Stat of the week No. 1: In the last two games, Miles Austin has 16 receptions for 421 yards and four touchdowns. In 17 games since being traded from Detroit, Roy Williams has 31 receptions for only 428 yards and two touchdowns.
Stat of the week No. 2: From the hindsight is 20/20 department, Kyle Orton is outplaying Jay Cutler in a number of different categories: 6 wins for Orton, only 3 for Cutler; Orton has 264 more passing yards; Orton is ½ yard better per attempt; Orton’s passer rating is 100.1 and Cutler’s is 86.9.
Stat of the week No. 3: DeSean Jackson became the 2nd Eagles player with a rushing and receiving touchdown of 55 yards or more in the same game (Bosh Pritchard, 10/23/1949). He is also the 3rd player in NFL history with five touchdowns of 50+ yards through six games joining Jermaine Lewis (’98 Ravens) and Jim Brown (’63 Browns).
Stat of the week No. 4: The Redskins failed to score more than 17 points for the 10th straight home game, the longest streak since the Colts (11 straight games) over the 1991-92 seasons.
Stat of the week No. 5: The Minnesota-Pittsburgh featured three return touchdowns of at least 75 yards in the fourth quarter. It marked the first time in NFL history that a game featured three return touchdowns of at least 75 yards in the fourth quarter.
Bonus stat of the week: The Broncos, Colts and Saints are all 6-0. That’s the most undefeated teams through Week 7 in NFL history.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Arizona Cardinals seize control of the NFC West and other NFL thoughts
(1) The NFC West race is starting to look an awful lot like 2008. The Rams are an abject disaster. They have lost 17 games in a row, which is the sixth longest streak in NFL history. They are certainly strong contenders to become the second team in two seasons to go the entire season without a victory. The Seahawks are only slightly better. After getting pasted by the Cardinals in week six, the Hawks have to find ways to regroup after the bye week with an offensive line that resembles a train wreck and a defense that continues to vex fans with their enigmatic play. Just a notch ahead of the Seahawks is the San Francisco 49ers, who continue to play mediocre football despite their hot start to the season. They have lost three out of the last four games and now face serious quarterback questions after starter Shaun Hill was pulled in the second half in favor of Alex Smith.
With the rest of the division floundering, the Arizona Cardinals have risen up once again to take control of the NFC West. They started the season very slowly, but they have since rolled off three consecutive wins to surge to the top of the division. Surprisingly, the Cardinals’ success has been based on their ability to win away from University of Phoenix Stadium. They have debunked the West Coast Team failing on the East Coast theory by winning all three of their East Coast road trips. Their most impressive win of the season came this week as they traveled to the Meadowlands and thoroughly dominated the New York Giants. Their victory was even more impressive when you consider that the Cardinals had only won twice in their previous 17 trips to the swamps of New Jersey. It was also shocking how they completely confused the New York Giants, who many considered one of the leading teams in the NFC.
Their victory over the Giants was all about defense for the Cardinals, which is as weird to say as claiming that Seattle is all about sunshine. Arizona’s front seven disrupted the timing of the Giants’ offense all night long and their secondary made huge play after huge play to thwart New York’s attempt at a comeback. The Cardinals only had three sacks for the game, but they kept Eli Manning guessing, which led to several bad decisions and rushed throws from the Giants quarterback. The confusion that the Cardinals created in the mind of the Giants’ signal caller greatly contributed to New York’s awful performance on third down. New York only converted four out of 15 third down opportunities, which limited their ability to keep momentum on their side. In addition, the Cardinals ability to mask their true defensive intentions baited Manning into three interceptions, which was the sixth time in his career that he had thrown at least three picks in a game. His third and final interception was perhaps the worst as he tried to squeeze the football into an extremely tight window despite the fact that Antrel Rolle was in perfect position to make a play. The big play from Rolle sealed the deal for the Cardinals and guaranteed that they would win back-to-back road games for the first time since 2001. The big win pushed the Cardinals into first place all by themselves. The Cardinals should get used to the view from the top because I think it is all but written that Arizona will repeat as NFC West champions.
(2) I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the most dangerous two-loss team in the NFL, but they still have some questions to answer. In typical Steelers fashion, they rode their talented defense to a big win against the previously undefeated Minnesota Vikings, but the rest of their effort was anything but vintage Pittsburgh football. The Steelers formula since the days of Chuck Noll was to play a tough, hard-nosed style that featured a dominant defense and a punishing running game. The defense certainly had its dominating moments but the offense was pretty pathetic. They only scored 13 offensive points and only had three drives of any consequence all day long. Overall, they punted six times and had four three-and-out drives. Their offensive inconsistency was directly related to their inability to convert third down opportunities. As a result, the Steelers only ran 49 plays compared to 78 plays for Minnesota and only controlled the clock for just over 23 minutes compared to the nearly 37 minutes of time of possession for the Vikings. Their offense resembled a traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as they would move a few feet forward only to stall for long periods of time. Not even Ben Roethlisberger could save the day as he produced his worst performance of the season, including only 55 yards passing in the second half. The Steelers were very fortunate to win this game because their offense left their defense on the field entirely too long.
Thankfully, the Steelers defense made enough big plays to thwart the Vikings comeback at every turn. The first big sequence came late in the third quarter when the Vikings came up empty on three consecutive plays from the one-yard line. With their chances to score on a fourth attempt about as slim as winning Powerball, the Vikings wisely took the sure three points. It is important to note that the Vikings appeared to out-think themselves by only giving the ball to Adrian Peterson once in the three plays from the one-yard line. Nevertheless, the goal-line stand was the biggest statement in the game up to that point. The goal line concession was the beginning of the end for the Vikings. The Steelers defense, re-energized by holding the Vikings out of the end zone, dominated the fourth quarter with two humongous plays that sealed the victory. Midway through the fourth, the Vikings were driving until Brad Keisel strip-sacked Brett Favre and LaMarr Woodley scooped up the football and rambled 77 yards for a touchdown. Percy Harvin returned the subsequent kick-off for a touchdown, but the Steelers defense smelled blood in the water. I’m a firm believer that big plays come in bunches and the Steelers proved my theory correct. The Vikings were driving again for at least a tying field goal until Favre’s dump-off pass to Chester Taylor bounced off his hands and into the arms of Keyaron Fox, who rumbled 82 yards for a touchdown. With one long return, the defense had outscored their offensive counterparts and carried the Steelers to victory.
I’m not going to say that the Steelers defense was their normally dominant selves, but they certainly made all the big plays. In reality, Brett Favre carved them up for most of the game as he completed 34 passes to 10 different receivers. The Vikings moved between the 20’s at will but came up short where it counted, in the red zone. Minnesota only scored a touchdown in one red zone opportunity despite the fact that they penetrated the Steelers’ 20-yard line on five different occasions. The Steelers have all the parts to be a dominating unit, but they were the definition of bend but don’t break on Sunday. Honestly, I believe that the Vikings were the better team but they never were able to make a play when it counted most. On the other hand, the Steelers made them all.
(3) I’m the first one to bash anything and everything related to the Dallas Cowboys, so I think it is only fair that I give credit where credit is due. After a schizophrenic start to the season, the Cowboys have won two games in a row and they beat their first opponent with a winning record on Sunday. In my opinion, it was their most impressive victory in quite awhile, not only because of their opponent but because of the completeness of their effort. They outplayed the Falcons in all three components of the game and they were sound in both their offensive and defensive play-calling.
First of all, the Cowboys produced their most complete performance of the season. They have produced gaudier numbers, but when you frame this performance in the context of their opponent it shines brighter than any other. They achieved balance on offense with 29 passing attempts and 28 rushing attempts. I have noted on previous occasions that the Cowboys too often fall in love with allowing Tony Romo to throw the ball too much. I think they are a much more potent offense when they genuinely commit to running the football. In this game, they spread 28 carries across three running backs and averaged a competent 4.1 yards per carry. Their running game does not need to be dominant for the Cowboys to be successful, but it does have to present a legitimate threat. As a result, Tony Romo was extremely accurate (21-29) and made none of his customary mistakes during big games. It seems to me that Romo has made the personal decision to throw the ball to the open receiver rather than worry about spreading the ball around based on experience or salary. This strategy is yielding huge results as the Romo to Miles Austin connection is the most dynamic duo in the NFL the last three weeks. If the Cowboys can resist reverting to their old habits, I firmly believe they will be one of the most dynamic offensive units in the second half of the season.
Secondly, their defense finally started being the disruptive force that everyone expected at the beginning of the season. They bottled up Michael Turner, limiting him to only 50 yards on 18 carries. They also made life very difficult for Matt Ryan as they caused him to throw two interceptions and forced a fumble as well. The Cowboys held the Falcons to less than 300 yards of total offense because they were more physical at the point of attack and they made Ryan feel extremely uncomfortable in the pocket. The man leading the charge was DeMarcus Ware, who broke out of a season-long slump to register two sacks. The questions about Ware had been growing and growing as he had played most of the season as a not-so-innocent bystander. He went a long way to silencing his critics with his disruptive performance. The Cowboys certainly have the defensive talent to be one of the best units in the NFL, but their problem has always been their inability to match their effort level to their prodigious talent.
The Cowboys are going to be extremely hard to beat if they can replicate their performance against the Falcons in the coming weeks. In addition to their stellar offensive and defensive production, the Cowboys put the cherry on top of a huge victory with a 73-yard punt return from Patrick Crayton that effectively put the game out of reach. The Cowboys should feel good about this victory. It was their first win against a quality opponent and it has created a little momentum that they should be able to carry forward. The risk for Dallas is that they allow Romo to reprise his gun-slinging persona and forget that they have one of the most talented stables of running backs in the NFL.
(4) The Saints’ come-from-behind victory over the Miami Dolphins is further evidence why they are the best team in the NFC and arguably the best team in the NFL. Good teams find ways to win when the odds are stacked against them. They played a horrific first half and trailed by 21 points before rallying to a 12-point victory. They became the first team in 2009 to overcome such a large deficit and win the game. It was the first time since 1987 that a team trailed by at least 21 points before winning the game by at least 12 points (New Orleans beat San Diego 41-24 after trailing 24-3). The Saints demonstrated the grittiness, resilience and determination of a champion. Their offense proved that no lead is safe and their defense stepped up again and made huge plays.
As I mentioned, the Saints played their worst half of football in the first half against the Dolphins. By the time they had picked up their second first down of the game, Miami led 24-3 and it looked like the Saints undefeated season would go down in flames. The Saints had turned the ball twice, missed a field goal and punted three times before cobbling together a 51-yard touchdown drive to end the half and begin the healing. It is important to note that they got a huge boost from a highly questionable timeout by Miami head coach Tony Sparano. With five seconds left in the half, an apparent 20-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Colston was reversed and the ball was placed at the ½ yard line. The Saints were prepared to kick a field goal until Sparano called an ill-fated timeout that allowed Drew Brees to lobby his head coach to go for the touchdown. With the extra time to think about it, Sean Payton sent his offense back onto the field and they subsequently scored the touchdown that would get them on the comeback trail. Coach Sparano tried to justify his decision by saying that he wanted to be in the “right personnel,” but it looks like a pretty boneheaded mistake to me. The bad decision looked like it wouldn’t cost the Dolphins as the Saints started the second half with two more turnovers, but the situation turned south for Miami shortly thereafter as the Saints scored 36 points in the second half, including outscoring the Dolphins 22-0 in the fourth quarter. Despite the four turnovers and five sacks allowed, the Saints won this game because they steadfastly refused to forgo offensive balance in their comeback effort. The Saints produced 414 total yards, which included 276 yards through the air and 138 on the ground. Most importantly, the Saints averaged over five yards per carry on 27 rushing attempts.
For all their offensive success, the Saints would not have won this game without big plays from their defense. In the first half, the Saints defense was unable to stem the tide due to the terrible field position that the offense put them in. None of the Dolphins’ four scoring drives in the first half were longer than 63 yards. The defense played respectively in the first half, only allowing 175 total yards to the Dolphins, but they didn’t have anything to show for their effort because Miami roared out to a 21-point lead. The defense only needed one minute in the second half to turn the tables. On the Dolphins’ third play of scrimmage, Darren Sharper gathered in a tipped Chad Henne pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. It was Sharper’s 11th interception return for a touchdown, which is one shy of the NFL record. After firing the opening salvo of the second half, the Saints played an inspired brand of defensive football holding the Dolphins to only 10 points and 154 total yards, forcing four punts and returning another interception for a touchdown.
The Dolphins should have won this game, but coughed up another victory because they were unable to make big plays or big stops when they were needed most. The Dolphins can look at their 2-4 record and justify that they should be 4-2. The Dolphins have played the Saints and the Colts and lost to them both when they had control of both games. Both defeats were epic in how they unraveled and the Dolphins will be kicking themselves for a long time for choking away certain victory. The loss to the Saints is fresh in our minds, but we need to remember that the Dolphins failed to beat the Colts despite possessing the ball for over 45 minutes, which was the greatest time of possession for a loser since the stat became official in 1977. The Dolphins might be the best 2-4 team in the NFL, but they are not a good team.
(5) Are the Houston Texans finally a playoff team? Are they finally who we expected them to be? After seven weeks, they are firmly in the middle of the playoff picture along with Pittsburgh (5-2) and New York (4-3). The Texans have been a sleeper pick for the last couple of seasons and have largely failed to live up to expectations. They still do not have a winning season in their history, but I think this is the year that they get to nine or ten victories and really make a legitimate push to the post-season. I’m basing my opinion entirely on the strength of an offense that is currently ranked 10th overall in the NFL. If they continue to stay healthy, they have the offensive weapons to go head-to-head with any defense in the league. Matt Schaub is one of the league leaders in touchdown passes and he is quickly making the case for his inclusion in the top ten signal callers in the NFL. His problem has always been injury not performance. If the Texans can keep him out of the training room, they are going to be a real threat to achieve their goals of a winning record and playoff appearance. In addition to Schaub, the Texans have dynamic playmakers at wide receiver (Andre Johnson), tight end (Owen Daniels) and running back (Steve Slaton). Both Daniels and Johnson are in the top ten for receiving yards and receptions. Along with Slaton’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, it all adds up to the 3rd ranked passing offense in the NFL.
In order for the Texans to make it to the second season, they are going to have to improve their running attack and bolster their defense. Principally, the Texans have to get back to running the football like they did in 2008. They finished 13th in the league in running the football and averaged over four yards per carry. Through seven weeks this season, the Texans are 30th in the NFL in yards per game (37 yards per game lower than 2008) and only average three yards per carry which is worst in the NFL. So far, the Texans have been able to overcome the lack of balance, but it will start to impact their performance as the pressure builds and opposing defenses make adjustments to take away Schaub and the passing attack. In addition to their running game, the Texans have to be more competent on defense. They are currently in the bottom half of the NFL in passing yards allowed per game and rushing yards allowed per game. Fortunately, they are trending in the right direction after two consecutive strong defensive performances against the Bengals and 49ers. They have limited Cedric Benson and Frank Gore in back-to-back weeks, which certainly has to give them confidence that they are capable of being a good defense. Keep in mind that Benson gashed the Ravens the week previous and the Bears the week after. The Texans have four nice pieces on defense with Mario Williams, Brian Cushing, DeMeco Ryans and Bernard Pollard. They need the rest of the unit to step up their level of play. If the Texans can continue their incremental improvement on the defensive side of the ball, they might make the playoffs regardless of what they do in the running game.
