Wild-Card Afterword: Redskins vs Seahawks

Marshawn Lynch had 20 carries for 132 yards and a score
against Washington's usually-stingy run defense.
Photo credit to USA Today.

The Redskins got off to a fast start and it seemed like they were well on their way to trouncing the visiting Seahawks. Washington’s first two possessions resulted in 14 points while their defense held Seattle to nothing in the first quarter.

The Seahawks remained calm, however, and their defense went to work on the Redskins while their offense came up with some big plays. They pulled the game to within one point at half time.

The Redskins hung in there and the defense forced a big goal-line turnover and some key third down stops, but Seattle’s generally poor rushing defense played very well and their passing defense was up to par with where it was during the season. It certainly didn’t help the Redskins that RG3’s passing mechanics were poor throughout the last three quarters. He just couldn’t keep the ball down in this contest.

Marshawn Lynch, who averaged 5 yards per carry during the regular season, averaged nearly two more yards per carry at FedEx Field.

Russell Wilson played well, too, and is the only rookie quarterback who will advance to the divisional round. The Seahawks will play in Atlanta at 1:00 p.m. Sunday. Atlanta has not won a postseason game with Matt Ryan at quarterback.

RG3 re-injured his knee in the fourth quarter against Seattle and will spend the off-season getting healthy. Monday’s MRI results were inconclusive (difference of opinion with several doctors) so he is flying down to Florida with Dan Snyder today to get another MRI and go through some fitness tests with Dr. James Andrews.

It is a disappointing exit from the postseason for the Redskins. Still, the fact Washington made it this far after a 3-6 start is remarkable.

It does sting Redskins fans, though, that they have been bounced from the playoffs by the Seahawks for a third consecutive time.

Wild-Card Afterword: Ravens vs Colts

Anquan Boldin had 5 receptions for 145 yards and this
touchdown in Baltimore's Wild-Card matchup with Indy.
Photo credit to USA Today.

The Colts got out to a terrible start and never recovered. They had multiple opportunities to steal this game from the Ravens, and they never took them.

Joe Flacco didn’t look very good in the first half. He wasn’t protected well, he made poor decisions and often even poorer passes. But his receivers came to play, Anquan Boldin more than anyone else.

A pair of very impressive receptions by Boldin in the first half went a long way to settle down his quarterback. Flacco looked like a completely different player in the second half, putting great touch on balls thrown down the field and trusting his receivers to keep making plays. Boy, did they.

The game had a closer feel than the 24-9 final score would suggest, but Baltimore’s offense played like they were never threatened.

On the other side of the ball, Ray Lewis was a bigger factor than I expected. I knew he would provide a huge emotional boost, but to have 13 tackles in his first game since Week 6? He was everywhere on the field. That wouldn’t have surprised me much, but even before his injury he didn’t appear as involved as he was Sunday.

What impressed me most was the overall play by Baltimore’s defense. Indianapolis ran roughly 23 plays in the first quarter. Baltimore was in the single-digits. Even though Baltimore kept Indy from scoring, that is a lot more time spent on the field than they would like to have spent. Remember that the Colts have come up with explosive plays throughout the season, so to play so tired but keep Indy out of the end zone all game impressed me very much.

An emotional season for the Colts ends in Chuck Pagano’s old home, and the coach shared an emotional moment with a Baltimore defensive player as time expired, which was very touching.

Baltimore will play in Denver next week, a tough task for anyone. It will be a much bigger challenge to take on Peyton Manning and his receiving corps, as well as to face a much more talented defense, but Baltimore’s performance today certainly did not hurt their outlook for that game. It should be a good one, and I will preview it Thursday.

Wild-Card Afterword: Packers vs Vikings

The Vikings send John Kuhn spinning through the air on his
second touchdown of the night, this one a 9-yard reception.
Photo credit to The Boston Globe.

I said in my preview that the Vikings’ playoff destiny rested more on Christian Ponder than on Adrian Peterson. Ponder did not play because of limited range-of-motion resulting from an elbow injury sustained last week. However, it was backup quarterback Joe Webb who influenced this game more than anything else.

On the first drive of the game, Webb and Peterson ran for over 20 yards each. But on the last play, Webb dropped back looking for a lane to run through rather than a receiver to throw to and delivered a poor, off-balance pass that forced Minnesota to settle for a field goal.

