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As we begin to approach the second half of the season, we start to get more and more games that will shape the postseason. Teams will start to find themselves in must win situations, and each loss from here on out has even greater importance.

For some like those in the NFC East, every loss is going to be important, because all four teams in that division currently have a winning record. Sure once the divisional games start to roll around, some teams will start to get more losses, but when after 7 weeks the last place team in a division has a record of 4-3, and that same team also has the best inter-divisional record at 2-1, you know that division is going to be fun to watch play out.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Proving It."

They say the most popular person on an NFL Football team is the Backup QB. Afterall when the starter is struggling, the Backup QB is the Savior, and everyone thinks he can make a difference. But what happens when the starter gets pulled, or even worse, injured? Many teams in the NFL are finding that out right now. And other teams are making sure they are prepared.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Backup Plan"

Week 5 saw the start of change for some teams in the NFL. In Buffalo, they hope to avoid further compounding an egregious preseason mistake, while in San Francisco, they're #1 overall pick should be feeling quite burned. In St. Louis, we have our first coaching change of the season, but hopefully that's not permanent. While in New Orleans, where a coaching change should be made, another excuse now exists.
Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Changes"

Seems like just last week we were all moaning about the Regular Season still being a couple weeks away. Now we've played through quarter of the regular season. It just seems to go too quickly.

That means some of the teams have played 1/4th of all the games they will play this year. Of course, the way some teams have played this year, one must wonder if they've actually played a game yet this year. Or in the case of the NFC North, one must wonder if they realise there is a football season to be played.

Fortunately, while the first quarter of the season is now done with, we still have 3/4ths of the season to go.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: A Quarter for your Thoughts."

The first two weeks of the season usually brings many unexplainable things. Things like how in the world the talking bobbleheads of the media were suddenly anointing the Chicago Bears as division champions, and Kyle Orton as the next great QB after only one game. Fortunately week three begins to bring some reality back into the league. Kyle Orton threw 5 interceptions, letting everyone know the Bears, are still a bad team, who might just catch a few teams off guard.

Week three, was the usual zany football weekend. For example, in one game a kicker with an injured hamstring, was treated like an actual football player. In one game two qb's hurt their shoulder, but one of them still came into the game with a torn rotator cuff and led his team to overtime. The Music City Miracle tried to make a comeback. And in the biggest game of the year, the refs apparently didn't want the game to end so they added an extra 52 seconds onto the clock.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Zany Week 3"

There's an old adage that says NFL teams have the most dramatic improvement between weeks 1 and weeks 2. It's why it's so dangerous to play a bad team in week 1. Nobody knows what to expect. But going into week 2, you've got footage on your own team as well as you opponents, and you've finally been able to remove some of that offseason rust.
Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Who Knew?"

The first week has come and gone. Half of the league is now winless in 2005. Of course that means that half the league is also undefeated. Finally everyone has actual game to watch, and analyze, and learn from. So in Tuesday Morning Overreaction style we are going to go through what we learned from week 1.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: What We Learned"

For all the Randy Moss, and Terrell Owens news mongerers in the NFL there are many more players with tons of class, who don't make the news as often. Fortunately that all changed during the past couple weeks. We all know about Hurricane Katrina that has ravaged New Orleans and the gulf coast, and left many people in dire straits.
Fortunately over the past couple weeks many football stars have been quick to react. Many players have jumped to the call to help out those in need. Players like Peyton Manning could be heard this week calling for help. Even Joe Horn, who of course has at times become T.O. like in his showboating, answered the call to duty.

Players weren't the only ones helping out. Throughout the league, many of this past weekends home teams donated a portion of the ticket proceeds to help out those in New Orleans. It's been said many times over the last couple weeks that a situation like this puts football and all sports into perspective and lets us know what's really important. It's good to see the NFL and it's players coming through to help out those who really need it.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Let's Get It Started"

The third week of the NFL's preseason is usually considered the dress rehearsal for teams. It's the preseason game that will best give an idea as to how teams will perform in the regular season. It's the game where the starters will play the longest. During the first 2 (Sometimes 3 for American Bowl, and Hall of Fame Game participants) games, NFL teams are usually experimenting with different schemes and moving players around. They will also use this time to try out those expensive draft picks they made the April before. During the final preseason game, teams fear the dreaded injury bug, so they will mainly play the players who are all on the verge of getting a meeting with The Turk, the name teams use for the guy who tells doomed NFL players to meet the coach when they are about to be cut.

The third preseason game, is the first game that teams start getting into their Regular season practice and gameplanning habits. It's also the game that the Starters will play the longest, usually into the third quarter. So it's the first time we can truly judge how teams will perform.

During last Friday's special edition of Tuesday Morning Overreactions, I made my semi non-committal regular season predictions for each of the 32 NFL teams. However, there were many very firm predictions, including the prediction of the Detroit Lions making the Playoffs as a wild card team. The Lions welcomed this news and went out to celebrate such proclamations by immediately being embarrassed on Monday Night Football by the St. Louis Rams 37-13. Methinks I should have waited till after preseason week 3.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Preseason Week 3"

Kids going back to school. Weather getting a little bit cooler. Nights starting earlier. It can only mean one thing. Football is back. Which in turn means it's time for a special Friday edition of that every Tuesday ritual, Tuesday Morning Overreactions.

When last we left the wonderful world of Football, fans in New England were celebrating yet another Lombardi trophy whill the rest of the fans across the globe were mourning the oncoming offseason, filled with months without on the field action, leaving us to stoke our competitive juices elsewhere.

Little did we know that the action off the field this year would end up matching some of what happened on the field the previous year. There was the Vikings telling Randy Moss not to let the door hit him, where the good lord split him. Javon Walker, and Brett Favre having a war of words in the Media, because Javon wanted a big pay raise after only one decent statistical season. Rookie Pac Man Jones called out the veterans on his team, before ever signing a contract. And of course a prima donna head case WR (but then again aren't most of the NFL's prima donna head cases WR's) in Philly, who gets way too much attention, causing a fuss.

How will this effect the teams? Who should rise to the top and who will sink to the bottom? Let's find out as I run down my preview of the 2005 NFL Season. Unlike last year when I predicted actual records for each team, this year I'm going to use a simple better/worse/status quo method. This way it's a lot harder for someone to look back and see how horrible my predictions really were.

Better – At least 2 games better than last year.
Worse – At least 2 games worse than last year.
Status Quo – Same as last year's record, give or take 1 win/loss.

However, I will order each team by how they should do within their own division.

So without any further ado, here is Sideshow's run down of all 32 teams for the 2005 NFL Season.

Continue reading "Tuesday Morning Overreactions: Season Preview"