Things I Noticed: Week 9

We are officially past the halfway point of the season, as every team has now played at least 8 games.  No division leader currently has more than a two game lead in the standings, while one division has three teams tied at the top.  This bodes well for a competitive second half.

Bye weeks: Denver, Detroit, New York Giants, Arizona, San Francisco, Jacksonville

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• It was a rough day for Andy Dalton, who threw 3 picks without a TD against the Dolphins, but the low-light of his night was getting sacked in his own end zone for a safety in overtime that cost the Bengals the game.  It was only the third time in league history a game has ended on a safety.  The play came on 3rd and 10 from the Bengals 8-yard line.  Why was Dalton dropping back in the shotgun formation and going anywhere near his own end zone in that situation?
• Giovani Bernard picked up 104 total yards and scored twice.  His second touchdown was ridiculous. Brent Grimes almost tackled him for a loss, but Bernard managed to elude the tackle and cut back all the way to the other side of the field.  Once he found space along the sideline, he cut back toward the middle of the field and dodged yet another Grimes tackle (credit the defender for recovering to at least get himself in position to try to make another tackle?).  The rookie received less than half the amount of hand-offs that BenJarvis Green-Ellis received, but that was partially due to Bernard exiting early with a rib injury.  Assuming the injury isn't serious, Bernard needs to get more touches.  While the Law Firm is a solid veteran that will reliably pick up short chunks of positive yards, he doesn't come close to the big play ability of Bernard.
• Miami has suspended Pro Bowl guard Richie Incognito indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the
  
  team, after teammate Jonathan Martin accused him of harassment.  He apparently even has the text messages and voice mails to prove that Incognito threatened him and used racial slurs to demean and bully him.  If this is true, Incognito has no place in the Dolphins locker room (or in any other teams). This behavior can't be tolerated and the Dolphins are making the right choice by removing him from the team to prevent further damage to team chemistry.  
• Despite Jamaal Charles being held to under 100 total yards for the first time all season, the Chiefs improved to 9-0 on the strength of their defense.  Just when it appeared that Buffalo was about to go up two scores in the third quarter, Sean Smith intercepted a Jeff Tuel pass in the end zone and returned it over 100 yards the other way to tie the game.  Just a back-breaking momentum swing for the Bills.  Then in the 4th quarter, Tamba Hali returned a fumble for the game winning score.
• It was looking like the Cowboys were following a familiar script late in the 4th quarter.  After Adrian Peterson scored to put the Vikings ahead, Tony Romo responded by throwing an INT.  Same old Romo, right?  Not this time.  After the defense forced a three-and-out, Dallas got the ball back for one last try.  This time Romo came through with a 90-yard drive that ended in a short TD pass to Dwayne Harris with 35 seconds remaining.
• Romo and the Cowboys were given that second chance due to poor coaching from Vikings coach Leslie Frasier.  Following the Romo interception, the Vikings found themselves in a 4th and 5 situation from the Dallas 36 yard line.  They could have attempted a 53-yard field goal that would have put them up a touchdown with under three minutes to go.  Blair Walsh has 2 field goals of 50+ yards this season and had 10 of them last year.  Inside the confines of a dome, he was more than capable of making it from that distance.  Or they could have went for it on 4th down.  Had they picked up the first down they could have ended up with a closer field goal chance (or a touchdown!) while running more time off the clock.  Instead they tried to trick Dallas into jumping off-side and when that didn't work, they took a delay of game penalty and punted the ball away.  Instead of extending their lead or winning the game, Frasier gave the ball back to the Cowboys rather than risk giving up 26 yards of field position.  Guess that plan backfired.  No wonder the Vikings are 1-7.
• The Panthers had not allowed a TD in the first half of a game all year until Matt Ryan found Tony Gonzalez for a score with under two minutes to go in the half.  Carolina was minutes away from extending their streak to 8 games, which would have been the best streak of shutting opponents out of the end zone in the first half of games since 1940.  
• Carolina may have given up a first half TD, but it's the only one they'd give up, as they shut out the Falcons in the second half and cruised to a victory.  The Panthers are on a roll now, winning four straight games by more than two touchdowns, to find themselves within a game of the Saints for the top spot in the NFC South.  Many left the team for dead when they started 1-3, figuring coach Ron Rivera was on the hot seat and even questioning Cam Newton's future with the team.
• The Panthers issues have primarily been with winning close games.  They lost the first two games of this season by a combined six points.  The solution they have found to this issue is to stop playing close games!  Simple enough when you're cruising through a cupcake portion of the schedule, but it won't always be this easy.  Carolina will be tested in upcoming weeks against the 49ers and Patriots.
• As for the 2-6 Falcons, it looks like their season is toast.  Matt Ryan continues to look shaky without the services of his top two receivers.  He threw 3 more INTs this game, including one that was returned by the Panthers for a score.  That makes 7 picks in the past two games, which gives him 10 on the season.  He's on pace for 20 INTs, which would easily be worse than his career high of 14.
• Danny Woodhead made a diving attempt toward the pylon on the Chargers final drive of regulation, but came up inches short.  It was originally ruled a TD, but after review it was determined that the ball never touched the pylon or crossed the plane - it was Woodhead's foot that knocked the pylon over after he sailed past it out of bounds.  It did give the Chargers first and goal from the 1-yard line, but they failed to gain that extra yard settled for a FG that sent the game to OT.
• RGIII led Washington on a scoring drive on the opening drive of overtime to beat the Chargers. Fullback Darrel Young punched in the winning TD, crossing the goal line for the third time in the game.
• Alfred Morris (121 yards, 1 TD) had another great game and continues to lead all running backs in yards per carry (5.2).  He deserved better than to have three more scores vultured from him.  It happened a few weeks ago with Roy Helu Jr. stealing a trio of TDs.  Now it's Young coming out of nowhere to get goal line carries to score for the first time all season.  This is why fantasy football owners hate Mike Shanahan.  
• San Diego opened the scoring early in the second quarter with a bizarre pick-six play.  Pinned against their own goal line, RGIII tried throwing from his end zone.  The ball was tipped and deflected off another player, but somehow stayed in the air long enough for Sean Lissemore to snatch it out of the air for a Chargers TD.
• The Rams run defense had made a lot of progress the past two weeks, but against the Titans they
  
