the sticks.” With a favorable schedule down the stretch, I see the Falcons winning 13 games and home field advantage throughout the entire NFC playoffs. Considering the Falcons success at home under Matt Ryan, I don’t think any NFC team wants to go to the Georgia Dome in January.

(2) The San Diego Chargers are on a roll once again. They are riding a four game winning streak and head into an imminently winnable stretch of games in a month of the year when Norv Turner has never lost a game as their coach. They get an opportunity to get revenge for losses to Oakland and Kansas City over the next two weeks followed by three games against opponents (San Francisco, Cincinnati and Denver) with a combined record of 8-24. The Chargers are the 5th team since the merger to lead the NFL in total offense and defense after Week 12 and two of the previous four teams won the Super Bowl. I’m not saying that the Bolts are going all the way, but they are dominating on both side of the football and even their special teams unit has played solidly the last two weeks. If anyone has any questions about how good the Chargers are right now, they should probably ask some of the members of the Indianapolis Colts, who were just handed their worst home loss since 1997 by San Diego. It also happened to be the worst home defeat in Peyton Manning’s illustrious career. The Chargers continued to have the Colts’ number and have beaten Indianapolis five times in six games, including twice during the playoffs. In addition, they continued their domination of Manning as well. Their number one ranked defense made sure that Manning never felt comfortable in the pocket, which resulted in four interceptions as Manning got more skittish as the game wore on. Manning may have exorcised his New England demons, but he has yet to find an answer for the San Diego defense. The loss ended the NFL’s longest run of consecutive 12-win seasons at seven and exposed a number of red flags that should have ownership, front office personnel, coaches, players and fans very worried. The offense is not clicking without the services of Austin Collie, Joseph Addai and Dallas Clark. In addition, the pass protection has been horrendous and the running game has been nonexistent. Indy managed only 24 yards rushing against San Diego, which proved to be an ineffective counterbalance to the passing game. As a result, the burden has fallen to Manning to carry the entire offense and he doesn’t have the faith in his offensive line or his wide receivers to allow the offense to function correctly. The Chargers and Colts are a case of teams going in opposite directions. I fully expect the Bolts to win the AFC West again. They are getting healthy at the right time, they have an MVP candidate at quarterback and their defense is playing a suffocating brand of football. Conversely, I think it is going to take all of Manning’s veteran moxie to will the Colts to the playoffs. If things play out just right, Manning might get a chance to remove the San Diego gorilla from his back during a wild card playoff game.

(3) I continue to be impressed by what Sam Bradford is accomplishing in his rookie season in the NFL. He has not only been the best rookie quarterback in the NFL, but he has been one of the best quarterbacks period since the middle of October. In his last six games, starting with an October 17th match-up with San Diego and ending this past Sunday, Bradford has thrown 11 touchdowns and only one interception while posting a 97.1 passer rating. Unfortunately, the Rams have only gone 3-3 during that stretch, but the team’s mediocre record will not stop Bradford from winning the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. He is playing so well that he might win the award unanimously. Overall, Bradford has his team in first place and he is on pace to throw 25 touchdowns this season and post a solid 82.0 passer rating. Remarkably, Bradford is on pace to throw just 13 interceptions this season, which would be two less than the number of interceptions that Drew Brees has thrown after 12 weeks. I know that the St. Louis offense has not asked Bradford to push the ball down the field, which explains his 32nd ranked yards per attempt number (out of 33 eligible quarterbacks), but his play is nothing short of a miracle when you factor in the talent that he has been forced to work with. In fact, he is matching or surpassing the rookie campaigns of some of the greatest quarterbacks in the game today. For example, Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions and posted a below average 71.2 passer rating during his first season as an NFL quarterback. Another comparison that should send St. Louis fans into a frenzy would be to contrast Bradford’s numbers with Tom Brady’s first full season as a starter. In 2001, Brady threw 18 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions and posted an 86.5 passer rating. More importantly, Brady won his first Super Bowl title after the 2001 season and has been a perennial Pro Bowl and MVP candidate ever since. Obviously, Brady was blessed with a much better supporting cast during his first season as a starting quarterback, so Rams fans shouldn’t run out and make Super Bowl plans just yet. The point that I’m trying to make is that Bradford is playing very well for a rookie and his production compares favorably to some of the best quarterbacks that the game has to offer. If the Rams can successfully upgrade the talent at wide receiver and tight end, then I would expect Bradford’s yards per attempt to increase at least to the middle of the pack next season. In the end, Bradford’s rapid development is bad news for the rest of the NFC West.

Week 12 Picks

Here are my picks for week 12 (home teams in CAPS):

New England over DETROIT

New Orleans over DALLAS

N.Y. JETS over Cincinnati

ATLANTA over Green Bay

Pittsburgh over BUFFALO

CLEVELAND over Carolina

N.Y. GIANTS over Jacksonville

Minnesota over WASHINGTON

HOUSTON over Tennessee

OAKLAND over Miami

Philadelphia over CHICAGO

DENVER over St. Louis

BALTIMORE over Tampa Bay

INDIANAPOLIS over San Diego

San Francisco over ARIZONA

SEATTLE over Kansas City

Last Week: 13-3

Overall: 90-54 (missed week two)

Week 11 Stats of the Week

Stat of the week No. 1: Cowboys rookie Bryan McCann became the first rookie in NFL history with touchdowns of 97-plus yards in consecutive weeks.

Stat of the week No. 2: Santonio Holmes joins Mike Brown as the only players since 1983 with a game-winning touchdown in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime in back-to-back games.

Stat of the week No. 3: Bill Belichick notched his 171^st career win (including playoffs) to tie Joe Gibbs for 11^th all-time.  Also, Tom Brady picked up his 25^th consecutive home win as a starter to tie Brett Farve for the most consecutive home wins as a starter since 1970.

Stat of the week No. 4: After losing to the Bills by 18 points, the Bengals became the first team since at least 1950 to lose a game by 13 or more points after they held a halftime lead of 17 or more points.

