- Games in no detail: Bills-Cowboys (Buffalo defense is free, freefallin'), Lions-Bears (Stafford sucked hard, and did he bust his finger before or after he started throwing helmets??), Rams-Browns (ick), Jaguars-Colts (Indy is by far the worst team in the NFL), Texans-Buccaneers (party's over Houston, your season is now in the hands of Matt Leinart!), Vikings-Packers (guess the "perfect season" talk should get fired up right about now).
- The Thursday night game seemed to close the casket on what was the San Diego Chargers. The Raiders came in missing a good RB and starting a bad QB, and the Bolts still couldn't get it together. The reasons Carson Palmer was better than Philip Rivers were, Palmer managed to avoid throwing the ball to the opposition unlike Rivers, and Palmer kept tossing up jump balls deep until it worked. It was a curious game plan, but it did eventually work. I wouldn't bet on the Raiders having continued success doing that, but it looks like they can win the division if no one covers their receivers.
- OMG, Tim Tebow and the Broncos set football back sixty years! And they won! Look, I'm the one who wondered whether Denver coach John Fox would insist on a more Tebow-friendly game plan while Tebow was starting, and Fox has answered the call. It had to be tempting for Fox to let Tebow keep trying to run a real NFL offense with, you know, passes, and watch him drown under his own hype. But professionalism took over, and Fox decided to let his coaches draw up game plans that relied heavily on the run in an attempt to set up defenses for a few surprise passes. On Sunday, the Broncos got a great opponent upon whom they could execute that game plan, the Kansas City Chiefs, who have never been mistaken for an intelligent bunch of players or coaches. Games have to be low-scoring for Denver to win like this, and the Chiefs obliged, botching drive after drive and giving Tebow and his guys hope. Then, the big bomb over the top to Eric Decker for the long TD stunned everyone and gave Denver the lead for good. I will still not pick Denver to beat a real team with this crap they're running, but hey, Jesus has a winning record so far, so we Tebow haters just have to deal.
- Even though Jason and I were right in stating that the Bengals wouldn't hold up against the Steelers, I give them credit for turning in an inspired effort. Cincinnati didn't give up at all. Pittsburgh ran the same plays over and over against the Bengal D because they were working--I haven't seen so many bubble screens probably since Tebow at Florida--and Cincy had to make adjustments or else get blown out. They adjusted, and they started hitting QB Ben Roethlisberger and changing field position, and eventually they came back and tied the game. Then they realized that they were the Bengals and coughed up the football, allowing the Steelers to steal a win in Cincy. For all the accolades, Bengals QB Andy Dalton is going to have to find some touch in order to have sustained success. Pittsburgh eventually got wise to his style of firing the ball at his intended receiver as hard as possible and jumped into the passing lanes, getting a couple of INTs in the 4th quarter to put the game away. Cincinnati is good, I admit it. They're not as good as Pittsburgh.
- Getting this out of the way now: Atlanta coach Mike Smith made the right call in overtime against New Orleans. He had a 4th-and-inches call to make at his own 30-yard line, and he went for it, and he didn't get it. But it was the right call. New Orleans has been shitty all year stopping anyone running. Yes, they were much improved all day vs. the Falcons, but they still had not been stopping 4th-and-short plays. You'd think Michael Turner could run for less than a yard, but he got stuffed. Maybe QB Matt Ryan on a sneak was the smarter call. But punting the ball back to Drew Brees and the Saints offense, who had been moving the ball effortlessly all day? Not the right call. Not to me, anyway. As for the rest of the game, Atlanta should have lost in regulation. They had poor run blocking for most of the game and the D was getting shredded by Brees and the play-action pass. I can't stress enough how great Brees is when he gets in a rhythm with his tall WRs and TE Jimmy Graham. They can be impossible to defend. This race should be great to the end for the NFC South title because I'm not sure which is the better team.
- It was back to Rex Grossman for the Shanahan Boyz and Washington in Miami, and nothing new was seen: Rex had some nice downfield throws, actually moving the offense forward instead of laterally like John Beck, and then Rex threw the ball to the other team. The reason Rex's mistakes cripple the Skins is because there's no defensive effort to counter the Rex screw-up. Rex got to a Super Bowl making mistakes with the Bears because the Bears had a defense to counterbalance the screw-ups. Washington has no defense. They have decent pass rushers, linebackers who refuse to tackle, and cornerbacks who refuse to cover. They made Davone Bess look like Jerry Rice and Reggie Bush look like Marcus Allen. Miami's not a good offense at all, so it's not like I can say to pick the Skins when they're going against a bad offense so Rex's mistakes won't be capitalized upon. I guess Washington is right now a pick only against the complete bottom-feeders on offense, like Jacksonville or Cleveland.
