3-2 with one left, nice work, but 3-1 on your first ticket would have been even better. Can't believe the Saints pulled that off.
Week seven is in the books, and what an impressive week it was. Let's call it the week of the road warriors, because there were some mighty impressive victories on the road. Road win shoutouts go to GB, SD, Indy, Buffalo, NO(!), NYJ and Arizona. NE won in London, but that's not exactly the same thing as going into hostile territory. Several big games took center stage, with the biggest being the Vikes-Steelers matchup. Steelers come away with the win, but Vikes fans have to be mighty frustrated, as they saw two turnovers go back for TDs and three red zone trips produce a FG. Childress no doubt getting plenty of second-guessing for playcalling, Farve threw 51 times versus 19 carries for AP, and their inability to get in from the half yard line. It's not all gloom though for the Vikings. They can come away with some confidence that they went into one of the hardest venues in the league and pretty much outplayed the Steelers, except where it counts, on the scoreboard where the Steelers ended up 27-17. Another game with playoff significance took place in the meadowlands, with the Giants hosting the Cards. It looks like the Cards have finally learned how to play on the east coast. For QB Kurt Warner, it was a homecoming of sorts, as he played for the Giants Eli Manning's rookie year. I guess school's still in session for Eli, only this time it's the Arizona defense doing the teaching, as they threw all sorts of blitzes and coverage packages at him and picked him off three times in the 24-17 win. Yet another game with late season implications saw Dallas host Atlanta. Note to defensive coordinators: when playing Dallas, you have to gameplan Miles Austin. The Cowboys seem to have found their deep threat in the speedy Austin, who had two long TDs to go with a six catch, 171 yard performance. Atlanta had protected QB Matt Ryan like the Secret Service detail on President Obama, two sacks this year. Yesterday Dallas got to him four times and created two INTs and two fumbles in a surprisingly routine 37-21 win. The 49ers traveled to Houston, got behind early, switched QBs at the half, made a great comeback but still lost 24-21. Rookie WR/holdout poster child Michael Crabtree made all that preseason camp stuff look unnecessary, as he caught 5 passes for 56 yards, eclipsing the season long production of Oakland rookie WR Darrius Heywood-Bey, whose rich contract had contributed to Crabtree's holdout. I didn't like the Bears deal for Jay Cutler this summer, and even started a thread here on it. Cutler's impressive play made me think maybe I was wrong, but now I am more convinced than ever that I was right. The Bears have some playmakers, but they just do not have the overall talent to throw away that many high draft picks on a QB, no matter how good he is. Cincy proved my point yesterday, delivering a 45-10 thumping to the Bears, the kind of defeat that can have the Bears front office musing about replacing Lovie Smith with one of the ex-Super Bowl coaches out there. Of course, Lovie might ask them what they were thinking about when they gave away RBs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. Benson was a bust in two seasons for the Bears but managed to gash them for 189 yards yesterday. Oakland's brief week of respectablility following the eagles victory is officially over. They got the snot beat out of them yesterday by the visiting jets, 38-0. You want a weird game, I guess the best way to get it is to put Carolina and Buffalo together. Carolina has rivaled Tennessee for biggest disappointment of the year. Buffalo has become the master of winning with mirrors. Yesterday Carolina outgained the Bills almost 3 to 1 and had a ten minute time of possession advantage, and held Buffalo to 9 first downs. Just like last week against the Jets, it didn't matter as Buffalo parlayed four turnovers into a 20-9 win. SD traveled to KC and looked like we expected them to look, dynamic on offense. KC looked like we expected them to look, lousy. Result, SD won 37-7. I said I would probably look like an idiot for not going with Sd here, so I am officially an idiot. Actually I can forgive myself for passing on the Bolts, as my other picks went 4-0, giving me a 15-7 record against the spread for the season. I'll take it. Three of the games were the kind of games I like when I'm giving points, blowouts that were never in serious question. GB, Indy and NE just have too much firepower for the Browns, the Rams and the Bucs. Theother game, NO at Miami, certainly made up for the excitement deficit however. Miami ran the ball and stuffed NO on the way to a 24-3 first half lead, and I was having flashbacks to the Dolphins-Colts MNF game. The one thing you just absolutely cannot do however when protecting a lead against NO is to hand them two interception return TDs, which was exactly what Miami did. The awesome Saints offense did the rest, giving them an incredible 46-34 victory, and probably leaving the rest of the league wondering just what you have to do to beat these guys. Eagles at Redskins tonight.
Not sure if you saw the game, but I was there, and there were very few aspects of the game where the Vikes outplayed the Steelers. By the 4th quarter the Vikes were physically beat up on both sides of the ball. Vikes averaged 3.9 yards rushing for the game, compared to the Steelers 5.2. Vikes racked up the yardage with Farve, throwing the second most attempts in any game of his career. This was obviously the Vikes game plan, but I agree that they should have given the ball to Peterson every time on the goal line despite the lack of success in the run game.
How bout them Cardinals! They have a tiebreaker against a likely division winner and have the opportunity to get another one at home against the Vikes. Could the Cards go 12-4 this year? Let's go Eagles. Covering tonight gives me a second 3-0 week in the first half of the season and I my winning percentage always seems to improve a few points in the second half.
they are playing way over their head on the edge of disaster. i'd like to see their eratic D every other play blitz a real BALANCED O like the Vikings
Here is a strong prop bet for tonight for those who have offshore books: PHI MAKES FIRST FG (-115 5DIMES) PHI averages 2.4 attempts, allows 1 attempt per gam. WAS attempts 1.3, allows 2.3 per game. Philly fairly strong favorite, will do more scoring in this game. Philly has elected to receive the one time they won the coin, WAS has elected to receive twice and deferred once, in their last home game versus the Chiefs.
If Philly wins the coin toss they will recieve. The will have to find out early if they are going to bench McNabb or not. McNabb had a brutal game last week and Philly will be looking to make a switch if McNabb decides to not show up.
You got me, I didn't see it. Perhaps "outplayed" was a little strong. Still, if the Vikes had not gone to soft prevent defense at the end of the first half, they likely would have taken a 7-3 lead to the locker room. Then they gave away two TDs on 75 yard+ turnover returns, plus they settled for a FG when they couldn't get in from the half yard line. Three red zone trips netted them minus 11 points. I can see calling it great red zone defense, but if I were a Vikes fan trying to put a positive spin on it, I would say how likely is that to happen again? I'm not criticizing Chilfress for the two play action passes at the goal line. If they score, no one is commenting on it. Still, AP is hard to bring down, particularly if he can get the edge. I do think he should have gone for the TD on fourth down. If you can't punch it in from there, you don't deserve to win. Must have been a great game to see in person.