Thursday the Ravens beat the Browns, but it wasn’t very impressive. But, they shouldn’t feel alone. This year we’ve seen a remarkable change in the early season. The traditional stalwarts have come out of the gates stumbling. New upstarts are appearing.
The Seattle Seahawks appear ready to move from traditional also ran to competitors for dominance. The Arizona Cardinals have also seemed to emerged from permanent mediocrity to a very competitive team. The Cards will beat up on my Dolphins while the Seahawks look to beat the Rams.
The good news for the old guard is that the season is young. As the saying goes, the cream rises to the top. The Patriots are struggling, but, I think they’ll get it worked out. The Steelers are struggling, but again, I think they’ll get that fixed. The New Orleans Saints, OTOH, are in peril of entirely losing their season. The Saints will play another struggling stalwart, the Green Bay Packers. The loser of that game is in serious trouble. Saints are 0-3 and the Pack is 1-2. The Pats (1-2) are trying to right themselves against the upstart Bills (2-1)
The good news for my Cowboys is that they’ve played terrible football and are still 2-1. They’ll be playing Monday against the Bears (2-1). A win here for the ‘boys would go a long way to establishing their legitimacy as a power this year.
Two other teams worth noting. The Atlanta Falcons (3-0) appears to be the cream of the crop so far. They’re taking on the Carolina Panthers (1-2) in what should be an easy win. Should be. Last week I would have said the San Francisco 49ers were the best team in the league, right before they got beat by the Minnesota Vikings.
I still think the 49ers are a high quality team. We’ll get to see what they’re made of today. They’re playing a tough NY Jets team (2-1). If the Jets lose and they have another terrible performance from Mark Sanchez, look for the fickle NY fans to call for the re-emergence of Tebow.
My quick prediction of winners today. Pats beat the Bills. 49ers take the Jets. Seahawks win over the Rams. Falcons beat the Panthers. The Vikings take the Lions. The Chargers win over the Chiefs. Look for the Texans to crush the Titans. Bengals to edge the Jaguars. I look for the Broncos to beat the Raiders. The Cards to roll over the Dolphins. The Redskins to beat the Buccaneers. The Pack to win over the Saints. The Giants to beat the Eagles. And the Cowboys to beat the Bears.
The games I’ve embolden are what I think are pivotal games. All of them should be very competitive, and I think the Pack and Saints game will show two teams in desperation to gain some footing.
What do you think?
suyts space 
The Seahawks should win. I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost.
I’m still trying to figure out why Navy has such a bad team this year.
That was an interesting game against the Ducks last night. They almost made a sure win into a watchable game.
I just heard the Huskies are 23rd after that win against Stanford.
Jim
The Husky’s win over Stanford was one of the big surprises last week. The Rams, (Seahawk opponents) are a strange team. I think they have all the makings of a good team, they just can’t seem to get it together. I don’t know what happened to Navy.
So you weren’t surprised about the Seahawk win over GB? 😉
Jim
Well, yes, but I was talking about college ball. 🙂
The GB game will be talked about for a long time.
I haven’t watched much of the game, but what I’ve seen indicates that the Seahawks didn’t come to play today.
Jim
No, they haven’t. They’re still in it, but they’d better come out a little more together in the second half if they want to win today.
ESPN is STILL talking about the call on Monday Night. And they are STILL not talking about the rest of the bad/missed calls from that game. I don’t think GB was robbed. I knew going into the season that replacement refs would be like that. They players knew it too, I’m sure. They went into the game with these officials. They should not be complaining now about the results. If there was a problem with these officials they should have been smart enough to say something BEFORE the games.
Exactly. The Seahawks played with the same refs. If GB was that good they wouldn’t be in the position to where it came down to the last play.
GB got dominated in the first half. They are an overrated team. They got to, and won, a Super Bowl because of great defense not because of their offense. Now that their defense is playing awful they don’t look so great.
I liked Rush Limbaugh’s comment about Monday Night: “The regular officials aren’t much better.” The officials are part of the game–it is what it is.
Jim
Too true. It isn’t like the regular refs always get it right.
