By Sway29
Published: September 25, 2008 PrintEmail
I am a Patriots fan and a fan of the NFL. Week one brought great
disappointment when I saw Tom Brady holding his knee, then being helped
off the field and not returning. I still felt confident, that without
Tom, the Patriots would win the division in a battle with the New York
Jets. Well I was simply wrong, the Pats need a lot of work, the Jets
stink, the Bills are playing real well and are an early favorite, and
the Dolphins are going to shock some teams. After this week, I took
some time to think about the off-season moves, players who should
improve in the system even more, and just the overall look of the teams.
Let’s start in the south with the Dolphins.
They have already matched their one game win total from last year and
they did it in a dominating fashion. Now, will they continue this? I
highly doubt it!
They came out and shocked the world with Ronnie Brown's career day.
Chad Pennington had all day to throw and did not miss, and even Ricky
Williams showed sparks of his old self. Their defense remains young,
but to date has played with an offense who could not stay on the field
long enough to give any rest out.
All and all the Dolphins will still finish 4th, but they should take
another step forward by getting another good draft pick and continue to
rebuild.
Now, the New York Jets. Many off-season moves, the most obvious was
grabbing Brett Favre from the Packers, which added a deep passing
attack to their offense. Too many people thought this move would put
them into wildcard contention as they have the receivers to pose a
great offense both short and deep.
So far, they have beaten the Dolphins in a close battle and played the
Patriots to a tight score, but if you watched the game, they did not
play well enough to win and it turned into the Patriots running the
clock down and simply managing the game. Then, what I thought would be
the real test, playing an 0-2 Chargers team who has all-world talent
but has fallen early behind the 8 ball.
So, come Monday night, I waited to see what team would take a step
forward and get their season together. Sure, 1-1 is okay, but falling
to 1-2 and a tie for last in the division means you have a lot of
ground to make up. On Monday night it showed that the Chargers are
ready to step back into the elite, while the Jets were simply out
matched and were simply ran over.
Favre was not the answer, the answer is to simply rebuild. The Jets
have a QB they feel could be their future in Kellen Clemens, but
attempted to go for gold this one year with Favre, a QB who has been in
the same system for years and has never really changed from the toss it
up go for broke QB he is. Now the Jets have to come from behind in a
tough division and it starts next week against the high flying
Cardinals, with a bye week following that. I’m going to assume they
enter the bye at 2-2, but will finish the year at 8-8 leaving them out
off the playoffs and having to rethink everything.
Now, the defending AFC champions and a team with very few off-season moves.
New England lost a key player in Asante Samuel and an under achiever in
Donte' Stallworth, but gained some great young talent which they really
needed. To many, they were going anywhere from 16-0 to 13-3, flying
high into the playoffs with one of the top offenses and a defense who
was able to predict a one dimensional offense. Teams were forced to
throw the ball as you simply could not stay in the game with a rushing
attack. It's no secret the Patriots have one of the top front three’s
but have a weak secondary.
Then, disaster...The MVP goes down and the defense is asked to step up
and carry an offense which will simply get by and be average. For the
first two games this season it looked possible, it looked like the
Patriots would not blow a team out of the water but simply get by with
a well played contest. Well, after this week there are way too many
questions, they were dominated by a team who should not dominate, they
couldn’t throw the ball to stay in the game, and looked like a team out
of rhythm. They now have two weeks to think, game plan, re think, and
stay quiet.
I don’t know where they will go; I stay positive assuming every week
the offense will get better and the defense will game plan better. They
go into the bye week at 2-1, alone in second place of the AFC East. I’m
remaining optimistic that they will regroup and finish the year at 11-5
or 10-6 and still win the division.
Now the team of interest, real interest. The Buffalo Bills, the one
team who has gone to the Super Bowl many times, but can never close the
deal. A team, who for the last few years has been unable to get all the
pieces in place, always having a top special teams unit which gave them
a chance in the field position battles. A team who gets to play a home
game in Canada, which some see as a possible future home once Ralph
Wilson is gone as owner.
Their play so far this year has far exceeded any expectations, but why?
Is it the off-season they had? The growth off their young players? Or
the system coming together? I think it's a combination of all these.
They picked up Marcus Stroud, which was a huge move, he is a dominant
player. They finally inked Jason Peters to a deal which allows their
run game to be that much better. Posluszny is back after a great start
to last year.
But overall the biggest improvement is at the QB position. I, like some
others, felt Trent Edwards was the right choice. He can manage an
offense and with time would learn to not turn the ball over and allow
Lynch to carry the offense. After Sunday, he also showed he can carry a
team. After playing poor in the first half, he was asked to lead the
team and he made impressive throws, moved the ball and won the game. He
showed he can play in the pressure situations and this has got to be
great news for any fan of the Bills.
Buffalo is still young but their upside is huge, they have everything
going in the right direction. Do I feel they will keep playing at such
a high level? No. Might they make the playoffs? Yes. They sit at 3-0
with a young team who will tire. They should enter the bye week at 5-0.
They showed this week that they have not come together completely, with
a slow start that let them fall behind the Raiders. I personally think
they will be a force to reckon with in the next couple seasons and will
finish either 10-6 or 11-5. I stand by the Patriots finishing first
with the last game off the season going to the Patriots separating the
first and second.
Lastly a couple fun facts:
The last time the Patriots started a season 2-2, the QB was Drew
Bledsoe and they ended up winning the first of three Super Bowls.
Miami has gone 2-2 the last two years going into New England, terrible teams, but it seems to be a home away from home.
In 2004, the Bills won five games in a row, but the last time they
started 5-0 was 1991 with Jim Kelly running the show. And yes they did
go to the Super Bowl.
Brett Favre is sitting with a Quarterback rating of 98.5. The last Jets
Quarterback with any sort of significant playing time to have a plus 90
rating was Vinny Testaverde. Apparently, age helps in New York.
