Three NFL Teams that grew up Sunday?

Three NFL Teams that grew up Sunday?

Three teams took big boy steps in the NFL Sunday to show the rest of the league they will not be over looked this season. The Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, and the Oakland Raiders won games after spotting their opponents double digits leads. Without any recent history of winning anyone's of theses teams could have roll over and just laid a giant egg and no one would have been surprised at all. But this is a difference season and theses three teams have a difference look to them.

How easy could it have been for the Lions knowing their history in Minnesota ( 13 years of losing in the dome ) falling behind 20 to 0 at halftime to say to themselves here won go again And call it a day. But this Detroit Lions team has a stud at quarterback ( Matthew Stafford ) and weapons to come back on any team in the NFL.

Facing the best QB in football ( Tom Brady ) and spotting him a 21-0 lead who would have blame the Bills if they packed it in and started thinking to their next game knowing nobody expected them to be in the game anyway. However the Buffalo Bills have proved already in this young season they can score a lot of points, and let's face it New England's defense is not very good. The Bill's took advantage of 4 Brady int's and manhandled the Pat's secondary with quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing darts all over the field to snap a 15 game losing steak to the New England Patriots.

After losing a heart breaking shootout in week 2 to the above Buffalo Bills and falling behind by 10 to the New York Jets and their supposedly great defense, the old Oakland Raiders might have seen this as a sign of bad things to come and just gave up. But this is a new Raider team with a new head coach ( Huge Jackson ) and a running attack that open holes in that vaulted Jet's D my grandmother could have run thought. The Raiders showed sign last season they might be turning a corner and heading in the right direction ( by beating every team in their division in all six meetings )
but with no change at quarterback and a coaching move in the after going 8 & 8 it's hard to know how this team might react to a game like Sunday's'

I wrote in an earlier post that I didn't see any surprise teams coming out of this 2011 season, but I can now say I am happy to be wrong. I thought the lockout would put young teams behind the eight ball with little or no time to prepare for the coming season. But theses three young teams with no recent history of winning, pasted a huge test Sunday by coming back to win games that in their recent pasted would have been unthinkable.

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com

No chance

Minnesota Vikings - - San Francisco 49ers - - Tennessee Titans
Carolina Panthers - - Buffalo Bills - - Cleveland Brown
Seattle Seahawks - - Miami Dolphins - - Jacksonville Jaguar
Arizona Cardinals - - Washington Redskins - - Cincinnati Bengals

You would like to think as a fan when a season start's your team has a chance to win, however how would you as a fan feel knowing your team has no chance of winning going into a season? Now this can be said of all sports fans in all of sports, but NFL football adds another level of pressure for it's fan because of the 16 game schedule. In major league baseball or NBA basketball a four of five game losing streak is not the end of a season for most of it's teams and fans. But in the NFL if your team go's on that kind of losing streak in almost all cases season over see you next year. There's a lot of reasons teams fail to make it to the top of the mountain, ( ownership, coaching, injuries, or maybe personnel ) regardless of the reasons, being a fan of a team with no chance of winning is very painful.

As a die hard Packers fan for over 40 years, I remember the Packer team's of the 70's and 80's who had little or no chance of winning. 20 seasons only two playoff appearance and only three winning season. So i know what it feel like to be a fan of a team you know can't win. I've listed 12 teams I believe have no chance of winning this coming season and most of them have a common theme quarterback. Of the 12 teams three of them have QB's who have show the promise they might be able to win in the NFL. ( Cleveland's Colt Mccoy, Jacksonville's, David Garrard, and Buffalo's Ryan Fitzpatrick ) But theses three teams have a lot more to overcome then QB.

For anyone who has read my blogs you know what I think of the quarterback position. Without a bonafide leader at that position you just can't win consistently. I could have added a few more teams to my list but decided on my bottom 12. This whole CBA lockout mess has all but guarantee's a very bad season of football for a lot of teams in the NFL, and theses 12 teams in particular will be hit hardest this coming season. There is always a surprise team or two that pop up every season, however I don't think it will be coming out of this group of 12 teams on my list. So to the fans of any team on my list I feel your pain.

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com

Five things to look for in the NFC north this season.

Five things to look for in the NFC north this season.

With the start of training camp less than two months away and yes I see the season starting on time, I've come up with five things to look for in the NFC north in the 2011 season.

( # 1) rookies from this years draft will have Little or no impact on this coming season. Unless the players cave in to owners demands over the next fews day and not wait for the judges ruling on the legality of the lockout ( which could take up to three weeks ) coaches will have very little time to work theses guys into their game plans. This is really to bad considering Chicago and Minnesota drafted for instant needs. Trying to input rookies into the starting lineup is bad enough with a full session of off season workouts and mini camps, the lockout has all but destroyed any chance for rookies to get the needed reps or time with coaches to be much help this year.