With the rest of the division floundering, the Arizona Cardinals have risen up once again to take control of the NFC West. They started the season very slowly, but they have since rolled off three consecutive wins to surge to the top of the division. Surprisingly, the Cardinals’ success has been based on their ability to win away from University of Phoenix Stadium. They have debunked the West Coast Team failing on the East Coast theory by winning all three of their East Coast road trips. Their most impressive win of the season came this week as they traveled to the Meadowlands and thoroughly dominated the New York Giants. Their victory was even more impressive when you consider that the Cardinals had only won twice in their previous 17 trips to the swamps of New Jersey. It was also shocking how they completely confused the New York Giants, who many considered one of the leading teams in the NFC.
Their victory over the Giants was all about defense for the Cardinals, which is as weird to say as claiming that Seattle is all about sunshine. Arizona’s front seven disrupted the timing of the Giants’ offense all night long and their secondary made huge play after huge play to thwart New York’s attempt at a comeback. The Cardinals only had three sacks for the game, but they kept Eli Manning guessing, which led to several bad decisions and rushed throws from the Giants quarterback. The confusion that the Cardinals created in the mind of the Giants’ signal caller greatly contributed to New York’s awful performance on third down. New York only converted four out of 15 third down opportunities, which limited their ability to keep momentum on their side. In addition, the Cardinals ability to mask their true defensive intentions baited Manning into three interceptions, which was the sixth time in his career that he had thrown at least three picks in a game. His third and final interception was perhaps the worst as he tried to squeeze the football into an extremely tight window despite the fact that Antrel Rolle was in perfect position to make a play. The big play from Rolle sealed the deal for the Cardinals and guaranteed that they would win back-to-back road games for the first time since 2001. The big win pushed the Cardinals into first place all by themselves. The Cardinals should get used to the view from the top because I think it is all but written that Arizona will repeat as NFC West champions.
(2) I think that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the most dangerous two-loss team in the NFL, but they still have some questions to answer. In typical Steelers fashion, they rode their talented defense to a big win against the previously undefeated Minnesota Vikings, but the rest of their effort was anything but vintage Pittsburgh football. The Steelers formula since the days of Chuck Noll was to play a tough, hard-nosed style that featured a dominant defense and a punishing running game. The defense certainly had its dominating moments but the offense was pretty pathetic. They only scored 13 offensive points and only had three drives of any consequence all day long. Overall, they punted six times and had four three-and-out drives. Their offensive inconsistency was directly related to their inability to convert third down opportunities. As a result, the Steelers only ran 49 plays compared to 78 plays for Minnesota and only controlled the clock for just over 23 minutes compared to the nearly 37 minutes of time of possession for the Vikings. Their offense resembled a traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as they would move a few feet forward only to stall for long periods of time. Not even Ben Roethlisberger could save the day as he produced his worst performance of the season, including only 55 yards passing in the second half. The Steelers were very fortunate to win this game because their offense left their defense on the field entirely too long.
Thankfully, the Steelers defense made enough big plays to thwart the Vikings comeback at every turn. The first big sequence came late in the third quarter when the Vikings came up empty on three consecutive plays from the one-yard line. With their chances to score on a fourth attempt about as slim as winning Powerball, the Vikings wisely took the sure three points. It is important to note that the Vikings appeared to out-think themselves by only giving the ball to Adrian Peterson once in the three plays from the one-yard line. Nevertheless, the goal-line stand was the biggest statement in the game up to that point. The goal line concession was the beginning of the end for the Vikings. The Steelers defense, re-energized by holding the Vikings out of the end zone, dominated the fourth quarter with two humongous plays that sealed the victory. Midway through the fourth, the Vikings were driving until Brad Keisel strip-sacked Brett Favre and LaMarr Woodley scooped up the football and rambled 77 yards for a touchdown. Percy Harvin returned the subsequent kick-off for a touchdown, but the Steelers defense smelled blood in the water. I’m a firm believer that big plays come in bunches and the Steelers proved my theory correct. The Vikings were driving again for at least a tying field goal until Favre’s dump-off pass to Chester Taylor bounced off his hands and into the arms of Keyaron Fox, who rumbled 82 yards for a touchdown. With one long return, the defense had outscored their offensive counterparts and carried the Steelers to victory.
I’m not going to say that the Steelers defense was their normally dominant selves, but they certainly made all the big plays. In reality, Brett Favre carved them up for most of the game as he completed 34 passes to 10 different receivers. The Vikings moved between the 20’s at will but came up short where it counted, in the red zone. Minnesota only scored a touchdown in one red zone opportunity despite the fact that they penetrated the Steelers’ 20-yard line on five different occasions. The Steelers have all the parts to be a dominating unit, but they were the definition of bend but don’t break on Sunday. Honestly, I believe that the Vikings were the better team but they never were able to make a play when it counted most. On the other hand, the Steelers made them all.
(3) I’m the first one to bash anything and everything related to the Dallas Cowboys, so I think it is only fair that I give credit where credit is due. After a schizophrenic start to the season, the Cowboys have won two games in a row and they beat their first opponent with a winning record on Sunday. In my opinion, it was their most impressive victory in quite awhile, not only because of their opponent but because of the completeness of their effort. They outplayed the Falcons in all three components of the game and they were sound in both their offensive and defensive play-calling.
First of all, the Cowboys produced their most complete performance of the season. They have produced gaudier numbers, but when you frame this performance in the context of their opponent it shines brighter than any other. They achieved balance on offense with 29 passing attempts and 28 rushing attempts. I have noted on previous occasions that the Cowboys too often fall in love with allowing Tony Romo to throw the ball too much. I think they are a much more potent offense when they genuinely commit to running the football. In this game, they spread 28 carries across three running backs and averaged a competent 4.1 yards per carry. Their running game does not need to be dominant for the Cowboys to be successful, but it does have to present a legitimate threat. As a result, Tony Romo was extremely accurate (21-29) and made none of his customary mistakes during big games. It seems to me that Romo has made the personal decision to throw the ball to the open receiver rather than worry about spreading the ball around based on experience or salary. This strategy is yielding huge results as the Romo to Miles Austin connection is the most dynamic duo in the NFL the last three weeks. If the Cowboys can resist reverting to their old habits, I firmly believe they will be one of the most dynamic offensive units in the second half of the season.
Secondly, their defense finally started being the disruptive force that everyone expected at the beginning of the season. They bottled up Michael Turner, limiting him to only 50 yards on 18 carries. They also made life very difficult for Matt Ryan as they caused him to throw two interceptions and forced a fumble as well. The Cowboys held the Falcons to less than 300 yards of total offense because they were more physical at the point of attack and they made Ryan feel extremely uncomfortable in the pocket. The man leading the charge was DeMarcus Ware, who broke out of a season-long slump to register two sacks. The questions about Ware had been growing and growing as he had played most of the season as a not-so-innocent bystander. He went a long way to silencing his critics with his disruptive performance. The Cowboys certainly have the defensive talent to be one of the best units in the NFL, but their problem has always been their inability to match their effort level to their prodigious talent.
The Cowboys are going to be extremely hard to beat if they can replicate their performance against the Falcons in the coming weeks. In addition to their stellar offensive and defensive production, the Cowboys put the cherry on top of a huge victory with a 73-yard punt return from Patrick Crayton that effectively put the game out of reach. The Cowboys should feel good about this victory. It was their first win against a quality opponent and it has created a little momentum that they should be able to carry forward. The risk for Dallas is that they allow Romo to reprise his gun-slinging persona and forget that they have one of the most talented stables of running backs in the NFL.
(4) The Saints’ come-from-behind victory over the Miami Dolphins is further evidence why they are the best team in the NFC and arguably the best team in the NFL. Good teams find ways to win when the odds are stacked against them. They played a horrific first half and trailed by 21 points before rallying to a 12-point victory. They became the first team in 2009 to overcome such a large deficit and win the game. It was the first time since 1987 that a team trailed by at least 21 points before winning the game by at least 12 points (New Orleans beat San Diego 41-24 after trailing 24-3). The Saints demonstrated the grittiness, resilience and determination of a champion. Their offense proved that no lead is safe and their defense stepped up again and made huge plays.
As I mentioned, the Saints played their worst half of football in the first half against the Dolphins. By the time they had picked up their second first down of the game, Miami led 24-3 and it looked like the Saints undefeated season would go down in flames. The Saints had turned the ball twice, missed a field goal and punted three times before cobbling together a 51-yard touchdown drive to end the half and begin the healing. It is important to note that they got a huge boost from a highly questionable timeout by Miami head coach Tony Sparano. With five seconds left in the half, an apparent 20-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Colston was reversed and the ball was placed at the ½ yard line. The Saints were prepared to kick a field goal until Sparano called an ill-fated timeout that allowed Drew Brees to lobby his head coach to go for the touchdown. With the extra time to think about it, Sean Payton sent his offense back onto the field and they subsequently scored the touchdown that would get them on the comeback trail. Coach Sparano tried to justify his decision by saying that he wanted to be in the “right personnel,” but it looks like a pretty boneheaded mistake to me. The bad decision looked like it wouldn’t cost the Dolphins as the Saints started the second half with two more turnovers, but the situation turned south for Miami shortly thereafter as the Saints scored 36 points in the second half, including outscoring the Dolphins 22-0 in the fourth quarter. Despite the four turnovers and five sacks allowed, the Saints won this game because they steadfastly refused to forgo offensive balance in their comeback effort. The Saints produced 414 total yards, which included 276 yards through the air and 138 on the ground. Most importantly, the Saints averaged over five yards per carry on 27 rushing attempts.
For all their offensive success, the Saints would not have won this game without big plays from their defense. In the first half, the Saints defense was unable to stem the tide due to the terrible field position that the offense put them in. None of the Dolphins’ four scoring drives in the first half were longer than 63 yards. The defense played respectively in the first half, only allowing 175 total yards to the Dolphins, but they didn’t have anything to show for their effort because Miami roared out to a 21-point lead. The defense only needed one minute in the second half to turn the tables. On the Dolphins’ third play of scrimmage, Darren Sharper gathered in a tipped Chad Henne pass and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. It was Sharper’s 11th interception return for a touchdown, which is one shy of the NFL record. After firing the opening salvo of the second half, the Saints played an inspired brand of defensive football holding the Dolphins to only 10 points and 154 total yards, forcing four punts and returning another interception for a touchdown.
The Dolphins should have won this game, but coughed up another victory because they were unable to make big plays or big stops when they were needed most. The Dolphins can look at their 2-4 record and justify that they should be 4-2. The Dolphins have played the Saints and the Colts and lost to them both when they had control of both games. Both defeats were epic in how they unraveled and the Dolphins will be kicking themselves for a long time for choking away certain victory. The loss to the Saints is fresh in our minds, but we need to remember that the Dolphins failed to beat the Colts despite possessing the ball for over 45 minutes, which was the greatest time of possession for a loser since the stat became official in 1977. The Dolphins might be the best 2-4 team in the NFL, but they are not a good team.
(5) Are the Houston Texans finally a playoff team? Are they finally who we expected them to be? After seven weeks, they are firmly in the middle of the playoff picture along with Pittsburgh (5-2) and New York (4-3). The Texans have been a sleeper pick for the last couple of seasons and have largely failed to live up to expectations. They still do not have a winning season in their history, but I think this is the year that they get to nine or ten victories and really make a legitimate push to the post-season. I’m basing my opinion entirely on the strength of an offense that is currently ranked 10th overall in the NFL. If they continue to stay healthy, they have the offensive weapons to go head-to-head with any defense in the league. Matt Schaub is one of the league leaders in touchdown passes and he is quickly making the case for his inclusion in the top ten signal callers in the NFL. His problem has always been injury not performance. If the Texans can keep him out of the training room, they are going to be a real threat to achieve their goals of a winning record and playoff appearance. In addition to Schaub, the Texans have dynamic playmakers at wide receiver (Andre Johnson), tight end (Owen Daniels) and running back (Steve Slaton). Both Daniels and Johnson are in the top ten for receiving yards and receptions. Along with Slaton’s ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, it all adds up to the 3rd ranked passing offense in the NFL.
In order for the Texans to make it to the second season, they are going to have to improve their running attack and bolster their defense. Principally, the Texans have to get back to running the football like they did in 2008. They finished 13th in the league in running the football and averaged over four yards per carry. Through seven weeks this season, the Texans are 30th in the NFL in yards per game (37 yards per game lower than 2008) and only average three yards per carry which is worst in the NFL. So far, the Texans have been able to overcome the lack of balance, but it will start to impact their performance as the pressure builds and opposing defenses make adjustments to take away Schaub and the passing attack. In addition to their running game, the Texans have to be more competent on defense. They are currently in the bottom half of the NFL in passing yards allowed per game and rushing yards allowed per game. Fortunately, they are trending in the right direction after two consecutive strong defensive performances against the Bengals and 49ers. They have limited Cedric Benson and Frank Gore in back-to-back weeks, which certainly has to give them confidence that they are capable of being a good defense. Keep in mind that Benson gashed the Ravens the week previous and the Bears the week after. The Texans have four nice pieces on defense with Mario Williams, Brian Cushing, DeMeco Ryans and Bernard Pollard. They need the rest of the unit to step up their level of play. If the Texans can continue their incremental improvement on the defensive side of the ball, they might make the playoffs regardless of what they do in the running game.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Stats of the Week - Week 6
Stat of the week No. 1: Last year, in the first six games of the season, Tennessee allowed seven touchdowns. In a 36-minute span against New England, Tennessee allowed eight touchdowns.
Stat of the week No. 2: The Denver Broncos have gone four consecutive games without allowing an opponent to convert a single third down conversion in the second half (0-23). The Broncos have allowed only two second-half third down conversions this season (one each in Week 1 and Week 2).
Stat of the week No. 3: Detroit has lost 18 straight games at Lambeau Field.
Stat of the week No. 4: Mark Sanchez is the third rookie quarterback since 2000 to throw five interceptions in a single game (Kyle Orton and Ryan Fitzpatrick).
Stat of the week No. 5: Kurt Warner tied an NFL record (114th game along with Dan Marino) for being the fastest to throw for 30,000 yards in a career.
Stat of the week No. 2: The Denver Broncos have gone four consecutive games without allowing an opponent to convert a single third down conversion in the second half (0-23). The Broncos have allowed only two second-half third down conversions this season (one each in Week 1 and Week 2).
Stat of the week No. 3: Detroit has lost 18 straight games at Lambeau Field.
Stat of the week No. 4: Mark Sanchez is the third rookie quarterback since 2000 to throw five interceptions in a single game (Kyle Orton and Ryan Fitzpatrick).
