Both Philadelphia and New Orleans have underachieved this season. The Saints’ offense is potent as usual, although they’ll miss explosive returner and scatback Darren Sproles. Brees is simply one of those QBs that makes everyone around him better. What hurts is that TE Jimmy Graham is out but WR Courtney Roby is the only other guy out while two others are listed as “probable.”

Eagles’ players hobbled include G Danny Watkins and S Nate Allen who didn’t participate in practice. WR Marty Gilyard is the only player listed as “out.”

So, both teams are otherwise healthier than most and New Orleans is playing at home. The offense can put the points up but the defense can’t stop anyone.

The difference tonight could well be that the Eagles will beat themselves.

Michael Vick seems to find new ways to fumble each week for the highlight reel, and led the league coming into the week in turnovers…along with Tony Romo. Yeah, that’s not so good.

You simply cannot afford to give a Drew Brees-led team the football with good field position. They’ve got a number of running backs that can catch the ball out of the backfield, rotate in and out as runners, and even occasionally stay in to pass protect or release late on a flare. They still have so many ways to beat you.

The defense has been bad all season, but it isn’t as though the Eagles are excelling there themselves. It’s only the second game for the defensive coordinator with them, but it’s difficult at best for anyone to slow down the Saints’ offense very much. They score nearly 30 points on their bad days, it seems.

I expect a real shootout tonight and for New Orleans to have a lot of energy right out of the chute. With the Saints playing at home and the instability of the Eagles’ defense, the Saints can and will score. Vick can lead the Eagles to a win if he doesn’t turn the ball over. You just can’t give the Saints’ offense “extra” chances with it.

Final score should be around…

Saints 38, Eagles 34

Follow me on Twitter @Ken_Dye

No, it was the best of times and the worst of times…a tale of two cities’ football teams…and two halves.

The Chargers dominated the Broncos in every phase of the game in the first half, going up 24-0 at halftime. Philip Rivers caught fire after a bit of a slow start as the two teams exchanged punts to begin the contest. He was actually looking like one of the top-tier passers he’s supposed to have been, but never quite attained. He was firing strike after perfect strike to his receivers and the Chargers’ defense had Peyton Manning and the running game stymied at every turn.

Even when Manning hit a wide-open Eric Decker at the 30 with nobody within 30 yards of him, he caught the ball. That’s the good news. The bad news? He tripped over his own feet, fell down, and couldn’t get back up (paging Mrs. Fletcher!) before he was touched down by contact.

On the next play, he misread an adjustment, ran a go pattern when the call was for either a curl or a screen (only Manning knew for sure, that much was apparent), and Chargers’ CB Quentin Jammer caught it instead…with nothing but green grass and yardage markers in front of him. 80 yards later, he was in the end zone. OUCH!

All I have to say there is Norv Turner must have stunk the joint out with his halftime speech and/or a football terrorist pumped in marijuana smoke into the locker room as a de-motivational aid. Valium in the Gatorade? Something.

The tale of the second half was was the exact opposite as the ole wily veteran Peyton Manning went 13-for-14 passing for 167 yards and 3 TDs while holding off on any more interceptions for another time as the Broncos scored 35 unanswered points to grab the victory, 35-24.

It was Manning’s 47th career come from behind 4th-quarter victory, tying Dan Marino’s all-time mark. It was also only the second time in NFL history a road team has overcome a 24-point-plus deficit to win a ball game.

Since San Diego was involved, it sort of reminded me of the infamous Miami at San Diego playoff game – in 1981, before the Dan Marino era – when the Chargers leapt out to a 24-0 lead on Shula’s Dolphins. Shula inserted superbackup Don Strock, who led them to ultimately have a late lead, only to lose by 3 on a late field goal by Chargers’ kicker Rolf Benershke. Yes, the famous “hook-and-lateral” play was the final play of the first half in that one.

This time, the team that was down came back to win instead of just making it an exciting ball game. 3 second-half interceptions by Philip Rivers helped as well. He just wilted under pressure and seemingly spent more time whining and lobbying for penalties every play rather than concentrating on doing his job.

Any lingering doubts about Manning’s ability now?

I didn’t think so.

Follow me on Twitter @Ken_Dye

The Panthers defense is a shell of what it once was.  The only fire on the field last night was Jon Beason and Thomas Davis.  The rest of the defense might as well go ahead and stay at the house.  There is no passion or drive on the defensive side of the ball.  Julius Peppers is floating through the season, collecting his million-dollar-a-game check and pretending like he cares about the game of football.  After this season the Panthers need to go ahead and trade him to get any value out of him that is left.  Charles Godfrey looked disoriented and disengaged.  When he did finally tackle somebody it was after the whistle had blown and he was penalized.  Stupid!

The offense was a little better but not much.  Jake Delhomme threw some questionable passes.  Jeff Davidson, the offensive coordinator needs to realize that when running the ball gains you an average of six yards per carry you might want to consider giving the ball to Williams again and again and again.  Muhsin Muhammad didn’t look back for the ball when Delhomme passed it to him on a comeback route.  Steve Smith was double covered all night which leads to an interesting point.  If Smith is double covered that means somebody else is open.  DUHHHHH!!!

The coaching staff needs to be evaluated.  This team is playing like they have no respect for the coaching staff.  The fire is gone.  The tired “it is what it is” statements by John Fox are old and worn.  We need a fresh start.  I don’t care what it takes to get this team going again, but somebody needs to be fired.  What is really interesting is how the team is reflecting ownership and leadership of the organization.  The Richardson boys resign and the team goes into the crapper the same season.  This is not a coincidence.  Wake up people.  There are some major issues in the Panther organization.

Let’s bring in a head coach that has fire and resolve.  Look at what the 49ers and Jets are doing now that they have a coach who cares about winning and leadership.  Don’t get me wrong, John Fox is a great coach, but his time in the Carolinas is up.  The Panthers need a house cleaning from management all the way down to the janitor.  Enough said!