Stat of the week No. 5: Ray Lewis became the eighth linebacker in NFL history to intercept 30 or more passes.  He also became just the second player in history to have 30-plus sacks and 30-plus interceptions (Rodney Harrison had 30.5 sacks and 34 interceptions in his career).

The Vince Young era nears its completion and other NFL thoughts

(1)              Vince Young could learn a lot from Donovan McNabb.  If he just took the time to watch McNabb, he would learn that playing quarterback in the NFL requires a tremendous amount of leadership, professionalism and perseverance.  An NFL quarterback is the face of a franchise like it or not.  Unfortunately, Young doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that being a leader of men means being accountable to your fellow teammates and responsible for your own behavior.  If only Young had reached out to his fellow quarterback, just 160 feet away on the other sideline, he could have avoided the public meltdown that ensued following the Tennessee’s 19-16 overtime loss to Washington.  I’m sure that McNabb would have taught him a thing or two about the proper way to handle being benched.  Despite all of his trials and tribulations throughout his career, McNabb has never thrown his jersey and shoulder pads into the stands during a toddler-style meltdown.  Furthermore, McNabb has never walked out on his team and head coach following a particularly tough loss.  During his illustrious career, McNabb has been thrown under the bus by teammates and benched by his coaches, but he has always faced the media scrutiny with grace and held himself accountable for his own actions regardless of his level of blame.  I have always held a lot of respect for McNabb for the way that he has handled himself during difficult times.  A lesser man would have lashed out at the Terrell Owens, Andy Reids and Mike Shanahans but McNabb has managed to keep his cool.  Vince Young is no Donovan McNabb.  At the first hint of trouble, Young’s reaction is to pout, complain, run away or all three at the same time like he did this past Sunday.  By my count, this situation is the second time that Young has become so frustrated that he has quit on his team.

I believe that Young has gone too far this time.  His 30-17 record as a starting quarterback is not worth the anxiety of not knowing the next time he will run away from his problems.  His only remaining ally seems to be Bud Adams, but that may change today as Adams learns the details of Young’s recent behavior and finally comes to the realization that the Vince Young that he fell in love with at Texas no longer exists.  This Vince Young lacks the necessary maturity, toughness and competitiveness to truly lead an NFL franchise.  Adams needs to remove the rose-colored glasses and finally choose his well-respected head coach over his petulant, immature quarterback.  It is shame that Young has been coddled so long by his peers, handlers and team because he clearly has the talent to be successful in the NFL.  Unfortunately, he never was able to put all of the puzzle pieces together and the time has come for him and the Tennessee Titans to part ways.  I’m hoping that the unceremonious ending of his Titans’ career will be a wake-up call for Young, so that he will be able to fulfill his potential at his next stop.  I’m pretty sure that McNabb would be happy to give him some good advice about how to leave your first NFL team gracefully and land on your feet with a new team.  Let’s pray that Young is ready to listen to some good counsel for a change.

(2)              The Brad Childress era is officially over in Minnesota after he was relieved of his duties following the 31-3 home loss to the rival Green Bay Packers.  It was a move that had been long rumored around the league, but owner Zygi Wilf was left with no other option than firing his head coach after the abysmal showing in front of their home fans.  In reality, it must have been a hard move for Wilf to make considering the fanfare that he created when he hired Childress five years ago, not to mention the millions that he still owes him to not coach his team.  In the interim, defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will coach the team and will bring at least one character trait that Childress did not possess: the ability to personally connect with his players.  From his first season, Childress has clashed with his players and, even in the best of times, he had relationships with his players that could best be described as cold and distant.  As a result, Childress never developed a sense of trust and loyalty with his teams, which became a problem at the first sign of adversity.  When the Vikings were busy winning back-to-back NFC North titles for the first time since the 1970’s, no one cared that Childress had the people skills of C-3PO, but when the losses started to mount during this disastrous season it was clear that Childress wouldn’t survive.  Frankly, the decision-makers in Minnesota should have known about Childress’ inability to connect with players from his days as the offensive coordinator in Philadelphia.  They were so blinded by their need to hire the “hot” coaching prospect that they apparently ignored the anecdotal evidence of Childress’ dubious people skills.

It certainly didn’t help Childress that he wasn’t very good with the X’s and O’s either.  When he was hired at age 49, he had never been a head coach at any level and his influence on the highly successfully Philadelphia teams as the offensive coordinator was debatable when you consider that head coach Andy Reid called all of the plays during that time.  As a result, Childress brought an offensive scheme to Minnesota that lacked imagination and failed to find ways to maximize the skills of his most talented players.  The lack of imagination might have been tolerable had Childress been flexible enough to incorporate plays that highlighted his best players or allowed his players, principally his quarterbacks, more in-game freedom.  Unfortunately, Childress worked very hard to batten down the hatches with an increasingly “my way or the highway” mentality instead of opening things up for his players.  He nearly benched Brett Favre last season for too much free-lancing during games and he has clashed with nearly every veteran quarterback that has played for him.  As a result, he didn’t have any support in the locker room when the Grim Reaper came calling.  Now, like in Dallas, a well-respected coordinator gets his shot to right the ship and possibly remove the interim head coach label for the 2011 season.  Some scribes, most notably Peter King, have surmised that in-house coaching replacements are going to be the preferred solutions for teams looking for head coaches due to the labor uncertainty surrounding the 2011 season.  King argues that with players being locked out during mini-camps and OTAs and assistant coaches being paid for part-time work, it is advisable for teams to promote from within to ensure scheme consistency.  Regardless of King’s theories, I think it would be a sound choice for the Vikings to hire Frazier as long as he shows that he can run a football team during his audition.

