THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 15

What a wacky week of football! The Packers lose, the Colts win, and almost every team chasing a Wild Card spot in the AFC lost. There were more upsets this week than I can even count. Even the teams that were expected to win did so in an unexpected fashion. I break the week down for you in Week 15's "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly."

The Good: San Diego’s offense rolled over the fierce Ravens’ D.

The Chargers scored on all but one of their first seven possessions, Phillip Rivers only threw six incompletions all day, and Ryan Matthews had possibly his best game as a pro pounding the ball 26 times for 90 yards and two touchdowns. Most importantly, they managed to keep Rivers upright all game against a fierce Ravens’ pass rush and did not turn the ball over once, which has been their Achilles’ heel all season. That is a tough task against a team that had Ray Lewis back for the first time in five weeks. You expected the Chargers to put up points, but not in the way they did Sunday night. San Diego has been a pass happy team for years now, but it was the running game spear headed by the young Matthews who won them this game. They ran the ball almost 40 times for over 150 yards against a defense that has the second ranked rush defense, allowing less than 90 yards a game. This is incredible for a team that has been looking for a run game since Ladainian Tomlinson’s decline and then departure. It was a pleasant surprise for Chargers fans and probably a bit shocking to Ravens fans. The Chargers are unstoppable in the month of December and it is a real wonder why this team cannot find consistency in all the other months of the year.

Runner Up: Kyle Orton, thrown away by the Bears and Broncos, proves to the world he’s a starting caliber quarterback by knocking off the undefeated Packers in his first start as a Chief.

The Bad: The Titans get dominated by the winless Colts and are most likely out of the playoff race.

There is nothing more crushing than losing to a team that has not won a game all year, especially when it is this late in the season against a hated division rival who has lost thirteen straight games and your playoff hopes are on the line. Everyone in the AFC South has been looking up to Peyton Manning and the Colts since he was drafted in the late 90s and this was their season to put a beat down on the Manningless Colts. The Titans, Texans, and even the Jags beat them in their first matchups, but the Colts has all three of them in the final weeks of the season. When a team is down and out like the Colts have been all season, the only thing that motivates them to win is being able to knock a rival out of the playoff. The Titans should have seen it coming and been more prepared to see the best out of the Colts. The Titans had to know with Dan Orlovsky quarterbacking this team, the Colts were going to try to run the ball. They allowed the Colts to run the ball effectively (34 times for over 200 yards) and the Orlovsky had to do little besides hand the ball off all day. It was running back Donald Brown’s 80 yard touchdown that put the game out of reach late in the game and most likely crushed any hope of the Titans making the playoffs. Isn’t it supposed to be Chris Johnson, who the Titans gave a $54 million contact too in the offseason, that is the game breaking running back who can score from anywhere on the field? Not in this game. Johnson was held to just 55 yards rushing and was again disappointing against a very suspect Colts run defense. This loss really hurts because it puts them a game behind both the Jets and the Bengals, and it hurts their in conference record, which will be the tiebreaker for these playoff hopeful teams. I cannot see the Titans bouncing back and making a run for the last Wild Card spot.

Runner Up: The Patriots lose their sack leader, defense end Andre Carter, for the rest of the season.

The Ugly: Both the Jets and the Giants fall to NFC East bottom dwellers.

Both of my New York teams had full control of their playoff destinies before this weekend. On Sunday, I watched a painful six hours of football, watching the Giants and then the Jets put up absolutely disgusting performances. The Giants could do nothing on offense and Rex Grossman, yes that Rex Grossman, made the Giants’ D look silly. The Giants were outplayed in every faze of the game and this was the second time this year the Giants have been outmatched by a Grossman led Redskins. I thought that was the worst it could get and was ready to watch my Jets down the Eagles in Philly. That would surely make up for the awful game I had just witnessed. Two turnovers, 14 points, and less than one quarter later I thought I was having a nightmare. The Jets’ $50 million man, Santonio Holmes, lost fumble and had a pass go through his hands and straight into the defender’s arms behind him, both of which led to touchdowns for the Eagles. The Jets were looking good, moving the ball effectively and getting solid pressure on Michael Vick, but they could not make plays when it mattered most. Most importantly, they made catastrophic mistakes early and often and simply could not recover from them. This was an ugly week of football for these two teams who will be fighting for their playoff lives when they face off against each other on Christmas Eve. Only one of them will come away with a win and a playoff spot, and there is still a decent shot that neither of these teams even make the playoffs.

Runner Up: Big Ben takes a beating in San Fran and the Steelers lose an opportunity to retake the NFC North.