The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won for the first time in nearly a year yesterday and it was no pushover they toppled either. By beating the Green Bay Packers 38-28, Tampa Bay got to celebrate a win for the first time since November 30, 2008. Yes, it’s been that long for the woeful Bucs and at the time of their last win, they were atop their division. Now that’s quite the reversal of fortunes. And to think, they had to go back to wearing the ugly Creamsicle orange style of jerseys and to bring in their raw, rookie QB to get it done finally.
Elsewhere, have the Giants officially lost it? A mere few weeks ago, they were considered the best team in all of football. Now, they’re riding a four-game losing streak and haven’t looked impressive at all in any of the games. Maybe it’s the injuries they’ve suffered on defence, maybe it’s their coaching staff, that has slowly been picked away at by other teams looking for head coaches. Maybe we just overestimated them because they’re largely still the same squad that trounced the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl two seasons. Whatever the problem is, the Giants have to fix it quickly or risk sitting on the sidelines come January.
The other Manning brother was able to guide his team through a tight squeeze yesterday. Peyton’s Colts nearly had their game against Houston go into overtime, but Texans kicker Kris Brown wasn’t able to punch a field through to send the game to the extra frame. The only loss the Colts have in their past 18 games was their playoff loss to San Diego where they didn’t touch the ball in overtime. Could you imagine their regular season winning streak ending the same way? Also, the Texans may have lost this game, but holding tough against the Colts puts miles on their reps as a contender.
The other undefeated team didn’t do so shabby themselves. The New Orleans Saints fell behind early to the Panthers, who have finally realized that making Jake Delhomme throw the ball isn’t the best idea, then were able to piece together drive after impressive drive to comeback and seal the victory against a division foe. It must be said that there is going to be a really tight race for MVP this season with Manning, Drew Brees and Adrian Peterson all garnering a lot of votes.
Well, it’s been a few weeks coming, but we can’t really call them the Bungles any more. Cincinnati picked up another win against the Ravens to sweep their season series and can realistically take complete hold of the division if they topple the mighty Steelers next Sunday.
Kurt Warner sure knows how to turn things around. A week after putting up one of his biggest stink bombs in recent memory, Warner took his Cardinals into Chicago and destroyed the Bears defence for five touchdowns to keep Arizona undefeated on the road. I don’t know what was more stunning about the game, Arizona staying undefeated on the road, Warner playing like there was no defence in front of him, or how awful Matt Leinart looked in garbage time.
Finally, the Cowboys came through against an Eagles team that usually owns them. In their past 20 meetings, Dallas had fallen at the hands of Philly 16 times, the worst ratio by any team against another in the NFL. But last night, Dallas showed what they can do on both offence and defence, putting solid pressure on McNabb all night and moving the ball effectively on offence.
This week: 5-6 (with Pittsburgh -3 over Denver tonight).
This season: 66-54-1.
A thoughtful insight and ideas I will use on my blog. You’ve obviously spent some time on this. Well done!