Week 11 Wrap Up

By Brett | Permalink | No Comments | November 20th, 2006 | Trackback

Before we dive into our reactions on this weekend’s NFL action, we’re going to comment on the Ohio St.-Michigan game. The game was well played, clean, and wasn’t characterized by bad penalties, stupid turnovers or sloppy play. Both teams played with poise, confidence and class. The teams lit up the scoreboard, and the final score was pretty close.

All things considered, it was everything a Game of the Century should be. With one notable exception — the game just wasn’t that exciting. For the last couple days, we’ve been scratching our head, trying to figure what was missing from this game. Here’s the theory: Michigan never really had a chance to win this one, the close score notwithstanding. From our perspective, it seemed like Ohio St. was in clear control of the game for almost the entire 60 minutes, with Michigan’s opening drive and a few series in the 3rd quarter being the exceptions. Now, if Michigan had the ball at the end of the game and was driving into field goal we might feel differently about this whole thing. If it had gone in to overtime, we definitely would have felt differently. Bottom line, though, this game wasn’t nearly as exciting as either of last year’s Games of the Century (USC vs. Notre Dame, and the Rose Bowl). That said, we’re stoked to see a rematch of these two teams in the BCS Championship; in our humble opinion, they’re the two best teams in the country.

Alright, enough college ball. Jump with us if you’re interested in hearing our incessant ramblings on the NFL.

• First, the Bears. Ugly game, good result. It made us happy to see the Bears win a game like this. To this point in the season, they’ve either played exceptionally well, or exceptionally poorly, sometimes even during the same game. Against the Jets, though, their offense was stagnant, but not disastrous. The defense gave up some yards in the first half, but got big plays when they needed them. It’s still obvious that they miss Mike Brown, though. Bottom line, it was a tough, physical win against a good but by no means great opponent on the road. We’ll take it.
• Next, the Pats. Tom Brady and Co. brought the whuppin’ stick to Green Bay. After two consecutive losses (gasp!), the Pats look like they have their form back. Still, the lack of weapons has to be a concern. Forgive us if we can’t get that excited about Ben Watson and Reche Caldwell lighting up the worst secondary in the league. The Pats have always been a team that gets the most out of their talent, though, and they’re upcoming game with Chicago should be a good one. More on that later this week.
• We’re thankful that the Cowboys beat the Colts for two reasons. First, with Donovan McNabb out for the year, the Eagles are out of the running in the NFC East. If the ‘Boys keep winning, they can keep things interesting in that division. Second, by handing the Colts a loss before they really start to threaten to go undefeated, we’re spared from hearing about the ‘72 Dolphins for the next weeks. God, we hate that team.
• Losing McNabb for the year is a dagger to the Eagles, a team that was fighting for a playoff spot. Now, they might as well mail it in — kind of like they did last year once McNabb went down. This team probably doesn’t have a huge window to be competitive, maybe another 2-3 years at most, before they’re going to need to re-evaluate what they’re doing. You can’t win in the NFL if you can’t run effectively between the tackles. That doesn’t seem to bother the Eagles much, but as McNabb slows down and loses mobility, they’re going to need to evolve the offense accordingly. They’re going to need a guy that pound the rock and take some of the heat off McNabb. That guy isn’t on their roster right now, and we’re not sure that Andy Reid and Marty Morningweg are the guys to lead that kind of offense.
• We’ll admit, we’re not very big Brian Billick fans. The guy seems like an arrogant prick. He also seems to be doing a hell of a job with the Ravens offense right now. Assuming they can stay healthy, the Ravens could be a force in the AFC playoffs.
• Speaking of the AFC playoffs, it’s our feeling that there are four teams in the AFC — the Colts, Pats, Ravens, and Chargers — that would have no problem beating the NFC’s best if the Super Bowl were held today. If the Chargers can get healthy on defense, they could be unstoppable in January. Unless, of course, Marty Schottenheimer shows up for the games.

• The Saints have been one of the best stories of the season so far, but they’re fading fast. They have a brutal schedule down the stretch, with Dallas, NYG, and Carolina still to play. At best, they’re looking at 9-7, which may not be good enough to get into the playoffs. We know this much, though — if Drew Brees keeps putting up 500 yards, at least fantasy owners will be happy.
• Jason Campbell didn’t look too bad in his first NFL start, all things considered.
• We keep hearing rumblings that the Broncos are going to pull Jake Plummer in favor of Jay Cutler. Plummer has been having a pretty bad year, even by his standards, but can you really pull a veteran QB with playoff experience in favor of a rookie who won like 4 games in college while you’re in the midst of fighting to win the division? We don’t think that even the ever-fickle Mike Shanahan would make that move.
  
  
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