NFL Week 13 Review

With several games this week featuring top divisional opponents it's likely that many of these games will help shape up the playoff race.  While no team has been able to wrap up their division yet, there are a few teams that put themselves in the drivers seat with big wins this weekend.

Here are some things that I noticed this week.

• Michael Vick passed for over 300 yards for the second week in a row.  It's the third time this season and only the 5th time in his career that he's achieved that many passing yards in a game.
• He also added 48 rushing yards and a rushing TD, so yeah... he's still a mobile QB.  This season he's finally showing that he can throw as well, making him a complete QB that can beat you so many different ways.  He is one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the league and probably the hardest player for opposing defenses to game plan for each week.
• Andre Johnson didn't punch anyone this week, but he did abuse the Eagle's injury depleted secondary for 149 yards.
• It didn't come as easily as it should have considering they played the Bengals, but the Saints got a much needed win to stay in the NFC South race.  All it took was some last minute heroics from Drew Brees, who threw the game winning TD with about 30 seconds left in the game. 
• Coach Sean Payton made a gutsy move at the end of the game.  Down three points at the end of the game, he had the opportunity to tie the game and send it to overtime on the road.  Facing 4th and 2 you'd figure that most coaches would take the points to tie, but Payton wanted to go for the win, keeping his offense on the field.  Were they really going for it, or did they just send out the offense to try to draw the Bengals into a penalty?  We'll never know, because whether it was intentional or not, they did get the Bengals to move early, resulting in an automatic first down.  They scored the winning TD on the next play.  Would they have scored without the penalty, with the ball lined up a few yards further back and the do-or-die pressure of a 4th and 2 play?
• Chris Ivory scored the first Saints TD on a big 55 yard run.  He added another TD later and finished with 117 yards on only 15 carries.  On the other end, Cedric Benson also scored 2 TDs, but only managed a miserable 49 yards on 19 carries against a team not known for it's stout rush defense.
• The Lions got screwed against the Bears again!  They lost their early season match-up when the referees determined Calvin Johnson did not hold on to the would-be game winning TD catch for long enough when he came down with it in the endzone.  This week the Bears game winning drive was aided by a huge unnecessary roughness penalty. 
• Referee Ed Hochuli defended the call by saying "I felt it was an unnecessary non-football act -- a blow to the back of the runner's helmet in the process of him going down."  The problem is, it didn't seem that Suh actually hit Cutler in the head.  It was a borderline call at best, one that typically would not be called.
• Donald Driver wins the award this week for scoring a TD with the greatest degree of difficulty with his ridiculous 61 yard catch that included breaking a tackle from just about every defensive player on the field.  Not bad, old man.
• The blast from the past revival for Brian Westbrook only lasted one week.  He had an even split with Anthony Dixon, with both RBs getting 9 carries and each of them barely cracking the 30 yard mark.  Once again Westbrook was an afterthought in the passing game as well.
• With Kerry Collins back this week the Titans offense couldn't possibly be a putrid as it was with Rusty Smith at the helm, but it wasn't much better either.
• After leading the league in rushing last year when he broke the 2K yard mark, Chris Johnson has now fallen out of the top 5 in rushing yards for the season after another sub-par performance.
• We knew the Titans offense was a mess, but the defense wasn't much better, as they couldn't stop Maurice Jones-Drew.  MJD ran wild for 186 yards!  The Jaguars running game had more total yards than the Titans' offense.
• Wasn't the KC-Denver game supposed to be another shoot-out?  Last time I checked 10-6 would only be considered high scoring if it was a baseball game.
• Matt Cassell has been burning up the league lately and had to be salivating over his chances to pick apart a terrible Broncos defense.  Yet he only managed 196 yards and one TD.  His favorite target, Dwayne Bowe, was held without a catch.
• Kyle Orton was even worse.  His 117 yard performance dropped him from first in the league in passing yards to a distant 4th.
• Denver has been a team that not only can't run the ball, they typically don't even bother trying.  Yet this bizarro game saw them run the ball almost as many times as they threw it, and the ground game was much more effective.  Knowshown Moreno was the only Bronco to have a rushing attempt, but he did a lot with his 23 carries, rushing for a career high 161 yards.
• The Broncos fired coach Josh McDaniels on Monday.  The NFL's youngest coach started out his head coaching career after leaving New England for Denver on a 6-0 hot streak to begin the 2009 season, but it's been all downhill from there.  Since that start the team has gone 5-17, including a 3-9 record this season that has already taken them out of the playoff race, despite that the three other AFC West teams are still in it.  A recent video taping scandal (Spygate II) didn't endear him to his employers either, despite McDaniels claims that he was not involved.  When he took over last year the Broncos looked like a team on the verge of being a playoff contender.  In less than two years he has ruined the franchise through bad trades, drafts and coaching.  He'll eventually latch on somewhere else as an offensive coordinator, since his time in New England and Denver showed he at least can call a good offensive game, but he clearly was not ready to be a head coach.
