Things I Noticed: Week 13

Some great football action was overshadowed by tragedy this week, as the events in Kansas City and Cleveland put a sour note over the entire league.

Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend before heading to the team's practice facility, where he committed suicide in the parking lot.  The next morning, a Browns employee was found to have committed suicide at the team's facility in Cleveland.  These type of tragic events are rare in the world of sports, but when they happen it sends shock waves throughout the league.  The odds of this happening in two different cities the same weekend seem astronomically impossible.

In the wake of these tragic events, we try to move on and focus on less depressing story lines. 

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Atlanta avenged their one loss this season in a re-match against the Saints.  The victory didn't require a lot of heavy lifting from Matt Ryan and the passing game, thanks mostly to their defense forcing 5 turnovers against a sloppy Saints team.  Their running game found plenty of success as well against the league's worst run defense.  The career of Michael Turner was thought to have been put out to pasture long ago, but he looked revitalized against a Saints defense that looked allergic to tackling, as he piled up 83 yards and a score on only 12 carries.  He combined with Jacquizz Rodgers to average a healthy 6.3 yards per carry in the game.

• Drew Brees was just brutal, throwing away a career high 5 INTs and failing to find the end zone.  That snapped a record 54 game streak of games with at least one TD pass.  Brees was uncharacteristically off target on several throws and seemed to be desperately forcing the ball on most of those turnovers, but the lack of a TD wasn't completely his fault.  Lance Moore dropped an easy one in the end zone and a scoring catch by Darren Sproles was called back for a penalty on Jimmy Graham, who was a little too eager to start blocking and started before the pass was even thrown.  It was an ugly game for Brees, but he deserved better. 
• The bright side of Brees' streak being over - Tom Brady is now the current leader in consecutive games with a TD pass, with a chance to surpass Brees' record by next season if he keeps it up.  New England fans really needed a new superficial streak to root for after Rajon Rondo's assist streak unceremoniously ended with his ejection from Wednesday night's Celtics game.
• In addition to the turnovers, Brees was surprisingly off his game when it came to clock management at the end of the half.  With time winding down and no time outs left, Brees dumped the ball off to Sproles for a short gain a few yards shy of the end zone.  As the clock ticked away, the Saints found themselves without enough time to spike it and run another play, forcing them to retreat to the locker room empty handed.  Brees is smart enough to know he can't throw the ball in that situation unless he knows the receiver will either get in the end zone or out of bounds, but Sproles had little chance of doing either on that play.  He would have been better off throwing the ball away to give themselves another shot, or at least get a field goal out of the drive.  Any type of score to end the half would have given them more momentum and made the game closer down the stretch, which may have prevented Brees from forcing passes that ended up being picked off.
• Take away their miserable first month, when the Saints were recovering from the bounty scandal and adjusting to an interim-interim coach, they really haven't been playing much worse than the Falcons this season.  Their only losses since their 0-4 start heading into this game were to playoff locks (Denver, San Francisco) and they were crushing inferior teams.  Atlanta on the other hand has kept winning, but by the slimmest of margins.  Their 11-1 record blows everyone else away, but entering this week their +78 point differential was only the 7th best mark in the league.  The difference between these teams - Matt Ryan can throw 5 INTs and his team will still find a way to squeak out a victory, but when Drew Brees does it, the Saints are sunk.
• This game was tough for those trying to lock up playoff spots in their fantasy football leagues.  Brees may have killed a lot of owners dreams with his abysmal performance (3 fantasy points, really??), but Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White, and Jimmy Graham were all quiet from a statistical standpoint. 
• Is there something about these Thursday night games that saps the performance of these elite players?  Aside from the Thanksgiving games, when is the last Thursday night game when a sure fire fantasy starter put up big numbers?  There's been a couple this season (Doug Martin in Week 8 comes to mind), but for the most part, playing on Thursday has been a drain on fantasy potential.  A lot of these games have been ugly.  Maybe there's something to the notion that teams need more than a few days to recover from their last game, so these weekly Thursday night games might not be such a great idea after all.  Unless, you know, you're the commissioner and only care about making more money for the league. 
• New England clinched their 4th straight AFC East title with a win over the Dolphins.  Tom Brady wasn't at his best, posting a season low passer rating (74.8 - which is still high enough to make at least a few QBs in the league envious) and throwing his 4th INT of the season (tied for the fewest among qualified starters), but the Pats still found a way to hang on to win.
• Running out the clock with a lead has been a struggle for the Pats in close games this year, but that wasn't the case this week.  A 16 play drive chewed up over 7 minutes of game time late in the 4th quarter, resulting in a field goal that put the Pats up by 10 points with just over a minute to play to put the game away.
• Wes Welker caught 12 passes for 103 yards and a score.  It was his 17th career game with double digit catches, tying him with Jerry Rice for the most games with 10+ receptions in league history.
• The Dolphins sealed their fate with costly mistakes.  A botched punt return, a fumble and a roughing the kicker penalty that extended the drive all led to Patriots scores.
• The Jaguars managed only 18 points against a Bills defense that entered the game giving up an average of 29 points per game.  It was the first time that Jacksonville failed to crack the 20 point mark since Chad Henne took over the offense three weeks ago.
• Despite Buffalo claiming to make CJ Spiller their lead back, Fred Jackson took the vast majority of the carries in the Bills backfield (25-14 edge in carries).  We'll chalk this up to the lopsided score, with Jackson becoming a workhorse down the stretch when the Bills were trying to kill the clock.
• Seattle got a rare road victory when they stunned the Bears in OT.  Russell Wilson connected with Golden Tate for a TD with 24 seconds left to give Seattle the lead, but Chicago countered with a last second field goal to end a wild 4th quarter.  Wilson led a TD scoring drive to open the overtime period to put the game away without giving the Bears offense a chance.
• Wilson only had those two TDs in the game, but they both came at the most opportune moments.  He now has 19 TD passes this season, which leads all rookies and is the 6th most all-time for a rookie QB.  With four games left to play, Peyton Manning's rookie record 26 TD passes is still within reach.
• At 7-5 the Seahawks are clinging to the NFC's second Wild Card spot, but three of those last four games are at home, where they are undefeated.  10 wins should certainly be enough to hold off their trailing competition and could even give them a shot at catching the 49ers for the division if they can beat them at home in Week 16.
• Brandon Marshall (10 catches, 165 yards) accounted for more than half of Jay Cutler's completions, with Matt Forte being the only other receiver to catch more than 2 of those passes.  Marshall's 56 yard catch in the final seconds of regulation set up the tying FG that forced OT.
• Andrew Luck appeared to be suffering through another tough road performance, having thrown three INTs and trailing a Lions team that has struggled to put together wins no matter where they play.  Then Luck flipped a switch and played like the elite QB he's expected to become by throwing two TD passes in the final three minutes of the game to lift the Colts to a dramatic victory. 
• The winning TD came on the last play of the game as the clock expired.  It was a gutsy play call considering the pass was thrown to Donnie Avery short of the end zone.  Had he been tackled in the field of play, the Colts wouldn't get another shot.  Lucky for them (no pun intended), Avery raced past the goal line untouched for the winning score.
• Luck's stat line was a bit lackluster prior to those late scoring drives, but he finished with 391 yards and 4 TDs.  He's now up to 3,596 passing yards this season, which is 4th  most in the league and third most all-time for a rookie QB.  Consider Luck another QB closing in on rookie history.

