After a dramatic Sunday afternoon, things are starting to become a little clearer around the NFL, aren’t they? There will be fallacies and misconceptions all year, but the truths are starting to become apparent. But like many NFL players, some truths come with baggage.
For instance, Cincinnati is proving that virtually everyone has slept on them thus far – but now that they have everyone’s attention, can they keep up these nail-biting victories? No one’s going to be overlooking them anymore, and despite impressive wins the last two weeks in Green Bay and at home vs. the Steelers, losing to the Bengals doesn’t sit well with any contending team’s fanbase. Look for their opponents to step it up much harder in the coming weeks, and it remains to be seen if Cincy can step it up along with them.
Mark Sanchez and Rex Ryan have the Jets playing passionate, confident football. It is plays like Sanchez’s shoulder-dropping, safety-drilling TD run versus Tennessee that makes your team want to pile-drive someone for you. But perhaps overlooked was Sanchez’s play-action fake on the go-ahead TD pass in the 3rd quarter that shows why he’s packing solid brass. He almost over-sold the fake handoff by crouching low with the ball in his gut and his back to the line of scrimmage. It was a thing of beauty, and he showed his poise by not missing on the subsequent easy throw to his target, a mistake that could have been forgiven of a rookie QB in his third game of the year. But will the Jets get too cocky? And when Sanchez finally does have the inevitable rookie meltdown, how does he rebound?
DOMINATION vs. IMPOTENTCY: Both the Giants and Ravens were playing bottom-feeders in Tampa Bay and Cleveland, but it was no less remarkable just how badly they pounded these guys.
New York held the Bucs to 86 total yards and 5 first downs on their own field, and showed just how badly the Bucs have devolved on defense. The Bucs tackled like they were accustomed to playing flag football, and the NY runningbacks left piles of bruised and broken bodies in their wake after racking up 256 yards on the ground in a 24-0 shutout.
The Ravens intercepted the Browns 4 times, and twice on the returns played schoolyard games with Cleveland, pitching the ball around with laterals. You don’t see that very often anymore. The 80’s Bears teams used to do it all the time – it’s been a while since a defense has been that confident and wants to enjoy itself while embarrassing an opponent. I have to feel bad for Browns’ fans while watching that. The Ravens are actually their team. It has to really sting getting humped like that by your ex, especially when she was the one who broke up with you.
BEGRUDGING FAVRE RESPECT: Let me be the millionth person to state that “this is why the Vikings brought him here”. Everything from Favre’s first INT of the season to the jaw-dropping last second TD was vintage Favre.
The pick came on a pass over the middle to a guy about 15 yards away who was draped in defenders. Favre wound up and threw a high, whistling rocket that had no chance of being caught by any player until it bounced off someone’s now-shattered fingers and into the air.
The unbelievable final score came on an essentially improvised play that belonged in a Wrangler ad, with Favre deftly alluding a rush, stepping up, and launching a pass that traveled 50 yards through the back of the endzone and into the hands of some nobody the Vikings picked up a week before the season started. It was on a rope, too. No touch and all velocity, and it counted for what was maybe the most memorable TD of Favre’s career given the circumstances. As you read this, please picture me typing these words while trying to quell the bile that is creeping into my esophagus.
Vikings fan being his stereotypical obnoxious self as 49ers fans look on
PLAY OF THE WEEK: Apologies to Favre and his heroics, but your old teammate Donald Driver hauled in what could easily end up being the catch of the year against St. Louis (sorry if the link makes you sit through a commercial. But hang in there – if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the 15 second ad, trust me). This was the kind of catch that make little kids want to play football. With a corner drawing a flag for mugging him, Driver extends to full length and snatches the 52-yard bomb with his one free hand, pinning it against his helmet and bicep. A thing of beauty in a weekend full of memorable plays.
BEARS HOMER SECTION: Chicago’s defense gave up seven 3rd-downs against Seattle, including distances of 8, 10, 11 and 19 yards, the longest resulting in Seattle’s first TD of the day on a screen pass. Seneca Wallace did exactly what I thought he’d do, making the D chase him around all day and creating plays after buying time. Lovie Smith apparently didn’t remember the lesson taught to him in week 1, when he continued to stack the box and bring heavy blitzes on Seattle’s final drive, which never should have gotten as far as it did, which was inside the Bears’ 30.
