Stat of the week No. 1: The New Orleans defense has more touchdowns (7) than the Cleveland offense (5) and Kansas City does not have a rushing touchdown this season.
Stat of the week No. 2: Torry Holt became the 10th player in NFL history with 900+ career receptions and passed Steve Largent for 11th place on the NFL’s all-time receiving yardage list.
Stat of the week No. 3: Peyton Manning attempted 40 passes in the first half to become the first QB since Rich Gannon in 2002 to throw at least 40 passes in the first half.
Stat of the week No. 4: Arizona, the most explosive team in the 2008 playoffs, has two gains of more than 27 yards in 2009. Jerheme Urban had a 40-yard reception against the 49ers in week one and Anquan Boldin had a 44-yard reception against the Giants in week seven.
Stat of the week No. 5: Cedric Benson became the second player (Jerome Bettis) to rush for more than 100 yards twice against the Ravens in the same season.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Packers get embarrassed and other NFL thoughts
(1) The Green Bay Packers are not a playoff team. A playoff team does not lose to a team riding an 11-game losing streak, whether at home or on the road. A playoff team doesn’t blow a 28-17 fourth quarter lead. A playoff team doesn’t make repeated offensive and special teams mistakes that allow a terrible team to hang around. The Packers should be ashamed of how they played on Sunday. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised considering how mediocre they have played all season. They have four wins because they have played terrible teams like St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit. The only decent team they have beaten were the Chicago Bears and they needed Jay Cutler to play like a high school freshman to get that done. I don’t think anyone imagined that they would lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after what they had done to the rest of their JV schedule. With the rest of their schedule looking pretty brutal, the Packers face an uphill battle to reach the playoffs.
If they have any intention of playing after week 17, the Packers have to shore up their pass protection. After getting sacked six times against the Bucs, Aaron Rodgers has now been sacked a league-leading 37 times. At this rate, the Packers are still on pace to establish a new NFL record for the number of times a quarterback has been sacked in one season. It is one thing to allow an elite pass rusher like Jared Allen to have his way with you, but it is an entirely different thing to allow the lowly Buccaneers to pressure your quarterback consistently throughout the game. Interestingly, the Bucs applied the most pressure when they needed it most, in the fourth quarter. They got to Rodgers four times in the final quarter, which provided a lot of the momentum that they needed to complete the comeback. As a result of the onslaught on the quarterback, Rodgers didn’t even complete 50% of his attempts and threw three passes to the other side. The final interception was the ultimate dagger, as the Bucs returned it for a touchdown that sealed the victory for the creamsicle look-alikes. Rodgers may have entered the game as the league’s highest rated passer, but the Bucs made him look like Matthew Stafford. Honestly, Rodgers has been a product of his weak schedule. He has been unable to carry the Packers to any significant win and now they have to regroup and find a way to beat the red-hot Dallas Cowboys in week 10.
They will have no shot to beat the Cowboys if their special teams continue to make mistakes and give up great field position. The first blunder occurred early in the second quarter when Tampa Bay blocked a punt and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown. It is especially damaging to allow this type of score because it gives the lesser team the belief that they can win. This is how upsets happen. Normally, the weaker team is unable to win games in the conventional manner, so they have to hope that the stronger team makes mistakes that will allow them to score cheap points. The Bucs used this recipe to perfection because the Packers made mistake after mistake. The second blunder came after the Packers took a seemingly insurmountable 28-17 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the game. On the ensuing kickoff, the Bucs’ Clifton Smith returned the kick for 83 yards that set up a short touchdown drive sparking the comeback. It was clear to me, based on the Packers’ lapses, that they were not focused on the Buccaneers. They probably thought they would be able to waltz in to Raymond James Stadium and roll Tampa Bay like they were the Florida Gators playing Central Florida. I kind of suspected that this might happen, which is why I said before the game that this might be the Bucs’ best chance for a victory in 2009. You have to tip your hat to Tampa Bay because they didn’t play great but they made all the big plays.
(2) After winning their second straight game, the Tennessee Titans have found new hope in the right arm of Vince Young. Makes you wonder if Coach Jeff Fisher should have made the switch sooner instead of stubbornly sticking with the struggling Kerry Collins through a brutal 0-6 start. Young’s numbers are not jumping off the page, but it is times like these that we shouldn’t put so much stock in the raw numbers. For all his faults, Young seems to have a knack for winning football games. He is far from being a polished NFL quarterback, but he still has a 20-11 record in his short career. The big thing is that he appears to have learned something from watching Collins lead the team for the last 1.5 years. I think that he has been told that he is so great for so long that it didn’t hurt for this ego to take a bit of a hit. If the Titans can keep the good vibe going, they certainly have some winnable games coming up that might turn their season around.
They have won the last two weeks because they have gone back to playing the way that Coach Fisher envisioned they would play at the beginning of the season. The Fisher recipe for success, which was followed precisely in 2008, is to limit the mistakes from the quarterback position and rely on a strong running game and stout defense. The last two weeks, Young has completed nearly 73% of his attempts for 297 yards and one touchdown passing and rushing. The most important number is that Young has not turned the ball over once. While his numbers are far from rivaling Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, he seems to be channeling the elite quarterbacks in the NFL when the Titans are in most need of a big play. After a Chris Johnson 81-yard touchdown was reversed on review, the Titans could have hung their heads and accepted defeat. Instead, Young led Tennessee down the field, which included a clutch completion to Justin Gage for 33 yards that set-up a short Johnson touchdown. The most significant thing about the drive was that Coach Fisher decided to go for the touchdown on fourth and inches instead of taking the sure three points. The decision to go for it seems to indicate that Fisher has a great deal of confidence in Young and the positive change that Young has brought to the offense.
In addition to the surprising play from Young, the Titans have got back to running the football with consistency. They rolled up 305 yards last week against the Jaguars and followed up that huge performance with 152 yards against the 49ers. The Titans have experienced this running resurgence mostly on the legs of Chris Johnson, who broke the 200-yard plateau last week and rushed the ball a career high 25 times this week. I’m not sure what the Titans have done differently the last two weeks except play with more confidence. It doesn’t matter how much time you prepare or what type of game plan you attempt to execute if your players are not convinced that they are going to be successful. It appears that the Titans are not only prepared to focus on the running game, but they are convinced that the running game can lead the way to victories. I definitely think that the Titans have something good going, which could ultimately make this season much more positive than the train wreck that it was starting to look like. If nothing else, Tennessee might finally figure out whether or not Vince Young is the quarterback of the future. If their answer is yes, then I have to think that the future is bright in Music City.
(3) If a football team wins their fourth game of the season, but there is no one there to see it did it actually happen. I ask the question because the Jaguars beat the Chiefs for their fourth win of the season in front of an announced crowd of 45, 516, which guaranteed that the game was blacked out in Jacksonville as well as all secondary markets. The mediocre attendance has been a recurrent problem in Jacksonville, where local fans have only been able to watch home games if they were among the thousands inside Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. It doesn’t look like things will improve anytime soon as the Jaguars are expecting that all of their 2009 home games will be blacked out. If this dire prediction comes to fruition, it will mean that the Jaguars would have had nearly the same number of blackouts in 2009 that the entire NFL experienced in 2008. Meanwhile, the World’s Largest Cocktail Party was played in the same stadium in front of 84,000+ fanatics and required the addition of temporary seating. The Jags have lost 17,000 season ticket holders this season and are playing to only 68% capacity, which is the league’s lowest figure. They are actually playing in front of smaller crowds than the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders, who both have a clearly inferior on-field product to showcase.