(3)               The 2010 NFL season has been a crazy ride so far and, as a result, the coaching carousel has started spinning furiously after the firings of Wade Phillips and Brad Childress respectively.  Going forward, who are the coaches that are still firmly planted on the hot seat?  In my mind, I see four teams that have underachieved enough to turn up the heat on their coaches somewhere between medium-high to boiling hot.  First, and foremost, I believe that Marvin Lewis is being burned so badly by his team’s collapse from 2009 division champs to cellar dwellers that he probably has one foot out of the door.  The only thing that might save Lewis’ hide is the Brown family’s notorious reputation for being the cheapest ownership group in the NFL.  Unfortunately, even their most Ebenezer Scroogish inclinations can’t ignore the fact that the Bengals were widely expected to challenge for a wild card playoff berth at a minimum.  Instead, Cincinnati finds itself looking up at the rest of the AFC North and just finished sealing Lewis’ fate by blowing a 31-14 halftime lead against the woeful Buffalo Bills. 

Not far behind Lewis on the heat index is Gary Kubiak of the Houston Texans, who just watched his team lose back-to-back games on essentially the last play.  Kubiak led the Texans to their first winning season in 2009, but the team has taken a huge step backwards this season.  The biggest culprit for the Texans’ struggles has been a defensive unit that couldn’t stop a powder puff football team.  The Texans are the worst passing defense in the NFL and they are second-to-last in total defense and scoring defense.  As a result, they have undermined the best efforts of a top-10 offense and have lost four games in a row to completely blow the momentum they created as part of a 4-2 start.  I believe that Kubiak has hit the ceiling of his ability to improve the football team, so he will probably be looking for a job in the offseason.  The next hottest seat belongs to Josh McDaniels in Denver.  After starting his rookie season 6-0, McDaniels has watched his team lose 15 out of the next 20 games.  He has tried to import the Patriots’ way to the Rocky Mountains, but it is starting to look like his fate will be the same as Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini and Charlie Weis.  McDaniels should not fret too much because he can find solace in the turn-around that his mentor, Bill Belichick, made after getting canned from his first NFL head coaching job.  In my opinion, McDaniels has made two fatal mistakes that will probably result in a spot in the unemployment line.  First of all, he has had pretty poor draft results, which means he has found very few young and cheap replacements to run his system.  Secondly, he hitched his wagon to a lot of journeyman players like Kyle Orton, Jabar Gaffney and Correll Buckhalter and the results have been mixed.  He saw Belichick work this formula to perfection in New England, but it has largely backfired in Denver.  The big difference is that Belichick has the luxury of having a future Hall of Fame quarterback, while McDaniels shipped his most talented quarterback to Chicago.  Finally, I think that the heat is starting to intensify for Mike Singletary in San Francisco.  Still, his situation seems to be survivable because it appears that he enjoys the greatest amount of ownership support out of all of these guys.  Nevertheless, if the 49ers collapse completely down the stretch, then I could see the York family pulling the trigger on a new head coach.  In the end, it is likely that these four teams will all be looking for new coaches in addition to Dallas, Minnesota and Carolina, where John Fox will not be returning when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Week 11 Picks

Here are my picks for week 11 (home teams in CAPS):

Chicago over MIAMI

CINCINNATI over Buffalo

DALLAS over Detroit

TENNESSEE over Washington

KANSAS CITY over Arizona

Green Bay over MINNESOTA

NY JETS over Houston

Oakland over PITTSBURGH

Baltimore over CAROLINA

JACKSONVILLE over Cleveland

Atlanta over ST. LOUIS

NEW ORLEANS over Seattle

Tampa Bay over SAN FRANCISCO

NEW ENGLAND over Indianapolis

PHILADELPHIA over NY Giants

SAN DIEGO over Denver

Last Week: 7-7
Overall: 77-51 (missed week two)

Week 10 Stats of the Week

Stat of the week No. 1: Tim Tebow became the third Broncos rookie with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the same game.  He also joined Matt Ryan and Kordell Stewart as the only rookie quarterbacks with a passing touchdown on their first career attempt since 1991.  In a related note, the Broncos became the first team since at least 1950 to have a first half lead of 35-plus points and a first half deficit of at least 35 points in two separate games in the same season.

Stat of the week No. 2: Jacksonville’s game-winning touchdown on the final play of regulation was the fifth time that a game has ended in this fashion since 2000.  Since 1983, it was the second-longest game-winning touchdown pass on the final play of regulation.  In a related note, Santonio Holmes’ game-winning touchdown for the N.Y. Jets was the third latest touchdown in regular season overtime history.  In 1996, Michael Jackson scored with 10 seconds left to beat the Rams and in 1978, John Jefferson scored with no time remaining to beat the Chiefs.

Stat of the week No. 3: Kansas City and Denver combined for nine touchdowns without an interception, which happened for just the second time in NFL history (11/23/03, Baltimore vs. Seattle).

Stat of the week No. 4: Patriots rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski became the first rookie with three touchdown receptions in the same game in 20 years (Eric Green, 10/14/1990).

Stat of the week No. 5: Sam Bradford has thrown 138 consecutive passes without an interception, most by a rookie since Brad Gradkowski in 2006 (147 consecutive passes).

Bonus Stat of the week: Since the beginning of the 2003 season, the New England Patriots have had just two two-game losing streaks and no three-game losing streaks.

The crazy 2010 season continues and other NFL thoughts

(1)              The 2010 NFL season just keeps on serving up more and more surprises.  This week’s amazing moment came courtesy of the game-winning, 50-yard touchdown connection between David Garrard and Mike Thomas.  The last gasp touchdown sent the City of Jacksonville into a state of euphoria not felt since the days of Mark Brunell, Natrone Means and Jimmy Smith.  After the shocking victory, the Jaguars find themselves in second place in the AFC South just one game behind the division-leading Indianapolis Colts.  The situation is even better for the Jags because they own the tiebreaker over the Colts thanks to their win over the 800-lb gorillas of the AFC South earlier in the year.  Actually, the win over the Colts also came on the last play of regulation as Josh Scobee booted a 59-yard field goal to send the Jags into a frenzy that was only surpassed by their most recent celebration.  Despite the big win, the Jaguars are the poster children for the parity of the 2010 season.  In their four losses, they have lost two at home and two on the road by an average of nearly 25 points per game.  In fact, the Jags have been outscored for the season by 54 points, which means they have the worst point differential of any team with a 5-4 record or better.  On paper, they are the worst team with a winning record in the league, but still find themselves one game out of first place thanks to an amazing ability to rebound from disastrous outcome after disastrous outcome.  For example, they responded to a home drubbing at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles by beating the Colts at home and the Bills on the road.  More recently, they have won back-to-back games following a 27-point loss in week six and a 22-point loss in week seven.  If they are nothing else, they are resilient. 

