I love the NFL. What a great turn of events yesterday. The Bengals, Ravens and Browns all lose. The Steelers...A win!

Alas, I didn't get to see the game here in Wyoming. I did watch the Ravens game though. Here is what I saw: I saw a Ravens defense in severe decline. I saw a Ravens quarterback who is on the rise. I saw a forty-year-old man play lights out. I saw a Vikings defense fail to adjust and collapse. I saw good things for the Steelers next week.

The Vikings looked great through three quarters and then decided they needed some excitement and almost (Did) let the Ravens come back and win the game. Really, the Ravens should have won this one. I'm glad they didn't though.

Some things look good for the Steelers. The Ravens were able to gash the Vikings for a lot of yards on the ground, including two long touchdown runs. I don't know if the Steelers offensive line and runners can match that output, but I think they should be able to do enough to keep the Vikings defense honest. The Ravens were able to pass against the Vikings and with the way Rothlesburger is slinging it, the Steelers should be able to produce a good amount of offense. the Steelers have much better receivers than the Ravens. I like the match-up. Was it 2004 that the Steelers, in consecutive weeks, beat the last two undefeted teams in the NFL? I smell the Vikings first loss.

As well, I thought I saw a lot of oppurtunities against the Ravens. Their corners are weak to say the least. Turns out, Ed Reed can't do it all by himself. I think a good passing game beats the Ravens and the Steelers have one. While the Ravens rookie left tackle looks good for a rookie, Jared allen worked him pretty hard yesterday, and I expect Harrison to do the same.  Something that concerned me was how the Ravens defense picked it up in the fourth. I have been of the opinion that teams could wear down the Ravens defense late in the game. I attribute their resurgance to poor play calling by the Vikings (Took their foot off the gas). I hope the Steelers learn from that.  Now that the Ravens are 3-3, they look very beatable for the Steelers. I wish the Steelers played them earlier in the season, like this week.


I'm crossing my fingers now, hoping that the Steelers-Vikings is televised here.

Go here: http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/statsTeam to see team stats for the year. Notice the Steelers have the fifth best offense in the NFL this year and the third best defense. If they can clean up the little mistakes, they are the most dangerous team in the NFL, bar none. And, it really is a combination of little mistakes that are killing them this year.

I've been thinking about luck and what role it plays in a teams success since yesterday. At the end of the year, we can look back at the season and see there were some "lucky" things that took place throughout the season, be it lucky bounces, referee calls, or coin flips. So, at the end of the year, one team will have had more good luck than all the others and one worse luck, most will be in the middle somewhere. To say luck plays a role in decicing the outcome of a season is too simple, but to say it doesn't, is also too simple. I for one have to believe that luck can alter the course of a season to some degree. But to what to degree? I'm not talking about the Hated Patriots here, we all know they made their own luck by cheating.

How about those Titans? I think Jeff Fisher has utterly lost that team. They demonstrated a new level of apathy. I thought they invested too much in the idea of Nate Washington being an upgrade for their receiving core, he is still prone to drops, and has had a seemingly bad influence on that teams ability to catch the ball. Unfortunately, a lot of peaple are blaming Collins. What I watched of the game though, showed me a quarterback still able to hit his targets, but those targets forgot to bring their hands to the game. Once that started to happen, the team slid into apathy. Their seems to be no fight left in them. Sad really.

Once again, after playing a really bad opponent, Tom Brady has been proclaimed to be back. I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude here. I think the Hated Patriots are not as good as the media wants them to be. Let's see them play a few more quality opponents before the angels start to sing. I wish the Steelers played them this year.

Thank you Bungles! Good to see them back.

I think people are discounting the New Orleans factor in the Saints win. I used to bartend at the Ritz in Miami. During the NBA season, all the teams stayed there. Every single team would check in and then go out on the town, often stopping at my bar to get started on their way out. Those guys were a lot of fun. The point is, anyone is naive if they think the players roll into town, read their play books and hit the sack early. No, they party in a strange town and have some fun away from home. I think the Giants had a lot of fun in N.O. My theory goes like this, the Giants lack fo pass rush was due to a lack of discresion at the bars on Saturday night. That is the only reason I can think of for the Giants playing that bad on defense. This leads to another theory: The offense and the defense don't party together. Just a Theory.

I have to say, I really suck at picking games. I got five right yesterday. Wow, that is incredibly bad. I do a pigskin pool at USA.com and I'm currently ranked 6939th. Sure, I tried a couple of long shots, the Titans and the Bucs, but what happened to the Eagles? No, I want to know. Granted, I don't put much time into picking, but I am really bad. Whew, good thing I never developed the habit of betting.

Thanks to those of you who gave me advice on how to handle my first Terrible Towel. I ended up putting it on the head rest of my chair for the game. Seems to have worked so far. Then I folded it and put it back on the footboard of my bed.

Now it's not funny anymore. Please Lendale, appologize to the towel.

Since I did so poorley picking the nwinners of games this week, I will refrain from picking the winner of the Denver-San Diego game. Instead, I will say I think the Broncos are going to lose. I know that is a bold statement when you consider that Norv Turner is the coach of the Bolts. Please give me number six Norv.

Mechem reviewed the refs, and a good review it was for the Steelers game. I was going to comment in his fanpost, but I didn't want to get started. I could go for twenty-five, thirty thousand words, easy. I will leave it at this: the NFL (and college) refs are really bad. I can only say I'm just glad that the the NFL is reaching out to the community in a posative way by hiring the mentally and visually challanged. Really nice work Mr. Goodell.

 Last week I mentioned CBS' ability to cram in the maximum number of commercials allowable by the laws of time and science. After watching CBS again this week, I have come up with a new term: "Commercial Hit". That is when a player gets hard enough for him to stay down and allow CBS to go to yet another commercial. When a player gets hit really hard most of us say ooooh, or aaah. The guys in the CBS van all yell "Commercial" in unison.

Well, that's really about it. Thanks for hanging in there.

Go Steelers!