An amazing artist and carpenter made this custom set of Denver Broncos cornhole for me. He does all kinds of custom work. Let me know if you are interested!

Custom matching cup holders!

Beautiful work!

What's wrong with the Bears?

It's all about teaching and coaching. It's not the talent that is the problem. At the NFL level, you have the world's top 1800 athletes. They are faster, quicker, stronger than any other athletes anywhere. There is no comparison. Not even NBA players can match the vertical jumps that NFL players can jump. NFL players are the most explosive, most powerful, fastest players anywhere.

It's all about coaching. How does a team like Miami and Atlanta go from awful in 2007, to winning their divisions and going to the playoffs in 2008?

The Bears need coaching and teaching in the worst way possible. It's not enough to assemble great athletes. You have to train them, teach them, and put them in position to use their God-given talent. Kyle Orton said in September 2009 that he has learned more in the last 4 months in Denver than he has his last 4 years with the Bears. That is sad. Players need coaching and teachers. Mike Nolan loves teaching and he has turned Denver's defense from worst to first in one year. McDaniels and Nolan stress the ability to teach on their staffs. That's what Chicago needs.

If you watch the offense, the defense, the special teams.... Chicago lacks discipline, loses gap control, is in the wrong gap, the WR, OL, and QB are never on the same page. They aren't taking advantages of defenses weaknesses, they look pedestrian. They need teaching, scheming and coaching!

Urlacher!
Just shut up, Brian! Stop criticizing Jay Cutler. Urlacher should be in the film room teaching the rookie linebackers and defensive players what to look for and how to break down film. Criticizing the QB play at this time serves no purpose. Just shut up!

Broncos
The Broncos are back to playing Bronco football like they were the first few weeks of the season. The Defense is back. This team can't be beat if they play like that. Denver has already beaten nearly all the current division leaders and playoff teams (Cincy, Dallas, New England, San Diego). Orton staying healthy is huge, and they need him in every way. When he came back into the San Diego game, he drove down the field with two pass plays and had us in position to comeback. His two passes to Marshall against Washington were priceless (as were the catches). Denver's remaining schedule includes KC twice, Oak, Indy and Philly. Certainly winnable games. Will we beat Indy in Denver? I think so, it may end up being Indy's only loss. 

Saints
We are watching something magnificent! I mean magical. You only see this type of play once or twice per decade. The San Francisco 49ers did this in the late 80s and once with Steve Young in the 90s, the Ram's Greatest Show on Turf did this in 1999-2000, the 2007 Patriots, and now the 2009 Saints. Extremely impressive offense, with a defense that leads the league in takeaways. And they are doing it with authority! This defense is aggressive and punishing. They punished Wes Welker on those two catches. TWO! He had only two catches!

They lost a lot of starters in the secondary, but still managed to find guys to play and fill in (similar to what we used to pride new england for). Greg Williams on Defense and Sean Payton on offense, with Drew Brees and a bunch of 6th round pick WRs is amazingly electric! We are a witness to history. This is the best team in the NFL and will be in the Super Bowl.

Playoff Picture
In the NFC it looks like the Vikings and Saints will be the top two teams. The rest are pretty bad. There s huge disparity between the halves and havenots. The Saints are very difficult to beat at home and that Superdome is electric, loud, and tough to play in. The rest of the teams in the NFC are second fiddle. Teams with a decent chance are Arizona and Dallas if they can get a home game and things go their way. Philly is really the only other NFC team that looks playoff worthy.

The AFC is more muddy. There isn't such huge separation between the good and the bad. There are a lot of good teams. The AFC championship will likely end up being between Indy and Cincy. Other strong contenders include New England, Denver, and San Diego. (Note: Denver has beaten all of them). Anything can happen with the playoffs. All you need is a chance. Any of these teams can end up being the AFC representative in the Super Bowl, it just depends on what happens with the playoffs. Other teams that can still make it with a strong push include Pitt and Baltimore,. But it's probably unlikely that three teams make it from the AFC North. Go Broncos!

The Broncos did not play this week.... and are still undefeated. They play Baltimore at Baltimore in week 8. It's a bad week to be a Baltimore fan!