The million dollar question in NFL circles is if Jacksonville can reverse the giant sucking sound and find a way to make the franchise viable for the long-term. It certainly doesn’t help when the City of Los Angeles just cleared all of the final hurdles to build a 75,000 seat stadium for the express purpose of bringing back the NFL. Anyone with half a brain can see that the Jaguars are the leading candidate for relocation. Jacksonville is one of the NFL’s smaller markets, which puts them in the same company as Green Bay, New Orleans and Buffalo, but, unlike those franchises, the Jags have been unsuccessful at broadening their fan base regionally. In addition, Jacksonville has been hit pretty hard by the downturn in the economy and is currently experiencing over 10% unemployment. Also, Jacksonville, with only two companies in the Fortune 500 (both outside the top 200), does not have the significant corporate presence to help prop up ticket sales when the normal fan is unable to pull their own weight. In hindsight, it was probably a reach to place an NFL franchise in a market like Jacksonville. They scored an upset when they were granted the team in 1993, but they need to recapture the interest of the city if they hope to keep the team around. Owner Wayne Weaver is already dropping hints about playing a game or two in Orlando, which is the second largest television market without an NFL franchise. In addition, the sharks smell blood in the water and are swimming around trying to see if Weaver is willing to sell out.
As I write this, a group of Los Angeles big wigs has laid out a plan to contact several teams with stadium or revenue issues to determine their interest level in relocating to the City of Angels. One of those teams will definitely be Jacksonville along with Buffalo, San Diego, Minnesota, Oakland, St. Louis and San Francisco. The NFL is the richest of North America’s professional leagues, but flux is a regular part of the business. In a span of five years, seven franchises were created or moved: Carolina and Jacksonville were born as expansion teams; the Raiders, Rams, Browns and Oilers all moved; and Cleveland got a new franchise. Also, according to the L.A. ownership group, they have already had 3,146 inquiries about luxury suites (there are only 176 in the proposed stadium), 22,000 inquiries about club seats and 105,000 inquiries about season tickets. With 15 million people living within one hour of the proposed stadium, it is only a matter of time before a team calls Los Angeles home once again. My money is on Jacksonville being that team.
(4) A team that is going nowhere in terms of relocation as well as in the standings is the New York Giants. The Giants have now completely squandered their first 5-0 start since 1990 with their fourth consecutive loss. In my mind, the reversal of fortune for the Giants is the result of their schedule turning much more difficult the last four weeks. Through the first five weeks of the season, the Giants faced only one team that currently has a winning record and the collective records of their five opponents is 12-28. The last four weeks, New York has faced three division leaders whose collective record was 23-9. The Giants were able to overcome their own mistakes in the early part of the season, but now the chickens are coming home to roost. The bye week could not have come at a better time for New York because they have to sort out issues with their preparation, game planning and on-field performance.
It would be simplistic to blame their demise on the poor performances from Eli Manning over the last four weeks. Nevertheless, it is fair to give Manning his share of the blame because, for better or worse, he is the leader of the team. During their hot start, Manning looked like an MVP candidate. He averaged 242 yards passing with a 64% completion percentage, eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. He was playing so well that I was even suckered into believing that Manning had turned the corner and assumed his rightful place in the pantheon of elite NFL quarterbacks. The highlight of his season so far was his cool and calm annihilation of the Cowboys secondary in week two. Unfortunately, things have come undone for Eli and the Giants over the last four weeks. Before a solid performance against the Chargers (25-33, 215 yards, 2 TDs, 0 Int), Eli had just completed a stretch of three games where he had completed less than 50% of his attempts and thrown twice the number of interceptions as touchdowns. As you can imagine, the Giants were effectively destroyed by those three opponents. New York cannot afford for Eli to mismanage a game because their defense has not been playing well recently.
The Giants defense has been roasted over the last few weeks before playing fairly well against San Diego. They gave only 14.2 points during their five game winning streak, but have now given up an average of 33.7 points during their current losing streak. These numbers are pretty indicative of the fact that the G-Men played four of the worst offensive football teams in the NFL in the early part of their season and they now have faced some pretty competent football teams recently. The dirty little secret about the Giants is how terribly they have performed in red zone defense. They have given up touchdowns an astounding 22 times in the 29 opportunities that opposing offenses have ventured inside the 20-yard line. Even the Chiefs, Raiders, Buccaneers and Redskins are five of eight in red zone opportunities against the Giants. I really think the Giants defense is missing their defensive coordinator like the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens seemed to be missing their former coordinators. When coaches get poached by other teams, there will always be some sort of transition regardless of where the new coach comes from. It looks like the Giants have not made a successful transition yet. Another contributing factor might be the new faces that the Giants brought in to bolster their defensive depth. They signed the likes of Rocky Bernard, Chris Canty and Michael Boley and these guys might not be great fits or they may be taking longer to catch onto the schemes implemented by the coaching staff. It also should be noted that the Giants have lost some key contributors on defense to injuries. They just got back Boley and Canty for the Chargers game and the defense actually played markedly better than the previous three weeks. Nevertheless, the return of Canty and Boley was not able to stop the Chargers from marching 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds remaining. As I mentioned earlier, the bye week should provide a nice opportunity for the Giants to reassess their defensive resources and how to deploy them more effectively.
(5) Before I get too deep into analyzing the Seahawks’ victory over the Detroit Lions, let me just start by saying that it felt good to get a win no matter how ugly the process was to get there. Nevertheless, the Hawks should not feel too good about themselves after having to scratch and claw their way to a win over a team that entered the game 1-23 over the last two seasons. This win felt more like a stay of execution. I still don’t think the Hawks are a very good team and a narrow victory over Detroit isn’t going to change my opinion. I was hoping to see the Hawks dominate the Lions like they dominated the Rams and Jaguars earlier in the season. Instead, the Lions had the ball late in the game with a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown. In the end, the Hawks got it done and that is all that really matters in the NFL because you don’t get credit for style points.
Seattle better thank their lucky stars that they had Matt Hasselbeck at quarterback instead of Seneca Wallace. Without Hasselbeck to save the day, the 12th Man would be choosing a spot on the Aurora Bridge to jump from. After Seattle fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter, Coach Jim Mora threw caution to the wind and went all in with his quarterback. The result was a 32-3 run that included Hasselbeck completing a franchise record 39 passes while he set a franchise record for career completions. At one point, Hasselbeck completed 15 passes in a row. Only Warren Moon, with 17 consecutive completions, has done better as a Seahawk. Most of his passes were of the dink and dunk variety, but Hasselbeck showed why he is a tough son of a gun and a three-time Pro Bowl participant. He also continued to demonstrate why he is the heart and soul of the football team. If the Hawks had 10-15 other guys with the determination and leadership ability of Matt Hasselbeck, we wouldn’t be lamenting a 3-5 start to the season. Unfortunately, the Hawks are a flawed team, whose imperfections were on display for the whole world to see. They still make too many mistakes and they still cannot run the ball with any consistency. On Sunday, they turned the ball over on their first two plays from scrimmage, which resulted in 14 points for the Lions. I started to have flashbacks to the Arizona game. They also flubbed an extra point conversion when the holder was unable to handle the snap. In addition, their running game continues to be a disaster. They only managed 55 yards on 18 carries against a team that allows nearly 110 yards rushing per game and nearly five yards per carry. In my opinion, it is time to end the Julius Jones experiment and allow the young guys, Justin Forsett and Louis Rankin, to carry the rock for the rest of the season. I’m a firm believer that experience should not be the only reason that someone gets to continue to play. If Jones is not getting it done, then it won’t hurt to see if a fresher set of legs can jumpstart the running game. We all know that Hasselbeck will not survive dropping back 51 times against the Arizona Cardinals, so the Hawks better find some answers on the ground.
