Around the League

Between our enjoyment of the Packer-Cowboy game and our anticipation of the Packer-49er game, we take a moment for a quick look around the rest of the league....

We see that the Dolphins managed to overcome the football colossus that is Tampa Bay. So we know it can be done.

Meanwhile, that loss to the Bengals earlier in the season keeps looking better and better, doesn't it? Cincinnati has now swept both the Ravens and the Steelers in 2009. And I assume they'll complete their sweep of the Browns, thus completing their undefeated run through the AFC North for the season.

Has the Vince Young era officially begun (or re-begun?) in Tennessee? The previously woeful Titans are 3-0 under Young in 2009.

Elsewhere, the bloom is off the rose for Josh McDaniels' Broncos. They were competing for the Most Surprising Team of the Year Award as they rocketed out to a 6-0 start and a big lead in their Division. Now, however, they have lost 3 straight, including most recently a loss to the punchline Redskins. Kyle Orton is hurt. (Who would have thought, back in Chicago, that that particular headline would change a team's fate from winners to losers?) And now they have to play the surging Chargers, with the Division lead on the line.

The 2009 Browns are redefining "dismal." Did you see that Monday Night performance, at home, against the 4-4 Ravens? Boy, was that bleak! The GM has already been released. One wonders how much longer Mangini will last. Perhaps Cleveland should let this particular version of its franchise move away in the middle of the night, too, and try again with a new expansion club a few years later. This is just painful.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills are the first ones into the pool this year -- the coaching pool, that is. They have fired Dick Jauron, and they're turning to a respected coordinator on their own staff to be the interim coach. (That worked well last year for the 49ers, remember.) And, in the meantime, they get a head start on flirting with Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher, et al.

Much went right for the Packers over the weekend, in addition to their own key victory over the Cowboys. The Bears, Falcons, and Eagles all lost, which are very important developments in our wild card hunt. You'll see in the Conference standings on the right that Green Bay has moved up one slot in the current seeding. We would not have a playoff berth if the season ended today, but we're just barely outside that coveted circle.

The Vikings beat the Lions. Ho-hum, whatever. Of course they did.

Finally, the biggest football news of the weekend was the Colts' comeback win against the Patriots. What a game! If I were a New England fan (which I am decidedly not, apart from that Super Bowl long ago when they beat the heavily favored St. Louis Rams), I would be deeply, deeply bitter about this one. To lead by 17 points in the 4th quarter and lose is galling no matter the game. And then for it to happen in this particular game -- this rivalry, which postseason seeding so much at stake, and all because of such a (seemingly stupid) coaching decision. Wow -- what a game!