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Rules Of Thumb For Week 3
Authored by Jeff Risdon - 26th September, 2006 - 7:02 pm
With John Herrera standing to his right dressed in black and appearing not unlike an undertaker, Lane Kiffin sat down at the podium for Sunday's postgame news conference.
Baltimore wants Flacco to be their QB of the future. But the Ravens feel they have no choice but to start him now because Boller and Smith are unavailable. Wrong!
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Thumbs Up: To the Colts, Bengals, Bears, and Seahawks. Those four teams separated themselves from the rest of the pack as the clear frontrunners for the Super Bowl. Don’t be surprised if those are the last four teams playing this season. I’d include the Chargers, but for some inane reason they’ve only played 2 games (see below).
To Rex Grossman. He finished 3 straight games for the first time in his career, and he led his team to wins in all 3. He also proved he can make the clutch throw in a close game against a strong defense, and overcome his own bad mistakes.
To the Saints. They’re 3-0 and their defense has played significantly better than in recent years. Their emotional return to the Superdome and crushing dominance of a pretty strong Atlanta team show that, just maybe, these Saints are for real.
Thumbs Down: To the Giants, Dolphins, Cardinals, and Buccaneers. All were tabbed by most preseason prognostications as playoff teams. The Bucs are 0-3 and now must start a rookie 6th rounder at QB; the other 3 are 1-2 and have shown very little reason for any optimism for the rest of 2006. Special thumbs up to me, for predicting three of these teams weren’t near as good as most people thought.
To the Titans and their ongoing QB soap opera. From locking out icon Steve McNair, to drafting Vince Young over the objections of Head Coach Jeff Fisher, to the baffling signing of middling vet Kerry Collins, to the finger-pointing trade of disgruntled erstwhile starter Billy Volek, the Titans have egregiously violated pretty much every long-held standard for handling the most important position on the team. Everyone talks about the Raiders as the team with the best chance to go winless, but don’t count out this dramedy of errors.
Thumbs Twiddling: To the Ravens, Eagles, Panthers, and Broncos. These four all racked up needed wins in Week 3, but haven’t yet shown enough dominance or consistent strong play to consider them legit contenders. It’s safe to say these teams are all pretty good, but anyone who thinks they have a good grasp on their final destination for this season is fooling himself.
On the NFL prospects of highly touted collegians Brady Quinn, Paul Posluszny, Joe Thomas, and Drew Stanton. These are 4 of the top 5 projected picks in the next draft on a prominent draft website. I’ve extensively scouted all 4, and all have also shown enough talent to justify the hype. Yet there are some major flaws in all of them, enough that whatever teams draft them that high are in for longer-than-expected rebuilds.
Thumbs Sucking: To the Houston Texans pass defense. Check out the numbers against through 3 games: 74-100 for 975 yards, 7 TDs, 1 INT, 3 sacks (one of which came on a fumbled snap). They allowed a struggling 36 year old Mark Brunell to complete a record 22 passes in a row last Sunday. What makes it even worse is that the Texans justified their selection of Mario Williams with the #1 pick by saying they needed an impact player in their pass defense. He’s been very blockable, and the secondary clearly cannot cover at an NFL level. Fantasy players who play games with weekly picks would be wise to load up on QBs and WRs facing the Texans.
To the NFL schedule makers. A bye in Week 3?!? Way to sap any momentum from the fan bases of the teams getting byes in weeks 3-4. Here’s a better plan: Give all the byes in Weeks 6-9, 8 teams per week. Those weeks feature the World Series, the peak of college football, and the start of the NBA, NHL, and college hoops seasons. Your fan interest is already diluted by these; don’t fight it, embrace it. Let the season play out a little before starting the byes.
