Wild Card Afterword, Part I

Luke Kuechly's fourth quarter interception sealed Carolina's
first playoff win since January 2006.

Cory Puffett

Arizona at Carolina

Cam Newton praised his defense following Carolina’s victory to open wild card weekend. Newton played a solid game, but he was absolutely right to give credit for the win to his defense.

Sure Ryan Lindley was the opposing quarterback, and sure Andre Ellington couldn’t play Saturday afternoon; but even with that handicap, it’s amazing that Carolina’s defense allowed just 78 yards of total offense to Arizona. That was a team that started the season 9-1 and has offensive guru Bruce Arians at the helm.

I picked Carolina to win and was very close to picking the correct final score (Arizona scored an extra three points), but I had no premonitions of their defense manhandling the Cardinals offense the way they did. Arizona’s two touchdown drives, and I use that term loosely, were a combined 10 plays for 47 yards consuming 4:19 of game time.

Luke Kuechly played a masterful game with 10 tackles, 2 pass deflections and an interception. Carolina may have lifted their season record to just .500, but the defense makes this a dangerous team whether they have to play in Seattle or Green Bay next week.

It didn't matter how much pressure Pittsburgh brought, Joe Flacco shrugged
it off to deliver a terrific performance Saturday night in Pittsburgh.

Baltimore at Pittsburgh

The later game was as exciting as we’ve come to expect from the Ravens-Steelers rivalry, unlike their last regular season meeting when Ben Roethlisberger tossed six touchdown passes for the second consecutive game.

I survived the 2013 postseason, so I pray I can do it again this year because Ravens fans are about to get very obnoxious. They’ll have to go into New England next weekend, but John Harbaugh has coached the Ravens to playoff victories there before and the team has plenty of reason to believe he can do so again.

Harbaugh first led the Ravens to a postseason win in New England in 2009, thanks in part to Ray Rice setting the tone with an 83-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. Three years later, the Ravens went into Denver to beat Peyton Manning in his first season back from injury and then won in New England a week later en route to the team’s first Super Bowl victory since 2000.

The Ravens twice lost playoff games in Pittsburgh during Harbaugh’s first five years with the team, but they returned to the Steel City with a vengeance on Saturday. They didn’t blow the Steelers off of Heinz Field, but they sure came close to it.

Justin Forsett had been inconsistent over the last quarter of the season, but the team hoped he could duplicate his 119-yard performance from last week against Cleveland. That wasn’t the case as he lost a fumble and only managed 36 yards in the contest.

Fortunately for the Ravens, their defense played great and Joe Flacco continued his playoff hot streak. The 7th-year pro out of Delaware has 13 touchdowns and no interceptions in his last five playoff starts and had a terrific game Saturday in Pittsburgh.

It’s too early to make predictions for the divisional round, but it’s safe to say I’m going to be wrestling with Ravens vs. Patriots all week as I try to make sense of that matchup and find a definitive reason to pick either team to win that game.

Eric’s NFL Playoff Picks: Wildcard Round

The holidays are over, which means that it’s time for some playoff football! Twelve teams are still alive for the Lombardi Trophy, and four of those teams will take their first steps toward NFL immortality this weekend. Four others will have to try again next year.

It’s been a tumultuous NFL season, both on the field and off, but I guess that how Roger Goodell wants it. This has been one of the most difficult seasons to predict yet, and the playoffs likely will be no different, but I’m going to take my best shot at it on Cory’s very special blog page if he doesn’t mind.

Arizona Cardinals (+6.5) at Carolina Panthers

Saturday, January 3, 4:35pm – ESPN

Insert joke about NFC South here:

Yes, we all know the NFL South struggled this year. It’s interesting that the NFL’s worst division winner draws the wildcard from what was clearly the NFL’s best division in the NFC West. It’s even more interesting (and downright ironic) that the 7-8-1 Panthers are the heaviest favorite to advance over the 11-5 Cardinals. The Panthers that could not win for two straight months are touchdown favorites to beat a Cardinals team that started off 9-1 this season. How fun.

Obviously, when you dig a little deeper you can understand why. Carolina is the home team, which is an immediately three-point swing in the point spread. Also, Carolina has quietly put together a pretty impressive stretch, blowing out the Saints and the Falcons in their own backyards to finally grab control of the division. Cam Newton has gotten healthier and Jonathan Steward has re-emerged to give the Panthers and essential boost in the running game. With an improving defense and a standout rookie WR in Kelvin Benjamin, this Panthers team doesn’t look half-bad right now.

