NFL & Fantasy News
Remember a month ago? You know, when Boston and Philadelphia were looking like the dominant sports cities in America?
The Phillies and Red Sox were leading their respective leagues in wins, the Patriots were coming off the best regular season record in the NFL and the Eagles had just signed every coveted defensive free agent in football. Yeah, then. Well the Red Sox were the first to implode, followed by the Eagles, followed by the Phillies, and the dominant sports cities in America are now Milwaukee and Detroit. Harrumph.
I do promise to stop talking about baseball in my weekly NFL Preview column, but some things take time. In the meantime, I had my best week yet in picks, so hopefully I’ll stay on a roll this time out.
There are not as many good plays this week as last, in fact, there are some pretty tough ones to call, but that’s what happens when you have results like San Francisco blowing out Tampa Bay by 40+ and the Giants coughing one up at home to Seattle.
You know, in a perfect world, the official end of the NBA will be heralded by LeBron James signing with the Cleveland Browns. The Denver Broncos will wind up with the #1 pick in the draft, take Andrew Luck, and still start Kyle Orton. And Theo Epstein will say screw the Red Sox and the Cubs and come and run the Philadelphia Eagles. But this world ain’t perfect. . .
Hit the title/read more to check out the picks for the sixth week of the NFL...
(Won-Loss Record and Last Week’s Ranking in parentheses)
1. Green Bay Packers (5-0) (1) - Train Kept A Rolling
2. Baltimore Ravens (3-1) (2) - They should cruise through this schedule
3. New England Patriots (4-1) (3) - We all know about the offense, but the defense is better than their stats might suggest.
4. New Orleans Saints (4-1) (4) - Quietly widening the gap between them and everyone else in the NFC South.
5. Detroit Lions (5-0) (5) - Ferocious defense is entering elite status.
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RIP Raiders owner Al Davis. Davis’ contributions to professional football were so numerous I won’t even try to list them, but his enduring legacy was as the maverick owner who didn’t follow the rules and wasn’t “one of the boys.” Without Al Davis, there would have been no AFL (the league of which he was commissioner) nor could there have been a WFL or USFL.
Without Al Davis, there would have been no George Steinbrenner or Mark Cuban. Davis’ iconic Raiders’ teams of the 60s and 70s were the first to transcend geographical borders to gain fans.
Without Al Davis, there could have been no “America’s Team” Dallas Cowboys of the 1970s - you can’t have the “good guys” if there aren’t some “bad guys” out there too.
And on the day when the NFL and the world lost Al Davis, his underrated and often maligned 2011 Oakland Raider went out and won a tough, gritty, game against the Houston Texans in true nails across a blackboard fashion.
Hey Al. They just won, baby.
image source
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Maurice Jones-Drew versus the Bengals front seven
With the seventh ranked run defense coming to town, Jones-Drew will be facing his toughest challenge to date. The Bengals are currently allowing 86.8 yards rushing per game. The Jaguars are averaging 107 rushing yards per game.
The Bengals faced off against Fred Jackson and the Buffalo Bills, who are the fifth leading rushing offense in the NFL, last week. At that time, Jackson was leading the league in rushing.
The Bengals allowed Jackson to rush for 66 yards and 21 of those yards came on one run. If the Jaguars offensive line can create some creases for Jones-Drew, the Jaguars could have a good day. If they are unable to do so, it could be a long day for the Jaguars offense.
Hit the title/read more to see the other two things to watch in Sunday's matchup...
I’m starting this column early this week, because I’ll still in a sour mad from Black Sunday for Philadelphia last week, and I figured out I’d better get at least the preamble written now, in case the Phillies don’t beat the Cardinals tonight.
Hey, you’d be churlish to if your ace starting pitcher who was 94-1 in his career with a four run lead blew a four run lead. While I’m on the subject, it would be nice if major league baseball decided that playoff games aren’t better when the home plate umpire is incapable of calling balls and strikes.
I wouldn’t have complained if it was only the Phillies-Cardinals game 2 affected, where there was apparently no strike zone being used and balls and strikes were being randomly off an algorithm app that the home plate umpire had downloaded to his iphone, but then Yankees-Tigers game 3 featured a strike zone that was roughly the size of a catcher’s mitt positioned directly in the middle of the plate. Way to screw up one of the (potentially) great pitchers’ duels of the playoffs this year.
While I’m on the subject of stuff that makes me angry, could everyone who thinks saying this year’s Eagles are like past year’s Redskins teams please STFU.
