Sunday Football Afterword: Saints vs Falcons

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was under duress all afternoon
against a revamped Saints defense led by Rob Ryan.

Eric Meyer

Sean Payton and the New Orleans Saints returned with a bang with a great win over the reigning division champion Falcons.  The outcome wasn’t a shock to most, but the big surprise was that the Saints won the game on the backs of their defense instead of their vaunted offense.  New Orleans, under new defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, managed to get three sacks on quarterback Matt Ryan and came up with a goal line stand in the last minute of the game to seal the win.

Atlanta came out firing in the first quarter, scoring a touchdown on their second drive and opening with a 10-0 lead.  The Saints answered with a field goal of their own, and then made a game changing play when they forced a fumble on promising wide receiver Julio Jones.  The subsequent drive ended with a Brees touchdown pass to Marques Colston, and the Saints added an additional field goal to go into halftime with a 13-10 lead.

The Falcons and Saints each exchanged touchdowns in the third quarter, when the Saints’ typically dominant offense began to show some cobwebs.  Drew Brees was late on throws all day and clearly wasn’t as sharp as we are used to seeing, missing several deep routes and throwing an interception to give the Falcons great field position and an opportunity to turn the game on its head.  But the Saints’ defense did the unthinkable, and stiffened once again to force a punt, and they kept the Falcons off the board for the remainder of the game to seal a satisfying win against their bitter rivals.

Atlanta showed some promise of their own, with big games from Harry Douglas and newly acquired running back Steven Jackson.  Unfortunately, some of the concern about their offensive line proved to be warranted, as Matt Ryan was under pressure all afternoon.  Still, you can expect the Falcons to be in the playoff hunt all season.

The Saints’ first win was as promising as a Week 1 victory can get.  While the offense wasn’t as sharp as usual, one has to expect that they will find their rhythm and be a juggernaut once again this season, especially with Sean Payton resuming his play-calling duties.  The concern, as always with the Saints, is their defense, but if they can consistently perform as they did on Sunday, you can expect to see this team right in the Super Bowl mix come January.

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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!

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

The 49ers are overcoming every obstacle and are again
considered Super Bowl contenders.

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10.            Sean Payton

By now you all have undoubtedly heard about Sean Payton’s contract situation. Just to clarify for people who may not realize, this is something that happened shortly after Payton and the Saints had agreed on an extension. It did not just happen this week; news of it only surfaced this week.

People are saying that the Cowboys can lure Payton away, which technically is true but I don’t see it happening. The Saints should have their coaching icon back next year after his suspension ends.

9.            Jerry Jones

Jones said a few days ago that by now he would’ve fired himself as General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys. Now he says he doesn’t see himself hiring someone else to perform GM responsibilities, saying that he will maintain his role of Owner, President and General Manager of the Cowboys. This guy seems to get more senile each year.

8.            ‘Giant’ Defensive Issues?

Tom Coughlin said his defensive unit was soft against the Pittsburgh Steelers. I saw a soft defense against the Dallas Cowboys a week earlier. New York was having a lot of issues on defense early in the season as members of their secondary dropped like flies. They seemed to have covered the holes, miraculously considering the personnel they had to replace the usual starters. It seems those holes are flaring up. The Giants are always better in the postseason, and the NFC East is particularly weak this year, so they shouldn’t be too concerned, yet. Still, Giants fans are starting to feel antsy.

7.            Going Bald, in a good way

If you read my Sunday Football Afterword for the early games, you may have clicked the link I provided to Chuck Pagano’s postgame locker room speech. Yesterday, several players on the Indianapolis Colts’ roster shaved their heads in honor of Coach Pagano, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia.

I don’t believe Andrew Luck was one of those who shaved his head, but I imagine he’d look pretty silly if he did that but didn’t shave his caveman beard.

UPDATE (11:20am EST): According to Adam Schefter, Andrew Luck has, in fact, shaved his head. No word on the status of his facial hair.

6.            Fantasy Disappointments

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

• The number one player to jump out at me was Percy Harvin. He hadn’t scored fewer than 10.5 points in my league all season, but he put up just two against Seattle. Granted his ankle is bothering him, and because of that he didn’t play this week, still, it’s a fantasy disappointment.
• Titus Young went nuts against Seattle, one of the best secondaries in the league. Everybody scrambled to grab him off the waiver wire, but for what? He scored just three points against a terrible Jaguars team. Hope you didn’t give up anyone important for him.
• The biggest fantasy disappointment of them all? Eli Manning. He has been a disappointment for fantasy owners and has failed to touch 20 points in the past four weeks. But Week 9 was the worst yet. He scored just three points as he threw for no touchdowns and one pick for the second consecutive week. At this rate, Eric, it might be better to start Sam Bradford, and he’s on bye!

