NFL Week 3 Preview

In the first two weeks of the 2010 NFL regular season there has been no shortage of surprises. The Houston Texans are 2-0, while the Dallas Cowboys, “America’s [self-prescribed] Team,” sit at an impatient 0-2. Elsewhere in the NFC East, the Philadelphia Eagles have already swapped quarterbacks, continuing the team’s recent tradition of pseudo-loyalty to its signal callers. Lastly, on a more predictable note, the NFC West is overtly terrible.

But, as they say in theatre, “Take it from the top.”

1. Role Reversal in Texas?

Outside of the New York Jets, no NFL franchise received as much media hype as the Dallas Cowboys over the summer. With the addition of rookie wide receiver Dez Bryant to an already stellar offense, the Cowboys have as many offensive playmakers as any team in the league.

That being said, in two games against average teams—the Washington Redskins and Chicago Bears, respectively—the Cowboys have failed to consistently put points on the board. In their first two games, the Cowboys scored a total of 27 points, six of which came on a 62-yard punt return by Bryant against the Bears.

While the popular scapegoat appears to be quarterback Tony Romo, I would argue that too much is being asked of him. Romo has put the ball in the air 98 times for an average of 49 attempts in two games. Last year, Romo averaged just over 34 pass attempts per contest as the team went on to win the NFC East division title.

Dallas is failing to utilize its striking depth in the running back position, where the team possesses three starting-caliber backs in Marion Barber, Felix Jones, and Tashard Choice. This season the trio of backs has combined for a measly 40 attempts, averaging a combined 3.3 yards per carry. A ratio of less than one rushing attempt per every two passing attempts is not a winning formula, especially on a team with this much talent in the backfield.

The other professional football franchise in The Lone Star State, the Houston Texans, have surprised everyone outside of ESPN NFL analyst Tom Jackson, who picked the Texans to represent the AFC in Super Bowl XLV.

Unlike the Kansas City Chiefs or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Texans have not picked up their two wins by bullying the league’s bottom-dwellers,. They clubbed the reigning AFC champion Indianapolis Colts at Reliant Stadium and grinded out an overtime road win against the Washington Redskins.

Houston has as much firepower as anyone on offense with quarterback Matt Schaub at the helm. Sophomore running back Arian Foster currently leads the league in rushing yards, averaging a staggering 5.8 yards per carry. Out wide, receivers Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter are both among the league’s top eight receivers, combining for 28 receptions, 364 yards, and three touchdowns.

While their rushing defense is stout, the Texans’ Achilles heel clearly lies in the secondary. In two games against Peyton Manning and Donovan McNabb, the defense has given up a combined 822 passing yards.

This Sunday the two Texas franchises will tumble in Cowboys Stadium. For the Cowboys it appears to be a must-win on the surface, but in a division that looks like it will turn out much worse than expected, I would not prescribe such a label just yet. For the Texans on the other hand, this is an opportunity to make a clear statement to the rest of the league that they deserve the number three spot that ESPN gave them in their weekly power rankings.

Expect the Cowboys to come out gunning against the porous Texans pass defense in what should be a high scoring affair.

2. What is going on in Philadelphia?

I have admitted on multiple occasions that the freakishly versatile Michael Vick gives the Eagles a better chance to win in the short term than Kevin Kolb. That being said, the decision handed down by head coach Andy Reid that Vick will start this week in Jacksonville despite Kolb’s recovery from a Week One concussion is utterly unfathomable.

The Eagles invested the future of their franchise in Kolb when the franchise used its second round draft pick in 2007 on the quarterback. Then they traded six-time Pro Bowl quarterback Donovan McNabb to the division rival Washington Redskins and handed the keys to the offense over to Kolb.

Now, after ten pass attempts from Kolb in Week one against a heavy pass rush from the Green Bay Packers’ defense, Reid has decided that Vick should start because of an above-average performance against the hapless Detroit Lions.

In addition to his plethora of off-field issues, Vick is merely an average thrower. During his time in Atlanta, Vick’s highest passer rating for a season was 81.6. To put that into context, last year such a rating would have ranked Vick 19th among starting quarterbacks, behind players like Jason Campbell, David Garrard, and even Vince Young.

In making this move the Eagles are jeopardizing their organization’s future over one shot at a playoff run. Kevin Kolb is the quarterback of the future in Philadelphia, not Michael Vick. The message must be clear to Kolb—the team does not trust him and is ready to give up on him as the team’s full-time starter after ten tosses in his first game. If I were Kolb, I would certainly feel betrayed.

I have always been a critic of Reid, particularly for his consistent reluctance to run the ball despite having arguably the league’s most versatile running back in Brian Westbrook. This decision, which is clearly an attempt to appease the terribly impatient Philadelphia sports fans, may doom the organization for the next decade.

3. It is an absolute shame that the NFC West has to produce a playoff team.

In my years of closely following the NFL I have never witnessed a division that is as terrible from top to bottom as this season’s NFC West. With Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner’s retirement and the loss of Pro Bowl wide receiver Anquan Boldin via trade, the two-time reigning division champions appear to have lost their stranglehold.

This summer the sexy pick among experts was the San Francisco 49ers, but I hesitated to anoint the 49ers the frontrunner because of my inability to trust quarterback Alex Smith to lead the team to the playoffs.

Since being drafted by the team first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, Smith has only started all sixteen games in one season. That year, 2006, Smith completed only 58.1 percent of his passes and compiled a passer rating of 74.8.

The Seattle Seahawks looked to be the favorite after their 31-6 trashing of San Francisco in week one, but the team looked dreadful against the less-than-stellar Denver Broncos in a 31-14 road loss last Sunday, giving up 307 yards through the air to Kyle Orton.

Speaking of mediocre quarterbacks, the Cardinals, last season’s NFC West champion, are led by exiled Browns veteran Derek Anderson, who has completed less than 55 percent of his passes through the first two weeks, one of which was against the rebuilding St. Louis Rams.

As someone who is never shy to make outlandish predictions, I am troubled by my sheer inability to grasp the NFC West conundrum. I would still favor my preseason prediction of the Seattle Seahawks because I trust veteran quarterback Matt Hasselbeck over Smith and Anderson, the latter of which will be fortunate to have his job in a month.

This weekend, San Francisco travels to Kansas City to take on the unbeaten Chiefs, Seattle hosts the 1-1 San Diego Chargers, and Arizona welcomes the Bruce Gradkowski-led Oakland Raiders.