Things I Noticed: Week 11

It was an exciting week that saw 8 one score games, with three of them going to overtime.  Some wild finishes and historic performances made for a compelling weekend of NFL action.

Bye Weeks: Tennessee, Minnesota, New York Giants, Seattle

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Buffalo entered the week ranked 31st in yards allowed and last in the league in points allowed (31.6), which is a travesty considering how much they invested in their defense this season.  This week they finally started to look like the defense they expected after all those off-season acquisitions by holding the Dolphins to 184 total yards and equaling a season best by giving up only 14 points.  Three sacks and three turnovers went a long way to limiting what Miami was able to do offensively.
• Special teams played a key role in the game as well.  After Buffalo's defense held Miami to an opening drive three and out, Leodis McKelvin returned the punt 79 yards for a score to put the Bills on the board early.  They later added to their lead with a field goal following a Miami turnover, but Marcus Thigpen then returned the ensuing kick-off for a TD to get the Dolphins back in the game.
• After getting benched for a costly fumble last week, Reggie Bush appears to have fallen out of favor with the Dolphins as Daniel Thomas once again led the team in carries.  Not that Thomas did any better.  The two somehow combined for only 53 yards against a Bills defense ranked 31st in the league that gives up a staggering 153.3 yards per game (a number that looked even worse before they shut down the Dolphins running game). 
• Has the Bills defense turned a corner or has the Dolphins offense declined?  Miami looked like a sleeper team that could find themselves in the Wild Card race, but they've followed a three game win streak with a three game losing streak in which they've failed to score more than 20 points in any of those loses and averaged only 12.3 points per game over that span.
• What was hyped as a renewal of one of the game's best rivalries - with rookie Andrew Luck taking over the role of the departed Peyton Manning - turned out to be a one sided affair, as New England demolished the Colts to the tune of a season high 59 points.
• The Patriots defense has taken it's share of criticism, but Bill Belichick has a history of confusing rookie QBs - even ones as talented as Luck.  The Pats forced four turnovers from the rookie and returned two of them for TDs.  The recently acquired Aqib Talib accounted for one of those scores in an impactful debut with the team.
• The game had the makings of a shoot out early, with both offenses having no trouble marching down the field to find the end zone in the first quarter.  When the Pats defense did finally manage a stop, Julian Edelman returned the punt 68 yards the other way to even the score at 14.  The Pats never looked back after that. 
• Edelman would later add a receiving score and came a yard short of crossing the goal line on an end around run that nearly gave him the trifecta. 
• The big win for the Pats came at an even bigger loss.  Rob Gronkowski broke his forearm as the Pats punctuated their final scoring drive with an extra point.  He had surgery Monday to repair the damage and is expected to miss about 4-6 weeks.  In the meantime, the Pats offense will need to get by without their most dangerous weapon.  The impending return of Aaron Hernandez will help, but Gronk's ability as a blocker is nearly as valuable as his pass catching.  The roster has depth at the position, including some options that are capable blockers and some that can catch the ball, but none of them are able to do both at an elite level the way Gronk can.  Without him on the field, the offense could become more predictable, in addition to depriving them of the league's best end zone target.
• Atlanta overcame five INTs thrown by Matt Ryan to rally back against the Cardinals.  Ryan was held without a TD pass for only the second time this season and the five turnovers was a career worst.  Several of those picks came on tipped passes, so it was partially bad luck that led to that ugly stat line, but it was still pretty bad.  After playing at an MVP level for most of the season, the Falcons won in spite of their QB this week.  This dud could severely impact his chances in the awards race despite the team's success.
• Arizona tried to jump start their offense by benching the struggling John Skelton for Ryan Lindley, but the ploy didn't help.  The rookie lost an early fumble and was sacked three times, while the offense only managed 178 total yards.  LaRod Stephens-Howling accounted for 133 of those yards, which tells you about all you need to know about the state of the Cardinals offense these days.  The QB change came despite Arizona getting out to an early lead, but they blew the 13-0 advantage they had in the first quarter after making the change.
• Coming off a bye week, why wouldn't the Cardinals have made the decision earlier to make the QB change rather than to give Skelton the quick hook?  They could have given Lindley two full weeks of practice with the first team to prepare him for the game.  Instead, he was thrown into the game completely unprepared, and it showed.
• Tony Romo was sacked a career high 7 times, one of which led to a costly fumble that quickly led to Cleveland pulling ahead with a score with just over a minute to play.  Romo would recover from his mistake by leading the next drive for the game tying FG to force overtime, where they would go on to win. 
• The win puts Dallas within 1 game of the idle Giants for the top spot in the division, but let's not get too carried away.  They are a .500 team that just barely beat Cleveland... at home... in overtime.  That's not exactly something to be overly proud of.
• Dez Bryant hauled in 12 catches for a career high 145 yards and a TD.  In three of his last four games, Dez has either topped 100 receiving yards, scored a TD or both. 
• The Browns are on a 12 game road losing streak, but the fact that they were able to hang in there late against a team with playoff hopes is about as positive of a sign as you'll get out of Cleveland.
• Aaron Rodgers found Randall Cobb in the end zone to pull ahead of the Lions with just over 2 minutes to play.  Rodgers wasn't at his sharpest, but came through when it counted.
• After scoring only 1 TD through his first 8 games, Calvin Johnson has now found pay dirt in two straight games.  He still leads the league in receiving and now that he's finally scoring again, it appears he's on a mission to reclaim his spot as the league's best receiver.  So much for that Madden Curse.
• I say reclaim his top spot because earlier this season Calvin was surpassed by AJ Green as the league's best receiver.  Green is 5th in the league in receiving yards, but has 10 TDs after adding another one this week.  He's scored at least one TD in every game this season since being shut out of the end zone in a Week 1 loss to Baltimore.
• Kansas City failed to have a lead at any point in regulation through their first 8 games, but have now scored first to take a lead in their past two games.  Unfortunately, not much scoring followed in either game for the Cheifs, as they dropped both games.  Brady Quinn replaced Matt Cassel halfway through the game, but the results were the same.
• It didn't help either QBs performance that top receiver Dwayne Bowe exited early with a neck injury.  Bowe failed to record a catch in the game, which isn't much of a surprise considering most of his damage comes in garbage time and he left before they even got to that point.
• Mark Sanchez had a solid performance (by his low standards anyway) to help end the Jets three game losing skid.  There were plenty of wide open throws for him to make against the Rams, including a 25 yard scoring pass to Chaz Schilens, who somehow found himself all alone in the end zone.
• Brandon Gibson caught only three passes for a total of 9 yards, but two of those catches were in the end zone.  Those scores came from 1 yard and 2 yards out, which helps explain the meager yardage total.  Once you cross that goal line they stop giving you credit for yards even if you keep running.

