My Jets are looking like the real deal folks. I thought the Titans were overrated but I didn't expect the beat down they got today. Heard all this stuff about their "tough" D, HA! WHO'S NEXT!
IMO, the Giants should be going for it on 4th and inches. You make it and the game is over. Seems like better odds than a Carney FG, which all but ends it.
Too bad the defense is too banged up to carry the Pats into January. Because their offense this years is starting to look an awful lot like their offense last year...
I enjoyed watching Matt Ryan slice up the Panthers today though. He throws better, makes better decisions, manages a game better, elevates his teamates better and is just flat out better as a rook than any QB the Lions have had in my lifetime.
You know, if the Giants hadn't won the Superbowl last year, I'd feel the same way Howard. However, they did win, so I feel like we can be as cocky as we want to be. Defending champs, and better this year. We have the best O-Line and D-Line in football, and it's pretty easy to win a bunch of games when that's the case. God that O-Line is so sick.
Nah, I don't really understand why Philly fans are so eager to get the Kevin Kolb era underway. I know the dude from Texas and he's nothing special.
That said, the Eagles should be ashamed of the way they've wasted DMac's career. With the exception of that year with TO, he's been throwing to bums since he came into the league. In fact, Philly ain't had a gamebreaker at wideout since, uh, Harold Carmichael?
Watching the extremely evenly matched Colts'n'Bolts game. I'm torn between my general hatred of San Diego (the team, not the city - though the city's tainted by association) and the fact that the Colts and Pats are likely to be competing for the AFC Wild Card. Hmm.
Jets look for real; the best team in the AFC at the moment. I'm loving Matt Cassel: a high-school quarterback indeed.
I would love to make a list of all the teams that have not had a quarterback as good as Matt Ryan has been this year, since say 1978 (liberalization of the passing rules).
I'll say for sure the bears and lions. Anybody else want to jump in?
blackink: Mike Quick would like to have a word with you.
But yes - that was the worst offensive game I've seen from the Eagles in 10 years or so. My God were they horrible. Congrats to Andy Reid for destroying the confidence of two QBs in one game.
Steve Grogan, Drew Bledsoe, and Tom Brady never had back-to-back 400 yard passing games for the Patriots. Matt Cassel has just done it. He'll be making a lot of money in the off-season, stay or go.
He'd be an upgrade for half of the teams in the league right now, at least.
What I really want is a Pats-Jets matchup in the playoffs, so Eric Mangina can suffer the tortures of the damned as Favre turns in his usual playoff stinker.
As a woeful Niners fan, I can still remember the afternoon when Cowboy fans in their typical B grade style booed Troy Aikman, who had only taken them to the Super Bowl 3 times, and Terrell Owens, a less than woeful 49er then, gleefully danced on the Dallas star twice after making touchdowns.
I thought those fans deserved it for their unworthy treatment of Aikman, but these days, forget TO, Jerry Rice, the most dominant player at any position in NFL history is just a memory breezing by the Dallas secondary into the endzone. Oh well, the bloom is long gone from the rose (isn't Shaun Hill the name of that British guy who acts in comedy horror and cop movies? And let me tell you he is better than the alternative-que horror!).
However, I must say, those Cowboys will have to how about better than they did today to get anywhere big time. The Giants certainly would have scored twice against them from the 4 yard line in the first quarter.
Rooting for Dallas--mmmnph, mmmmnph.
It is a down year for the NFL, but things are shaping up for a really interesting, up for grabs playoff season. In the AFC you probably have the Steelers, Titans, Colts and Jets as the four best teams, in what order I do not know. The Giants are in a league by themselves over in the still-worse than-the-AFC NFC. As a Steeler fan, I would like to think that our line will improve enough that we will have a good shot at the Super Bowl. Not out of the question is an all Manning Super Bowl either.
As for the Colts call to pass on 4th and inches - I think I would have punted it there and taken it to OT haha...gutsy call and good for them. Those kinds of plays are what the Pats did all last year - passing when normal teams would run and get stuffed.
Man, I feel so sorry for McNabb. So much wasted talent.
He may be done and over the hill now, but for about 4 or 5 seasons he played like an MVP and carried an eagles team with wide receivers that would be #3 at best in a decent team and the most horrendous offensive play calling by a team that matters. No wonder he is always injured.
He carried Andy Reid for half a decade and now is being thrown to the wolves, and Reid did not even have the courtesy to tell him he was being benched to his face.
The Redskins continue to be a good enough team when I'm watching them on TV, and totally flat when I'm not.
I missed the opener against the Giants, the Steelers game, and went to bed at halftime of the second Dallas game. (I was running way behind on sleep - not my fault.) I've watched everything else.