- Tennessee outplayed Carolina so thoroughly that I wonder if Panthers QB Cam Newton was all there. He played so slowly and scatterbrained that I'm concerned that perhaps he had a little too much fun during his bye week or something. He was really bad on Sunday. Something the Titans were doing on defense messed up his timing, and the whole team suffered for it. And RB Chris Johnson finally had a good day, making the Panthers pay for their lax defensive effort. In this battle of two rookie head coaches, one team was prepared and the other wasn't, so clearly we must rank Mike Munchak and the Titans above Ron Rivera and the Panthers.
- Time to stick a fork in Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles, which may confuse coach Andy Reid and make him hungry. Just a horrible game by Vick and the rest of the team. They're missing WR DeSean Jackson because he's being a prick about his contract situation, and the other decent WR, Jeremy Maclin, is hurt and ineffective. Then it turns out Vick played like crap also because he had a couple of cracked ribs that he told no one about because he knew that would mean more Vince Young, which isn't good for anybody. With all that, Philly still led Arizona in the 4th quarter, but the guys who actually inspired Young to call them the "dream team," the Eagles DBs, allowed Cardinals QB John Skelton to make plays downfield and eventually throw the winning TD. Total bad play from every facet of the team, and that reflects very badly on the coaching staff. I have a feeling we won't be seeing them back next season.
- At least Baltimore had a little help playing down to their competition this time. They didn't just lose because the QB played bad, or the defense wasn't interested; they lost because Ravens return man David Reed was on the take or something. Two fumbles + two TDs for Seattle off those fumbles = a five-point Seahawks upset win. Jason said he wouldn't be surprised if Seattle won, and he was right. Really, Baltimore? All the tough opponents on your schedule, and your three losses are Tennessee, Jacksonville, and Seattle? Well, those are all road defeats, so if something can be learned, maybe it's don't go anywhere near the Ravens when they're visiting.
- Lots to digest from the Giants-49ers battle. That was some tough football played by both teams, and San Francisco deserves a ton of credit for getting the W. The Giants pass game is clicking something fierce--early on, QB Eli Manning bobbled a snap and the intended receiver lost his shoe on the same play, and they still completed the pass. But they couldn't finish the drives and had to settle for FGs. Alex Smith showed some mustard on his throws that I didn't know he had. He actually reminded me of a couple other QBs that I saw on Sunday in Andy Dalton and Mark Sanchez. I think all three fire the ball way too hard to their receivers because they're afraid of the defense making a play if they don't zip the rock in as fast as possible. But Smith also avoided the pass rush and had some big runs that might have slowed down the G-Men just a hair as the game wore on. Major props go out to Anthony Dixon and especially Kendall Hunter for picking up the running slack for Niners stud Frank Gore, who did nothing in the 1st half before leaving with a knee injury. There's no way SF wins without them. Yet the Giants still had a chance, as Eli made his way down the field with his accurate passes before WR Mario Manningham broke off a route that he shouldn't have, allowing an INT at the end to seal the game. New York is still a very tough team, and could have won this game. But San Fran did, and at 8-1, they must be taken seriously. That stout run defense and careful offensive game plan is very hard to defeat.
- The other New York team didn't have a good Sunday either, but they should be much more concerned than the men in blue. The Jets are going to force Total Fraud on the public as a legit Super Bowl contending QB if it's the last thing they do, and they're going to keep failing to make a Super Bowl. I know that less talented guys have quarterbacked teams to Super Bowl titles, but those teams had monster defenses, and the Jets do not. They won't always face Tom Brady and the New England offense in the playoffs, and besides, they seemed to have the key to defeating the Pats, but they left their keys at home Sunday. Something clicked in the 2nd half, and Brady started running the offense as expertly as I've ever seen him run it. It was an absolute clinic. Every time the Jets plugged the box with linebackers, Brady threw it in the flat or over the middle on quick hitters, and when Gang Green put extra DBs on the field, Brady audibled to inside run plays for big yardage. And that put the pressure on Sanchez to match Brady's output, and he just can't do it, even against the worst pass defense in the league. I'm actually a little surprised that they didn't keep Sanchez throwing nothing but those first two passes he completed, an out route followed by a quick slant. I wouldn't have him try anything else the whole fucking game.
Week 10 Records--Dre 9-7, .573; Jay 6-10, .375
YTD Records--Dre 62-78-6, .443; Jay 69-71-6, .493
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