Talk about the change back to Alex Smith.  Did his time on the bench help him become a better player?

I think the bench this season helped him become a better player.  The last two seasons were riddled with shoulder injuries and a fairly dysfunctional relationship with Mike Nolan.  After the season, Smith had to decide whether to leave town or renegotiate his deal with the 49ers.  Smith decided to stick around claiming unfinished business.  I think one could get an idea of his mental toughness, especially considering how much money he had put away in the initial contract, and the fact that he could have sat and learned for a couple years somewhere else.

Sitting to start this season might have ended up being the best thing for him.  He was on yet another offensive coordinator, but after Hill won the job, Smith was able to sit back and learn the playbook without the pressure of being shoved into the starting position right away.  He came in two weeks ago in the loss at Houston and put together some of his best football as a pro in one half.  He struggled at times last week against Indianapolis, but showed some of the signs of continuing to step forward.  It's been a long, strange trip, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the course of the season.  He's got the talent, and maybe it's all finally coming together for him.

What do you see as Mike Singletary's strengths and weaknesses as a coach?

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1.  Does Brady look timid in the pocket to you?  I have only been able to watch one Pats game this season, the opener, and it looked to me like he wasn't stepping into his throws.  Have you seen that to be the case?  How would you assess his play so far?

I think Brady is suffering from a number of things.  First, his mechanics appear to be off.  He's simply not throwing the way he used to (overthrowing Moss a number of times).  Second, timing with his receivers isn't all it's cracked up to be.  Third, Brady and his receivers are simply not on the same page.  Tom expects Welker to go one way and he's adjusting to coverage, heading off in another direction.  Fourth, as you indicated, he's not stepping into his throws like we're used to.  There's certainly a bit of timidness, a desire to protect his left leg, but I'm not really surprised at this.  Many expected the return of the 2007 Brady and that's just unrealistic.

2.  Do you think this team misses Josh McDaniels?

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1.  Peyton Manning looks to be on pace for one of his best seasons ever.  What has changed so much from this season to last?  Is it just that he was healthy for the whole offseason or is there more to it than that?

Health is the main reason. Remember, he started playing at an MVP level immediately following Indy's lose to Tennessee last year. From then to now, he's been dominant. I also think he is just comfortable with the team around him. He' settled in with Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, and Anthony Gonzalez. He also really likes the new kids in Donald Brown, Austin Collie, and Pierre Garcon.

2.  Tell us about Pierre Garçon and what has made him one of Peyton's favorite targets.

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I had the chance to catch up with our friend FSBlueApocalypse and ask him 5 questions about the Jags.

1.  Maurice Jones-Drew seems to be handling being the feature back pretty well.  Do you think he will hold up for 16 games?

Jones-Drew has been a 20-25 touches a game back for awhile now when factoring in receptions. He should be able to handle the load as well as any other back. He certainly isn't a scat back ;). Either way, I would love to see Rashad Jennings (Jacksonville's 7th round pick) get in the mix more.

2.  Is it going to take another 1999-like run to get the fans in Jacksonville to go to games?  What do you think the prospects are for the Jaguars long term in Jax?

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John from Gang Green Nation was nice enough to answer 5 questions about his New York Jets:

1.  Honestly, are you surprised at the success this team has had in the first 2 weeks of this season?  There was a lot of hype around the Texans and the Patriots are a hype machine.  What did you think the chances were you would beat both of them before the season started?

I'm absolutely shocked. I don't think anybody expected the Jets to flat out dominate two good squads the way they have, even the people who thought 2-0 was realistic. Conventional wisdom was that it would take some time for the defense to come together, and the rookie quarterback would struggle early. Joe Flacco's numbers in early season 2008 weren't pretty. I would have signed on for 1-1.

2.  Talk about the play of Mark Sanchez so far.  Is he running the same offense Brett Favre was running last season or have they scaled it back a little bit for him?

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Here are the questions we sent to Jake at Battle Red Blog with his answers:

1.  On a scale of 1-10, how much panic do you feel after the loss to the Jets? 

Probably about a 3, although I may not be a good representation of our readers.  There was enough negativity around the site Monday and Tuesday that I felt inclined to write a post entitled "Before You Jump" in an effort to calm everyone down.  Jeff Fischer has down a good job of keeping the Titans organization relatively stable, so it might be hard for you to put yourself in the shoes of an average Texans fan that has been waiting 8 years for a winning season.  Due to this history, we're a little more prone to pessimism.   