Saints:
The Saints defense against the run, although ranked 4th overall, is awful when the Saints are tied or still at 0-0. They give up over 5 yards per carry when tied. Miami's gameplan of coming out running hard was spectacular and brilliant, as I expected. I have been telling people all week to watch out for the ground game Miami is bringing. Miami was up 24-3 at one point and could have won the game. Instead, they allowed Henne to throw two INTs that were returned for TDs. That was a deviation from the run-run-run-some-more gameplan. Stick to running! They are still playing well and are the only undfeated NFC team left, with Minny and NY losing. They really missed LT Jammal Brown on their O-Line. Brees was seeing more pressure than usual.

Bears:
It's not just Jay Cutler's fault. The Bear's problems run deeper. They can still turn it around, but it is an institutional and mindset dilemma. No urgency, no immediacy. Very laxidasical. They need to get motivated and get excited! Lovie is way to calm and relaxed. He needs to fire them up. The defense will improve as the players gel together and mesh together. For now, you are gonna have some bad games, and they were playing the Bengals! Cincy is on a tear, and I can't believe what I was watching. Palmer and his crew marched up and down the field at will. Total will! the Bear's didn't even exist! That is probably the worst the Bears have played all year. You can only go up!

Cutler needs to start taking blame for his idiotic decisions. The cute responses are not going to "cut it" for long. Come on, Jay!

Bengals:
Wow! Wow! And wow! These guy are red hot and unbelievably good! I don't want to face them ever again! Don't get me wrong, Denver can still beat them and rattle Palmer.... I just think it'll be a lot harder!

Packers:
I love watching Ryan Grant run and Rodgers throw well despite an awful offensive line. Grant runs with authority and deciciveness. He just picks a hole, puts his toe in the turf, and runs upfield. I can appreciate a good runner. Whenever you play backyard football, or in various leagues, you see teams find some random big kid and throw him in at RB and think he will do well because he is big and fast. That doesn't always work out. He gets stuck in the backfield, can't get to the hole, fumbles on first contact. You can't just throw in some random "good looking athlete" type of guy and think he will do well. Running is an art, and you have to know how to do it! Grant runs well, doesn't fumble, picks holes well, and can break away. That is what you need! And Rodgers is playing well (as always)!

Redskins:
Man, I feel sorry for Jason Campbell and all the players. He is talented, but the hierarchy and coaching staff as well as overall corporate scheme is just bad. I mean, real bad. Disaster bad! Snyder needs to just let someone else take over football operations, hire a coach that is not in over his head, who is hungry to win, and stop muddling. Let the football people decide who to pick and who to play. Who on earth pays DeAngelo Hall (Angela Falls) over $55 million dollars, when he didn't even ask for a new contract, sucks at football, is a headache on and off the field, and played awful the past two years? And $40 million for Haynesworth? What the hell? Please hire someone to help you!

Eagles:
Did they stop playing after the first half? Vacation? Can't blame them! I wish I would have showed up, they might have let me play the second half! How good is DeSean Jackson? His head may not be on straight, but he is talented. He is about my size and height too.... pretty impressive! Of course, he is slightly faster than me  !  McNabb is playing some of the best football I have seen out of him in the past few years and the running game is much more "balanced" (if you can even say that). If Westbrook is out, McCoy seems to be able to quickly take over. That has been their bane!

Vikes:
They finally lost, but it was much closer than the final score reads. It came down to the last few minutes and a tipped Favre pick-6. They should easily have lost 3 games, but such is luck. Baltimore missing a makeable fieldgoal to lose the game, the Greg Lewis catch....  their luck ran out. They haven't been dominating teams, but they have managed to squeak by. Favre was very average and mediocre the first few games, played well and is now back to average. We'll see how they do in Green Bay this weekend. I hope GB can patch together an offensive line. Again.... why BJ Raji? Does he even play?

Cowboys:
Miles Austin! Yippee! They finally found a WR that can actually catch the ball! This should really open up the running game. Witten won't have to do all the work! Not only does he catch very well, but he can also run afterwards. This guy has a very bright future! And they decided to feature him!

