Wednesday, November 23, 2011

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 11


There were not too many upsets this weekend, yet there is still plenty to discuss. The Packers being at 10-0 warranted my praise and finally made the “Good” list this week, while both my New York teams put up epic failures that were definitely worthy of being called ugly. 

The Good: Jordy Nelson shows why he is one of the most feared receivers in the NFL and helps his team stay on top of the Bucs to stay unbeaten.

With all the weapons Aaron Rodgers has in that Packers’ offense, it is amazing to me how consistently Rodgers looks to Nelson. Nelson claims he was overlooked by teams thanks to “reverse racism” (good white receivers are far and in between), and maybe that was true, but no one is overlooking him now. Nelson only trails Calvin Johnson in touchdown receptions this season and he is one of the main reasons the Packers are undefeated right now. He consistently comes up with huge plays just when his team needs him the most. We saw a glimpse of his potential in the Super Bowl last year, but he had a lot of big drops in that game as well. He has stopped dropping passes and has become the Packers number one threat on offense. At only 26 years old, he is only reaching the tip of his potential and he should be a lot of fun to watch for years to come.

Runner Up: The Dolphins take down division rival Bills to win three straight.

The Bad: Graham Gano misses two field goals, including one in overtime, to crush the Redskins’ hopes of an upset over the Cowboys.

Make fun of kickers all you want, but any team without a good one always regrets ignoring the least glamorous position in football. The Redskins defense shut down the run and forced Tony Romo to win this game with his arm. Despite not producing much out of their run game, Rex Grossman looked fantastic against a very complicated defensive scheme and scored three touchdowns for his team. This was the best performance the Redskins have put together since possibly the first game of the season, yet they still lost. It is hard to put it all on a kicker, but it is always hard to win when you miss numerous field goals. This was a tough loss for the Redskins, but at least they stay in the hunt for quarterback Andrew Luck.

Runner Up: Cam Newton blows a 17 point lead over the Lions by throwing four interceptions.

The Ugly: The Giants offense had its worst day in years and they lose the top spot in the NFC East.

I have watched almost every Giants game since Eli Manning was a rookie and this might have been the worst an Eli lead Giants’ offense has ever been. They had more three and outs than you could even imagine, mostly because of their lack of running success. They averaged 1.7 yards per carry and were held to under 30 total rushing yards. Despite their lack of success, they stuck with their run game instead of airing it out and it may have cost them the division. The coaching staff clearly decided to put the entire weight of this game on their defense, and despite playing valiantly for the majority of 60 minutes, they could not stop the Eagles offense at the end of the game. This was a huge loss for this team and it puts them in a very difficult position for the rest of the season. The Giants have the toughest schedule of any team in the NFL for the rest of the 2011 season and they might have to beat the Cowboys twice in order to even make the playoffs.

Runner Up: The Jets fall to yet another Tebow miracle.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 10


Yet another wacky week of football, yet another week that needed Runner Ups in all categories. We are nearing the home stretch of the NFL season and this is when we realize who are the contenders and who are the pretenders. It is not too late for any of these teams to turn their seasons around and make a run at the playoffs, but there is also plenty of time for the top teams in the league to fall off the map. 


The Good: John Skelton throws for over 300 yards and three touchdowns against the most expensive secondary in the NFL.

I am so happy for Skelton who was brushed aside for the unproven Kevin Kolb after his rookie season in which the Cardinals continued to tell Skelton and the media that he was their quarterback of the future. Of course everyone knew they were lying and were looking for other options at quarterback for 2011. However, it is Skelton who is having the last laugh. The Cardinals had lost their last six games under Kolb and their season was sinking fast before Skelton took over the reigns. In two games, Skelton has looked much more impressive than Kolb and he has won twice as many games in two weeks as Kolb did in seven. Most importantly, Skelton is getting the ball to playmaking receiver Larry Fitzgerald and keeping him happy, which was something Kolb has struggled with all season. The Cards would be crazy to go back to Kolb anytime soon and they have a real quarterback controversy, considering they gave Kolb a six year $65 million and that is a lot of money to pay a backup quarterback. Maybe they see if the Redskins want to try another under performing quarterback in their rotation?

Runner Up: The Cowboys put it all together for a commanding win over the Bills 44-7.


