THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY FROM WEEK 4

The Good: The Lions come back… again.

How many times can this team play an awful first half and then win a game in the last seconds of the 4^th quarter? I am once again impressed with the Lions, yet I still cannot be a believer in a team that plays so poorly in the first half of games. There are only so many times a team can bounce back like this. Having watched USC in their glory days be a “second half team,” I know how easily this playing style can come back and bite you hard. Despite my lack of belief in this team, it would take a big meltdown for this team to miss the playoffs.

The Bad: The Ealges blow a 24-3 lead against the 49ers.

Does having Ronnie Brown on your team immediately make you a 7-9 team or worse? What was he thinking on that “pass” that was essentially him handing the ball to the 49ers defenders? How do you lose a game where your quarterback has almost 500 yards of offense? How do you run LeSean McCoy only 9 times in a game in which you were winning big until the last few minutes? Most importantly, how does your highly overpaid defense allow Alex Smith, the same Alex Smith who has been at best mediocre for his entire career, throw for almost 300 yards against you? A lot of questions and very few answers. If it weren’t for possibly the ugliest game in NFL history, the Eagles would have gone from bad to ugly real fast. I am so back on the “Andy Reid is a terrible coach” bandwagon. And boy oh boy does it feel good to be back.

The Ugly: The Jets-Ravens game.

Coming into this matchup, you knew that this would be a defensive struggle. However, the Jets offense accounted for 3 points for the Jets and 3 touchdowns for the Ravens. That is astonishingly bad. However, the Ravens offense was not much better, turning the ball over three times themselves. The Ravens special teams were even worse, fumbling the opening kickoff and allowing barely on a roster Joe McKnight to run 107 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return. I have never seen a game this ugly before in my entire life and this was by far the ugliest performance of the week. Both these teams have a lot of work to do, but clearly the Jets are the inferior team.