- Something is rotten in New Orleans, and it's not just the defense. The Saints last 6 drives featured no drive that lasted longer than 5 plays, and the drives ended Interception, Punt, Punt, Safety, End of Half, Punt. Yes, the defense gave up an 18-point 3rd quarter lead, but the offense just needed to make a couple of plays to help seal the deal and could not do it. Of all the issues surrounding the Saints, the failure of the offense is most concerning.
- Kudos to Mohamed Sanu for throwing a 73-yard touchdown pass to AJ Green on the first play of the game. Why? Sanu is a wide receiver, and his pass traveled almost 50 yards in the air.
- Jay Cutler improved on last week's effort, in that he had three fewer interceptions and one fewer shove of his offensive tackle. Luckily, Sam Bradford had the only touchdown of the day...thrown to Chicago's Major Wright.
- Tampa Bay again went hard off the snap during their opponent's game-ending kneeldowns. But this week there was no outcry. You know why that is? Because the Dallas O-Line did its job and blocked them for the 1.5 seconds it took Tony Romo to kneel down.
- I'm not sure who should be more ashamed, Tennessee, for giving up 14 points in the final 18 seconds (including a hail mary), or the Lions, for a) giving up 44 points to Tennessee, b) giving up a TD on a punt return, kickoff return, and fumble return, c) telling everyone but their center not to snap the ball on 4th and inches in overtime with the game in the balance. You're right, the Lions failed harder.
- Miami lost their overtime game in part because coach Joe Philbin called the classic late timeout to ice the kicker, only to watch his team block the kick that didn't count. I had a whole paragraph ranting about the folly of trying to ice a kicker on a sub-40 yard field goal attempt. Then, in the Sunday Night game, Pats players iced Ravens kicker Justin Tucker on a 27 yard field goal attempt (which he nailed right down the middle), and the subsequent attempt squeaked in by the tiniest of possible margins. So I guess there is some validity to it.
- That Minnesota game is the exact kind of game you'd expect the 49ers to handle 100% of the time. An inferior opponent led by a running back. But San Francisco did have a letdown (might be their first one under Jim Harbaugh) and Christian Ponder played a heck of a game and the Vikings took it from the 49ers.
- Is Arizona for real? You could explain away their first two wins as keeping it close and holding on depsite their quarterback. Then they go out at not only shut down Michael Vick, but Kevin Kolb leads them to 27 points! Seattle may have done Arizona the biggest favor ever by knocking named starter John Skelton out of the game.
- Bring back the real officials, NFL. Your marquee Sunday Night game has taken a backseat two weeks in a row to shoddy officiating that has lost control of the game. Fix it, and fix it soon.
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