Projo Pats Blog

This past weekend taught us a lot about who is really good in the NFL. The answer: No one. Certainly not our New England Patriots, who looked helpless against the San Diego Chargers -- a team that might be considered very good except for its 3-3 record. Not the Dallas Cowboys, who lost to the Arizona Cardinals, then within a couple of days lost their quarterback, their best defensive back and their punter. Not the vogue team of the previous two weeks, the Washington Redskins, who returned home and lost to the St. Louis Rams. And not the New York Giants, who made Derek Anderson look like a superstar in the making again on Monday night.

Improbably, the team on the top of the NFL heap is now the Tennessee Titans, the league's only undefeated team coming off their bye week at 5-0. Tennessee has a seemingly easy tune-up at Kansas City this week before returning home to face a tough test in Indianapolis. The Colts now look like contenders again after dismantling Baltimore, but you have to hold a healthy skepticism, since that was their first complete effort of the year. And Tennessee? Although they've managed to win with defense so far this year, the trend in recent years has been that an effective passing attack is the ticket to success in the NFL. With Kerry Collins running the show in Nashville, you wonder if the Titans have already peaked.

ESPN's latest power rankings have the Titans at number one, followed by the Giants, the Steelers, the Bills and the Redskins. New England has fallen all the way into the second half of the league, number 17.

NOTHING TO PANIC ABOUT: Bill Belichick, in his weekly conference call, fended off suggestions that the Patriots were in some sort of crisis mode following the loss to San Diego. He said Matt Cassel is still his quarterback, there was no rift between him and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on Sunday night, and suggested that some help might be on the way for New England's beleaguered offensive line. (projo.com)

WATCH OUT MATT: Fantasy sports columnist Michael Salfino has put out a red alert for Cassel, listing the Patriots' signal caller as one of the four most at risk of suffering an injury soon. Why? The Patriots are ranked 29th in the league in sack percentage allowed. (projo Fantasy Sports blog)

CHANGING ALIGNMENT: The Patriots played much of Sunday night's game with a 4-2-5 defensive scheme, meaning veteran linebackers Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi spent an unusual amount of time standing on the sidelines. Still, Vrabel was the only guy to so much as lay a hand on Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers all game, as the Patriots rushed the quarterback 29 times without sacking him once. (Boston Globe)

EXACTLY WHAT THE DOCTOR DIDN'T ORDER: If the Patriots were this ineffective against Rivers, Vincent Jackson and the rest of the Chargers, they will have a very tall order trying to stop Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal and the rest of the Denver Broncos passing attack, which might be the most explosive in the NFL. (Boston Herald)

CAN'T A MAN CHANGE? Speaking of Marshall, the 24-year-old wide receiver missed the first game of the season while he served a suspension for violating the league's personal conduct policy. He has been arrested multiple times, mostly because of domestic disputes. But there is one group that Marshall may be too ashamed to let down -- the 150 Denver schoolchildren he has begun meeting once a week to share experiences and life lessons. (New York Times)

DIFFICULT, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE: Denver's offense hasn't been quite as impressive lately, as injuries, mistakes and opponents' adjustments have slowed the Broncos' pace. (Boulder Daily Camera)

ANOTHER BIG DAY IN BIG D: All of yesterday's biggest news was happening in Dallas, as the Cowboys received word that Pacman Jones would miss four games due to a league suspension, then quickly pulled off the biggest move before the NFL's trade deadline, securing disgruntled wide receiver Roy Williams from the Lions. (Dallas Morning News) The formerly disgruntled Williams now joins the sometimes still disgruntled Terrell Owens in a wide receiving corps that will be running routes for Brad Johnson. You have to wonder, though -- is another big-name wide receiver really what the Cowboys need?

A CRISIS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS: The Cowboys also yesterday placed punter Mat McBriar, who was hurt on the blocked punt that ended the Arizona game, on injured reserve. The loss of McBriar and return man Felix Jones (out of a couple of weeks with a hamstring problem) is a devastating one-two punch to the Cowboys' special teams, and together with the Pacman Jones suspension, it has the Morning News' Kevin Sherrington wondering what comes next. A plague of locusts?

WHEELER DEALER: Peter King of Sports Illustrated writes that Pacman is just the latest failure in a long list of ill-advised gambles taken by Jerry Jones (remember Quincy Carter?). But the man has come up with some winners, too (remember that Herschel Walker trade?).

EASIER STANDARD: Redskins running back Clinton Portis doesn't think it was right that the league suspended Jones over this particular incident. Maybe if he had shot someone or something. Here's what Portis told John Thompson on Thompson's radio show: "I think with Pacman, to come back, to really have this opportunity was a golden opportunity for him, and all of the sudden it's been taken away by the outside world. And now you're under such a tight microscope that you can't fall, or you can't have a disagreement with a grown man. You know, I could see if it was pistol play or if he strangled him or choked him out while he was driving, but you know, if it's man-to-man and we bump chests and push each other, you know, I don't think that's an altercation worth taking football away from him. But, you know, wrong place wrong time is all I can say."

THE POLITICAL GAME: Barak Obama's presidential campaign has purchased ads to run on the Xbox game Madden 09. Gamers playing in 10 battleground states (i.e., not Rhode Island) will see the Obama ads appearing as stadium billboards. (TheHill.com)

HE WANTS OUT: Tight end Tony Gonzalez said earlier this year that he could accept a trade out of Kansas City. Now he seems his feelings were stronger than that. With the trade deadline past, Gonzalez says he's "pissed" that the Chiefs didn't ship him to a contending team. (FoxSports.com)

DIM AND DIMMER: That seems to sum up the prospects for the Detroit Lions, who placed quarterback Jon Kitna on injured reserve. (Detroit Free Press) Interestingly, Kitna didn't seem to agree that his back injury was of the season-ending variety.

WON'T KEEP HIM DOWN: Eli Manning says the chest injury he suffered against the Cleveland Browns on Monday night won't keep him out of the Giants' coming matchup with the 49ers.

 Tags  Football Today

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