Time for our look back at Week 3 in the NFL. A lot of exciting stories and games in the young season has Shield Nation at a fever pitch. What are the stories you need to pay more attention to, and the stories you wish would just go away? Oh, and the Lions finally won a game, much to the chagrin of the nation's capital. Let's cover the NFL's week that was and Protect the Shield!
Overrated Story of The Week: Too Much TO
-Please make it stop. Every time TO opens his mouth we have to suffer through wall to wall coverage. So what if he didn't have a catch against New Orleans? Everyone should know TO is not an elite receiver at this stage of his career. Give credit to a vastly improved and underrated Saints D (Wooo!) for shutting out TO, but honestly he wasn't a huge factor in the game. In the postgame, you could tell the Buffalo reporters were baiting TO into saying something incriminating, but to his credit he didn't bite.
So, not knowing how to react, we have to criticize Owens for not speaking out and acting strangely in his press conference. But, being counter-cultural at RSS, TO is actually in the right here. Owens didn't do anything wrong, and yet he found himself in the center of a media firestorm. And then there is the Twitter war with Rodney Harrison. I say good for TO for defending himself against the arrogant new analyst. (Why is NBC not holding Harrison accountable for his first Twitter war with Jets safety Kerry Rhodes? You can't tell me this guy isn't still waving the Patriot flag and is objectionable.) Anyways, every Tweet TO produces is treated and analyzed like one of Einstein's theories. Who cares? In this case, the media created a story when none was present. Now that TO has spoken out again about the media's bias against him I'm sure it will be analyzed to death once more because the sports media loves talking about themselves and TO as much as anything else. Ugh. Please make it stop.
Underrated Story Of The Week: The Colts Are Still The Colts
-Lost in the hype of the first three weeks amongst the dominance of the Ravens, the tributes to Mark Sanchez, the Saints awesome offense, Michael Vick, and that Favre guy has been the Colts' 3-0 start. How could they possibly continue their run without Dungy and Harrison? Everyone is another year older, they have a first year head coach, the window is closing was what we heard coming into the season. However, a nice influx of youth (Donald Brown, Mount Union's Pierre Garcon above), and the stepping up of Clark and Wayne has buoyed Indy to the top of the AFC South in what appears to be a weakened division. Depending on the severity of the injury to Dwight Freeney, the Colts might be in the hunt for the whole AFC, as a surprise contender.
3 Stars:
3rd Star: Maurice Jones-Drew (RB-Jags)
-23 carries, 119 yards, and 3 TDs earn MoJo our 3rd Star of the week honors. While the Texans defense has been quite less than stellar, it was a yeoman's effort by the UCLA alum which got the Jags out of the winless column. Enjoy it Jacksonville fans, my guess is there aren't many more star performances coming your way.
2nd Star: Greg Lewis (WR-Vikings)... and Brett Favre, sigh
-Ok, we're big men here at RSS, so Brett Favre can earn 1/2 a star this week for his TD pass in the final seconds in Minny's win over San Francisco. Favre looked old throughout the game and did jack in the 2nd Half until that final pass. But, we'll give credit where it's due for now. Favre made the play when it counted, but he has Greg Lewis to thank. Lewis unbelievably leapt for the ball in coverage, dragged his foot, and held onto the ball. That was as good a catch as we've seen in the NFL this season, too bad #4 threw it to him and he's already forgotten.
1st Star: The Lions
-And the whole state of Michigan is rejoicing. Come out and see the light of day Detroiters! Congrats to every Lions fan who has been through a lot of suffering. No team deserves to go winless in an entire season, so good for the loyal fans who have stuck it out. Also, give credit to the players for giving homage to those fans by coming out of the locker room after the game. At least the Lions have some hope again, even if that's all they have. In the end, that's all sports fans can ask for.
Fab 5:
1. New York Giants
2. Baltimore
3. New Orleans
4. Minnesota
5. Indianapolis
-A thought about our rankings: The G-Men stay atop percentage points ahead of Baltimore, but it could really be 1 and 1A. Minny rises above Indy by beating a very game 49ers ballclub. The Saints are at #3 after showing their defense can win a game. The Jets are on the outside looking in, but really should be in the Top 5 based on their impressive wins. However, at this point in the season would they beat any of the teams in front of them? Probably not.
