It ain’t the Bengals, that’s for sure. Their allegedly good defense looked like absolute crap, but it was a HOF QB Brady and the rest of the cast at home in the opener where they hardly ever lose…to anyone.
The Bengals offense is still going to be potent.
Get your popcorn ready!
I think Cowboys fans should be nervous. They got manhandled by the Skins, and I don’t think they’re physical enough to get deep into the playoffs.
Also think the Vikings fans are in for a long season. Favre looked…old…against the Saints. I know he’ll give it everything he’s got, but I don’t know that he’s got much left to give.
As a Saints fan…our QB is the franchise. Unfortunately, he’s also on the cover on Madden. And my starter in my fantasy league. I fully expect to see his head explode, or his arms fall off, or some other tragedy to bring an end to the magical joyride the team’s been on since last season.
Imho, week 1 is the difference between hype and reality, and those who are good on paper or on the field. I prefer to see the game myself rather than try to read between the lines in the box score. Of the games I’ve seen, San Diego should be panicking. Baltimore and Minnesota snapped up all the good free agent WR’s already, which is what SD should have been doing. Their defense is pretty sad too now that Merriman is off the juice. On the flip side, we can look back and say this is a historical example of one player (Vincent Jackson) pretty much torpedoing a team. While there were a lot of mistakes, losing VJ was the main one they couldn’t recover from. I think if it was only McNeil, it was survivable.
I didn’t see this game, but Pittsburgh should be in full panic mode as well. Troy Polamalu can cover a lot of weaknesses, but the weaknesses are still there. They have probably the worst DB corps in the league and can’t stop the pass to save their lives. Their win in week 1 needed 2 strikes of lightning: a missed field goal and a 50 yard TD run, both of which are extremely rare.
Dallas needs a wake-up call, especially with that injury to Demarcus Ware. Their offense stinks, period. They have a lot of big names but little talent or cohesion. The first step is to cut Roy Williams loose. Losing Patrick Crayton was huge. Romo is too gutless to sacrifice his body to make a good throw. They should play a tape of the Michael Vick game to show how an NFL QB is supposed to throw.
Wow. I did not get that impression whatsoever. VJ doesn’t make tackles on special teams. He doesn’t play defense and let Jamal Charles run all over him. He doesn’t play running back and not fumble at critical time. He doesn’t cover the TE in the red zone. Naanee ended up having himself a nice little game.
Hell, the Chargers missed special teams ace Kassim Osgood more than VJ last night.
Several years ago, I would have said this about the Steeler secondary. Two years ago, they were number 1 in the league, though they fell to 16th last year. Ike Taylor may have hands like feet, but he’s proven himself more than capable of shutting down the best in the league. I’m not sure where your evaluation of their pass defense is coming from, but it seems a little hyperbolic.
You are a crazy person.
I mean, nobody should be reading anything into the Chargers’ loss. They lose a bunch of games in the first half of the season every year.
Yeah, that’s what I keep telling myself. I mean, they barely squeaked out last year’s season opener against JaMarcus Russell’s Raiders, which tells you all you need to know about their prowess at strong starts.
But still…ow. I don’t know what’s worse: losing to the Chefs, or the welcoming commiseration of my Cowboys-fan coworker after my delightful Sunday evening schadenfreude.
The team that should be in the most panic is the Jets in my opinion. That was among the saddest offensive performances I’ve seen(and that means something, asI live near Detroit)I have seen a game plan to protect a young QB by not allowing him to screw it up, but I have never seen the “Ahh screw it, just get off the field and let the D try to score” strategy.
The defense looked great at times(ie 1st and second down) but had huge vulnerabilities on what was supposed to be their strength,third down and CBs in general.
Going to the superbowl, hell no says I, they won’t come close to the playoffs.
The Lions just signed Nathan Vasher. How the hell was he a free agent? He was one of the best defensive backs in the league for a couple of brief stretches with da Bears.
Their defense was same as usual. What I meant was that his situation was what toppled the offense.
Except for him, they could still be a playoff team without McNeil.
Incidentally, I was correct in worrying that even though there’s no one else on the fucking roster, and Harrison finished up last season avearging fucking 180 rushing yards per game over the last quarter of the saeson, that he still wouldn’t get a chance. He ripped off a 40 yard run and then that was pretty much it for him - against one of the league’s worst rush defenses, he got all of 9 carries.
There is nothing that kid can fucking do to earn a shot apparently. He’s going to go somewhere else at the end of the year and become a star. It’s the most retarded frustrating thing I’ve had to deal with as a fan for a few years now.
It wasn’t the lack of Vincent Jackson that did the Chargers’ offense in - it was the fact that Rivers couldn’t throw the wet ball with any accuracy at all. Unless Jackson’s arms are five feet long, he wouldn’t have made much difference.
He’s slipped A LOT and he’s injury prone to boot. He was washed up 2 years ago but the Bears were too damn loyal/optimistic and let him partially submarine us these last 2 years.
I’m not being glib here, but I honestly wonder if you actually watched the game or (like most of the media pundits on the East Coast who clearly did not), did you simply see that the Chargers lost, gave up a long TD run, and simply assumed that their defense was bad. A few stats -
The Chiefs had 9 total first downs, went 1 for 11 on 3rd down conversions and racked up a total of 197 yards of offense, 56 of which came on a single play.
There was nothing particularly “sad” about the Chargers defense. And Vincent Jackson can suck a bag of d***s if he wants to sit out until someone pays him like a Top 5 WR in the NFL - cause no one is going to, so he’s got nothing better to do for the rest of the season anyway.
$50 million over 4 years would not mean he’s getting paid like a top 5 wideout.
Pretty much. The franchise tag is worth $9.521 million for a receiver. That number is based on the average of the top 5 wideout salaries in the league. $50 million over 4 years averages out to be more than that.
With the caveat that a lot of the salary comparisons would take a degree in accounting, and of course it all depends how the contract would be structured, but last year, only Roddy White, Greg Jennings, and Roy Williams made more than $10 million a year, mostly based on huge signing bonuses.
Looking at it as how much the contract counts against the salary cap (I think it prorates it over the life of the contract), only one counted more than $10 million, and that was Larry Fitzgerald.
It’s hard to compare contracts and such, but 12 million a year would put VJ damn near the top if not the top.
Yeah, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking when I said that.
Living up to your screen name? 