The Vikings’ defense stopped Green Bay on the next drive, but their offense could not take advantage, so Aaron Rodgers did. Late in the second quarter, with a 10-3 lead in tow, the Packers got the ball on their own 38-yard line with less than two minutes in the half. Consecutive completions by Rodgers of 22, 26, and 23 yards set up John Kuhn for a 3-yard touchdown run. Suddenly, a game that had a close feel through most of the half seemed to be getting out of hand at halftime.

Each team would add a touchdown in the second half, but it was clear that Joe Webb was not a passing threat. He did throw a 50-yard touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins in the fourth quarter, but he was left wide open and the pass was not particularly good. Jenkins walked up the sideline for that score.

Because of the lack of a passing game, the Packers were able to key in on the run and contained Adrian Peterson. Usually, giving up 99 rushing yards to a running back isn’t something to hang your hat on, but with Adrian Peterson that was a huge accomplishment. The Packers have only allowed two running backs all year to top 100 yards against them – Adrian Peterson twice and Frank Gore back in Week 1.

The 24-10 victory sends Green Bay to San Francisco for the divisional round and a rematch of that Week 1 loss, which was contested at Lambeau. The 49ers are very different than they were then, with Colin Kaepernick their starter rather than Alex Smith.

The Vikings’ season ends with a disappointing loss, but overall it has to feel like a successful year for Minnesota. Most analysts, myself included, picked them to finish in the basement of a tough NFC North. Adrian Peterson came back stronger than expected and the Vikings had a terrific season overall. I only wish we could have seen how the game would play out Saturday night if Christian Ponder had been able to play.

Wild-Card Afterword: Texans vs Bengals

Arian Foster (23) ran for 140 yards and a touchdown on
32 carries, but fumbles twice in a 19-13 wild-card win.
Photo credit to The Washington Post.

It didn’t have the typical feeling of a game played in a playoff atmosphere, but the score was close throughout and that mostly made up for it.

I expected the Bengals defense to play well, but I didn’t expect the Texans’ offense to perform so poorly. On the other side of the ball, things went about as I expected for both teams.

Houston’s defense dominated, giving up just two field goals to Cincinnati, while the Bengals’ lone trip to the end zone came on an interception return by Leon Hall. It was an amazing play and it’s better seen than explained, so you can watch that replay here.

The Texans’ offense, on the other hand, was sporadic to put it kindly. Their game plan was just short of awful. They had a few drives where they ran good plays, and those were the drives where they put points on the board, as you would expect. But they had too many drives where they ran bad routes and run plays in passing situations.

Arian Foster gained nearly 150 yards on the ground and is the first player in NFL history to have over 100 rushing yards in each of his first three playoff games. I’m not sure how much weight this stat has, though, as Houston faced 17 third downs and failed to convert exactly as many times as the Bengals, who were 0/9 on third down.

Matt Schaub made his first career playoff start – T.J. Yates started both playoff games for Houston last year – so I chalk some of his struggles to nerves. But he didn’t really seem to play much differently than he has over the past five or six games this season.

I’ll look more closely at the matchups later in the week, but I’d be very surprised if I come up with any result other than a big win for New England when the Texans travel to Foxboro next weekend.

For the Bengals, Andy Dalton missed a wide-open A.J. Green in the end zone with less than three minutes to play. That score would have given Cincinnati a one-point lead and forced Houston to drive the field for a field goal. But Dalton overthrew his star receiver and Cincinnati could not come up with a stop on Houston’s ensuing drive and the Texans just ran the clock out for a 19-13 victory.

It is the second straight year Cincinnati’s season ends with a wild-card loss in Houston and Marvin Lewis is now 0-4 in the postseason. I don’t expect him to be fired like several other NFL coaches were this season, but that kind of futility in the playoffs have led to more surprising firings in the past.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 17 Early Games

There wasn't too much positive news for teams in yesterday's
early games, but Super Bowl winning head coach Sean Payton
will return to the Saints' sideline in 2013.
Photo credit to NY Daily News.

It was a long Sunday with all sixteen games played yesterday. The Buccaneers snapped a five-game losing streak by winning their season finale. After being in playoff contention in early December, they dropped way out but really knocked around the Falcons in Week 17. With the NFC South clinched, Atlanta still played their starters and suffered injuries to two defensive leaders. Hopefully neither is significant.