I hesitate to predict what the Jaguars are going to do the rest of the season, but I feel like they are going to have a hard time winning consistently because their defense is so horrific.  They are allowing an average of 27.7 points per game, which puts an inordinate amount of pressure on an underwhelming offensive unit.  In the games that they have won, the Jaguars have taken advantage of five teams that are currently ranked 18^th or worse total defense.  Specifically, four of these teams are ranked 24^th or worse against the run and 27^th or worse in scoring defense.  As a result, the Jags have averaged 31.4 points and 167.6 yards rushing in their victories.  In their losses, the story is drastically different.  Jacksonville is averaging less than 10 points and only 92.5 yards rushing when they go down in defeat.  I believe Jacksonville struggles so much against teams with strong run defenses because the pressure of carrying the team proves to be too much for David Garrard.  When opposing defenses don’t have to worry about Maurice Jones-Drew, then they don’t bite on the play-action fakes that are the bread and butter of the Jacksonville passing game.  As a result, defenders are much sounder in their pass coverage, which creates tighter windows for Garrard to connect with his receivers.  I don’t think that Garrard is equipped to make throws into tight windows, which usually leads to more sacks because he holds on to the ball waiting for a receiver to come open or more turnovers when he makes careless throws.  The good news for Jacksonville fans is that their team faces four opponents down the stretch that are currently ranked 15^th or worse in run defense.  If they continue to take advantage of poor run defenses, then Jacksonville has more than a legitimate chance to make the playoffs in the AFC.

(2)              As I have said on many occasions, the NFL has taken its “any given Sunday” reputation to heart this year more than any other.  No team has less than two losses and 19 teams are within one game of first place after 10 weeks.  We have already spoken at length about Jacksonville’s schizophrenia, but they are not alone in the “good one week, bad the next” category.  Two more candidates, who were both in first place by the way, jumped aboard the Gambler’s Nightmare wagon.  First of all, the New York Giants had a golden opportunity to kick the Dallas Cowboys when they were down, but ended up on the losing side of a 13-point beat down.  Heading into this game, the Giants looked to have everything going their way.  They were riding a five-game winning streak and fresh off a 41-7 thrashing of the Seattle Seahawks.  More importantly, they were facing a fractured Dallas club that had just fired its head coach and looked more interested in planning their off-season activities than competing on Sunday.  Nevertheless, the Cowboys played like the hungrier team.  Even though they were out-flanked in nearly every statistical category, Dallas made all of the big plays to win the game including a 71-yard touchdown reception by Felix Jones and a 101-yard interception return for a touchdown by Bryan McCann.  Overall, the Cowboys forced three turnovers and forced the Giants to make mistake after mistake in the red zone.  In a game that featured two power outages, the Cowboys made sure they provided all of the necessary electricity to answer the challenge of playing a first place team on the road.  As for the Giants, this game was eerily reminiscent of the 29-10 loss to the Tennessee Titans in week three.  In both games, the Giants dominated the statistical battle.  In both games, they turned the ball over three times and executed terribly in the red zone (1-4 in red zone opportunities).  As a result, they lost both games handily.  After the Titans debacle, the Giants reeled off five consecutive victories, so it will be interesting to see how they react to their latest setback.

Another team that struggled mightily in front of the home fans was the Pittsburgh Steelers.  They had the opportunity to make a statement, in primetime, against a solid opponent, but they were unable to get anything going on offense until the fourth quarter when they were already trailing 23-3.  Their first eight drives consisted of five punts, one made field goal, one missed field goal and the end of the first half.  During this period, Ben Roethlisberger misfired on 17 out of 27 attempts and was sacked four times.  In fact, Big Ben was under siege from the opening whistle until the end of the third quarter.  The biggest reason for the intense pressure was that the Steelers were breaking in an entirely new offensive line configuration.  The Steelers were without Roethlisberger’s blind-side protectors, left tackle Max Starks and left guard Chris Kemoeatu, which meant that the back-ups were going to be tested by the New England defense and they failed miserably.  In addition to the five total sacks allowed, the Steelers’ new look offensive line couldn’t open up a running lane if their lives depended on it.  Rashard Mendenhall was held to 50 yards rushing one week after Peyton Hillis gashed the Patriots’ 29^th-ranked rushing defense for 184 yards and two touchdowns.  It was an awful performance by the Steelers and a bad omen for the rest of their season because Starks has been lost for the season and the timetable on Kemoeatu’s return is uncertain.  The worst part for Pittsburgh is their vaunted defense did not hold up their end of the bargain.  In fact, the 453 yards they allowed was the worst defensive performance in the 10-year history of Heinz Field.  It also marked the first time this season that Pittsburgh had allowed an opponent to rush for over 100 yards.  I guess it was only fitting that Tom Brady was the guy that orchestrated this woodshed beating since he has dominated the Steelers like no other player before him.  In his career, he has won six of seven overall and four of five in the friendly confines of Heinz Field.  After shredding the Steelers for 350 yards and three touchdowns, Brady now has 14 career touchdown passes and only three interceptions against them.  Thanks to Brady’s brilliance and an outstanding game plan, the Patriots made sure that the first matchup in 25 years of multiple Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks went their way.

