Week 3 notes on the National Football League

1)  Outcomes that surprised me: Green Bay Packers over the San Diego Chargers.  Jacksonville Jaguars over the Denver Broncos.  Oakland Raiders over the Cleveland Browns.

2)  What's up with LaDainian Tomlinson?  He's just not putting up the numbers everyone expected of him.  Is it because he played 3 tough defenses to start the season?  Is it a poor offensive scheme and philosophy from Norv Turner and Clarence Shelmon?  What is it?  And why was he arguing with Philip Rivers on the sideline during the game?

3)  The Saints better get their asses in gear if they want to make the playoffs.

4)  The Patriots are still looking like the best team in the league.  The Colts are still looking like #2, with the Steelers, Packers, and Cowboys rounding out the top 5 (until the Saints get their asses in gear).  The Houston Texans lost to the Colts, but damn, that AFC South division looks tough this year.  I can picture the Texans grabbing a wildcard playoff spot.

5)  Another player was taken off the field via stretcher this week.  Cedric Killings of the Houston Texans fractured his C-4 vertebra but has already stood on his feet, and doctors expect him to walk out of the hospital on his own power.  As I said after Kevin Everett's injury in Week 1, it's only a matter of time before a player is killed on the field.

6)  Worst team in the league?  Buffalo Bills.

7)  Brett Favre watch: another week, another win, another NFL record.  This is getting repetitive.  And intriguing.  Grandpa pulled off the third win of the season for the Packers and tied the NFL record for the most touchdowns thrown by a QB in NFL history.

8)  Matt Leinart got pulled in favor of Kurt Warner?  Interesting.  And Leinart was having a better season than Rex Grossman.  How long before Grossman gets yanked?

9)  Fantasy tip #1: If you think you'll need a new QB soon, pick up Brian Griese, he'll be the Chicago Bears' starter in 2 weeks.  Fantasy tip #2: If you can get Reggie Bush, he'll likely start posting good numbers now that he will be the featured back in New Orleans.

10)  Donovan McNabb and Kevin Curtis exploded and connected on 4 touchdown passes.  I guess McNabb felt he had something to prove.  Maybe he should play every game with something to prove.  Maybe then he would have won a superbowl.  And isn't that really what it's about when it comes to good quarterbacks who play on good teams?  They get all the blame when the team doesn't win games, and all the blame when they don't win a superbowl.  Not because they are black.  Peyton Manning had the same criticism before he finally won last year.  Same thing with Steve Young and John Elway before they won their superbowls.  What about Jim Kelly?  Dan Marino?  Quality quarterbacks who will always be remembered for having not won a superbowl.

Bonus! New Orleans Saints notes!

1)  Holy crap.  The Saints played a little better, but not good enough to win, and not significantly better than the last two weeks.  And certainly not as well as I'd hoped, considering it was their home opener.  I still blame their offensive line for not providing enough protection in the passing game.  I'm starting to think I should also blame Marques Colston.  He disappears for large chunks of games, and I'm pretty sure he was responsible for Brees's 4th interception.  It looked like he gave up on the play and let the defender beat him to the ball.  That's a Randy-Moss-as-Raider move.

2)  Saints stat of the week: Steve Weatherford's punt average against the Titans: 53.3.

3)  Looks like Deuce McAllister may have been ailing when he missed last week's second half.  This week, he tore his ACL, probably out for the season.  That sucks.  He's a class act and a solid football player.

Week 2 notes on the National Football League

1)  Outcomes that surprised me: The Cincinnati Bengals scored 45 points.  And lost.  To the Browns!  Houston Texans over the Carolina Panthers (are the Texans for real? See my thoughts below).  The Saints lost again.

2)  Spygate.  I don't know if every team videotapes their opponent's sideline, but clearly the Patriots are not the first, last, or only team to do it (hopefully the last, but probably not).  Does that make it right?  Of course not.  Jimmy Johnson all but admitted on the FOX pregame show that he'd been involved in that type of activity.  Nobody in the league (players, coaches, former players and coaches) seems particularly surprised or outraged, so I can only assume it was a common practice.  The people making a big deal about it are the fans and media types.  This is not a defense of the Patriots actions, just an acknowledgement that NFL teams have been cheating for a long time, hopefully it will stop now.

3)  Olindo Mare sucks.  The New Orleans Saints managed to take a position (kicker) that was rock solid for years with John Carney and turn it into a question mark.

4)  Right now, the Patriots are looking like the best team in the league.  Nobody in the NFC is even close, and only the Colts in the AFC seem like they could give them a good game.

5)  Matt Schaub and the Houston Texans might be for real.  Their defense looks legit, and Schaub is leading the team in a way the team has not been lead before.

6)  The Oakland Raiders always find a way to lose.  Somehow you instictively knew Janikowski would miss that second kick, didn't you?

7)  Brett Favre watch: another week, another win.  Grandpa pulled off the second win of the season for the Packers and captured the NFL record for the most wins by a QB.