Buffalo crushed the New York Jets at home, 28-9 to end their season. It was not enough, however, to save Chan Gailey’s job as head coach. On the Jets’ side, General Manager Mike Tannenbaum is out. Rex Ryan, however, will return to coach the Jets in 2013.

Baltimore only played their starters early in the game, and Cincinnati followed suit shortly after, but Cincinnati proved to have a slightly better second team than the Ravens. Both teams will play next weekend and I will preview their games later in the week.

Houston struggled in consecutive weeks, first to the Vikings and then to the Colts, who they beat two weeks ago. This time, Chuck Pagano was on the sideline and it was in Indianapolis, where the Texans are 0-11 all-time. People try to keep from reading into that stuff, but come on; the Colts beat the Texans in Indy last year when they won two games and Houston won the AFC South. There’s something to that stat.

In New Orleans, the Saints looked to be headed to a .500 record but a poor defense – New Orleans set the NFL record for yards allowed in a season – and a Drew Brees pick-6 allowed Carolina to take a significant lead. The Saints’ offense came back firing, but their defense could not keep the Panthers from scoring more and Carolina ended up winning the game.

In New York, Tom Coughlin wants answers. The Giants have been the most inconsistent team in the past six or so weeks of any team I can ever remember seeing in the NFL. They closed the season with a 35-point victory over the Eagles, spurred on by the fact that they could still get a playoff spot with some help, but they would need the win. Michael Vick got the start for Philly but looked no better than he did early in the season. However, the celebration for the win was short-lived, only about five-minutes long, in fact.

Chicago’s defense kept Calvin Johnson from eclipsing 2,000 receiving yards, but nearly let the Lions come all the way back from a 20-3 deficit late in the second quarter. The win gave the Bears a playoff spot if the Packers could beat the Vikings in a later game. It also eliminated the Giants from the playoffs just a few minutes after they concluded their defeat of the Eagles. The Bears were ultimately knocked out of the postseason (I will get into that in my later post) and Lovie Smith was fired this morning.

With Ben Roethlisberger starting this time around, the Steelers avoided turning the ball over eight time, and in doing so beat AFC North rival Cleveland in both teams’ season finales. The Browns’ head coach Pat Shurmur and GM Tom Heckert were both fired this morning.

The Titans let Jacksonville stay in it early but ended up rolling to a 38-20 victory over Jacksonville, mostly due to three interceptions by Chad Henne, two of which were returned for touchdowns by rookie Zach Brown, and two punt return TDs by Darius Reynaud. Jacksonville GM Gene Smith was fired today after the Jaguars suffered their worst record since the franchise was created in 1995.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the seven late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

Sunday Football Afterword Deluxe: Week 14 Late Games & Monday Night Football

Rookie running back David Wilson celebrates after scoring
in New York's key victory over New Orleans on Sunday.
Photo credit to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Because I had other things I had to get done yesterday, I have to combine my second Monday post with my usual Tuesday post, which isn’t all that bad really considering it’s only five games to cover, so let’s get to it.

The 49ers were one of the few teams who easily did what they expected to on Sunday with a 27-13 home win over the Dolphins. Colin Kaepernick bounced back nicely from a disappointing Week 13 performance against the Rams.

The Redskins were looking for some help from the Saints, but got none as New Orleans put up decent points but allowed Eli Manning and rookie David Wilson to put up a 50-berger and suddenly we’re right back where we were after Week 12, with the Giants looking like clearly the best team in the NFC East.

New York wasn’t the only team to KO a scoreboard on Sunday. The Seahawks demolished the Cardinals. Well, not exactly. ‘Demolished’ isn’t nearly strong enough of a word for a 58-0 beat down on the strength of eight turnovers by Arizona. Seattle looks more and more like a legitimate NFC title contender every week.

Detroit took an early 14-0 lead in snowy Green Bay on Sunday Night and it looked like Chicago would get the help they needed and a strange Sunday would be complete, but Aaron Rodgers slowly got his team back in the game. Calvin Johnson continued to chase Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record, but it was not enough in a 27-20 losing effort.

After a Sunday of fairly boring games – even the Packers/Lions ordeal lacked a certain level of excitement for me – I had hoped that the Monday Night game on ESPN would reveal itself as Week 14’s true game of the week.

Instead the Patriots scored on each of their first three drives while their often-struggling defense shut down Arian Foster and contained the Texans’ passing attack. Houston’s defense settled down and kept New England from scoring on their next four drives, but their offense had no such luck. The Patriots did get things rolling again later and eventually finished with 42 points against arguably the best overall defense in the NFL.

