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| Michael Vick said after the game that Andy Reid is "obviously considering a change" at quarterback. |
Once again the NFL scheduled a ridiculous number of games
for the Sunday 1 p.m. time slot; it certainly kept me busy trying to keep up
with everything. As was the case last week, I couldn’t keep track of everything
so I’ll talk about what I know and I won’t talk about what I don’t.
Carolina didn’t play particularly well, and Cam Newton threw
two picks, but the Bears played their worst game of the season defensively,
allowing him over 300 passing yards. Carolina led 19-7 in the fourth quarter
but the Bears offense finally came alive and took the lead twice in the final
minutes of the game, the second time coming on a 41-yard field goal on the last
play of the game to give them a 23-22 victory. The Bears were honestly lucky to
win, but win they did.
Cleveland knocked off San Diego in an outcome that I
predicted, but I didn’t get to see much footage from the game so I’ll just say
it was a 7-6 victory, the second win for the Browns this season.
Matt Stafford finally had a good game and he barely used
Calvin Johnson. He threw three touchdowns, his first multi-touchdown game of
the season. Seattle’s secondary finally had a poor game. I won’t discredit them
for it yet; after all, they did shut down Tom Brady’s passing game and I can’t
truly fault them for overlooking Matt Stafford who had been the second most
disappointing quarterback in the league until yesterday.
Jacksonville was in the game for a while, but without
Maurice Jones-Drew I didn’t expect it to last, and it didn’t. Green Bay won
24-15 at home to keep pace in the NFC North.
I expected Miami to beat the Jets, but I didn’t expect them
to blow New York out of MetLife Stadium, and I certainly did not expect them to
do so with Ryan Tannehill hurt. He went down in the first quarter after
throwing for just 18 yards and Matt Moore came in and played pretty well. The
Jets, a week after a very close loss to the Patriots, were crushed 30-9 in one
of their poorer defensive showings of the season.
The Patriots came off the close win with their first win
over an NFC West opponent this season. After losses to Arizona and Seattle,
they scored touchdowns on each of their first five drives and rode that to a
45-7 victory over the Rams, who were playing as the home team in this year’s
edition of the NFL’s Europe series.
One streak had to end, and it was not Atlanta’s run at an
unbeaten season. Andy Reid is now 13-1 coming off a bye after the Falcons
trounced his Eagles in Philadelphia. The 30-17 score is much closer than the
game itself was. But people calling for Michael Vick’s head, STOP! Philadelphia’s defense did not get
a stop until the 4th quarter.
That’s not something you can overcome.
Pittsburgh played a fantastic game. Their offense took
advantage of Washington’s ineptness on defense and the Steelers defense did
what no other team has been able to this season – shut down Robert Griffin III.
Now, for anyone thinking that this is a sign that RGIII is in danger or having a Cam Newton-like season next year, don’t
jump the gun. Keep in mind that the Redskins receivers dropped at least eight
passes, several on third down plays that would have gone for first downs. We
could have had a completely different ball game. But we can’t take anything
away from Pittsburgh, who used everything to their advantage as a good team has
to.
The final game of the early afternoon was in Tennessee where
Andrew Luck gave Indianapolis fans something they haven’t been treated to in a
couple of seasons; a fourth quarter comeback. Luck led an 80-yard drive to end
regulation, capped with a touchdown, to send the game into overtime. Then he
let another 80-yard touchdown drive to steal the win from Tennessee.
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