Kansas’ Reign At The Top Could Be Short Lived:

The Jayhawks were just named the number one team in the nation, but that didn’t stop Kansas State from absolutely dominating them last night. Kansas had no answer for the Wildcats guard Jacob Pullen, who had 38 points. The Jayhawks will probably fall pretty far in the polls for two reasons. One, the Wildcats owned them the entire night and beat them by 16 points. This wasn’t some close lose in the final minutes of the game, but rather an overall shellacking. The second thing that is going to hurt Kansas is the fact that Kansas State isn’t even ranked right now. Now there is little doubt that K-State has some talent, they just haven’t been able to put it together this season, and had gotten beaten up in conference play. Now though the Wildcats upset their in-state rival, and gave themselves a signature win to build on for a possible tournament bid.

Franchise Tags Start Coming Out:

Both the Patriots and the Eagles have already used their franchise tags, and the Jets may not be too far behind. The Patriots struck first as they placed the tag of All-Pro guard Logan Mankins. Despite their usually being a different pay scale, for the purpose of franchise tags the salary of the top 5 offensive linemen are taken into the average, regardless of position. The Eagles did the expected and tagged Michael Vick, who will now come with more than a $16 million price tag. Now these were no brainer decisions, as neither the Patriots or the Eagles wanted to let these guys walk, and now they ensure that they control these players rights. With Vick now being formally tagged, you can pretty much guarantee that Kevin Kolb will be traded this offseason (when the new CBA is signed). The Jets case is a bit more interesting.

The Jets appear close to tagging inside linebacker David Harris. While there was a good bit of speculation surrounding the Jets tagging Harris, it also ensures both of the Jets top receivers, Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, will be unrestricted free agents. While Harris is a key member of the defense, Holmes and Edwards are a very good starting combo for the Jets. Considering how ‘streaky’ (to put it nicely) quarterback Mark Sanchez has been, New York can’t afford to watch both of their receivers walk. Even losing one of them would be a major blow to the Jets passing attack, which means New York will have to scramble to lock them up when the new CBA is signed.

Eagles Lose To The Vikes at Home, Hurt Their Playoff Position: No one gave the Vikings a chance to even be competitive in this game, much less beat the Eagles, yet they were by far the better team last night. The Vikings played the game like they were the team with double-digits wins and looking to lock up a 1st round bye. The Eagles on the other hand looked like the team that had been disappointing all season and wasn’t living up to expectations. Philly after their performance last night is now locked in to the number 3 spot in the playoff picture, which means they will only get one home playoff game (barring something unexpected happening). The Eagles only have themselves to blame as they never adjusted to the the Vikings defense and had no answer for Minnesota’s offense led by rookie quarterback Joe Webb. While the Eagles offense still at times looked like a unit capable of going to the Super Bowl, their defense looked pretty bad yesterday. If they don’t find a way to slow down opposing offenses, they won’t last long in the playoffs.

Pro Bowl Rosters Set: The Pro Bowl rosters were announced yesterday with few surprises. The Conference leading Falcons and Patriots had the most players on each roster, with 7 and 6 players respectively. Four teams were left out off the Pro Bowl rosters all together, the Bills, Bengals, Seahawks and Bucs all were without a representative. The Buccaneers are the most surprising considering how good of a season they had. Four rookies made the two combined rosters including three 1st round picks, DT Ndamukong Suh, CB Devin McCourty, and C Maurkice Pouncey. In all 21 players will be making their first Pro Bowl trip this season.

Blue Jays Add Dotel To Their Bullpen: The Blue Jays needed to add some arms to their bullpen with the losses of Scott Downs and Kevin Gregg (still a free agent but likely to sign somewhere else soon). Dotel will get a guaranteed $3.5 million for next season and the buyout for 2012. With the option the Blue Jays also control Dotel for 2012 if they so choose for an extra $3 million. I really like this deal for the the Jays, especially since they have that option year if Dotel has a good season this year. Considering what relievers are getting this season on the open market (usually $4+ million a year for multiple years guaranteed) Dotel is a good value. He is also the type of reliever who could get traded at the deadline if the Blue Jays are out of the playoff hunt. While he isn’t what anyone would call a ‘frontline’ closer he can give quality innings at a back of a bullpen and will hold most leads. Very smart and good signing for the Blue Jays that will continue to help them as they look to overtake the Rays and the Yankees in the A.L. East.

