NFL Rundown - Week 10

This post written while reading about provocation as a partial defense for murder.

Week 9 Recap

Chris	Adam
Most Surprising Team: Tennessee. The 49ers are a good team, and I predicted that San Francisco would have their way with the Titans. I was wrong. While the Titans were never as good as their record last season, they're not as bad as their record this time around.	Most Surprising Team: Tennessee. They started 0-6, had a bye week, and are 2-0 since. The competition has been adequate, and with games against Buffalo and Houston on the horizon, they could edge closer to .500.
Most Disappointing Team: Indianapolis. Sure, they won and are 8-0, but they've struggled the last 2 weeks. They needed a miss from 42 yards by a very good kicker to win in regulation against the Texans. Their rush offense has been underwhelming all season.	Most Disappointing Team: New York Giants. They started out 5-0. They are now 5-4. Bad losses against Philly and AZ preceded last week’s debacle against SD. Manning and Jacobs were good, but Bradshaw is getting way too many carries in this offense.
Offensive Player of the Week: TE Dallas Clark. Though he didn't score a TD, 14 catches is a career high for the Colts tight end. His 60 receptions on the season is 15 more than any other TE in the NFL, and his lead in yards is by more than 100 over Gates.	Offensive Player of the Week: RB Michael Turner. 18 Carries and 166 yards leads to an average of 9.2 (!!!) yards/rush. His two TD trips were nice as well. Several people, including this blogger, had Turner slowing down this season. We missed.
Defensive Player of the Week: DT Jonathan Babineaux. He had about as good a game you can ask for from a DT, with 9 tackles and 2.5 sacks. Even when he wasn't sacking Campbell, the Washington QB was feeling the pain, as Babineaux hit him time and time again.	Defensive Player of the Week: DT Jonathan Babineaux. 2.5 sacks to go along with 9 tackles is one of the big reasons Atlanta shrugged off a weak Washington team. Babineaux is better than he gets credit for, though, and you could see his name more often as the season progresses.

Top 10: (No comments. I'm busy and kinda late.)
1. New Orleans Saints (8-0)
2. Indianapolis Colts (8-0)
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)
4. Minnesota Vikings (7-1)
5. New England Patriots (6-2)
6. Cincinnati Bengals (6-2)
7. Dallas Cowboys (6-2)
8. San Diego Chargers (5-3)
9. Arizona Cardinals (5-3)
10. Denver Broncos (6-2)

Week 10 Picks:

	Chris	Adam
Chicago @ San Francisco	San Francisco	Chicago
Atlanta @ Carolina	Atlanta	Carolina
Tampa Bay @ Miami	Miami	Miami
Jacksonville @ N.Y. Jets	N.Y. Jets	N.Y. Jets
Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh	Cincinnati	Pittsburgh
New Orleans @ St. Louis	New Orleans	New Orleans
Buffalo @ Tennessee	Tennessee	Tennessee
Denver @ Washington	Denver	Washington
Kansas City @ Oakland	Kansas City	Oakland
Seattle @ Arizona	Arizona	Arizona
Dallas @ Green Bay	Dallas	Dallas
Philadelphia @ San Diego	Philadelphia	San Diego
New England @ Indianapolis	New England	New England
Baltimore @ Cleveland	Baltimore	Baltimore
Week #9	9-4	7-6
Overall	77-52	77-52

Players to Watch

Chris	Adam
Offensive Player to Watch: Brett Favre. I know, I know - who's not watching him? But the Lions have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL (worst defensive QB rating in the NFL), so look for Favre to feast on Detroit this weekend.	Offensive Player to Watch: Chris Johnson. He’s not on a great team, but the dude has 491 yards rushing…in his last three games! Buffalo is currently dead last in the NFL in run defense, and Johnson could end up with over 700 rushing yards in a 4 game stretch.
Defensive Player to Watch: DeMarcus Ware. He's only 14th in sacks this season so far with 5, but this week he gets just what he needs to move him toward the top of the leaderboard: a game against the Packers, whose woeful offensive line has allowed a lead-leading 37 sacks.	Defensive Player to Watch: DeAngelo Hall. Hall is 9th in the NFL in interceptions, and will draw a real tough match-up this week in Denver’s Brandon Marshall. I may be going out on a limb here, but I see Hall having a REAL good game. He’ll need to for Wash to pull of the upset.

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NFL Rundown - Week 9

This post written while laughing a little inside at Oregon.

