Week 8 has come and gone in the NFL, and things finally seemed to go according to plan. The teams that were supposed to win won, and there were no upsets to speak of. There were no injuries to any of the superstars with the exception of a broken rib or two in Dallas. One undefeated and two winless remain. Will we have a season where a team goes 16-0 while another goes 0-16? I doubt it, but the prospect of such a thing to the NFL would be both GOOD and BAD.

GOOD

The NFL got what it had been hoping for when the Chargers and Saints played in Great Britain this past week, points, a total of 69 to be exact. The game was back and forth, as both quarterbacks racked up big games with the Saints eventually prevailing. It was interesting that the NFL didn’t choose the Patriots for this game, given the team’s name origins and ties to the British.

BAD

The Steelers suffered a major meltdown against the Giants this past weekend. You kind of got the sense that things were out of place when the NFL sent officials to Pittsburgh for meetings on league policy regarding several player fines that have been recently levied. Then Santonio Holmes gets suspended for su####ion of marijuana related activities deemed illegal by the long arm of the law. Willie Parker and Bryant McFadden are out for the game. Parker, not a big issue, Moore has played great in place. McFadden was a concern, as he has played the best of Pittsburgh’s secondary lately.

The Steelers defense was phenomenal, all game, holding the Giants to four field goals through most of the game while also orchestrating a goal-line stand that resulted in no points. The offense looked good early, then poor the rest of the game. They hit a long bomb to Washington to extend their lead. The Giants struggled, the Steelers had great field position. A personal foul penalty, an illegal procedure, and a terribly bad holding call left Pittsburgh punting instead of getting any points on the drive. The holding call was extremely convenient as it negated another long touchdown that would have pretty much sealed the game and the win for the Steelers. I understand that holding will be and can be called on every play. But for how many times I see James Harrison getting held without a penalty getting called, it pissed me off to no end that they threw a flag for a linemen grabbing for a second, releasing, then falling on the player as he went down. Again, I’ll pose this question. When a defensive player has moved past or around the offensive player and that offensive player does not release him, in essence, holding him back from continuing on his course, is that not holding?

Fantasy Note

I got a big win this past week over arguably the hottest and highest scoring team in the league right now. The game didn’t finish in shootout fashion as was predicted by the site. I got monster games from Drew Brees(34pts) and Brian Westbrook(35pts) on my way to racking up 124pts, third highest of the week. I was fortunate that this happened to be one of his lowest scoring games of the year. I hope to have the same luck this week as I play The Blue Devils, winners of three in a row while averaging nearly 100pts during that streak. I failed to gain any more ground this week in my division as one of the two teams also won their game, leaving them two and half back with five to play. I’m trying to trade for either Dallas Clark, Brandon Marshall, or both this week. The problem is that none of the teams are really out of it yet, therefore nobody's selling yet.

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leag
ueId=239543

Week 5  fell nicely in line for the NFL with nearly all of the favored teams handling their business with one big exception, the San Diego Chargers. But who knows, maybe Miami is ready to turn things around and make a run at the playoffs. Given the state of the AFC, anything’s possible. The NFC looks mostly like people thought it would less the Packers and the Saints. Still, the door is wide open for a lot of teams to sneak into the playoffs. And to the NFL, all of these things are GOOD and BAD.

GOOD

The Steelers finally got one over on the Jaguars and everyone in Pittsburgh rejoiced as our team is 4-1 heading into their BYE week, thank god. Pittsburgh won with defense and timely offense as they dominated the Jaguars in the first half, out-gaining them 300yrds to 46yrds. That is the point where a team changes their game-plan to adjust to what the other is doing. You’d think the Jaguars went into half and made some unbelievable adjustments… but you’d be wrong. The Steelers actually adjusted their game-plan, became much more conservative, and let Jacksonville back into the game. Why would they do this, because the Steelers offensive coordinator sucks. It’s been obvious through the first 5 games that he has no idea how to make the right adjustments and will fall into an extremely conservative offense if Pittsburgh commits a turnover early. Here’s one prime example of what I’m talking about.

During the first half the Steelers came out and threw on first down, gaining 4 to 6 yards each play and setting up second downs that could be runs or passes. This was very successful and the Steelers moved the ball at will, minus Santonio Holmes slipping and Jacksonville returning one for a TD. In the second half, the Steelers ran on first down and got zero yards. Now it’s second down and the defense knows what you have to do. The Steelers had two possessions in the third quarter gained about ten total yards on six plays, yuck. Guess what they did in the fourth quarter once they were down again? That’s right, they threw on first down.

