Sunday, November 22, 2009

NFL Week 11 Recap

A stunning NFL Sunday with all kinds of crazy on tap.

Dallas Cowboys 7, Washington Redskins 6
Gawainsghost reminded me that these NFC East matchups are never easy, and it seemed the Cowboys were well on their way to dropping another game. With about 3 minutes left Patrick Crayton finally got loose and Dallas pulls out a victory. If the Cowboys can ever put their inconsistent offense problems to bed, this is a top flight team.

New York Giants 34, Atlanta Falcons 31 OT
In a game where the loser is probably done for a playoff chance, the Giants come out on top with a big win. While I am no Giants fan by any means, they are not as bad as they have looked over the past few games and showed it today. The Falcons are struggling right now and their chances of a post season are getting very small.

New Orleans Saints 38, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7
The Saints move to 10-0 for the first time in team history by blowing out the Bucs. With all the defensive injuries the Saints have I am amazed they are still doing as well as they are. This of course sets up a dream/nightmare game next week as my two favorite loves of football, The Patriots and Saints, meet on Monday night.

Indianapolis Colts 17, Baltimore Ravens 15
The Colts go to 10-0 with a hard fought win against Baltimore. Joe Flacco's inexplicable interception at the games end was almost unreal. Nice gift to the Colts. At this point the Colts will have to have a team meeting and decide if they want to go 16-0 or lose a game or two to sidestep the whole undefeated trap. I would suggest they drop one.

Kansas City Chiefs 27, Pittsburgh Steelers 24 OT
In the days second biggest upset, the Steelers lose in Kansas City. Most worrying is the injury to QB Roethlisberger which may be a concussion. I saw a bit of this game and all I can say is that the Steelers are a TOTALLY different team when Troy Polamalu is not in the lineup. The Steelers right now are a big question mark.

Oakland Raiders 20, Cincinnati Bengals 17
The days biggest upset. Oakland scores 10 points in like 1 minute to steal a win against the 1st place Bengals. Just a puzzling performance by the Bengals, but maybe a let down after last weeks huge win. The Raiders are either obscenely terrible, or play pretty well depending on their mood it seems.

San Diego Chargers 32, Denver Broncos 3
3 weeks ago the AFC West was about done in my mind. Now the Chargers have come back to take control, throttling Denver at Mile High. Denver backup QB Chris Simms (no Phil Simms that's for sure!) was so bad that an injured Kyle Orton had to come out and play very hurt (hats off to that guy, what a fighter!). To me the problem with Denver right now is the offensive line is playing about as poor as can be. The defense also has slowed down quite a bit. The season for the Broncos is not over, but they have some real issues. The Chargers are red hot right now, and I may have to eat my words on them later this year!

New England Patriots 31, New York Jets 14
So why is this iteration (last 10 years) Patriots one of histories best teams? Because they get the job done. After a rough 1 point loss last week in Indianapolis on a questionable 4th down play call (I liked it) and a terrible spotting of the ball (pure bullshit) the Pats rebound to destroy the Jets in a rematch. I have to eat crow here a bit, Jets corner Darrelle Revis had much the better of his one on one play against Randy Moss and I tip my hat to that guy. He won today fair and square and he rarely had help at all. Of course the Jets may have thought about switching Revis to cover Wes Welker in the slot as he lit up the Jets for almost 200 yards. Mark Sanchez had a terrible day as the so called "crushed by lack of trust" Patriots defense overwhelmed the Jets. This sets up the big Monday night game between my two beloved teams.

Other Action
-The Lions have a winner in the QB rookie Stafford. Mission number one for the Lions should be getting a better line for this kid, he is the real deal.

-Green Bay keeps their season alive with a big win.

-Minnesota is probably the best team in the NFC, yet they are under the radar?

-Jacksonville wins again and seems to be making a surge.

-Is Arizona for real? They are playing as well as they did in last years playoff run.

You have to love the NFL. Today we had drama, blowouts, nail biters, season changing wins and losses, and upsets. Much fun indeed.

PS, while you are writing your congressmen about the audit the FED bill or the health care bill, please register your utmost protest to a remake of the classic film Red Dawn, which should be stopped no matter the cost!!!!! This must not happen!

Have a good night.

7 comments:

EconomicDisconnect said...

Overnight tonight Gold and Silver spiking up. Very interesting indeed. Come on metals, make me a winner!

EconomicDisconnect said...

Why the move up? We can thank Calculated Risk foe this post:
http://tinyurl.com/ylnaw3z

FED MBS purchase program looking at an extension. I would wonder if CR would like to change his 30bps bump in mortgage rates should the program end, but he seems to far gone and too diconnected to offer any real thoughts, just quips. What a loss.

GawainsGhost said...

The Cowboys beat half a Redskins team by 1 point today. And still needed Washington's kicker to miss two field goals to do that.

Dallas was held scoreless until the final minutes for the second week in a row. This is not a top flight team.

Washington came in missing their starting running back, tight end and defensive tackle, then lost their backup running back on their second drive and later their right guard to injury. Yet for all that they were still leading for 55:35. And but for one field goal would have won.

You're not seeing what I'm seeing, GYC. These Cowboys are a team in disarray. Tony Romo was off all night, did not complete a pass until the end of the third quarter. Yeah, he stepped up and made on play when it mattered at the end, but against any of the better or less injured teams in the league it would have been too little too late.

The running backs put up a lot of yards, between the 20s, against a defense without its primary run stuffer. The receivers didn't show up until the fourth quarter.

The defense played well, against an offense down to its third string at key positions. But seriously how well do you think it would hold up against a prolific offense like Minnesota's or New Orleans's? Especially if the offense can't generate any points.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Oakland pulls off a major upset on Thanksgiving.

The NFC East is vastly overrated this year. Do you realize that only one team has beaten an out of division opponent with a winning record? The Washington Redskins, against the Denver Broncos last week.

Dallas faces a very tough stretch in December. If they continue to play like they did today, they won't win two games in that crucial month.

All year I've been saying this is an 8-8, maybe 9-7 team. And I haven't seen anything thus far to make me change that assessment. I certainly didn't today. Detroit would have beaten Dallas this afternoon.

The Patriots and the Saints are both playing good football right now, and next Monday Night will be a game. What are you going to do, flip a coin?

Will Profit said...

The difference between a team being inconsistent and/or Super Bowl bound?
Tony Romo = mediocre

EconomicDisconnect said...

Will,
I have mixed feelings on the Cowboys and Romo. I think he is a real talent, but he just has not had the seasoning he needs because he has been out under such a spotlight. I think he, and the team, are close to turning a big corner though.

Not that it will matter this year, the Vikings and Saints look almost unbeatable to me this year.

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