• Calvin Johnson (13 catches, 171 yards) surpassed the 125 yard mark for the 5th straight game and found the end zone for the 4th straight game.  His 1,428 receiving yards leads the league by a landslide and puts him on pace to break Jerry Rice's single season record (1,848).
• If Calvin ends up having arguably one of the best seasons ever for a receiver the year he appears on the Madden cover, will that officially retire the Madden Curse?  Will they have to stop making Madden games?  Will the developers at EA Sports throw a parade?
• Greg Jennings made his return, appearing in a game for the first time since September 30th.  His impact was minimal (4 catches, 46 yards), but Aaron Rodgers has to be thrilled to have his top receiver back.  Especially if the hamstring injury suffered by Jordy Nelson this week keeps him out of any further action.
• Adrian Peterson was an absolute beast, rushing for 210 yards at an insane 10 yards per carry.  His 82 yard TD run showed an impressive combination of power and speed that shouldn't be possible for a player running on a surgically repaired knee.
• Christian Ponder's rapidly unraveling season may have hit a new low.  Granted there wasn't much work for him to do in the first half when AP was picking up yardage at will, but when the Packers defense keyed in on slowing the running game in the second half, Ponder was unable to make them pay.  His 3.1 QBR was easily a season low (granted you can't get much lower) and he's now failed to record a QBR higher than 18.4 in 5 of his last 6 games.  So if you exclude his one good game against the Lions prior to their bye week, the best game he's had since the middle of October was still worse than the worst rated QB in the league.
• The Texans secured a playoff spot by beating the Titans behind a dominating defensive performance.  Tennessee scored a garbage time TD to make the final score seem a lot closer than the game really was.
• JJ Watt recorded another sack and swatted a couple more passes, one of which he tipped to a teammate for an INT.  He now has 15.5 sacks and 15 batted passes this season, joining Reggie White as the only players in history to have that many of each in the same season.  He has a league high 30.5 dropbacks disrupted and has disrupted 6% of opponents dropbacks.
• Jake Locker threw for over 300 yards for only the second time this season (granted he's only finished 6 games due to injury), but the lofty total is mostly a mirage.  His team spent most of the afternoon playing catch up, providing plenty time late in the game to pad his stats.  His five turnovers (3 INTs, 2 Fumbles) were a better indication of his play.
• Kansas City managed an emotional victory in the wake of tragedy.  I can't imagine how Romeo Crennel managed to get through the game coaching from the sidelines after witnessing Belcher turn the same gun he murdered his girlfriend with on himself.  Crennel, along with GM Scott Pioli, watched helplessly as one of their players took his own life, so you could excuse him for having trouble focusing on a game when there are so many more important things in life.  Instead, Crennel used those emotions to inspire his players to their best performance of the season.