(3)               At first, I was slightly confused by the gigantic contract extension that the Washington Redskins handed Donovan McNabb.  In the span of two weeks, McNabb went from being benched due to his cardiovascular health and/or game preparation to being paid a king’s ransom to be the Redskins’ franchise quarterback.  Frankly, I didn’t understand the timing of the extension at all.  At the very least, why wouldn’t the Washington front office wait to see how McNabb reacted to the benching before giving him $40 million in guaranteed money?  For God’s sake, the head coach and the offensive coordinator both called him out following the fourth quarter benching against the Lions, but now they are willing to hitch their wagon to the guy.  Moreover, McNabb entered the Monday night match-up with Philadelphia as the 25^th ranked quarterback in the NFL, so it is not like he has been playing well this season.  In fact, McNabb is in the midst of one of his worst statistical seasons.  He has posted his lowest completion percentage since 2006 and his worst passer rating since his rookie season in 1999.  He has been even more terrible on third down rating 38^th in completion percentage, 32^nd in yards per attempt and 33^rd in passer rating out of 39 qualifying quarterbacks.  His below average numbers have been the result of some ill-advised decisions throwing the football and his inability to make plays with his legs, so tossing copious amounts of guaranteed money his way seemed like the football equivalent of putting cement shoes on the franchise and tossing it into the Potomac River.  Let’s not forget that he turns 34 later this month, which means that he would be approaching 40 years old should he play out the life of the deal.  All in all, it seemed like a questionable move to make this deal so soon after the public falling out between the coaching staff and McNabb.  After the dust has settled a bit, I have a better understanding of the deal and it is starting to look like every other blockbuster NFL deal that looks huge on the surface, but is actually pretty benign underneath the covers.  Players’ agents love to see their names and their clients’ names attached to the big money contracts because the attention feeds their egos.  In reality, most players won’t be around long enough to collect the face value of their contracts.  In McNabb’s case, the contract was announced as a five-year deal worth $70 million, but the Redskins could pay as little as $3.75 million if they cut or trade McNabb after the season.  The Redskins have the ability to cut bait with McNabb with such a low financial commitment because of a $10 million option bonus written into the contract.   After the season, Washington has to decide whether or not they want to pay McNabb the bonus or cut him loose.  If they do pick up the option, it would trigger the rest of the contract and make Washington liable for McNabb’s $2.5 million base salary in 2011.  If they don’t, then McNabb would become an unrestricted free agent at a time when multiple teams will be looking to upgrade their quarterback.  In essence, Washington paid McNabb an extra $3.75 million this year for the right to pay him $12.5 million in 2011 and control his rights.  After digging a little deeper, I actually applaud the Redskins for making this deal.  The timing was awkward, but it shows a commitment to McNabb while at the same time giving the organization an opportunity to evaluate their quarterback position for the rest of the season and providing McNabb a chance to earn the rest of the contract by performing well.

Week 10 Picks

Here are my picks for week 10 (home teams in CAPS):


ATLANTA over Baltimore

BUFFALO over Detroit

Minnesota over CHICAGO

CLEVELAND over N.Y. Jets

INDIANAPOLIS over Cincinnati

Tennessee over MIAMI

TAMPA BAY over Carolina

JACKSONVILLE over Houston

Kansas City over DENVER

N.Y. GIANTS over Dallas

Seattle over ARIZONA

St. Louis over SAN FRANCISCO

PITTSBURGH over New England

Philadelphia over WASHINGTON

Last Week: 9-4
Overall: 70-44 (missed week two)

Week Nine Stats of the Week

Stat of the week No. 1: Tom Brady surpassed Jim Kelly for 17^th on the career touchdown list and jumped over Johnny Unitas for 20^th all-time in completions.

Stat of the week No. 2: Peyton Hillis ran for the most yards against the Patriots since Ricky Williams (185 yards) on December 29, 2002.  In addition, Hillis has eight touchdowns through eight games becoming the first Cleveland Browns player since Leroy Kelly in 1968 to accomplish the feat.

Stat of the week No. 3: The Atlanta Falcons have won 13 straight home starts with QB Matt Ryan, who improved to 17-1 in his career as a starter at home.

Stat of the week No. 4: Brett Favre set a career high with 446 yards passing against the Arizona Cardinals.  It was just his second career 400-yard game and first since December 5, 1993.  The span of 16 years, 337 days between 400-yard performances is the longest ever.

Stat of the week No. 5: Michael Vick joined Randall Cunningham and Steve Young as the only quarterbacks to rush for more than 4,200 career yards.

Bonus Stat of the week: The Arizona Cardinals have eight touchdowns by returns and only six touchdown passes.

Philip Rivers is playing like an MVP and other NFL thoughts

(1)              For many years, the so-called experts have spent countless hours extolling the ability of Peyton Manning to win football games despite injuries to key offensive players like Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai.  As a result of Manning’s competitiveness and commitment to excellence, he has made obscure players like Brandon Stokely, Pierre Garcon, Austin Collie and Jacob Tamme into household names and fantasy football sensations.  Manning’s unique ability to incorporate new players without missing a beat is going to be as big a part of his legacy as his numerous records, Iron Man streak and Super Bowl ring.  However, I believe it is time for the experts to direct some of the same high praise in the direction of Philip Rivers.  Rivers may not have Manning’s track record, but he is doing more with less better than Manning has ever done it.  Rivers entered the season without the services of Pro Bowl wide receiver Vincent Jackson and things have gotten progressively worse.  Over the last couple of weeks, he has seen injuries take down Malcom Floyd, Legedu Naanee and Antonio Gates.  As a result, he entered Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans without his top four targets.  Nevertheless, Rivers threw for over 290 yards and four touchdowns and led the Chargers to a huge road victory.  He connected twice for touchdowns with back-up tight end Randy McMichael and twice for touchdowns with practice squad rookie Seyi Ajirotutu, who had just been promoted to the active roster within the last two weeks.  This type of performance has become commonplace for Rivers this season.  He has five 300-yard games to his credit and has thrown for more yards than any other quarterback in NFL history through the first nine games of the season.  He has succeeded despite the fact that the Chargers have fumbled the ball away an astonishing 16 times through nine games.  He has carried the load despite the fact that every opponent focuses on stopping San Diego’s passing game because they have no running game to speak of.  He has shined despite the fact that the Chargers have one of the worst, if not the single worst, special teams in the NFL.  If you didn’t notice, the Chargers suffered their fifth blocked or tipped punt of the season, which is the second highest total for a single season in NFL history.  For the most part, they have been unable to overcome their mistakes, which explain why they are 4-5 despite having the number one ranked offense and defense in the league.  However, they were able to win despite themselves for the second week in a row thanks in large part to the heroics of Philip Rivers.  He has rolled with every punch and demonstrated great maturity and leadership despite being faced with the absence of nearly all his established offensive weapons.  As a result, Rivers should be at the top of every mid-season MVP list.  He is at the top of mine.

