Good Coaching Secret to Vick, Eagles' Success

Instead of starting off my blog with another Brett Favre bitch-fest, I offer this change-up.

Micheal Vick has always been talented, but he has never had quality coaching to meet his talent. Sure, he had Dan Reeves, but Reeves was no offensive genius. And Jim Mora Jr., although he installed a West Coast offense in Atlanta, tried to limit Vick to a pocket passer, which he is not. However, Reid, an offensive genius and quarterback guru, is still allowing Vick to be spontaneous and run, but moreover wants Vick to always see the throw first and work through his progressions before taking off and running with it. This does come at a price, however. Vick has already been injured this season when he took off an ran and it is bound to happen again every time Vick takes off. That is why keeping Kevin Kolb is smart if you're the Eagles. Both of them will be free agents after this season, and the Eagles will be so much better off if they are resigned. Kolb, though, will have to be content with being paid backup-quarterback money, because that is what he is going to be.

Before last night's game Redskins' defensive coordinator Jim Haslett equated the Eagles offense to that of the Rams from a decade ago. When I first read that statement I though it was ludicrous. After seeing how many times Reid wanted Vick to pick up big gains on passing plays I could see where Haslett was coming from, not to mention he did a terrible job defending the Eagles' attack.

Andy Reid's coaching record is 114-70-1, a winning percentage of .62. 1999 and 2005 have been the Eagles only losing seasons with Reid at the helm.

To say that owners like Dan Snyder, Jerry Jones, and Al Davis are a dying breed in the NFL is an understatement. They are throw backs to the 70s and 80s when the NFL was trying to be flashy and attract fans with boisterous coaching and players and high-priced free agents making impacts on teams. That is not the NFL of the 2010s. It wasn't even the NFL of the 2000s. Do you know what the Eagles owner looks like? The Steelers? The Giants? Didn't think so.

Shrutebag was right this morning: "The NFL is a nuts-and-bolts, thinking man's league." I agree with that statement. The Giants with Bill Parcells, a nuts-and-bolts thinking man's head coach, won two Super Bowls at the twilight of the flashy NFL of the 80s and early-90s with nuts-and-bolts thinking man's players. There are too many players on those teams to count.

Al Davis, after years of losing and .500 seasons with high-priced, washed-up free agents, finally turned a corner and hired a young coach and largely this year's Raiders are built with young players through the draft. Yes, the Raiders went to a Super Bowl in the past decade with Davis' old formula, but the next season when many of their aged stars were injured, the Raiders were losers. Count 'em: Rich Gannon, Rod Woodson, Dana Stubblefield, Bill Romanowski, Trace Armstrong, Terrance Shaw all sustained career-ending injuries in 2003 and Raiders won only four games that year after winning 11 and a Super Bowl birth the previous year.

When Jerry Jones had a disciplinarian head coach (Parcells, Jones) the Cowboys were winners and were disciplined, having few penalties. The problem, in Jones' point of view was they wanted too much control over personnel decisions. Jones felt they had too much power, so they were fired and brought in puppets like Switzer, Gailey, Campo, and Phillips, the teams struggled and were not disciplined. Owners like Jones, Davis, and Snyder will never hire a general manager or allow their coach to make decisions for the good of the team.

Stat of the Week: The Broncos followed a 45-point loss up with a 20-point win. And I guess Tim Tebow threw his first touchdown pass. Big woop. It was like a one-yard square-out. He celebrated like he had just thrown a game-winning Hail Mary.

Meanwhile, I am just done with Favre and the Vikings. He turned the ball over four more times and was the sole reason for the Vikings defeat. The Vikings season is done. The players have no respect for their coach. That is what really pissed me off. I'm sorry, but I am not in the Childress is a bum boat. The Fox NFL Sunday put it nicely. Basically Jimmy Johnson said "man up, put your differences aside, and play some damn good football." The Vikings have done nothing but improved year-after-year with Childress and without the Vikings older stars like Moss and Culpepper; six wins, eight wins, 10 wins, 12 wins. And the Bears on an off-day, are now tied for the division lead.

College Football Score From A School You've Never Heard Of (Last Week of D-II/III Regular Season): California of Pennsylvania 57, Cheyney 6. Watch the replay.

Next Week: The Vikings are once again on national TV as they play at home against the Packers. CBS has the doubleheader. Gumbel and Dierdorf journey to the Meadowlands to call the action for Houston and the Jets. Nantz and Simms will be at Indianapolis-New England, which will be seen by the whole CBS network (there are no other late games on CBS). Cleveland-Jacksonville and Cincinnati-Buffalo are two lowest-rated games on CBS (I think they are the network's "D" and "E" games. Living in Ohio sucks sometimes!) Even if WTTE does not show a game at 1:00, Seattle-New Orleans at 4:05 should be good.