• The Chiefs and Panthers both gathered together in prayer prior to the game to pay their respects for the tragic events.  While the team mourns for the teammate they lost, it's important for them not to publicly glorify his life, considering it ended with such a horrendous act.  Instead, the team held a moment of silence before the game for the victims of domestic violence - a classy way to handle a terrible situation.
• On a brighter side to the game, Cam Newton shined again, despite the loss.  He tossed three TD passes and added 78 rushing yards to keep the game close.  Newton played well enough to win, but given all that had happened to the Chiefs that weekend, maybe they were meant to win this one no matter what.
• The NFL hadn't seen a tie in four years prior to the Rams and 49ers playing to a draw earlier this season.  When they held the re-match in St. Louis this week, it nearly ended in a tie again!  Greg Zuerlein's 54 yard kick with 26 seconds left in overtime ensured there would be a winner this time.
• Greg "The Leg" is the first kicker ever to send a game to OT with a 50+ yard field goal as time expired, then win the game in OT with another 50+ yard kick.
• The Rams are now 4-0-1 with a +7.4 point differential against NFC West rivals, but 1-6 with a point differential of -11.9 against the rest of the league.
• The Niners appeared to have the game well in hand before Colin Kaepernick threw an errant pitch out that resulted in a fumble that the Rams returned for their only TD of the game.  Kaepernick had been flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, resulting in a safety, earlier in the half.  His two mistakes accounted for the Rams only points scored prior to a last second field goal that forced OT.
• Despite those costly mistakes, Kaepernick still finished with a QBR of 82.4.  He's had a QBR of over 70.0 in each of his three starts this season, while Alex Smith never had a three game stretch with a QBR that high in his entire career.
• In a league piling up offense at historical paces, the Cardinals and Jets seemed determined to set the league back a few decades with their offensive futility. 7-6 would look nice if it were a baseball score, but not so much in the NFL.
• Mark Sanchez finally hit rock bottom.  His putrid performance (10/21 passing, 97 yards, 3 INTs) was finally enough to get him yanked from the game.  Not that Greg McElroy lit it up by any means, but after entering late in the 3rd quarter, he led an efficient TD drive that ended up being the Jets only points of the game - which turned out to be enough to win. 
• Jets fans have been begging for weeks for the team to make a QB change, but oddly enough, once the team decided to pull the trigger on such a move it came in a game when Tim Tebow was unavailable due to injury.  Was that by design?  I'm not convinced the Jets want to give Tebow a chance to start.  If he succeeds then they'd be forced to stick with him, which means they are giving up on Mark Sanchez for good, while paying him an awful lot to hold a clip board.  If Tebow fails, then the Jets really are hopeless. 
• Speaking of rotating QBs, Ryan Lindley was just as terrible as Sanchez in his second career start.  He completed only 10 of 31 passes for a meager 79 yards with 1 INT.  You could probably find a homeless man on the street that could do better than one successful pass on seven targets to Larry Fitzgerald.  That guy catches anything thrown near him, except Lindley wasn't really able to get the ball all that close to him on those throws.
• New division, same result.  After dominating the AFC South for years, Peyton Manning has now shown us how the West was won.  The Broncos win over the Bucs clinched the division for Denver, assuring that Manning will return to the postseason again after sitting out last year with neck surgery.
• Manning tossed three TD passes in the game, two of which were to Demaryious Thomas.  That gave Manning his 71st career game with 3+ TDs, which is one short of the all-time record (held by who else, but Brett Favre).
• Doug Martin was held in check by the Broncos for only 56 yards on 18 carries.  His longest run of the day was only 9 yards, making it the first game of his young career where he failed to have a run of at least 10 yards.

