Monday Morning NFL Musings

Only two games left in the regular season.

My Giants are not looking good. In the last two games their offense has been downright offensive. They have only scored one touchdown and it was a garbage touchdown at the end of the Eagles game. Last night against Dallas the offensive line of the Giants did mostly LOOK OUT! blocking for Eli and the performance was abysmal. They have injuries and people out and an offensive game plan that is still including what they do not have. This is a bad time for them to have gone so completely flat.

Interesting note about last night's game, however. It was a critical game for Dallas, not so much for the Giants. The Giants are playing for a bye week and which seed they will be. NEXT week, win or lose last night, is the really critical game. They are in trouble, however, as they are flat, flat, flat and Carolina is torrid. The Giants end the season against an excellent Panthers team and the Vikings who have an amazing hex on Eli Manning. The Giants may have already won their last game this year. We'll see what happens next week.

The Falcons seem to be the real deal. Talk about a turnaround. Oh, and the Redskins are obviously pretenders. I'll give the Bengals credit; they may be a lousy team but they've played the NFC East teams tough. As for the Bengals, I would update my resume if I was Marvin Lewis. The Bengals should hire Steve Kragthorpe. He will enable them to maintain their misery and help alleviate the misery at U of L...

Some really bad officiating this year. At the Seattle/St. Louis game an official used the Jumbo tron to call a penalty. Terry Holt has called him out on it. Holt will get fined for telling the truth. So will the Ravens Head Coach who had a call reversed giving the Steelers a touchdown when, it was painfully obvious the plane had not been broken. When games turn on the calls of officials instead of the play on the field, that is wrong.

It's hard to believe that the Packers were in last year's NFC Championship game and that the Falcons and Dolphins were so woeful. I really like the Packers and they are an amazing organization. I suspect that a lot of blame will go on Aaron Rodgers but he is a young quarterback and it is a tough league. The reality for the Packers, however, is a porous defense. Defense wins championships.

The team I really felt bad for yesterday were the Chiefs. The game just slipped away. What a painful way to lose.

Detroit obviously has some good players. The Colts offense was way too much for them, but the Lions can get a whole lot better with some new players coming in. The sad thing about them is that they are a team loaded with high draft picks!

Who are the best teams right now?

In the NFC I think that the Panthers are the team to beat. They are solid and they are hot at the right time.

In the AFC I'm probably wrong, but I have some thoughts. I am not a big believer in the Titans. I've seen Kerry Collins close up and he does not come up big in big games. Collins is one of those guys who, when he is good, is very, very good, and when he is bad, he is awful. I don't believe he will take the Titans to the Super Bowl and, least of all, win it.

I'm also not that enthused about the Steelers. Frankly, I am not a big believer in Big Ben. He can get careless and he doesn't have the team he had a few years ago when they really didn't need him to play big in the Super Bowl.

In the AFC, I'd put my chips on the Colts. They are playing well at the right time and I think that Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in the NFL. And, yes, even is Brady was healthy, I'd choose Manning over him in a heartbeat. And Manning can come up big when he needs to.

It would be great to see a Manning bowl this year but I doubt it's going to happen unless the Giants rediscover their talent.