A few comments from this weekend's action:
- My Giants improved to 9-4 after a squeaking out a close win over the Eagles when a potential game-tying field goal clanged off the upright. Weirdly, they are now 6-1 on the road, and just 3-3 at home-- granted, they've played better teams at home than on the road, but still, Manning seems to do better away from New York.
This is a good win for them, as it guarantees they'll be over .500 on the season, and puts them in the metaphorical driver's seat for the first wild-card spot for the NFC. They have winnable games coming up agaisnt the Redskins and at the Bills, and then they're home to get thwacked by the Patriots in a game that nobody will see because it's on the NFL Network.
- Speaking of the Patriots, it's a bad idea to piss them off. Pittsburgh kept it close in the first half, but got their doors blown off in the second, as the New England offensive line settled in and gave Brady the time he needed to pick them apart. And let's face it, if that flea-flicker fumble thing worked, the football gods obviously want the Pats to go undefeated, no matter what Gregg Easterbrook says.
- Man, the Dolphins stink.
- What am I forgetting to mention?
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I saw the first half of the Steelers-Patriots game, and was reasonably confident it would be the good game I was hoping for. That's the sign of the Patriots' strength: I was happy that the Steelers were at least competitive.
Then, some unrelated familial dispute stepped in, the second half went unwatched, and that was probably for the best. The Steelers find a way to, at least once per season, respond to the lauding of their defensive might by letting themselves be picked apart, typically by the passing game. I remember a Pittsburgh-Atlanta game a few years back during which the Falcons converted several 3rd-and-too-long-for-any-self-respecting-defense-to-give-up plays on the way to a tie. When, on one drive, you give a subpar passer the opportunity to convert 3rd and 18 and 3rd and 22, well...you've really let it go.
Three weeks to go...
As usual, the Seattle Seahawks get no press at all, good or bad, but took their division.