NFL week 3....Contender or Pretender?

[Kyo]

Despite that blow up against the eagles on monday night, were 10th in total defense currently lol.

[Deejay]

The only player slowing down on that defense is Ray. I don't think anyone in their right mind would say that the Ravens don't have a top 10 defense.

[Akiyama]

They were 6th in total defense despite injuries in the second half of the season. I'd call that "tops".

Holy crap, really? Man, I was wrong then. I just remember some fairly awful games where they seemed to give up. Maybe it was just due to the fact that they were so bad on the other side of the ball.

[Kyo]

The only player slowing down on that defense is Ray. I don't think anyone in their right mind would say that the Ravens don't have a top 10 defense.

Even then Ray Lewis is still pretty fast and a solid defender, he's not as fast as like 5 yrs ago, but he still plays his postion very well.

[Tyche]

They took injuries in the secondary and gave up a ton of passing yardage, leading to a lot of points. That part of the defense suffered for the aforementioned reasons. They may be the reason for the perception that they weren't great. They still were.

[tyven]

losing adalius thomas to the gaytriots hurt that D too

[Ishido]

Tampa Bay @ Chicago - If Galloway is truly hurt, this could suck for the Bucs... that and they play bad in the cold.

wat

Kansas City @ Atlanta

Oakland @ Buffalo

Tampa Bay @ Chicago

Carolina @ Minnesota

Miami @ New England

Cincinatti @ New York Giants

Houston@ Tennessee

Arizona @ Washington

Detroit @ San Francisco

St. Louis @ Seattle

New Orleans @ Denver

Pittsburgh@ Philadelphia

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis

Cleveland @ Baltimore

Dallas @ Green Bay

New York Jets @ San Diego

[Fistandantilus]

It's okay, Fist. You're from Seattle. Your pro teams out there have been made of massive fail. Lost the NBA team. Seahawks are pretty bad, and we won't start on the Mariners.

There's a running count going on by people here, I think our Division I football teams plus our pro teams are like, 0-7 or something so far. I'm also pretty sure the other local universities that are smaller near me are winless or equally horrible..

[Kyo]

At least seattle hosts decent gaming conventions I guess, Im excited pax is on east coast next year tho!

[Plow]

Kansas City @ Atlanta- Atlanta still sucks, time for KC to get one of their 3 or 4 wins for the season.

Oakland @ Buffalo - duhr

Tampa Bay@ Chicago - This will be close though. The guy that should be the bears qb will remind them of why, this could go either way very easily.

Carolina @ Minnesota - Panthers are good this year, Tavaris makes VY look like Einstein.

Miami @ New England - Ricky finally shows why he got his extention as the fins roll to like a 12-6 win.

Cincinatti @ New York Giants - Palmer gets sacked 552657836092 times and gains -50 yards on the day.

Houston @ Tennessee - Houston can't score a TD on this Titans team.

Arizona @ Washington - Edge stepping up makes the cards an almost good team. A couple bombs to moss keeps it reasonable.

Detroit @ San Francisco - Gore runs for 150 yards and eats up too much clock for Detroit to pull it off.

St. Louis @ Seattle - I really hope so for my sister's sake lol, poor Seattle sports fans.

New Orleans @ Denver - Denver D steps up and this turns into a rout. NO had a fluke season 2 years ago, they're just not a top tier football team.

Pittsburgh@ Philadelphia - Philly shows us why the Steelers are "under the radar," they can't put up the 40 points it takes to beat the top offensive teams against a good defense, and their defense is not any better than Philly or Dallas.

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis - I'm not so sure about this one, but I won't pick against the colts unless I'm awfully confident about it heh.

Cleveland @ Baltimore - Close one, but it's all about Lorenzo Neal. The man makes that offense function, and there's nobody he can't block. They need like 3 points and then they can hold the ball all day long against that browns D.


Dallas@ Green Bay - Rodgers is everything McNabb should've been and more, with dramatically better receivers and GB defense is a lot better than Philly as well. GB is the best team in the NFL right now, they go out and prove it.

New York Jets @ San Diego - CONTENDER! Darren Sproles FTW in this game. Huge game by Sproles and a huge game by Favre after mounting criticism of Mangenius's lack of using Favre. Chargers still win. Remember, last year they started 1-3 and they ended up just fine.

I'm just going to leave that one as-is because I <3's meh some Sproles.

