Things I Noticed: Week 10

A bit of an odd week, as the league takes a break from bye weeks.  The week also includes the first Thursday night game since Week 1, a trend which will continue until Week 17.  Can't recall previous seasons having regular Thursday games before Thanksgiving.

Here are some other things I noticed this week:

• Another late game collapse dropped the Chargers to below the .500 mark after their latest loss to the Raiders.  Philip Rivers didn't help his case with another 4th quarter INT.  He would get one last chance in the game's final minute, getting his team as far as mid-field in desperate need of a TD.  With no time outs left and the clock ticking, the last thing Rivers could afford (other than another turnover of course) was to take a sack.  He was sacked on back to back plays to end the game.
• Carson Palmer has a new favorite target in Denarius Moore (123 yards, 2 TDs).  The disappearance of Darrius Heyward-Bey continues to be a mystery, as he was held without a catch for the second straight week.  Despite Oakland losing Jacoby Ford to an ankle injury, DHB wasn't even targeted in the game.
• The Saints have had their issues on the road this year, but they came up big in Atlanta, where the Falcons didn't lose a game in the regular season all last year.
• Marques Colston was outstanding, catching 8 of his 9 targets.  Each of his catches went for a first down.
• Julio Jones left early with an injury and the Saints did a pretty good job of containing Roddy White. That left Harry Douglas (8 catches, 133 yards) as Matt Ryan's go to guy down the stretch.  On the Falcons last drive of regulation, Douglas caught the first three passes for a total of 66 yards to help put his team in position to tie the game and force overtime. 
• Falcons coach Mike Smith will get a lot of criticism this week for his bold decision to keep the offense on the field to attempt to convert on 4th and inches from his own 29 yard line in overtime.  The run was stuffed, turning the ball over to the Saints on downs, already in field goal range.  A few plays later, John Kasay's kick ended the game.
• The Bengals have padded their record with a cupcake schedule, but finally got a real test when they went up against the Steelers.  They didn't walk away with a win, as the Steelers scored the winning TD in the final two minutes of the game,  but they at least showed they were capable of keeping up with an elite team.
• The Rams won for the second time in three weeks, but it was the first win of the season with Sam Bradford on the field.
• The Browns botched their chance to win with a bad snap on a field goal attempt that would have given them the lead late in the 4th quarter.  The holder got the ball down just in time, but the miscue caused Phil Dawson to hesitate just enough to ruin his momentum gliding into the kick, which caused it to sail wide left.
• Anyone who thought Tony Romo would struggle without top receiver Miles Austin on the field had those fears put to rest by the performance by Laurent Robinson, who reeled in two long TD catches in the first half to help the Cowboys demolish the Bills.
• After a promising start to the season, the Bills have now lost three of their last 4 games, while the offense struggled for the second straight week.  Ryan Fitzpatrick is capable of going on hot streaks that make him look like he's on the edge of becoming elite, but then he'll fall into a funk to prove he's not really that close to that level after all.
• For a while it looked like the Jaguars were going to have trouble putting away the Colts, but they finally pulled away late in the 4th quarter and the Colts offense couldn't get anything going.
• After another rough start for Curtis Painter, the Colts may finally have seen enough.  He was benched in the second half for Dan Orlovsky.  It will be interesting to see who starts for the team in their next game, but not nearly as interesting as who will start for them next year.
• I'm still trying to figure out what amazes me more - that Tim Tebow completed only two passes the entire game or that the Broncos actually won the game despite going virtually without a passing game.
• Tebow's first pass didn't come until late in the third quarter on a simple screen pass.  His only other completion was a perfectly thrown ball that dropped in for a 56 yard TD pass to Eric Decker.  Probably the best pass I've ever seen Tebow throw, so at least we've seen he's capable of making those types of throws.  He just doesn't do it very often.
• The Broncos are now 3-1 since Tebow took over as the starter.
• It's one thing to have to rely heavily on your running game when the passing game struggles, but it's even harder to do when the top two RBs on your depth chart leave with injuries in the first half. Running Lance Ball 30 times is generally not a game plan that will take you very far.
• Matt Cassel completed more than 2 passes, but his yardage total didn't beat Tebow's by much and his day may have been even more ugly.  He left the game late in the 4th quarter with a hand injury, which the team is now saying is serious enough to put the rest of his season in jeopardy.
• It's too bad the play was negated by a penalty, because Jonathan Baldwin's catch behind the defenders back would have been the catch of the year.
• The Redskins switched back to Rex Grossman as their QB, but the results were the same as they lost their 5th straight game.  Their offense has been unable to build any chemistry together due to constant changes at QB and RB.  With hopes of a winning season out the window at this point, they might as well stick with a consistent lineup to try to build on whatever success they can manage the rest of the season.

