You know, I think was a very interesting week in the NFL. One thing I noticed is what happened to KC, I mean they have always had a bad defense-but now their offense isn't doing any good either. The way they are playing now, they won't even make the playoffs!
Also, I think that Jacksonville and Atlanta are getting way too much attendtion and credit for being "good." First off, Jacksonville is winning-yes they are 3-0. But, they really haven't beat anyone in a convincing way. They did beat Denver and Tennessee (in Nashville) and those are both great accomplishments-but if you look at those games Denver and Tennessee didn'yt play very well. I think we are going to see a vast turnaround with Jacksonville next week as Indianapolis will kill them. On the other hand, Alanta impresses me even less. Yes, they are 3-0 as well-but they have beaten San Francisco, St, Louis, and Ariziona-not exactly teams who are good (ther 49ers and the Cardinals are argueably the worst teams in the NFL). Plus, they beat Arizona by 3 points and they were playing at home. Sure Vick is a great player, but the team isn't that good. If Atlanta walks into Charoltte and beats Carolina next week, then Atlanta may have something to brag about.
On a lighter note, I think the Detriot Lions are one of the NFC's up and coming teams. It is finally starting to show too. I feel that their new era began in 2002 when they drafted Joey Harrington, now that he has learned the system well and has a young rookie reciever in Roy Williams who is looking great I think they will be much imporved over the next season or 2. Drafting running back Kevin Jones out of Virginia Tech with their second 1st round pick this year has also been a blessing. Even though he hasn't put up huge numbers, Detriot now has a running threat for the first time since Barry Sanders left-and that is going to help Harrington considerably (now they won't have to pass every down). The only setback they have had in building up this team is I feel they wasted their 1st round pick in 2003. They drafted a highly talented WR named Charles Rogers out of Michigan State-and although it seemed like a great idea, it simply hasn't panned out. Injuries ended his rookie season after 5 games last year and he is already our for the season. No matter how good he is, if he can't stay healthy-he;s useless.
On a lighter note, it was a good college football weekend for me. I went to the second home game for the local Oregon Ducks who are off to a disapointing start. He had a rough start to the season, in the first game (which I couldn't get tickets to) Indiana, a really bad team, came to town to play us (we were ranked #23 in the nation at the time). We had 4 fumbles lost in the first half, including 2 because of mishandeling punt returns, inside our own 30 yard line. This resulted in us down 23-0 at the half. We rallied but in the end couldn't score on a late 4th quarter drive and lost 30-24 (noticed we played good in the 2nd half outscoring them 24-7, but its wasn't enough). Next, he had to play #2 Oklahoma, in Oklahoma! We actually played a good game and at the half were only down 10-0 against their talented offense. In the end we lost, and they scored 2 late game touchdowns which ran the score up a little-they beat us 31-7 but we played a much better game than it seems.
So, we came into Saturday with an 0-2 record hoping to rebound against Idaho (a team worse than Indiana) before going into the conference season. Fortunately, I was able to get a ticket to this game. So, I went down to Autzen Stadium and had a blast. I hadn't gone to a game in a couple seasons and had honestly forgot how awesome on an experience it is. I had also forgot how loud it is, its amazing the anount of noise a 57,000 person stadium and produce. I can proudly say that we are louder than the average stadium, in fact when Michigan came to town last season their head coach said that is the loudest stadium he had ever been in (and their stadium sits about 110,000 people). Anyway, it was an awesome experience...and we slaughtered Idaho 48-10! I'm excited to see how we play in our first conference game this weekend against a good Arizona State team-because these are the games that matter. Anyway, I have a ticket...and I expect to see us win!
Their dangerous running game is nothing, mainly because Shanahan insists on running Q up the middle and he is just to small. The good news is Plummer has stepped up to the plate and is throwing very well, they should have been better against SD but i dont think it helped plummers confidence parading John Elway around.