It was the NBA that coined “I Love This Game” as its marketing motto a few years ago. It was catchy, but I could never really get behind it, ‘cause I don’t love that game.
But on this November Sunday afternoon, watching NFL games and their highlights, I’m thinking to myself, “Now this game I love!”
Did you see the end of the Saint-Falcon game? Mike Smith is not as mature as his hair color suggests. I suppose you can make that kind of decision during the course of a game; but not in overtime. Now his Falcons -- Peter King’s preseason pick to win it all, you recall -- are two games behind the Saints. And if the season ended today, they’d be on the outside looking in.
Speaking of teams that are only going to make the playoffs in the August predictions, how ‘bout them Eagles? The same team that absolutely had their way with the Cowboys on national TV a couple of weeks back managed today to lose at home to the Cardinals. The Cardinals! They haven’t been any good since Kurt Warner retired. Arizona came into the game at 2-6, and they beat Michael Hype and the Dream Team in Philly. Amazing.
Look at the standings. Do you see any way that the Eagles can make the playoffs now, short of a handful of other NFC teams inexplicably surrendering? When the sports writers hand out their end-of-the-year awards come January, Andy Reid & Co. will be frontrunners for “Most Disappointing.”
BTW, the Eagles have won only one more game than the Miami Dolphins so far in 2011.
Elsewhere, the much-maligned Tim Tebow completed just two passes on Sunday. And won! He threw just eight times and gained only 69 yards through the air. Meanwhile, his Carolina counterpart, Cam Newton, threw the ball 40 times and lost at home to the Titans.
The Tebow-Newton comparison is an interesting one. They were both winning quarterbacks in college who had question marks on their games coming into the NFL. Both are mobile quarterbacks who are given more credit for their legs than their arms. Right from his impressive Week One debut this year, though, Newton caught the pundits’ imagination, and he has enjoyed good publicity and great expectations ever since. Tebow, however, is mostly ridiculed, and his fans are forced to defend him.
But Tebow has started 4 games this season and won 3. Newton has started 9 games and won 2.
Make no mistake, the Broncos stink. But at this moment, they are tied with the Chargers and Chiefs, just one game behind the division-leader Raiders. I won’t pretend that that’s because of Tebow’s arm, but I do believe that it’s because of Tebow.
And then there were the Bears and the Lions. For the second week in a row, I was a Bears fan, and for the second week in a row they came through for me in impressive fashion. Chicago is looking pretty tough all of a sudden. I’m glad we’ve already played and beaten them in Chicago this season.
The Lions, meanwhile, looked like delicate hothouse flowers there in the Soldier Field environment -- especially Bobby Brady Stafford. Fortunately for Jim Schwartz, Lovie Smith is too much of a gentle-man to give the kind of over-the-top handshake that Schwartz endured from Harbaugh a few weeks ago. But it was the same sort of defeat for the Lions, nonetheless.
So we’ll go into tomorrow night’s game against the Vikings with the possibility of taking a 3-game lead in the Division. And the Lions, meanwhile, have lost 3 of their last 4. It wasn’t long ago that people were talking about a match-up of 10-0 teams on Thanksgiving Day, with the winner claiming first place in the NFC North. Instead, however, the Lions are all tangled up with the Bears in a surprising battle for second place.
This is no laughing matter for Detroit, by the way. Take a look at the Bears’ and Lions’ remaining schedules: Which one would you rather play?
| WEEK | BEARS | LIONS |
| 11 | Chargers | Panthers |
| 12 | @ Raiders | Packers |
| 13 | Chiefs | @ Saints |
| 14 | @ Broncos | Vikings |
| 15 | Seahawks | @ Raiders |
| 16 | @ Packers | Chargers |
| 17 | @ Vikings | @ Packers |
Take out the common remaining opponents, and the Bears face the Chiefs, Broncos, and Seahawks where the Lions will play the Panthers, Packers, and Saints. The team that was noted for ending 2010 so strong must be wondering if 2011 will be the year of the late-season collapse.
Finally, the Ravens. Who can explain the team that blows the doors off Pittsburgh in Week One in Baltimore and then also manages to come back to beat them in Pittsburgh in Week Nine, only to suffer bad losses at the hands of teams like the Jaguars and Seahawks? We have seen how great they can be, but they have not managed to show up every week.
This is the great virtue of the 2011 Packers. They do show up every week. At home and on the road; against good teams and bad; in the division and out of the conference; whether close or lopsided, the Packers have shown up week after week.
And we’re counting on them to show up again on Monday Night. With just two wins, the Vikings have nothing to play for but this. This is their Super Bowl. That fact and Adrian Peterson are the only things that worry me.
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1 comment:
I find it interesting that most media are actually finding the collapse of Philadelphia a more compelling story than the undefeated Packers. The rubber-necker "Wow, did you see that train wreck" mentality is hard to avoid, but at what point do we put the Eagles to bed? Watching parts of that game yesterday showed me how far Vick has actually regressed since the end of last year and early part of this year. He is running scared, forcing plays, making mistakes and getting hurt at least once per game. And when Vince Young is your back-up, that is not a small problem.
While the Bears were impressive, that game was a pretty good example of a Lions team beating itself rather than having the Bears offense impose their will upon them. Stafford looked confused, the special teams was non-existent. I think that game might have been more about Detroit finally remembering they are Detroit than it was a great revelation for Bears fans.
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