Things I Noticed: Week 9

With every team now having played at least 8 games, we've officially passed the halfway point of the season.  There's still a long way to go and a lot of work to do to shape the playoff picture.

Only 4 teams are off this week, with Detroit, Minnesota, Carolina and Jacksonville on a bye.

For the rest of the teams, here are some things I noticed this week:

• Tom Brady hadn't lost a regular season home game in his last 31 starts, plus the Patriots seemingly never lose two straight games, but that didn't matter to the Giants.  They came in to stun the Pats with an ending eerily similar to the crushing Super Bowl XLII loss.
• This time it was a pass interference penalty in the endzone that set up Eli Manning's game winning TD throw in the final seconds of the game.  With Patrick Chung being forced out of the game's final drive with an injury, Sergio Brown was thrown into an important situation despite seeing very little game action of late.  The penalty was questionable given that there was hardly any contact and it seemed unlikely that a catch would have been made, but Brown failed to turn his head back to look at the ball, which typically will draw a flag, regardless of whether he really "interfered" with the play.  Uncharacteristic mistakes have been killing the Patriots lately.
• On Tuesday the Patriots ended the Albert Haynesworth experiment. The troublesome DT was cut after being benched in the second half of the loss to the Giants following a play where he was severely over matched by the Giants offensive line on a Brandon Jacobs 10 yard TD run.  This led to an argument on the sidelines between Haynesworth and Patriots defensive coach Pepper Johnson.  That may have been the last straw for Haynesworth, who has struggled with injuries and performance in his short time in New England.
• Now if only we could get rid of Ochocinco and bring back Brandon Merriweather and James Sanders.  It would be as if we took a mulligan on our off-season moves.  Then we'd be in great shape.
• Both offenses looked sloppy in a scoreless first half.  The Giants clearly missed Hakeem Nicks and Ahmad Bradshaw, perhaps helping to make the Patriots defense look better than it actually performed.  The Giants defense did a good job of disguising their looks and putting pressure on Brady, which clearly rattled him.  He didn't look like himself until late in the game when he drove the Pats for what looked like the game winning score, until the defense failed to hold on in the final minute and a half.
• The Jets offense doesn't often look good, but it's been getting the job done.  Mark Sanchez rarely lights up the box score, but to his credit, he's thrown at least 1 TD pass in all but one of his games this season.  A miserable Week 4 performance against Baltimore drags down his season QB Rating (84.0), but if you discount that game he hasn't had a rating below 85.8 all year.
• Since their fast 3-0 start to the season, Buffalo has been a model of inconsistency, alternating wins with losses.  Their explosive offense carried them in the early weeks, but they've been stymied of late, dropping out of the top 10 in total yards per game.  Their 27.8 points per game is still good for 4th best in the league, but a few more performances like the one they had against the Jets will send them plummeting down in that category as well.
• Seattle entered the game leading the league in yards per carry allowed, but DeMarco Murray put a dent into that average by steam rolling the Seahawks for 139 yards.  The surprising rookie has been a savior for the struggling Cowboys, who had been devastated by injuries in their backfield.
• Dallas may need to rely on Murray even more with Miles Austin going out again with an injured hamstring.  He may miss a few weeks with the injury, which is hardly what Tony Romo wants to hear.  Especially when he's already dealing with Dez Bryant fumbling inches away from the goal line.
