Who would have ever thought that we'd be sitting here in week 10 and not a single team has more than 7 wins. There aren't any undefeated teams, no one really stands out.
In fact, there isn't a single division where the division leader is ahead by more than one game. Every number 2 team in each division is only behind by a single game or less. That is unbelievable!
The ultimate in parity! Wow! This is what the NFL dreamed of when they enacted a salary cap and free agency. No dominant teams.
So who are the best teams?
In the AFC, I think the top tier of teams includes the Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Jets, Colts (and the Colts aren't as good as we normally think, too many injuries). Then you have the second tier which includes Tennessee, Chargers, Raiders (I know, I can't believe it either), Chiefs, and Miami. Because there is so much parity, just about anyone can still win their division. Even the 3-6 Denver Broncos, who just beat the division leading Chiefs (detroyed them, really), have a damn good chance at winning their division. Almost every division will come down to the wire. What an awesome time to be alive!
On the NFC side, the top tier of teams looks to be Giants, Eagles, Packers, and Falcons. While the rest is up for grabs. Only the Falcons have 7 wins on the NFC side of things. While in the AFC, the Jets and Patriots both have 7 wins. Sure the Saints and Bears look good, but so does Tampa Bay. So who knows what will happen this year. Every division is up for grabs on the NFC side as well. You even have a team like the Bears (who aren't really that good) leading their division with some quality wins and much better play now. Should be an awesome finish!
A great time to be an NFL fan! Every team, including the 49ers, still have a realistic chance of winning their division!!!!!!!!!!!
On to the actual teams and issues!
Broncos:
The Broncos looked unstoppable against the division leading Chiefs this past Sunday. Of course, they looked like they couldn't stop anyone the game before that against Oakland. Both games were very one-sided. If Denver plays the way they did against the Chiefs on offense, defense, and special teams.... they could beat anyone. They almost beat Indianapolis and the Jets this year in very tight games. Their division is up for grabs. Yes, the Raiders are in the lead right now. Which is very strange. The Broncos have suffered some major injuries on the defensive side. Baltimore really beat us up. The Raiders took advantage of the newbies on defense. But it looks like we got it together now and a lot of the defensive guys are coming back tihs week.
Once again, Denver flat out looked unstoppable. 35-0 before anyone could even look up and peek at the scoreboard. We played prevent defense for nearly 3 quarters and the Chiefs still couldn't score. Finally, at the end of the 4th quarter they got a few scores. That is pretty amazing!
The Broncos finally look like they have a healthy offensive line with a decent configuration and scheme. We were running the ball when we needed to and getting a good push up front. That was nice to see. And seeing Moreno fight for those extra yards and that TD was nice. No runningback should ever go out of bounds on their own, they should fight for every yard. We played well in all phases of the game. The Oline played extremely well together and it looked like we were doing more zone blocking on the runs than the power blocking schemes that we usually employ. I think play-action passing works well off zone-blocking better. It also sounds like we scripted the first 18 plays, and wow... great results. 35-0 in less than 9 minutes of play.
It was a fun game to watch. The fear is always that the 3rd place team, San Diego, goes on a surge. Well, we have already played the toughest part of our schedule, while the toughest part of their schedule still lies ahead. So we will likely beat them out (but who knows). We will have to see what happens with the Raiders, but they probably won't win this division. Who knows though, it's anyone's division. We will see what the Broncos are made of Monday night at Qualcomm when they destroy the Chargers. That game will go a long way towards defining who really is in control of this division. A loss for SD and they cuold be staring at a very tough road ahead with all the divisional losses piling up. A win for Denver and things could really be looking up with only one divisional loss and plenty of more games to go.
Todd Haley:
Todd Haley should be added to the "NFL Assholes" list along with Jeff Fischer and the entire Titans defensive unit. Why wouldn't you shake coach McDaniels' hand afterwards? That is bizarre. This is the NFL. One of the tie-breakers is point differential, there is nothing wrong with running up the score. Especially, in a year where it may go to 3rd or 4th tiebreakers. These guys are all grown men, they can handle it. Their emotions aren't going to be hurt. Oakland didn't let up on us. And Haley wouldn't let up either, if he had the lead. Plus, you can argue that we did let up. It was 35-0 in the first quarter and we ended up with only 49 points and let them have 29 points. So calm down Todd Haley. Todd Haley has always had a bizarre personality, and it's becoming more and more evident. Go back and read some of what he used to do in Arizona with the other coaches and players. He is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Please seek medical and psychiatric advice. And pull the large object out of your ass. People with such bizarre personality disorders don't last long. I wouldn't be surprised if he rubs people the wrong way and gets the boot from Pioli and Co. in KC. Good riddance weirdo!
