Thoughts on Week 10 in the NFL...
By Scott Burks
Here are my thoughts on Week 10 in
the NFL...
There is a new member among the AFC elite:
Cincinnati. The
Cincinnati Bengals have officially arrived -- and I do not mean just in the
AFC North. We can now include the Bengals in the "top teams in the
AFC" conversation. If we look at it, given the Patriots' loss to the
Colts, the Bengals are the second-best team in the AFC. The Bengals
are doing it with a rugged defense, and a vastly improved running game.
In other words, these are not your father's finesse "Colts-light" Bengals
team. Their physicality allows them to go toe-to-toe with my Steelers
and the Ravens.
Speaking of the Steelers game, my Cincinnati-born and bred wife, in-laws,
and friends are talking so much smack right now via text messaging and
Facebook. That's what I get for giving them so much hell for the past
several seasons about my Steelers being much better than the Bengals.
That, my friends, is called KARMA...
The Chicago Bears' season is over.
The Bears stink. There is no way around that one. While their
defense played well in the loss to the 49ers, their franchise QB Jay Cutler
was God-awful. He threw five interceptions, with three of them killed
scoring drives. FIVE! Panthers QB Jake Delhomme thinks Cutler
sucks. Meanwhile, the seats that Lovie Smith and his offensive staff
are sitting in are getting hotter by the minute. Smith may survive
because the Bears are too cheap to buy out his contract, but I wouldn't rule
that out -- especially if they can land Mike Shanahan. Stay tuned...
The Cleveland
Browns are beyond terrible. The Browns absolutely suck. Nice
offense they had going against the Ravens last night. Browns QB Brady
Quinn passed for a whopping 99 yards last night, while completing 42% of his
passes. Hell, the Browns offense consisted of Josh Cribbs returning
kicks and running out of the Wildcat. I would offer Browns fans some
hope, but there are several holes the Browns have on offense.
It's safe to say
that bringing in Eric "I'm not a genius" Mangini to coach this team was a
disaster. His handling of the QB situation before Week 1 and during
the bye week (I mean, what's the difference between Quinn and Derek Anderson
-- they both stink!) alone should be enough to get Mangini's pompous ass
fired.
The Denver Broncos are in trouble.
The Broncos are playing bad football at the worst time of the season.
Teams that look to have some staying power tend to crank it up during
November. However, the Broncos have lost three in a row, may lose
their QB Kyle Orton for an extended amount of time to injury, and have the
red-hot San Diego Chargers coming in for a battle for first place in the AFC
West. If the Broncos are not careful, they will be doomed to repeat
what happened to them last season -- giving away the division to the
Chargers by stumbling down the stretch. While I have to give some
credit to Denver coach Josh McDaniels for getting a lot out of this
team, the Broncos are what we thought they were at the beginning of the
season.
The New
Orleans Saints will lose sooner rather than later. The
Saints have been living dangerously the last four weeks. They have
fallen behind in the previous three games to the Dolphins, Falcons, Panthers
before rallying, and allowed Rams RB Steven Jackson to have a big day
running the football. In fact, the Saints beat the Rams by only 5
points! While a win is a win, an elite team must beat a team like the
Rams by more than FIVE POINTS! The Saints cannot afford to play like
that against inferior competition and get away with it. It will
officially bite the Saints in the ass, and I think the New England Patriots
are going to hand the Saints their first loss in two weeks on Monday night.
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