Prophetic. The regular refs just blew a push off call against GB.
The officials are obviously on the side of GB and with NO’s bad defense (worse in the league), the outcome should be GB.
It’s funny to hear the announcers claiming how bad last week’s officials were, and then mildly gloss over bad ball placements, missed calls, etc.
Jim
Yeh, everything is better except everything is the same.
Another missed call. The GB defender tackled the NO receiver, but no PI call. NO made the TD later anyway.
Jim
Jets offense is a wrong offense for the NFL. And Mark Sanchez cannot handle pressure. Watching him through his pro career shows that he is a 2nd string QB. He is not a full time starter. But Rex Ryan can’t see that. Pro athletes work too hard to have their effort squandered this way. Rex needs to put Tebow in as starter. He won with Denver. He will win there. And Tony Soprano can’t design a pro offense. The wild cat worked for a short time. But it won’t work anymore because it’s just to simple and takes too long to develop. I can assume Rex Ryan’s job is in trouble, I think.
You would think that it is. The niners are destroying the Jets. Seattle is taking it to the wire again.
If Rex Ryan feels the fear of getting fired I don’t think he will go down with the Sanchez ship. I think he will start Tebow and see what happens.
Oops, Seattle receiver fell down on the route, QB threw the ball and intercepted. Rams came to play today.
Well, it’s only Seattle. 😉
😦
Jim
Yes, it is only Seattle… but they are doing pretty good this year.
C’est la guerre.
Jim
FOX just switched to Car v Atl. Looks like great finish.
Ryan just made a huge mistake.
What are you talking about?
Panthers snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory!
I just watched the Rex Ryan press conference. He was asked 4 times if and/or why not he was going to pull Sanchez as starter. He said no every time and got more emphatic each time. Head scratcher!!
Apparently, he’s going to go down with Sanchez. It is strange.
Emphatically going down.
NE runs up the score. Cheating wasn’t enough. Adding running up scores to their legacy.
Yeh, I don’t like the practice, but, the NFL uses scores in tie-breaking schemes in determining playoffs and positions.
Ok, I’ll try to take your word for that. Though I think Belichick ran the score up because he’s like that. The 49ers qb slid down just before scoring at the end of the game because Jim Harbaugh is like that.
The season is 17 weeks long. NE definitely looked like a has been, until the second half of this week. San Diego looks good on paper, but not on the field. Arizona, and houston the biggest ‘surprises’ on the up side. Atlanta looks like a real team.
Most improved division – NFC West. Worst division – AFC East. But the season is still young, so the only team that looks like it is playing out the string is Cleveland.
Yes, Seattle lost… but there is still next week. Now on to tonight’s game Cowboys and Bears. GO COWBOYS!!! 🙂
Yes!
Bryant needs traded.
Uh-oh-turnovers aren’t in Cowboy’s favor.
Jim
Gave the game away. That’s turnovers. The only bright spot was that Witten showed that he’s back from his spleen injury.
The game actually was closer than the score shows. Was Bryant feeling sick tonight?
Chicago got a way with a pick on the last td to Marshall. That’s why he was so wide open.
Orton needs to be the starter. Romo is to emotionally suspect to trust him with so much.
I’m still a Romo fan. His last pick was because his team was behind and needed a quick score. The one prior was his. The rest were some horrible receiving plays.
Bryant made me feel sick tonight. If I’m the GM, I’m moving him to some crap team like the Jets. He can hang out with Burress.
There may have been something wrong with him tonight. Maybe sick, or he had a hit to the head. Something like that.
He didn’t read the safety on the last pick.
No, but that wasn’t the deal. It was score now, score quick or go home. They went home.
No, that’s the average Dez I’ve come to know. He gives up on plays, he half-asses plays, he takes plays off. Romo wore him out just throwing to him a few times in the second half, that’s what made him look sick. He won’t/can’t play several downs in a row. He’s squandering his talent. I hope Dallas moves him out.
I wondered where Kyle Orton had wound up. He always puts up good numbers but never can seem to punch it in.
Well, at least the Cowboys lost. 😉