Bears:
I don't care about the Chicago Bears, but I live in Chicago, so I have to pay closer attention to the Bears than I'd like. That's all anyone at work ever talks about.
The Bears need some serious help. Not physical. They need mental help. They need to hire mental coaches. Yes, coaches to coach Jay Cutler how to sound more intelligent and think more logically. After the loss to Washington, Cutler says, "I’d still, if we had to play them tomorrow, I’d go at him every time if we could" about DeAngelo Hall. Hall intercepted Cutler FOUR TIMES and returned some of them for touchdowns. Hall said, "If I had to play Jay Cutler every single week, man, I’d be in the Hall of Fame." Wow! And WOW!
First of all, the NFL should apologize to all fans that had to watch that putrid game between Washington and Chicago. What the hell was that? The worst game of the year. They should probably even refund everyone's ticket prices and force the Bears to fire their coaches, players, and GM that has made all of this possible. What a disaster of a team. Cutler has to be one of the least mentally gifted players with major foot in mouth disease. Why does he keep sticking his foot into his mouth? Just shut up and say, "DeAngelo had a great game. I made some serious mistakes, we will work to correct those errors." Wow!
Looking at the bright side, it looks like the Bears have finally found an Oline alignment and scheme that works for them. That's good. Cutler is being protected, but he is still a dumbass. I don't know how many more games he can throw away before they come down on him and really start blaming him. The guy just throws it up and doesn't care who catches it. Then he blames everyone else but himself.
Cutler has never been the brightest guy on earth. Very talented, but he is limited by his mental capacity and immaturity. His father isn't helping the situation and is egging him on. No QB can ever be successful in Chicago, and Cutler will last a few more years. It sucks to see such great talent go to waste. The comparisons to Jeff George are brought up nearly every day in the media here and countless articles and comparisons have been published. The kid needs to quickly realize that playing in the NFL is a privelage that doesn't last long. He needs to become humble and work very hard to improve himself. Otherwise, he will end up in the garbage dump of history (next to Ryan Leaf and Jeff George). Or he could ask to be traded to a place that actually has good QB coaches... like for example, Denver? Hahahahahaha!!!!!! No thanks!
Michael Vick:
There is nothing to say really. That is probably the single best performance I have ever seen by a quarterback ever! What else can you say? Over 400 yards of total offense and 6 total touchdowns. In fantasy points, he was good for 60.60 points. I don't know that I have ever seen that many points from one player ever. I've been playing and watching football since the mid 1980s, and that was simlpy out of this world. Any one disagree?
I've watched Elway, Montana, Marino, Kelly, Brady, Manning, Favre, and all modern day quarterbacks.... this was something different. It has never been done before! Vick was simply amazing and I think he just turned in the single best performance by a professional football player ever.
I am glad Vick is doing well and excelling in the system designed by Mornhinweg and Reid. People deserve second chances and Vick got his. There are people in the NFL that have actually killed HUMANS and are still playing, so I think people should stop with the stupidity surrounding Vick. Yes, torturing and killing dogs is very, very bad, but he has served his time (probably even more time than he should have served), and he hasn't killed humans. Ray Lewis, Charles Grant, Donte Stallworth, Ray Caruth.... human killers.
I would like to see what else Vick can do. This is going to be a very fun year to watch NFL games, especially Eagles games. Go Vick, Go!
Shanahan:
I am embarrassed by Shanahan. What the hell is he doing? I think we now know why he was so hard to get along with and couldn't keep any good coaches around him for too long. He never let John Elway into the building after Elway retired (nor Rod Smith), and I think we are seeing some of his madness now. He is really, really insane.
After benching McNabb for Grossman (yes, you are reading this correctly), he has the audacity to say that McNabb didn't know the 2-minute offense well enough? Then later retracts to McNabb didn't have the cardiovascular endurance to run it? Holy crap? Did he just take a dump on McNabb? Who the hell says that? Shanny should just admit his mistake (something he never does) and apologize. A simple, "It's my fault, I should have left Donovan in there." Sheeesh! Just admit your mistake, apologize and move on. This is becoming one of the best drama stories ever! Then they go and re-sign McNabb to a big contract. What the hell? This is the most bizarre of bizarreness the NFL has seen in a very long time. Wow! If anything can be worse than the Bears and Cutler's attitude, it's Shanahan's Shenanigens! Maybe he groomed Cutler into what he is today (doubt it).
