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From TheSmartMarks.com Movies / TV NFL INSTANT REPLAY: Week 3How the mighty have fallen: the Chiefs, who started last season 9-0 en route to a 13-3 finish, have taken the opposite approach this year. They�re now 0-3 and have a severe uphill fight ahead of them if they want to make the playoffs. We�ll talk about them and their problems in more detail later. Retribution of the meek: Jacksonville and Atlanta both sit at 3-0, and while that doesn�t assure them of playoff berths, it does give them the confidence needed to go thru the rest of the season. Both teams are winning because of strong defense, even though Atlanta�s D is overshadowed by the often ridiculous exploits of their quarterback. The Giants are 2-1, and are led by a resurgent Kurt Warner, who now has a hold on the QB job only injury could slacken. Welcome to the NFL: if you�re a crappy team, just wait a year. Week 3: The Week That Was RAVENS~! 23, at Bengals 9. Obviously, this column is read in NFL locker rooms. JAMAL~!, obviously distraught about potentially losing his single-name tilde-bang status, went out and owned the Cincy defense like he always does. A 186-yard day, with a TD, cements JAMAL~! as a single-name tilde-bang back. I�m sure this is a great relief to him, and I trust he won�t rest on his laurels, nor on his tilde-bang. Kyle Boller has become not so much a quarterback as the caretaker of the offense. Hand the ball off, make the passes you need to make, and don�t screw up. As the saying goes, two out of three ain�t bad. Boller�s two fumbles were the pockmark on an otherwise efficient day: they gave the Bengals a field goal and cost the Ravens a touchdown. Boller needs to protect the ball at all times. Especially with Todd Heap and Travis Taylor out, the Ravens don�t have the depth at the receiving positions to come from behind if his turnovers put them in a hole. Randy Hymes is stepping up nicely, as I thought he would in 2002 before the unfortunate injury that cost him all of 2003, and a quartet of Hymes, Heap, Taylor, and Kevin Johnson will give the Ravens the ability to move the ball in the air. Once all these chaps are healthy, expect more from the passing game, but this is still a team that lives and dies with JAMAL~! at Minnesota 27, Chicago 22. The Bears might be 1-2, but new coach Lovie Smith isn�t going to let his team be anybody�s pushover. The Vikings, a team with a lot more talent than Chicago, particularly on offense, won by less than a touchdown despite getting great days from Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss, and Onterrio Smith. Bad news Bears: Chicago lost QB Rex Grossman for the year with an ACL injury. Houston 24, at Kansas City 21. I think the Houston Astros could have scored 24 against the Chiefs� defense. Really, they�d have no answer for Roy Oswalt lobbing a long bomb to the explosive Carlos Beltran. The Chiefs got a good rushing day from PRIEST~!, who was questionable all week with an ankle injury, but they couldn�t stop the Texans when it mattered most. Kris Brown kicked the game-winning field goal with two ticks left on the clock, a 49-yarder that put a serious, serious crimp in the Chiefs� postseason plans. Philadelphia 30, at Detroit 13. I�ll say it again: Roy Williams is legit. He caught nine passes for 135 yards and two TDs against a tough, physical Eagles defense. Seeing him shedding tackles and making the Eagles DB look like weaklings was great. I predicted Kevin Jones would be the Lions� impact rookie, but it�s clearly going to be Williams. Who knows how many chances he�s get if Charles Rogers were healthy, but he�s certainly capitalizing on the opportunity to be the go-to guy. For Philly, Donovan McNabb had another good day, and Terrell Owens had over 100 receiving yards and a TD. He�s proved to be the perfect complement to McNabb so far this season, and I think I underestimated his contributions in our roundtable preseason column. at Indianapolis 45, Green Bay 31. In the Clash of the Titans, Manning lorded over Favre. Not that either chap had a bad day, or even anything less than a great day, but the fact remains that Manning�s Colts beat Favre�s Packers. Indy�s game plan focused on attacking the Packers� suspect secondary, and they executed it to perfection. Manning threw for 393 yards and five scores. Favre almost matched him, with 360 yards and a quartet of TDs, but the Colts� offense was just too much. Their defense needs to step up in the weeks ahead, but the offense is looking scary good right now. at Oakland 30, Tampa 20. The Raiders came out on top in the Gruden Bowl, and they might have gotten a new QB in the process. Rich Gannon, injured in a collision with Tampa LB Derrick Brooks, was replaced by Kerry Collins, who moved the team down the field well. He threw for 228 yards and a touchdown, and RB Tyrone Wheatley broke the century mark on the ground. On a positive note for Tampa, Tim Brown scored his 100th TD on