Tom Brady threw for 4 touchdowns and no interceptions and has now done so twice more than any quarterback in NFL history and he did so on fewer than 300 passing yards, a testament to a better rushing attack than we’ve seen from New England in recent years. Brady also tied former Chiefs great Len Dawson for the most starts at quarterback resulting in 40 or more points, an impressive feat for Dawson to have his name anywhere near considering he threw for fewer than 30,000 yards in his 19-year career.

Thank you for reading and be sure to come back tomorrow for my Week 15, 10 Things You Need to Know post.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 14 Early Games

Kirk Cousins got the call in the 4th quarter and kept the
Redskins in the first bubble spot in the NFC Playoff race.
Photo credit to The Washington Post.

A late start and an unexpectedly busy afternoon kept me from writing my usual Monday posts, so today I am writing (and publishing) this post and then splicing my regular second Monday post with my usual Tuesday post. On a side note, this is my 200^th post on this blog, so thank you to all you who keep coming back and reading my work!

Sunday’s early games saw several unexpected results. They also lent insight into what we may see in the postseason. The Falcons and Bears both lost to lesser division opponents Carolina and Minnesota. Pittsburgh, who seemed to be right back in the playoff picture, suffered an upset and major setback against San Diego, helped only by Cincinnati’s late collapse against Dallas and a mind-blowing comeback by the Redskins at home against Baltimore.

Buffalo played a close game at home against the Rams, but the playoff push was apparently enough to send St. Louis home with a win, unlike some other playoff contenders mentioned above.

Kansas City’s motivation seemed to only last a week as Cleveland ran all over them in a 30-7 romp. Worse yet for the Chiefs is the likely loss of Dwayne Bowe for the rest of the season, although I guess if ever there was a time when losing one of your best players to IR is acceptable, it would be in their current situation.

Indianapolis pulled out another come-from-behind win against Tennessee and is nearing a playoff birth. The Jets, meanwhile, put off their playoff elimination another week with a 17-10 win in Jacksonville.

Tampa Bay, meanwhile, was seriously set back in a very close, very packed NFC wild-card race by losing 23-21 at home against Philadelphia in Nick Foles’ first win as a starter.

Washington kept pace with Dallas, who edged the Bengals in Cincinnati, by overcoming an 8-point deficit late in the fourth quarter with Kirk Cousins under center following a knee injury to RG3. Cousins overcame 2^nd & 20 following by an intentional grounding call against Griffin III with a 15-yard completion followed by an 11-yard touchdown strike to Pierre Garçon on a scramble. He then ran the ball in himself for the conversion. A huge defensive stand in overtime opened the door for a 60-yard punt return followed by a game-winning field goal by Kai Forbath. RG3 is not expected to miss much time as he was diagnosed with a knee sprain and is day-to-day, but I think the team and fan base would have been comfortable with Cousins leading the team if RG3 were to miss extended action.

The Falcons lost their second game of the season but still have a good chance to gain home-field advantage, as their closest competitor, San Francisco, is a game and a half back with three games left. The Bears loss to the Vikings was very costly as Green Bay’s later victory gave them control of the NFC North and puts a target on Chicago for the wild-card chase pack.

The Steelers loss did not lose them the sixth postseason spot in the AFC, but it puts the Jets just one game out with three games left, and the Jets have limped into the playoffs before only to upset better teams on the way to surprising AFC Championship appearances.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword Deluxe for the four late games and the Monday Night matchup. Thanks for reading everyone!

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Raiders vs Broncos

After a high-profile NFC South matchup last week, TNF went
back to low-profile games with this AFC West matchup.
Photo credit to NFL Network.

The game wasn’t really all that memorable outside of some benchmarks Peyton Manning reached over the course of the affair in Oakland.

In 2004, Jake Plummer tied John Elway’s franchise record for touchdown passes in a season at 27. Eight years later, Manning has 30 so far, his seventh season with that many, and he has three games to go.

Manning also threw his 5,000^th completion, second all-time, during the game.

More importantly, Manning led the Broncos to their eighth straight victory. Though it was less impressive due to Oakland’s low run defense rank, Denver made it a point to use Knowshon Moreno, who carried the ball 32 times with Ronnie Hillman spelling him for four carries. Manning threw the ball 36 times, so it was an extraordinarily balanced attack for a Peyton Manning-led offense.