Shanahan is one of those perfectionists that is never satisfied. Even after the Broncos won the Super Bowl, you'd be in the post game meeting getting yelled at thinking that you just lost a game. He is obssessed and insane with this perfectionism. After hosting the AFC Championship Game in 2005 with a virtually mistake free Plummer for the entirity of the season, and starting the 2006 season 7-2, he benches Plummer for Cutler and the season is lost. All the talent and players that they had amassed went to waste. They had the chance there to really go far. But nothing was good enough for him.
A book was written many years ago about the Denver Broncos organization, and what it was like for a journalist to try out for the team (as a kicker) and live with the players and talk to Shanahan candidly and interview him, and it shows a lot of what is going on here with Shanahan. A lot of bizarre mental games and a perfectionism that is almost deadly. The rest of the league is finally seeing Shanahan for who he is.... a bizarre maniac who is out of touch with reality.
Shanahan is also arrogant. How can you keep trading away 1000 yard running backs and still expect to be competitive? Droughns, Portis, Anderson, Bell, and plenty of others. 1000 yard rushes don't grow on trees. You can't keep thinking that you can just plug in anyone and still win. You can't keep getting rid of assistants and blaming them for your problems. Shanny needs to man up and accept responsibility for his own stupidity.
Hainesworth? Does that crazy insane situation now make sense? Shanny is truly insane and pushes people to the brink of insanity (due to his own insanity).
Does he hear himself speak? McNabb didn't know the 2-minute offense? In a winnable game against the Lions? THE LIONS? Put in Grossman? To lose it? Does he actually hear what he is saying and how insane that sounds?
I don't know how Washington fans can put up with this. This is absolutely atrocious and insane beyond belief.
Is Shanny a really good coach? Everyone always points to the 2 Super Bowl wins. Sure, it's easy to win super bowls with that many future hall of famers on your roster. Elway, Sharpe, Davis, McCaffery, Smith, that offensive line. They may not all end up in the hall of fame, but they could. How hard is it to win with those guys? Sure, he brought in the zone-blocking scheme, and the west coast offense, and tamed Elway... but did he bring anytihng else? Is he really a good coach? I don't know the answer. I know that he won 2 super bowls, back to back, and that is usually enough to give you the label "good coach". Heck, Madden didn't do anything and he got to the hall of fame.
Sometihng really needs to change in DC before he goes even crazier. Washington fans get ready for the rollercoaster ride of your lives for the next 5 years (if you keep him around for that long): a new defensive coordinator every year, washed up free agents every year, bizarre drafts, crazy mental fights with players and QBs, asking for more money for new facilities, losing records, terrible defensive play, playing mind games with QBs and players, soft practices with no hitting, poor conditioning, and lots of other fun stuff.
The Rest of the NFL:
The Colts are really banged up, and this may lead to them not making or barely squeaking into the playoffs. The Bears aren't as good as their record indicates. The Cowboys needs some mental toughness and urgency. The Patriots are really young and are playing very well, I think they are better than their record indicates. Atlanta is playing very, very well right now. They seem to have everything going well, offense, defense and special teams. They could win the NFC, unless the Saints get their act together (injuries are hurting them).
The Giants look good despite the loss to the Cowboys. Sometimes you just hiccup. Either them or Atlanta are the best team in the NFC. The Bucs look really good and have been winning a lot of games that they should not be winning. I am impressed with their resiliance and their QB play. Blount is helping as well.
The Jets don't look as good as their record indicates, I didn't like them last year either. They snuck into the playoffs when Indy decided to throw the game. But we will see. Baltimore is more complete and should get one of the wild cards. The Jets will likely not get the other. I think the Patriots will win their division. Miami looks good, but has lost all their QBs. I am impressed with Thigpen, and alsways liked him, even when he replaced Croyle at KC. He will do well. They do need some back ups, not named Ronnie Brown.
The Steelers will probably win their division, simply because they already have a nice lead. Still dislike Big Ben as a QB (and especially as a human being), but they will beat out Baltimore and Cincy for the division. I think Baltimore gets one of the wild cards.
I think Denver can win their division, and I hope we do. If we don't the other wild card will likely go to the Jets/Patriots (whichever one doesn't win the division). Those teams are playing well enough to build up a good record and sneak in.
Should be a great year.
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