Weel 6 Overview and Thursday Night Pick

Week 6: 4-10 Overall: 50-41

Last week was full of upsets, meaning I didn’t do so hot.  In fact, I tend not to pick so many upsets which hasn’t boded so well for my overall record.  That will be the theme this week; upsets and what they mean for the league.  Takeaways:

Records are only kind of important

There are 2 teams in the entire AFC with winning records: Baltimore and Houston.  That is 1 less than the amount of teams in the NFC West with winning records.  The only undefeated team left is Atlanta and they have been scraping wins the past few weeks.  San Francisco, who many thought was the best team in football hasn’t looked like it the past few weeks.  Then you look at Vegas and they rank the 3-3 New England Patriots as the best team in football.  It is very early in the season and records are only good enough to get you into the playoffs.  After the playoffs start everyone is 0-0.

Nobody knows who the best team in football is.

This kind of goes into the topic above.  The team with the best record is struggling the past few weeks.  The Texans lost Cushing and have an awful yards per rushing attempt.  The Ravens defense is allowing rushing yards like nobodies business which doesn’t help their offense look any better.  The Patriots look good on the field but manage to pull out a 3-3 record.  The Giants might be the best team in football but they seem to take weeks off.  The Packers look off all season until last week when they put up 42 against the Texans.  The Broncos also at 3-3 only seem to improve every week.  I have no idea what’s going on in the NFL, and I love it that way.  Any given Sunday right?

Michael Vick is not the right fit for the Eagles

Maybe it is the system they run under Reid or maybe it is the fact that Vick can’t hold onto the football.  Either way Vick’s turnovers are costing the Eagles W’s.  When playing behind, the play calls are pass heavy.  This puts the ball in the hands of a QB who is small and fumble prone.  When you have one of the best backs in football, why not give him the ball?  By the way, firing your defensive coordinator will not solve you problems.

Seahawks vs. the 49ers

The Seahawks have proven they can hang with anybody and if you can hang with a team, there is a chance you can beat them as well.  Both of these teams are in a 3 way tie for first place in the West, and have relied heavily on their defense (although for a 2 week span the ‘9ers were putting up points like it was Montana/Rice again).  This will be a low scoring affair and I believe it will be close, since these teams match up very similarly.  I give the nod to the more experienced team however.

Winner: 49ers

Week 2 Overview and Thursday Night Pick

Week 2: 7-9    Overall: 16-16

Ok so this week I took a step in the wrong direction.  There were upsets and just poor decisions by me.  Here are the 3 things I took a away from week 2:

1. The NFC West isn’t as bad as people think. 
    The Rams on the back of Bradford and Danny Amendola’s double digit catches before the half, helped the Rams overcome the streaking RG3 powered Redskins.  The Seahawks handled the Cowboys with with ease.  The 49ers continued to show their dominance as probably the best team in NFC by making the Lions look like a watered down version of its offense a year ago.  The most shocking of last week was the Cardinals upsetting the Patriots.  Brady only looked like Brady on one drive of the game (which they scored a TD).  The offense did just enough to get points on the board with the assist of a slightly better performance from their running game.  Also the defense is proving they are a top tier defense of the league behind veterans Wilson, Docket, Campbell and emerging star Washington.

 2. Bounty Gate will end up costing the Saints.
    The offense hasn’t been on point like usual.  The rhythm isn’t there and maybe Sean Payton ran the show more than Drew Brees would want you to believe.  The truth is they are scoring enough to win but the defense can’t stop anyone (especially athletic quarterbacks apparently).  Teams don’t typically make the playoffs after starting 0-2 and the Falcons look to take the NFC by storm this year so look out.

 3. Although the replacement referees are terrible, it won’t effect ratings.
    Lets face it the replacement referees aren’t very good.  They often appear afraid to make calls and are indecisive.  Then once they make a bad call, and review it, they still get it wrong.  We all miss the old refs but....it won’t keep me from watching the NFL.  I’ll complain about the refs but I won’t stop watching football just to get them back.  In the grand scheme they don’t “cost” people games, although they might very soon.  I hope the strike is resolved but I won’t be losing sleep over it as a NFL fan.

Giants Vs. Panthers

The Giants showed they can just throw their way to victory.  Eli Manning who threw for (510 yards, 378 of which were to Cruz and Nicks) made it clear that they can be last in the league in rushing again and still win it all.  This week however they are short Nicks and Bradshaw.  I still see Eli putting up yards, getting in the endzone might be a little tougher.  The Giants defense will be matched up against the athletic specimen of Cam Newton.  They may be able to slow him down some with their quick D-Line but he’ll be hard to stop completely.  I see this to be a relatively close matchup but the Giants experience will help them prevail. 

Pick: Giants