Written by John Edward BetancourtWell, this should prove to be an interesting week for quite a few reasons, several teams have decided to hit the reset button coaching wise and player wise over the last few days and that should make for some pretty interesting games come this weekend, in fact there have been so many changes, let's get right down to it and take a look at the top stories to keep an eye on this week in the NFL. Will Johnny Manziel finally jumpstart the ailing Browns offense? You hate to see a player lose their starting job to injury but it has happened before in this league and it will happen again and come Sunday, Johnny Football has the chance to take the job away from Josh McCown by doing what may be the impossible...leading Cleveland to a win over the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals. Now let's be honest, The Browns likely won't win with their porous defense and so so offense but Johnny has a chance to give the Bengals a run for their money and keep the game competitive and finally give the Browns offense some life. It's something he's pulled off before and quite frankly, I don't know if he realizes how important these moments when he fills in for Josh really are...the whole organization is watching and if Manziel doesn't start showing the franchise something special...his time in Cleveland will run out. Will Andrew Luck and the Colts be able to produce against Denver with a new Offensive Coordinator? Pep Hamilton was the first coach to go in this strange season for the Colts and Rob Chudzinski is the new man in charge of play calling and he has a monumental task in front of him. The Colts offense is well, a mess. They don't block well, they don't run well and they sure as heck don't put up points and to make matters worse...they are facing a Denver Broncos defense that kept one of the best quarterbacks in the league to 77 yards passing. If the Colts want a fighting chance against Denver this weekend, Rob is going to have to pull off some inventive plays and find a way to inspire a squad that has little to no confidence at the moment. I wish him the best of luck, but I think it's going to be business as usual on the field for the Colts. What will the Titans look like under Interim Head Coach Mike Mularkey? Another Head Coach has been shown the door in Tennessee releasing Ken Whisenhunt from his duties on Monday and promoting Mike Mularkey to the top job and well...he has quite the climb ahead of him. At 1-6 the Titans are a team that are seemingly lost, even with Marcus Mariota at the helm and Mike has to find a way to inspire this team to do something more than let teams roll over them and to make matters worse, there's a bar being set for Interim Head Coaches thanks to how much turnaround Dan Campbell has done in Miami. Sadly, I don't think the Titans will pull off any miracle wins or suddenly pour the points on opponents, but I do expect to see a return to fundamentals. Expect a return to the run game, the team making Mariota a game manager and some work on fundamental tackling on the defense before the franchise blows everything up and starts over again in the offseason. Colin Kaepernick's benching may have done more harm than good. The San Francisco 49ers are a franchise in disarray. In fact we could talk for a long while about how bad things are out in the bay area right now, but really only one thing has me concerned for the Niners this weekend...Kaepernick's benching. I'm not saying it isn't deserved, he's been playing awful for a long time now. However...this is a team that is not united in the slightest. They clearly don't stand behind their coach since their airing of grievances more or less showed that some folks think Colin should be the guy, others do not. That's not a good thing, it means that Jim Tomsula may have lost the locker room and if that's the case the play on the field will only get worse. We will find out this weekend for sure, but it doesn't look good, not when they shipped off Vernon Davis for being one of the players not in Colin's corner. Speaking of Vernon... How much impact will Vernon Davis have on the Broncos passing attack this week? This was a huge trade for the Broncos, stealing away Vernon at a bargain price, but...there's one big risk in trades this late in the year when you're a top tier starter like Mister Davis is...you're going to have to learn a new system in a short time. I don't care how smart the player is, there's an entire playbook you have to unlearn before you get going on the new one. However, Vernon is a special kind of talent and he may assimilate into the Kubiak system faster than expected and that's the hope, that he helps Peyton carve up the Colts defense like a roast. Should be interesting to see what he contributes to the game on Sunday. OUR PICKS OF THE WEEKJohn's Picks Denver Broncos at Indianapolis Colts - Denver Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets - New York Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers - Pittsburgh Washington Redskins at New England Patriots - New England Tennessee Titans at New Orleans Saints - New Orleans Scotty's Picks Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills - Miami St. Louis Rams at Minnesota Vikings - Minnesota Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers - Carolina Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers - Atlanta Chicago Bears at San Diego Chargers - Chicago
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Written by John Edward BetancourtWhat a weekend. I mean seriously, there were some amazing football games that took place on Sunday. We were witness to some instant classics, redemption for some teams and more sorrow for others and we learned a lot about several teams in the process. So without further ado, let's take a look at the top stories from the field. 1. Drew Brees and Eli Manning can ball. This was without a doubt one of the coolest games I've seen in recent years because it's not everyday you witness a record tying, record breaking shootout on the field. I mean come on, it was touchdown after touchdown and it was completely and utterly amazing to watch these two quarterbacks duke it out like this and I'm still stunned to have been witness to Drew Brees tying the single game touchdown record with seven and that Eli was right behind him with six. This game is simply an instant classic and I'm not sure if I'll ever see anything quite this amazing ever again. 2. Okay, it's time to take the Cincinnati Bengals seriously. At 7-0 this team has faced some incredible adversity and they just keep finding new ways to win games. Doesn't matter if the defense has figured out Andy Dalton, he finds a way to get the ball downfield. Doesn't matter if they stop the run, the Bengals line opens up new holes and it doesn't matter if you score on the Cincy defense, they will find a way to shut you down because this team is scary good. Teams like this, the kind that find the right weakness at the right time and never quit regardless of the odds facing them are ones to worry about and this 7-0 start is putting the league on notice that the Bengals are no longer the butt of football jokes, they're for real. 3. Something strange is going on in Atlanta, a team once undefeated is now sitting at 6-2 and while that's not exactly cause for concern, those two losses have come against absolutely abysmal teams in Washington and Tampa Bay, and that is why this is suddenly newsworthy to me. In the two games in question that Atlanta has lost, they seem...unprepared and unwilling to put down their opponent, which is odd considering their level of talent on offense and defense and well, I can only figure it's one thing in particular that caused these losses...they don't take their "lesser" opponents seriously. This simply looks like piss poor preparation on their part and that's something that needs to change quickly because if they underestimate a bigger opponent somewhere down the line...say a playoff game, it will cost them dearly. 4. The Denver Broncos FINALLY put it all together Sunday Night and added a treat for their fans on Monday. I'm not sure exactly what changed during the bye week for the Broncos, but it worked and please don't stop doing what you're doing, but while their performance Sunday was primarily going to be the discussion in this segment of today's article, something special came up late Monday that manages to supersede all of that...the fact that the Broncos traded for Vernon Davis. This has merit simply because the Broncos basically robbed the 49ers by getting him for a pair of sixth rounders and once again, Peyton Manning has that extra weapon in the fold after losing Julius Thomas to free agency. It's just another fine example of John Elway wheeling and dealing to keep his team competitive and I know myself and other Broncos fans can't wait to see what Davis does on the field. 5. As of press time for this article, another team has decided to make a head coaching change. Yes, the Tennessee Titans have relieved Ken Whisenhunt of his coaching duties, putting an end to an era that well...was not one the Titans and their fans want to remember. Whisenhunt, an offensive mastermind who managed to take the Arizona Cardinals to a Super Bowl was expected to turn the Titans into a contender, but that simply never happened with a 2-14 record in 2014 and a 1-6 start in 2015 despite having one of the top quarterbacks from the draft on his team. He leaves the Titans with a 3-20 record and Mike Mularkey, the Assistant Head Coach/Tight Ends Coach will assume the Interim responsibilities, and here's to hoping Ken finally finds the right fit coaching job wise because unfortunately it simply didn't work out in Tennessee. |
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