• RG3 doubled his career high with 4 passing TDs in a romp over the floundering Eagles, while also adding 84 yards on the ground to lead the team in rushing (so what else is new?).  He showed amazing accuracy in completing 14 of his 15 pass attempts and they weren't all short easy ones either.  Two of his passes went for scores from 49 and 61 yards.
• It was an underwhelming first career start for Nick Foles, who had Eagles fans actually missing Michael Vick.  He was sacked 4 times, threw 2 picks and fumbled 3 times (which were all recovered by the Eagles).  That actually does sound a lot like Vick.
• The Eagles have now lost 6 straight games, making it the longest losing streak of Andy Reid's coaching career.  After the game, Reid told reporters that he would not resign from his job as the Eagle's coach, because quitting on his team would be a cop-out.  That's ironic, considering the Eagles players already quit on him.
• Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Panthers appeared to have a win well in hand mid-way through the fourth quarter, but couldn't put the game away down the stretch.  Josh Freeman (248 yards, 3 TDs) connected with Vincent Jackson in the end zone, then found him again to complete the two point conversion, to tie the game with 12 seconds left.  The Bucs would go on to win with an opening drive TD pass to Dallas Clark in overtime.
• Carolina had the chance to put the game away by converting a fourth and inches near mid-field late in the game, but instead decided to punt.  Cam Newton set a record last year for rushing TDs from a QB, but they can't trust him to pick up a few inches with the game on the line?  After the punt bounced into the end zone for a touchback, it resulted in only pushing Tampa back 29 yards, after which Tampa quickly moved down the field for the tying score. 
• The reeling Panthers dropped to 2-8 and the frustration is growing for Cam Newton.  In his postgame news conference he made it clear he doesn't want to hear any more questions about where this latest loss ranks on his list of disappointments.  All the losses are bad, let's leave it at that then.
• The 1-9 Jaguars put a scare into the 9-1 Texans in a game that went to OT in Houston.  Jacksonville isn't known for their scoring (actually they don't do much of anything well, but especially not scoring), but with Chad Henne (354 yards, 4 TDs) taking over for Blaine Gabbert, the Jags piled up a season high 37 points.
• Justin Blackmon (7 catches, 236 yards, 1 TD) had easily his best day of his young career.  He's been somewhat invisible in his rookie season, which admittedly is easy to do as part of the Jaguars offense, but he broke out in a big way this week.  He came up with a lot of big catches in this game, but none bigger than his 81 yard TD catch.  The performance nearly doubled his yearly total and reminded us why he was considered the top WR in the draft.
• Matt Schaub threw for 527 yards, which tied the second highest single game total in league history.  After the teams traded field goals to start overtime, it looked like we might be headed for a tie, until Schaub hit Andre Johnson for a short pass behind the line of scrimmage that he took 48 yards to the end zone for the game winning score. 
• AJ80 had a career day of his own, finishing with 14 catches for 273 yards, which included that game winning catch.  It just figures that when Jacksonville finally shows some signs of life on offense, their opponents happen to have their best games ever against them! 
• Johnson's post game comments pretty much sum it up for the Jaguars defense: ''When I caught the [game-winner] and I saw how open I was, I was looking around like, 'Where are the defenders at?'''
• Blackmon and Johnson became the first pair of receivers to each top 200 receiving yards in the same game. 
• Want another historic fact from this game?  Thanks to the new overtime rule, the Texans became the first team in NFL history to get two scores in overtime, a field goal with their first possession and a touchdown to win it.
• The Saints have recovered from their miserable 0-4 start to win 5 of their last 6 games to get back to the .500 mark.  Not having Sean Payton on the sidelines still hurts, but they have looked much better the past couple weeks since Joe Vitt has returned from his suspension to take over as interim coach.  Their next few games are brutal (49ers, Falcons, Giants), but if they can get through that stretch winning at least one of those games then the playoffs may not be out of reach after all.
• Darren Sproles was a late scratch despite having practiced this week, but he could make his return from a broken hand by next week.  The committee in the Saints backfield combined for 153 rushing yards without him, led by Mark Ingram's 67 yards and a score.
• Speaking of filling in for injured RBs, Marcel Reece has done an admirable job in place of Darren McFadden.  Reece rushed for 103 yards and also led the team in receiving with 90 yards on 4 catches.
• Denver pushed it's lead in the AFC West to three games by beating the Chargers behind three TDs from Peyton Manning. 

