Week seven is in the books, and what an impressive week it was. Let's call it the week of the road warriors, because there were some mighty impressive victories on the road. Road win shoutouts go to GB, SD, Indy, Buffalo, NO(!), NYJ and Arizona. NE won in London, but that's not exactly the same thing as going into hostile territory.
Several big games took center stage, with the biggest being the Vikes-Steelers matchup. Steelers come away with the win, but Vikes fans have to be mighty frustrated, as they saw two turnovers go back for TDs and three red zone trips produce a FG. Childress no doubt getting plenty of second-guessing for playcalling, Farve threw 51 times versus 19 carries for AP, and their inability to get in from the half yard line. It's not all gloom though for the Vikings. They can come away with some confidence that they went into one of the hardest venues in the league and pretty much outplayed the Steelers, except where it counts, on the scoreboard where the Steelers ended up 27-17.
Another game with playoff significance took place in the meadowlands, with the Giants hosting the Cards. It looks like the Cards have finally learned how to play on the east coast. For QB Kurt Warner, it was a homecoming of sorts, as he played for the Giants Eli Manning's rookie year. I guess school's still in session for Eli, only this time it's the Arizona defense doing the teaching, as they threw all sorts of blitzes and coverage packages at him and picked him off three times in the 24-17 win.
Yet another game with late season implications saw Dallas host Atlanta. Note to defensive coordinators: when playing Dallas, you have to gameplan Miles Austin. The Cowboys seem to have found their deep threat in the speedy Austin, who had two long TDs to go with a six catch, 171 yard performance. Atlanta had protected QB Matt Ryan like the Secret Service detail on President Obama, two sacks this year. Yesterday Dallas got to him four times and created two INTs and two fumbles in a surprisingly routine 37-21 win.
The 49ers traveled to Houston, got behind early, switched QBs at the half, made a great comeback but still lost 24-21. Rookie WR/holdout poster child Michael Crabtree made all that preseason camp stuff look unnecessary, as he caught 5 passes for 56 yards, eclipsing the season long production of Oakland rookie WR Darrius Heywood-Bey, whose rich contract had contributed to Crabtree's holdout.
I didn't like the Bears deal for Jay Cutler this summer, and even started a thread here on it. Cutler's impressive play made me think maybe I was wrong, but now I am more convinced than ever that I was right. The Bears have some playmakers, but they just do not have the overall talent to throw away that many high draft picks on a QB, no matter how good he is. Cincy proved my point yesterday, delivering a 45-10 thumping to the Bears, the kind of defeat that can have the Bears front office musing about replacing Lovie Smith with one of the ex-Super Bowl coaches out there. Of course, Lovie might ask them what they were thinking about when they gave away RBs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson. Benson was a bust in two seasons for the Bears but managed to gash them for 189 yards yesterday.
Oakland's brief week of respectablility following the eagles victory is officially over. They got the snot beat out of them yesterday by the visiting jets, 38-0.
You want a weird game, I guess the best way to get it is to put Carolina and Buffalo together. Carolina has rivaled Tennessee for biggest disappointment of the year. Buffalo has become the master of winning with mirrors. Yesterday Carolina outgained the Bills almost 3 to 1 and had a ten minute time of possession advantage, and held Buffalo to 9 first downs. Just like last week against the Jets, it didn't matter as Buffalo parlayed four turnovers into a 20-9 win.
SD traveled to KC and looked like we expected them to look, dynamic on offense. KC looked like we expected them to look, lousy. Result, SD won 37-7. I said I would probably look like an idiot for not going with Sd here, so I am officially an idiot.
Actually I can forgive myself for passing on the Bolts, as my other picks went 4-0, giving me a 15-7 record against the spread for the season. I'll take it.
Three of the games were the kind of games I like when I'm giving points, blowouts that were never in serious question. GB, Indy and NE just have too much firepower for the Browns, the Rams and the Bucs. Theother game, NO at Miami, certainly made up for the excitement deficit however. Miami ran the ball and stuffed NO on the way to a 24-3 first half lead, and I was having flashbacks to the Dolphins-Colts MNF game. The one thing you just absolutely cannot do however when protecting a lead against NO is to hand them two interception return TDs, which was exactly what Miami did. The awesome Saints offense did the rest, giving them an incredible 46-34 victory, and probably leaving the rest of the league wondering just what you have to do to beat these guys.
Eagles at Redskins tonight.
