Zoneblitz Notebook week five

by | Oct 6, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Random Thoughts

I feel like an ass falling for it again, but yep, I picked Cincinnati over New England Sunday night only to realize just a few minutes into the game that I got that one wrong (I didn’t see much of the game, but followed the feed fairly closely via my phone).

It was an obvious oversight. Sure, the Patriots got crushed by Kansas City Monday night with Tom Brady looking like hell. But one should have been able to tell that Bill Belichick was right in his wheelhouse with his postgame press conference – during which all he did was repeat over and over that the Patriots were moving on to the Cincinnati game.

With his us-against-the-world mentality and a return to emphasizing the run and shorter, tight end-based passing game, the Patriots easily dismantled the Bengals – a team that continues to look like a contender at home and early on, only to drop trow when it has a chance to win a big game on television in prime time.

Make no mistake, this is a flawed Patriots team. But don’t count out Brady and Belichick just yet. They’ve still got a few weapons on board.

So, I’ll take the rap for this one. But there are a lot of other things that happened in week five that were dumb – things that I had nothing to do with. Here are a few observations: (more…)

What we’re watching: Week 3 – Law & Order edition

by | Sep 18, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Random Thoughts

And the fun continues. Entering week three, just as we’re starting to figure out who might be good and who might have taken a step back on the field this season, more teams are starting to lose guys to domestic violence issues off the field.

Arizona Cardinals RB Jonathan Dwyer is the latest Neanderthal (allegedly, I guess) to see his season affected. Allegations surfaced that Dwyer abused his girlfriend and an 18-month-old child. Classy. At least the Cardinals learned from the Vikings’ mistakes and immediately saw to it that Dwyer would not set foot on the field again in 2014 by putting him on the Reserve-Non Football Injury list. So part of what I’m watching will be how the Cardinals, already down a QB and playing a less-than-totally-healthy Andre Ellington at RB, react heading into a big game against San Francisco. (more…)

Zoneblitz Survivor Pool: Week 2

by | Sep 10, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Survivor pool

Playing in an NFL Survivor Pool? Zoneblitz has you covered. Our four writers are playing a slightly modified version to help you make your weekly decisions, and hopefully we’ll all make it through Week 17 unscathed. However, in our version, we’re giving each writer ONE strike to make things more interesting. Whoever’s left standing at the end will be declared the winner.

Three of us head into week two 1-0, as John and Maggio rode the Jets to wins while Andy flew with the Eagles. The Bears ate Tony up last week, but he gets a mulligan with our two-strikes-and-you’re-out policy on this pool. Here are this week’s picks.

Tony: Record: 0-1
Team used: Chicago (more…)