Eagles Beat The Giants In Dramatic Fashion: When you are up by 28 points with under 8 minutes to go at home, you can usually chalk that up as a win, except of course for yesterday. The Giants suffered a complete breakdown on offense, defense and special teams after dominating all game. I know they can’t label one particular guy to blame but that was an awful decision by the punter to kick it away to DeSean Jackson with just seconds on the clock (and the Eagles having no timeouts). So what if you kick it out of bounds and they have 9 or 10 seconds with solid field position, they basically have to throw a hail mary, which I’d rather take my chances on that having Jackson in the open field. Also I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how bad that onside kick was. The coaches said they thought it might be a possibility and discussed it, but apparently no one took them seriously, because none of the Giants were ready for it. Given the situation that they were in, the Eagles needed a momentum changer. How you weren’t ready for that, I don’t understand.

Matt Flynn Nearly Leads The Packers Over The Patriots: Color me shocked. I never thought the Packers would be within 10 points of the Patriots without Aaron Rodgers at the helm. This game was in Foxboro no less, making it an even more impressive start by Flynn. Flynn at times held on to the ball too long and made a few errant throws, but he also wasn’t helped out by a Packers receiving corps that dropped a couple of easy passes. While the Patriots ended up winning, Flynn really had them on the ropes and if not for a fluky big kickoff return by an offensive lineman in the first half, the Packers might have won this game.

Colts Move Into First Place: It has been a rough, injury filled season for the Super Bowl runner-ups, but they got back in the playoff hunt with a win over Jacksonville. While the Colts and Jags have the same record, Indy holds the tie breakers and now holds their playoff hopes in their hands. It was a great game by the Colts who held the Jaguars rushing attack in check. At the same time Indianapolis showed some ability to run the ball themselves. If the Colts can start to move the ball effectively on the ground, and play better defense, they could make a run this postseason.

Yanks Resign Rivera: Big news for the Yankees, as this was actually the only one of their veteran free agents who could have actually signed with another team. And the rumor is that another team offered him an additional year. $15 million a year is a lot for an old closer, but it is hard not to pay Rivera, who keeps getting it done each year. Now the Yankees just need to get Jeter and Pettitte to follow suit and not break the bank for them, so they can offer Cliff Lee whatever he wants.

Texans Can’t Stop The Eagles Offense: To be fair, there was much defense on both sides of the ball, but the Texans defense once again came up short. Although they put adequate pressure on Vick and relatively kept the ground game in check, the Eagles had little trouble moving the ball on them through the air (shocking). Houston needs to find a way to turn more of that pressure into to sacks, and cover better. This game could have been worse, as the Eagles dropped some easy catches including a sure TD. Philly now is atop the NFC East and looks like a surefire playoff contender.

LeBron Wins In His Return: While it was hyped like a playoff game only one team showed up to play it like one yesterday, as the Heat and James dominated the Cavs 118-90. Those who thought that LeBron James couldn’t handle the pressure were sadly mistaken as he was on fire scoring 38 points in 3 quarters. This game definitely answered some questions as to whether the Heat can come together and if they’d rally around their various stars. It also showed that once again James is the best player in the league, and despite his offseason mistakes, he showed Cleveland what they missed out on.

What are your thoughts on today’s stories?

I am sure I will have quite a bit more to say after I re-watch the game, but let me just start off by saying that this game was flat out embarrassing. How does a professional football team coming off a bye go and play that bad at home?

First, let’s get the excuses out of the way:

The Offensive Line DID NOT Lose us the Game: The O-line last night was far from perfect, and they did give up a couple of sacks, as well as commit a couple of penalties. But this wasn’t even close to their worst game. It is by no means a top notch unit, but their play did not cost us the game.

