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I'll give the league a B-minus
Posted: Tuesday November 09, 1999 10:28 AM
Week 9 Awards | Top 10 Teams | 10 Things I Think I Think Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag. LANDOVER, Md. -- To borrow a line that usually rules the bottom of this column: I think I've heard a few too many people rip the game this year to suit me. There's this creeping perception that the game isn't as good as in the old days, whenever they were. Maybe it isn't. But how can any thinking person (outside of Baltimore or Cincinnati, anyway) say the game stinks? I agree that there probably have been more than the normal number of stinker games. "Some of these games are just plain unwatchable,'' moans WFAN buddy Mike Francesa. Brett Favre turning the ball over 67 times (or was it 68?) is embarrassing to him and to football. The Monday night games for the past month have stunk, and many of the ESPN games have been odiferous, too. Does Chiefs-Ravens ring a bell? True, the power teams may be gone. No question it was a golden age for the NFL when the Steelers, Cowboys, Raiders and Dolphins ran roughshod over the '70s. Some of the greatest games in our sporting memory banks are the Steelers-Raiders wars, and in 1999, there is nothing like those on the horizon. But how good was the game for the Falcons and Saints back in that era when they knew they'd lose three out of four weeks? How good were the first 20 years for the Bucs? Or the post-Tittle, pre-L.T. days (an entire generation) for the Giants? America is voting with its TV sets right now -- ratings are up an aggregate 7 percent on the four networks. And, despite the obvious offensive flaws and the graying of some legends, America likes what it sees. "The game's always been competitive,'' said Giants GM Ernie Accorsi. "Now it's more crazy-quilt.'' Crazy-quilt, though, was great for the Giants in Week 8. Christian Peter blocked what would have been a game-clinching field goal over the Eagles, then he blocked a Doug Pederson pass into the hands of Michael Strahan for the winning touchdown in overtime. And crazy-quilt was great for the Bears Sunday when a schmoe named Bryan Robinson beat the dreaded Packers with a blocked chippy field goal. It's nearly impossible to compare games in one season to games in another, but I asked myself the other day: How's the NFL doing, based on the games I've seen this year? Now, I rarely go to the Game of the Week. Instead I usually go to a game that will be fodder for my notes column. This season I've gone to what I would consider the Game of the Week just once, when I attended St Louis-Tennessee in Week 8. Here goes my week-by-week itinerary, with grades: Week 1: Tennessee 36, Cincinnati 35, at the new Adelphia Coliseum in Nashville. Sloppy D by the Titans, but a barnburner featuring a heroic performance by cramp-wracked Jeff Blake. Grade: 87. Week 2: Tennessee 26, Cleveland 9. The starting debut of Browns' first-round pick Tim Couch. Good drama. Kid growing on the job. Nice touchdown bomb to Kevin Johnson. Grade: 77. Week 3: Indianapolis 27, San Diego 19. I go to see the ascending Colts offense, and Indy's first 401-yard passing day since Johnny Unitas doesn't let me down. I learn Peyton Manning-to-Marvin Harrison might be the next Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice, or at least Troy Aikman-to-Michael Irvin. Grade: 94. Week 4: No game. I went to interview Brett Favre that week in advance of his 30th birthday. Week 5: Atlanta 20, New Orleans 17. I try to decipher the misuse of Ricky Williams mystery (he gets 19 carries for 53 yards) as the Saints choke back another fourth-quarter lead. Decent game, nothing special. Grade: 71. Week 6: Miami 31, New England 30. Dan Marino goes down, Damon Huard is sacked nine times in front of a vicious road crowd, but the Dolphins come back from a 14-zip deficit. Sam Madison shuts out hottest receiver east of Marvin Harrison (Terry Glenn) and Huard converts two third downs on final-minute 54-yard winning drive. Superb game. Grade: 99. Week 7: Seattle 26, Buffalo 16. Bills fall behind 23-0, and we watch Doug Flutie make a zillion plays trying to bring the Bills back. He needed a zillion and three. A few times during the game, I had to bite my lip to keep from yelling, "Holy cow!'' Flutie's a treat. Grade: 88. (Extra points for realizing if I didn't have this job, I'd actually pay money to watch Flutie.) Week 8: Tennessee 24, St. Louis 21. Strange game. Not quite as great as the score indicated, because the Rams handed the lead to Tennessee with turnovers. But St. Louis was valiant coming back and almost sent the thing into overtime. First time to see Kurt Warner under real fourth-quarter pressure, and the guy handled it better than I thought. Grade: 89. Week 9: Buffalo 34, Washington 17. Went to see the Men of Hacksaw Snyder play the worst game of their season. That Redskins defense was putrid. Came away thinking it was deja vu all over again with the Magic Flutie: I am lucky to get to watch this man play. No drama drags this grade down. Grade: 65. My math tells me that's an 83 average. Good. Not great, but a good,
changing-of-the-guard first half of the season.