Denver’s primary focus over the next three games is to continue to show improvement from one week to the next. The semi-close final score of 26-13 doesn’t really show how thoroughly Denver beat Oakland last night. Manning threw for over 300 yards while Moreno and Hillman combined for nearly 150 rushing yards and nearly four yards per carry.

Denver is not pleased with the final result though. When you gain that kind of yardage and give up less than 300 passing yards and fewer than 75 rushing yards, you expect to win by more than 13 points.

Manning made one particularly bad throw in the red zone which kept the score from being a little more indicative of the kind of game Denver played. He had to adjust his release very quickly but ended up severely under-throwing his receiver on what should have been an easy touchdown pass. Phillip Adams made an excellent play on the ball and managed to pick it off.

This was the second time in three weeks that Denver played a bad AFC West opponent – they played Kansas City in Week 12 – and seemingly barely skated by with a victory. They played much better last night than they did against the Chiefs, but they also were not pleased with last night’s game and know that it isn’t the kind of game that equates to playoff victories when you have New England and Houston to go up against.

The Broncos will come over to Maryland next Sunday to play the Ravens before heading back home for what should be easy wins against the Browns and Chiefs. With the schedule winding down, next week’s matchup will be a good indication of how much the easy schedule in the second half of this season has affected Denver’s ability to play good teams. They will be watching closely as the Ravens take on the Redskins in Landover this Sunday.

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 14. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!

Monday Night Football Afterword: Redskins vs Giants

Rober Griffin III tries to high-step out of a tackle on an
electric run in the second half. Photo credit to Washington Times.

It took a little bit of luck – an early missed field goal by Lawrence Tynes – and a lot of luck – a fumble that almost wasn’t by Robert Griffin III that bounced right into the hands of Josh Morgan, who took it for a score – for the Redskins to defeat their division rival on Monday night. Luck did not make it any less of a statement game for Washington.

The mantra of the defense seemed to be ‘bend, but don’t break’ all night long. For many defenses, this is not the way you want things to go because it means time of possession favors your opponent. In Washington’s case, it was the best philosophy to take. They gave up a lot of yards. They held Eli Manning to 280 passing yards, but New York eclipsed the Redskins’ rush yards allowed per game before the third quarter ended. But as New York’s field shrunk, Washington’s defense tightened, giving up just one touchdown and forcing four field goals, three of which Tynes connected with.

The low scoring of the Giants was enough for the Redskins to pull out the win as Kai Forbath continues to be perfect on field goal attempts this season and RG3 threw a touchdown pass in addition to the fumble-touchdown in the first quarter.

The best part for the Redskins? The victory came on a national stage. With San Francisco’s loss to the Rams and no shortage of doubters when it comes to the Falcons, the Giants seemed primed to take their place as the favorite among NFC playoff contenders. Now the NFC East is, once again, wide open with the Redskins and Cowboys trailing New York by just one game.

As a Redskins fan, the fourth quarter is a dreadful time to be leading. Washington has always become too conservative, but yesterday the Redskins took a shot downfield and converted a first down near field goal range. They ran the ball after that, but it was refreshing to see a running back push through a pile to gain six yards on 3^rd & 3. Alfred Morris finished the game with well over 100 yards and has topped 1,000 yards on the season. Griffin III has broken Cam Newton’s record for rushing yards in a season by a quarterback.

The Redskins have beaten their last three division opponents since their heartbreaking loss in New York. They still have the Eagles, who they blew out, and the Cowboys, who they outran, left on their schedule in addition to a showdown with the Ravens next week and the Browns later in the schedule.

The Giants also have to face the Ravens and Eagles, but they will have two challenges in the next two weeks against the Saints at home and the Falcons in Atlanta, leaving a very real possibility for the Redskins, or the Cowboys, to sneak away with a division title in a year neither was popularly expected to contend.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 13 Late Games

DeMarco Murray had a big day in his return from injury.
Photo credit to Zimbio.com.

If anyone can take the Comeback Player of the Year award away from Adrian Peterson, it’s Peyton Manning. He has been outstanding and, despite an interception on a poor decision during yesterday’s game against the Buccaneers, Manning continues to look as good as he did before his neck surgeries. A clear MVP candidate, it will be difficult to take the award from Peterson, who is clearly running even better than before tearing ligaments in his knee last season, but it could happen. Against the league’s worst pass, and best run, defense, Manning threw the ball well, as was expected, but he also confused the defense and audibled into runs with some success on the way to a 31-23 home victory.

