... and some ridiculous ineptitude by the Panthers offensive play calling...

Ok, so all of Sundays games are now done and dusted, time to assess how I did in my first week of picks. Well, as I've already said I was 6-0 for the early games and most of the late games were goinf in my favour, but it didn't all go to plan.... Buffalo: 20 @ Carolina: 9 -- Remember these names; John Fox and Jeff Davidson. The first is the Panthers Head Coach, the second is their Offensive Co-ordinator. These have to be the two stupidest coaches in professional football right now (yeah, worse than Eric Mangini!!!). How can you overlook Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams in favour of Jake Delhomme? Between them the two running backs were given just 23 carries. 23. Delhomme on the other hand was given 44 (!!!) pass attempts, of which he completed 27 for 325 yds. But no TD's. But of course, this is Jake Delhomme we're talking about, so naturally he turned the ball over 3 times with INT's. It just boggles the mind. I knew that it was risky picking the Panthers. I knew that even though the Bills defense was gashed by the Jets rushing attack the week before, and that they have Williams and Stewart as their running back tandem, I knew that the Panthers might just fall in love with Delhomme again and throw it a lot. And turn it over. And sure enough, they did. Words can't begin to describe how retarded this decision is. If I was the owner of the franchise I'd be furious. And Fox and Davidson would both be jobless. Jets: 38 @ Oakland: 0 -- No real surprise here. Sanchez came back from his disaster last week with a conservative game and threw a TD to Clowney. But the most fun part is that the Jets surpassed even the Steelers in the diversity of their rushing attack, giving 8 (!!!) different guys the ball. Obviously Thomas Jones was among them, with 26 carries for 121 yds and a touchdown. But with Leon Washington leaving the game injured it fell to rookie Shonn Greene to fill in the gap. And boy did he. 19 carries, 144 yds, 2 touchdowns. That's one way to get your coaches attention!! Bears: 10 @ Bengals: 45 -- I took the Bengals because I didn't think the Bears would run the ball well and because I thought the Bengals had too much offensive punch through the air and on the ground. And holy crap was I underestimating the disparity. 6 carries, 24 yds. That was Matt Fortes production. Compare to Cedric Benson, who was playing against his old team. He got himself 37 carries... for 189 yds & a TD!! That's pretty damn impressive. And on any other day that would win you the awe of the crowd. Except that Palmer went 20/24 for 233yds and 5, count 'em, 5 TD's. Compare that to Jay Cutlers 26/37, 251 yds, 1 TD and 3 INT's. Bengals looking like the real deal in the AFC North, but it's still early days. Falcons: 21 @ Cowboys: 37 -- I went Cowboys here, but to be honest it was by no means a dead cert. I also proclaimed earlier that the Cowboys should run the ball more (which they should), but they didn't listen. Still, no matter, when Romo is throwing 21/29 for 311yds and 3 TD's. Credit again to Miles Austin who nearly went for 200 yds twice in a row, this time though settling for a mere 6 catches for 171 yds and 2 TD's. Saints: 46 @ Dolphins: 34 -- I mentioned earlier today that if anyone was gonna come back from being 24-3 down, then it would likely be the Saints. And sadly for my picks, they did. Bugger. Throwing away two interceptions for touchdowns didn't exactly help the Miami cause. In fact, if it weren't for those 13 points (the Saints missed a 2 point conversion), my pick would have come up as a gem. Bloody Drew Brees. Still he finished, 22/38, 298 yds, 1 TD and 3 INT's, which is way below par for him. Especially the INT's. Sadly though the ball was thrust into Chad Hennes hands, and predictably he threw 2 interceptions among his 36 attempts. Which annoys me. Not the interceptions. Just the principle that for a team as good on the ground as Miami, why throw 36 (37 if you include Ronnie Browns effort) times? Ricky Williams notched 3 TD's, and you have to think they would have had more if they had just stuck with that run game. Damn it! Cardinals: 24 @ Giants: 17 -- This game I had the chance to watch on telly. Man was it tight at times. Credit to Anquan Boldin, whose 3 catches for 75 yds doesn't tell you the whole story about how physical and determined this guy was. Ultimately though, Mannings 3 interceptions cost his team dearly. There are also continuing questions about his play calling actions at the line of scrimmage. In a desperate attempt to look like as good a field general as his brother, Eli spends in ordinate amounts of time trying to call plays and adjust protections. Except that often those protections breakdown. And 'cos he spends so much time doing it, the play clock gradually burns away, leaving Eli with a double headed monster; he either doesn't get the ball off in time and suffers delay of game penalites, or he has so little time left that he has to give away his cadence to the D. He never leaves enough time to run the kind of fakes that his brother does, and subsequently the D is able to time their releases to perfection, usually resulting in them teeing off on Manning. And unlike his brother, he isn't nearly as adept at spotting who's blitzing and who's faking. Them Cardinals turned out to be a good pick. So, that's the Sunday night games done and dusted, and thanks to a ridiculous comeback by the Saints and some ridiculous ineptitude by the Panthers offensive play calling, I'm now at 10-2 in my picks this week. Tomorrow sees the Eagles travel to Washington, where I'm backing the Redskins to pull an upset. Please Redskins, run the ball, run play action, and take me to 11-2 on my first weekend!!!