• The Browns and Dolphins seemed to competing for who has the worst offense for most of this game, with each team only managing a field goal up until the end of the 3rd quarter.  The Browns won it on a FG as time expired.
• It didn't win them the game, but Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter's 60 yard FG was impressive.  A lot of teams wouldn't even bother to try it from that distance, but a long field goal probably has a better chance to succeed than a hail mary pass (especially when Chad Henne is your QB) and they only had time for one play before halftime.
• Brett Favre attempted only one pass in the game, which was intercepted, before leaving the game with an injury.  His status for next week is unclear, but if you are the Vikings do you really want him back?
• In his absence, Tavaras Jackson showed the pros and cons of turning the job over to him.  On the one hand, he led the team to their highest scoring game of the season.  On the other hand, he had three interceptions, one of which was returned for a TD.
• Then again, who needs a great QB when you have Adrian Peterson?  He rushed for over 100 yards and added 3 TDs.
• The Giants defense was dominant, forcing 6 Redskins turnovers and recording 4 sacks.  Eli Manning is a good QB, but he's not an elite player that can carry the team consistantly on his own like his big brother, especially when his receiving options are so depleted due to injuries.  The Giants need their defense and running game to keep playing like they did this week if they hope to re-take the division from the Eagles.
• Philip Rivers lost a game in the month of December for the first time in his career.  They had been one of the hottest teams in the league lately, but they didn't show up for this game against Oakland.  The loss puts them 2 games back of KC for the AFC West.  Their playoff chances, and Rivers' odds at the MVP award, took a major step back.
• Oakland won in part because they finally got their running game back on track.  Their 1-2 punch of McFadden and Bush combined for 192 rushing yards and 2 TDs.
• Payton Manning has never looked worse in his career than he has the past 3 weeks in losses to New England, San Diego and Dallas.  Over that span he has thrown 11 interceptions, 4 of which have been returned for a TD. 
• The Colts are now 6-6 and in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2001.  They turn the ball over too much, are last in the league in rushing yards and rank 29th in rushing defense (the three teams behind them in rush defense are all miserable teams with no shot at the playoffs).  So they can't blame all their troubles on some injured receivers.
• With Marion Barber injured, Tashard Choice finally got a shot to get some meaningful carries, and he made the most of it (19 carries, 100 yards and an impressive TD run).  It shouldn't come as much of a shock, considering Choice has averaged over 5 yards per carry in his career, but he's been trapped at the bottom of the depth chart for too long.  Hopefully this helps rectify that even after Barber gets healthy.
• The Rams moved to 6-6, paving the way for the possibility that the NFC West might end up with a team above .500.  Still probably won't happen, but at this point we should be content with an 8-8 team winning that division.
• As Howie Long pointed out in the pre-game show, don't count out a team like the Rams to get hot right around the playoffs.  Two years ago a 9-7 Cardinals team won this division and people thought it was one of the worst teams to qualify for the playoffs in history, yet they managed to get to the Super Bowl.  Then again... that team had a Hall of Fame caliber QB (Warner) and not a rookie (Bradford).
• Arizona had gotten away from the QB carousel for a couple of weeks, sticking with Derek Anderson, but now it may be worse than ever, as they used 3 different QBs for stretches of this game.  Anderson was benched in the 4th quarter for Max Hall, who dislocated his shoulder after only 3 pass attempts.  Rookie John Skelton (who's name for some reason I keep mixing up with Jack Skellington, even though I'm pretty sure he has no relation to the Pumpkin King) made his debut to close out the game, and actually played better than the other two.  It was a small sample size, but at least he didn't throw an interception.
• Seattle also won this week to remain tied with St. Louis at the top of the NFC West.  They have similarly difficult schedules to close the season, so their week 17 match-up may decide the division.
• Carolina is so bad that they were even able to make Marshawn Lynch look decent.  His 4 yards per carry isn't great, but it's a big upgrade over his season average (3.3) and he scored 3 times.
• Justin Forsett continues to be woefully underused, getting only 6 carries despite averaging 10 yards per carry in the game.
• Matt Ryan continues to establish himself as an elite QB with another late 4th quarter comeback.  This time, down by 10 in the 4th quarter, Ryan led two TD drives to pull ahead of Tampa in a game they had to win to stay on top of the NFC South.
• A win for Tampa would have put them right in the middle of the division race, but after falling to 7-5 they are now a long shot to pass both Atlanta and New Orleans and even the Wild Card is a reach at this point.  You still have to be impressed by the turnaround by this team this year considering how bad they were at this time last year.
• The Steelers held on to win a tough game that predictably was dominated by defense.  It's never easy beating good teams when you are playing on the road, but the Steelers needed this one if they were to have any chance at the division title considering the Ravens won their first match-up.  Now the Steelers have evened the head-to-head record and own a 1 game lead over their rivals from Baltimore.
