Tuesday Morning Week 9 Recap.

Week 9 Predictions Heads up: 9-4

Week 9 Predictions against the Spread: 9-3-1

Record so far: 63-50

Week 9 was a pretty good week for me overall. I did pretty well on my predictions and the Raiders won their biggest game in 8 years. The Cowboys are now officially without a doubt the worst team in the league and are fighting to become the worst team in Cowboys history. The Patriots lost in an absolute blow out to Bill Belichick's most hated rival. I don’t know if I could ask for much more in a week from football. This week we were introduced to Jacoby Ford, Jacob Tamme, and Seyi Ajirotutu. Speaking of Ajirotutu I don’t know if anybody is playing better football right now than Phillip Rivers this week he went out against the Texans and threw for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns on only 23 attempts which is insane. However if that wasn’t crazy enough for you, he does all that without his top 4 receivers relying on the aforementioned Ajirotutu, and Randy McMichael to dissect the Texans secondary. I have to say as big a man crush as I have on Tom Brady and Peyton Manning Phillip Rivers has been the MVP of the league so far through 9 weeks.

Jerry Jones finally takes Wade Phillips out back with the shotgun

This is hanging on my office wall

Seriously was there a sadder team to watch last weekend than the Dallas Cowboys? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a team give up as easily as the cowboys did against the Packers. 45-7 and the game wasn’t even that close as the Packers eased off the gas pedal in the entirety of the 4^th. I assume everyone’s seen the Mike Jenkins play where he’s at the goal line and doesn’t even attempt to make the tackle, a lot of times we talk about teams quitting but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it any clearer than that. As much as Jerry Jones talked about how changing coaches isn’t the thing to do and their isn’t a track record of success from it he had to make this move. If only for mercies sake alone, Wade Phillips needed to be put out of his own misery coaching a team that had clearly given up on him and whatever he had to impart upon them. You combine that with the injury to Tony Romo and a season that already seemed lost was thrown into the abyss. This goes right along with the coaching history of Phillips everywhere he goes it takes around 2 or 3 years for the players to tune him out and for the record to reflect it.  Now where do the Cowboys go from here, the fact it took them this long to fire Wade Phillips doesn’t speak particularly highly of Jason Garrett or anyone else on that staff. However if Jason Garrett were to put together a respectable season he could have a chance at the job going into 2010 however the odds of that seem unlikely. A bigger question to me is whether this team had the talent to compete and not the coaching or do they require more talent as well, as important as coaching is I don’t think a team as talented as the Cowboys are supposed to be can go out and get crushed like they have the past few weeks. Knowing Jerry Jones I see a Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden in the cowboys future at a crisp 7 or 8 million dollars a year.

We can officially welcome the Oakland Raiders back to the land of the living

With 3 straight wins going into the bye week the Oakland Raiders are above 500 this late in the season for the first time since 2002 when they made the super bowl. I doubt any Raider fans have delusions of their team making the Super Bowl but a division crown isn’t nearly as farfetched as it would have seemed this time in august. The AFC West is anyone’s guess right now with the Chargers seemingly righting the ship and Kansas City still a half game ahead but the Raiders have a leg up on both of them with its sterling 3-0 divisional record. However looking at the Raiders schedule the rest of the way and things won’t be easy, if they want to win this division or at least make the playoffs it’s going to be a huge struggle.  At Pittsburgh, Miami, at San Diego, at Jacksonville, Denver, Indy, and the last game is at Kansas City. Looking at those games I would  say that I think the Raiders are only going to win 3 which would put them at 8-8, but as this Raider team has already shown they can’t be counted out as easily as the Raider teams of the past few years. One of the biggest stories of this team that doesn’t get enough attention is the rebirth of the Raider defense, right now they’re only ranked 7^th in total defense and 26^th against the run however in the past 3 weeks they've held teams to 47, 75, and 104 yards rushing. That 104 yard game was last week against the Chiefs who came in with the league’s top rushing attack averaging 190 yards per game and had 3 straight 200 yard rushing performances. Richard Seymour has been a force for the Raiders at defensive tackle so far in 8 weeks he has more individual tackles and sacks than he did in 16 games last year. The Raiders might have finally hit on an offensive tackle prospect with Jared Veldheer out of Hillsdale College; while he gave up a sack to Tamba Hali last week he held his own for a large portion of the game and has come on in recent weeks to be one of their most consistent linemen. It seems the Raiders might have finally learned something the good teams known for a while; you build your team from the offensive and defensive line out. Perhaps all this talent in the trenches can propel the raiders out of the one they’ve been in for the past few years.

Does anybody know who the best team in the NFL is?

Picture unrelated: This blog has gone to long without Mel Kiper's hair

It can’t be the Patriots after they get demolished by the Cleveland browns by 20 points. Is it the Steelers after they squeak by against the Bengals at home? The Ravens who beat a solid Miami team but have already lost to the earlier mentioned Patriots. Maybe the Falcons, but they were a goal line stand away from losing to Tampa Bay this week. Perhaps your team of choice is the Giants being as they've strung off 4 straight wins a few of them in impressive fashion. The only problem with them is how entirely unimpressive that loss in Indy was early in the season.The Packers, they did just beat the Cowboys 45-7 and have played well the past few weeks, but honestly how much is beating the cowboys worth…half a win? A quarter win? We always talk about parity in sports well this is what parity looks like. No dominant teams, a league full of teams who we can all poke holes in. A few teams who seem pretty good, but every week you look at who they play and think that team has a chance. There are so few gimmes anymore in the NFL because so many of the teams are so closely clumped together. There’s the 5 or 6 elite/really good teams, followed by pack of 15 middle of the road teams where 3 or 4 playoff teams will emerge, and then the rest of the league which is pretty bad.  Honestly I have no idea who’s going to win or even make the super bowl right now. There are 8 or so teams I could all see playing in the super bowl right now and part of me is excited in the fact that there’s still so much up in the air, but I’m also disappointed in that no team has really come into this season and taken the league by the reins.