(2)               I’m a little despondent at the news that Wade Phillips has been fired as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.  Over his tenure in Big D, Phillips had become one of my favorite whipping boys as result of his dopey appearance, grandfatherly mannerisms and poor coaching decisions.  I’m going to miss Phillips’ folksy ways, but at least I still have the putrid Oakland Raiders to ridicule.  You know, the same Raiders that haven’t won more than five games since their Super Bowl appearance in 2002.  The same Raiders that blew millions of dollars and three seasons on the JaMarcus Russell experiment.  The same Raiders that have hired and fired the boy wonder, Lane Kiffin, and Art Shell’s corpse since making their Super Bowl run.  The same Raiders that are owned by whatever remains of Al Davis’ body.  Those Raiders will never let me down.  They are going to continue to suck as long as I need material for my weekly observations.  Hold on a minute, what is that you say?  The Raiders just won their third consecutive game for the first time since 2002 and head into their bye week just a half-game behind division-leading Kansas City.  You are kidding me, right?  No really, Oakland has a winning record for the first time since being 2-1 in 2004 and hasn’t had a winning record this late in the season since the Bill Callahan days.  Well, they can’t possibly keep this going.  For God’s sake, we are talking about the Oakland Raiders here!  They have never been able to overcome the deadly trio of penalties, turnovers and terrible quarterback play.  Well, I’m here to tell you that something is changing in the Bay Area.  The Raiders won a tough division game despite committing 13 penalties, turning the ball over three times and going long stretches offensively where they wouldn’t have been able to move the football against the Kansas Jayhawks much less the Chiefs.  These Oakland Raiders are starting to show signs that they are once again contenders in the AFC West.  Their defense has dominated three consecutive opponents and kept the Raiders close in a game they had no business winning against Kansas City.  They swallowed up the Chiefs’ running game that had produced three straight games with more than 200 yards rushing and generated enough pressure on Matt Cassel to keep the Kansas City offense off balance.  In addition, they finally are getting some competent play from their starting quarterback, which is something that we all thought would happen when Jason Campbell was traded to Oakland.  Most importantly, they are developing an identity that had defined the organization for most of its existence, but had gone missing over the last eight years.  They are starting to be the big, bad Oakland Raiders once again.  Their defense is kicking ass and taking names led by Tommy Kelly and Richard Seymour up front, rookie Rolando McClain in the middle and shut down corner Nnamdi Asomugha on the outside.  On the flip side, their offense has decided to play a smashmouth style of football led by a running game that is conjuring up memories of the good old days with Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson.  I’m not ready to anoint them the division winner because it takes more than three weeks to turn around a losing culture, but I will admit that they are going to make things very interesting down the stretch.

(3)              Heading into their bye week, the Green Bay Packers are finally starting to look like the team that I believed would make it to the Super Bowl.  They had struggled through the first six weeks of the season, losing three games by a combined nine points, while many people wondered if too much had been put on them too soon.  In reality, the preseason expectations were not weighing them down, but they were being impacted greatly by the onslaught of injuries that have hit them this season.  They played Sunday night without their leading rusher (Ryan Grant), starting tight end (JerMichael Finley), leading tackler (Nick Barnett) and starting cornerback (Al Harris).  As a result of the injuries, I think it has taken them time to adjust to playing with the guys they have available.  Fortunately for cheese heads everywhere, it appears that the adjustment period is complete.  In the last three weeks, they have shaken the Brett Favre gorilla off their back, shut out an AFC powerhouse on the road and dominated America’s Team on national television.  The common thread through the current winning streak has been that their defense has started to play at the level that made them one of the top five defenses in the NFL in 2009.  In their week seven victory over Minnesota, the Packers defense intercepted Favre three times, which included Desmond Bishop’s interception return for a touchdown that sealed the victory.  They took a huge step forward the following week with a dominating performance over the New York Jets.  They forced three additional turnovers and held Mark Sanchez to an abominable 43.3 passer rating.  In light of the horrible performance by the Packers offense, the defense won the game pretty much singlehandedly.  In fact, it was just the fourth time since 1935 that the Packers have scored fewer than 10 points in a shut out victory.  The coup de grace for Green Bay came this week against the Dallas Cowboys when both their offense and defense put on clinics for the nation to see.  The Packers held Dallas to a mere 205 total yards and forced four turnovers including a Clay Matthews’ interception return for a touchdown and Nick Collins’ fumble return for a touchdown.  Green Bay confused the Dallas offense all night long and it resulted in four quarterback sacks, numerous hurries and even a couple tipped balls at the line of scrimmage.  The Cowboys were under siege all game.  If the Packers can continue this high level of play after the bye week, then I fully expect them to run away with the NFC North and secure one of the top two seeds in the playoffs.  If they make this happen, then they will be well on their way to fulfilling the promise that the 2010 season held for them.

Week Nine Picks

Here are my picks for week nine (home teams in CAPS):


ATLANTA over Tampa Bay

BUFFALO over Chicago

New England over CLEVELAND

N.Y. Jets over DETROIT

MINNESOTA over Arizona

New Orleans over CAROLINA

BALTIMORE over Miami

HOUSTON over San Diego

Kansas City over OAKLAND

PHILADELPHIA over Indianapolis

GREEN BAY over Dallas

Pittsburgh over CINCINNATI

N.Y. Giants over SEATTLE

Last Week: 6-6
Overall: 61-39 (missed week two)

Week Eight Stats of the Week

Stat of the week No. 1: The Raiders have won the past two games by a combined 75 points, which is the first time that has happened since 1967.  It’s the third time in franchise history that they have won back-to-back games by 30-plus points.  The Raiders posted 500-plus total yards in back-to-back games for the first time in their history.