• Julio Jones reminded the Falcons why they gave up a boat load of draft picks to get him with a huge 131 yard, 2 TD performance.  His first TD went for 50 yards and showed his remarkable hands on a diving play that he managed to haul in while being swarmed by defenders.  He later showed off his blazing speed on a slant play that he took 80 yards for another TD.
• The Colts only score of the game came on a terrible decision by Matt Ryan, which resulted in an easy pick six that Jerraud Powers was able to walk in from six yards away.
• The shocker of the day was the surging Chiefs reverting back to their early season woes by falling to the previously winless Dolphins.  A team with playoff aspirations can't get shut down by this Miami team or allow Matt Moore to carve them up for 3 TDs.
• The win for Miami puts a dent into their hopes of drafting Andrew Luck.  It may temporarily take some of the heat off coach Tony Sparano.  Then again, the only reason to have kept him around this long was they may have been afraid that a new coach could spark the team to a few extra victories that could cost them their chance at Luck.  If the team wins with Sparano then ownership may not see the incentive to keep him around seeing as they are highly unlikely to bring him back next year.  After all, they openly courted Jim Harbaugh and Bill Cower last off season despite still having Sparano under contract.  No wonder this team is such a mess.
• The Saints put themselves back in the drivers seat in the NFC South with a win over Tampa.  A loss would have dropped them behind Tampa and Atlanta in the loss column.  
• New Orleans doesn't have a top RB while Mark Ingram is out, but their three headed backfield of Pierre Thomas, Chris Ivory and Darren Sproles combined for 175 yards on the ground and 82 yards through the air.
• Sproles has been an explosive player all season for the Saints.  His biggest play came on a 21 yard screen pass for a TD.  He went untouched to the endzone, so that explosiveness wasn't even necessary that time.  I could have scored on that play given the blocking he had.
• Frank Gore's streak of 125+ yards, 1 TD games came to an end, but 107 yards was plenty to help carry the 49ers to another victory.  With a 5 game lead in the NFC West, they've essentially already wrapped up the division.  With plenty of soft match ups remaining against their inferior division rivals, a top 2 seed is within reach.
• John Beck still hasn't won a game as a starter in Washington, which may soon result in another QB change.  If Mike Shanahan made QB changes as often as he changes his starting RB, he would have made the change already... twice.
• Cleveland is really missing Peyton Hillis right now.  The version we saw last year anyway, not the mess that he's been so far this season.  Still, he's been better than what they got out of Chris Ogbonnaya, who was forced into action against his former team due to injuries to Hillis and Hardesty.  Ogbonnaya's first carry was fumbled away and he reached halftime with barely double digit rushing yards.  He finished with only 28 yards on 13 carries.  He's known as an effective pass catcher out of the backfield, but was only targeted once, which he hauled in for a 13 yard gain.  Perhaps utilizing him more in the passing game will open things up for him in the running game.
• The Texans had no such problems with their rushing attack, with Arian Foster and Ben Tate both cruising past the 100 yard mark and each scoring a TD.  Tate's workload didn't all come in garbage time either, as his TD came in the 1st quarter, suggesting they are doing exactly as I said they should do by mixing him in throughout the game to ease the burden on Foster to keep him fresh.

