From: johndoe@squid.inmet (johndoe)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: johndoe's week 6 nfl commentary
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:21:47 GMT
Organization: Intermetrics, Inc.

i thought it was about time for some reasoned, relatively unbiased
commentary on the week's action as one interested party sees it, rather than
trying to weed through the thousands of K devoted to woofing and My-Team-Is
#1 posts.

this rsfp column will be primarily devoted to games and highlights i've
seen, but since it's all opinion, let the reader beware.

my biases:  i am a broncos fan first, and cowboys/patriots second.  i think
the buffalo bills are an evil team.  i will attempt to counterbalance these
biases as much as possible.

so, here we go, starting with week 6:

patriots-49ers:
	the 49ers looked sluggish, but still outclassed the patriots in
	talent on both sides of the ball and on special teams.  rice outran
	five players on one pass over the middle for a td, and i understand
	rice is the third fastest receiver on sf.

	one commentator on yesterday's game said, 'steve young looks like a
	fullback' when he runs.  this is indeed the case.  it is a good
	thing he has a good backup in bono, because a couple of times he
	looked a little woozy when he got up from heavy hits.  one of these
	days, he will once again get his clock cleaned.

	it is becoming more and more obvious to even the most casual
	observer that charlie bauman, pats k, must be replaced.  he has
	missed 3 out of five fgs this season, a pat, and had another
	blocked yesterday.

	if the pats had used the no-huddle against rams or sea, they might
	have won a game.  they are 0-5, but they have the nucleus of a
	good d (needs a couple of good dbs) and rbs that could be worth
	something with an offensive line (the pats ol is very inexperienced.)
	stephens looked good at times agaisnt sf; first time he has shown
	speed and power for several seasons.

bills-raiders:
	the raiders came out with some good anti-tendency plays against buf,
	but until ronnie lott knocked away kelly's pass to metzalaars in
	the end zone on 4th in the 4th, the raiders never seemed to have
	any of the killer instinct nec to put the bills away.  after the
	first drive, the offense again consisted of a lot of predictable
	running and passing plays, and a marinovich-to-timbrown pass over
	the middle that turned into a long-td.  if marinovich is the answer,
	then i'm not sure the raiders are asking the right question.  he
	has some fundamental problems - poise, footwork, hotheadedness -
	that could be potential detriments to his leadership and qb
	abilities with the silver and black.

	what has happened to the vaunted bills attack?  well, consider that
	3 of the 4 teams they pummeled were the pats, rams, and colts.  not
	exactly the cream of the crop.  i still expect them to be there come
	january; look for them to be 7-2 easily going into miami.

miami:
	and speaking of miami...

	part of what prompted this post is a bunch of woofing about miami
	being 5-0.  let's examine this:  they were down 10 to atl yesterday,
	and were a hair away from losing it on that 4th down incompletion
	yesterday.  they barely beat sea, one of the worst teams in the
	league.  they almost gave the game away to cleve, not a league
	powerhouse.  to me, this is about a shaky a 5-0 as you'll see.
	still, 5-0 is 5-0, they have beat the bills in buf, and mia should
	win vs. ne, vs. indi, at jets, 	and then at indi to be 9-0 vs. buf
	at home in wk 9.  if mia wins that game, the afc east is theirs.

kc-philly:
	i was intrigued by kc's first drive:  six straight play-action
	passes way downfield.  and other tds also showed a complete lack
	of downfield coverage by the philly secondary.  i didn't see the
	whole game (just highlights), so i'm curious whether philly's sec
	started playing better, or whether schottenheimer just started
	sitting on his lead (like the wk before in den!!) and stopped going
	deep.  schottenheimer's play calling from 5:30 in 4th in den was
	as big a contributor to kc's loss as was anything that happened on
	the field.  (two more runs into the line instead of passes following
	elway's fumble on his own 16 means the chiefs eat another 1:30 off
	the clock, same scoring result, and then even if elway scores, den
	probably has to onside kick with :30 seconds left instead of 1:55.)

	i still suspect that philly has an average offense with a couple of
	good players (randal, byars, maybe herschel) that is fed by the
	defense's usual ability to *completely* shut down the run and the
	short passing game.  i also add in that phil's two biggest wins so
	far were at home.  phil at wash next week should prove interesting,
	as should phil at dal 3 weeks away.  i wouldn't be surprised to see
	4 more phil losses this year, though i would figure 2 to be a more
	likely number.

dal-sea:
	only saw a part of this game (*iced* and POWER notes should be
	much more insightful), but dal seemed to get up for a team that it 
	should have beaten in the fashion that it did.  sea must really be
	kicking itself for letting krieg go plan b, especially with stouffer
	out and mc gwire still learning the ropes.

hou-cin:
	houston has quietly re-taken the afc cent lead, and with a win
	next week at mile high can take the upper hand in the afc home-
	field race, something much more important to hou than den or buf,
	and still more important than to kc or mia.  and hou definitely
	has looked better in its wins than den has.

	david shula's fiery start has definitely been cooled off.  look for
	this to continue as teams have found the weakness in cin:  their
	def. sec.

pit-cle:
	pitt's coming back down to where i expect them.  foster has turned
	into quite a find, but as they start playing a better calibre of
	competition than the jets, indi, etc., their qb situation still
	leaves a lot to be desired.

	has cle found a winning formula with their rbs?  cle has 3
	relatively easy opps to test things out with before having to go
	to hou to see what they're really made of.

	side note:  i don't think i ever remember seeing anyone as wide
	open as michael jackson against pitt, or birden (twice!) or davis
	against phil, never mind seeing 4 such completely blown coverages
	in one week.  wow.

den-wash:
	if the broncos can keep it close ... elway's comeback ability is
	reaching mythical proportions, and den's confidence in this is
	helping them overachieve given some lackluster offensive numbers.
	and look for den to be able to keep it close, then win it, because...

	rypien seems to have lost some confidence, and the super bowl
	hangover and resulting holdout headaches still seem to have the
	defense on its heels.  they are 2-1 in very close tight games w/ the
	3 mediocre teams they've played, and they got their lunch handed to
	them in dal.  this game will be the first real indication (after a
	week off) of where the redskins are heading with their season.
	this game is more important to wash than to den.  with a much lower
	confidence level than last season, i would look for them to make
	a few critical mistakes and lose this game.

until next week
-johndoe