Bears ship is sinking while Packers' is sailing away

Brett Favre is back to his old tricks again at quarterback and the Green Bay Packers are tagging along for the ride. With a league leading quarterback rating of 100.2, Favre's season long hot streak has led the Packers to the NFL's best record at 7-1. After a 1-1 start, coupled with the fact that Farve had hinted at retirement prior to the season, many NFL fans were left wondering if this was the beginning of Favre's demise. Yet, during the Packers' six game win streak, Favre has regained the old competitive fire and has demonstrated that he isn't going away any time soon.

Gaining momentum for the stretch run, the Packers showed the NFL just how good they can be in last Monday night's spotlight with a decisive 24-10 beating of the Miami Dolphins. With a four game lead over perhaps the weakest division in the league, the Packers can easily finish the year atop the NFC central.

And while the Pack will face no real competition in the next two weeks, when they play the Detriot Lions and the Minnesota Vikings respectively, the Packers schedule will get harder in Week 12, when they match-up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the leagues only other seven game winner.

Unlike the Packers the Buccaneers have achieved their success because of the strength of their defense. With an ESPN power ranking far below the Packers at number six (the Packers lead the power rankings) and a merely adequate quarterback in Brad Johnson, the Bucs have relied on their league leading defense. Surrendering an average of 12.1 points per game, the Week 12 match-up of polar opposites looks likely to be replayed again in the playoffs.

Leading the way in the AFC this season are the Denver Broncos who have quietly compiled a 6-2 record with a league leading defense and the fourth ranked offense.

While the Broncos have all but assured themselves a playoff berth with their record, the league's best offensive team, the Oakland Raiders have written an entirely different story with their season.

While Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon has helped his team compile the conference's best offense with a 96.2 quarterback rating, the Raiders defense still leaves much to be desired. So much to be desired in fact that the once 4-0 team now sits in the basement of the AFC West with a 4-4 record, as a result of several defensive lapses.

The turn of events for the Raiders was epitomized in the team's overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday. The Raiders run defense looked terrible last Sunday as it allowed the 49ers to gain 152 yards on Sunday compared to the 81 earned by their own offense.

Allowing the 49ers to eat up clock time with back to back drives of 15 plays and 30 plays respectively, the Raiders defense kept their offense on the bench for most of the game, denying the opportunity for a victory

Following the theme of fast starting teams that have taken a turn for the worse, the Chicago Bears also fall into that category. Beginning the season with a 2-0 record that made fans believe they would build on their previous season's 13-3 performance, the Bears are now left scratching their heads about what went wrong as they look at a 2-6 record. Unable to escape the injury bug, the Bears have lost four starting defenders and offensive guard Rex Tucker. The Bears injuries have exposed the team's lack of depth talent wise, and quarterback Jim Miller's tendonitis has affected his accuracy.



The Good

Putting to rest the debate over whether the New England Patriots should have kept Drew Bledsoe or Tom Brady, Brady outperformed Bledsoe last Sunday, leading his team to a 38-7 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills. Brady was brilliant throughout the day throwing four touchdowns, no interceptions and most impressively completing 23 of 27 passes. While Brady's performance ended the Bledsoe vs. Brady debate, it also jump started a team that seemed to have lost its edge in the previous weeks. Perhaps the Patriots win will get them back on their early season tear just in time to get hot for the playoffs.



The Bad

Last Sunday's match-up of the Houston Texans against the Cincinnati Bengals featured the league's worst team against the league's second worst team. In a match-up that had no bearing on the overall league picture, the Bengals gained their season's first win trouncing the league's newcomers 38-3. Unfortunately for the Bengals the taste of victory should be short lived as they face off against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday.



The Ugly

The Bengals. Enough said.