Make the Correct Calls, Or Else Ditch Replay
Last week at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, a Colts kick returner fumbled while apparently tripping over an invisible line.  The referees ruled the player down by contact, but the Chicago Bears challenged that the player was not down by contact, and that they recovered the fumble.  After review, it was painfully obvious that the Colts runner was not touched and fumbled in mid-air.  The call stood as called due to, apparently, the ref's being unable to determine who recovered the football, even though Bear's running back Garrett Wolfe emerged from the pile with the ball in hand.  Yesterday during the Broncos-Chargers game (in which Broncos coach boldly--and successfully--went for a 2-point conversion down by 1 point with 0:24 remaining), Broncos QB Jay Cutler clearly fumbled a ball that was originally called an incomplete pass, and the Chargers recovered the would-be fumble.  After the booth review, since it was inside the 2-minute warning, the call was not overturned.  Don't ask me how the Broncos ended up with possession 8 yards back from the previous play because I don't have the slightest clue how that can be possible if the pass was incomplete.  A correct call on that play and the Chargers are in first place this week rather than Denver.  The point is: If the NFL and its referees cannot overturn a slam dunk replay, the ditch the replay rule all together.  It is indeed only slowing down the game and wasting time if they can't overturn the most obvious of mistakes. 

Only Fourteen Games to go, Chiefs Fans
The Kansas City Chiefs have started out 0-2, and with the way they've played, I see no reason to believe things are going to get any better.  During these two miserable games, they've allowed 9 sacks while achieving only 2, can't run the football, can't stop the run, and their asinine, convservative playbook is producing only 9.0 points per game.  These are al the same problems that plagued them last year, en route to a 4-12 season, a 31st ranked offense, and a current 11-game regular season losing streak.  Yesterday, an apparently healthy QB Damon Huard, who was recently ranked by foxsports.com as the 6th best backup QB in the entire NFL, and who was starting this game due to an injury to opening day starter Brodie Croyle, was pulled from the starting lineup in lieu of a practice squad WR Marques Hagans.  Hagans was replaced by 3rd stringer Tyler Thigpen after one play, a QB draw.  Hagans was inserted later in the game, for a 2nd down and 17 to go, a play in which he also ran a QB draw.  Thigpen rarely attempted a throw longer than 10 yards, as evidenced by his atrocious 4.57 yards per attempt.  With any luck, the Chiefs will lose the next 14 games, and by finishing 0-16, the Hunt family will have no choice but to fire GM Carl Peterson, HC Herm Edwards, and every single one of Edward's awful assistants.  The worst thing that can happen to a Chiefs fan at this point is for the team to come back and finish with a respectable record, thus buying Peterson and Edwards more time to further screw up the team.

Patriots Win, But Skeptisicm Remains.
I watched most of the Pats-Jets game yesterday and picked the Jets in my weekly Pro Football Pick'em on fantasysports.yahoo.com.  Though the Patriots won without the best player in the NFL, QB Tom Brady, I'm planning on staying as far away from them in picks for the next couple weeks.  I need to see the team play more games minus Brady before I can conclusively say that they are still a serious contender.  After the Brady injury, I predicted they could do no better than 10 wins, more likely, 8.  Brady makes that big of a difference.  Will I pick them this week at home to beat the 0-2 Miami Dolphins?  Yes.  But I'm not all that confident about it, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see the 'Fins pull the upset.  I'm also in a Survivor Pool on Yahoo, and there is no way I am circling New England this week.  Instead, I'll look at Buffalo at home against Oakland, Chicago at home against Tampa, or Denver at home against New Orleans.

No team in the history of the National Football League is as good as the 2007 New England Patriots, not by a longshot. No team’s offense can match what Tom Brady, Randy Moss and these Pats can do. No team’s defense can stop them. No tackle football team that has ever played a game together was as dominant as these guys, and no team in the foreseeable future has any chance of eclipsing them (possibly not even the Patriots themselves).


Moss has reasserted himself as the premier wide
receiver in the NFL

And I’ll stand 100% firm behind this indisputable fact even if they lose a game this season.

Granted, there will always be controversy if the Patriots, say, lost one of their remaining regular season games with backup QB Matt Cassell mopping things up for Brady while he rests for the playoffs. If they don’t win the Super Bowl (as of November 14th, they were 1/3 odds. By comparison, the 12-1 Cowboys are 7/2), almost nobody would grant them the title of “Best Team Ever.” I’ll be one. Crown them now; they’re unstoppable.

