The Good
Good Close Games! 8 of the 14 games are decided by 7 points or less, with 5 of them decided by 3 or less points. Miami beats a good Carolina team on a last second field goal, New England defeat the Steelers in Pittsburgh on a late Adam Vinatieri field goal, the Cowboys drive late and score a TD and 2 point conversion to take a 3 point win over the 49ers after being down 12 points in the fourth quarter and David Akers kicks a game winning field goal hobbling around on one leg to beat the Raiders.
The Bad
Poor New York Jets! Not only do they lose their QB Chad Pennington, but their backup QB J. Fiedler goes down as well. Now Chad is out for the year and Fiedler is out 6 to 8 weeks. That leaves the Jets with 3rd year, 3rd string QB Brooks Bollinger. Sources say the Jets are talking to 41 year old Vinny Testaverde and are trying to pull him out of retirement.
Question: are there so few NFL QBs out there that you have to ask Testaverde to come out of retirement. Heck, why not give Aikman, Marino, Fouts or Phil Simms to leave the broadcast booth and come play one more year.
The Ugly
There is one downside to the NFL – those pesky little things called kickers! There were 3 missed extra points this week and one of those extra points cost their team the game. The Packers lost to the Buccaneers 17-16 on a missed extra point by kicker Ryan Longwell.
Just 3 weeks into the season, there have been 29 missed field goal attempts and 5, count ’em, 5 missed extra points. Why this game relies so much on a player that does not need to run, catch or throw is beyond me. Why should a team lose a game because a kicker could not make a 20 yard extra point. Really now, the extra point is the easiest kick in the game. The defense does not rush on the play. If the game is 20-20 with 10 seconds left on the clock, yes the defense will try everything to block the extra point, but other than that situation – the defense just stands there and waves their hands over their heads with minimal effort to stop an extra point.
Just kick the ball already – stop making excuses that the laces did not face out, or snapped was muffed or mishandled or the field was muddy and you slipped – just kick the ball and make it or get out of the league!
