Week 5 Recap

Week 5 Recap – Who Impressed Me?  Who did not?

 

The Philadelphia Eagles are underachievers that are overachieving based on their record.  -9 in turnover ratio, the Eagles, Michael Vick specifically, do not protect the football.  Granted they came back and went up 14-13 with just under 7 minutes to play, too many fumbles and missed opportunities cost this team.  They should have beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers who looked horrible on offense and not very good on defense.  I am not impressed by either team so far through the first 5 weeks of the NFL season.

The Green Bay Packers are beatable.  Losing to the Colts in Indy shows the vulnerability of the Packers and the Packers defense more specifically.  Andrew Luck and Reggie Wayne lit up the Packers defense and the Colts really won the battle in the trenches on both sides of the ball.  The Packers are a good football team, and very well coached, but clearly they are beatable and it does not help them that Jennings is injured, Benson could be done for the year (foot), and Jermichael Finley is underperforming.

I am not a believer in the Vikings as of yet.  While I am impressed by the defense and how they are playing, they are not a complete team on offense outside of their home turf.  Ponder still has plenty to prove to me.  That being said, kudos to Leslie Frazier on his job thus far, and I wish him best of look in the upcoming games.

The Bears look very good, but they have not beaten anyone that has been mentioned in playoff talks.  Defense looks fierce and tenacious, offense looks better each week, a lot falls on the shoulders of Cutler and how he is able to perform in pivotal matchups.

I am still not sold on the Giants.  Eli is great and has proven to be clutch in the fourth quarter, but I do not trust the Giants secondary.  Brandon Weeden made it look very easy to throw on the Giants DBs and the Browns gave the GMen a hell of a scare in the first half.  The Giants are loaded with talent on the defensive line, but it is the secondary that will need to step up if they are to make it to the post season again this year.

For the record I am still saying 8-8 wins the AFC West and I will lean towards the Chargers as the team that takes the division.  The Raiders don’t look like the same team on both sides of the ball from last season.  The play of the secondary from Oakland will continue to cause major problems for them.  Oakland is not a team designed to win games by scoring 30+ points.  Kansas City has quarterback issues, let alone defensive issues.  All they do is run the ball, you cannot win that way.  Denver looks better each week, but I think the defense will slow down in the second half of the season and give Peyton a tough time to win games.  This is why i think the Chargers will take the division.  They have a potent offense led by Philip Rivers, and the Chargers defense is good, not great, but they typically get the job done.  A few bad calls by the refs in the Saints game, and the Chargers still had an opportunity to force overtime. 

The Texans are the best team in football, even without Cushing (ACL Tear).  They run the ball extremely well, they pass the ball with ease, and they are so efficient in the red zone it is scary. Defensively Wade Phillips is doing a phenomenal job preparing for each team each week.   Led by JJ Watt the D-Line has been fantastic, the line backing play has picked up each week, and the secondary is second to none in the NFL.  Expect big things from the Texans.

The Patriots no huddle offense against Denver was ridiculous.  I have never seen a team run the no huddle faster than what Brady was doing against Denver’s defense.  Add in the fact that the Patriots have been running the ball very effectively with Steph Ridley, yikes this team is dangerous.  Do they have a defense ready for the playoffs?

The Ravens should take down the AFC North at this point.  The Browns are not good, the Bengals look vulnerable and have only beaten young and inexperienced quarterbacks, and the Steelers defense is nothing near what we are accustomed to seeing on Sundays.  Ravens have a very good quarterback who is overachieving, a top running back in the league, a possession receiver (Boldin) to go along with a downfield threat (Smith), and their defense is extremely talented.  Ravens are legit in the AFC.