Halfway there

Eight weeks down, nine to go. Essentially the midpoint of the season. And really what a lackluster week of football this was. Three games featured a pair of winnings teams: in one, the Pats won by 45; in another, the Colts won by 24; and in the third, the commentators were Ian Eagle and Solomon Wilcots, demonstrating the unpopularity of the matchup (TB-Jax).

For the Niners, it was more of the same from last week. Pitiful. Pathetic. Poor play lining the entire home game against the Saints. A really awful job on defense, and while ASmith put together a couple good drives, the offense isn't trustworthy at all right now. It really can't get much worse than this.

And that's why I have hope.

2-5 is never good, and nothing from October inspires any sense of a turnaround. But now it's November. A big fat nine games remain. And looking at the remaining opponents (Arz, StL, Sea, Atl, TB, Car, Min, Cle, Cin) it's NOT impossible. Honestly, how many of those nine teams are locks to make the postseason? Can't the Niners find a way to win six of those games, regardless of where they're played? If the Niners can sweep the division games, I still think they can win the NFC West with an 8-8 record. That's my hope. I'm not saying they'll go to the Super Bowl or make anyone forget the Montana Niners. But a turnaround is not impossible. Keep the faith. Looks extremely improbable right now. But it ain't over.

Meanwhile, not even a soccer field and London rain can stop the Giants, although a 3-point win against Cleo Lemon's Dolphins won't make anyone believe the Giants are actually better than the Cowboys. Either way, I think it's fair to say the G-men and Cowpokes are the two best teams in the NFC right now. The Redskins and Eagles just aren't there yet, in terms of consistency. Jason Campbell can't be trusted yet in a big game, certainly not to win, but even to play well. The collective lousy play of Carolina (winless at home???), Atlanta, and TB has opened the door for the Saints to steal the South. Incredible win by the Pack tonight, while the Lions showed they can hold their own. Meanwhile, the Bears and Rams are on the clock...only ten minutes this time.

The real power in the NFL still lies in the AFC, as evidenced this week. I'm not concerned about the dregs of the leagues; it's the different layer of class that resides in the AFC. The Colts and Pats POUNDED a pair of NFC playoff hopefuls. The Steelers and Chargers round out an indomitable top 4 in the league, all ahead of Dallas. Essentially, New England, Indy, Pitt and SD can win anywhere against any other opponent. Moving to the next layer, as of now I would trust Tennessee, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Baltimore over the NFC's "upper middle" class of Green Bay, Detroit, Seattle, New Orleans, and Tampa. There's just a completely different amount of trust here. You feel the NFC teams can collapse at any time. The AFC teams play better defense and have better running games. That's a good formula.

Basically, the AFC will feature a fun playoff race, whereas the NFC will generate more of a "whoever wants it can have it" feel. But hey, only one half has gone by. A lot can change.

Last words...I mean, here we are. The best regular season game in history? Certainly the most-hyped. This probably deserves its own post, but given all the drama with the Pats running up the score and Brady going after Manning's record and conf. champ. game homefield at stake...this is going to be amazing. Honestly, Week 8 in the NFL basically didn't exist. You just got the sense that the entire league was looking ahead to this matchup. For good reason. And of course, the teams held serve by combining for a 69-point margin of victory. They come in with guns blazing. Indeed, here we are.