I actually heard this from one of those studio geniuses over the weekend. "Can you believe how lopsided the league is this year, what a great disparity there is between the best and the worst?" Now I've heard it all. Full circle. Ever since the leagues merged in 1970, the same talk show literati have been complaining about parity. Now they're complaining about disparity. Fellas, I've said this since the beginning of time ... it all averages out, everything, life itself averages out, or, as wise Khayam said, "the caravan starts for the dawn of nothing, oh make haste ... " Speaking of nothing, look what's coming, our first true bone of contention of the season, and I promise you, no more fooling around. This will be deadly serious:
| NFL Power Rankings |
| 1 |
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Other people favor the Patriots. I always go with the defending champ, until shown otherwise. The Titans' impressive running game will be a good road test Sunday. Either that or it won't. |
| 2 |
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So now they're saying that a New England paparozzo took some adult films of the Jet coaches giving their signals, after Green Bay complained about the same infracture last year. Oh boy, does this take us way back. The late Bucko Kilroy, the Patriots' personnel director for many years, once was involved in a hilarious but spicy incident involving accusations by Rams' coach George Allen that Bucko, then a Dallas scout, had climbed a tree to spy on his practices. Are these things passed on through the generations, or what? |
| 3 |
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I award them this position only because I picked them to represent the AFC in Supe XLII. I didn't like what Philip Rivers showed against the Bears' eight-in-the box, attacking defense. I didn't like the fact that LaDainian Tomlinson got stuffed, and it took them so long to change gears and smack Chicago with their big hammer, Michael Turner. The severest pressure of all will be on them in Foxboro this weekend, Power Ranking Pressure. Depending on what happens you could see them anywhere from No. 1 to, oh, No. 8 or so. |
| 4 |
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Fasten your seat belt, Paul Forrester, this week's Mailbag will be filled with howls of derision for my award of the cleanup spot to the humble Titans. Here's why -- 282 yards rushing, mostly tackle to tackle, against the supposedly impregnable wall of the Jaguars ... and with Chris Brown, who could have been anyone's free-agency pickup, gaining 175 of them ... behind a line no one ever heard of. I mean what can you tell me about guys like Roos and Bell and Stewart? Well, I'll tell you about them pretty soon because I've got the game on tape. Goody! |
| 5 |
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Steve Smith says that Rams cornerback Tye Hill told people he had shut him down last year when, in reality, he caught a 62-yard TD pass on him. "I've been marinating on it for a whole year," he said, after he burned Hill for a 68-yarder Sunday. So THAT'S what I smelled from their locker room. |
| 6 |
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This is what happens when you lose the special teams battle, as they did against Buffalo: You keep getting a long field to work with. Consequently your yardage totals become enormous, viz. the 470 on Sunday. |
| 7 |
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Mock my words, this is the injury that's really gonna hurt them. Nose tackle Jason Ferguson, lost with a torn bicep. Despite their size, those guys are very hard to find. |
| 8 |
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Ding! Super stat! Mike Tomlin accomplished something the last seven Pittsburgh head coaches failed to do, beat the Browns the first time he played them in Cleveland. The last one to do it was John Michelosen in 1950. I remember that team well. The only NFL club still using the old single wing, and who was the run-pass tailback? Joe Geri, of course. |
| 9 |
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What's with Carson Palmer and all those misfires? They beat the Ravens courtesy of that terrible offensive interference call on Todd Heap, plus an amazingly athletic play by DE Robert Geathers, racing way downfield to intercept Steve McNair's late pass, scrambling to his feet and returning it 30 yards. |
| 10 |
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San Diego LB Matt Wilhelm on the instructions his position coach Ron Rivera gave about trash talking to Rex Grossman: "He told us that Rex was kind of a mental midget so you can get into his head and create that doubt." Careful, there's not much room. |
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