Stat of the week No. 5: Kurt Warner tied an NFL record (114th game along with Dan Marino) for being the fastest to throw for 30,000 yards in a career.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Saints rule the NFC and other NFL thoughts
(1) If you didn’t already know, the Saints are officially the team to beat in the NFC after their dominating win against the formerly undefeated New York Giants. I know that the Vikings are also undefeated, but they have had to rely on a miraculous play from Brett Favre and a missed field goal by Baltimore to keep their record perfect. Conversely, the Saints have beaten all comers by at least 14 points and have yet to trail in any game so far. On Sunday, they jumped all over the G-Men early, leading 20-3 early in the 2nd quarter, and never took their foot off the accelerator until the final buzzer sounded on a resounding 21-point victory. The biggest difference between this edition of the Saints and those of recent vintage is that they don’t need to rely on Drew Brees to do everything. They have continued to win despite the fact that Brees entered Sunday riding a two-game streak with no touchdowns. Even more impressive is that their defense has improved to the point that they are contributing members as well instead of liabilities.
I don’t think there are any questions about the Saints’ offense. The face of the offense is Drew Brees, but they have a wealth of weapons at receiver and running back. On Sunday, the Saints became only the 4th team since 1970 to have seven different players score touchdowns. In the passing game, the Saints have tremendous possession receivers like Jeremy Shockey, Marques Colston and Lance Moore. In addition, they have the ability to strike deep with burners like Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. On the ground, they can hit you with the game-changing speed of Reggie Bush or smack you in the mouth with the physical running of Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell and fullback Heath Evans. Most importantly, they have one of the premier triggermen in the business, who is able to get the football to the right guy at the right time. Brees completely carved up the Giants like a Halloween pumpkin throwing for 349 yards and four touchdowns. It was the second time already that Brees had thrown four or more touchdowns in a game. The most impressive part of Brees’ performances was that he was tremendous throwing the ball down the field. On throws of 10 yards or more, Brees completed 14 out of 18 attempts for 289 yards and three touchdowns. All of those big numbers added up to a perfect quarterback rating in those situations. This performance illustrates why the Saints are so difficult to defend. First of all, Brees is a deadly accurate quarterback with a quick release, so he doesn’t need a huge opening to get the ball to his talented stable of pass catchers. Secondly, the Saints pride themselves on continually pushing the ball down the field vertically. They are not a dink and dunk team like the Denver Broncos. The Saints want to move the ball down the field quickly, so that the opposing defense has no time to take a break. Against the Giants, the Saints scored in eight plays or less on five different occasions. Finally, the Saints are more balanced from a run/pass perspective than they have been at any point since Brees joined the team. Going into the game against New York, the Saints were 3rd overall in total offense (11th passing and 2nd running). This kind of balance is going to be a godsend in late November, December and January.
The more significant part of the Saints’ hot start is that the defense is finally pulling their own weight. The personnel is largely the same as the last couple of seasons, but the addition of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams seems to have changed the approach, attitude and execution completely. It looks like Sean Payton’s decision to take a $250,000 pay cut to help lure Williams to the bayou is paying off handsomely. The defense played tremendously against Eli Manning and the Giants limiting their dynamic running game to less than 90 yards and forcing 17 incompletions in 31 pass attempts. As a result of the Saints defensive pressure, the Giants were awful on third down only converting three times in 10 opportunities. In addition, the Saints seemed to have completely rattled Manning, who looked more like his father than he did the quarterback that was near the top of the QB rating standings after five weeks. Manning fumbled the ball after getting sacked by Roman Harper, which led to a Saints touchdown, and threw an interception after Ahmad Bradshaw fouled up the pass protection. Manning was so flummoxed after the pick that he publicly berated Bradshaw for not knowing his assignment. There is no better indication of a defense’s domination than to see the opposing team start to turn on each other. Overall, the Saints’ defense is gaining confidence and they appear to be the perfect ball-hawking complement to the high-octane offense led by Drew Brees. At this point in the season, the NFC goes through the Big Easy.
(2) The best game of week 6 was the shootout in the Metrodome featuring the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens. Heading in to the weekend, this match-up looked like one of the better games of the week and it went above and beyond my expectations. The Vikings looked to be in complete control of the game after taking a 27-10 lead early in the 4th quarter but the Ravens refused to go away and outscored the Vikings 21-3 over the next seven minutes to take a short-lived 31-30 lead. Unfortunately, Baltimore left too much time on the clock and Brett Favre pulled another miracle out of his bag of tricks and led the Vikings down the field for the game-winning field goal. I’m beginning to wonder if we are ever going to rid ourselves of Favre. He has already retired and unretired twice and he seems to be rejuvenated in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. If he continues to play at or near the level that he is currently playing, then I’m convinced that Favre will be playing football in 2010. I think that only two things would prevent Favre from donning an NFL jersey next season. The most obvious situation would be if he won the Super Bowl this season. I think that Favre would be content to go out on top after winning his second Super Bowl ring. The other situation would be if his performance completely tanked over the second half of the season and he finally realized that he is incapable of playing a 16-game season at his advanced age. The most likely scenario has us enduring another off-season of will he or won’t he rumors emanating from rural Mississippi.
Regardless of what Favre decides to do in 2010, he continues to demonstrate that he is still capable of playing great football at the age of 40. As most people predicted, he has been the number one difference-maker for the talented Minnesota Vikings. Without Favre, Minnesota would have lost against the Ravens and they definitely would not have beaten the San Francisco 49ers. On Sunday, he led the offense to 426 total yards against one of the better defenses in the NFL and he personally contributed 278 yards passing and three touchdowns. Through three plus quarters, the Vikings looked like the superior team but they had to withstand a furious rally from the Ravens. It almost seemed like the Minnesota defense got complacent after they had built a 17-point lead. After only allowing 226 total yards and 10 points through the first three quarters, the Vikings suddenly allowed the Ravens to move up and down the field and rack up 222 yards and 21 points in the fourth quarter alone. In the end, they were saved again by Favre and his fourth quarter heroics. Favre hit Sidney Rice with a 58-yard completion to set-up the game-winning field from Ryan Longwell. It was the 41st time in Favre’s career that he lead a 4th quarter or overtime game-winning drive, which is the most among active signal callers.
The Ravens should get an A for effort but they have been making too many mistakes over the last three weeks. The last couple of weeks have seen them commit too many costly penalties and turn the ball over too many times. Against the Vikings, they were undermined by an offense that didn’t get started until the fourth quarter and a defense that didn’t do a very good job of holding the fort until the offense awakened. First of all, the offense was horrendous in the first half. They punted the ball five times and only managed 136 yards of total offense and three points. They didn’t start the second half much better as they only produced 80 yards and seven points on three drives in the third quarter. By the time they got possession of the ball with just over 10 minutes left in the game, they were staring directly into a 17 point deficit. It is a credit to them that they were able to nearly steal the victory, but a little better production earlier in the game might have made things easier at the end. As bad as the offense was early, the defense was the bigger culprit. The Ravens are built for defense. They are supposed to be a dominating defensive unit. It is supposedly their calling card. They were completely steamrolled by the Vikings, especially in the second half. After forcing the Vikings to punt on four consecutive possessions to end the first half, the Ravens allowed Minnesota to score on four consecutive possessions to start the second half. The only thing that kept Baltimore in the game was that they bent but didn’t break holding the Vikings to only one touchdown in those four possessions. More shocking is the fact that they allowed their second consecutive 100-yard rusher after not allowing such an effort since 2006. This Ravens team is a hard one to figure out. On paper, they appear to be one of the most balanced teams in the NFL, but they find themselves 3-3 after six weeks riding a three-game losing streak. In my mind, their schizophrenic play boils down to the fact that they are immature on offense and overrated on defense.
(3) After losing to the previously winless Chiefs, the end of the Jim Zorn era in Washington, D.C. is coming soon. It is no longer a question of if but when. When Zorn was hired to be the head coach of the Redskins, it was expected that he would bring a new dynamic to the offensive side of the football. Rather than see an explosion from the offense, the Redskins have struggled mightily to put points on the board no matter who they are playing. After finishing 2008 28th in the league in points per game (16.6 pts/gm), the Skins are actually on pace to score fewer points in 2009 (14.6 pts/gm). In the Zorn era, the Skins have scored 20 points or less in 16 of the 22 games. The numbers are not only startling, but they demonstrate that progress is not being made. For all his reputation as a quarterback guru, Jason Campbell is as big of a mess in 2009 as he was when Zorn inherited him back at the start of the 2008 season. In my opinion, Campbell is damaged goods and no coach is going to be able to turn him into a viable NFL quarterback. I believe he had four offensive coordinators in four seasons at Auburn and he has suffered through a revolving door of offensive coaches during his stint in Washington as well. He has been coached by so many different people that he thinks that up is down and right is left. I’m not absolving Zorn of blame; I just think that Campbell was fouled up long before Zorn took the head coaching position.
Nevertheless, the Redskins are in a terrible offensive funk right now. They have had one of the easier schedules in the NFL and they only have a 2-4 record to show for it. They have already lost to the Lions, Panthers and Chiefs and they nearly lost to the Rams and Buccaneers as well. I think they hit a low point on Sunday against the Chiefs. They only managed seven first downs for the entire game. They were shut out in the first half and only scored six points in the second half. They had more three-and-outs (7 on the day) than they had points. They benched Campbell at halftime in a move that reeked of desperation from Zorn and his coaching staff. I know that Campbell struggled in the first half, but if they really thought Todd Collins gave them a better chance to win then the situation is far worse in Washington than I ever imagined. The situation got even weirder after the game as Zorn was informed by the front office that he would be relieved of his play calling duties. It has to be the ultimate indignity for an offensive coach, who was hired to call plays and mentor quarterbacks, to lose his control over the play calling. I believe that this is the first step in the process of firing Zorn either in mid-season or at the end of the season. The timing of when the other shoe will fall totally depends on how the Skins play through the next few weeks.
(4) The Redskins should definitely be embarrassed about their lackluster performance against the Chiefs, but they have plenty of company. Two other teams that should feel ashamed about the way that they played on Sunday are the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. The Eagles should hang their heads in shame because they lost to one of the worst, most poorly operated franchises in the NFL. The Titans should feel awful because they were treated like rag dolls by the New England Patriots. I’m not really sure which performance was worse. Is it more shameful to lose to a team that has lost 75% of its games since 2002 or to lose to a model franchise 59-0? I don’t really care to know the answer because both teams played with no emotion, no intensity and no toughness.
It is amazing to me that the high-flying Eagles allowed the Raiders to take the fight to them. In addition, the Eagles are a veteran team that shouldn’t fall victim to the classic trap game, where they are looking past their opponent. Regardless, it was clear that the Eagles felt like they could beat the Raiders by merely stepping on to the turf at McAfee Coliseum. In the immortal words of somebody, “That is why we play the games.” The Raiders came out aggressive on defense and made just enough plays on offense to shock Philadelphia. They sacked Donovan McNabb six times on the day and forced the Eagles’ offense to misfire on 14 out of 16 third down opportunities. The biggest surprise is that Raiders’ defense completely took McNabb out of his normal game and caused him to complete only 48% of his attempts. In classic Andy Reid form, the Eagles completely abandoned the run, which put even more pressure on McNabb to save the day. Instead, the Raiders harassed McNabb all day long and sacked him six times. In addition, the Eagles decided to not incorporate the Wildcat formation at all. I’m wondering what kind of game it will take for Andy Reid to use Michael Vick. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get Vick involved to keep the pressure off the quarterback and force the Raiders to defend and control the pocket. The biggest indignity for the Eagles was that they entered the game with the second-highest points per game average in the NFL and the finished the game as the first team in three years to fail to score a touchdown against Oakland. It wasn’t like the Raiders played a tremendous game. The Eagles just failed to capitalize on a plethora of opportunities to win the game, including missing two field goals. The Eagles need to take an in-depth look at themselves to see how they can avoid a similar let-down in the future. I think that the Eagles are a border-line play-off team as long as they resolve the offensive problems that surfaced in the Bay Area.
The Titans played one of the worst football games that I have ever seen against the Patriots. New England was so superior that it appeared that they were playing against air. The margin of victory tied for the sixth largest rout in NFL history and it established a new Titans’ record for the worst loss in franchise history. The previous record was 54 points set in 1989 when the Oilers lost to Cincinnati, 61-7. Frankly, this game featured records being set all over the place. New England set franchise records for points and total yards (619) in a single game. Tom Brady set an NFL record with five touchdown passes in a single quarter with his virtuoso performance in the second quarter. He also tied his own franchise record with six touchdown passes in a single game and joined four other quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Charley Johnson, Y.A. Tittle and George Blanda) who, since 1960, have thrown six touchdown passes in a game twice. Finally, the Patriots posted the largest shutout in the NFL since December 4, 1976, when the Rams beat the Falcons by the same margin. Luckily, for the Titans, the Patriots narrowly missed the largest margin of victory since the NFL began in 1920 (66 points).
The Patriots were flawless and the Titans were hapless. They only managed nine first downs and 186 total yards. They turned the ball over five times and only converted 20% of their third down situations. In one 17-play stretch in the second quarter, the Titans gave up three scoring passes, lost two fumbles and threw an interception. The Titans were pretty horrible across the board, but the performance from Kerry Collins sticks out like a sore thumb. After watching Derek Anderson stink up the joint last week in Buffalo, Collins decided to set the bar for awful quarterbacking so low that Verne Troyer wouldn’t even be able to do the limbo underneath it. Collins accomplished the unthinkable when he completed only two passes for negative seven yards. Collins actually posted a quarterback rating of 4.9, which was worse than his 7.1 QB rating in the 2001 Super Bowl loss to the Ravens. Collins’ performance was so bad that it made Vince Young’s brief appearance (0-2 with an interception) look Hall of Fame worthy. In my opinion, the Titans completely missed the boat on Collins. He was so effective last season that the Titans were duped into thinking he could replicate his 2008 numbers. Through six games, Collins is completing less than 55% of his attempts and he has already thrown more interceptions than he threw all of last season. When players near the end of their careers, they sometimes gradually deteriorate or they sometimes collapse in the blink of an eye. In my opinion, we are witnessing Collins’ career nose-diving off the side of the Grand Canyon. I don’t think it is going to be much better, but it is time to give Vince Young another chance to be the franchise quarterback that Titans’ fans thought they had when he was drafted in the first round.
(5) After getting manhandled by the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks’ playoff aspirations have been officially extinguished. Despite the fact that they thoroughly dominated the Jaguars last week, the Hawks are not a good football team right now. They possibly played one of the worst football games in the history of the franchise against the Cardinals. They only produced 128 yards of total offense, which included setting a new franchise low for yards rushing in a game (14 yards) and tying the second worst performance in team history in terms of time of possession (17:10). Their crew of third and fourth-stringers on the offensive line were overrun by the athletic front seven of the Cardinals that sacked Matt Hasselbeck five times and didn’t allow the Seahawks to convert on any of their third down attempts. The situation got so dire that Cardinals’ defensive lineman Darnell Dockett claimed that Hasselbeck stopped looking for his wide receivers because he was under so much duress. Dockett stated that Hasselbeck was “bailing out” against the onslaught and that the Seahawks’ offensive line “got whupped.” Based on the results of the game, I can’t say that I disagree with him. It is clear that the Hawks have a huge problem on the offensive line. They are not going to be successful with the likes of Steve Vallos, Kyle Williams and Damien McIntosh playing. It doesn’t look like things will get better any time soon because Walter Jones continues to be a huge question mark for the rest of the season and Rob Sims and Sean Locklear continue to be hurt. It is clear that the one-cut and go philosophy of the zone blocking scheme has failed miserably. I do believe that it will eventually improve, but the 2009 season is lost due to the significant turnover on the offensive line.
