NFL Week 4 Recap

Eagles/Bears
Mike: Can’t get much closer for the Eagles. With Westbrook, this is an easy win. Missing Shawn Andrews doesn’t help much either. I expected to see a lot more Lorenzo Booker and even some Tony Hunt. Too many defensive breakdowns and an offense that never looked all that smooth cost the Eagles.
Ahad: This was a heartbreaker. Failing to score on 3 chances from the 1 yard line is unacceptable. I am hearing a lot of “we would have won if Westbrook played”. That cannot be an excuse. This is not a one man team. Jackson needs to get his head in the game and not make stupid mistakes. I am not just talking about the fumble. It was a terrible decision to no catch that punt which the Bears ended up downing inside the 10.
Evan: I only saw the first half. I went to bed thinking the Eagles would pull it out. I didn’t even know what happened until Monday afternoon because a guy got shot to death in a drug deal gone bad in front of my driveway. That event took up much of my morning. I’m not too concerned about the Eagles, although after seeing the highlights I got the same frustrated feeling about the play calling as I had after the Gator game.
Matt: I only saw bits and pieces of this game. Kyle Orton looked pretty decent in the first half. I only saw the highlights of the goal line stand. It seemed like they pretty much ran 3 dive plays in a row. Why wasn’t there a pass mixed it there? Or a McNabb rollout? I agree, if I were a fan, I would be upset with some of the play calling.

Broncos/Chiefs
Ahad: I picked Denver in my survival pool this week. My thought process was that KC is a bad team on both sides of the ball and Denver has been putting up points at will. Herm decided to give LJ the ball this week and he was his old self again.
Evan: Who didn’t pick the Broncos to win this game? I also did not watch this game, so I have no thoughts.
Matt: It would have seemed the Broncos were a lock to win this game, but their prolific offense wasn’t enough to cover up their swiss cheese defense. This is going to be a problem for them as they try to make a playoff run.

Redskins/Cowboys
Ahad: The Redskins played a great game. I fail to understand why the Cowboys didn’t give the ball to Barber. When did Andy Reid start calling the plays for the Cowboys? What is TO complaining about, didn’t he have 20 touches?
Evan: Very impressive job by the Redskins. Are we ready to say that the 4 best teams in the NFC are all in the east? T.O. is not happy with Romo, although I agree with Ahad that I don’t understand what he has to complain about, although I have never understood anything T.O. has to complain about.
Matt: I agree, the Redskins simply played a great game and outplayed the Cowboys, especially in the trenches. For some reason, the Cowboys haven’t been able to run the ball on the Redskins the past few years. They typically hold Clinton Portis in check, but he ran all over the defense in the 2nd half. I found out from my sports reading that there were actually 10-14 other run plays called in the game, but Romo audibled out of them due to the defensive alignment. Barber and Jones do need more touches, and they just didn’t get it in this game. Regarding the TO saga, I don’t know what he was really complaining about. Obviously, he shows his frustrations more when the team loses, but there was a 3 and out drive where all 3 passes went his way. Even though there was tight coverage on all of them, he could have come up with at least two of those. That is what elite receivers do. I don’t like the forcing of the ball to TO. He needs to get it in the flow of the offense. This should hopefully blow over once the team starts winning again.

Packers/Buccaneers
Mike: I said that Ryan Grant needs to get in the end zone. Let’s take a look at his stats against the Bucs: 15 att 20yds 0 TDs. Awesome. Waiting on stories about Aaron Rodgers being a bust after last week’s stories about him being better than Romo (is that an accomplishment?)
Evan: Don’t be too concerned about the Packers, Tampa is a tough to place to play and the Bucs were emotionally charged for this one, especially with the situation regarding their kicker.
Matt: I told you last week Monte Kiffin’s defense would give Rodgers trouble. The defense, especially Derrick Brooks, played a great game. And you had to root for the Bucs because of the Matt Bryant situation. It is going to be tough on Rodgers due to him having his worst game and Favre having one of his best games ever with 6 TD’s. And Mike, what is your beef with Romo? You don’t think he is one of the top QB’s in the league?

Ravens/Steelers
Ahad: I think Jaws has a major man-crush on Joe Flacco. It might be possible that he loves him more than he does Jay Cutler. It was very painful to listen to.
Matt: I didn’t watch a whole lot of this game, but I do know that these two teams beat the crap out of each other. Flacco has looked better than most expected. Will Roethlisberger make it through the season?