Minnesota Vikings Looks to Have Locked up Ten Wins – Maybe More

By now everyone knows about the latest head-turning acquisition in the NFL. No ladies and gentleman, we are not talking about Michael Vick. This is the return of the return of Mr. Brett Favre. I got a look at the Vikings schedule which didn’t interest me much prior to the huge pickup. But let’s all take a look together now that Favre has joined the club.

The first five games should produce a 5-0 start; at Cleveland, at Detroit, home against rebuilding San Francisco, home against defensively struggling Green Bay, and at the inept St. Louis Rams.

The next three games are tough; home against Baltimore, at Pittsburgh, home at Green Bay. I’d say the Pittsburgh game is a loss. The one against Green Bay could be a shootout based on pure emotion alone that could go either way. The game against the Ravens figures to be hard-nosed and I’ll give the Vikes the edge in that one being at home to bring them to 6-2 midway.

After that they get to rest up for a week before they face the Lions again at home, then inconsistent Seattle at home, and Chicago who has defensive and wide receiving woes at home as well. I think all three are wins bringing them to 9-2.

The final stretch is where it gets tough; at Arizona, a trap-game like matchup against Cincinnati at home, at Carolina, at Chicago who may be in the division race at that time, and home against the New York Giants who might be in playoff or NFC East title contention as well.

If the Vikings turn out to be solid, they should win one or two of those last five games. If they mold into a great team then 12-13 wins should be on the horizon. Favre may be 40 years old, and have shown signs of decay over the last half of the previous year, but in Minnesota he has a proven deep threat in Bernard Berrian, and a put-the-team-on-my-back rusher in Adrian Peterson along with starter-worthy Chester Taylor.  

This team is much more balanced offensively and stronger defensively than the Jets were last year and that should be the difference in how well Favre plays through another 16 game stretch.

Atlanta Falcons to Gain the Two Seed in the NFC?

One thing pissing me off big time after week 16 is the following… why is no one mentioning that the Falcons have a chance to lock up the number two seed in the NFL? If The Falcons accomplish the highly un-venerable task of defeating the waste-filled Saint Louis Rams in Atlanta this weekend, and the Carolina Panthers are defeated in New Orleans next week, the Atlanta Falcons end up winning the NFC South. We already know that the Giants have locked up the top seed by beating Carolina in OT Sunday night, but the Cardinals at best can finish 9-7 in the NFC West, and the Bears or Vikings can only finish at 10-6 to win the NFC North. What does this mean? Either the Falcons or Panthers are guaranteed the two seed.

But why is no one talking about it? Because every dumb analyst has it in their mind that the Falcons wonderful turn-around in the post Michael Vick mortem was simply in clinching their Wild Card berth. But hello! They can even get a bye! That would be totally huge!

Not only do they overcome last year’s fiasco and make the playoffs with a rookie QB, but they now have a chance to put themselves in a highly viable position of reaching a Super Bowl with one home win and one road win, as long as the Giants win their first game. I mean, geez, they could end up hosting the NFC Championship if the Giants lose their first game!

Someone please talk about it. I’ve watched PTI, Sports Center, and heard every FOX, CBS, and NBC analyst and commentator and not one of them has thought about this. It pisses me off and I almost hope to god that the Falcons get the two seed to see if they all have dumb looks on their faces.

Carolina… pleeeeease lose. I already know the Falcons have the Rams game in their back pocket, so I’m not worried about you. Later.

Stick a fork in them, yep they’re done! Sorry Cowboy fans…

The cowboys may have to play the remainder of the season without Adam Jones in the defensive backfield, which is a huge deal considering they don’t have any depth at DB. This week THE BOYS will start their swiss cheese secondary against the Giants. I expect Eli to have a big game. The Pacman news may seem like small news, but when you take into account their laundry list of injuries, its not hard to jump to grasp it’s severity. Jerry Jones may have been better suited to have picked up some free agents DB’s rather than wasting 3 draft picks on Odessa’s #1 WR Roy Williams. Just look at the secondary for this week’s Giants game, I am starting to think they will have no one to actually play Safety. Hamlin (Ankle) probably won’t be ready and Keith Davis (MCL) is not likely to play and remember that Roy Williams is on IR. So who is going to start? That is a question that I don’t think Wade Phillips knows the answer to either. Right now it looks like Tra Battle and Courtney Brown will get the start, at the Safety spots. Yet again because of this you should expect a big game for Eli and Giants second year TE Kevin Boss for several reasons. The First reason is that Tra Battle, who was cut earlier this season by the Chargers, is severely undersized and will be expected to cover the TE during certain man packages during this game. In the Red Zone this will really kill the boys. Also Courtney Brown is a ex-corner who just wasn’t agile enough to play CB at the NFL level. He is not a reliable player and in this big game he could be exploited. This duo just won’t match up against Big Blue’s crew of Wide-Outs.