The other issue for the Seahawks is that they are ill-equipped defensively to match-up with Kurt Warner and his angular corps of wide receivers. I can’t think of another NFL team that presents such a match-up headache for the Seahawks’ defense. The smallish Seahawks defensive backs are incapable of making plays against the tall, talented receivers from the Cardinals. The height deficiencies that we have at cornerback were on full display when Larry Fitzgerald out-jumped a Seahawks defender for two-yard touchdown in the first quarter ad when Steve Breaston wrestled the ball away from Ken Lucas for a 16-yard touchdown in the third quarter. In addition, the Hawks defense didn’t generate consistent pressure on Kurt Warner. Warner was sacked twice and turned the ball over twice but he still completed 32 out 41 attempts and posted a 100.8 quarterback rating. Everyone in the NFL knows that you cannot allow Warner time in the pocket because he will absolutely eat your secondary for dinner. Other teams might be able to survive because they have taller, more physical defensive backs, but the Hawks just expose their undermanned secondary even more when they don’t apply the pressure.
The biggest concern for me was that the Seahawks did not appear ready for the biggest game of their season. They made a ton of mistakes and they allowed the Cardinals to get a stranglehold on the game early. Kurt Warner and the Cardinals offense surgically dissected the Seahawks on a 15-play, 80-yard opening touchdown drive that consumed over 10 minutes in the first quarter. The Seahawks defense was not prepared for the dink and dunk strategy from the Cardinals and, as a result, they were unable to get off the field. This is certainly not the first time that the Hawks have struggled to get to the bench, but they generally perform better in this area of the game at home. After giving up the touchdown, the Hawks reacted poorly to the Neil Rackers’ pooch kick, which the Cardinals recovered at the 23-yard line. Following the recovery, the Cardinals struck again and the Hawks found themselves trailing 14-0 before they had even touched the ball on offense. It wasn’t like their offense was up to the challenge anyhow because Hasselbeck was sacked on their third offensive play, fumbled and ball was recovered by the Cardinals at the Seattle 23-yard line. It was 17-0 before the Seahawks knew what had hit them. The game only got worse from there. It was very clear that the Hawks don’t belong on the same field as the Cardinals. It is also clear that the gulf between the two teams is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. It is only October and the Hawks season is over once again.
I don’t think there are any questions about the Saints’ offense. The face of the offense is Drew Brees, but they have a wealth of weapons at receiver and running back. On Sunday, the Saints became only the 4th team since 1970 to have seven different players score touchdowns. In the passing game, the Saints have tremendous possession receivers like Jeremy Shockey, Marques Colston and Lance Moore. In addition, they have the ability to strike deep with burners like Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. On the ground, they can hit you with the game-changing speed of Reggie Bush or smack you in the mouth with the physical running of Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell and fullback Heath Evans. Most importantly, they have one of the premier triggermen in the business, who is able to get the football to the right guy at the right time. Brees completely carved up the Giants like a Halloween pumpkin throwing for 349 yards and four touchdowns. It was the second time already that Brees had thrown four or more touchdowns in a game. The most impressive part of Brees’ performances was that he was tremendous throwing the ball down the field. On throws of 10 yards or more, Brees completed 14 out of 18 attempts for 289 yards and three touchdowns. All of those big numbers added up to a perfect quarterback rating in those situations. This performance illustrates why the Saints are so difficult to defend. First of all, Brees is a deadly accurate quarterback with a quick release, so he doesn’t need a huge opening to get the ball to his talented stable of pass catchers. Secondly, the Saints pride themselves on continually pushing the ball down the field vertically. They are not a dink and dunk team like the Denver Broncos. The Saints want to move the ball down the field quickly, so that the opposing defense has no time to take a break. Against the Giants, the Saints scored in eight plays or less on five different occasions. Finally, the Saints are more balanced from a run/pass perspective than they have been at any point since Brees joined the team. Going into the game against New York, the Saints were 3rd overall in total offense (11th passing and 2nd running). This kind of balance is going to be a godsend in late November, December and January.
The more significant part of the Saints’ hot start is that the defense is finally pulling their own weight. The personnel is largely the same as the last couple of seasons, but the addition of defensive coordinator Gregg Williams seems to have changed the approach, attitude and execution completely. It looks like Sean Payton’s decision to take a $250,000 pay cut to help lure Williams to the bayou is paying off handsomely. The defense played tremendously against Eli Manning and the Giants limiting their dynamic running game to less than 90 yards and forcing 17 incompletions in 31 pass attempts. As a result of the Saints defensive pressure, the Giants were awful on third down only converting three times in 10 opportunities. In addition, the Saints seemed to have completely rattled Manning, who looked more like his father than he did the quarterback that was near the top of the QB rating standings after five weeks. Manning fumbled the ball after getting sacked by Roman Harper, which led to a Saints touchdown, and threw an interception after Ahmad Bradshaw fouled up the pass protection. Manning was so flummoxed after the pick that he publicly berated Bradshaw for not knowing his assignment. There is no better indication of a defense’s domination than to see the opposing team start to turn on each other. Overall, the Saints’ defense is gaining confidence and they appear to be the perfect ball-hawking complement to the high-octane offense led by Drew Brees. At this point in the season, the NFC goes through the Big Easy.
(2) The best game of week 6 was the shootout in the Metrodome featuring the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens. Heading in to the weekend, this match-up looked like one of the better games of the week and it went above and beyond my expectations. The Vikings looked to be in complete control of the game after taking a 27-10 lead early in the 4th quarter but the Ravens refused to go away and outscored the Vikings 21-3 over the next seven minutes to take a short-lived 31-30 lead. Unfortunately, Baltimore left too much time on the clock and Brett Favre pulled another miracle out of his bag of tricks and led the Vikings down the field for the game-winning field goal. I’m beginning to wonder if we are ever going to rid ourselves of Favre. He has already retired and unretired twice and he seems to be rejuvenated in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. If he continues to play at or near the level that he is currently playing, then I’m convinced that Favre will be playing football in 2010. I think that only two things would prevent Favre from donning an NFL jersey next season. The most obvious situation would be if he won the Super Bowl this season. I think that Favre would be content to go out on top after winning his second Super Bowl ring. The other situation would be if his performance completely tanked over the second half of the season and he finally realized that he is incapable of playing a 16-game season at his advanced age. The most likely scenario has us enduring another off-season of will he or won’t he rumors emanating from rural Mississippi.
Regardless of what Favre decides to do in 2010, he continues to demonstrate that he is still capable of playing great football at the age of 40. As most people predicted, he has been the number one difference-maker for the talented Minnesota Vikings. Without Favre, Minnesota would have lost against the Ravens and they definitely would not have beaten the San Francisco 49ers. On Sunday, he led the offense to 426 total yards against one of the better defenses in the NFL and he personally contributed 278 yards passing and three touchdowns. Through three plus quarters, the Vikings looked like the superior team but they had to withstand a furious rally from the Ravens. It almost seemed like the Minnesota defense got complacent after they had built a 17-point lead. After only allowing 226 total yards and 10 points through the first three quarters, the Vikings suddenly allowed the Ravens to move up and down the field and rack up 222 yards and 21 points in the fourth quarter alone. In the end, they were saved again by Favre and his fourth quarter heroics. Favre hit Sidney Rice with a 58-yard completion to set-up the game-winning field from Ryan Longwell. It was the 41st time in Favre’s career that he lead a 4th quarter or overtime game-winning drive, which is the most among active signal callers.
The Ravens should get an A for effort but they have been making too many mistakes over the last three weeks. The last couple of weeks have seen them commit too many costly penalties and turn the ball over too many times. Against the Vikings, they were undermined by an offense that didn’t get started until the fourth quarter and a defense that didn’t do a very good job of holding the fort until the offense awakened. First of all, the offense was horrendous in the first half. They punted the ball five times and only managed 136 yards of total offense and three points. They didn’t start the second half much better as they only produced 80 yards and seven points on three drives in the third quarter. By the time they got possession of the ball with just over 10 minutes left in the game, they were staring directly into a 17 point deficit. It is a credit to them that they were able to nearly steal the victory, but a little better production earlier in the game might have made things easier at the end. As bad as the offense was early, the defense was the bigger culprit. The Ravens are built for defense. They are supposed to be a dominating defensive unit. It is supposedly their calling card. They were completely steamrolled by the Vikings, especially in the second half. After forcing the Vikings to punt on four consecutive possessions to end the first half, the Ravens allowed Minnesota to score on four consecutive possessions to start the second half. The only thing that kept Baltimore in the game was that they bent but didn’t break holding the Vikings to only one touchdown in those four possessions. More shocking is the fact that they allowed their second consecutive 100-yard rusher after not allowing such an effort since 2006. This Ravens team is a hard one to figure out. On paper, they appear to be one of the most balanced teams in the NFL, but they find themselves 3-3 after six weeks riding a three-game losing streak. In my mind, their schizophrenic play boils down to the fact that they are immature on offense and overrated on defense.
(3) After losing to the previously winless Chiefs, the end of the Jim Zorn era in Washington, D.C. is coming soon. It is no longer a question of if but when. When Zorn was hired to be the head coach of the Redskins, it was expected that he would bring a new dynamic to the offensive side of the football. Rather than see an explosion from the offense, the Redskins have struggled mightily to put points on the board no matter who they are playing. After finishing 2008 28th in the league in points per game (16.6 pts/gm), the Skins are actually on pace to score fewer points in 2009 (14.6 pts/gm). In the Zorn era, the Skins have scored 20 points or less in 16 of the 22 games. The numbers are not only startling, but they demonstrate that progress is not being made. For all his reputation as a quarterback guru, Jason Campbell is as big of a mess in 2009 as he was when Zorn inherited him back at the start of the 2008 season. In my opinion, Campbell is damaged goods and no coach is going to be able to turn him into a viable NFL quarterback. I believe he had four offensive coordinators in four seasons at Auburn and he has suffered through a revolving door of offensive coaches during his stint in Washington as well. He has been coached by so many different people that he thinks that up is down and right is left. I’m not absolving Zorn of blame; I just think that Campbell was fouled up long before Zorn took the head coaching position.
Nevertheless, the Redskins are in a terrible offensive funk right now. They have had one of the easier schedules in the NFL and they only have a 2-4 record to show for it. They have already lost to the Lions, Panthers and Chiefs and they nearly lost to the Rams and Buccaneers as well. I think they hit a low point on Sunday against the Chiefs. They only managed seven first downs for the entire game. They were shut out in the first half and only scored six points in the second half. They had more three-and-outs (7 on the day) than they had points. They benched Campbell at halftime in a move that reeked of desperation from Zorn and his coaching staff. I know that Campbell struggled in the first half, but if they really thought Todd Collins gave them a better chance to win then the situation is far worse in Washington than I ever imagined. The situation got even weirder after the game as Zorn was informed by the front office that he would be relieved of his play calling duties. It has to be the ultimate indignity for an offensive coach, who was hired to call plays and mentor quarterbacks, to lose his control over the play calling. I believe that this is the first step in the process of firing Zorn either in mid-season or at the end of the season. The timing of when the other shoe will fall totally depends on how the Skins play through the next few weeks.
(4) The Redskins should definitely be embarrassed about their lackluster performance against the Chiefs, but they have plenty of company. Two other teams that should feel ashamed about the way that they played on Sunday are the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. The Eagles should hang their heads in shame because they lost to one of the worst, most poorly operated franchises in the NFL. The Titans should feel awful because they were treated like rag dolls by the New England Patriots. I’m not really sure which performance was worse. Is it more shameful to lose to a team that has lost 75% of its games since 2002 or to lose to a model franchise 59-0? I don’t really care to know the answer because both teams played with no emotion, no intensity and no toughness.
It is amazing to me that the high-flying Eagles allowed the Raiders to take the fight to them. In addition, the Eagles are a veteran team that shouldn’t fall victim to the classic trap game, where they are looking past their opponent. Regardless, it was clear that the Eagles felt like they could beat the Raiders by merely stepping on to the turf at McAfee Coliseum. In the immortal words of somebody, “That is why we play the games.” The Raiders came out aggressive on defense and made just enough plays on offense to shock Philadelphia. They sacked Donovan McNabb six times on the day and forced the Eagles’ offense to misfire on 14 out of 16 third down opportunities. The biggest surprise is that Raiders’ defense completely took McNabb out of his normal game and caused him to complete only 48% of his attempts. In classic Andy Reid form, the Eagles completely abandoned the run, which put even more pressure on McNabb to save the day. Instead, the Raiders harassed McNabb all day long and sacked him six times. In addition, the Eagles decided to not incorporate the Wildcat formation at all. I’m wondering what kind of game it will take for Andy Reid to use Michael Vick. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get Vick involved to keep the pressure off the quarterback and force the Raiders to defend and control the pocket. The biggest indignity for the Eagles was that they entered the game with the second-highest points per game average in the NFL and the finished the game as the first team in three years to fail to score a touchdown against Oakland. It wasn’t like the Raiders played a tremendous game. The Eagles just failed to capitalize on a plethora of opportunities to win the game, including missing two field goals. The Eagles need to take an in-depth look at themselves to see how they can avoid a similar let-down in the future. I think that the Eagles are a border-line play-off team as long as they resolve the offensive problems that surfaced in the Bay Area.
The Titans played one of the worst football games that I have ever seen against the Patriots. New England was so superior that it appeared that they were playing against air. The margin of victory tied for the sixth largest rout in NFL history and it established a new Titans’ record for the worst loss in franchise history. The previous record was 54 points set in 1989 when the Oilers lost to Cincinnati, 61-7. Frankly, this game featured records being set all over the place. New England set franchise records for points and total yards (619) in a single game. Tom Brady set an NFL record with five touchdown passes in a single quarter with his virtuoso performance in the second quarter. He also tied his own franchise record with six touchdown passes in a single game and joined four other quarterbacks (Peyton Manning, Charley Johnson, Y.A. Tittle and George Blanda) who, since 1960, have thrown six touchdown passes in a game twice. Finally, the Patriots posted the largest shutout in the NFL since December 4, 1976, when the Rams beat the Falcons by the same margin. Luckily, for the Titans, the Patriots narrowly missed the largest margin of victory since the NFL began in 1920 (66 points).
The Patriots were flawless and the Titans were hapless. They only managed nine first downs and 186 total yards. They turned the ball over five times and only converted 20% of their third down situations. In one 17-play stretch in the second quarter, the Titans gave up three scoring passes, lost two fumbles and threw an interception. The Titans were pretty horrible across the board, but the performance from Kerry Collins sticks out like a sore thumb. After watching Derek Anderson stink up the joint last week in Buffalo, Collins decided to set the bar for awful quarterbacking so low that Verne Troyer wouldn’t even be able to do the limbo underneath it. Collins accomplished the unthinkable when he completed only two passes for negative seven yards. Collins actually posted a quarterback rating of 4.9, which was worse than his 7.1 QB rating in the 2001 Super Bowl loss to the Ravens. Collins’ performance was so bad that it made Vince Young’s brief appearance (0-2 with an interception) look Hall of Fame worthy. In my opinion, the Titans completely missed the boat on Collins. He was so effective last season that the Titans were duped into thinking he could replicate his 2008 numbers. Through six games, Collins is completing less than 55% of his attempts and he has already thrown more interceptions than he threw all of last season. When players near the end of their careers, they sometimes gradually deteriorate or they sometimes collapse in the blink of an eye. In my opinion, we are witnessing Collins’ career nose-diving off the side of the Grand Canyon. I don’t think it is going to be much better, but it is time to give Vince Young another chance to be the franchise quarterback that Titans’ fans thought they had when he was drafted in the first round.
