Things I Noticed: Week 13

They say 13 is an unlucky number, but which teams were hit by the misfortune of bad luck this week?  In some cases it's not bad luck, just bad teams.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Vince Young's night got off to a bad start with an INT on his first pass attempt of the game.  It didn't get much better after that, as he finished with 4 of them.  Granted, he was the victim of several dropped passes by his receivers (1 of those INTs came after a ball tipped off the hands of his receiver), but he still missed on many throws that he has to be able to make.  He was constantly throwing behind receivers, badly missing his target.  When it wasn't picked off it was only because it was so far off target that nobody on either team could get to it.

• On the bright side, at least VY seems to be one of the few Eagles players that hasn't given up yet.  He played poorly, but played hard.
• Marshawn Lynch ran wild against the Eagles for 148 yards and 2 TDs.  His 2nd TD came on a 40 yard run where he managed to beat the defenders to the outside before bursting up field with no defenders in front of him.  Not to take credit away from Lynch, but that was just terrible defense.
• Rob Gronkowski tied the all time record for TDs by a Tight End in a season by adding two more this week to give him 13 for the season.  He scored a third TD, which originally was ruled as the record breaking 14th receiving TD, but it was later corrected to be scored as a lateral pass.  Therefore the score actually counted as a rushing TD.
• New England looked dominant against the helpless Colts team through three quarters, but their defense got a little too nonchalant in the end, giving up 21 unanswered points in the 4th quarter.  They never really seemed in danger of blowing the game, but it was frustrating to watch them fail to stop the Colts from piling up yardage and points during garbage time.  This is one of the reasons why the Pats rank last in the league in total defense.
• The Colts defense played just as bad for most of the game, before tightening up a bit near the end of the game when the Pats were trying to run down the clock.  For some reason they backed their secondary off the line instead of trying to press the Patriots receivers.  That allowed Wes Welker far too much room to work with.  On one drive in the third quarter, Brady connected with Welker 4 times, including three straight plays.  Welker caught all 11 of his targets in the game for 110 yards.
• Dan Orlovsky is now the Colts starting QB.  Oddly enough, he was on the winless Detroit Lions team that became the first 0-16 team in league history back in 2008.  Now he has a chance to be a part of history once again.  Just not the type of history he would hope for.
• Chris Johnson continues to attempt to make up for his early season struggles with another strong performance (153 yards, 2 TDs).  His first TD came when he burst through the line for 48 yards to the endzone, showing the type of game changing speed that he failed to find in the first half of the season.  Apparently it just took him about half the season to work his way back into game shape following the lockout and his contract holdout, but he's rolling now.
• Stevie Johnson caught another TD pass this week, but this time he didn't follow it up with another reckless penalty to cost his team.  Hey, that's progress!
• It was an ugly afternoon for the Bears offense, as Caleb Hanie showed the only thing he can do to remind people of Jay Cutler is throw INTs.  When Matt Forte went down with a knee injury early in the game, the Bears had essentially no chance at moving the ball .
• Forte reportedly sprained his MCL, which could keep him out 2-4 weeks.  With Cutler already out for the season, if Forte misses most of the remaining games, it's hard to imagine the Bears hanging onto a Wild Card spot.
• Kyle Orton didn't start the game, but he did make his Chiefs debut to relieve a struggling Tyler Palko.  Unfortunately, he dislocated a finger on his throwing hand on his first play, so the Chiefs were forced to turn things back over to Palko.
• Palko's game winning TD pass came on the last play of the first half on a 38 yard desperation bomb to the endzone as time ran out.  Brian Urlacher looked like he had a chance to intercept the pass, but one of his teammates swatted the ball down - right into the hands of Dexter McCluster.
• What are they putting in the water in Miami?  It seems that ever since the Dolphins realized they had no chance of finishing behind the Colts to get the top pick in the draft, they've been a completely different team, winning 4 of their last 5 games.  It's too late to get into the playoff hunt, but if they can manage to climb their way out of last place in the AFC East it would be quite an accomplishment.  
