A Look Back: Dallas and Denver

I'm still a little miffed over the Dallas vs Philadelphia game, partly because I had DeMarco Murray in 3 of my leagues. Oddly enough, I'm not a fan of Dallas, nor am I a fan of Tony Romo. But looking back at last Sunday Night's game, what annoyed me was that Murray clearly had an edge over the weak Philadelphia run defense. What went wrong was that Dallas decided to take it to the air against Philadelphia and match Michael Vick. And look what happened!

Interception.

The Eagles defense is clearly starting to form vital team chemistry and I think we're all forgetting that the Eagles have 3 of the most dangerous corners in the league. I'm not sure who to blame, as I don't entirely place fault on Tony Romo nor Rob Ryan. If anything, it's on Dallas head coach Jason Garrett. Why try to match the air attack?

Look back at Week 4 when the San Francisco 49ers played the Eagles. Did Jim Harbaugh have Alex Smith go on all out air assault? No. They let Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter beat the Eagles on the ground, despite being down a few scores. But they kept hammering at the ground and the Eagles were powerless to stop them. Add a few key Vick turnovers and there's your 49er upset.

I can look back even further, to Super Bowl XXXII when the Broncos played the Packers. Green Bay's passing unit was far superior to Denver...with Brett Favre, Antonio Freeman, Robert Brooks and Mark Chmura. Did Denver have John Elway try to fire back with Ed McCaffrey and Shannon Sharpe? No, they stuck to the Terrell Davis ground 'n pound tactic and if it had not been for Terrell Davis, the Broncos would not have won that game.

The good ground game keeps the opposing fiery offense off the field. Which is what Dallas's plan should have been this past Sunday. Not throw Romo to the wolves.

Denver vs. Detroit

I'm not a fan of Tim Tebow. But in Detroit's loss, I can't place 100% of the blame on him either. Knowshon Moreno is not that great and his 60 plus yards against the Lions pretty much proved that. It shows just how vital Willis McGahee is to the Denver organization. Tim Tebow is basically a first year quarterback, and he's going to make first year mistakes. The other thing I have to add is, whether it's Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow or even Brady Quinn, I never expected much out of Denver this year to begin with. I had them pegged as a 3-13 team, no matter who was under center. If John Elway really is trying to steer the Broncos to a number one pick, he didn't have to try that hard.

The other thing is, it was against Detroit, which is still a very scary and dangerous team. This was a mismatch to begin with.

I would honestly let Tebow finish out the season, with 9 weeks left, the Broncos play 7 teams with questionable pass defenses. The only two bad scenarios I see are a game against the New York Jets and then San Diego Chargers in the final 2 weeks of this month.

As for Week 9, if you have Matthew Stafford or Cam Newton out and someone's already taken Matt Cassel off waivers, consider using Tim Tebow at your own risk. Even during his bad game against Detroit, he still made me 14 points...which is 2 more than what Matt Hasselbeck made against the Colts!