  looked like the same unit that was getting trampled earlier this year.  Chris Johnson ripped through them for 150 yards and 2 scores to lead Tennessee to victory.  It's the first time all season that Johnson has rushed for 100+ yards and also the first time he's scored.
• If the Rams run defense has been bad, their rushing offense hasn't been much better.  At least until now.  St. Louis entered the week without having scored a rushing TD all season, but Zac Stacy scored twice, while piling up 178 total yards.
• Rex Ryan got the better of his twin brother Rob again, as his Jets defense held the powerful Saints offense in check.  Granted, playing without Marques Colston and losing Darren Sproles to a concussion early in the game made the Saints a little less potent, but Drew Brees still had plenty of options to work with and couldn't get the job done.  The Jets capitalized on the Saints mistakes, including two INTs and a 4th and inches stop, to score a huge upset.
• Why would the Saints try an end around with a backup tight end on 4th and inches, while trailing by 9 points in the 4th quarter?  The decision to go for it on 4th down rather than attempt a long 53-yard FG was understandable, but the execution was lacking.  The Jets sniffed out the misdirection play, stuffing Josh Hill for an 8-yard loss.
• Now there's the explosive Patriots offense that we all know and love!  A season high 55 points, and 610 total yards is more along the lines of what we had come to expect from New England (and what they'll need in order to remain a contender if they continue to lose key players on defense to injuries).  Rumors of Tom Brady's demise were greatly exaggerated.  Turns out, the guy can still play when he actually has healthy targets to throw to!  Aaron Dobson had a career day, with 130 yards and two TDs, including an 81-yard catch to help the Patriots pull away in the 4th quarter (who says Brady can't throw the deep ball anymore?).  Danny Amendola had his best game of the season as well.  Not just because of his performance (122 yards, 1 TD), but because he made it through a game without getting injured!  Then of course, there's Rob Gronkowski (9 catches, 143 yards, 1 TD), who we can now say is officially back to being among the best at his position (for tight ends - it's him and Jimmy Graham, then everyone else).
• Brady and Ben Roethlisberger each threw for 400+ yards and 4 TDs.  Neither had a 3+ TD game all season.  Brady had only had one other game this year with 300+ yards this season!
• The Steelers have an elite pass defense, ranking 4th in the league by allowing only 210 passing yards per game.  Yet Brady nearly doubled that against them.  The Steelers are typically good in coverage, but struggle to put pressure on the QB, recording only 13 sacks all season.  You can't give Brady time to throw in the pocket or he'll pick you apart.  Teams that have success against Brady are able to hit him early and often and make him uncomfortable in the pocket.  Pittsburgh wasn't able to do that, which explains why Brady was able to come through with his best performance of the season.
• Jericho Cotchery had a career day, with 7 catches for 96 yards and 3 TDs.  Roethlisberger may miss having a true top receiver like Mike Wallace around, but if his #3 receiver has games like this, it looks like Big Ben will be fine.
• To start the season we saw Peyton Manning tie an NFL record with 7 passing scores in a game
  