The 1998 Minnesota Vikings currently hold the record for most points scored in a single season at 556. Through 13 games the Patriots have scored 503 and are on pace to absolutely shatter that record as they are on pace for a video game-esque 619 points of offense. Brady will likely break every major single season passing record known to man, including the coveted touchdown pass and quarterback rating records. Moss, who if he retired right now would go down as the second best receiver in NFL history and who also played for those ’98 Vikings catching 17 touchdown passes as a rookie, is having the single best season of any wideout of all times. Moss’s 1264 yards and 19 touchdowns are ridiculous. The offense is achieving these numbers even with no scarcity to injuries to their running backs.

Their defense currently ranks 3rd in the AFC and 4th overall in points allowed. Defensive studs such as Rodney Harrison (suspension), Richard Seymour, and Roosevelt Colvin (injuries) have missed time. Plus, their prized defensive free agent acquisition, Adalius Thomas, only has four sacks on the year.

The Pat’s average margin of victory on the season, 21.7, would absolutely destroy the 1972 Dolphin’s mark of 15.3.

The Patriots have faced a tough schedule too, playing in the strength of the AFC. Sure, the Jets and Dolphins play in their division and they only have 3 wins combined, but they’ve beaten the suddenly surging 7-6 Bills twice. They’ve gone on the road and beaten the 11-2 Colts and the 12-1 Cowboys. New England has also humiliated other AFC playoff contenders like the Chargers, Browns, and most recently, the Steelers.

The only real evidence I need though is to watch the games with my own eyes. The New England Patriots are the best football team I’ve ever seen play.

I’ve been meaning to get this off my chest for a long time.

The way quarterbacks are over hyped in today’s NFL really grinds my gears. It seems like any team that goes on a run, makes the playoffs, and God forbid if they win the Super Bowl, people talk about that team’s QB as if he were the only human being responsible for the team’s success.

Every time I hear “Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a 15-1 record as a rookie” I cringe. If somebody says “Trent Dilfer took the Ravens to a Super Bowl” I get sick to my stomach. And the next time I hear “Kyle Orton won 9 games for the Bears in 2005” I think I’m just going to throw up.

Those are the verbs some folks use: So-and-so “led” or “took” the team; or he “won” that number of games. If you’re going to make that kind of statement, please, at least be sure that the QB in question played more of a role in his team’s success than just handing off the ball to the running back and letting the defense do all the dirty work. That’s exactly what happened to the 2004 Steelers, the 2000 Ravens, and the 2005 Bears.

Actually, Tom Brady LED the Patriots to 3 Super Bowl wins, Peyton Manning TOOK the Colts to the AFC title game in 2004, and I’d even so far as to say Randall Cunningham WON 15 games for the Vikings in 1998.

Roethlisberger, Dilfer, and Orton combined to average 12.7 touchdown passes, 11.7 interceptions, and a 59% completion percentage in 2004, 2000, and 2005 respectively.

In 2004, 2004, and 1998, Brady, Manning and Cunningham collectively averaged 37 tosses for touchdowns, 11.3 interceptions, and a 63% completion percentage.

Oh yeah, and I should mention that the former group of players played on teams whose offenses averaged out to rank #17 in the NFL, while all three were backed by the #1 ranked defense.. The latter collection of elite QBs “led” their offenses to an average ranking of #2 while their team’s defense ranked #9.

No player can lead a team anywhere unless he at least figures into the Pro Bowl voting, or garners a mention for the MVP. At the bare minimum, he cannot surrender his starting job the next season (as Dilfer was replaced by Elvis Grbac in 2001) or worse, at halftime in week 15 (ala Rex Grossman inserted for Orton against the Falcons in 2005).

So, let me be the first person in Earth’s history to come out and say that Joey Porter and Troy Polamalu led the Steelers to a 15-1 record. Ray Lewis and Peter Boulware took the Ravens to the Super Bowl. And, Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs won 9 (actually 11) games for the Bears.

Ah, the truth FINALLY comes out.

I know what you’re thinking, and I’m already one step ahead. “But Blogger Jim, Roethlisberger, Dilfer and Orton didn’t lose any games for their teams. They were young players without big expectations and played fundamentally sound to keep their team in it.” This is where the double standard comes in.

Do NFL head coaches tell their young linebackers to just get a hand on the ball carrier to slow him down and let somebody else make the tackle? Do they tell wide receivers to only catch the balls thrown right at them, and don’t worry about anything over the middle? When is the last time a young strong safety was told to just arm tackle a running back hitting the corner, as opposed to lowering the shoulders and lighting him up?

It doesn’t happen. So why do they do it for quarterbacks? I want my QB to make the play himself just like every other position player. Don’t “not lose” me the game. WIN the darn thing!