Week 9: Brett Favre Promoted To Saint, Chidress Still A Bum, ESPN Says

We are now halfway through the NFL season, and thankfully some more storylines are emerging other than the infighting within the Vikings organization and the hapless Cowboys. I'm going to sound a bit like Colin Cowherd hear (pimping my own ego and how right I was when I made a prediction) but what did I say last week? The AFC West could be the most exciting division?! I still think I'm right. The Chargers, Raiders, and Giants are all on streaks where they look like they could dominate the latter part of the season. I'll say this again too. Teams that do well in the postseason are ones that have hot streaks in the middle of the season, allowing room to drop a few games at the beginning and the end. The Chargers have a peachpuff schedule from here on out and could easily be 6-5 going into their bout with the Raiders on December 5. Speaking of the Raiders, they have won three straight, and three of their five wins this year have come against AFC West opponents. Don't give up on the Chiefs yet though, they still lead the AFC West. Then we have the New York Giants, holders of the best record and best team in the NFC. They have won five straight and will get a sixth next week (they play the Cowboys at the Meadowlands). The Falcons too are 6-2, however they have the Ravens in the Georgia Dome next week.

My ESPN Rant of the Week: Let me make this clear. I am an ESPN hater by any means. Some of my favorite sports personalities work for the network (Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Mike Tirico, Mike & Mike, Ron Jaworski). Jon Gruden is pretty good too, but I think his time would be better spent if he were to get back into coaching. I just don't like some of the people there (Trent Dilfer, Mark Schlereth, Colin Cowherd, Tony Kornheiser). Every Monday Trent Dilfer comes onto Colin Cowherd's show and basically they talk about how great Brett Favre is and how much of an asshole Brad Childress is. They do talk about other stuff but it usually boils down to Favre or other stuff Cowherd is comfortable talking about (I'm sorry, but he is just not a very good analyst). Well on Monday, Dilfer said that Favre's comeback on Sunday against the Cardinals was perhaps the second-best comeback in NFL history, behind "that Vinny Testaverde thing like 15 years ago". Tell if I'm wrong. Did he not say something to that effect? What about Peyton Manning against the Buccaneers in 2003? And besides, it was two freaking touchdowns! I think that happens fairly often, but not that common, but still, how short-sighted is that statement made by Dilfer? (Note: "the Vinny Testaverde thing" was in 2000, which last I checked was only 10 years ago)

Wade Phillips was fired on Monday. Who didn't see that one coming? Jason Garrett was promoted to interim head coach. Will it save the Cowboys' season? Doubtful. The Cowboys will still have to retool their entire coaching staff for next season whether there is football or not.

Stat of the Week: The Raiders are 3-0 against AFC West opponents. Divisional wins are paramount to getting to the playoffs.

Stat of the Week 2: The Browns have won their last two games by a score of 64-31.

Stat of the Week 3: Antwaan Randle El's career passer rating is 157.5, the highest for someone who has thrown more than 20 passes. A perfect passer rating is 158.3

Sweet Play of the Week: 1st and 10 at the Pats 11-yard line. Browns line up in a trick formation with Josh Cribbs and quarterback, receiver Chansi Stuckey literally right behind him, Peyton Hillis the deep back, and Colt McCoy split out wide. Quick snap, quick handoff to Stuckey, touchdown.

Amusement of the Week: Lions kicker Jason Hanson was injured, so 307-pound rookie defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh came in and made a PAT attempt. Unfortunately the try doinked off the crossbar, no good.

College Football Score From Schools You've Never Heard Of (D-I Edition): Michigan 67, Illinois 65 (3OT) in the highest-scoring game in Big Ten history.

College Football Score From Schools You've Never Heard Of: Mount Ida 69, Anna Maria 18.

College Football Score From Schools You've Never Heard Of With Pregame Meal Of Ambien And Warm Milk Score: College of New Jersey 7, Kean 0. Sole touchdown was scored in the fourth quarter.

Next Week: Sources say Brett Favre plans on shaving before the Vikings game at Chicago. ESPN will have up-to-the-minute coverage with breakdown on SportsCenter, First Take, NFL Live, and The Herd With Colin Cowherd afterwards.

Week 8; Vikings, Cowboys, Fix Your Teams in One Easy Step!