And in what games (or halves, in Dallas' case) have the Redskins showed pretty much nothing? Exactly. They ought to pay me to watch.
Shotgun? Five wide, no backfield? You know the Dolphins thought -- or hoped -- that that was gonna be some kind of trick play the first couple of times.
But no. They finally gave Cassel the keys to the full-blown New England Air Assault of Doom -- and he ran it like a veteran. Look out, NFL.
FWIW, I think Cassel gets a franchise tag and a big raise, plays part-time next year as Brady gets back into the swing of things, and -- assuming Brady can come back at something like full capability -- goes somewhere else in 2010 for Very Large Money.
IMO it is also not impossible that a less-than-100% Brady goes somewhere else in 2010 while Cassel inherits the throne.
What I really want is a Pats-Jets matchup in the playoffs, so Eric Mangina can suffer the tortures of the damned as Favre turns in his usual playoff stinker.
That would be the most beautiful thing EVER.
I think it's too soon to talk about Cassel's future-- it all depends on Brady's health, I suspect. But he just keeps getting better.
As a NYJ fan I don't like to admit it, but the hated NYG are best by far. Their line play is flat-out scary and even without Jacobs and Plax in the game they dominate. As it gets colder their punishing style will get more and more overwhelming.
The fact that they're doing this minus two all-pro D lineman from last year is ridiculous.
Any given Sunday and all that, but absent a rash of injuries or a serious Eli meltdown they will roll the NFC. Then, in the big game, I think the top teams in the AFC only beat them 2-3 times out of 10.
Look for the "eli is better than peyton" talk to get louder and louder over the coming month.
dbt/ali:
Da Bears haven't had a consistently decent quarterback since Sid Luckman, truth be told. Even McMahon was hurt regularly and had an attitude problem.
Speculation on the Vikings' sports-talk AM station as to who they should try and sign for QB next year (because Frerotte isn't that good, and is old besides, and Tarvaris Jackson will never be good enough). They were high on Donovan McNabb, which would be cool, but I wonder how much he has left in the tank. He wouldn't be expected to carry the offense because we've got Adrian Peterson, but he's got a decent corps of WRs to throw the ball to.
Frerotte was an improvement over T-Jack, but QB is still one of their weak points. Still, they'll be tied for 1st going into the big game against the Bears this weekend. Maybe they'll win the division and have the honor of losing to the Cowboys or whichever wild-card team comes out of the NFC South in the 1st round.
Give Brett Favre three months to meld with any team and they cease to be your team or my team; hy ar Brett's team, and they are playing
football with the same commitment that 10 mil Obama supporters made to the concepts of Hope, hange, abd Yes We Can. This Jets team--I mean Leon Washington had nothing on a cougar about to pounce on a mongoose for dinner when he cut through daylight at the speed of light--is possessed with not just Ye We Can,but plays with the attitude of Hell Yes We Already Are,So You Best Get The Hell Outda Way! The Way Mang had the offense spread the field on the exposed secondary of the Titans set the table for Favre to work his magic, enabling Leon to work his, too. un game to watch--unless you're Ted Thompsen of The Retarded Front Office of The Packers.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
My Jets are looking like the real deal folks. I thought the Titans were overrated but I didn't expect the beat down they got today. Heard all this stuff about their "tough" D, HA! WHO'S NEXT!
There is no real game until tomorrow night when the Saints play. You may commence your mockery now.
Hey, don't knock the 49ers. They have hearts of gold (and the worst owners in professional football).
At least America's Team, the Oakland Raiders, are beating the evil Broncos.
Ravens smack the Eagles. Between the Jets/Pats, Colts, and Ravens, which team is going to get the wild card this year in the AFC?
Probably not Ravens, but its been a great ride.
Jets are gonna take the division, so it ain't them.
IMO, the Giants should be going for it on 4th and inches. You make it and the game is over. Seems like better odds than a Carney FG, which all but ends it.
I haven't seen a Bears game since late last year (moved to a different market), and from everything I've read, this is likely a good thing.
My Lions are still on the path to making history...yes we can.
Hey! Matt Cassel! WTF? Dude is on fire right now.
Too bad the defense is too banged up to carry the Pats into January. Because their offense this years is starting to look an awful lot like their offense last year...
as a giants fan, i guess i have to accept that they are probably the top team in the game right now, even though i have trouble believing it....
I think the G-Men & the Jets are the two best teams right now.
Yes we can Hassan! Fired up and ready to lose.
I enjoyed watching Matt Ryan slice up the Panthers today though. He throws better, makes better decisions, manages a game better, elevates his teamates better and is just flat out better as a rook than any QB the Lions have had in my lifetime.