(5) After getting manhandled by the Arizona Cardinals, the Seahawks’ playoff aspirations have been officially extinguished. Despite the fact that they thoroughly dominated the Jaguars last week, the Hawks are not a good football team right now. They possibly played one of the worst football games in the history of the franchise against the Cardinals. They only produced 128 yards of total offense, which included setting a new franchise low for yards rushing in a game (14 yards) and tying the second worst performance in team history in terms of time of possession (17:10). Their crew of third and fourth-stringers on the offensive line were overrun by the athletic front seven of the Cardinals that sacked Matt Hasselbeck five times and didn’t allow the Seahawks to convert on any of their third down attempts. The situation got so dire that Cardinals’ defensive lineman Darnell Dockett claimed that Hasselbeck stopped looking for his wide receivers because he was under so much duress. Dockett stated that Hasselbeck was “bailing out” against the onslaught and that the Seahawks’ offensive line “got whupped.” Based on the results of the game, I can’t say that I disagree with him. It is clear that the Hawks have a huge problem on the offensive line. They are not going to be successful with the likes of Steve Vallos, Kyle Williams and Damien McIntosh playing. It doesn’t look like things will get better any time soon because Walter Jones continues to be a huge question mark for the rest of the season and Rob Sims and Sean Locklear continue to be hurt. It is clear that the one-cut and go philosophy of the zone blocking scheme has failed miserably. I do believe that it will eventually improve, but the 2009 season is lost due to the significant turnover on the offensive line.
The other issue for the Seahawks is that they are ill-equipped defensively to match-up with Kurt Warner and his angular corps of wide receivers. I can’t think of another NFL team that presents such a match-up headache for the Seahawks’ defense. The smallish Seahawks defensive backs are incapable of making plays against the tall, talented receivers from the Cardinals. The height deficiencies that we have at cornerback were on full display when Larry Fitzgerald out-jumped a Seahawks defender for two-yard touchdown in the first quarter ad when Steve Breaston wrestled the ball away from Ken Lucas for a 16-yard touchdown in the third quarter. In addition, the Hawks defense didn’t generate consistent pressure on Kurt Warner. Warner was sacked twice and turned the ball over twice but he still completed 32 out 41 attempts and posted a 100.8 quarterback rating. Everyone in the NFL knows that you cannot allow Warner time in the pocket because he will absolutely eat your secondary for dinner. Other teams might be able to survive because they have taller, more physical defensive backs, but the Hawks just expose their undermanned secondary even more when they don’t apply the pressure.
The biggest concern for me was that the Seahawks did not appear ready for the biggest game of their season. They made a ton of mistakes and they allowed the Cardinals to get a stranglehold on the game early. Kurt Warner and the Cardinals offense surgically dissected the Seahawks on a 15-play, 80-yard opening touchdown drive that consumed over 10 minutes in the first quarter. The Seahawks defense was not prepared for the dink and dunk strategy from the Cardinals and, as a result, they were unable to get off the field. This is certainly not the first time that the Hawks have struggled to get to the bench, but they generally perform better in this area of the game at home. After giving up the touchdown, the Hawks reacted poorly to the Neil Rackers’ pooch kick, which the Cardinals recovered at the 23-yard line. Following the recovery, the Cardinals struck again and the Hawks found themselves trailing 14-0 before they had even touched the ball on offense. It wasn’t like their offense was up to the challenge anyhow because Hasselbeck was sacked on their third offensive play, fumbled and ball was recovered by the Cardinals at the Seattle 23-yard line. It was 17-0 before the Seahawks knew what had hit them. The game only got worse from there. It was very clear that the Hawks don’t belong on the same field as the Cardinals. It is also clear that the gulf between the two teams is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. It is only October and the Hawks season is over once again.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Stats of the Week - Week 5
Stat of the week No. 1: When the Redskins take the field next week against the Chiefs, it will be the 6th consecutive week that they have played a winless team. They have played the 0-0 Giants in week one, the 0-1 Rams in week two, the 0-2 Lions in week three, the 0-3 Buccaneers in week four, the 0-3 Panthers in week five and they will play the 0-5 Chiefs in week six.
Stat of the week No. 2: Mike Vrable has 11 career receptions and 11 career touchdowns.
Stat of the week No. 3: Peyton Manning was a perfect 14-14 with 148 yards in the second quarter. He has passed for 300+ yards in five straight regular season games. It was the fourth time this season that the Titans have allowed a 300-yard passer.
Stat of the week No. 4: Randy Moss had only one catch, which was the 12th time in his career that he had one or fewer catches in a game. His teams are 4-8 when this occurs.
Stat of the week No. 5: Cedric Benson became the first running back since Larry Johnson in 2006 to run for more than 100 yards against the Ravens defense.
Bonus State of the Week: Donovan McNabb needs just one touchdown and 337 passing yards to become the 20th quarterback in the 90-year history of the NFL to pass for 200 touchdowns and 30,000 yards.
Stat of the week No. 2: Mike Vrable has 11 career receptions and 11 career touchdowns.
Stat of the week No. 3: Peyton Manning was a perfect 14-14 with 148 yards in the second quarter. He has passed for 300+ yards in five straight regular season games. It was the fourth time this season that the Titans have allowed a 300-yard passer.
Stat of the week No. 4: Randy Moss had only one catch, which was the 12th time in his career that he had one or fewer catches in a game. His teams are 4-8 when this occurs.
Stat of the week No. 5: Cedric Benson became the first running back since Larry Johnson in 2006 to run for more than 100 yards against the Ravens defense.
Bonus State of the Week: Donovan McNabb needs just one touchdown and 337 passing yards to become the 20th quarterback in the 90-year history of the NFL to pass for 200 touchdowns and 30,000 yards.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Bengals' revival and other NFL thoughts
(1) I think the NFL should launch an investigation to determine if the City of Cincinnati has slipped performance enhancing substances into the water supply at Bengals’ headquarters. Without some sort of nefarious plot, I don’t know how to explain that the Bengals are 4-1 and sitting atop the AFC North division. After their huge victory over the Baltimore Ravens, the Bengals are enjoying their longest win streak since 2006. In addition, it is the first time since 2005 that Cincinnati has started a season with four victories in their first five games. The most interesting statistic for the Bengals is that they are already 3-0 on the road, which matches the road win total for the last two seasons combined (3-13 in 2007 and 2008).
I’m not really sure how the Bengals have put together such a hot start. From a defensive perspective, Cincinnati has been pretty mediocre (17th ranked overall), especially against the pass where they are 26th in the NFL. They have generally been good rushing the passer and getting off the field in 3rd down situations, but the rest of the defensive numbers won’t impress you. The situation on offense is not much better as the Carson Palmer-led unit is only 21st overall in the NFL. What they lack in raw numbers on both sides of the ball, they have more than made up for it with a grittiness and belief in each other that is impossible to teach. You either have it or you don’t and for most of their existence the Bengals have lacked both.
The most encouraging sign for Cincinnati is that they have found different ways to win football games. Even the one game they lost, they should have won because they outplayed the Denver Broncos. The Bengals put themselves in the position to that game because they were highly successful getting off the field on third down. Their big mistake was that their offense did not score enough points to shut the door completely on the Broncos. In the second week of the season, the Bengals captured their first win of the season because they put the screws to Aaron Rodgers, sacking him six times and generally making his life a living hell. In addition, they relied on a strong running game and big plays from Carson Palmer, who contributed four total touchdowns.
The Green Bay game was the first appearance of a recurring theme that has been an integral component of their other three victories: big plays from Carson Palmer. Against the Steelers in week three, the defense certainly played huge with a defensive touchdown and stout defense in the red zone, but Carson Palmer saved the day with a clutch drive late in the game to clinch the win. Palmer carried his Captain Comeback alter ego into the Cleveland game as well. He saved his teammates from the fire again with two extremely clutch drives late in the game. He led an 11 play, 70 yard drive to set-up the tying touchdown in regulation and he led a 14 play, 67 yard drive to set-up the winning field goal in overtime. He saved his best for last with arguably the best drive of his career when you consider the opponent and the circumstances that surrounded the game. The Bengals had been bullied by the Ravens for years, but finally stood up to them with a dominating performance from their defense and another career-defining drive from Palmer. The defense only allowed 12 first downs and 257 total yards. The defensive effort set the stage for the heroics that Palmer had saved for later in the game. With time running out quickly, Palmer led the Bengals on an 11 play, 86 yard drive that culminated with a 22-yard touchdown strike to Andre Caldwell with only 22 seconds remaining. With one calm, cool and collected aerial strike, the Bengals had exorcised another huge AFC North demon and had put themselves squarely in control of the division.
Even though you have to give lots of credit to Cincinnati for winning this game, the Ravens have to be kicking themselves for the second consecutive week. They didn’t play well by any stretch of the imagination, but they had the game in their grasp and allowed the Bengals to sneak away with a big victory. In the end, the Ravens have no one to blame but themselves. Just like last week in Foxboro, mistakes absolutely killed the Ravens. They turned the ball over twice and committed 10 penalties for 76 yards, including three huge infractions that greatly contributed to the Bengals’ winning drive. The biggest penalty was a pass interference flag on 3rd and 16 that preceded the touchdown to Caldwell. The Ravens better clean up their mistakes because I think that the Bengals are very close to being for real and Baltimore might not be able to make up ground if they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
(2) Another team that deserves a closer look is the Denver Broncos, who are also inextricably connected to the Bengals as a result of their Houdini-esque escape in week one. After defeating the New England Patriots on Sunday, the Broncos are still undefeated at 5-0 and arguably the biggest surprise of the 2009 season. They are living the charmed life right now because they have aced every test they have been given thus far. First of all, the organization seems to have hired the right man to lead the rebirth of the Broncos. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the hiring of the boy wonder, Josh McDaniels, but he has the team drinking the Kool-Aid and they are playing out of their minds right now. Secondly, they seem to have hit home runs with the rest of the coaching staff, especially the hiring of Mike Nolan to lead the defense. All Nolan and company have done is turn the laughingstock of NFL defenses in 2008 into the 2nd ranked defense in the entire NFL in 2009. Finally, the Broncos have hit all the right buttons with their personnel moves, even when they had to make the extremely tough decisions. They decided to trade their former franchise quarterback to Chicago and Kyle Orton is playing more than adequately in the McDaniels’ precision offense. They benched their mercurial wide receiver, Brandon Marshall, at the end of the preseason and he has responded with outstanding games the last two weeks. Coach McDaniels is definitely the King Midas of the NFL because everything he is touching is turning to gold.
I don’t think the Broncos are going to go 16-0 this season, but I do think it is time to acknowledge that something special is happening in the Mile High City. The Broncos were definitely in need of a new message coming from the head coach after the long tenure of Mike Shannahan and McDaniels has been more than prepared to let his players know that it is his way or the highway. Now that they are winning, the team is reaping the benefits of the message, which is only going to give the players and the coaching staff more confidence as the season wears on. The increased confidence will allow them to weather the storm when the inevitable dip in performance comes. Honestly, I think that Denver has an opportunity to run away with the division because the Chargers are head cases and the Raiders and Chiefs are abject disasters.
I was especially impressed by the way that the Broncos corralled the Patriots’ offense throughout the game, especially after making adjustments at halftime. For most of the game, the Broncos forced Tom Brady to be extremely patient and dink and dunk his way down the football field. This tactic was extremely effective in the 2nd half as the Broncos’ defense held the Patriots scoreless and allowed only 63 yards passing from Brady. As a result, the Broncos handed Brady just his fourth loss as a starter when leading at halftime. I’m still not convinced that the Patriots are a good team and nothing they did on Sunday changed my opinion. They still have not proved anything on the road and they look like an ordinary team to me. Their offense has lost quite a bit of the dynamic nature it has had over the last couple of years and the defense has lost so many of its core veterans that it does not strike fear into anyone. Conversely, the Broncos have shown a new kind of dynamism on offense and their defense has been torn down and rebuilt into one of the better units in the NFL.
(3) I’m not sure what to make of the San Francisco 49ers after they allowed the Atlanta Falcons to score a franchise-record 35 1st half points en route to a 45-10 woodshed beating. The defense that got torched by the combination of Matt Ryan, Michael Turner and Roddy White was the same defense that had pretty much dominated the Cardinals, Seahawks, Vikings and Rams through the first four weeks of the season. I don’t know if the Falcons are this good or the 49ers are this bad, but I’m pretty sure that the extra week to prepare did wonders for Atlanta. They were able to do whatever they wanted to do. They rolled up 28 first downs, nearly 500 yards of total offense and controlled the time of possession. They were deadly in the red zone (4 out of 5) and extremely efficient on third down (8 out of 14). Ryan completed nearly 70% of his attempts and averaged an eye-popping 15 yards per completion. Ryan’s favorite target on the day was Roddy White, who snagged eight balls for a franchise-record 210 yards receiving. His biggest play was a 90-yard catch and run in the 2nd quarter and opened the floodgates on the blowout.
The 49ers have to be wondering what the heck hit them on Sunday because I don’t think anyone had an inkling that this type of game was in the offing. The 49ers ran into a buzz saw for which they had absolutely no answers. The Falcons had five plays of 20 yards or more. The 49ers came into the game having surrendered only 11 “big” plays all season long. Even though the defense looked completely lost, I don’t think the 49ers have a long-term problem on that side of the ball. I think we all witnessed a part of the maturation and growing process for an NFL defense that is trying to make the move from mediocre to elite. The bigger issue for San Francisco is what to do about the putrid offensive production from Shaun Hill, Glenn Coffee, et al.
The 49ers entered the game 28th in the league in total offense and pretty much lived up to expectations. They were only able to scrap together 279 yards of total offense and they turned the ball over three times that effectively handed the Falcons easy scoring opportunities. A Shaun Hill interception on the 3rd play from scrimmage for the 49ers was intercepted, which led to a four play, 21-yard drive that ended with Michael Turner plunging in from the seven-yard line. Later in the game, the 49ers fumbled on a kick-off return that gave the Falcons the ball on the San Francisco 38-yard line, which quickly led to a three play, 38-yard drive to the end zone for Atlanta. The 49ers are not good enough to hand their opponents great field position and expect to have a lot of success. As the season has progressed, I’m starting to believe that the 49ers have a playoff caliber defense. Unfortunately, without Frank Gore, San Francisco does not have any offensive talent that I would call playoff caliber. For their sake, we can hope that the recently signed Michael Crabtree can be the game-changing player that the 49ers’ offense so desperately needs.