Giants:
They finally lost as well, to a resurgent Kurt Warner and Arizona team. Looks like Beanie Wells figured out how to run in the NFL (finally)! The Cardinals defense was masterful in the second half! The Giants finally found a WR not named Steve Smith to stretch the field in Hakeem Nicks. They love this guy and all reports point to him playing the pivotal No 2 role. They love him in practice and the last two weeks in games. Awesome guy!

Colts and Patriots:
These teams look awesome as usual! Denver plays Indy very late in the year and we already beat the Patriots! These two will be in the playoffs (duh)!

Bills:
They actually won? They beat a pretty downtrodden Carolina team. What is wrong with Carolina? I guess it is true that the worst team in this division ends up finish first every year (Saints) and the best team ends up last (Carolina is almost as bad as Tampa). Awful! Bills look like they may stick with Fitzpatrick... Harvard QB and coach Jarun Harvard Coach. Delhomme is looking real bad, but their alternatives are even worse!

Sanchez:
I was really disturbed watching Sanchez eating a hot dog on the sideline! I didn't care so much that he put mustard on it, and was hiding it in his hand.... I was just disturbed that he was actually eating a hot dog and hanging out. That is bizarre. How can you do that? I have no idea.

Monday Night Football:
I am so glad John Gruden is on Monday Night Football! What a pleasure it is to have an energetic, smart, and meaningful commentator! I love this guy! I wish I could play for him as my coach! Wow!

Browns and Rams:
These two teams are so hard to watch. Especially the Browns. Sheesh! Bill Belicheck has always said that Mangini is not ready to be a headcoach, I am not sure why people keep hiring him. And why can't STL put an entire game together. Every week it seems like they finally get going, then they suddenly fall apart.

Worst?
Browns, Skins, Bucs, Rams in that order!

Broncos:
For only the second time in my life, the Denver Broncos are 6-0. Yep! Six and Oh! Tremendous defense, and a top 10 offense! Last time they started 6-0, we won the Super Bowl! (1998) We still have only allowed one touchdown all year in the second half of games. Holding teams to no points or merely a field goal. Beating San Dieg in San Diego was special. Much more gratifying than the New England win. The NE win was a much more nailbiting close game that was won in overtime, but this was more special. Nothing has bothered me more the past 3 years than losing (by a ton) to San Diego. Especially when you are up 35 to 17 by half time, and they still come back to win. Especially with their annoying mouth of a quarterback! Especially with the irritating lil running back that broke an NFL record against us and their diminutive linebackers that talk smack.

Mike Nolan brought tons of presure. The second half adjustments were epic! Like I have said all year, our half time adjustments are the best there is! In years past, Shanahan and company would make adjustments, but they'd be awful. It was more of a gimmick. Our DCs were amatuers and were doing on the job training. We always gave up more points in the second half. That was painful and always hurt me! When you bring together the greatest minds on offense and defense, you can't help but succeed. You put time and effort into coaching (and especially teaching) you can't help but succeed. All of our coaches are teachers first and love teaching! That's why our players are so well prepared.

Coach McDaniels always stresses in meetings being more prepared than the opponent. And he focuses on being more prepared. He believes that his players are always more prepared than the competition, and that's why they can only succeed.

Can anyone beat this team?
That's what I asked the medical students today at morning report. No one had a good answer.

Remaining schedule of supposedly "difficult" games: Pit, Philly, Indy, Bal.

Indy is beatable. Run right at their smaller defensive players and pound them to oblivian.

Pitt is easy to rattle. Ben holds on to the ball far too long, and our blitzers and fast rushers will take him out. Their run game will be stimied by our awesome run defense.

Baltimore's rookie QB will not know what hit him. Their lack of WRs will hurt. And our defense will contain their RBs.

Philly.... just look at what Oakland did to them.

The rest of our games are against KC twice, another Oak (in Denver), and one more SD (in Denver).

This team can seriously go undefeated! Wow!

The only team in the NFL right now that could beat Denver, is probably the Saints. We don't play them in the regular season, but they have an excellent passig game, a complementary running game, as well as a decent defense. It'd be close. But I know that Nolan and McD would have our guys more prepared than them and we would win! See you in the super bowl! Speaking of the Saints...

