NFL Week 12 Review

Week 12 started out on Thanksgiving day with a trio of games to fill the afternoon.  After stuffing your face with a big turkey dinner, there's nothing better than making yourself comfortable on the couch for a full day of watching football.

There are several teams that have a lot to be thankful for this season, including the Patriots, Jets, Falcons and Eagles.  There are also some teams that will be thankful when this disappointing season finally comes to an end, such as the Vikings, Cowboys and Bengals.  Then there's the teams that should just be thankful that they are still allowed to be in the league, such as the entire NFC West division.

Here are some things that I'm thankful to have seen this week:

• The Patriots rallied from a sluggish start to blow out the Lions to open the Thanksgiving Day festivities.  Detroit actually led at halftime, but Brady & Co. came out on fire in the second half.
• Brady had an impressive 341 passing yards, 4 TDs and a perfect 158.3 QB Rating (why that odd number is the highest possible rating is a mystery to me).
• Rookie DT Ndamukong Suh is a beast, showing he is already on his way to becoming one of the top players at his position.  He recorded an early sack and had a couple of tackles that went for a loss.
• While he won't beat out Suh for Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, Patriots CB Devin McCourty has been impressive as well.  He had two Interceptions in this game, giving him 5 for the season.  He certainly still has times where he struggles in coverage, which is expected for young players, but he seems to keep getting better every week and is looking like a player that could reach an elite level in a couple of years.
• Wes Welker struggled initially after the Randy Moss trade, as defenses were able to focus more on stopping him and left him with less room to operate, but he's finally starting to break out again.  He had a team high 8 receptions for 90 yards and 2 TDs. 
• Deion Branch came up big as well with 113 yards and 2 TDs of his own.  One of his TDs came on a 79 yard bomb where he made several nice juke moves to avoid the helpless defender.  Given how much he had to slow down to make those moves, it's amazing that no other Lions defender was able to catch up to them to help out.
• The Saints kept their NFC South title hopes alive with a comeback victory in the final minutes in Dallas.  Drew Brees led a masterful 89 yard drive, connecting on two deep passes, followed by a 12 yard slant to Lance Moore for the game winning TD with under 2 minutes to go.
• Dallas let victory slip through their fingers, or rather through the fingers of Roy Williams.  They could have had the game wrapped up after Jon Kitna connected with Williams on a 47 yard pass that put them deep in Saints territory.  Even if they weren't able to run out the remaining three minutes off the clock, they could have gone up by two scores or at least kicked a FG to go up by 7.  Malcolm Jenkins knew that a simple tackle may not have been enough to avoid a loss, so after getting burned by Williams on the play he knew he had to make up for it.  Did he ever!  He somehow manage to knock the ball loose from behind and recover the fumble, which gave Brees and the offense one last chance to win.  Which of course they did, because it's Drew Brees.
• The Miles Austin end around for a 60 yard TD was a thing of beauty.  The fact that this one long run made him the Cowboys' leading rusher for the game is a bit ugly.
• Speaking of ugly, the Jets continue to win games despite poor play from their offense.  Mark Sanchez only had 166 passing yards, and it wasn't just because the Jets game planned to run all day.  Neither LT or Shonne Green reached 20 carries for the game and they combined for less than 120 yards.
• This game was won thanks to Brad Smith, who scored TDs on a 53 yard run and an 89 yard kick return, which he managed to outrun defenders despite losing a shoe on the play.
• Terrell Owens is having a great season, but he became another star WR to be stranded on Revis Island.  He had only 3 catches for 17 yards.  His partner in crime, OchoCinco, didn't help much either, with only 4 catches for 41 yards.
• The downward spiral continues for the Titans as they were shut out by the Texans.  The highlight of their day was that Randy Moss had his best day since joining the team (3 catches, 23 yards).  When that's the best you can say about them then you know it was a disaster.
• Chris Johnson was even more disappointing (7 carries, 5 yards).  The ineptitude of this offense has apparently sucked him down with the rest of the team.
• For all his faults and issues, Vince Young at least took relatively good care of the football and put up respectable numbers, even when he wasn't asked to throw much, as shown by the fact that he's 5th in the league in QB rating.  He's done for the year and his replacement is apparently the opposite of Vince - 3 interceptions and a QB rating of only 26.7.
• Arian Foster dominated the game once again (143 rushing, 75 receiving).
• Andre Johnson's day didn't end nearly as well as it started, as both he and Titan's CB Cortland Finnegan were ejected in the 4th quarter for fighting.  The two had been jawing back and forth all day, and AJ80 is on record saying before the game that he's sick of hearing Finnegan run his mouth.  The tension finally erupted, with Finnegan getting his helmet torn off before being thrown to the ground.  Both players managed to land a couple of punches and it remains to be seen if their actions could lead to further fines or suspensions.
• The Falcons pulled out a last second victory to remain the NFC's best team.  Roddy White was relatively contained by the Packers defense, but Michael Turner made up for it with a 110 yard 1 TD performance.
• Matt Ryan has only been beaten once at home in his 3 year career.  If Atlanta can remain the top seed and get home field advantage through the playoffs then you have to like their chances of reaching the Super Bowl.
