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Week 6 in the NFL – Who’s Hot and Who’s Not?

We are just over a quarter of the way into the NFL season, so I thought I would briefly chat about the NFL.

Who’s hot?
In my opinion, the Houston Texans are probably the best team in football. They have a fantastic offense run by Matt Schaub, who is playing really solid football. They have a fantastic running attack in Arian Foster. Andre Johnson may be the best receiver in the NFL. Their defense is incredibly solid. Although they’ve recently lost Brian Cushing, Bradie James will be an adequate backup.

The Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers are probably vying for that second spot. They’re both very solid on offense and on defense. The Atlanta Falcons seem to have a more explosive offense. The San Francisco 49ers have a much more suffocating defense. The only reason I can’t give a nod to the 49ers above the Atlanta Falcons is their inexplicable loss to the Minnesota Vikings. That was a head scratcher. Of course, they made up for the loss by destroying the New York Jets and absolutely spanked the Buffalo Bills.

I would like to give honorable mentions to the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Tom Brady is having another tremendous season. The Patriot defense seems to be much improved over last year’s debacle. The New York Giants, who looked absolutely awful against the Dallas Cowboys in week one, have managed to put together a pretty solid season up until now. Eli Manning may be playing his best football. The thing that is going to hold the New York Giants back is their defense. Specifically, their secondary. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2013-11-03T18:15:20-04:00October 13th, 2012|NFL|Comments Off

NFL week nine: Hits and Misses

Hits
Miami Dolphins – This team could have easily given up nine weeks ago. They’ve yet to find a real quarterback. Their coach has not received a vote of confidence from the owner and has been under constant fire. Yet, somehow, the Miami Dolphins played some inspired football and soundly beat the Kansas City Chiefs. There was even a Reggie Bush citing.

New York Jets – I have been very critical of the New York Jets because they really haven’t been able to do what they want to do. They want to play suffocating defense and simply run the ball. That’s it. Their defense has been okay but not great. They’re running the ball a little bit better. Mark Sanchez is playing a little bit better. Very quietly, the New York Jets are 5-3.

New York Giants – In a very weird, déjà vu kind of way, the New York Giants played almost the exact same game against the New England Patriots as the Dallas Cowboys did. They tried to run the ball and control the clock. Unfortunately, their running game was not all that effective. So, they tried in the short passing game, which was more effective. They played the game extremely close to the vest. Just like in the Dallas game, when they got inside of the 20-yard line, they had to settle for field goals early. This allowed for Tom Brady to play inspired football and once again, go ahead late in the game. Eli Manning has made a career out of fourth-quarter comebacks. I’ve seen him on a number of occasions, against the Dallas Cowboys, play mediocre to awful football, only to come alive within the last four minutes of the half or at the end of the game to score a go-ahead touchdown. He did it again. (There’s been a lot of talk this week about Eli Manning’s claim that he is an elite quarterback. Eli Manning has a special talent. He is a good quarterback. He is a Super Bowl winning quarterback. He can do things that his brother Peyton cannot. If you look at his stats, he is a really good quarterback. He is a great. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers are elite quarterbacks. Now, the other thing that I will say in Eli Manning’s favor is that he’s never had the receivers that these other guys have.)

Misses
Oakland Raiders – I just don’t understand how you allow Tim Tebow to have a quarterback rating of 98.1 against you. He was only 10 for 21 for 124 yards, but had two touchdowns. He also ran for 118 yards. I don’t understand it. You know going into the game that the strength of Tim Tebow is his ability to run the football, yet you allow him to run the college option and rollouts all day long. Craziness.

Philadelphia Eagles – What happened? Philadelphia simply destroyed the Dallas Cowboys on national TV just a week earlier. It is clear that the Chicago Bears are not the Dallas Cowboys. Andy Reid did not have two weeks to prepare and it showed. There were none of those special plays which broke open for 20 or 30 yards. The Eagles defense cannot stop Matt Forte. Jay Cutler had just enough time to make the throws down the stretch. The Eagles still have issues on both offense and defense. It is also clear they have talent, but..?

By ecthompsonmd|2011-11-12T07:46:27-04:00November 12th, 2011|NFL|Comments Off

NFL week 9: Thoughts and Predictions

From the New York Times, here are this week’s win probabilities:

Pwin	GAME	Pwin
0.36	Miami at Kansas City	0.64
0.45	Atlanta at Indianapolis	0.55
0.17	Tampa Bay at New Orleans	0.83
0.32	Jets at Buffalo	0.68
0.19	Seattle at Dallas	0.81
0.15	Cleveland at Houston	0.85
0.44	San Francisco at Washington	0.56
0.34	Cincinnati at Tennessee	0.66
0.29	Denver at Oakland	0.71
0.37	Giants at New England	0.63
0.46	St. Louis at Arizona	0.54
0.52	Green Bay at San Diego	0.48
0.34	Baltimore at Pittsburgh	0.66
0.28	Chicago at Philadelphia	0.72

So, everybody was hyping the LSU versus Alabama. The number one ranked team in the country versus number two. The game was a snoozer.

Fred Jackson - Do you have him on your fantasy team?

New York Jets versus Buffalo Bills – Buffalo is doing a lot of things right. I like Buffalo in this game.

Seattle Seahawks versus Dallas Cowboys – I’m still flabbergasted over the extremely poor performance at Dallas put up on Sunday night. Seattle is beginning to play some football that is solid. It is that old cliché – don’t turn the ball over and you will win. The Dallas Cowboys must protect the football. If they don’t they will lose this game and their season. Look for Dallas to try to come up with ways to score early and often and then cruise to victory. The problem with Seattle is that they do not have a viable quarterback, yet.

Cleveland Browns versus Houston Texans – If Matt Schaub can take care of the ball, this game should be easily chalked up in the Houston Texans victory column. By the way, what’s with Peyton Hillis? I completely understand that football is a brutal sport. Players get hurt all the time but he seems to be particularly injury prone. If he cannot spend more time on the field look for Cleveland to let him go in the off-season. It is kind of sad. I think one could easily say that he was the heart and soul of this team. Your heart and soul cannot be on the bench for weeks at a time.

Atlanta Falcons versus Indianapolis Colts – I’m taking Atlanta, all day long. I guess, now would be a great time for me to once again asked the ownership of the Indianapolis Colts to return the season-ticket money to Indianapolis Colts season-ticket holders! Seriously!

Miami Dolphins versus Kansas City Chiefs – I wish there were something that I could say in support of the Miami Dolphins. I wish I could see a way for them to win this game but I can’t. I suspect that the Chiefs will come out and take care of business and win this one easily.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus New Orleans Saints – the New Orleans Saints offensive line was simply atrocious last week. There is simply no excuse especially against the St. Louis Rams. I look for the offensive line the play much better this week. Josh Freeman has had an up-and-down season so far. I’m going with the New Orleans Saints, at home.

San Francisco 49ers versus Washington Redskins – After the Redskins performance last week, it’s hard for me to figure out a way for them the win ball games. San Francisco is playing extremely well. Look for Frank Gore to easily run for over hundred yards. Alex Smith seems to have learned how to protect the football. I look for the 49ers to cruise to victory. (more…)

By ecthompsonmd|2011-11-06T11:20:34-04:00November 6th, 2011|NFL|Comments Off