The weather-delayed games made for a perfect balance of six games in the morning and six in the afternoon. I can watch 5-6 games simultaneously by avoiding commercials (If I hear "Do you ever have trouble putting on a condiment?" one more time, I'm going to take a baseball bat to my flat screen - it wasn't funny the first time), and flipping during huddles. (Actually, the one weakness is that DirecTV moronically has one game blacked out on the Sunday Ticket channels and makes you flip to CBS or FOX, which disrupts my seamless rhythm). But more or less, six games is doable, nine is too many and three is too few - sometimes you actually get stuck watching a commercial or a instant replay review. I do admit it was tough during the late games to choose between CIN-SD, PIT-GB and OAK-DEN. I was partial to the latter because my survivor pool was on the line. (I won thanks to JaMarcus Russell doing the unthinkable). But the NFL should go 6 and 6 more often rather than the usual 9/3 or 9/4. Steve Smith of the Panthers is still the same elite receiver. He had an off year due to Jake Delhomme being terrible, but Matt Moore seems to have turned the corner, and Smith is a top option the last two weeks (@NYG, vs. NO). It goes to show that the Matt Moores, Bruce Gradkowskis, Chris Redmans, et. al. usually become serviceable after a few games to get going, as long as they've been around a few years. Non-rookie QBs who know the system might look bad initially, but one shouldn't dismiss them indefinitely. I expect Matt Leinart would be pretty decent if he had to start 3-4 games in a row, too. (Not that that's relevant for this year). Tom Cable is a good coach. Maybe he beats people up irrespective of gender and for all I know he tortures small animals for fun. But he's gotten a team with no playoff aspirations ready to play more often than not this year, and he was handicapped by having to develop JaMarcus Russell. Consider the Raiders won @PIT, @DEN, vs. PHI and vs. CIN, and played the Chargers tough twice. Even with a league-average quarterback like Gradkowski, this would likely have been an 8-8 team, and if Russell had developed like you'd expect a No. 1 overall in his second season as the starter, it would have been in contention for a playoff spot. And keep in mind Cable had virtually no first-round pick this year. I told some poor guy on Fantasy Football Live to start Derrick Ward over Jerome Harrison this week. In my defense, Harrison had seven carries or nine yards the week before, and Chris Jennings and Josh Cribbs were supposed to get a fair amount of work. Plus, Ward had 67 yards and a touchdown, making him a decent start. And I prefaced it by saying it was close. But still - my God - I just hope the guy didn't defenestrate. Because if he lost, whatever margin he lost by, was surely less than the difference between Harrison and Ward. Mike Tomlin deserves credit for his honesty about why he tried an onside kick that resulted in the Packers getting a short field. He said: First of all, I thought with the element of surprise we had a chance to get it. But if we didn?t get it and they were to score, then we would have the necessary time on the clock to score or match their score. Plan A didn't work. We got the ball but we were illegal. That was the correct the call, but it kind of unfolded the way [we] envisioned it. We had 30 minutes of evidence that we could drive the ball on them. We also conversely had 30 minutes of evidence to show they could also drive the ball on us. That's why we took the risk we did.
Basically - our defense is junk right now, so field possession is far less important than getting the ball back. Moreover, the long field could actually be a handicap as the Packers could take more time to score. It's the truth, and it's the same reason Bill Belichick went for it on 4th and 2. The Steelers and Pats defenses right now aren't that good. Instead of pretending otherwise - as Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi and misguided columnists foolishly urged, isn't it better to admit one's weaknesses and play to one's strengths? This isn't Pop Warner football. If your defense has been shredded at home by Bruce Gradkowski and all game by Aaron Rodgers, is it not reasonable to think it might happen again? Good for Tomlin for holding his defense accountable for sucking and doing whatever he thought best to win the game, regardless of what anyone else might think.
Of course, another joke is that Tomlin avoided the Belichick criticism for one reason - the decision panned out (barely). Anyone who deserves a prominent column or head coaching job knows you can't evaluate whether something was right at the time based on future events of which one has no knowledge.
Brett Favre had two poor games out of three, and everyone's questioning whether this is the start of another December fade like last year. Of course, last year, he had a torn biceps muscle, and Eric Mangini should have benched him (though keep in mind Kellen Clemens was the backup). As far as I can tell, Favre is moving well and throwing the ball fine. Not every fluctuation in performance - based on a variety of factors - should be considered a trend. Randy Moss will be just fine. I argued last week that the "he's dogging it" allegations were vastly overblown given his body of work, and Moss delivered this week with a solid game. To his credit, Scott Pianowski - who felt Moss was letting the Pats down - cited Greg Cosell's and Merril Hoge's film breakdown of the Panthers game in which both concluded Moss' effort was perfectly fine. Not one time did I ever see him stop, quit, or stand during that game," Hoge said.
"I thought it was no different from Randy Moss than in any other game," Cosell told Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald. "In fact, early on, I thought his effort on run blocking was very good. I think you have to see this game in the context of how the Panthers chose to play defense. Before the snap, the Panthers removed Randy Moss from the game, that's why he wasn't targeted, not because he 'shut it down.' That had nothing to do with anything."
I only watched parts of the game, but again, no one on the planet puts up inner-circle Hall of Fame numbers in the NFL by half-assing it on even a semi-regular basis. But again, kudos to Scott for putting the evidence out there, rather than trying self-servingly to prove himself right.
The Colts owe it to fans of the league to make a sincere run at 16-0. To sit your players during an undefeated season would be like a pre-steroid era player with 59 home runs sitting out the final week of the year because his team had the division locked up. (In the post-steroid era, no one cares about home run records anymore). If you have a chance to make legitimate history, you should at least try. It's one thing to rest Dwight Freeney a little more often, and maybe Joseph Addai, but play Peyton Manning at least - unless his sore ass is really that much of an issue. They've got the bye week anyway, and it's not even clear sitting those guys is beneficial for playoff advancement. If the Steelers beat the Ravens next week, and the Broncos lose in Philadelphia, there could be seven 8-7 teams in the AFC after next week (Jets, Titans, Ravens, Steelers, Jaguars, Broncos and the winner of Dolphins-Texans). Of course, the Jags would have to win in New England which probably isn't happening. Does anyone know why the Lions don't target Calvin Johnson? I'm not complaining since I had Arizona in a very dicey survivor game, and my Johnson teams have long since been eliminated, but at this point I'm just curious. Jay Cutler's rookie season has really been rough, but things should get better once he gets some starts under his belt. Oh wait... Michael Bush could be a top-10 running back were things to break his way. They probably won't in Oakland with Darren McFadden around. Beanie Wells could be top-five if things break his way in Arizona. They might.
