DownSwinging.com

I know the Monday Night game hasn’t been played yet, but it certainly isn’t too early to talk about week 5. Mostly I’m just too depressed to talk about baseball (that sinking feeling in my stomach that reminds me the Red Sox’ season is over just won’t go away) right now. As one of my friends said, it really never gets easier.

Anyway, it’s football season! And as we are now in week 5, we’re starting to figure out where all those teams we were confused about lie. And we definitely learned a lot this week.

Stock Up: Denver, Cincinatti, Seattle

Let me start with the Denver Broncos. I definitely have not been on that bandwagon, and if you read this article I wrote a couple days ago entitled, “Overachieving in Denver” you might note that I had already penciled in the Broncos to be 4-4 after Week 9. Well that’s not going to hapeen anymore. The Broncos proved that they can beat good teams too, taking down the Patriots in overtime. (A friend noted that the Giants have had an easier schedule than the Broncos, so it was wrong to criticize Denver for not having had a real matchup) And I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a head coach more pumped up than Josh McDaniels at the end of the game. Furthermore, the Patriots are still listed by Footballlocks.com as the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl, should that still be the case?

The Bengals proved they would be legitimate 5-0 team if it weren’t for a freak play, and are a real force in the NFL. First they beat Pittsburgh, now Baltimore, and it’s getting easier to mark down the close call with the Browns as a blip on the screen. Still not completely sold on them but they’re making a great case to be considered as one of the best teams in the league.

While I didn’t see any of the Seahawks game, if you win 41-0 you’ve got do something right. i thought the Jaguars were surging, but Seattle shut down MJD and David Garrard.

Stock Down: Buffalo, Dallas, San Francisco

On the other end of the spectrum the Browns and Bills had what must have been one of the worst games in the history of football. Derek Anderson had only two completions…and won. Not much else to say except that I didn’t know the Bills were this bad, I suppose they are though.

Even though the Cowboys actually won their matchup, it took an overtime to make it happen, and that’s not good when you’re playing the Chiefs. The good news for the Cowboys is that Miles Austin emerged as a serious threat on offense, which will be pretty helpful because I don’t think anyone thinks Roy E. Williams is that good. On the other hand, playing at the same pace as Kansas City is not going to hold up against better teams, and Coach Wade has got to be feeling the pressure.

Again, I don’t know exactly what happened to San Fran, but I was really feeling their resurgence. Even though I thought Atlanta would win the game today, I was expecting the 49ers defense to hold up pretty well, but instead Michael Turner ran all over them. Was last week’s defensive performance a fluke? We shall see.