The Arizona Cardinals dropped their sixth straight game losing to the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders put up 22 points to the Cardinals 9. Matt Leinert showed us that he is still indeed a rookie as the Raiders defense exploited his current weaknesses.

Yep, firing the offensive coordinator sure made the difference.

Pittsburgh Steelers 38 Atlanta Falcons 41 (OT)

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost in OT from an Atlanta Falcons field goal.

Michael Vick wanted to answer his critics regarding his earlier comments to Inside the NFL and had an amazing game.

The Steelers played well, the Falcons played well, and the only issue I had with the game was Phil Simms’s commentary. I wonder if Simms and Michael Vick are dating? On one of Vick’s touchdown passes, Alge Crumpler ran an inside post pattern and the coverage allowed him too much space. Vick fired a bullet to Crumpler and Simms exclained, “What an amazing pass! Very few quarterbacks can make that throw, like John Elway, and Michael Vick made an excellent pass!”

Okay, so Vick is just as good as Elway? Right. Other quarterbacks can make that throw – almost all of them can. Crumpler was wide open.

Another issue I have is with the Atlanta Falcons fans. The Falcons are a solid team, and I am surprised they are not supported that well. I saw just as many Pittsburgh Steelers jerseys in the stands as Atlanta Falcons fans. Phil Simms thought seeing the Steelers fans in attendance was “just great to see!” I thought that it was pretty sad that the “enemy’s fans” helped fill the house.

Green Bay Packers 34 Miami Dolphins 24

The Green Bay Packers won their second game of the season beating the Miami Dolphins.

Philadelphia Eagles 21 Tampa Buccaneers 23

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the best come-from-behind win on Sunday as they won with the second longest field goal in NFL history, a 62-yard blast from Matt Bryant, who just a year or two ago worked in a pawn shop before coming to the NFL.

The Buccaneers seemed to have the number of the Philadelphia Eagles. However, the defensive issues that have plagued the Tampa Bay Buccaneers all season came back and haunted them, as the Eagles took the lead late in the fourth quarter as Donovan McNabb threw a strike to Brian Westbrook. There was not one missed tackle or two or even three missed tackles. There were four missed tackles as Westbrook scampered to the end zone.

The defensive secondary had better take Bryant out to a nice dinner – he saved the victory for them.

So, now with my football picks, I am now even. I’m glad I didn’t make that trip to Vegas after all.

I’m also not sure about this week’s Pam Oliver Effect either since I had issues with my DVR…I missed the pre-game.

If anyone saw the FOX NFL Pregame show, and knows who she featured this week, comment below.

I subscribe to NHL Center Ice (for you Canadian fans Centre Ice). So, I watch a lot of hockey and listen to many analysts and commentators. I’m not just partial to the Curt Keilback/Darren Pang tandem of the Phoenix Coyotes, or the Rick Peckham/Bobby (“The Chief”) Taylor partnership of the Tampa Bay Lightning, or even to the John Forslund/Tripp Tracy duo of the Carolina Hurricanes. There are several excellent television broadcasters out there in the Hockey universe.

The CBC schools everyone on how hockey should be produced. They are always prepared since they have lived with hockey for a lot longer than their U.S. cousins, and essentially set the gold standard along with TSN and Rogers Sports Net. (However, I did take umbrage of Pierre McGuire’s love fest with the Edmonton Oilers last year during the Stanley Cup finals. Maybe he was upset about having to report on the game for NBC? He is an honest broadcaster and he tells it like it is, but come on, if he watches the tape, he could hear how he was clearly biased for the Oilers.)

Most of the analysts that work the games today find ways to touch on the stories of their opponents while still being true to their home franchise. What is difficult is listening to the pabulum of blathering idiots that do not get their information right.

The other night when the Tampay Bay Lightning faced the Atlanta Thrashers in the Thrashers home opener, Turner Sports South Darren Elliot said this, “Tampa Bay has kept its high profile skaters together such as Marty St. Louis, Brad Richards, and Vinny Lecavalier together for a high price – including Danny Boyle. Because of this Afasenekov had to fill the massive shoes of Frederick Modin that they had to let go for salary cap issues.”

Yes, Modin was sacrificed but to create room for the ‘Bolts pressing need of a better goaltender in Marc Denis. However, Dan Boyle, the consummate professional, took less money in order to stay with the team. Modin was a key ingredient to the franchise’s Stanley Cup run, but he was not sacrificed because of St. Louis, Richards, Lecavalier, or Boyle – the team needed the room for the pressing need of the goaltender Denis.

All I want is for broadcasters to call the game (Turner South does not pay attention to the action on the ice that well either) and get their information accurate. Good analysts teach the game to the viewers – if the viewers know more about the product (that includes every team) than the broadcasters, then there is a problem.

If you take away the Manning storyline, the football game was a decent one to watch.

However, did NBC completely rip off Monday Night Football? Note to network, why not try something new? Plus, the pre-game show was stilted and the set looked like something from Star Trek: The Next Generation. All that research they did last year to set up for this season, one would think the show and the game would have had a greater impact.