PreSeason Thoughts

Some notes from the middle of the pre-season:

1. If you're a member of the Ravens coaching staff, you're getting ready for a really long season. Not only is their offense straight-up crap, but their first team defense just got completely worked by the Vikings with Tarvaris Jackson under center and negligible contributions from the running game. The Ravens without a powerful defense are maybe the worst team in the NFL.

2. Tony Romo and the Cowboys look like steamed garbage so far this pre-season. Their defense got shredded by the Chargers in the pre-season opener, and then the Broncos first team offense went completely nuts on them in week 2. Seriously, they made Jay Cutler look like a Pro-Bowl player. As for Romo, in his two outings he's completed 9 of 12 passes for *gulp* 66 yards. Folks, that's 5.5 yards per attempt and about 7.3 yards per completion. I hate the Cowboys and Tony Romo is the most over-rated player in the NFL, so I'd like to thank them for giving me fodder to turn around and cram down their gullets. Mark my words, the Cowboys are in for another disappointing season.

3. Get ready for a huge, huge disappointment in Jacksonville. David Garrard has looked lousy this pre-season, they still don't have a receiving corps, and suddenly they're not running the ball real well. Factor in the fact that nobody knows how this defense will play without Marcus Stroud in the middle, and suddenly, you've got a shaky team playing in the toughest division in football with virtually no room for error. Yikes.

4. Hey, how about that Tarvaris Jackson? 15 of 22 passing for 200 yards and 2 scores in 2 pre-season games. If this guy plays anything like this in the regular season, forget about the NFC North. The Vikings are strong enough already, without Jackson completing 70% of his passes for over 8 yards an attempt. The Packers even with Brett Favre couldn't compete with that.

5. Marc Bulger. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! 6 years, $65 million. Wow. Hey, the next time an NFL franchise wants to flush almost $11 million a year down the toilet, can I maybe get in on that? Numbers through 2 pre-season games: 10 of 23 passing for 85 yards, 3 interceptions and a sack. Granted, things should get a lot easier once Stephen Jackson decides to show up, but damn, this guy is the fourth highest paid quarterback in the NFL.

6. San Diego's defense isn't nearly as good as the hype. Brian Leonard and Antonio Pittman gashed them for 90 yards on 10 carries in the first quarter on Saturday. To reiterate, Brian Leonard (of the St. Louis Rams) and Antonio Pittman (also of the St. Louis Rams) racked up 9 yards a carry against a San Diego defense that last season made the record-books on the wrong end of the NFL's all-time greatest single game rushing total by an individual. I'm sorry, you can't be crummy against the run and still be considered a good defense at all. Brian Leonard and Antonio Pittman are lousy also-rans. The Rams had already pitched a couple of interceptions. No excuse for that.

7. Lane Kiffin is a genius. The Raiders have Darren McFadden, Justin Fargas, and Michael Bush in the backfield. At quarterback, they have JaMarcus Russell. I like Russell, and I hope he has a wonderful career. Through 2 pre-season games, the Raiders have run the ball 78 times and only thrown 48 passes. Last season, the Raiders ran the ball 508 times to only 451 pass attempts. If the defense is stout and Kiffin sticks to his guns on the ground game, the Raiders could very well win the AFC West. That's right, I said it.

8. The 49ers really are going to go into the regular season with J.T. O'Sullivan at quarterback. And you know what? That alone would be enough for me to fire Mike Nolan, Mike Martz, whoever the GM is, and whoever is coaching the quarterbacks. Starting the regular season with O'Sullivan at quarterback is . . . well . . . at least two things for sure: 1. an admission by Mike Nolan that he's coaching to keep his job and not for the future of the franchise, and that those two things are mutually exclusive, and that this team can't be a serious contender, and that he thinks he can keep his job by fielding a middling team that knows it can't be a serious contender; and 2. a death blow to Alex Smith's career, which means the 49ers are prepared to get absolutely nothing for their number 1 overall pick, a guy Mike Nolan hand-selected and the first number one overall selection by the 49ers since 1964. At this point, you can almost blame Mike Nolan for tossing the entire 49ers franchise under a bus to save his job for another season.

I could probably come up with some more crap to ramble on about. That's a list of some crap that occurred to me while watching game-casts of this Saturday's pre-season action.

Go Skynards!