<p>Thank you, Monte Kiffin! I would not want to be in the Giants lockerroom right now.</p>
<p>
The Patriots’ main issue was finishing drives and the turnovers, not necessarily a lack of talent or fundamental issues. The Jets cannot depend on that to work in their favor because it won’t.</p>
<p>
Belichick if he hadn’t been fired would actually be the Ravens’ head coach. So yea, the new Browns would be screwed either way.</p>
<p>The Jets won, so at least we won’t be 0-16 this year, but that win was an absolute gift from the Bucs.</p>
<p>And the Giants lost, because they were so intent on being very gracious about giving the ball back to Dallas every chance they could. Aargh.</p>
<p>
They got nothing out of the TE spot, and the rook looked out of sync with Brady all day. Plus, he seems to have very poor sideline/endline instincts. There were a couple of plays where he should have been able to get his feet inbounds, but didn’t make the play. There are any number of quality receivers who would have made those plays.</p>
<p>Yeah the turnovers (almost) killed them. They led to 14 Buffalo points, and cost the Pats at least 3 and maybe as much as 14 points. That’s a 17-28 point swing, which would have made this a laugher. I think Ridley is going to be riding the bench for a while…</p>
<p>
Dallas was +5 in turnovers yet won by only 5 points. Statistically the Dallas defense was dominated, and the Dallas offense didn’t do all that great either.</p>
<p>A win is a win, no matter how ugly, but if I was a Dallas fan I wouldn’t get too excited.</p>
<p>How was the Dallas defense dominated???</p>
<p>OK, it’s way too early to rate the Jets’ kid Geno Smith, but…</p>
<p>He showed some smarts in dumping the ball rather than trying the hero pass, which typically leads to a crushing interception.</p>
<p>At times he definitely looked like the deer in the headlights after the huddle broke, but again he made the smart decision to run in at least a couple of key situations. The offensive coordinator did a fine job of protecting the QB by not asking him to do the impossible.</p>
<p>Bottom line, the kid won. Yeah, it was a gift. But it was also a lesson. However, the Patriots’ will not be so generous. Just no more ‘Butt Fumbles,’ please.</p>
<p>
In only 23 minutes of possession, the Giants put up almost 500 yards of offense. The Giants averaged over 8 yards per play, and were 6/11 on 3rd down tries. The Giants had 4 touchdown drives of 80 yards or more.</p>
<p>The only way they could stop the Giants was by forcing a turnover.</p>
<p>Credit to Dallas for forcing the turnovers and scoring some defensive points. But Dallas is not going to force 6 turnovers per game. The defense is not going to score 14 points a game. The Dallas offense, in 37 minutes of possession, scored only 22 points, was 5/15 on 3rd down. </p>
<p>+5 in turnovers and Dallas only won by 5 points.</p>
<p>It was a fun game to watch, though.</p>
<p>I guess that’s one way to look at it. But I think when a defense is on the field for less than 23 minutes, had three interceptions and three fumble recoveries then it was in no way dominated. </p>
<p>You’re right it won’t happen every week, but it happened this week.</p>
<p>I thought Dallas won the first half but the Giants receivers were open all the time in the 2nd half and often by a lot. Now some of that was likely due to the Cowboys being ahead but it stood out.</p>
<p>NE played like I expected: it isn’t so much “game speed” versus pre-season as the complexity of the offense grows and the defense is doing much more. It’s exactly what Belichek seems to like, a work in progress that he can coach. My concern with their tight ends is not so much pass catching, which I expect they’ll do, but blocking. The last few years they’ve had big blockers on the roster and now they don’t. I thought the defense played pretty well, giving up only one real drive and shutting Buffalo down in the 4thQ. </p>
<p>There were some really idiotic plays this weekend. That out of bounds hit by Tampa was off the charts dumb. Jerod Mayo’s late hit when the Bills were backed up late was pretty stupid. Lots of other mental mistakes like that. That last INT by the Giants was either Manning throwing before the receiver turned or the receiver not turning when he was supposed to.</p>
<p>But overall the weekend showed why football is so big: lots of interesting plays, lots of crucial circumstances, and they can get 22 people lined up to play, with substitutions, over and over in less time than it takes a pitcher to deliver a ball to the plate.</p>
<p>Monte Kiffin is a trip…I don’t care how old he is, he still has the winning enthusiasm of a kid. Kiffin and his Tampa-2 defense are a big plus for Dallas. Kiffin is one of the most fun NFL coaches to talk to, and to listen to! Congrats to new Cowboy George Selvie…George had a super NFL starting debut…he was a busy and productive guy for Dallas last night. Great to see Jason Pierre-Paul back on field for Giants too.</p>
<p>^Great to see JPP, and also, it was nice to see Terrell Thomas back and productive, as he has missed something like the last three seasons with knee injuries–a testament for persistence!</p>
<p>Monte Kiffin was the football coach at NC State when DH was attending.<br>
DH said Kiffin would do crazy stuff like ride a white horse across campus wearing a Lone Ranger outfit.<a href=“http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/adore-djatoka/resolver?rft_id=ua023_004-005-am0048-000-017&svc.level=5&svc_id=info%3Alanl-repo%2Fsvc%2FgetRegion&svc_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajpeg2000&url_ver=Z39.88-2004[/url]”>http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/adore-djatoka/resolver?rft_id=ua023_004-005-am0048-000-017&svc.level=5&svc_id=info%3Alanl-repo%2Fsvc%2FgetRegion&svc_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajpeg2000&url_ver=Z39.88-2004</a>.</p>
<p>He also parachuted from a helicopter onto the football field at NCSU.</p>
<p>The AFC West might also be considered the best division in their league, excluding the Raiders. The “new look” Chargers are a surprise so far in the first half against the Texans and I think Kansas City is going to surprise a lot of folks this year. Denver just may be the best team in football this year.</p>
<p>The West is the best!:)</p>
<p>Didn’t see all of the Eagle/Wash. game, but what I saw was painful for a fan of RG3 (though not of Washington). He sure looked rusty–hope things improve for him as he gets back in to the swing of things.</p>
<p>Garland, he was very rusty, but he improved a lot in the second half. He’ll get it back together.</p>
<p>So much for the “new look” Chargers… </p>
<p>RG III didn’t get any work in during the exhibition season due to his surgery in the off-season, and it showed in the first half. Agree with hayden, he’ll be fine. It will be interesting to see if Michael Vick can stay healthy for an entire season running Chip Kelly’s new offense. It is sure fun to watch but it may be “hazardous to a QB’s (long term) health”, especially in the NFL.</p>
<p>
Ha, that didn’t work out so well.</p>
<p>RGIII had negative points in my FF league at the half, but finished up with 26.5, which was a top-ten finish. Maybe Shanahan should’ve given him at least a couple of series in the last preseason game.</p>
<p>It turns out I would have beaten the guy who had Peyton and his 63.5 points, and my nephew would have as well. It just goes to show, no lead is safe. :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Ndamukong</a> Suh fined $100,000 for illegal block](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2013/09/10/ndamukong-suh-fined-100000-for-illegal-block-minnesota-vikings-center-john-sullivan/2794433/]Ndamukong”>Ndamukong Suh fined $100,000 for illegal block)</p>
<p>I am not surprised by the amount of the fine. I am surprised that Suh is a captain elected by his teammates. He is such a dirty player. I can’t stand him.</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear how much Clay Matthews is going to be fined.<br>
No word yet.</p>