NFC 2 Week Recap

Well as promised for all you weird people who like the NFC more than the AFC here is my recap and preview for that division. If you skipped the AFC preview and are only reading this one, shame on you! GO back and read the AFC preview. If you read the AFC preview and are not reading this one then...well I can't really do anything about that. Okay, here we go.

NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys (1-1): The Boys are doing what the Boys do best. They ruin the hopes of their divisional foes by beating them, but then lose in ugly fashion to follow it up. After beating the the Giants in prime time in week one the Cowboys followed it up with an ugly defeat in Kansas City. DeMarco Murray had a decent 20 carries for 86 yards in week one, but answered with a blunder against KC rushing for 25 yards on 12 carries. This weeks match-up versus St. Louis should be a good measure as to what the season may entail.

Philadelphia Eagles (1-1): This team came out of the gates on fire in week one. They ran 52 first half offensive plays and at one point in the game lead the rival Washington Redskins 33-7. Then we got a good look at just how bad their defense really is when Washington came back and made things interesting. The poor defense carried over into week two against the San Diego Chargers as well. Phillips Rivers and Eddie Royal looked like they were running practice routes with nobody covering Royal or rushing Rivers. There was one touchdown where Royal could have caught the ball, taken the time to make sure all pieces of his uniform were in check, and then skipped to the end zone. Instead he just jogged in. This team can score, but they are going to need some stops if they want to win.

Washington Redskins (0-2): It hasn't even really gotten going in full force yet, but I am already sick of all the talk about RG 3 and out's knee. His brace is too tight, he's not as explosive, Dr. James Andrews (who for some reason is as common a household name as George Clooney) says he shouldn't play this style, yada yada yada. My expectation is that he is going to come out this week against the Detroit and ball out. They may not win, but it will be a different RG III and a different RG III is exactly what the Skins need.

New York Giants (0-2): Hahahahahaha Peyton Manning is so much better than Eli Manning. This just reiterates the fact that younger brothers will never be able to be better at anything than their older brothers. Well that and the fact that the Giants suck. Can't wait to hear every talk about firing Tom Coughlin again after two crappy years in a row for this team.

NFC North:
Daaaaa Bears (2-0): This is a team that gets over looked year after year and with a new head coach and the heart of the D, Brian Urlacher, retiring everybody over looked them again. Well now they have two impressive wins against the Bengals and divisional rival Vikings. Both games were at home, but still no less impressive. Jay Cutler has a big somber-face man crush on newly acquired tight-end Martellus Bennett. The man has three touchdown catches the year which already surpasses the total by all the Bears tight ends combined over the whole season last year. Expect those numbers to continue to rise as the year progresses. Oh and their new head coach, Mark Trestman, was taken straight out of the CFL. OHHHH CANADAAAAA.

Detroit Lions (1-1): This is a brand Suh team this year. Ha, see what I did there? My man Jim Schwartz is on the chopping block and this team needs to perform in order for him to keep his job. Reggie Bush put in a great performance in week one helping them to a big win over Minnesota, but then the team stumbled a bit against an underrated Arizona Cardinals team. For some reason I think this team is going to stick around for a little while. Ironically enough the only part of this team that isn't really "Suh" is Suh. Guy just gets dumber every year.

Sure did look like that lineman had a really good shot at catching him...

Green Bay Packers (1-1): San Francisco got the best of them in week one, but then they got more than the best of Washington in week two. Aaron Rodgers decided he was going to have an Aaron Rodgers type of day and only throw for a mere 480 yards. Bottom line is as long as Rodgers is healthy this team will be in the hunt.

Minnesota Vikings (0-2): Being in one of, if not the toughest, division in football is never a cakewalk. Starting the year out 0-2 overall and 0-2 in the division only makes this year more like a walk across hot coals for the Vikes. Good thing all anyone cares about with this team is whether or not APAD will break the rushing record.

NFC South:
New Orleans Saints (2-0): Welcome back Sean Payton. While the Vikes have an uphill battle to face the Saints have a downhill one. Not really. But what's better than being 2-0 after two weeks with both of those wins coming against divisional opponents? The Saints handled everything Matty Ice and the Falcons threw at them in week one and then they instigated frustration towards Greg Schiano in week two when they beat the the Buccaneers. This team has it's swag back, bring on the Cardinals.

Atlanta Falcons (1-1): Had a tough week one loss at the hands of the Saints, but bounced back nicely with a 31-24 win over the Rams. A bittersweet victory though as their prize off-season possession, Steven Jackson, went down and will miss 2-4 weeks. As if that wasn't enough, star linebacker Sean Weatherspoon found himself on the IR with the eligibility to return in week 11. This is still a good Falcons team though and you can bet that they aren't going anywhere soon, nor will forget that week one loss.

