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Queasy does it: NFL season full of twists, stomach turns

'On any given Sunday' has taken on a new life with teams experiencing many ups and downs

By Lynn DeBruin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 16, 2008 at 10:43 p.m.

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The NFL season has been a roller coaster ride for many fans.

Photo by Amy Speer photo illustration

The NFL season has been a roller coaster ride for many fans.

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The networks are happy. The NFL elated.

But your average hootin' and hollerin', home team-rootin' fan is reaching for the antacids along with his $7 beer.

Why?

The No Fun League has turned into a Jekyll & Hyde movie.

One week, Washington looks like a world beater, the next, it loses at home to a winless St. Louis team that was giving up 37 points a game and had won only three times in its previous 20 regular-season games.

The Broncos have supporters talking about a Super Bowl run, then they let a winless Kansas City Chiefs team run wild.

The defending champion New York Giants go into Cleveland's Dawg Pound and emerge looking like some saliva-coated, chewed-up toy.

Parity?

Yes.

But those who have played the game say there's more to it than that.

"I think it just reiterates what we know for sure about football," said Dan Dierdorf, a six-time All-Pro tackle who broadcast Sunday's Broncos-Jaguars game for CBS. "In no sport does emotion play as big a factor. And being angry and being motivated and upset really counts for something in football."

He said the game is so hard and requires such a physical sacrifice that teams such as St. Louis summon up an "I'm not going to take it anymore" attitude.

"That's hard to muster up for 16 weeks, but that's why you see it sporadically that a team plays above their head, so to speak - because 90 percent of it is emotion," Dierdorf said.

The Broncos (4-2) no doubt will be fired up after losing to Jacksonville at home Sunday. But so will Monday night's opponent, the Patriots, who laid an egg in San Diego on Sunday night.

Whoever wins again will feel good about themselves, and fans will be back on the bandwagon. But it still might be a long way from settling an AFC picture that's as fuzzy as ever.

"I can't recall the AFC being as wide open as it is this year," Dierdorf said.

Gil Brandt, a former personnel director for the Dallas Cowboys and now senior writer for NFL.com, concurred.

"I don't think there's any question," he said. "Outside of three teams - Kansas City, Oakland and Cincinnati - everybody's got a chance to be in the playoffs."

Dog eats dog

That was evident at 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when Interstate 77 out of Cleveland still was bumper to bumper with party- weary-but-happy fans after the Browns knocked off the previously unbeaten New York Giants in Cleveland's first Monday night appearance in five years.

A sign inside the stadium said it all: "Every dog has its day."

Receiver Braylon Edwards said the rest after the 35-14 upset.

"This is a new season. This has given us new life," said Edwards, who had 154 receiving yards, a touchdown and a two- point conversion catch in a win that lifted the Browns to 2-3 and only two games behind division-leading Pittsburgh.

"Everybody that talked about this game has forgotten about the first three games. We're 2-0 in a new, 14-game season. We're ready."

Last year, New England clinched the AFC East in Week 12 after its perfect start and clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs by mid-December.

"Home field is now looking like it may be decided the final week of the season," Dierdorf said.

That should make for some season-finale fireworks.

In the final week, New England plays at Buffalo, Tennessee at Indianapolis, Miami at the New York Jets, Cleveland at Pittsburgh and Denver at San Diego.

Let's just say the New Year's hangover might come early for some teams, who find themselves on the outside looking in when the playoffs start.

Injuries a factor

It's a far cry from previous seasons, when certain teams were shoo-ins.

In 2005, the Colts started 13-0. In 2006, they started 9-0. At this time last year, Indianapolis was 5-0, the Patriots 6-0 and Buffalo in second place in the AFC East with a 1-4 mark.

Now, it's Buffalo atop the AFC East at 4-1, Tennessee the only undefeated team at 5-0 atop the AFC South, Pittsburgh (4-1) leading the AFC North and the Broncos with a slim lead in the AFC West over the slow-starting but suddenly Super-looking-again Chargers.

Brandt said this is the most competitive balance the NFL has seen.

Consider last week.

For the first time, four games were decided in the final 10 seconds, and a fifth - Dallas against Arizona - went into overtime, with the Kurt Warner-led Cardinals upsetting a team many pegged to win the Super Bowl.

"For the fan that doesn't have a favorite team, it's great," Brandt said. "But for the fan that loves Denver or Washington or Dallas, that fan, his stomach is tightening up on him."

There's no doubt, Tom Brady's injury was the catalyst to a wide-open AFC.

The Patriots were coming off a Super Bowl loss, but they won 18 games last season and had all but two starters back.

"I'm one of those guys who believes you're still the (AFC) champ until somebody beats you," NBC football analyst John Madden said before the Chargers-Patriots game.

