Week 8 — Mon, 31 Oct 2005
From: Jeff <toxic@doobie.com>
To: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Monday...
...and welcome to the second half of the season.
Week 8 has traditionally been when I start talking about playoff bound
teams, a list which will grow and shrink over time as we get closer to
Wild Card weekend.
This year, there are really only three teams that are practically in
already: Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Denver. All of these are AFC teams.
And then there are the teams that are very likely to get in: New
England, Seattle, and either Chicago or Detroit (but not both).
There are 12 playoff spots. Six of them will most likely go to teams
above. So, who's in the running for the other six?
If you take out the teams that don't have a prayer: Houston, Green Bay,
Minnesota, New Orleans, San Francisco, Arizona, Cleveland, NY Jets,
Baltimore, Tennessee, Oakland... that leaves you with 15 teams who are
legitimately fighting for the postseason right now. That makes for some
good football.
And yes, we had some good football this week.
In what should have been a great game to determine first place in the
NFC East, we saw the New York Giants crush the Redskins in a 36-0 rout
that was frequently difficult to watch. With this win, the Giants take
the lead in the league's toughest division (though their 5-2 record is
hardly safe against 5-3 Dallas, 4-3 Philly or even 4-3 Washington.)
From a momentum perspective, this game was huge, though. This sort of
win has a habit of shaping the next week, and this win might mark the
point where the Giants started to dominate the NFC East (and with their
next two games against the 49ers and Vikings, the chances of them being
7-2 seem very high). The Redskins are at home vs the Eagles on Sunday
night with a national TV audience.
In a note of trivia, a Joe Gibbs team has only been shut out once
before: in a 1987 playoff game against the Giants.
Remember the Eagles? This week, they went to Denver and got dominated
by the Broncos, in pretty much every possible way. T.O. didn't catch
the ball at all in the first half. The Broncos got 28 first downs,
intercepted McNabb twice (once in the end zone), and held the Eagles
running game to less than 80 yards. In short, it was a classic,
all-American ass kicking: 28-7 at the half, 49-21 as a final score.
Denver has next week off, the Eagles play NFC East rival Washington.
Tampa Bay came to San Francisco this week to play the battle of the 3rd
string quarterbacks. Even SF 4th-stringer Cody Pickett saw some playing
time (he went 1-1 for 10 yards, after making a tackle on a special teams
play, and apparently at one point the crowd was chanting: "Cody!
Cody!"). The game itself was a sloppy example of football, played by
some seriously battered teams... and San Francisco's defense managed to
pull off the upset 15-10. Tampa's in trouble without their QB, and it's
anybody's guess who's going to be the QB for the 49ers next week. The
niners host the Giants next week, Tampa Bay hosts Carolina.
The Cleveland Browns now have the distinction of being the only team in
the league to get beaten by Houston. Yes, the Houston Texans have
earned their first win 19 to 16, and their lock on the first draft pick
is now being threatened by the Packers.
New England managed to pull out a 21-16 fourth-quarter win against the
Buffalo Bills, despite the fact that the Bills played a much better
all-around game, held the ball for twice as long as the Patriots, and
really should've won outright. This game marked the return of Tedy
Bruschi to the Patriots, having apparently healed after having a stroke.
I'm not sure that pro football is the right answer for stroke
rehabilitation, but the Pats seemed happy to have him back.
Minnesota lost 38-13 to Carolina. Just when you think it couldn't get
any worse for the Vikings, they go to Charlotte and QB Daunte Culpepper
is injured at the end of the first quarter. Officially, he's got a
sprained knee, but everyone who's watched the replay says the same three
letters: ACL -- which will probably end his season. At least he'll be
able to spend more time at the yacht club with a hot tub full of Cuban
hookers.
And then there's tonight's game...
The Game:
Tonight, the struggling 2-4 Baltimore Ravens travel to Pittsburgh to
take on the 4-2 Steelers on the DD GrassMaster playing surface of Heinz
field. The GrassMaster system, also used in Denver, combines four
varieties of Kentucky Bluegrass with woven synthetic grass fibers to
make a field that plays like real grass, but wears like the fake stuff.
It hasn't been a stunning success in Pittsburgh. This field
consistently rates near the bottom in the yearly turf survey, and last
year, it was rated dead last by the Steelers themselves.
The Ravens and Steelers are divisional rivals, and 8 weeks ago, this
looked like it was going to be a good game between teams that genuinely
don't like each other. But today, the Ravens are struggling, have lost
a lot of their defensive players, their offense is one step shy of a
liability, and their 2-4 record shows it. The Steelers should have no
trouble with this game. But sometimes the most battered of opponents
turn out the be the most challenging, and if Ben Rothlesberger throws
interceptions, the cakewalk will be over.
The Line:
The Steelers are favored by 12. The over/under is 34.5.
The Smart Money won last week, it is now 4-10. This week it takes the
over.
The Bar:
Tonight, the city of San Francisco celebrates the holiday of halloween,
which makes both the bars and the subways a zoo. So, we're going to
take this week off. See you next week.