Count me as one of the people who thought the Cardinals were going to have a dropoff following last year’s Super Bowl run. To begin with, since ‘01, only one team has made it back to the playoffs after losing the Super Bowl the previous year. Making matters worse is that the Cardinals lost both their offensive and defensive coordinators, and there were concerns about Kurt Warner’s health following his offseason hip surgery. Despite starting the year 1-2 however, Arizona’s been on a roll winning 5 of 6 to seize first place of the NFC West at 6-3. Considering last year’s team went 9-7 in the regular season before getting hot in the playoffs, it’s not too surprising to hear Anquan Boldin tell the 2 Live Stews on Sporting News Radio that this year’s team is better than last year’s squad:

“We’re a better team than we were last year and offensively we’re a lot more balanced than we were last year. I think we’re running the ball effectively in the regular season — something that we did in the postseason but we didn’t really do in the regular season last year. I think that’s going to help us in the long run.”

While that comment wasn’t too surprising given the way the team has been playing, it was a mild surprise to hear Boldin admit that the team does miss former offensive coordinator Todd Haley who has moved on to become the head coach at Kansas City:
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Quarterbacks have been taking a lot of heat recently for going low with their blocks on running plays or interceptions, with good reason. Brett Favre was called out for chop blocking Eugene Wilson of the Texans earlier in the season on a reverse, Trent Green was lambasted for taking out Travis Johnson’s knees two years ago, and Mark Sanchez had to apologize for his dirty play last month following an interception. This week it’s Browns quarterback Brady Quinn getting called out for a dirty play. Following his second interception, he was semi-trying to make a tackle and dove into linebacker Terrell Suggs’ knees. The hit caused what’s being termed a “strained knee” for Suggs, and reports are saying he’ll miss several weeks of action. Here’s a video of the Brady Quinn cheap shot on Terrell Suggs, just skip ahead to the 1:50 mark to see the block:

While the play was not in the proper ethics of the game at least it helped Cleveland make a stop. Count Ray Lewis as one person who was livid with the cheap shot:

“Heck yeah it was a cheap shot. When you’re running down and you’re looking at the quarterback going at somebody’s knees who doesn’t even have the ball. I want to see if he gets the same fine I got or even higher. Now this man is out four or five weeks because of some baloney like that.”

Quinn says cheap-shotting Suggs at the knees was not his intent and that he was going for Chris Carr who made the interception, only to have Suggs pop into the picture at the last second. Looking at the video, that makes sense because there would be no reason to dive for Suggs (and Carr was right behind Suggs anyhow). I’m guessing something around a $15,000 fine will be coming for Brady. With him not reaching his bonuses this year, he could use that money.

Whereas the Maurice Jones-Drew decision to kneel at the 1 was questionable, there’s no debate about the Patriots’ decision to try for a first down on 4th and 2 and their 29 with two minutes left. It was simply a horrendous, stupid call. The end result for the game explains every reason why it was a brutal call. I can’t imagine anyone having watched that game not wondering what the bleep the Pats were thinking when they decided to go for it in that situation. The bad decisions, as glaring as that one was, doesn’t even end with that call.

Despite rolling up 31 points on Indy and being up by just 10 with under eight minutes left, the Pats went conservative and decided it was time to switch up the gameplan and start running it out. They got a blessing in an interception at the 31 of the Colts and instead of going for the jugular, they played it conservatively and settled for the field goal to go up 34-21 with 4 minutes left. I’m still wondering why they didn’t try for a touchdown especially given the way they had moved the ball all game. Lastly, when Joseph Addai broke loose on a run with 1:20 left, they should have done what the Jets did and let him walk into the end zone. The guy who thought he was making a “game saving” tackle wound up making a win-preventing stop. You telling me Brady couldn’t have set the team up for a field goal with 1:15 on the clock? I would have taken my odds with that compared the Colts chances of scoring from a yard out with four tries.

Awful, awful, awful decision by Belichick. I cannot believe how a guy can be that smart so much of the time can make such a poor choice at such a critical moment. Unbelievable.

Maurice Jones-Drew is getting a ton of praise for his awareness, selflessness, and foresight to kneel down at the 1 yard line in the final two minutes of the Jags/Jets game on Sunday. The Jags were down by a point, 22-21, with the clock at 1:48 and running, and they had the ball at the 10 yard line. The Jets decided to let Jones-Drew walk in for the touchdown so that they’d have a 1:30 or so left to try and score a touchdown to win it. Instead, MJD outfoxed them based on what his coaches instructed him to do:

From the moment Maurice went down I was saying it was the wrong move. Considering the Jaguars were losing at the time he did it, he was taking a big risk that they could wind up losing the game if something went wrong. When you make the decision what you have to weigh is the likelihood of the Jags botching the field goal with a bad hold, snap, or kick against Jacksonville’s chances of stopping the Jets from scoring a touchdown in 1:30. To me, there’s a greater chance of something going wrong with the game-winning field goal than the Jets going 80 yards or so in 1:30. Maurice is getting lauded for wearing his thinking cap and making the unselfish play but I thought it was the wrong move. Luckily it worked out for the 5-4 Jags but imagine how bad he would have looked for not taking the free points if something went wrong with the kick.

They may say a lot of stuff about Bengals right guard Bobbie Williams, but they’ll never say the man quits on a play. Even when his pants are falling down and his butt is hanging out there for everybody to see. Check out this eye-popping moment from the Bengals/Steelers game that could easily be classified as a “wardrobe malfunction,” much like when Brian Westbrook was tackled by his jockstrap. Here’s the Bobbie Williams pants video:

No word on whether or not that play caused Williams to miss any action but maybe next time he’ll get some pants that come with a belt. Williams and company did a nice job only allowing Carson to be sacked twice by the vaunted Steelers D, so we’ll consider his pants to be a casualty of battle.

There’s no doubt that Chad Ochocinco is back in the spotlight of the NFL, front and center just the way he likes it. Last week he mailed the Ravens a giftbasket full of deodorant and then the Bengals went out and won the game. Chad was also fined $20,000 for trying to slip a referee a $1 bill during a video review, created a new rule stating that defenses can’t single-cover him, and this week he wanted to send the Steelers a package of mustard. Coach Marvin Lewis put the kibosh on that plan but the mustard still made it to Pittsburgh anyway.

But that did not stop someone from greater Cincinnati, identified on the package’s return address as “Fans of Chad Ochocinco,” from mailing the Steelers a box of the yellow condiment, which arrived yesterday.

It was a result of Ochocinco’s midweek Twitter pledge to send the Steelers’ defensive backs mustard because they couldn’t “ketch up.” Heinz Field puns intended.

“Thanks, Chad,” cornerback Ike Taylor noted after peeking into the box on his way to practice.

What are the chances that “Fans of Chad Ochocinco” really was Chad? I’d say pretty fair (not to say he doesn’t have a huge following). Here’s the thing about Chad screwing around: as long as the team is winning, it’s fine, but once they start losing, that’s when his antics and become a “distraction.” That’s the double-standard the media has for him that I’ve never understood. What’s he doing differently? He’s still the same guy, win or lose so the media should treat him the same way. Now that he’s back to Pro Bowl form with 639 yards and 5 touchdowns, they love him. I just hope he has a relatively quiet game in a Bengals win Sunday because my opponent in the Coors Light Fantasy League has Ochocinco. I still think I’m in good shape with Randy Moss and Marques Colston to counter.