Ultimately, the Hawks won this game because they were playing the Detroit Lions. Most of the NFL would have finished off the Hawks after being staked to a 17-0 lead. For God’s sake, we all saw what a good team does with a huge lead when the Cardinals stymied the Hawks a few weeks ago. The defense played fairly well for most of the game but I can’t even give them too much credit when you factor in that they were playing a rookie quarterback. They intercepted five passes but most of them were gift wrapped with a huge bow on top. They allowed over five yards per carry on the ground and they didn’t generate any more pressure than they did the week before in getting trounced by the Cowboys. This kind of defensive effort will get you by against the dregs of the NFL, but it is not playoff caliber. The Hawks have to prove that they can slow down good teams with their defense. They get another opportunity when they travel to the desert to battle the Arizona Cardinals. Once again, they will be severely challenged by the quick decision-making of Kurt Warner and the acrobatic play-making of the Cardinals’ receiving corps. It would be great to finally see the Hawks win a big game, but it is more likely that the Cardinals will officially put a fork in the Seahawks’ 2009 season.
If they have any intention of playing after week 17, the Packers have to shore up their pass protection. After getting sacked six times against the Bucs, Aaron Rodgers has now been sacked a league-leading 37 times. At this rate, the Packers are still on pace to establish a new NFL record for the number of times a quarterback has been sacked in one season. It is one thing to allow an elite pass rusher like Jared Allen to have his way with you, but it is an entirely different thing to allow the lowly Buccaneers to pressure your quarterback consistently throughout the game. Interestingly, the Bucs applied the most pressure when they needed it most, in the fourth quarter. They got to Rodgers four times in the final quarter, which provided a lot of the momentum that they needed to complete the comeback. As a result of the onslaught on the quarterback, Rodgers didn’t even complete 50% of his attempts and threw three passes to the other side. The final interception was the ultimate dagger, as the Bucs returned it for a touchdown that sealed the victory for the creamsicle look-alikes. Rodgers may have entered the game as the league’s highest rated passer, but the Bucs made him look like Matthew Stafford. Honestly, Rodgers has been a product of his weak schedule. He has been unable to carry the Packers to any significant win and now they have to regroup and find a way to beat the red-hot Dallas Cowboys in week 10.
They will have no shot to beat the Cowboys if their special teams continue to make mistakes and give up great field position. The first blunder occurred early in the second quarter when Tampa Bay blocked a punt and returned it 31 yards for a touchdown. It is especially damaging to allow this type of score because it gives the lesser team the belief that they can win. This is how upsets happen. Normally, the weaker team is unable to win games in the conventional manner, so they have to hope that the stronger team makes mistakes that will allow them to score cheap points. The Bucs used this recipe to perfection because the Packers made mistake after mistake. The second blunder came after the Packers took a seemingly insurmountable 28-17 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the game. On the ensuing kickoff, the Bucs’ Clifton Smith returned the kick for 83 yards that set up a short touchdown drive sparking the comeback. It was clear to me, based on the Packers’ lapses, that they were not focused on the Buccaneers. They probably thought they would be able to waltz in to Raymond James Stadium and roll Tampa Bay like they were the Florida Gators playing Central Florida. I kind of suspected that this might happen, which is why I said before the game that this might be the Bucs’ best chance for a victory in 2009. You have to tip your hat to Tampa Bay because they didn’t play great but they made all the big plays.
(2) After winning their second straight game, the Tennessee Titans have found new hope in the right arm of Vince Young. Makes you wonder if Coach Jeff Fisher should have made the switch sooner instead of stubbornly sticking with the struggling Kerry Collins through a brutal 0-6 start. Young’s numbers are not jumping off the page, but it is times like these that we shouldn’t put so much stock in the raw numbers. For all his faults, Young seems to have a knack for winning football games. He is far from being a polished NFL quarterback, but he still has a 20-11 record in his short career. The big thing is that he appears to have learned something from watching Collins lead the team for the last 1.5 years. I think that he has been told that he is so great for so long that it didn’t hurt for this ego to take a bit of a hit. If the Titans can keep the good vibe going, they certainly have some winnable games coming up that might turn their season around.
They have won the last two weeks because they have gone back to playing the way that Coach Fisher envisioned they would play at the beginning of the season. The Fisher recipe for success, which was followed precisely in 2008, is to limit the mistakes from the quarterback position and rely on a strong running game and stout defense. The last two weeks, Young has completed nearly 73% of his attempts for 297 yards and one touchdown passing and rushing. The most important number is that Young has not turned the ball over once. While his numbers are far from rivaling Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, he seems to be channeling the elite quarterbacks in the NFL when the Titans are in most need of a big play. After a Chris Johnson 81-yard touchdown was reversed on review, the Titans could have hung their heads and accepted defeat. Instead, Young led Tennessee down the field, which included a clutch completion to Justin Gage for 33 yards that set-up a short Johnson touchdown. The most significant thing about the drive was that Coach Fisher decided to go for the touchdown on fourth and inches instead of taking the sure three points. The decision to go for it seems to indicate that Fisher has a great deal of confidence in Young and the positive change that Young has brought to the offense.
In addition to the surprising play from Young, the Titans have got back to running the football with consistency. They rolled up 305 yards last week against the Jaguars and followed up that huge performance with 152 yards against the 49ers. The Titans have experienced this running resurgence mostly on the legs of Chris Johnson, who broke the 200-yard plateau last week and rushed the ball a career high 25 times this week. I’m not sure what the Titans have done differently the last two weeks except play with more confidence. It doesn’t matter how much time you prepare or what type of game plan you attempt to execute if your players are not convinced that they are going to be successful. It appears that the Titans are not only prepared to focus on the running game, but they are convinced that the running game can lead the way to victories. I definitely think that the Titans have something good going, which could ultimately make this season much more positive than the train wreck that it was starting to look like. If nothing else, Tennessee might finally figure out whether or not Vince Young is the quarterback of the future. If their answer is yes, then I have to think that the future is bright in Music City.
(3) If a football team wins their fourth game of the season, but there is no one there to see it did it actually happen. I ask the question because the Jaguars beat the Chiefs for their fourth win of the season in front of an announced crowd of 45, 516, which guaranteed that the game was blacked out in Jacksonville as well as all secondary markets. The mediocre attendance has been a recurrent problem in Jacksonville, where local fans have only been able to watch home games if they were among the thousands inside Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. It doesn’t look like things will improve anytime soon as the Jaguars are expecting that all of their 2009 home games will be blacked out. If this dire prediction comes to fruition, it will mean that the Jaguars would have had nearly the same number of blackouts in 2009 that the entire NFL experienced in 2008. Meanwhile, the World’s Largest Cocktail Party was played in the same stadium in front of 84,000+ fanatics and required the addition of temporary seating. The Jags have lost 17,000 season ticket holders this season and are playing to only 68% capacity, which is the league’s lowest figure. They are actually playing in front of smaller crowds than the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders, who both have a clearly inferior on-field product to showcase.