(4) I don’t think anyone can save the Cleveland Browns or the Buffalo Bills. They not only embarrassed themselves and their respective cities, but they set the game of football back about 50 years with their putrid showing on Sunday. This game was so bad that Cleveland had the same number of punts as first downs. If I had paid to see this game in person, I would have demanded a refund immediately. For God’s sake, the MVP of the game was Cleveland’s punter, Dave Zastudil. On his nine punts, the Bills had a total of seven return yards, which is amazing considering that Buffalo has one of the more dynamic returners in the game. The Browns downed three punts inside the Bills’ five-yard line and the average starting position for Buffalo on the nine punts was the 15-yard line. Without Zastudil’s punting heroics, the Browns probably would not have overcome the steaming pile of elephant feces that Derek Anderson produced.
Anderson’s day was like one of those 18-car pile-ups on the highway that is horrific to look at but you can’t stop yourself from gawking. I actually started to feel sorry for the guy as the incompletions started to multiply, especially in the second half. After halftime, he had as many interceptions as he had completions, which resulted in a zero quarterback rating. He was so horrible that I started to think he was actually trying to screw things up. He only completed 11.8% of his attempts, which was the lowest completion percentage by a winning quarterback since the merger. The saddest part is that he still didn’t play poorly enough for Brady Quinn to get his job back. Thank goodness that Cleveland has Lebron James because the Indians are awful and the Browns are squarely in the running to be crowned the NFL’s worst team. If Bron Bron skips town next summer, the entire city might be put on suicide watch. Even though they finally broke their 10-game losing streak, their inability to score points is alarming. The Browns failed to score a touchdown for the third time this season and the ninth time in their last 11 games. It certainly doesn’t help that Coach Mangenius has traded away their two best offensive weapons, Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, since taking over the top job in the off-season.
The saddest part of this unfortunate match-up is that the Cleveland Browns, despite all of their recent struggles, were not the worst team on the field. How do you even explain the terrible brand of football that the Bills are playing right now? Buffalo has no lost 12 of their last 15 games, including consecutive games to winless teams following their 38-10 shellacking at the hands of the Miami Dolphins. This season they have lost three games in a row and have only scored 20 points combined in those three losses. Their offense continues to look anemic and their poor play has placed Coach Dick Jauron right back on the hot seat. I guess firing their offensive coordinator earlier in the season was not the cure-all that the Bills organization thought it was going to be. Unfortunately, for Bills’ fans, they are going to have to endure several more weeks of Jauron-ball because owner Ralph Wilson has not made an in-season firing since canning Hank Bullough 23 years ago. Wilson kept Gregg Williams to the bitter end of a 6-10 season in 2003 and Mike Mularkey to the end of a 5-11 season in 2005. The way that the Bills are playing right now, not even Toronto is going to want them.
(5) Well, well, well how about those fighting Seattle Seahawks. While we are on the topic of what has gotten into the Cincinnati Bengals, we should probably take a closer look at what the Seahawks ate for their pre-game meal. I didn’t even expect the Hawks to win the game and they end up blitzing the Jaguars 41-0 behind the triumphant return of Matt Hasselbeck. Even though he was not at 100%, Hasselbeck still gives the Seahawks a better chance to win than Seneca Wallace. In the 2nd and 3rd quarters, the Hawks scored four touchdowns, while they had only scored three touchdowns in the previous 10 quarters with Wallace leading the way. Hasselbeck played great the entire games, but he was most deadly on first down. He was seven for seven on first down for 121 yards, three touchdowns and a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Overall, he threw four touchdown passes for the first time since turning the trick against the Arizona Cardinals on December 9, 2007. His virtuoso performance against Jacksonville is further proof that the only way that the Hawks have a chance to win is if number eight is running the show.
In addition to Hasselbeck’s return, the most encouraging part of the entire day was that T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Nate Burleson were both huge factors. Burleson has flashed this kind of brilliance before only to recede back into the shadows the following week. I’m hoping that he can carry his tremendous performance into the coming weeks because he is capable of being one of the best receivers in the NFL. I also think that this was T.J.’s coming out party. He had played okay through the first four games, but this performance demonstrated why the Seahawks shelled out the big money to snag him in free agency. He set the tone with the 34-yard touchdown reception in the 2nd quarter and then he showed why he is such an outstanding red zone target with a 13-yard score in the 3rd quarter. I’m hoping that this game is just the beginning of a wonderful partnership between Hasselbeck, Houshmandzadeh and Burleson.
The offense was explosive but the defense might have been even better as they once again flashed their Qwest Field persona. They absolutely shut down the Jaguars’ offense that had come into the game riding a nice little hot streak. Instead, the Hawks gave them no room to maneuver and completely choked the life out of their offense. The Jags only managed 10 first downs the entire game and were a pathetic 2-13 on third down. Their running game was completely neutralized (15 carries for 38 yards) and their passing game was limited to dink and dunk passes. The Hawks played like they normally do at Qwest Field with great aggressiveness and ferocity. They once again fed off the sell-out crowd, which helped the defense finish off the shutout and hold the Jags to under 200 yards of total offense. I’m pretty sure that they will bring the same level of intensity next week, but what happens when we head out on the road again. Is it possible to bottle up a little of the 12th man energy to take on their next trip? I find it so amazing that the Hawks’ defense plays like polar opposites when they are away from Qwest. Why is it so hard to bring the same take no prisoners, gang tackling, spit in your face and talk about your mama attitude on the road? It will be up to Jim Mora and Gus Bradley to solve this conundrum because the fate of the Hawks’ season hangs on it.
I’m not really sure how the Bengals have put together such a hot start. From a defensive perspective, Cincinnati has been pretty mediocre (17th ranked overall), especially against the pass where they are 26th in the NFL. They have generally been good rushing the passer and getting off the field in 3rd down situations, but the rest of the defensive numbers won’t impress you. The situation on offense is not much better as the Carson Palmer-led unit is only 21st overall in the NFL. What they lack in raw numbers on both sides of the ball, they have more than made up for it with a grittiness and belief in each other that is impossible to teach. You either have it or you don’t and for most of their existence the Bengals have lacked both.
The most encouraging sign for Cincinnati is that they have found different ways to win football games. Even the one game they lost, they should have won because they outplayed the Denver Broncos. The Bengals put themselves in the position to that game because they were highly successful getting off the field on third down. Their big mistake was that their offense did not score enough points to shut the door completely on the Broncos. In the second week of the season, the Bengals captured their first win of the season because they put the screws to Aaron Rodgers, sacking him six times and generally making his life a living hell. In addition, they relied on a strong running game and big plays from Carson Palmer, who contributed four total touchdowns.
The Green Bay game was the first appearance of a recurring theme that has been an integral component of their other three victories: big plays from Carson Palmer. Against the Steelers in week three, the defense certainly played huge with a defensive touchdown and stout defense in the red zone, but Carson Palmer saved the day with a clutch drive late in the game to clinch the win. Palmer carried his Captain Comeback alter ego into the Cleveland game as well. He saved his teammates from the fire again with two extremely clutch drives late in the game. He led an 11 play, 70 yard drive to set-up the tying touchdown in regulation and he led a 14 play, 67 yard drive to set-up the winning field goal in overtime. He saved his best for last with arguably the best drive of his career when you consider the opponent and the circumstances that surrounded the game. The Bengals had been bullied by the Ravens for years, but finally stood up to them with a dominating performance from their defense and another career-defining drive from Palmer. The defense only allowed 12 first downs and 257 total yards. The defensive effort set the stage for the heroics that Palmer had saved for later in the game. With time running out quickly, Palmer led the Bengals on an 11 play, 86 yard drive that culminated with a 22-yard touchdown strike to Andre Caldwell with only 22 seconds remaining. With one calm, cool and collected aerial strike, the Bengals had exorcised another huge AFC North demon and had put themselves squarely in control of the division.
Even though you have to give lots of credit to Cincinnati for winning this game, the Ravens have to be kicking themselves for the second consecutive week. They didn’t play well by any stretch of the imagination, but they had the game in their grasp and allowed the Bengals to sneak away with a big victory. In the end, the Ravens have no one to blame but themselves. Just like last week in Foxboro, mistakes absolutely killed the Ravens. They turned the ball over twice and committed 10 penalties for 76 yards, including three huge infractions that greatly contributed to the Bengals’ winning drive. The biggest penalty was a pass interference flag on 3rd and 16 that preceded the touchdown to Caldwell. The Ravens better clean up their mistakes because I think that the Bengals are very close to being for real and Baltimore might not be able to make up ground if they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.
(2) Another team that deserves a closer look is the Denver Broncos, who are also inextricably connected to the Bengals as a result of their Houdini-esque escape in week one. After defeating the New England Patriots on Sunday, the Broncos are still undefeated at 5-0 and arguably the biggest surprise of the 2009 season. They are living the charmed life right now because they have aced every test they have been given thus far. First of all, the organization seems to have hired the right man to lead the rebirth of the Broncos. I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about the hiring of the boy wonder, Josh McDaniels, but he has the team drinking the Kool-Aid and they are playing out of their minds right now. Secondly, they seem to have hit home runs with the rest of the coaching staff, especially the hiring of Mike Nolan to lead the defense. All Nolan and company have done is turn the laughingstock of NFL defenses in 2008 into the 2nd ranked defense in the entire NFL in 2009. Finally, the Broncos have hit all the right buttons with their personnel moves, even when they had to make the extremely tough decisions. They decided to trade their former franchise quarterback to Chicago and Kyle Orton is playing more than adequately in the McDaniels’ precision offense. They benched their mercurial wide receiver, Brandon Marshall, at the end of the preseason and he has responded with outstanding games the last two weeks. Coach McDaniels is definitely the King Midas of the NFL because everything he is touching is turning to gold.
I don’t think the Broncos are going to go 16-0 this season, but I do think it is time to acknowledge that something special is happening in the Mile High City. The Broncos were definitely in need of a new message coming from the head coach after the long tenure of Mike Shannahan and McDaniels has been more than prepared to let his players know that it is his way or the highway. Now that they are winning, the team is reaping the benefits of the message, which is only going to give the players and the coaching staff more confidence as the season wears on. The increased confidence will allow them to weather the storm when the inevitable dip in performance comes. Honestly, I think that Denver has an opportunity to run away with the division because the Chargers are head cases and the Raiders and Chiefs are abject disasters.
I was especially impressed by the way that the Broncos corralled the Patriots’ offense throughout the game, especially after making adjustments at halftime. For most of the game, the Broncos forced Tom Brady to be extremely patient and dink and dunk his way down the football field. This tactic was extremely effective in the 2nd half as the Broncos’ defense held the Patriots scoreless and allowed only 63 yards passing from Brady. As a result, the Broncos handed Brady just his fourth loss as a starter when leading at halftime. I’m still not convinced that the Patriots are a good team and nothing they did on Sunday changed my opinion. They still have not proved anything on the road and they look like an ordinary team to me. Their offense has lost quite a bit of the dynamic nature it has had over the last couple of years and the defense has lost so many of its core veterans that it does not strike fear into anyone. Conversely, the Broncos have shown a new kind of dynamism on offense and their defense has been torn down and rebuilt into one of the better units in the NFL.
(3) I’m not sure what to make of the San Francisco 49ers after they allowed the Atlanta Falcons to score a franchise-record 35 1st half points en route to a 45-10 woodshed beating. The defense that got torched by the combination of Matt Ryan, Michael Turner and Roddy White was the same defense that had pretty much dominated the Cardinals, Seahawks, Vikings and Rams through the first four weeks of the season. I don’t know if the Falcons are this good or the 49ers are this bad, but I’m pretty sure that the extra week to prepare did wonders for Atlanta. They were able to do whatever they wanted to do. They rolled up 28 first downs, nearly 500 yards of total offense and controlled the time of possession. They were deadly in the red zone (4 out of 5) and extremely efficient on third down (8 out of 14). Ryan completed nearly 70% of his attempts and averaged an eye-popping 15 yards per completion. Ryan’s favorite target on the day was Roddy White, who snagged eight balls for a franchise-record 210 yards receiving. His biggest play was a 90-yard catch and run in the 2nd quarter and opened the floodgates on the blowout.
The 49ers have to be wondering what the heck hit them on Sunday because I don’t think anyone had an inkling that this type of game was in the offing. The 49ers ran into a buzz saw for which they had absolutely no answers. The Falcons had five plays of 20 yards or more. The 49ers came into the game having surrendered only 11 “big” plays all season long. Even though the defense looked completely lost, I don’t think the 49ers have a long-term problem on that side of the ball. I think we all witnessed a part of the maturation and growing process for an NFL defense that is trying to make the move from mediocre to elite. The bigger issue for San Francisco is what to do about the putrid offensive production from Shaun Hill, Glenn Coffee, et al.
The 49ers entered the game 28th in the league in total offense and pretty much lived up to expectations. They were only able to scrap together 279 yards of total offense and they turned the ball over three times that effectively handed the Falcons easy scoring opportunities. A Shaun Hill interception on the 3rd play from scrimmage for the 49ers was intercepted, which led to a four play, 21-yard drive that ended with Michael Turner plunging in from the seven-yard line. Later in the game, the 49ers fumbled on a kick-off return that gave the Falcons the ball on the San Francisco 38-yard line, which quickly led to a three play, 38-yard drive to the end zone for Atlanta. The 49ers are not good enough to hand their opponents great field position and expect to have a lot of success. As the season has progressed, I’m starting to believe that the 49ers have a playoff caliber defense. Unfortunately, without Frank Gore, San Francisco does not have any offensive talent that I would call playoff caliber. For their sake, we can hope that the recently signed Michael Crabtree can be the game-changing player that the 49ers’ offense so desperately needs.
(4) I don’t think anyone can save the Cleveland Browns or the Buffalo Bills. They not only embarrassed themselves and their respective cities, but they set the game of football back about 50 years with their putrid showing on Sunday. This game was so bad that Cleveland had the same number of punts as first downs. If I had paid to see this game in person, I would have demanded a refund immediately. For God’s sake, the MVP of the game was Cleveland’s punter, Dave Zastudil. On his nine punts, the Bills had a total of seven return yards, which is amazing considering that Buffalo has one of the more dynamic returners in the game. The Browns downed three punts inside the Bills’ five-yard line and the average starting position for Buffalo on the nine punts was the 15-yard line. Without Zastudil’s punting heroics, the Browns probably would not have overcome the steaming pile of elephant feces that Derek Anderson produced.
Anderson’s day was like one of those 18-car pile-ups on the highway that is horrific to look at but you can’t stop yourself from gawking. I actually started to feel sorry for the guy as the incompletions started to multiply, especially in the second half. After halftime, he had as many interceptions as he had completions, which resulted in a zero quarterback rating. He was so horrible that I started to think he was actually trying to screw things up. He only completed 11.8% of his attempts, which was the lowest completion percentage by a winning quarterback since the merger. The saddest part is that he still didn’t play poorly enough for Brady Quinn to get his job back. Thank goodness that Cleveland has Lebron James because the Indians are awful and the Browns are squarely in the running to be crowned the NFL’s worst team. If Bron Bron skips town next summer, the entire city might be put on suicide watch. Even though they finally broke their 10-game losing streak, their inability to score points is alarming. The Browns failed to score a touchdown for the third time this season and the ninth time in their last 11 games. It certainly doesn’t help that Coach Mangenius has traded away their two best offensive weapons, Kellen Winslow and Braylon Edwards, since taking over the top job in the off-season.
