Week 7 NFL Recap/Bills thoughts

San Francisco 49ers over Seattle Seahawks

Looking at this game and you and you really get a feel for how good both teams are.  Both teams have pretty strong running attacks, with weaknesses at the quarterback position and two of the best defenses in football.  The 49ers are probably the better of the two teams, especially at home, while the Seahawks put forth a solid effort on the road.  This is going to be an intense race to win the division right up until the very end of the season and should be an intriguing one to follow.

Tennessee Titans over Buffalo Bills

I’m sorry if there are any Titans fans reading this, but I would like to take this opportunity to rant about the Buffalo Bills as a franchise.  Embrace mediocrity that really should be the Bills slogan, for a team that hasn’t managed to make the playoffs since 1999 and somehow hasn’t had the worst record in the league once.  This happens because of an attempt every year to “make the playoffs” and more importantly sell tickets and not actually build a team.  Where this really falls though is on Ralph Wilson, he goes cheap on coaches and GMs, getting mediocre level people and then gets mediocre results.  The Bills’ Head Coaches since Marv Levy’s retirement in order:

·         Wade Phillips, as a Head Coach considered a laughing stock, but great coordinator who had the most success by far of any Bills Head Coach and was fired for the wrong reasons

·         Greg Williams, well the leader of a bounty scandal now, but the hire did make some sense, but without question his teams underachieved

·         Mike Mularkey, probably got a worse rap then he deserved, pretty good first season followed by a disaster of a 2^nd season, but not a terrible hire

·         Dick Jauron, his first 3 seasons with the team he went 7-9, a record that really defines the franchise, a bad retread who had one good season before, and honestly was the worst coach I’ve ever seen even if his record doesn’t back that up

·         Perry Fewell (interim), really liked the job he did as an interim and considering the alternative would have given him a chance

·         Chan Gailey, another strikingly mediocre retread Head Coach who hasn’t proven to have any success in the league

Now the team’s GMs since John Butler left the team

·         Tom Donahue, lost a power struggle to Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh but in general as GM of the Bills go, was probably on the surface our best hire even though in Buffalo he didn’t have any idea how to build a team

·         Marv Levy, I would say the biggest joke but that comes next.  They hired an old former head coach with no management experience to be GM.  It is kind of sad actually that a team would do something like that just for some good publicity.

·         No GM, yes the team seriously functioned without a GM.  Ralph was so cheap that he actually refused to hire a general manager to run the team, and shockingly the team wasn’t successful

·         Buddy Nix, a 70 year old who somehow up to that point had never been impressive enough to get a GM job

 The franchise is a complete joke and this falls squarely on the shoulders of Ralph Wilson.  As owner of an NFL team before he sells any tickets or merchandise he is guaranteed to be profitable.  Also you would think a 94 year old man would be less stingy with his money.  Really to if you want to be cheap at least be creative and hire a Mike Leach like figure who will take an entirely new approach to the job instead of hiring a bunch of unsuccessful retreads.  Well those are my thoughts on the Bills now onto the rest of the league.

Indianapolis Colts over Cleveland Browns

On the strength of a solid defensive performance and running attack the Colts were able to escape with victory over the Browns.  While moving to 3-3 they are putting themselves into position to make a run to the playoffs in an extremely weak AFC.  Playing in the worst division in football certainly helps as Andrew Luck tries to lead his team on a surprising playoff run.  The Browns on the other hand find a way to lose another close game.  Every week this team is in games and if you are looking for a team to win a few surprise games at the season’s end this could definitely be it.

Houston Texans over Baltimore Ravens

Well that game about as well as it possibly could for the Texans.  After last week’s loss to the Packers the Texans reasserted themselves this week as without question the best team in the AFC.  They dominated in every single facet of the football game and really showed the weaknesses of this injury plagued Ravens team.  The Ravens are without question a significantly different team than the one that started the year and are going to have to rely on their offense to win them games.  If Sunday’s game is any indication then that might turn out to be a serious problem.

Green Bay Packers over St. Louis Rams

The team moved to above .500 and one thing is quite evident even from that, they are entirely dependent on Aaron Rodgers to win games.  Rodgers was sensational again this week but other components of the team struggled.  Rodgers was able to lead the Packers to a 15-1 record last year in a similar situation but having your entire team dependent on the strength of one player is a recipe for disaster.  Rodgers has the ability to do it, but any injuries or even a slight slippage in play could prove deadly, especially after the team’s slow start.  The Rams played hard in a good effort against one of the toughest teams to play in all of football.

New Orleans Saints over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Saints were able to escape in a high scoring game that came down to the last play.  The Saints won their 2^nd game in a row and put on an offense showcase in the process, while letting the Bucs do the same.  The Saints may have won but the victory wasn’t that all together impressive and the team just doesn’t look that strong going forward.  They might have the worst defense in football and while their offense is still prolific is probably won’t end up meaning that much.  The Bucs lost another close game that they were right in as they move their record to 2-4 on the season.  This team is without question better than last year’s unit but it just hasn’t come to fruition on their record yet.

