EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - A football Sunday where veteran coaches make horrible mistakes, the teams from the NFC East that actually do play lose to bad teams (with their front offices having near-meltdowns in the process), the Jets get shut out by a World Series' score in the Meadowlands, and the Gmen don't even have to play?  THAT'S ONE SUCCESSFUL BYE WEEK IF YOU ASK ME!

As is the case every year, despite the good that came out of it, the Sunday of a bye week is the loneliest Sunday of the year for a football fan.  To make it worse, my roommate and I didn't get a single trick-or-treater come to our apartment all day (which I had hoped would at least take my mind off things for a bit).  On the flipside, it also meant we had huge bags of fun-sized candy left over.  They were all but empty by the fourth quarter of the Steelers-Saints game.  Sugar crash, anyone?

To go on a brief tangent, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of all the football pundits saying the AFC is clearly a more dominant conference than the NFC, and the top five teams in the league always have to come from there.  When, pray-tell, did this become the case?  Let's put their respective divisions head-to-head.  For argument's sake, let's say the AFC West and the NFC West cancel each other out, because they're both horribly uncompetitive conferences (right now), where it looks like the least depressing team will scrape its way into the playoffs, instead of the dominant team earning its way in (the Chiefs and Seahawks lead those divisions, respectively).  The NFC and AFC Easts look like they have two clear-cut favorites to take the division, with a third team right on the cusp, and a fourth that's out of the picture.  The AFC and NFC Norths each have two teams on top with winning records, and two teams on the bottom at 2-5.  Lastly, the NFC and AFC Souths have three teams jockeying for a legitimate shot to take the division, with a fourth team not only lost in the shuffle, but on the brink of becoming LA's newest addition next season.  From that perspective, I'd say the NFC and the AFC are relatively even conferences.  Let the disputing begin! 

Looking Ahead…

We have a huge game coming up off the bye on Sunday in Seattle.  The Giants have been a little shaky after the bye week in recent years, and we can't let that reputation hold true this season.  I really don't think we will.  I think this team is mature enough to handle any praise and high expectations it has received recently.  I don't see Perry Fewell putting the brakes on our pass rush at all, and hopefully if there's inclement weather, it will give Ahmad and Brandon more opportunities to run all over Seattle's 10th ranked rushing defense, which Darren McFadden showed everyone was more than possible the other day.  As for the passing game, I'm sure Nicks, Smith, and Manningham are all well aware that they're going up against the league's 29th-worst pass defense and should expect to have a big day on Sunday, even if the weather forces a skewed ratio of running plays versus passing plays.

Regardless, if we don't show up to play, it won't matter.  And don't think the players who were there several years ago forgot what happened the last two times we visited Seattle, when we outplayed them but unfortunately lost on a missed field goal in 2005 and got smoked early and closed the gap in losing, 42-30, in 2006.

Non-Gmen Thoughts of the Week:

• I hope everyone made it a point to get out and vote on Tuesday!  On that note, not to sound too political, but I really enjoyed what Jon Stewart had to say at the end of his "Rally to Restore Sanity" last Saturday.  It was a frank, straightforward heart-to-heart with those watching and in attendance about the state of things in our country, and urged us to be more optimistic and to panic less.  I hope the country listened to what he had to say.
• Watched AMC's "The Walking Dead" on Sunday, and I loved it.  I just hope the rest of the country is still as into zombies a few weeks after Halloween as they were the day of, so this show can stay on the air.  I don't want to ruin anything in case you missed it and have it DVR'd, but based on how the pilot ended, I really hope we see some HORSE ZOMBIE ACTION next week!
• As a football fan, I'm thrilled that the Raiders-Chiefs rivalry is relevant again!  What a storied history between two great franchises, finally getting themselves (seemingly) back on track.
• Congratulations San Francisco on a very impressive World Series' victory.  Very happy to see a Giants' team breaking the hearts of Texas fans all over the country, regardless of the sport.
• Did everyone else see the kid dressed up as Ron Washington for Halloween?  EPIC.
• It might just be me, but it certainly looks like Brad Childress is doing everything he can to destroy the Minnesota Vikings' short-term and long-term hopes of success by any means possible.  First, he put Brett Favre before the team in the off-season, and now he's letting his personal feelings cost the Vikings one of the best receivers in the game (don't talk to me about receiving numbers – what Moss brings to the field, both talent-wise and simply with regards to how defenses face him, is priceless) and a third-round draft pick in the process.  Here's to hoping his next head-coaching stop is Dallas!            

That's it for this week.  No game this past weekend, so not too much to talk about.  The rest of the season is upon us!  Gotta keep working hard straight through to January.  You can reach me via e-mail at gmensuperfan@gmail.com, or on Facebook under the name "Gmen Superfan."  Until next week, GO GMEN! 

Written by Superfan