Things I Noticed: Week 16

With the holidays quickly approaching, this weeks' schedule has been completely rearranged.  There was no ugly Thursday night game between two totally unprepared teams this week.  There are no more Monday Night Football games this season, as rather than have teams play on Christmas Eve, the MNF game was played on Saturday night instead.  The 1:00 slate of games on Sunday afternoon featured 11 games at once!  That all led to a very packed weekend of football to be treated to just before the holiday.

So with that, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great weekend of football!

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Atlanta clinched the top seed in the NFC, ensuring that they can rest some of their starters next week and take a week off before their first playoff game.  That's a big change for these Falcons during the Matt Ryan era, because they are used to taking the week off during their first playoff game (oh, come on Atlanta fans, you know it's true!). 


• Matt Ryan was brilliant against the Lions, completing his first 12 passes en route to a 4 TD performance.  Both Roddy White (153 yards, 2 TDs) and Julio Jones (71 yards, 1 TD) came up big, in a rare game where both of Atlanta's elite receivers were able to dominate at the same time.
• The final minutes of the game showed Atlanta's one big weakness - their inability to convert in short yardage situations.  After Detroit turned the ball over on downs at the Atlanta 2 yard line, the Falcons were unable to run out the clock by running the ball forward enough to be able to kneel out the rest of the clock.  Instead, Michael Turner was tackled in the end zone for a safety, which could have given the Lions new life.  Lucky for them, Detroit blew their chance. 
• Down two TDs, the safety would give Detroit the ball back.  A good return, if not for a score then at least for good field position, would at least have given them a chance.  Instead, Stefan Logan made the bizarre decision to give himself up by taking a knee inside his own five yard line.  Even without audio, you could read the words coming out of his coach's mouth on the sideline.  Something along the lines of that being the stupidest play he's ever seen (with a few other choice words thrown in, I'm sure).  He's not wrong - it was an incredibly stupid decision, which forced Detroit to have to try to drive nearly the entire field just to get the first of the two scores they needed with less than two minutes left.  That task, of course, came up short.  Who knows what Logan could possibly have been thinking, but it wasn't even his first mistake of the game.  Earlier he had called for a fair catch on a punt return when there wasn't a defender within 20 yards of him!  For a player who's only value comes on kick returns, if he can't even get that right then what good is he?
• Calvin Johnson set a boatload of records in this game, but the main one was surpassing Jerry Rice for the single season receiving record.  He currently stands at 1,892 yards for the season, meaning 2,000 yards is actually within reach.  At this point it would almost be a surprise if he didn't become the new CJ2K.

• Calvin also set records with 8 straight 100+ yard receiving games and four straight games with double digit catches. 
• The one blemish on Calvin's record setting game is that when Rice set his record, he did it during a playoff hunt, while Calvin's Lions team has been out of the hunt for weeks.  At times, it looked like the Lions were more concerned with getting Calvin the record than they were with winning the game. 
• Most would have expected the Patriots to come out blazing this week, fueled by last week's disappointing prime time loss.  Instead, they came out flat in the first half and needed a second half rally to get a harder than expected win in Jacksonville.  
• Much like last week, it was early mistakes that dug New England into a hole.  Tom Brady uncharacteristically threw INTs on two of the first three possessions.  Granted one of those was a tipped pass that can't be fully blamed on the QB, but it's still a troubling trend this late in the season that Brady has thrown two picks in each of his last two games, doubling his season total over that period.
• The Patriots were lucky to escape with a victory given how they played for most of the game and should be thankful this poor performance came against the woeful Jaguars.  With the Patriots resting several defensive starters for this game, Jacksonville had little trouble moving the ball against them, but they did have trouble finishing drives.  Despite moving the ball inside the Patriots 25 yard line 7 times in the game, they came away with only one TD and a trio of field goals. 
• The Cowboys lost in overtime to the Saints, but they still control their own playoff destiny.  Next week's match up against the Redskins will decide the division, which would have been the case regardless of the outcome this week.