Albert Haynesworth DID NOT Have a Bad Game: I was amazed to hear both fans and radio announcers on the drive home from the game try and lay blame at Albert Haynesworth’s feet for yesterday’s loss. Huh? Our newly signed $78 million dollar man, Donovan McNabb, threw 3 picks and had a passer rating almost equal to the Eagles point total, and we are going to blame Haynesworth? From where I was sitting Haynesworth was the only defensive player who you could say had a good game. Unfortunately the Redskins coaches still continue to misuse him. By the time of his first play the Eagles were up 14-0, McNabb had thrown an interception, and the Eagles were on the Redskins 24 yard line. And what does Haynesworth do? He shakes off two blockers and stops Jerome Harrison for no gain. That might have been Haynesworth’s only tackle, but he caused plenty of pressure, and was consistently double-teamed. Big plays such as Carter’s sack or McIntosh’s hit (which helped cause Vick’s first incomplete pass), happened in part because of the penetration Haynesworth got forcing Vick to step into other defenders. You can blame a lot of defenders for last night’s game, but Haynesworth isn’t one of them.

Shanahan’s Benching of McNabb Led to Last Night’s Performance: I will hope that logic sets in and people and pundits don’t try to blame Shanahan, by saying that the lasting effects and controversy of  his benching of Donovan McNabb two weeks ago is the root cause for last night. Ignoring the fact that McNabb just signed a 5 year $78 million dollar extension, which should close any ‘ill effects’ discussion, there is no reason to believe that ‘the benching’ caused last night’s performance to occur. These guys are professionals and I find it hard to believe that even before the extension was signed there was any real tension. McNabb and Shanahan are both to blame for last night’s loss, but the blame stops short of what happened two weeks ago.

Who Is To Blame:

Mike Shanahan: Ignoring the long term planning faults of Shanahan such as roster construction, bad drafting etc., Shanahan did not have a great game. First thing that shocked me was the fact that they once again, only had two running backs active. What made it even worse than when he did that in the Lions game is that they both weren’t healthy. Torain has been coming back from that hamstring injury, and was basically a game time decision. Well low and behold they make him active and during warmups he gets injured and he can’t go. I mean that is a joke really and Shanahan is lucky that the defense was so horrible that the running game didn’t matter. What would have happened if it was a close game and the Redskins needed to run out the clock that entire 4th quarter, but only had one healthy running back?

Shanahan also needs to take the blame for this loss more than perhaps any other. The Redskins were coming off a bye week and they were at home, and yet it was 35-0 before the Redskins even showed life. Now I realize that Kyle is the play caller, but I’m guessing that they scripted at least their first two drives before the game (I’m hoping that three straight runs aren’t the response to an 88 yard TD pass, or three short passes were the response to 14-0), so Mike Shanahan had to know what was coming. They had two weeks to prepare for the Eagles and that was their play call?? I just don’t understand, you just sign a ‘Franchise’ quarterback for 5 more years, and you bring back Jim Zorn as a play caller??

I think it was just an awful game plan and preparedness by the team and that blame really begins and ends with Mike Shanahan.

Jim Haslett: As ill prepared as the offense was after a bye week, the defense was worse. As soon as the Eagles won the toss, I said from section 130 that Vick was going deep to DeSean Jackson, how did Haslett not see that coming, when I think every Eagles and Redskins fan did? Whether it was going to be pay back for injuring Vick, beating them in Game one, showing up McNabb, or the pregame ‘fight’ between the teams, you had to know the Eagles were going to go for the jugular. And as bad of coverage as it was by Landry, exactly what defensive scheme did you have that had Jackson on Landry one-on-one??

The other thing Haslett did was trying to consistently stay with the base 3-4 formation (i.e. not getting Haynesworth in until the third possession). You have the most athletic quarterback in the league and you keep you best defensive lineman off the field? How does that even begin to make sense? Those base 3-4 linemen are built to stuff the run, not push the pocket or chase Vick down (which was made clear with disastrous results). Vick looked perfect out there running and passing, and that was simply because the defense was ready and didn’t have the personnel to stop him.

