This past Sunday had to be one of the strangest for the National Football League in recent memory. Two of its more storied franchises, the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins, appear to be coming apart at the seams. This is countered by the fact that the Cinicinnati Bengals, which everyone expected to be "team turmoil", has been strangely silent...even though they are 2-5. Not much seems to make sense in sports these days (see my previous baseball blog), which may be a good thing, but...Vikings coach, Brad Childress, cutting Randy Moss after one month and Redskins coach, Mike Shanahan, benching star QB, Donovan McNabb, makes no sense. The Vikings should have known what kind of "character" they were getting when they gave up a third round draft pick and signed Moss. He has proven to be just a tad difficult in the past...most recently with New England...so it was unlikely that he was going to be any different with the Vikings for his second go-round. Shanahan, likewise, should have known what he was getting in QB McNabb, who does things his own laid-back way. He wore out his welcome with Eagles coach Andy Reid...and he was not going to be a good fit in the Redskins coach's precision West Coast offense. Taking nothing away from the fact that both players are eccentric, to say the least, both coaches and organizations, now, have a lot of questions to answer.
In other news, the Cowboys are 1-6, but don't seem to be able to do anything about their losing ways. According to Jaguars QB, David Garrard, he said he didn't think the Cowboys were "into it" (the game, that is). This could be a general statement about the mindset of the modern athlete in their struggle to deal with adversity, or it could just be a statement about the lack of mental toughness for the Cowboys individual players...not sure, but probably the latter. But, the Cowboys "D" certainly made Mr. Garrard (who threw four touchdwon passes) look like Dan Marino, at least for one day. All of the sudden, something has gotten into the Oakland Raiders. Laughingstocks for the better part of the past decade, they have hung 59 and 33 points, respectively, on their opponents the past two weeks. Whodathunk? At least for now, it is just like the old days in the AFC West, with the Chiefs and Raiders battling it our for supremacy. However, no one should sleep on the perpetually slow-starting Chargers who appear to be coming out of their typical early season funk. The Saints finally looked like the champs from 2009 in beating the Steelers 20-10. One could hope that their "D" will continue to play tough. Once they get their running game back in order, I am believing that they are going to be one of the top teams in the NFC. In something of a surprise, the Packers upset the Jets 9-0. I am not overly surprised that the Packers won, but that the Jets scored squadoosh. They coudn't get a running game going, and the up-and-down Mark Sanchez has been a shrinking violet again the past few weeks. Finally, the Colts who seem to have as many injured players as healthy ones, continue to assemble a group of people that get the job done. It would seem that you could throw just about anyone with some moves out on the field with Peyton Manning and he is going to turn them into a star. Manning just has that magical leadership quality...and he will not be denied victory very often. As long as he is their QB, the Colts will truly be a marvel to watch.
Blessings, Don
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