NFL Week #6

What a difference a week can make in my moods during football season. After last week's embarrassing loss, the Texans bounced back to win this week.

Holy crap, it pains me to admit this but the freaking Steelers and Titans are the best two teams in the AFC. The big question for the Steelers is how the offensive line will hold up the rest of the season.

The Titans defense might be the best in the league. What's funny is that the Titans are doing it with out the Son of Zeus Vince Young, the most overrated player to come out of the draft in a long time. The Titans are marching through the season with out Young. Quick note on a theory circling the message boards: Many say Bud Adams made the Titans stick it to the Texans by drafting Young. That theory makes no sense. How can they stick it to the Texans when the Texans had the first pick and took Mario Williams? The Titans had the third pick and took Young. The Texans could
take anyone they want and nobody could have stuck it to them.

This week's middle finger goes to Adam Pacman Jones. He of season long suspension for six arrests and twelve police incidents. He did it again this month. NFL Commish Roger Gdodell lifted the suspension before the season but laid out conditions to his return. Jones had to be on his best behavior or Goodell promised he would punish him. Goodell reminded Jones that playing in the NFL is a privilege not a right. Well, Goodell kept true to his word and suspended Jones four games starting this week. Goodell also reserved the right to add to the suspension if Jones doesn't complete certain conditions by November 16th.

Chris Henry, the league's other problem child, made me laugh with his quote: "I guess the commissioner really ain't putting up with anything, especially being in his (Jones) situation and my situation." Over the same period of time, Henry was suspended two games in 2006 and eight in 2007 for his five arrests. Henry's quote about his conversation with Jones also is a bit of a peak in to Jones' mind: "When I did talk to him, he just told me he didn't think it would be anything, really." To me it's revealing that Jones thought he could get away with more even though Goodell stressed to him how serious any violation of his return conditions were.

My Player of the Week is Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. He's coming along nicely and leading the resurgent Falcons back from the dark days of Michael Vick's dog fighting scandal and cowardly Bobby Petrino's sudden resignation. Having Michael Turner as a running back isn't hurting matters but the fact remains Ryan is a rookie fresh off the Boston College campus. I think this week was his best with 22/30 passing with 301 yards with a TD against a very good Bears defense. To top it off, with six seconds remaining he delivered a perfect pass to put the Falcons in field goal range with one second left on the clock.

And this week's Joe Pisarcik/Carson Palmer Player of the Week is Detroit Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky. In the first quarter with his team backed up against their own endzone, he lost complete track of where he was. He stepped back deep for a pass and stepped out the back of the endzone for a safety. Costly too. The Lions lost 12-10.

As usual, I save my Texans take for last. Man what a roller coaster of emotions Sunday's game put me through. Two early long TD plays, one out of the Wildcat formation, and Matt Schaub's two interceptions had me thinking it was going to be a long and embarrassing afternoon. The boo birds were out early for Schaub and the "We want Sage" chants started after the second INT. The Texans pulled it together and put together drives that at least netted field goals. It was Jacoby Jones' electrifying punt return for a TD that turned things around. The game was a back and forth affair after that. It was Texan's miscues that actually kept the game from being a blowout. The Texans simply cannot continue to turn the ball over and
expect to win. This week it was two fumbles lost and two interceptions.

I still take issue with Gary Kubiak's game day play calling. The Texans were knocking the Dolphins around by pounding the ball with Steve Slaton and Ahman Green. Instead of keeping at it and wearing the 'phins down, they went to the air and didn't use much clock. Kubiak's clock management again comes into question. At the end of the half, instead of running down the clock or forcing Miami to burn a timeout, the Texans punt with 22 seconds left on the play clock and 40+ seconds left on the game clock. They could have run it down to under 20 seconds and left Miami no time to do any damage. After being burned twice by long plays, you'd think the Texans would want to keep Miami's offense off the field as much as possible.

Tomorrow I'll post my week seven picks vs. the spread and my results from week 6.