2013 Week 4: What I Learned

• My first winning week of the year...and Jason had the same record.  Shit.
• I hate to call it a major factor in the game, but I had a bad feeling that my upset Rams pick over the 49ers was going to go sideways when I saw that St. Louis was deactivating RB Isaiah Pead for the game.  If I've learned one thing about the Rams this season besides how little they defend DeMarco Murray, it's that their best RB on the roster by far is Pead.  Not that he's headed to Canton, but he's a notch above Daryl Richardson and Benny Cunningham despite having the same pedestrian numbers.  The Rams came out hungry on defense and looked like they were going to give SF all they could handle, but Sam Bradford started throwing the ball awfully, and the Rams kept leaving Anquan Boldin completely uncovered, and Frank Gore gashed them in the run game, and the more talented team took over.  It's always bad news when you have to rely on Bradford throwing deep accurately to pull out a win. 
• The numbers say it all for why Buffalo beat Baltimore.  Both teams would have loved to get the early lead and carefully run out the clock, but Buffalo wound up with a 20-7 halftime lead, so they got to run the ball and play keepaway.  So the Ravens use Ray Rice in a way you can't use him if you expect to win.  Rice rushed 5 times for 17 yards while Joe Flacco threw 50 passes and got picked off 5 times, not to mention sacked 4 times.  Get the lead, let your pass rushers disrupt the QB, create insanity and turnovers.  Baltimore can't let that happen if they want to defend their crown.
• I can't believe Interception Santa almost let a rookie step in and beat him, but thankfully for Jay and me, rookie's gonna rookie.  New QB Mike Glennon almost led Tampa Bay U. to its 1st win, but he threw a pick of his own to set up the shutout-busting score for Arizona in the 4th quarter.  Then the Cards bowed up on D and got the ball back a couple of times to take the lead and narrowly beat the Buccaneers.  It was reminiscent of TB's other home loss to New Orleans--compete, compete, compete, come up short at the end.  When they stop competing and start getting blown out, Greg Schiano should start checking out the market for his Tampa abode and sell immediately.
• Cue the Big Ben in London one-liners, and there were plenty of them to be sure, but his Steelers are still winless.  Easy to diagnose Pittsburgh right now--they cannot pass block on offense, they cannot generate turnovers on defense.  Hard to win like that.  Minnesota, meanwhile, needs to do what it takes to keep Matt Cassel as QB once Christian Ponder gets healthy.  Take all the negative connotations of Cassel's name from his less-than-inspiring stint in Kansas City and realize that his alternative in the Twin Cities is Ponder and let it sink in for a second.  How much more dangerous did the Vikings look on offense with Cassel throwing?  Greg Jennings woke up from a deep slumber to make plays at WR, and even more frightening, it may have helped open holes for Adrian Peterson to run through.  Uh oh.  So Leslie Frazier being Leslie Frazier, the Minnesota coach says the QB job is Ponder's when he returns.  WTF.
• I was right about the Giants-Chiefs game to an extent.  I said that Eli Manning and the Giants passing game should be much better because the G-Men were down three offensive linemen, which was a good thing because the replacements couldn't block any worse.  And they didn't block any worse.  They didn't block any better, though, and that ultimately cost them the game.  New York stayed even with Kansas City for a half because they played tight press coverage and stuffed the run and were trying to make Alex Smith beat them over the top, but Smith smartly kept taking what was available, no matter how short.  Eventually he got impatient and tried to jam a couple of throws into very tight coverage and got picked off.  But Eli and the Giants didn't make the Chiefs pay because the pass protection didn't give him time.  The lack of a run game and protection is just killing the Giants.  Eli's got no help out there.  Hakeem Nicks is dropping passes, the tight ends can't get open...Victor Cruz is the only guy trying to assist Eli, but he can't do it all.  And I think I may have figured out how to stop the Chiefs on offense:  All you gotta do is find linebackers who can cover and cut off those underneath routes.  Good luck.
• I described the Tampa Bay U. situation on the podcast as a tire fire, which means Jacksonville must be a towering inferno.  That's it.  I got nothing else about this Colts slaughter.
• Maybe this game is what the Houston Texans need to wake up and show some heart.  Maybe getting their hearts ripped out by Matt Schaub's third straight game throwing a Pick-6 will make them perform better out of sheer embarrassment, knowing the whole country's laughing at them.  Maybe it demoralizes them until coach Gary Kubiak desperately makes a move and installs T.J. Yates as QB.  Time will tell.  Until the moment of that Pick-6 late in the 4th quarter, the Texans were controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, they were stifling the Seattle Seahawks' deep-ball attempts, Schaub was playing fine...Houston had no fucking reason to lose this game.  They were better than Seattle for 50 minutes.  Maybe much better.  I'll say that there's another factor to the Seahawks' comeback that was just as equally vital as Schaub's fuck-up, and that was Russell Wilson's running out of the pocket.  They don't win without both.  Wilson was getting battered in the pocket and not getting time to throw, so he spent the 4th quarter and OT breaking contain and eating huge chunks of yardage.  It's as if he didn't want to do that unless it became obvious that he absolutely had to in order to win, and then he pulled it out and gashed the Texans.  It's still worrisome that Seattle struggles so on the road, but just like in Charlotte, a win's a win.