Week 8 Recap

Chris	Adam
Most Surprising Team: Carolina. The fact that they beat Arizona is surprising enough. But when you consider their utter collapse against those same Cardinals in the playoffs, and that they forced Warner into 6 turnovers... that's shocking.	Most Surprising Team: Houston. Don't look now, but after a convincing win @ Buffalo, Houston has won 4 of their last 5. I'm not sure they have the talent to make the playoffs, but with their bye still to come, they can win 10 games this season.
Most Disappointing Team: New York Giants. Way to come out mondo flat. The Giants went into halftime down 30 to 7, then gave up over 100 yards rushing to the Eagles in the second half alone. After starting 5-0, New York is now 5-3 and trailing in a tough division.	Most Disappointing Team: New York Jets. They started off strong, but have lost 4 of their last 5. Their schedule isn't very easy for the rest of the season either. If Sanchez struggles in the cold New York air this winter, the Jets will miss the playoffs.
Offensive Player of the Week: Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers. It was impossible for the game to live up to the hype, but the quarterbacks sure did. They combined for over 500 yards with 7 TDs and 0 (0!!!) interceptions.	Offensive Player of the Week: Ryan Moats. 23 carries, 126 yards, and three trips to paydirt. He was very impressive against the hapless Bills. I'm not sure he'll have a better game than that for the rest of the year, but he was absolute money last week.
Defensive Player of the Week: Shawne Merriman. Yeah, he was playing the Raiders, but it's the first big game for Merriman since 2007. He had his first 2 sacks since that 2007 season, and his 7 tackles is nearly half of what he had in the first 6 games combined (11).	Defensive Player of the Week: Julius Peppers. A sack, a forced fumble, and a INT returned for a touchdown sums up how Carolina beat the defending NFC Champs in Arizona last week. Peppers is still amazing, but can be overshadowed by an overall bad team.

Top 10: (I had comments typed up for these. Then Blogger screwed up and I lost all the work. So, screw it. Just teams this week.)
1. New Orleans Saints (7-0)
2. Indianapolis Colts (7-0)
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2)
4. Minnesota Vikings (7-1)
5. New England Patriots (5-2)
6. Denver Broncos (6-1)
7. Cincinnati Bengas (5-2)
8. Philadelphia Eagles (5-2)
9. Dallas Cowboys (5-2)
10. Houston Texans (5-3)

Week 9 Picks:

	Chris	Adam
Washington @ Atlanta	Atlanta	Atlanta
Arizona @ Chicago	Arizona	Chicago
Baltimore @ Cincinnati	Cincinnati	Baltimore
Houston @ Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
Kansas City @ Jacksonville	Jacksonville	Jacksonville
Miami @ New England	New England	Miami
Green Bay @ Tampa Bay	Green Bay	Green Bay
Carolina @ New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans
Detroit @ Seattle	Seattle	Seattle
San Diego @ N.Y. Giants	N.Y. Giants	San Diego
Tennessee @ San Francisco	San Francisco	San Francisco
Dallas @ Philadelphia	Philadelphia	Philadelphia
Pittsburgh @ Denver	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh
Week #8	7-6	9-4
Overall	68-48	70-46

Players to Watch

Chris	Adam
Offensive Player to Watch: Alex Smith. If he's going to make a statement, it's here. Tennessee is the 32nd ranked pass defense and has given up the most passing TDs (19) in the NFL. Opposing QBs have put up a passer rating of over 108 on the Titans.	Offensive Player to Watch: Maurice Jones-Drew. 8 carries for 177 yards and 2 TDs in a loss last week. Jax goes up against a terrible KC team, and MJD could put up a repeat performance. Don't be surprised if he finds the end zone two more times this weekend.
Defensive Player to Watch: Darren Sharper. Sure, Jake Delhomme played well last week against the Cardinals. But the Saints ain't no Cardinals, and Darren Sharper, the good kind of NFL leader in picks, could get a couple against Delhomme, who's the bad kind of leader in that category.	Defensive Player to Watch: Charles Tillman. The Bears CB looks to be completely healthy for the first time in a while, and had an INT returned for 6 last week as evidence. The Bears play Arizona this week, and they are last in the league in rushing. Look for Tillman to have another pick this week.

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Mid-Season's Top Positions Players -- Quarterback

This post was written while watching Drew Brees and Matty Ice duke it out. A fitting game to watch before putting our QB list down.

In this post, I'll break down what Chris and I believe are the top 8 players at the QB position through 8 weeks of the NFL Season. RB, TE and WR positions to come in the next few days. So with no further adieu, here are the eight best Quarterbacks from the first half of the season.