The saddest part of this unfortunate match-up is that the Cleveland Browns, despite all of their recent struggles, were not the worst team on the field. How do you even explain the terrible brand of football that the Bills are playing right now? Buffalo has no lost 12 of their last 15 games, including consecutive games to winless teams following their 38-10 shellacking at the hands of the Miami Dolphins. This season they have lost three games in a row and have only scored 20 points combined in those three losses. Their offense continues to look anemic and their poor play has placed Coach Dick Jauron right back on the hot seat. I guess firing their offensive coordinator earlier in the season was not the cure-all that the Bills organization thought it was going to be. Unfortunately, for Bills’ fans, they are going to have to endure several more weeks of Jauron-ball because owner Ralph Wilson has not made an in-season firing since canning Hank Bullough 23 years ago. Wilson kept Gregg Williams to the bitter end of a 6-10 season in 2003 and Mike Mularkey to the end of a 5-11 season in 2005. The way that the Bills are playing right now, not even Toronto is going to want them.
(5) Well, well, well how about those fighting Seattle Seahawks. While we are on the topic of what has gotten into the Cincinnati Bengals, we should probably take a closer look at what the Seahawks ate for their pre-game meal. I didn’t even expect the Hawks to win the game and they end up blitzing the Jaguars 41-0 behind the triumphant return of Matt Hasselbeck. Even though he was not at 100%, Hasselbeck still gives the Seahawks a better chance to win than Seneca Wallace. In the 2nd and 3rd quarters, the Hawks scored four touchdowns, while they had only scored three touchdowns in the previous 10 quarters with Wallace leading the way. Hasselbeck played great the entire games, but he was most deadly on first down. He was seven for seven on first down for 121 yards, three touchdowns and a perfect passer rating of 158.3. Overall, he threw four touchdown passes for the first time since turning the trick against the Arizona Cardinals on December 9, 2007. His virtuoso performance against Jacksonville is further proof that the only way that the Hawks have a chance to win is if number eight is running the show.
In addition to Hasselbeck’s return, the most encouraging part of the entire day was that T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Nate Burleson were both huge factors. Burleson has flashed this kind of brilliance before only to recede back into the shadows the following week. I’m hoping that he can carry his tremendous performance into the coming weeks because he is capable of being one of the best receivers in the NFL. I also think that this was T.J.’s coming out party. He had played okay through the first four games, but this performance demonstrated why the Seahawks shelled out the big money to snag him in free agency. He set the tone with the 34-yard touchdown reception in the 2nd quarter and then he showed why he is such an outstanding red zone target with a 13-yard score in the 3rd quarter. I’m hoping that this game is just the beginning of a wonderful partnership between Hasselbeck, Houshmandzadeh and Burleson.
The offense was explosive but the defense might have been even better as they once again flashed their Qwest Field persona. They absolutely shut down the Jaguars’ offense that had come into the game riding a nice little hot streak. Instead, the Hawks gave them no room to maneuver and completely choked the life out of their offense. The Jags only managed 10 first downs the entire game and were a pathetic 2-13 on third down. Their running game was completely neutralized (15 carries for 38 yards) and their passing game was limited to dink and dunk passes. The Hawks played like they normally do at Qwest Field with great aggressiveness and ferocity. They once again fed off the sell-out crowd, which helped the defense finish off the shutout and hold the Jags to under 200 yards of total offense. I’m pretty sure that they will bring the same level of intensity next week, but what happens when we head out on the road again. Is it possible to bottle up a little of the 12th man energy to take on their next trip? I find it so amazing that the Hawks’ defense plays like polar opposites when they are away from Qwest. Why is it so hard to bring the same take no prisoners, gang tackling, spit in your face and talk about your mama attitude on the road? It will be up to Jim Mora and Gus Bradley to solve this conundrum because the fate of the Hawks’ season hangs on it.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Stats of the Week - Week 4
Stat of the week No. 1: Tom Brady has won his last 18 home starts, including playoffs, and is 70-3 as a starter when leading at halftime and 73-1 when entering the fourth quarter with a lead.
Stat of the week No. 2: The Titans became the 4th team since 1975 to start a season at least 0-4 after being a number one seed the previous season. The other three teams are the 2002 Rams, 1999 Broncos and 1987 Giants. None of the previous three teams finished better than 7-9.
Stat of the week No. 3: Matt Cassel, who recently signed one of the richest contracts in football history, averaged 2.4 yards per pass attempt on 32 throws.
Stat of the week No. 4: JaMarcus Russell’s quarterback ratings through four games are 47.6, 46.0, 33.6 and 48.5.
Stat of the week No. 5: The Colts won their 13th straight regular season game, the longest current streak in the NFL, and also won their eighth straight home game.
Bonus Stat of the week: Aaron Rodgers has been sacked 20 times through four games. He is on pace to be sacked 80 times this season, which would break the NFL record of 76 set back in 2002 by David Carr and the Houston Texans.
Stat of the week No. 2: The Titans became the 4th team since 1975 to start a season at least 0-4 after being a number one seed the previous season. The other three teams are the 2002 Rams, 1999 Broncos and 1987 Giants. None of the previous three teams finished better than 7-9.
Stat of the week No. 3: Matt Cassel, who recently signed one of the richest contracts in football history, averaged 2.4 yards per pass attempt on 32 throws.
Stat of the week No. 4: JaMarcus Russell’s quarterback ratings through four games are 47.6, 46.0, 33.6 and 48.5.
Stat of the week No. 5: The Colts won their 13th straight regular season game, the longest current streak in the NFL, and also won their eighth straight home game.
Bonus Stat of the week: Aaron Rodgers has been sacked 20 times through four games. He is on pace to be sacked 80 times this season, which would break the NFL record of 76 set back in 2002 by David Carr and the Houston Texans.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Ravens let one slip away in Foxboro and other NFL thoughts
(1) Has anyone noticed what is going on in Foxboro? The model franchise in the NFL has bounced back from a terrible loss to the New York Jets with two impressive victories over up-and-coming teams from the AFC and NFC. Are we to believe that the Patriots are back? Personally, I’m not ready to crown the New England because they haven’t proven anything on the road yet and, except for the Falcons game, they have been outplayed for most of their other three games. First of all, they did not deserve to beat the Bills, but they did. Secondly, they were completely dominated by the Jets defense in their only road game of the season so far. Finally, the Patriots were very fortunate that the Ravens made so many mistakes that they made the Oakland Raiders look disciplined in comparison.
The Ravens’ day started bad and it got progressively worse. On the opening kickoff, the Ravens fumbled away the football, which led to a quick Stephen Gostkowski field goal. It was the only time that a turnover cost Baltimore points as Joe Flacco threw a killer interception at the end of the first half that would have meant at least three points for the Ravens. In addition to the turnovers, the Ravens shot themselves in the foot repeatedly as they racked up nine huge penalties for 85 yards. No penalties were worse than two roughing the passer penalties, one on Terrell Suggs and one on Haloti Ngata, which kept two different New England drives going, which ultimately ended in touchdowns. The Ngata penalty was even more back-breaking because the Ravens had forced the Patriots to punt until the yellow flags started to fly.
The onslaught of penalties was contributing factors to the Ravens’ inability to keep momentum on their side, but their vaunted defense did not help in this area either. On two different occasions, the Ravens had seemingly seized control of the game only to watch helplessly as Tom Brady and the Patriots snatched the momentum right back. Following a strip-sack by Suggs and a fumble recovery for a touchdown by Dwan Edwards, the Ravens closed to 17-14 and they looked like they were poised to surge past New England. Instead, Brady calmly led the Patriots on a six play, 79 yard touchdown drive, where he completed 4 out 4 attempts for 73 yards and the touchdown. The second false momentum shift occurred when the Ravens scored a touchdown to cut the Patriots lead to 24-21 early in the 4th quarter. Once again, the Ravens defense was unable to get off the field as New England marched 59 yards on 15 gut-wrenching plays culminating in another Gostkowski field goal.
Nevertheless, the Ravens still had multiple opportunities to win the game, including two possessions in the 4th quarter where they were unable to convert on 4th down. The first opportunity came on their second to last possession as they faced 4th and 1 from their own 45-yard line. They tried to run Willis McGahee and he was completely stuffed by Ty Warren. The Ravens were whining about the spot after the game, but they sounded like they were crying over spilled milk. If you can’t convert on a 4th and 1, then you don’t deserve to win the game. The other opportunity came on their last possession of the game. They were facing 4th and four on the Patriots’ 14-yard line and were unable to convert as Flacco’s perfect pass bounced off the chest of Mark Clayton. Good football teams have to make the simple plays on a consistent basis and Clayton failed miserably when he was needed the most.
Ultimately, I think the Patriots are a good team but I’m not ready to anoint them the second coming until they beat a good team on the road. In addition, I want to see them actually win because they were the better team instead of their opponents shooting themselves in the foot.
(2) I think it is time for the NFL to do something completely unprecedented. Roger Goodell and his hench men need to initiate a hostile takeover of the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders are an embarrassment to the City of Oakland and to the National Football League. It is one thing to be terrible on the field, but it is another to have the most dysfunctional front office in the NFL and a revolving door at head coach. The Raiders are no closer to being competitive than they were four or five years ago. Since their Super Bowl appearance following the 2002 season, the Raiders are a combined 25-75 with no more than five victories in any individual season.
In order to achieve such an awful record, the Raiders have been terrible on both sides of the ball. They are currently the worst offense in the NFL and they have been better than the 20th ranked offense on only one occasion (2004 – finished 17th in the NFL). As you can imagine, things have not been much better on defense. Except for a blip on the radar in 2006 when they finished 3rd in total defense despite a 2-14 record, the Raiders have not finished higher than 22nd in total defense. The most shocking element of all their futility over the years is that they have regularly drafted in the top of the first round and they have not been able to unearth a game-changing offensive or defensive talent yet. The jury is still out on whether or not Darrious Heyward-Bey or Darren McFadden will be dynamic offensive performers, but it is becoming increasingly clear that JaMarcus Russell will never live up to his first round billing and might never become a consistent NFL quarterback. He is currently the lowest rated passer in the NFL and has only thrown one touchdown through four games. For his career, he is barely a 50% passer and he has as many touchdowns as interceptions.
The Raiders have tried to make up for their poor draft history by throwing ridiculous contracts at their own marginal free agents and cast-offs from other teams. They awarded a $50.5 million contract to Tommy Kelly even though no one else wanted him at that price. They traded 2nd and 5th round picks for DeAngelo Hall, who was a known clubhouse cancer, and gave him a $70 million contract. Hall ended up playing only eight games for the franchise and earned $8 million for his efforts. The ultimate folly might have been giving Javon Walker a six-year, $55 million contract in March 2008. Since joining the Raiders, Walker has missed 11 of 20 possible games and has only 15 catches.
Things have gotten even more absurd in 2009. The Raiders recently tried to bar television analyst Rich Gannon from the stadium after Gannon publicly criticized the organization. The Raiders relented only after the NFL told them that they had to allow Gannon into the facility to fulfill his color analyst duties. In addition, their head coach might get arrested for allegedly breaking the jaw of one of his assistants. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Napa police have completed their investigation and have forwarded the case file to the district attorney’s office. I can’t think of another franchise where this could happen.
The Raiders are no longer committed to excellence; they are committed to disorder and mediocrity. The once proud franchise will never regain its luster as long as the corpse, better known as Al Davis, controls the team. Since we all know that he will retain control until he is dead and gone, the NFL has to step in before the situation gets even more disturbing.
(3) The Redskins are the worst 2-2 team in the NFL. They have been awful in losses to the New York Giants and the Detroit Lions and they have been lackluster in their wins over the Rams and Buccaneers. You don’t have to look very deep to see how terrible they have been this season. They have not scored more than 17 points in any game despite the fact that their opponents are a combined 5-11 on the season. Their two victories are against two teams that are both winless and they were the unlucky team that broke the Lions’ 19-game losing streak. This past Sunday, if they have been playing any other team than the lowly Buccaneers, they would have been blown out in the first half. The only reason the Skins won this game was that they were facing an inexperienced quarterback surrounded by inexperienced teammates.
On offense, the Skins have struggled in a variety of different areas. Their biggest area of concern is their inability to convert third down situations. Through the first four games of the season, Washington is only converting 35% of these situations, which has led to them losing the time of possession battle in three out of the four games. As a result, their defense has stayed out on the field too long, which has not really hurt them yet but could become a bigger issue when the opponents improve. In addition to their third down struggles, the Skins have been inconsistent in the red zone, which includes going 0-5 inside the 20-yard line against the St. Louis Rams. Their inability to convert on third down and in the red zone is the result of an inconsistent running game. With a nicked up Clinton Portis leading the way, the Skins are 19th in the NFL in rushing. As the season progresses, they are going to need to find a way to improve their running game because they can’t expect to win consistently by converting only 35% on third down.
In the end, I think the Skins are going to struggle mightily all season long. They get the defeated Panthers and Chiefs in the next two weeks, but then their schedule turns brutal. After the next two cupcakes, the Skins have to face Philadelphia (home), Atlanta (road), Denver (home), Dallas (road), Philadelphia (road), New Orleans (home), Oakland (road), New York Giants (home), Dallas (home) and San Diego (road). This is the kind of schedule that might get Jim Zorn a pink slip at the end of the season.
(4) The Tony Romo Experience continues to go sideways in Big D despite the public displays of affection of owner Jerry Jones. Is Jones convinced that Romo is the right guy or does he not have any choice in the matter? Keep in mind that it was Jones that awarded Romo with a huge extension back in 2007 that is scheduled to pay him $7 million this season. Is Jones capable of cutting ties with Romo and admitting he made a mistake? He may have to come to grips with reality because the case against Romo is growing by the day. After a great opening day performance against the Bucs, Romo has been shockingly bad over the last three weeks. He has been at his worst against the better competition, throwing four interceptions and completing only 54% of his passes against the Giants and Broncos.
It is clear to everyone that follows the NFL that Romo is not equipped mentally to step up when the stakes are high. He can put up ridiculous fantasy numbers when nothing is at stake, but when the pressure is amplified Romo plays like he has two hands around his throat. Since becoming the full-time starter in week seven of the 2006 season, Romo has lost three out of the last four games on two different occasions. The most notable slide was last season when Romo’s poor play dragged the entire team into the toilet and out of the playoffs. He had six interceptions down the stretch and barely completed 50% of his attempts in three of the four games. In addition to his poor regular season performance, Romo has been unable to lift the team to victory in either of his playoff appearances. In 2006, Romo played okay against Seattle but famously was unable to control a field goal snap that cost the Cowboys the ballgame. Romo and the Cowboys tried to blame the gaffe on the football but it was an early example of his nerves getting the best of him. In 2007, the Cowboys had the best record in the NFC and allowed the visiting Giants to win in the divisional round on their way to a Super Bowl triumph. Romo was a big reason why the Giants were able to escape with a win. Romo completed exactly 50% of his passes for just over 200 yards and one touchdown. Dallas needed Romo to play like an All-Pro and he didn’t even come close.
Personally, I can’t see Jerry Jones canning his beloved quarterback in the off-season. I think it is much more likely that Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, or both get fired before Romo gets his walking papers.