5.            Fantasy Surprises

• The obvious starter to this list is Doug Martin. Sure it was his fourth consecutive double-digit week in fantasy, and sure he scored 35.5 points in Week 8. But if anything, that was all the more reason to bench him. Nobody scores that many in consecutive weeks. Nobody, that is, except Doug Martin, who put up 59 points in my fantasy league this past week.
• Brandon Marshall had caught three touchdown passes over four games before hauling in three on Sunday against Tennessee. For his efforts, his owner was awarded 34.5 points in my fantasy league.
• The Saints defense scored 25 points this week. Funny, then, that they are projected to finish this week five points in the red.

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.

• Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• St. Louis Rams at San Francisco 49ers (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• Houston Texans at Chicago Bears (Sunday, 8:20 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. Atlanta Falcons	27. Oakland Raiders
2. Houston Texans	28. Tennessee Titans
3. Chicago Bears	29. Buffalo Bills
4. San Francisco 49ers	30. Cleveland Browns
5. Green Bay Packers	31. Jacksonville Jaguars
6. Baltimore Ravens	32. Kansas City Chiefs

The Saints and Panthers made fairly significant jumps after winning their third and second games, respectively. Other than that, several teams jumped or fell a couple of spots but by and large the landscape looks much the same in the NFL.com Power Rankings.

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

2.            Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons are the near-unanimous number one team in the NFL according to NFL.com’s Power Poll. They are still undefeated after run-ins with the Eagles and Cowboys in consecutive weeks. Now they face a New Orleans team with a level of confidence few thought they would have at this point in the season. Oh yeah, and the game is in the Superdome. If they win this, they might not lose the rest of the way.

1.            San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are the one team that stole away a first-place vote from the Atlanta Falcons on the NFL.com Power Poll. They’ve lost a couple of games, but they continue to fight back and not let those losses change their attitude heading into the following week. In a stacked NFC, the 49ers are here to stay in 2012.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 5 Late Games

A high level of respect is present between two of the
Game's all-time passing greats.

A cold has been kicking my butt the past few days. I had hoped to publish this yesterday a few hours after my first Sunday Afterword, but was unable to.

Cam Newton continues to struggle in tight spots, evidenced by a poor pass on 4^th down near the Seattle goal line late in the game. The Seahawks defense, of course, cannot be overlooked, but it also cannot be ignored that this was not the first time Newton has failed in such situations. Seattle won 16-12 in Carolina, a game the Panthers needed to win if they wanted to be considered a legitimate playoff contender in the NFC.

Most of the other games were not all that exciting. Chicago’s offense played well and their defense played better. Granted, it was against the Jaguars, but it was in Jacksonville; that has to count for something, right? Well, maybe not so much, but 41-3 is still a score that you can’t scoff at regardless of the opponent.

Only San Francisco scored a larger margin of victory, backing up a crushing defeat of the New York Jets a week earlier with a 45-3 win back in California against the Bills. For the first time in NFL history, a team – Buffalo – gave up 300+ passing yards and 300+ rushing yards. There had been 122 games in which a team gained 300+ yards on the ground, another 2,316 with 300+ through the air, but San Francisco was the first with both. (source)

Tennessee was manhandled no worse in Minnesota as they lost 30-7 in another ugly contest with an AFC team getting pummeled by an NFC opponent.

The game of the week for many of us, myself included, was the Broncos-Patriots game in New England. On Denver’s first drive, Manning lofted a perfect pass to Demaryius Thomas, which he caught then fumbled. New England took over and turned the takeaway into a touchdown. Manning drove Denver back down the field to tie the score on their ensuing drive, but the Broncos’ offense stalled after that.

New England took off and led 31-7 in the 3^rd quarter. Manning led a furious comeback against a defense that was somewhere between a standard Belichick defense and a prevent scheme. Despite the secondary being backed up a bit, Manning still threw fantastic passes over the top and found receivers deep. When they couldn’t get over top, Manning still found ways to get them the ball on ‘go’ routes. It wasn’t enough, however, when a fumble by Willis McGahee deep in Patriots territory late in the 4^th quarter ended all hope of a full comeback. New England held on, 31-21 in yet another epic Manning v. Brady/Belichick battle. Brady is now 9-4 all-time in their matchups.

Suspended coach, Sean Payton, was in attendance for
Drew Brees' record-breaking performance Sunday.

The final game of the day, the Sunday Night game, was not a particularly exciting game, but there were still plenty of important story lines. The Saints ended their bid for a winless season as Drew Brees beat his old team, the San Diego Chargers, 31-24. Sean Payton and two other Saints executives were permitted to be in attendance for the game and got to see Drew Brees break one of the oldest records in the National Football League. Over half a century ago, Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts set a record of 47 consecutive regular season games played with a touchdown pass. On Sunday night, Drew Brees threw a touchdown in his 48^th consecutive game.


Breaking records is special, and it is even more special at home. Last year, Drew Brees got to break Dan Marino’s single-season passing yards mark at home. This year, on Sunday, he broke an even longer-standing record, and he also broke that mark at home against the team that parted ways with him for their current quarterback. It couldn’t have been written any better for Brees.