I’ll get to other comments about the game, team, and this contract extension later.

A Guest Blog By Fanspeak Contributing Writer Willypops

Last week I took my first stab at picking the full slate of NFL games against the point spread here on Fanspeak.  Didn’t do too bad – went 9 and 5.  Some of the guys on TV didn’t do as well.  So, buoyed by that success, I decided to take a crack at picking six of the bigger match-ups in Week #7:

Steelers @ Dolphins (+3) – The Steelers (4-1) ignored the distraction and hype in getting Ben Roethlisberger’s return from suspension game under their belts by convincingly beating the Browns last week.  Offensively, the Steelers have a sound running game and now have their more than reliable passing game going.  With the defense continuing to play at an extremely high level, the Steelers are poised to establish themselves as the team to beat in the AFC.  But they have some tough games coming up over the next four weeks, including three straight road games against the  Dolphins, Saints and Bengals.  They follow that up with a home game against the Patriots.  We’ll know an awful lot about the Steelers after they navigate that field of “land mines”!  The Dolphins (3-2) are a hard team to figure out.  They started the season with two  road wins against the Bills and the Vikings but then followed those up with two home losses to the Jets and Patriots.  After their bye week, they went up to Lambeau Field last week and beat the Packers.  So no telling what to expect against the Steelers.  Chad Henne and the offense for the most part have been sound and the defense is solid.  But both sides of the ball rank in the bottom third of the league in points scored and points allowed.  I don’t think that bodes well for the Dolphins in this game so I’ll take the Steelers and give the points.

Redskins (+3) @ Bears – The Bears (4-2) are on top of the NFC North but they lost to the Seahawks last week at home.  Their offensive line continues to struggle in pass protection and the Redskins’ Brian Orakpo, who is fast becoming one of the premier pass rushers in the league, could come up huge in this game.  Two weeks ago against Carolina, Bears running back Matt Forte ran wild but overall their running game is not very strong.  Defensively, the Bears are in the top 10 league-wide in nearly all of the important statistical categories.  The Redskins (3-3) are coming off a tough loss at home against the Colts last Sunday night which came on the heels of an exciting home win in overtime against the Packers.  Offensively, the Redskins are starting to show some signs of life in the running game.  That’s encouraging since the play of quarterback Donovan McNabb thus far can best be characterized as being mediocre.  They will need for him to play much better if they are to have any real success this season.  The Redskins defense continues to be the worst team in the league in total yardage given up and they are in the bottom third in most defensive statistics.  Yet, they managed to hold the Eagles and Packers to 12 and 13 points respectively in getting wins on successive weeks.  This game could go right down to the wire.  Quite often in close games it’s the team with the strongest defense that comes away with the win.  So the nod here goes to the Bears getting a win at home and covering the spread.

Eagles (+3) @ Titans – The Eagles (4-2) have won four of their last five games and are coming off an impressive win at home last week against a very good Falcons team.  Quarterback Kevin Kolb had an outstanding game, going 23 for 29 and throwing for 326 yards with three touchdown passes.  A few more games like that and he will quiet the excitement over Michael Vick’s start to the season and will justify the move sending McNabb to the Redskins in favor of Kolb as the starter.  Overall defensively, the Eagles are sound but they have shown some weakness in stopping the run.  Curiously, three of the Titans (4-2) four wins have come on the road  They followed up their win at Dallas two weeks ago by completely dominating the Jaguars in Jacksonville last Monday night.  As usual, the Titans are playing solid defense this year, allowing the 4th fewest points in the league.  Offensively, quarterback Vince Young is off to a pretty good start, throwing for 7 touchdowns against only 2 interceptions.  But this team’s bread and butter is their running game with Chris Johnson.  As he goes, so go the Titans.  I look for Johnson to exploit the Eagles run defense and the Titans defense to hold Kolb and his talented corps of receivers (minus the injured DeSean Jackson) in check enough so that the Titans win by more than 3 points.

