Sunday Football Afterword: Week 12 Late Games

Colin Kaepernick improved to 2-0 as a starter and scored
on this early touchdown run against the Saints.
Photo credit to ESPN.

The Cardinals got out to a solid start, but Janoris Jenkins returned an interception for a score early in the second quarter to give the Rams a spark. Jenkins scored on another pick-6 in the third quarter and Ryan Lindley threw four picks to no touchdowns in the 31-17 home loss. The Cardinals started off the season as a possible surprise playoff team, but after their 4-0 start they have now lost seven straight. Ken Whisenhunt announced today that if Kevin Kolb is unavailable next week against the Jets, Lindley will start again despite his very shaky performance against St. Louis.

Baltimore allowed San Diego to outplay them for must of yesterday’s contest in southern California, but as their story has been all season, the Chargers collapsed in the second half to the tune of allowing a short pass to Ray Rice turn into a conversion on 4^th & 29 late in the game. The spot didn’t look accurate to me, but with how poorly San Diego opposed that play, they didn’t deserve the stop anyway. The Ravens netted a field goal on the drive to force overtime and ultimately won the game with another Justin Tucker field goal.

We had a very exciting game down in NOLA. The Saints led the 49ers late in the second quarter, but a pick-6 by Ahmad Brooks off Drew Brees tied the game going into halftime. San Francisco opened up the second half with a touchdown drive and then sacked Drew Brees before returning another interception for a score to take a 14-point lead. Brees led his Saints on another scoring drive right after but the 49ers defense buckled down and didn’t allow anything else from New Orleans after that. It was a rare day for Drew Brees as only three of his touchdown passes went to teammates and the 49ers reaffirmed, for me, their position as the top team in the NFC.

For the moment, Eli Manning has silenced questions about
arm fatigue with a huge game against the Packers on SNF.
Photo credit to Sports World Report.

If San Francisco is the NFC’s best, the Giants might just be number 2 after their 38-10 shellacking of Green Bay on Sunday Night Football. After an opening-drive touchdown by the Giants, the Packers scored on their fourth play on 61-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers to Jordy Nelson. I thought we were looking at an instant classic, but the Giants defense tightened up and allowed only a field goal the rest of the way.

Eli Manning, meanwhile, was the story of the game. The Giants went 1-2 in their final three games before their bye week; but that one victory could have easily been a loss in Dallas. A big part of that was that Manning was struggling. He had thrown four picks and no touchdowns in those three contests, totaling ten fantasy points in my league. Last night, he threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions and more than doubled his fantasy total from the three previous games combined.

Check back tomorrow for my Afterword on tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Panthers and Eagles in Philadelphia. Thanks for reading!