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Five Burning NFL Questions...

1) Let’s start off with a simple question, how good are the Patriots? 16-0? Overrated? Best team ever? Tell me fellas. I need to know.


Q- Um, I'll take silly questions for $100, Alex. How could anyone say they're overrated? They have simply dominated all four of their opponents this season. The offense looks borderline unstoppable. For gods sake, Sammy Freaking Morris ran wild on Monday night. Granted, it was against a porous Cincy D, but c'mon, Sammy is terrible. Add to that a D that is shutting down some major offensive teams (SD, Cincy) and will only get better once they get Harrison and Seymour back. What does that equal? The best team in the league by far. That said, 16-0? I just don't see it happening. That's just too much to ask of any team. There's a reason why there's only been one undefeated team and it was 25 years ago. There's just too much talent for one team to go undefeated. And as far as their place in history, we'll just have to wait and see. I'm not going to give any team a title like that after Week 4. No one.

Dogg- Well, they are going to be one of the best teams that's ever stepped foot on the field. Now that the NFL and Eric Mangini has made the best coach ever in Bill Belicheck very upset, he's on a mission. Tom Brady finally has WR's that can run routes, catch the ball and probably the first season he'll have a WR with any YAC. They are dominating teams without Richard Seymour and Rodney Harrison. Those two are arguably the best defensive players they have. Giving up 12 ppg isn't bad when Moss is averaging that himself per game. It's extremely hard to go undefeated but Belicheck is the type of guy that won't sit his starts if they are undefeated because he'll want to be the coach that does it. I got them going with at most two losses but 1 or no losses is more realistic in my mind.

Matt- The Patriots are insanely good and it’s frightening. It’s amazing to think that they have held up this long with the strong NFL parity. They have been a machine for 5+ years. Playoffs every year with Superbowl contender talent. Personally, I couldn’t be more jealous of that franchise. They seem to make all the right moves and we’re trying to reach mediocrity. As for the undefeated season, I don’t see it either like Q said. They play Dallas, Indy, and Pittsburgh this year. You could argue along with New England that those are the four best teams in the whole league. They’ll lose at least one of those.

2) Another simple question, how bad are our Minnesota Vikings? What you expected? Worse? Better?

Dogg- The Vikes are exactly what I expected....terrible. You can say what you want about the WR's we signed but there's a reason no other team wanted Robert Ferguson or Bobby Wade. That to go along with the most overrated offensive line in the league and an inexperienced QB who hasn't shown any signs of improvement makes for a terrible team. Defense is really good but it's the same thing with the Minnesota Twins. Even with Johan Santana and a great defense, you need to score a run or two to win and they can't. The Vikings won't score more than 17 points on offense in any given game this year.

Matt- We are a quarter way through the season and we have a better then good chance of grabbing the #1 pick in next years NFL draft. How do you think it’s going? Childress is getting some heavy heat in town and probably deservedly so. I don’t think he’s as bad of a coach as everyone else thinks he is, but I do think he messed up in the worse way in backing Tarvaris Jackson. That was mainly his decision. We have enough talent for a 5th or 6th seed of the NFC playoffs, but we won’t come within five games of a spot. I had some homer hopes early, so I think this is worse then what I expected. We might not win three games this year. Fun times in Minny right now...

Q- I could try to be cute with this answer, but let's be honest: the Purple are simply terrible. The quarterback situation is much worse than people thought (and those expectations were low to begin with), our supposedly solid offensive line is awful, and we can't pressure a QB to save our lives. Obviously there are positives, like our run D (shocking), Superbowl Homeboy man crush Adrian Peterson, and…well I guess that's it. Though Sidney Rice is starting to emerge as the best receiver on the team and might be a legit threat to be a real NFL receiver. I have to be honest, this is MUCH worse than I imagined it would be in the preseason. But then again, I'm a self proclaimed Homer, so that isn't really shocking.


3) Who gets your early MVP vote? And why?

Q- Tony Underwood, I mean Romo. He's been unreal so far. While the Cowboys D struggled in the early part of the year, Tony was throwing for 300+ and 3 scores. Now that they've gotten healthy and figured it out defensively, he's still throwing for over three bills with a couple TD's. The Boys are clearly the best team in the NFC and that's in large part to Carrie's boyfriend (yes, I'm jealous). There are a lot of guys with great numbers out there, but none of them are as critical to their team's success as Romo is to Dallas'. In my mind, he's the clear winner here.