"They're not the same without Tom Brady and (with) Matt Cassel. But they have the parts. They have Bill Belichick, one of the best staffs in football; a good offensive line; Randy Moss, the best deep threat in football; and Wes Welker, the best short-game catcher in football. So they have the parts to really make a run at this thing."

Dierdorf isn't convinced.

"You don't subtract Tom Brady from the equation and insert a player with as little experience as Matt Cassel has," he said. "There are only so many Kurt Warners in the NFL storybook. Warner threw like 45 TD passes his first year in the league and nobody knew who he was. I don't see Cassel doing that.

"I don't want to denigrate Cassel, but when playoff football starts and the pressure gets ratcheted up and the weather goes (bad), I think there's a real value there on the quality of play at the quarterback position."

Ham and egg it

While the Patriots try to make do with what they have and the Cowboys brace for possibly being without Tony Romo for the next few weeks, even teams that seemingly have it all together will continue to lay the occasional egg.

"Teams are no different than people," Brandt said. "Sometimes you get up in the morning and do a great job. Other days, nothing seems to go right."

Added Dierdorf: "But a couple of eggs a year still gets a good football team to 13-3 or at the very least 12-4. In this day and age, that's awfully good."

Up and down

Some of the best teams in the NFL this season have taken a thrill ride. A look back:

* Washington pulls off tough road wins against Dallas and Philadelphia, then loses 19-17 at home to winless St. Louis.

* The Broncos average 38 points in wins against Oakland, San Diego and New Orleans, then give up 198 rushing yards in a 33-19 loss at Kansas City.

* The New York Giants roll to a 4-0 record and enter Monday night riding an eight-game win streak dating to the 2007 playoffs and Super Bowl win, only to get blown out by a 1-3 Browns team.

* The Buffalo Bills start the season 4-0, including a tough 20-16 win against Jacksonville, then get blown out at Arizona 41-17.

* San Diego evens its record at 2-2 and, after averaging 34.5 points a game, gets blindsided by Miami's Wildcat attack 17-10.

No St. Louis blues

So you think the St. Louis Rams are awful? Well, by this formula they should be Super Bowl champions:

St. Louis beat Washington

... which beat Philadelphia

... which beat Pittsburgh

... which beat Baltimore

... which beat Cleveland

... which beat the New York Giants.

Snap judgments

Dan Dierdorf, an All-Pro offensive tackle in the 1970s and early 1980s who broadcast the Broncos-Jacksonville game Sunday, assesses the AFC.

* On which team will be better poised to make a playoff run, Denver or Jacksonville

"As the weather turns bad and it gets cooler outside, obviously, a good defense is always something that is nice to fall back on. That's the question with the Broncos right now. Are they going to be able to settle down, play hard-nosed football and win a 20-16 or 16-13 ballgame every now and then?"

* On what he likes about Jacksonville, even though the Jaguars are 3-3.

"They've got some intangibles in the moxie department. Jacksonville has a swagger to it, not based on them going into a game, like the Cowboys, with a more talented roster. But they just think for 60 minutes they can go toe-to-toe and slug it out with anybody."

* On the Patriots with quarterback Matt Cassel

"When I played, you could build a dynasty and keep it together. If there was no salary cap, do you think Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft and Scott Pioli would have Matt Cassel as Tom Brady's backup, as much as they value winning? I don't think so. They'd be paying big money for a veteran quarterback to be sitting there just in case."

* On the AFC playoff picture

"For the last five years, because of the Patriots, Indy and the Steelers and the Chargers and the way they've been playing, you're going, 'These are automatics.' I'm not sure I'd slap an automatic tag on anybody right now."

Comments

  • October 17, 2008

    7:05 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Rutabaga writes:

    The Broncos defense needs to take mad lessons. That's what I say. They should hire Joe The Plummer to be middle linebacker. This guy could plug up the leaks and he's mad, I think. So what if he doesn't play football. Neither does the Bronco defense but that doesn't seem to matter much. Besides Joe likes to be on TV getting everybody mad at someone. He would be good for the Broncos. He would get them mad for sure. Yep...

  • October 17, 2008

    10:44 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    cutlerscannon13 writes:

    I wish I could be Joe the Plummer!!

  • October 17, 2008

    2:17 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    cutlerscannon13 writes:

    On the issue of our D, I think our safeties need to re-evaluate themselves and their security. I just hope they realize that just sitting back waiting for the drop underneath and then missing a tackle isnt in their job security. We just need a little more aggression, a Bailey like performance where someone doenst mind taking a chance to stop a run at the line or take a pick over the middle. New England is going to be a good game and lets see how we fare against 2 very talented receivers, I think we better lock Champ up on Moss for a little extra boost on the Defensive side.

    Lets show up and play hard !