• A couple of CBs smothering star wideouts decided a couple of games in Week 4.  In this Battle of Ohio, Joe Haden>A.J. Green, and the Browns beat the Bengals.  Green could not get open to save his life.  Cincinnati scored 6 points.  Yep, they're related.  Brown Fever keeps bubbling up!
• Chicago lost to Detroit because one team's defensive line played great, and the other belonged to Chicago.  The Lions let Matt Forte loose one time, but outside of that, they were stout and were able to batter Jay Cutler into mistakes, including a big one on a blitz when he threw it up and let Louis Delmas run underneath for an interception.  I had been so impressed by the new Chicago O-linemen and their play against tough competition, but they finally had a flat effort, and it resulted in their first loss.  The Bears let Reggie Bush run through their D-line all day, and they couldn't get a hold of him.  It's hard enough to beat the Lions when you know Calvin Johnson is lurking on every play, but to let them run on you as well is asking for an L.  The Bears could use more intermediate options throwing, as it seemed Cutler could only go short to Forte or deep to the wideouts.  We'll have Starr and Michael from Football Fan Rush Radio on tonight's podcast to discuss this game as well as how the NFC North looks after this outcome.
• We knew the Titans would hand out the physicality versus the Jets, but in getting crushed, Gang Green handed out some pain as well.  On New York's first offensive drive, WR Stephen Hill got Bountied, and his afternoon was over.  The Jets kept trying to set world records for most penalties in a game and season while watching Tennessee QB Jake Locker light them up for three 1st-half TDs, but finally in the 3rd quarter, two Jets defenders had enough and squashed Locker after a throw, injuring his hip and taking him out of the game.  BountyJets?  All you need to know about New York is they let Ryan Fitzpatrick throw another long TD pass after that, so Locker wasn't the issue.  Oh, and Geno Smith has 11 turnovers in his first 4 games.  Almost makes you long for the Buttfumble.  Or not.
• Oakland was leading 14-3 and gashing that terrible Washington defense, and it looked like the Redskins were going to keep losing in perpetuity, but luckily for them, Flynn's gonna Flynn.  That's Raiders QB Matt Flynn, starting for the injured Terrelle Pryor and proving that his coaches knew what the front offices didn't when they benched him in Seattle and Oakland despite the GMs signing him to start.  Flynn threw a Pick-6 with over eleven minutes left in the 2nd quarter to get Washington back in it, and the Raiders didn't score the rest of the day.  Flynn lost RB Darren McFadden to injury shortly before that, so maybe he was rattled, or maybe he's just not nearly as good as he was that one day in Green Bay when he set those records.  I think his coaches since then know the answer.  So did Jason and me when we made the pick.
• Well, Philadelphia was close to Denver early.  The Eagles were protecting Michael Vick in the pocket, and they were going toe-to-toe with the Broncos and Peyton Manning, and...fuck, I forgot to factor in apparently the best damn return man in football today, Trindon Holliday.  Talk about a momentum changer.  So, is Denver ever gonna lose or what?  And what about that huckster Chip Kelly?  His offense is a sham, right?
• We were dead on about Dallas not being able to handle prosperity, as the Cowboys were winning in San Diego 21-10 before gagging it up by allowing 20 unanswered.  The Chargers were spurred on by the new Tom Brady, of course, Philip Rivers, who went 35-42-401 with 3 TDs, and if you want to claim that Brady's going to have a game like that this year, go ahead, but he's not coming fucking close.  I'm overboard with the "New Brady" shit, yeah, but Rivers is ballin' right now, behind only Peyton and Brees for pocket passing awesomeness.
• Here's the other game where a CB decided the outcome by shutting down a stud WR.  Aqib Talib>Julio Jones when it mattered, and New England held on and beat Atlanta to send them to 1-3.  As hard as it is to say a guy was shut down even though he went over 100 yards receiving, it's true.  Talib defended Jones superbly in the 2nd half when the plays needed to be made.  One wonders if Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Pats took it personally when Atlanta opened the game in a no-huddle, like they were showing NE what they used to be able to do when their weapons were there.  Brady beat the Falcons with crisp, pinpoint throws, clearly his best game of the season, and I imagined him taunting Matt Ryan in his head after every big play, silently yelling, "Oh yeah?  Oh yeah??  Take THAT!"  But Brady had to love Kenbrell Thompkins, because the short, accurate throws were only going to be so effective.  It was the home runs to Thompkins that let the Pats put up the points they would need to win.  Atlanta desperately needs Roddy White to get healthy to loosen up the coverage hovering around Julio Jones.  Tony Gonzalez was awesome, catching 12 balls, but you can't rely on that every game.  The Falcons were so hungry for another weapon to emerge, but White and Harry Douglas weren't up to it, and in the end, another Falcons red zone rally to win the game fell short.  At least Matty Ice is getting lots of practice at it.
• This was the second game of the week where Jason gave me a couple of wins.  I've given him enough games this year, so he donated a couple to me.  Indy over the Jags was one, and New Orleans over Miami was the other.  This turned out exactly as I said.  The Dolphins couldn't hold off the Saints pass rush, Ryan Tannehill had no time to lead another comeback, and Drew Brees and the Saints rolled.  I said NO would send a message to the rest of the league to take them seriously.  Message received, boys.

Week 4 Records--Dre & Jay 9-6, .600
YTD Records--Dre 25-36-2, .410; Jay 34-27-2, .557