Coming into this NFL regular season, the Houston Texans were considered to be a good team with a great chance of finally making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history with the news of superstar quarterback Peyton Manning potentially being out for the season. Without Manning under center, the Colts had little chance of competing with the rest of the teams in the AFC South division, especially the Texans.

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With that being said, this season was a Godsend for the Houston Texans as they had a perfect opportunity to win the AFC South division title. So far, the Texans have done a great job of living up to expectations with the offense firing on all cylinders and the defense getting the job done by holding leads.

Houston Texans Matt Schaub

Despite the early injury problems of Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster, the ongoing injury for arguably the best wide receiver in the game in Andre Johnson and the loss of their best defensive player in Mario Williams (out for season), the Houston Texans are sitting pretty with a 7-3 record and a first place standing in the AFC South.

Even though it appears that the Texans will cruise to a division title after winning four straight games and clinch a playoff spot for the first time in team history, the Houston franchise could be in trouble after learning that starting quarterback Matt Schaub would be out for the season with a broken foot. The injury was sustained in the blowout win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (37-9) in Week 10. At first, the injury didn’t appear to be serious, but after being checked out the consensus was that Schaub had to be shut down for the year.

Without starting quarterback Matt Schaub under center, the Houston Texans’ offense could start to struggle in the passing game, but this season this team has become more of a threat in the ground game with running back Arian Foster having another great season out of the backfield. Not only has Foster stepped up his game once again, but Andre Johnson has missed considerable time and the Texans haven’t missed a beat in the meantime.

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With that being said, the Houston Texans are more the capable of being able to win week in and week out while making their way into the playoffs. In place of Matt Schaub, the Texans will go with veteran backup Matt Leinart. Even though Leinart was a draft bust and ultimately unsuccessful with the Arizona Cardinals, the former Heisman trophy winner and BCS champion might have better luck in Houston with all the offensive weapons at his disposal.

It is a shame that Matt Schaub won’t be able to be under center for the Houston Texans as they make their way into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but this team can continue to be successful if they stick to the game plan and Matt Leinart steps up his game.

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Last season the Dallas Cowboys were a mess towards the end of the year as nothing was going right for America’s team and they missed the playoffs once again after Tony Romo and company fell apart in the last game of the season against the Philadelphia Eagles.  As a result of another disappointing end to the season, the Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones decided to cut the fat by getting rid of controversial wide receiver Terrell Owens before he could do anymore damage to the team.  Owens has been a great player over his NFL career and is arguably one of the best receivers of all-time, but for some reason the guy just can’t keep his mouth shut and it always leads to a bad break up with whatever team he might be on.  So despite no one doubting his skills or the contribution he can have to an NFL squad, Owens never stays with a team for long.
 
After getting his release from the Dallas Cowboys in the offseason, Terrell Owens was back on the market again for whatever team might be interested in an aging hall of fame caliber wide receiver that can cause more harm than good with all the baggage he can bring to an NFL franchise.  Fortunately, the Buffalo Bills were willing to take a chance on TO as they were in desperate need of a superstar to turn around the franchise that has struggled this entire decade after being one of the best teams in the NFL back in the 90s.
 
No matter what moves the Buffalo Bills have made in the past to upgrade their team, nothing has seemed to come of it as no players really want to come to a small market and be a perennial loser in the NFL.  Not only has it been tough for the Bills to add top talent over the years, but it has been even tougher competing in the AFC East with the New England Patriots who are one of the best teams in the league on an annual basis in the AFC. With the addition of Owens into the mix and the promise of a young quarterback in Trent Edwards and another great receiver in Lee Evans, the Bills looked like they had a shot for the first time in a long time to compete with the Patriots in the AFC East.
 
