Thursday Night Football Afterword: Falcons vs Saints

After NBC covered the Thanksgiving Night game last week,
NFL Network took over last night night's NFC South affair.
Photo credit to NFL Network.

For just the second time in his career, Matt Ryan’s Falcons topped the Saints in the Georgia Dome. Atlanta jumped out to a 17-0 lead thanks to a fantastic opening drive and solid defense. New Orleans didn’t die easy, but the Falcons defense never let them sustain anything.

Michael Turner answered critics with a solid game on the
ground against the Saints. Photo credit to SB Nation.

After a solid outing against Tampa Bay, Jacquizz Rodgers appeared to be the man to rule the Atlanta backfield. Instead, Michael Turner ripped off a 35-yard run on the game’s first play from scrimmage and rode that to the first score of the game and 83 total yards on 12 carries, one of his best games of the year right when people were beginning to call for Rodgers to take over his role.

Riding a solid running game, Matt Ryan looked fantastic on the opening possession, but was inconsistent the rest of the way. His lone touchdown pass of the game came on a possession with a short field after a New Orleans turnover.

Drew Brees was undre pressure all night and never
looked comfortable. Photo credit to Sports Illustrated.

On the other side, if it looked like Drew Brees was off last night, it’s because he was. He completed 56% of his 50 pass attempts, a low percentage for him. Most of his incompletions looked terrible and even some of his completions weren’t very accurate. He continues on his NFL-record streak of consecutive games with 20+ completions but another streak ended as he failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 55 games. The Falcons defense also picked him off five times.

A big part of Brees’ difficulty came from the Falcons doing a fantastic job getting pressure on the veteran quarterback. The other part came from excellent coverage from a thin secondary, made even thinner because of Asante Samuel’s departure early in the first quarter.

New Orleans got decent production from Pierre Thomas, and their lone touchdown of the game was a run by Mark Ingram, but the five interceptions were too much to overcome in the 23-13 loss. But the very fact that the Falcons had a +4 turnover ratio in the game and only won by 10 points should be concerning for Atlanta.

The loss essentially kills the playoff hopes of New Orleans. They are not mathematically eliminated, but with upcoming matchups with the Buccaneers and Cowboys, both of whom are fighting for the playoffs, it will be difficult to win out. In addition, they don’t have the tiebreakers to make it likely for such a situation to result in a playoff birth. In other words, their future is out of their hands.

The Falcons, meanwhile, move another step closer to clinching the division and a first-round bye in January.

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 13. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!

2012 NFL Predictions: Regular Season Week 13

I’m getting hot with my picks, but the final weeks of the regular season mean ‘Spoiler Alerts.’ So I will have to be on the lookout for those if I want to continue this hot streak.

	Game	Puff’s Pick
Thurs., 8:20 pm	New Orleans at Atlanta	New Orleans Saints
Sun., 1:00pm	Seattle at Chicago	Chicago Bears
	Houston at Tennessee	Houston Texans
	New England at Miami	New England Patriots
	Jacksonville at Buffalo	Buffalo Bills
	Indianapolis at Detroit	Detroit Lions
	Carolina at Kansas City	Carolina Panthers
	Minnesota at Green Bay	Green Bay Packers
	San Francisco at St. Louis	San Francisco 49ers
	Arizona at NY Jets	New York Jets
Sun., 4:05pm	Tampa Bay at Denver	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sun., 4:25pm	Pittsburgh at Baltimore	Baltimore Ravens
	Cincinnati at San Diego	Cincinnati Bengals
	Cleveland at Oakland	Cleveland Browns
Sun., 8:20pm	Philadelphia at Dallas	Dallas Cowboys
Mon., 8:30pm	NY Giants at Washington	New York Giants

	Puff on the NFL
Week 13 Record	8-8
Current Season Record	121-70-1

Games to Watch (Predicted winners in Bold)

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012, 8:20pm – New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons

Always an enticing rivalry matchup, the Saints are on the upswing why the Falcons have seemed to ride the ‘Good Luck Express’ all season. I’m not counting out the Falcons at home, especially during the regular season where they are always contenders.

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, 1:00pm – Indianapolis Colts @ Detroit Lions

The Lions haven’t beaten the Colts since Barry Sanders was their running back and Marshall Faulk was Indy’s. But they’re at home where they played AFC South leading Houston on Thanksgiving and should have won.

