Things I Noticed: Week 15

It was a rough week for division leaders looking to clinch playoff spots, division titles or improve their seeding.  Six of the eight teams that entered the week leading their division ended up losing this week. The Colts are still the only team that has already clinched their division and are one of only four teams locked into the postseason.  The division leaders that fell this week have two more weeks to cement their status as playoff contenders and regain momentum heading into the postseason.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

• Denver's grasp on the AFC's top seed slipped just a bit with an upset loss at home to the Chargers on Thursday night.  San Diego was able to chew up the clock to protect their second half lead thanks to a  rushing attack that piled up 177 yards on the ground.
• The Broncos also hurt themselves with untimely penalties.  After forcing the Chargers into a three and out near their own goal line early in the third quarter, Denver looked to get the ball back in great field position.  Until an offside penalty on the punt gave the Chargers a first down.  San Diego didn't end up scoring on the play, but they did burn about an extra seven minutes off the clock and pushed Denver further back for their next possession.
• The fatal mistake came late in the fourth quarter on a turnover.  Peyton Manning was hit as he threw the ball, which wobbled through the air for an easy INT that put the Chargers in range for a field goal to put them up by 10.
• Manning's performance (289 yards, 2 TDs) was slightly sub par by his lofty standards, but the
  
  pair of TD passes upped his total to 47 for the season.  He needs three more TDs over his final two games to break Tom Brady's record.  After this loss, the Broncos may not have the benefit of resting Manning in Week 17, which increases his odds of setting the record.  On the other hand, it also increases the odds that New England or Kansas City could steal the top seed away from them.
• Chaos erupted in the parking lot outside Sports Authority Field in Denver following the game when an altercation led to three men getting stabbed, leaving one of them in critical condition. Police believe there may have been a fourth victim that fled the scene.  They reportedly have three suspects in custody, but have not yet determined the cause of the incident.  We don't know if the fight broke out over anything involving the game or either team involved, but let's hope that's not what it was about. Sports are meant to entertain.  I'm as passionate about my team as the next guy, but losing a game is no reason to lose our heads.  Let alone go around stabbing people.    
• Ryan Tannehill (312 yards, 3 TDs) threw a 14-yard pass to Marcus Thigpen with 1:15 left in the 4th quarter to cap a shocking comeback against New England.  Miami started the drive with great field position after Stephen Gostkowski's kick-off bounced out of bounds for a penalty, giving the Dolphins the ball at their 40 yard line.  Tannehill also converted a key 4th and 5 to keep the drive alive.
• With just over a minute remaining, Tom Brady led the Patriots all the way into the red zone with a chance for a comeback.  Despite knowing New England had all their time outs left to start the drive, Miami left the middle of the field wide open, allowing Brady to pick them apart with short passes to Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola.  Yet when they got close to the end zone, Brady threw incomplete passes on three straight attempts, followed by a game ending INT in the end zone.
• The last incompletion prior to the turnover was a prime example of how the Patriots will miss Rob Gronkowski.  Brady's pass sailed just over the reach of Michael Hoomanawauni (who made a spectacular one handed catch for a TD earlier in the game).  Gronk is a couple inches taller and has an edge in athleticism, so that same pass is almost certainly a game winner if it were him out there instead.
• Miami can feel fortunate that they ended up winning the game, because a botched field goal in the 2nd quarter would have been much more embarrassing had they lost by three points.  On the play, the holder wasn't looking as the snap came, so the ball hit him square in the face, bouncing away for a fumble that was recovered by the Patriots.
• Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a win over Washington in a battle of two 2012 playoff teams that have fallen flat this season.  Atlanta nearly blew the lead by allowing Kirk Cousins to lead a last minute TD drive, but rather than tie the game with an extra point and send the game to OT, Washington elected to go for two to win the game.  When the conversion failed, Atlanta ended up holding on to the 1 point win.
• While it was hardly the conventional decision to go for two in that situation, I actually don't hate the decision.  Playing on the road, they had to expect the odds to be against them in overtime.  It's already a lost season at this point, so what did they have to lose? The downside of course is that Washington doesn't own their first round draft pick, as they owe it to St. Louis from the draft day trade two years ago where they traded up to get RGIII.  So they have no reason to tank for a better pick.  That doesn't matter to Mike Shanahan though, since he knows he likely won't be back next season anyway.  
• The big news leading up to this game of course was Shanahan's decision to bench RGIII for the
  