Of course, the main culprit of the shocking point spread is Arizona’s injury situation at quarterback. Carson Palmer tore his ACL and Drew Stanton sprained a knee, which left the Cardinals down to Ryan Lindley, who is a historically bad quarterback. Couple that with the injury to Andre Ellington and you have one anemic offense limping into the playoffs. I commend the Cardinals for reaching this point despite their QB carousel, and I would hate to see the Panthers advance as such an undeserving playoff team, but I think Carolina nabs this one and covers the spread as well.

Eric’s Pick: Arizona 10, Carolina 27

Baltimore Ravens (+3) at Pittsburgh Steelers

Saturday, January 3, 8:15pm – NBC

Why am I not shocked that the Ravens are playing the Steelers in the playoffs. It seems like a yearly tradition that these two black and blue squads would square off for round three with everything at stake. That being said, this is a different brand of rivalry than we are used to. The defense is lacking for both squads, and it could be a strange change of pace from what we are used to seeing.

Both teams had to grind through the AFC North, a division fat with wins from feasting on the awful southern divisions from each conference. It was pretty much inevitable that this division would send three teams to the playoffs, but make no mistake. These are two quality football teams.

Le’Veon Bell is out. Ouch. That’s a killer for the Steelers’ chances. That is, until your remember that Pittsburgh features the best wide receiver in football, along with two other solid options outside the numbers in Marcus Wheaton and Martavis Bryant. Pair that up against an awful Ravens secondary and you just might see another six touchdown passes from Ben Roethlisberger.

The Ravens have some grit and the Steelers’ secondary is nothing to write home about, but the way the Ravens’ offense finished the season concerns me. I just don’t think that they can keep up with the Steelers’ offensive output, even without their superstar running back.

Eric’s Pick: Baltimore 24, Pittsburgh 31

Cincinnati Bengals (+3.5) at Indianapolis Colts

Sunday, January 4, 1:05pm – CBS

We’ve seen this matchup before and it didn’t end well for the Bengals. The Colts shut Cincinnati out in a week 9 romp, but Andy Dalton and company recovered pretty nicely and locked up their fourth straight playoff appearance. Dalton is trying to get over the hump with a playoff win, and Marvin Lewis’s job might just depend on the Who Deys to get that win.

Unfortunately, I think it’ll be the same old song and dance for Cincinnati. Luck and the Colts haven’t played their best football down the stretch, but they’re at home, they can put up a lot of points, and their defense has been surprisingly stout at times, especially with Vontae Davis doing his best impression of Revis Island this season.

The Bengals haven’t usually brought it in the big moments, while the young Colts have shown some serious guile with their phenom quarterback leading the way. Marvin Lewis better update his CV.

Eric’s Pick: Cincinnati 17, Indianapolis 30

Detroit Lions at Dallas Cowboys

Sunday, January 4, 4:40pm – FOX

The wildcard round’s final game wouldn’t have been right without a little controversy, and Ndamukong Suh made it happen. Color me shocked. Suh was initially suspended for this bout between NFC studs, but his lawyer pulled a Johnny Cochran and convinced the NFL to overturn the suspension, and Suh left with just a $70,000 fine thanks to his cold feet defense.

Whether or not you agree with Suh’s reduced punishment, he’s playing, and that’s a major factor in deciding this game. Suh is the Lion’s biggest asset on defense, and they’re going to need him if they plan to penetrate Dallas’s vaunted offensive line and stop DeMarco Murray from running wild. This is a clash of the titans in the trenches, and it’ll be interesting to see who wins that battle.

I think this is going to be a close game. The Cowboys are at home, but that hasn’t helped them much this season. That being said, Tony Romo has been the best and most clutch quarterback in the NFL this season. There, I said it. Romo looks like a rejuvenated star with Murray taking the pressure off, and having an All-pro wide receiver doesn’t hurt either.

The Romo hate has been momentarily silenced, but he can permanently quiet the critics with a deep playoff run. Betting on Romo in the playoffs still seems a bit crazy, but the Cowboys have completely flipped the script this year. I’m taking the points in this one, but I expect the Cowboys to punch their ticket to Lambeau Field.

Eric’s Picks: Detroit 24, Dallas 30 (Detroit beats the spread)

Sunday Football Afterword: Steelers vs Bengals

Le'Veon Bell was involved in all aspects of the game. He recorded
57 rushing yards and a touchdown in addition to 50 receiving yards.

Cory Puffett

In the spirit of Christmas, the Vikings and Dolphins were giving out presents on Sunday. Minnesota beat the Eagles to give the Cowboys a chance to take back control of their NFC East destiny. The Cowboys got the gift receipt at halftime of their game against the Packers and returned it.