Baltimore played poorly against the Steelers for the second time this season. Last time the Steelers just played worse and lost by three. This time the Steelers were clearly the better team and should have won by more than the 23-20 final spread. Flacco was off all night and a week after the Browns forced eight turnovers against Pittsburgh, Baltimore forced two turnovers but also turned the ball over twice themselves.

Oakland tried to get back into the game, and did in the second half, but Cleveland’s 10-point second quarter was enough to drive them to a 20-17 victory, their fourth of the season. After yesterday, the Raiders are now 1-9 this season when Carson Palmer throws for at least 300 yards.

San Diego did all their scoring in the second quarter, though they did have a couple of scoring opportunities late in the game that they squandered in a 20-13 home loss at the hands of Cincinnati, who keeps its postseason return hopes alive. Philip Rivers had his team in scoring position late in the fourth quarter but threw an interception to seal the deal.

On Sunday Night Football, try as the Cowboys might, they just could not give the win away to the Eagles, who still have not won since the Phillies last victory, a string of eight consecutive losses for the team. Andy Reid has announced that Nick Foles will be the starting quarterback for the remainder of the season. Bryce Brown had another big game, becoming only the second running back in NFL history to run for 150 or more yards in each of his first two starts. He finished the day with 169 yards and a second consecutive 2-touchdown game. He fumbled twice last week against the Panthers and fumbled again last night, in a crucial spot with the Eagles driving to stay in the game. The fumble was returned for a touchdown and even a 97-yard punt return for a score could not bring Philadelphia back.

Check back tomorrow for my Afterword on tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Giants and Redskins in Washington. Thanks for reading!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 13 Early Games

Adrian Peterson glances at the Jumbotron for pursuing
Packers defenders on an 82-yard touchdown run.
Photo credit to TwinCities.com

For the first time in half a season, we had sixteen games with only one Thursday game to offset the Sunday crowd. It was a packed Sunday, so let’s get into it.

Jacksonville kept things close in Buffalo until the third quarter, but five consecutive scoring drives by Buffalo was too much to overcome. C.J. Spiller was supposed to be the starter, but Fred Jackson got a majority of the team’s carries. He finished with over 100 yards but Spiller had a higher per-carry average and also had the team’s only rushing touchdown by a running back – Fitzpatrick ran for a score in addition to two touchdowns passes.

I will save my ragging on the Chicago Bears for this week’s radio show (be sure to like our Facebook Page because we will not be broadcasting live this week). But a loss against a Seattle team that had only one other road win all season is not very reassuring. A late fourth quarter drive, with a truly remarkable catch by Brandon Marshall, was the only reason the Seahawks had to sweat it out into overtime.

Detroit seemed to have their game locked up against Indianapolis. Andrew Luck threw three interceptions and completed less than 50% of his passes when the game ended. But the Lions got conservative and their defense collapsed, allowing Luck to push his team to two late touchdown drives, including the game-winner to Donnie Avery with no time left on the clock, accurately portrayed in Tecmo, here.

Minnesota did all their scoring in the second quarter and it was not enough to top division rival Green Bay. The Packers move into a virtual tie with the Bears, but they currently own the tiebreaker with one more meeting with Chicago yet to come. The bright spot for the Vikings is that Adrian Peterson continues to make his case for Comeback Player of the Year. He gained over 200 yards on the ground yesterday and is chasing 2000 yards on the year.

After a tragic day in which linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend and later turned the gun on himself at the team’s practice facility in front of Romeo Crennel and others, Kansas City rallied around its team and the Chiefs fought to a 27-21 victory against the Panther for their second win of the season.

Tom Brady didn’t look great, but he got the job done in Miami with the help of a good ground attack from Stevan Ridley and Danny Woodhead. Miami did a great job of getting pressure on Brady, but a late time-killing drive was the dagger as New England clinched the AFC East division title, it’s ninth in the last ten years.

The Jets beat the Cardinals, 7-6. The game itself is only worth mentioning because the lone touchdown drive of the game was conducted by Greg McElroy. And for those of you who were upset Tim Tebow was not put in when Rex Ryan removed Mark Sanchez, who threw three interceptions and no touchdowns, keep in mind that Tebow was inactive.

