Seasons of Discontent

Just in Time for Halloween...He's Baaaaack

During the Cardinals 2008 bye week I skipped town and headed to Vegas with the rest of the SoD ultra-fun squad and had a grand ol’ time.  This year Louie, his wife (who has NEVER READ OUR BLOG…like not once.  Doesn’t even know the URL) and a few others headed off while Zim, the Dr., and I stayed back at my place to watch yet another Sunday of games.  The enjoyable thing about the bye week is that it affords me to have a pure enjoyment of the day’s games without that crippling feeling of hatred that comes with the Cardinals possibly losing.  Why bore you with small talk though?  It was a relatively uneventful Sunday but here are my thoughts:

• Am I the only one who thinks the predictions of the Patriots demise are a little too hasty?  Tom Brady had his most efficient game since his return from knee surgery (21/32, 258, 1 TD, 0 INT) and what do you know, the Pats hang the first loss on the previously invincible Ravens.  Perhaps I’m jumping the gun in heaping praise on the Pats but for the 2nd straight week they’ve beaten a perceived contender (and this time they didn’t look like crap doing it).  I can’t believe I’m writing this but – they’ve got a real road test next week against the UNDEFEATED (how in the holy hell have they not lost yet?) Broncos.
• Watching me watch the Ravens finally go down for the first time this year (on the road against the Patriots no less) was a bit like that scene in Little Big League where Billy Heywood is just a little to excited about his idol Jerry Johnson (one of the all-time great sports movie that-guys as he played both Featherstone from Necessary Roughness and Alvin Mack from The Program) hitting a seeing-eye single.  Since that is a bit of an obscure reference I’ll explain – the fact that I got so pumped about a Ravens loss means just one thing, I could not have been more wrong about how good they are.  Even in a loss it is apparent that they’re a talented team that will again make real noise in January.   The fact that Ray Rice is really beginning to develop as a playmaker drives that point home even further.
• I’m sure the Buccaneers won’t regret those two missed field goals from Mike Nugent at the end of the season right?  I mean they’ll have just loads and loads of opportunities to win close road games.  There are definitely worse quarterbacks in the NFL than Josh Johnson (making his first career start) but there is little doubt that the Josh Freeman era is precious few weeks away.  Morris-Freeman!  I’m sure it promises to be a Walsh-Montana-like partnership.

What A Partnership!

• Washington salvaging a win against Tampa was a bit of a disappointment for the SoD-ites as we really wanted to see if Daniel Snyder would fire Jim Zorn for a 1-3 record with losses to Detroit and the Bucs.  Guess we’ll just have to wait for them to lose to the Chiefs in two weeks.
• Remember when I buried the Jaguars after their Week 2 loss to the Cardinals?  Or how about when I made Jack Del Rio the inaugural White Fred of the Week?  Well after a 20 point romp over the Titans, the Jags have moved to a respectable 2-2 with struggling Seattle and inept St. Louis coming the next couple weeks.  Somehow it isn’t entirely unlikely that the Jaguars could soon be sitting at 4-2 with a real shot at a playoff berth.
• After David Garrard lit up the Titans D for 300+ yards and 3 TD’s can we all just admit that Tennessee really really misses Jim Schwartz and Albert Haynesworth?  With their 4th loss of the season the Titans have now exceeded their entire loss total from all of 2008.  Hey at least Zim will get to see plenty of Vince Young the remainder of the year right?  To give an update on a stat from last week – only one team has made the playoffs after starting 0-4, the 1992 San Diego Chargers.  Best of luck repeating that feat – they’ve got the Colts and Pats in their next two.
• 

  JaMarcus Should Get Used to Sitting

  Dear Oakland Raiders – this.  After a 12/33 performance JaMarcus Russell has again reiterated the fact that he is pretty terrible at the game of football.  Even the Raiders have to give up on this guy sometime right?  For the third straight week the Raiders failed to exceed 200 total yards on offense and were again unwatchable for the RedZone channel.  But I mean at least Darrius Heyward-Bey came up with his second catch of the year!  Fantastic pick Raiders.

• The Texans won and Mario Williams didn’t die or suffer an injury that will keep him out of next week’s game against the Cardinals.  That being said I’ve got two words for Ken Whisenhunt - blocking back.  Mike Gandy is going to have his hands full with the Texans d-line next week.
• I’m hoping the people of Detroit can live off of last week’s win over the Redskins as they returned to their old losing ways in a 48-24 loss to the Bears and Matthew Stafford went down with an ankle injury that might keep him out of the Lions next game.  In defense of Jim Schwartz he does have the Lions competing as they were yet again in the game for an entire half (tied @ 21 at the break).
• Chicago moved to 3-1 after recording their third consecutive win.  Since his opening weekend disaster where he threw 4 picks, Jay Cutler has thrown 7 touchdowns to just one INT.  I suppose he wasn’t totally damned.
• In their continuing desire to somehow make Zim look like a genius, the Bengals won their third straight and advanced to a surprising 3-1.  Although it was against the Browns – Marvin Lewis and his Cincy pals proved that they could win a game where they didn’t bring anything that was close to their A-game.  The game was well on it’s way to a tie until Carson Palmer rushed for 15 yards on a 4th and 10 with under 2 minutes to go in overtime (who couldn’t have seen that one coming?).  That little diddy resulted in me shotgunning a beer as per the terms of my bet with Zim.  Ravens, Texans, and Bears in the next three will tell us all we need to know about the Bengals.  I believe this is the portion of the weekly football post where I remind you that the Bengals were a fluke Brandon Stokley TD away from being undefeated.
• I won’t exactly go as far as Joe Posnanski who said that Eric Mangini is possibly the worst coaching hire of all-time – but maybe he should have considered starting Derek Anderson from Day 1.  Although the Browns dropped to 0-4, they actually reached overtime and didn’t look quite as pathetic as they had in recent weeks.  They even developed a few new weapons as rookie wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi caught 8 balls for 148 yards (just 2 catches coming into the game) and Jerome Harrison rushed for a career-high 121 yards.  Josh Cribbs certainly did his part as he collected 223 return yards including several returns that led directly to points for Cleveland.
• The score is now Peyton Manning 2 – NFC West 0.  A week after torching the Cardinals, Manning did pretty much the exact same thing to
  