I'm watching Fox NFL Sunday for once and they're talking about Brett Favre. I never thought I'd here Terry Bradshaw say something smart, but he just has. He remarked that every time a quarterback throws, he puts most of his weight on his left foot, which Favre has two broken bones in (as well as an injury in his elbow). Yes! Jimmy Johnson agrees! He also says that's it's okay to sit a game, and that Favre's good throws have been outweighed by his bad ones. Yes! Micheal Strahan says no coach has the balls (he said cajones, or however you spell it) to bench Favre. Yes! However Troy Aikman did his share of Favre-loving, especially after Favre took a big hit in the second half.

It is so refreshing to hear some media criticism of Favre, and not everybody apologizing for his bad plays and calling Brad Childress a lame-duck coach. Lately, I have gotten so tired of ESPN's love-affair of Favre that I have all but boycotted ESPN, other than Mike and Mike and the 11:00 SportsCenter ("The Blitz" segments only. The rest of the show I fast-forward through.)

How To Fix The Cowboys: Sorry to sound like a broken record, but Wade Phillips needs to go, and so does Jerry Jones. I've never like owners like Jerry Jones or Al Davis, who consider themselves "player's coaches". Players can't coach themselves, and when they're payed millions of dollars, they develop egos. To keep their egos in check, they need a powerful coach to keep them in line (Bill Parcells). The problem, according to owners like Jones, is that they want too much power, they want in on personnel decisions and the draft, which is how Parcells was ousted from New England after the Super Bowl loss to the Packers. It's not the players. The Cowboys are way too talented of a team to be 1-6. When Bill Parcells was the coach, he had inferior talent to what the Cowboys have now, but they were disciplined. They were not penalized a lot and players were not "larger" than the team. Also, JerryWorld is not exactly a stadium where home field advantage is much of a factor. See, it's so big that the crowd noise largely unaffects the opposing team. And even worse, every Cowboys game so far this season has been nationally televised.

Cowboys TV Schedule:

Week 1: Sunday Night
Week 2: #1 game of regional weekend on Fox (if an affiliate did not have local obligations, it is recommended they show this game, unless you're WTTE)
Week 3: #1 game of regional weekend on Fox
Week 4: Bye
Week 5: second game of doubleheader on CBS, shown to majority of country
Week 6: second game of doubleheader on Fox, shown to majority of country
Week 7: Monday Night
Week 8: #1 game of regional weekend on CBS
Week 9: Sunday Night
Week 10: second game of doubleheader on Fox
Week 11: play Lions. Likely not #1 game but stranger things have happened
Week 12: Thanksgiving Game on Fox
Week 13: second game of doubleheader on Fox
Week 14: scheduled for Sunday Night, could change because of Flex Scheduling
Week 15: play at 1:00 against the Redskins, might actually not be on national TV
Week 16: play Cardinals on NFL Network, Christmas
Week 17: play Eagles at 1:00

How To Fix The Vikings (Note: this was written before Moss was cut): ESPN's golden boy quarterback is the 30th-ranked quarterback in the NFL (there are 32 teams). He didn't play horribly last night and the Vikings were largely in the game for most of it but he did get hurt and had to be carried of the field. I'll say this again, there is no way the Vikings with Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss and their defense should be 2-5. No way. Favre has thrown costly interceptions in every game this season. Honestly how bad would Tarvaris Jackson be? Maybe they should reinstate the 5/8th clause? Where of every eight passes thrown, at least five should go to Randy Moss. And if you make him feel like an important part of the offense, he will catch all five passes that come his way. Favre will never want to not play unless he basically can't move, somebody (Childress) needs to take the initiative and do something. With their players, how bad would Jackson be?

So where should Moss go? How about Dallas? I haven't heard that discussed anywhere yet. That means it's either genius or stupid.

Chiefs (5-2), Raiders (4-4), Chargers (3-5), too much to say that the AFC West could actually be the most exciting division in football this season? The Chargers are making their late-season run and they have a relatively easy schedule from here on out. The Raiders have won their past two games by a combined score of 92-17, and are getting hot at the right time of the season, but so are the Chiefs, who happen to play the Raiders in Oakland next week and then the Broncos after that.

Thankfully the game in London was actually a game, which it has the perpetuity to not be. Hopefully the crowd did not know they were watching two of the worst NFL teams playing before their eyes. There was a Tim Tebow sighting, as I'm sure you know. And I'm sure you know too that he scored a touchdown. And how bad is the Broncos defense if they gave up 24 points and allowed Troy Smith (Troy Smith!) to complete 12 of 19 passes. Either that or Troy Smith is really good. Frank Gore also had 118 yards rushing.

Just for some amusment, here is a column from a local meatball, calling for the benching of Orton in favor of Tebow "to save the season" all the whille using the Tebow-as-a-Christian theme to fall the writers' cliches back on.

