Six teams have a bye in Week Eight -- the Bears, Bucs, Falcons, Jets, Packers, and Raiders. All six have winning records. Six of the 17 teams with winning records are not playing this weekend. No wonder the slate of games looks a little weak this week.
On the other hand, the three winless teams all take the field this Sunday for your viewing pleasure.
In a battle of the wound-lickers, the Colts face the Titans. Both teams’ Week 7 games require a thesaurus to characterize. Trounced. Embarrassed. Manhandled. Humiliated. You pick the word that works best for the Titans, and then double it for the Colts.
The other word people are applying to the Colts is “quit.” That’s a pretty harsh critique. Better to be bad in the NFL than to be a quitter.
Meanwhile, the Rams are still winless, too, and now they have to host the Saints. This is the second consecutive week that New Orleans gets the opportunity (and pressure) of playing a winless team. I can’t imagine that they will play as perfect a game as they managed last week against Indy, but you know the tape of that public undressing must give the Rams pause.
And the Miami Dolphins are still winless, too. They may be the ones with the most bitter taste in their mouths this week. They weren’t decimated the way that, say, the Colts were, but their fate may have been worse: they lost a game that they had effectively won. They had shut out the visiting Broncos 15-0 through 56 minutes of play, only to end up losing by three in overtime. What a punch in the gut. And now they hit the road to play the Giants, which will likely result in yet another notch in the loss column.
Elsewhere, after a collection of quality losses, the Panthers finally put together a quality win last week. Now the question is whether they can make it two in a row against the visiting Vikings. I think Ponder will carry some momentum into this game, on the one hand. On the other hand, he may suffer somewhat from the advantage Carolina will have of being able to watch his film and gameplan for him.
The other NFC North team in play this week is the Detroit Lions. This may be one of the most interesting games of the week, for both the Lions and their opponents -- the Broncos -- have been the subject of so many stories and so much attention. For five weeks (or more if you count the end of last season), the Lions were the subject of much admiration because of their turnaround. Then, in the wake of their first loss, the story was about their coach and his post-game hissy fit. And now this week, in the wake of their second consecutive loss (at home to NFC teams, in both cases!), the story is about whether the Lions are dirty and heartless, as well as overrated.
Well, they head to Denver to take on the Tebow-led Broncos. In a fascinating achievement, Tim Tebow’s first start of 2011 managed to lend support to both his haters and his adorers. Conventional wisdom says that he stunk up the place for 56 minutes, but then he showed those much-heralded intangibles at the end to pull out an improbable win. And wins are the bottom line in the NFL.
Now Tebow gets to start before the hometown crowd. On the other hand, he has to go against the angry and frustrated (and possibly dirty) Detroit Lions. HIs brawn and agility against the Lions fierce defensive front should be fascinating to watch. If the game were in Detroit, I’d say no contest. In Denver, though, I wonder…
Finally, the two sexiest games of the weekend are the Cowboys at Philly on Sunday Night Football and the Patriots in Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon.
The NFC battle is a divisional rivalry, and both teams need the win. The AFC game is a conference rivalry between the two teams that both laid claim to “team of the decade” for the ‘00s. It’s two different styles of play. Two different kinds of cities. Two different types of quarterbacks. And both teams figure to be playing in the postseason, which makes this head-to-head contest all the more important.
Meanwhile, the undefeated Packers get a much-deserved rest this weekend. When they return, they’ll face a demanding November, with games at San Diego and Detroit, as well as visits from the Buccaneers and Vikings. For now, though, we get to sit back and relax while other fans toil. And perhaps we’ll get to watch the Vikings and Lions both lose while they’re at it.
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