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.

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).

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.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 7

The Good: The Jets have a marquee win over the struggling Chargers.

The Jets really needed this win. Coming into this week, the Jets had three wins, but the teams they beat only had 3 combined wins. Despite Phillip Rivers struggling a bit, the Charger were out to their most impressive start in years with a 4-1 record. Had the Jets lost this game, their playoff hopes would have all but vanished. The Jets put themselves in a big hole by having a turn over go for a touchdown on the first drive of the game, but they fought back and shut out the Chargers in the second half of the game. Their offense played surprisingly well, especially the connection between Mark Sanchez and Plaxico Burress, and their defense played their best game of the season. Hopefully the Jets pull themselves together for the rest of the season, but the Chargers have a lot of questions to answer.

The Bad: The Ravens’ offense only puts up 7 points against a subpar Jags’ defense.

This was the worst game the Ravens have put together in a long time. This game was a complete mess. Both teams’ star running backs combined for 4 fumbles and neither offense ever really got anything going. The Ravens and the Jags each only converted 2 third downs (2/12 and 2/16 respectively), making this one of the toughest games to watch of the season. Blaine Gabbert threw for less than 100 yards and completed less than 50% of his passes, yet they still came out victorious. Gabbert didn’t make any good plays, but he didn’t make any big mistakes to cost them the game. That’s all they needed to get past a Ravens team that is struggling to find an identity on offense.

The Ugly: The Colts get blown out 62-7.

How the mighty have fallen. The Colts won their division going 10-6 last season, but they have already lost 7 games this season without their leader, Peyton Manning. The Colts are sporting the worst defense in the league and the third worst offense. Every aspect of this team has fallen apart without Manning and it was clearer than ever in their decimation by the Saints. The Saints totaled over 500 yards of offense and held the Colts to around 100 yards passing, despite struggling against the pass in recent weeks. The Saints at home is a tough matchup for any team, but allowing anyone to run up 62 points on you is inexcusable. This team has lost all motivation and the coaching staff needs to take a lot of the blame for this team’s performance. 

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 6

The Good: The Buccaneers prevail over the Saints at home.

Where did this performance come from? Josh Freeman threw for over 300 yards, backup running back/fullback Earnest Graham rushed for over 100 yards, and the defense caused the high powered Saints offense to turn the ball over 4 times, picking off Drew Brees a shocking 3 times. This team was down probably their most talented players on both offense and defense (running back LeGarrette Blount and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy), yet they played by far their best game of the year. On top of this, they have a solid lead in their division with impressive wins over both the Saints and Falcons, who were both supposed to be Super Bowl contenders. Sorry to quote Dennis Green, but the Bucs are apparently the team I thought they were, a dangerous young team with a solid shot at making the playoffs.

The Bad: Sam Bradford throws for over 300 yards, yet scores only 3 points and gets injured.

How do you produce over 400 yards of offense and put up 3 points? If anyone is counting, that is driving the length of the football field 4 times. This shows a complete lack of efficiency when it really matters, most importantly in the red zone and on third down. The Rams were 0/3 in the red zone and 3/13 (23%) on third downs. That is atrocious. I don’t care who Sam Bradford is throwing to and how bad his offensive line is playing, he has to be better. There is no excuse for a quarterback who is getting $60 million guaranteed to be so ineffective. I know he is still very young, but he needs to get much better for this team to even have a chance to win a single game. And that is if he even gets to play, considering he has a high ankle sprain and is wearing a walking boot. Maybe the Rams need a change of scenery, and sunny LA is looking better and better.

The Ugly: Rex Grossman throws 4 interceptions against a struggling Eagles' defense and gets benched.

For most of the beginning of this season, we have seen the good Rex Grossman. It was about time we saw the bad. Unfortunately for Grossman and the Redskins, the bad Grossman is pretty hard to watch, as all Bears fans know all too well. Grossman threw four interceptions to the Eagles’ underperforming safeties (three of which went to Kurt Coleman, who had just won his starting role back this week after getting benched). Not-so-sexy Rexy looked the way we expected him to play, under throwing open receivers and tossing up bombs for no apparent reason straight into defenders’ hands. He was benched for John Beck, who was not overly impressive, but seems to now have a strong hold on the Redskins’ quarterback spot. Despite a 3-2 record, do not be surprised to see the Redskins join the “suck for Luck” sweepstakes. Who thought having a quarterback battle between Rex Grossman and John Beck was a bad idea? Oh yea, everyone. The Redskins went from good to ugly oh so fast. 

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY WEEK 5

The Good: The Raiders down the Texans 25-20.

