- Games in no detail: Colts-Jaguars (Jags suck), Broncos-Panthers (Cam scores 1st, Peyton answers with a million points in a row), Titans-Dolphins (Tennessee was really inspired by what the Bears did to them, I guess), Bills-Patriots (that's a couple of piss-poor defenses right there), Raiders-Ravens (Baltimore really respected Oakland, running a fake FG up 41-17), Jets-Seahawks (ho hum, another defensive smothering by Seattle).
- Yeah, yeah, sour grapes, I know, but I'll say it anyway: The better team didn't win in Tampa. Philip Rivers and the Chargers were wiping the field with the Buccaneers, but Josh Freeman pulled it out in the end. He had help from the Chargers special teams, which reared its ugly head by allowing a momentum-shifting punt block for a TD. Freeman had some great moves in the pocket to avoid the rush, and that allowed him to make the plays and complete the comeback. Rivers isn't known for his mobility, so when he rolled right late in the game, his ill-advised toss downfield was intercepted for another TD. I'm still not impressed with the Bucs, but I think the Bolts are going to get crapped on for finding another way to lose, and I'm not so sure they're underwater as most folks will claim.
- Watched the whole Giants-Bengals game. Saw Eli Manning in action. Yep, agree with the diagnosis. Something's really fucking wrong with his arm on deep throws. He drilled short and intermediate throws all over the place hard and accurate, but the handful of deep throws he attempted were way off. I mean, way off. That deep ball just ain't there for Eli right now. And the deeper the hole got, the more Eli tried to wait for deep routes to develop while getting up the nerve to throw, and he wound up getting sacked more often than not. Can't trust the G-Men until I see Eli throw deep with accuracy, whenever that will be. Cincy can contend if they keep that kind of pass rush going, but I don't know how many more teams they're going to play with a crap pass protection like New York.
- There's not much to say about the Falcons-Saints game, but I wanted to say how wrong I was. I said that New Orleans would definitely not make the defensive plays to win the game, and they did. Atlanta gave up points and yards, New Orleans gave up points and yards, and in the end, Matty Ice had the ball and a chance to win, and they couldn't make the plays. Now that I've admitted I was wrong, I will now point out that Matt Ryan threw deep on the last drive for Roddy White, who was wide fucking open, but because it was a broken play, he had stopped running, and he couldn't catch up to the ball over his head. But he beat two NO defensive backs whose job it was to keep all Falcons in front of them leading by 4. So that's how New Orleans made the defensive plays to break the undefeated record of the Falcons. Congrats.
- Minnesota's still going to collapse and not make the playoffs, but they got to knock out the Lions once again and feel good about themselves. Taking the early lead started the snowball rolling downhill, because that led to the Vikings pass rush pounding on Matthew Stafford, which led to the Vikings running the ball with Adrian Peterson, which led to more Minny points, and so on and so forth. I would have never thought Christian Ponder could have found receivers to take an early lead with Percy Harvin injured. World, meet Jarius Wright. Who??
- QB KTFO #1: Michael Vick, Eagles (concussed). Nick Foles showed some promise when he came in for Vick, but ultimately, he couldn't beat Dallas by himself. The same o-line problems Philadelphia had with Vick were there with Foles. The Eagles started well, too, with a TD pass on the opening drive, but as overhyped and overdramatic as the Cowboys are every year, they got their shit together better than Philly.
- QB KTFO #2: Alex Smith, 49ers (concussed). Credit his replacement, Colin Kaepernick, with sparking the offense and coming back to force a tie with the Rams. I tweeted that San Francisco was dead because they trailed St. Louis 14-0, and we know Alex Smith can't come back from that kind of deficit. He didn't have to. Mad props to Kaep.
- QB KTFO #3: Jay Cutler, Bears (concussed). His replacement, Jason Campbell, looked like he hadn't played an NFL game in a while, and he couldn't lead a comeback against Houston, who only scored 13 points, so it's not like the comeback was a giant number. But Chicago's running game was struggling while Houston's was thriving, so it was much harder to get a pass attack going for the Bears because they were in 3rd-and-long all night while the Texans were in 3rd-and-short. That's pretty much the game in a nutshell.
- QB KTFO #4: Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers (shoulder). If you saw his replacement, Byron Leftwich, then you know why Pittsburgh couldn't cover against the Chiefs and why they almost lost the game. Kansas City put up a hell of a fight, though. They finally took a lead, scoring first, and they didn't let the Steelers push them around physically. Special recognition goes to LB Derrick Johnson for singlehandedly crushing Pittsburgh's attempt to establish the run. The Chiefs still lost because they are supreme at finding ways to lose, but they fought like hell for 60 minutes. It was the extra time that did them in.
YTD Records--Dre 78-65-3, .545, Jay 73-70-3, .510
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