( # 2 ) The Super bowl champ's Green Bay Packers as scary as it might sound are going to be a better team this season. This team's make up is just that good. From top to bottom they have the best team in the NFC north and the motivation of knowing they finish second in their division last season. I think if the rest of the NFC think there might be a Super bowl hangover attached to this team, they will be sadly mistaken. You will see a more balance offense with James Stark and Ryan Grant running the football which will open up an already potent passing game. And with Jermichael Finley coming back from injury the Packers will be a very hard team to stop offensively. The Packers defense speak for it's-self even with an aging Charles Woodson the Packers have the best defense in the NFC north and a lot of young players who will get nothing but better.

Record 12-4

( # 3 ) The Chicago Bears will take a huge step backwards next season. The Bears have the look of a team that will self-implode in 2011.Their failure to fully to stay out in front of the Jay Cutler situation might be their un-doing. It's hard to believe a team that just won 11 games and the NFL north may be the team in the NFC to take the biggest fall. There is a serious chemistry problem in Chicago from the front office to the assistant trainer on the sideline. You need to answer three questions on the Bear's going into next season to get a feel for the team you might see. Do you trust the quarterback, the coaching staff, or the front office, if you answer no to any of theses questions expect a long season in chi-town.

Record 6-10

( # 4 ) The Detroit lions will be the second best team in the NFC north but will not make the playoffs in 2011. The lions have the most interesting team in the NFC this coming season. In my opinion they have a better over all team than the Bear's or Viking's even if Matthew Stafford didn't play a down this season. The lion put up the second most points scored in the division without Stafford playing for almost a whole season. They have a very good receiving core, a good running game and one of the best d-lines in football. What's missing with the lions is a history of winning, it's one thing to win when no one expect's it, however it's another thing to win when teams will be waiting for you. Look for the lion to have growing pains this coming season, their secret out, they have a good young team.

Record 8-8

( # 5 ) The Minnesota Vikings will sign a veteran quarterback to help mentor rookies QB Christian Ponder. With a new stadium on the line and needing fan support to make it happen the Viking can ill afford going into the 2011 season with a rookie quarterback and no chance of winning. The Viking will struggle this coming season, no QB, an aging defense, and a huge Brett Favre hangover will be very hard for them to overcome. The term starting over is very hard to do will be the theme of the Viking 2011 season. Minnesota has the look of a last place team for the foreseeable future and Viking fans can only hope the their quarterback situation is handle properly or this could lead to a decade of heartache for them.

Record 4-12

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com

The Minnesota Vikings are going to pay a huge price for the Favre factor ride.

The Minnesota Vikings are going to pay a huge price for the Favre factor ride.

How much is a chance to play in the Super Bowl worth and is getting to the door of the big game a good price to pay if it could mean years of rebuilding? Well the answer to that question will play itself out over the next few seasons in Minnesota. With a chance to get what they believed to be that missing piece for their first ever Super Bowl Championship, the Vikings decided to take a ride on the Brett Favre marry-go-round. It's not til an amusement ride is over that you fill the full affect that it might have on you and in this case your team. Now that the ride call the Favre factor is over we can now take a look back and see if it was worth getting on.

This ride didn't cost the Viking draft picks or players, but It just may have cost them any chance of being playoff relevant in the tough NFC north in the foreseeable future. The Favre factor wasn't a total dud of a ride, it was possibly one errant pass away from taking them to the place they wanted to go when they got on. And as that saying go's, close is for horseshoes and hand grenade it has become pretty obvious this ride was not worth the price of admission. Brad Childress like a few other NFL coaches before him ( Mike Sherman, Ray Rhodes, and Eric Mangini ) found the price of this ride was their jobs.

I don't know if former Green Bay Packer head coach Mike Holmgrem saw he had road this ride as far as he could and decided to get off before it took him to a place of no return; or power was his real reason for walking away from what looked to be a great marriage. Sorry I'm a Packer fan, don't know if I'm taking a shot at Holmgrem or Favre. The Vikings may not have paid a huge price to get on the Favre factor, however the price they look as if they might pay now that it's over may have Vikings fans sick to their stomachs for some seasons to come.

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com

Has Andy Reid tied his-self to the right guy?

Has Andy Reid tied his-self to the right guy?
( Is Mike Vick a Super Bowl QB? )

The Minnesota Vikings did it, the Washington Redskins did it, and now Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles are doing it. It cost Brad Childress his job, it cost Mike Shanahan a ton of respect, and now it has put Eagle's coach Andy Reid in the unenvious position of having a very big part of his coaching legacy tied to a quarterback choice. Brad Childress tied his-self to two time Super Bowl quarterback Brett Favre. The Vikings got one year of production out of Brett ( just missed going to a Super Bowl ) then went to the well one to many times with Brett and Childress go's down with his quarterback.

You might think Mike Shanahan would get a pass ( because of his two Super Bowl wins with John Elway ) but I say not so fast. Shanahan was in a prime position to veto a trade for Donavan Mcnabb, but signed off on the trade and tied his-self to Mcnabb. The 2010 season turn out to be a total nightmare for not only the Redskins, but maybe one of the most embarrassing moments in Mcnabb's great football career. His coach not only called him lazy, but also dumb. One would think before this trade would be made coach and his quarterback should have sat down and talk about the offense his new QB was going to run. And if this was all Owner Dan Syner's idea to bring in Mcnabb, than Mike Shanahan is not as smart as people think he is.