• Aaron Rodgers' late game heroics to tie the game with under a minute to go were not enough after all since their defense could not stop the Falcons from driving into FG range at the end of the game.
• The winning streak is over for Buffalo, as they lost their 3rd OT game of the season.  Give them a lot of credit for hanging with the heavily favored Steelers, but good teams win these kind of games.
• Steve Johnson was the hero in last week's comeback victory against the Bengals, but he was the goat in this one.  A late 4th quarter red zone opportunity failed when a pass deflected off his hands and was picked off by Troy Polomalu.  Then in Overtime he dropped the would-be game winning TD pass when he had the defense burned and could not hang on to an easy catch.  Those were just 2 of his 5 drops in the game.
• In a bizarre post-game rant on Twitter, Johnson blamed God for the dropped passes.  Sure, why not?  Plenty of athletes praise God when they win, so why shouldn't He get the blame when they lose?  Or maybe... Steve just had a bad game.  Get over it!  He says the team will get over it, but he never will.
• Rashard Mendenhall's 151 rushing yards would be more impressive it it didn't take him 36 carries and an OT period to do it.
• Payton Hillis was an unstoppable force with 194 total yards and 3 TDs.  We knew the Carolina defense was bad, but wow.  This guy is good.
• Hillis is a prime example this week of the downfalls of being in multiple fantasy football leagues.  His monster game is the reason I won my match-up in one league, but also the reason I lost my match-up in another league. 
• The Panthers haven't gotten much out of their QBs this year, but they did get some help from a former QB.  Jake Delhomme threw 2 picks, one of which was returned for a TD.
• The Giants got back into the NFC East race with a much needed win.
• Fumble problems may be leading to a decrease in carries for Ahmand Bradshaw.  He had only 9 carries, compared to 14 for Brandon Jacobs.
• David Garrard always seems to struggle on the road.  Good thing they have Maurice Jones-Drew to carry the load, or else they may never have even had a lead that they could blow.
• The Vikings got a win in the debut for their new head coach Leslie Frazier.  After seeing the Cowboys and now the Vikings win the week after firing their coach, maybe other teams should consider making some changes.
• Adrian Peterson left the game early with an ankle injury.  It doesn't sound serious, so hopefully he won't miss additional time.  He had an MRI on Monday and they are awaiting results.
• Before the injury, Peterson eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark for the season.  It's the 4th straight year that he's topped that mark.  Only 2 other active RBs (Stephan Jackson, Thomas Jones) have more consecutive 1K yard seasons.
• Chad Henne returned to lead the Dolphins passed the Raiders.  He was helped by his running game.  The combination of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams looked lifeless the past few weeks, but finally broke out, combining for 180 yards.  A 45 yard TD run by Williams helped clinch the game.
• Oakland was once 2nd in the league in rushing, but continues to drop (down to 5th) after another unproductive week.  Darren McFadden and Michael Bush combined for only 3 yards!
• Dwayne Bowe continues his streak as an unstoppable receiver (13 catches, 170 yards, 3 TDs), despite that he has Matt Cassell throwing to him and that there are very little other receiving options around him.  The game plan to stop Bowe used to be just to wait for him to drop the ball.  Maybe defenses need to adjust that plan.
• See what happens when you let Jamaal Charles carry the ball 20+ times?  He goes off for 173 yards and a TD.  Keep giving him the ball.
• Given the lead they had for most of the game, they still managed to fit in another 20 carries for Thomas Jones.  Unfortunately, half of those carries went for 2 yards or less.  Other than goal line carries it's tough to figure why he even gets the ball until the 4th quarter, when they can use him to help eat up the clock if they have the lead. 
•  Seattle's top receiver Mike Williams missed this game with a foot injury, but Ben Obomanu filled in admirably with 5 catches for 159 yards and a TD.  If you haven't heard of him, don't worry.  I'm not sure Matt Hasselbeck had heard of him before this week either, as he only had 15 catches all season entering this game.
• Michael Vick finally threw his first Interception of the year, and it was a costly one given that they lost by only 5 points.  He still had another great game, passing for over 300 yards for only the 2nd time all season (Week 10, in which he also had 333 yards).
• His day would have been even better, not just for his stats, but for the team's chances to win as well, if DeSean Jackson hadn't dropped a sure TD pass.  He seemed to be bracing himself for impact and tried to drop to the ground to avoid getting hit in the head rather than focusing on holding on to the ball.  Can't really blame him considering he missed time this season due to a concussion from a vicious helmet to helmet hit, but that was a ball he needed to hang on to.
• Jay Cutler had a big game, with 4 TDs and no turnovers.  Who would have thought he would have had less turnovers and a better QB rating than Vick in this game?
• It probably helped that the Eagles were without their top two CBs for the game.  Asante Samuel was out this week and Ellis Hobbs is out for the season.  They just didn't have enough depth at the position to keep up with the speedy Bears receivers.
• Chicago is now on a 4 game winning streak that has put them a game ahead of the Packers for first place in the NFC North.