• Reggie Bush scored the only two TDs of the game.  The second one, which came on his best carry of the game for 18 yards, helped put the game away for the Dolphins second straight win.
• The Eagles choked away another 4th quarter lead to lose a game they absolutely had to win.  Out of the Eagles 6 losses, 5 of them have come in games where they had led in the 4th quarter but failed to hang on.
• DeSean Jackson was benched for the game after missing a team meeting earlier in the week.  I understand Andy Reid needing to send a message to enforce some discipline in a locker room in danger of unraveling, but a player with Jackson's talent surely could have helped in this game.
• Arizona won for the second straight week with John Skelton filling in as the starter.  An injury kept Kevin Kolb from facing his former team, but this win streak may create a familiar QB controversy that could once again cost Kolb his starting job.  It's always tough to lose your job when you've been injured.  It's understandable when it's Michael Vick coming in to light the league on fire, but to lose your spot to John Skelton?  That would be a new low for Kolb.
• The Texans crushed the Bucs, starting with the first play of the game, which was an 80 yard TD bomb to Jacoby Jones.  They didn't let up from there, piling on points that the over matched Bucs couldn't hope to keep up with.
• It's not all good news for the Texans, as it was later revealed that Matt Schuab suffered a foot injury that could keep him out for the rest of the season.  Their defense and running game should be enough to help them hang on to a weak AFC South division, but it's hard to see them going far in the playoffs if they are forced to rely on Matt Leinart.
• After a promising sophomore season, Josh Freeman appears to have regressed this year.  Is it because his top target, Mike Williams, has dropped off from his rookie season?  Or has Williams decline been caused by the struggles of Freeman?  I'm starting to think the issues are more on Freeman.
• Chris Johnson (174 total yards, 1 TD) had his best game of the season against a porous Panthers run defense.  He's faced a lot of tough defenses in the first half of the year, which is a trend that lightens up the rest of the way.  If this game gives him some of his confidence back he could once again become a dangerous threat.
• The Ravens have beaten the Steelers twice this year, but both times they followed it up the next week with a let down performance against an inferior team.  This time it was Seattle spoiling their run, dropping them out of the top spot in the AFC North.
• Ray Rice only had 5 carries in the game.  That doesn't seem like nearly enough considering he's their best offensive weapon.  He was still involved heavily in the passing game, catching 8 passes, and even throwing a TD pass.  Still, even when trailing in the game, the Ravens can't afford to completely give up on their running game.
• The Bears defense and special teams helped bury the Lions in the re-match between division rivals. Devin Hester got it started with his 17th career kick return for a TD.  Then the defense would help turn the game into a route with INTs returned for TDs on back to back series.
• In addition to the two pick-sixes, Matthew Stafford added two more INTs in the game, which explains why an offense loaded with so much talent was essentially shut down for most of the game.
• The Lions and Bears game got ugly at times, when a number of hard hits culminated in a second half brawl following a Stafford INT.  The fight got DJ Moore ejected and will likely result in enough player fines to purchase a small island.
• The 49ers held on to win their 8th game of the season, despite losing Frank Gore to a knee injury.  He tried to return in the 3rd quarter, but the comeback attempt didn't last long.  Assuming he doesn't miss much more time, the 49ers should be able to clinch their division before the end of the month.
• Eli Manning entered the game as the league's highest rated QB in the 4th quarter, but this was not his best finish.  He threw a costly INT about halfway through the quarter, then failed to covert on 4th down to turn the ball over again on their last chance drive.
• The Patriots got a much needed win to stop their skid and avoid their first three game losing streak since 2002.  The Jets, who may have needed this victory even more, fall a game behind in the division race and now also would lose the tiebreaker to New England, essentially making it a two game deficit.

• Jets kick returner Joe McKnight nearly put his team in a big hole by fumbling a punt return deep in their own territory to give the Patriots a short field.  What looked like a TD pass from Brady to Gronkowski ended up being overturned when replay showed the receiver had stepped out of bounds before coming back into the field of play to make the catch, resulting in an illegal touching penalty. Except the reason Gronk was out of bounds was because he was pushed out, which should have been an illegal contact penalty on the Jets.  The play actually did draw a flag for a defender shoving Branch to the ground, but the flag was picked up when the refs determined that Brady had (barely) stepped out of the pocket while scrambling around before the throw, which by rule means that illegal contact can't be called.  It was a crazy series of events on the play that resulted in the Jets catching a break, while the Pats had to settle for a FG on the drive.
• Gronk (8 catches, 113 yards, 2 TDs) would get his revenge by catching a TD pass that would stick this time on the next drive, following a Sanchez INT.
• Julian Edelman did his best Troy Brown impression, filling in at CB for the depleted Patriots secondary.  The Sunday Night Football crew kept commenting on how they hadn't even heard of half the guys the Pats were forced to run out there on defense, but they surprisingly stepped up and got the job done with a gritty performance.
• Tom Brady and Bill Belichick won their 117th victory together, setting a new league record for wins by a QB/Head Coach pair.
• Rex Ryan couldn't have been happy after the outcome of this game, but he was fuming at the end of the first half.  Facing an important 3rd down at the Patriots 2 yard line with just over a minute remaining in the half, Mark Sanchez called for a time out.  Ryan screamed at his QB for not letting the clock run down until just before the play clock would expire before using the time out.  The clock management mistake cost the Jets, as even though they scored on the next play, failing to use up as much time as possible allowed Brady a minute and twenty seconds to march down the field and score just before the half.
• The Packers demolished the Vikings on Monday night behind another MVP caliber performance by Aaron Rodgers.  Is it too soon to just give him the award?  He leads the league in QB rating, completion %, and TD passes.  He's third in passing yardage and has only thrown three INTs through his first 9 games.  Oh yea, plus his team is still undefeated.  Tom Brady and Drew Brees have been great, but Rodgers is on another level right now.
• Another positive sign for the Packers: the 266 total yards they gave up to the Vikings is over 100 yards less than their season average for yards allowed (384.8).
• The Vikings offense couldn't get much going, but it was at least good to see them attempt to get Percy Harvin more involved.  He caught 6 passes on 8 targets and also ran the ball three times.  Aside from Adrian Peterson, Harvin is the Vikings only other explosive player.  They need to keep giving him chances to get the ball in space and create a big play.
• New England's Wes Welker is now over 1000 yards receiving through 9 games.  At his current pace he would finish with 1788 yards, which would be the second best single season mark in league history.  Jerry Rice's 1848 record is probably safe, but with Tom Brady throwing him the ball you can't count out Welker to make a run at it.
• The Houston Texans are 5th in points scored and 2nd in points allowed, which explains why only the undefeated Packers have a better point differential than their +107.