- Games in no detail: Buccaneers-Panthers (no contest but I still think Panthers are peaking too soon); Dolphins-Jets (are there any competent QBs in the Jets organization?? No? Oh, okay, and that whole team is THE DRIZZLING SHITS); Falcons-Bills (wait, Roddy White's still alive???).
- The Thanksgiving wrap-up was basically covered on the podcast Saturday, Nov. 30 before we made the rest of our picks (listen in the archives at the above link or subscribe to In Much Less Detail: The Podcast via iTunes--what are you waiting for?!). I'll add this about the Packers-Lions game: I was disappointed in Green Bay's inability to keep up their intensity despite the efforts of their QB Matt Flynn. About the 2nd quarter, the Pack defense started figuring out that no matter how many plays they made, Flynn was not going to make them count for anything, so they almost stopped playing, and oops, Detroit won by 30. As for the only thing being talked about from the Steelers-Ravens game, the Mike Tomlin interference that wasn't called, I admit that initially I got very mad because Jacoby Jones had a return TD no sweat that would have put Baltimore back in front by enough to cover the spread and all of a sudden he's caught from behind. Replays did make it look like Jones swerved inside to avoid Tomlin, making him susceptible to being ran down. But the more I thought about it, I think that's on Jones to keep fucking running. What's gonna happen if he runs into Tomlin? There will be a penalty on Tomlin and maybe the refs award the TD to Jones anyway. It's a quick decision to make, so I'm not going to kill Jacoby, but I think he should have kept straight down the sideline and put the pressure on Tomlin to move his ass quickly or on the zebras to make a call if Tomlin does clip him. Then again, the zebras had a really rough game and weekend, so maybe you don't want to put even more on their plates.
- Tennessee and Indianapolis exposed holes that each team has that shows neither are anywhere near good enough to make an impact in the playoffs this year. But it was still a hard-fought, even contest. The Titans tried to blitz Andrew Luck to death, and they did succeed in keeping the Colts out of the end zone while the Titans scuffled on offense. Chris Johnson got no holes to run, showing his biggest weakness--no desire to make plays if he doesn't have room to roam. Indy had three possessions of good yardage in the 1st half that then failed to make it into the red zone because Tennessee jacked up the pressure. And Donald Brown as feature back for the Colts didn't work because he wasn't serving as a change-of-pace to the bruising Trent Richardson. Trent didn't beat up the Titans and soften them up for Brown to fly past. When Indy needed to pass, they offered terrible protection, which is why Luck eventually became his own 3rd-down yardage gainer. He'll get brutalized in the playoffs doing that. Tennessee probably should have won the game, except their QB Ryan Fitzpatrick couldn't hold on to the football. I was left shaking my head at the end because I was so underwhelmed by both teams.
- Why would I pay attention to the Jags-Browns game? Because I wanted to see how the hell a good Cleveland defense gave up 32 points to Jacksonville. And as Jason said when changing his pick from the Browns to the Jaguars, it's all about Brandon Weeden finding ways to screw up. The Jags secondary was so bad, they made Weeden look good early, and Josh Gordon couldn't have been happier. The Browns D did get pushed around in the run game, setting up play-action for Chad Henne to make some plays, but almost all of Jacksonville's drives were set up by Weeden looking elsewhere other than Gordon and getting picked off or stripped repeatedly. He's really bad. Like, almost Geno Smith bad. With all of that, Gordon won the game for Cleveland in the last few minutes with an awesome catch-and-run TD, and the great CB Joe Haden lost it with atrocious coverage of Cecil Shorts III in the final minute. I have no idea who's starting for Cleveland at QB for the next game, but they're determined to claim that Weeden was "concussed" in this game and can't go. Riiiight.
