Week 7 Wrap Up

This week marks an all-time low for me in my ability to predict what will happen in the NFL. If you look at my last blog post, it actually looks like I was trying to be as wrong as possible...like I could see the future and purposefully go against it. I was 2-3 with my picks...getting the Saints and Steelers right...just barely. And I don't think I was the only one who thought the Giants would beat the Cardinals at home. But predicting that the Bears would beat the Bengals and the Raiders would upset the Jets was just awful. Both the Bengals and Jets had something to prove and took it to their opponents.

My fantasy predictions looked pretty awful as well. Owen Daniels and Cedric Benson...guys I said would have tough games, came up with career performances. Giants WRs didn't perform as I expected against the Cardinals D and Heath Miller did very little for the Steelers. I'll say that I got 3 out of 5 studs right (Addai and Maroney, Giants WRs ended up with almost 200 yds and a TD) and 2 out of 5 duds right (Cadillac Williams and Saints RBs because no particular RB had a standout game which is what I was saying about their RB corps). What made the weekend even worse was the fact the 49ers lost a close one to the Texans, the Terps football team hit an all-time low with a loss to Duke and the damn Yankees are in the World Series.Ughhhh!!!

Let's take a look at the top stories from Week 7:

Brett Favre and the Vikings come back to Earth while the Steelers look to be back in form. The Vikings had escaped with too many victories that they probably didn't deserve and almost got away with another one in Pittsburgh. But it was about time someone took away their luck. The Vikings got away from their style of football, throwing it 51 times and not letting the best running back in the league do his thing. You usually don't win like that, especially against the Steelers. Somehow the defending champs have been extremely quiet in winning four straight, being overshadowed by the Saints, Colts and Broncos. On Sunday they played "Steeler football", scoring two defensive TDs and only committing one turnover (as opposed to four last week) But as Mike Tomlin said, there's plenty more this team can do to improve.

There's no deficit too big for the Saints. Almost any other team would be SOL if they fall behind 24-3 in a game. Not the Saints. Drew Brees didn't have his best game, but when it mattered he came up big, with two rushing TDs and a passing TD. You know the Dolphins didn't want to get in a shootout with the Saints, but there was nothing they could do to prevent it. The Saints put up 36 second half points including two more defensive TDs. The game ball should go to Sean Payton for not allowing this team to quit and making the halftime adjustment necessary to come back. That's what coaching is all about.

Don't count Dallas out just yet. Coming into Sunday's matchup with Atlanta, Dallas' three wins came against teams with a grand total of three wins. They were in dire need of a quality win and got it against the Falcons. It was a great all-around performance for the Cowboys, who put the clamps on a very good offense. They created havoc in the backfield for Matt Ryan sacking him four times. The offense was clicking with Tony Romo passing for 311 and 3 TDs and Miles Austin having another huge game. And the special teams came through as well, with Patrick Crayton returning a punt for a TD. You won't find many wins more complete than this one.

Look out for Arizona everyone. Many people wrote off the Cardinals in the offseason, saying that there was no way Kurt Warner could stay healthy and that the defense was still too weak. After the first few games this looked to be the case but they've turned it around with impressive wins in back-to-back games against the Seahawks and Giants. Warner is spreading the ball around to all three of his big receivers and there might be a new found running attack with Beanie Wells. The defense made Eli look like the Eli of old with three interceptions. I don't like this but Arizona seems to have taken back control of the NFC West

Now here's my high five/low five after Week 7:

Top MVP Candidates
1. Peyton Manning- Did you see his TD pass to Dallas Clark in between two defenders? That was absolutely insane! He might be the next George Blanda and play until he's 50. He looks to be getting better with age.

2. Drew Brees- Even though Brees had an off game, I think he boosted his MVP chances because of the way he bounced back. Leading a team back from a 21 point deficit on the road may only happen once in a guy's career. Brees made it look routine and even showed us a new facet of his game with two rushing TDs

3. Ben Roethlisberger- Big Ben is 2nd in passing yards, has 13 total TDs and is the focal point of an offense that has struggled with the run this year. When are people going to start giving him credit for being a great QB?

4. Darren Sharper- Shaper has 6 INTs, 3 of them going back for TDs. To put that in comparison...those are the same exact numbers Deion Sanders had in the best season of his career with the 1994 49ers. Deion won the Defensive Player of the Year Award that year. Sharper has those same numbers in just six games!

 5. Cedric Benson- Benson got his revenge against the Bears on Sunday and now leads the league with 720 rushing yards. With Matt Forte's sophomore slump you got to think that the Bears' management wished they could go back in time and change their decision to get rid of him

Top Coaching Performances This Season

1. Josh McDaniels- The obvious favorite for coach of the year at this point, Josh McDaniels looks like a genius for taking a team in disarray and making them one of the last three undefeated teams. Give him credit for straightening out Brandon Marshall and implementing the right personnel and play calling for Kyle Orton to succeed.

