Quick Hits - Week Five

Brief observations about every NFL game except for the Thursday Night game and the Seahawks game.

New Orleans 26 - Chicago 18
This was an impressive victory for the Saints.  Most of the remaining skeptics pointed to the Saints' relatively weak schedule and their less than impressive victory, on the road, over Tampa Bay as reasons to doubt their undefeated start.  After beating the Bears on the road, the skeptics don't really have much ammunition remaining to not believe that the Saints are for real.  New Orleans won this game by playing stout defense in the first half (forced 4 punts and one turnover) to build a 20-7 lead and then using a ball control offense in the second half to play keep away from the Bears (only 3 2nd half possessions for the Bears).  This game is further proof that the Saints have their most balanced team since Drew Brees arrived in town.  They still have enough playmakers on offense to win a shootout, but they now have a defense that can win a grinder as well.

Cincinnati 13 - New England 6
The Bengals are one of the biggest enigmas in the NFL right now.  In the last three weeks, they have beaten Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, but in the middle they lost to Brian Hoyer.  The major reason for the up-and-down play has been inconsistency on offense, especially at the quarterback position.  Andy Dalton still hasn't taken the necessary steps forward that will elevate the Bengals from a fringe playoff contender to a legitimate Super Bowl contender.  This team has the talent on offense and defense to go deep into the playoffs, but the play at quarterback is holding them back.

Green Bay 22 - Detroit 9
The Lions lost this game before they even stepped on the field due to the last minute scratch of Megatron from the active line-up.  It was the first time in Matthew Stafford's five-year career that he played without the services of one of the most imposing wide receivers in the NFL.  Stafford better hope that Megatron's absence was a one-week deal because the Lions' offense looks completely different without him putting pressure on opposing defenses.  With Nate Burleson also out due to injury, it appeared to me that Stafford didn't really trust the receivers at his disposable, which led to him holding the football longer than planned and contributed to the five sacks registered by the Packers.  Megatron is a once in a lifetime talent, but the Detroit coaching staff has to figure out a way to still be a competent offense when he is either limited by the defensive scheme or unavailable entirely.

Kansas City 26 - Tennessee 17
It is too bad that Jake Locker was hurt last week because this match-up would have been a lot more entertaining had he been in the line-up.  Unfortunately, for Titans' fans, they can expect to see more putrid displays of football over the next few weeks as Locker recovers from a hip injury.  The big takeaway is that Ryan Fitzpatrick is not capable of being a consistent starting quarterback in the NFL.  He was unable to sustain drives primarily due to 20 incompletions as well as the first two interceptions thrown by a Titans' QB this season.  Sunday marked the sixth time in his last seven starts that he failed to complete at least 60% of his attempts.  Now he has to go on the road to face the Seahawks, which forced him into three turnovers and a 55% completion rate last season.  The Titans' promising season is quickly going down the drain.  The only hope is that there is a enough time for Locker to save the day when he gets healthy.

St. Louis 34 - Jacksonville 20
The Jaguars are the NFL's version of Stuart Smalley.  Every team that plays them is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people like them.  The Rams were fresh off three consecutive beatings, but they were feeling a lot better about themselves after easily dispatching the worst team in the AFC.  They hadn't been able to run the football the entire season, but they racked up over 140 yards rushing, which doubled their next best output of the year.  Their much maligned defense forced a season high three turnovers.  The Rams will come back to Earth pretty quickly, but for one week they can feel like their season is completely hopeless.

Baltimore 26 - Miami 23
Another mediocre performance by Joe Flacco gets rewarded with a victory because the Miami Dolphins were somehow more incompetent than the Ravens.  I don't understand how the Dolphins' coaching staff can justify running the football only 11 times when the game was either tied or within one score until early in the fourth quarter.  I would agree that they haven't been a good running team all year, but only nine carries for your two running backs doesn't seem sufficient.  The result was Ryan Tannehill being asked to do too much, which led to a season high 19 incompletions and gave the Ravens ample opportunities to apply pressure. Ultimately, the last two weeks have exposed the Dolphins' 3-0 start to the light of day.  When they are not getting all of the breaks, they don't do anything well enough to win consistently.  They had a great start, but the reality is that they are much closer to being a .500 team than being a team that wins 11 or 12 games.