• Reggie Bush had his 2nd 100+ yard game of the season and third of his career.
• So much for Michael Bush being a successful replacement for the injured Darren McFadden.  Miami held him to 18 yards on 10 carries, which is by far his worst performance since taking over as the starter.
• The legend of Tim Tebow continues to grow, as he led the Broncos to another win and a spot at the top of the AFC West.  What an accomplishment it would be if he can manage to get this team into the playoffs.  He even had a more conventional passing day than usual, topping 200 yards through the air for the first time this season.
• The Broncos defense has been great lately, but they struggled this week without their stud rookie Von Miller, who missed the game with an injury.  The defense gave up 32 points against the Vikings, after giving up a total of only 36 points in their previous three games combined.
• Christian Ponder set a franchise rookie record with 381 passing yards.  Percy Harvin was a big part of that total, as he caught 8 passes from Ponder for 156 yards and 2 TDs.
• The Bengals looked like they were capable of keeping up with the Steelers the last time they played them a few weeks ago, but it was a different story on the road.  The Steelers buried them this week and may have buried their playoff hopes.  The Bengals will probably need to win at least 2 of their remaining 4 games in order to grab one of the Wild Card spots, but two of those games are against the Texans and Ravens.
• Cam Newton put on a highlight show, rushing for 3 TDs in the game, giving him the NFL record for rushing TDs by a QB in a season with 13.  Not only that, but he now leads the league in rushing TDs for any position (1 ahead of LeSean McCoy).
• An injured throwing shoulder kept Josh Freeman off the field this week, but Josh Johnson didn't fair any better than Freeman has for most of the season.  He at least did lead his team in rushing with 45 yards, which is more than double what starting running back LeGarrette Blount managed against the league's 28th ranked run defense.
• The Jets looked like they'd be sweating out a nail bitter down the stretch against Washington, but three TDs in the final 5 minutes of the game turned the game into a blow out.  They turned to Shonn Greene to help run down the clock in the games final minutes, but he did even better by breaking away for two of those TDs, giving him three trips to the endzone in the game.
• Despite the emergence of rookie RB Roy Helu, there's always the concern that Mike Shanahan will make one of his infamous head scratching moves by giving the bulk of the work to someone else, but this week Helu turned out to not only be the Redskins primary runner - he was their only runner.  None of the other backs in their stable even touched the ball this week.
• TJ Yates got the win in his first career start, so perhaps the Texans playoff hopes won't go down in flames after all, despite the injuries that have taken out the QBs ahead of him on the depth chart.  He relied mostly on his defense and running game to get that win, but he'll take it.  
• He'll need to rely on them even more if Andre Johnson's hamstring injury costs him more time.  It's not the same side as the hamstring injury that cost him 6 games earlier this season and the team is claiming it's only a mild strain.  That's good news, but they are likely to give him some rest anyway to ensure he's ready for the playoffs.
• Matt Ryan dug his team into an early hole with two early INTs and came up short of making up for it as time ran out on his final drive to attempt to tie the score.
• Ray Rice had a career day with 204 rushing yards and a TD to help the Ravens run over the Browns.
• Aside from a late garbage time TD, the Browns offense was stifled by the Ravens defense for most of the afternoon.
• Rodgers (369 yards, 4 TDs) out dueled Eli Manning (347 yards, 3 TDs) in a shoot out victory against the Giants.  Rodgers could have done even more damage if not for at least 5 dropped passes by his receivers.
• Manning thought he had led his team to a comeback that would at least give his team a chance to win in overtime when he connected with Hakeem Nicks for a TD late in the 4th quarter.  The problem is, even with only one time out remaining, a minute is more than enough time for Aaron Rodgers to get into field goal range for the winning kick.  A great drive by Manning gave them a chance, but a better drive by Rodgers took that chance away.  That's why the Packers are still undefeated.