2. Sean Payton- I love this guy. He's a players' coach who knows when to be hard on his guys. In the last two weeks we've seen him win games in two different ways. Against the Giants he outcoached Tom Coughlin and had a terrific game plan to attack the Giants secondary with quick passes. Against the Dolphins he found his team behind and had to make adjustments...something that separates the good coaches from the bad ones.

3. Jim Caldwell- Many called for an adjustment period for the Colts' offense with the arrival of Caldwell. Well that must've been the preseason because the Colts have been flawless so far in the regular season. Then again we all know that Peyton Manning is the real coach of that team.

4. Marvin Lewis- While on the hot seat, Lewis has been at his best. He's already beaten the Steelers and Ravens and rallied his team after a loss to crush the Bears. Things are looking up in Cincy for a change.

5. Mike Singletary- Singletary has dropped a little bit on this list for now after the Niners dropped two straight but he still deserves to be in the top 5. This past week he showed great instincts again, deciding to put in Alex Smith to spark the offense. Smith ends up throwing three TDs in the second half and came up just short of a great comeback. I don't think I would've pulled Shaun Hill in that situation and I'm not sure if he even deserved it. But it worked out against Houston, showing that Singletary has a sixth sense and isn't afraid to make important decisions on the spot. Look for him to move back up on this list as the season goes on.

Week 7 Most Surprising Performances
1. Alex Smith- I've been waiting to see Smith do anything worthy of his huge contract and 1st overall pick in the draft and finally got something. He looked surprisingly poised in a tough situation facing a large deficit...then again he had nothing to lose. But I didn't expect to even see him in the game let alone throw 3 TDs.

2. Miles Austin- After two consecutive monster games, it won't be a surprise the next time he puts up big numbers. All of a sudden Austin is Romo's boy even over Jason Witten. Jerry Jones should force Austin and Roy Williams to switch contracts or cut Williams the way these two have played.

3. Michael Crabtree- In his career debut after missing all of training camp and preseason, and getting minimal time to learn the offense, Crabtree looked like a veteran. He caught five passes for 55 yards and should be Alex Smith's number two target after Vernon Davis. Maybe it was worth the wait.

4. Beanie Wells- Maybe it wasn't that surprising that Beanie had a good game, people have been calling for him to break out for awhile. But against the Giants, you'd figure he'd be a non-factor. Not the case. He provided a much-needed boost to the running game with 4.8 yds/carry and a TD. There should be no question who's the starting RB next week for Arizona.

5. Packers Offensive Line- They didn't allow a sack. No way! At least Rodgers gets a one-week break before the flying mullet (Jared Allen) is back on top of him.

Top 5 Clowns of the week
1. Sonny Jurgensen, Sam Huff, and the Redskins radio crew- Listen to what these guys said on the air Monday night during the Skins-Eagles game. It's not exact but close enough.

Larry Michael: "It looks like the Eagles are going to line up in the wildcat"
Sam Huff: "They have five guys that can take snaps in the wildcat"
Sonny Jurgensen: "It's not the wildcat unless the dogfighter (Mike Vick) is in"

How are you allowed to say crap like that on the air?! This isn't a one-time thing either. These guys are absolutely horrible. They say "we" on the air, which is unacceptable, I don't care if you played for them or not. Huff and Jurgensen will interrupt Larry Michael during his play-by-play. They are senile idiots who forget the names of the most obvious people on the field. Then they'll talk about their playing days, as if anyone cares. They can't keep up with a game that has changed drastically since they played some 50 years ago. Sam, Sonny go back to your rocking chairs and watch the games from your homes. You guys are pathetic.

2. Larry Johnson- You can't make homophobic comments and you can't directly insult your coach. LJ did both and may have just seen his last day playing for the Chiefs. He's a head case that has no place on any NFL franchise right now

3. William Gay- I'm sure you all saw Gay get pummeled by Adrian Peterson on Sunday. But if you missed I'll show you again. Look below.



I haven't seen a defensive player get humiliated like that since Brandon Jacobs trucked Laron Landry on opening night last year.

4. Jamarcus Russell- Can you believe he had the nerve to say the offense's lack of success isn't his problem, it's his teammates. I don't care if you're Peyton Manning and your teammates let you down, there's no way you go to the media and blame everyone else. On top of saying that, it is Russell's fault anyway. He continuously misses open receivers and makes poor decisions and still doesn't know the offense. What a clown.


5. Richard Seymour- Seymour laughably said the Raiders were bound for the playoffs last week after the Raiders' win over Philly. Then they get destroyed at home by the Jets this past week. The Raiders aren't going anywhere. I know he's used to making the playoffs while playing with the Pats but he needs to remember he's in Oakland now.