Now in my opinion Eagles coach Andy Reid has the biggest and brightest spotlight on him in this coach-quarterback situation, because of the way it came to be. I mention the Redskins in this blog because it was Andy Reid who traded Mcnabb to Washington to make room for his quarterback of the future Kevin Kolb. After trading Mcnabb coach Reid came out and all but gave the starting quarterback job to Klob knowing he had Mike Vick on his roster. There was no talk of a battle at the QB position to see who the starting quarterback would be. Andy Reid tied his-self to Kevin Klob though-out the hold off season and training camp and even the preseason football games. Now bad things happen to good guys, for Kevin Klobit was the Green Bay Packers. One hit by Packer's pro bowl linebacker Clay Matthew turn a dream of being a starting QB in the NFL for Klob, into a season of you've got to be kidding me for the young QB.

I want to state Mike Vick did nothing wrong, he was the right guy in the right place. He work his tail off to get back into the NFL and with the help of former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy show Rodger Goodell and the Eagles he indeed had reformed himself and deserved another opportunity to play in the NFL. Mike Vick had a great season in 2010 ( made the pro bowl ) but this is about a coach tiring his-self to the right quarterback for his team. I'm not in Andy Reid head, but you have to wonder how a guy go's from being his QB of the future to trade bait that a minimum of 5 teams in the league wants as their guy. I can't figure out how a team can invest a second round draft pick for a pretty highly touted college QB, groom him for three years give him the keys to the car and than take them away after one game.

Coach Andy Reid has put his-self in a tough position, this quarterback-coach situation has to have a happy ending. Because with the immanence departure of Kevin Klob and his tie-ing his-self to Mike Vick this has to work. If Kevin Klob take his new team to the NFC playoffs or may I say to many playoff games over the next few seasons; the Reid-Vick combination needs to have at least one or two real shots at going to the Super Bowl in order to keep Eagles fans who already think Reid been there to long happy. Or Andy Reid will go down with a long list of coaches who tried theirselves to the wrong guy.

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com

Who's going to be # 2 in the NFC north next season?

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Who's going to be # 2 in the NFC north next season?

I know there's going to be a lot of Bear's fans upset with me, but what the heck. With the Green Bay Packers clearly looking as if they are going to be favor to win another Super Bowl, the real question in the NFC north is who will be the second best team in the division? After having just won the NFC north last season one might think the Bears will be the team to challenge Green Bay for the division crown. But after last season's NFC championship game leadership meltdown and Jay Cutler not only having to prove to Bear fans but also to his own teammates that what we saw in his last game was just one of Jerry Angelo's so called bumps in the road and he is the right guy to lead them to a Super Bowl. Let's not forget Chicago won a lot of ugly games last season without a consistent offense. It could be a long year for the Bears if they can find a way to keep Jay Cutler on his feet and get better production out of their receiving core.

- The Detroit Lions took huge strides last season without their franchise quarterback. A 6&10 record doesn't sound like much, however they are only a few seasons removed from not having won a single game. The holes Lions needed to fill on their roster at the end of last season were not in my opinion address in this year's draft. So without as of now the ability to try and sure up their holes thought free agency or knowing how Matthew Stafford will be able to hold up after two injury shorten season, Detroit could be looking at another 6&10 season.

The Minnesota Vikings where do I start, no quarterback, no offensive line, bad secondary, aging D-line, and an average draft class at best. This has the look of a very ugly 2011 season for the Vikings, it's hard to believe this is the same team who only two season's ago were one bad pass away from maybe going to the Super Bowl. The Vikings are a prime example of why winning now at all cost can and will in most cases come back to bite you in the butt. The Brett Favre experience may have set the Vikings back 4 or 5 years. While they were trying to chase a Super Bowl with an aging Favre, their three counterparts in the NFC north let nature take it's course with young QB's.

The NFC north has the look of a division in transition from bottom to the top. The Detroit Lions have a ton of momentum going into next season and if, and that a big if Matthew Stafford can give them a full season than they in my opinion are the second best team in the NFC north. The Chicago Bears have some very important questions that need to be answer and the main one can only be answer by Jay Cutler. No matter how much of a united front they put on for their fans, there has to be a lingering affect going into next season. The Vikings may still make a move on one of the free agent quarterbacks out there after the lockout ends, but there is no Hall Of Famers out there this time around. I firmly believe the time has come for the Viking to stand pact and take their lumps for a season or two with the veteran QB's they have, and let their
Young first round draft pick ( Christian Ponder ) grow into the quarterback they hope he can be. Last suck's, but if there's a plan in place, even the most die hard of fans will get behind it.

Brought to by: AJ Jones from Cambridge
"Let's Talk Football" Visit- www.ajstakeontheNFL.blogspot.com