What we learned from Sunday's NFL action

One reason I don't play fantasy football (aside from the massive debt) is because it's tough to predict what will happen each week. Last week, I'm sure everyone had their Eagles players benched. Then of course the Eagles put up 51 and every offensive player on the team had a fantasy day for the ages. So naturally everyone says, hey the Eagles are really clicking, I should start all the Eagles players I have for this Sunday against a porous Giants D. And of course the Eagles lay an absolute egg and McNabb gets sacked 12 times. Anyway, an interesting day in the NFL. And the most important thing we learned was never hire Norv Turner as your head coach. But I'm sure you already new that.

Here's some other stuff we learned.

1. Firing coaches in midseason should become totally acceptable. Because San Diego needs to get Norv Turner out of town pronto. This is just painful to watch. The Chiefs, who really aren't very good, managed to score 23 unanswered points to beat the crap out of the Chargers. Meanwhile, Rivers looks totally lost. I mean, there's just no way to explain how a team this talented can be this bad. That all falls entirely on Norv Turner. I wonder if he made it home alive last night.

2. Brian Griese looks a lot like Rex Grossman. Last week I said Rex Grossman should never start another game. I still stick with that statement. But I never, NEVER said the Bears should turn to Griese. I realize they don't have a lot of other options, but hey, why not trade for somebody? Remember how Charlie Frye was traded after Week 1, it can be done. I'm not sure what Bears fans were drinking when they were calling for Griese. He's not a good quarterback, period. The upgrade from Rex to Griese is minimal - or as Sunday showed, there's no difference whatsoever. The Bears need a new QB, period. UPDATE: I missed that the trading deadline has passed. Well, there's got to be somebody bagging groceries out there who's better than Griese.

3. The Bills may have found a real quarterback. Trent Edwards grew up only a couple towns away from where Dwyermaker and I did. He was an unreal high school QB, but a lot of people wondered what he'd do once he went to Stanford - because Stanford SUCKS. Edwards had a pretty rough stretch at Elway's alma mater, only playing one injury free season while compiling a hideous 10-20 record as a starter. Quite frankly, Dwyermaker and I were surprised as hell he was drafted in the third round by the Bills. We'd more or less forgotten who he was. But there's a reason Edwards was drafted so high. Guy has arm strength, accuracy, and he's intelligent. And he certainly wasn't the reason Stanford was so bad. The question always was, what could he do with some legitimate talent around him? Although saying the Bills have talent may be going too far, they're at least a pro team, so they have people who can sort of play. As a result, Edwards was very solid today, and extremely accurate - going 22/28. If the Bills are smart, they'll let Edwards play for more than a few games and bench Losman when he comes back. The Bills may have drafted a true diamond in the rough in Edwards. Might as well see what he can do, because you aren't going anywhere with Losman.

4. Green Bay could win 12 or 13 games this year. That sounds nuts, but when I look at how they've played, and I look at their schedule, it's totally possible. They have a ridiculously easy schedule. However, I'm confident Favre will throw away at least two games with boneheaded interceptions, yet the announcers will say, "It's ok! He's a gunslinger!" Whereas they'd crush any other QB in league, including Manning, for doing something that stupid. So be prepared for a full season of announcers orgasming over Favre. Also, can someone tell me where in the hell this "Favre is managing games" idea came from? It's not true at all. He's just as wild as always, the only difference is he hasn't been getting picked off this year and he has a better defense helping him out. This team is just lucky it plays in the NFC, they'd likely be 2-2 or 1-3 if they played in the AFC. Also, considering Favre seems incapable of retiring, has been addicted to painkillers (some say he still is), and struggled with alcoholism, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if he dropped dead before turning 50. He's taken two lifetimes worth of punishment before turning 40.

5. The Raiders, Lions, and Bucs are starting to look semi-legit. Sure the Raiders played Miami yesterday, but Culpepper sure looked sharp. Plus the Raiders have a real scrappy appeal to them. They're 2-2, have played hard in every game, and if not for that Shannahan timeout in Denver, they could be 3-1. I had my doubts about Lane Kiffin, but he's clearly got this team playing well, even if they're not the most talented team in the NFL. I thought after starting out 0-2, you might see this team start to take a dive. Instead they've won back to back games. Gotta credit Kiffin for that to some degree. Meanwhile, Detroit, after getting blown out by Philly, had people wondering if they were actually for real. They responded by rattling off an unreal 34 points in the 4th quarter against Chicago to prove they're here to stay this year. Yes, the Bears aren't great, and yes the Lions sure can't do this every week, but it's starting to feel like the Lions are a team of destiny. And by team of destiny, I mean they make the playoffs and get bounced in the first round. But hey, that's still pretty good in Detroit. And lastly the Bucs are now 3-1, proving that maybe Philly should have hung onto Garcia.

6. You might as well just give the NFC West to Seattle now. The Rams are 0-4, the Cardinals may be 2-2 and did just beat the Steelers, but that dual immobile QB carousel is going to go south at some point, and the 49ers have the worst offense I've seen since last year's Raiders team. By the way, I'm a believer in the Shaun Alexander sucks camp that was first brought up in Simmons' recent NFL picks. He's the biggest sissy running back since Eric Dickerson, which is backed up by these stats here. Seattle is a better than mediocre team, but this division is horrible.

7. It sounds weird, but the Texans lost a game they shouldn't have. I can't ever remember saying that before. They should be able to recover, and granted they played without Andre Johnson, and Harrington played well, but really no one should be losing to Atlanta this year.

8. The Eagles stink when they don't play in bizarre 1930's uniforms. I also have the feeling that whenever I watch the Eagles, they suck. I watch them and McNabb starts throwing balls into the ground and moving like a sloth and gets sacked 12 times. When I don't watch, they put up 51. Me aside, I think the real problem is that the Eagles didn't have Westbrook for the game. He's literally the guy that opens up everything for the Eagles offense and their only big play guy. Take him out, you lose the play action, you lose the run, you lose the game. The Eagles without Westbrook are a really, really bad team.

9. Joey Porter is an idiot. Porter promised a huge win for the Dolphins, and they were killed by the Raiders, 35-17. Way to go Joey. I predict that Porter will predict that the Dolphins win next week's game because he predicted this last week's game wrong. That's gotta work.

-WCK