Moral Victories: NFL Storylines From Week Seven
Each week we'll start a little feature here on Mondays on Technorati sports, looking at winners and losers from each week in the NFL.
Who Dey? Well, dey been gone for a while, but dey back.
Since miraculously making the playoffs in 2005, the first time in 15 years the team had made it, the Cincinnati Bengals, led by young quarterback Carson Palmer, as well as potent offensive weapons Rudi Johnson, Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh, looked like they would put an end to their years of being bad at football.
Unfortunately, a serious injury to Palmer, as well as some, um, off-field distractions, quickly dropped them back down to their previous inept levels.
This season though, let by running back Cedric Benson, the Bengals are off to a 5-2 start, including wins over Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Benson and the Bengals beat up on Benson's former team, the Chicago Bears, 45-10 in week seven, making them the most impressive team of the weekend. Here are the week's other winners and losers:
Winners:
Dallas Cowboys: Tony Romo suddenly has a game-breaking receiver in Miles Austin, who has had more than 400 yards receiving in his last two games, and the Cowboys have won two straight after beating Atlanta Sunday and keeping Wade Phillips off the hot seat for a bit.
Alex Smith: The former No. 1 pick looked to be done in San Francisco after getting beat out in the preseason by the unheralded Shaun Hill, but Smith led a furious comeback attempt against Houston yesterday that came up a bit short, but should earn him another chance at the starting job.
Indianapolis Colts: This team is very similar to the Colts' Super Bowl team, which went quietly through the season. The Colts might be the best team in the league and Peyton Manning is arguably the MVP so far.
(tie) NY Jets, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers: Any team that plays the Browns, Raiders, Bucs or Chiefs is bound to look good. They won by a combined 141-17 score Sunday.
Losers:
Larry Johnson: Criticizing your coach on Twitter, then reacting to fans who call you out by calling them homophobic slurs is probably bad practice.
London: They continually get bad NFL games, and this year's New England/Tampa Bay snoozer kept the tradition going. At least Tom Brady looked good.
Carolina: Does losing to Buffalo put John Fox on a hotter seat than Dick Jauron?
Previously:
Follow Technorati