• Dallas snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with some horrendous clock management to end the 4th quarter.  After Tony Romo completed a pass to Dez Bryant to get the Cowboys down to Arizona's 31 yard line, he allowed the clock to run down until there were only a few seconds left before spiking the ball to stop the clock for a last chance FG attempt.  Dallas had two time outs left, what were they saving them for?  If they had used a time out it would have given them another chance or two to get closer for an easier kick.  Instead they left it up to Dan Bailey to try a 49 yard kick for the win.  He drilled what should have been the game winning kick, except coach Jason Garrett inexplicably called time out just before the snap.  So that's what they were saving those extra time outs for, to ice their own kicker!  Bailey was forced to try the kick again and predictably he missed the second time.  Dallas would go on to lose in overtime and the way they handled the end of regulation, they deserved nothing less.
• Arizona won the game when LaRod Stephens-Howling took a short pass 52 yards to the endzone.  So not only did they screw up the end of regulation, but the Cowboys defense failed to stop the Cardinals on the biggest play of the game.
• Frank Gore became the 49ers all time leader in rushing yards as San Francisco clinched the NFC West division title for the first time since 2002.
• The 49ers defense was impressive once again, but took a bit of a hit with stud line backer Patrick Willis exiting with a hamstring injury.  With the division locked up, expect him to rest for a couple weeks to get back to full strength before the playoffs, when they will surely need him.
• The Rams are the league's lowest scoring team, but they typically at least put some points on the board.  Not this week, as they were shut out for the first time this season.
• The Lions killed themselves with penalties against the Saints, committing 11 of them that cost them 109 yards.  A few of them came against Nate Burleson, who took a while to catch on to the idea that extending his arms to push off on a defender is going to draw a flag for offensive pass interference.  They also had several senseless personal foul penalties, including one for making contact with an official and another for a shot to the head right in front of an official.  How did they not expect those to get noticed?  The Lions are a talented team, but they are a young team that makes too many immature mistakes.  If they manage to make the playoffs, these kind of unacceptable poor decisions may prevent them from making a deep run.
• Drew Brees threw for over 300 yards for the 9th time this season to extend his league leading yardage total past the 4,000 yard mark.  Brees needs to average 264 yards in his final four games this season to break Dan Marino's all time season passing record (5,084).
• Tom Brady is 2nd in the league in passing, but needs to average 292 yards in his final four games to break the record and Aaron Rodgers needs to average 310.  Marino's record is within reach for all three of them.
• Maurice Jones-Drew took over the league lead in rushing yards and continues to be the lone bright spot for the Jaguars offense.
• Philip Rivers finally looked like his old self for one of the few times in a while.  He connected on three deep TD passes, the longest of which was for 52 yards early in the third quarter, which essentially put the game away early for the Chargers.
• The Chargers had it going with their running game as well.  Ryan Mathews ran for 112 yards on only 13 carries (an eye popping 8.6 yards per carry) and scored on a 31 yard run in the 4th quarter.  Mike Tolbert was a bit less involved, but he did get the scoring barrage started in the first quarter with a 13 yard draw up the middle to the endzone.
• None of teams in the AFC West have a positive point differential for the season, although the last place Chargers are the closest with -2.
• Aaron Rodgers leads the league in QB rating (125.3) by a large margin.  His last game against the Giants was his lowest rated game of the season (106.2).  That's still higher than Tom Brady's average rating of 105.9, which is the second best rating in the league.
• Wes Welker's league leading 1253 receiving yards puts him within striking distance of Jerry Rice's season record (1549).  Welker needs to average 74 yards over his remaining 4 games to reach that mark.  Welker has surpassed the 74 yard mark in 8 of 12 games so far this season.
• The Giants, Lions, Bears, and Falcons will fight for the 2 Wild Card spots in the NFC.
• The Jets, Steelers, Bengals, Titans and Raiders are in the hunt for the 2 Wild Card spots in the AFC.