No doubt the writers will be focusing on three 'upset' victories we see on the early slate.
- Jets 16 Patriots 9
- Bengals 31 Packers 24
- Texans 34 Titans 31
For my money, this first game is no upset. I expected the Jets to take down the rebuilding Patriots. I have been the sole truth teller regarded the rebuilding status of the Patriots. I am surprised the Patriots kept the game this close. If the Jet offense had just played with a bit more confidence, they could have blown this game wide open.
On the other hand, the Bengals perpetrated a hellacious upset. The Pack got caught with their pants down. The Bengals balled their asses off. The Bengals just took down a team that could make it to the Super Bowl. While my heart hurts for the Pack, I am excited to see the long-suffering Bengals show some signs of life. The green shoots are up! The green shoots are up!
The Texans might be the owners of an even more shocking upset. They played with tremendous effort and courage as they came back from 21-7 deficit to win this game. Andre Johnson french fried the Titans secondary. The just couldn't stop him at all. The Titans have to deal with the fact that they had the game well in hand twice and blew it twice. The Titans now go to 0-2, and they are looking every inch the part of last year's fluke team. Depending on what the Colts do tomorrow, they could be in some early trouble here.
Three Games that went as expected, or better
From my perspective three games went extremely well. As expected or better.
- Cardinals 31 Jaguars 17
- Saints 48 Eagles 22
- Vikings 27 Lions 13
I do not believe the Jags are bad team. I think they are a very good team. I think they took a couple of Philadelphia Left-Hooks from an angry-as-hell Super Bowl contender that got ambushed last week. They took a pretty good sized ass-whipping from the Cardinals who controlled the game from start to finish. The Jags never got a whiff of this football game.
A number of wags were picking the Eagles last night on the NFL Network. I don't know what you were thinking. This one went as expected. You could see this a mile away. With no McNabb and no Vick, there was no way in fucking hell the Eagle offense could keep up with the greatest offense in the NFL. It is time for us to recognize that the Spirit of the Greatest Show on Turf and Air Coryell now resides in New Orleans. The Saints are playing downright beautiful offense. It is a joy to watch those guys do their thing. They hung 48 on a collapsing Eagle defense. It was humiliation for the Eagles. These Saints are a special football team. If they keep doing this, they are going to the Super Bowl. Only the Cards can score with them.
While I can enjoy Peter King's prediction that that the Lions would break the loosing streak this week, I suspected this was pretty far-fetched. The Viking fans must have been dropping bricks in their shorts when the Lions scampered out to a 10-0 lead. They are getting better. Unfortunately, the Vikings rallied to score 27. Still, the Lions are improving. They are going to be ready to win a few soon.
Three Games the Surprised me
- Raiders 13 Chiefs 10
- Falcons 28 Panthers 20
- Redskins 9 Rams 7
How about them Raiders? The autumn wind is a pirate... The Chiefs are a rapidly improving football team and the Raiders had to come back to win, but this is the second consecutive week where the Raiders played tough football and were more than good enough to win. Maybe they are going to win this year?
I did not expect the Panthers to factor in the game. I expected the Falcons to dominate the hell out of this football game. I thought it would be very ugly and one-sided. This game was far more competitive and tighter than I ever would have expected. It had the second highest fan rating of any game on the board, meaning that we will see it on Replay this week. Still, the Falcons did what they were expected to do and they prevailed.
Now for my Rams. I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is that we lost 9-7. Our offense continues to suck. We have scored a total of 7 points this season. However, our offensive line is improving. The good news is that Bulger did not die. He got hit a lot and savagely pressured at times. He was only sacked once, but this fact does not tell it like it was. Still, our line is improving. Although the Redskins brought the heat, our guys did more to hold them off than I expected. The announcers complained that the Redskins had some serious offensive issues. I think my Rams defense had something to do with that. Our special teams continue to be good.
The ultimate upshot is that we took on a Redskin team that is better and more talented than the Seahawks who blew us 28-0 last week, and we made it a lot closer this time up. We are improving. The Redskin faithful were booing during the last 1:30 of regulation as the skins took the victory formation. That fact is interesting... If we only had some offense...
