thoughts after

Well, that was fun. Sometimes it's nice to be very wrong. Apparently there was no reason to worry about that nasty Lions defense or even Shaun Rogers, as Grossman had time all game to look around and check everyone twice before he threw it if he wanted to. I really thought that this would be Grossman's breakout year, but I wasn't expecting him to look this good until at least midseason. The only person with a higher quarterback rating yesterday was Ryan Longwell, the Vikings punter, who through exactly one pass for a touchdown. Grossman was worth more fantasy points (at foxsports fantasy) than anyone else in the whole league. Good thing he was riding my bench! Sure, Grossman got lucky that when Dre Bly intercepted his pass and returned it for a touchdown someone else was yanking on Berrian's facemask so it didn't matter, but that was the only throw all game that looked like a questionable decision. The only other throw I can remember that looked bad was his first bomb to Berrian when he led him too far. Oh well. It's looking pretty good that he and Berrian can get into a bit of a rhythm.

Game Highlights: The cut to Martz after they made Kitna fumble on their first drive, when Martz was just staring at the field and then screamed "Oh, come on!" into his headset, about the most helpless thing a coach can say. I also liked watching Marinelli scream at the refs after the facemask penalty that nullified the interception. Of course, if I were him, I'd have been pissed, too. Also, I have to say that the Grossman pass that impressed me the most was the one toward the end of their first drive in the third quarter when he rolled out to his right and he was looking all over for someone to throw to, and then he kind of dropped his arm down and dropped his head and it looked like he was going to sort of trot out of bounds and cut his losses and you could see the defense (what little of it you could see on the screen, at least) let up and figure that the play was over, and then at the last second before stepped out of bounds he suddenly whipped the ball to Clark on the sidelines for a first down. He is so good at selling fakes. It's wonderful.

In other football news, I'm just going to focus on where I was right. See, I told you that Jauron would know how to handle Culpepper. The little bit I saw of the beginning of that game, the Bills defense was making Culpepper look silly. He fumbled two out of the first three times he touched the ball! Classic Culpepper. Good thing he's riding the bench on my fantasy team. New Orleans did beat GB, because Drew Brees took over the game, not because Favre sucked. Favre actually had a good game, which I figured he would, and D.Driver had one of the best games around the league yesterday. Ahman Greenfumbles managed to have the most significant giveaway. I do think that GB is pretty bad, but I don't think they were as bad as the Bears made them look, just like I don't theink the Lions are as bad as the Bears made them look. Actually, judging by their performances this week and last week, I bet the Lions will start to look pretty scary by the end of the season. Also, Carolina doesn't know how to win without Steve Smith, although they had Minnesota beat before they tried that bizarre punt return/backward pass thing and basically gave Minnesota the points they needed to tie the game. Minnesota is not as good as everyone thinks they are.

There was no internet at my work last night, so I was forced to watch the Washington/Dallas game. For all the hype those teams get, it really just seemed that they are not very good. Both of them seemed slow, and it took until the third quarter before Dallas decided that they might as well go ahead and win the game. But, seriously, neither of these teams would stand a chance on the field with Chicago or Cincinnati or San Diego or Indianapolis. Also, that NBC highlights show is actually pretty good. The guys are pretty funny and it doesn't sound forced like they're trying to be Sportscenter dudes, and it actually seems like they watched some of the games they're talking about.

My only worry about the Bears right now, really, is Thomas Jones. For all his complaining about how it was the nine-man fronts he was facing that held him back, now that the passing game is really lighting it up it doesn't really seem like he's running any better. Actually, it seems like he's almost exactly the same as he's looked for the past two years. Most of the time he gets about two to three yards a carry, not really enough for the running game to really roll, and about every ten carries he'll break one for fifteen. I'd like to see him get more like four yards a carry before I'll be able to really get behind him. I like seeing how excited he gets when he has a nice run, but he just needs to pick up an extra yard or two on his regular short runs.