Patriots (+3) @ Chargers –  The Chargers (2-4) have two dominating wins against the Jaguars and Cardinals but are coming off two devastating losses at St. Louis last week and at Oakland the week before.  Because they play in the AFC West however, all hope is not lost.  But they better right this ship quickly because after this game they play the Titans at home and the Texans on the road.  If they continue to play the way they have been, they easily could be 2-7 after that stretch.  Overall, the Chargers are very solid statistically on both offense and defense.  Quarterback Phillip Rivers is having another good season but their rushing offense is in about in the middle of the pack.  It would seem that the Chargers lack of success so far may be more attributed to the off the field distractions associated with the contract disputes involving two of their big name players.  The Patriots (4-1) are coming off big wins in Miami and at home last week against a very good Ravens team.  Quarterback Tom Brady is having another good season thus far and the productive return of Deion Branch last week suggests that Randy Moss’ departure may not negatively impact the Patriots as much as many thought it would.  The Patriots defense has struggle a good bit this year but they have recently shown signs of improvement.  I think this one could be a shootout but I like Brady and the Patriots chances so I’ll take them and the points.

Vikings (+3) @ Packers –  The Vikings (2-3) have pretty much struggled this year, especially offensively.  Quarterback Brett Favre’s performance this year has done an about face compared to his performance last season.  He has already thrown as many interceptions (7) as he did all of last year.  Fortunately for the Vikings, running back Adrian Peterson is off to a great start and it appears that they are going to have to rely on him to pick up much of the slack on offense.  The addition of wide receiver Randy Moss should pay dividends as the season progresses.  Defensively, while the Vikings are not playing up to the level of last year’s performance they are still very sound.  The Packers (3-3) have just been decimated by injuries, most of which have been to key players.  They have had tough losses the past two weeks – the first at Washington in overtime and then at home last week to the Dolphins in overtime.  Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is having a good season but it is basically his show since the Packer rushing offense leaves a lot to be desired.   Defensively, the Packers are solid but far from spectacular.  When your team is banged up, it is usually your defense that is going to make the difference between wins and losses.  Linebacker Clay Matthews is the engine that powers the Packers defense but he has been hampered this year by a sore hamstring.  Assuming that he can play at somewhere near full throttle, then I think he will wreak havoc on Favre and the Vikings passing game.  As a result, I’ll take the Packers at Lambeau on Sunday night and give the points.

Giants (+3) @ Cowboys –   A classic NFC East showdown on Monday Night.  The Cowboys (1-4) are coming off two tough losses, one at home against the Titans and then last week at Minnesota.  Defensively, the Cowboys have been playing very well.  And offensively, their passing statistics are near the top in most categories.  Most everybody is impressed with the Cowboys running back contingent but for some reason, Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett seems to favor the passing game and he has been criticized for not striking the proper balance between the run and the pass.  On paper, the Cowboys look like a team that should be 4-1 instead of 1-4, but they just seem to find ways to shoot themselves in the foot with costly and stupid penalties.  The Giants (4-2) are coming off three straight impressive wins against the Bears, Texans and Lions.  But in the two games prior to that run, they looked horrendous in losses to the Colts and Titans.  The Giants defense has been playing very well of late and they seem to be able to dictate the tempo of the game.  The offense has been effective overall and the running tandem of  Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs has been particular productive, accounting for a combined total of nearly 800 yards rushing.  In this game, clearly the Cowboys backs are up against the wall.  If for no other reason than that, I see the Cowboys offense finding a way to overcome the Giants defense and coming away with a victory at home and covering the spread in doing so.

A Guest Blog By Fanspeak Contributing Writer John Manuel:

Now that the majority of NFL teams have played a quarter of the season we can start to get a grasp on which teams are contenders and which are pretenders. I wanted to throw out a few thoughts on what I have seen and what I feel may be coming up down the road. As with every season, it hasn’t been boring. Great games and compelling storylines have already taken place in the first month.