Philadelphia 36 - NY Giants 21
The litany of woes for the Giants is unbelievable.  They have the worst rushing offense in the NFL.  They are allowing the most points per game of any defense.  They have an NFL-worst turnover differential of -13. They have thrown a league-leading 13 interceptions.  They just earned the ignominious honor of being the second team in NFL history to start the season with five consecutive games allowing more than 30 points and committing at least three turnovers.  They are the worst team in the NFC and are giving Jacksonville a run for their money for the title of being the worst team in the entire league.  I would actually give the Giants the edge because the Jags don't have a two-time Super Bowl MVP playing quarterback for them.

Arizona 22 - Carolina 6
Ron Rivera is the anti-Andy Reid.  Despite what fans in Philadelphia would tell you, Reid was actually a pretty decent football coach.  His coaching talent was most pronounced after bye weeks when the Eagles had a 13-1 record following a week off.  Unfortunately, Rivera is doing his best to prove that he is no Andy Reid and that he deserves to get fired.  After the loss to Arizona, the Panthers fell to 0-3 under Rivera after a bye week.  More damning is the fact that the Panthers have been outscored by an average of 16 points in those three games.  Let me get this straight!  Rivera gets extra time to prepare his team and they are even less competitive than they are on a week to week basis.  I would guess that the calls for Rivera's head on a platter have renewed with vigor.

Denver 51 - Dallas 48
The pinnacle of an exciting weekend of football was this shoot out between the Broncos and Cowboys in the Palace in Dallas.  Both quarterbacks posted Total QBRs over 90, which has happened only once prior since 2006.  While Romo pleased his fantasy owners by becoming the fifth quarterback to throw for over 500 yards and five touchdowns, Manning was able to escape with the victory thanks to tremendous clock management at the end of the game.  Perhaps unfairly, Romo's outstanding performance was spoiled by a fourth quarter interception that set up the Broncos deep in Dallas territory and eventually led to the game-winning field goal from Matt Prater.  It was the 23rd fourth quarter interception of Romo's career and the Cowboys have lost eight straight games in which he has thrown a pick in the final quarter.  It was another failure for Romo's critics to add to their quivers.  Although he has outstanding statistics and has largely been a successful quarterback, Romo is largely defined by what he has failed to do rather than what he has done.

San Francisco 34 - Houston 3
This game was the opposite of the Denver and Dallas barn-burner.  The biggest blowout of the weekend might also be one of the last stands for Matt Schaub as the starting quarterback for the Texans.  He threw a pick-six for an NFL record fourth consecutive game and the rout was on.  Lost in all of the talk about Schaub's future was the putrid passing performance from Colin Kaepernick.  If you take away his 64-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis, Kaepernick had only five completions for 49 yards.  He has now completed less than 50% of his attempts three different times this season and has completed more than 15 passes just once.  In addition, he is not running effectively either.  He has run for more than 22 yards just once.  The Niners are winning in spite of his performance, but they won't be making a second consecutive appearance in the Super Bowl if he doesn't start to turn things around.

Oakland 27 - San Diego 17
Maybe just maybe, Terrelle Pryor is the quarterback of the future for the Oakland Raiders.  If nothing else, he is definitely their quarterback for now because they dumped Matt Flynn on the waiver wire after one uninspiring start.  However, I really believe that Pryor has a chance to succeed in the East Bay.  He definitely has all of the physical talent to make plays at the quarterback position.  There were countless times on Sunday evening when Pryor turned a sure sack into a positive play.  In even better news Oakland fans, it looks like he is developing as a pocket passer as well.  According to ESPN Stats & Info, Pryor has completed 72.7% of his passes from inside the pocket, which is the fourth best number in the NFL and better than Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Aaron Rodgers.

NY Jets 30 - Atlanta 28
Put a fork in the Falcons because they are done.  In order to keep hope alive for this season, they had to beat the Jets at home, but Geno Smith played one of the best road games any rookie has every played leading New York to a walk-off victory in the Georgia Dome.  With Roddy White and Steven Jackson already ailing, the news got even worse for the Atlanta offense on Tuesday as word got out that star receiver Julio Jones might miss the rest of the season due to a foot injury.  With all of injuries and adversity swirling around the team, I don't see how they can get things together quickly enough to make a playoff run.  The two bigger questions are related to the future of Mike Smith and Tony Gonzalez.  Will the season get so bad that Falcons' management would consider parting ways with Smith?  Will they do Gonzalez a solid and ship him to a contender?  The Falcons have enjoyed a lot of success under Smith and Matt Ryan, but they will be getting a taste of how the other side lives this year.