(5) The Seahawks’ season is at a crossroad. They can’t afford to lose to the Jaguars but they might not have the necessary troops to make it happen. It was clear from watching the game this past Sunday that the Hawks, as they are currently constituted, are no match for the efficient, fast, ball-hawking Colts. In my opinion, the Hawks did not even belong on the same field as Indianapolis. They are two teams going in opposite directions. The Colts have the best player in the NFL and several game-changers on a defensive line that is built to rush the quarterback. First of all, Peyton Manning is the one and only MVP candidate right now. On Sunday, after throwing for 353 yards, Manning became only the 3rd player since 1970 to start the season with four straight 300-yard games (Kurt Warner & Steve Young). He was nearly flawless in the first half completing 17 of 20 attempts for 220 yards and two touchdowns. He was more human in the second half, not because of anything that the Hawks did, but because the Colts took their feet off the pedal a little. Manning and his teammates knew that the Hawks had no chance of mounting a serious comeback, so they didn’t feel like straining themselves too much.
On defense, Dwight Freeney and his compadres on the defensive line harassed Seneca Wallace all game long. Freeney wasn’t even supposed to play, but he had enough energy to register a sack and cause a fumble. In addition to Freeney, Robert Mathis terrorized the Seahawks’ offensive line and contributed three sacks and four other QB pressures. The Colts sacked Wallace five times in total and had him running for his life most of the game. The Hawks offensive line played poorly, but how much can you ask for when the unit is already banged up and then you lose your starting guard, Rob Sims, to an injury during the game. Until the offensive line gets some measure of health, it is going to be tough for the quarterback or the running game to get much rhythm.
In addition, the Hawks did not do themselves any favors. They had several costly penalties and two huge turnovers that stopped their progress all game long. Trailing 7-0 early in the 2nd quarter, the Hawks had a holding penalty that negated a 16-yard completion to John Carlson and an illegal forward pass penalty that eliminated a huge play to T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Both penalties were killers because instead of being inside the 15-yard line of the Colts the Hawks had to punt. Once John Ryan boomed the punt, the game kind of got out of control and the Hawks never recovered.
Even though the offense struggled mightily, I put a lot of the blame for this loss on the shoulders of the defense. When is this defense going to show up and play to the level of their talent? The only time that Peyton Manning touched the ground was when he was tying his shoes. The Colts equipment manager doesn’t even have to wash Peyton’s jersey for the next game. The entire NFL knows that the only way to beat Peyton is to put pressure on him and hit him a few times. The Hawks decided to use silence and hand signals in an attempt to confuse Manning instead of using the blueprint created by the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers. The Colts were extremely efficient again as they needed only 63 plays to rack up 431 yards of total offense. They converted over 60% of their third down opportunities and averaged nearly nine yards per pass. The Hawks defense was absolutely no match for Manning and the Colts.
Where do the Hawks go from here? First of all, they need to find a way to beat the Jaguars at Qwest Field on Sunday. Another loss and the season is probably over and done with. Secondly, our key guys have to get healthy. We may never see Walter Jones in uniform again, but we have to get Matt Hasselbeck, Marcus Trufant, Leroy Hill and the other injured players back as soon as possible. In the end, I’m not sure it matters much what happens because they are already effectively three games out of first place and their schedule does not get any easier.
The Ravens’ day started bad and it got progressively worse. On the opening kickoff, the Ravens fumbled away the football, which led to a quick Stephen Gostkowski field goal. It was the only time that a turnover cost Baltimore points as Joe Flacco threw a killer interception at the end of the first half that would have meant at least three points for the Ravens. In addition to the turnovers, the Ravens shot themselves in the foot repeatedly as they racked up nine huge penalties for 85 yards. No penalties were worse than two roughing the passer penalties, one on Terrell Suggs and one on Haloti Ngata, which kept two different New England drives going, which ultimately ended in touchdowns. The Ngata penalty was even more back-breaking because the Ravens had forced the Patriots to punt until the yellow flags started to fly.
The onslaught of penalties was contributing factors to the Ravens’ inability to keep momentum on their side, but their vaunted defense did not help in this area either. On two different occasions, the Ravens had seemingly seized control of the game only to watch helplessly as Tom Brady and the Patriots snatched the momentum right back. Following a strip-sack by Suggs and a fumble recovery for a touchdown by Dwan Edwards, the Ravens closed to 17-14 and they looked like they were poised to surge past New England. Instead, Brady calmly led the Patriots on a six play, 79 yard touchdown drive, where he completed 4 out 4 attempts for 73 yards and the touchdown. The second false momentum shift occurred when the Ravens scored a touchdown to cut the Patriots lead to 24-21 early in the 4th quarter. Once again, the Ravens defense was unable to get off the field as New England marched 59 yards on 15 gut-wrenching plays culminating in another Gostkowski field goal.
Nevertheless, the Ravens still had multiple opportunities to win the game, including two possessions in the 4th quarter where they were unable to convert on 4th down. The first opportunity came on their second to last possession as they faced 4th and 1 from their own 45-yard line. They tried to run Willis McGahee and he was completely stuffed by Ty Warren. The Ravens were whining about the spot after the game, but they sounded like they were crying over spilled milk. If you can’t convert on a 4th and 1, then you don’t deserve to win the game. The other opportunity came on their last possession of the game. They were facing 4th and four on the Patriots’ 14-yard line and were unable to convert as Flacco’s perfect pass bounced off the chest of Mark Clayton. Good football teams have to make the simple plays on a consistent basis and Clayton failed miserably when he was needed the most.
Ultimately, I think the Patriots are a good team but I’m not ready to anoint them the second coming until they beat a good team on the road. In addition, I want to see them actually win because they were the better team instead of their opponents shooting themselves in the foot.
(2) I think it is time for the NFL to do something completely unprecedented. Roger Goodell and his hench men need to initiate a hostile takeover of the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders are an embarrassment to the City of Oakland and to the National Football League. It is one thing to be terrible on the field, but it is another to have the most dysfunctional front office in the NFL and a revolving door at head coach. The Raiders are no closer to being competitive than they were four or five years ago. Since their Super Bowl appearance following the 2002 season, the Raiders are a combined 25-75 with no more than five victories in any individual season.
In order to achieve such an awful record, the Raiders have been terrible on both sides of the ball. They are currently the worst offense in the NFL and they have been better than the 20th ranked offense on only one occasion (2004 – finished 17th in the NFL). As you can imagine, things have not been much better on defense. Except for a blip on the radar in 2006 when they finished 3rd in total defense despite a 2-14 record, the Raiders have not finished higher than 22nd in total defense. The most shocking element of all their futility over the years is that they have regularly drafted in the top of the first round and they have not been able to unearth a game-changing offensive or defensive talent yet. The jury is still out on whether or not Darrious Heyward-Bey or Darren McFadden will be dynamic offensive performers, but it is becoming increasingly clear that JaMarcus Russell will never live up to his first round billing and might never become a consistent NFL quarterback. He is currently the lowest rated passer in the NFL and has only thrown one touchdown through four games. For his career, he is barely a 50% passer and he has as many touchdowns as interceptions.
The Raiders have tried to make up for their poor draft history by throwing ridiculous contracts at their own marginal free agents and cast-offs from other teams. They awarded a $50.5 million contract to Tommy Kelly even though no one else wanted him at that price. They traded 2nd and 5th round picks for DeAngelo Hall, who was a known clubhouse cancer, and gave him a $70 million contract. Hall ended up playing only eight games for the franchise and earned $8 million for his efforts. The ultimate folly might have been giving Javon Walker a six-year, $55 million contract in March 2008. Since joining the Raiders, Walker has missed 11 of 20 possible games and has only 15 catches.
Things have gotten even more absurd in 2009. The Raiders recently tried to bar television analyst Rich Gannon from the stadium after Gannon publicly criticized the organization. The Raiders relented only after the NFL told them that they had to allow Gannon into the facility to fulfill his color analyst duties. In addition, their head coach might get arrested for allegedly breaking the jaw of one of his assistants. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Napa police have completed their investigation and have forwarded the case file to the district attorney’s office. I can’t think of another franchise where this could happen.
The Raiders are no longer committed to excellence; they are committed to disorder and mediocrity. The once proud franchise will never regain its luster as long as the corpse, better known as Al Davis, controls the team. Since we all know that he will retain control until he is dead and gone, the NFL has to step in before the situation gets even more disturbing.
(3) The Redskins are the worst 2-2 team in the NFL. They have been awful in losses to the New York Giants and the Detroit Lions and they have been lackluster in their wins over the Rams and Buccaneers. You don’t have to look very deep to see how terrible they have been this season. They have not scored more than 17 points in any game despite the fact that their opponents are a combined 5-11 on the season. Their two victories are against two teams that are both winless and they were the unlucky team that broke the Lions’ 19-game losing streak. This past Sunday, if they have been playing any other team than the lowly Buccaneers, they would have been blown out in the first half. The only reason the Skins won this game was that they were facing an inexperienced quarterback surrounded by inexperienced teammates.
On offense, the Skins have struggled in a variety of different areas. Their biggest area of concern is their inability to convert third down situations. Through the first four games of the season, Washington is only converting 35% of these situations, which has led to them losing the time of possession battle in three out of the four games. As a result, their defense has stayed out on the field too long, which has not really hurt them yet but could become a bigger issue when the opponents improve. In addition to their third down struggles, the Skins have been inconsistent in the red zone, which includes going 0-5 inside the 20-yard line against the St. Louis Rams. Their inability to convert on third down and in the red zone is the result of an inconsistent running game. With a nicked up Clinton Portis leading the way, the Skins are 19th in the NFL in rushing. As the season progresses, they are going to need to find a way to improve their running game because they can’t expect to win consistently by converting only 35% on third down.
In the end, I think the Skins are going to struggle mightily all season long. They get the defeated Panthers and Chiefs in the next two weeks, but then their schedule turns brutal. After the next two cupcakes, the Skins have to face Philadelphia (home), Atlanta (road), Denver (home), Dallas (road), Philadelphia (road), New Orleans (home), Oakland (road), New York Giants (home), Dallas (home) and San Diego (road). This is the kind of schedule that might get Jim Zorn a pink slip at the end of the season.
(4) The Tony Romo Experience continues to go sideways in Big D despite the public displays of affection of owner Jerry Jones. Is Jones convinced that Romo is the right guy or does he not have any choice in the matter? Keep in mind that it was Jones that awarded Romo with a huge extension back in 2007 that is scheduled to pay him $7 million this season. Is Jones capable of cutting ties with Romo and admitting he made a mistake? He may have to come to grips with reality because the case against Romo is growing by the day. After a great opening day performance against the Bucs, Romo has been shockingly bad over the last three weeks. He has been at his worst against the better competition, throwing four interceptions and completing only 54% of his passes against the Giants and Broncos.
It is clear to everyone that follows the NFL that Romo is not equipped mentally to step up when the stakes are high. He can put up ridiculous fantasy numbers when nothing is at stake, but when the pressure is amplified Romo plays like he has two hands around his throat. Since becoming the full-time starter in week seven of the 2006 season, Romo has lost three out of the last four games on two different occasions. The most notable slide was last season when Romo’s poor play dragged the entire team into the toilet and out of the playoffs. He had six interceptions down the stretch and barely completed 50% of his attempts in three of the four games. In addition to his poor regular season performance, Romo has been unable to lift the team to victory in either of his playoff appearances. In 2006, Romo played okay against Seattle but famously was unable to control a field goal snap that cost the Cowboys the ballgame. Romo and the Cowboys tried to blame the gaffe on the football but it was an early example of his nerves getting the best of him. In 2007, the Cowboys had the best record in the NFC and allowed the visiting Giants to win in the divisional round on their way to a Super Bowl triumph. Romo was a big reason why the Giants were able to escape with a win. Romo completed exactly 50% of his passes for just over 200 yards and one touchdown. Dallas needed Romo to play like an All-Pro and he didn’t even come close.
Personally, I can’t see Jerry Jones canning his beloved quarterback in the off-season. I think it is much more likely that Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, or both get fired before Romo gets his walking papers.
(5) The Seahawks’ season is at a crossroad. They can’t afford to lose to the Jaguars but they might not have the necessary troops to make it happen. It was clear from watching the game this past Sunday that the Hawks, as they are currently constituted, are no match for the efficient, fast, ball-hawking Colts. In my opinion, the Hawks did not even belong on the same field as Indianapolis. They are two teams going in opposite directions. The Colts have the best player in the NFL and several game-changers on a defensive line that is built to rush the quarterback. First of all, Peyton Manning is the one and only MVP candidate right now. On Sunday, after throwing for 353 yards, Manning became only the 3rd player since 1970 to start the season with four straight 300-yard games (Kurt Warner & Steve Young). He was nearly flawless in the first half completing 17 of 20 attempts for 220 yards and two touchdowns. He was more human in the second half, not because of anything that the Hawks did, but because the Colts took their feet off the pedal a little. Manning and his teammates knew that the Hawks had no chance of mounting a serious comeback, so they didn’t feel like straining themselves too much.
On defense, Dwight Freeney and his compadres on the defensive line harassed Seneca Wallace all game long. Freeney wasn’t even supposed to play, but he had enough energy to register a sack and cause a fumble. In addition to Freeney, Robert Mathis terrorized the Seahawks’ offensive line and contributed three sacks and four other QB pressures. The Colts sacked Wallace five times in total and had him running for his life most of the game. The Hawks offensive line played poorly, but how much can you ask for when the unit is already banged up and then you lose your starting guard, Rob Sims, to an injury during the game. Until the offensive line gets some measure of health, it is going to be tough for the quarterback or the running game to get much rhythm.
In addition, the Hawks did not do themselves any favors. They had several costly penalties and two huge turnovers that stopped their progress all game long. Trailing 7-0 early in the 2nd quarter, the Hawks had a holding penalty that negated a 16-yard completion to John Carlson and an illegal forward pass penalty that eliminated a huge play to T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Both penalties were killers because instead of being inside the 15-yard line of the Colts the Hawks had to punt. Once John Ryan boomed the punt, the game kind of got out of control and the Hawks never recovered.
Even though the offense struggled mightily, I put a lot of the blame for this loss on the shoulders of the defense. When is this defense going to show up and play to the level of their talent? The only time that Peyton Manning touched the ground was when he was tying his shoes. The Colts equipment manager doesn’t even have to wash Peyton’s jersey for the next game. The entire NFL knows that the only way to beat Peyton is to put pressure on him and hit him a few times. The Hawks decided to use silence and hand signals in an attempt to confuse Manning instead of using the blueprint created by the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the San Diego Chargers. The Colts were extremely efficient again as they needed only 63 plays to rack up 431 yards of total offense. They converted over 60% of their third down opportunities and averaged nearly nine yards per pass. The Hawks defense was absolutely no match for Manning and the Colts.
Where do the Hawks go from here? First of all, they need to find a way to beat the Jaguars at Qwest Field on Sunday. Another loss and the season is probably over and done with. Secondly, our key guys have to get healthy. We may never see Walter Jones in uniform again, but we have to get Matt Hasselbeck, Marcus Trufant, Leroy Hill and the other injured players back as soon as possible. In the end, I’m not sure it matters much what happens because they are already effectively three games out of first place and their schedule does not get any easier.
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