BAD

I’m going to stay with the Steelers for the first segment of BAD this week and comment on something that happened late in the game. Jacksonville was deep in their zone and Garrard dropped back to pass, let me fly incomplete and was drilled James Harrison just as the ball was released. Amazingly, the ref called a roughing the passer on Pittsburgh. I was livid when I watched the replay and saw that the pass and the hit occurred simultaneously, with Harrison having no chance to pull up. This kept the drive alive for Jacksonville. It was almost like the refs wanted to keep the game going and Jacksonville every opportunity to win. For all of the cheap shots that Ben Roethlisberger receives with the defense never getting penalized, I can’t imagine how that was called.

The New Orleans Saints lost again when their field goal kicker failed to convert late in the game, giving the Vikings good field position. One pass interference call later and Minnesota is kicking the game winner. This is now the second time this season that Gramatica has missed a kick to give the Saints at least a chance to stay alive. The other occurred in Denver and would have been for the win. Who knows what would have happened had he made the kick Monday Night, but that’s two games lost. I think it’s time for a new kicker.

Fantasy Note

A very disappointing loss this week to the top rated team in my league. I had every chance to win the game and looked good going into the Monday Night game down only 11pts, but Drew Brees committed 3 turnovers for me, Reggie Bush returned 2 punts for him, and that was that, a 116 to 103 loss. It also didn’t help that Calvin Johnson grabbed a whole 2 points this week. Earnest Graham and Jonathan Stewart both had great match-ups and managed to score 12 points between them. Wow, what are you gonna do. I still sit atop my division at 3-2 and play a divisional game this week against the (1-3) Favre Hater Bandwagon.

Check out the league at:

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d=239543&seasonId=2008

Week 3 of the NFL is in the books, and it will be a forgettable one for a lot of teams, I’m sure.  There are still six undefeated teams to go along with the six winless teams.  Things are starting to shake out like many thought they would with some glaring exceptions in the AFC South and East.  Things in that conference are pretty much up in the air right now, with some very unexpected front runners heading up their respective divisions.  And in the era of the salary cap and the infamous parity that exists; the NFL surely considers all of this good and bad.

GOOD

The New England Patriots lost, excuse me, got pounded at home by the hapless Miami Dolphins.  Note to the league, the Patriots are a shell of their former selves without Tom Brady at QB.  It also didn’t help that Maroney and Jordan both missed this game with some kind of injury.  Why this is in the good column, because everyone outside of Boston and its surrounding areas was cheering when they saw what was happening in Foxboro.  People love to hate Bill Belichick and the Pats, and this season is shaping up to be one big love-fest.

The Browns and Bengals both lost their games this past week, leaving them scraping at the bottom of the AFC North and winless at 0-3. This is shaping up to be a one and a half pony race for this division. Oh yeah, they play each other this week, so someone's gonna be 0-4, ouch.

BAD

The Steelers lost their first game of the season this past Sunday in ugly fashion, getting outscored and out-coached by the Philly Eagles. It’s no new news that Pittsburgh hasn’t won in Philly in quite some time. This was a very winnable game in my mind, but the Steeler coaching staff made no attempt to adjust to the all-out blitz Philly ran on EVERY play. There were no draws, no screens, and only the occasional quick hitter to a wide receiver that produced results.  The one deep ball that was thrown was intercepted, albeit early in the game, but there wasn’t another ball thrown deep again.  It was a hard fought game, and one that was totally winnable.  I’m not sure why Max Starks did not make an appearance at RT or another position.  In that situation, what’s the worst that could happen; he’d give up a sack?

Fantasy Note

I got crushed in my Fantasy Game this past week, against what I believe is the best team in our league.  I managed a measly one touchdown from my players, that coming from Drew Brees.  The yardage was okay, but when you only get 4 total points from Brian Westbrook, Earnest Graham, and Andre Johnson, you’re going to be in trouble.  Yes, Westbrook was injured in that game, but the production still needs to come from the other players and needs to be more than that.  My bench almost outscored my starters, scary.  So this was my worst game of the year, I expect to bounce back next week.  I’ll be without Calvin Johnson this week as the Lions go on their BYE, but I believe I will be able to find a suitable replacement for him. You can keep track of me this season at the below link.

http://games.espn.go.com/ffl/leagueoffice?leag
ueId=239543