Broncos Won? Must Be a Dream

The last thing I really remember is that a bunch of us were gathered around the big screen in the Grill Room last night to watch the overrated Broncos of Kyle Orton take their licks against the vaunted Patriots of Tom Terrific.

Then, I guess, things got kind of blurry...

OK, I confess, we were pretty generous with the juice last night, but after the last shot was fired, I could have sworn I watched out of the corner of my open eye, as the Broncos kicked their way to an overtime win.

But that can't be right, can it?

(Continue to The Grill Room)

Ravens' Bad Dream: Brady in a Skirt

Baltimore Ravens' Coach John Harbaugh

Sunday's Don’t-Hit-Brady Game

Photo: Associated Press

Baltimore is having a bad dream over the notion of Tom Brady in a skirt.

It is so bad that you just want to run down the hall and tell your mother about it. Even after two days, the image just won’t go away.

See, Brady is an NFL golden boy, Super Bowl champion, etc., etc. His New England Patriots beat the Ravens 27-21 Sunday in Foxborough in a key AFC matchup.

But for a lot of Ravens fans, along with pro football commentators and observers nationally, some of that Brady mystique is taking a beating after perceived favoritism the QB received on officials’ calls Sunday.

(Continue to DMA 7-22 Sports)

What's Up with Tom Brady

OK Jets fans...let's cool it with the "Brady Sucks" chants.

Tom Brady does not suck. Tom Brady is just playing below the significant bar he has set for himself to this point in his career. I know, it's much too wordy to chant at a game. But it's more true than "Brady Sucks".

At the very least, Brady sucks right now. The question is, why?

Here are the facts:

Game 1: 39-53 for 378 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
Game 2: 23-47 for 216 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT

Going deeper than the facts, Brady only had as many yards against Buffalo as he did because they didn't run the ball and he completed short passes. And if it wasn't for the final five minutes of that game he would have shown no life at all.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Early Separation Already Evident

Two weeks into the 2009 NFL season there already are a handful of teams beginning to separate from the pack inside their division and conference -- and it's not the usual suspects in every case. I'll break down both conferences over the next two days, beginning with the AFC.

Let's start in the AFC East, where everybody's preseason favorites to represent the conference in Super Bowl XLIV, the New England Patriots, are one poor Leodis McKelvin decision away from joining the Miami Dolphins in the basement at 0-2. The New York Jets are the ones in control at the top after back-to-back gutsy performances by rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. Their impressive upset of the Pats at Gillette Stadium, which used to be one of the hardest places for a road team to win, was reminiscent of what Miami did a year ago on the same field en route to dethroning New England as AFC East champs. This week's home game against a very good Tennessee Titans team will go a long way in determining whether or not these Jets are true contenders or pretenders.

(Continue to NFL Guru)

Here's the Bill, Belichick

The football gods really have long memories. Either that, or they took extra-long notes on the 2007 NFL season.

How else to explain what happened to the New England Patriots on Sunday at the Meadowlands? Better yet, how it happened?

Think about this: in Week 2 of 2009, the New York Jets talked junk about the Patriots and threw it all into the streets about what they wanted to do to them, and how they weren’t about to bow down to them, and all the things that should have had them eating about 10 flavors of crow by game’s end. And not only did the Jets back it up, they actually did make the Patriots look bad, even keeping them out of the end zone.

Not a huge deal, you might say, since this clearly is less of what we’re used to seeing of the Patriots, less of what we expected of them, and more of the injured Tom Brady than the rehabbed Tom Brady. But those who believe in karma have no doubts about what went on Sunday.

Payback.

(Continue to The Steele Drum)

A Signature Win for Jets

This just wasn’t any victory for the New York Jets.

This was over New England, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. At home, in front of a rabid, energized crowd that was tired of losing to the Patriots.

Sunday’s 16-9 victory was, quite simply, one of the biggest wins in this decade for this franchise.

“The Patriots are a hell of a football team. I just thought we were the better team today,’’ coach Rex Ryan said. “That’s all we said the whole time. We believe that we are the better team today. We went out and showed it.”

If anybody doubts how the Jets are going to go about this season, their blueprint has been on display through the first two games.

(Continue to New York Minute)

Thanks to Fans, Jets Get It Done

I don't want to make a huge deal out of this...but I got a game ball on Sunday.

"I think our fans are huge in this victory," said head coach Rex Ryan. "In fact, we're giving a game ball to our fans. It will go up in our trophy case. I thought they were the difference."

It's not the first time I've been given a game ball, incidentally. I remember I was awarded one after the Jets' playoff win over Jacksonville in 1999. I was loud then, too.

