Well Its cetainly been a good year for the 72 Dolphins, They should celebrate their 30th year of being the only undefeated unless the Raiders should somehow overcome a very testing remaining schedule. Its been quite a year for passing in the AFC, Drew Bledsoe, Rich Gannon, and Tom Brady are all on pace to throw for an unheard of 5000 yards in a season. The NFC has again struggled with the downfall of the Rams. The top rushers in the NFC? Deuce McAllister, Lamar Smith, and Thomas Jones. Players who had 800 yards total between them last year. The Oakland Raiders are the best team in football at the moment not because they are the only unblemished but because they have the #1 offense in the NFL. Rich Gannon has thrown for over 350 yards in his last 3 games, something he only accomplished 4 times prior in his whole career. Jerry Rice and Tim Brown have been their usual selves, But it has been the emergence of 3rd year man Jerry Porter ( 7 rec. 117 yards 1 TD against Buffalo) that has made a difference, Add Charlie Garner's Faulk like numbers, (currently on pace to become the 3rd RB to record a 1000/1000 season) and this offense is unstopable. Buffalo's offense has been nothing short of amazing with Their Top 2 receivers leading the NFL in receiving yards. Drew Bledsoe finally matched up against a defense that is not dominating but a capable of making enough plays to force him to throw on the run. Among the Best rookies in the league have been the stellar play of New Englands' WR Deion Branch, Miami's TE Randy McMichael, Detriot's QB Joey Harrington, Denver's RB Clinton Portis, and New Orleans' WR Donte Stallworth. On the Defensive side, Oakland's CB/PR Phillip Buchanon, Tennesee's DE Carlos Hall, Jacksonville DE John Henderson, Dallas S Roy Williams, and Carolina's Julius Peppers have all been standouts. Parity certainly rules in the NFL once again, The St Louis Rams have not won a game including preseason since losing the Super Bowl. The Patriots Offense looks lost without Troy Brown and the running game has been non-existant. The Houston Texans won their first ever game but have looked very expansion like after, Lets Hope David Carr has a better road than Tim Couch - "Browns' quarterback Tim Couch suffered a slight concussion with 10:09 left in the fourth quarter of Sunday's loss to Baltimore and did not return. Couch was hit in the back of the head by Ravens' cornerback Gary Baxter after recovering a fumble by center Dave Wohlabaugh. Fans cheered as his backup Kelly Holcomb came on the field--a fact that was not lost on Couch. "I got hit in the back of the head when I went to dive on the ball, and the next thing I know the fans are cheering when I'm lying on the field hurt," Couch told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I think it's [expletive expletive], to be honest with you...I've been here going on four years now and I've laid it on the line for this team and city, and for them to turn on me and boo me in my home stadium is a joke. I've worked my [butt] off here and it's hard to take. This is not how I wanted it to be, but I guess this is the way it is going to have to be." Denver, San Diego, Kansas City, and Oakland make the AFC West the only Divison with all team above .500. And of course the stat you all have been waiting for- Hunter Smith Leads the NFL in net punting average. Just another season full of suprises for America's passion.
The most popular player on a bad team is always the backup QB, but it is inexcuseable the way they treated Couch. I agree biggest Shocker is the Rams
Well, I'll go with my co-favorite team. The Packers should be 0-4, but surprisingly are still in first place.
Although probably not as much as the Rams, the Saints definitely have to be up there. They aren't surprising to me, but I didn't see many people predicting them to win more than 6 or 7 games. That offense is terrific-- Deuce is a better fit for them than Ricky-- and Stallworth and Pathon were both very underrated receiver pickups. There's a totally different style and attitude with the team, and part of it came with losing some older players with bigger names and egos. Remember, not only is this team 4-1, but their last four games of the season are against Baltimore, Minnesota, Cincinnati, and Carolina. That's almost a guaranteed four game winning streak heading to the playoffs. The Saints pass defense is still a little suspect, but it is likely that they'll get Dale Carter back before the end of the season. And, the pass rush from the front seven has been so strong that few teams have been able to have time to throw downfield. The Eagles get more talk because of McNabb and their performance last year, but I don't think there's any doubt that the Saints have been the best team in the NFC.
Not much of a suprise but the top 3 rushers in the NFL are from Texas. Ricky Williams (UT), Priest Holmes (UT), and LaDanian Tomlinson (TCU).
