This was no doubt the best week of football this season.
Hell this was the greatest week in a few seasons. And this is coming from a guy who's team lost again to that overrated Michael Vick.
Let's talk about Vick for a second, as well as his overratedness. The defense is the only thing keeping that team together. And Michael Vick isn't half as good as everyone hypes him to be. He's accuracy is even worse than McNabb's and he doesn't know how to throw in the pocket. Any time he gets in trouble you can guarantee he is going to try to run to get out of it.
And at 5'11 and just over 200 llbs, you can guarantee that he will be caught one day and someone's going to put him on the shelf for a long time, much like what has happened in his career twice already. But this time it'll be for good. McNabb and Culpepper can get away with it because they are big guys that can move. Vick is way shorter than them and smaller than a typical RB. I doubt if we'll see Michael Vick playing in the league in five years, or at least not a starting quarterback.
As for the game itself, Carolina's special teams blunders have to be addressed. Period. We allowed Atlanta to start drives inside our 40 twice in that game and we fumbled a punt return. That's just sorriness. Our defense still shut them down twice, but even then it was a matter of time before we got caught.
It doesn't matter. Just as I said after we lost to Philly last year in the regular season, we're a better team than Atlanta, and if we face them again we'll beat them. I was right then and I'm sure I'm right now.
As for the rest of the week, wow...talk about Bizzaro World.
- Peyton Manning only threw one touchdown pass.
- San Diego went into the snow and shut out Cleveland (okay that's not that surprising, but still).
- Jacksonville went into Lambeau Field in sub-degree temperatures and beat Green Bay.
- Philadelphia lost Terrell Owens for at least part of the playoffs (more on that in a second).
- Tom Brady summoned his inner Jake Plummer and threw four picks against 2-12 Miami.
- A team playing against Minnesota did the choking this week.
- The Giants acted like they wanted to win a game.
And all of those games were pretty good. Actually, they were DAMNED good. I watched them all.
Now, on to Philly. Do you know how hard I am laughing right now? Every Eagles fan is on suicide watch. And for what? Because their boy is hurt. The Eagles have allowed themselves to become a one-man football team pinning their hopes and dreams on one guy. The way they've been talking about TO this year, you'd think they found him this summer wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and they had bought him using gold, murr and frankenscence.
Meanwhile, my team has had over 13 guys put on the shelf, we are on our fourth running back of the year, our center and quarterback are playing hurt, and in reality we are only a shell of the team we were last year. Yet we are about to make the playoffs! All we gotta do is beat two teams we beat earlier this year. You dont see the Panthers crying over spilt milk, although they'd have every right to do so.
But they know the deal. And so do I. Without TO, they have Pinkston, Mitchell, and Westbrook. All of a sudden, Philly doesn't look that scary any more do they? In fact, they look weaker than last year, as they had Duce Staley and James Thrash; two guys whom Eagles fans immediately talked smack about as they left last year. I bet they wish they could have them back for a few weeks, huh?
I watched Baltimore/Indy. If Kyle Boller had someone to throw to he might be pretty damn good. Unfortunately all Terrance Moore and Todd Heap was doing all last night was dropping passes, and this was against a pretty short and weak Indianapolis Colt secondary. I mean cmon; Moore is standing at 6'6 and still couldn't grab catches over a guy that was 5'8. That's just sorry.
But one of the most amazing things was watching how Baltimore was shifting its defense. I've never seen anything like it. For one second, there would only be three defenders on the line, and all of a sudden there would be eight. The safeties would step up to the line and just before Peyton would hike the ball they would be running back to cover deep. It was unreal, and Peyton almost blew a gasket calling audibles all night. I think he has got to be the smartest quarterback in the league for being able to beat that defense.
Looking at the playoff picture, in the AFC I got Steelers, Pats, Jets (man they are lookin great), Colts, Chargers, and Jags. I think Baltimore can't get it done against Pittsburgh, which will probably knock them out of contention. Also, the Patriots play the Jets this week. Is two losses in the row in their future?
One thing we can say is, whomever wins the AFC this year they will have definitely earned their trip to the Super Bowl.
In the NFC, it's Philly, Atlanta, GB, Minn, Seattle, and Carolina. All those fools who said Carolina was done once they lost to Atlanta Saturday night had no clue of what they were talking about. The Rams was the only one that had a better record than Carolina, but they are playing sorry assed football and they have Philly this week and the Jets next week. Then people didn't take into account that all the other teams that have records similar to Carolina are choke artists, as Tampa Bay, Dallas, Chicago, and Detroit (man what a choke) have ahown this week.
This week should be as good as last week, with Steelers/Ravens, NE/Jets, GB/Minn, Carolina/Tampa, and for curious purposes, Philly/Rams. Let's hope it is.