The million dollar question in NFL circles is if Jacksonville can reverse the giant sucking sound and find a way to make the franchise viable for the long-term. It certainly doesn’t help when the City of Los Angeles just cleared all of the final hurdles to build a 75,000 seat stadium for the express purpose of bringing back the NFL. Anyone with half a brain can see that the Jaguars are the leading candidate for relocation. Jacksonville is one of the NFL’s smaller markets, which puts them in the same company as Green Bay, New Orleans and Buffalo, but, unlike those franchises, the Jags have been unsuccessful at broadening their fan base regionally. In addition, Jacksonville has been hit pretty hard by the downturn in the economy and is currently experiencing over 10% unemployment. Also, Jacksonville, with only two companies in the Fortune 500 (both outside the top 200), does not have the significant corporate presence to help prop up ticket sales when the normal fan is unable to pull their own weight. In hindsight, it was probably a reach to place an NFL franchise in a market like Jacksonville. They scored an upset when they were granted the team in 1993, but they need to recapture the interest of the city if they hope to keep the team around. Owner Wayne Weaver is already dropping hints about playing a game or two in Orlando, which is the second largest television market without an NFL franchise. In addition, the sharks smell blood in the water and are swimming around trying to see if Weaver is willing to sell out.
As I write this, a group of Los Angeles big wigs has laid out a plan to contact several teams with stadium or revenue issues to determine their interest level in relocating to the City of Angels. One of those teams will definitely be Jacksonville along with Buffalo, San Diego, Minnesota, Oakland, St. Louis and San Francisco. The NFL is the richest of North America’s professional leagues, but flux is a regular part of the business. In a span of five years, seven franchises were created or moved: Carolina and Jacksonville were born as expansion teams; the Raiders, Rams, Browns and Oilers all moved; and Cleveland got a new franchise. Also, according to the L.A. ownership group, they have already had 3,146 inquiries about luxury suites (there are only 176 in the proposed stadium), 22,000 inquiries about club seats and 105,000 inquiries about season tickets. With 15 million people living within one hour of the proposed stadium, it is only a matter of time before a team calls Los Angeles home once again. My money is on Jacksonville being that team.
(4) A team that is going nowhere in terms of relocation as well as in the standings is the New York Giants. The Giants have now completely squandered their first 5-0 start since 1990 with their fourth consecutive loss. In my mind, the reversal of fortune for the Giants is the result of their schedule turning much more difficult the last four weeks. Through the first five weeks of the season, the Giants faced only one team that currently has a winning record and the collective records of their five opponents is 12-28. The last four weeks, New York has faced three division leaders whose collective record was 23-9. The Giants were able to overcome their own mistakes in the early part of the season, but now the chickens are coming home to roost. The bye week could not have come at a better time for New York because they have to sort out issues with their preparation, game planning and on-field performance.
It would be simplistic to blame their demise on the poor performances from Eli Manning over the last four weeks. Nevertheless, it is fair to give Manning his share of the blame because, for better or worse, he is the leader of the team. During their hot start, Manning looked like an MVP candidate. He averaged 242 yards passing with a 64% completion percentage, eight touchdowns and only two interceptions. He was playing so well that I was even suckered into believing that Manning had turned the corner and assumed his rightful place in the pantheon of elite NFL quarterbacks. The highlight of his season so far was his cool and calm annihilation of the Cowboys secondary in week two. Unfortunately, things have come undone for Eli and the Giants over the last four weeks. Before a solid performance against the Chargers (25-33, 215 yards, 2 TDs, 0 Int), Eli had just completed a stretch of three games where he had completed less than 50% of his attempts and thrown twice the number of interceptions as touchdowns. As you can imagine, the Giants were effectively destroyed by those three opponents. New York cannot afford for Eli to mismanage a game because their defense has not been playing well recently.
The Giants defense has been roasted over the last few weeks before playing fairly well against San Diego. They gave only 14.2 points during their five game winning streak, but have now given up an average of 33.7 points during their current losing streak. These numbers are pretty indicative of the fact that the G-Men played four of the worst offensive football teams in the NFL in the early part of their season and they now have faced some pretty competent football teams recently. The dirty little secret about the Giants is how terribly they have performed in red zone defense. They have given up touchdowns an astounding 22 times in the 29 opportunities that opposing offenses have ventured inside the 20-yard line. Even the Chiefs, Raiders, Buccaneers and Redskins are five of eight in red zone opportunities against the Giants. I really think the Giants defense is missing their defensive coordinator like the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens seemed to be missing their former coordinators. When coaches get poached by other teams, there will always be some sort of transition regardless of where the new coach comes from. It looks like the Giants have not made a successful transition yet. Another contributing factor might be the new faces that the Giants brought in to bolster their defensive depth. They signed the likes of Rocky Bernard, Chris Canty and Michael Boley and these guys might not be great fits or they may be taking longer to catch onto the schemes implemented by the coaching staff. It also should be noted that the Giants have lost some key contributors on defense to injuries. They just got back Boley and Canty for the Chargers game and the defense actually played markedly better than the previous three weeks. Nevertheless, the return of Canty and Boley was not able to stop the Chargers from marching 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds remaining. As I mentioned earlier, the bye week should provide a nice opportunity for the Giants to reassess their defensive resources and how to deploy them more effectively.
(5) Before I get too deep into analyzing the Seahawks’ victory over the Detroit Lions, let me just start by saying that it felt good to get a win no matter how ugly the process was to get there. Nevertheless, the Hawks should not feel too good about themselves after having to scratch and claw their way to a win over a team that entered the game 1-23 over the last two seasons. This win felt more like a stay of execution. I still don’t think the Hawks are a very good team and a narrow victory over Detroit isn’t going to change my opinion. I was hoping to see the Hawks dominate the Lions like they dominated the Rams and Jaguars earlier in the season. Instead, the Lions had the ball late in the game with a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown. In the end, the Hawks got it done and that is all that really matters in the NFL because you don’t get credit for style points.
Seattle better thank their lucky stars that they had Matt Hasselbeck at quarterback instead of Seneca Wallace. Without Hasselbeck to save the day, the 12th Man would be choosing a spot on the Aurora Bridge to jump from. After Seattle fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter, Coach Jim Mora threw caution to the wind and went all in with his quarterback. The result was a 32-3 run that included Hasselbeck completing a franchise record 39 passes while he set a franchise record for career completions. At one point, Hasselbeck completed 15 passes in a row. Only Warren Moon, with 17 consecutive completions, has done better as a Seahawk. Most of his passes were of the dink and dunk variety, but Hasselbeck showed why he is a tough son of a gun and a three-time Pro Bowl participant. He also continued to demonstrate why he is the heart and soul of the football team. If the Hawks had 10-15 other guys with the determination and leadership ability of Matt Hasselbeck, we wouldn’t be lamenting a 3-5 start to the season. Unfortunately, the Hawks are a flawed team, whose imperfections were on display for the whole world to see. They still make too many mistakes and they still cannot run the ball with any consistency. On Sunday, they turned the ball over on their first two plays from scrimmage, which resulted in 14 points for the Lions. I started to have flashbacks to the Arizona game. They also flubbed an extra point conversion when the holder was unable to handle the snap. In addition, their running game continues to be a disaster. They only managed 55 yards on 18 carries against a team that allows nearly 110 yards rushing per game and nearly five yards per carry. In my opinion, it is time to end the Julius Jones experiment and allow the young guys, Justin Forsett and Louis Rankin, to carry the rock for the rest of the season. I’m a firm believer that experience should not be the only reason that someone gets to continue to play. If Jones is not getting it done, then it won’t hurt to see if a fresher set of legs can jumpstart the running game. We all know that Hasselbeck will not survive dropping back 51 times against the Arizona Cardinals, so the Hawks better find some answers on the ground.