  One of the Greats

  the Seahawks.  Manning may be on the way to his 4th MVP but I’m not entirely certain that the Colts are actually all that great but they are sure as hell better than both the Cards and Seahawks.  Indy doesn’t face an actual test until November 1st (Week 8) when the Niners come calling – and I wonder if that will even be a test.

• Can’t really think of anything nice to say about the Seahawks as the 34-17 loss was actually a deceiving score – they were down 34-3 until very late in the 4th quarter.  This squad has much bigger problems than a missing Matt Hasselback.
• Over in Kansas City the Chiefs became the third completely incompetent football team to play football at Arrowhead Stadium in the past 24 hours (joining K-State and Iowa State) and lost to the Giants 27-16.  The only good or interesting part of this game was that the Giants covered the 9 point spread (per the SoD Cup) and got a win for Dr. G and myself.  Oh and Zim informed me that Dwayne Bowe is somehow undroppable in our Yahoo fantasy league.  Yes the same Dwayne Bowe who has 10 catches in 4 games this season.
• As for the Giants – they continue to hum along at 4-0 and if they can get by Oakland next week in a game that I’m already calling my lock of the week – it will set up a matchup between a 5-0 Giants squad and a 4-0 Saints squad (who have a bye next week).  That should be a helluva a game.
• The Steamy Latin express ran into its first speed bump as the pretty one turned the ball over 4 times (including three INT’s) and the Jets lost their first game of the season to the Saints.  Can’t say I’m too concerned about Rex Ryan’s gritty band of J-E-T-S though since their next three are against the Bills, Dolphins, and Raiders.  Provided they take care of business in each of those games my buddy Rob will have 10 of my American dollars.  Damn.  On the plus side for me - Mark Sanchez has really struggled since the 2nd half of the Titans game…the outside shot for a 2-10 finish is alive!
• The offensive juggernaut that is the New Orleans Saints just won a second straight game where Drew Brees didn’t throw a touchdown pass.  Balance is certainly a good thing for the Saints but do they really have to achieve it at the cost of my fantasy quarterback?  I don’t appreciate this whole rushing touchdown and selfish 99 yard INT return thing at all.
• Not that this has ever stopped me from commenting before but I don’t think I watched one live play of the Bills-Dolphins game.  Miami apparently killed Buffalo 38-10 and Chad Henne looked pretty decent in his first career start to secure the first win of the season for the Dolphins.  In a somewhat odd scheduling quirk 2 of the Dolphins next three games are against the Jets.  I’m sure the Jets are thrilled to know that fact.  On the Buffalo end of the world I can’t imagine TO will take this whole 1-3 start where he’s barely getting the ball badly right?  He doesn’t seem like the type.
• 

  Guess These Guys are about 80% Legit

  After spending the entire off-season and the last three weeks shitting all over the Broncos and their chances but after their 17-10 win over Dallas I think it is finally time for me to accept that they aren’t awful.  I’m not quite ready to anoint them a playoff contender but they have already built a 2 game lead on the Chargers in the AFC West and still have two games left with the Chiefs along with one against the Raiders.  If Denver can somehow get through their murderous next four games (where they play New England, San Diego, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh) with at least one win they should be set up fairly well for the back end of their schedule.  Kyle Orton has yet to throw an interception in 117 passing attempts and Brandon Marshall seems to have put his petulant child act behind him – improbably things seem to be looking up for Denver.

• Can we agree that the Cowboys just kind of suck?  Sure they’re 2-2 but their wins are against winless Carolina and Tampa Bay and their “Number One receiver”, Roy Williams, hasn’t scored a touchdown in three games.  Fortunately for Dallas it doesn’t get more difficult next week as they go and visit the laughable Chiefs.
• I knew the Rams were bad…but wow.  Losing by five touchdowns to an undermanned 49ers team is pretty pathetic.  Allowing one of those touchdowns on a muffed punt and two more on a fumble return and pick 6 respectively is just sad.  If there was any doubt coming into this week who the NFL’s worst team is, the Rams stormed the castle and took the throne.  Better start shopping for houses in the STL area Sam Bradford Colt McCoy Jake Locker.
• San Francisco has now moved to 3-1 with a 3-0 record within the NFC West.  Against all odds the NFC West might actually be worse than it was last season.  Falcons, Texans, Colts in their next three will cause Mike Singletary to do a little bit more than storm the sidelines all crazy eyed with his cross necklace and stopwatch (seriously, what the hell is he using the stopwatch for).
• In the Sunday night affair it was a little too difficult for the Chargers to recover from the 4 touchdown deficit they fell into against the Steelers but it was even more difficult for me to recover from my mimosa filled afternoon and actually watch the thing.  Rashard Mendenhall rushed for 165 yards in his first career start and the poor old Steelers finally got back on the winning track.  You may all now rest easy.

Tags: JaMarcus Russell Sucks Bad, NFL, Patriots, Sports, The Bad Guys are Back