Stat of the week No. 2: The Chargers allowed a block punt for safety, their fourth blocked punt of the season, which is tied for the third most in a season since the merger.

Stat of the week No. 3: Dan Carpenter became the fourth player in NFL history with five or more field goals in back-to-back games.

Stat of the week No. 4: Brandon Lloyd became the sixth player since 1970 to have 800-plus receiving yards and average 20.0 yards-per-reception or more through a team’s first eight games of a season.  The last players to accomplish this feat were Jerry Rice and Webster Slaughter in 1989.

Stat of the week No. 5: The Chiefs posted 200-plus rushing yards for the third straight game for the first time since 1978 and the second time in franchise history.

The Patriots resurrect successful formula and other NFL thoughts

(1)              Dare I say that the New England Patriots, minus Randy Moss, are the best team in the NFL?  I don’t think we can call them anything else after they improved their league-best record to 6-1 with a victory over the visiting Minnesota Vikings.  With the victory, they have now won 13 consecutive home games against NFC opponents and they are starting to rekindle thoughts of the 2003 and 2004 Super Bowl teams that overwhelmed teams more with their mental toughness than their talent.  The biggest difference between this version of the Patriots and the one that won three Super Bowl titles in four seasons is that this version leads the NFL in rookie starts and has the second most undrafted players on the roster.  As a result, this team was not considered among the elite in the conference at the beginning of the season, especially on defense, and the prognosis got even bleaker following a demoralizing week two loss to the New York Jets.  At best, this season was supposed to be a bridge to 2011 and beyond, when the team’s younger set would have their collective feet underneath them.  Instead, this team has developed a mental outlook that has allowed them to recover from the Jets’ loss to win five games in a row, which included come-from-behind victories over Baltimore and Minnesota. 

     The most surprising part of the Patriots’ season so far is that they are at the top of the NFL heap despite a non-descript group of offensive contributors and a defense that has youth all over the place.  We all know that Tom Brady is a perennial MVP candidate and Wes Welker is an esteemed possession receiver, but they don’t have any other offensive players that put fear into the hearts of defenses, especially following Moss’ departure.  Nevertheless, the Patriots have crafted a top 15 offense by having Brady distribute the football to Welker, Deion Branch and young guys like Brandon Tate and Aaron Hernandez.  It is no surprise that Brady is thriving in the point guard role and raising the level of his wide receivers by showing confidence in them, but I am a little shocked that the Patriots have kept winning despite the utter lack of a viable deep threat.  Tate provided a glimpse of his potential with a 69-yard touchdown reception, but it came on a broken play and he still has a long way to go to develop into a consistent deep threat.  Nevertheless, the Patriots are going to have to find ways to stretch defenses because I fully expect to a lot of eight-man fronts against them to take away the short passing game and the running game.  New England can also keep defenses on their toes by developing some consistency running the football.  Fortunately, there have been some glimmers of hope in the running game despite the fact that they are without Fred Taylor (injured), Kevin Faulk (injured) and Laurence Maroney (traded to Denver).  They are being led on the ground by the Boston Law Firm of BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who has 371 yards rushing after gaining a season high 112 yards on Sunday.  They have supplemented Green-Ellis’ production with change-of-pace running back Danny Woodhead.  With Faulk’s absence, the Patriots desperately needed someone to fill his shoes as an occasional ball carrier and third-down specialist and Woodhead has done an admirable job.  Woodhead had his best day against the Ravens with 115 total yards, but he contributed a rushing touchdown and 45 yards receiving in the win against the Vikings as well.  He has become this year’s version of Julian Edelman.  In other words, a completely off-the-radar guy that replaced a veteran contributor and performed with very little drop-off.  This is the formula that worked so well for New England between 2001-2004 and they have finally found the right group of guys to be successful with the formula again. 

     On the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots don’t look great on paper, but they are starting to show signs that they are becoming a solid unit.  The defense has been built much more through the draft, but the talent has taken quite awhile to jell with each other.  They have very few holdovers from the glory days, but it appears that Bill Belichick is finally getting the leadership and toughness that had become so customary in the days of Teddy Bruschi and Mike Vrable.  Jerod Mayo leads the defense on and off the field and has become a tackling machine at the middle linebacker position.  The Patriots knew that they had a winner when they drafted Mayo, but injuries and a slow adjustment to the NFL made his transition to stardom much slower than expected.  They hit another home run with the addition of Brandon Spikes, which should solidify their linebacker corps for years to come.  In the secondary, they have a couple of hard-hitting safeties in Brandon Meriweather and Pat Chung and two improving cornerbacks in Devin McCourty and Kyle Arrington.  The defense had its best moment in their second half and overtime domination of the Baltimore Ravens, but I believe they have even better moments in front of them.  Ultimately, I think that the Patriots are the best team in the NFL through eight weeks.  Of course, we have all realized that the title of best team is completely transitory and might get reassigned if New England stubs its toe against Cleveland next week.

(2)              Being a head coach in the National Football League has to be one of the most demanding jobs in the world.  Even though they are compensated extremely well, they face pressures that most people never have to face.  They are required to spend copious amounts of hours in the office watching film, game planning and trying to find any edge that will lead to victory on Sunday.  They have to manage egos, both large and small, while at the same time keeping their fingers on the collective pulse of every area of their team and making dozens of decisions each week that could be mean the difference between victory and defeat.  It is easy to see how tough a job it really is and it is easy to see why so many have failed miserably.  Some can’t hack it because they are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the position, which normally manifests itself into poorly prepared teams and terrible in-game decision-making, especially in crunch situations.  Some fail because they lack the necessary management skills that leaders of large, complex organizations need to be successful.  Some dazzle owners and general managers in interview sessions, but quickly demonstrated that they have no business being an NFL head coach.  It is actually amazing how many head coaches fail, especially when you consider the lengths that most teams exhaust to find a new coach. 

