Thoughts on Week 3 of the NFL season

- I have to give up to Old Man River aka Brett Favre. That was a hell of a drive he led culminating in a hell of a pass to win the game. I don't think the catch gets nearly as much credit as it deserves, but the throw was pretty much in the only spot Favre could have put it to have a chance for a completion. That was a great play by Favre.

- San Francisco is going to be a tough out this year. They aren't the most talented team, but they play a tough, disciplined brand of football, and Singletary has them playing a tough brand of football. I think the 9ers will find themselves in the postseason this year.

-Peyton Manning is just simply the best, period. Besides the fact that he is just damn great, he is definitely fun to watch. I definitely get a kick out of him getting to the line with 20 on the clock, then proceeding to gesture and jump up and down and around and around. He's the best QB I've ever had a chance to see play.

-It was good to see Jay Cutler come up big again for the Bears in the waning moments of the game against Seattle. I think the guy is growing as a QB. And also much props to Devin Hester, who has silenced the critics (including myself) to this point with solid play to this point. And on a somewhat related note, Devin Hester has more yards than both Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal combined. Interesting stuff.

-The topic of 'Troy Polamalu being absolutely great and vital to the Steelers' is old and misguided. Week 1, the Steelers gave up 10 points playing the majority of the game without Polamalu. Week 2. they gave up 17 points and week 3 they gave up 16. The defense is holding up it's end of the bargain. The Steelers have been screwed by a couple individual plays. This week it was the Sweed TD drop, and last week it was Reed missing 2 FGs. The notion that Polamalu being out being the main reason Pittsburgh is losing is head scratching.

- Cleveland is an unmitigated disaster.

- I've never seen so much hoopla over an 0-2, 7 rushing yard effort. I heard someone on the radio say "Vick looked comfortable, and he looked crisp.'' Completely forgetting that he played, I decided to peep the box score only to realize Vick didn't even complete a pass. I see the standards are still delightfully low when it comes to Vick. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

- The Seattle Seahawks jerseys made me feel like I was watching a team of Human lifesavers. Whoever came up with those uniforms should be released of his duties immediately.

-The Jets are 3-0. This start for them is completely unexpected. I don't think the defense played particularly well this week, but they did enough with the game on the line to come through with the 'W'.

-Jerricho Cotchery is 3rd in the league in receiving yards to this poont (Vincent Jackson, Reggie Wayne). Hopefully he keeps ir up).

-Every week Philip Rivers completes a bomb to Vincent Jackson that is mouth dropping. 3 guys draped all around, Jackson and he just comes down with it like it's nothing. Jackson is really making a name for himself among the game's top receivers.

- The play where Pennington injured himself didn't look that serious. Unfortunately for him, it was serious, and now his career is in jeopardy.

Thoughts on Week 2 of the NFL season

-Did Seattle put 11 guys on the field on D, Sunday? All I saw was Frank Gore, looking like Usain Bolt at an Olympic track meet, running untouched and unimpeded in straight lines in the open field.

-Miami's tiring usage of the wildcat tells me one main thing. They have little to no confidence in Chad Pennington leading the offense and putting up enough points, so they rely on trickery and gimmicks to try and score points. That is why he is a lame duck QB and is as good as gone in the offseason.

-Was JaMarcus Russell really 3/22 at one point in Sunday's game? 3/22? Really? You would think one would be able to complete more than 3 passes out of 22 by accident.

-Baltimore needs to find a way to get Kelly Washington into the endzone more often. That TD dance is absolutely hilarious.

- The last drive for SD in the BAL/SD game was absolutely baffling. On second down, Legedu Naanee is 1-2 stepping like Reggie Bush in the backfield, meanwhile he needs one yard for a first down. Why didn't the guy just lunge forward and get the first? I don't mind passing the ball on 3rd and 2, but it's almost as if Norv got his playcalls mixed up for the respective 3rd and 4th downs. If you are going to run the ball on one of those downs why not make it 3rd and 2? And on 4th and 2, for the ball game, how does running a 175 LB back through the middle of a defense featuring Haloti Ngata and Ray Lewis make any sense, especially considering Rivers had 425 passing yards in the game and is one of the league's best QBs? I think that drive puts into perspective why SD has always been paper champions.

-Ray Lewis' play on the aforementioned 4th down was absolutely ridiculous. I'm surprised that:
A) Sproles held onto the ball
B) Sproles is still alive and well

-The Jets talked the talk, and then walked the walk. They brought the heat at Tom Brady all game long, and he was clearly flustered. Right now he is not the same QB. I think it's the psychological hurdle of having to overcome the 'fear' of the knee more than anything else.

- Randy Moss is sore and it's quite funny. 'Revis isn't a shutdown CB. No one is a shutdown CB, they all need help. Revis had help.' Did Revis have help every where on the field? You might as well have filed a Missing Person's Report because Moss was nowhere to be found on Sunday. And if Revis isn't a shutdown CB because he needs "help" then there are no great or "dominant" players in the NFL then, since they all need "help", no?

-Eli Manning leading his team on a fourth quarter comeback. Ho hum. It's amazing how good Eli looks on a regular basis, when the game is at its most chaotic stages. It's commonplace for him. That is the way to beat the Cowboys in the first game at their new palace.

-Carson Palmer rebounded from a tough start and led his team to a W at Lambeau Field. Good for him. Hopefully he rebounds from an injury plagued 2008 season.

- Can someone explain to me why Byron Leftwich has a starting job in the NFL? The guy is not good, and is a 'never was'. I guess he is just holding the fort until Josh Freeman is ready, but man is Leftwich brutal.

-Indianapolis ran 34 plays on Monday Night, and they scored 27 points in those 34 plays. Peyton Manning is just that damn good.

-It was nice to see Jay Cutler rebound and play a good game against the Steelers yesterday. He played disciplined smart football. He left the across the body madden esque throws in Green Bay, and it showed. Chicago needed some luck to win that game, but Cutler delivered when it mattered, leading the team to two scoring drives accounting for 10 points in the last 6 minutes of the game. On a related note, Johnny Knox looks solid.

-I'm in a gang of fantasy leagues, and in HALF of them I faced off with Chris Johnson. Guess how many of them I won for the week? Yep, zero. He's really good, but on that one long pass play what exactly was the Texans defense doing?

- The Redskins beat the Rams 9-7. Where was the Skins offense?

-Kurt Warner, 24-26. That is video game esque right there.

-Drew Brees and Marques Colston are percolating right now. It's hard to believe Colston was a 7th round draft pick. He's a very good wide receiver.

-Jake Delhomme rebounded fairly well from his latest stinker, but then did what he does best with the game on the line. He threw an interception.

-The Cleveland Browns are really, REALLY bad. Brady Quinn needs to step up and do something, ANYTHING, to keep his job and to point Cleveland in the right direction.

-The Broncos are 2-0. That's a mild surprise, but they have played 2 pretty nondescript teams in the process (Cleveland, Cincinnati). The Broncos D looks FAR better than it did last year.