Ultimately, the Hawks won this game because they were playing the Detroit Lions. Most of the NFL would have finished off the Hawks after being staked to a 17-0 lead. For God’s sake, we all saw what a good team does with a huge lead when the Cardinals stymied the Hawks a few weeks ago. The defense played fairly well for most of the game but I can’t even give them too much credit when you factor in that they were playing a rookie quarterback. They intercepted five passes but most of them were gift wrapped with a huge bow on top. They allowed over five yards per carry on the ground and they didn’t generate any more pressure than they did the week before in getting trounced by the Cowboys. This kind of defensive effort will get you by against the dregs of the NFL, but it is not playoff caliber. The Hawks have to prove that they can slow down good teams with their defense. They get another opportunity when they travel to the desert to battle the Arizona Cardinals. Once again, they will be severely challenged by the quick decision-making of Kurt Warner and the acrobatic play-making of the Cardinals’ receiving corps. It would be great to finally see the Hawks win a big game, but it is more likely that the Cardinals will officially put a fork in the Seahawks’ 2009 season.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Stats of the Week - Week 8
Stat of the week No. 1: Chris Johnson’s 228 yards rushing was more than the Browns, Raiders, Bills, Dolphins and Broncos gained on offense.
Stat of the week No. 2: Jairus Byrd became the second player since 1960 to have two or more interceptions in three consecutive games.
Stat of the week No. 3: DeSean Jackson became just the second player in NFL history with six touchdowns of at least 50 yards in the first seven games of a season.
Stat of the week No. 4: After not throwing an interception against the Seahawks, Tony Romo has gone three consecutive games without an interception for the first time in his career.
Stat of the week No. 5: The Titans-Jaguars game was the first game in NFL history with four rushing touchdowns of 50 or more yards. Maurice Jones-Drew became just the third player in NFL history with two rushing touchdowns of 75 or more yards in one game (Frank Gore – 2009 and Barry Sanders – 1997).
Stat of the week No. 2: Jairus Byrd became the second player since 1960 to have two or more interceptions in three consecutive games.
Stat of the week No. 3: DeSean Jackson became just the second player in NFL history with six touchdowns of at least 50 yards in the first seven games of a season.
Stat of the week No. 4: After not throwing an interception against the Seahawks, Tony Romo has gone three consecutive games without an interception for the first time in his career.
Stat of the week No. 5: The Titans-Jaguars game was the first game in NFL history with four rushing touchdowns of 50 or more yards. Maurice Jones-Drew became just the third player in NFL history with two rushing touchdowns of 75 or more yards in one game (Frank Gore – 2009 and Barry Sanders – 1997).
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Favre conquers Lambeau and other NFL thoughts
(1) I guess that we can finally say that Brett Favre has gotten the last laugh in his blood feud with Ted Thompson and the Packers front office. It was bad enough that he embarrassed his old team in the Metrodome, but he must have made Thompson and the rest of the Packers’ brass throw up their lunch after he completely shredded the Packers in Lambeau Field. Favre was greeted with boos prior to the game and jeered through most of the early part of the game, but the negative attention from Packers’ fans did not affect his game in the least. Favre threw four touchdowns for the 21st time in his career, tying Dan Marino’s NFL record, and displayed the same flair for the dramatic that he made famous while wearing the green and gold for so many years. Favre’s homecoming featured a little of his trademark gun slinging and a lot of clutch plays. His biggest gunslinger moment came after halftime, when Favre threw a ball up for grabs to Percy Harvin amidst three defenders. Harvin miraculously came down with the ball, while the Packers’ defenders all fell down like bowling pins, and ran untouched for a 51-yard touchdown pass. Favre also thwarted the Packers’ attempt at a rally with several big plays down the stretch, including a touchdown pass on a 3rd and two early in the fourth quarter and a touchdown pass on 3rd and 11 late in the fourth quarter that sealed the Packers’ fate. Favre was one of the biggest reasons that the Vikings swept the Packers for the first time since 2005 and he will rightfully get all the headlines, but he was not the only reason for the Vikings’ big victory.
Another big reason for the Vikings success in Lambeau was the continued harassment of Aaron Rodgers by the Vikings defense. In their earlier match-up, the Vikings sacked Rodgers eight times and never allowed the Packers to get comfortable in their offense. In the rematch, the Vikings did not let up off the pedal and sacked Rodgers six more times. Their constant pressure was one of the biggest reasons why Rodgers only threw for 38 yards in the first half and the Vikings led 24-6. The Packers got back into the game in the second half, but the damage had already been done. Their inability to protect the quarterback on a consistent basis cost them a huge divisional game and, most likely, a shot at the division title. The most amazing thing about the two games against the Vikings is that Minnesota did not have to bring blitzes to generate pressure. Of the 14 total sacks, the Vikings got to Rodgers 12 times with standard pressure (no extra pass rushers) and nine of the sacks came when Rodgers was in the shotgun, when he would supposedly have more time. If the Packers have any shot of making the playoffs, they need to protect Rodgers a lot better than they have to this point.
I also need to give a special shout out to Percy Harvin, who has been a huge difference-maker for the Vikings and the early favorite for rookie of the year. As a wide receiver, Harvin is improving each and every week. He only has 285 yards receiving on the year, but he had his best day of the year with a season-high five catches for 84 yards and the spectacular 51-yard connection with Favre. Perhaps his biggest contribution to the team has been his explosive ability to return kicks. He already has two returns for touchdowns and his kick returns against the Packers were a big reason for their victory. After the Packers went ahead 3-0 early in the game, Harvin answered with a 77-yard kickoff return that set the Vikings up at the Packer’s 14-yard line and led to an Adrian Peterson touchdown. Later in the game, after the Packers had cut the Vikings’ lead to 24-20, Harvin came up big again with a 48-yard kickoff return that started the Vikings drive at the Packers’ 38-yard line. This drive also ended with a touchdown as Favre hit Jeff Dugan for a short touchdown that put the Vikings back up by 11 points. Harvin has been a perfect fit for the Vikings offense and I think he will continue to be a big contributor.
(2) Hallelujah, the St. Louis Lambs have finally gotten into the win column! They snapped their 17-game losing streak by beating a team that just snapped their 19-game losing streak earlier in the season. Also, they snapped their nine-game road losing streak and scored their first rushing touchdown of the season. They were able to earn their first victory by out-playing the Detroit Felines in every phase of the game. For the first time in a long time, the Lambs could finally say that they were the more complete football team. It certainly was not a pretty victory, but the Lambs have lost for so long that they do not have the luxury to complain about the aesthetics, or lack thereof, of a victory.
Their defense led the way behind James Laurinaitis (team-leading seven tackles), Chris Long (one sack) and Leonard Little (one sack). They only allowed one offensive score from the Felines and held Detroit to less than 300 yards of total offense. They knew that Matt Stafford was returning from injury and they did not allow him to get into any rhythm whatsoever. They picked him off just once, but they generally made life uncomfortable for the rookie, which contributed to his 14 for 33 performance. In addition to making life miserable for Stafford, the Lambs bottled up the Detroit running game and did a decent job of getting off the field on third down. The Lambs defense is certainly not very good, but they play hard, which was more than enough against the horrible Felines offense.
