Sunday Notes

Last week, the Giants' secondary was severely exposed by Drew Brees and the Saints. This week, facing the great Cardinals passing team, the defense was able to play much better, getting the pressure on the quarterback that they needed. However, the offense was seemingly nowhere to be found all night. The score turned out to be a 24-17 loss, which doesn't look too bad, but take out one extremely lucky touchdown off a deflection to Hakeem Nicks and the score would be a very sorry 24-10.

Additionally, Jeff Feagles killed the Giants with very poor punting that constantly gave the Cardinals great field position after the offense failed to get anything going. Normally, Feagles is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, punters in regards to accuracy and consistency. If he makes a single bad punt in a game, I am shocked. I have never seen him have such a horrendous overall game before. I do not expect this to continue, but it was very disappointing as he kept giving the Cardinals the short field.

Suddenly, the Cowboys are just a half game behind the Giants in the standings after a big 37-21 win over the Falcons. Miles Austin has had an unreal first two starts, and if he can keep up just half of that production while Roy Williams and the running backs get healthier, this is a very dangerous team again.

The Eagles play the Redskins tonight also with a chance to move a half game behind the Giants, but they should be feeling pretty bad about themselves after seeing the Jets go into Oakland and completely dominate the Raiders just one week after the Eagles lost in Oakland. It was a much needed bounce back game for the Jets, but it comes with the loss of Leon Washington for the season who is a very important part to their offense and special teams play.

The Saints won 46-34 against the Dolphins, but there is much more to the story than just the score. The Dolphins jumped out to a 24-3 lead on some awful play by Drew Brees. But the Saints were able to fight back to trail 27-24 in the third quarter. Ricky Williams scored his third touchdown at the end of the period, but the Saints outscored the Dolphins 22-0 in the fourth to get the win. New Orleans picked off Chad Henne twice and returned them both for touchdowns. I don't know if this game showed weakness in the Saints to fall behind by so much early on, or strength and resiliency in coming back for the victory.

Cincinnati had the biggest surprise of the day, not necessarily for the victory, but for the complete blowout of the Bears. I predicted the Bears to win, but I expected it to be a close game that could easily go either way. Instead, the Bengals dominated in a 45-10 victory with five touchdown passes from Carson Palmer and 189 yards and a score for Cedric Benson. Matt Forte had just 24 yards on six carries for the Bears.

Once again, it was a big week of blowouts with great teams facing horrible teams. These included Green Bay over Cleveland 31-3, San Diego topping the Chiefs 37-7, the Colts over the Rams 42-6, and the Patriots beating the Buccaneers 35-7 in London.

Jake Delhomme threw for a season-high 325 yards but with three interceptions as the Panthers lose yet again. The 49ers benched Shaun Hill, and surprisingly, Alex Smith threw three touchdowns and almost led San Francisco to a comeback victory, but the Texans were able to hang on with another great game for Matt Schaub.

Not surprisingly, the most exciting game of the day may have been the undefeated Vikings going to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. It was a good defensive game besides Brett Favre continuing to connect with Sidney Rice. With the Steelers winning 13-10 in the fourth quarter, Brett Keisel sacked Favre and knocked the ball loose for LaMarr Woodley to pick up and return it 77 yards for the touchdown and give the Steelers a ten point lead. However, on the ensuing kickoff, Percy Harvin went 88 yards on the return to bring the Vikings within three again.

Minnesota got the ball back with a few minutes left to give Favre a chance for yet another comeback victory. A big play to Adrian Peterson and another play to Chester Taylor had the Vikings at the Pittsburgh 19 ready to score with a minute left, but then Favre's screen pass to Taylor went off his hands and to Pittsburgh linebacker Keyaron Fox (replacing the injured Lawrence Timmons), who ran it back for the 82 yard touchdown to put the game away.

And of course, on Sunday, the nightmare that has been feared for months has now become reality. The New York Yankees will play the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. God help me.