|
Yes, I'm going to say this
every week until they prove me wrong (which I think they
could, but I know they won't): The Tennessee Titans
Are Finished. They were finished before the season
started - just most people didn't see it. They're
lucky they didn't get Cincinnati in Week 2 - otherwise,
they'd be 0-4. They're next three games: Tampa,
at Detroit, at Pittsburgh. The Titans will be 1-5 at
best to start the season - and will end it with a 7-3
run. Enough for, yes, fourth in the AFC Central.
This season may very well be
the season that we all look back at two years from now when
we talk about that great coach - Marty Schottenheimer.
The Washington Redskins were terrible two weeks
ago. Aweful. They had no heart. While
they're still not very good, Marty has seemingly turned this
team around a bit. They played the New York Giants
tough for three quarters, when it was 9-9, until Tony Banks
threw one too many interceptions and Rod Gardner fumbled one
too many balls. Now, take a look at their schedule
before their bye week: at Dallas, Carolina, NY Giants,
Seattle. If they can win in Dallas, this team could
turn around. And remember this: Dallas cut Tony
Banks just three short months ago.
I caught a little shit last
week for not ranking the Green Bay Packers in my Top
5. Well, Green Bay could have been #1 had they beaten
Tampa. Now, they're 3-1 having beaten three teams that
are a collective 1-10. Of course, that's good enough
for fourth in Jim's ranking . . . :)
Top 5 Teams In The League
(and yes, I realize there is a discrepancy between this and
my first comment): 1) St. Louis; 2) Baltimore; 3) New
Orleans; 4) Denver; 5) Oakland.
Bottom 5 Teams In The League
(1 is worst): 5) Atlanta; 4) Dallas; 3) Detroit; 2) Buffalo;
1) Tennessee
|
I was not surprised that Tennessee
lost to Baltimore, but was by the margin and way the
Titans played. They looked sloppy and tentative. not good
trairs against a defense like Baltimore’s. This sequence
sums it up: Titans down, 14-0, second quarter, third-and-15.
Steve McNair has to burn a timeout becaus a receiver
in motion would have caused the center snap to hit him. The
next play, McNair fumbles the snap. It’s been that kind of
season. As the Ravens’ Shannon Sharpe said:
‘‘It was supposed to be two heavyweights. One
heavyweight showed up.''
Baltimore coach Brian
Billick has an ego the size of Tony Siragusa and loves
to rub it in. With the Ravens up 26-7 in the fourth, Billick:
went for 2 (and missed); calls a flanker reverse; and has
his starting quarterback Elvis Grbac in until the
end. You can bet that somewhere down the line another team
will love rubbing in the egomaniac's face.
How surprised were the Cleveland
Browns to win Sunday? ‘‘We’re 3-1 after four
games,’’ Browns linebacker Jamir Miller said.
‘‘Go figure.’’ Cleveland won a 20-16 thriller over
previously unbeaten San Diego that wasn’t over until two Doug
Flutie passes fell incomplete in the end zone.
Trent Dilfer, who led
Seattle over Jacksonville in his first start, has now won 12
games in a row going back to last year with Baltimore.
Were they using lube? To
celebrate the first game at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field, the Steelers
used 60 commemorative balls. But they weren’t rubbed down
properly and players had trouble gripping them, even on
basic plays.
It’s the little things that
can do a team in. Green Bay drives down to the Tampa
Bay 8, down 14-10, with 35 seconds to go. A whole host
of plays can be called to get the game-winner. But a lineman
moves early and they’re now 13 yards away. A sack and two
incompletions later and the Bucs win a must-game.
Break up the Bears! In
routing Atlanta, 31-3, Chicago’s defense had seven
sacks, caused five turnovers and ran a fumble back for a
score.
I hate the Eagles, at
least for a day. Jake Plummer’s 35-yard touchdown
pass to MarTay Jenkins with nine seconds left on
fourth down gave Arizona a 21-20 win over the Iggles in
Philadelphia. But worse, it knocked me out of a very
lucrative pool where you need only pick one team to lose
each week. I took the Cardinals, 14-point underdogs. But
Philly seemed to take the previously winless Cards lightly.
As Jenkins said: ‘‘They were really overlooking us. They
were looking forward to their bye week and their upcoming
opponents. We were offended by that.’’ News flash:
Buffalo quarterback Rob Johnson hurt again. Take that
back: the real bulletin is when he actually finishes a game
he starts.
Quarter-pole rankings. Top 5
teams: 1. Baltimore (productive offense, unworldly defense);
2. St. Louis (assuming they win tonight); 3. Denver
(they’re fine against anybody but the Ravens); 4. Green
Bay (despite loss, the Pack looks solid); 5. Oakland (faces
big test at Indy next week).
Hmmm, Cyd rips me for having the Packers fourth, saying
their opponents are 1-10. Then how to explain him having the
Saints at #3 when their wins are over opponents who are a
combined 1-7?
|
The
Kansas City Chiefs had won four straight games against the
Denver Broncos. On Sunday, Broncos defensive back
Deltha O'Neal intercepted his first four passes of his
career - which brings him into an 18-way tie for the NFL
record for most interceptions in one game. It also
snapped his team's four-game losing streak to the Chiefs.