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, 4:25pm – Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens

Another fun rivalry game may be a little less fun without Ben Roethlisberger if their last matchup is any indication. The Ravens are by far the better team without Big Ben around, but they didn’t act like it last time.

Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, 8:20pm – Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys

The Eagles have a few good things going for them, but they don’t have an experienced quarterback or good wide receivers or a good defense. Maybe they don’t really have anything going for them…well, I guess there is Bryce Brown, but he fumbles.

Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, 8:30pm – New York Giants @ Washington Redskins

The Giants and Redskins played a close contest a few weeks ago in East Rutherford. Now they meet in Landover (funny that neither team plays in the city it plays for). The Redskins slid through a few games after losing a heartbreaker last time, so they can’t really afford to lose this one. But the Giants came out of their bye week firing. Should be a good one.

Stay tuned for recaps of this week’s games. Thanks for reading and enjoy the thirteenth week of the season!

10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 13

After a rough career in Dallas, Wade Phillips has turned
the defense around with in-state rival Houston. If they
made a coordinator-of-the-year award, he'd deserve it.
Photo credit to lonestarvarsity.com.

‘Like’ The All-Sports Crew on Facebook to keep up with updates! The All-Sports Crew will air on WMUC Sports, live, tonight from 7-8.

10.            Big D Calls on the Big O

Dallas fans are petitioning President Barack Obama to take Jerry Jones out of the Cowboys organization, under category of human rights, no less!

According to NFL.com, the petition reads, “We, the Citizens of the Great State of Texas, and Dallas Cowboys fans worldwide, have been oppressed by an over controlling, delusional, oppressive dictator for way to long. Request the Executive Branch’s immediate assistance in removal of owner and GM, Jerry Jones. His incompetence and ego have not only been an extreme disappointment for way too long, but moreover, it has caused extreme mental and emotion duress.”

Regardless of whether this petition ever gets enough signatures, Jerry ought to take this as a sign that he is severely letting down Cowboys fans.

9.            An Eye Toward Next Year

Though no team has been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs with five games left to play, there are plenty of teams who are looking toward 2013.

The Eagles had a good thing with Nick Foles. I say ditch Andy Reid (give him a fresh start elsewhere) and Michael Vick. Build the offensive line and get some receivers who won’t underperform as soon as they start getting the big bucks.

The Panthers need to build around Cam Newton, which they failed to do this offseason. I think Chad Henne might be the best thing that happened to Jacksonville this year, but if Alex Smith or Colin Kaepernick hit the market during the offseason, they need to push hard for them.

Once we get through the Super Bowl, I will be starting to look at each team individually and give my opinions of what they need to do during the offseason. I will be much more active this offseason than I was last year.

8.            Playoff Hunt

On the other side of the playing field, we have a pretty good fight on our hands for the final spots in each conference. The Giants are not yet a lock to win the NFC East, and the Packers’ performance on Sunday Night shows that they’re hardly a lock for the NFC Wild-Card. I don’t expect the Seahawks to make it, and I’m thinking Buccaneers and Redskins or Buccaneers and Saints.

In the AFC, it’s more a race for the last spot. The Steelers are fading without Big Ben, and they weren’t looking all that hot with him either. The Bengals will catch them, but there really isn’t any one else I can see pushing for the postseason.

7.            Fantasy Disappointments

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

• It was mostly Charlie Batch’s fault, but Mike Wallace only recorded one reception for 9 yards against the Browns. Disappointing, indeed.
• DeSean Jackson had an identical line to Wallace, but at least he had the excuse of an injury worthy of IR placement.
• James Jones has been getting fewer and fewer targets each week, but zero receptions on zero targets in Week 12 is bad news.

6.            Fantasy Surprises

• Cam Newton had a phenomenal game with two touchdown passes and two touchdown runs, leading to 41 fantasy points in my league.
• Bryce Brown was without a doubt the fantasy surprise of the week. 30 fantasy points in my league, hurt only by his two fumbles.

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.