Dogg- My early vote for MVP is Jeff Garcia. I know his stats aren't spectacular but who do they have on offense that they didn't have last year. He throws the ball to Ike Hilliard and Joey Galloway. His offensive line is average and his running game is also average. The guy manages a game just as good as anybody else out there and I will continue to say that the Vikings would've made the playoffs if we had signed Garcia as our starting QB. Romo's stats are unreal but who can't throw to T.O and Jason Witten. Not to mention they have two legit RB's in Julius Jones and Marion Barber. If TB makes the playoffs this year, I believe he is the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER.

Matt- If you didn’t know, every NFL team employs a person whose primary job is to stick needles into a giant voodoo doll anytime a member of it’s fan base says something against it’s favorite team. Saying that, I’m currently bracing myself for some serious pain because…. my vote goes to Brett Farve! AHHH, OOUUCCHH!!! Look, he’s at a 97 QB rating, the highest he’s been in a long time. He’s thrown eight TD’s to his two picks. His team is 4-0 to everyone’s surprise, even to the craziest diehard Packer fans. I work with one, I would know. They were looking at an 8 or 9 win season by most experts, yet in the weak NFC that could get to 11 or 12. That’s MVP worthy for me.


4) Griese, Griese, Griese chants were frequent two weeks ago at Chi-town, but in his 2007 debut he threw three picks against the Detroit Kitties. Is he really the answer in Chicago or should they have stuck with Grossman?

Dogg- Once again, Brian Griese was sitting on the bench in Chicago for a reason. He's nothing better than a backup QB in this league. Teams would've been inquiring about him if he was a legitimate starting QB but he's not. Grossman is very streaky as he has shown in the past so I think he due to breakout one of these games and which better team to do it against than the Detroit Lions. If Rex plays that game, Chicago is 2-2 going into GB this week. Instead they are 1-3 and if they lose to Favre and the Pack, kiss the division title goodbye. I don't blame Lovie Smith for going with either QB in this situation. He's in a lose lose situation.

Q- Um, I'll take the Physical Challenge. They're both brutal (though both are head and shoulders above what we have here in Minny) and neither one is the answer. Bottom line is this, the Bears O line has been lackluster at best, Ced Benson is giving Chicagoans flashbacks to Curtis Enis and Rashan Salaam, and their defense has major injuries at virtually every position. Add it all up and you get a below average team that needs more than just a better QB to have a shot at the playoffs. Stick a fork in them, they're done.



Matt- I jumped head first and risked my own life jumping on the Colorado Rockies bandwagon this week (I made it!), but if Chicago doesn’t get healthy soon, I’m doing the same life-risking jump on the Q bandwagon! See, my boy over here predicted a 5-11 finish in our Pre-Season chat for the Chicago Bears. I looked at him like he had four noses. Now, I’m in an athletic stance just waiting for one more loss to make the plunge. A win against the undefeated division leading Packers this week would straighten me up...

5) Biggest surprise team in the NFL right now? Give it to me.

Matt- I’m going to give you two teams and they happen to be from the same division. Tampa Bay and the New Orleans Saints. I searched deep and long to find the pre-season rankings on USAtoday.com, but funny how those aren’t available anymore. That was a cheap shot, but I’d be doing the same thing. Tampa Bay is 7th this week and New Orleans is 26th this week. I bet you in August that the fellas at this fine publication had that switched around. Both are equally surprising to me. Jon Gruden was on the hot seat and the Saints were the hot topic of the NFL. How quickly things change...


Q- San Diego. 14-2 last year and didn't change a thing other than to bring in Norv Turner to replace Marty Schottenheimer. Now they're a below average team at best. Oh, did you mean surprise as in good? The obvious choice is the team from Wisconsin, which shall remain nameless. But I'm going with Detroit. Maybe Jon Kitna wasn't drinking the Kool-Aid when he predicted a 10 win season. 3-1 this season including a win over the Bears? Sounds pretty surprising to me. Can they keep it up? Doubtful. It's pretty tough to win in the NFL with a one-dimensional, passing offense and a D that gives up 30 points a game. For now though, they get my vote.

Dogg- Biggest surprise has to be the New Orleans Saints. Were they really playing on that much emotion last year due to Hurricane Katrina? I don't know if one team has stayed in tact like they did from last year to this year and suffered a downfall like they have. Their offense can't move the ball and their defense is a swinging gate. Reggie Bush will be their savior this year. This is my BOLD prediction for the year.....New Orleans makes the postseason.