NFL: Week Nine Thoughts and Observations
It was disappointing to see the Eagles lay another egg on Sunday night against the Cowboys. I walked away from that game feeling like the Eagles lost the game due to lack of execution in the passing game, suspect play calling in short yardage situations, and a blown coverage in the secondary moreso than the Cowboys actually outplaying them.
Donovan McNabb simply had another one of those games where he never settled in and found a rhythm and there were some bad throws and dropped passes that did them in on offense.
Leonard Weaver is averaging over six yards per carry in the Eagles last two games why is he not getting the ball on every short yardage running play? I don’t get why they are slamming LeSean McCoy up the middle or running QB sneaks when Weaver is almost guaranteed to get that one yard you need for the first down. It is as if they over thought it and decided that would be what the Cowboys were expecting them to do.
Given how well McCoy seems to be coming along as the season progresses it would not shock me to see him as the starting running back next season. The only thing that really bugs me about McCoy is how loosely he seems to carry the ball.
I am not sure what the story is, but, where was DeSean Jackson? The Eagles never looked to take any shots down the field with him and going against Terrence Newman you almost have to given his history of committing drawing flags for pass interference.
Jeremy Maclin really seems to have blossomed since being inserted into the starting lineup. He seems to get better with each passing week.
The Eagles need to go ahead and send Moise Fokou back to the practice squad or special teams or wherever they got him from. He was downright brutal and looked like he had not even been practicing at linebacker last week leading up to the game. Are there really no other veteran linebackers they could bring in on the cheap out there?
Jason Babin is all of a sudden an emerging pass rusher for the Eagles with 2.5 sacks in the last three games.
The Steelers and the Colts stand out to me as the teams to beat in the AFC right now. I like the Broncos defensively but I am not sure they have enough on offense to come out of the AFC this year. It looks as though Kyle Orton is beginning to remember he is only Kyle Orton and is starting to make mistakes he was not making the first six games of the year.
The Steelers seem to be getting it together now that Willie Parker has been discarded for Rashard Mendenhall. Did I acutally hear John Gruden claim the Steelers were missing Willie Parker last night? He does now Willie was suited up to play last night right?
Parker’s days in Pittsburgh are probably over after this season. Mendenhall and Mewelde Moore seem to be the top dogs in the Pittsburgh backfield right now.
I wonder how many Titans fans are wondering what if Vince Young had been inserted into the lineup earlier than he had been. To be honest I doubt they beat the Pats or the Colts with Young at the helm but maybe they beat the Jags if Young is in there instead of Kerry Collins.
Granted, Young is not setting the league on fire with his passing numbers but he is 2-0 and is not turning the ball over as much as Collins was.
You can have Adrian Peterson, I’ll take Chris Johnson. Johnson is putting up the numbers Peterson was supposed to and is on pace for 1900+ yards and averaging 6.7 yards per carry. Chris Johnson is the best player in the league right now hands-down.
The Forty Niners have all of a sudden fallen apart haven’t they. They seem to have finally realized they do not quite have the talent to be a playoff team just yet. Alex Smith may be on his way back to the bench after turning the ball over four times in a seven point loss to the Titans Sunday.
After catching a pair of touchdown passes Sunday it would appear that Jason Hill has supplanted Isaac Bruce on the Niners depth chart.
Other than the 3 touchdowns Josh Freeman put up the numbers I figured he would completing just 45.7% of his passes for just 205 yards Sunday. The only revelation was him throwing 3 touchdowns instead of three picks.
I am wondering why I keep hearing about Ryan Grant being on the outs in Green Bay. He is averaging 4.2 yards per carry and is on pace for 1,242 yards this season and is ninth in the league in rushing. Those are pretty good numbers considering he is running behind a beat up line this year.
Randy Moss and Tom Brady seem to be back on the same page again with Moss scoring four touchdowns and averaging 18.2 yards per catch over the last three games.
The Cardinals are such a hard team to figure this year. They are 1-3 at home including losses to the Panthers and Niners and are 4-0 on the road with wins at Chicago and the Giants. The Cards are in control in the NFC West and are going to be a dangerous team come the playoffs due them being able to score a lot of points and win on the road.
The Saints defense is vulnerable to teams that can run the ball, the problem is that most teams who are running the ball well in the NFC are having issues at quarterback right now.
Is Matt Forte the next in a long line of one-year wonders at running back in Chicago? I bet they now wish they had never run Thomas Jones out of town.
Boy the Giants season is just slip-sliding away from them right now.
Shawne Merriman seems to be getting his mojo back with a pair of sacks in each of his last two games.