You know, if the Giants hadn't won the Superbowl last year, I'd feel the same way Howard. However, they did win, so I feel like we can be as cocky as we want to be. Defending champs, and better this year. We have the best O-Line and D-Line in football, and it's pretty easy to win a bunch of games when that's the case. God that O-Line is so sick.
The Detroit Lions had the lead in the first half. That's pretty revolutionary for this season. What a fantastic franchise
My Falcons still have a shot at the playoffs! It was electric in the GA Dome today & a great thrashing of the Panthers.
Bills finally freakin' win a game, but it's like all the rest of the wins: against sub-standard competition.
Damn Fred. Like that?
Nah, I don't really understand why Philly fans are so eager to get the Kevin Kolb era underway. I know the dude from Texas and he's nothing special.
That said, the Eagles should be ashamed of the way they've wasted DMac's career. With the exception of that year with TO, he's been throwing to bums since he came into the league. In fact, Philly ain't had a gamebreaker at wideout since, uh, Harold Carmichael?
Matt Cassel will be on the cover of Madden next year
check it
Watching the extremely evenly matched Colts'n'Bolts game. I'm torn between my general hatred of San Diego (the team, not the city - though the city's tainted by association) and the fact that the Colts and Pats are likely to be competing for the AFC Wild Card. Hmm.
Jets look for real; the best team in the AFC at the moment. I'm loving Matt Cassel: a high-school quarterback indeed.
AliHajiSheik,
I would love to make a list of all the teams that have not had a quarterback as good as Matt Ryan has been this year, since say 1978 (liberalization of the passing rules).
I'll say for sure the bears and lions. Anybody else want to jump in?
blackink: Mike Quick would like to have a word with you.
But yes - that was the worst offensive game I've seen from the Eagles in 10 years or so. My God were they horrible. Congrats to Andy Reid for destroying the confidence of two QBs in one game.
TNC
I'll probably not bother posting this again -- Chargers are sucking.
If that changes, I'll be the first one you hear from in your weekly open thread
Man, how do the Broncos let Oakland hang 31 on them...
Steve Grogan, Drew Bledsoe, and Tom Brady never had back-to-back 400 yard passing games for the Patriots. Matt Cassel has just done it. He'll be making a lot of money in the off-season, stay or go.
He'd be an upgrade for half of the teams in the league right now, at least.
What I really want is a Pats-Jets matchup in the playoffs, so Eric Mangina can suffer the tortures of the damned as Favre turns in his usual playoff stinker.
As a woeful Niners fan, I can still remember the afternoon when Cowboy fans in their typical B grade style booed Troy Aikman, who had only taken them to the Super Bowl 3 times, and Terrell Owens, a less than woeful 49er then, gleefully danced on the Dallas star twice after making touchdowns.
I thought those fans deserved it for their unworthy treatment of Aikman, but these days, forget TO, Jerry Rice, the most dominant player at any position in NFL history is just a memory breezing by the Dallas secondary into the endzone. Oh well, the bloom is long gone from the rose (isn't Shaun Hill the name of that British guy who acts in comedy horror and cop movies? And let me tell you he is better than the alternative-que horror!).
However, I must say, those Cowboys will have to how about better than they did today to get anywhere big time. The Giants certainly would have scored twice against them from the 4 yard line in the first quarter.
Rooting for Dallas--mmmnph, mmmmnph.
ML&J,
Cassel will make a bundle, which means it'll be stay, not go. No way the Pats are paying that kind of $$ for a backup QB.
It is a down year for the NFL, but things are shaping up for a really interesting, up for grabs playoff season. In the AFC you probably have the Steelers, Titans, Colts and Jets as the four best teams, in what order I do not know. The Giants are in a league by themselves over in the still-worse than-the-AFC NFC. As a Steeler fan, I would like to think that our line will improve enough that we will have a good shot at the Super Bowl. Not out of the question is an all Manning Super Bowl either.
As for the Colts call to pass on 4th and inches - I think I would have punted it there and taken it to OT haha...gutsy call and good for them. Those kinds of plays are what the Pats did all last year - passing when normal teams would run and get stuffed.
dbt - 85 McMahon was a pro bowler. I expect Ryan to surpass him, but I would take the 85 McMahon over a 08 Ryan (I think).
Tampa has been awful at the QB position. New Orleans has been dreadful as well.
I would say almost every dog franchise has had its day at the QB position other than Detroit, Tampa and NO. The Cards even had Lomax.
Man, I feel so sorry for McNabb. So much wasted talent.
He may be done and over the hill now, but for about 4 or 5 seasons he played like an MVP and carried an eagles team with wide receivers that would be #3 at best in a decent team and the most horrendous offensive play calling by a team that matters. No wonder he is always injured.