The Dolphins beat the Patriots to give Cincinnati the opportunity to take control of the AFC #2 seed in the playoff picture, but the Bengals also decided to return the gift in their 30-20 loss to AFC North rival Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s win prevents the Bengals from locking up the division regardless of the outcome of Monday night’s game between the Ravens and Lions.

Cincinnati could not find a rhythm early in Sunday night’s contest. The wind got hold of a punt snap and the punter was tackled just outside the goal line, allowing the Steelers to punch it in for a touchdown.

More good field position led the Steelers to another touchdown before Antonio Brown returned a punt 67 yards to put his team up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Bengals settled down from then on. The defense did their job and the offense played pretty well. They only had one three-and-out in their last seven drives of the game.

The Bengals can clinch the AFC North title next week with a win against Minnesota if the Ravens lose in Detroit on Monday or against New England next week. The Bengals had been struggling with consistency until their last three games when they seemed to pick up the pieces and put them back together. Sunday night’s loss will raise many questions about this team’s potential for a playoff run.

For Pittsburgh, I will have to look for confirmation but I believe their season ended when Miami beat New England earlier on Sunday. Even though two wins for Pittsburgh and two losses for Miami would put both at 8-8, Miami won a December 8 matchup giving them the head-to-head tiebreaker. So even if they push past both Baltimore and San Diego, I do not believe there is any way they can grab the sixth seed in the AFC.

Final Score:

Cincinnati Bengals – 20

Pittsburgh Steelers – 30

Thanksgiving Football Afterword: Ravens vs Steelers

Joe Flacco completed 24 of 35 passes (68.6%) for 251 yards and a
touchdown in a Thanksgiving home win that could save Baltimore's season.

Cory Puffett

Before I get into my recap, I think the most important thing is to express how thankful I am that the injury to Le’Veon Bell was not more serious than it was. I wasn’t sure he’d play football again, let alone get up and walk off the field.

The rookie had a big day. He said it’s always been his dream to play on Thanksgiving. And just like in every other game he’s played this year, he made the most of the opportunity. He had 73 rushing yards and a touchdown in addition to 63 receiving yards on seven catches. I pray that one play doesn’t end his career.

Overall, the Steelers played well. Their defense struggled early but then picked it up down the stretch. Similarly, the offense couldn’t sustain drives in the first half, but found success in the second.

The Ravens played well all game. The second half would lead some to believe that the defense let up, but that isn’t true. And though the Ravens didn’t score very much, they scored often. So though they were only able to find the end zone once, they still found a way to win.

Justin Tucker was on last night. Five-for-five from an average of more than 40 yards out is a pretty damn good night.

I was equally impressed with Joe Flacco. It was far from a perfect night, but he has made more good throws in the last two weeks than he had all season leading up to then; and they don’t appear to be fluky throws.

With their victory, the Ravens have an opportunity to go out and prove to the country that they are for real. They will likely not still hold the sixth playoff spot once this weekend concludes, but they have a tough schedule ahead of them. If they can overcome that and secure a playoff spot, a lot of people, myself included, will be hard-pressed to find a reason to pick against them in the playoffs.

The Steelers’ stumble on Thanksgiving all but takes them out of the playoff picture. They aren’t mathematically eliminated, but the math also doesn’t give them very kind odds.

Final Score:

Pittsburgh Steelers – 20

Baltimore Ravens – 22

2013 Offseason Needs: AFC North

This week and next, between Tuesday and Friday, I am going through the NFL division-by-division, writing about what each team needs to address this offseason. Yesterday I covered the bases in the AFC East, today I move on to the AFC North. I will talk about the Alex Smith trade on Friday when I cover the AFC West.

I won’t pretend to know every detail of what each team needs, but am open to comments from those who may know better what their teams need.

Baltimore Ravens

Jim Caldwell will stay on as offensive coordinator in 2013, so we will get a chance to analyze whether it really was the combination of him and Joe Flacco that led to so much offensive success in the playoffs. I still think it was just the fates of Ray Lewis, but that’s just my theory.

Joe Flacco is demanding big money, and no matter what his agent says, Tom Brady taking less than half of what Flacco is asking in his new deal affects what the Ravens will be willing to pay Joe Cool.

Not to mention, if Flacco gets the money he wants, they will lose some key pieces. With the fire of their defense gone, they need as many of their guys back as possible, but among the guys they could lose, Ed Reed, Paul Kruger, Dannell Ellerbe and Cary Williams stand out.

Anquan Boldin has already said he won’t play for another team, but that doesn’t mean he’ll play next year if the Ravens can’t afford him.