Saints:
Drew Brees and the Saints have just announced that they are the number one team in the NFC! They beat the number one defense in the NFL (yards allowed). Not just beat them... but beat them down! They have their awesome Aerial Assualt as well as a ground game. Greg Williams has installed an amazing defense and the players needed to run it.

Sunday Night:
Tony Dungy is still sporting the deer in the headlights look! Is he just uncomfortable or what? Scary!

The Undefeateds:
All we have left is Denver, Minnesota, Indy, Saints. Two AFC, two NFC! Of all of these the most vulnerable and weakest is probably Minny. How lucky have they been the last 3 weeks? The miracle pass from Favre to Lewis, the missed field goal for the win? Wow! They will probably be the first to lose. Indy's schedule is cake walk from here on out. The Saints have a bit of a tougher schedule. Should be interesting to see what happens when Indy comes to Denver. Someone has to lose.

Bears:
Stop complaining! Cutler put them in position to win and they could have pulled it off. I have been telling Bears fans that Cutler can win you games if he has to. He had to. You could argue that he cost them the game with his interceptions, or you could argue Forte cost them the game. It's one game and the Minny bubble will burst soon! If they don't succeed this year with a "franchise quarterback" (whatever that means), Lovie and his crew may be out of a job in January. Shanahan anyone? Do you guys want Orton back?

Brady:
Wow! Almost 60 points? Are you kidding me? He played through 3 quarters until they sat him. Why didn't they keep him in and just "execute the offense?" I guess he was upset after Denver held him scoreless in the second half last week! Denver held them scoreless? Wow!

Philly:
How do you lose to Oakland? Maybe Oakland now got their act together. (Probably not)

Seattle:
Up, down, up, down. Score 44? Then get destroyed by Arizona at home? This conference is going to come down to San Fran and Arizona (whose offense has finally started working).

Bills Jets:
Both teams were trying really hard not to win! Finally, one of them won. Phew!

Favre:
The man looked amazing this past Monday night against his old team! He's looked very mediocre and average all year, but in the last 5 quarters, he has looked amazing. It all started with the comeback against San Fransisco. He won't have to play like this all year, but he looked awesome! He is the perfect American folk hero right now. Hard to believe that he is now 40 years old! Happy birthday Brett!

Is he the best ever? It really depends on how you define best ever? I wrote an article about this here: FootballTimes.org

If you define it by statistics; Favre and Marino are the greatest ever. If you define it by super bowl appearances and wins; then it's Montana and Elway. The best combination of statistics, wins, super bowls; it's Elway.

Manning is approaching this echelon, he just needs a few more super bowl appearnces, which he will get this year! (my prediction)

No, I don't think Brady deserves to be mentioned among the likes of Elway, Montana, Favre, Kelly, Bradshaw, Aikman, Manning. Brady's Patriots lucked their way into their first super bowl in a post 911 world with the tuck rule. A rule which hasn't been used in 40 years prior to that. Shouldn't Patriots win after terrorists attack us? Then they go on to barely win those three super bowls by field goals (except the one against Philly, but it wasn't outright domination). The Elways. Aikmans, and Montanas destroyed their opponents and carried their teams through the playoffs and into super bowls. Montana did not barely win super bowls, he annihilated people! Brady isn't especially physically gifted or talented, just happen to be in the right place at the right time (sorta like Aikman, but with a lot more luck on his side).

What's your definition QB greatness?

Minny:
How good is their defense? Wow! At every level. The Williams brothers stop the inside at the line, Jared Allen outside eats everyone alive, and the secondary is nothing to laugh out either with Ohio State's Antoine Winfield and decent safeties. Can't wait to see what they will do to St. Louis this weekend! If San Fran put up 44 fantasy points against St. Louis, imagine what Minny can do! (see below for more on St. Louis)

Cutler:
I keep hearing Chicagoans say, "What has he done?" or "He isn't anything special." Just wait folks. Luckily, he hasn't had to go ot and win a game by himself. But if he has to.... he can! You should hope that he never has to. Going into half time tied at 21-21 was scary. Not because it was a tie game. But because Detroit actually scored 21 points! Anytime Detroit scores more than 3 points against your defense, you need to panic. Also, Kevin Smith almost single handedly cost me my fantasy win! Whatever Lovie said to them, it worked! Cutler is still the best QB in the NFL and I still think the Bears will be in the Super Bowl! They just gotta straighten out their defense. And it seems like they are doing that.

