1) Burress fiasco– It will impact Giants in as much as they will miss Plax, but not past him. Plax won games for them. The team will be strong. It can hurt the team because there was an extra guy who was staying deep instead of worrying about the run. How many times did Plax make the key catch at the key time? MANY times. Separately, the Giants offense better than the Cowboys offense, but they will still miss Burress.
2) QB Matt Stafford from Georgia will likely be the #1 pick in the draft, QB Sam Bradford from Oklahoma will likely be #2. This is good news for the Lions, as they have 3 picks in the top 33, and everyone who is a JR will be jumping for the 2009 draft because they are afraid of the rookie salary clause changing in 2010.
3) Jets – Denver. Both QBs will handle the rain. Jets will not just line up and shut down the Denver passing game. (Raiders pass defense can do that to the Broncos, but the problem with the Raiders was the run defense.) Broncos/Cutler very good passing game, the Jets will not stop them, but they need to get a credible pass rush in order to slow them down. Hard to attack the Jets offense, great running game, formations, movement, the sheer # of plays, Favre is an unbelievable short thrower, all meshing together. Singled out Leon Washington and Dustin Keller.
4) Steelers at NE– The extra days for the Jets, fresher legs helped them vs the Titans, the Steelers have the extra days for this game. Pitt defense can cover WRs, what sets apart the pitt defense is their LBs (Woodley and Harrison). Moss buried the Dolphins last week when they singled him. Moss is still one of the best, he gets it done 1 on 1. NE can play 10 on 9 when Moss is doubled. Do it all game. Casell is now a better runner, he goes straight up the middle because of Moss being doubled. NE cannot cover in the red zone. Cannot pressure the QB consistently.
5) Re last weeks’s Colts-Chargers game…that timeout call by Norv Turner to decide whether to go for FG or TD was a disaster. In the pros, you cannot mismanage the clock like that, that is what you are paid to do in those moments. (Recapping, with 1:30 left, instead of letting the clock go down to 1:00 and kicking FG, the chargers call a TO, and then go for the FG, which gives Manning plenty of time to go down the field and kick the FG for the win, which is exactly what they did.Either kick the FG at 1:00 or go for it on 4th and 1 with 1:30.)
6) CLE-IND. Cleveland is a mess, they do not get it done in crunch time. Colts without Saturday and Sanders, but Phil still not ready to say that Colts can’t get it done because he has such a low opinion of Cleveland.
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