Sorry Boy’s fans, your season is already over, finito!

The Cowboys have a pretty rough upcoming schedule, in which they will face the New York Giants (11-2), Baltimore Ravens (9-4) and Philadelphia Eagles (7-5-1). These are teams that I don’t know if they could beat even when they were healthy. So now with the cowboys all banged up, I have to say is, “Stick a fork in it. Good job for beating Seattle and San Francisco, but the reality is your still not making the playoffs! SO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!!!!!”

Can Underachieving NFL Favorites Keep Pace with the Rest of the League?

Before the start of the 2008 NFL season there were four sure-fire Super Bowl favorites; the Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. So far after seven weeks only the Patriots seem to have any type of competitive balance with a 4-2 record and only one game behind AFC East leading Buffalo Bills at 5-1.

The aforementioned teams have not faired so well and are a combined 10-10.

Even though Tony Romo is out, there is no excuse for the lack of effort the Cowboys showed in their 34-14 blowout in St. Louis. They have allowed two upstart teams, the Redskins and Cardinals, and a bottom-feeder in St. Louis get wins against them. Even though Romo was in against the two upstarts, he has averaged at least one turnover per game.

The Chargers have been the epitomy of inconsistency through seven games going loss, loss, win, win, loss, win, loss en-route to a 3-4 record. Traveling east has not helped them as they go forward three time zones every time. Now they have to go eight time zones to play the Saints in London this weekend!

Exposed Defenses

Exposed Defenses.
by Madison Mad’nuff

Well In a shootout the dazzled and bewildered all that watched the Cowboys beat the Eagles. These were high powered offenses that torched their opposing defenses all game save for the mistakes.

Westbrook loses the game with a fumble on what would have been a scoring drive. Romo keeps the Eagles in the game with a fumble in the ends zone that leads to a touchdown. But if you look at this impressive performance, from a different perspective it is not that impressive. They have both systematically shown how to exploit each others defenses “IN WEEK 2”. Teams now have a blue print for the rest of the year on what works against these defenses, they have been exposed and I mean full nudity. Now they are still very good defenses but , the Eagles are going to have a lot of trouble next week and so are the Cowboys. When a defense gets torched
like both did last night other teams take note. If I am going against the Cowboys I know that if my Quarterback can scramble people will be open, and if it’s the eagles I know a little speed and time will make them eat their own blitzes. So what does this mean it means that each team is going to have a very tough time all year from now on. Which means that things are going to turn out how I thought in the NFC East, with Eagles winning the division Cowboys second and Giants coming in third.

NFL recap: Giants Beat Redskins in Season Opener

The 2009 NFL season opened today, with The Washington Redskins at the New York Giants. There were many things that happened at the game. Micheal Strahan came out of a Novelty Lombardi trophy and made a speech before kickoff. Then many fans at half time boo’d team owner Steve Tisch during “The Cancer Awareness Event half-time show” due to the his new policy on Personal Seating Licenses at the new Giant Stadium. It was pretty sad to say the least. While this man is making a speech about his fathers fight with cancer most of the fans were just booing. No one cared about the man’s personal pain over the loss of his father. Nope, not at all. The crowd instead vocalized the fact that they are angry and pissed off about PSL’s. Well, we all know NYC can be a tough town. Regardless, The New York Giants topped the Redskins 16-7. Plaxico Burress had another standout performance, picking up where he left off last post season, racking up 133 yards on 10 receptions. Other notable performances were Brandon Jacobs and Justin Tuck. Jacobs ran for 116 yards on 21 carries. Justin Tuck recorded a Sack on the first play from scrimmage.

It was a great game for the Defending Superbowl Champion New York Giants. The only issue they seemed to have was Red zone production. It is still very early in the season, so we will have to wait and see what they can do in the red zone in the next game on Sept 14th, in St Louis.

-Mark M