Then we have this lovely post from pro-football-reference. To sum it up: the Patriots are 6-1 for the fourth time in Belichick's career, but they're basically terrible; opportunistic on defense while giving up a lot of yards and who-dat talent (will they be Gregg Easterbrook's team he will gush about every week for having a few select undrafted or lowly drafted players that make plays once in awhile?)

I'll just say this as an argument against Easterbrook. Deion Branch, Patrick Chung, Brandon Spikes and Rob Gronkowski are second round picks. Jerod Mayo, Brandon Meriweather, and Devin McCourty are first round picks. Most of the defense is made up of highly drafted players, although running back Danny Woodhead, the Patriots MVP up to this point, went undrafted out of Chadron State (of Chadron, Nebraska).

College Football Scores From Teams You've Never Heard Of:

Score #1: Washington & Lee 49, Catholic U 14. Two guys beating a whole team? Impressive!

Score #2: Stonehill 41, St. Anelm 27

Next Week: The Broncos, Titans, Jaguars, Redskins, Rams, and 49ers have byes next week. A Bills upset against the Bears to get off the schnide possible? Lots of good divisional games next week (Bucs-Falcons, Chiefs-Raiders). And once again we get to see the loser Cowboys on national TV. Don't worry, there are only two weeks until flex scheduling beings, so hopefully we won't be seeing much of the Cowboys and Vikings on national TV.

Week 7, One Big Brett Favre Rant

After Sunday night's loss to the Packers, Vikings coach Brad Childress basically threw Brett Favre under the bus in the postgame conference, blaming Favre for the loss, as he should (with a little help from the officiating crew). In case you didn't see it, a Vikings touchdown was overturned, even though Visanthe Shancoe clearly had possession as he hit the ground. There was also a pass interference call on Randy Moss that smelled of b.s. (see, I'm not a total Vikings hater).

Childress blamed Favre for the loss, and rightly so. I see a coach that is frustrated with losing and being 2-4. He knows his team is more talented than 2-4, and they are. There is no way a team with Randy Moss, Adrian Peterson, their defense and even Brett Favre should be 2-4.

Granted, Adrian Peterson is quietly on his way to an 1,800 yard season, but this simply cannot go on any longer. I know Favre will never be bench, but I would seriously consider it. Favre has already thrown 10 interceptions (he threw seven all of last season).

And of course ESPN, the network of Brett Favre apologists, basically ripped Childress for ripping Favre on the basis on "Oh, that's just ol' Brett. He always throws it to the other guys but to our guys more." ESPN has never taken Brad Childress seriously; poking fun at his headset and his orthodontist dimenor. Remember they won 10 games in 2008 with Gus Frerotte as their starting quarterback, and without Randy Moss.

Meanwhile, five of top ten passers on Sunday lost their games; Carson Palmer had a 400-yard effort in a loss, Ryan Fitzpatrick threw four touchdowns in a loss, Drew Brees tossed nearly 60 passes in a shocking loss.

Most Super Bowl teams hit their groove in the middle of season, meaning, it's not the end of the world if a team drops a game or two at the beginning or end of the season. The Giants, possibly the best team in the NFC, are on a four-game winning streak. The Jets, a five-game streak. The Patriots, a four-game streak. The Titans, a three-game streak.

Close Calls: Two contests on Sunday were decided by a point, four by three points and one by four. Conversely, there were contests decided by 45, 22, and 18 points.

Location Political Correctness?: Last year, the p.a. announcer at Sun Life Stadium (previously Land Shark Stadium, Dolphins Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Pro Player Park, Joe Robbie Stadium) addressed the crowd at the Super Bowl, "Welcome to South Florida!" I believe I heard that this year's Super Bowl will not be in Dallas, but in North Texas. I guess Coral Gables felt discriminated against, as will Fort Worth and Irving this year? Oy vey!

Super Bowl Spoilers: The Browns have beaten the defending Super Bowl champions in each of the past three seasons (Giants in 2008, Steelers last year, and the Saints this year).

Speaking of the Saints, as hard as it is to believe, Drew Bress leads the league in interceptions with 10 (Brett Favre does too, but that's no surprise).

College Football Scores From Schools You've Never Heard Of: Mercyhurst 31, California of Pennsylvania 21

Score #2. Maritime Bowl: Maine Maritime 28, Massachusetts Maritime 27

Bonus Score. Sominex Bowl: Indianapolis 6, Northern Michigan 5. All points scored in fourth quarter.

Patch Stat of the Week: The Raiders put up 59 points against the Broncos. Most ever for the franchise, ever, in history, even through the AFL days. They put up 52 three times; once in 2002, 2000, and then in 1963 (a 52-49 shootout against the Oilers).

