NFL Week 11 Review

Bye weeks are over now, so we got to see a full slate of games this week for the first time since Week 3.  The more football the better as far as I'm concerned, although I may suffer from some serious finger cramping by the end of this due to writing about more games. 

Here are some things I noticed this week.

• The Bears opened the week on Thursday by dominating the Dolphins.  Or about as "dominant" as you can be when you only score 16 points.  So really it was just their defense that dominated.  And their field goal Kicker.
• Miami's play calling was atrocious.  They were down to their 3rd string QB and lost Brandon Marshall to an injury during the game, yet they never even attempted to establish a running game.  Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams had three carries each.  QB Tyler Thigpen had the same number of rushes as both his RBs combined!  What happened to the days when their RB duo ran the Wild Cat offense to make up for their lack of a passing game?  Now they lack both a passing and running game.
• The Bills have won 2 in a row!  Their improbable playoff run continues!  Ok, maybe not, but fans in Buffalo don't have much else to be excited about, especially now that the weather is becoming unbearably cold that far north.
• Steve Johnson (8 catches, 137 yards, 3 TDs) may be the best WR in the league that most people have never heard of.  Maybe it's because he plays for a miserable Buffalo team or maybe it's because he has such a commonly dull name.  Nonetheless, there are still only two receivers in the league with more TDs than Johnson (9) this season.
• This was truly a game of two halves, as the Bengals dominated the first half, leading 31-14 at the break, but then they couldn't score at all in the second half, blowing a lead by giving up 5 TDs in the second half!  When it looks like you are going to win in a blowout by halftime but then end up getting blown out by the end of the game then I think it's safe to say you have a problem finishing games.  It looks like T.Ocho and friends didn't bother to show up for the 2nd half.
• Cinncinnati has now fallen behind Buffalo to become the worst team in the AFC.  Weren't they supposed to be a playoff contender?
• There's only three things you can count on in life: Death, Taxes and the Lions will lose on the road.  They at least usually make things interesting, but Jon Kitna's 29 yard bootleg run for a TD put this one far out of reach near the end of the 4th quarter.
• Speaking of Kitna, which stat is more amazing: 4 total TDs (3 passing, 1 rushing) or ZERO turnovers?  If it were an elite QB we were talking about I'd say that's just another typical week, but for Kitna to not turn the ball over is a once in a blue moon kind of event.
• The Redskins beat the Titans on a FG in Overtime.  They had a chance to win it in regulation, but missed on a 47 yard attempt.  Surprisingly, the Redskins allowed Donnovan McNabb to remain in the game for that final drive.  If only they had put in game closing specialist Rex Grossman at the end they may have been able to get a little closer to make it an easier attempt (the FG was short by about 2 yards).  With only 1:37 remaining when that drive started it's amazing that McNabb had the cardiovascular endurance to take them from their own 22 yard line all the way to within reasonable FG range.  Where was Rex?
• Or that's the take I'd have on the situation if I was crazy... like Mike Shanahan was a few weeks ago.  What was different this week?  Did McNabb miraculously get into better shape since then or did Shanahan just not want to be crucified by the media for making that bold mistake decision again.
• Vince Young left the game early with an injury and may not be back... ever.  Not due to the injury, but due to his post game tirade where he reportedly dropped a few unpleasant words before walking out on his coach.  According to his coach, he also threw half his uniform into the stands, which is one of the best hissy fit moments by a player this year. 
• Jeff Fisher mentioned that Young may require season ending surgery.  Even if that's not true, they should just pretend it is and bench VY for the rest of the year.  He has a history of immaturity and this has to be the last straw.  There is a difference between being a competitive player that plays with passion and being a distracting headache.
• In case there was any doubt about there being friction between the player and coach, Young was quoted as yelling "I'm not running out on my teammates, I'm running out on you," as he stormed out of the locker room.
• Who would have bet on there being drama in the Titan's locker room that didn't revolve around Randy Moss after a game where he failed to record a catch?
• Coming off a couple of disappointing weeks, the Chiefs finally got back on track with a much needed win to take back the division lead.  They are still undefeated at home.
• Dwayne Bowe was criticized early in the season for a lack of focus that led to lots of dropped passes.  Lately he's been doing his best to quiet those critics.  After another big game (109 yards, 2 TDs) Bowe now leads the league in receiving TDs (11).
• Beanie Wells returned, claiming his knee is now 100%, but only touched the ball 8 times.  Not enough of a sample size to see how effective he is at this point.  He and Tim Hightower both averaged around 5 yards per carry, but neither was able to get many attempts due to the lopsided score.