Mike MCCarthy: (GB coach)
I am not sure if anyone else noticed, but why was he wearing a winter jacket inside the Metro Dome? Is he insane? Domes are usually kept at a cool 72 degrees. He was wearing an oversized winter coat and was sweating. His forehead was dripping with sweat. Wow man!

GB:
Once again, why oh why did you draft BJ Raji? They need serious help on the offensive line. They should have taken Oher or Munro. This makes no sense. GB defense is playing well, and should keep them in a lot of games. Dom Capers new scheme is more of an attacking style, but they do give up a lot of big plays. If they could only protect Rodgers. Despite running for his life, and being sacked more than anyone else, Rodgers has still played well. Which leads us to our next topic....

Aaron Rdogers:
This kid is good! I mean, really good! He is easily a top 5 QB in the NFL.  He can play ball, he just needs a life insurance policy. Why on earth can't he sit back and worry about finding open WRs.... why does he have to be running for his life all day? This guy is an amazingly talented QB (weep Alex Smith) and it's a shame they didn't address his protection this off season. But hey, they got BJ Raji (and sometimes he is on the field and plays). Jennings need sto focus on catching the football before he becomes the next Braylon. Speaking of which...

Cleveland Browns:
Braylon has the most dropped passes in the NFL. That is inexcusable! Why would a change in sceneray help? Jets fans will be disappointed. I'd much rather have Chancy Stucki (who actually catches balls) than a prima donna player who is fairly worthless, but thinks he is worth something. Something wasn't right in Cleveland. Something happend behind the scenes, and we may never find out. Good riddance. It looks like the Browns now have an offense and are actually scoring points with Derek Anderson at the helm. Not sure why, but it's working. Their offense was actually moving the ball and producing points. That is a surprise. And Mohammed Massquio (spelling?) looks like the new number one WR for Cleveland.

Colts:
Manning is an awesome quarterback! Not as physically gifted or talented as Jay Cutler, but he is the best executioner at the QB position in all of football . (Can you even use execution in this way?) He knows how to execute an offense and exploit defenses like there's no tomorrow. If Cutler can develop Manning's mental gift and aptitude, he would be eliter (more elite?) than anyone else. It's a thing of beauty watching Manning play. Wow! Exploiting the cover two to drop the ball into Garcon's hands with the safety and corner draped over Garcon was an amazing feat. After the elite QBs of the late 80s and early 90s retired, there was a huge dearth at QB and I kept saying to myself, man... where is the next Montana, Marino, Kell, Elway? We have him folks! Manning is awesome!

A lot of us look back and say, "I watched Marino/Elway/Montana play.... he was awesome!" You have a chance to watch Manning play! Don't waste it! If you live in Chicago drive down to Indy to watch him in action at the new Lucas Oil Field! You won't regret it and in 20 years you can say. "I watched Manning!" Priceless!

Cowboys:
This team is not a bad team. They just have run into hungrier and much more talented teams. Yes, the Cowboys are not as talented as the hype machine would like us to think. But they could make more out of their situations. They just don't seem to want it and seem a little laxidaisical about it. This reflects the attitude of their coaching staff. They are too laid back and have no sense of urgency. I don't think they will have a losing record, but they will struggle in their division. Philly and the Giants are much stronger at this time. Someone needs to kick them in the ass! Have you ever seen a WR catch a ball and wander around for 51 yards and have nearly 8 Cowboys miss on tackling him? Granted, Brandon Marshall is an extremely talented WR, but come on! How do you not tackle him? And Newman needs to stop lying about Marshall grabbing his shirt. We aren't dumb. We watched the tape 200 times. Marshall didn't do anything. What he did was make a nice catch. Newman had many opportunities to tackle him afterwards, and didn't. Stop making excuses and man up. Just shut up and play ball!