In addition to the strong defensive performance, the St. Louis offense also produced a decent effort. There is no secret that the Lambs are severely untalented on offense, but they did three things on Sunday that can go a long way to masking their deficiencies. First of all, they kept Marc Bulger clean. Bulger is at the end of his career and the only way for him to be effective is if his offensive line can do a reasonable job of pass protection. The improved protection didn’t necessarily translate into big numbers from Bulger, but it did ensure that he wouldn’t have another turnover orgy. Bulger only turned the ball over once, which allowed the Lambs to stay in the game and ultimately pull out a victory. Secondly, the Lambs did an outstanding job of running the football behind the only offensive talent that they have: Steven Jackson. Jackson rolled up 149 yards on only 22 carries (6.8 yds/carry) and scored his first touchdown of the season. Jackson’s stellar performance allowed the Lambs to be balanced on offense, which is something they have lacked all season long. Finally, St. Louis mixed in a little trickery in the special teams department, which is an essential component from a team that struggles to move the ball consistently on offense. With Chris Carpenter and Justin Verlander locked in a 3-2 pitching duel late in the second quarter, the Lambs rolled the dice with a fake field goal that resulted in a 36-yard touchdown pass from kicker Josh Brown to Daniel Fells. The post-Halloween trick sent the Lambs into the locker room with a tremendous amount of momentum and was a huge reason that they got their first victory.
With the Lambs’ victory, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the sole remaining NFL team without a win this season. The Buccaneers were on a bye week but they resume their schedule with a visit from the Green Bay Packers. With two weeks to prepare, the game versus the Packers might be their last chance to get a victory in 2009. After Green Bay, the Bucs play five out of their remaining eight games on the road and don’t face anyone with a losing record at home. If the Bucs can’t catch the Packers sleeping, then I’m putting my money on Tampa Bay to go winless.
(3) While on the topic of horrible football teams, the Cleveland Browns are certainly in the conversation when you debate the worst NFL franchises. On Sunday, the Browns lost their seventh game of the season and they appear to be getting worse by the week. They were held to 14 or fewer points and less than 200 total yards for the fourth straight game (10th time in their last 13 games). They only managed nine first downs and turned the ball over a whopping five times. Their quarterback situation is a complete mess and their starting running back was more interested in planning his farewell from the NFL than talking about his team’s awful performance on the Midway. They are a team in complete disarray and no real hope for the foreseeable future. Their owner, Randy Lerner, was “sick” about the current state of his team and vaguely talked about bringing in new leadership, but reaffirmed his commitment to Coach Eric Mangini in the same breath. As I said back when they hired him, I thought the Browns made a mistake in bringing in Mangini after he flamed out in New York. It appears that Lerner is starting to see the errors of his decision, but I don’t think he is prepared to start over with a new coach so soon after replacing Romeo Crennel. Apparently, Lerner is prepared to take some action as he canned General Manager George Kokinis on Monday. It is unfortunate that Kokinis had to be the fall guy for the disaster that is the Cleveland Browns.
I hope that Browns’ fans see through the charade of firing Kokinis and really turn their ire towards the Lerner family, who has owned the team since they were reincarnated before the 1999 season. The Lerner era has been an abject disaster, so the blame should be heaped on them not on Mangini and Kokinis, who have only been around less than a season. The “new” Cleveland Browns have a record of 55-113 with only two winning seasons and only one playoff appearance in 10+ years of existence. They have gone through Chris Palmer, Butch Davis, and Romeo Crennel as the head coach in those 10 short seasons. I’m pretty sure that Mangini will not see the end of his current contract either. The Browns have experienced too much turnover since 1999 for them to have any success. The Lerner family has to look at themselves before they throw their current coach and front office staff under the bus. I didn’t like the Mangini hire to begin with, but only because I would have preferred to see the Browns hire an experienced coach with a track record of success instead of a recent retread, who had just been fired a couple of months previous. There are two common elements across all of the men that have been a head coach in Cleveland: (1) they are all first-year or inexperienced head coaches and (2) they were all hired by the Lerner family. It is clear that the Lerner’s have not been able to identify their own John Harbaugh or Mike Smith or Josh McDaniels, so they need to hire a Bill Cowher or Mike Holmgren and get the heck out of the way.
(4) Like the Saints the week previous, the Colts showed why they are the best team in the AFC with their hard-fought victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The Colts showed the entire NFL that they can win football games without Peyton Manning throwing a touchdown pass. They showed the entire NFL that they can win football games by relying on their defense. They showed the entire NFL that they can win football games despite the fact that they settled for four field goals in four trips into the red zone. In short, the Colts proved that they are a complete team, which has to be considered the favorite to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
Despite not doing anything spectacular, Peyton Manning proved why he is still the front-runner for the NFL most valuable player award. He played like a veteran quarterback that knows there is more than one way to skin a cat. He figured out pretty early that the Niners were not going to give up any big plays, so Manning was more than okay to take what the defense was giving him. He knew that his defense was playing very well, so it wasn’t going to take a Herculean effort to beat San Francisco. As a result, Manning didn’t force anything, especially in the red zone, and slowly added field goal after field goal until the big trick play from Joseph Addai. In the end, Manning had his sixth 300+ passing day, but he was also held to zero touchdown passes for the first time this season. The lack of touchdowns led to his lowest quarterback rating of the season, but Manning is savvy enough to understand that the only thing that matters in football is getting a win at the end of the day. I used to think that Manning was one of the biggest chokers in the NFL and that he would go down like Dan Marino, great statistics but no rings, but now I consider him to be the most clutch player in the NFL. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins multiple titles before he calls it a career. I don’t really think it is hyperbole to talk about Manning with such high regard. He has been the best player in the NFL this season despite the fact that he is carrying along the 27th ranked rushing offense in the league.
Manning was solid on Sunday, but the key to victory for the Colts was the outstanding performance of their defense. They held the 49ers to less than 300 yards of total offense, caused two turnovers and forced San Francisco to punt the ball eight times. On a day when they forced six three-and-out possessions from the 49ers, the only mistake that the Colts made on defense was the 61-yard touchdown run they allowed to Frank Gore. In reality, the Colts defense has been solid all season. They are in the top 10 in yards allowed and they lead the league in points allowed (13 pts per game). Their stinginess on defense combined with the high-flying tendencies of the Colts offense makes Indianapolis a scary opponent. The rest of their schedule has several potential pitfalls with upcoming games with Houston, New England, Baltimore, Denver and the New York Jets, but I think the Colts are heading to another 12 or 13 win season. If they beat Houston next week, they will effectively wrap up the AFC South title and they will able to manage the upcoming weeks with an eye to the playoffs.
(5) The Seahawks’ season of redemption has unraveled in a sea of injuries, turnovers and mistakes. Seattle was supposed to prove that 2008 was a mere aberration, but all they have proven is that they are a team in transition from championship-caliber to mediocre at best. Their 2009 season continued to get worse with a 38-17 beat down at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys seemed to have got their mojo back and they took full advantage of the Seahawks despite the fact that Seattle had two weeks to prepare. The most shocking part for Seattle was not that they lost to Dallas but it was the ease with which the Cowboys discarded the Hawks. The Cowboys were extremely efficient on offense, disruptive on defense and opportunistic on special teams.
Before the Seahawks knew what hit them, the Cowboys led 21-10 and the game was essentially over. The Hawks generated very little pressure on Tony Romo, which allowed him to pick apart the Hawks secondary for three touchdowns. The Hawks knew that their only chance to win the game was to force Romo into multiple mistakes, but they couldn’t get it done. The only Seahawk defender that showed up for this game was David Hawthorne, who contributed eight tackles and two sacks while playing in front of family and friends. It is ironic to me that Hawthorne is one of the lowest paid players on the team, but he is outplaying his high-priced linebacker colleagues. Since Romo had plenty of time in the pocket, he was able to dissect the suspect Seahawks’ secondary that was made only marginally better by Marcus Trufant’s return to the line-up. It was clear that Trufant was plenty rusty as he was flagged three times for pass interference. However, I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the first penalty, which looked very suspect to me. Overall, the Hawks played their typical road defense, which meant they generated no pressure, no turnovers and no game-changing plays.
