NFL week 7 wrapup

Week 7 in the NFL...

• Re: New England Patriots
  
  That was a little more like it.



• Matt Cassel's taken a lot of heat for not being Tom Brady. There's been some legitimate criticism, but, I think, a lot of overdone and unfair criticism. He's taking too many sacks, but they aren't all his fault - several of them have been the result of complete failure of the offensive line to do its job. And I maintain that the two losses were primarily due to defensive breakdowns.
  
  I do not think that Matt Cassel's going to have a career anywhere near as good as Tom Brady's. I do not think that the Patriots are going to win the Super Bowl this season. (Of course, I didn't think they would in 2001, either.)
  
  That said:
  
  
  

  Injury replacement QBs - First six games (relief plus five starts)

  	Attempts	Completions	YDS	TD	INT	Passer Rating	Pct	W	L
  Matt Cassel - 2008	166	110	1095	6	4	86.8	66.3	4	2
  Tom Brady - 2001	169	104	1069	7	4	83.7	61.5	3	3

  
  
  Just sayin'...



• Two in a row for the Rams? Against the Redskins and Cowboys? Wow. They're coming to Foxboro next Sunday for a game that looks far more like a challenge than it did two weeks ago.



• Mike Nolan gets the axe in San Francisco. That makes three NFL coaches replaced during the first seven weeks of the season. That strikes me as very unusual. I know that coaches are sometimes fired during the year, but I don't remember ever seeing three during the same year before.



• That Titans defense has been awesome so far. The Steelers have allowed the second fewest points in the NFL, 89 through 6 games. The Titans have allowed 66.



• The Raiders tried desperately to give that game to the Jets. The Jets refused to take it. And, for the second time this season, we saw a coach use that "genius" timeout move as the field goal attempt is about to start, and cost his team in the process. About three minutes into that overtime period, I started to think that a tie was very likely.



• Evidence that you should be listening carefully to what I say (slim pickings this week - there were a bunch of right on the spread, wrong on the winner games, and vice versa, and games that were right but the reasoning and comments were wrong. Altogether, a pretty weak performance. As should be expected...):
  
  

  San Francisco at NY Giants - "The Giants spit the bit last week. I hate to say this, but they're too good a team not to come back strong this week, against a mediocre West coast team 3000 miles from home."




• Evidence that you should be listening carefully to what I say (and betting the opposite):
  
  

  New Orleans at Carolina - "Carolina's at home with a better record. Maybe this is just contrariness, but I continue to be a Panther skeptic."
  
  Indianapolis at Green Bay - "Peyton's back. (Yes, I know he hasn't missed any games. I stand by my story anyway.) The Colts offense is starting to wake up. This may be the game of the weekend, but the Colts win at Lambeau."
  
  Dallas at St. Louis- "There's now talk that Tony Romo, instead of missing four weeks, may miss zero. He ought to take this week off anyway. Or play left-handed."




• For the week:
  Winners: 9-5
  ATS: 8-6-0



• For the season:
  Winners: 62-40
  ATS: 57-43-2