NFL 2009 Season Week 4 Thoughts

[QUOTE=Nova;311699]Okay, I want a fuckin' Darren Sharper jersey. This guy is unreal. Thanks for the 99-yard interception return for a touchdown. HE DOES THIS EVERY WEEK. FREE AGENCY, BABY!![/QUOTE]



What's funny about that is that I so badly wanted Dallas to go after him this offseason and mentioned that on a Cowboys forum and was laughed out of the park because "Sharper is too old and won't make enough plays."



Yeah who looks foolish now? I really wish we'd gotten that guy to play safety for us. Always been a ball hawk and always been a favorite of mine.





Dallas, as usual, sucked in at least one phase of the game. Seriously we never have a game where all 3 play good or great at the same time. Either the offense shows up but the defense doesn't. The defense shows up but the offense doesn't. At least the special teams have showed up every game this year. That's a true positive for us.



Once more with Romo struggling in the second half (What the hell did he drink at half time? In the first half he miss fires on 3 passes in the second half he couldn't have hit the side of a building) and what does Garrett do? Lean on the running game like he should? Why no, of course not, cause that's not what a supposed GENIUS OC does. He just keeps dialing up pass play after pass play after pass play in hopes that he'll just force the darn pass to work. I seriously, more than any other coach in Dallas history, hate that guy. Hate him. He's making me miss the conservative play calling of Bill Parcels and Sean Payton when they were here. At least with their way they would have leaned on the running game when they're supposed to. Garrett is Mike Martz Jr. Completely useless.



I know many will want to blame this on the defense cause of the Marshall play but I just can't. The defense played it's ass off all day long and were hung out to dry by an offense that couldn't do anything after the first quarter and the only other time Denver even got close to scoring a TD in the game was when our offense set them up nicely at about the 10 yard line with a fumble. Otherwise our D played lights out. I heard all week by Bronco fans who came to the Cowboys forum I'm on about how there was no way at all that we'd ever sack Orton cause the Broncos have by far the best O-Line in football. Well last I looked we got 3 or 4 sacks on the day and Ware should have had his first of the year if not for a stupid play by Spencer of grabbing hold of a face mask. Way to go Spence. They only teach that all the way back in grade school not to put your hand on the facemask while tackling awesome job.



Outside of a couple of runs their vaunted run didn't eat us up either which I was told all week would happen. Defense pretty much laid it out there and did everything they could. If only the offense could have helped out a bit. Oh well. I said earlier in the week that Denver was a tougher game than most Cowboys fans were giving them credit for and they've proven that. What they do over the next 4 ball games will make or break their season. I think they go 2-2 over the next four (very tough stretch for the Broncos) but for them to be sitting pretty at 6-2 at the mid point, when most had them at no better than 2-6, will be awesome.





As for Dallas we're essentially going to be boned at this point. We likely won't make the playoffs. In fact I'll call right now that we won't. I hate to say that but we won't. I have seen nothing to indicate that we won't suck in December again, like we have for a decade now, and we've lost 2 early games that we really couldn't afford to lose in order to over come the inevitable December slide.



We'll be lucky, and I do mean very lucky, if we have 10 wins this year. 8-8 is likely staring us right in the face at this point.





Jets were brought back to earth a bit this weekend. Sanchez has been great but he finally had his rookie game. Welcome to the NFL kid. It's not all sunshine and rainbows.



Saints might very well be the absolute best team in football. Their only competition, at this point, is the New York Giants. Seriously. Anyone whose over looked what the GMen are doing with about 3/4 of their starting secondary out are really sleeping on a darn good football team. Eli Manning is playing like his brother, Steve Smith is playing like he switched bodies with the other Steve Smith, and their offensive line is the best in football, IMO. I won't be shocked if they win it all again this year. They're that good. Saints will be their only serious threat in the NFC.



Which is nothing against the Eagles or Niners or Bears but right now, as it stands 4 weeks in, it's a two horse race in the NFC. Saints and Giants.



Speaking of the Bears. HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! All you Jay Cutler haters who were ready to proclaim him the second coming of Brad Johnson after week one. HA! HA! HA! HA! The guy still not look like a franchise QB to you? Huh? I mean whose his recievers again? Who are they? Devin Hester (who people only know cause of KR and PR) and who? Yeah, exactly. The dude is a beast of a QB and he's proven he didn't need Shannahan or Marshall or Eddie Royal to be that guy. Yeah, that guy, he's made the Bears a serious threat.



The Niners have looked pretty darn good and it's got a lot to do with their defense but I'm not quite ready to proclaim them playoff ready or the return to glory like Max and some. They've just completed the softest part of their schedule and this middle run, through the end of November, is not going to be a very easy one. There are some in there that right now will look like easy games, given their teams records, but the next 8 weeks for them is going to be tough. They could easily wind up 4-4 over the next 8 games. Easily.



I'd like to also take a moment to once again proclaim my love of Phillip Rivers. I've been saying for a couple of years now that he's the one young QB out there who I'd trade Romo for in a heartbeat. Of course everyone would trade their starter for Peyton, Brady, or Brees, those guys are givens, but out of the young QBs out there (Eli, Big Ben, Phillip, Flacco, Ryan, etc) Phillip is the one guy I'd give anything to have instead of Romo.



The dude is just flat a winner and a competitor. Down 28-0 last night going into the 4th and this guy, and Gates, just absolutely refused to give up. Willed his team back into that game (with a nice assist from the special teams) and had his defense been able to stop anyone, at all, on Pittsburgh last night they might very well have completed an improbably comeback. Phillip Rivers is the real deal. Love that kid.