In my opinion though, even good teams have bad games.  The Texans have never done well with good 3-4 defenses and I am convinced that the Jets have the best defense we will see all year of that variety.  Am I rationalizing?  Absolutely.  Hopefully last week was a little more about the Jets being good than it was about us being bad, although there is no denying that there were elements of both at play in that game.  Now if we lose to the Titans in as much of a lopsided fashion, it's going to be hard to keep the mob at bay. 

2.  There is a lot of hype surrounding the Texans this season.  Do you think they have improved enough to get over the hump? 

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1.  In the match-up between these two teams last season the Titans were able to sack Big Ben 5 times and force him to throw 2 picks.  Is the Steelers offensive line better this season than it was last season?  

It's not clear if the Steelers offensive line will be any better than they were in 2008 when they allowed Big Ben to take a beating all year round. The personnel is largely the same, with only rookie guard Kraig Urbik replacing incumbent right guard starter Darnell Stapleton amongst the top 5. On the one hand, that has to concern Steelers fans. On the other, we all know how important continuity and experience playing together is, particularly at that position. So we'll just have to see if this group of mostly the same guys is better with a year of rough-and-tumble experience under their belts. Titans fans might want to keep an eye on right tackle Willie Colon, the whipping boy of the offensive line for Steelers fans last year. He reportedly had a great camp and has undeniably looked better in limited action this preseason. If he can take a step - and preferably two or three...big ones - forward this year, the line could be substantially better than it was a year ago.

2.  Obviously a lot has been made of the incident with the terrible towels at the end of last season's game.  I know that is a big deal to the fans, but do you think it adds any motivation for the team?

Well, Coach Mike Tomlin apparently spent all of five seconds talking about it. My guess is he said something along the lines of 'the team that wins gets to do the talking.'

3.  Do you think the Steelers can repeat in 2009?

Absolutely I think they can repeat. It begins and ends with their defense, which should again be at worst one of the league's five or ten best defenses. If you can keep Ben Roethlisberger in close ball games, we all know he can take over from there.

4.  Talk to us about Nate Washington.  He was the Titans biggest offseason acquisition.  Do you think he can be a #1 receiver in this league?  Why did the Steelers not make more of an effort to keep him?

No, he can not be a #1 receiver in this league. He's too frail and lacks confidence and guts catching the ball over the middle with a looming safety. He improved in that department during his time in Pittsburgh, but he's more or less a one-trick pony, and that's stretching the field. I will say though that he'd be a bigger asset if Vince Young were quarterback than if Kerry Collins is behind center. Why? Because Washington's also good when plays break down and the quarterback moves outside of the pocket trying to make something out of nothing. Obviously that's something Roethlisberger did/does a lot. And he often looked to Nate in those situations. I obviously don't see Collins breaking contain too often and trying to make a play outside of the pocket.

5.  Write the headline in Friday morning's Tennessean.

Steelers avenge desecration of Towel, mop up Titans 24-14

Hope Nate reads this before the game tonight.

Click here to see BTSC's questions for me and my answers.

1. It seems to me the general feeling around T.O. is addition by subtraction. Is that how the Cowboys feel?

Jerry Jones and the Cowboys over the last several years have been the home for wayward football players. After the misery of a season that they had last year they took a very long, hard look at the make up of this team. The conclusion they arrived at was simply that they have enough talent to play well without dealing with the headaches! T.O. is an outstanding receiver and always has been, but he is also a guy who demands the ball A LOT! Owens' teammates, coaches, and fans of the team were growing very tired of his act. He likes to portray his release from Dallas as "shocking" and "unexpected", but in all reality only an egomaniac could not have seen that coming, even I knew that was coming, and I am in no way affiliated with the Cowboys.

2. Now that T.O. is gone, is Roy Williams ready to step up and be a legit #1 receiver on a contending team?

First of all, he has already filled that roll before in Detroit (albeit on a crappy team). Secondly, he is an outstanding receiver, but he is a different type of #1. Roy has a special skill set; it is more on Jason Garrett and Tony Romo to put him in winnable situations. He is a big target, strong, fast, and can jump out of the gym. So it is my opinion that this team needs to use those skills to their advantage and create a game plan that features routes that can get him in favorable matchups. Roy and Romo have worked very hard together during this off season to get on the same page with one another, and I think we will see the fruits of that work this year.

3. Tony Romo obviously is a has the tools, but it seems to me he has too much other stuff going on in his life. How do Cowboys fans feel about him? Is he ready to lead your team to a title?

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