  against Baltimore.  The Broncos were on a bye this week, but are we sure Peyton didn't sneak over to Oakland to beat up on the Raiders?  No, that wasn't him?  Wait, so that was really Nick Foles tearing the Raiders apart?  The Eagles backup QB had a career day with 406 yards and 7 TDs, to tie the record held by Manning and handful of others that played over 50 years ago.  Given the yardage total, record TD total and perfect passer rating (wait, why is 158.3 considered perfect?), it's fair to wonder if Foles just had the best game any QB has ever had.  His QBR of 99.1 was significantly better than the 83.6 rating Manning had in Week 1.
• So I guess there's no rush for Michael Vick to get back, right?  Any ideas on where Vick might be playing next season?  Something tells me that after this game, the Eagles won't need him.
• Darren McFaddon picked up a measly 12 yards on 5 carries, before exiting with a hamstring injury... again.  Or maybe he just wanted to take a seat and watch the Nick Foles show.  Rashad Jennings carried 15 times for 102 yards and a score, while adding 7 catches for 74 yards as a nice bonus.  In other words, he'll be a popular waiver wire pick up in your fantasy league if McFaddon can't suit up next week, but will probably end up being a disappointment when you start him.
• The winless Bucs traveling to Seattle to play in perhaps the most difficult road environment in the league?  Sounds like the makings of a blowout, but it actually took overtime for Seattle to squeak by with a victory, after climbing out of a 21 point hole they dug themselves into in the first quarter.
• A -3 turnover margin helped put Seattle in that hole.  Teams with a turnover margin of at least -3 have a 2-19 record this season.  Given their sloppy play, they were lucky to escape with a win this week.
• Russell Wilson has never lost at home, as the Seahawks picked up their 12th straight home win, dating back to the start of last season.  Wilson recovered from a sloppy start to toss two TD passes and run another one in on his own to rally the team back for the win.
• The Seahawks are supposed to have one of the league's most fearsome run defenses, but for a backup running back, Mike James sure didn't seem to have much trouble with it.  James has been given a heavy workload (28 carries this week!) in the absence of Doug Martin and he's taking advantage of the opportunity.  He ran through Seattle's defense for 158 yards, averaging 5.6 yards per carry.
• One of the sweetest plays of the game also involved James.  Facing first and goal at the 2 yard line, Tampa lined up with an extra lineman, suggesting a power rush was coming.  James took the hand-off, made a move as if he were going to plow forward, then stopped short.  Instead of rushing forward, James jumped in the air and tossed a short pass to tight end Tom Crabtree for the TD.
• Cleveland finally beat the Ravens for the first time in their last 12 tries behind three TDs from Jason Campbell.  That puts them ahead of Baltimore in the standings and within 2 games of the division leading Bengals.  The veteran Campbell may lack a high ceiling, but he's been steady and clearly the best option the have right now.  At least until they find themselves out of contention for a playoff spot. Then having Brandon Weeden lose some more games for them might be their best option.
• The defending Super Bowl champs have lost their swagger.  Much of that was lost in the mass exodus of players they lost in the off-season, but of those that remain, they just aren't the same anymore.  To the shock of no one (except apparently the Ravens front office), Joe Flacco has reverted back to being a mediocre QB after a hot streak in last year's playoffs banked him a Super Bowl ring and a new contract.  He's outside the top 10 in every major QB category (Completion Percentage, Yards, TDs, QB Rating, Total QBR) and in the top 10 for all the bad categories (INTs, Sacks).
• This was a playoff caliber game for the Texans, who desperately needed a win over the division leading Colts to stay relevant in the AFC South race.  They came out playing like it in the first half, but unraveled in the second.  Head coach Gary Kubiak collapsed at halftime and was rushed to the hospital, perhaps foreshadowing his team's impending collapse.  
• Andrew Luck led yet another late comeback, scoring his 3rd TD of the half with 4 minutes left to give
  