• Brandon Weeden threw for a career high 364 yards to help the Browns snap a 12 game road losing streak that dates back to the beginning of last season.  Weeden's lone TD pass went to fellow rookie Josh Morgan, while Trent Richardson added a score on the ground to give each of the rookies an appearance in the scoring column.
• Oakland made the final score close with a late TD from Carson Palmer to Brandon Myers, but the score came with only one second remaining.  Even if they had recovered the on-side kick, there wouldn't have been any time to run another player.  Cleveland's long scoring drive that preceded the Raiders last chance chewed up about 6 minutes of the clock, while forcing Oakland to burn all three of their time outs.
• The Bengals remained in the thick of the Wild Card hunt by picking up a road win in San Diego.  They won despite AJ Green behind held without a score for the second week in a row.  It was the first time since Week 1 that he failed to both catch a TD pass and surpass the 100 yard receiving mark in the same game.
• The Chargers blew another 4th quarter lead to fall for the fourth straight game and seventh in their last eight.  At 4-8, they've already assured themselves of another finish without a winning record, which should assure them of getting a new coach next year.
• Maybe a new QB too?  Seriously, was anyone surprised that the Chargers chances ended with Rivers throwing an INT in the end zone?  He has 15 picks this season, tied for second most in the league.  His ugly 39.2 QBR is 29th in the league out of 34 eligible QB's.  It's even worse than Blaine Gabbert's.  Blaine Gabbert!!  I'm done with you Philip Rivers.   
• Pittsburgh ended Baltimore's 15 game home winning streak with a 4th quarter rally behind third string QB Charlie Batch.  The Ravens had won 12 straight games against AFC North teams, which had tied them for the longest streak against divisional opponents since the realignment in 2002.
• A loss would have doomed the Steelers chances at the division title, but splitting the season match-ups with Baltimore put them only two games back in the division, leaving the window open just a crack.  The Ravens look vulnerable right now, so if the Steelers can get healthy soon they could make a run at them for the AFC North title.
• Joe Flacco has played well at home, but against the Steelers he looked as lost as he has looked on the road.  He completed only 16 of 34 passes for 188 yards.  He threw a TD, but also a pick and lost a fumble.
• Tony Romo (303 yards, 3 TDs) led the Cowboys past the Eagles to keep themselves in the NFC East race.  In doing so he passed Troy Aikman for the franchise record for career TD passes.  All three of his TD passes came in a flawless second half, where he completed all 10 of his passes.  He became only the 5th QB ever to throw at least 3 TDs without an incompletion in the second half of a game.
• The game ended up closer than Dallas would have liked, as they were forced to sweat it out in the final minute.  Holding an 11 point lead with under a minute to go, the Cowboys punted the ball away.  Instead of kicking it away from the return man - or better yet, out of bounds - they allowed Damaris Johnson to field the punt and run it all the way back for a score.  Philly failed to recover the on-side kick, which ended the game moments later, but it was hardly as clean an ending as the Cowboys would have liked.
• Bryce Brown continues to impress in relief of the concussed LeSean McCoy.  He followed up his breakout performance last week with 169 yards and 2 TDs.  On the down side, he also lost another fumble - his third in the past two games.  On several plays he was seen holding the ball away from his body, which may as well have painted a target on the ball in the eyes of opportunistic defenders.  He's shown enough ability to warrant more playing time even when McCoy does return, but he still needs to learn to take better care of the football by tucking it in close to his side so that the defense can't punch it out of his grip.
• RG3 did it again, leading the Redskins to their third straight win.  This time it was over the division leading Giants, which brought them to within a game of the defending champs in the NFC East.
• The Redskins got on the board in the first quarter with a bizarre play that resulted in a fumble by RG3 falling right into the hands of Joshua Morgan, who ran it in for a score.  The fumble came after Griffin had scrambled for a 12 yard gain as he was falling backwards after being tackled.  The play bordered on being an illegal forward pass, as it almost looked like RG3 directed the ball toward Morgan intentionally as he was falling down, but it was too close to confirm that on replay.
• Eli Manning has built a reputation for owning the 4th quarter and Washington's 31st ranked pass defense looked like a prime candidate to be his next victim, but the Redskins held strong.  They forced a three and out on the Giants first drive of the quarter.  On their next drive, a horse collar penalty on the defense was all that prevented another three and out before the Giants had to punt again.  Then RG3 and Alfred Morris took over, picking up three first downs over the final four minutes to run out the clock to ensure Manning wouldn't get another shot to beat them.
• Atlanta has clinched the NFC South, but they are the only NFC team to even clinch a playoff spot so far.  In the AFC, New England and Denver have clinched their divisions already, while Houston has locked up a playoff spot at least and still has a three game lead over the Colts in their division.