Chicago’s offensive line still gave Matt Forte nothing to work with, despite many Seahawks defensive starters sitting out due to injury. Forte is talented and can do an awful lot if given space, but he’s not an outstanding tailback who can produce without any holes to run through.
Chicago again needed 2 missed field goals to win a game, and won’t keep getting that lucky. Wow, did I like anything about this game? Let’s see…Jay Cutler had a 126 qb rating (jerk)…Devin Hester scored the game-winning TD on a slant where the 3rd-string corner got tackled by his own teammate (lucky)…the Bears were in the middle of a conservative, play-for-the-field-goal drive when they scored (pansy)…the Bears are likely down to their 3rd MLB with starter Hunter Hillenmeyer falling victim to the NFL’s rib-injury bug (you gotta be kidding me)…they let former Viking WR Nate Burleson pop off for 9 catches for 109 yards (uggh)…and on 3rd and 1 in the 4th quarter, I saw perhaps the most poorly designed and called running play in football history, with Forte taking the handoff about 47 yards behind his line, and then had to wait for his fullback to come in front of him just to get in his way (it was rightly snuffed for a loss). Plus those Seattle alternative jerseys may have burned out my retinas, and I know at the very least were visible from space.
Okay fine, one thing I liked was T.J. Houshmandzadeh backing up his tough trash-talk with 4 catches for 35 yards and a fumble that turned into my guy Johnny Knox’s 2nd TD catch of the year. Man, T.J., maybe that was why the Bears “ain’t even holla at” you when you “was all trollin’ for dat insanely inflated free-agent deal.” See ya next time, if you don’t get cut by then, Housh-bag.
T.J. Houshmandzadeh: “Yo, maybe I ain’t shoulda talked all that sh*t this week…”
NOTES THAT SHOULD BE NOTED:
- Philly beat up on Kansas City with a very creative game plan, having virtually all 53 active players taking snaps at some point. I’m sour on the Wildcat craze, but Philly used it effectively in the redzone, and didn’t miss their starting QB or starting RB one bit.
- Despite missing on the play, Tampa Bay head coach Raheem Morris showed big-time guts in attempting to score a TD on 4th and goal late in the game, instead of just kicking the gimme FG just to avoid a shutout. There’s no way that even if the Bucs would have scored that they had any chance of winning, but he wanted a TD anyway. Your team may suck, but that was a tiny slice of dignity.
- RB Fred Taylor had a nice game for New England, as did Randy Moss. It’s kind of funny how the Patriots are what Oakland always tries to be, which is a cobblestone of aging castoffs and misfits from other teams who don’t want to bother with them anymore.
- The R*dsk*ns continued their slide into irrelevancy, falling to Detroit (as many predicted they would), and losing the $100,000,000.00 DT Albert Haynesworth along the way. QB Jason Campbell actually had a pretty good game, but Clinton Portis is the gas in this vehicle, and his 60-some yards weren’t enough octane. Too bad, so sad…
- I wonder, if just for a second, if Brett Favre’s last-minute, movie-worthy touchdown would somehow have an effect on Adrian Peterson’s ego. The guy clearly doesn’t have much of one, really, but a guy who beats himself up as bad as he does after not finishing a run just perfect obviously wants the attention. Don’t think he doesn’t realize the TV cameras are on him when he lays on the ground for a couple beats after getting tripped up just before breaking a long one. Word of advice (as if Adrian bleeping Peterson reads my stuff) – just get up, man. The disappointment in yourself may be genuine, but it’s getting annoying, and slowly chipping away from your good-guy image. It comes off as selfish. That being said, I do think that if Favre’s bright star somehow stands to diminish Peterson’s, AP’s got no problem taking out the frustration on his opponents. Hmm. Damn it, my team still has to play him twice.
Contact email: nick.thomas@flyingpigskin.com
