It’s literally been years since this has happened, but the Detroit Lions actually won a football game. By defeating the Washington Redskins 19-14, the Lions snapped their 19-game losing streak that included all of last season. The irony behind the Lions winning this game though, is that nobody in Detroit could watch it on television. Because of the NFL’s very unforgiving blackout rules, the game could not be seen on local television since it wasn’t a sellout 72 hours before kickoff. Now that’s a kick in the teeth for an area like Detroit that has been ravaged by the recession; your team finally wins and you’re stuck watching Brett Favre’s Vikings.
And how must it feel to be a Redskins fan right about now? Your offence could only muster 9 points against the pathetic Rams last week, now you go out and lose to the terrible Lions? Something is going to give real soon in D.C.
How about Brett Favre’s 80-yard drive against the 49ers to keep the Vikings undefeated? The man may be 40 years old, but he’s still got it when he needs it. That drive is sure to be a Madden Moment when Madden 11 rolls into stores next summer. And what a catch by the hardly-used Greg Lewis! I Thought for sure that he didn’t get both feet in but I was gladly proved wrong on the replay. I’m just wondering if the game would’ve been close enough at the end for that drive to happen if Frank Gore hadn’t sprained his ankle after one rush.
Now what is up with Kurt Warner and the Cardinals? It’s almost a sure thing now that the Super Bowl losers curse exists after watching Arizona limp through a prime time game against the Colts. That’s two poor performances out of three weeks and there were some big doubts raised in my mind after last night’s game. At least they have a week off now to try and figure things out. They really need it.
Is Cincinnati for real? After going into Lambeau Field and pulling off what we thought was a huge upset, the Bengals stood their ground and won at home against the Steelers for the first time in nine years. They did it in style too, scoring a last minute TD to take the victory and push the Steelers down to 1-2. Those lads from Pittsburgh are sure missing Troy Polamalu. At least the long-maned safety has time to make some more shampoo commercials now.
Did anybody out there predict that the Titans would be sitting at 0-3 and the Jets would be off to a 3-0 start? Was this even remotely possible? But Mark Sanchez has stepped up into his role and the Jets defence is playing supremely under Coach Ryan. The Titans on the other hand, are just falling apart and the loss of Albert Haynesworth in free agency really killed them. They’ll be seriously hard pressed to make a playoff run from this hole.
Finally, despite reports and endless stories all week, the New England Patriots are not done yet. Not by a long shot. The Pats did what they always do in situations like this: They played the Nobody Believes In Us card and put together a feisty win over a playoff contender. So, let’s not go out and say that teams are done after two weeks of the season unless there are very good reasons to believe it. In the case of a well coached, veteran team like New England, there’s never a team to rule them out.
This week: 8-7
This season: 22-23