• The Bengals have somehow snuck up on us with a 5 game win streak.  The schedule has been kind, to say the least, but it's still pretty impressive for a team led by two rookies - QB Andy Dalton and WR A.J. Green.  They'll finally get a real test in the next couple of weeks when they face Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
• So much for the Titans moving a time share in the backfield, as CJ0K had a 14-4 advantage in carries. Perhaps the Titans haven't given up on him yet, even if the rest of us have.
• I'm not sure that Tim Tebow rushing for almost as many yards as he passed for is really a good thing for the Broncos, but scrambling for 118 yards explains how Oakland managed to give up nearly 300 yards on the ground. 
• Willis McGahee may have had something to do with that as well, as he plowed through the Raiders defensive line for 163 yards and 2 TDs.  Wasn't the Raiders front 4 supposed to be their strength?  This disaster dropped them to 29th in the league in rushing yards allowed.
• The bye week gave Carson Palmer more time to learn the play book and get to know his receivers.  Unfortunately he seems to have forgotten to get acquainted with Darrius Heyward-Bey.  Wasn't he supposed to be their top WR?  He failed to record a catch in the game and was only targeted once.
• A toe injury to Kevin Kolb forced John Skelton into action for the Cardinals this week.  Remember how bad he was last year?  Cardinal fans have tried to forget.  He wasn't really that awful this week (he was playing the Rams, after all), but he still had trouble moving the ball for most of the game.  When he connected in the endzone with Larry Fitzgerald late in the 4th quarter it was only the second time all game that they had made it as far as the red zone.  It took a 99 yard punt return from Patrick Peterson for the Cards to finally put away the Rams in this battle of bad teams.
• A safety isn't a very common scoring play in the NFL, except apparently when John Skelton is your QB.  He was responsible for his team giving up a safety on back-to-back possessions!  He was sacked in the endzone for the first one.  Then on the first play of their next possession he was flagged for intentional grounding in the endzone, which by rule is also a safety.
• Sam Bradford returned from his own injury, but given that he was outplayed by Skelton, he may be wishing he had waited another week.
• The Packers and Chargers treated us to a good old fashioned shoot out, with Aaron Rodgers and Philip Rivers both tossing 4 TD passes.  Rivers actually had 6 TD passes, but unfortunately 2 of those went to Packers defensive backs.
• Despite digging themselves an early hole with the two pick-sixes in the first quarter, the Chargers did an admirable job of storming back to make the game close.  Much of that is thanks to an explosive performance from Vincent Jackson (141 yards, 3 TDs).  As impressive as their come back attempt was, it was thwarted by yet another Rivers INT late in the 4th quarter.  It was the first 3 INT game of Rivers' career.  That pretty much sums up the Chargers season, with late game mistakes costing them games.
• Torrey Smith nearly let the game slip through his fingertips as he dropped a sure score late in the 4th quarter, but he redeemed himself four plays later with the game winning TD with 8 seconds remaining.  Smith has had many big drops this season, but the rookie has also made many big plays for the Ravens.  He's the lethal down field threat this team needs, so if he can avoid dropping easy TD passes he can be a dangerous weapon for their inconsistent passing game.
• Baltimore celebrated the victory as if they'd won a playoff game rather than a mid-season match up, but it came with good reason, as the victory could have big playoff implications.  The win moves them ahead of the Steelers in the loss column and also gives them a season sweep over their division rivals.  Their history of playoff losses to the Steelers could come to an end if a potential meeting this winter is played in Baltimore this time.
• The Eagles looked poised to make a valiant comeback against a Bears defense that had contained them for most of the game, but as has been the case for the Eagles for much of this season, they came up just short.  Jeremey Maclin's 4th down reception failed to extend the drive when he tripped and fell a yard short of the first down marker.
• The drive stalled in part because DeSean Jackson failed to come back to the ball on a 2nd and 10 play.  He stood right on the other side of the first down marker waiting for the pass to come to him, which allowed a Bears defender to cut him off and nearly intercept the pass.  Jackson should have stepped up to cut off the defender and make the catch short of the marker.  A 3rd and short would have been better than a 3rd and long with a near turnover.
• The Eagles had a chance to swing momentum widely in their favor with a bold fake punt attempt early in the 4th quarter.  Punter Chas Henry had an open receiver for what would have been a sure TD against the unsuspecting Bears special teams unit, but his pass fell a couple yards short.  It was a good play call in theory, but the execution was lacking.  That's what happens when you let the punter throw the ball.  Similar to what happens when you let Tim Tebow throw the ball.
• The typically sure handed Matt Forte uncharacteristically lost two fumbles in the game.  They were the first two fumbles of the season for him and he entered the game having lost only 6 career fumbles.  The Bears appear to have benched Forte briefly after the 2nd fumble.  I can understand wanting to send a message to a player that's made multiple mistakes, but when that player is responsible for accumulating nearly half of your team's total yardage this season you can afford to be a bit more lenient.
• The AFC West is the only division without a team that currently has a winning record or positive point differential.  I don't think they are as bad as last year's NFC West division, but with the let downs San Diego and KC have had lately, this division isn't looking much better.