Tuesday Morning Week 6 Recap.

Week 6 predictions heads up: 7-7


Week 6 predictions against the spread:8-6


Record so far: 39-34


The NFL had quite a week 6. The prevailing story out of the NFL this week will be concussions and head to head hits and how the NFL can police the violence of football without taking away the essence of what makes it great. The Seahawks go on the road and get a win outside their division for the first time in 3 years under the steady hand of Pete Carroll. Pierre Garcon makes in absolutely ridiculous one handed grab in a Sunday night game that just showcased how amazing Peyton Manning is. Joseph Addai puts up 100+ yards and I feel like a lot of the yards can be attributed to Peyton Manning making the right choices and getting Joseph Addai in a position to be successful. A couple of seemingly game deciding pass interference penalties in the Texans V Chiefs game and the Jets V Broncos game have reignited the call for the NFL to switch to the college rules of a 15 yards pass interference rule. But without further adieu lets break into the things on my mind from Week 6 of the NFL.


The Wraith of Kolb

Fun Fact Kevin Kolb has a really big head

Kevin Kolb apparently reads the blog and wasn’t happy with my repeated bashing of him and his check down bonanza the past two weeks and decided to absolutely obliterate the Falcons. He throws 7 completions for over 20 yards on his way to 326 yards and 3 touchdowns. The final score was 31-17 and it wasn’t that close as David Akers missed a couple of 37 yard gimmes that would have made it even uglier. While the win against the 49’er really didn’t impress anyone, to blow out a Falcons team people were calling the best in the NFC does. Just when you thought things were settled in Philly Kolb throws a monkey wrench into the plans. I thought he might play well enough to up his trade value in the off season but he’s played well enough to once again give Andy Reid a tough decision if he puts together another good game this week. I think the odds are in his favor since Tennessee has the 23^rd ranked passing defense in the NFL and they’re only that high after a Monday night debacle against the Jaguars. So once again we’ll have a quarterback scorn in the city of brotherly love the only question is will it be # 7 or #4.

The Return of Roethlisberger

Big Ben made his return to the Steeler faithful with a beat down of the AFC north punching bag Cleveland Browns. I don’t know if there could have been a better set up for Big Ben he returns to a team that’s just hitting its stride with a plethora of weapons on the offensive end and a defense that will keep them in any game. So of course he goes out and puts up 257 and 3 touchdowns, but something was troubling about the performance. Honestly it didn’t have anything to do with the game that he played but more with his post game interview. He didn’t acknowledge any wrong doing on his part essentially say the suspension was unfair to him. On top of that he then proceeded to say that all of those actions were that of “Big Ben” and not of him. This shows the sort of cavalier attitude that Ben Roethlisberger still has. Despite this suspension he still remains above it all. I would be more prone to forgive and give him the benefit of the doubt if this wasn’t his second rape accusation in as many years with a plethora of evidence coming out against him things just seem to point to a privileged guy living in a world where he thinks he’s untouchable, and it doesn’t seem like the NFL suspension has done anything to change that. Its troubling that in a league where Michael Vick is still pretty reviled for brutally killing a large number of dogs, Ben Roethlisberger is left relatively unscathed after seemingly having non consensual sex with with two different womyn in the span of two years. Don't get me wrong I think that what Michael Vick did is absolutely terrible and he deserves absolutely all of the scorn he receives however Big Ben deserves a heaping helping of it on his plate as well. I guess those two super bowl rings do a good job deflecting a lot of criticism. 

The Vikings win Panic Bowl 2010

With both of their seasons on the brink the Vikings beat the Cowboys in a sloppy turnover and penalty filled game that showed just how far both of these presumptive NFC Super Bowl contenders had fallen. The Cowboys just can’t get out of their own way it seems. Another excessive celebration penalty, an unnecessary push off by Miles Austin that negates a long touchdown pass, blatant pass interference on their last gasp of a defensive stand, and finally a few Tony Romo interceptions. As “talented” as Dallas is supposed to be they can’t seem to win games. I put talent in quotations because I’ve never been a big believer in talented teams that don’t win. If you’re not winning then you’re not all that talented to me. I think the NFL will always be about talent first and discipline/coaching/scheme second. Sure the Steelers run a great 3-4 defense but if they didn’t have a slew of pro bowl players playing in it then it wouldn’t be nearly as dominant. I think the same can be said for the Cowboys. They don’t seem to have a single good player on their offensive line, they have no running game to speak of and while they have a lot of players in the passing game they can’t stop turning the ball over. I don’t think they’re nearly as talented as they’re made out to be. The Vikings also seem to be having offensive line problems. If Brett Favre continues to get hit like he did against the Cowboys he won’t make it through the season. The trio of Randy Moss, Percy Harvin, and Visanthe Shiancoe are dynamic but if Favre doesn’t have time to find them it’ll be for naught. So the Vikings won the game and are right back in their division race because of Packers and Bear’s losses, but things aren’t all fixed in the land of Lakes either.

The obligatory NFL is violent piece

The NFL wants to see less of this

So as we all know the NFL is a violent sport. This weekend it seemed a bit more violent as several players were knocked out of games. The most vicious hit being the Dunta Robinson on Desean Jackson hit which knocked both the hitter and the person hit out of the game. James Harrison delivered two knockout blows and then post game delivered a slew of comments that I don’t think made the NFL too happy. When asked about the violence and whether he has concern for players welfare he said “I thought Cribbs was asleep,”  “A hit like that geeks you up — it geeks everybody up — especially when you find out that the guy is not really hurt — he’s just sleeping. He’s knocked out, but he’s going to be OK.. I don’t know what’s more baffling, that James Harrison is so ignorant to the consequences of the sport that he plays or that a quote like this hasn’t been paraded around as the example of what’s wrong with the NFL. Somebody being knocked out from a hit isn’t them going to “sleep” nor are they ok after the fact. He also dropped this jewel “I want to hurt somebody,If you hurt somebody, they’ll be back the next play. I don’t want to see anybody injured. An injury will keep you out. But I’m not opposed to hurting anybody.” Honestly I don’t have as much trouble with that statement as I do with the previous one. Football is a violent sport and I don’t have a problem with wanting a little intimidation. Players hitting hard isn’t the problem, players leading with their heads, and the coaches that teach them to lead with their heads and the highlight culture that encourages reckless play because of some ridiculous macho standard are the problem. Making football safer doesn’t make it a sissy sport or less manly it makes it smarter. Roger Goodell has talked a good game about the leagues commitment to becoming a safer game and about concussion prevention but now the spotlight is on him. How he handles not only this week but drafting a policy that goes forward from this point will tell a lot about his tenure as commissioner. Punishing the players with suppensions is a start but it doesn’t attack the root cause of the problem. Players are taught from an early age to hit a certain way, dangerous tackles and head to head collisions are branded as tough hard nosed football from an early age. Until something is done about that football will continue to be a sport that is even more dangerous than it needs to be.