Another Weekend at the Office

It was another interesting weekend in the NFL. Right now it looks like the only teams that are all that good are Philly, Tampa, New England, Pittsburgh, Indy, and (gasp!) Cincinatti. That’s right folks. The Cincinatti Bengals are undefeated. Before the season started I predicted them to make the playoffs and for Marvin Lewis to be coach of the year. Let’s hope they can continue to make me look smart. Let’s also hope Chad Johnson continues to entertain. He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite players in the league. That chart he has with the names of the corners covering him each week is a riot. Who covered 85 in 2005 is what he’s calling it. So far the answer is nobody. That little jig he did in the endzone was classic. For some reason he’s the only WR Diva I can tolerate. Maybe it’s because I believe he’s truly only interested in his success because it helps the team win. He wasn’t happy with the way he played last year because he dropped 11 passes. By the way, nobody had to tell him that. He keeps count.

Will the real Carolina Panthers please stand up? After beating the Patriots a week ago, they came out and lost to the Dolphins on Sunday. Maybe the Dolphins aren’t that bad though. They are 2-1 and Scott Linehan may be the reason why. That offense has been pretty productive and Gus Ferotte is looking like Peyton Manning. Meanwhile, Linehan’s former team, the Vikes, couldn’t get their offense going until Week 3. We’ll see if that lasts though. After all they were playing the Saints.

You’ve got to feel bad for Chad Pennington. He’s out for the year with a torn rotator cuff. I don’t know if he’ll ever be the same. I remember a few years back the Packers played the Jets in the final game of the season. Had the Packers won, they would have clinched a first round bye. But Pennington, in what I believe was his 1st year as a starter went drive for drive with Brett Favre in the second half. He made big play after big play and lead the Jets to victory. He impressed the hell out of me that day. I thought this kid was going to be a star for sure. Then the injuries and Paul Hackett’s offense slowed his growth. It’s a shame he never got a full opportunity to blossom. He just seemed to have that drive or that “it” thing you can’t measure in a great quarterback. I guess we’ll never know though. In the mean time, the Jets have to rely on Brooks Bollinger, Vinny Testeverde (signed today), and a banged up Curtis Martin. It’ll be a long season for Jets fans.

I thought Kansas City’s defense was supposed to be vastly improved this year. I didn’t see it last night. The Broncos made the Chiefs defense look like, well, the Chiefs defense.

I know it won’t last, but 3 weeks into the season it looks like everybody took the wrong Manning in their fantasy draft. Other QB’s with better fantasy numbers than Peyton include: Gus Frerotte, Trent Dilfer, Drew Bledsoe, Brian Greise, Tim Rattay, and just about every other starting QB in the league. It just doesn’t seem fair does it.

Between Adam Vinitierei and David Akers, we got enough kicker coverage from the media to last the rest of the year. Akers was impressive, but the notion that the Eagles season is in jeopardy if he misses a significant amount of time is ridiculous. I know he’s good, but he’s still a kicker. Don’t we still ignore kickers? Did I miss the memo?
I’m sure next week will be just as crazy as this past one. The Packers play the Panthers on Monday night. I might watch Wife Swap instead. My doctor thinks it will be better on my health.

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