Around the NFL -- Week 2

[General_Failure]

Stay away from the children and Jesus juice, you should be fine in a couple weeks.

[The BIGSTUD]

Sad to say, but the Falcons are now the team to beat in the NFC. The defense is ridiculous, and that was done without Abraham.

90 yards passing is disgusting, but this team reminds me of a poor passing offense and very good defense one year that went very far...take a guess?

The Bears are I think right now. They have the best defense, and the offense is playing well. I don't know how long that'll last though.

[phattymatty]

jesus people, it's week 2.  i'm not gonna put money on a new orleans - baltimore super bowl just yet.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

But.... OHMYGOD Reggie Bush!

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

So, just now getting off the football hangover, I watched the first DVR'd ShortCuts game - Saints at Packers.

Some thoughts:

--The Packers' OL is not as horrendous as advertised, or the Saints' front seven is really bad.  Either way, most of the pressure on Favre was from his running around like an idiot.  I don't know if he ever was able to sit in the pocket and make plays, but he sure preferred to run around in this one.
----Following from that, the Packer offense looked a lot similar to the Eagle offense with one key difference: McNabb is more comfortable making plays out of the pocket, so timing is better.
--The Saints really are not very good...
----On defense, there were Packer receivers open on every play - problem for Favre was that he took some of the routes out of play with his constant scrambling.
----On offense, the line is pretty bad, and Brees looked very average at best behind it.
--Reggie Bush is like lightening, even in the NFL - but he too often looks to make moves when he should just get what he can out of something.  He'll learn, though... probably when he messes up his knee with all the twisting.
--I don't know how Donald Driver is still so quick.
--On the flip side, Joe Horn has definitely lost a step.

[reese125]

a step? he wasnt close to out-running anyone on that defense on that long pass play. he was so far ahead he lost every step he had..unreal. I see him tweaky a hammy by week 5

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

a step? he wasnt close to out-running anyone on that defense on that long pass play. he was so far ahead he lost every step he had..unreal. I see him tweaky a hammy by week 5

He was still able to get open in the first place, so that's a start.

[reese125]

you are correct sir

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I watched another last night: Rams at 49ers...

--Alex Smith looked like the better QB in that game.  He took shorter drops and made quick decisions.  He seemed to have a knack for getting rid of the ball right before it got swatted out or he got hit, but I look for him to fumble a few times this year getting the ball knocked out from the blind side.
--Bulger, on the other hand, took deep drops right into the edge blitz of the 49ers and ended some plays before they started.  Bad coaching on the Rams' part to let him keep doing that.
--Both runningbacks played a great game.  The blocking was good (actually I'm going to give the edge to the 49ers OL), but Gore and Jackson both made something out of nothing.  And the 49ers were able to RUN THE CLOCK DOWN with Gore at the end of the game.  That's was a refreshing thing to watch.  Gore did have a key fumble in the red zone, though.
--Both defenses relied on blitzing to make plays.  San Francisco made the adjustments on offense to protect Smith, and as I said, the Rams seemed to stubbornly stick to a beaten game plan.  Hmmmm
--JR Reed still looks better than anyone the Eagles have had returning kicks.

[Sgt PSN]

Even though it's still incredibly early, I'm prepared to say that I may have been mistaken by thinking Alex Smith would be a bust.  He's looked pretty good through the first 2 games this year. 

Smith 1, Me 0