a pass from Brad Johnson, and was given a nice ovation by the Raiders fans he�d played in front of for so long. at Atlanta 6, Arizona 3. And the Braves clinched their 82nd division title in a row with . . . damnit, I hate it when these baseball scores happen in football games. Michael Vick, restrained to mere mortal levels of production by the plucky Cardinals defense (excepting that silly 58-yard run), relied on his defense to win this one. Atlanta smothered poor Arizona QB Josh McCown, sacking him six times and generally getting in his face all day. The Falcons, who had a horrible defense last season, have a very good one so far this year, and that�s the biggest reason for their 3-0 start. Jacksonville 15, at Tennessee 12. Another game, another late win for Jacksonville. They�ve yet to look impressive on offense, but the Jags definitely have a big-league defense, and past season have shown that to be enough. The offense should come around with time. The Titans got a tough break when Steve McNair suffered a bruised sternum and had to be hospitalized. As of this writing, there is no word on his status for the coming weeks. New Orleans 28, at St. Louis 25 (OT). Aaron Brooks and Marc Bulger had a heck of a duel at QB, and while Bulger had the slightly better day, Brooks� team won. That�s due in part to the RB battle, which saw DEUCE~! fill-in Aaron Stecker outperform Marshall Faulk. Stecker ran for over 100 yards and scored a TD, while Faulk didn�t manage 100 yards in his 20 combined touches. The Saints got a late FG from John Carney to tie, and another in OT to win. Carney kicked five FGs on the day, including a pair from over 50 yards. Dallas 21, at DC Metro Area 18. If there�s one thing Joe Gibbs is lacking so far in his return to the NFL, it�s clock management. His poor clock management in the second half left the Racists with no timeouts when they needed but one to try the game-tying field goal. Gibbs made an ill-advised challenge of a play that certainly wasn�t getting overturned. Without that, the Racists have a timeout, and can try the field goal after Rod Gardner�s circus catch in the dying seconds of the game. Another problem for DC Metro Area is their porous offensive line, which often had at least one chap standing around uselessly while Mark Brunell or Clinton Portis were getting swarmed by Dallas defenders. Aside: Since I�ve gotten feedback about it, I call the team the �Racists� because that�s precisely what their team nickname is. �Braves� and �Chiefs� are not demeaning to Indians (or Native Americans, if you prefer), but �Redskins� certainly is. Look at all the brouhaha Bill Parcells started when he referred to his team�s �Jap plays.� Theatrically oversensitive people, who love being offended on behalf of others, were tripping over their own feet to be the first to condemn him for such insensitivity, but they still don�t bat an eyelash at the �Redskins.� I will continue to refer to this team as the Racists as long as their nickname is a racist pejorative. Need I ask how bad the firestorm would be if the nickname were a particularly hateful term that referred to Blacks? And since the team neither practices nor plays in Washington, their geographical reference has been replaced with the far more accurate �DC Metro Area.� End aside. Other Scores: at Denver 23, San Diego 13 at Seattle 34, The City 0 Pittsburgh 13, at Miami 3 at New Jersey Giants 27, Cleveland 10. (Open dates: Buffalo, NJ Jets, New England, Carolina) Pass For Show, Run For Dough In this era of Sports Center highlights and fans with short attention spans, the passing game gets a lot of love. Every week, at least one QB goes en fuego passing the ball, and a couple teams live and die putting the ball in the air. Maybe I�m just an old-school ball-control guy, but I think the running game is still the most important offensive ingredient, since it lets you wear down both your enemies at once: the opposing team, and the game clock. I�m going to chart some rushing statistics this season (as I did last season, until time constraints forced me to scrap this column) and see how important the running game really is. Each week, I�ll tally up the 100-yard rushers and see how their teams did. Also, I�ll look at teams that ran the ball 30 or more times, and teams that ran it 20 or fewer times, and see how they did. Week 3 100-yard rushers: 9 Team record: 6-3 30 or more rushing attempts: 8 Team record: 6-2 20 or fewer rushing attempts: 5 Team record: 1-4 (Philly again gets the lone win here.) Season to date 100-yard rushing games: 29 Team record: 21-8 (72.41%) 30 or more rushing attempts: 31 Team record: 22-9 (70.96%) 20 or fewer rushing attempts: 15 Team record: 3-12 (20.0%) Chief Among Their Problems is Their 0-3 Record Many people, your humble scrivener included, expected Kansas City to have another good season. They still had PRIEST~!, Trent Green, and Tony Gonzalez on offense, and on defense . . . well, they couldn�t be awful again, could