The Return of the Ken! Look at this guy, he gets more ass than a rental car. Lord Hawk is back and ready to face the second half of the 2006-07 NFL season with you. This man stands firm, even when the public disagrees with his drawing eyes and a mouth on his nadbag, with a well-placed flashlight behind them, to make the world's first Sac-O-Lantern. I want to see some legislation condemning the act to back up that Tasering.Week 9 lies ahead and if you ask me, this has been one crazy year in the NFL. There have been the usual quarterback switches and coaching changes, but there's also inconsistencies in so many teams from one game to the next that it is truely difficult to predict which direction a club will be going a week from now.
But this is Week 9, and whether you're consistent or not is starting to become less the priority as your record is now the X factor. Desperation will set in and and the ones with their backs against the wall will strike hard to get that W.
This Sunday gives us several great rivalry matchups with a heated fight in the cold AFC North between the Bengals and the Ravens, and how about this for old enemies: the Cowboys versus the Redskins, the Colts versus the Patriots. Wow, is the heat on in here? You bet. Some like it hot. Ken Hawk heard that and thought it meant chicks like it when you microwave your wang.
Once a potential threat for the AFC crown, Cincinnati has fallen in previous weeks to New England and Atlanta, and the criticisms have begun to seep through the cracks. While the Patriots and Falcons are both heavy contenders playing very productively it has to be noted that the Bengals are failing to come out on top in the big games. Palmer still struggles with fumbling and a defense ranked 20th is still an issue. On the other side, the Ravens are one of these teams that hit the brakes and came right back at us in Week 8, taking the momentum out of the Saints and leaving one to wonder if this is the turnaround point. Was the choice to fire Fassel the right one? I feel about this the same way as I do about Dallas starting Romo. It's too early to tell what real impact it will have, but the immediate results were enough to get the confidence back among the team. Noteworthy: McNair's numbers in Week 8.In the NFC East, the Cowboys are coming off handing the Panthers their asses to dance with the Redskins. There's plenty of history here between these two teams and good reason for Washington to want to play spoiler to Dallas's recent boost in morale. The Cowboys took the early game this season, and need another here to stay in the race with the Giants. Despite some bad choices, a few desperation tosses and some bad luck two weeks ago Romo looked steady in Carolina. This week he'll be out to prove that the win can't be all attributed to some sloppy play by the Panthers. Again, I think it's unrealistic to measure Romo by the two games he has played in thus far; as the season unfolds so will the character of Dallas's starter. What I can say is that the Cowboys needed to bench the declining Bledsoe, and at least Romo has given them hope.
At the height of the action is Indianapolis at New England. Yeah, it is the headline of the week, and maybe we talk way too much about it, but why not? In the past several years these two teams, both arguably a couple of the most dominant in the AFC if not the entire league, have played each other with fierce contest. I am thinking this duel will be a total shootout: the Colts offense holds such firepower and caliber in its attack, while the Patriots succeed so well in the strategic game, exposing weaknesses, rather than working on establishing a balanced offense. Look how New England dismantled Minnesota this past Monday. Belichick could care less if they didn't even crack 100 yards rushing, the Vikings were absolutely mangled in the air. So its the NFL's #1 offense vs. the calculating mind in New England. There's plenty to be excited about here. Keep in mind the Colts did drop the Pats last year, back in their dome, but that defense was much more steady than the one Indianapolis holds this year. In addition, the Patriots were having problems of their own, and were actually 4-3 at the time of the meeting. This time around looks to be a much more evenly matched game. New England has flown low while Chicago and Indy steal the headlines, this could be the perfect opportunity for the team to establish itself and claim the Colts' perfect record.
This weeks picks, lets do this thing:
Atlanta > Detroit
Chicago > Miami
Dallas > Washington
Buffalo > Green Bay
Baltimore > Cincinnati
Kansas City > St. Louis UPSET
New Orleans > Tampa Bay
NY Giants > Houston
Jacksonville > Tennessee
San Diego > Cleveland
Denver > Pittsburgh UPSET
Minnesota > San Francisco
New England > Indianapolis
Seattle > Oakland
15 comments:
Welcome back Mr. Hawk. Great analysis this week. I don't see any of your picks that I would challenge.
Thank you, good to be back. I'm back and forth on Denver at Pittsburgh, as I can't see the Steelers at 2-6. Then again, I couldn't see them losing to the Raiders. The Broncos are all about stopping the run game and forcing Ben to throw, and man if you watched last week you'd think thats the last thing he wants to do.
Elsewhere, I can see KC running past St Louis, and had my eye on a couple others, Tennesse at Jacksonville and Tampa Bay against New Orleans, but I'm not feeling either of those for an upset, though there may be some close ones this week.
Yes, the Steeeler-Broncos game can go either way, but the Steelers have been so inconsistant this year. They have an aweful lot of talent there but Toothlesberger keeps throwing the games away. This game will be decided by which Quarteback has the better game and makes the fewest mistakes.
After a few crowded games against Oakland and Cleveland Plummer really stepped in up last week against Indianapolis, and matching the Colts down to the last series was respectable, though unfortunate in the end. Jake has had his poor games here and there but all those calling for an offensive overhaul look crazy now. Shanahan was right to stick with his man, we all want to see Cutler's game but the Broncs were in the midst of righting the ship.