• New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons (Thursday, 8:20 p.m.)
• Indianapolis Colts at Detroit Lions (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)
• New York Giants at Washington Redskins (Monday, 8:30 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. Tennessee Titans
2. Atlanta Falcons	28. Philadelphia Eagles
3. San Francisco 49ers	29. New York Jets
4. Baltimore Ravens	30. Jacksonville Jaguars
5. New England Patriots	31. Oakland Raiders
6. Denver Broncos	32. Kansas City Chiefs

The Packers suffered a significant drop in the rankings, from the 4 spot all the way to number 9. The Titans, Cardinals and Jets also suffered sizeable slips. The Rams jumped four spots, and the Bengals jumped five. They were only outdone by the Browns’ jump from 29 to the 23 spot.

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

3.            Puff’s Rankings

For the first time ever, I’ve taken the liberty of ranking every team in the NFL for myself. I ranked each team in a number of categories and then used a math formula to take each of them into consideration in my overall rankings of the teams. Here are my rankings heading into Week 13.

1. HOU (3.73)	9. GB (7.71)	17. TB (9.40)	25. NO (10.76)
2. SF (4.58)	10. DET (7.82)	18. StL (9.41)	26. CLE (11.37)
3. DEN (5.33)	11. WAS (8.13)	19. ARI (9.52)	27. KC (11.50)
4. NE (6.45)	12. PIT (8.27)	20. CAR (9.67)	28. BUF (11.53)
5. ATL (6.69)	13. SEA (8.28)	20. MIN (9.67)	29. OAK (11.93)
6. DAL (7.49)	14. BAL (8.86)	22. SD (10.59)	30. MIA (12.37)
7. NYG (7.53)	15. CHI (9.00)	23. NYJ (10.63)	31. TEN (12.80)
8. CIN (7.55)	16. IND (9.17)	24. PHI (10.68)	32. JAC (14.07)

Keep in mind this is essentially a ranking of where each team should be at this point in the season, based on various aspects of performance, with certain aspects weighted more heavily than others. Some teams have over- or under-achieved, such as the Ravens and Cowboys, respectively.

Feel free to ask about this, but please be clear that this is not necessarily how I would rank the teams, this is all math based.

2.            Denver Broncos

The Broncos are finally in the top 6 of the NFL.com Power Rankings. They have a great quarterback, an up-and-coming run game, and they have a terrific defense. Their only problem? They will likely have to face the Patriots in the postseason, where they have been vulnerable in the past, but not so much in 2011. And if they win that game? Look below.

1.            Houston Texans

The Texans remain number 1, and for good reason. They have the third ranked offense and the sixth ranked defense. Their turnover differential is solid and they also have the best average time-of-possession per game in the NFL. This is my Super Bowl favorite in the AFC right now.

Monday Night Football Afterword: Eagles vs Panthers

Cam Newton initially missed the end zone on this dive, but
a second effort pushed the football across the goal line.
Photo credit to Northwest Herald.

Bryce Brown was not the only bright spot for the Eagles, but it certainly felt like it. With LeSean McCoy inactive due to a concussion suffered last week against the Redskins, Brown recorded an Eagles’ rookie record 178 rushing yards in the 30-22 home loss to Carolina. He scored twice, including on a 65-yard blast, but he also fumbled twice and will have to learn to hold the ball more securely moving forward.

But Nick Foles was also a bright spot. He struggled mightily in the red zone, and he threw some shaky passes early on, but he threw only five incompletions. He only threw for 119 yards and failed to record a scoring throw, but, more importantly, he also did not throw any interceptions, a week after throwing two against Washington.

Injuries are the story for the Eagles. They have only one offensive lineman that has started every game. In addition to Michael Vick and McCoy sitting out, DeSean Jackson went down with an injury early on and did not return, leaving Foles limited in his offensive weapons and completely crippling Philadelphia’s ability to stretch the field.

Philadelphia looked terrible on defense early, giving up two big touchdown passes to Cam Newton. They settled down some as the game progressed but consistently failed to contain Newton, who threw for 306 yards and two scores on 18/28 passing in addition to carrying 14 times for 52 yards and another two touchdowns.

Andy Reid’s record losing streak now continues at seven games, as the Eagles still have not won since the last time the Phillies notched a win. The Philadelphia baseball club notched its last win on October 1, the day after the most recent Eagles victory.

Carolina defeated the Eagles for just the second time since 2001. Their other victory was in the playoffs en route to their narrow Super Bowl XXXVIII loss to the New England Patriots.

Before I wrap this up, I want to briefly pay my respects to Sean Taylor, the Redskins safety who died five years ago, today. Gone but never forgotten. Rest In Peace, #21.