• Dez Bryant had a monster game (9 catches, 224 yards, 2 TDs), while tying a franchise record with his 7th straight game with a TD catch.  He is now 8th in the league in both receptions and receiving yards and second in receiving TDs.  Not bad for a guy playing with a broken finger.
• Drew Brees (446 yards, 3 TDs) and Tony Romo (416 yards, 4 TDs) essentially played to a draw, but a fortunate bounce decided the game.  After forcing Dallas to punt on the first possession of overtime, the Saints drove right to the edge of field goal range.  Brees completed a pass to Marques Colston, who was almost immediately stripped.  The ball bounced 20 yards down field toward the end zone, where Jimmy Graham recovered it at the Dallas two yard line.  Rather than settle for what could have been a risky long field goal, the Saints ended up winning it on an easy chip shot.
• Green Bay has won four straight, with this most recent victory being the most dominant of the season.  The Packers piled on 55 unanswered points against the hopelessly over matched Titans, who saved themselves from total embarrassment with a late garbage time score that prevented a shutout.
• The Packers running game has struggled to put teams away once they get a late lead, but the resurgent Ryan Grant eased some of those concerns with an 80 yard, 2 TD performance.  The long time Packer started the season in Washington, before getting cut and returning to Green Bay a few weeks ago.  It didn't take long for him to establish himself as the lead back again.
• The blow out on the scoreboard didn't allow for many second half carries by Chris Johnson, who was held to a meager 28 yards on 11 carries.  There is no bigger boom or bust RB in the league than the runner formerly known as CJ2K.  He has 5 games this season rushing for over 120 yards, but also has 6 games rushing for less than 50.
• The Colts clinched a playoff spot behind another game winning drive by Andrew Luck.  After breaking Cam Newton's rookie record for passing yards in a season, Luck also tied another record with his 7th game winning drive of the season in the 4th quarter or OT.

• The woeful Chiefs put up an unexpected fight against a team looking to wrap up a playoff spot and they have Jamaal Charles to thank for that.  The electric RB ran for 226 yards, including an 86 yard TD run.  That tied him with Chris Johnson and Barry Sanders as the only RBs to have three 80+ yard runs in a season.
• Reggie Bush caught two TD passes and rushed for a third score to help lead the Dolphins over the Bills.  Miami entered the week with their postseason hopes still (barely) alive, but despite the victory, those hopes faded away as the Colts and Bengals locked up the two Wild Card spots.
• CJ Spiller continues to prove himself capable of handling a starters work load (22 carries, 138 yards).  His ridiculous 6.5 yard per carry average is a half yard ahead of Adrian Peterson's average.  No other RB is even within a yard of that average.
• Mark Sanchez has officially been benched.  Greg McElroy got the start, but the Chargers defense made him wish he hadn't.  The rookie turned the ball over twice while getting sacked 11 times, one short of the league record.
• Tim Tebow has spent the season trying to say and do the right things by accepting his back up role, but his frustration is finally starting to boil over.  He came to the Jets knowing he wouldn't be handed the starting job, but he came under the expectation that if anything happened to Sanchez that he'd be given the chance to take over.  Tebow was never given a chance.  Passing him over for a 7th round rookie that was inactive for most of the season is a slap in the face.  He certainly has his flaws, but he did win a playoff game last year with the Broncos.  Maybe he wouldn't have made the team much better, but what were they expecting to get out of McElroy?  If nothing else, Tebow is a fan favorite that would have given Jets fans something to be excited about at the end of this lost season.  Rex Ryan never wanted Tebow and never found a useful way to utilize him.  He never gave him the chance to start because he was afraid if he did, Tebow might succeed and force him to stick with him.  This situation is a mess, so you can't blame Tebow for asking to either be traded or cut after the season.  Chances are, he'll end up in Jacksonville next year to play near where he became a local hero back in his college days.  He won't win there, but at least he'll be appreciated.
• RGIII returned to the field to lead the Redskins over the the Eagles, but it will take a victory over another divisional foe next week to clinch the NFC East.  Coming off of a knee injury, Griffin wasn't much of a running threat, but his arm still works just fine.
• The Eagles have nothing left to play for besides being a spoiler for the teams in their division.  They put a good scare into the Redskins, driving all the way down to their 5 yard line in the final minute with a chance to tie the game, before an intentional grounding penalty on Nick Foles ended the game.
• The Bengals clinched their second straight Wild Card spot with a last second field goal to beat the Steelers.  The last time the Bengals made the postseason in consecutive years (1981-82) was before Andy Dalton or AJ Green were even born!
• Ben Roethlisberger has struggled since returning from injury a couple weeks ago.  He completed only half of his 28 passes and threw two INTs.  The first pick was returned the other way for a score.  The second pick came near the end of the 4th quarter with the Steelers driving for the winning score.  The turnover gave the Bengals the ball near mid-field, setting up the winning FG a few plays later.
• The Rams can't make the postseason, but they can still finish over .500 with a win next week.  The victory over the Bucs was only their third of the season against a team outside of their division.
• Janoris Jenkins tied a rookie record with his third pick six of the season.
• Josh Freeman was awful again, throwing 4 INTs for the second straight week.  His lofty yardage total (372) can mostly be attributed to the Bucs playing in catch up mode most of the game.  His pitiful 8.9 Total QBR was even worse than last week.  Freeman had been enjoying an impressive bounce back season in his third year, but it's ending on a sour note.
• Things got heated in Carolina, as the Panthers and Raiders got into several shoving matches and combined for six unnecessary roughness penalties, including a hit that knocked Carson Palmer out of the game in the first quarter.  Cam Newton drew a flag for yelling at an official for neglecting to call a penalty on what he believed was a late hit.  Veteran QBs like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning plead for a call like that all the time, but they are wise enough to do so without being disrespectful to the official.  Cam handled it wrong and ended up hurting his team instead.
• A 76 yard TD run by DeAngelo Williams was nullified by a holding penalty on Steve Smith on the Panthers opening drive.  Smith would make up for it by finishing the drive with a 23 yard scoring catch to give the Panthers a lead they would never relinquish.
• Minnesota stayed in position for the final NFC Wild Card spot by upsetting the Texans and it didn't even take a super human effort from Adrian Peterson to do it (he finished with a rather pedestrian 86 yards).  The Vikings will need to beat the Packers next week, with Green Bay needing a win to clinch a first round playoff bye.  It's a tough task, but a loss would open the door for the Bears or Giants to steal that spot from them.

