NFL Week 7 Thoughts

With Brian Westrbook's injury in the Monday night game, it is time to start recapping the weekend that was. I should start by telling you that my Stone Cold Lead Pipe locks are guaranteed losers. Man, I did not see the Giants coming out and laying an egg for the second straight week. I did not understand why the Giants decided to use Ahmad Bradshaw as many times as they did Brandon Jacobs, but that is for another day. Good game Arizona, you spoiled another lock of the week.

As I was watching the Browns/Packers game yesterday, I couldn't help but think that this may be one of the worst teams I have ever seen, even worse than the '99 expansion team. Yet, there is more than a handful of teams that are completely uncompetitive. The Rams, Bucs, Chiefs, Lions, Titans, Raiders, Panthers, Bills (any team that loses to the Browns is on this list, how they have won 3 games I will never know), and the Redskins make up the list of teams that will continue to lose by double digits. For a league that is proud of its parody, I just listed 10 teams that will not win more than 5 games. This is going to be a long NFL season if we have to sit through 10 more weeks where half of the games are decided by more than 28 points (literally, 6 out of 12 games on Sunday!).

But 2 games that highlighted the weekend reminded us why we watch every single Sunday. In the Steelers/Vikings game, one could have assumed that the QB who had the ball last would win the game, but the Steelers defense won the game for Pittsburgh and avoided any of Brett Favre's late game magic as they created some of their own with 2 4th quarter defensive touchdowns to preserve the win. And the Saints came back from a 21 point 1st half deficit to defeat a Miami team that is better than their 2-4 suggests. What I found interesting is that both games ended with defensive touchdowns off turnovers that would not have had an outcome on the game, but changed the winners against the spread. I would love to know how many games end with scores that have no bearing on the outcome but affect the Vegas odds.

Busy sports week ahead - the Lebronaliers and the NBA tip off on Tuesday, former Tribe aces square off as the World Series starts on Wednesday, of course a full slate of college and NFL football games, plus I plan on attending the Columbus Blue Jackets v. Pittsburgh Penguins game Friday night and the OSU v. New Mexico St game Saturday. Should be fun!