8)  O.J. Simpson has been arrested and is facing conviction.  Again.  I'm wondering how many crimes O.J. has NOT been arrested for.  Most career criminals get arrested once for, I dunno, maybe every 6-7 crimes they commit.  Or maybe O.J. is the worst criminal ever, getting caught every time.  Either way, he's retarded.

9)  Despite Derek Anderson's big day, I stand by my statement that the Browns should play Brady Quinn.  Who's to say Quinn wouldn't have thrown 5 TDs, or at least 3, and gotten a huge confidence boost in the process?  Is Anderson that much better than Quinn?  If he is, then why plan to play Quinn at all this year?  Just stick with Anderson and play the season.  If you want to go with Quinn, then get him in the game and start racking up experience points.

10)  Stating the obvious here, but the Saints pass defense is horrible.  Their run defense has been pretty good, though.  I thought Roman Harper would be all over the field making plays this year, but it hasn't happened.

Bonus! New Orleans Saints notes!

1)  Holy crap, did the Saints play terrible again.  They made Tampa Bay look like world champions.  Their offensive line looks like crap, forcing Drew Brees to dump the ball off quickly for short gains, not enough time to let longer plays develop.

2)  Saints stat of the week: Fumbles by Saints running backs Reggie Bush and Deuce McAllister: 4 (2 each).  Only one of those fumbles was recovered by the Bucs, but it's indicative of the way the team played.  The game was one big fumble.

3)  What the hell happened to Deuce McAllister in the second half?  Did he even play one snap?  Get that kid involved in the game, he was the only player producing decent results in the first half.

Week 1 notes on the National Football League

1)  Outcomes that surprised me: Green Bay Packers over the Philadelphia Eagles (I believed the Eagle hype), Washington Redskins over the Miami Dolphins (I expected the Redskins to go winless this year), the combined 80 points scored by the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants (I thought these were supposed to be strong defenses?).

2)  I'm saddened by the spinal injury to Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills.  A man is going to die on an NFL field one day, I'm glad it didn't happen this week, and hope it never happens, but it's inevitable.  The players are only getting bigger, stronger, and faster as the years pass.

3)  Damn good thing the San Diego Chargers won their game over the Chicago Bears.  If the Bears had won, we'd hear nothing but Charger fans whining about the botched call when the Bears were offsides at the goal line.  The Bears defense practically took the snap from center, yet somehow they were not offsides.  Brilliant.

4)  That's the way I expect Ben Roethlisberger to play, 4 touchdown passes.  That is why I drafted him on my fantasy team last year and this year.  Last year was a disaster and he pretty much cost me the championship in my league.  This year he will atone for his sins against me.

5)  Can't say Randy Moss surprised me with his big game for the New England Patriots.  It's well known that Moss has the talent to create big statistics and plays hard only when he feels like it.  On a quality team like the Patriots, he feels like it.

6)  The Oakland Raiders still stink.  Shocker.

7)  Brett Favre is ridiculous.  How is Grandpa still winning NFL games?  He's a hall-of-famer, I just hope he doesn't get seriously injured while trying to extend his career a couple extra years.

8)  The game winning field goal kicked by Jason Elam for the Denver Broncos was nutty, but not THAT nutty.  That's the kicker's job, stay cool under pressure and make kicks.

9)  Wow.  Could Charlie Frye have been pulled any quicker?  Well, technically, yes, he could have.  But damn, that was a really quick hook.  Most people are saying the Cleveland Browns should keep Brady Quinn on the sidelines for a while.  Not me.  I say throw him in there and give him some experience.  The NFL is for men, not pussies.  Weed out the pussies by throwing them into the fire and see how they react.

10)  Alex Smith surprised me by leading the San Francisco 49ers to a late game victory.  He gave no hints throughout the game of being able to run that offense, but when the game was on the line he came through for his team.  49ers still suck though.

Bonus! New Orleans Saints notes!

1)  Holy crap, did the Saints play terrible in the second half against the Indianapolis Colts.  First half was fine, they looked a bit rusty, but 10-10 at halftime against the Colts was perfectly acceptable.  And then ... the Colts found their game and made the Saints look like chumps.

2)  Saints stat of the week: The Saints had the ball on offense 3 1/2 minutes longer than the Colts.

3)  The New Orleans Saints are much better than what they showed against the Colts.  They had an off game and key players (Drew Brees, Reggie Bush, Duece McAllister, Marques Colston, Jason David) had off nights.  They are a very good team and will bounce back from this loss.  Hopefully the whipping will serve as a wake-up call that the season has started.

I cannot take this list seriously, considering ...

... not on the list:
Three's Company
Scooby-Doo, Where are You?
Monday Night Football
Family Ties
The Academy Awards

... on the List:
Felicity
Brideshead Revisited
Gilmore Girls
My So-Called Life
Arrested Development
The Day After

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