11 Random Observations:
1) Random bit of amazing, shocking, mystifying news: Referee Mike Carey is 60 years old?!? This was a jaw-dropping bit of news dropped by Dan Dierdorf during the Jets/Titans game. For anyone looking for the Fountain of Youth, just ask Mike Carey where it is.
2) Pretender 3-0 Team of the Year Award goes to your Denver Broncos. As it has been astutely pointed out by some (I'll even give credit to The Herd here), Denver might go 1-7 in their next 8 games. Congrats on cleaning up the state of Ohio and Oakland's semi-pro team, because it's all downhill from here.
3) Tony Romo held off the critics for a week, but calling him a "winner" just because he has more wins than losses in his career is meaningless. How many games has he won when it counted? None. Who fumbled the ball in Seattle? Who played like Bad Rex against the G-Men? Is a constant choke-artist in the clutch really a winner? I don't think so. Prove it in January Tony.
4) The demise of Jay Cutler has been greatly over-exaggerated. 2 game-winning drives in 2 weeks will make folks forget about that 4 INT job at Green Bay in Week 1. He might have a lot of critics and doubters, but Jay Cutler has what it takes to win in Chicago.
5) How quickly can you lose your team? The Skins and Bucs aren't exactly rallying around their Head Coaches right now. Zorn has always been over his head, and the Skins are playing like a team with no heart, heck they lost to the Lions. Meanwhile, Raheem Morris fired his Offensive Coordinator and has already changed QB's. It'll be long seasons in DC and Tampa.
6) But, the early candidate for the Rich Kotite Award has to be Eric Mangini of Cleveland. First the QB controversy, then it comes out that 5 players are filing grievances with the league against their leader for insane fines. All you have to do is check out this awesome article about the "ManGenius" from CBS' Gregg Doyel. I've never seen a coach ripped like this before, simply brilliant!
7) The comeback of #7 Michael Vick was fairly anticlimactic. No protesters ran on the field, no pack of dogs chased him down, and he didn't perform any superhuman feats in his comeback. He ran a few Wildcat plays, a couple incompletions, and that was it. Turns out he might not be a big factor this season for the Eagles.
8) The most surprising event this weekend was the Saints D stepping up in a huge way in Buffalo. Holding the Bills to 7 points (on a fake FG mind you) is unheard of with this group of Saints. This was their most impressive win of the season because it didn't depend on Brees and the offense. A Top 10 D in NOLA is a scary thought for Saints fans and the rest of the NFL.
9) 3 surprise 0-3 teams are the Dolphins, Panthers, and Titans. Of the bunch, Tennessee is the most likely to climb out with Miami the least. Poor Chad Pennington. His season, and perhaps career could be over after another shoulder injury. The Dolphins will look closer to that 1-15 team than the AFC East champs from here on out.
10) Jim Mora's rant was entertaining, but out of line. You win and lose games as teams. Is it Olindo Mare's fault that your offense couldn't get the ball in the endzone? Was it Mare's fault that the defense didn't stop Jay Cutler in the last 2 minutes? Also, you've got a long way to go before you rant as good as your daddy did.
11) What can I do to the Raiders to get banned from their facilities besides lead them to a Super Bowl? Take away Al Davis' teddy bear? Bring back Bill Callahan? Punch out Tom Cable? Find JaMarcus Russell some quarterbacking ability?
What Happened In Week 3 That Will Change The Season: The Bengals Show Some Heart While Pittsburgh Folds Again
-We highlighted Chad 85 in our Hot Off The Grill preview and thought that the Bengals would give Pittsburgh a run, and they did. For the first time in a long time, the Bengals showed some guts and toughness. No Hall of Fame jackets, no suspensions, no whining, just playing some hard-nosed football. Their comeback over Pittsburgh will give them the statement win needed to perhaps chase a Wild Card spot. Remember, this team should be 3-0 if not for the "Immaculate Deflection" against Denver. On the other hand, Pittsburgh lost a game they had won for the 2nd week in a row. The defending champs have to be worried at their inability to close out games. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, but they need to get back to winning ways soon.
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