Why Am I Watching This Game?: In the Columbus, Ohio market, the Seahawks-Cardinals snorefest was shown. Why? It was a regional matchup weekend on Fox. How regional are teams that are located 1,900 and 2,400 miles away? What's worse, this game was shown to countless other markets that I bet did not give two shits about this game. Buffalo? Kansas City? West Palm Beach? It was shown to 19% of Fox's affiliates! Even their so-called #1 game, Chicago-Washington was only (in the scheme of things) shown to 34% of Fox affiliates. Eagles-Titans, their #2 game, was shown to 33% of Fox's affiliates. WGRT in Dayton was the only Ohio Fox affiliate to host Redskins-Bears. None had Eagles-Titans. Am I the only one who does not understand the logic behind this?

Next Week: Luckily, Fox has the double-header next week (since Fox does not release what their broadcasting assignments are until the morning of an NFL Sunday, I can't share them). Pats-Vikings is the main 4:15 game. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms of CBS will be at Jax/North Texas, although 49ers-Broncos in London is slotted ahead of that with Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf in the booth. I'm pretty sure I have yet to see a game in London since the NFL has started that again due to local obligations (sometimes it sucks having four AFC teams that have fans in the area).

No Blog This Week

I've been away this weekend and only got a chance to see Titans-Jags and Colts-Redskins, and even then I didn't watch them all that closely. With that said, my regular weekly blog will not be written this week.

Yes I Am Drinking The Bears' Kool-Aid

Note: This has been a very busy week for me, so I'm slowly writing this blog day-by-day, so that's why this didn't come out on Tuesday.

Yeah both teams played sloppily Tuesday night and yes two Jay Cutler interceptions were nullified by penalties, that's Jay Cutler, he takes chances and throws interceptions. Does Peyton Manning take chances? Does Tom Brady? Newsflash: they do. The difference is Brady and Manning have better personnel, and in the case of the Colts, I would say elite. What the Bears have going for them is they have an elite coach in Mike Martz. Sportsyak like to bang on Martz for every little thing. Yes he is a control freak and gets mean when things don't go his way. Did he make mistakes as coach of the Rams? Absolutely. Remember in the off-season after the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots? He cut ties with several defensive superstars, including London Fletcher, and came under fire when ordering a field goal at the end of regulation in the playoff game against the Panthers. I would admit that Martz is not the best when it comes to personnel decisions but he is a bona fide offensive genious, and has been for the past decade.

What's different about Martz's offenses is that a.) a defense simply cannot scheme against it. You expect pass on every play, but if you defense for that, you'll get run and vise-versa. b.) his offense does not audibleize that much. They come to line, have crazy motions, and then snap the ball with very little pre-snap "chicken dancing" from the quarterback. c.) he likes to control the pace. If the game is flowing slowly, he'll loosen it up by passing. If it's going super quick, he'll slow it down by calling a few runs.

Martz has recognized that the Bears do not have the talent or the o-line the caliber of his St. Louis teams, so he does not call passes that involve Jay Cutler dropping back, holding the ball for seven seconds and heaving the ball 60 yards for a big gain. The Bears offensive line simply cannot handle that. Even when the Packers rushed just three, it seems they hurried Cutler into moving outside the pocket for time to throw.

The Bears' defense is opportunistic, which is scary. They don't steal the spotlight with mega-bucks talent or monster turnovers, they just play good defense, much like the Bengals. So while the sports media are drinking the Michael Vick Kool-Aid, I'll take the Bears.

In other NFL news, the Micheal Vick beat a crappy team and Steelers can win without Ben Roethlisberger and the Chiefs, the freakin' Chiefs are 3-0. Maybe from now on I should call them "Patriots West" because their quarterback, offensive coordinator, linebacker and defensive coordinator used to be with the Patriots.

Browns Rant of the Week:

Another new feature to this blog. Living in Ohio I see the Browns week-in and week-out. They are making progress somewhat, but it's painful to watch sometimes. I have my doubts about the Ravens. They gave up 173 yards rushing to the Browns and fullback Peyton Hillis. And they would have given up more if it had not been for the conservative play calling of the Browns. They had spurts of aggressiveness, like on their very first drive where they threw on the first two plays and picked up considerable gains. And then there were two third and longs where they threw a rinky-dink screen on one, and simply and run up the middle that got stuffed on another.

And then there's their defense. On the game-icing touchdown to Anquan Boldin, the Browns blitzed eight, leaving Boldin practically uncovered. Thankfully though, that was really the only Browns defensive blunder of the game.

They need a lot of work to become a good team; cut down on penalties and loosen up on offense. I do however think they have the coaches and talent to be a .500 team.