• Peterson now stands at 1,898 rushing yards this season.  The 2,000 yard mark is well within reach, but it will take another beastly performance (at least 208 yards) for him to catch Eric Dickerson for the record.  Peterson has rushed for over 200 yards in 2 of the past four weeks, so you certainly can't count him out yet.
• The Texans are losing momentum as the postseason approaches, losing twice in the past three weeks.  They can still clinch the top seed if they win in Indy next week, but another loss could allow both Denver and New England to jump ahead of them, dropping them as low as the 3rd seed.
• JJ Watt recorded another sack to give him a league leading 20.5 this season.  That leaves him 2 sacks behind Michael Strahan's record, with one game left in the season.
• Denver won their 10th straight game, while Peyton Manning (339 yards, 3 TDs) continues to build his case in the MVP discussion.  Brady has Manning beat in yardage and has thrown three less INTs, but Manning has the slight edge in completion percentage, TDs, passer rating and QBR.  If Denver manages to climb to the top seed in the AFC, that may lock up the award for Manning.
• Brandon Weeden was knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury, leaving Colt McCoy to take over.  It didn't matter who was under center for the Browns, they had no chance of staying in this game.
• The Bears will need some help (from, of all teams, the Packers) to get to the postseason, but by beating the Cardinals this week they at least kept those hopes alive.  Also encouraging is the fact that they won with their defense creating turnovers and turning them into points, much like they did in their dominant first half of the season.  Chicago returned a fumble and an INT for scores.
• Chicago seemed poise to add to their lead even more by tacking on a field goal in the final minutes, but the kick was blocked and returned by the Cardinals for a score.  That still left them behind by two TDs, but credit the Cardinals special teams for playing hard and making a play despite the game being essentially out of reach.
• The Cardinals apparently had seen enough of Ryan Lindley, so it's on to the next one.  Former Patriots backup, Brian Hoyer, became the 4th QB to take the field for Arizona this season.  Hoyer quickly realized two things upon being thrown into the game - the key to his success would be targeting Larry Fitzgerald as much as possible (8 catches for 111 yards was his best performance since Week 3) and playing behind the Cardinals sieve of an offensive line is not the same as being protected by the Patriots formidable line.
• Baltimore clinched the AFC North and a likely 4th seed by running over the fading Giants.  Ray Rice had a nice game (107 rushing yards, 51 receiving yards, 1 TD), but Bernard Pierce came out of nowhere with a season high 14 carries for 123 yards.  Their 230 combined rushing yards dropped the Giants defense to 25th in the league against the run and 30th overall in total yards allowed.
• The playoffs are now looking like a long shot for the defending champs.  Washington and Dallas will battle it out next week to determine the NFC East crown.  The best the Giants can hope for is a win next week, combined with a loss by the Vikings and Bears.  The tie breakers get complicated if Dallas wins the division, but I believe even if the Redskins lose, they would still remain ahead of the Giants due to a better divisional record.
• Seattle clinched a playoff spot and remain alive for the NFC West crown by beating the division leading 49ers.  Marshawn Lynch scored twice in the first quarter and Russell Wilson finished with 4 TDs to lead the way.
• Richard Sherman is supposed to be suspended for a failed drug test, but he's allowed to still play until his appeal is heard.  The Niners are wishing that case had been determined earlier.  Sherman made a huge impact on this game, picking off a pass from Colin Kaepernick and returning a blocked field goal for a TD.
• This was hardly Kaepernick's best game of the season, but overall his production has been very good.  However, his record since taking over as the starter is now only  4-2.  Still good, but not dominant.  He may be more talented than Alex Smith, but it remains to be seen if he can win a playoff game like Smith has.
• The Cowboys have a chance to win their division, despite a negative point differential (-14).  The Colts have locked up a playoff spot despite a -42 point differential.
• Denver's 10 game win streak is currently the longest in the league, but Washington has the best streak in the NFC going with 6 straight wins.