It's that time of year where people start drafting their fantasy football teams and start doing research.

One thing I like to do is look at game to game consistency and production. Below is my list of players that consistently perform well, game after game, at their respective positions that you should be targetting. Consistency may be a bad thing, because you may be consistently mediocre or consistently bad. So be wary of these lists.

QB:
Aaron Rodgers. He's the only one that is in a class by himself in terms of consistency. And being consistently good. Then you have:
Roethlisberger. Consistently mediocre. But very consistent.
Brees
Schaub
Favre. Will he play this year?
P. Manning
Rivers
Brady
Romo
McNabb

RB:
Chris Johnson
Adrian Peterson
Ray Rice
Frank Gore
Thomas Jones. He may have a more reduced role this year.
Maurice Jones Drew. This is about where you can draw the line. MJD and the above guys (except Jones) are likely going to be the top 5 RBs this year. The rest are questionable, but still have a chance to make it to the top 5. We never really know what will happen.
Ryan Grant
Steven Jackson
Joseph Addai
Cedric Benson
Ricky Williams
DeAngelo Williams. Any of these guys still have a chance at making it into the top 5 and it depends on other factors; injuries, playing time, scheming, whether their team plays well or poorly down the stretch, etc.

WR:
Andre Johnson
Larry Fitzgerald
Randy Moss
Miles Austin
DeSean Jackson
Sidney Rice
Reggie Wayne
Steve Smith
Chad Johnson
Marques Colston
WesWelker
Steve Smith
Vincent Jackson
Roddy White

TE:
Antonio Gates
Dallas Clark
Brent Celek
Vernon Davis
Tony Gonzalez

Of all these players, Tight Ends seem to be the most consitently consistent year to year and game to game. If you draft one of the top 2 or 3 tight ends from last year, they are most likely to be one of the top 2 or 3 tight ends this year. This is good to know.

Should you be targetting these players? Yes! These guys perform the most consistently game in and game out. It's good to know. While they may not always be the guy that scores the highest at his position, he will score in a consistent manner from game to game.

Enjoy!

First of all, what an amazing match up. It's been a long time since we have had both number one seeds make it to the super bowl (1993, I think). Peyton Manning, son of Archie (the Saints super hero), will take on Payton (Sean) and the Saints in Miami, where Peyton won his other super bowl in 2006 in the rain (the only one where it rained the entire game). 

A ton of story lines exist. Archie Manning was the world's greatest Saint for many years. But they never made the playoffs and never went to a super bowl. Finally, Payton (Sean) comes to town along with Drew Brees, and no one remembers the good old Archie days... it's all about Payton now, Sean, not Manning.

This is going to be an exciting super bowl as their ever was. Since 1997, nearly every super bowl has been more super than the one before. We remember Elway in 1997 beating Favre's Packers in a close one. Which until that point in time, was the best super bowl ever. Then in 1999, the Rams beat the Titans in a really close one. We all remember McNair's pass that was one yard short of a game winning touchdown. Then in 2001 the Patriots barely won by a field goal. And again in 2002. Then we had the McNabb last minute drive, but to no avail. Then 2005 the Jerome Bettis show in another squeaker against Seattle. Then 2006 when Manning beat the Bears. Who can forget Devin Hester's opening kickoff return? Then the 2007 between the 18-0 Patriots and Giants with the miracle catch? And then 2008 with another amazing catch and a drive by the Cardinals to nearly win it.

Wow!

So this should be another great game. Featuring two of the best offenses the NFL has ever seen. I have been saying all year, if you haven't had a chance to watch the Saints play, go back and watch them on NFL.com. Especially, focus on the game against the Patriots, and their two playoff games. In a single playoff run, the Saints may have sent two hall of fame quarterbacks into permanent retirement. Kurt Warner has certainly retired, and Favre has probably played his last game as well.

And we all have seen what Manning can do. He is a coach on the field, and knows exactly what is going on at all times. This is shaping to be a helluva match up!

The Offenses:

The Saints offense is a progression based offense. Very similar to a West Coast Offense. Use the underneath passes to set up the deep balls. Progress through your reads from deep to short (as opposed to short to deep in the West Coast Offense). Find the open guy. This offense is based off the theory that, we have a ton of tall, talented receivers, and QB that can get them the ball, can you cover our fourth and fifth options? Throughout the year, very few defenses had enough talent to cover that fourth or fifth receiver. Brees thrives on going through his progressions, and hitting the guy that is open. This progression based offense takes time to develop.