Houston:
We have a problem! Kubiak seems to follow the Shanahan style of babying your players and taking it easy on them in the off season. They have been plagued by injuries and can never stay healthy. This is what did Shanahan in the last three years. Not working the players hard in summer, so they get groin pulls, turf toe, hamstrings, shoulders, biceps... and all kinds of nagging injuries that ultimately lead to late season collapses. Denver lost 7 running backs to these types of nagging injuries. Lost Champ Bailey to the groin and the list goes on. Kubiak's days are numbered. He has installed as great offense (like Shanny), but if players keep getting hurt, they won't hold up and Kubes will lose his job.

Titans:
No more! Wow..... damn, just run the ball! And why is their secondary giving up so many yards? Holy Toledo!

McDaniels Vs Belicheck:
It's always an advantage for the guy leaving to play his old team. Remember Gruden coaching Tampa Bay against Rich Ganon and Oakland? Tampa Bay's defense knew everything Ganon was going to do, and annhiliated them. I think the same will happen here, except we are dealing with a mastermind chess player. Belicheck will not be as dumb as Oakland, and will have plenty of surprises for his prodigy. McDaniels is an awesome coach! What he has been doing in the off season, through minicaps, OTAs, and so far during the year has been sensational! He is humble, talented beyond belief, and extremely experienced. He has coached defense, special teams, and a record setting offense! He knows what he is doing. Should be an awesome chess match. I still think Denver wins because Denver's talent on defense is far superior to New Englands. NE has too many young guys that are raw. McDaniels knows their weaknesses and will beat them. I'm sure Brady won't be dumb enough (a la Romo) to keep throwing at Champ Bailey. Guess what? Andre Goodman is on the other side. You will see interceptions abound!

Worst teams?
The worst team in football has to be St. Louis, quickly followed by Cleveland. After that I'd say Tampa Bay. These teams are really bad.

Couldn't watch all the games this weekend. I have them saved and will go through them throughout the week though. It was definetly an interesting week, lots of great games and great matchups. Enjoy the update!

Denver:
Looked good once again! Of course people are already starting to say, "Who have they played?". We can only play the teams on our schedule. We played Cincy (who just beat the defending Super Bowl champs), the Browns (yes, they are very bad), and Oakland. When you beat three NFL teams, you are doing pretty well. No game in the NFL is cake walk, and anyone can win on any given Sunday. If Cincy is such a bad team, how come they beat Green Bay and Pittsburgh? We held them scoreless for 59 minutes and 20 seconds.

Our offense finally had a turnover, someone fumbled the ball. But we quickly got it back after forcing a fumble ourselves. Orton is playing mistake free football and distributing the ball well. We are marching up and down the field taking tons of time off the clock. Our offense isn't sputtering like we did in week one and the glove and stitches in his throwing finger are gone! I see our offense getting better and more in rhythm every week. I like what I see. It's not the West Coast offense that Shanahan had with the timing short routes, it's a lot of underneath drag and crossing routes, hitting WRs in stride and letting them make plays after the catch.

Denver's defense is allowing 5.3 points per game. That is as good as it gets! That's number one in points allowed. That's all that matters! Mike Nolan has this defense playing very well and McDaniels and Xanders have brought in the right personnel. In fact, over 50% of our players are new to Denver. Plus we have 8 takeaways.

Our front seven is generating tremendous pressure and out secondary is getting interceptions. We have the best secondary in the business (Hill, Dawkins, Champ, and Davis).

To all the media clowns, and non-media clowns who don't understand football: In a few weeks you can't make any excuses. Denver goes on a stretch of games that is "difficult" by media clown standards. We play Dallas, New England, Philly, NY Giants, Washington, San Diego, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis. Is that good enough? We'll see what everyone is saying after we demolish Dallas at Mile High next week.

Florida:
Before we get to the other NFL games, anyone watch Florida? Wow! Urban Meyer has always intrigued me, I wrote a very lengthy article on his new offense and have always been intrigued by all Ohio coaches that move on and make it big (Belicheck, Meyer, McDaniels, Stoops, Brown, Miles, Pinkel, Pelini, Pete Carroll, Shula, Knoll, Schembechler, Hayes, Parseghian, etc). Read my Urban Meyer article here. What Meyer is doing at Florida is very exciting and amazing. Can anyone stop these guys?

Saints:
The finally came down to earth in Buffalo. Buffalo found ways to pressure Brees and they had to resort to running the ball. Imagine that! No passing TDs? Wow!

