NFL: Week 5 Recap

1:02 PM
I: Well, if it wasn't official before, it certainly is now. The Chicago Bears are the best team in the NFL. They are the team to beat. They are the team no one wants to play. At a distant second are the Indianapolis Colts, who while still undefeated, barely got past the woeful Tennessee Titans with a 14-13 victory. The Colts, as has been said numerous times in this blog by both writers, have some real problems stopping the run. That is a huge problem to have in the NFL. Hayuge. We can fill out the rest of our power rankings later.

Saj, I want you to take a look at the Bears remaining schedule and tell me why they won't win at least 14 games this year: @Arizona, Bye, SF, Mia, @NYG, @NYJ, @Pats, Min, @Stl, TB, @Det, GB.

It doesn't take an expert to say that the three straight rode games in the Northeast is a very tough stretch...but these are the Chicago Bears. Northeast weather will not phase them in the least. That means they beat the bad team (Jets), beat the decent team (Giants) in a tight game , and have trouble with the good team (Pats). The fact that all three are road games (fans and familiarity being the factor, not weather conditions) means the Bears might lose two of those, but have a great chance to go 2-1 if not 3-0. And where else on their schedule, Saj, is there a loseable game? Nowhere. Fourteen wins easy, am I right?


1:45pm
S: Looking at that schedule, I don't think anything is out of the question. It's tough to predict 14 wins, but I can say with confidence that the Bears are a mortal lock for at least 12. Arizona, Bye week, San Francisco, and Miami? That's like having a month off to prepare for the Giants on November 12. And who knows which Giants team shows up that day and whether or not Eli decides to play like Eli or play well enough to win. Up next are the Jets and we saw how they perform against a good defense this past week. Chad Pennington looked so bad, I thought he was autistic. The Patriots at Gillette at the end of that three game spell will be a tough play, but, and it pains me to say this, the Bears are good enough to embarass New England in that game.

14 wins is tough to say. That's going 9-2 for the rest of the season and, as we've learned, predicting anything this season is so infuriatingly difficult. It can happen, but the Bears will at least go 7-4 and win the division easily unless Sexy Rexy and half the starting defense contracts a debilitating case of gonorrhea from a stripper during Week 9 in Miami.

And speaking of debilitating and Miami, how about that Joey Harrington? Imagine leaving Detroit, not a great city to spend the winter (or any) months in, and it's 5-11 team for Miami, a city with not only more thongs per capita than any other in this great nation, but with an 8-8 football team on the rise where he'd be asked only to carry a clipboard. Exciting right? Would Joey even have to wait until after the game to pop some ecstasy and hit up South Beach? It turns out that he will have to wait (at least for South Beach) until after the game nowadays because, CONGRATULATIONS JOEY, you're the new starting quarterback of the 1-4 Miami Dolphins! I wonder if he's at all happy about this. Just listen carefully Joey: Throw Chris Chambers the ball. He's killing both my fantasy teams.

On a related note (completely unrelated but you KNOW I had to mention this) how about that completely uncharacteristic, out of the blue, Bledsoe interception on the goalline that Lito Sheppard ran back for the game-sealing touchdown? How about it? Assuming Bledsoe could have gotten the ball in the (correct) endzone, that's a 14 point swing. In a million years I would not have expected something like that to happen. A million years. How 'bout them COWBOYS!!!


2:10 PM
All right, listen. The Cowboys are still a strong team. This just in: a team that travels to Philly this year is supposed to lose. Even if the Bears went there, people would take Phily. The Eagles are a top 5 team. In fact, you will see they're my #3 team in my Power Rankings. The fact that the Cowboys were down a touchdown and driving in the closing minutes does not mean they're a bad team. They've played 3 of 4 games on the road, losing in Jacksonville and Philly. They're doing just fine.

Their weak link is Bledsoe and pass protection, no doubt about it. The rest of this team, however, puts them in elite company. I am confident this is one of the ten best teams in the league. Very confident. I'd put them in the top 5 once their record reflects it. Their defense is young, hungry, and improving...probably a top 3 defense in the conference. Their receiving corps, including their elite Tight End, is as good as any in the NFL, remembering that Palmer and Manning throw to the ones you might put on top. They have two NFL caliber running backs. Their coach is an all time great. Only a handful of teams are as complete as this.

Indeed, it comes down to the quarterback and the offensive line. I knew the blit happy Philly defense would give them trouble and they did. Seven sacks is unacceptable in this league. Unacceptable. No one will win with that stat. Credit Philly, don't hate on the Cowboys. They will make you eat your words down the stretch.

So yeah, I have Philly at my #3 on the Rankings. Fourth and fifth I have Denevr and New England. Dropping out, of course, are the Ravens, who I have correctly assessed for weeks. I look forward to seeing your top 5. (And how about this one...who's the next worst team in football? Titans? Texans? Lions?)


3:43pm
The Cowboys are one of the best teams in the NFL. But every team knows that they will lose if you blitz Bledsoe. Interesting, very interesting. You mentioned the seven sacks for Bledsoe this past Sunday, but what about the three interceptions? As good as everything else is about the Cowboys, they will not make the playoffs with Drew Bledsoe as their QB, especially not in the NFC East. Tony Romo anyone? And doesn't Tony Romo's name sound like he should have have a moustache?

And I will credit Philly for the impressive performance they put together. I will credit Hank Baskett and Reggie Brown for outperforming Dallas' "elite receiving corps." I will credit Lito Sheppard for not dropping a pass that was thrown right to him. And I will credit the Eagles fans for not getting arrested in their attempts to heckle Terrell Owens. Let's just say that if Dallas is going to make me eat my words, I'm going to be eating a whole lot of them. GO COWBOYS!

As for the Power Rankings, I think your top 5 are solid. A case can be made for San Diego (legitimately scary with the defense, their two runningbacks, and Rivers looking swell against Pittsburgh) but it would be pointless to worry about it.

For the second worst team in the NFL it's a dead heat between the Titans and Lions. The Lions are, well, the Lions, but at least they have shown they can put points on the board. While the Titans defensive performance this Sunday made me giddy, I realized that they probably won't be able to score any more than 13 points in a game ever. Holding Manning to only one score for most of the game was just not going to happen and it didn't. Sidenote: Peyton scares me right now. That's two consecutive weeks when the Colts should have rolled through strikingly inferior teams yet the games have been very close. I swear that m*****f***** is playing possum, I swear to the spirit of Johnny Unitas. Unless he's not dead yet. Then I apologize.


3:59 PM
My point was, it's just one problem with the team, as opposed to several for most others. Problems can be fixed, and this one will be. Trust me. I'm the guy with an 11-5 record in picks. And anyone suggesting Romo is the better option is off their rocker. I'm convinced they just love the name. These are the same people who thought booting Bledsoe in favor of Losman would improve that team. It didn't. They went from playoff contender to joke overnight when they jettisoned Bledsoe. People think that there are Tom Brady's lurking in the wings. There aren't. There's only one Tom Brady, it was lightning in a bottle.

What grade do you give the Pats heading into the bye week?

4:21pm
On the conventional A-F grading scale, I'd say the Patriots have earned a B+ to A-. Two sloppy wins, a terrible defeat, two convincing wins. But I don't believe in grades. Or bye weeks. Or if and how fluffernutter is bad for you.