Ravens fans can hound me all they want for saying this, but what the Ravens need this offseason is consistency from what they had this past season. They need to keep as many of their players as possible, they need to add a talented young linebacker and one more wide receivers and add a little depth elsewhere. But the only way they can do that is if Flacco backs off and takes a little less money than what he’s asking.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals should be pretty content right? They are coming off consecutive winning seasons for the first time in three decades, right? So let’s move on.

Of course I’m kidding. I’m just sick of people always having to bring this kind of stuff up whenever they write about the team’s previous season. Seriously, as I researched what the Bengals need this offseason, every single article I read included some mention of that milestone. This is not the same team that it was 30 years ago, so stop being so impressed!

On to the Bengals, their defense really came along during the latter part of the season. Depth is what they really need on that side of the ball.

On offense, the Bengals have a very good running back in BenJarvus Green-Ellis but they don’t really have a good second guy to go to. Green-Ellis is used to being the workhorse, but with how short the average running back’s NFL career is, how many more years can that be the case?

Cincinnati also has one of the best receivers in the NFL in A.J. Green. Dalton was able to get it done this year with very little depth at the position but the Bengals will never get over the hump if they don’t get Green a right-hand man.

Cleveland Browns

The Browns have a new coaching staff and it is unlikely that Brandon Weeden will be the only quarterback they go through training camp expecting with who is expecting to start. I really like what they have with Greg Little, Josh Gordon, and Trent Richardson on offense.

On defense, there really isn’t much of anything that I like. The Browns have a lot of cap space, about $40 million. They haven’t been using that space the past couple years; maybe this is the year they try to get some actual talent.

Beyond that, the only thing I like about the Browns is Phil Dawson. They better make a serious splash in free agency and in the draft. I don’t see anything good coming out of Cleveland in 2013 if they don’t make some serious moves this offseason.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Mike Wallace is unlikely to return, and with Jonathan Dwyer turning heads this season, Rashard Mendenhall may not be back either.

The Steelers have a talented team. I never really understood why they weren’t able to win games. Yes, Ben Roethlisberger spent several weeks injured, but they’ve found ways to win when he’s hurt before. The only thing I’ve come up with is that they are lacking in depth across the board.

I’m not saying they don’t have good backups, but they have a lot of backups who aren’t really worth having who are eating up roster space that would be much better occupied by other guys. I’m not really sure what Pittsburgh needs, but they don’t have much cap space so expect them to part ways with a lot of players to make room for better depth.

Tomorrow I will go through the AFC South, looking at each team’s offseason outlook just like I did for the AFC North today. Keep up with new posts as I publish them by ‘liking’ my Facebook page and by following me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.

Also, tune in to WMUC Sports Radio at 7pm today as I co-host The All-Sports Crew. We'll cover hockey, basketball, baseball and some offseason NFL news, as well.

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!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 11 Late Games

Gronk has the third most touchdown reception in the first
three years of a career with 37 (Moss 43, Rice 40). After a broken
arm, we may have seen his last spike for a while.
Photo credit to ESPN.

The Saints scored on their first possession, a 10-play drive that featured two runs for over ten yards on consecutive plays and a 29-yard pass play challenged and overturned into an incompletion. New Orleans never looked back and beat the Raiders by 21 points.

As big a win as that was, it was nothing compared to the 59-24 route in New England. Indianapolis kept the game close early but a punt return touchdown and two pick-sixes were enough by themselves to keep New England in it. Of course, that wasn’t all they had as the offense contributed early and poured it on late. If only the Patriots had stopped pouring it on one score earlier. After their final touchdown of the game, on the extra point try, Rob Gronkowski, easily a top 2 Tight End in the league and probably the better of the two (sorry Jimmy Graham), broke his arm. He had surgery today and expects to be out four to six weeks. He thinks he’ll be back in time for the team’s playoff push. In the mean time, I’m just glad I have Graham and not Gronk on my fantasy team.

Peyton Manning added another chapter the reasons why he should not only get the Comeback Player of the Year award but maybe even the MVP award in 2012. After an early interception, Peyton bounced right back against a team that has given him nightmares in the past. He had a terrific second half against the Chargers earlier this season but even I was anticipating a possible let down yesterday. It wasn’t to be, however, as he tossed three touchdowns and led the Broncos to their fifth consecutive 30+ point outing, a franchise record. The final score was 30-23 as the Chargers at least made a game of it.

The Sunday Night game was interesting, but not particularly exciting. The Ravens won as I expected, but the Steelers kept it close and almost improved to 2-0 this season when they wear their throwbacks. They beat one team that plays in Maryland, but couldn’t top Baltimore. The only real excitement I got from that game was near the end of the fourth quarter when the Steelers were trying to put a drive together and, on consecutive plays, Corey Graham and Bernard Pollard lit up a pair of Pittsburgh receivers with perfect defense and excruciating, but legal, hits. Those to plays alone made it worth my time watching a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a drag.