We looked to be headed to a second tie between the 49ers and Rams. Not only would it have been unusual for being a tie between the same two teams who tied earlier in the year, it would have been the first time since 1997, and just the third time since overtime was instituted in 1974, that there would have been two tie games in the same season. Instead, Greg Zuerlein, who connected on a 53-yard field goal with time expiring to send the game into overtime, hit a 54-yarder to win the game for St. Louis with time expiring in overtime to win the game.

Houston had no trouble with Tennessee as they clinched a playoff birth for the second consecutive year, and just the second time in franchise history. They have also tied their record for wins at 11, their total from last season. Houston next faces the Patriots in New England next Monday night.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the five late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

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!

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.

Thanksgiving Football Afterword

The Lions have played every Thanksgiving
since 1945 while the Cowboys' series
began in 1966.

What a day. I love Thanksgiving. After all, you can’t beat the three F’s – Football, Football and … Football. Oh yeah, family and food are somewhere in there.

The early game was as odd as it was exciting. The Texans are the first team since 1994 to play two overtimes in a five-day span. They are also the first team to win both of those games.

Justin Forsett's (28) elbow is clearly down and his knee
appears to be, too. Photo credit to The Kansas City Star.

The win came after two missed field goals in overtime, one by each team. But the odd moment came in the third quarter. With the ball on the 19-yard line, Matt Schaub handed the ball off to Justin Forsett, who took it 81 yards to the house, the longest run in Texans franchise history. The only problem was, seven yards into the run, both his elbow and knee touched the turf. It wasn’t obvious at first, and the officials did not blow the whistle. But it was a scoring play; it would be reviewed, right? Well, it would have, and the officials would have corrected their mistake through the review, as they have the opportunity to on every scoring play – because officials do make mistakes occasionally. Why didn’t they? Jim Schwartz threw his challenge flag, that’s why. He had thrown it before Forsett even got to the end zone. But, by rule, if a coach illegally challenges a play that is automatically reviewed, the play can no longer be reviewed because the team may not benefit from an illegal challenge.

Had Forsett not scored, there is no telling what would have happened. The fact that Houston won, even though the rules were followed perfectly, left a bad taste in my mouth about this game.

Pierre Garçon has spent much of the
season hurt, but provided a spark on
Thanksgiving. Photo credit to star-telegram.com

The middle game in the Thanksgiving lineup was a homecoming for Robert Griffin III as he met the Cowboys for the first time in his career. Dallas led 3-0 at the first break, but four second quarter touchdowns, three of them passes by RGIII, gave Washington a 28-3 lead at halftime. As we’ve seen so often in these matchups, Dallas came back and looked like the Redskins might be on the edge of a total collapse, but the offense stayed strong and scored just enough to win. After a late Dallas field goal brought the score to 38-31, Dallas attempted an onside kick, which was recovered immediately by DeAngelo Hall who ran all the way to the 1, where he slid down rather than scoring to go up by two touchdowns with just a few seconds left.

RGIII became the first rookie since at least 1950 with consecutive 4+ passing touchdown games. It was also the first time in seven tries that the Redskins beat the Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

The late game was interesting for about five minutes, during which the Patriots scored 28 points to take a 28-0 lead after going into the first quarter break tied at 0-0. The second half was kind of boring with no more exciting plays to speak of.

Mark Sanchez slams into Brandon
Moore's (65) rear end in the second
quarter. Photo credit to The New York Post.

The slaughter began deep in Patriots territory, when Mark Sanchez threw pass that was undercut by a safety and taken the distance. A couple minutes later, the Patriots had the ball at their 17-yard line and nobody covered Shane Vereen on a swing route and he caught a pass from Brady and took it 83 yards to the house. A minute or so later, Mark Sanchez made a huge mistake by turning the wrong way on a handoff, tried to run with the ball, slammed into his lineman’s rear end, and fumbled the ball when he hit the ground. That turnover was taken the distance. On the ensuing kickoff, Joe McKnight fumbled directly into the hands of Julian Edelman who took it to the end zone.

It was the most bizarre five minutes of football I’ve ever seen, but not nearly as bizarre as the Jets’ meltdown was hilarious.

The Jets build their team to beat the Patriots, and they have now lost four consecutive games to their rivals. If they can’t even beat the team that they focus on throughout the offseason, how do they expect to ever make the playoffs?

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 12. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!