• When these two physical rivals meet you can expect there to be some bad blood, but in this game the blood was all over Roethlisberger's face.  The Steeler's QB took a shot to the face (which wasn't called, but did result in a fine) that busted up his nose pretty badly.  The Steelers are claiming the nose wasn't broken, but that's hard to believe given how crooked his nose looked after the play happened and the amount of blood that was pouring out of it.
• Steelers CB Bryant McFadden had a tough day, as he was picked on often by the Flacco-Boldin combination.  He got burned badly by the faster Boldin on his 61 yard reception.
• In their last meeting, Joe Flacco was the hero when he led the Ravens on a last minute scoring drive to win the game.  The stage was set for him to do it again, but he couldn't get the job done.  A costly fumble deep in their own territory set up a quick score for the Steelers.  Then on their final drive he failed to make up for his mistake, turning the ball over on downs.
• In his defense, he did manage to get them to the Pittsburgh 31 yard line, which would have given them the chance for a 48 yard field goal attempt.  Given that the wind was against them they opted to go for it on 4th and 2 rather than tie the game with a FG, but the pass fell incomplete as Flacco skipped the ball at the feet of his receiver to end the game.
• The Patriots destroyed the Jets on Monday night.  The game that was hyped as the biggest game of the week turned out to be the biggest blow out - a 45-3 massacre.  This game was the complete opposite of their week 2 match-up, when the Jets won with a defense that confused Brady and kept him off balance, forcing him to make bad throws and turn the ball over.  This week, Brady was unstoppable from start to finish, connecting with 8 different receivers.
• Tom Brady should be the undisputed MVP at this point in the season.  Not only does he lead the league's best team, and highest scoring offense, but he leads the league in QB Rating (109.5) and TDs (27) with only 4 interceptions.  Nobody in the league is playing at his level right now.
• Mark Sanchez had another awful game.  When he plays well the Jets are a very good team, but Sanchez has been too inconsistent for this team to seriously be considered a Super Bowl contender.  He has had too many terrible games like this: 17/33 passing for only 164 yards, 3 Interceptions and not coming close to getting his team in the endzone.  The Jets only had 2 red zone drives all game and came away without points both times.
• The Patriots defense came up big in this game.  There are some that don't take the Patriots seriously as contenders due to the fact that they are 31st in the league in total yards allowed and last in 3rd down conversion percentage.  Some of that is to be expected considering they have the youngest defense in the league, starting 4 rookies, but they are getting better each week and they made a statement in this game.
• The Jets were only 3-12 on third downs, with the Patriots coming up with several key stops in situations where they have typically struggled.
• The Patriots defense has a bend-but-don't-break mentality, similar to what they had in their Super Bowl years.  They give up a lot of yardage, yet they aren't among the 10 worst teams in terms of points given up per game.  Part of that is because they lead the AFC in turnover differential (+14) and are third in take-aways.
• Pats rookie CB Devin McCourty is a big part of that, as he's tied for 2nd in the NFL with 6 interceptions.  He continues to impress every week.  He may not be the favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year over Detroit's Ndamukong Suh (8 sacks, 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery) but his interception total will at least put him in the conversation.
• The Patriots are the only team in the AFC with 10 wins already.  They have put themselves in the driver's seat for the top seed in the AFC with only 4 games left.  As long as they can win at least 3 of their remaining games (@Chicago, Green Bay, @Buffalo, Miami) they should be able to wrap up the number one seed.  The last two games are key, despite that they are the less challenging opponents.  If they lose to either of those teams and the Jets win all 4 of their remaining games then the Jets would win the tie-breaker due to a better conference record.
• The Jets have the same remaining schedule, only they already played Green Bay and have to travel to Pittsburgh instead, so their schedule is a little more challenging, but they aren't out of the division title hunt yet.
• Pittsburgh is the only other likely challenger for the top seed in the AFC, but they are a game behind the Patriots in the standings and the Pats own the head-to-head tie-breaker, so they would have to make up 2 games in the last 4 to pass them.
• In the NFC, Atlanta also has 10 wins and the inside track at the top seed.  Their biggest challenger for the position is their division rival Saints.  Their Week 16 match-up could decide the division, as the rest of their remaining schedule should be a cake walk (Carolina twice and @Seattle).
• The Patriots look like they are unbeatable at home.  Matt Ryan has only lost one home game in his career.  If both teams get the top seed in their conference, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs, there is a good chance they will meet in the Super Bowl.
• The Patriots now lead the AFC in point differential (+110).  The Packers still lead in the NFC (+121).  Nobody else in either conference is even close.
• I was officially eliminated from one of my fantasy football leagues.  I didn't even make the playoffs.  It didn't help that I lost my QB ( Tony Romo) top RB (DeAngelo Williams) and TE (JerMichael Finley) for most of the season.  On the bright side, I still have 3 other teams that are doing just fine.