Top 5 Things I Noticed This Week

#1:  The top thing I noticed this week is that Philadelphia has a clear path to the NFC championship.  If they don’t win it this year, it will not be because they aren’t the best team, but because they choked.  No one is even close.  Green Bay was supposed to be, but they got whupped by the Eagles last week, and this week barely beat a mediocre Detroit Lions team at home.  There can be no excuses this year for the Eagles.  It’s entirely in their hands.

#2:  New England’s defense gave up a lot of yards, 498, to the Bengals.  Granted the Bengals this year are better than recent years, but not that much.  Is the New England defense slowing down, or is this just a lull before they kick it back into gear.  The defense has played at such a high level for so long that they may be tiring.  If this happens, can they score enough points to make up for it?  So far, against a weaker team, the answer is yes. 

#3:  Much to my surprise, I noticed this week that the Carolina Panthers are not yet done for the year.  They have won five games in a row and I pick them to be a wildcard team.  Their major competition, St. Louis and Minnesota, are in freefall and have been stumbling.  All the other 5-8 teams are not in much better shape.  If Carolina makes it to the playoffs, watch out.  They remember last year and they desperately want to make it back to the Super Bowl.

#4:  The Atlanta Falcons, I have noticed, are one of the ugliest winning teams in football.  Maybe that’s what it takes.  Keep the looking pretty to the others, all they want to do is win.  Some of their scores have been lopsided while the statistics show not much going on.  That means that they have contributions from a lot of places and players on their team, and don’t look entirely to M. Vick to win games for them.  In that respect it makes them a well rounded and dangerous team.  You have to take them seriously in all aspects or they might jump up and bite you.  On top of that, they can hit you hard.  If they can turn their offense up a few notches they may give the Eagles a little run.

#5:  I noticed that Eli Manning, on top of taking the Giants out of playoff contention, is also taking Tiki Barber out of the rushing championship.  With weeks like this one, 4 of 18 for 27 yards, the defenses don’t worry too much about him and they key on Barber.  As a result, Barber is not getting the kind of yards he had been getting all season, and he’s a sitting duck for all the defensive players.  It’s a real pity, too.  With the injury to Holmes this year, and the couple of bad games by Tomlinson, I though he had a chance to be the leader this year.

Craziest Thing I Saw This Week and My 3 Cents on It

The Giants stuck with Manning a long time before they went to Warner.  How crazy is that?  Why risk losing the mental game with manning as well as the battles on the field this early in his career?  He has the basic talent to be one of the best QB's, and the fact just might be that he is not ready today to make that step.  You have a former league MVP sitting on the bench, and he could be out on the field giving the Giants a chance to win games, while at the same time mentoring Manning into becoming what everyone hopes he can be.  Warner, by all accounts, has been working very hard with Eli, and has never pouted about his role with the team.  Its unlikely that he will be with the team next year under these conditions, and they need to take advantage of what they have with him while they can.  I think the risk they take in damaging Manning’s career and psyche just isn’t worth the risk this year.