“The Tuesday Morning Quarterback” with Sportsfreak NFL guru Hamish Girvan

“Believe”

Another week of the NFL and another win for the Chiefs. Really ? Are they the best team in the NFL ? More later on that.

Week 9 was a make or break team for a number of teams. It’s fair to say the Texans, Steelers and Oakland are no longer in the playoff hunt after all losing today – they possibly were not at the start of the day either.

The performance of the day had to be the Indianapolis Colts who looked down and out at half time against the Texans down 21-3. Texans Quarterback Case Keenum was on fire and the Colts had no answers. Colts Quarterback Andrew Luck however led the way in the final quarter throwing two touch down passes to Receiver T Y Hilton to cap off a remarkable victory 27-24.

The flop of the day had to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who had a 21-7 lead at HT over the home team, and NFC powerhouse, the Seattle Seahawks. Like this season for Tampa Bay the whole second half provided a meltdown with them losing in OT to a field goal 27-24.

Both of the above performances were a mirror of each other however Seattle at home are unbeaten in 12 straight and should have easily accounted for the winless Buccaneers. The Colts performance was outstanding in the way they drove twice in the last 5 minutes to get to a divisional win.

Grilling the Kansas City Chiefs season so far…..

The Chiefs in terms of records are the best team in the NFL however on paper are they ? Today’s hard fought 23-13 win in Buffalo again restricted their opponents to less then 17 points (no one has scored more against them this season) and also showed that defence was the winner. Both touchdowns came from turnovers and were scored by defensive players. That seems to be the pattern. The Chiefs offensive side of the game looks non existent at times. If they were down by 20 odd points like the games highlighted above could they score and make a comeback ? Hard to see them getting into that position in the first place. Nothing to be sniffed at winning 9 straight. They now have a week off and face division rivals, the high octane Denver Broncos, in week 11. The Broncos are averaging 42 points a game in scoring. Just saying it will be worth a watch.

Two teams still in the hunt numerically for the playoffs both surprise. The Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles. In each of the last 13 seasons, an NFL team with a sub-.500 record through first 8 games went on to make playoffs. So both worth keeping an eye on. If you are a New York Giants fan though maybe it may be a bit much to expect a playoff berth.

Early picks for week 10.

> Washington Redskins over Minnesota Vikings
> Cincinnati Bengals over Baltimore Ravens
> Pittsburgh Steelers over Buffalo Bills
> Denver Broncos over San Diego Chargers
> San Francisco 49ers over Carolina Panthers
> New Orleans Saints over Dallas Cowboys

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