Let me first start with the team which comes into week five possibly playing the best. The New York Jets. Three weeks ago they looked like a fiasco, all the talk was about Rex Ryan’s mouth, Mark Sanchezs’ Trent Edwards style checkdowns and the lingering effects of doing Hard Knocks. Three straight wins have changed that. LT is playing like five years ago, Darelle Revis, Santonio Holmes, and Calvin Pace are due back this week and Sanchez hasn’t turned the ball over. Side note, my friends and I get a good laugh anytime Holmes is referred to SanAntonio Holmes. It happened this week by Dan Fouts again. I am far from sold on the Jets mainly because what I saw week one versus the Ravens. When it comes playoff time the Jets will be seeing tough defenses like the Ravens again or the Steelers or the Bills…just joking Bills fans. I have a feeling we could be seeing a lot more stagnant Jets offense like week one. Can the defense and the running game carry them like last playoffs, maybe?

If were talking checkdown quarterbacks, Kevin Kolb was the king of week 4. Take some chances bro. Its tough to discuss the Eagles without being biased, being a Redskins fan. Sometimes I worry that quarterbacks can change with one game. I think that this could be the case with Kolb. Bad memories of being chased down by Clay Matthews week one could have changed his whole demeanor in the pocket. As a Skins fan, I feel I have seen this twice. Patrick Ramsey had a promising start with Steve Spurrier and then one Sunday night he got destroyed in Miami. His night finished after being bulldogged Barry Windham style to the ground by Jason Taylor. He was never the same in the pocket after that. I also think Jason Campbell got weak in the pocket after showing lots of poise early on.  His offensive line destroyed his head. The NFC East is anyone’s division. Each week a new team steps up and another looks done. I wouldn’t count any team out.

Is there anyone feeling more miserable than Larry Fitzgerald in the NFL? Well, maybe Nate Clements. Fitzgerald is in an awful situation on a team that is actually 2-2. Fitzgerald has been a class act which makes it difficult to watch his frustration at the Cardinals QB situation. “The Situation” would call Derek Anderson a Grenade for the way he played before being benched last week in San Diego. For Fitz’s sake maybe Max Hall brings some life to the Cardinals passing game but then again he is being flanked by no names currently so coverage can key on him all game.

On a side note, I see that another Real World/ Road Rules challenge starts this week on MTV and of course it looks more dangerous than ever . They always try to infer that someone may die in one of the challenges. My guess is that a newcomer gets a concussion. Speaking of concussions, thanks Jay Cutler. Negative five points for my fantasy team this week. While I am at it…Shout outs to Mike Martz and the Chicago Bears o-line as well. Did they get an official sack total for the Giants? 10, 14, 19? Jay Cutler is going to look like Ricky Hatton after the Pacman fight by week seven. And if you were wondering I do have Big Ben on my fantasy team to cover, but I doubt you care. I scored 43 points this week, I don’t even care anymore.

Its way to early to tell but I like the Ravens alot as this season goes on. I live in Baltimore so I hear alot about them. I have a feeling the offense is going to only get better and that Ed Reed will bring his big play ability to an already good defense. They have depth at almost all positions and the biggest worry, the defensive backs have been good. Lardarius Webb being back from the ACL is a big factor. I am interested to see where Ray Lewis ends up on the NFL films top 100 players of all time list. If you haven’t watch, its very good and worth it. Although its at the same time as “The Office.” Just DVR it or watch one of the 50 times its replayed. As for the NFC, the top teams look to be Green Bay, Atlanta and New Orleans but all squeaked by with home wins this past week against struggling teams. The NFC is up for grabs with many teams who can make a run.

We have only seen four weeks so a lot can happen over the next thirteen. The returns of Big Ben, Brian Cushing (if he hasn’t over-worked out again), Sidney Rice and Kurt Warner (my bad Cards fans) will make their teams stronger. The NFL is tough to predict this early like last year when the Colts and Saints were undefeated at this point. OK, bad example. Undefeated to the Super Bowl? Congrats Kansas City, its a short flight to Dallas in February.

