OK ... people are saying how it was just the lowly, injured, weakened, Browns who we almost 'blanked'
THIS week! Last week I was hearing we were only playing the impotent, disheveled and woebegone Lions.
But CRIPES! Even DETROIT scored more points against the Steelers than the CHOKEKINGS did! LMAO
It seems whenever we win, there was some excuse about how beat-up the other team was ... how lucky we were to beat such a bad team ... how we will never be a great team again. Yet whenever we LOSE ... it's always the same old things; TT sucks as a GM because he destroyed the O-Line, threw Favre on the trash heap, can't draft and doesn't get FAs who can play.
Ya know what? After hearing all the razzing after the Lions game ....
I remembered John Madden once saying that "ANY time you 'blank' another NFL team ... regardless of their current record ... you have done good. Because even with a crappy record ... every team in the NFL still has the potential to beat any other team on any given Sunday."
It's gotta be true ... 2 weeks ago Oakland beat the Eagles and then the Giants lost to Saints (A) followed by a loss to Arizona at home yesterday.
Up until this week, the Giants fans HAD all been pounding their chests talking about winning the Super Bowl again this year. But NOW? Not so much! LOL
What really gets me though, is how the Browns beat the Bengals 23-20 and lost to Minny 34-20 ... so they
are apparently able to score points against "better teams".
To my way of thinking, our holding them at the goal line and allowing them to only score a FG was huge.
Last week the Brownies hung with the Steelers and lost 27-14. They also sacked big Ben 3 times. Their current woes are all on the shoulders of their QB Anderson (who replaced Quinn in week 3) and the fact that they seem to giving-up like 4 turnovers each week is killing any chance they have to win games against teams who usually score a decent amount of points.
Cleveland also seems to be a rut where they score points one week, then don't the next. Which looks good going into next week against the Bears because they
should score some points and possibly beat them!
And then, after we beat the QUEENS ... we'll be one game down from them and should be tied for the lead in the Div (?).
The weird thing I never noticed until now was how we have a very-close-to-being-identical schedule for the season!
Other than 2 each with the Bears and Lions ... we both play San Francisco, Steelers, St Louis, Cleveland, Cincinatti, Baltimore, Arizona (away) and have Seattle at home. They get the Giants at home the last week and have Carolina. We have Tampa (A) and Dallas (H).
So ... thinking about it ... when the season's finally over and it's all said and done ... this will be a very true measure of strength for us in comparison to the Queens. The sports media has been touting the Vikings' talent level all along, and I can't say that I can disagree. With all the money they spent on top-tier FAs and the hoopla over signing Favre ... it will be interesting to see what happens.
There is another thing ... you know ... if we top the Queens, win the division and get into at LEAST the 2nd round of the playoffs, it's going to mean a certain amount of vindication for TT in his beliefs about signing FAs ... not to mention McCarthy's ability to still field a winner even though they lead the league in penalties committed and taking sacks!
I'm really happy about them signing Ahman Green back onto the team. Did anyone else happen to notice how Grant was running with more purpose and passion yesterday than he has so far all season? It's going to be a real two headed monster if Green's knee is good to go and they both 'want it'. Can you imagine just how good we could become, and how quickly, if we have a running game that has to be feared and adjusted to by defenses? Grant running for his life (read:job) while Ahman Green is a constant threat coming out of the backfield? Driver, Jennings and company should be left open more and more.
You realize that this could very well be our turning point!
The O-line looked better in pass protection. Rodgers looked more poised than I've seen him in 5 weeks. Hawk was actually VISIBLE this week, making some nice plays. The rest of the defense is starting to look faster and more confident. The guys were having fun and it showed. Even with the injuries to key players during the game, it didn't seem to matter. They didn't skip a beat.
(Except for that lame attempt at a QB sneak with a -4th and a football to go- against Rogers, Bowens and Smith! Which, IMO, with the way Rodgers can scoot out and around, I thought was just plain STUPID! Especially with Wells at Center!)
Oh well ... guess I'll forgive them for that one!
Have a good one
KW