NFL Week 8 Notes
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:04 am by Displaced Cleveland FanThese are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 8 game here.
Brett Favre was victorious in his highly anticipated return to Lambeau Field.
Favre’s 4 touchdown passes led the Vikings over the Packers 38-26. Minnesota is now 7-1 and has won both match-ups this season against Green Bay.
Losing like this has got to be tough to swallow for Packers fans who cheered for Favre during his 16 years as the starting quarterback in Green Bay. Surely there are many of them that are upset about the team getting rid of Favre a year and a half ago. But whether they see it now or not, the team made the right decision in choosing Aaron Rodgers over Favre for the 2008 season. Why? Two reasons:
- Brett Favre is old. Sure, he’s still playing well. But how much longer can he continue? One or two more seasons, tops. Who knows, this season might really be his last. If the Packers still had Favre, Rodgers likely would be gone. After Favre finally really retires, what then?
- Aaron Rodgers has proven he is a good quarterback, and he will only get better. In the loss to Minnesota, Rodgers threw for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns. After seven games thus far, he is averaging 284 yards per game, has thrown 14 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. Compare that to Brett Favre’s 240 yards per game, 16 touchdowns, and 3 interceptions. Rodgers is just about even with him.
So while it’s somewhat possible the Packers would be better this year with Favre, in the long term, they’ll be happy they have Rodgers under center.
What happened to the New York Giants?
After a 5-0 start, the Giants have now lost 3 straight. The latest was a 40-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sure, a 5-3 record is not in itself a cause of concern. After all, the Giants are supposed to have a good team. But if you look at their record, four of their wins came against teams that have a combined record of 5-24 (Washington, Tampa Bay, Oakland, Kansas City). Against teams that are currently above .500, they’re 1-3.
Only beating the bad teams may still get them into the playoffs, but they wouldn’t have much reason for optimism going into the postseason. We’ll see if they can turn things around.
Vince Young is back. (At least for now.)
After an 0-6 start, the Tennessee Titans returned from their bye week with Vince Young back as their starting quarterback in favor of a struggling Kerry Collins.
Young did well in his first start of the year, going 15 for 18 (83.3%) for 125 yards and a touchdown. He had plenty of support with running back Chris Johnson’s 228 yard, 2 touchdown performance.
The Titans beat the Jaguars 30-13 for their first win of the season.
In the Division:
The Baltimore Ravens beat the previously undefeated Denver Broncos 30-7. This was really a must-win game for the Ravens, who came into this week trailing both the Steelers and the Bengals in the AFC North. With the win, they improve to 4-3 and are one game out of first place.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals both had a bye week. They remain tied for first place at 5-2.
Quick hits:
- Denver’s loss leaves two undefeated teams - Indianapolis & New Orleans. The Colts offense played poorly, but they hang on to beat the 49ers 18-14. The Saints will put their perfect record to the test tonight against the Falcons.
- Coming into this week, there were three winless teams - Tennessee, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay. All three avoided losing again this week. The Titans beat the Jaguars. The Rams beat the Lions. But the Buccaneers, unfortunately, had a bye week. So they are the lone winless team left in the league.
- Miami’s Ted Ginn had two 100-yard kickoff return touchdowns yesterday against the Jets. He’s the first player in history to have two 100-yard TD’s in the same game.
-dcf
Tags: Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, Chris Johnson, Eli Manning, Kerry Collins, Ted Ginn, Vince Young