Guest Blog By Fanspeak Contributing Writer Basheer Zada

- The defense as a whole played much better than it has in previous weeks. They forced 2 turnovers, a fumble recovery and an interception on the last play of the game, which could have been avoided had Carlos ”no-hands” Rogers picked off Kolb earlier in the drive. The defense held speedsters Maclin and Jackson to 4 catches for 35 yards combined, and allowed 353 total yards (much better than the 423 yards they had been averaging)

- As I predicted would happen, Lorenzo Alexander started at outside linebacker in place of Andre Carter, who registered a sack of his own. Alexander, who had that monster hit on special teams, faired pretty well. He generated some pressure, made a couple of plays in the open field, and finished the day with 3 tackles. It should be noted that Jim Haslett took a way more conservative approach this game and played a lot of cover 2 while relying on a 4 man rush to get pressure on the quarterback.

- Albert Haynesworth had his best game of the season and possibly as a Redskin. He had 3 big 3rd down stops and appeared more comfortable in the system. Lets hope this continues, and maybe Albert can find himself in the starting lineup in the coming weeks.

- The offense set the tone early with a punishing run game. The Portis-Torain duo combined for 125 yards on 29 rushes. I bet McNabb can count the number of times his team had 35 rushes on his right hand only. I would still like to see more balance in terms of passing and running the football, but this was an NFC east game and when the running game clicks, you cant stray away form it.

- McNabb had a great first half going 6-8 for 115 yds and a touchdown, only to go 2-11 for a meager 10 yards and an interception in the second half. Again I would like to see more consistency throughout the entire game from the team as a whole.

- McNabb got picked off by rookie safety Nate Allen, who was ironically drafted with the pick the Redskins gave up to the Eagles in the McNabb trade (2nd round, 36th overall).

- Stephon Heyer continues to show that he can be consistent at left tackle…….. consistent at getting flagged for false starts and holding penalties at the worst times possible. Please sign Trent Williams’ get well soon card (http://fanspeak.com/steveospeak/2010/10/04/trent-williams-get-well-soon-card/)

- The Eagles offense had the ball for 6 more minutes and 13 more plays than the Redskins. That is a huge improvement from previous weeks, but keep in mind that the Redskins drives after halftime resulted in: Interception, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt. Even with a lead, they need to have drives that last longer than 3:03 minutes (the longest drive of the second half).

- All in all, the Redskins are 2-2 and 2-0 in the NFC East, which puts them in first place (last time Redskins started 2-0 in the NFC East was in 1995). McNabb got a win over the team that deemed him old and washed up. Lets hope they build off of this momentum and take care of the Packers at home next week.

Hail!

Wow this week was full of a number of shocking games and brutal losses against the spread (and hopefully no one bet on too many of my predictions this week as no one saw this coming!)

Ravens over the Steelers: While Pittsburgh played well enough to win, they ended up beating themselves in the end. Between missed field goals and stupid penalties, Pittsburgh continued to shoot themselves in the foot. How you have three penalties on your last offensive series, while you are trying to put the game away is beyond me. The Steelers have the return of Ben Roethlisberger this week (they have a bye, so he won’t play until the following week) so I think they will be quite alright, but it was still a rough loss to Steelers fans.

Atlanta Beating the 49ers on a last second FG: The Falcons were coming off a win against the Saints and were once again at home, but they were a completely different team yesterday. Atlanta was sloppy all game (and the 49ers weren’t that much better) and needed a last second 43 yard field goal to beat San Francisco. Although the shock of the season might be the 49ers 0-4 start, the Falcons barely squeaking by shows some weaknesses on that team. The Falcons should still be a solid playoff contender, but that offense was not clicking on all cylinders yesterday against a team that can’t seem to get out of their own way. Atlanta will need to tighten up if they are to contend with the best teams in the NFC.