Lions:
They won, as I predicted last week. Washington is in disarray. Strong work Lions! They actually looked crisp and looked like they belonged.

Favre:
Spent the entire game looking ordinary and mediocre, but then on that last drive, he turned it on. That was one of the more miraculous finishes I have seen in a while. The catch was far more impressive than the throw. Favre just launched it and it could have ended up being one of his usual interceptions. But, Greg Lewis not only caught the ball, he demonstrated full possession, and came down with two feet in bounds. Wow!

Tennessee:
Starting out 0-3 has to be tough for the team with the best record last year. They have played some tough competition, but they need to get it together.

Cincy, Bal, and Pitt:
So Baltimore is undfeated. Pitt lost to the Bears and Cincy. Cincy beat GB and Pitt, but lost to Denver. Where does that leave the AFC North? Is Baltimore the best team? Cincy has a top 10 defense and a top 10 offense. They will probably win this division when it's all said and done. But Bal also has a top defense and offense and with the injury to Troy Palomalu... who wins this division? It's gonna be a battle and little things may determine who wins. It's pretty obvious now that Denver's shut out a damn good Cincy team. Their offense is explosive and doing a good job. Denver let them catch ball's but then punished them. So we will see how Denver does this week against Dallas, then New England the following week.

My week 2 update is in! (Yes, I watch all the games, this is a very educated weekly column!)

Denver:
DEFENSE! No 2 in yards allowed! Third in sacks! Fifth in interceptions! Tied for second in takeaways! And NUMBER ONE in Points allowed! The only category that counts! Denver is allowing only 6.5 points per game! Wow! All hail Mike Nolan!

That is a huge change! Our defense for the past few years could not stop anyone! Ever! This is much better and best in the NFL.

The offense looked much better. Offense is fourth overall in yards per game and 8th overall in scoring! Not quite the No 2 ranking we had last year, but everyone is learning a new system and it will get better and better!

Denver is still running a 5-2 defense that is extremely attacking and aggressive. They don't wait to see what offenses are doing! They go after the offense and try to dictate! Awesome!

The idiots in the mass media try to say, "Well, they only played Cincy and Cleveland!" These same idiots are the ones that predicted Denver to win only 3 games! Good luck with that prediction. The idiots in the mass media just repeat a few blurbs they heard. Their job is to incite conflict and get people mad. Their job is not to really know much, but pretend to. "Denver will be lucky to win three games this year after all the off season turmoil."

Next up is Oakland. They had a strong emotional showing against SD in week 1 and nearly beat them. In week 2 they sucked hard, but beat an equally awful KC team. When we win we will be 3-0 and still on top! All you have to do is win your division!

We put up 27 poits in week 2 and the offense looked much better and more fluid. Moreno and Buckhalter looked great. The WRs did their jobs, no serious dropped passes like week 1. Looks like that have adjusted well.

Go Broncos!

Saints:
Still look amazing! Wow! If only I had drafted Brees with my 4th overall pick on my fantasy team, I'd be undefeated! I regret that! They really have something special going on! It really is history in the making. Watch any NO games you can see, because years from now, you can say, "I watched them play." And their defense leads the league in interceptions, they already have 6! That's pretty impressive, considering their pass rush.

Giants:
What wide receivers? So, they clearly have addressed their WR issues and look really good. Anyone that has been following their training camp and preseason should have known this. But of course, the idiot media heads on ESPN never do. (I stopped watching ESPN many years ago..... thank god for NFL network.... I don't even have any other channels). Manningham has been a pleasant surprised. Once again, it's not straight ahead speed that matters, but rather your actual skill set.

Patriots:
Their offensive line has been woeful and it's starting to show. Their defense has lost a lot of players. I don't think they are washed up. Belicheck will have them ready and in a few weeks they will be back in form. For now, it's going to be a rough start.

More...

I'll try to do weekly thoughts and observations after every week in the NFL. It's a lot of fun! Since I watch every game, I might as well.