The Bad: The Ravens fall to the Seahawks on the road.

What is going on with the Ravens? How can they possibly sweep the Steelers and then put up a stinker like this against the Seahawks? The Seahawks! They really struggled in all phases of the game. They turned the ball over three times (their kickoff returner lost two fumbles), Flacco struggled with keeping drives alive, and they again mysteriously went away from their run game (Ray Rice only ran the ball five times all game). However, most surprisingly, the Ravens’ defense really struggled against probably the worst offense in the entire NFL. Tarvaris Jackson was extremely efficient, Marshawn Lynch totaled almost 170 yards of offense, and the Ravens only managed to tally one sack and zero turnovers. The Ravens have not looked particularly good against anyone besides the Steelers. They need to bounce back quickly before hosting a much improved Bengals team or else they could be looking up at the Steelers and those Bengals in their own division.

Runner Up: Falcons’ coach Mike Smith goes for it on forth down in overtime and hands the game to the Saints.


The Ugly: The Lions turn the ball over six times and lose to division rival Bears 37-13.

The Lions explosive offense was held to only six points in the first half, which seems to be around their average. However, against a very tough Bears defense, they did not have what it takes to overcome yet another terrible first half. Matthew Stafford threw two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns and the Bears offense had to do almost nothing to blow out the Lions who have now lost three out of their last four games after an impressive 5-0 start. This team cannot continue to struggle in the first half and expect to come away with miracle wins in the second half. If the Lions cannot find a way to effectively run the ball with or without Jahvid Best, they will be sitting at home when the playoffs roll around. Enter yet another injury to Stafford and that task just got a lot harder.

Runner Up: The Jets get outplayed and out-coached by the Patriots on offense, defense, and special teams.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 9

The Good: Joe Flacco and the Ravens down the Steelers for the second time this year.

As usual, this battle between the two AFC North heavyweights was one of the best games of the week, and of the year. However, it was Joe Flacco who came away with the biggest win of his young career. After having never beaten Roethlisberger before this season, Flacco swept Roethlisberger and the Ravens look to take the division for the first time in years. Most impressively, it took a 92 yard touchdown drive with two minutes left in the game against the formidable Steelers defense for the Ravens to secure a win. Flacco has looked extremely mediocre all season long, throwing for only one touchdown in the last 4 games, but this is exactly the type of performance the Ravens’ organization and fan base were looking to see out of him. Flacco has tended to struggle in big games, so his strong performance at the end of the game was the most impressive performance of the week. If the Ravens can keep this momentum up and not lose games against teams they are supposed to beat (i.e. losing to the Jags just two week ago), they could turn out to be the best team in the AFC.

Runner Up: The Jets dominating defense forced three turnovers and held the Bills to 11 points.

The Bad: The Patriots offense fails to score over 20 points… again.

What in God’s name is wrong with the Patriots? We all know their defense is mediocre, but their offense was shut out in the first half for the first time in over 70 games. And it was against a banged up and struggling Giants defense! We excused the offense when they struggled against the Steelers defense, since the Steelers tend to always have one of the best defenses in the league. However, Tom Brady simply looks frustrated with everything that is happening with his offense. With Randy Moss gone and Chad Ochocinco being irrelevant, this offense is lacking a deep threat to stretch the field. This allows defenses to focus on taking away Wes Welker and Brady’s amazing tight ends in the short passing game without being afraid of being burned deep. The Pats need to figure out something soon because they have a flight into New York to face the red hot Jets, whose defense is playing as well as anyone right now.

Runner Up: Michael Vick again fails to make plays when it counts and the Eagles fall to 3-5.

The Ugly: The Chiefs get blown out at home by the previously winless Dolphins.

Imagine this, if the Chiefs had been able to beat a winless Dolphins team at home, they could have been atop their division. However, they did not just lose to the Dolphins, they got blown out by the Dolphins 31-3. While the Dolphins do mysteriously play much better on the road than at home, they are simply not a very good team. They allowed the Dolphins offense, which has been terrible in the red zone for the past two seasons, to score touchdowns on both of their trips into the red zone, as well as give up long touchdowns to Reggie Bush and Anthony Fasano. The Chiefs’ offense also had a horrible day, allowing Matt Cassel to be sacked five times by a defense that as had trouble getting pressing on the quarterback all year. If I was a Chiefs’ fan who paid money to see this game, I would be asking for a refund. This was an ugly loss that shows the Chiefs are not even close to being a legitimate playoff contender. However, as of right now, no one in the AFC West is playing well and it is anyone’s guess who will come out on top of this division. 