Al Davis may have spent the last ten years seemingly trying to destroy this franchise, but he clearly was still very important to his team. The Raiders were playing extra hard this week for their recently deceased owner/general manager and it paid off. For the first time in as long as I can remember, the Raiders won this game by the strength of their defense. Yes, they allowed Matt Schaub to throw for over 400 yards, but they held Arian Foster to 3 yards a carry and held the Texans explosive offense to just 6 second half points, helped by intercepting Schaub in the red zone with only seconds left on the clock. The Raiders offense had one of their worst games so far this year, but as a team they found a way to win. This was a great win for this franchise and I have a feeling that the Raiders are going to be knocking my Jets out of the playoffs when the end of the season rolls around.

The Bad: The Buccaneers’ offense continues to struggle.

What in God’s name has happened to the Bucs? Last season Josh Freeman and Mike Williams looked like the best young quarterback-wide receiver combo in the NFL. This season they look like what everyone expected out of them last season. Freeman has already throw as many interceptions through 5 games as he did all of last season and Williams is on pace for less than 600 yards and 3 touchdowns (he had 964 yards and 11 touchdowns in his rookie season last year). I have heard of a sophomore slump, but this is ridiculous. The Bucs were down fast to the 49ers thanks to a porous defense and a pick six by Freeman, and they simply were never able to recover. Usually when a team goes down early, their quarterback throws for a ton of garbage yards, but the 49ers still only gave up under 200 yards passing. The 49ers are much improved from last season, but they are barely a playoff caliber team and they blew out the Bucs 48-3. The lockout has clearly hurt this young Bucs team, but there is no excuse for how poorly this team has played through the first 5 games. It is amazing to me that they are 3-2, but they have to improve fast if they plan on staying above .500.

The Ugly: The Eagles fall to 1-4.

I said last week that the Eagles barely missed out on making the ugly list, but this week they were not so lucky. I knew this game would be a tough matchup for the Eagles, but it was a must win game to try to establish themselves as a playoff contender. They instead went out and proved that they deserve to be 1-4. The Eagles continue to play like they are only interested in putting up fantasy numbers for their fans and don’t care about winning games. This team continues to gain enormous amounts of offense yards, but fails to put up points on the board when it counts. They turned the ball over 5 times against an average Bills defense and that alone will lose you any game. As bad as the offense was, the defense still is the weakness of this team. They allowed Fred Jackson to have almost 200 total yards and Ryan Fitzpatrick only threw 6 incompletions all game (that’s almost as many interceptions as Vick threw). This is about as ugly as it gets. Despite all the hype surrounding this team before the season started, the Eagles are off to its worst start since Andy Reid’s first season with the team in 1999. If they don’t improve soon, it could be Reid’s last.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY FROM WEEK 4

The Good: The Lions come back… again.

How many times can this team play an awful first half and then win a game in the last seconds of the 4^th quarter? I am once again impressed with the Lions, yet I still cannot be a believer in a team that plays so poorly in the first half of games. There are only so many times a team can bounce back like this. Having watched USC in their glory days be a “second half team,” I know how easily this playing style can come back and bite you hard. Despite my lack of belief in this team, it would take a big meltdown for this team to miss the playoffs.

The Bad: The Ealges blow a 24-3 lead against the 49ers.

Does having Ronnie Brown on your team immediately make you a 7-9 team or worse? What was he thinking on that “pass” that was essentially him handing the ball to the 49ers defenders? How do you lose a game where your quarterback has almost 500 yards of offense? How do you run LeSean McCoy only 9 times in a game in which you were winning big until the last few minutes? Most importantly, how does your highly overpaid defense allow Alex Smith, the same Alex Smith who has been at best mediocre for his entire career, throw for almost 300 yards against you? A lot of questions and very few answers. If it weren’t for possibly the ugliest game in NFL history, the Eagles would have gone from bad to ugly real fast. I am so back on the “Andy Reid is a terrible coach” bandwagon. And boy oh boy does it feel good to be back.

The Ugly: The Jets-Ravens game.

Coming into this matchup, you knew that this would be a defensive struggle. However, the Jets offense accounted for 3 points for the Jets and 3 touchdowns for the Ravens. That is astonishingly bad. However, the Ravens offense was not much better, turning the ball over three times themselves. The Ravens special teams were even worse, fumbling the opening kickoff and allowing barely on a roster Joe McKnight to run 107 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return. I have never seen a game this ugly before in my entire life and this was by far the ugliest performance of the week. Both these teams have a lot of work to do, but clearly the Jets are the inferior team.