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Week two has passed by now, another five of those important divisional
games left to try and gain that edge in the race for your divisional title.
Eight unbeaten teams left in AZ, four from either conference. Week three
sees Jets-Steelers and Bears-Rams as the battle of the 100%-ers. On the
coaching front, we welcome back Vikings coach Dave Colquitt to the arena-
good to have you back Dave.
Coaches mumblings……
Dave Colquitt writes
Paul
Just a quick note to let you know that I'm back in town at the Vikings.
Week 2 was my first turn and to be fair to Dave Harris I won't be changing
the Gameplan in week 3 because he won't know I'm back (because my name
didn't
show up on the league roundup) and to me, it's unfair to "ambush"
an
unsuspecting coach. However, I will be signing free agents and coaching
up the team weaknesses whilst waiting for the week 4 turn. Plenty of weaknesses
around the squad so that should keep me fairly busy.
That's all for now, good luck in week 3 and I'll write in again soon.
Peter Swindells writes
Just when people were beginning to say nice things about me, it's back
to square one. Defensively I thought that we did a lot of good things
against the Rams. We got them into situations where they should be struggling,
but they just passed their way out of trouble. We now go back on the road
to Dallas against a team who at 0-2, are clearly in a false
position & who under Coach Harris will be keen to get their season
rolling.
Chris Ward writes
Paul,
AAAAAAAARRGGGHHH!!!!
A little word of advice to Jan: Look, the rules say the West will be a
boring one-horse race after Paul stumbles against a couple of teams. The
Seahawks have been allowed into the division as patsies to be beaten easily
by the Bolts and Broncos.
Absolutely brilliant win for Coach Bakker, the game started bad but at
14-0 down the Chargers started playing and we were soon 21-14 up with
the game seemingly under control. But the offence didn't fire off like
it should've and as the game wore on the lack of a proper pass rush began
to tell as the Hawks started passing deep and passing to secondary receivers.
I got burned. Badly. No pass rush, no chance against the deep passes,
giving the Hawks 330 of their 354 yards passing. So, Mr Harris' words
prove prophetic: it's D that wins championships, and I don't have a clue,
which is why Pete doesn't rate me as a serious contender versus the Oilers,
and right now I'd have to agree with him. I'd also agree about the size
of our rosters. They are huge. But at the same time this hopefully gives
the league some parity and good coaches can start winning without having
to do three seasons of getting their squad into shape. It will hopefully
make the league more interesting, with results able to go either way.
Of course the main reason the league gets sucked into occasional bouts
of all teams going one game above or below 8-8 is when it's full of coaches.
This season could well be shaping up to be a good'un. I look forward to
the return match in Seattle.
AND THIS SHOULD HAVE GOT THROUGH TO YOU WEEK 1:
congrats on a good win week 1. Defence looking strong. The Skins-Rams
game looked a bit of a belter, and it's good to see the Bears playing
well. As for the Chargers, the game couldn't have gotten a better start
when WR Tony Martin ran the first kick-off of the day 86 yards for a TD.
The advice of Conrad Parke still rings true - coach on special teams early
and grab some big plays and form! A bit of coaching and the fact Martin
is reduced (thereby giving us a bit of DKR form) brought about the perfect
start to the season.
New England pushed back at us with stern dedication, forcing a turnover
and pummelling out the yards on the floor. 10-7 Patriots and finally the
Charger O got into gear, an 80 yard drive with Leaf running in the TD.
From then on it crawled into San Diego's game, although I really do need
to tighten up in the fourth quarter.
Coach Harris was spot on about my draft - RB Fazande had to go (even if
he did have OQB), and the LPs will be spent wisely. Anybody got tips for
D? I need to learn!
Alaister Brearley writes
Thought it was about time I contributed my two pennies worth for the season.
The season has got off to a cracking start with an influx of new coaches
that seem to be getting to grips with their teams and throwing a spanner
or two in the works for us old guard. The NFC looks to be as strong as
I have seen it over the past four seasons with every division looking
to have a three-way battle for their respective titles. In the NFC East
I believe coach Harris is being slightly optimistic on his current form,
if he thinks he is going to make it to the championship game. I see the
Giants and Cardinals beating his Boys.. The central is the toughest division
to call, but for me coach Gamble will re-establish the Buccs as the number
1 team in the division. The west will be won by the 49ers again, but the
margin of victory will be smaller than last year, as both the Rams and
Saints have direction to their talented squads. In the AFC I see little
change from last year, the top two teams in each division will fight out
close battles for their divisional crowns. The Jets I feel will topple
Miami, the Oilers will sneak past the Steelers and in the West, the Chargers
will lose their crown for the first time in a while to the Broncos who
after two games look to be conceding less than 150 yards a game.
In short my predictions.
WEST: -broncos, chargers, hawks, raiders.
CENTRAL:-oilers, steelers, Bengals. Browns.
EAST: - Jets, dolphins, bills, patriots.
Wild card - Chargers vs Steelers.
CHAMP Game: - Steelers vs Oilers.
NFC
WEST: - 49ers, saints, rams, falcons.
CENTRAL: - buccs, bears, packers, Vikings.
EAST: - cardinals, giants, cowboys, redskins.
Wild Card - Packers vs Bears
Champ Game:- buccs vs Cards
SB Oilers beaten by Buccs.