Adventures in Officiation: The conclusion of the Saints-Falcons overtime game was, well, interesting. With two minutes remaining in the first overtime period the Falcons attempted a 41-yard field goal to win the game. The kick was blocked by the Saints, but...Sean Payton called one of those stupid timeouts just as the ball was snapped, nullifying the try as well as the block. On the second try Matt Bryant's field goal was good, but...the Falcons were penalized for a false start, pushing them back five yards. On the third try, this time from 46-yards, the kick was good with no timeouts or penalties and the game was over. Anyone else think the sneaky timeout before the field goal think is kind of stupid?

Charlie Batch Best Backup QB Ever?: Charlie Batch, Steelers backup quarterback, is 36 and has been in the league for 13 seasons. A second-round pick of the Lions in 1998 he started 12 games for the team in his rookie year (which was Barry Sanders' last before his abrupt retirement) and went 5-7, accounting for all five of the Lions wins that year. Batch was the highest-rated of the three starting quarterbacks of the Lions that season, going 173 for 303 for 2,178 yards with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions. Not bad for a rookie, especially one that was thrown into a less-than-ideal situation. And he did throw a 98-yard pass to Johnnie Morton, the longest pass of the season. The next season the Lions were 8-8 and made the playoffs even without Sanders. Batch started 10 games, going 6-4. Despite not being the leading passer for the team that year he still led the team in touchdowns with 13 and threw the same amount of INTs (7) as Gus Frerotte, who started the remaining six games.

The next season, 2000, the Lions were 9-7, which happens to be the last time the Lions have had a winning season. A miracle field goal by the Bears kept the Lions out of the playoffs. Batch was the primary starter, starting 15 games. Batch went 221 for 412 for 2,489 yards with 13 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

2001 was a disasterous season for the Lions. They only won two games. Ty Detmer was coach Marty Mornhinweg's starter. But after throwing seven interceptions and a bad showing against the Rams, Detmer was benched and Batch became the starter.

Since 2002 Batch has been on the Steelers staff but has only started five games in that span, but has always been effective and efficient. And unless Roethlisberger really struggles or gets hurt, then it's doubtful that we'll see him again this year.

Useless Stats Section:

Stat #1: The Seahawks and Cardinals are tied for the lead in the NFC West. Remember when we all thought the road in the NFC playoffs would go through San Francisco? The 49ers will be lucky to have a winning season based on the way they look and the way things are going.

Stat #2: The Giants have turned the ball over 10 times so far this season, the Colts, twice.

Stat #3: The Vikings have the 29th ranked offense in the NFL.

Stat #4: With one more interception, Favre will match his total from last season...in the fourth game.

Stat #5: The Cowboys are on pace to throw 688 passes this season.

Brett Favre Rant of the Week:

Adrian Peterson has almost 392 yards rushing already this season, that's a 2,091 yard pace, and with Favre playing as bad as he is, he's going to need every one of those yards. Favre threw two more interceptions, bringing his total to six in this young season. If he throws one more he'll have the same amount of interceptions as last year. Not all hope is lost for the Vikings though, they'll just have to rely less on Favre this season, and it's still unclear if he's injured, in pain, or just plain old. Next week the Vikings have a bye.

College Football Scores From Schools You've Never Heard Of:

Score #1: Southern Connecticut State 28, American International 7

Bonus Score: St. John Fisher 34, Hobart 14

CFSFSNYNHO Basketball-Football Score: Macalester 44, Crown College 41

CFSFSNYNHO Blowout of the Week: Southwest Baptist 69, Southern Nazarene 27

On TV Next Week: This week Fox has the doubleheader. I'll be seeing the "Battle of Ohio 2010 1.0" at 1:00 on CBS. Meanwhile on Fox at 1:00 I'll be seeing Saints-Falcons and Redskins-Eagles at 4:15. The Sunday Night game is Bears-Giants and Monday Night is Dolphins-Patriots. The Chiefs, Cowboys, Buccaneers, and Vikings, a combined record of 8-5, have byes next week.

Almost Everything is Right in the NFL World and Brett Favre Still is Old and Still Needs to Retire

It must be right because the Bengals won a game like the Bengals of last year; winning a slugfest game with opportunistic defense and exclusively riding the right leg of their kicker for points.

The Jets must have the Patriots number. But instead of smothering Tom Brady and their receivers, the Jets out-offensed the Patriots' defense. LaDainian Tomlinson averaged almost seven yards a carry and Mark Sanchez threw a career high in touchdown passes. In the first quarter, Mark Sanchez looked dismal - just like in the Baltimore game. Then, Jets coached loosened up the play calling and Sanchez flourished, throwing for 220 yards.

Yes there was the catch by Moss and yes Revis was injured, but the Patriots defense is ranked 25th in league through the first two weeks of the season and is just not looking good.