     There is no profile of a bad head coach.  They are young and old, inexperienced and veteran, black and white and calm and emotional.  Jim Zorn and Wade Phillips have vastly different experience levels as an NFL head coach, but they are both overwhelmed by the pressure of the job and terrible in-game decision-makers.  Lovie Smith is another coach that makes terrible choices during games, just look at his low percentage of successful challenges if you want further proof.  Jim Mora, Jr. flamed out of the league twice because he couldn’t control his urges; once for publicly pining for the University of Washington job and a second time for publicly flogging his kicker after a close loss to Chicago and telling reporters that he wanted more “dirtbags” on the roster.  On the other hand, Art Shell failed horribly in his second go-around with Oakland primarily because no one could tell if he was dead or alive on the sideline.  He was so calm during games that people wondered if we had a real-life Weekend at Bernie’s situation.  You just never know who will be a good coach. 

     This past weekend, there were a number of situations that highlighted the sometimes precarious nature of head coaching in the NFL.  The first example was the inexplicable benching of Donovan McNabb right at the two-minute warning in the second half of a one score game.  Coach Shanahan attributed his decision to the fact that Rex Grossman had a better handle of the two-minute offense than McNabb.  Shanahan’s reasoning was either the most candid statement ever uttered by an NFL coach or it was an extremely poor choice for an excuse.  Either way, Shanahan looks stupid because he threw his prized free agent quarterback under the bus and McNabb suffered a completely unnecessary public embarrassment.  Later, Shanahan put his foot further into his mouth when he stated that McNabb was not in good shape either.  Apparently, after a series of mini-camps, organized team activities, training camp and eight weeks of the regular season, McNabb is both a slob and poorly prepared.  It is an amazing turn of events in Washington and it surely means that Shanahan has lost a portion of the locker room for the rest of the season.  The second example of bone-headed coaching came courtesy of Rex Ryan, who apparently dressed up like Lovie Smith for Halloween because he blew his two challenges in the first half and was unable to challenge a questionable interception by Charles Woodson in the second half.  In addition, he blew his three second half timeouts prior to the 3:50 mark, which might have meant that he was actually dressed up like Andy Reid.  Let’s not forget that he apparently gave his punter the leeway to call the ill-fated fake punt on fourth and forever from his own 20-yard line.  All of these mistakes led directly to the Jets’ loss and showed that even one of the better head coaches in the NFL can make huge blunders.  The last example of bad coaching has to do with something that has bothered me for a long time.  I absolutely hate when teams are getting blown out and coaches call for a late field goal just to avoid getting shut out.  This situation occurred yet again in the Oakland ritual blood-letting of the Seattle Seahawks.  The Hawks had not done anything all game long, but suddenly found themselves with a fourth down from the Oakland 30-yard line trailing 23-0 midway through the fourth quarter.  Instead of attempting to convert on fourth down, Coach Com-pete Carroll decided to kick a meaningless field goal.  Keep in mind that his kicker had already missed two field goals earlier in the game.  What the hell did Carroll have to lose by rolling the dice and going for it?  Did he really believe that his team was suddenly going to explode for three touchdowns in the last nine minutes of the game to overcome the three score deficit that remained after the field goal?  The only thing that made sense was to convert the fourth down and try to get a touchdown on that drive.  Carroll took the pathetic route and the final score didn’t look any better for kicking the field goal.  Let’s hope that the coaching in week nine is infinitely better than week eight.

(3)              The NFC South is yet again turning into one of the most competitive divisions in the NFL.  They are the only division that boasts three teams with five victories and there are a number of storylines to follow for the rest of the season.  First of all, you have the Atlanta Falcons, who have lost only one home game with Matt Ryan at quarterback, but turn into a different team on the road.  They have an impressive victory in the Superdome, but they got roughed up pretty good when they traveled to the City of Brotherly Love.  On offense, they have all of the components required to be a playoff team and beyond, but their defense still leaves a lot to be desired.  They are the 23^rd ranked defense in the NFL, but their 10^th ranked scoring defense indicates that they might be bending but they are not breaking on a regular basis.  I believe they have the best chance to win the division, but they need to find more consistency on the road.  It seems obvious to me that they need to recapture their dominant running game when they are away from home, which should put Ryan in manageable down and distance situations.

     The Falcons own a head-to-head victory over New Orleans, but they might have to start looking in the rearview mirror because the Saints look to have turned the corner in their 20-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.  Honestly, it was the Saints’ most complete victory of the season because it came against one of the elite teams from the more dominant AFC.  The Saints are actually playing sounder defensively than a year ago, but their normally tremendous offense has staggered through most of their first eight games.  Drew Brees has equaled the number of interceptions that he threw in all of 2009 and the running game has been a shadow of its former self due to the injuries sustained by Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush.  The run game struggled mightily against the Steelers, but Brees had perhaps his finest fourth quarter of the season, which was enough to outlast the Men of Steel.  I still believe that the Saints are the class of the division because they possess the best quarterback and the best defense.  In addition, they seem to be getting healthier with the imminent return of Bush right when their schedule gets fairly soft.

The wild card in the division has to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  The Baby Bucs have come out of nowhere to be tied for the division lead with a 5-2 record.  The most impressive part of their start is that they have won all three of their games away from the friendly confines of Raymond James Stadium.  As a fan of the Seattle Seahawks, I know full well how hard it is to win road games in the NFL.  The Bucs seemed to have mastered the art of winning away from home despite having one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.  They have a second-year quarterback in Josh Freeman that is limiting his mistakes and making plays to help the Bucs win close games.  He played terrible for most of last week’s game against St. Louis, but he maintained his composure down the stretch and led the Buccaneers on a game-winning drive.  He struck again with a seven play, 74 yard drive that ended in a LaGarrette Blount touchdown that provided the winning margin in the victory over Arizona.  In addition to Freeman, the Bucs have a budding star receiver in Mike Williams and a blossoming running game due to the presence of Blount, who has quickly taken over the primary running duties from Cadillac Williams after being picked up from Tennessee.  The Bucs’ major issue is the same as the Falcons: they don’t have a defense that is consistently playing at a high level.  Frankly, the Bucs have the worst defense of the three teams.  I still think that Tampa Bay is at least one year away from truly contending, but they are doing everything in their power to prove me wrong.