Your Weekly Dose of Football Stuff (Week 3) at 8:21 PM

Alright, people.  It’s Saturday.  You know what that means.  It’s been a busy day so I’m getting to this a little late.  So let’s not waste any time and get down to bidness with observations, reactions, picks, and predictions.

What do you say after a week like last week?  Remember how I talked about what was something and what was nothing?  Well two of my somethings turned out to be nothings.  I was kind of iffy on the Pennington front, but it seems things aren’t quite as serious as they looked.  Of course, he didn’t have to throw deep too much against the Dolphins, but still.  He looked a lot better.  It seems the problem in New York (Jersey) is that the offensive line won’t be able to protect Pennington like that all the time.  I could be wrong, but I don’t think they’ll be able to do much against the Jags’ D this week.  Of course, if the Jets’ defense can keep it close against Jacksonville’s inconsistent offensive attack, it could be a pretty close game.

My picks from last week completely tanked on me.  I went 6-10.  Hopefully this week turns out better.  Some quick hits:

-Minnesota has looked really bad in their two losses.  I mean really really bad.  I’m not writing them off completely just yet, especially in the NFC North, but they’ve just got to get some confidence.  

-I’m not jumping off the Cardinals and Chargers bandwagon just yet.  I’m standing on the tailgate of the Cardinals, and I’ve moved to the middle of the pack with San Diego.  The upside with the Chargers is that their division is very tough, and they won’t need to go 12-4 to win it.  The Chiefs have definitely got the edge on them right now, though.

-The Lions-Bears game meant one thing to me:  Joey Harrington has got to take control of his offense.  The quarterback is the leader of the offense.  When things started getting rough in there, I thought he might cry.  It’s okay to be emotional, but good grief.  Five picks?  Come on, man.  Harrington’s got to pull himself together over the bye week and come back strong.  The Bears played very well, but it’s going to take more than that to convince me that they’re going to make any noise.  Right now I have no idea what’s going to happen in the NFC North.  It’s completely up for grabs for any team other than the Packers.  

-Speaking of the Pack, I thought Favre would do one of his famous coming-off-of-a-loss-last-week-and-playing-a-bad-team-this-week victories.  He couldn’t even pull that off with the cast of clowns he has around him.  They may not get 5 wins this year.  In fact, I’d be surprised if they did.

-The Panthers did indeed look good against the Pats, but boy did New England stink up the joint.  Maybe one thing caused the other, but I wouldn’t want to be Pittsburgh this week.  The Patriots aren’t as good as they were last year, but they’re still tough.  Pittsburgh may even still beat them, but I wouldn’t be surprised either way.

-I had myself a good laugh at the expense of Bill Parcells, the Cowboys, and all of their fans.  Ha!  Couldn’t hold on to a 14-point lead with 4 minutes left?  Ha again!  Sure, it was the division rival Redskins that beat them, but still.

-Sure, Eli Manning looks better so far.  They’re still not going to challenge for the division.  I’m seeing the Chargers getting their act together this week.  They laid a complete egg against Denver last week in a game they should have won.

-I said before the season started that the Raiders weren’t as good as everyone thought, but I’ve got to say that they got a monster of a first three weeks:  Patriots, Chiefs, Eagles.  Oh, man.  Speaking of Raiders-Eagles, Philly is going to put a hurting on Oakland’s awful secondary.  You don’t want to play the Eagles with a bad secondary.  Their corners are miserable, and their first string safety is out for the year.  Sorry Raiders fans, Moss isn’t going to get you a win here.  He’ll get his inevitable catches, but it won’t mean anything (look at what happened when the Eagles played Minnesota last year if you don’t believe me—and that was with a Daunte Culpepper throwing the ball and not pick-prone Kerry Collins).

-This week will be the beginning of the end of the Falcons’ over-hypedness.  That’s not a word, but I’m using it anyway.  I thought Atlanta would take out the sorry Seahawks, but they couldn’t even do that.  I’m telling you, their defense keeps them in games, and Vick wins them.  They have no offense without Vick.  Sure, there’s two good running backs, but you’ve got to have receivers to keep the defense honest.  If Vick’s not back there screwing everyone up, they have no prayer against a decent team.  If J.P. Losman can keep his composure (questionable), the Bills win big.

-Tampa is going to be soooooo the bandwagon team after this week.

-Cincy/Chicago will be interesting.  This should show which team is for real.  I think Palmer is enough of a player to keep the Bengals going, but Kyle Boller hasn’t been a slouch either.  I’m going with the Bengals, but a Bears win wouldn’t shock me.

I think that’s about it for now.  If you want to know when we actually know something, come see me after week 5.  I’ll give you my original picks, and whether they’ve changed.  Right now I’m sticking with all of them (even though I’m starting to wonder on a couple).