Thursday Night recap

Now that Thursday nights games are done, it's time to have a peek and see how my picks got on. Packers 34 @ Lions 12: I had a feeling it might end like this. Basically three players made the difference; Stafford, Rodgers and Woodson. Stafford put his excellent performance from Sunday behind him and promptly threw 4 interceptions. Turning the ball over like that has plagued Stafford all season, you just have to hope he will get better with time, which I think he will. It also doesn't help to only get two completions to your best receiver, Calvin Johnson. Last week Johnson caught 7 passes for 161 yards. Use him. As for Aaron Rodgers, he got the ball to his two best receivers a combined 11 times for 195 yards and a TD. That's the way to do it. Rodgers finished just two yards shy of 350 yards passing with 3 TDs and no picks. And finally, probably the most impressive of them all was Packers CB Charles Woodson who despite being 333 years old managed to notch up 6 tackles, 1 assist, 1 sack, 2 interceptions and a forced fumble. Nice job. 1-0. Raiders 7 @ Cowboys 24: Yesterday I said "..... the Cowboys do have the kind of rushing attack that could rip Oakland apart, but they just don't have the balls to say no to Tony Romo so expect that great triple team to be under utilized once again". Uhm, it looks like Wade Phillips and his crew grew the required balls overnight. Felix Jones and Tashard Choice combined alone for over 130 yards on just 10 carries, with Marion Barber tacking on another 61. I never expected the Raiders to do anything special, I just didn't think the 'Boys would either. Boy was I wrong. Romo even found the courage to largely ignore Roy Williams in the open field and go for his two best receivers (Austin & Witten) instead, who paid him back handsomely. 1-1. Giants 6 @ Broncos 26: Again I'd like to quote myself from yesterday "And that's the issue I have with the Giants in this game. They don't/won't run the ball enough. Instead they put it all on Eli and expect him to roll out a repeat of his Superbowl performance. And it's not gonna happen". Psychic or what? 40 passes, completed just 24, and only 15 carries for his backs. That's always bad news. Eli is not that good. Meanwhile I had a feeling (as also mentioned yesterday) that the Broncos might take some shots down field against a banged up Giants secondary. And they did. Brandon Marshall was displaying some superb one handed skills as the Broncos offense finally found some life again. 2-1. Not a bad start pick wise, but there's plenty of action coming up this week to either boost my tally or tear me down. Tomorrow I'll tell you exactly which teams I'm backing.

I hate the Panthers....

Dolphins 24 @ Panthers 17 : I hate the Panthers!! Earlier in the week I commented that Ricky Williams is probably a better all round back than Ronnie Brown. I think tonight he took a big step towards proving that. I also mentioned when I was making my pick that there was a good chance the Panthers might get too excited about the reasonable success of their passing game last week. And surprise, surprise, here I am, 0-1 to start the week. God damn it!!! Jake Delhomme threw 42 passes and completed just 19. Why? For the love of god why are they so desperate to give him the ball and let him throw games (literally) away? You have DeAngelo Williams in the backfield. Let me reiterate that. You have DeAngelo Williams in the backfield. He got just 13 carries, which he managed to convert into 122 yards. This guy needs more touches. And yeah, I know they have Steve Smith on the outside. When he gets the ball he's great. Trouble is he only catches around 50-60% of the passes thrown his way. I can't remember the last time Williams muffed a hand off. If DeAngelo was playing somewhere else, say Pittsburgh or Baltimore, the guy would be chasing Chris Johnson for total rushing yardage. Anyway, a good (and important) win for the Dolphins. 0-1 for me this week. I hate the Panthers.... But I'm not finished completely with this game. I wanna give some extra credit: Davone Bess (Dolphins) -- His stats weren't great for the game, but he made some great catches and worked really hard to get open for his young and inexperienced QB. That's great team play. Bess is a trooper. Lex Hilliard (Dolphins) -- Who? Rookie RB had 4 carries for 24 yards. He ran hard on those carries and will likely get the first bite at sharing the workload with Ricky Williams for the rest of the season. Keep an eye out for this one. DeAngelo Williams & Jonathan Stewart (Panthers) -- How tempted they must be to run over Jake Delhommes foot in the parking lot. "Oops, sorry dude, the parking brake just slipped off..." I hate the Panthers.