We barely Hue ya. I wanted to believe Hue Jackson was a good coach. He went 8-8 with the Raiders back when senile old Al Davis was in his last years. He fired Dennis Allen prematurely, and brought back Art Shell into such a hopeless situation that it only soiled the good name Shell had established in his first stint as coach. Jackson gets hired in Cleveland in the middle of their “Moneyball” experiment following the failed tenures of Pat Shurmur and Mike Pettine, who as head coaches make fabulous coordinators. So the Browns go 1-15 while continuing to stockpile draft picks and make very questionable trades. As they go careening to 0-16, “Moneyball” is abandoned and a real football GM is hired, under the condition that he’s not allowed to fire the coach. The real football GM uses the stockpile of draft picks to get some real assets, and the 1-31 team gets out to a 2-3-1 start, but with a break or two could easily be 5-1. After a blowout loss, Jackson says he’s going to get more involved in the offense, despite his awful track record. After probably the worst performance of the year, he is now gone, along with the offensive coordinator.
How “Browns” is this? The interim coach is DC Gregg Williams, the guy who 300 years from now will still be referred to as the Saints DC that told his team before a playoff game with the 49ers to “go for the head” and spearheaded the Saints bounty program (that thing the Saints fans are trying to convince the rest of the world never happened). There are no signs he still coaches that way, so we’ll see how it goes. The Browns have a lot of likable players on their team, and I hope they do well. Except against the Panthers.
Jameis Winston is an all-time bust. He has managed, in only 4 games, to be tied for the league lead in interceptions. He hasn’t been able to stay out of trouble, showing that the poor character he showed at Florida State was his true self, not an aberration. The Bucs play better with the 1,000-year-old backup QB. He’s the worst QB #1 pick since David Carr. It’s time for the Bucs to move on, and the 1,000-year-old backup QB has been named the starter. I wish they would have let Winston play the Panthers first. 😊
That was a bad crowd. I’ve always said Atlanta is America’s worst sports town. LA is not far behind, being a city full of front-runners that only support teams when they’re winning. But now LA has the best team in the NFL, and they managed to let Packer fans fill two-thirds of the seats in yesterday’s game. That, combined with the national media’s interminable man-crush on Aaron Rodgers, made that game hard to watch.
The Panthers are good. You’d never know it outside of Charlotte, with national talking heads picking against them every single week. But they whipped the #1 defense in the league this week to get to 5-2, with a feeble Tampa team coming to town next week. The remaining schedule features 4 games against bad teams (Tampa twice, Atlanta, Cleveland), 3 games against very inconsistent teams (Pittsburgh, Seattle, Detroit), and 2 games against New Orleans. Even if we get swept by the Saints again, we should still get to 10 wins. And everyone will be shocked. Again.
Power Rankings:
1. LA Rams – Close call vs Packers. Will stay #1 as long as they have no losses.
2. Kansas City – Defense is starting to come together behind Dee Ford, An Auburn Guy!
3. New Orleans – One really has to wonder how they laid that egg in week 1.
4. New England – Doing their usual, winning all the time after an inexplicable loss (or 2) early.
5. Washington – Better on defense with an alleged offensive guru as head coach.
6. Carolina – Most complete game of the year in week 8.
7. LA Chargers – Have played remarkably well when they aren’t playing the Chiefs.
8. Pittsburgh – There’s a really big gap between #7 and #8.
9. Houston – With 5 wins in a row, you have to respect them.
10.Cincinnati – Ah, the Bucs – the cure for what ails you.
11.Chicago – Can seize control of the division with a win over Buffalo, NC this week.
12.Seattle – Big matchup with the Chargers this week.
13.Minnesota – A good team that gets crushed when it turns the ball over.
14.Philadelphia – They are what their record says they are – inconsistent.
15.Baltimore – See #14 above.
16.Miami – See #15 above.
17.Tennessee – See #16 above.
18.Green Bay – Despite the media’s insipid, interminable crush on Rodgers, they’re not all that great.
19.Dallas – Have to hope the bye week got them some better game planning.
20.Detroit – They need the guy nicknamed “Snacks” to contribute QUICKLY!
21.Atlanta – Just too many injuries to overcome.
22.Tampa Bay – See ya, Jameis. Been nice knowin’ ya.
23.Jacksonville – Maybe assembling a fantasy team on defense doesn’t work after all.
24.Indianapolis – Follow “Captain Andrew Luck” on Twitter. Had a great recap of game at “Land of Oak.” 😊
25.NY Jets – Showing fight, but way short on playmakers.
26.Denver – See #25 above.
27.Cleveland – Good move canning the coaches that created a toxic environment for the rookie QB.
28.Buffalo – This squad is showing that its coach should have won Coach of the Year last year.
29.Arizona – See #26 above.
30.Oakland – May cure insomniacs the world over with this week’s game.
31.San Francisco – See #30 above.
32.NY Giants – See #29 above.
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