Sorry for not posting the picks. Never had time to put it up, but I did make picks. I sware to God that these were my picks for Week 3, spread as the "winner".
49ers (+3) over Chiefs
Vikings (-11) over Lions
Bills (+14) over Patriots
Falcons (+3.5) over Saints
Giants (-3) over Titans
Ravens (-11.5) over Browns
Cowboys (+3) over Texans
Steelers (-3) over Buccaneers
Bengals (-4) over Panthers
Eagles (-3) over Jaguars
Redskins (-5) over Rams
Colts (-5.5) over Broncos
Raiders (+4.5) over Cardinals
Chargers (-4.5) over Seahawks
Jets (+2.5) over Dolphins
Bears (+3) over Packers
So, I went 11-5, which you can (should) believe. Here are my records so far
Week 1: 8-7-1
Week 2: 9-6-1
Week 3: 11-5
Overall: 28-18-2
Anyway, on to the Week 3 review!!
Player of the Week #1 - Leon Washington, KR, Seahawks
Leon Washington used to be one of the most dynamic backs in the NFL with the Jets. He was a slightly bigger, slightly stronger version, slightly slower version of Darren Sproles. After his horrific injury over against the Raiders (It always seems that the Raiders cause more injuries than any other team - and not only ones that end with paralysis), his career would never be the same. That ended up being quite prophetic, as his career never was. It is better. People just don't return two kicks for TDs in one game. Let alone being his team's sole form of scoring in the second half. His made that game for the suddenly in great shape Seahawks. Qwest is loud again. From 2003-2007 it was the hardest place to play in the NFC. So far, the Seahawks are 2-0 in Qwest, and are primed for a good home record. The NFC West might easily come down to one game, and becuase of Washington's great performance, the Seahawks have a game that they easily could have lost. The Jets traded Washington to Seattle (Washington) for a 4th round pick. I'm pretty sure the Jets would love to have Washington, and not Joe Fucking McKnight, the man they spent that pick for.
Player of the Week #2 - Austin Collie, WR, Colts
With Reggie Wayne being draped by Champ Bailey, and Dallas Clark being consistently double-covered, and Pierre Garcon sitting out (and eating Shrimp Aux Gras), and Anthony Gonzalez injured, again, Collie started a game for the first time in his career. How did the little Mormon respond? With a 12 catch, 171 yard performance, with a touchdown and a game-clinching 45 yard catch on 3rd and 15 deep in Colts territory. Collie used to be a player without tons of speed, without great upside. That scouting report (which was also backed by Football Outsiders) has now been beat with a club and raped to death. Collie right now leads the league in catches and yards receiving, as well as 3 tds in three games. He's becoming a great receiver. I really just hope to God that no one evokes the name of His Whiteness Wesley Welker in reference to Collie. First of all, this new trend of calling every small, white, slot receiver "Team X's version of Wes Welker" is just racist. Secondly, no one is Wes Welker, a shifty little bugger, and Collie's certainly not. Collie is a big, strong guy. He runs all types of routes, and runs them very well. He put in extra effort in the offseason to work with Manning, and it has shown.
Goat of the Week - Garrett Hartley and Sebastian Janikowski, K, Saints and Raiders
Fuck both of them, and do it hard. Let's start with Hartley. First of all, no Saints' fan should give him shit for the next twenty years. In the postseason of the sucky kicker (remember Nate Kaeding's 0-3 performance in the divisional round, or Shayne Graham missing two short field goals in the wild card round), Hartley nailed a kick to take the Saints to the Super Bowl, and then hit three 40+ yard field goals in that Super Bowl. Right now, Hartley's missed three field goals this season. He can fuck himself, because if he misses any of the three field goals in the Super Bowl, the Colts win that game. Then there is Sebastian Janikowski. The Raiders dominated that game from the start, but he missed three field goals that were easily the difference in the game. He had his best season of his career last year, and look at the fat Polish fuck now! (I realize the vulgarity of this rant, but after Janikowski cost the Raiders a chance to be 2-1, he deserves to be spoon-fed mice feces for a month, as it will suck and will at least get him to lose some weight).
Surprise of the Week - Peyton Hillis, RB, Browns
For six years (from 2003-2008) no one got over 100 yards against the Ravens defense. No one. Last year, Cedric Benson did it twice, and now Peyton Hillis just blazed that Ravens defense. Try telling LaDainian Tomlinson, Larry Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson and Maurice Jones-Drew that none of you have gotten 100 yards on the Ravens, and not only has Cedric Benson, a man that was essentially stuffed into a cargo hold of a plane leaving O'Hare, done it twice, but now Peyton Hillis has done it. Peyton Hillis, the man who's main role in college was laying the red carpet for Darren McFadden and Felix Jones to walk on after those two left a limousine after banging Arkansas co-eds (sisters?), ran for 144 yards in just 22 carries against the Ravens. I have to only assume that Haloti Ngata was stuck at a buffet for that to have actually happened.
