Week 5 in the NFL
The Chicago Bears may have been off, but plenty still happened around the league this weekend.
- OK, Denver Broncos, you've got me convinced that you're for real. The now 5-0 Broncos continued to be the story of the league, knocking off my pick to win the Super Bowl, the very underwhelming New England Patriots. Tom Brady doesn't look like his old self, but a big part of the reason for that Sunday was the Broncos defense. Kyle Orton is getting lots of national attention - and he's done an excellent job of performing his tailor-made-for-his-talents role in the offense - but the reason the Broncos have been so successful is their defense.
- The Bears would NOT have been better off with Orton than they are with Jay Cutler ... but Orton's penchant for winning football games is pretty impressive.
- T.G. Smith's Miami Dolphins showed a lot of heart last night, winning what both he and I agreed was a must-win for them 31-27 over the suddenly slumping New York Jets. I'm not expecting Chad Henne to play at the level he did last night, when he went 20-for-26 for 241 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. If he continues to be effective, however, I believe that the Dolphins could well be better off with him at quarterback than with the injured Chad Pennington. As accurate as Pennington was, his inability to stretch a defense was a major flaw in a team with one of the best running games in the league. If Henne can bring the element he showed in his 53-yard touchdown pass to Ted Ginn Jr. last night, the Dolphins could become a dangerous offensive team.
- Speaking of must-win games, the Tennessee Titans laid a giant egg in theirs. They fell to 0-5 Sunday night with their 31-9 loss to streaking Indianapolis. As tired as I am of annoucers and other media members fawning over quarterbacks (especially those named Brett Favre), I can't help being amazed at how Peyton Manning is playing right now for the Colts. The level of quarterback play in the NFL across the board might be at an all-time high, but nobody is in Manning's league right now.
- I can't believe I keep logging onto sports news sites and don't see headlines about coaching being fired. I mean, really, Dick Jauron in Buffalo, Gary Kubiak in Houston and Tom Cable in Oakland are deemed to be doing their jobs well enough to remain employed? That's not even including Washington's Jim Zorn or San Diego's Norv Turner, who clearly are liabilities to teams that should be better, or struggling first-year coaches Eric Mangini in Cleveland, Todd Haley in Kansas City and Raheem Morris in Tampa Bay.
