Wednesday, October 3, 2012

10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 5

Brady finally gets to play the older Manning again after
having to settle for a loss against Eli in 2011.

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10.            Interesting Super Bowl Curse

I came across any interesting video on NFL.com this week. The last 11 NFL cities hosting the Super Bowl didn’t see their home team even make the postseason. You can see the video for yourself here.

9.            Jay Cutler – Intense Competitor or Brat?

Even Skip Bayless, a fellow Vanderbilt grad who, for that very reason, constantly expresses his love of Cutler, could not make himself come to Cutler’s defense. Jay Cutler wears his emotions on his sleeves, and I totally respect that. But getting up and walking away from your offensive coordinator is not something I respect. I won’t call Cutler a brat, but you look at him and decide for yourself.

8.            More bad news for the Jets

A week after losing Darrelle Revis for the season (barring some sort of sorcery in the way of a Super Bowl appearance), the Jets lost WR Santonio Holmes, likely for the season, to a foot injury. They announced Wednesday that they signed Jason Hill as a possible replacement. Hill is a no-name, so there is no telling how big he could be; but I have to suspect that no matter how good he is, there is only so much you can do when your quarterback is Mark Sanchez.

7.            Fantasy Disappointments

  • Jets RB Shonn Greene only scored 3 fantasy points in a disappointing outing for the entire team.
  • After three straight double-digit games, Giants TE Martellus Bennett scored just half a point against Philadelphia.
  • Falcons WR Julio Jones scored just 3.5 points, and it’s already his second low single-digit performance of the young season.
  • WRs Malcom Floyd (SD) and Steve Johnson (BUF) scored just 3 points each this week.


6.            Fantasy Surprises

  • Cardinals WR Andre Roberts had 28 fantasy points in a 2 TD outing.
  • Dolphins WR Brian Hartline had 12 catches for over 253 yards and a score en route to a 39 point fantasy performance
  • Both the Vikings and 49ers D/ST has 34 points in my league
  • QBs Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Cam Newton, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan all scored 30+ points in Week 4. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Peyton Manning were very close to joining them.
  • Jason Witten has 23.5 points, helped by his 13 catches in a PPR league, but even without PPR he had 17 points. It helps he was suddenly Tony Romo’s only reliable target.


5.            Games to Watch

Like last week, I’ll be more specific on why these are the biggest games to watch in my predictions post tomorrow.

  • Arizona Cardinals at St. Louis Rams (Thursday, 8:20 p.m.)
  • Atlanta Falcons at Washington Redskins (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
  • Philadelphia Eagles at Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
  • Denver Broncos at New England Patriots (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
  • San Diego Chargers at New Orleans Saints (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)


4.            Power Rankings

For the sake of space, I will list just the top 6 and the bottom 6 here. You can see the rest on NFL.com.

1. Houston Texans
27. Indianapolis Colts
2. San Francisco 49ers
28. Miami Dolphins
3. Atlanta Falcons
29. New Orleans Saints
4. Baltimore Ravens
30. Tennessee Titans
5. Green Bay Packers
31. Oakland Raiders
6. Chicago Bears
32. Cleveland Browns

The Redskins rose by far the furthest, 8 spots to #22 in the power rankings. The Seahawks dropped 6 spots to #16 and the Cowboys, Jets and Titans all dropped 5 spots. Once again, the Texans were unanimously voted #1 in the NFL.com Power Poll (which is different than the Power Rankings).

3.            Chicago Bears

The Bears find themselves at the #6 spot in the NFL.com Power Rankings and #10 in the Power Poll. I think the Power Poll is a little more where the Bears should be, but I see this team as a pretender. They’ve had a couple really good games this year. They have also had some terrible ones.

2.            Houston Texans

For the second straight week the Texans are at the top of the NFL.com Power Rankings and received all 13 first place votes in the Power Poll. They are coming off a 38-14 win over a Titans team that scored a lot of points just a week earlier against the Lions, a sign that the Lions defense is nowhere near what it was last year, and that the Texans defense may be even better than it was last year. Houston should have an easy time with the Jets this week, but they’ll be tested against the Packers and Ravens in their final two games before a bye week.

1.            The Brady/Manning Saga Continues

After a hiatus in 2011, we will finally be treated to another classic battle between Brady’s Patriots and Manning’s Colts Broncos. Considering the Patriots’ defense has shown a lot of weaknesses so far this season, and the Broncos defense is pretty talented, this could be closer than many of us expect. At the very least, it has to be closer than last year’s AFC Divisional Playoff game between the two teams.

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