 |
| Aaron Glenn has since retired, but was a big part of building the Texans into the playoff contender they are today. (Photo credit to Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) |
‘Like’ The All-Sports
Crew on Facebook to keep up with updates! The All-Sports Crew will air on WMUC Sports, live, tonight from 6-8, yes, we have a special two-hour show for you today!
10. Bigger
Problems than Defense in New York
Last week I said the Giants defense is a problem. In my
defense, I was right about that. But I also thought the offense would bounce
back after some severely sub-par games and beat the Bengals. That didn’t
happen. I am still holding out hope that they can get things back on track
after this bye week, but this isn’t a ‘typical Giants November slump.’ They’ve
never looked this bad before getting
on track in the playoffs. Eli needs to find his mojo.
9. Quarterback
Injuries
This week in the NFL really hit home for me, what with all
the injuries at the quarterback position we’ve suffered here at Maryland. We’ve
had so many quarterbacks go down this season I can’t remember if it’s four with
three ACL tears or five with four ACL tears.
The 49ers are in the best position to play well if Alex
Smith misses time because Colin Kaepernick has been great when he’s played this
season. But, as fortune would have it, Smith is also the least likely to miss
time. In fact, both Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger have been ruled out
this week, Big Ben with the only non-head injury of the group, and doctors are
very worried about his ribs. Jay Cutler is the only one besides Smith whose
status is still up in the air. The Bears and 49ers play on Monday Night in Week
11.
8. Tim
Tebow
This morning an article was released in which Tebow’s
teammates with the Jets said the quarterback ‘stinks.’ I call foul on that one.
Last year it was well documented that Tebow performed very poorly in practice,
but in clutch time he always seemed to come threw somehow, some way. The Jets
haven’t even gotten to see much of him in-game.
7. If
the Season Ended Today
Much of the playoff picture has not changed, but here’s
something interesting: the Chargers are the first team out in the AFC right
now. If they can beat the Broncos this weekend… Hahaha, I kill myself. At this
point, the Bengals, and possibly the
Titans, are the only AFC teams not already in
the playoffs that could possibly sneak in.
On the NFC side, there’s still plenty available to shake up.
The Saints are on a roll and who knows what they might be able to pull off down
the stretch. The Vikings are still sticking around and the Buccaneers have made
a strong case for themselves, too. The Giants are in serious danger of falling
out – a mid-season collapse that extends into the latter part of the season
will not give them a playoff birth this year, and I’m labeling the Seahawks
‘pretenders’ until further notice.
6. Fantasy
Disappointments
There were plenty of fantasy disappointments this week, so
I’ll just list a few that stood out to me.
- Nate Washington has been a pretty solid target this year in Tennessee. He doesn’t get the most receptions but he tends to get good yards and then this week he ended up with just 0.5 points (no points for those of you in non-PPR leagues).
- Steve Smith has been in the double digits every game this season except in Weeks 4 and 5 against solid Falcons and Seahawks defenses, so maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised he didn’t do well against the Broncos, but for the first time all year he caught fewer than three passes.
- Of course, the easy guy to lean on as dud of the week is Eli Manning. He has scored 10 fantasy points in the past three weeks combined, with just 2 in my league this past week.
5. Fantasy Surprises
- The Broncos defense came through with 39 fantasy points this week (in my league). Manning played a solid game but it truly was the Broncos defense that carried the team. That said, 6 of those points never should have happened because of a fumble out of the end zone that was never called.
- Joe Flacco hadn’t scored 20+ fantasy points since Week 4 against the Browns. He finally got back there, and more, with a 34-point performance against the Raiders in which Baltimore set the franchise record for points and Flacco threw for over 300 yards, tossed three touchdowns and ran for another score.
- Dallas had gotten double-digit fantasy points for their defense just once all season before putting up 32 big ones against Philadelphia. They scored three touchdowns on defense and special teams.
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.
- Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills (Thursday, 8:20 p.m.)
- Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
- San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
- Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
- Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, 8:20 p.m.)
- Chicago Bears at San Francisco 49ers (Monday, 8:30 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. Houston Texans
|
27. Carolina Panthers
|
|
2. Atlanta Falcons
|
28. New York Jets
|
|
3. Green Bay Packers
|
29. Oakland Raiders
|
|
4. Chicago Bears
|
30. Cleveland Browns
|
|
5. Baltimore Ravens
|
31. Kansas City Chiefs
|
|
6. San Francisco 49ers
|
32. Jacksonville Jaguars
|
The Giants, Lions and Chargers suffered the biggest drops
this week while the Titans and Saints saw solid rises in the Rankings.
The Power Poll is a better representation of where the teams
stack up, in my opinion. Check that out here.
2. Baltimore Ravens
The Texans aren’t feeling quite so lonely now with another
AFC team to keep them company in the top 6 of the Power Rankings. The Ravens
had a fantastic game on Sunday, but how much can we really read into it,
considering it came against the team ranked #29. The Ravens won’t have to deal
with Big Ben this week either.
1. Houston Texans
No comments:
Post a Comment