It's amazing how Patriots games these days so closely follow a script. Score a bunch of points early, or at least in the first three quarters. Have the offense take it's foot off the gas and allow the defense to bring the win home. Watch that defense flail around against the opponent's passing attack (no matter how weak). Have the offense fail to close out the game with the ball and less than 5 minutes remaining (sometimes substantially less). Allow the opponent to drive into the Pats' red zone in the final minutes down less than a touchdown. And then see what happens. Sometimes it's a loss, others it's a win. Thanks to Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing the ball right at Patriots' cornerback-turned-safety Devin McCourty, this time the result was a Patriots win.
That hissing sound you heard Sunday afternoon was the air being let out of the Miami Dolphins playoff potential. A 37-3 drubbing at the hands of Jake Locker is bad for playoff hopes. Seeing your rookie QB play like the deer-in-the-headlights many expected before the season is even worse for those hopes.
I'm waiting for the ESPN Outside the Lines special in 2038 that shows how the NFL and all of us fans were duped by scientists who created the first football robot. That's the only way Adrian Peterson emerging from ACL surgery less than a year ago as still easily the best running back in the NFL makes any sense. 171 more yards at 6.3 yards per carry.
Count me with those who say the Atlanta-New Orleans game said more about the flaws of the previously undefeated Falcons than it did about the playoff chances of the suddenly surging Saints. I'm still not ready to believe the Saints can stop anyone, but Atlanta's lack of anything resembling a balanced attack against said turnstile of a defense is extremely concerning.
This one play does a better job of summing up the Chargers under Norv Turner than any amount of words ever could: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-fantasy/0ap2000000093879/Buccaneers-defense-INT-TD
Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens touched the ball 17 times against the Raiders. He gained 68 yards on those touches. His team scored 55 points. For reference, the week prior, Doug Martin of Tampa Bay touched the ball 29 times against the Raiders. He amassed 272 yards on those touches. His team scored 42 points. What's my point? The Raiders are terrible.
Speaking of terrible, yes, Mark Sanchez is bad. Very bad, even. But the current Tebow experiment isn't working. Rex Ryan and Tony Sparano need to do one of two things. Either commit to Mark Sanchez and stop shuffling in Tebow for a play here and a play there to break whatever little bit of rhythm Sanchez can build up, or bench Sanchez and see what Tebow can do. And honestly, based on what I'm seeing of Sanchez, and New York's lack of skill at the skill positions, I don't see how Tebow can do any worse.
When you figure out the Giants, can you let me know? They always play the first half of the season over .500, and usually 6-2 or better. Then November hits, and they go into a tailspin. Sometimes they break out of it and make the playoffs. Twice they have stormed their way to the Super Bowl. Other times the tailspin keeps them out of the playoffs entirely. I'm not even a Giants fan and this bugs me to no end.
Philadelphia fans finally got their wish...well, one of them. Michael Vick was knocked out of the game in the first half, meaning rookie backup Nick Foles had to take over against the Cowboys. Not shockingly, he wasn't the answer to all of Philly's ills. Not to worry Eagles fans, your other wish (Andy Reid going away) is all but a certainty to happen at the end of the season.
There was an unbelievable amount of failure in the 49ers-Rams tie. But I'd like to focus on one specific failure that will probably get overlooked, a complete failure on the part of Rams coach Jeff Fisher. With 1:24 left in the 4th quarter and trailing by 4, the Rams completed an 8-yard pass to the 49ers' 2 yard line, setting up 1st and goal. With 1:13 left in the game (and over 30 seconds left on the play clock), Jeff Fisher called time out.
Now, the Rams scored on the next play, with 1:09 left to go up 24-21. So why was this a failure? It left at least 30 more seconds on the game clock for the 49ers to try and tie or win the game that didn't need to be there. If you want to call time out (they had all 3 left at the time) there, fine, but do it with 1 second left on the play clock. That way, you still have about 45 seconds left to run up to 4 plays with 2 time outs in reserve in case you want to try a running play that gets stuffed or Bradford gets sacked. Instead, the Rams left the 49ers with just under 70 seconds, and the 49ers drove down the field and kicked a tying field goal with 5 second left. Did those 30+ seconds make a difference? No way to know for sure, but given the 49ers were down to their backup quarterback, and that their offense wouldn't be called explosive on its best day, I'm willing to say those 30 seconds were crucial.
The Houston/Chicago game was a great battle between two great defense that turned into an ugly slopfest due to the rainy, windy weather and the presence of Jason Campbell in the second half.
On that note, these quarterbacks all had to leave their respective games with concussions: Michael Vick (Eagles lost), Alex Smith (49ers tied), and Jay Cutler (Bears lost). Just when you think the NFL might be able to sidestep the concussion issue, it rears its ugly head yet again.
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