Hey Pioneers! Let’s talk football: Do you want to know what’s ridiculous? The Green Bay Packers are being led by QB Aaron Rodgers. The man is simply unstoppable as it stands. He passed for 247 yards and was 21/26 in efficiency, meaning he only missed five passes. Unreal. I watched Sunday in horror as the San Diego Chargers and efforts of QB Phillip Rivers scoring 38 points simply was not enough to put the Packers away. Rivers threw for six touchdowns on Sunday, however two of those were to the wrong team. The “pick six” haunted Rivers and cost him and his Chargers the chance to dethrone the only undefeated team in the NFL right now and moved their record to 8-0. Chargers lost their third straight and dropped to a record of 4-4.

On another issue, I don’t think we should judge Broncos QB Tim Tebow just yet. So many hyped this kid up and were let down as soon as he took the field for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

Sunday against the Raiders in the Black Hole saw Tebow showing what he is capable of: leading. He led his team to a 38-24 victory. The Raiders defense was getting to him—he was only 10/21 with 124 yards passing and two TDs. The bigger stat here is that Tebow pulled somewhat of a Michael Vick and rushed for 117 yards. The thing I noticed with Tebow is that he gets nervous in the pocket and wants to force his passes too early before a play has time to naturally develop. This causes his passes to sail high, hit the ground or flop. A lot of his passes do not have a tight spiral and look ugly. When he does settle down, you can see the kid’s true power and his potential. Did I mention he can run? He is a big strong kid at 6’3,” 236 lbs. and has enough speed to evade the sack. It was a team effort by the Broncos on Sunday, but maybe Tebow was the stimulus that the franchise needed to be more competitive in the AFC West.

The Raiders new QB Carson Palmer looked better overall versus his first week. 19/35 332 yards through the air, hitting eight different receivers with three TDs and three INTs—not bad for a guy who was sitting on his couch two weeks ago. He seems to be getting back into “football shape” more and more as the weeks blow on. He looked quite polished putting the passes where they needed to be to make plays. The receiving, however, needs to improve in order for Palmer to improve. We should turn a blind eye in this game for Palmer and look at the rest of the team and coaching a little more. The defense let Broncos RB Willis McGahee burn them twice—once for 60 yards and one for 24. Eddie Royal also returned a punt for 85 yards, which stung a little in the East Bay.

Thanks for reading.

—Todd