Tampa Bay (0-2): I think there are only two questions that need to be asked with this team. Will Josh Freeman still be the quarterback at the end of the season? Will this team implode in a Red Sox fashion due to dissent towards Greg Schiano? I don't mean Red Sox fashion as in they were good and collapsed, I kind of just mean collapse.

Carolina Panthers (0-2): This team just oozes with so much potential. Arguably the best line backing core in the NFL led by Luke Kuechly, an animal all by himself. A good defensive line led by a monster in Charles Johnson. They have a great young quarterback with Cam Newton and have surrounded him with young wide-receiver talent. A then they have their star in Steve Smith. They played well against Seattle, but then came up with a dud against Buffalo letting rookie E.J. Manuel pick their secondary apart leading up to a last second touchdown. How will they fair against the 0-2 Giants? My guess Eli torches them.

NFC West:
Seattle Seahawks (2-0): Seattle has a question for everybody in the NFL and it's; "What about us?" San Fran this, San Fran that, the Seahawks quieted everyone down when they literally brought the thunder down on the 49ers last weekend. That game alone says enough for this team.

St. Louis Rams (1-1): Had a good week one win against a divisional opponent in the Arizona Cardinals, but then fell behind too much too early against the Atlanta Falcons. It is Sam Bradford time St. Louis and Jeff Fisher has the ability to coach this team to a winning season.

San Francisco 49ers (1-1): These guys got flat-out out-played this past week against Seattle. They still have the most complete team in the NFL though and don't expect them to forget that Seattle loss anytime soon. The Niners will bounce back, but have a very intriguing match-up against Indianapolis. A classic quarterback vs former college coach match up.

Arizona Cardinals (1-1) The wild-card team of the NFC. Not in the sense that they are a wild card team, but more in the sense of who knows how good this team will be. I personally think that they are much better than people are giving them credit for and that it is only a matter of time before we start to see the pass happy quarterback and pass happy coach get things rolling. It also helps that the pass happy offense has Larry Fitzgeralds hands to throw all of those passes at. Last time I checked he had a pretty good set of them. A few years ago in a weaker NFC I could see this team doing big things, but it's too strong a conference now.

Division Winners:
East: Eagles. Everything in my guys says to go with Cowboys, but then everything else says that they will choke at some point. They do have Tony Romo after all.

North: Chicago Bears. Trestman has this team figured out already and understands how they are going to play week in and week out. When your coach can game plan like that, things tend to work out.

South: Saints. I think the Falcons are going to have a set back year and with Payton back at the helm I think the Saints will march again. Ha. Gotta love cliché lines.

West: Seahawks. Had you asked me this before the season I would have said the 49ers, but after seeing the way the Seahawks D has just dominated the first two weeks I am convinced they are the real deal.

Wildcards:
49ers: Can't see very many arguments here. Probably the second best team in the conference.
Lions: Reggie Bush is going to make them click this year and as long as he stays healthy I think they will go places.


In an exciting bonus there is in fact an NFL game being played tonight by the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. Andy Reid's homecoming, if you will. As far as my prediction for tonight, I predict there to be cheers for Reid with a smattering amount of boos. As for the game I saw somebody in High Point, NC driving around with Eagles flags on their car today and that's a good enough reason for me to pick them.

Eagles 26
Chiefs 18

AFC 2 Week review period

It seemed a little aggressive to go through team by team after week one and either praise or chastise them based off that first weeks performance. So let's do it after week two! Everybody knows that the whole NFL season is decided in the first two weeks so I'm going to go ahead and decide how the rest of the season is going to play out based on how teams played in the first two weeks. Feel free to judge a lot. The NFC review will come on Thursday.

AFC East:
New England Patriots (2-0): The Pats season started off pretty rough when rookie QB E.J. Manuel and the Bills gave them a solid run for their money with the Pats winning it with a field goal as time expired. The Pats backed up that awful performance with an even worse performance against the dismal New York Jets and another rookie QB in Geno Smith. In both games the offense looked stagnant and Tom Brady looked more frustrated than a toddler who can put the shapes in the right holes.

 On a positive note though the Pats only lost Shane Vareen for the whole year and the oft injured Danny Amendola is well, injured.

Miami Dolphins (2-0): The Dolphins are tied for first in the division! When was the last time those words were ever written? And it is week 2 which means you can expect them to stick around for a while. Believe it or not the Dolphins have actually looked moderately impressive this year, but mainly on the defensive side of the ball. There is still a serious lack of run game, but hopes are that Lamar Miller will be able to pick it up. Dolphins fans have to be feeling good about that front 7 though as they are racking up the sacks and they have to be happy with the play of 2nd year QB Ryan Tannehill.