True, the Eagles signed some big names to improve their defense, but the reason their defense is terrible is where they DIDN’T sign anyone, like the linebacking corps, where they are starting two 7th round picks and a 6th round pick, or at safety, where they’ve been pairing a 5th round pick with a 7th round pick.
The guys they signed, like Cullen Jenkins (who led the league in sacks going into week 4) and Jason Babin (who led the league in sacks coming out of week 4) are not the reason the team and the defense suck ass. There is no Albert Haynesworth on the Eagles.
Oh yeah, there are some games this weekend. I guess you want to hear about those, so hit the title/read more to check out the picks for the 5th week of the NFL...
[image source]
Which one of these men was not actually playing in a football game when
these pictures were taken? The answer next week!
(Won-Loss Record and Last Week’s Ranking in parentheses)
1. Green Bay Packers (4-0) (1) - Their offense is a steam roller.
2. Baltimore Ravens (3-1) (2) - They now have two double digit wins over playoff caliber opponents.
3. New England Patriots (3-1) (3) - Back in the groove.
4. New Orleans Saints (3-1) (4) - Take a look at their schedule: this team could finish with 12 wins or more.
T-5. San Diego Chargers (3-1) (6) - Three unimpressive wins over bottom-5 teams and a shellacking by the Patriots. Not very impressive.
T-5. Detroit Lions (4-0) (8) - I can’t believe we have to wait until week 12 to see their showdown with the Packers.
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no commentsSo after watching all of the week 4 NFL action the phrase that most readily comes to mind is ‘WTF.”
When did the NFL become the NBA, where you only needed to watch the last six minutes of the game? When did the NFL become six good teams, six bad teams, and 20 mediocre teams? When did “defense” become something you could see in a museum? WTF?!
WTF Is Wrong With Tony Romo?
Maybe I’m just disgusted over the Eagles play against the 49ers, but I’m actually feeling sorry for Tony Romo right now, and I didn’t think that was possible. Romo’s latest late game choke is certain to have everyone speculating on why he continues to single-handedly lose games he almost single-handedly put his team in a position to win.
The loneliest Cowboy - someone please help Tony Romo
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Surprises beget reactions, and surprising starts by a number of teams have led to some cock-eyed lines in week 4 - some are opportunities to capitalize on the odds not yet catching up to teams that are better or worse than you thought - others are traps to be avoided.
Knowing which is which is pretty tricky stuff, and there a handful of games this week I would definitely stay away from.
But not wanting to pick the games and not wanting to see them are two different things, and there are some highly intriguing matchups to take a look at the quarter turn of the season.
Hit the title/read more to check out the picks for the fourth week of the NFL...
(Won-Loss Record and Last Week’s Ranking in parentheses)
1. Green Bay Packers (3-0) (1) - No one else is even close right now.
2. Baltimore Ravens (2-1) (5) - I think they learned their lesson.
3. New England Patriots (2-1) (2) - If you think they should be lower, ask yourself how many times this season Brady’s going to throw 4 picks. How many times will he throw even two picks? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
4. New Orleans Saints (2-1) (9) - Let’s review: their ONLY loss this season was AT the Packers.
5. Pittsburgh Steelers (2-1) (6) - Winning ugly is still winning.
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Call it the afternoon of heart stopping finishes. Eight early games. Eight teams that trailed in the fourth quarter, only to come from behind and win. Remember, this is JUST the early games. Six teams that scored with under five minutes to go to post the margin of victory. One game that went overtime. Sometimes I have to come up with some theme to talk about for the week, and sometimes the NFL writes it for me. This is the clearly the latter.
Not The Same Old Lions
You could almost hear the collective sigh coming from the Motor City as the halftime gun sounded in Minnesota. 20-0. Despite the high expectations, and the wonderful first two weeks, it all came back to the same old Lions not being able to get it done. Minnesota was no kind of contender. They’d looked shabby in two games this season, but the Lions were behind the 8 ball with only a half to play.
How rewarding, then, when the Lions put up 23 unanswered points in this game, kicking what appeared to be the game winning field goal with 2:30 to go to put Detroit up 23-20. Some habits die hard, however, as the drama wasn’t over.
Minnesota tied the game a little over a minute later with a 49 yard field goal of their own, and Detroit neeed overtime to finally exorcise the demons of the last decade, beat the Vikings in Minnesota, and start the season 3-0 for the first time since 1980. Yes, NINETEEN EIGHTY.
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