  rest of the season.  His rationale is that if Washington can't compete for a playoff spot this season then it's in the team's best interest to ensure RGIII makes it through the season healthy so he doesn't have to spend the off-season rehabbing an injury for the second straight year.  Logic that doesn't make sense if he doesn't expect to be back next year, but more importantly, Griffin isn't currently injured!  Part of the tension between the coach and owner Dan Snyder is that Shanahan wanted to sit RGIII weeks ago, but the owner wouldn't let him.  The coach finally got his way and backup Kirk Cousins responded with 381 yards and 3 TDs.  Then again, he also had three turnovers and failed on the two-point conversion that could have won them the game.  It's unclear what the future holds for Washington, but it's a mess there right now.
• Jay Cutler returned for the Bears and it didn't take him long to start throwing INTs.  Cutler was picked off twice in the first half, including one that was returned by Cleveland for a score.  Cutler did recover to have a pretty decent day (265 yards, 3 TDs) to lead the Bears to a win, but it just goes to show the story of Cutler's career.  You have to take the bad with the good and hope it leads to victory more often than not.  
• Meanwhile, Josh McCown takes a seat on the bench, despite leading the league in Total QBR (85.7).  
• After comlpeting the most dominant three game stretch a WR has ever had, Josh Gordon was nearly invisible for most of the game.  He did manage a 43-yard TD catch with under a minute left to pull Cleveland within one score, but prior to that he managed only two catches for 23 yards.  After Gordon crushed opposing fantasy teams the last few weeks, there were a lot of people that thought they lucked out this week by seeing him put up a dud when they had the unfortunate playoff match up against him.  That late TD catch spoiled those dreams.
• Robert Mathis set the Colt's single-season (16.5) and career (108) records for sacks when he forced a safety against Case Keenum and the Texans.  The two points on the safety weren't quite enough to match the three Houston got on their lone field goal, but Andrew Luck and the offense did more than enough to make up for it in the blowout victory.  
• After their 12th straight loss, Houston is in the driver's seat for the top pick in the draft.  Not quite as thrilling as being in the driver's seat for a trip to the Super Bowl, which was the expectation they had entering the season.  But it's a nice consolation after a dismal season.
• You wouldn't really expect much out of a Vikings offense that was missing Adrian Peterson due to a foot injury.  So of course they posted their highest scoring game of the season this week with 48 points in a win over the Eagles.  Third string RB Matt Asiata wont' be competing with AP for any rushing records, as he managed only 51 yards on a whopping 30 carries, but he did get 3 TDs.
• How bad was the Eagles defense?  They allowed 382 yards and a pair of TDs (plus a rushing TD!) to Matt Cassel.  Greg Jennings even managed to turn back the clock for a season best 11 catch, 163 yard, 1 TD performance.  
• The loss was the first the Eagles have suffered in a game that Nick Foles played the entire game.  Not that the loss can be pinned on Foles (career high 428 yards, 3 TDs).  He more than held up his end, mostly be throwing deep passes to DeSean Jackson (10 catches, 195 yards, 1 TD). 
• Not that Seattle was too worried about facing the Giants, but Eli Manning made things easy on them by throwing 5 INTs.  The defense held Manning and the Giants to only 181 total yards.
• Marshawn Lynch had a quiet day running the ball with only 47 yards, but he did find the end zone and was also the team's leading receiver with 73 yards on six catches.
• Michael Crabtree caught his first TD catch of the season to open the scoring in the first quarter and the 49ers didn't look back.  
• Frank Gore (86 yards) topped the 1,000 yard mark for the 7th season in his career and was key to chewing up the clock on a 4th quarter drive that took over ten minutes.  The drive, which followed a Tampa TD that had pulled the Bucs within one score, ended in a field goal to give the Niners their two possession lead back.  Tampa then fumbled the ensuing kick-off on a botched reverse, which Kendall Hunter recovered for another Niners score that put the game away.
• Jacksonville's unlikely three game win streak finally came to an end at the hands of a Buffalo Bills team that had lost 5 of it's last 6 games coming into the week.  EJ Manuel rebounded from the worst game of his young career to one of his best (193 yards, 2 TDs, 37 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD).  
• The Jaguars were in position to tie things up late in the game when they reached first and goal from the 1 yard line, but a goal line carry from Jordan Todman was stuffed for a loss.  Chad Henne then tossed three off target passes, the last of which was picked off in the end zone.  On the incomplete pass that came before the turnover, Henne claimed he threw toward Mike Brown because he saw him being held and hoped throwing to him would draw attention to the penalty, but no flag was thrown to bail them out.
• Jamaal Charles only had 20 rushing yards?  Sure he had a TD, but he must have had a quiet day.
  