In week one the Buffalo Bills opened the season with the New England Patriots which was the first game back for Tom Brady after having a season ending knee injury in the previous season.  With a shaky Brady and a new look offense the Bills pretty much dominated the majority of the game, but Trent Edwards failed to get Terrell Owens involved and in the fourth quarter Tom Brady started to show signs of his former self with two late touchdowns to put the Patriots ahead and win the game.  The loss by the Bills was the first of many to come as Buffalo continued to struggle all season long.  Owens has basically been a nonfactor all season long for the Bills as they really haven’t gotten him involved for the most of the year with exception of a couple of games.
 
In 12 games this season, Terrell Owens has just three touchdowns and one game over 100 yards receiving.  At first glance it would seem that Owens’ skills have drastically declined, but in all honesty, the Bills just haven’t gotten him involved because against the Jacksonville Jaguars TO showed that he is still one of the best wide receivers in the league as he ended the game with 197 receiving yards and a touchdown.  With that being said and no real change at quarterback even with the switch to Ryan Fitzpatrick behind center for the Bills, I believe if Terrell Owens has the opportunity to go elsewhere next season he will jump at the chance.
 
Right now I only know one team that will most likely go after the controversial wideout and that is Rex Ryan’s New York Jets.  With Terrell Owens on one side of the field and Braylon Edwards on the other, the Jets and Mark Sanchez could have one of the best offenses in the NFL next season.  It is very uncertain what will happen next in the Terrell Owens saga, but I won’t be surprised to see him jump ship in the offseason and try and play for a title contender before his skills really start to decline.

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Coming into this NFL season the Chicago Bears and their fans were very excited about what the team could accomplish.  Throughout the history of the Bears franchise they have been known to do one thing well on a consistent basis and that is play defense.  Ever since the mid 80s the Chicago Bears have been a storied franchise led by famous faces like hall of fame running back in the late Walter Payton, charismatic head coach Mike Ditka and more recently in current face of the franchise in linebacker Brian Urlacher.  Now a new era is upon us in Chicago as we see the Bears get something that has eluded them for a very long time in franchise quarterback Jay Cutler.
 
Not since the days of Jim McMahon have the Chicago Bears had a quarterback of any significance.  Even McMahon wasn’t considered a “Franchise” quarterback, but he was good enough at the time to at least win one Super Bowl ring for the Bears back in the 80s.  Last season quarterback Jay Cutler had a breakout season with the Denver Broncos and everyone knew this kid was going to be the next big thing at quarterback, but no one knew when he would start to become the Pro Bowler he was capable of being.  Fortunately for the Broncos, last season was his time to shine as he really showed what he could do and became arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the league virtually overnight by hooking up with superstar wide receiver Brandon Marshall on a consistent basis.
 
Although Cutler started to shine, the Broncos still missed the playoffs and it all went downhill for the Denver franchise as heads started to roll starting with head coach Mike Shanahan who was fired as a result.  After the firing of Shanahan the Broncos went after offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels from the New England Patriots. Once McDaniels was hired he immediately tried to trade franchise quarterback Jay Cutler in exchange for Matt Cassel who played very well last season in place of the injured Tom Brady in New England.  Needless to say, the trade did not go as planned as Cassel ended up with the Kansas City Chiefs instead and as a result of being involved in trade talks Cutler demanded a trade as he believed he had been betrayed by the Broncos organization.  Even though the trade seemed disasterous at the time for the Denver Broncos it seemed to work in both teams favor in the long run as both teams became considerably better after parting ways.
 
This season the Broncos have broken out of their funk that they were in at the end of last season with a new sense of purpose and fresh blood with quarterback Kyle Orton.  At 7-4 the Broncos are in the running to win the AFC West title and if they can’t keep up with the division leading San Diego Chargers they will almost certainly be one of the two AFC Wildcard teams at season’s end.
 
As for the Chicago Bears, they have definitely been able to turn it around on the offensive side of the football with Jay Cutler behind center, but have struggled as of late losing the last four games.  Cutler has played really well at times during the season, but he has also had some of the worst games of his NFL career with three games of three or more interceptions.  Right now the Chicago Bears’ season is basically over as they sit with a 4-7 record and in 3rd place in the NFC North division behind the 1st place Minnesota Vikings and the 2nd place Green Bay Packers.  The Bears only hope to get into the playoffs this season is to clinch a NFC Wildcard berth which is a stretch to say the least at this point in time.
 
