NFL WEEK 7, WHAT I SAW
I'm so sorry to be so late with this recap, but this tooth thing has really got me down & I had to nap as much as I could in preparation of tonight's big radio broadcast. Luckily, Rance Burger is going to co-host the show, he's a lifesaver plus he knows a hell of a lot about football & I sincerely appreciate his willingness to help me out tonight. As for week 7, here's what I saw.
Let's be very realistic about the "Tim Tebow comeback"
I've often stated my opinion of this guy, both as a quarterback prospect & a man. As a QB, there's not a lot to like other than his never-say-die attitude. Often times other players respond to Tebow's leadership, rising to the occasion, like yesterday in the games final five minutes of regulation. Yes, the Broncos won the game 18-15 in overtime, but it took a lot of things to fall into place, by both teams, to allow the broncos an opportunity to beat the winless Dolphins. Tebow was absolutely awful for the first 55-minutes of regulation. Four total completions for 13-yards & he was sacked 6 times. He missed wide open receivers by a country mile. The Phish helped out by going for a 2-point conversion when one would've been enough to hold off Denver. The Broncos had to recover an onside kick(a 44% success rate in the NFL), strip QB Matt Moore of the ball & make three spectacular catches by 3 different receivers to bail the struggling Broncos out of another loss. After scoring with just 13-seconds left, everyone in the stadium know Tebow would run between the tackles for the 2-point conversion, well everybody except the clueless Dolphins. They spread their defense out just perfectly for Tebow to have a nice lane to walk into the endzone. Yes, it was exciting, yes he made a few plays with the game on the line, but let's not start booking his Hall of Fame induction yet. In fact let's not get sold a bill of goods on Tebow, he may not even be the starting quarterback for this franchise down the road. I like this young man, but he has very limited skills when it comes to playing the most difficult position in sports. Just because of his flawless character & magnetic personality, he can't be held to a lesser standard than other signal callers.
Ponder made a decent debut, but all other QB's pale by comparison with Aaron Rodgers on the field.
Rodgers completed 24 of 30 passes for 335-yards & 3 TD's. Of the 6 incompletions, two were obvious drops, Rodgers set an NFL record for consecutive starts with a QB rating above 110 at 7. The guy is playing at an incredible level right now & anyone playing against the Packers is in for a long afternoon. Minnesota rookie QB Christian Ponder had a nice debut & gave Vikings fans hope for the future. He threw a couple of touchdown passes but also connected twice with Green Bay all-pro Charles Woodson. Ponder threw the ball well at times & looked somewhat baffled at others. He has a big upside but looks fairly ordinary when he's on the field with Rodgers. One really ugly footnote to this game. Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang was kicked flush in the "man zone" by Vikings DE Brian Robison. He tried to excuse his behavior after the game with a Tweet, but if you saw the incident & you're a guy, there is absolutely no question about what Robison's intent was.
Both QB's injured but Matt Ryan gets the job done as Falcons win in Motown.
For the first time this season, the darlings of the NFL, the Detroit Lions, are facing adversity. They start off 5-0 then lose on consecutive weekends to Frisco & the Falcons. Their defense is getting gashed in the running game as the Falcons used what they saw in the 49er game to their advantage. The other glaring problems facing Detroit are lack of a running game due to injuries & the inability to protect QB Matthew Stafford. Stafford is in a walking boot after a lower-leg MRI revealed nothing worse than a sprained ankle. Matty Ryan looked super-human after walking off the field 3-minutes removed from having his left ankle stepped on by one of his linemen, it looked horrible. Apparently Ryan's bones bend & don't break. The Falcons have righted their ship, the Lions need to get back to doing what made them 5-0. Thankfully Detroit plays the Denver Tebows this Sunday, maybe they can win if they survive the last 5-minutes of the game.
After a 253-yard game, what do you do for an encore Demarco Murray?
Good question after Murray's franchise record performance yesterday against the helpless St. Louis Rams. Murray went 91-yards for a touchdown on his first carry. On a day the Cowboys needed to find a healthy running back, Murray responded like no one ever expected. The former Oklahoma Sooner & Bishop Gorman star was filling in for the injured starter, Felix Jones, who might find returning to the starters job tough if Murray can establish himself. Rams right tackle Jason Smith lay on the field for 20-minutes after suffering a neck strain & concussion making a tackle after a turnover. The news for the Rams just gets worse week after week. New receiver Brandon Lloyd caught 6 A.J. Feeley passes for 75-yards but the Rams are just awful right now & desperately need a win.
