NFL Roundup after Week 6

• the Broncos are much better than anyone thought. If you would have told me that Denver would be 6-0 to start the year I would have laughed hysterically and asked you to lay off whatever meds you were on. But here we are on October 20th and the Broncos are undefeated. Sure they took a big risk in the offseason by firing head coach Mike Shanahan and hiring the young Josh McDaniels, former offensive coordinator for my beloved Patriots. And we have seen former Belichick disciples leave the house and go out to start their own family only to fall flat on their face (cue Romeo Crennel with the Browns and Eric "doesnt have a brain" Mangini formerly with the Jets, shockingly now with the Browns). But Denver's offseason also included trading heralded quarterback Jay Cutler and temporarily suspending prima donna wide receiver Brandon Marshall. Week 1 they needed a miraculous catch to beat Cincy, then they faced Browns n Raiders - gimme a break, Brendan n I could play QB for either of those teams. Then they beat Dallas, NE in overtime and picked up a huge win on MNF in San Diego. After their bye week, they have a brutal 5 game schedule: @Balt, vs. Pitt, @Wash (i know this is a joke game), vs. SD, and vs. NYG. Realisticly I believe they go 2-3 and and 8-3 would still sit in prime position for a #1 or #2 seed in the playoffs. One thing is for certain: Josh McDaniels is the leading man for coach of the year right now.
• 59-0!?!? Let me say that again... 59 to NOTHING! The New England Patriots, my Pats beat up the Tenn Titans by 59 points! Are you kiddin!? Unbelieveable. How many people out there turned on their tv and thought for a split second that it was December? Snow in October! This is the crazy world we have to come to live in. Well, what we learned from this game is that the Titans are bad, so bad that they don't appear to be putting in 100% for 60mins. They might not have even done it for 5. Tom Brady threw 6 TD passes for the 2nd time in his career. Fun fact: Brady is one of 5 quarterbacks to throw 6 TDs in a game twice in the history of the NFL. He threw FIVE in the 2nd quarter alone, setting an NFL record! Realisticaly speaking - NE looked great, much better than last week. I have to believe that with each week Brady gets a lil better, offense flows a little smoother, the rust keeps dwindling away. Give 'em 3 more weeks and I believe they'll go on a run! (hey I can dream right?!)
• The Saints are for real. Did they really put up 48pts on the #1 ranked defense in th NFL?? It's quite clear that they will be a major force for all teams to deal with this year.
• The New York football Giants have to be scratching their heads thinkin how do we rebound from this disaster? Things will not get any easier for NY as Arizona travels to the Meadowlands on Sunday night, followed by a trip to Philly, and then back home to face San Diego. (cue Mike laughin somewhere off in the distance with a sick, devilish grin on his face)
• Favre is back and damn good at it! No one thought Favre would be playing this well but if it keeps up gotta believe Minnesota is the clear cut favorite to represent the NFC in the SuperBowl.
• Valiant comeback effort by Baltimore, but after starting 3-0, they are now 3-3. Shows you how quick things can change in the NFL. Personally, I have a really hard time forgiving kickers when they miss game tying or winning field goals in the closing minutes. Your only job is to put the ball thru the uprights. Flacco fought so hard to put his team in position to win after being down all day long and their kicker blew it, tough loss.
• Have you ever seen a year in the NFL when so many teams are just plain awful? I can't remember such a season. Rams, Buccaneers, Titans all 0-6. Will any of them win 1 game? Doesn't look to promising.
• The Eagles put out a real stinker in Oakland, basically gift wrapping a win for the Raiders. Philly was my preseason pick for the SuperBowl but after this game I feel I need to reconsider my choice. How do you go to Oakland and lose when you have McNabb, Desean Jackson, and Brian Westbrook? Hopefully a lot of soul searching was down on the flight back to the East coast.
• Who are the Arizona Cardinals this year? Are they the team that went to the Superbowl last year, the same one we saw dismantle the Seahawks in Seattle this past week? Or are they the team that lost at home to the 49ers? Guess this week on Sun night we'll find out when they visit the Giants.
• The Washington Redskins = disaster. They have given the Lions their first win in over a year and most recently surrended a win to previously winless KC. They need to fire Jim Zorn on the fly and bring in someone who knows how to coach. If I were the owner I would be pushing hard for Mike Shanahan or even Jon Gruden. This season is lost, they need to tear everything down and start buidling from ground zero.