The Colts offenses is an adjustment based offense. Peyton comes to the line of scrimmage and from a single formation can run 5-7 different plays. He waits for the defense to reveal itself. He can wait till the play clock gets down to 6 seconds. If you move or reveal yourself, he quickly changes the play and snaps the ball with plenty of time. If it is a pass play, the first three seconds after the snap are all Peyton needs to figure out the defense and get rid of the ball to the open guy. He has so many weapons and options, it's crazy what he can do. Most teams will cover Wayne, but he has Clark, Collie, Garcon, Brown available as well. Can your safety cover the 4th receiver? Or did he cheat up and play the run? Manning can adjust on the fly.

When you watch the game Sunday, watch and contrast these two offenses. Manning will get rid of the ball within 3 seconds of the snap. Brees will hang on and go through his progressions and let plays develop. Watch this and see how they each play.

The Defenses: (my favorite part)

The Saints have an aggressive, attacking defense, just ask Warner and Favre. Their base formation is "2 Man Under". They play two zone safeties overtop and man cover the WRs underneath. Their front 7 is very aggressive and can get to the QB. They are energized and playing with aggression under Greg Williams scheme. They will try to come after Manning, but Manning's line can hold them back long enough for Manning to release the ball (which is quick). The cover two on the top needs to come up and cover the TEs and will be too far back for all the complicated short routes that Manning can employ. If they sit back to protect against the long ball, Manning will dink and dunk them to death. They have given up more 10-play plus drives to opposing teams than anyone else in the NFL. The weakness in this defense is their linebackers. They are the weak link. Unless the front 4 can get to Manning, it will be a long day for them. If they start blitzing, they may get to Manning on a few plays, but e will quickl figure out the protections, like he did against the Jets. In order for them to win the battle against Manning they will have to bring a lot of pressure with their front 4 alone, let the LBs sit back and react, while trying to cover the TEs and underneath routes, and use all the DBs to man cover the WRs and protect the back. It's a tall order. One safety should play close to the line and cover the TEs or RB out of the backfield. They should play only one high (one safety deep) and get out of the two high o most downs. They can show two high, but get out when 4 seconds are left on the play clock. They need to disguise their coverage for as long as possible.

The Colts defense is also a Cover 2 base, but they play zone underneath. They also let the middle linebacker drop into deep third coverage in your basic Tampa 2 coverage. They are a read and react defense. They don't like exotic blitzing. They want to beat you with Freeny and Mathis and just the front 4. They usually can, against most teams. Larry Coyer, the defensive coordinator, has been able to get more out of these guys. They are a very fast defense! That's also why they can afford to read and react. This matches up very well against the Saints fast offense and weapons. The best way for the Saints to neutralize this defense is to run right at them with the bigger backs, Bell and Thomas, and try and wear out the defense. If they try to get fancy with screens and tosses to Bush to the outside (or run stretch runs) they will be losing yardage, not gaining. The Colts defense is a tough match up for the Saints. Drew Brees likes to go through progressions and take his time, and that gives the front 4 time to get to him. Freeny and Mathis (or whoever replaces Freeny) will have more time and can get to Brees. The DBs can cover the WRs long enough and have enough speed and manpower to keep Brees in check more times than not. The Saints only way to beat this defense is to run right at them straight on. Brees can dink and dunk too, but the Colts want that. They have speed and discipline and will give you the 3 yard gain.

Watch these defenses! You'll see the aggressive Saints defense and then contrast that to the read and react Colts defense. Should be an awesome match up to watch and see how each defense is going to attack the other offense. An awesome day for people who enjoy defense! This is the part I can't wait to see!

Outcome?

Ultimately, I think Manning will pull it off. I don't think it's going to be a high scoring 40-40 game. Maybe one team will get to 30. I expect the score to be 28-24 or 31-24. I think Manning's quick read and release will paralyze the Saints defense and render them ineffective (at least the front 7). It's gonna be up to the back 4 to try and contain this offense, and they can't. They don't have the speed or intelligence. They may make a few plays here and there, but Manning will come out on top.