Dallas Cowboys over Carolina Panthers

The Cowboys were able to win an important victory over Carolina in the tight football game that probably features two of the worst coaches in football.  Both defenses played fairly well but Tony Romo was able to make a few more plays to lead the team to victory.  The Cowboys moved to 3-3 in a game that basically constituted keeping their playoff hopes alive.  The Panthers fell to 1-5 and rightfully so had their GM who built this team and the 1-15 team that landed Cam Newton fired.  A refreshing sign that teams do fire people if they aren’t able to meet expectations. 

Minnesota Vikings over Arizona Cardinals

The Vikings were able to get a win to prove what one of the early NFC surprising hot starters was legit.  The team moves to 5-2 and without question is right in the thick of the playoff discussion.  They have a solid defense, Adrian Peterson, and a quarterback who hopefully doesn’t lose them games.  The team will be an intriguing one to watch as the season progresses.  The Cardinals lost their 3^rd straight game and seem to be regressing toward who every thought they were before the season.  The offensive line literally can’t block anybody and every week the team is a threat to get sacked double digit times.  The Cardinals defense is still good but the play of the quarterback and offensive line will probably stop the team from progressing.

New York Giants over Washington Redskins

The Giants won a close game because Eli Manning is the most ridiculous quarterback in all of football who seems to throw a huge pass whenever the team needs it.  He has been arguably the best quarterback in football this season and seems to only be improving from his play from last year.  The Giants are an inconsistent bunch, but the team is built for the post season and even though like every year they will probably “quit on Tom Coughlin” toward the end of the season, if they make the playoffs they are one of the favorites.  The Redskins even though they lost really can’t help but being encouraged by the game.  RGIII is one of the best young players in all of football and basically seems to be Michael Vick 2.0.  He seems to have all of Vick’s strength while not having his over willingness to run and is less prone to turnovers.  The Redskins gave up a lot to draft him, but right now you can’t help but think that he is a total steal.

Oakland Raiders over Jacksonville Jaguars

Well the Jaguars were the worse team Sunday and thus were able to come out of the game with a loss in a matchup between two of the worst teams in all of football.  While the Raiders kept turning the ball over, the Jaguars major problem was not being able to move the ball at all after Chad Henne came in.  There isn’t much to say about these two teams going forward except that both are terrible and a win in the long run probably only hurts both teams.

New England Patriots over New York Jets

While the Patriots escape withed the win I think the win might have indicated more about the team then some of the previous losses.  The team quite simply isn’t the Patriots juggernaut we are used to seeing and is really the 2^nd best team in the AFC by default.  Every other team has serious flaws, but they are included in those teams.  They might have the worst pass defense in football and can make any quarterback, no matter how bad look like an MVP.  While they escaped with a tight victory the game really exposed the Patriots because this is the type of game that they you came to expect the Patriots to win in a blowout.  The Jets fought hard again this week and to their credit seems to keep fighting to keep their playoff hopes alive.  They have had multiple opportunities to quit on the season but they keep hanging in there and playing hard each week.

Pittsburgh Steelers over Cincinnati Bengals

The Steelers came out of Sunday with a victory as they got their record to .500 with a solid win over the Bengals.  This is definitely not one of the best Steelers teams in recent memory but it should be good enough to make the playoffs and considering the general state of the AFC if they do that than anything is possible.  They have a talented defense with one of the best quarterbacks in football along with a great receiving core.  This team can hang with anybody and each week is going to be quite dangerous to play.  The Bengals lost their 3^rd in a row and seem to be fading from the playoff race fast.  The team can still get back into it but with consistently weak play from the quarterback position that could prove to be quite difficult.

Chicago Bears over Detroit Lions

Well the Bears won again on Monday Night and to me at least totally presented their case as the best team in football.  They won 13-7, with a late score against that didn’t mean anything for the Lions and seem to have the best defense in football.  They force turnovers, get stops, and in many weeks score points for the Bears, an extremely dangerous unit.  The team might have only scored 13 points on Monday, but Jay Cutler was playing obviously injured, should have answered questions about his toughness, and that severely hampered his play.  The offense played good enough for the victory which most weeks probably isn’t going to need to be all that good.  The Lions lost again to move to 2-4 on the season in a year where they just can’t seem to find last year’s magic offensively.  The team is overly reliant on Calvin Johnson and when you play an elite unit like the Bears that makes your offense quite stoppable.  In a tough NFC, being 2-4 already makes it extremely unlikely that last years’ wild card team will be able to make it in their next season.

Stay Hungry My Friends