Denver:
The "D" is back in enver. For the past three year the enver Broncos have had no defense. The D is back in Denver. Mike Nolan has brought an aggressive, energetic, and violent approach to defense. The talent is also hugely upgraded. DJ Williams, Champ Baily are the only real starting holdovers from last year. The grueling training camp that McDaniels ran will put the defense in better position to keep playing in the fourth quarter and into December and January. Shanahan never drove the players this hard, and the groin/hamstring injuries added up. These injuries will no longer happen now that are players are being worked and trained hard.

FOr 59 minutes and 20 seconds we held the high-powered Cincinatti offense to 0 points. Zero points! Wow!

The front 7 is mostly in a 5-2 look. Making the offensive line guess who is coming and who is dropping out. Their goal is to stop the run, and we limited the run to only 90 yards. Our d-line gave Cincy's huge offensive line trouble, and they wore down as the game went on. Our guys were phenomenal!

Sacks? Interceptions? FINALLY! Denver has not had a pash rush for three years! We finally have one, and the sacks were coming as well. We ended the day with 3 sacks and 2 interceptions. I really liked the play of Alphonso Smith (rookie). We gave up a first round pick next year for him, and damn he was worth it. Of all our rookies, he is the best so far! Phenomenal play! Haggan and Woodyard were also impressive at the LB position.

A lot of the commentators during the broadcast and afterwards were saying, "What we are watching here is two really bad teams." I disagree. Cincy has a potent offense. They would march up and down the field, then our defense would get a nice stop. Cincy's offnese has a lot of toys. They can run, they can pass, they have the entire package. They are going to win a lot of games this year and surprise people. I don't think they are a "really bad" team.

When you talk to a lot of our defensive players, they are excited about our defense. We are no longer a "read and react" defense, waiting for the offense to dictate to us what we could do. Our defense now wants to be aggressive and dictate to the offense what they can and can't do. This is a huge change. In 2005, our defense held opposing offenses to zero touchdowns through nearly half the year, but mostly by a read and react philosophy. We ended up 13-3 that year, hosted the AFC Championship Game and beat Brady's Patriots in the playoffs. But then lost to Pitt at home. Our defense now will not allow an opposing offense to get going. This is a new philosophy. Mike Nolan's defenses have always led the NFL in turnovers, and so far so good.

So far our defense is ranked 4th overall in interceptions, we are tied for second in poits allowed, and we had no turnovers. That is a huge change! Overall, I like what I see on the defensive side.

Special teams coverage units did well, but our return units need to get us better field position. I am sure we will fingure this out.

Our offense sputtered. We finally got things figured out in the fourth quarter, which was a relief. I think people don't realize that Orton is playing with 15 stitches in his index finger. That is the most important finger, and it hurts to squeeze the ball. I can't imagine how painful that must be. Some of his passes were off, but I am sure a healthy hand will be better. Even with the injured hand, he was still able to zip the ball around. The WRs dropped too many balls. Last year we were third in the league in dropped balls. That needs to be cleaned up. A lot of times it looked like the ball hit the WR with too much zip, or they weren't expecting it, and they dropped it. They know it, and they all said they will clean that up.

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Both defenses played really well and held the other team to a field goal. I thought the score was going to be stuck at 3-3 until after halftime. But, a nice punt return by Hester and a missed interception later, and the Bears first team beat the Broncos first team by a score of 17-3.

Denver's defense looked really good. Much more aggressive, much more attacking than last year. Nolan led defenses usually lead the league in turnovers and takeaways, I hope that trend holds true. If it wasn't for a really good Hester punt return, Chicago would not have scored their first touchdown. If Goodman would have hung on to the ball, the Bears 98 yard drive would not have happened and they would not have scored a touchdown at the end of that drive. The defense was tackling very well!

Cutler was bottled up for the most part and we nearly sacked him for a safety at the beginning of the 98 yard drive. Our defense shut down the running game fairly well and has shown great improvements in that regard. Our defense is primarily playing out of a 5-2 alignment at this time. Every once in a while you see a 3-4 alignment, and you aren't sure who is coming.

Although Ron Fields (NT) played well, backup Chris Baker (NT) was very impressive. I think Denver has to keep Baker just based on how well he played against center Olin Kruetz. He was knocking Kreutz around like he was a pinata, and Kreutz is one of the better centers. Dumerville did his thing and was getting to Cutler on every play.

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