• Sam Bradford had the first 300 yard game of his career, as well as the first 3 TD game and first road victory.  Not too shabby for the rookie QB.  Granted it came against a miserable Broncos team, but Bradford's receiving options aren't exactly a group of Pro-Bowl caliber players.
• Kyle Orton did some damage of his own (347 yards, 3 TDs), most of which came in the 4th quarter during a furious comeback attempt.  His last chance drive was uneventful, including a sack followed by three straight incompletions which pretty much ended the game.  But hey, at least he continues to look good in the box scores.
• On the bright side, Orton took over the league lead for passing yards (3370).  I doubt you'll hear his name mentioned much in the MVP debate though.  Not just because his team is awful, but because you just can't give an MVP award to this guy.
• The Ravens managed to hold off the Bucs with some strong defensive play despite not forcing a turnover or recording a sack the entire game.  Pretty impressive to be able to hold a team to only 10 points (7 of which came at the end of the game) without the help of turnovers or sacks.
• Ray Rice had a useful day, with 132 total yards.  Not that the team needed it, but his day would have been even better if a long receiving TD hadn't been called back due to a penalty.  His Fantasy owners are sadly nodding their heads.
• Payton Manning continues to struggle against the Chargers.  For whatever reason, San Diego is the team that has his number.  His 4 Interceptions took away any chance the Colts had of winning.  His struggles can be partially blamed on the pressure the Chargers were able to get on him.  The TV announcers kept doing a freeze frame on his face, showing his goofy squinting expression as he released the ball, anticipating contact.  He was only sacked once, but was hit five times, which is a lot for him.
• Two of Manning's picks were returned for TDs, so he had just as many TD passes to the Chargers as he did for his own team!
• In fairness to Manning, one of those picks that was returned was due to a blatant pass interference non-call.  Eric Weddle wrapped his hands around the waist of Reggie Wayne and pulled him down, giving himself the leverage he needed to get in position to pick off the pass.  On replay it was obvious, so I'm not sure how ref's missed that one.  Even if you assumed the Colts would have scored on that drive (certainly not a given) and took away the points going the other way, San Diego still would have won.  So it's not that big a deal, other than to say that Manning's day is slightly less horrible when you factor that in.
• Meanwhile, Philip Rivers wasn't asked to do much, which is why he managed only 185 yards and zero TDs.  He probably won't complain about the help he got from his defense and running game, but the Chargers are going to need to be behind more often if Rivers is going to have any chance at Marino's record, which he is now way off pace for.
• Antonio Gates returned this week, catching 4 balls for 46 yards, but he didn't look like he was running very well.  He's clearly still in pain and his tolerance for the pain will determine how much he can be used down the stretch.
• Vincent Jackson made his long awaited 2010 debut after holding out thus far due to a contract dispute.  He left the game with a calf injury in the first quarter without recording a catch.
• Jackson didn't get the contract he wanted and only returned because the players association strongly suggested he do so in order to ensure he received credit for the season so that he could become a free agent.  I don't want to doubt the severity of an injury, but is it that far fetched that Jackson could milk this calf injury the rest of the year so that he's still "holding out" but getting credit for the season at the same time?
•  The 49ers won a Pyrrhic victory against Arizona.  While they needed the win to stay close in the NFC West race, they may also have doomed their chances by losing Frank Gore to a broken hip that could put him out for the rest of the season.
• The silver lining to the Gore injury is that in his place they were treated to a vintage performance from Brian Westbrook.  The former Pro-Bowler, who's career seemed over after concussion issues ended his long tenure in Philadelphia, racked up 136 yards and a TD.  Oddly enough, Westbrook was not targeted at all in the passing game.  Did these guys not watch him play in Philly?  He's just as dangerous as a receiver than as a rusher, and it's not like passing to their RBs isn't part of their game plan because Gore catches more passes than most RBs in the league.
• How pathetic is the Arizona offense?  Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower combined for 10 carries for 13 yards.  Derek Anderson failed to complete even half of his pass attempts (16/35) for under 200 yards.  It's no surprise they were kept out of the endzone.
• They should have had one TD, but Larry Fitzgerald couldn't keep control of the ball as he went to the ground.  Maybe the ineptitude of the rest of the offense is contagious.
• Apparently the NFL has some dumb rule that says they have to let an NFC West team make the playoffs, despite the fact that no team in the division has a winning record or a positive point differential.  This means that a team like the Giants or Packers may end up missing the playoffs so that an unworthy team can get a free pass based on the fact that they are in a terrible division.
• The Cincinnati Bengals have the league's longest losing streak, now at 8 games.
• The Tennessee Titans are in last in the NFC South, despite having the division's best point differential (+39).  Jacksonville leads the division despite having the worst point differential (-54).
• Next week's Monday Night match-up between the Patriots and Jets may not only decide the division, but perhaps even the top seed in the AFC.  The Pats need a win to get ahead of the Jets.  A loss would mean that not only are the Jets a game ahead, but they'd also own the head-to-head tie breaker thanks to their win at home back in September.  So the Patriots would need the Jets to lose at least 2 of their final 4 games to surpass them if they don't win this game.  Otherwise they may have to settle for a Wild Card and a playoff path that takes them on the road.