So at some point, will they just pull Drew Brees for the season then?

Best,

Geoff

Peyton got pulled when it *became* a blowout... [/quote]

So Tom should have been pulled at 21-0, 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter, is what you're saying, since the Tennessee offense wasn't going to get anything done anyway?

Hell, Tom shouldn't have started this game, if we follow this logic to its conclusion, because Tennessee sucks on ice anyway, and that snow could have been dangerous.

Never mind Tom's need to get back into a rhythm with his receivers. What's more important is we get back to good old Pee Wee football basics and not keep score when one team sucks, so everyone can win.

Wow man, such hostility for a guy who's a fan of a completely different team having concern over the health of your quarterback who's still recovering and didn't need to be put in harms way in bad weather when he'd sealed the game with 2 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. You Pats fans are a little more out there than I thought...

I'd say that long before the score was 59-zip, Tom was WAY in rhythm with his receivers. If he gets hurt again, you might be singing a different tune. Why risk it? 36-0 would have been an nice time to sit him down.


Mike T.

This weekend is bound to be the best of the Redskins whole season.

I'll be watching NYG/PHI, followed by MIN/GB followed by Game 4 of the World Series. Should be an enjoyable day of sports.

dB

Regarding the whole Brady should have been pulled thing: shoulda, woulda, coulda...To quote Don Meredith: “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas.”

I agree that it would have made complete sense to pull him earlier, but I'm not losing any sleep over the fact that Belichick left him in. It was my understanding that Belichick asked Brady if he wanted to sit down and Brady asked to play the first series of the second half, so he did, then he hit the showers. End of story.

The adjustments to the Charger defensive lineup worked against a struggling Chiefs offense:

- Injured Jamal Williams replaced at nose tackle by a rotation of Enterprise Rental Guy (Nwagbuo), Ian Scott (cut before the season, frantically called back after Jamal's injury), and Travis Johnson. When Enterprise was at the nose for 50 plays a game, the Steelers, Raiders, etc. ran all over the Chargers. With the committee arrangement, wearing down at that spot is less likely. Johnson will probably be playing hurt all season, but he can put in enough plays to help out the other guys.

- Steve Gregory promoted to "starting" nickel back.

- Tim Dobbins starting for injured MILB Kevin Burnett, who so far appears to have been a bust anyway. Pass coverage was supposed to be Dobbins' weakness but he looked good without a star TE on the Chiefs side. Let's see how he does against the Raiders' Miller.

- With some stability restored on the D-line, Rivera's been more comfortable blitzing defensive backs.

The Raiders rushing attack will be a better test than the Chiefs for this defense that was so porous against that ground attack in Week 1.

A fellow co-worker/Skins fan and I just said the same thing a little while ago.

Gov, I think this about the point in the season when the Chargers usually start to gel.

Their D should be fine against the Raiders or at least the O will put up enough points to make it a moot point like the old days i.e. 1982-3.

While Vince Young will be getting the start in TN, John Fox is sticking with Delhomme for now. That is a sinking ship.

Last night, I saw a UFL game for the first time. I recognized some of the players and coaches. All football isn't the same.

The investment makes a huge difference in the overall flow and appearance of a football game. Similar to NFL Europe and Arena football, I will not be tuning in on a regular basis.

Too bad (no pun intended) teams aren't pushed down to a developmental league. If so, the Titans, Skins, Browns, Chiefs and Bucs would be playing their way back to the NFL on Thursday nights.

+1. Tired of the debate. Isn't margin of victory like the 17th tiebreaker in playoff season?

Maybe they were just trying to improve their BCS chances...

Prof, that is my hope. The Charger D that surrendered 165 yds to Mendenhall alone, 149 to the Dolphins, and 148 to the Raiders had a 4-man rotation for their 3-man D-line. Increasing the rotation to 6 men by re-acquiring Scott and acquiring Johnson helped a lot. Without Clinton Hart to brain-fart on long pass plays, and the demotion of Cason, JaMarcus hopefully won't find any cheap TD passes.

What is happening to the formerly 13-3 Titans is unbelievable. Nobody would have thought they would be in a race with the Panthers, Lions, and Chiefs for the #1 pick of 2010.

I just realized why the Indy-SF matchup of 1998 was just featured in an episode of Classic 4th Quarters on NFL network.

Manning doesn't look much older now than he did back then. Same with Young for that matter. Weird to see "Wide" Richey kick a winning FG - he couldn't hit the side of a barn by the time the Chargers signed him.

Fox is billing the Packers vs. Vikings at Lambeau as "the game of the year."

The Packers are my favorite team, I'm still a Brett Favre fan, and I like the Vikings too; and even I wouldn't call it the game of the year!

But I don't plan to miss it either.

Best,

Geoff

What???

No love for the 0 - 7 Bucs?
At least the Panthers, Lions and Chiefs have won a game...

The Titans and Rams play a tie-breaker for win-less.

Both teams have a potentially winnable game and could end up, Titans 2-14 and Rams 1-15.

The Bucs' remaining schedule clearly puts them in the driver's seat for 0-16 and a death-grip on the 1st round pick in 2010.

Steve, there goes the love mayne. Maybe the Bucs and Skins can swap picks.

And, Geoff, it goes way beyond this! Two weeks ago--long before that the WS matchup was set, Fox announced that they were moving the NYG-Philly game, also a marquee rivalry , from 4:00 EST to 1:00, where it would be directly opposite the NYJ--Maimi marquee rivalry game, thus splitting the huge NY audience that would otherwise watch both games.

