10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 7

By holding off the Raiders, the Falcons are the
last team in 2012 who can challenge the '72 Dolphins.

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10.            Monday Night Miracle 2.0

For the second time in his career, Peyton Manning led his team on a miracle comeback on ESPN’s Monday Night Football. The first was with Indianapolis against Jon Gruden-led Tampa Bay, where he came back from a three score deficit with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter to win the game.

This time, Peyton began the charge, but it was ultimately a team effort. Trailing 24-0 at halftime, Manning led the Broncos on touchdown drives on each of their first three 2^nd half possessions. The defense helped, though, forcing five turnovers on six 2^nd half possessions for the Chargers, two of which were taken back for touchdowns. Denver won the second half, 35-0.

9.            Trouble in Baltimore

Haloti Ngata will recover fairly soon, his injury doesn’t appear to be too significant. Terrell Suggs is practicing this week. But that good news comes with bad news even further to the other end of the spectrum. Lardarius Webb and Ray Lewis are both out, likely for the season. Lewis is going to work hard and is holding out hope that his torn triceps will recover in time for a playoff push to the Super Bowl, but I think losing Webb hurts even more. The Ravens are not yet in any danger of missing the playoffs, but once there, they may not be able to do much.

8.            Sick of Jets/Patriots

Are you? I am! Rex Ryan needs to sleep with Bill Belichick already and get that love affair out of the way. I’m sure once Bill calls him ‘Fatty’ a few times he’ll stop praising him so much.

Speaking of Belichick, I’m also tired of him praising a player on every team he goes up against. ‘Tim Tebow is a great asset to that team.’ I’m as big a Tebow lover as the next guy, but seriously? Could Tebow be a valuable asset to the Jets? Sure, I think he could, if they used him. But they don’t. So focus on stopping Mark Sanchez, and if you praise him, well then good luck coaching an NFL team from a psychiatric ward.

7.            Playoff Picture

The Browns are only two games out of a playoff spot. Okay, I’ll stop there. If that is currently possible, then it most certainly is too early to continue this if the season ended today talk. Until a team is mathematically out and we have fewer teams fighting for those twelve spots, let’s focus on trying to figure out who is actually good!

Dave Dameshek said it better, and faster, than I possible could. So click here. The part that applies to this part of my post starts at 2:07.

6.            Fantasy Disappointments

There were plenty of fantasy disappointments this week, so I’ll just list a few that stood out to me.

• Dwayne Bowe, Antonio Brown and Jeremy Kerley. One week after you posted a respectable, though underwhelming 32 points for me, you all combined for just 11 points. Brandon Myers, starting in Jimmy Graham’s place, almost outscored all three of you! Shame!
• Not sure if this should be here or in the Fantasy Surprises list, but Philip Rivers scored 7 points. Not just 7 points. 7 points! How? How do you throw four picks and fumble the ball twice and still score 7 points?
• The five-game streak is over in Minnesota. Their defense hasn’t scored less than 10 fantasy points all season in my league. This week? A big fat goose egg.
• Likewise, Miles Austin didn’t seem to benefit from the bye week. After scoring double digits in all of the Cowboys’ first four games, he scored only 4 on Sunday.

5.            Fantasy Surprises

• Last year, this would have been par for the course – well, not actually, but it happened enough that I wouldn’t have been shocked. Aaron Rodgers scored 48 points in my league on Sunday night. Looking back at his other recent performances, he’s actually racked up a nice three-game stretch that covered up a terrible first three games. Somehow, we forgot he had turned it around.
• Robert Griffin III scored 37 in my fantasy league. It always helps when you break out a big run for a touchdown. If RGIII can avoid the sophomore slump Cam Newton is having, he’ll be go down in the Fantasy Football Hall of Fame! There isn’t one? There should be.
• Nelson has been shaken from his slumber. After a couple decent weeks to start the season and then some very disheartening performances to follow it up, Nelson scored three times against the Texans, reminding us all of the season he had last year. We’ll see if he can keep it up.
• Shonn Greene, why?! I picked you for my NFL.com league and you did nothing. Nothing!! I dropped you and you do this? After not scoring a touchdown, not scoring more than five points since Week 1, he rushed for three touchdowns and scored 34 fantasy points for the waiver wire.

4.            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.

• Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers (Thursday, 8:20 p.m.)
• Arizona Cardinals at Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Washington Redskins at New York Giants (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• New York Jets at New England Patriots (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)

3.            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. Atlanta Falcons	27. Tennessee Titans
2. Houston Texans	28. New Orleans Saints
3. New York Giants	29. Cleveland Browns
4. Baltimore Ravens	30. Jacksonville Jaguars
5. Chicago Bears	31. Oakland Raiders
6. San Francisco 49ers	32. Kansas City Chiefs

It’s clear, at least to me, that the power rankings are not the best piece to use for picking games. Just that fact that the Texans only dropped one place after they got demolished at home by the Packers makes no sense to me. But that’s why I don’t make the rankings, I guess.

The Power Poll is a better representation of where the teams stack up, in my opinion. Check that out here.

2.            New York Giants

The Giants didn’t shock me, but they did surprise me, as they did a lot of people with their huge win in San Francisco on Sunday. It was the third time in two seasons that they Giants have beaten a good 49ers team in that venue. If the Giants can have a good day as a favorite on Sunday against Washington, they’ll get my vote of confidence as the best team in the NFL.

1.            Atlanta Falcons

In the mean time, the Giants are not yet the best team in the NFC. The Falcons have won three straight games that could have as easily dropped them to 3-3. Instead they sit at 6-0. I would like this team a lot more if it was 3-3, though. Like the Giants, the Falcons play better as underdogs. Atlanta always shows up and has great regular season results. Then they play as favorites in the playoffs and have their heads handed them on a platter. The Giants haven’t performed as well and have snuck into the playoffs for both of their Super Bowl runs. I see a pattern here, and it seems to be much more widespread in this league than just with these two teams. How has this society become so complacent?