Check back tomorrow for my Afterword on tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Bears and 49ers in San Francisco. Thanks for reading!

Monday Night Football Afterword: Steelers vs Chiefs

The Chiefs gave the Steelers a scare, but Pittsburgh faces
a bigger problem. Photo credit to ESPN.

As it turned out, this was a much more interesting game than anyone, myself included, figured it would be heading into last night.

The Chiefs held a lead, in regulation, for the first time this season. In fact, they held a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter before the Steelers rallied to tie the game at halftime.

The third quarter saw no scoring change. When Pittsburgh took a 13-10 lead in the fourth, I figured that it was over, that KC’s confidence was so low that they were doomed to suffer another loss. Not only that, but the officials really seemed to be skewing things in favor of the Steelers and that wasn’t helping Kansas City’s cause, either.

Instead, in an incredible final drive of regulation, which included overcoming a costly offensive pass interference call, Matt Cassel made some incredible passes I never expected to see from him, and get his team in position for Ryan Succop to redeem himself from an earlier field goal miss. He made the field goal but an interception by Cassel deep in Chiefs territory in overtime led to a 1^st Down field goal try by to give Pittsburgh the victory.

There were many turning points in the game, most significantly a defensive touchdown for Kansas City that was called back on account of the infamous ‘Tuck Rule.’ The score would have given the Chiefs a 17-10 lead in the third quarter. More importantly, even though the score did not count, the Chiefs were still flagged for excessive celebration.

It was a very weird game, but the bad news from all of it is on the Steelers side. The Chiefs season was already over before this game began, but Pittsburgh could be in serious trouble, too. Ben Roethlisberger left the game with a shoulder injury and was taken to the hospital during the game. There was some speculation that it may have been a separated shoulder but so far the only confirmed report is a shoulder sprain. That said, ESPN recently announced that Steelers personnel are concerned that it may be a significant shoulder injury that could lead Big Ben to miss a fair amount of time.

Week 10 was a rough one for quarterbacks. In addition to Roethlisberger’s injury, Alex Smith, Michael Vick and Jay Cutler all suffered concussions. So far, only Alex Smith, who has no documented past issues with concussions, appears on track to play in Week 11.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 9 Late Games

Romo out-dueled Matty Ice, but his Cowboys lost as
Atlanta maintained their unblemished record.

I got the Thursday Night game incorrect. I picked one of the early Sunday games incorrectly. Then I got just one of the later games wrong. I wonder what that spells for tonight? But my Afterwords are not about looking forward; they are about one final glance back.

The Raiders put up quite a fight as Carson Palmer played a pretty solid game. However, the Buccaneers, and specifically Doug Martin, were not going to be stopped. The rookie running back ran the ball 25 times for 251 yards and four touchdowns. In my fantasy league, he scored 59 points. Now, it is custom scoring settings, but the best score a running back has posted in my league before was when Arian Foster scored in the 40s last year.

The Vikings put up a valiant effort against Seattle’s 12^th Man. Adrian Peterson has a fantastic day, racking up almost 200 yards and punching it in twice. But between the fans and the Seattle secondary, Christian Ponder had a terrible day, reminiscent of an early-2011 game Donovan McNabb had in the same uniform. Russell Wilson tossed three touchdown passes to lead the Seahawks to a 30-20 victory.

In the third game I’ve picked incorrectly this week, Eli Manning and the Giants were shocked by the Pittsburgh Steelers at home, 24-20. But they shouldn’t be shocked. They played a terrible game. At least one of New York’s touchdowns was very controversial. Yes, I’m talking about the fumble return. Don’t get me wrong, there is no doubt – I repeat, NO DOUBT – that it was a fumble. Pushing the ball forward doesn’t matter, Roethlisberger did not have control and that makes it a fumble no matter what angle you look at it. However, there should have been a clip called near the end of the play. The Giants were outplayed and deserved to lose. That loss keeps the rest of the NFC East close enough for hope to still be a prevalent emotion, especially for the Eagles who desperately need a win tonight.

The late game featured Dallas in Atlanta to take on the last unbeaten team in the NFL this season. The numbers were fairly similar, but I really felt like Tony Romo outplayed Matt Ryan and it took a little luck for the Falcons to remain undefeated with the 19-13 win. Right now, the biggest problem for Dallas is the running game, or lack of one. They need DeMarco Murray back. With him, this is a completely different team, one that doesn’t need Romo to throw as much and, therefore, can deal with a little bit of inconsistency from him.

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