Fox said they were doing it to make room for the potential of a World Series game involving the Phillies (which would split the Philly market). But even playoff MLB, as everyone knows, isn't a fly on the butt of the NFL, ratings wise, so that explanation was total BS.

The real reason they moved the Giants was to Clear Cut the time slot for Favre's return to GB, which will probably be the highest rated regular season, non-MNF football game ever.

Damn Fox!

Half one NYG/Philly = Big ouch

Yeah, Philly has the Giants' number today. Considering it is an NFC East match-up, I'm not surprised.

The Broncos zero appears to be in jeopardy. Also, Indy could lose today if the 49ers keep it close and catch a break.

Among the win-less, the Rams seem to be on track to erase their zero. Only teams left with an egg would be the Titans and Bucs.

I guess the Vikings-Packers game is our grand finale i.e. no Sunday night game.

I don't have anything against either of those teams. Should be a good game.

During the season, I just expect to up watching football until early Monday, rest a few hours, go to work and watch some more later that night.

So many up and down teams this year.

The Giants started out looking unstoppable and are now mediocre.

Philly waivers from week to week.

The Ravens appeared on their way down and just beat the Broncos.

It's going to be interesting year.

Their first 5 games of the season, with the exception of Dallas, whom they barely beat, were against basement-dwelling teams. It's hard not to look good against that kind of competition. Now, the Giants' schedule is starting to catch up with them. So far, they're 1-3 against teams with winning or .500 records.

That SF/Indy game was much closer than I would have expected to see. Well, I didn't actually see the game, but just speaking score-wise. Often, the score doesn't tell the whole story.

From what I saw of SF-Indy, the Niner D was inspired for most of it, and Alex Smith led a couple of good offensive drives. Too bad they fell short.

Vikes-Packers was quite the slugfest. The Vikes are just a little bit more balanced and Rodgers had more protection issues.

Not surprised to see the Ravens beat the Broncos. You need a deep passing attack to beat the Ravens.

The Chargers run D held the Raiders rushing attack to 99 yds. Hopefully it can hold up against the Giants next week. Pass D also looked great, albeit against Jamarcus at QB - even the TEs were covered for a change, and the 5 sacks helped.

That was tough to watch. It was hard to watch the fans boo Brett in Green Bay, and it was tough to watch Favre lead what was almost a blowout against the Packers.

Then when the Packers pulled close enough to win in the third quarter, the Vikings did it to them all over again.

Brett Favre scored seven touchdowns against his old team in two games -- take that Ted Thompson!

If the Vikings/Packers games had gone the other way, Green Bay would be the one loss team now. As it stands, the Packers will be lucky to get a Wild Card birth this year.

Oh well, the future still looks pretty bright for this young team during the seasons to come.

Best,

Geoff

Look on the bright side. Next week you get to play the hapless Yucs. Running up the score on them should do wonders for your team's confidence.

Doing that to the Brownies didn't help them much...

A couple of things going on here. First, the decimated secondary is really catching up. Our best CB, Aaron Ross, hasn't played all year and the absence of Kenny Phillips is devastating. CeCe Brown is just terrible. I swear, he's costing us two scores a week.

But that is not all...Eli is tentative. Even after the fast start of the WRs, you can see Eli misses a go-to target. He's trying to make it Steve Smith. The vaunted D-line has been disappointing, too.

Did they start to believe their own hype? Maybe a bit. But they were playing better earlier, even though it was against bottom dwellers. Hell Philly lost to the Raiders.

There are many seasons in an NFL season...The Giants will have their chances down the road. Better get a good win againts SD now.

I was at the Colts 49ers game. 'Glad the Colts won, but what an ugly win. Peyton was really off today. Adai's touchdown pass was a beauty & I'm sure quite the shocker to everyone in the stadium.

I guess things could be worse. Sorry, Steve.

Best,

Geoff

I can't help but wonder if the Packers had decided to keep Favre whether they wouldn't be in first place right now. The team itself might not have been any better with Favre than it is with Rodgers, but the Vikings almost certainly would have been worse without Favre. Add two wins to the Packers' column and two (or more) losses to the Vikings'?

But what's done is done, and Minnesota is the second best team in the NFC now.

Best,

Geoff

Gosh, I think Aaron Rodgers is really good! Matter of fact, his accuracy and guts in the face of tremendous abuse might be the only thing keeping that team competitive.

Minny has two stud lines and the best RB in the game, plus other good skill position players. They are a very real SB contender, top to bottom. I think any good, veteran QB would be having success there this year, but then I am really NOT a BF fan, so the neutrality of my opinion could be questioned.

But back to my point. IMO, GB lost nothing in the QB swap. Their troubles lay elsewhere.

Stats don't tell the whole story, but they do have something to say.

How could a QB who has:

--Been sacked 31 times (tops in the league) and hit hard countless other times

--Thrown 2 INTs (only Orton has fewer in the same # of starts)

--The highest QB rating in the league (yes, higher than Peyton and Drew)

--A rushing game that is middle of the pack at best (in fact if you subtracted Roger's league-leading QB rushing yards, they'd be very near the bottom of the pack, i.e., no sustainable ground game to speak of.

--Who has still somehow managed to be productive and put up points (14 TDs, 6th highest passing YPG

...How could such a QB be considered a point-of-failure for his team? He IS that team in a way that can not be said of Favre this year. Favre is driving a Rolls, and doing a damn fine job of it too.

Rodgers is one of the bright young stars of the NFL. I'll go out on a limb--Rogers and Brees are my NFC Pro Bowlers as of right now. I really hope he stays healthy through all this.