- Don't trust in Trest to make important game decisions in crunch time. Marc Trestman appeared to have lost the game for Chicago in OT by choosing to send Robbie Gould out for a 47-yard FG on 2nd down in Minnesota. He's been defending the decision in the media since then, but there's no defense. You've installed perhaps the most prolific offense in Bears history, and you're scared to gain more yardage to make the FG try shorter?? Honestly, that's bullshit. Even Lovie Smith wouldn't have been that stupid. No, there's no guarantee that the Bears wouldn't have fumbled the ball or gotten picked off or lost yardage, but really, if you're that afraid of turnovers, you're in the wrong profession. Gould missed the kick, the Vikings and Adrian Peterson rumbled down the other way, and Blair Walsh made his FG to win the game for Minny. Chicago fell back to 6-6 and probably out of the playoffs, but they really don't deserve to be in the playoffs anyway with that run defense and coaching. To get gouged by Peterson when you know what's coming, and to get pierced through the air by Matt Cassel as well, and to still have a great chance to win the game, and piss it away like that...that's terrible. I guess I can eat crow for claiming the Vikings were quitting on Leslie Frazier. They still suck.
- Philadelphia's defensive line came to play in giving the Eagles their second straight home win, this one over Arizona. Nick Foles has been money at QB for the Eagles ever since taking over for Michael Vick, but it's been Philly's D that's been a problem all year. If they can get penetration at the line of scrimmage like they did in this one, they'll be formidable. I forgot Trent Cole was still active. The Cardinals will have to tighten their protection up majorly if they want to keep Interception Santa upright, and as much fun as we make of Carson Palmer, any chance Arizona has will drain away if Palmer gets injured. He kept up his recent good performance, but his turnovers ultimately were fatal, along with Arizona's LB coverage, of lack thereof. There was a questionable penalty at the end that overturned a Cards INT and gave the Eagles a free first down, but hey, bad calls happen. If Arizona had a clue how to cover Zach Ertz or Brent Celek, it wouldn't have come to that.
- Why the hell did Tom Brady need to throw for 371 yards in order for New England to eek out a win over the pathetic Toxins?? Another slow start by the Patriots, another lead to overcome, another look at how less-than-awesome New England has been all season. They didn't even activate RB Stevan Ridley, he of the fumble-itis from last week, and I wasn't surprised that Bill Belichick did that. You fumble a lot, star or not, he will decide to not play your ass, and Ridley may be cut once the season's over. I think they could have used him, as I'm not impressed by Shane Vereen or LeGarrette Blount. If you want to take one good thing away for NE, it's that Brady can even get up to 371 yards and put together a win through the air. He maybe couldn't have done this in Week 3 or 6. But Julian Edelman has become reliable, and obviously Rob Gronkowski is a huge addition. But you can't have a lot of confidence in New England going forward. There's too many very important things wrong with them right now, and not a lot of time to get them right.
- San Francisco didn't put up 371 yards through the air on St. Louis, but make no mistake, they looked much more dangerous through the air with the addition of WR Michael Crabtree, finally healthy after not playing all season. Yeah, he would have scored a TD on that long catch down the sideline if he were all the way back from his foot issues, but hey, how many wide open sideline throws has Colin Kaepernick had this year with anyone else?? Kaep didn't look like the best QB ever (shout out to Ron Jaworski--nope, you're never living that one down, buddy), but he did look much less anxious when in the pocket. Funny how having more than two passing options will do that. The Rams look like they're building an offense in the New Orleans mold, where they look much less dangerous off the turf. Having Kellen Clemens as your QB also makes you less dangerous, as does running the ugliest-looking fake punt in history. They were outclassed all the way in this one.
