Just watched the highlights of the Steelers v Bengals. Steelers look good and deserved the win but i was impressed by the Bengals scrapping performance. They did'nt look like a team who haven't won a game all season. They showed a bit of fight,especially on defence!

By what, half a game?

A 1/2 a game, is 1/2 a game. They're a last place team. Why are the Titans ranked higher than the Giants? It's only 1 game, yet the Giants play in a much better division, and the Titans schedule so far this year has been a joke.

Come up with a formula with data that's easy to import into excel that's better then.

FWIW, Fox Sports, ESPN, and S.I. don't the Eagles ranked in the top 15 in their power rankings.

THEY USE OPINIONS AND NOT FORMULAS

Well, their opinions are better than your formula, since you ranked a last place team with 0 division wins higher than other teams in the division.

Maybe you missed it after your fit of rage from seeing the Giants not ranked #1, but I said Philly shouldn't be in there when I posted it.

I can't argue the Titans being #1 since they haven't lost a game, even though my "opinion" is that the Giants would destroy them head to head.
And I'm glad you admit your formula is wrong.

I agree, Lou. But you gotta admit, Kerry Collins is a nice story.

Yes.

In week one when Vince Young was injured after telling his coach he wanted to be taken out of the game, and then he started acting strangely, suggesting to some he was on the brink of suicide, I thought the Titans might tank.

Kerry Collins has been outstanding. While the Titans are a team that looks to pound you with the run, Collins is capable of throwing the big pass at any time.

It's a nice story. He was under-appreciated in NY, despite taking the Giants to a Super Bowl. It's hard to believe the job Collins and Warner are doing this year at their ages.

I think the QB position is at a point now where it is so complex it usually takes awhile (Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco aside) to really be able to play the position at full capacity.

Older guys seem to be doing well now because they have experience and that seems to be the most important thing besides talent in most cases.

Drew Brees was mediocre for his first few years in the league, and now he's on pace to break Dan Marino's single season passing yardage record.

As an individual, when you participate in team sports, more often than not one player can be credited for a big loss, even though you play as a team and lose as a team. On a professional level, after losing a championship game, or choking, for lack of a better word, it has to be close to impossible to withstand the media scrutiny, especially here in New York.

In a lifetime of watching New York sports, I have seen exactly two guys step up like men and take absolute acceptance of responsibilty for the loss of their respective teams. The first was John Starks, after shooting 2 for 18 in game 7 of the 1994 NBA Finals against the Rockets. The second was Kerry Collins, after the Giants lost the 2001 Super Bowl, in which Collins was just awful. They didn't duck the press conferences, they both put the loss squarely on themselves, even though neither of their respective teams would have made it to the championship game without them. Tough, classy guys, both of them.

Kerry Collins was a great story in 2001, beating alcoholism to make it to the Super Bowl. He's an even better story this year.

Think Favre and Collins will go to a bar and hang out after this week's game?

Hmm. Try this unusuality:

"As a rookie quarterback in the NFL, Ben Roethlisberger exceeded all expectations, engineering wins over the unbeaten New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles on his way to a unbelievable 15-1 season for the team. Ben's first loss in his rookie season came in the AFC Championship game against the Patriots. Injuries kept Ben Roethlisberger sidelined for several games in the 2005-2006 season, but he came back to take the Pittsburgh Steelers to an AFC Championship win and [a] Super Bowl victory."

There are definitely ones who do well right out of the gate like I mentioned but it seems like a lot of times they don't do well for the first few years. Of course it helps to have a good defense and a running game.

Tommy Maddox played the game they lost so really Ben was undefeated until that playoff game. I think part of his success was a running game and a good defense, he didn't have to do too much so it took the pressure off of him.

This year Ben seems to have regressed a little bit, he's had some bad games. Maybe it's the injuries and the O-Line, but maybe David Carr could have succeeded if he didn't lead the league in sacks (received) year after year with the Texans.

LN's Formula Rankings
1 NY Giants ^
2 Tennessee v
3 NY Jets ^
4 Tampa Bay ^
5 Pittsburgh ^
6 Carolina v
7 Arizona v
8 Baltimore -
9 Atlanta -
10 New England -
11 Dallas ^
12 Indianapolis ^


I'll do one later when I am in more of a typing mood just for JL.

Poor old Detroit......


They suck

I really wish Culpepper could get back to his form like his crazy 39 TD year that got overshadowed by Manning breaking the TD record. He got injured and hasn't been the same since.

To be fair to him he hasn't got much to play with, has he?
Calvin Johnson apart,they are a poor bunch.

They looked whipped just singing the anthem

Actually, locally some spectators (Lions don't really have "fans" any more) are hoping that the Lions go 0-16 to either get the Fords to sell the team, have the league intervene and "suggest" the next GM/Coach for the Fords to hire or just for the Lions to be able to say they had the "perfect" season...

Of the games left for the Lions, I think their best chance of winning is next Sunday when they host the Vikings. I don't see them competing in a road game, and I think the Saints will score 45 points against them.

I didn't think it was really possible for an NFL team to lose all 16 games in today's game where competitive balance and weighted schedules are the norm, but Detroit is making it close. I still think they'll get a win this year.

LN's Formula Rankings

1 NY Giants -
2 Tennessee -
3 Tampa Bay ^
4 Pittsburgh ^
5 Carolina ^
6 NY Jets v
7 Baltimore ^
8 Atlanta ^
9 Dallas ^
10 Indianapolis ^
11 Arizona v
12 Minnesota ^

Tampa Bay vs Carolina should be important to playoff implications next week.

Is Jack Del Rio the coolest head coach in the NFL?

I certainly think he is. his team are no great shakes this year but he just stands there in his shirt and tie and his leather jacket looking cool and tough

He even smiles every now and then,which you don't see from many other coaches,apart form Bill Belichik

He's a great coach, Jacksonville has had some injuries to their O-Line early on and haven't recovered. They are always a tough opponent for the Colts. I like how he dresses up instead of wearing a hoodie or whatnot.

Del Rio, I always thought, was one of the dirtiest players, going back to his days at USC. He actually had a clothing deal where he's paid to wear the clothing on the sidelines. He and former coach Mike Nolan had to get special league permission to wear suits although now his look is more casual. In the 70s it was common for coaches like Dick Nolan, Hank Stram, John Madden and Tom Landry to wear suits and ties while coaching.

Del Rio's had some success coaching, but this year has been a belly flop for him and the Jaguars. They had some injuries, but who hasn't? Their defense lacks the fire and intensity they had last year.

Yes, i watched the game last night(or rather early this morning) and i thought the Jags were poor. Their defense just fell apart in the last quarter.

The Giants fined and suspended Burress for four games on Tuesday, four days after he accidentally shot himself in the right thigh over the weekend at a Manhattan nightclub. He was officially placed on the reserve non-football injury list, which restricts him from practicing or returning to the teams's active roster for the remainder of the season.