NFL 2009 Regular Season Discussion Thread - Page 7

The NFL's also-rans sure stood out today:

Indy 42  Rams 6
Green Bay 31  Cleveland 3
San Diego 37  KC 7
New England 35  Tampa 7
Jets 38  Oakland 0

It sure doesn't bode well for Washington playing tomorrow night against Philly. Can they keep the score within 4 TD's? Luckily, the Lions had the week off.

There sure are a lot of terrible teams this year.

Over a week later, and I still cannot believe Philly lost to the Raiders. I expect the Eagles to be pissed after that lackluster effort last week, and just pummel a Redskins team that is playing under a lame duck coach and mailing in the rest of the season.

Cincy does look for real, but the Bears defense certainly is a shadow of its former self, too. Does anyone remember when Chicago and Tampa Bay had the two most feared defenses in the league? Now, neither team seems capable of stopping anyone.

Keep in mind that five of those early "AFC" Super Bowl wins were really by "NFL" teams  -- Baltimore (1) and Pittsburgh (4).  They, along with the Browns, were moved to the new AFC in order to balance the number of teams when the NFL and AFL merged.

The Lions meet the Rams this Sunday in what is most likely the worst matchup in NFL history. Detroit is 1-22 over their past 23 games, while the Rams have lost 17 straight. If you only count since the Rams last won a game, the two teams are a combined 1-33 over the past 17 weeks of regular season play!

So, who wants to buy a ticket to this game?

Way to go, Lions! Just when you thought the team could give up the title as the league's worst team, they pull together for a total team effort and lose to the previously 0-17 Rams. Luckily, the game was blacked out, so Detroit fans were not subjected to this crapfest. Since the local affiliate was showing the Browns - Bears game at 1pm (another horrible matchup), I decided to do yard work and then watch a DVD instead.

If you know a Packers fan, give him/her a hug today.

Luckily, no, I haven't. However, 1-23 over the past 24 games still makes the Lions "King of the Crap Pile", IMO. Now, if the Bucs somehow manage to go 0-16, then they could be "co-King".




Wow, you actually watched the Lions - Rams game, Scott? I think I would have rather had my spleen removed with a spoon.

As bad as Seattle is, I do not see the Lions beating the Seahens on the road. It seems like forever since Detroit last won a road game (you have to go back at least to some time in 2007 -- I do not feel like looking it up).

With the Giants struggling, Philly being a Jeckel & Hyde team, the Cowboys not being that good, and the Cardinals getting back to their mediocre ways, right now it looks like the NFC may come down to just New Orleans and Minnesota. The 49ers are an interesting team, but I think they are at least a year (and a QB) away from being a serious contender. We should get an idea if the Falcons can still be taken seriously after tonight's game against the Saints.

Too bad an NFL game is not just 15 minutes long. I had faith that the Lions would pull out the loss, not matter how insurmountable the lead looked. They are money on the road. It's been more than two years since they last won away from home, where they have won a whopping two games in that span!

Break up the Bengals!

The damage that Matt Millen caused to this team cannot be overstated. I think they were much worse off than an expansion team when he finally left, since they were saddled with a lot of big contracts of non-NFL talent.  It would take an excellent GM 2-3 years to get this team back to even being competitive, and we do not know yet if Martin Mayhew is such a GM. His background -- understudy to Millen -- should make every Lions fans skeptical until Mayhew proves himself otherwise, though.

I know the Pats used to be quite bad, but I know little of their ownership during those years, so it's tough for me to make comparisons. In Detroit's case, though, everything goes back to a clueless owner who consistently makes bad hires and then leaves those people in place for far too long -- then the cycle repeats itself. This has been going on for half a century.

This time, after arguably the worst 8 year stretch in NFL history, culminating in the worst single season in league history, any decent owner would have cleaned house. Instead, Ford simply promoted three people who had been with the team through this entire debacle to the top three positions in the organization -- all without even giving the slightest thought to looking outside the organization for new blood.

Clearly, Ford either doesn't care or is completely clueless in how to run a team (personally, I think its both). He doesn't deserve a single ticket sale for his utter incompetence -- Ford Field should be completely empty until he is finally no longer controlling the franchise.

So, which team picks up Larry Johnson now that the Chiefs have released him? He seems like a perfect fit for New England. They could use the help in the backfield, and have been willing to take on outcast veterans in the past.

Pittsburgh could also use help at running back, but that franchise has not been one to go after this type of player, so I do not see Johnson becoming a Steeler.

I do believe I am beginning to smell the scent of "fraud" in Denver.

One more week, one more piece of evidence that the Bengals are for real and the Broncos are not. Unfortunately, the local CBS affiliate decided this area would be more interested in the KC - Oakland game than the Cincy - Pittsburgh game, so I missed watching the Steelers lose (I guess that's a good thing for this Steeler fan).

Speaking of KC - Oakland, I did flip to the game a few times. This is the first time I've seen JaMarcus Russell play. I've read how bad he is, but even those descriptions did not do justice to how truly horrible a QB this guy is. He may be worse than Ryan Leaf, if that is possible!

I went to bed at half time of the Pats - Colts game, and was impressed with how New England was playing. I was quite surprised to wake up this morning to see they lost. What happened?