NFL 2007 Week 9: NFC Edition

NFC EAST: While I had predicted, and believed strongly, that the Cowboys would lose this week against the Eagles, I’m not very good a prognostication and was dead wrong. The Cowboys looked strong on the ground, through the air and on defense, completely taking the Eagles apart on every level. Owens was clearly pumped up showing off against his old team, and reveled in the hatred from the fans. Using this as fuel, he caught ten passes for 174 yards and a touchdown, including some very tough catches. Now that they’ve bested Philly, Dallas will have an easy time in their next two games against an overrated Giants and an inconsistent, but generally poor, Redskins. The Giants got a week reprieve to continue soaking in the accolades of six straight wins, but this will all come to a screeching halt on Sunday. The offensive line of Dallas will stop all the supposed pressure that New York delivers, Osi Umenyiora will be rendered ineffective and Romo will have all day to throw. When New York finally figures this out, Dallas will have a fresh Marion Barber to tear through their front seven. The Giants have no chance. Nobody will remember these six straight wins after the streak is broken; all anyone will talk about is how separated the Cowboys are from the rest of the division. Ooh, the Redskins must be somebody, they eked out the Jets in overtime. Quite an accomplishment for the most pathetic winning team in the league, I must say. Campbell didn’t have the kind of game he’s been having but, even with a new QB for the Jets and Portis running for nearly 200 yards, they could only manage twenty points in regulation. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier from here, either. With four of their six divisional games to play, including both against Dallas, I’d be surprised if they pull out three more wins this season which, of course would still win the AFC West, but that’s beside the point. I would have thought that the Eagles, while a terribly inconsistent team, would manage to put on their best showing against Dallas, but they looked almost as bad as when they got smeared by the Giants. McNabb looks so slow out there and, even though he still has a great arm, he’s going to be a sack dummy for the rest of his career, in Philly or not. When Westbrook can’t get anything going, the Eagles are a terrible team and show time and again that they have nothing except for Westbrook. Their schedule doesn’t get any easier from here either, although they still have Miami to play, there’s a good chance that they lose that game.

NFC NORTH: By their records, the North is a two team race, but I have a hard time taking either team that seriously against real competition. The Packers are going into other teams’ homes and finding ways to win, which I guess is admirable, but I still say it can’t last. I don’t really care how much fun they’re having on the field, and I think that’s just an excuse for Favre acting like your grandpa trying to act cool. The fact is that their offense just isn’t that good. They put together twenty points in the fourth quarter to seal the victory over Kansas City, but it looks better than it was. Without the last minute interception return, it would have been a mere four point victory against a team that any 6-1 team should slaughter. I have a hard time taking the Lions as much still, but maybe I’m just blind to the facts. They took advantage of every opportunity the Broncos gave them and completely blew them out of the water. It’s hard to describe just how disheartening it is to watch big ol’ Shaun Rogers lumber 66 yards for a touchdown. When no Bronco offensive players can catch that guy, something’s deeply wrong with your team. The Lions have a difficult schedule through to the end, and it seems like they must fail, but the teams below them are either too bad or too spotty to take advantage of any failures of the Lions. The Vikings are the spotty ones, and are as one-sided as any team in a long time. I’m really glad for Adrian Peterson breaking the rushing record. He’s fun to watch and, in only his eighth pro game, is the elite of the league. The organization must be relieved to be getting production out of him since they were just forced to sign Koy Detmer to add to their platoon of terrible quarterbacks. Like most running backs, though, Peterson’s dominance will be short lived as teams will start shoring up their defense against him to prevent a repeat of last week, and they don’t need to worry about them throwing; again, Koy Detmer. With Chicago on bye, Minnesota climbed into a tie for third, but the Bears have Oakland this week. Even Cedric Benson will be able to run on the Raiders who, despite their “promising” start, continue to be one of the worst in the league. The teams may be tied now, and the Bears may actually be the better team right now, but it’s the Vikings that have the bright future, not the Bears.

NFC SOUTH: Tampa may not have looked that great against Arizona last week, but Kurt Warner and the Cardinals played so badly that anyone could have beat them. Tampa’s a mystifying team this year. They’ve had so many injuries and Jeff Garcia, while efficient, isn’t exactly explosive but, between their modest offensive weapons and a good defense, they remain at the top of the ranks. Carolina is starting to look like the team I knew they were. The only team worth anything that they’ve beaten this year is the Saints, who were at their very worst in the game. Tennessee’s defense is good, no doubt about it, but their offense only produced 236 yards of offense and still beat the Panthers by two touchdowns. Lucky for Carolina that they have Atlanta this week but, because of this revolving door at quarterback, they may not have what it takes to even beat the Falcons. It looks like New Orleans has completely turned it around. I had mentioned yesterday that the Jaguars looked fairly good in their loss to the Saints, for which I was taken somewhat to task. When I looked again at the statistics, I saw what Brian was saying insofar as the entirety of Jacksonville’s offense occurred in the first quarter. I think, though, that it is more a testament to how well New Orleans is playing right now that they were able to come back from that so strongly and slaughter the Jags on the scoreboard. They’ve become the team to beat in the South and their division is really conducive to this continued comeback to the top of the ranks. One team that won’t be coming back is Atlanta. While they won last week, it was against the terrible 49ers and was a shootout of boring proportions until the end. This was an awful game on every level from two of the worst teams in the league.

NFC WEST: Apparently, the western divisions just can’t win. There are two divisions who don’t have a team with a winning record, and they’re both the western ones. I’d have to say that this division is worse than its AFC counterpart, but it’s a close shave. The Seahawks lost in overtime to the surging Browns, though they were able to put points on the board. Shaun Alexander looks completely washed up and their receiver have been lacking for years. Holmgren says he’s going more to the passing game with the ineffectiveness of the running attack, but it won’t work. Yes, they’ll make the playoffs, but it’s only by virtue of the fact that the rest of the division is so bad. The bottom three teams have lost a combined seventeen games in a row and counting. The Cardinals have the Lions, who will come strong after such a monstrous game against Denver. Arizona has no chance. The ‘Niners are going up against Seattle, and they have a chance to win it, but only if the Seahawks allow it. They have too many tools to lose, but they’ve been doing a really good job of it thus far. The still winless Rams, who will hopefully have Steven Jackson back this week, take on the Saints. For weeks ago, this would have been a battle for the worst. Last year, it would have been a big midseason game to determine the elite in the conference. Now, it will be another slaughter and more questions about what happened to St. Louis. It won’t be pretty.