[Kyo]

Do I need to point out again and I repeat GUS FEROTTE IS THE VIKINGS STARTER.

I know it doesnt matter much, but I noticed you commented on his awesome QB skills. TJ that is.

[Soa]

Kansas City @ Atlanta

Oakland @ Buffalo

Tampa Bay @ Chicago

Carolina @ Minnesota

Miami @ New England

Cincinatti @ New York Giants

Houston@ Tennessee

Arizona @ Washington

Detroit @ San Francisco

St. Louis @ Seattle

New Orleans @ Denver

Pittsburgh@ Philadelphia

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis

Cleveland @ Baltimore

Dallas @ Green Bay

New York Jets @ San Diego

[Kyo]

Philly/Pitt, Indy/Jacksonville and cowboys/pack should be fun to watch.

[Sepukku]

I'm only looking at games that matter. No Oakland/Atlanta/Kansas City/etc stuff, nor sure-fire stuff like Miami vs NE.

Carolina over Minnesota - There's a reason this Gus guy has been a full time starter for only a handful of his 15ish years in the NFL. Carolina's D is insane so far this year and Steve Smith never hurts anybody (except his teammate).

Denver over New Orleans - New Orleans is a team that had high expectations, going downhill. Denver is a team that was given a so-so chance at a wild card and their stock is doing nothing but rising.

Indianapolis over Jacksonville - This game had all the glitz and glam of Green Bay - Dallas in the preseason, but both teams have been disappointing so far. It really seemed like a toss up, but Peyton Manning reminded us Sunday that as long as he's half-healthy, he can will the Colts to a win. Unless Nick Harper's wife stabs him in the leg.

Dallas over Green Bay - Dallas is just sooooo good. Marion Barber is a beast. I usually don't like picking against Green Bay at home, but I haven't gotten over them letting the Giants get away with one in January.

San Diego over NY Jets - Close call. San Diego has home field, and they need the win a lot more than the Jets. Don't get me wrong, the Jets really need a win too. But the Charges REALLY need a win. I'm not buying the commentator BS on Favre getting exhausted late in his first two games due to the heat, but it certainly can't help his chances.

GAME OF THE WEEK:
Pittsburgh over Philadelphia - This game should upstage Green Bay / Dallas. Philly seems to have the slight favoritism in the opinions of people on TV, this board, and around the community, but I'm a lil biased, bleeding the black and gold and all. I wouldn't be surprised to see Philly walk away with a win, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Steelers win it either. This is as toss up as toss up gets. Steelers have the D. Steelers pull it out in a close one.

[Lordender]

Saints are way too beat up, we will be lucky to even win 7 games this year despite all that firepower on offense. Bush looks awful @ running back, he still doesn't know how to burst through the holes and constantly gets shown up by pierre thomas on running plays.

[Akiyama]

I do agree. Hell, I don't think he's even a running back. He's like.. the definition of flex. Just throw him the ball out of the backfield.

[Plow]

Do I need to point out again and I repeat GUS FEROTTE IS THE VIKINGS STARTER.

Oh, well, in that case...

[Norelco]

Not that it matters to alot of you...but I noticed an interesting trend from the Bills now that Jauron is coaching.

They seem to be much more disciplined in terms of committing penalties. I notice a HUGE difference between penalties committed between the Mike Mularky and Dick Jauron years.

According to the NFL.com team stats website...

In 2004, the Buffalo Bills were ranked 2nd highest in penalties committed at 121
In 2005, the Buffalo Bills were ranked 6th highest in penalties committed at 120
In 2006, the Buffalo Bills were ranked 10th highest in penalties committed at 87
In 2007, the Buffalo Bills were tied for 12th with the Patriots in penalties committed at 78

So far in 2008, they are the 14th highest team in penalties committed at 5...

This is a nice trend I'm seeing from a Jauron disciplined team.

[Byrd]

There's a running count going on by people here, I think our Division I football teams plus our pro teams are like, 0-7 or something so far. I'm also pretty sure the other local universities that are smaller near me are winless or equally horrible..

Hey, now, the Seattle Storm are pretty good! And they get an MLS franchise next year. And .... and ....

Yeah, I don't buy it either. /sigh

GAME OF THE WEEK:
Pittsburgh over Philadelphia

This is a big game, but it's not the game of the week unless you live in Pennsylvania.

[Tyche]

What game is better?