  the Colts the lead.  Luck now has 10 career game winning drives in the fourth quarter or OT, the most any QB has had in their first two seasons to start a career since the 1970 merger.
• The Colts were playing without Reggie Wayne on the field for the first time in nearly 13 years.  That left it up to T.Y. Hilton to take over as the team's top target and the second year receiver didn't disappoint.  He caught all three of Luck's second half TDs, while racking up 121 receiving yards.
• Andre Johnson finished the first half looking to set all kinds of receiving records, but didn't do much in the second half (neither did the rest of the Texans offense).  AJ80 would finish with 9 catches for 229 yards and 3 TDs, but only 2 of those catches for 39 yards came after halftime.
• Houston had a chance to tie in the end, but Randy Bullock missed a 55-yard attempt as time expired. With that, the window for the Texans (2-6) as a contender this season also expired.  Bullock's career might not be far from it either.  Tough to blame him for missing from such long range, but the rookie kicker also missed two other attempts in the narrow loss and has hit only 13 of 21 attempts this season.
• A Packers team that suffers a key loss to injury seemingly every week suffered their biggest blow of all, as Aaron Rodgers went down on the first drive of the game.  While more tests are expected to come, it's been reported that he may have fractured his collarbone, which could keep him out for about three weeks.  The loss to the Bears this week dropped Green Bay into a three way tie in the NFC North with Chicago and Detroit.  A tailspin in Rodgers' absence could doom their season before he even gets a chance to take the field again.  Luckily the Packers don't play a team with a winning record over the next three weeks, but as awful as Seneca Wallace looked Monday night, it may not matter.  In Wallace's defense, he wasn't even with the team in pre-season, so he had never even taken a snap with the first team offense before.  Talk about being thrown to the wolves!  He'll get better, but the drop off from Rodgers is steep.
• The silver lining for the Packers is that at least they have a running game now.  Eddie Lacy carried the load with 22 carries for 150 yards and a score.  
• Chicago is currently without their own starting QB (although rumor has it Jay Cutler may be back as early as next week), but Josh McCown (272 yards, 2 TDs) has been filling in admirably.  His job right now is to avoid mistakes (no turnovers), feed his top receivers (Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jefferey both scored) and rely on Matt Forte's versatility (179 total yards, 1 TD) to do the rest.  Sounds like he gets a check in all of those categories this week, which led to a win in his first start this season.
• Denver coach John Fox was hospitalized during his team's bye week after he became dizzy while playing golf.  The 58 year old coach had surgery Monday morning to replace a heart valve and will remain out indefinitely.  Assistant Jack Del Rio will take over in his absence.  
• Speaking of Denver's bye week, do you realize that Peyton and Eli were both off this week?  Think they got together to shoot another commercial?  
• Jacksonville receiver Justin Blackman will miss the rest of the season after being suspended indefinitely for violating the league's substance abuse program.  He already missed the first 4 games this season for the same violation and will now enter a rehab facility.  Clearly he didn't learn his lesson the first time around.  Or maybe he got busted again on purpose, just so he wouldn't have to play with Blaine Gabbert again.