NFL Week 7

Tweet It has been a while since my last post. I was actually going to stop writing articles on the NFL because the whole purpose of me joining millennium was to write about the Saints. However, living in Toronto has seriously ruined the way I watch football and I’ve only watched 1 New Orleans game this season....despicable.
However, too many things have been going on in the NFL recently for me to not write out my thoughts. So here is what I’ll be looking for in week 7.

Carson Palmer ruining Oakland– Anyone who knows anything about my football history knows that Carson Palmer is my most hated player in history. I would even go so far as to say that he is one of my most hated humans of all time. If you’ve read any of my prior articles, you might get the impression that I dislike Tom Brady, but compared to Palmer, I have a mancrush on Tom. Oakland gave up a 2011 First round pick and a 2012 First or Second round pick (depending how well they do in the playoffs these next 2 years) to acquire the least consistent player in NFL history. Carson was on pace to be a guaranteed HoF candidate in his first 3 seasons, but thanks to a very illegal hit from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Palmer’s career fell apart. Now, some of you are probably under the NFL analyst hype and would believe that Palmer was still a good QB after his injury. Though stats would back up that statement, anyone who has been a diehard Bengal fan over the past 8 years knows that Palmer is a catastrophe. Almost all of his picks come in crucial moments of the game when they need him to be playing at his best and some of his throws are so errand and off target that the commentator cant even guess who the intended receiver was. Unfortunately, the Oakland Raiders, who I claimed would be making the playoffs this year lost Jason Campbell to a broken collar bone and decided that Carson Palmer was the next best choice. Though Palmer is regularly a bad bet, he has to start this week after almost a year in retirement, no offseason practice with NFL players, and worse physical fitness than the 88 year old Brett Favre. My prediction for the Raider’s success is looking rather grim.

Tim “Jesus Christ is 2nd string” Tebow – Denver has asked for it all season and now they’re finally going to get it. Tim Tebow was announced as the starting QB for the Broncos this week. I don’t know if anyone else actually cares about his play, or if they just bought into the “Superman wears Tim Tebow pyjamas” hype, but I think the Broncos are in for a rude awakening. Kyle Orton was one of the few QBs in this league that you could count on. Some people will immediately bring up the argument that Orton’s numbers are good, but he hasn’t amassed wins, but realistically, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, AND Drew Brees wouldn’t be able to fix that team. Their defence is terrible, they have the least consistent offense in the league, and the overall team mentality is miserable. Orton has put up the stats since Cutler left the Mile High City, and that’s all that you can ask of an individual. I heard a comparison that Tebow is the best QB since Jesus graduated from Jerusalem High....I wish I was joking. People claim that his style of play may be unorthodox, but at least he’s a winner. Tebow has 11 more weeks to show the world whether he can become an NFL superstar or whether he was destined to be a college legend and nothing more.

Defence is back on track - I outlined in my first article that defences were weak this year....REALLLY weak. However, the reason for the lack of defensive play was just an unusual amount of rust. Now that we’re entering week 7, defences are finally starting to mesh and offensive play has calmed down a bit. I noticed that the D was finally stepping it up while watching the stat lines for last week’s games. QBs were held to much fewer passing yards and a lot of them had put up at least 1 INT. I’m sure no one likes a game that’s all about field position with 10 punts and 7 field goals, but I’m not a fan of the ridiculous college style shoot outs either. It was getting rather boring watching these games with ridiculous combined scores in the 80’s. Now that defences are coming back, we’re finally going to see some real football with plays on both sides of the ball and great strategic battles. Can’t wait.

This week’s line up doesn’t look very promising and it seems as though we’re going to have quite a few blowouts. However, the Saints are playing the Sunday night game, so I will finally be able to report on the team that I love and miss dearly.