Saints squeaking by the Panthers: New Orleans was favored by two touchdowns, but needed a FG late in the 4th quarter to get past the hapless Panthers. Carolina played well enough to win this game against the Super Bowl Champs (in New Orleans no less). Rookie Jimmy Clausen showed some promise and their running game did well against the Saints defense. New Orleans is still 3-1, but they haven’t dominated anyone the way they did last year, and have some major questions going forward. I will say it is probably a good thing they changed placekickers as John Carney’s leg was needed three times.

Redskins Upset Philly, In McNabb’s Return (and Vick’s exit): Washington scored 17 points on their first three drives, and it is a good thing they did since those were the only points they had. While Washington’s offense struck early, this ended up being a defensive game as the Redskins held the Eagles to just 12 points. Philly lost starting quarterback Michael Vick to a rib injury at the end of the 1st quarter, but Kolb came in and played a solid game. Some bad coaching calls help lead to Philly’s demise (the whole 4th and 1 thing at the end of the first half was ridiculous). The Redskins won the game based on their rushing attack and defense, but the win still propelled them to 2-2 and atop the NFC East.

Colts Lose Their Second Divisional Game on a last second FG: Indianapolis has at times appeared dominate this season (weeks 2 and 3 and the last 5 minutes of week 1) but at other times has looked pretty ordinary. While Peyton put up another 350 yards and two touchdowns, their rushing attack failed to average any better than 3.1 yards per carry. While the Colts defense didn’t give up major yards like they did in Week one, they still gave up some big plays that put them in a hole. Overall I wouldn’t be too worried about the Colts as they are still a playoff team, but this loss could really hurt their chances for the division.

Honestly it is no surprise that other teams are hoping to cash in on the Eagles promoting Micheal Vick to starting quarterback, by trying to trade for opening day starter Kevin Kolb. Kolb, not Vick was the reason the Eagles felt comfortable moving Donovan McNabb in the offseason, and it is Kolb that has a brighter NFL future. That all being said I understand the team’s decision to go with the hot hand in Vick over Kolb. I also understand the Eagles reluctance to respond favorably to any phone calls from opposing G.M’s right now.

Kolb is still a young and promising quarterback and unlike Vick (and McNabb) Kolb is signed through next season. He would be an immediate upgrade over the quarterback situations in at least a half dozen cities, and could probably compete for a starting job in another half dozen. While Kolb had a bad opening game against Green Bay, it was just one game. Matt Schaub didn’t look to great against the Colts, but rebounded fairly well against the Redskins.

While Vick proponents, who think Kolb is done will point to his success these past two weeks they leave out a few salient details. For one thing Vick came in relief of Kolb and the Packers defense didn’t game plan all week for that situation. Had they spent their time gearing up for Vick it is possible his numbers would have been much worse. And while the Lions had all week to prepare for Vick and they still couldn’t stop him, it was the Detroit Lions defense, one of the weakest in the league.  If Kolb had the opportunity to face them, he very well could have put up just as good if not better numbers.

Now this was a tough situation for the Eagles and they might have made the best decision, but there is no way they should entertain the possibility of trading Kolb. For one thing they’d be selling extremely low on him, not exactly the best idea. For another they have already had one QB injury, what happens if they have another and Vick goes down. Do they really want to turn the ball over to rookie Mike Kafka, when they had Kolb on the roster? Also, remember this is just two games for Michael Vick, one of which was against a bad team. What happens if he starts to struggle as defenses start throwing different looks at him. Even in his best years Vick wasn’t a true ‘franchise’ quarterback, and it is hard to believe he is right now. Finally, Vick is a free agent after this season and up until 2 weeks ago it seemed like his time in Philly was over. What if Vick doesn’t want to return to the Eagles or gets a mega-deal in free agency Philly can’t match. The Eagles could end up without both quarterbacks, and need to scramble to find a viable option behind center.

While I’m not surprised to see teams calling to see if they can get Kolb on the cheap and take the P.R. nightmare off the Eagles hands, Philadelphia is making the right call here rejecting all offers. While some fans have given up on Kolb he still has a future, and it could still yet be as the Eagles longterm answer at quarterback.