#8 -- Kyle Orton -- Denver Broncos
He's not going to be a pro-bowler. He's not lit up the league with his sensational passes. He's not one of "those guys" that every team wants to have. But at the end of the day, Orton's been plain good for the 6-1 Broncos. His stats aren't amazing (13th in Comp%, 14th in Yards), but he's done what he's been asked to do, and is playing in a system that fits his skill-set perfectly. He may not end the season in the top-8, but he's had a great first half.

#7 -- Ben Roethlisberger -- Pittsburgh Steelers
Most NFL fans can't stand the guy, and I understand why. He looks lazy and slow at times, and holds on to the ball way too long. But the dude is a winner. He's sporting a QB Rat. over 100, and has the 3rd most yards in the NFL. On top of that, I'm not sure any team in the NFL would look forward to a matchup against the defending champs at this point. Their mettle will be tested in the next few weeks, with games @ Denver, Vs Cincinnati, and @ Baltimore in the next four weeks.

#6 -- Brett Favre -- Minnesota Vikings
This is the one QB that's liked a little less than Big Ben, but the old man just keeps getting it done. He has the 8th most yards in the NFL, and a deceiving QB Rat of 106.0. He does have a lot of dump-off passes, but everyone knows that Tavaris Jackson wouldn't have thrown that game winner against the 49ers in week 3. He's more than efficient, and time will tell whether or not he will hold up for the entire season. After the midway point, however, he's as good as advertised, and Vikings fans and players are enjoying a QB with intangibles and talent that they've not seen in quite a while.

#5 -- Tom Brady -- New England Patriots
Love 'em or Hate 'em, Tom is money. He proved he was all the way back in a week 6 beat down of Tennessee, where he threw for 5 TDs, in the 2nd quarter! He had 6 overall, and sports a TD/INT ratio of 15/4. He's 5th in the NFL in yards/game, but less than 5 yards/game behind 2nd place Roethlisberger in that category. For those that thought Brady was done, you were sorely mistaken. I don't think it will surprise anyone if the Patriots are back in the AFC Championship game this season.

#4 -- Matt Schaub -- Houston Texans
Schaub is the 2nd biggest surprise on this list, next to Orton of course. But the dude has been electric this season. 3rd in yards/game, Tied for 1st in TDs, a QB Rat. over 100, and the most 20+ yard passes in the NFL, Schaub brings the total package to the table. Sure it helps to have Andre Johnson on your team, but right now Schaub is in the zone. The Texans will be tested in the next few weeks; they have to play the Colts twice in their next 3 games. But after 8 games, the 5-3 Texans hold the 4th best QB in the NFL.

#3 -- Peyton Manning -- Indianapolis Colts
Another season, another stellar first half for the elder of the Manning brothers. Let's run through some stats here. Yards/game - 1st. TDs - T4. QB Rat. - 2nd. Sacks Taken - 1st. The dude can play, and we've almost become mundane to the fact that he's going to put up amazing numbers to the point where we're no longer amazed. We are here to tell you remind you, however, that there is no better play-calling QB in the league. The Colts' next 4 are brutal, though. Houston, NE, @ Houston, @ Baltimore. We'll re-evaluate at the end of the season.

#2 -- Drew Brees -- New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees? Number 2? Who can be number 1?!? Brees has been flat out amazing this season, indeed. He holds the 3rd highest QB Rating, and is tied for the most TD passes in the NFL. He spreads the ball around amazingly and, most importantly, is the captain of the NFC Favorite Saints (7-0). On top of that, they play the Panthers, Rams and Bucs in their next three. Say hello to the 10-0 Saints. The real question now is whether or not the Saints can run the table and go 16-0 in the regular season.

#1 -- Aaron Rodgers -- Green Bay Packers
That's right, Brees is not the best QB in our rankings. Aaron Rodgers has been, in a word, phenomenal. He has the highest QB Rat. in the NFL, the most 40+ yard plays, and the best TD/INT ratio in the NFL (15/2). All of this with that offensive line? He has little time on most plays, but makes the most out of bad situations on most plays. He also leads the NFC in yards, despite being 8th in the NFC in attempts/game. He's a gamer, and he'll have to be more than impressive over the team's 2nd half of the season in order to get the Packers into the playoffs. They'll be tested in the 2nd half, playing big games against Dallas, San Fran, Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Arizona the remainder of the way.

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