Well then it must be right, because Peyton Manning, who completed 77% of his passes in a blowout win and looked like the AFC Champions they are. The Giant defense is simply not what it once was before Steve Spagnolu left for St. Louis. The Colts - the freaking Colts - had a running game on Sunday Night. Addai had 92 yards rushing and even backup Donald Brown had 69. And unfortunately, Manning Bowl II was over by the end of the first quarter.

The Steelers have only two quarterbacks left on their roster, but their 2-0, thanks to seven turnovers by the Titans and the same old Vince Young - looking great in one game and then looking horrid in the next. Granted the Raiders defense is nowhere near the level of the Steelers.
The Bears, Packers, Dolphins, Chiefs, Texans, and Bucs are 2-0, as are the Steelers without Ben Roethlisberger and the 49ers, Dolphins, Cowboys, and Panthers are 0-2.

The Saints offense has looked much more low-voltage than it did last year. This is probably attributed to both defenses the Saints have faced to playing a lot more deep zones, preventing down-the-field passes. While Saints offense still looks sharp, they're taking little shots down the field and running the football.

Let's now shift to TV coverage of the NFL, a hot button issue with me. Through the first three weeks of the year, here are the games that have been shown on WTTE-TV, the Fox affiliate in Columbus, Ohio.

#1.) Steelers-Falcons
#2.) Eagles-Packers
#3.) Broncos-Seahawks
#4.) Eagles-Jaguars (that's what on the schedule)

Only in Week 1 did Fox have the doubleheader (CBS had it this week and has it next week). And in Week 1, there was tennis after the nationally televised Bengals-Patriots game, and football only in the local markets of the teams in play at 4:05. For some reason, they have not scheduled a 1:00 game when they didn't have a doubleheader. In my opinion, the Cowboys-Bears game should have been shown. That was the best matchup. It had the Cowboys, a team with a nation-wide following. So why not schedule it? And next week, their showing another 4:05 games with two teams that have markets nowhere near Ohio.

There two 1:00 matchups that are much, much better (Cowboys-Texans, Lions-Vikings). Yes Vikings-Lions is intriging because the Vikings have a shot at getting upset by the Lions. I know I complained last year when WTTE showed a Vikings-Lions game early last season, but now the Lions seem more competative and the Vikings are slipping.

Boy, does WBNS try. They try their damndest to show a healthy balance of Steelers, Bengals, Browns from week to week, and I usually have few complaints. This week, all three teams play at 1:00 and all three of their games are on CBS. I don't rail on them too much because they are obligated to show local matchups, unlike WTTE, where there are no NFC teams for hundreds of miles.

Useless Stats Section:

Stat #1: The Chiefs lead the AFC West.

Stat #2: The Bucs are 2-0, and for most of Sunday and Monday led the NFC South.

Stat #3: The Bengals have won their past eight collisions with AFC North opponents.

Stat #4: The Broncos have won 11-straight home openers.

I'm Glad Pro-Football-Reference Looks This Up And Not Me: The final score of the Titans-Steelers game, 19-11, had only happened twice before in NFL history. The final score of the Saints-49ers game, 25-22, had only happened seven times before in NFL history. Meanwhile, 20-17, the most common final score in NFL history, has happened 231 times.

Brett Favre Rant of the Week:

A new section of this blog, and it's pretty self-explanatory. I'm sure I can find something to bitch about Favre even if they start winning. This week, they played the Dolphins at home. Brett Favre looked 41 and missed a ton of passes and threw some flat-out bad ones too. The Vikings have the second worst offense in the league and Favre has already thrown four picks (he threw seven last year). Yes, Peterson is having a good season so far, but Favre is simply not throwing to his receivers.

Watch Out Drew Bledsoe!: Last year, it was Tom Brady filling the air with footballs early in the season. This year, it's Tony Romo, who has already thrown 99 passes - a 792 pace.

Speaking of lots of passing, Donvan McNabb and Matt Schaub combined for over 900 yards of offense, mostly through the air, in the Texans' first overtime win in franchise history. The Texans came back from 17-down where they converted a 3th & 15, a 3rd & 10, and a dandy 4th & 10 touchdown pass to Andre Johnson.

Who Looks This Stuff Up?: "Manning Bowl II" was touted as the 17,225th game in NFL History in a big, flashy NBC Sports graphic.

Sweet Play That Turned Really, Really Sour: 3:38 left in the game, 3rd and 13 from the Redskins' 46. Donvan McNabb play fakes and has time to load up. He throws a beautiful pass to the end zone. Joey Galloway is there for the catch, he's open...and he drops the ball like it's a live ferret.

