Remembering Al and Honoring Drew; Looking ahead to Week 6.

It was a great week in the NFL. Things seem like they are happening the way people expected them to play out. The wild surprises are over with for now, and the so called "surprises" from last week didn't even really seem that surprising. One thing I love about this season is the regression of the passing offense. Nothing bothered me more than the obliteration of age old passing records. To me, it seems like we may as well throw out the record book and have one for each generation. Last year, Eric Dickerson's record of 2,105 rushing yards never seemed safer. This year, the idea of a 2,000 yard rusher doesn't seem that foreign.

Congratulations Drew Brees

Sometimes, things happen in the NFL that are so convenient that they just had to have been staged. As a very young conspiracy theorist in 2001, I felt the same way about the Patriots. You mean to tell me a team that was 5-11 the year before, with an (at the time) mediocre head coach and a second year 6th round QB went all the way to the Superbowl and defeated a team that was on the verge of a dynasty in the Rams? That's sort of how I felt when Drew Brees found Devery Henderson covered by absolutely no one for his record breaking TD pass. Drew Brees passed the famous number 19 Johnny Unitas with a pass to number 19 Devery Henderson. Now, everyone here knows me as an unabashed Saints fan, but I think Drew Brees really has to stretch this record out to account for the pass wackiness that this league has evolved into. Of course, you won't find me taking away anything from the man who helped really get this city going after Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Hopefully, the excitement of the record and the Saint's first win will carry over into a snowball effect for Saint's wins in 2012.

Remembering one of the greatest greats in league history.

Al Davis....the badass of the NFL. Started as an owner of the AFL Raiders, his first signals of his badass take no names nature was in 1965 when he essentially iced out two other majority owners to get a grasp on the team that he would build in his image. His Raiders were perennial contenders in the late AFL and the post-merger NFL. With John Madden as coach, the Raiders made six AFC championship games, losing to dynasties in Miami and Pittsburgh. His crowning achievement came in 1976, when his Raiders laid the rest of the NFL to waste en route to their first championship. Even more impressive in his commitment to excellence was his two Super Bowls under Tom Flores while the Raiders were mired in litigation over a move to Los Angeles. The Raiders proved that sometimes dysfunction can lend itself to the functions of a championship roster. And although I only knew the crazy Al Davis who ran the Raiders into the ground until the day he died, I respect no man who helped build this game more than Al Davis, for he did things his way. No matter what commissioner, coach, or  owner did to stop him, Al Davis found a way to "just win, baby."

Looking ahead to Week 6

I'm looking forward to seeing the 49ers and the Giants play in a rematch of last year's NFC title game. While the Giants haven't looked particularly dominant this year, they always find a way to be in the game at the end with a chance to win. To me, that is far more a championship quality than being able to drub the Jets and Bills by a combined 78-3. I'm also looking for the Eagles to show that they deserve to be looked at as a contender by putting the Lions away. As opposed to the Giants, who managed to stay in games and find a way to finish the opponent off at the end, the Eagles stumble to the finish line and accidentally win games in the face of turnovers and suspect play calling. It's also do or die time for elite QB's Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers as they face pivotal matchups against the Chargers and Texans.

My Thursday Night Pick

Pittsburgh demolishes Tennessee, who overnight have turned from AFC sleeper, to worse than the Browns.