6 things we learned through 9 games

Since we are just over halfway through this NFL season and entering the final bye week, here at Fredbook we decided to list the top 8 storylines/teams/players/whatever we want in honor of the midway point. Since it is Fredbook and I am Fred everyone should expect stories involving The Cowboys and Tim Tebow to be involved each week. First up, The Green Bay Packers are Perfect....ly boring. Who wants to watch a team play perfect football nearly each week. How consistently boring can one team be! I feel a bit bad for Packer fans since they have to watch a QB who performs flawlessly each week then has to watch their QB do this

The pain, the horror, someone think of the children in moments like these. We want to see athletes overcome adversity. Not just beat the ever loving hell out of whoever they play. The only criticism against them right now is that they have given up quite a few points in several of their games. But even when they do give up points, the game has a certain feel to it. Kind of like Rodgers and the receivers went to the defense and said "hey guys, we wanna score 50 today so how about you guys fall down on a couple of plays and give up some points so the coaches just let us keep throwing the piss out of it".

#2.)I'm gonna give the Colts and Dolphins a break for being so terrible because they each have legitimate reasons. (Manning is hurt, and Miami was attempting to throw games to get the first pick in the draft) Instead our midway worst team award goes to the hometown St. Louis Rams. I can hear you now "but Fred, they beat the Saints, and then a week later they also beat the Browns". I'll admit to watching the Saints game, I was in a place where it was the only game I could get. The Rams played a complete football game against the Saints, they played top notch in all three phases of the game. The Saints were probably looking past the Rams to this past weeks tilt with the Falcons. It seemed when watching that game an old adage was coming true before our very eyes, everything that could go right for one team (Rams) did and everything that could go wrong for the other (Saints) did.
Beating the Browns like they did was just another example of two teams that are not very good, repeatedly slamming into each other in a desperate attempt to put 3 points on the board every 5th or 6th time they had the ball.
I would hate to be a Ram fan with all the possibilities in play. Do you root against the team in hopes of a higher draft pick so you can make sure you get a receiver? Or do you root for them to win because it's soulless and wrong to root against your team for any reason, including draft picks. Who knows? All I know is that since I live in this area and I listen to sports talk radio, I know far more about the Rams than I want to.

#3.) One thing that is a clear certainty is the fact that Jim Harbaugh is better at coaching football than most people are at doing anything!

Just looking at this single season body of work the 49ers are 8-1. (9-1 if you count that super handshake he leveled Lion's coach Jim Schwarz with) Not even the biggest Niner fans would have had the stones to predict this start to the first half. Harbaugh has a special football gene inside of him that just seems to make his teams better. The things he was able to do as head coach at Stanford were incredible by football standards. They went into every meaningful game with a talent disadvantage at probably 2/3rds of their positions. The NFL gives him the ability to work with the other personnel in the organization to always have a chance at having equal if not greater personnel than their opponents. My bold Forty-Niners prediction, they will win a Super Bowl inside of 4 seasons. They're currently 8-1 on the season with Alex Smith at quarterback. A former #1 overall pick (and the original Urban Meyer QB) who has been shuttled between top and bottom of the depth chart like an elevator that never stops in the middle. Entering his 7th year Smith had a career 75.3 QB Rating. This season under Harbaugh, it's a career high 95.8 with 11 TD's to only 3 interceptions. Maybe it just took Smith 6 years to learn the pro game, but my money is on the coach. Whether he thinks Smith is the guy who can win the Super Bowl for him remains to be seen. But so far this year they are off to one hell of a start.

#4.) The DREAM Scream Team. One thing that should be abundantly clear to all pro athletes after LeBron's talk about winning a thousand NBA championships and Vince Young referring to the Eagles as the Dream Team, don't predict your grand success in the offseason. It really isn't helping you or your teammates. Now everyone not from your town hates you, and if you fail to deliver it's even more spectacular of a loss. In the case of the Eagles I couldn't be happier. The money they gave out in free agency and the SUPER MEGA DUMB extension they gave Mike Vick. Originally reported as a 100 million dollar deal, he will never reach the incentives to make it that high, but he will be guaranteed to receive at least 40 million. That's a lot of money to give a guy who has a long history of injuries because of his style of play. Which brings us to

#5.)

It's almost unfair to mention Tebow on here with as much grief as I give the national media about how they treat him. But it bears repeating again. He has only started 7 NFL games in his life. So far this year he is a very solid 3-1. Which is why he should have been playing over Kyle Orton all year long. With Orton you knew what you were gonna get, not very much, with Tebow the possibilities are limitless. You can argue throwing motion and time of release all you want. But if the Broncos are in a close game and Tebow is coming in to try and go win it, there are two things for sure. Number 1 is that you aren't changing the channel for anything regardless of your affiliation to the Broncos, and secondly you probably wouldn't bet against him. I would have to imagine that someone who works as hard as Tebow to improve at being a QB isn't going to get any better. The more the offensive coaching staff tinkers with the possibilities of their offense the better shot he and they will have.

#6.) We will finish off with the best news of the week and then make predictions for who gets in the playoffs. While the Redskins continued to suck and the dream scream team was getting beaten by John Skelton and the Arizona Cardinals. The NFC East leading Giants dropped a tough one to the "Fightin Harbaughs' of San Fran. Combine all this with a run away Cowboy victory and all of a sudden America's Team is only one game behind the Giants for the Division lead, and 2 games ahead of the Eagles and Skins (who are terrible).

Here is how I think the Playoff picture will shape up with 7 games remaining
NFC East- Cowboys AFC East- Patriots
NFC West- 49ers AFC West- Broncos
NFC North- Packers AFC North- Steelers
NFC South- Saints AFC South- Tennessee
Wildcards- Lions and Giants Wildcards- Ravens and Jets

One final thought from the weekend. We learned that Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith isn't real sure what he is doing. Hard to fathom any reason to go for it from your own 29 on 4th down in overtime. It just doesn't make sense. Even if you get it, what happens if you only gain 7 yards on the next three plays? Your gonna go for it again from your own side of the 50? It made no sense.

As always feel free to start any new discussions in the comment box, and please be so kind as to follow me on twitter @fredfierce