• In what could very well be the last chance Brett Favre will ever have to stick it to his old Packers team, it looks like it was Green Bay that got the last laugh.  The Vikings were embarrassed 31-3 and Favre did nothing to help avoid that.  Perhaps this is the wake up call he needed to decide it's finally time to retire.  For good this time.
• Not even the return of Sydney Rice, who had missed the season's previous games due to off-season hip surgery, could turn things around for the Vikings offense.  3 catches for 56 yards isn't terrible for a first game back off a serious injury, but it wasn't a difference maker.  Rice can't look like the breakout star from last year if Favre isn't playing like the Favre of last year.
• The Vikings finally listed to their fans and fired Brad Childress on Monday.  It's too late for them to turn around this season, but the move was long overdue.  Chilly had let that team get out of control and his team hated him.  No really, one anonymous player actually said he hates him.  They clearly quit on him already, and a blow out loss to the rival Packers was rock bottom, opening up the perfect opportunity for them to hand Childress his pink slip.  They may not win many more games with a new coach, but you have to think there at least will be a lot less tension in the locker room, so things are already improving.  You also have to wonder if the new coach will do what Chilly never would - bench Brett Favre.
• The Aaron Rodgers to Greg Jennings combo was unstoppable this week, connecting for 152 yards and 3 TDs.  Jennings is one of the game's best big play receivers, and there were plenty of them in this game.  His 7 catches in the game averaged 21.7 yards per catch.
• After losing on a miracle Hail Mary catch last week, the Texans suffered another late heartbreaking loss this week.  I'm still in shock that they managed to blow this game.  They had the lead with under 2 minutes to go when the Jets comeback attempt was thwarted after a Mark Sanchez Interception that should have sealed the win.  After milking some more time off the clock and making the Jets use up the last of their timeouts, the Texans kicked a FG to go up by 4 point with under 1 minute to go.  Should have been game over, right?  Nope, not if you're facing the league's worst defense!  They gave up a 42 yard bomb to Braylon Edwards when the safety was late coming to help.  In that situation, how do you let a receiver get passed you??  It's one thing if a faster receiver just burns the Corner covering him, but the safety is supposed to back him up.  He tried... just not hard enough.  The Jets scored the winning TD on the next play on a textbook lob to the corner of the endzone to Santonio Holmes.  The Jets string of luck continues with their third straight win that was handed to them by a bonehead play or penalty by their opponent at the end of the game.
• Credit the Jets and Revis for containing Andre Johnson (4 catches, 32 yards), but nobody can stop Arian Foster (143 total yards, 2 TDs).  If Houston didn't keep finding ways to lose close games they'd find themselves in the playoff hunt and Foster would be an MVP candidate.
• The Steelers finally put an end to the Raiders winning streak with a decisive blowout victory.  They entered the game with the league's second best rushing attack, but Bush and McFadden combined for only 47 yards against the Steel Curtain.
• After looking good the past couple weeks in leading Oakland to victories, Jason Campbell appears to have been benched (again) for Bruce Gradkowski.  He wasn't much better, so it's a toss up between which one will start next week.  Do you think they just pick out of a hat before the game?  Or do they use the pre-game coin flip to decide?
• Leave it to the Steelers to win a lopsided blowout but still complain about the refs after.  Granted they set a franchise record for penalty yardage, a jaw dropping 14 penalties for 163 yards (Oakland's offense managed only 182 total yards without the penalties), and some of those calls were a little dubious.  Did it really matter though?  The Steelers are claiming the league is targeting them to send a message about illegal hits because they are the most physical defense in the league.  I doubt that's true, but when James Harrison runs his mouth about how he intends to hurt people on every play then that probably isn't helping.
• Richard Seymour was ejected from the game for smacking Ben Roethisberger across the face.  Seems a bit harsh considering he was only doing what every college girl in the country wishes they could do.  This slap is dedicated to all of you drunk college chicks out there!
• There is no truth to the rumor that Seymour slapped him only after Ben asked him if his daughter is 18 yet.  Or at least I think I made that up, but is it hard to imagine Big Ben acting like a creepier version of Quagmire from Family Guy?
• Carolina lost both DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewert, neither of which came close to the 100 yard mark in a game all season.  So of course Mike Goodson starts twice and goes over the century mark both times.  Are teams just not game planning their defense around him they did for D-Will and The Daily Show, or was the offensive line not quite as much at fault for their miserable play?
• Throwing an Interception is never good, but it's even worse when it gets returned for a TD.  Brian St. Pierre did it twice... on back-to-back plays.  He's like the anti-comeback player.
• The Jaguars win wasn't quite as dramatic this week, but they still got the winning TD with just over 1 minute to go.  A thrilling victory by most standards, but they just set the bar too high after last week.
• How are the Jaguars leading the AFC South?  I won't complain about anything that could keep the Colts out of the playoffs, but nobody expected Jacksonville to even be a contender.
