I know it’s only Monday, but I think I can safely talk about the week that has been. I mean, the two games tonight are likely very predictable. The Pats will probably win their game, and Brady will be talked about ad nauseum (whatever), and the Chargers will annihilate the Raiders in the night game, the first of Oakland’s 16 mercy killings before the end of the year, allowing them to use the next #1 draft pick to pick the fourth best quarterback and overpay him.
So, with that Nostradamus-style look out of the way, we can analyze the games that already have been,
Bengals – There’s not a whole lot to say about this game, considering how it ended, on what may end up being the fluke play of the year, and likely one I’ll be trying to re-create next year in Madden 11 for achievement points.
* Brandon Stokley’s tipped catch and run to burn more clock, and Josh McDaniels’s knowledge of the clock, getting 18 seconds put back on before their willing play, really were smart moves to allow such a thing to even happen. Not shocked out of a multi-year vet in Stokley, more surprised in the rookie coach. It is no doubt true that winning cures a lot of problems and disagreements, and it will get the heat off of him.
* The Bengals obviously should have had more than just the seven points at the end of the game, even though I do not believe they played a horrible offensive game, they just made their mistakes at bad tims to cost themselves points. Most weeks, this would have been a 17 point performace, but this is the Bengals, and thus, it becomes just 7.
* Unless the Bengals turn it up, 1-4 looks like a likely start with their only win coming against the Browns in Cleveland. They now for sure need an unexpected win against a “better” team in order to keep the season from quickly unraveling.
Other Thoughts – Quick thoughts over everything else, that matters to you, and mostly, that matters to me, in pro football.
* Adrian Peterson is an absolute freak of nature as a running back. Nothing more needs to be said.
* It’s been said by everyone already, but the Texans looked bad. This is bad for me, I banked in Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson in one of my fantasy leagues, and maybe they’ll do better against a defense that pressures less … but that start didn’t look good at all.
* The Browns Still Suck. Sorry!
* My fantasy league teams went 1-2 on the week. Since I only picked one half of one team and auto-picked the rest, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The “Week 1″ waiver wire will once again be my best friend, it always is.
We’ll see what happens next week. I’m sure by that point, all of the locals will be done lamenting the loss to USC … well, maybe not.
Scott’s Week 3 NFL Thoughts (and CFB too!)
A couple of weeks ago, I lamented about the fact that the Bengals played a decent game, made mistakes at critical times, ended up with 7 points, and lost on a fluke play. Since then, we’ve seen two very different games, and especially this past Sunday against the Steelers, I saw something that gave me great confidence for the remainder of the season; The Bengals won a game that they didn’t play their best in by making plays at the right times, and overcoming. This is the kind of thing that makes an average team win 10 games instead of 6, and we haven’t seen that around here in a long time.
Some points of great optimism:
Put all that together, and now my pessimistic predictions early are a thing of the past. The Bengals have beaten two opponents in the row that at the start of the season, you would not have called sure victories. With their success in mind, and seeing how the league is shaking out otherwise, I think 5-2 is reasonable now. They should beat the Browns, Texans, and the Bears, but I don’t think they are in the class of the Ravens just yet. Taking it out across the entire schedule, their current play would project to a 9-7 season, so they will still need to beat teams perceived to be better than them.
Other thoughts for the weekend.
Oh yeah, and a couple of college football thoughts.
Oh yes, looks like it’s going to be a 3-0 week for me in Fantasy Football. Thank goodness for Free Agency!