On the offensive side of things, the Hawks played in fits and starts all game long. Hasselbeck was under siege from the Cowboys defense from the start. Dallas only got three quarterback sacks, but Hasselbeck was hit on a number of different occasions. The Hawks may not win many more games this season, but they need to find a way to keep Hasselbeck from getting killed in the pocket. On the surface, Hasselbeck’s numbers were okay but the Hawks’ offense did nothing except punt the football between his touchdown pass to Deion Branch in the second quarter and his touchdown pass to Justin Griffiths in the fourth. In addition to Hasselbeck’s struggles, the Hawks only got into the red zone one time and they failed to run the ball with any consistency. The Hawks have to figure out how to generate more production from their ground game. They only produced 79 yards on 22 carries against the Cowboys. Overall, they are the 28th ranked rushing offense in the NFL. In addition to Tim Ruskell’s inability to plan for Walter Jones’ inevitable retirement, the Hawks’ inability to identify a franchise running back to replace Shaun Alexander has been Ruskell’s biggest mistake. I understand that the Hawks are playing with a makeshift offensive line but they are being outrushed by the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is my feeling that the Hawks need to focus the majority of their off-season attention on finding offensive linemen and running backs that fit the zone blocking scheme.
Let’s be honest my friends, the Seahawks’ season is going nowhere fast. They should get temporarily healthy against the Lions next week, but their season ends with five out of seven games on the road, which includes trips to Arizona, Minnesota, Houston and Green Bay. If you didn’t already know, the Hawks have lost 11 of their last 13 games on the road. If the Hawks are lucky, they will get three or four more wins. Seattle fans don’t even want to consider the alternative.
Another big reason for the Vikings success in Lambeau was the continued harassment of Aaron Rodgers by the Vikings defense. In their earlier match-up, the Vikings sacked Rodgers eight times and never allowed the Packers to get comfortable in their offense. In the rematch, the Vikings did not let up off the pedal and sacked Rodgers six more times. Their constant pressure was one of the biggest reasons why Rodgers only threw for 38 yards in the first half and the Vikings led 24-6. The Packers got back into the game in the second half, but the damage had already been done. Their inability to protect the quarterback on a consistent basis cost them a huge divisional game and, most likely, a shot at the division title. The most amazing thing about the two games against the Vikings is that Minnesota did not have to bring blitzes to generate pressure. Of the 14 total sacks, the Vikings got to Rodgers 12 times with standard pressure (no extra pass rushers) and nine of the sacks came when Rodgers was in the shotgun, when he would supposedly have more time. If the Packers have any shot of making the playoffs, they need to protect Rodgers a lot better than they have to this point.
I also need to give a special shout out to Percy Harvin, who has been a huge difference-maker for the Vikings and the early favorite for rookie of the year. As a wide receiver, Harvin is improving each and every week. He only has 285 yards receiving on the year, but he had his best day of the year with a season-high five catches for 84 yards and the spectacular 51-yard connection with Favre. Perhaps his biggest contribution to the team has been his explosive ability to return kicks. He already has two returns for touchdowns and his kick returns against the Packers were a big reason for their victory. After the Packers went ahead 3-0 early in the game, Harvin answered with a 77-yard kickoff return that set the Vikings up at the Packer’s 14-yard line and led to an Adrian Peterson touchdown. Later in the game, after the Packers had cut the Vikings’ lead to 24-20, Harvin came up big again with a 48-yard kickoff return that started the Vikings drive at the Packers’ 38-yard line. This drive also ended with a touchdown as Favre hit Jeff Dugan for a short touchdown that put the Vikings back up by 11 points. Harvin has been a perfect fit for the Vikings offense and I think he will continue to be a big contributor.
(2) Hallelujah, the St. Louis Lambs have finally gotten into the win column! They snapped their 17-game losing streak by beating a team that just snapped their 19-game losing streak earlier in the season. Also, they snapped their nine-game road losing streak and scored their first rushing touchdown of the season. They were able to earn their first victory by out-playing the Detroit Felines in every phase of the game. For the first time in a long time, the Lambs could finally say that they were the more complete football team. It certainly was not a pretty victory, but the Lambs have lost for so long that they do not have the luxury to complain about the aesthetics, or lack thereof, of a victory.
Their defense led the way behind James Laurinaitis (team-leading seven tackles), Chris Long (one sack) and Leonard Little (one sack). They only allowed one offensive score from the Felines and held Detroit to less than 300 yards of total offense. They knew that Matt Stafford was returning from injury and they did not allow him to get into any rhythm whatsoever. They picked him off just once, but they generally made life uncomfortable for the rookie, which contributed to his 14 for 33 performance. In addition to making life miserable for Stafford, the Lambs bottled up the Detroit running game and did a decent job of getting off the field on third down. The Lambs defense is certainly not very good, but they play hard, which was more than enough against the horrible Felines offense.
In addition to the strong defensive performance, the St. Louis offense also produced a decent effort. There is no secret that the Lambs are severely untalented on offense, but they did three things on Sunday that can go a long way to masking their deficiencies. First of all, they kept Marc Bulger clean. Bulger is at the end of his career and the only way for him to be effective is if his offensive line can do a reasonable job of pass protection. The improved protection didn’t necessarily translate into big numbers from Bulger, but it did ensure that he wouldn’t have another turnover orgy. Bulger only turned the ball over once, which allowed the Lambs to stay in the game and ultimately pull out a victory. Secondly, the Lambs did an outstanding job of running the football behind the only offensive talent that they have: Steven Jackson. Jackson rolled up 149 yards on only 22 carries (6.8 yds/carry) and scored his first touchdown of the season. Jackson’s stellar performance allowed the Lambs to be balanced on offense, which is something they have lacked all season long. Finally, St. Louis mixed in a little trickery in the special teams department, which is an essential component from a team that struggles to move the ball consistently on offense. With Chris Carpenter and Justin Verlander locked in a 3-2 pitching duel late in the second quarter, the Lambs rolled the dice with a fake field goal that resulted in a 36-yard touchdown pass from kicker Josh Brown to Daniel Fells. The post-Halloween trick sent the Lambs into the locker room with a tremendous amount of momentum and was a huge reason that they got their first victory.
With the Lambs’ victory, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the sole remaining NFL team without a win this season. The Buccaneers were on a bye week but they resume their schedule with a visit from the Green Bay Packers. With two weeks to prepare, the game versus the Packers might be their last chance to get a victory in 2009. After Green Bay, the Bucs play five out of their remaining eight games on the road and don’t face anyone with a losing record at home. If the Bucs can’t catch the Packers sleeping, then I’m putting my money on Tampa Bay to go winless.
