Week 7 Reflections

I'm out of town on business this week so, due to my work schedule and other restrictions, my review of this week's games will be somewhat condensed.

This commentary is coming to you from St. Louis, MO where Scott Linehan is a very hot topic; so hot that I'd be surprised if Linehan isn't in Alaska right now until practice resumes Wednesday. To say that the local fans are tying a collective noose would be an understatement. I agree with an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Bryan Burwell that it wouldn't make sense to fire Linehan right now though.

As Burwell points out, baseball and basketball seasons seem to be endless so making a change midway through a season can make a difference and save what could be a disastrous year. In the NFL, it rarely makes any sense to fire a coach in the middle of a season due to all that is put into the team leading up to the regular season. You have your layers of assistants and fixed rosters on top of it only being a 16-game schedule.

It usually always makes sense to let the coach finish the season and at least give him the respect to finish what he started. In some cases, there just might be a silver lining that appears by the end of the season that someone else can come in and utilize.

At this point in the season, I would say that Linehan is at the top of the list of coaches to be given the pink slip when the gun sounds ending Week 17.

Next on that list just might be Marvin Lewis of Cincinnati. I'm stunned that he isn't bald from pulling his hair out on his team's infatuation of being lawless rebels. The Bengals did bounce back with a win over the Jets (if you call that "bouncing back") but I get the feeling that it's just a matter of time before we begin talking about the Bengals being in the top-10 of the NFL Draft. Lewis is a prime candidate of someone who needs a change of scenery.

While I think their jobs are safe for the time being, it wouldn't be a bad idea to keep an eye on John Fox of Carolina and Jon Gruden of Tampa Bay. Both coaches were losing their grip on the team and their respective cities when the season first started, but they have done a good job so far of keeping the Panthers and Bucs in the heat of the battle for the NFC South.

Coach Tom Coughlin was "Dead Man Walking" after Week 2 following an off-season of the Giants team chemistry unraveling. The G-men have gone on to win five straight and are the hottest team in the NFC much in part to their undaunted defense. I still believe that it might take a playoff berth and maybe a playoff win to save his job.

The division races are heating up as we approach the midway point next week so you can expect to hear more talk of coaches on the hot seat as we move forward.

Other notes and observations from a very lukewarm Week 7:

• Pittsburgh has not allowed a RB to reach 100 yards in 26 straight games dating back to Nov. 28, 2005 when Edgerrin James racked up 124 yards as a Colt.
  
• Titans K Rob Bironas is getting tons of press over setting the NFL record for hitting 8 field goals in one game. That is something, but what does that say about the Titans offense? I wouldn't get too proud.
• Patriots QB Tom Brady is playing like a flowing faucet with no shut-off valve . You just can't stop the flow. A major flaw that is being overlooked is their running game which isn't getting much production lately. It's just a matter of time before defenses will figure out how to stop this passing attack. It's a numbers game.
  
• When it rains it pours. Dolphins RB Ronnie Brown and CB Renaldo Hill are out for the year with torn ACL's.
  
• Falcons QB Byron Leftwich went down with a high ankle sprain which means it's back to The Joey Harrington Show.... a collective sigh has spread across the city of Atlanta.
• The Chad Pennington Era just might have ended Sunday after their 38-31 loss to Cincy. Coach Eric Mangini does not know how to smile right now, and he shouldn't.
  
• Something tells me that J.P. Losman won't be a Bill next year unless he accepts the reality that his gene strands are that of a career backup.
• The Giants face the horrific Dolphins in London this Sunday. It's the first NFL regular-season game to be played outside North America. So, this is how the NFL chooses to sell the NFL product to England? Why couldn't they get New England and Atlanta?

GAMES TO KEEP AN EYE ON IN WEEK 8

Detroit at Chicago, Jacksonville at Tampa Bay, Washington at New England, Green Bay at Denver