  Wait, nevermind.  Charles also added 195 yards and 4 more TDs!  The four receiving TDs were the most ever in a game by a running back.  Charles also became only the fourth player to ever have 5 TDs and 200+ yards from scrimmage in a game.  Oakland struggled to contain screen passes, allowing Charles to rack up 172 of his 195 receiving yards after the catch.
• Alex Smith (287 yards, 5 TDs) looked good in the box score, but it mostly came from Charles making him look good.  Smith's 5 TD passes combined to travel only 14 yards down field, but he benefited greatly from yards after the catch.  Doesn't matter much to him though.  What matters is that Kansas City clinched a playoff spot.  Their 11th win of the season ties a league record for most wins following a season with two or fewer wins and there are still two games left!
• Santonio Holmes opened his big mouth this week, calling Carolina's secondary their "weak link." So Panthers defensive back Captain Munnerlyn responded with a pick-six to put the game away in the 4th quarter.  Meanwhile, Holmes was one of many weak links for the Jets with only 2 catches for 14 yards.  If we had to find a weak link for the Jets, can we just call it their offense in general?
• Matt Flynn (299 yards, 4 TDs) led the Packers to their second straight win to help keep the team afloat while they wait to see if Aaron Rodgers can make it back on the field this season.  A frustrated Rodgers feels ready to play now, but doctors still have not cleared him.
• I've tried to defend Tony Romo in recent weeks by pointing out his track record for game winning drives over the past few seasons.  This week it was his critics turn to fire back after an epic second half collapse by the Cowboys that saw them blow a 23 point lead.  A collapse highlighted by INTs by Romo on the Cowboys final two drives of the game.  Romo now has the most INTs (7) in the 4th quarter or OT when his team is tied or ahead by one possession since 2006.  Fueling the criticism is that there was no reason for Romo to be forcing throws like the one that led to the first of those two turnovers.  Dallas led at the time with about two and a half minutes left and the Packers had only one time out left.  Why were the Cowboys throwing at all on 2nd and 6?  DeMarco Murray was averaging 7.4 yards per carry in the game, yet touched the ball only 3 times in the 4th quarter. 
• It was later revealed by coach Jason Garrett that the play call had been for a run, but Romo switched the call after seeing the defense crowd the line and open single coverage on the outside. While Garrett essentially threw his QB under the bus to push the blame away from himself, isn't it up to the coach to give his players the freedom to change the play?  If Romo has a track record of 4th quarter meltdowns, why are they even calling plays that give Romo an option to switch to a pass?  Romo and Garrett both deserve their fair share of blame on that one.
• While Romo will get trashed for his late game performance, the Cowboys league worst defense (427.3 yards allowed per game) should get just as much credit for the loss after giving up TDs on all five Green Bay possessions in the second half.  
• The Arizona Cardinals somehow blew a 17 point lead with just over 3 minutes left in the 4th quarter, but did go on to win the game in overtime.  After Ryan Fitzpatrick connected with Michael Preston for a 10 yard score, the Titans defense forced a three and out to get the ball back.  A false start penalty on 3rd and 4 stalled the drive, as Arizona ended up getting 5 yards on the play, which would have been enough to extend the drive if it weren't for the penalty. Tennessee would end up with a field goal on the next drive to make it a one score game.  That left them needing an on-side kick, which they recovered with under a minute left.  Five plays later, Fitzpatrick hit Preston again for the tying TD.
• As heroic as that combination was late in the 4th quarter, it was a Fitzpatrick pass intended for Preston that ended up getting intercepted on the opening drive of OT, giving Arizona the ball in Titans territory, where they needed only a FG to win.  It may have been an ugly win, but at 9-5, the Cardinals find themselves only a game back in the wild card race.
• The Saints buried themselves early thanks to two INTs from Drew Brees on their first two possessions.  The first one actually came on the first pass attempt of the day for Brees.  A couple of garbage time TDs in the 4th quarter made the score somewhat respectable in a game dominated by St. Louis.  The loss cost the Saints their chance to clinch a playoff spot this week and dropped them into a tie with Carolina in the NFC South.  Next week's match up against the Panthers could very well decide the division.
• Zac Stacy came up big for the Rams with 133 rushing yards, which included a 40-yard TD run. St. Louis can do little more than play the role of spoiler at this point, but given that they own Washington's 1st-round draft pick and their loss put them in position for the #2 overall pick, it was a very successful week for the Rams.
• The Bengals failed to capitalize on the opportunity to move up to a top 2 seed in the AFC by falling in Pittsburgh Sunday Night.  The Steelers opened the game with a 24-0 run, so by the time the Bengals started to join in on the scoring party, it was too late.
• Antonio Brown was a big part of that early lead.  He caught a 12-yard TD pass in the first
  
  quarter and followed that with a 67-yard punt return for another score.  Brown is third in the league in receiving (1,307 yards), but can also do some damage on special teams.
• Justin Tucker nailed a career long 61-yard field goal in the final minute of the game to give Baltimore the win.  The Ravens kicker accounted for all 18 of the team's points with his six field goals and became only the 4th kicker in history to hit a 60+ yard field goal to put his team ahead in the final minute of the 4th quarter.
• The Lions were plagued by mistakes all game.  Matthew Stafford threw 3 INTs, including one on the teams final drive that deprived Detroit of their chance to get in field goal range themselves. With only just over 30 seconds left, it would have been a long shot anyway, but with all their time outs remaining, they still had a chance.  Detroit also suffered from several dropped passes, including several from Calvin Johnson, who already has a career high 9 drops this season.  One of his drops came on a failed two point conversion late in the 4th quarter.  Had he made the catch, Tuckers kick would have only tied the game rather than give Baltimore the win.  The Lions have 44 drops as a team this season, which is by far the most in the league.  Stafford has a tendency to throw with an odd side arm technique on some of his short throws, which seemed to be the cause of a few of those drops and at least one INT in this game.
• One week after setting a record for the most TDs scored league wide in a single day, the league set a new record with 763 points scored on Sunday.