Well, for my team, I'd say OK.
Good: LaMont Jordan, Randy Moss, Jerry Porter, Doug Gabriel, O-Line. The play of the defense has also been pleasantly surprising. GREAT pass rush from the defensive line this year...Derrick Burgess was huge and Warren Sapp is finally back at DT instead of DE. 4-3 is definitely more effective than Ryan's 3-4 last year. Rookie OLB Kirk Morrison has been very surprising...57 tackles on the season thus far and a forced fumble. He's probably the up there with the top five rookie LBs in the AFC.
Bad: They've taken too long to jell on offense. Kerry Collins hasn't been playing especially well and hasn't gotten the ball to Randy, Jerry, or Doug. He also hasn't been as good as one would hope in the Red Zone, either. Moreover, they've also got some problems calling plays on offense, in my opinion. Every time LaMont has ran the ball 20 times a game, he's put up big numbers and they've won. Norv's got to stick to the running game. It'll open up the pass and once you open up the pass with those WRs, they can do some great things. Thus far, they've under-utilized their talent on offense along with Kerry Collins poor play early in the season. He has, however, avoided turning the ball over with only two INTs on the season. Once they get Randy back, I think they'll be even better than they have for the past two weeks...which should scare a lot of teams. The defense has taken a HUGE shot with the losses of Derrick Gibson and Charles Woodson and that was evident last week when their substitutes were rookie Fabian Washington and Jarrod Cooper (a special teams player).Â
If their defense can keep up its good play and their offense can hold on to ball longer while utilzing all their talents, they may push the Wild Card if they go on a streak. But the AFC West has no weak teams...so that may be tough. If they hadn't lost Gibson and Woodson, I would be more comfortable in saying that the next two games against the Chiefs and the Broncos would be wins...but it seems like a stretch given the caliber of those two guys. It's too bad they had so many tough losses 3 of their 4 first games....we might be looking at one of the premier teams in the NFL right now.
I'll go out on the limb and say they beat the Chiefs this weekend and then upset the Broncos next weekend. It also wouldn't surprise me if they lost both of those games...it'll hinge on the play of Kerry because the rest of the team is definitely solid.Â
Overall....the only surprise I've seen is the Bengals, Colts, and Bucs. And I can't believe how bad the Chiefs still suck....all those good players....it sucks.
Oh, and I love how Trent Green loses his father and has a better game than Favre had when he lost his dad, but he gets absolutely NO air time on television...must be because Favre's a better QB...Oh, wait....he isn't.       Â
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