• Manning won the 148th game of his career, tying him with John Elway for second most all time for a QB.  Doesn't it seem like every week we hear about Manning moving up on some historical list?  For what it's worth, Manning's .679 career win percentage towers over Elway's (.643) and Farve's (.624).
• The Broncos will need Manning to play at this MVP caliber level now more than ever with Willis McGahee out for the next 6-8 weeks with a torn MCL.  The running game typically becomes more important when the weather gets colder (remember, Manning historically has played most of his games in a dome) and Denver is now without it's leading rusher, possibly for the rest of the season.
• San Diego had a chance to win on their final drive after Philip Rivers pulled them within one score with just under a minute and a half to play and the defense followed that by forcing a three and out to get them the ball back.  Needing to go 87 yards in under 30 seconds seemed pretty hopeless anyway, but Rivers fumbling the ball away on the game's final play seemed a fitting ending for the Chargers.
• The Ravens edged the Steelers in an ugly Sunday Night game.  The Ravens couldn't manage an offensive TD, but got the win thanks to a Jacoby Jones punt return that put them ahead near the end of the first quarter.  Aside from exchanging field goals in the 3rd quarter, neither team was able to score after that.
• Byron Leftwich filled in for the injured Ben Roethlisberger and got the Steelers off to a great start with a 31 yard TD run on the game's opening drive.  He appeared to injury his shoulder on the play and while he refused to come out of the game, his play clearly suffered the rest of the way.
• With Roethlisberger out, Leftwhich playing hurt and Joe Flacco continuing to be awful on the road, this game just became hard to watch.  Ugly might have been an understatement.  It was a game more fitting for Thursday night than Sunday night.
• A game between two of the NFC's heavyweights lost a bit of it's allure with both teams missing their starting QBs, but the 49ers managed to make a statement nonetheless by trouncing the Bears.  Making his first career start, Colin Kaepernick (243 yards, 2 TDs) had the poise of a veteran, picking apart the league's most feared defense.  His 97.5 QBR score is the highest single game rating for a QB making their starting debut in the past 5 years - better than RG3, Matt Ryan or Aaron Rodgers.

• Do the 49ers have a QB controversy on their hands?  Alex Smith was on the verge of being replaced 18 months ago, but a break out season last year, where he led the team to a 13-3 record, breathed new life into his career in San Fransisco.  While Smith has still been good this year, the concussion that knocked him out of this week's game gave the rookie Kaepernick a chance to shine and gave the Niners a glimpse of what their offense could look like with him in place of Smith.  For what it's worth, coach Jim Harbaugh was noncommittal when asked about the team's starter going forward, regardless of Smith's health.
• Part of what makes the Bears defense so dangerous is their ability to not only force turnovers, but to turn those turnovers into scores going the other way.  No team has scored more defensive TDs than the Bears, but it's hard to get a defensive score if you don't force any turnovers.  Despite leading the league in takeaways, Chicago was unable to force a single turnover against the 49ers.
• After their dominating performance, perhaps the Niners defense is the one teams should fear most.  They are now second in the league in yards allowed (277.2) and first in points allowed (13.4).  San Fransisco now also leads the NFC in point differential (+111)
• For Chicago, it's their second straight loss, dropping them into a tie with Green Bay, with the Vikings still hanging in there at only a game behind.  The NFC North is shaping up to be one of the most compelling division races in the second half of the season.
• Three of the four division leaders in the AFC have a three game lead in their respective divisions.  Baltimore has a two game lead over Pittsburgh in the AFC North, but their victory this week gives them the tie breaker advantage that essentially gives them a three game lead (although the teams do play again in a couple weeks).