Buccaneers lose in more ways than one "across the pond."
It wasn't just the 24-18 loss that will concern Tampa coach Raheem Morris, it's the inconsistency of his team. They win a big game then get trampled, win another, lose to Chicago in London with poor QB play, another RB injury & CB Aqib Talib gets out of line costing his team yet again. Bucs QB Josh Freeman threw 4 interceptions in a game where he threw the ball 51-times, mostly because of a running game that could produce but 30total yards. With starter LeGarrette Blount already sidelined, backup Ernest graham sustained a broken leg yesterday. Talib committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a sack in the closing minutes, down by 6-points. Talib didn't like something so he took to grabbing facemasks after the whistle which drew a flag & a whole new set of downs for the Bears. This guy is more trouble than he's worth, sorry Bucs fans, but it's true.
What happened to the rest of the Colts? What will happen to their coach?
I've given the Indianapolis Colts, minus Peyton Manning, the benefit of the doubt since it became known their QB wouldn't play this season. But last night in the Louisiana Super Dome, the beatdown absorbed by the Colts were pathetic & leaves us questioning Jim Caldwell's leadership. This team appears to have quit. Getting pummeled 62-7 is like an out-of-conference game in college, a good old fashioned ass-whippin'. I thought Caldwell could keep them respectable, but now it appears they have truly folded their tent & just want to go home unhurt.
Chargers don't look like the Chargers we've known for years.
They were my AFC Super Bowl pick & now I wonder if they can emerge from a 3-way fight for the Western Division championship. Not only do the Chargers look bad, Phillip Rivers looks bad & he's been the glue that has held this team together for years. Their 2nd half performance yesterday in the Meadowlands was really pitiful. They didn't appear motivated or prepared well enough to beat the Jets, a team they held 11-point leads over twice. I will agree with cornerback Quinten Jammer who said the refs killed the Chargers. He was flagged twice for pass interference & I didn't see anything on either call. But aside from the zebras, San Diego has a tough trip to Arrowhead next Monday night & I don't know that they're up for it.
More later as I have to get ready for the radio show right now. Hope you'll listen.
Let's be very realistic about the "Tim Tebow comeback"
I've often stated my opinion of this guy, both as a quarterback prospect & a man. As a QB, there's not a lot to like other than his never-say-die attitude. Often times other players respond to Tebow's leadership, rising to the occasion, like yesterday in the games final five minutes of regulation. Yes, the Broncos won the game 18-15 in overtime, but it took a lot of things to fall into place, by both teams, to allow the broncos an opportunity to beat the winless Dolphins. Tebow was absolutely awful for the first 55-minutes of regulation. Four total completions for 13-yards & he was sacked 6 times. He missed wide open receivers by a country mile. The Phish helped out by going for a 2-point conversion when one would've been enough to hold off Denver. The Broncos had to recover an onside kick(a 44% success rate in the NFL), strip QB Matt Moore of the ball & make three spectacular catches by 3 different receivers to bail the struggling Broncos out of another loss. After scoring with just 13-seconds left, everyone in the stadium know Tebow would run between the tackles for the 2-point conversion, well everybody except the clueless Dolphins. They spread their defense out just perfectly for Tebow to have a nice lane to walk into the endzone. Yes, it was exciting, yes he made a few plays with the game on the line, but let's not start booking his Hall of Fame induction yet. In fact let's not get sold a bill of goods on Tebow, he may not even be the starting quarterback for this franchise down the road. I like this young man, but he has very limited skills when it comes to playing the most difficult position in sports. Just because of his flawless character & magnetic personality, he can't be held to a lesser standard than other signal callers.
Ponder made a decent debut, but all other QB's pale by comparison with Aaron Rodgers on the field.
