Clarion Content

Almost the halfway point in the NFL Season, a few quickies, news, notes, thoughts and picks.

If the Giants make the playoffs does that mean egomaniac and boring, cookie-cutter, studio analyst Tiki Barber makes a comeback? Hey, Tiki, maybe it wasn’t Eli after all, the Giants are better without you. Addition by subtraction. If this keeps up, when Strahan retires after this year, Tom Coughlin could have them in the Super Bowl next year. No matter how much talent a franchise has, locker room selfishness can be poison. Ask the Bengals. Or ask baseball Tigers about the Sheffield addition.

The Patriots are as dominating a team that the Clarion has seen since the 1989 San Francisco 49ers. Not only have the Patriots won and covered ever week, but their margin of victory is more than 1/3 of the teams in the NFL’s points per game! Says here they beat the Colts handily this week. They are one second half meltdown in the playoffs last year, from winning 5 of 6 Super Bowls. Write this year’s Super Bowl off now, it is a foregone conclusion. Check out the current Vegas odds to win the Super Bowl.

Boy was the Clarion wrong about Favre. In our preseason NFC North preview we pointed out that he had thrown more touchdowns than interceptions in his last 64 games, and clamoured for his retirement. Brett has shown he still has a little sumpin, sumpin left in the tank. Big win for Green Bay on the road in Denver last week. The Clarion wants to claim they have played a cream puff schedule, but it is not so. They have beaten potential playoff teams from the NFC East; the Giants, the Redskins and the Eagles, plus the San Diego Chargers.

David Carr is so atrocious for the Carolina Panthers that it can hardly be believed. He is so bad that the Panthers started forty-three year old Vinny Testeverde at QB last week. Unfortunately Vinny got hurt so Carr is likely to be under center again this week. The Clarion is wondering, now that he has been benched the Jets, is Chad Pennington available to go to Carolina? The Panthers have an excellent team with a gaping hole at quarterback following Jake Delhomme’s injury. Is Pennington available for a 2nd or 3rd round draft pick? The Jets are utterly out of it this year at 1-7. They have a young quarterback they are ready to play in Kellen Clemens.

There has been talk of each NFL team playing a regular season“home” game outside of the United States. This is part of the league’s globalization effort. They want to play meaningful games outside of the United States. Last week’s New York Giants vs. Miami Dolphins game in soggy Wembley Stadium in London was supposed to be the first, not the last effort. The Clarion is not enamoured with this idea. Classic American arrogance to assume the rest of the world will be interested in our game. Has baseball swept the known universe? Are Americans excited by European football? Still the Clarion is okay with the idea, especially if part of the outcome is an extra regular season game and an extra bye week. The NFL could easily do it. It could go to a seventeen week season. Each team could and should get a second bye week, one of which would come after its week traveling outside the country. All of this would face only limited scheduling difficulty if, a big if, the greedy owners would eliminate two useless preseason games.

Two more quick stats.

Did you know Derek Andeson of the Cleveland Browns was second behind Tom Brady for TD passes this year with 17TD tosses??

Did you know Vince Young hasn’t thrown for a touchdown pass since week 2. It may not matter if he keeps running them in and the 5-2 Titans keep winning.

A couple of more picks from the Clarion this week besides the Patriots.

We like McNabb and the Eagles to upset the Dallas Cowboys in Philadelphia. McNabb is looking healthier and healthier. Eagles wideout Kevin Curtis is leading the NFL at 18.2 yards per catch.

We also like the Ravens to upset the Steelers. They beat them twice last year, by a combined score of 58 to 7. They are fresh coming off their bye week, especially the defense who figure to stuff the Steelers swift, but soft, running back, Willie Parker. Steve McNair is mostly healthy for the first time since the season opener.

Labels: NFL, Predictions