But I wasn't alone in this - I did have help. Besides the 70,000+ others screaming for much of the game, there was the Jets' defense. They played pretty well. They still have yet to give up a touchdown on this young season, holding the Patriots to three field goals (and after the Texans scored last week on only a defensive score).

And then there was Tom Brady. I'll delve into this one later in the week, but again he looked terrible, this time without the end-of-game flurry like the ones the Bills handed him last week. And there were times that he had the Jets' defense beat, but threw a terrible pass, and didn't seem on the same page as his receivers.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Rex Ryan Big Apple of Buddy's Eye

The N.Y. Jets went down to Houston last Sunday, licked the storied Texans, and now are talking like they are the second coming of the Patriots.

Yep, Rex Ryan's team really knows how to handle success, eh? Looks like this big apple didn't fall too far from daddy, Buddy's tree.

On Tuesday, the younger Ryan (pictured) made it clear to Jets fans that, "he is not here to kiss a ring," referencing Bill Belichick's three Super Bowl rings he's won with the Patriots, the Jets foe on Sunday.

It was only only four months ago when the John Candy of coaches said on New York's WFAN, "I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's rings," which would mean either he needs to get some new material or he has a serious jewelry fetish.

(Continue to The Grill Room)

Jets, Ryan Not Afraid to Tweak Patriots

If any body is surprised by the tactics Jets coach Rex Ryan has used to prepare his team for Sunday’s game against the Patriots, they haven’t been paying attention.

One of the first things Ryan said when he landed the head coaching job was he didn’t plan to “kiss Belichick’s rings”, alluding to Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

The teams meet for the first time since that statement on Sunday at Giants Stadium, and Ryan hasn’t backed down from that comment. He has brought a new attitude to the Jets, a bold approach that runs contrary to just about every thing Belichick stands for.

(Continue to New York Minute)

Jets vs. Pats - Point/Counterpoint

Other than, "Don't fumble the ball inside your own 25 on the kickoff after a Patriots touchdown that seemed to give them a tiny bit of life late in the fourth quarter," I'm not sure the Jets could learn anything about the Patriots from Monday night's game. I mean, that had to be the Patriots looking past the Bills and getting caught in a Week 1 trap game, right? They can't possibly be as bad as they looked for the first 45 of the 60-minute game, could they? Let's go with a Point/Counterpoint to figure things out:

POINT: The Jets looked great in their win against Houston, and the Patriots looked terrible, barely getting by Buffalo. Gotta be a win for the Jets in Week 2, no?
COUNTERPOINT: I don't believe the Patriots will come out and play that flat two weeks in a row until I see it happen. I can't believe their coaching staff would let that happen.

(Continue to 200 Miles From the Citi)

Will AFC Be Superior Again?

Yesterday I broke down the NFC, and now that I am inside the Georgia Dome about 90 minutes from kickoff between the Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins, I'll have to be a little faster with my AFC breakdown.

So without any further delay:

The easy path to take with the AFC East is to anoint the New England Patriots as the kings of the division and perhaps even the conference again with Tom Brady back on the saddle. Not so fast my friends.

(Continue to NFL Guru)

Are You Ready for Some Football?

How's that for a way to kick off the 2009 NFL season?

The defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers needed to overtime Thursday night to survive the Tennessee Titans at Heinz Field and Ben Roethlisberger had to engineer another clutch drive to pull off the win, just like he did in Super Bowl XLIII. Santonio Holmes once again had a big game and put up identical numbers to his Super Bowl MVP performance --nine catches for 131 yards and a touchdown.

So now we have a full slate of games scheduled for Sunday, with the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders closing out Week 1 on Monday night, and if that game or any of the ones being played on Sunday rival last week's college football Monday night spectacular between Miami and Florida State, we're in for an incredible season.

Obviously, there are a lot if intriguing story lines involving quarterbacks, starting with Tom Brady looking to show everybody that his knee his fine and he is the same quarterback who threw 50 touchdown passes and led the Patriots to an unbeaten regular season two years ago.

(Continue to NFL Guru)

Breaking Down the NFL, 2009

The time for waiting is just about over, as the NFL kicks off with tonight's Tennessee Titans-Pittsburgh Steelers matchup.

The Dolphins kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday in Atlanta, the first of four straight games against playoff opponents in 2009. So, how will the Fins do this year? My AFC East predictions follows, as well as my overall NFL predictions for 2009:

AFC East
1. New England Patriots (11-5): Yes, Tom Brady is coming off a major knee injury, and the Pats just traded away five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman Richard Seymour. But the Patriots have a wealth of talent on both sides of the ball, and with Bill Belichick at the controls, they are always a threat.

(Continue to Dolphins Watch)