Well there goes the theories that I and most other people had about what was perceived as two of the best teams in the NFL and our predictions for them being a shoe in for the Super Bowl. While I only watched half of one of these games, I was extremely surprised to see the end result. Miami's loss was a little more acceptable because even though I hate all sports teams from Philadelphia because they have a terrible fanbase, I acknowledge that the Eagles are one of the best teams in the NFL this year. San Francisco had no business losing the Vikings though as they have looked like one of the worst teams in the league so far.
src
Philidelphia was a slight favorite going into this game, but there was some speculation that Miami had something to prove and was really going to turn it up due to the fact that they have been slipping a bit lately. I had hoped they would do exactly that, but it just never really came together for them. After both teams were held nearly scoreless in the first quarter with just a field goal each, Philly really blew up the second quarter scoring two TD's to one. It's still anyone's game at this point and when Miami picked off a pass for an interception turned TD late in the 3rd, it looked like this thing could really turn around. It's unfortunate for the Dolphins that Miami's offense basically shut down from that point forward as it was all Eagles from that point forward.
Two touchdowns later, the last of which was scored in the last 5 minutes, put an end to any hopes that Miami would upset this game and put themselves back in the spotlight.
San Francisco losing to Minnesota is a bit less excusable. San Fran has been relatively dominant in all of their games up to now and Viking wins have been against rather weak teams including my Panthers, who are likely the worst team in the NFL. The Niners were a rather large favorite to win this game with a -300 on a straight bet and a -7 favorite on the spread. I watched the first half with a bit of disbelief as San Fran just wasn't able to get any sort of offense organized. When you go into the locker room at half-time down 9 points to a team that you are meant to be a lot better than, it is tough to pull that back. While things did improve in the 2nd half for the 49'ers, it wasn't near enough. I suppose one good takeaway from this is that both TD's for San Fran were scored by Christian McCaffrey, who is an ex Carolina Panther.
At the moment the radar has changed and as far as win/loss is concerned, it is actually the Eagles that appear to be the best team in the NFL. Their only loss came at the hands of the Jets and most people would agree that this was simply a fluke.
On to next week!