Message to the new evil Harris (Dave): congrats on bringing the SB back
to the NFC. However 7 turnovers in a play-off game is very hard to take,
especially if you only lose by a point L L
Week two reviewed
The Jets remain unbeaten after a comfortable win over the Patriots at
the Meadowlands. Unable to stop the Pats' strong running game from amassing
259 yards with the Jets pulled away with a more accurate passing game
and a 1-2 punch at RB with Neal and Murrell, Jets win 27-12 and go 2-0.
Miami went on the road for the second week and came away with a hard fought
win in New York state defeating the Bills 20-10 after racking up 20 unanswered
points in the first half. Second week running the Bills have been involved
in a game where running yards were hard to come by, passing won the day
with Marino out gunning Johnson to give MD a 1-1 record and bring BB back
to the same.
Quietly efficient from the Oilers as they never looked in trouble of the
hapless Browns in Houston. George and Green again done the damage and
McNair was there to mop up and produce great numbers over a tired defence.
A 67 yard TD pass from Couch gave the Browns the satisfaction of not been
shut out by the AFC champs.
Shock on the cards at 3 Rivers after 30 minutes as the Bengals went in
13-9 up. But 35 second half points showed why the Steelers are going to
push Houston all season for the AFC Central title as the Steelers cruised
to a 44-20 win over Cincinnati - creditable performance from the improving
Bengals - watch out they will bite someone soon.
After another tough first half the Broncos' some strength and pull away
from the Raiders. But as in many games points were scored as Oakland were
pushing to make up ground on the scoreboard. Defence showed the way and
scored a RET INT for the Broncos as they move to 2-0 and the Raiders drop
to 0-2.
Shock of the week in San Diego, the Seahawks came from behind to beat
the Chargers 27-24 and drop San Diego to 1-1. Kitna had a hell of a game
against a porous SD secondary while they kept Leaf fairly quiet and limited
his strike capability. Chris will not play many games where his offence
doesn't commit a turnover and still lose.
In the NFC the league's strongest division played out two blowouts. The
Giants wiped aside the Cowboys (0-2) with a passing display and defence.
Another good display from QB Dave Brown who threw for 333 yards and 3
TD's while the Giants' secondary that were toasted in week 1 sured up
against Kupp and allowed no TD's. An early points spree ensured the Cardinals'
second win of the season as they swept aside the Redskins in Arizona.
The usual passing performance from Kent Graham was the main reason for
the win (349 yards and 3 TD's). The Card's defence allowed just 8 first
downs and 42 yards on the ground.
The Chicago Bear revolution is gaining momentum as the Bears went into
Green Bay their main rivals for the NFC Central championship and won a
tight game 31-26. Again at the forefront of the performance was Cade McNown
with 282 yards passing and 4 touchdowns including a 91 yard TD pass. Both
sides made yards through the air and on the ground, Chicago (411) and
Green Bay (480), but it was one of those games that was gonna come down
to one deciding score and that happened in the 3rd quarter with a Bear
touchdown
Minnesota welcome back Dave to the fold and he sees his charges lose to
the Buccs 24-10 in Florida. Buccs offence is getting in to a habit of
big plays as a 21 point first half gave TB the foundation for win number
1 this season. The Rams set the early pace in the West to see which teams
will chase the 49ers with a good looking 34-15 win over the Saints in
St Louis. Trent Green seems to be finding his feet in the Rams system
(watch out NFC), solid display from the Saints, but just one of those
days for Peter and his charges.
49ers easily swept aside the Falcs in San Fran, hard running won the day
with Host & Kimborough setting the foundation for a 37-7 as the champs
go 2-0.
PREDICTIONS (from Peter, Chris and Alaister)
PS-NJ Ps by 3(ps), by 2 (cw). NJ by 3 (ab)
HO-BB Ho by 5 (ps), by 21 (cw), by 24 (ab)
OR-NE Ne by 7 (ps), by 3 (cw). Or by 1 (ab)
SS-MD Md by 7 (ps), by 1 (cw), by 7 (ab)
DB-CL Db by 10 (ps), by 17 (cw), by 14 (ab)
SD-CI Ci by 3 (ps), Sd by 3 (cw), by 21 (ab)
TB-NG Ng by 2 (ps), Tb by 1 (cw), by 7 (ab)
GB-AC Gb by 3 (ps), Ac by 1 (cw), Gb by 3 (ab)
NS-DC Dc by 3 (ps), Dc by 3 (cw), Dc by 10 (ab)
AF-WR Af by 3 (ps), Wr by 1 (cw), by 7 (ab)
SR-CH Ch by 6 (ps), by 3 (cw), by 17 (ab).
SF-MV Sf by 14 (ps), by 21 (cw), by 21 (ab).
Game of the week for me again this week is from the NFC and features
St Louis and Chicago.
A couple of websites out there which deal with Gameplan and NFLAZ.
http://www.oocities.org/nflaz
is Mark Hall's website.
http://uk.oocities.com/dwgharris
is Dave Harris' website.
Also try
http://www.endzone1.co.uk/
http://www.gameplan-pbm.com/
many thanks to all who took time to write in this week, that's Chris,
Peter, Alaister, Dave C and Dave H.
See ya next week !!
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