Runner Up: The Raiders defense allows almost 300 yards rushing to the struggling Broncos, including 163 yards going to a 30 year old running back with only one good hand (Willis McGahee ran wild with a broken right hand).

Thursday, November 3, 2011

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 8


This week was the sloppiest week of football I have seen in a long time. Tons of missed field goals, loads of turnovers, and some big upsets, with even more almost upsets. And don’t even get me started on Tim Tebow’s performance. Yikes. For the sake of the readers, I will leave Tebow off the list this week because him playing horribly is now officially the norm for him and it is no longer worth talking about.

The Good: The Steelers hold the Patriots to 17 points and Tom Brady to under 200 yards passing.

Despite struggling in a lot of their early games, the Steelers are now 6-2 and look to be the cream of the crop in the AFC. The Steelers came out firing on all cylinders on both offense and defense. Ben Roethlisberger was extremely efficient throwing the ball 50 times in this game and really exploited the Pats’ lowly pass defense. Despite getting sacked five times, he threw for 365 yards and two touchdowns with only one turn over. This allowed the Steelers to maintain possession of the ball for almost twice as long as the Patriots did (39:22 to 20:38) and gave Tom Brady very little opportunities to succeed. Most impressively, they almost completely shut down Wes Welker, who was on pace to have well over 2000 yards this season. Coming into this game, I thought Welker would tear up this aging defense, but they held him to under 40 yards. The Steelers dominated every aspect of this game and left the Patriots with a lot of questions to answer.

The Bad: The Saints get blown out by the winless Rams, who were without Sam Bradford.

It is never a great day when your team gets out physicaled by the St. Louis Rams. However, that’s exactly what happened to the Saints. After putting up 62 points on the Colts last week, the Saints did not score a point against the Rams until the third quarter. The Rams ran the ball all over the Saints defense, allowing them to control the game and giving Steven Jackson his first 100 yard rushing game in three seasons. The more surprising storyline is how the Saints offensive line, which is filled to the brim with Pro Bowlers, got absolutely bullied by the Rams’ front seven. The Rams sacked Drew Brees six times, with Chris Long getting to Bress three times himself. This forced Brees into making costly mistakes, throwing two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown late in the forth quarter that sealed the win for the Rams. This was an awful game for the Saints and it would have been the ugly performance of the week if not for the Chargers epic fail in their Monday night mathcup with the Chiefs. Despite how poorly the Saints played, you have to give credit to the Rams who played their first solid game in a long time. If Steven Jackson stays healthy and the defense keeps playing like this, they are going to win a lot more games this season.

The Ugly: Phillip Rivers fumbles the snap and gives the Chiefs a chance to win the game in OT.

With a week that saw the Giants and Ravens overcome big deficits to stave off an upset, everyone watching the Chargers game just assumed that they would do so as well after falling down 10-0 to the Chiefs. The Chargers fought so hard to get back into this game, having to tie the game with a two-point conversion. However, with the ball on the 15 yard line and only one minute left, the Chargers were attempting to run as much time off the clock as possible before attempting what would have been a game winning chip shot field goal when the Chargers did the only thing that could cost them the game. They fumbled the snap and allowed the Chiefs to recover the ball. This gave the Chiefs another chance before overtime to win the game, but luckily for the Chargers, Matt Cassel threw another interception and the game went into overtime. Unfortunately, the Chargers continued to do nothing in extended time and allowed the Chiefs to march down the field and kick the game winning field goal. This is just an atrocious way to end a game for a team that is looking to make a strong playoff push. After blowing a big lead to the Jets last week, they had a chance to make up for the loss by knocking off the defending division champs in their house and take a two game lead in their division. Yet in typical Chargers fashion, they blew what could have been a big emotional win for them and instead are in a three way tie atop the division. With two games still left on the schedule against the ever improving Raiders, this team has a lot of work to do if they think they have a shot at even making the playoffs.