The Saints offense plays right into the Colts defense's strengths. They like plays to develop and take long. Brees likes to go through progressions (unless they change this), and that doesn't bode well against a fast, read and react defense. The Saints defense is easy to dissect for Manning. If they blitz, let them come and pass it to the vacated location. If they don't blitz, get rid of the ball quickly to the most open WR. If they play 2 high and sit back, run at them. If they come up, hit them deeper. Should be exciting to watch. What if the Saints defense does get to Manning a few times? He will figure it out and adjust, like he did against the Jets.

Final score?

Colts 28-24.

I don't know that we've ever had a championship weekend where there have been as many amazing story lines as we have this year. No matter who wins these games, the story lines will only grow and increase in legend as we approach the super bowl. Probably the best post season in a long time!

The NFL is all about stories. This is what makes football the greatest sport ever. Football is about scheming, planning, practicing, strategy, gaining ground, losing ground, gaining yards, wearing out the defense, everyone working together to make each play work, coaches, coordinators, and the players executing. It's the greatest sport the world has ever seen. It's not like soccer where you have absolutely nothing going on for 90 minutes (other than utter chaos), then finally someone wins on a penalty kick with 1 minute to go, because a referee didn't like a certain team. Football is the King of Sports!

Stories grow into legends as the years go by. Stories are a crucial and huge part of the football experience.

Older fans never forget the third super bowl when the underdog Jets upset the Colts. It was the first AFL-NFL championship game to be called "Super Bowl". Newer fans will never forget the 2007 championship year, when the Giants came out of their mid-season slump to win three road playoff games, and upset the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl with one of the most amazing plays and catches of super bowl history.

Football is about stories. Here are this year's amazing stories:

You have the 40 year old quarterback trying to get to the super bowl. Elway was 39.

You have Manning, who may end up being the best QB ever, playing against a rookie.

You have three future hall of fame quarterbacks playing all at once, and a rookie whose story will unfold over time.

You have the Colts, who let the Jets into the playoffs, now having to play them again. Mistake? Or good planning?

You have Favre, who has thrown away more playoff games than any other QB, trying to redeem himself.

You have Manning who has only played in one super bowl trying to add to his super bowl deficient legacy.

You have Sanchez trying to be the first rookie quarterback ever to take his team to the super bowl.

You have Darrell Revis, the best DB in the NFL, going up against Reggie Wayne, one of the best WRs in the NFL.

You have the Colts amazing offense, going up against the NFL's No 1 defense.

You have Brees and the Katrina ravished New Orleans crowd playing for a chance to go to their first super bowl ever.

You have Jared Allen, Kevin and Pat Williams, and Ray Edwards trying to face Brees and the NFL's no 1 offense. Can they rattle him?

You have Reggie Bush, who finally started emerging, trying to justify his draft status and salary.

You have Percy Harvin, rookie of the year, trying to overcome migraines and play both RB and WR for the Vikes.

You have Percy Harvin, overcoming marijuana issues. (maybe it alleviated his migraines, someone get him a better doctor)

You have Adrian Peterson not running for over 100 yards in the last 8 games trying to redeem himself.

You have the Jets No 1 rush attack going against the speedy (but poor in run defense) Colts defense.

You have rookie Shonn Greene taking over the running duties in the playoffs for Jones.

You have the revitalized, improved Greg Williams led Saints defense trying to show that they can play well.

You have Favre who is 4-0 lifetime against Greg Williams led defenses, playing against a Greg Williams led defense.

You have Favre going back to play in his home state, but the fans aren't cheering for him.

So what will happen? Should be an amazing weekend! Will be awesome to watch all these games and see who will make it! The Colts Jets game is first! Enjoy this awesome weekend!

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!

What would happen if you took your teams win loss record, added in your opponent's win loss record, and opponent's opponent's win loss record? Or some combination of these records? Who would be the best team in the NFL based on "Strength of Schedule?" Who has beaten more quality opponents?

I found this posted on a message board on the internet. I am not sure who originally came up with this chart and formula. But I believe it is used in college basketball (RPI). Interesting read:

Okay, maybe that doesn't look so simple. Let's break it down just a little. "WP" is winning percentage, "OWP" is Opponent's Winning Percentage, and "OOWP" is Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage. Gee, thanks for clearing that all up, Jeff. No problem.....