they? The Chiefs won last year in spite of their defense, until it got thoroughly exposed in the playoffs. Dick Vermeil cried as he sacked one defensive coordinator in favor of another (and intimated that his wife was involved in the decision, certainly a strange way to run an NFL ship). Former head coach Gunther Cunningham was brought back to turn the defense around. So far, that hasn�t happened. The Chiefs still can�t stop anyone. Houston isn�t exactly an offensive powerhouse, and they were able to move the ball when they needed to en route to putting up 24 points. The Chiefs are last in the league in points allowed, and rank in the bottom third in yards allowed and plays spent on the field. In their last 20 games, they�re allowing an average of about 28 points per game. It�s hard for any offense to overcome that. And speaking of the Chiefs� offense, it has to bear its share of the blame for the team�s 0-3 start. PRIEST~!, as dangerous a receiver as he is a runner, has barely seen the ball come his way out of the backfield. After three games, PRIEST~! has merely 5 catches for 14 yards. Over the last three seasons, he�s averaged about 70 catches for 660 yards. This is an entire component to a very successful offense that�s missing. PRIEST~! is a great weapon out of the backfield, and the Chiefs need to get him more involved as a receiver, even if that means reducing his carries. Their receivers simply aren�t talented enough to pick up the slack. When the Chiefs fall behind, as they inevitably do, teams know they have to pass, and that their receivers, TE Tony Gonzalez excepted, aren�t threats to make a big catch. Here�s another problem with the Chiefs: how many times have you heard Dante Hall�s name this season? His averages on kick and punt returns are down this season. Hall, last year�s special teams wunderkind, has been held in check better this season. As a result, the Chiefs aren�t getting the kind of field position they had last year. The offense, which we�ve already seen isn�t maximizing its resources, has to do more work, fails more often, and brings that dreadful defense on the field more than they did last year. Football Outsiders ranks the Chiefs 27th in special teams efficiency for 2004, compared to 2nd last season. Ouch. Can the Chiefs turn it around? Since there are several its which need turning around, that�s hard to say. At 0-3, they�re a very long shot to make the playoffs; only three such teams have done so since 1990. Given their excellent record and crushing defeat that ended last season, I�m sure the Chiefs want another playoff berth to redeem themselves; merely salvaging a .500 season can�t be their goal. The problem is, asking a team to advance to the playoffs in spite of its defense two years in a row is a tall request. Defense isn�t the Chiefs� only problem, but it�s one they�ll definitely need to solve if they want to have any chance of playing something besides golf in January. Injuries, Injuries Everywhere Every weekend, we see players carted off the field, often with season-ending injuries. Cataloging every injury would be ridiculously hard, but I�ll touch on the major ones that happened this week.
Non-Football Item: Screwed No Matter Who You Vote For Voter turnout in America usually hovers somewhere around 50%. Many people have the perception that there are few differences between the two major parties these days, so they�re screwed no matter which candidate they pick. This year, that might literally be true. In your spare time � and probably not while you�re at work � check out The Official Votergasm site, where you can get your lever pulled for . . . er, pulling the lever. I get the feeling that this is a pro-Kerry site, considering the alumni responsible for it. As someone with plans to vote for neither major candidate, I�d change my vote to Kerry in exchange for some kinky coed action. Everyone has a price, friends, and my price for my vote is an attractive brunette with few inhibitions and less clothing. Week 4 Picks Last Week: 11-3 Season to date (no picks for week 1): 22-8 (73.33%) Cincinnati 17 at Pittsburgh 20, 1:00 pm Indianapolis 27 at Jacksonville 17, 1:00 pm New England 24 at Buffalo 7, 1:00 pm N.Y. Giants 20 at Green Bay 23, 1:00 pm Oakland 21 at Houston 13, 1:00 pm Philadelphia 28 at Chicago 10, 1:00 pm Washington 22 at Cleveland 14, 1:00 pm Atlanta 16 at Carolina 20, 4:05 pm New Orleans 23 at Arizona 10, 4:05 pm Denver 26 at Tampa Bay 17, 4:15 pm N.Y. Jets 21 at Miami 9, 4:15 pm Tennessee 17 at San Diego 13, 4:15 pm St. Louis 30 at San Francisco 13, 8:30 pm Kansas City 20 at Baltimore 467, 9:00 pm MNF (Open date: Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota, Seattle) That�s all for this week. We�ll do this again next Tuesday. Don�t forget to toss back a brew for me as you sport a stylish throwback and cheer on your favorite team this weekend. Dr. Tom Fowlerdrtomfowler at gmail dto cmo (You'll figure it out, I'm sure)© Copyright by TheSmartMarks.com |