Rodgers completed 24 of 30 passes for 335-yards & 3 TD's. Of the 6 incompletions, two were obvious drops, Rodgers set an NFL record for consecutive starts with a QB rating above 110 at 7. The guy is playing at an incredible level right now & anyone playing against the Packers is in for a long afternoon. Minnesota rookie QB Christian Ponder had a nice debut & gave Vikings fans hope for the future. He threw a couple of touchdown passes but also connected twice with Green Bay all-pro Charles Woodson. Ponder threw the ball well at times & looked somewhat baffled at others. He has a big upside but looks fairly ordinary when he's on the field with Rodgers. One really ugly footnote to this game. Packers offensive lineman T.J. Lang was kicked flush in the "man zone" by Vikings DE Brian Robison. He tried to excuse his behavior after the game with a Tweet, but if you saw the incident & you're a guy, there is absolutely no question about what Robison's intent was.
Both QB's injured but Matt Ryan gets the job done as Falcons win in Motown.
For the first time this season, the darlings of the NFL, the Detroit Lions, are facing adversity. They start off 5-0 then lose on consecutive weekends to Frisco & the Falcons. Their defense is getting gashed in the running game as the Falcons used what they saw in the 49er game to their advantage. The other glaring problems facing Detroit are lack of a running game due to injuries & the inability to protect QB Matthew Stafford. Stafford is in a walking boot after a lower-leg MRI revealed nothing worse than a sprained ankle. Matty Ryan looked super-human after walking off the field 3-minutes removed from having his left ankle stepped on by one of his linemen, it looked horrible. Apparently Ryan's bones bend & don't break. The Falcons have righted their ship, the Lions need to get back to doing what made them 5-0. Thankfully Detroit plays the Denver Tebows this Sunday, maybe they can win if they survive the last 5-minutes of the game.
After a 253-yard game, what do you do for an encore Demarco Murray?
Good question after Murray's franchise record performance yesterday against the helpless St. Louis Rams. Murray went 91-yards for a touchdown on his first carry. On a day the Cowboys needed to find a healthy running back, Murray responded like no one ever expected. The former Oklahoma Sooner & Bishop Gorman star was filling in for the injured starter, Felix Jones, who might find returning to the starters job tough if Murray can establish himself. Rams right tackle Jason Smith lay on the field for 20-minutes after suffering a neck strain & concussion making a tackle after a turnover. The news for the Rams just gets worse week after week. New receiver Brandon Lloyd caught 6 A.J. Feeley passes for 75-yards but the Rams are just awful right now & desperately need a win.
Buccaneers lose in more ways than one "across the pond."
It wasn't just the 24-18 loss that will concern Tampa coach Raheem Morris, it's the inconsistency of his team. They win a big game then get trampled, win another, lose to Chicago in London with poor QB play, another RB injury & CB Aqib Talib gets out of line costing his team yet again. Bucs QB Josh Freeman threw 4 interceptions in a game where he threw the ball 51-times, mostly because of a running game that could produce but 30total yards. With starter LeGarrette Blount already sidelined, backup Ernest graham sustained a broken leg yesterday. Talib committed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a sack in the closing minutes, down by 6-points. Talib didn't like something so he took to grabbing facemasks after the whistle which drew a flag & a whole new set of downs for the Bears. This guy is more trouble than he's worth, sorry Bucs fans, but it's true.
What happened to the rest of the Colts? What will happen to their coach?
I've given the Indianapolis Colts, minus Peyton Manning, the benefit of the doubt since it became known their QB wouldn't play this season. But last night in the Louisiana Super Dome, the beatdown absorbed by the Colts were pathetic & leaves us questioning Jim Caldwell's leadership. This team appears to have quit. Getting pummeled 62-7 is like an out-of-conference game in college, a good old fashioned ass-whippin'. I thought Caldwell could keep them respectable, but now it appears they have truly folded their tent & just want to go home unhurt.
Chargers don't look like the Chargers we've known for years.
They were my AFC Super Bowl pick & now I wonder if they can emerge from a 3-way fight for the Western Division championship. Not only do the Chargers look bad, Phillip Rivers looks bad & he's been the glue that has held this team together for years. Their 2nd half performance yesterday in the Meadowlands was really pitiful. They didn't appear motivated or prepared well enough to beat the Jets, a team they held 11-point leads over twice. I will agree with cornerback Quinten Jammer who said the refs killed the Chargers. He was flagged twice for pass interference & I didn't see anything on either call. But aside from the zebras, San Diego has a tough trip to Arrowhead next Monday night & I don't know that they're up for it.
More later as I have to get ready for the radio show right now. Hope you'll listen.
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