• The Falcons continue their quest to prove they are the best team in the NFC.  The title is still up for grabs, but this week they provided another example of why they deserve it.  Matt Ryan may not be the biggest name or put up the flashiest stats, but if they keep winning then he will work his way into the MVP consideration.
• Sam Bradford isn't there yet, but maybe he can win the award for best offensive rookie.  He could be one of Matty Ice's challengers for the league's best QB in 5 years.
• Atlanta better keep it up, because the Saints are hot on their trail.  The defending Super Bowl champs are only 1 game behind and the teams still have another game against each other that could decide the division.
• Drew Brees (382 yards, 106.9 rating) and Matt Hasselbeck (366 yards, 104.9 rating) had fairly similar days.  The difference is that the Saints drives ended with TDs and the Seahawks settled for FGs. 
• Reggie Bush was supposed to return this week, but ended up being inactive again.  Not that they really needed him for this one.
• Tampa Bay stayed in the race for the NFC South by shutting out the 49ers.  Shutting down Frank Gore is no easy challenge, but they did it relatively well.  They have already exceeded expectations (well, except from their coach, who thinks they are the best team in the league), but a tough schedule down the stretch could take them out of contention.
• Mike Williams played, despite being arrested for a DUI earlier in the week, and caught another TD.
• The Colts started to bring back some eerie memories from last year when they came back to beat New England after trailing 31-14 in the 4th quarter.  This time the score was the same to begin the 4th and once again Manning ripped through the Patriots defense for two more TDs to close the game to within 3.  When the Pats failed to move the chains enough to run out the clock it gave Manning a chance for another one of his trademark gut wrenching comebacks.  Only this time the script wasn't the same.  When the Colts got into FG range to potentially tie the game in the closing minutes it seemed hopeless for Pats fans (myself included).  It seemed inevitable at that point that Manning would once again rip our hearts out.  Not this time.  Manning threw his third Interception of the game to seal the victory for the Patriots.
• Just like old times: Manning gets twice as many yards and TDs, but it's Brady who gets the victory.
• The Eagles won a statement game to take over the lead in the NFC East from the Giants.  Michael Vick wasn't quite as impressive as last week, but he did score one rushing TD, thanks in part to a great hold  block by DeSean Jackson in the endzone.
• Vick turned the ball over for the first time this season on a fumble in the 4th quarter.  He still has yet to throw an Interception this season - the only QB in the league with as many starts as Vick that can say that.  He still leads the league in QB Rating.
• Eli Manning had a miserable game with 4 turnovers of his own.  Ahmad Bradshaw was shut down and also lost his league leading 5th fumble of the season. 
• The lone bright spot for Bradshaw actually came as a defensive player.  After Asante Samuel picked off one of his two Interceptions, it was Bradshaw that delivered the hit that knocked the ball loose, causing Samuel to fumble and the Giants to get the ball back.
• The Broncos got off to a good start Monday Night by effortlessly driving down the field on their first drive and scoring on a short run by Knowshon Moreno.  It all went down hill from there, as the Chargers responded with 35 straight points.  It took them a couple of drives to get started, but once they started to click on offense the Chargers couldn't be stopped.
• Philip Rivers' quest for the passing record took a bit of a hit due to a fairly ordinary yardage day (by his standards).  He is now just barely off pace to beat Marino's record of 5,084.  Rivers is on pace for 5,083.
• Orton had a fairly ordinary day as well, thanks to some heavy pressure from the Chargers pass rush.  He was sacked 5 times! 
• His day would have been helped if Brandon Lloyd could have pulled in a bomb that went just off his fingertips.  He appeared to have slowed down during the play, before accelerating again in an attempt to catch up to the ball.  Had he kept going it would have been a sure TD and could have changed the outlook of the game.
• It was a good day statistically for some of the elite QBs, as Manning, Brees and Rodgers all passed for 300+ yards and 4 TDs.  Philip Rivers just missed out on joining the club due to a lack of yards (233), but still had 4 TDs.  Manning had the most yards of any of them, but was the only one in the group to do so in a losing effort.
• 4 out of the 8 NFL divisions have two teams tied for first place.  Out of the other 4 divisions, none of them has a first place team that is ahead by more than 1 game.
• Jacksonville leads the AFC South despite having the division's worst point differential (-50).
• The Cowboys have to be encouraged by their 2 game win streak under new coach Jason Garrett, especially with the news that Tony Romo could return in three weeks.  But they are still 4 games back of a playoff spot with only 6 games remaining, so they are still a long shot.  With their brutal schedule (New Orleans, Indy, Philly) they will likely be out of contention before Romo is healthy enough to return, which makes you wonder if they will even bother to risk his long term healthy by rushing him back.