Yeah, but it's early in the season. That was the classic letdown game, considering the teams they had just beaten and that Pittsburgh was the week ahead. I'm confident it'll be different when the playoff positioning (and homefield) is at stake. Plus, not sure if you saw the game, but Detroit got most of their passing yards picking on a one-handed Fred Thomas. He'll have two hands by then.
My top ten: Well, the Rams are easily the biggest shocker to everyone, I think. A close second for me is the play of the Chargers. I'm not a big Marty Schottenheimer fan, but he really has gotten that team together for a playoff run. Third place goes to the Panthers. I don't care if they haven't really played anyone of substance, winning in this league means something. Fourth place would go to the Saints. I didn't think McAllister was going to excel that quickly, but thankfully for my fantasy team, he has. Their defense is better than expected, as well. Not much, but better. Fifth place goes to the Denver Defense. My goodness! I didn't see that kind of a dominating performance coming from them this year. Sixth place goes to the Vikings. Man, they stink, and Moss' play thus far warrants top shocker status. Seventh place goes to Donovan McNabb. We all knew the boy had skills, but damn. That brings up eighth place. Who saw Jacksonville playing to this level after gutting their talent pool? Ninth place goes to Oakland. What was that coach's name that left? Damned if I remember.... And, drumroll please, tenth place goes to.............................. The Houston Texans. Who saw them losing a game this year? Man, I didn't.
Has Roy Williams really been that much of a standout as a defensive rookie? I've seen maybe 3 Cowboys games or thereabouts and I haven't really seen him do much of anything to impress me.
From what I've seen, he's been great. He hasn't made any big mistakes, which is saying a lot when you are on the Cowboys. Just about everyone he hits goes down, and he probably has a good number of tackles. He also put out Warner and put a good hit on Collins the other day. He's been very impressive to me.
Well, he did hit Warner, and Warner did get his finger broken, but I wouldn't say that the injury was as much because of the great hit that Roy W put on him as much as it was just bad luck with his finger being at the wrong angle. Any defensive player could have broken his finger in that situation. But even so, that sack is the only impressive thing I have seen him do so far....I don't know, I know that safeties don't usually jump out and impress people, but I kind of figured that a high first round pick is expected to have a serious impact on a team.
Thing about Roy Williams is he doesn't really look like a rookie. They threw him in and he looks like he's been playing for years. Rarely makes a mistake and man when he hits you you go down period. The Cowboys really need to utilize him more in the box. Rush him from the edge. Between Glover, Hardy, Ellis, Woodson, and Williams the Cowboys should just be blitzing constantly but since their corners are awful, no dice. Williams and Woodson have to be kept back to make up for the corners lack of talent. Ross looked pretty good yesterday though.
There is no such thing as a guaranteed winning streak, or win for that matter, in the NFL...especially this year. There is too much that can happen between now and then. I wouldn't bet a dime on any team winning during any week in the regular season.
He just hit the nail on the head. There was an article about Roy not "being impressive" or a something like that. He is used best up front, blitzing and tackling. However, since we have bad corners, we have to use Roy to help them out. This takes away the best part of his game. That's like making someone run inside when they are more of a outside runner. They'll probably get some yards, but no where near where they could get had they been running outside. (btw, that was the 1st time I've ever tried to use an example in football, so if its no where near appropriate to the situation, lay off.) Oh, and Roy has done well staying back as well. As for the sack, yeah I agree it was bad luck, but he did it. Also, last week Roy did almost the exact same thing to Kerry Collins. Collins was sitting back looking for an open man, turned left...and BOOM! Roy was there and put him to the ground. Pretty nice sack, I thought. And like Philliyrocket said, he tackles like a FREAK. I MAY have seen 2 or 3 tackles of his get broken, and they were by the other team's RB and it was a bad angle. (I think I may have added a bit much, though. Maybe 0.)
Yes he is. I decided to look up his tackle stats, and he has 30, leading the team. As for the NFC, he's tied for 18th. Urlacher(Sp?) is 1st with 44. I kind of skimmed of the names, but the only other safety with more was Sammy Knight with 35, I think. BTW, I am by no way sure that he was the only other safety. He's just the one that stood out when I skimmed over the names.
