Mid-Season NFL Musings

The midway point of the NFL season is upon us and for the first time all year, I think we can finally make some sense of what is going on. Aside from the crazy parity, there have been numerous performances and issues that have captured my interest. As always, I have a bullet point list of thoughts:

• Fresh in my mind is last night's Steelers-Bengals game, so leading off is the performance of Terrell Owens. Hands down he has been the biggest surprise of the season. I thought he was done (and I know I was not alone) when he signed with the Bengals. I figured it was all for publicity. Apparently I was wrong. In his last 5 games he has 41 catches for 618 yards and 7 touchdowns. That is simply amazing - too bad the Bengals suck because a little more TO playoff drama would not be the worst thing.
• Speaking of drama, the situation in Washington is simply baffling to me. I have never really thought that Mike Shanahan was that great of a coach. Sure, he can churn out 1000 yards rushers (or at least he did while in Denver - not so much this year) and sure, maybe his teams overachieved a bit, but he never won anything without Elway. He was lucky to have lasted as long as he did in Denver. In Washington, Shanahan has feuded with Albert Haynesworth and now has benched Donovan McNabb, a QB HE TRADED FOR, for Rex Grossman. Seriously...Rex Grossman. That's like impeaching Obama and naming Paris Hilton our new president.
  
• Has their been a more interesting plot twist than Kurt Warner on Dancing with the Stars? Since his retirement, the Cards have gone through 3 QB's - Matt Leinart, Derek Anderson, Max Hall - and are a pathetic 31st in passing offense. Yet somehow at 3-5, the Cards are only one game out of the playoffs. I keep on waiting for him to come back, but then I remember that he is not Brett Favre.
• Ok, so let's talk about the best teams in the league. In the NFC, it's the Giants and Packers with the Falcons and Saints coming in 3rd and 4th. I know Green Bay and New Orleans have struggled, but I think they still have the most talent of the four. The AFC is a bit more top heavy as any one of five teams - Pats, Ravens, Jets, Steelers, Colts - could be the best team in the league. To me though, the most interesting teams in the conference are Houston, Tennessee, KC and Oakland. They may not be the best but I could see any of them pulling an upset in round 1. At this point in the season though, I'm going to say Steelers-Packers in a classic Super Bowl match-up.
• Those who know me know my love of Phil Simms. He remains my favorite player of all-time and is a pleasure to listen to on CBS. In Sunday's game between Indy and Philly, he hit the mark with his comments about illegal hits and concussions. I have not heard many former players be on the side of safety, and maybe it was because he was a QB and not a defensive player, but he correctly opined that football is a game. This is not a direct quote, but more of what I took from his comments: It is not life and death. It may be considered macho to hit people hard, but this is a game and a profession. Players should be allowed to live their lives off the field and not have what happens on the field leave them unable to live it to their fullest. My bottom line: players are stronger and faster than ever. More safety needs to be taken by the league because I'm not sure the players can police themselves. It's not macho to hit someone in the head - it's stupid and ignorant. Keep it clean. Lower your shoulder.
• I can't believe I bought into the Carolina hype. Somehow I looked at the offensive line and the ground game and thought it was possible to win 7-8 games if they got an early lead and bled the clock. Boy was I wrong - they are by far the worst team in the league, so much that I am convinced that Buffalo would beat them by 10 on a neutral field. With Matt Moore out for the season, we now get to see who sucks less (as a football player because we know the answer for who sucks as a person) -Jimmy Claussen or Tony Pike.
• I also said after week 1 that Philly was done. My thinking was that if their was 1 city in the country that could not handle a full-blown QB controversy, it was Philly. Well, somehow Andy Reid has fumbled this so many times that it actually is working for them. Mike Vick took the reigns after Kevin Kolb got hurt. Then Kolb stepped in admirably when Vick was hurt, only to be replaced by Vick when he was healthy. I don't know how this will effect Kolb in the long run, but for now, it is working.
  
• There is no one happier than me to see Darren McFadden's success, not because I know him or think he is a good guy. Nope, it's just that finally my confidence in him as a fantasy player has been rewarded. I feel pretty good with the Rodgers, Vick -DMF, Charles - Gates -White sextet leading my team.
• Finally, a few words about the Cowboys. I have always been a hater, so seeing them implode has been fun. I never once thought Wade Phillips was the right coach for the team (he is a GREAT coordinator, not coach)and it is showing. I mean, how can a team with this much talent suck so badly? Jerry Jones dug himself into a hole by saying he has never fired a coach in the middle of the season. Thankfully for Phillips, whose body language screamed "GET ME OUT OF HERE", and for the Cowboys, Jones ate some crow and fired Phillips yesterday. It won't help them this year but will allow them spend some time assessing who will be the best coach for this team.

Ok, I think that is all I have. Have a wonderful Tuesday.