Week 8: The Saints Come Marching In

Sean Payton is the only Saint not
operating at 100% right now. (Getty)

So, we spent all weekend hanging out in New York City together and still couldn't manage to finish up the blog until after kickoff.  Oh well, they say it's the city that never sleeps, but we both slept until about 11 a.m. each day and then limped uncomfortably through the cold wet snowy-rain substance all of last night.

We did the weekly draft in person, which was fun and Kelli and Justin (two of our three-and-a-half or so loyal readers) got to witness the draft.  After the Saints shellacked Indy last week and with the Packers on bye, it was back to well for the week's top draft pick.

Stally (Seven-Point Pick) - New Orleans over @St. Louis

Stally: This pick is pretty clear.  The Saints just beat up the Colts by a score of 62-7 and the St. Louis Rams aren't a whole lot better than that.  My only reservation is that it's a road game, but we're getting to a point that the Saints are the second-best team in the NFC (behind Green Bay, of course) and the Rams are probably the worst.

Miami's Feeling Luck-y

Stally's Goal Line Stand

This Matt Moore fumble was the
 last straw in Miami's collapse. (AP)

Over the second half of the season, Austen and I will probably start talking much more about the Andrew Luck sweepstakes and which teams are best positioning themselves (a nice way of saying losing too much) to have the chance to take the star quarterback first overall.

Bill Simmons recently joked about what he called "Tankapalooza" in the NBA, when all the lower tier teams started circling the toilet bowl in hopes of landing Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the draft.  The difference in the NBA is that they have a lottery system, whereas the NFL goes simply by record.

The Miami Dolphins were the first contestant to play the "Suck for Luck" sweepstakes last week as they tanked a 15-point lead.  Say what you want about Tim Tebow's heroics, but the Dolphins got the ball with a first down with 5:50 remaining and a 15-0 lead.  They then went three-and-out, allowed Denver to score a touchdown, recover an onside kick, score another touchdown and gave up the predictable Tim Tebow two-point conversion run to tie the game.  They then got the ball in overtime, got stopped on third-and-one for another three-and-out and fumbled on their following drive to give the Broncos the ball in game-winning field goal range.

Week 8 Opening Coin Toss: AFC Mediocrity

For the Jets to make the playoffs, Mark Sanchez
has to bring home the bread... and the hot dog.

Stally: Talk to me about your New York Jets, Austen.  They should've lost to Dallas and San Diego at home, which would leave them at 2-5.  Instead, they came back to win both and are 4-3 and right in the playoff mix.  What's gone wrong and knocked this team from the elite?  What do they need to fix down the stretch to make the playoffs and build on their postseason success from the last two seasons? And, most importantly, point blank: will they make the playoffs?

Austen: First off, "should've" is a meaningless term in the NFL. A win is a win, no matter how ugly, and the Jets tend to win a lot of ugly games. In Mark Sanchez's first season in the NFL, the team played so bad down the stretch that Rex Ryan came out and said they had no chance to make it to the playoffs. A lot of other teams fell apart and matchups against the Colts and Bengals, who had both already solidified their positions in the playoffs, pulled starters and gave the Jets easy wins.

Week 7 Final Score

Ray Rice and the Ravens took a
step backward losing to the Jags. (AP)

The Jets pulled out a late victory, but it was still another rough week for Austen.  He had another unlucky week with most of his logical picks (Baltimore over Jacksonville, for instance) going against him, while Stally was one Plaxico Burress away from getting all of his picks right.

It's also important to note for those really keeping track, we had a Week 4 scoring gaffe.  Our spreadsheet said both of us were correct in picking Pittsburgh, which lost to Houston, so we've both been deducted one win in Pick 'Em.

Hopefully there aren't any such issues in this week's final scorecard.

Week 7

We Have Learned Nothing About Tebow

Austen's Goal Line Stand

Let's not crown Tim Tebow just yet.

Sorry to keep talking about Tim Tebow, but in a week with some of the worst matchups so far this season, Tebow scoring 18 unanswered points against the Dolphins in the last five minutes of the game and overtime is one of the biggest storylines. While his performance at the end of the game to give the Broncos their second win of the season was impressive, it was a true team performance that got them back in that game. Whether that was a team meshing at the right time or Tebow's leadership skills rallying this team, we will never know, but the Broncos did not win this game because of Tebow's performance on the field.

With 5:23 left on the clock, Tebow was 4/14 for 40 yards. That is a horrible performance for any quarterback with any amount of experience. He was throwing up passes that were so far away from his receivers that there were no defenders around to intercept the ball, which was the only reason he did not turn the ball over during this game. His receivers were getting wide open against an awful Dolphins defense and he still could not complete a pass, even when he had tons of time in the pocket.