The new big news out of Minnesota is that Harvin and Childress almost came to blows on Friday. I’ve been holding off on saying this because you never know what can happen later in the season, but now it seems perfectly evident that Childress has totally lost control of his team. He’s gone at year’s end, if not sooner. How does a coach as seemingly good as Childress let the wheels fall off like this?
Anyway, here are the games this week:
NYJ @ DET
SD @ HOU
TB @ ATL
NO @ CAR
CHI @ BUF
ARI @ MIN
NE @ CLE
MIA @ BAL
NYG @ SEA
IND @ PHI
KC @ OAK
DAL @ GB
PIT @ CIN
My picks:
Jets (Detroit may steal it, though, after witnessing last week’s debacle)
Chargers (They’re due, depends on Norv)
Falcons
Saints (Should be a gimme)
Bills (Hey, they have to win eventually…)
Cardinals (Childress is gone by tomorrow)
Patriots
Dolphins (Baltimore’s defense is highly overrated, they can be run on this year)
Indy
Raiders (Playing great right now)
Packers (Dallas’ hubris-fueled freefall continues)
And, of course, the Steelers (I trust I need say no more)
UGLY start for both teams in the Cardinals/Vikings. Cardinals do nothing on their first drive, Favre gets picked off the next series, Cardinals then fumble the ball out of the end zone. UGH
Favre throws yet another stupid interception. But the Cardinals find a way to fuck it up by fumbling before the pick six, giving the Vikings the ball back.
And in the InterceptionOlympics, Derek Anderson tries his damndest to outdumb Favre with a horrible pass. Ruled an interception, I’m guessing it gets overturned on appeal.
Unless the Vikes can pull out a decisive victory today I don’t think Chilly will make it out of the stadium today with his job. Looking at this first quarter, that ain’t happening.
The Bears offense and pass protection have done exactly what people have asked them to do out of the bye. Cutler has time and Martz is working a nearly 50-50 mix of pass and run. They are moving the ball steadily and Cutler hasn’t made many dangerous throws. All in all I ought to be thrilled with this outcome.
However, the Bears defense is inexplicably absent. The run defense is basically impenetrable but that’s not paying any dividends at all in the passing game. They haven’t generated any pass rush to speak of and Fitzpatrick is picking the secondary apart. They are playing way too far off of the WRs and he’s finding all the holes in this god forsaken Tampa 2. The Bears either need to start selling out on some blitzes or something, as long as Fitzy is back there with time he’ll continue killing us. In the red zone we’re barely putting up a fight.
This is not the game I expected to see. I’ve got my pitchfork handy.