Buffalo Bills (1-1): Manuel looks like he can ball. The rookie QB played pretty well in week one against division rival Patriots posting a 105.5 QBR. He followed up that performance with his first win of his NFL career against the Carolina Panthers and boy was it impressive. The rookie got the ball down 6 at his own 20 with only 1:38 left on the clock a no time-outs left. He marched his Bills down field and scored on a 2-yard pass to Stevie Johnson with just two seconds left. It helps the Bills defensive end Super Mario Williams racked up a team record 4.5 sacks.

New York Jets (1-1): They are going to be bad. Should be 0-2. Who knows how good Geno will be, but I'm pretty sure it will be better than anything Mark Sanchez ever did.

AFC South:
Houston Texans (2-0): Should be 0-2. The pre-season favorite to take the division and go deep into the playoffs. They looked atrocious in the first half in week one against the Chargers, but it's a good thing it was against the Chargers. The Texans battled back from a 28-7 deficit to win the game with a field goal as time expired. That was week one though. No way they would come back in week two and under perform again against a team that is significantly worse than them. Oh wait, they did. In week two it took overtime for the Texans to get past the divisional foe Titans, in Houston. It will be interesting to see if the Texans remember any time soon that they have Arian Foster as their running back.

Indianapolis Colts  (1-1): Week one was classic Andrew Luck and the Colts. Losing in the fourth quarter and looking for their young star quarterback to march down field and lead them to victory in front of the home crowd, which of course he did. Week two was classic Andrew Luck and the Colts. Losing in the fourth quarter and looking for their young star quarterback to march down field and lead them to victory in front of the home crowd, which of course he.....didn't?

Tennessee Titans (1-1): I view this team as a wild card team. They could be good, they could be bad, they could be on a bye week, you are just never going to know. In week one they churned out a solid win against the Steelers in a dog fight. Then in week two they played extremely well against the Texans. Then today Kenny Britt tweets that he is done as a Titan after this year because of "irking the coaches with penalties." Quite frankly I dunno whats going to happen here. I just hope Chris Johnson can somehow find his old form and be awesome again.

Jacksonville Jaguars (0-2): TEBOW, TEBOW, TEBOW, TEBOW! That is all.

AFC West:
Denver Broncos (2-0): Peyton Manning+running game+lots of wide receivers+a former basketball playing tight end that nobody had ever heard of until after week one and was sitting on 99% of peoples fantasy team benches+a monstrous defense that will only get better when, if, Von Miller gets back+John Fox=Trip to the Superbowl.

Kansas City Chiefs (2-0): This team is going to win games and nobody is going to know exactly how it happened.

Oakland Raiders (1-1): This Raiders team has looked impressive. Terrell Pryor looks like he may work as a legitimate starting quarterback and if Run DMC can run the way he did against Jacksonville (which is no promise because it was against Jacksonville) this team could maybe win 6 games.

San Diego Chargers (1-1): I don't think Philip Rivers is necessarily good, but I do know the Eagles defense sure did make it that way in week two. Speaking of defense they don't have one. I don't think this is a team that can win a whole lot of games, but I do think this is the type of team that will surprise a few teams and hurt some teams playoff chances. i.e. the Eagles.

AFC North:
Cincinnati Bengals (1-1): Will this finally be the year Andy Dalton steps his game up to the next level? He has a solid 2 RB system behind him and with Jermaine Gresham and A.J. Green a year older all the pieces are in place. The division is even the worst it has ever been so if there has ever been a time to capitalize on things, now is that time. Expect to see Marvin Lewis in the can if things don't look like they progressed anywhere.

Pittsburgh Steelers (0-2) Baltimore Ravens (1-1) Cleveland Browns (0-2):  These 3 teams are all lumped together because they are all in the same division and all have looked awful after two weeks. But Chris the Ravens have a win and are the defending Super Bowl Champs they aren't that bad. Yes they are. They have looked awful in both games, their defense does not exist and Joe Flacco did not deserve all that money. He is a good leader, but a bad quarterback. As far as the Steelers and Browns are concerned I don't think anybody will have any gripes about lumping them together. That being said Troy Polamalu is pretty good.

Division Winners:
East: Patriots. As poor as they have played you just can't deny a team with both Tom Brady and Bill Belichick at the helm. They will find a way.

South: Texans. They always seems to find a way to win games and it's only a matter of time before Foster starts to light it up

West: Broncos. Do I even need an explanation?

North: Bengals. It's there time to shine and I expect them to do so.

Wild Cards:
Chiefs and Colts. Chiefs are going to surprise lots of teams this year and are going to churn out wins like butter. The Colts are going to take a step back this year, presumabley to 9-7 or 10-6, but in a weak AFC I think it will still be enough to make it as the 6 seed.