Mondays Minings

What we Learned: Giants-Bears
Hopefully nothing, in retrospect, this had all the makings of an upset. The Bears riding high after two big wins and the Giants up against the wall. However, I though the gap was larger than it apparently is, and fell for the hype that the Giants had quit. Well, the disaster happened is probably a result of those identifiable factors plus a few other avoidable forces. First, the Bears line has not been great at any point this year and was not able to withstand the kitchen-sink blitzes of the Giants. But, if they could have beat those blitzes a few times, the Giants would have been forced to back off. Cutler and Martz proved not up to the task. Cutler could have avoided many of those sacks by throwing it away. He really should not have been in that situation, as it would have been quite easy to call a few play that offered an outlet pass. Forte should have ripped off 20 yard gain after 20 yard gain until the blitzes stopped. In the end, this is one terrible game among three good ones for Cutler and the Chicago offense. On the other side of the ball, Chicago is offering a challenge to Pittsburgh as the league's best defense. They held New York to 60 yards of legitimate offense and three points despite constant bad field position and three-and-outs from their offense. That is outstanding no matter who the opposition is.

What We Learned Colts-Jaguars
Not much we haven't figured out in the first three weeks. The Colts defense is not as good as last year. They are especially week to a power running game. This ever-present Achilles heel may hurt them in the playoffs but they would have put this game away without the Reggie Wayne fumble. They ran well, 4 yards a clip without breaking one. The put up passing yards. Offense good, defense suspect. They are not as good as last year, but at this point, noone looks nearly as good as last year's superbowl teams. The Jags are destined for 5 or 6 wins, and they will play well when they can run well. Against teams that can stop the run, Garrard will prove inadequate to pull the team to victory.

Quick Hits:
There's at least 10 starting quarterbacks that I would bench for Tyler Thigpen right now.
That isn't that strong a statement about Thiggy.
Top 15 Redraft: CJohnson, Peterson, Foster, Gore, Mendenhall, Jackson, AJohnson, Wayne, McCoy, Jones-Drew, White, Rice, McFadden, Turner, Gates
There isn't a quarterback I would pick before the third round. Said this before the season but there is very little difference within the top 8, 9 if Vick is ok to play next week.
Carson Palmer is putting in an all-time season at padding his stats in garbage time.
Just because Brandon Jackson has been bad, that doesn't mean Kuhn is good. Ryan Grant is a better back than I thought. That said, can't see anyone besides the 1-2 Cowboys beating the Pack in the playoffs.
Has anyone ever gained as much by not playing as the Cowboys this week? Every good team in the NFC humiliated themselves.