(3) While on the topic of horrible football teams, the Cleveland Browns are certainly in the conversation when you debate the worst NFL franchises. On Sunday, the Browns lost their seventh game of the season and they appear to be getting worse by the week. They were held to 14 or fewer points and less than 200 total yards for the fourth straight game (10th time in their last 13 games). They only managed nine first downs and turned the ball over a whopping five times. Their quarterback situation is a complete mess and their starting running back was more interested in planning his farewell from the NFL than talking about his team’s awful performance on the Midway. They are a team in complete disarray and no real hope for the foreseeable future. Their owner, Randy Lerner, was “sick” about the current state of his team and vaguely talked about bringing in new leadership, but reaffirmed his commitment to Coach Eric Mangini in the same breath. As I said back when they hired him, I thought the Browns made a mistake in bringing in Mangini after he flamed out in New York. It appears that Lerner is starting to see the errors of his decision, but I don’t think he is prepared to start over with a new coach so soon after replacing Romeo Crennel. Apparently, Lerner is prepared to take some action as he canned General Manager George Kokinis on Monday. It is unfortunate that Kokinis had to be the fall guy for the disaster that is the Cleveland Browns.
I hope that Browns’ fans see through the charade of firing Kokinis and really turn their ire towards the Lerner family, who has owned the team since they were reincarnated before the 1999 season. The Lerner era has been an abject disaster, so the blame should be heaped on them not on Mangini and Kokinis, who have only been around less than a season. The “new” Cleveland Browns have a record of 55-113 with only two winning seasons and only one playoff appearance in 10+ years of existence. They have gone through Chris Palmer, Butch Davis, and Romeo Crennel as the head coach in those 10 short seasons. I’m pretty sure that Mangini will not see the end of his current contract either. The Browns have experienced too much turnover since 1999 for them to have any success. The Lerner family has to look at themselves before they throw their current coach and front office staff under the bus. I didn’t like the Mangini hire to begin with, but only because I would have preferred to see the Browns hire an experienced coach with a track record of success instead of a recent retread, who had just been fired a couple of months previous. There are two common elements across all of the men that have been a head coach in Cleveland: (1) they are all first-year or inexperienced head coaches and (2) they were all hired by the Lerner family. It is clear that the Lerner’s have not been able to identify their own John Harbaugh or Mike Smith or Josh McDaniels, so they need to hire a Bill Cowher or Mike Holmgren and get the heck out of the way.
(4) Like the Saints the week previous, the Colts showed why they are the best team in the AFC with their hard-fought victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The Colts showed the entire NFL that they can win football games without Peyton Manning throwing a touchdown pass. They showed the entire NFL that they can win football games by relying on their defense. They showed the entire NFL that they can win football games despite the fact that they settled for four field goals in four trips into the red zone. In short, the Colts proved that they are a complete team, which has to be considered the favorite to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
Despite not doing anything spectacular, Peyton Manning proved why he is still the front-runner for the NFL most valuable player award. He played like a veteran quarterback that knows there is more than one way to skin a cat. He figured out pretty early that the Niners were not going to give up any big plays, so Manning was more than okay to take what the defense was giving him. He knew that his defense was playing very well, so it wasn’t going to take a Herculean effort to beat San Francisco. As a result, Manning didn’t force anything, especially in the red zone, and slowly added field goal after field goal until the big trick play from Joseph Addai. In the end, Manning had his sixth 300+ passing day, but he was also held to zero touchdown passes for the first time this season. The lack of touchdowns led to his lowest quarterback rating of the season, but Manning is savvy enough to understand that the only thing that matters in football is getting a win at the end of the day. I used to think that Manning was one of the biggest chokers in the NFL and that he would go down like Dan Marino, great statistics but no rings, but now I consider him to be the most clutch player in the NFL. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins multiple titles before he calls it a career. I don’t really think it is hyperbole to talk about Manning with such high regard. He has been the best player in the NFL this season despite the fact that he is carrying along the 27th ranked rushing offense in the league.
Manning was solid on Sunday, but the key to victory for the Colts was the outstanding performance of their defense. They held the 49ers to less than 300 yards of total offense, caused two turnovers and forced San Francisco to punt the ball eight times. On a day when they forced six three-and-out possessions from the 49ers, the only mistake that the Colts made on defense was the 61-yard touchdown run they allowed to Frank Gore. In reality, the Colts defense has been solid all season. They are in the top 10 in yards allowed and they lead the league in points allowed (13 pts per game). Their stinginess on defense combined with the high-flying tendencies of the Colts offense makes Indianapolis a scary opponent. The rest of their schedule has several potential pitfalls with upcoming games with Houston, New England, Baltimore, Denver and the New York Jets, but I think the Colts are heading to another 12 or 13 win season. If they beat Houston next week, they will effectively wrap up the AFC South title and they will able to manage the upcoming weeks with an eye to the playoffs.
(5) The Seahawks’ season of redemption has unraveled in a sea of injuries, turnovers and mistakes. Seattle was supposed to prove that 2008 was a mere aberration, but all they have proven is that they are a team in transition from championship-caliber to mediocre at best. Their 2009 season continued to get worse with a 38-17 beat down at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys seemed to have got their mojo back and they took full advantage of the Seahawks despite the fact that Seattle had two weeks to prepare. The most shocking part for Seattle was not that they lost to Dallas but it was the ease with which the Cowboys discarded the Hawks. The Cowboys were extremely efficient on offense, disruptive on defense and opportunistic on special teams.
Before the Seahawks knew what hit them, the Cowboys led 21-10 and the game was essentially over. The Hawks generated very little pressure on Tony Romo, which allowed him to pick apart the Hawks secondary for three touchdowns. The Hawks knew that their only chance to win the game was to force Romo into multiple mistakes, but they couldn’t get it done. The only Seahawk defender that showed up for this game was David Hawthorne, who contributed eight tackles and two sacks while playing in front of family and friends. It is ironic to me that Hawthorne is one of the lowest paid players on the team, but he is outplaying his high-priced linebacker colleagues. Since Romo had plenty of time in the pocket, he was able to dissect the suspect Seahawks’ secondary that was made only marginally better by Marcus Trufant’s return to the line-up. It was clear that Trufant was plenty rusty as he was flagged three times for pass interference. However, I will give him the benefit of the doubt on the first penalty, which looked very suspect to me. Overall, the Hawks played their typical road defense, which meant they generated no pressure, no turnovers and no game-changing plays.
On the offensive side of things, the Hawks played in fits and starts all game long. Hasselbeck was under siege from the Cowboys defense from the start. Dallas only got three quarterback sacks, but Hasselbeck was hit on a number of different occasions. The Hawks may not win many more games this season, but they need to find a way to keep Hasselbeck from getting killed in the pocket. On the surface, Hasselbeck’s numbers were okay but the Hawks’ offense did nothing except punt the football between his touchdown pass to Deion Branch in the second quarter and his touchdown pass to Justin Griffiths in the fourth. In addition to Hasselbeck’s struggles, the Hawks only got into the red zone one time and they failed to run the ball with any consistency. The Hawks have to figure out how to generate more production from their ground game. They only produced 79 yards on 22 carries against the Cowboys. Overall, they are the 28th ranked rushing offense in the NFL. In addition to Tim Ruskell’s inability to plan for Walter Jones’ inevitable retirement, the Hawks’ inability to identify a franchise running back to replace Shaun Alexander has been Ruskell’s biggest mistake. I understand that the Hawks are playing with a makeshift offensive line but they are being outrushed by the likes of the Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is my feeling that the Hawks need to focus the majority of their off-season attention on finding offensive linemen and running backs that fit the zone blocking scheme.
Let’s be honest my friends, the Seahawks’ season is going nowhere fast. They should get temporarily healthy against the Lions next week, but their season ends with five out of seven games on the road, which includes trips to Arizona, Minnesota, Houston and Green Bay. If you didn’t already know, the Hawks have lost 11 of their last 13 games on the road. If the Hawks are lucky, they will get three or four more wins. Seattle fans don’t even want to consider the alternative.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Stats of the Week - Week 7
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