College Football Scores From Schools You've Never Heard Of:

Score #1: Redlands 23, Whitworth 7

Blowout Special: Salisbury 84, Husson 7. Husson's only touchdown came in the fourth quarter.

Lehman Bros. Game of the Week: Newport News Apprentice 9, Greensboro 7

Why Can't It Be Next Week Yet?!: Steelers-Bucs at 1:00 on CBS, Cowboys-Texans at 1:00 on Fox, Colts-Broncos at 4:15 on CBS, Jets-Dolphins on Sunday Night, and Packers-Bears on Monday Night.

DSDBNF The Brett Favre is Old and Needs to Retire Edition (And Other Stuff From Week I)

See, even Brett Favre needs training camp! Man, oh man did the Vikings look lost and out-of-synch in the season opener and man, oh man did the Saints look poised and sharp. This won't be like last season when the Vikings started off playing the likes of Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis. Their middle-of-the-season schedule is murder, with the Jets, Cowboys, Pats, and Packers - three of which are away games. Forget the fact that the Vikings didn't have two of their star wide receivers, Favre barely looked their way. It seems he's rustier than he ever thought he would be, and it seems in nearly every press conference I bother to watch of his, he going on and on about how is ankle still bothers him and how old he is. If you think you're that old and rickety, retire!

Now for the Saints. And even though they scored only 14 points, they looked sharp, and on-target. Brees completed 75% of his passes to nine different receivers, and Pierre Thomas had a good day running the football. Their defense looked just as good as it did last year and instead of blitzing, they played tight coverage on the Vikings, which caught them, especially Favre, off-guard.

The Bengals thought that the season started next week instead of at 1:00 PM on the 12th. Now even though they lost, their offense didn't look that bad, and there was a healthy balance of Owens and Ochocino (and they were effective), although Jordan Shipley had the better game receiving than those two did. I wouldn't worry about the Bengals yet.

I wouldn't even worry about the Colts who got shocked by Houston, the team that led the league in passing last season, racked up 257 yards rushing, and their defenders bothered Manning when the game was contested, forcing him to step up and throw hurriedly, most of the time incomplete. Is it too much to say that the Texans are for real? And how sweet would it be if the Texans are vying for a Super Bowl victory in JerryWorld this January.

Jerry Rice Seahawks Spokesman?: Rice is undoubtedly the best skill position player in NFL history. He has had strained relation with the 49ers, the team that made him a star, ever since they cut him after the 2000 season. Rice attended a Seahawks practice and fired up the team and may have been the catalyst for the Seahawks' upset victory over the Niners.

Speaking of the 49ers, Alex Smith looked horrid as usual. He threw 45 passes for a mere 225 yards and threw two costly interceptions and Frank Gore had only 38 yards on the ground. Painfully more, the Niners punted in the fourth quarter in Seahawk territory trailing 28-6.

Random Stat #1: Pete Carroll won his first game as an NFL coach since January 2, 2000, a 20-3 victory over the Ravens (Carroll was the coach of the Patriots then).

Random Stat #2: The past three times the Steelers and Falcons have met, the game has gone into overtime.

Matt Forte The Next Marshall Faulk?: Forte had 201 yards from scrimmage (151 receiving, 51 rushing). Very Marshall Faulk-like in that sense, however Forte fumbled twice, something Faulk seldom did. And remember too that the Bears offensive coordinator is Mike Martz.

Random Stat #3: The Steelers have not lost an opening day game since 2002.

We're All Professionals Here: Derek Anderson complete a mere 51% of his passes and Sam Bradford, 58%. While both quarterbacks made some key throws, neither looked spectacular. And if Rams' coaches keep radioing-in this many passes, then Bradford shall have plenty of in-game experience!

Sweet But Futile Play: It's too bad the Browns honked a 14-point lead because Mohamed Massaquoi's touchdown pass from Jack Delhomme was flippin' sweet. On the other hand, the Bucs have been so bad the past couple years that I forgot that Ronde Barber even still played in the NFL (he returned a key interception for a touchdown that sparked a Buc comeback!)

Stat #3: Some much for the Cowboys' high-powered offense - they have only scored one touchdown in their past two games (going back to last season).

College Football Scores From Schools You've Never Heard Of:

Score #1: Wilkes University 38, Waynesburg 35.

CFSFSYNHO Blowout Special: Missouri West 81, Lincoln 14. It was 38-0 at halftime.

More Proof that College Overtime Sucks: In the Towson-Coastal Carolina collision, which Towson won 47-45 in the fifth overtime, there were 10 scoring plays in overtime. Ay Carumba!

Next Week (yes, this deserves boldface): There will be 16 NFL games.