Let's put it this way - RPI is one part how good the team's record is, two parts how good the teams they play are, and one part how good the schedule of the teams they played. Yes, it takes some doing to figure all of that out, but the basic premise is pretty simple. If you have a good record, that counts for something - or 25% of your RPI. Now you look at your schedule, which accounts for 50%. The final 25% is the toughest thing to affect you, which is how solid the record of your opponent's really is, which is judged by who they played.

Now, I like the concept here, but I have some issues with it. First, I don't understand how you can give the same weight to your direct record (WP) and something that a team has zero control over (OOWP). How is that fair? If Team A beats Team B, how is it fair to consider Team B's schedule as worth the same amount as your team's record? I don't.

There are "tweaks" out there that adjust the RPI math some, and I liked some of what they did - doing things such as subtracting a team's record from their opponent's record. This is considered a "modified" record, and has associated a "Modified OWP" (MOWP) and "Modified OOWP" (MOOWP). That makes sense to me - if Denver is 6-0 and their opponents are 16-18, that's not as accurate as taking away those six wins by Denver. If it wasn't for the Broncos, the opponents would actually be 16-12, a winning record and quite a bit different than 16-18. Another tweak is to remove the extra weight to the Opponent's Win Percentage (making WP, OWP and OOWP all equal). I can see this as good or bad, so color me indifferent on that one. 

This is already far too complicated, so I decided to hedge my bets and look at all four answers for team rankings, sort them by the average and let the chart speak to me, so here it is:

Here are the definitions of how I calculated the four rankings:

• Rk 1 = (1/3) WP + (1/3) OWP + (1/3) OOWP
• Rk 2 = (1/4) WP + (1/3) OWP + (1/4) OOWP
• Rk 3 = (1/3) WP + (1/3) MOWP + (1/3) MOOWP
• Rk 4 = (1/4) WP + (1/2) MOWP + (1/4) MOOWP

With

• (WP) = Winning Percentage
• (OWP) = Opponent's Winning Percentage
• (OOWP) = Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage
• (MOWP) = Modified Opponent's Winning Percentage
• (OOWP) = Modified Opponent's Opponent's Winning Percentage

So what do I see from the chart? There are some interesting things to take note:

1. According to this, the Super Bowl should be Denver and Minnesota. Of course, they don't play the Super Bowl on Halloween, but the Denver throwbacks are pretty scary. Either way, I'd rather see some other teams in the mix here.
2. Cincinnati isn't so bad after all. They actually benefit from the Denver loss as they are Top 10 across the board and also above some teams with zero or one losses.
3. The six AFC playoff teams should be Denver, Cincinnati, New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and San Diego. Not a bad list, but the Colts should be there - and are just off this list at #13. That's due to Tennessee's terrible record. Look for Indy to push San Diego off this list.
4. The six NFC playoff teams should be Minnesota, Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, Green Bay - and Seattle?
5. The NFC East is getting no respect, but after that 0-3 weekend in Week 6 and Dallas going nowhere fast, they deserve that amount of disrespect. Philadelphia needs to regroup fast and the New York Giants need to beat someone that's good.
6. The bottom feeders make sense. The worst six teams on the list should all be winless if it wasn't for five games between them, which gave Washington and Carolina two charity wins each and Kansas City their only victory.
7. Seattle (2-4) and Cleveland (1-5) appear to not be as bad as their records indicate, but I've seen the Browns and I respectfully disagree. I initially thought that the Seahawks were a different team with Matt Hasselbeck, but even that didn't work last week. I'm not buying either team on these middle rankings.
8. San Francisco is doing fine in the NFC West, but their 3-0 record in the division is topped by losses to Minnesota and Atlanta. Not looking so good for the NFC West winner this season, as they're a likely bet for a one-and-done in the postseason.

So there you have it - my first cut at an NFL BCS/RPI Power Ranking. Feel free to share your thoughts, but I thought that you might be interested in something a little more than a "From the Gut Top 32" ranking.

If I knew the original source of this I would credit the writer. Very interesting indeed!

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!

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.

More...