There are five games left in the season for the Bears, but in order to make a push for the playoffs they will have to win all five games.  Two of the games left on their regular season schedule are pretty much easy wins against the lowly St. Louis Rams and the Detroit Lions, but the other three games will be extremely tough as they go up against the Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Ravens and Minnesota Vikings in consecutive weeks.  You never know what can happen in the NFL, but I would say that is very unlikely that the Bears will be able to salvage their disappointing season.

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The New York Giants have been one of the most successful teams in the NFC conference over the last five seasons or so.  The Giants’ success can basically be directly contributed to the drafting of quarterback Eli Manning who took this franchise from a struggling NFC team to one of the heavyweights in the conference once again.  No matter what people have said about Eli in the past or the endless comparisons to his older brother Peyton Manning, Eli has been arguably one of the best quarterbacks in the league and already has a Super Bowl ring just six seasons into his NFL career with the Giants.
 
Last season the New York Giants were one of the best teams in the league.  The Giants led in the NFC East all season long and were able to hold off the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles throughout the season. In the playoffs it was a different story though as the Eagles were able to get the best of Eli Manning and company and advance to the NFC championship against the Arizona Cardinals.
 
This season the Giants had high hopes as they had relatively the same team intact going further, but without superstar wide receiver Plaxico Burress who they finally parted ways with due to his troubles off the field. Even though Eli Manning’s go to guy in the offense was gone, the Giants have some very promising young wide receivers quickly coming up the ranks and making an impression.  So, no Burress and no problem as Eli quickly got some chemistry going with wide receiver Steve Smith who is now the number one receiver for the Giants. Along with Smith two other wide receivers have started to emerge as Manning’s new favorites in Mario Manningham and Hakeem Nicks.  All the pieces of the Giants offense were starting to come together and New York got off to a 5-0, but the success of Eli and company was short lived as they lost four straight games after winning their first five.
 
Every team in the NFL goes through a funk or slump from time to time and this looked like it was the Giants turn to struggle.  Despite losing four straight Eli Manning kept his head up and continue to play at the best of his ability and as a result the Giants rebounded in week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons with an overtime victory which ended their four game skid.  The next game for the Giants was against the Denver Broncos in Colorado on Thanksgiving Day.  Much like the Giants the Broncos were going through their fair share of problems after starting the season with six straight wins.  Unfortunately for the New York Giants, the Denver Broncos were able to get back to form on Thanksgiving Day with an inspired performance against New York as they were able to hold Eli Manning and company to just six points while giving up 26 points to Denver in the loss.
 
With the disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos, the Giants seemed to be right back where they started before the win over the Atlanta Falcons a couple of weeks ago.  It won’t be easy to turn around the season for the New York Giants in the last five games of the season as they face some tough challenges down the road starting this week against their arch rivals in the NFC East leading Dallas Cowboys.  In the last five games of the regular season the Giants will face the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings.  The Panthers and the Redskins should be easy wins for the Giants, but the Cowboys, Eagles and especially the Vikings will be extremely tough games for New York to come out on top.
 
Despite sitting their 6-5 record right now the New York Giants aren’t out of the playoff picture just yet as a win over the Dallas Cowboys would mean they are still in the mix to win the NFC East for the second season in a row.  If Eli Manning and company can beat the Cowboys this week, the Giants will be right back into playoff contention in the NFC.
 
The challenge won’t stop there though after a victory over the Cowboys as they will have to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the following week.  Unfortunately, if the Giants can’t live up to the challenge of beating their NFC East division opponents I believe their season will be officially over.  So the Giants still have playoff hopes as of right now, but it has yet to be seen if they can live up to the challenge.

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