NFL Rambles

So I want to apologize for not doing my NFL picks for this week’s game.  And boy, am I glad I didn’t.  I would have lost my shirt if I did it for money.  What a wild week.  So to feed my obsession for sports and your obsession for my writing, here’s a few things that struck me as important this weekend.

The Patriots looked like the team they could have been all year on Sunday.  Their defense was flying all over the place, making tackles, closing holes, and gang tackling like the teams of yore.  The offense was just as high flying with Randy Moss catching 3 TD passes, Wes Welker being his usual steady self with over 10 receptions, and Tom Brady zipping the ball like the All-Pro he is.

I don’t think that Brady’s injuries have been discussed enough to explain the weakness that the Pats showed on both sides of the ball all year.  Any defense, even a young and cobbled-together one, will play well when they know their offense can give them a chance to rest and put some points on the board to help them.  When your offense is as explosive as the Pats, the D responds and plays better when the other team has to push to score points in a hurry.  With Brady being dinged up and not having a full week of practice for many weeks, the offense sputtered and all the pressure went onto the defense.  And we saw how that turned out.  The first week that Brady practices all week their offense clicks and the defense hums.  Coincidence…? I think not.

Brett Favre and Brad Childress need to have a deathmatch for the soul of the Vikings.  I’ve disliked Favre his entire career and to listen to sportscasters, he’s the second coming of Christ, but he is a talented QB.  Last night cemented the image that the offense stinks because of Childress, not because of talent on the field.  They get down to the one yard line and Favre waves off the change in personal and Brad still sent the jumbo package out to try and pound the ball in the end zone.  But he sent Chester Taylor out instead of Adrian Peterson.  WHAT!??!? How do you keep the ball out of the hands of the best power running back in the NFL today that also happens to lead the NFL in rushing TDs!?!?! So of course Taylor get stuffed and then Favre audibles a pass on the next play for a touchdown to Visanthe Shiancoe.

Later in the game, Childress leaves the play calling to Favre who gets the ball down to the 1 yard line again and Brett fakes out the Bears D with a up the gut run by Peterson for a TD.  This is going to end ugly in Minnesota.  As one of my favorite sports writers, Gregg Easterbrook over at ESPN, keeps saying…coaches are overrated on their “genuis” of play calling.  The best team in the league for scoring points…the Indianapolis Colts.  And who calls all their plays? Their QB, the great Peyton Manning.

Speaking of the Colts, what were they thinking? They squander a chance at history and still risk an injury to the greatest QB playing in the NFL today? Before you start squawking, hear me out.  As any Pats fan can tell you, in 7 minutes and 22 seconds into the first quarter, you can lose your QB for the season.  (And yes I just had to fight throwing up as I watched that play again to find that time for you.  See what I do for my readers.)

So why put Peyton out there at all if you’re “protecting” him or any of the starters? That argument is out the window, so it must be to keep them from getting rusty.  But that argument doesn’t hold any water either.  They play in a meaningless first half and leave the closing of the game to the scrubs? If you want to keep from getting rusty, why wouldn’t you play from behind in the second half? Having to play the best football you can to win a game is what you need to do every week in the playoffs to win a Super Bowl.  So if you’re going to play Peyton, Dallas, Reggie, and Joe, play them in the second half when they would have had to played great ball to pull out a victory which would do a lot more keeping them sharp and motivated for a Super Bowl run.

Let’s talk about teams getting hot at the right time.  I’m not sure if the Colts are cold or hot…it’ll depend how they come off this ludicrous defeat.  But I don’t think Peyton will let them lose, he’s too tough a competitor this year.  The Vikings are actually a little hot after last night’s loss to the Bears.  Their offense looked great in the second half and just might be clicking again.  The Chargers and the Pats are playing great football and look poised to make good runs into the playoffs.  The Cowboys are playing great football in the NFC East as are the Eagles which sets up the best game of this week, their Sunday afternoon match-up in Dallas.

And then we’ve got teams going towards the lower end of the temperature spectrum.  The Saints look terrible.  They are in a ton of trouble unless they wake up and smell the coffee.  The Bengals are lost.  It’s lucky they played all their in-division games early in the season because they’re limping over the finish line.  Everyone is really high on the Packers right now, but I think they have some huge weaknesses.  Aaron Rodgers still hasn’t proven himself, their running game has been questionable all year, and their defense is young.  I think they’ll have a rude awakening in Arizona.  Arizona is, again this year, an enigma.  One week, they’re a killer squad stepping on the throats of their opponents and then the next week, Yoko Ono shows up.  I’m putting them on the cold side just because they can’t seem to figure out how to win consistently.

So those are some of my thoughts, not all of them.  Trust me, you don’t want all of mine…they scare me, let alone you, my constant reader.  Any comments or continuations please post them up as I’ll be glad to discuss, debate, or argue on any of these topics or any others about the NFL or other sports.  In college bowl news, I’m down 7-3 to my dad in our yearly bowl picks.  Ouch.  Enjoy your week sports fans!

Share:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 10:20 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.