Speaking of that...what about that dang draft class? Rivers, Eli, and Big Ben? Holy crap. That's the mother load of QB talent apparently that year.



Which, speaking of Big Ben, is there a harder QB in the league to friggen sack in the 4th quarter? That dude just seems to pull a rabbit out of his hat in the face of a pass rush every single week in the 4th quarter. It's sickening.



Tony Romo, you're my boy, and I love ya. But you need to start taking notes. River, Big Ben...these are guys who get it done in the clutch. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two from them.



Though, let me back track to Dallas here a minute, I don't put that final drive on Romo. I just don't. He did his job. He got them into scoring position. Then, as usual, his OC, that genius as I'm told, calls two consecutive plays where Hurd is the #1, quick option, against Champ Bailey. The fact that Garrett still had a job long enough to get a plane ride back to Dallas last night pisses me off. That would have been the time Garrett to be calling a look for Witten or Bennett or possibly even fooling the defense on the first play with a Barber run right up the gut. But you don't throw two slants to Hurd on Champ Bailey. Again I said that is Champ Bailey out there covering your 4th best WR.



Oh which reminds me. While I don't have any ill will on the Roy Williams trade, cause I happen to like the guy and I do believe that he's shown some serious promise, Roy you're a pansy. Seriously. A pansy. The game is on the line. Get your butt in there. Now I understand you took a shot. I understand you were hurting. I understand you have asthme and the altitude and all that stuff. But get in there. You don't even have to catch the ball. They don't have to make you the option on the play. But you've got to be in there. Have to be. Hands down have to be in the game.



i wasn't as upset about that, at first, until I read after the game that he didn't have any broken or bruised ribs he just couldn't catch his breath cause of the altitude and the fact that he has asthme. Sorry bro but they pay you 45 million dollars to be a leader and to be on the field in that situation. Jimmy Johnson can direct you to the asthme field if necassary.



Let's see...what else about this weekends football....



Oh yeah. This just in. That Peyton Manning cat. Yeah he's still pretty great.



Oh and that Tom Brady fellow? Yeah. Still great.



People are waiting for all these super flashy stats and blah blah blah. But lets recall this. He's been out for a year with a knee injury that generally takes a good year and a half to recover from entirely. He's play 4 games, the team is 3-1, and in that 4 game mix have played a couple of really great defenses in Baltimore and New York and a pretty darn solid Atlanta team. So, yeah, the dude still can get it done. They'll be dangerous at years end.



Which brings you to whose the real who in the AFC. Baltimore seems pretty darn legit. Patriots obviously are. Colts are going to be there as always. Cincy looks like they might actually have something this year. Denver is looking solid, though like I said that's a tough 4 game stretch they've got coming up. Steelers, much as I hate them, aren't quite out of it yet. Chargers are still in the thick of things.





That's a stacked division of talented teams over there. While I think the NFC is pretty much a two horse race at this point (and of course that could easily change. It's still very early) I think at this juncture in the season the AFC is about an 8 team race to be quite honest. Any one of about 8 teams could jump up and take it home for the AFC.





Pretty dang exciting football season, all around, even with Dallas playing like crap and managing a piss poor 2-2 record in September. That wouldn't bother me so much if I had faith that the slower start to the season would mean a killer 4-0 run in December but, like I said, I haven't seen anything to suggest such a thing would happen and it would mean running the gauntlet of the whose who of the NFL in December.





Oh and for Washington fans. Fire Jim Zorn. Seriously. Go to Snyders office and make him get rid of him. That guy is, by far, the worst play caller in the history of play callers. I know you're 2-2, which is nice, but you should easily be 3-1. His play calling is horrific. The only guy who I wouldn't take over Jason Garrett in the entire league.







Oh and finally the huge shocks this season to me.



What the heck happened to the Titans? Did big, fat, Albert mean that much to them? The guy ain't exactly lighting the world on fire in DC and yet the Titans have lost him and suddenly they can't win a friggen game? Of course that secondary that boasted 3 Pro Bowlers last year coming in around 28th in the NFL in pass defense right now isn't helping either. What has happened to Jeff Fishers team? Does anyone else smell a Vince Young return around the corner? Might as well. The Titans are done. At 0-4 there just isn't much of a way that they're going anywhere this year. Especially with so many other teams playing so good in the NFL. Plus I believe the Titans are 0-2 in their own division right now and they've got to play the Colts Sunday night. 0-5 is staring their right in the face and the very real possibility that they'll be 0-3 in their own division. Bad year for them. Really bad.



The Rams. Now I know they're bad. I do. They've been bad every since the Greatest Show on Turf left town. But, come on, how can you be that bad and still be allowed to be an NFL team? I mean yuck. Between them, the Raiders, and the Browns (Sorry Pete) you'd think the NFL was fielding some high school teams out there.



As for the Raiders I knew they'd be bad with Russell. I called it long before he was drafted. During the college season when the comparisons about should he or Quinn be the first QB taken. I said all along Russell would be a complete bust. Of course the other side of that argument, from me, was that Quinn would be a really good Pro QB and that part of my prediction is looking like it is going to be a solid bust as well. But with Russell I knew that one. The guy is a typical 1 year wonder. Much like that dude the Redskins reached on at WR last year, Devin Thomas, these are the kind of guys you don't go for. 1 year wonders. Typically nothing good comes from drafting those types.



Tampa Bay solidly stinks, as I think most expected, and they're fighting for the #1 pick, as I think most expected they would be, but man. Sunday they had a chance to actually win one and they just couldn't close out the deal. Anytime you let Jason Campbell beat you in the 4th quarter, for a come from behind win, you're in trouble.