I tried this before with KC but I think Denver has the fortitude to keep down the Pittsburgh running game, and force Ben to throw into that secondary where John Lynch and Champ Bailey hang out. Good luck with that.
I'm gonna go out on a limb with my upset pick of the week and say that Oakland is going to beat Seattle.
welcome back. i have a wild prediction. i forsee the dolphins of miami beating the monsters of the midway. the only team to ever go undefeated ina season is the miami dolphins. the last time the bears had a chance to go 16-0 was during their super bowl run. the only team that beat them were the doplhins. to them, this game is all about pride.
uh-oh China Joe
I have a bad feeling you are about to receive the full force of Ken Hawk's wrath. Dude, you need to start running now before you become a sack-o-lantern.
Da Bears will definitely win!
well, i do hope im wrong.
Alright, took a roadtrip to Nashville this weekend to attend my best bud's wedding, just returned from Iraq, was a great reception, perhaps the best i've ever been a part of; listened to ESPN radio here and there on the 7 hour drive home and caught updates of the Bears game.
I was expecting a loss to NY or New England in the coming weeks, this isn't the team that will hit a 3 game road trip and win them all. But it came today, and while I think we needed to lose and get away from this "team of destiny" shit I keep hearing, theres a difference between a loss and a BAD loss.
I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't support my hometown or stop loving football, but I never bought into the "best team in football" hype thats been building these past few weeks. Watch the games, we have our problems. Anyone else picked up on how a rush-first city's problems with the run game has forced us to become a pass attack team? It's terrific that we have an offense that has come together so soon after last year, but anyone who was really bent on 16-0 was missing the point.
This needed to happen, we snuck away with a win in Arizona and chalked it up to fate. To me, thats no good. I've never been totally convinced by Grossman. While he has potential to give us confidence and hope after so many lackluster years, Rex has plenty to prove. His comments following these Sunday matches like "It was fun" keep me from thinking he is a very cerebral mind on the field.
So now we know what it is like to lose. I'm interested to see how Grossman will improve his play and how we will approach a good Giants team this coming week. But its about time this team was snapped back into reality. The NFL is brutal, and unpredictable, and the whole team of destiny dream needed to drop. You're a team, just like 31 others out there, and you need to start realizing that, because one took it to you today.
What a wacky day in the NFL. I am in a state of utter disbelief over the Cowboy's loss to those fucking Redskins. We killed ourselves all day with stupid penalties, and lost the game on a senseless personal foul after a blocked field goal attempt.
And dammit T.O., you should have caught that ball. That would have been an easy touchdown. Also, we should not have gone for the two-point conversion in the first half of the game. A one-point conversion would have probably won the game for us.
It's official, the NFL is absolutely nuts this year. If anyone can make sense of it feel free to let me know. I went 8-5 yesterday, nailed both of my upset picks, but lately I've been scratching my head after these Sundays. The old rule is that anyone can win in the NFL, but god damn, seems like every gameday last week's studs get reduced to a punchline.
Chinajoe: I'm not talking to you anymore, by the way.
Nah, this was an interesting weekend and to be perfectly honest I'm not devastated. I am disappointed, but really, I think we needed this loss, and perhaps we needed a big loss, to show that this team is vulnerable, that we have our weaknesses in our run game, and to wake us the fuck up from the bigheadedness thats been vamped up in the past several weeks. We didn't learn from Arizona because we came away with a win. No one will agree with me, but I am almost seeing this as a blessing in disguise, it ends the medias overhype of an unreasonable goal in the undefeated season talk and realigns us back with the other 31 NFL teams.
Its not going to be 41-10 and all smiles boys, because all of this comparison to the '85 Bears and how we've gone along each week and "had fun" is over. How big was that hype? Not long ago an ESPN poll said the Bears will be representing the NFC in the big one this year, and within hours of going to just 7-1 yesterday, 72% of this world says we won't be there.
Thats how hype works. From here on out, we're going to have to fight for respect.
the bears have a long, hard road in front of them. they get to spend 2 games in a row playing on a garbage dump, then they have to play the pats.
all of miami points came off of turnovers. it was very sad to see this loss. i hope this doesnt show that the bears cannot handle the afc...
Well do us a favor joe, and try not to get another weird feeling again this coming Sunday haha
This is where things get difficult, and thus why I am thinking this shock we took yesterday wakes us up and emphasizes a need for focus just in time for the brunt of the schedule. It's unclear who has the upper hand between the Bears and the Giants on Sunday, I believe as the week goes on this will unfold, but this week needs to be about Rex's mechanics and minimizing our turnovers, six is fatal. Even with a great defense you're not going to hold the score down when you turn the ball over in your OWN field numerous times.
I'm convinced that the Bears are better than this and not simply a team lucking out on schedule, and also one that is attracting so much overhype now that one loss and the entire NFL questions this team's character.
Back in my week 5 afterthoughts I mentioned how I'd like to see Chicago's performance vs. a good AFC team, and in these coming weeks we'll get our chance with the Patriots. At the same time, this stretch against the Giants, the Jets, the Rams and Vikings should be plenty to test our mettle.
Lets hope it starts with a focused game plan in New York.
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