• Can anyone figure out the Houston Texans? At 3-3 they have beat Tenn, Oak, and now Cincy. Their 3 losses are to the Jets, Cardinals and Jags. They are very inconsistent and its hard to see them doing anything big this season. One thing I do know is that I'm super proud of my selection of Texans QB Matt Schaub. With the exception of a subpar performance week 1, he has been an absolute gem and let me to a 5-1 record thus far. We'll get to fantasy football in another post.
• The only team thats more of a mystery is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Besides the fact that no one ever goes to their home games, I am completely confused by this team. Their quarterback is David Garrard. They picked up wide receiver Torry Hold in the offseason and they have one of the best all around playmakers in the league in RB MoJo (Maurice Jones-Drew). After starting the season 0-2, they've gone 3-1 in the last 4 games. They look pretty good in beating the Texans yet looked like a high school team in losing at Seattle 41-0. After their bye week they go to Tenn, host KC, and travel to NY for a big matchup with the Jets.
• The Jets: ah lets talk about them for a minute. No lie that I take pleasure in their 3 game losing streak. Alright lets be honest they looked great coming out of the gate - winning on the road at Houston, came back home to humble the Patriots keeping Brady out of the endzone in the 2nd half, then beat the Titans, which at the time was a huge win (now we know its not nearly as big as we thought since Tenn couldnt fight its way out of a paper bag). Thus brings us to week 4: A crushing defeat by the Saints, followed up by a 4point loss in Miami in which Rex Ryan showed his rookie coaching status (Ryan proceeded to cry about the loss in a press conference after the game and give Miami zero credit for the win. Nice way to start things Rex, dont' acknowledge the team that beat you rather make excuses. We'll have to keep an eye on this as the season progresses). Now we arrive at week 6. On paper it appeared to be quite a mismatch: Buffalo visiting the Jets. I mean this was gonna be a blowout it had to be, I mean, the Bills had just lost AT HOME to the Cleveland Browns 6-3! I still havent forgiven Buffalo for this by the way. I think it's one of the worst losses by a football team this season. So after going up 13-3, the Jets choke away the lead and Buffalo wins in overtime 16-13. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez looked absolutely AWFUL! In his last 3 games (all NY losses), Sanchez has thrown 1 TD pass and 8 INTS. Ouch! Guess all those Jets fans ready to annoint him the next big thing need to settle down a little bit. Don't worry though, the Jets head coach gave him a vote of confidence this week saying Mark is still their starting quarterback. Road doesn't get any easier though as we look ahead: @ Oakland, who has shown if you don't bring your A game they can beat you (just ask Philly), home against Miami and their wildcat offense, a bye week, host the Jags, and then a rematch with the Patriots (this time in New England and I have a feeling they will see a much different looking Pats offense, I have Nov 22 circled on my calendar, can't wait to see this game! Redemption will be ours!!!).
• San Diego is a letdown once again. Hard to believe they can make a 2nd half run like they did last year to finish at .500 and have all the pieces fall in the right place to win their division, remember Denver is 6-0. Philip Rivers has looked great at times but I think its clear that Tomlinson is not what he used to be and the offensive line has a lot of room for improvement.
• Indy had their bye week and at 5-0 are considered best in the league. They won't face a real challenge until week 10 when Tom Brady & Co. come to town for a highly-anticipated Sun night matchup.
• Looking ahead to Week 7:
• Vikings at Steelers: SuperBowl preview? maybe yet the Steelers are not nearly as strong as last season however Troy Polumalu is returning this week and should provide a huge lift to the Pitt D.
• Chicago @ Cincy: Bengals looking for answers after a pathetic performace in a loss to Houston. Cutler and the Bears trying to rebound from their red zone woes last week in Atlanta.
• Falcons @ Dallas: The Cowboys need to come out strong after their bye week and make a statement.
• Arizona at NY Giants: When the schedule came out many picked this to be a NFC Champ game preview. My how things change... now this game is ever so important to each team for morale purposes. The Giants can't lose this game after getting spanked by the Saints, especially if they want to be the best team in the NFC. Well, after last week, seems like everyone's fighting to be #2.
• That's all I got for now. The NFL is better than ever this season and has it all: excitement, craziness, last-minute heroics and letdowns, can't wait to see what's in store for us next!