Disappointment of the Week - Lions Supposed Average-ness
The Lions were getting buzz as a team that might finally be competitive, frisky and 8-8 fodder. Well, let's get that storyline erased. The Lions entered this game of a close loss to Philly and the Vick Show (appearing against Donovan McNabb next - has there any game that is meaningless now, as if Kolb was still the starter the Eagles' fans would have been irate at McNabb, but with Vick, they are too busy playing with their Vick-at-the-dog-fight-bobblehead). The Lions were expected to give their fellow 0-2 Vikings a good, tough game. The Lions did not do a thing in that game. Their one score came courtesy of a gift-wrapped interception. Their defense got very little pressure on Favre, and their run defense was shredded (which did not happen the first two weeks, for the most part). The Lions look like they may be proving that Jim Schwartz is not the misplaced genius that everyone thinks (hopes) he might be.
Team Performance of the Week - Dallas Cowboys Defense
That was impressive. I am usually loathe to give the Cowboys any credit, but that was too good of a performance to pass over. DeMarcus Ware (who it should be noted was playing against a rookie left tackle in lieu of Duane Brown's steriod-y absence) looked like, well, DeMarcus Ware. Their secondary played very well on anyone not named Andre Johnson (and they even got an interception when Schaub threw to Johnson). Their defense was amazing all day long. They got help by an offense who finally converted yards into points, but the big star of the day was that defense.
Team Laydown of the Week - The Packers ability to not get Penalites
That was quite impressive by the Packers. Getting more penalties than points is very diffucult, and that is true even if you score 7 points. Scoring 17 points, and still getting more penalties than yards, that is amazing. That deserves a special designation, almost like a "Miss Congenialty" type award of the NFL. The amazing thing though, was that every single one of those calls was right. The roughing the passer, the unecessary roughness, the pass interferences, the holdings (which could have been called so many times, as Julius Peppers just abused that poor little Mark Tauscher), the false starts, delay of games, late hits. You name it, the Packers won big, getting the penalties version of Bingo, and doing it about four times over. That was a performance to remember, and it was epically capped by a great double forward-pass lateral-rooski on that last kickoff return. A part of me (a large part of me) was really hoping the Bears realized that the Packers did a forward pass, and proceeded to allow the Packers to return that for a touchdown, just for it to get called back on the penalty. That would have been epic.
Storyline that the Media Loves Propogating that Makes Me Want to Stick Forks Through My Ear Canals - Teams Getting "Outplayed" just because they were outgained
Quite often during any given week, a team will win a game where it gets outgained, and sometimes largely so. Case in point was in this past week, where the Bears were outgained by 101 yards by the Packers, and therefore were "outplayed." This started in the post-game show when Steve Young and Trent Dilfer both said, before analyzing anything about the game, and giving any sort of credit to the Bears, that the Packers totally outplayed the Bears. OK, let's see. The Packers couldn't run the ball a lick, turned the ball over once, and couldn't get any pressure on Cutler in the second half. The Packers also committed penalties, and other than the pass interference ones, all of the penalties were because of the Bears playing well. The Packers didn't commit holding because Tauscher had an sudden urge to back his team up ten yards. No, he committed holding because Julius Peppers was owning him, and that was the only way the Packers o-line could keep up. The Bears defense was great. Aaron Rodgers had nice stats, but had one TD, and was never able to get anything deep except for a few throws down the seam to Finley. The Bears play a cover-2 defense, and that is how you play it. They were great, making the Packers play perfectly the whole time. Also, it might be hard to gain yards when you have a possession that doesn't allow you to. Hester's punt return didn't allow the Bears to get about 60 yards on that drive. Either way, rant is over.
Story that Will Make Me Wet for Week 4 - Pats Dolphins and the Continuing AFC East Merry-Go-Round
The AFC East might have three flawed, ultimately irrelevant teams (I really doubt any of them will be playing come January 23rd, 2011, the day of the AFC Title Game), but they are fun to watch beat up on each other. Right now, the Jets are the leaders, having beaten the Pats convincingly in the Meadowlands, and going to Miami and beating the Dolphins not as convincingly. This game will be great to see who should be right behind the Jets. This is the only intra-AFC game yet to be played. So far, the Jets are 2-0, the Bills are 0-2, the Dolphins and Patriots are both 1-1 (The Jets and Bills play Sunday). This game ended the Patriots run of not losing back-to-back games when the Dolphins beat the Pats last December. The Dolphins are a good team. Chad Henne-to-Brandon Marshall looked explosive last Sunday, and that was against a CB who is miles better than either Devin McCourty, Darius Butler, or the new starter Kyle Arrington, or the other about-to-be-starter "the corpse of Ty Law". The Patriots offense was great last week, and look to again explode against the Dolphins. This should be a really, really exciting game. When ESPN just took over the Monday Night responsibilities in 2006, their games used to suck. They would get two or three high quality games each year, but generally get average games (like Bears-Cardinals in 2006, which ended up being memorable, as the game "was (not) what we thought it was). Now, they get really, really good ones. I mean, look at the week after. NBC gets a potentially 0-4 San Fran team hosting the Eagles. ESPN gets Favre and the Vikings against the Jets. Talk about better games.
Power Rankings coming either today or tomorrow (or maybe a quick power rankings next Friday, seeing as I don't mind just posting things when they are past irrelevant).