Week 9 Awards OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Buffalo starting offensive linemen John Fina, Ruben Brown, Jerry Ostroski, Dusty Zeigler, Robert Hicks. The Bills had been running poorly, which increased defensive pressure on Doug Flutie. So before Sunday's game at Washington, the offensive coaches decided to force the run against a bad run defense. "They put the game in our hands,'' said Brown. "Our offense looked like the offense we all love to run.'' Some 204 rushing yards later, the Bills had a 34-17 win at previously 5-2 Washington. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Miami CB Sam Madison. MMQB rule: You get three interceptions in a game, you win MMQB Defensive Player of the Week. You also beat a good team, usually, when it happens. Madison totally flustered Steve McNair with the three picks in the Dolphins' 17-0 victory. SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Chicago punt-blocker (and defensive lineman) Bryan Robinson, whose rejection of a 28-yard Ryan Longwell field goal saved the Bears' 14-13 win at Lambeau as the clock wound down. "Thank you, Walter Payton,'' Robinson graciously said. "I think Walter actually picked me up a little bit and lifted me into the air because I can't jump that high. I don't know what happened. I got a running start, I got my hand up there, it was great. Somebody lifted me up.'' COACH OF THE WEEK: Buffalo offensive coordinator Joe Pendry. Give him credit. With Eric Moulds coming back from an injury, it would have been easy to say: Bombs away, Mr. Flutie. Instead, Pendry said: Mash it out, boys. Moulds still was a factor, eating up Darrell Green. But 204 rushing yards and 41 minutes of possession time murdered the 'Skins. GOAT OF THE WEEK: The NFL Uniform Cops for their disgraceful refusal to
allow St. Louis' Marshall Faulk to wear No. 34 to honor Walter Payton
Sunday in Detroit. The league was being stupid, petty and ridiculously
by-the-book. Come to think of it, EVERY STARTING RUNNING BACK IN THE LEAGUE
YESTERDAY SHOULD HAVE WORN
34.
The Top 10 1. Miami (7-1). I repeat: Damon Huard is 4-0, three of the wins coming
against solid playoff
candidates.
The 10 Things I Think I Think This Week 1. I think we are all devastated by the death of Walter Payton. Did you know he threw eight touchdown passes? Did you know he could have bitched when Mike Ditka made the silly decision to give the Fridge a gimme touchdown in the Super Bowl against New England instead of giving him a measly one? Did you know Payton once goosed me in the Chicago locker room? 2. I think, every time I go to Washington, I realize what a great columnist Michael Wilbon of the Post is. His column Sunday about athletes hiding behind their families to make greedy decisions is a classic. "I am not buying for one second this junk Ken Griffey is throwing out there about needing to leave Seattle because his family is in Florida, because he was somehow jolted into reality by the tragic airplane crash that claimed the life of his friend Payne Stewart, blah, blah, blah,'' Wilbon wrote. "Hardly anybody in sports says what they mean anymore ... These guys employ agents, publicists, spokespeople -- and you mean to tell me none of them are savvy enough to simply sit down and craft a public goodbye that is appreciative and truthful?'' 3. I think it is useless for a defense to say all week: "We've got to keep Doug Flutie in the pocket. We've got to stay in our rush lanes. We've can't let him get outside." Accept it: Flutie's a phenom. You can't stop him from making five athletic plays a game. Can't. 4. I think, last night, that Trent Dilfer had a good chuckle at all of us who buried him in the last couple of weeks. 5. I think, last night, that Gus Frerotte had a good chuckle at all of those in Washington who buried him in the last couple of years. Did he really convert a fourth-and-28 on the decisive drive of the game? Did Dick Vermeil jump out of the Rams' charter over Terre Haute last night, or just weep all the way home? 6. I think Art Modell must have a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that he can never set foot back in the city of Cleveland. 7. I think the Dolphins are about as for real as you can get. 8. I think I once again must praise the Great Dane on the ESPN Sunday night commercials as a dog of great taste and great quotability. Referring for some odd reason to the Beverly Hillbillies, the Danemeister says: "That Ellie Mae was a looker.'' 9. I think Flutie likes the little shots he keeps taking at the NFL, like this one last week at the way the big league scouts players: "I love throwing a wrench in the big system of the NFL because it always irked me that they took the attitude that they have all the answers. No one has all the answers. They've got four years' worth of film on all these guys coming out of school. Why do they have to take them all to a combine? They've got to line them up in their underwear and look at their bodies. It has nothing to do with playing football.'' 10. I think Miami-Jacksonville for the AFC title on Jan. 23 will be the real Super Bowl. Click here to send a question to Peter King's NFL Mailbag.
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