He carried Andy Reid for half a decade and now is being thrown to the wolves, and Reid did not even have the courtesy to tell him he was being benched to his face.
The Redskins continue to be a good enough team when I'm watching them on TV, and totally flat when I'm not.
I missed the opener against the Giants, the Steelers game, and went to bed at halftime of the second Dallas game. (I was running way behind on sleep - not my fault.) I've watched everything else.
And in what games (or halves, in Dallas' case) have the Redskins showed pretty much nothing? Exactly. They ought to pay me to watch.
Shotgun? Five wide, no backfield? You know the Dolphins thought -- or hoped -- that that was gonna be some kind of trick play the first couple of times.
But no. They finally gave Cassel the keys to the full-blown New England Air Assault of Doom -- and he ran it like a veteran. Look out, NFL.
FWIW, I think Cassel gets a franchise tag and a big raise, plays part-time next year as Brady gets back into the swing of things, and -- assuming Brady can come back at something like full capability -- goes somewhere else in 2010 for Very Large Money.
IMO it is also not impossible that a less-than-100% Brady goes somewhere else in 2010 while Cassel inherits the throne.
What I really want is a Pats-Jets matchup in the playoffs, so Eric Mangina can suffer the tortures of the damned as Favre turns in his usual playoff stinker.
That would be the most beautiful thing EVER.
I think it's too soon to talk about Cassel's future-- it all depends on Brady's health, I suspect. But he just keeps getting better.
Is it just me, or are the Viqueens the best the NFC central has to offer?
Pack looked weak, and Chicago is anemic.
I don't think Cassel will keep it up. He's streaky.
'hawks are trying too hard. They could have beat the 'skins.
Was it just me, or did Culpepper look like he had eaten another person since he last played? He must have put on 40-50 pounds.
I feel like a genius for picking the Chiefs second win. I was feeling good when we sat down for lunch after church and they led 14-10.
The AFC west has to be the worst division the NFL has seen in quite some time. I think seven wins pretty much locks it down, and six may do it.
Tiers:
1. Giants
2. Titans, Jets, Steelers, Pats
3. Ballmer, Tampa, Carolina, Colts, Fins, Cowboys, Cards
As a NYJ fan I don't like to admit it, but the hated NYG are best by far. Their line play is flat-out scary and even without Jacobs and Plax in the game they dominate. As it gets colder their punishing style will get more and more overwhelming.
The fact that they're doing this minus two all-pro D lineman from last year is ridiculous.
Any given Sunday and all that, but absent a rash of injuries or a serious Eli meltdown they will roll the NFC. Then, in the big game, I think the top teams in the AFC only beat them 2-3 times out of 10.
Look for the "eli is better than peyton" talk to get louder and louder over the coming month.
Cassell probably gets the non exclusive franchise tag. Does someone pay the price (1st and 2nd?)
dbt/ali:
Da Bears haven't had a consistently decent quarterback since Sid Luckman, truth be told. Even McMahon was hurt regularly and had an attitude problem.
Speculation on the Vikings' sports-talk AM station as to who they should try and sign for QB next year (because Frerotte isn't that good, and is old besides, and Tarvaris Jackson will never be good enough). They were high on Donovan McNabb, which would be cool, but I wonder how much he has left in the tank. He wouldn't be expected to carry the offense because we've got Adrian Peterson, but he's got a decent corps of WRs to throw the ball to.
Frerotte was an improvement over T-Jack, but QB is still one of their weak points. Still, they'll be tied for 1st going into the big game against the Bears this weekend. Maybe they'll win the division and have the honor of losing to the Cowboys or whichever wild-card team comes out of the NFC South in the 1st round.
Look for the "eli is better than peyton" talk to get louder and louder over the coming month.
Eli seems to be less of a douchebag, too, which is nice.
Yesterday the Gmen take another step on the path to become the next great dynasty. 2peat this season is looking more and more likely.
Give Brett Favre three months to meld with any team and they cease to be your team or my team; hy ar Brett's team, and they are playing
football with the same commitment that 10 mil Obama supporters made to the concepts of Hope, hange, abd Yes We Can. This Jets team--I mean Leon Washington had nothing on a cougar about to pounce on a mongoose for dinner when he cut through daylight at the speed of light--is possessed with not just Ye We Can,but plays with the attitude of Hell Yes We Already Are,So You Best Get The Hell Outda Way! The Way Mang had the offense spread the field on the exposed secondary of the Titans set the table for Favre to work his magic, enabling Leon to work his, too. un game to watch--unless you're Ted Thompsen of The Retarded Front Office of The Packers.
I think Teddy T. is feeling BGR's wrath tonight.
Phentrimine is used for treating female infertility.