- Kansas City needs to start worrying now. Their offense has looked amazing for two weeks in a row now, and everyone says their defense is very good, and yet they've lost three games in a row now. This is what happens when you don't play against shitty backup quarterbacks. It was all KC early against Denver. Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno looked beat up as I thought he might, although he would make a couple of big plays later. The Chiefs laid hands on Peyton Manning, although it took a safety blitz to do so, but still couldn't sack him. However, the next throw after they knocked him on his ass was an INT into double coverage. Peyton then figured out that he shouldn't deviate from short quick passes, so he started slicing up KC, then even without much of a running game, he executed play-action bombs to Eric Decker over and over and over again. Decker was THE SHIT no matter who was covering him. It was mostly Marcus Cooper getting embarrassed, but sometimes Brandon Flowers and others. Kansas City went from up 21-7 in the 2nd quarter and dominating to down 35-21 and asphyxiating. The Denver D made enough plays to shut down Alex Smith and the Chiefs, but it looked like Peyton Manning's awesomeness froze KC more than the defense. Every TD throw crushed them more and more until they had no time to recover. And with their lack of experience at being a championship team, I bet every time KC gets punched in the mouth the rest of the season, they will hear the voices in their head telling them they're flukes and not good enough, and it will start waves of panic throughout the team. Watch.
- I'm not sure why Cincinnati felt the need to come out of their bye in San Diego with a lot of fluffy offensive tricks, but it almost cost them the win. Lots of fakes and read-options and short screens gave Andy Dalton and the Bengals a grand total of seven points at halftime against a defense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL coming in. They handled Philip Rivers and the Chargers offense because the rested pass rush generated great pressure. Rivers adjusted in the second half and threw quicker, but lucky for Cincy, Antonio Gates couldn't hold on to the pill. When it was time to straighten up and just make winning plays in the 2nd half, Dalton dropped back and threw down the middle to A.J. Green, who had no defenders within five yards of him, for the game-winning TD. See how fucking easy that was? If they did that from the jump, the Bengals probably would have scored 40. Sometimes genius coaches, like Cincy OC Jay Gruden, outthink themselves.
- Much better running and flexibility by Robert Griffin III gave Washington an advantage against the New York Giants, but much better pass rushing by the Giant Justin Tuck and typical Redskins defense erased that advantage. Washington dropped to 0-5 in their night games this year because they didn't protect their star QB when he wasn't breaking contain and making plays with his feet. He can't do that every single play. Even Eli Manning, bad as he's been all year, was able to mount a comeback on this D, but the Skins had a shot on the last possession to steal it. The referees became all-time confused, however, and one of them gave Washington a 1st down and moved the chains on his side of the field while the others called it 3rd and short on the other side. When the next pass was incomplete, Mike Shanahan and the Skins were stunned to find that it was now 4th down instead of 2nd. Here's the thing: That incomplete pass was a perfect pass to TE Fred Davis that he dropped because he's Fred Davis. Then once the confusion was settled, the 4th-down throw was complete to Pierre Garcon...who promptly coughed the ball up to Will Hill for a turnover that ended the game. So twice after they had what they were told was a 1st down taken away, RG3 made the throw to give them an actual 1st down, and the Giants wound up with the football. The refs fucked up the chain situation royally. The Skins then fucked up the comeback effort by being incompetent.
- New Orleans had absolutely no chance in Seattle from start to finish. None. Total beatdown. What did it mean? It meant that if the Saints have to go through Seattle in the playoffs, they can forget it. Percy Harvin wasn't even in this game for the Seahawks, and neither were CBs Brandon Browner or Walter Thurmond III. New Orleans had all their weapons, and still had no chance. It was quite the spectacle of two teams who just aren't nearly as formidable outside of their home stadiums. I think if Seattle had to go through New Orleans in the playoffs, based on what I've seen from the Seahawks on the road this season and in the past, I'd pick New Orleans and give whatever points you want. Hell, the Hawks have to go to San Francisco next week, and they might be favored based on this outing. Be careful that you know what you're watching. Week 6 last year, the Hawks knocked off Tom Brady and the Pats at home in a big comeback victory, asserting themselves as a force to be reckoned with, and followed that by going to San Francisco and scoring...wait for it...6 points! You think they're going to fare much better this year?
Week 13 Records--Dre 8-7-1, .533; Jay 5-10-1, .333
YTD Records-- Dre 90-97-5, .481; Jay 94-93-5, .503
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