Carnage’s Long and Boring Week 12 Review

Week 12 has been quite a flop for football. I sat down to watch Penn State/Michigan State…hoping for them both to lose just because I’m a bitter Badgers fan and ended up looking for something else to do when Penn State went up 28-0 before half time. I figured I’d check out the high profile Texas Tech/Oklahoma matchup and…..found myself looking for something else to do only midway through the second quarter. The NFL games did not offer much more in the way of entertainment. Only Texans/Browns, Patriots/Dolphins, Giants/Cardinals, Redskins/Seahawks, and Colts/Chargers continued to entertain into the fourth quarter. The Thursday Night contest was so not full of intrigue that I did something crazy….I didn’t watch the game. I didn’t even check the score until Friday morning because the Steelers beating the Bengals was such a foregone conclusion. I MIGHT have watched if Ben Roethilisberger had to tie his right arm behind his back. I emphasize MIGHT. At any rate, let’s see how this mess of a week turned out.

Ravens over Eagles or “To Fall so far……”

After week 3 of the season I was suitably impressed with them to think that they would make a strong playoff push. They blew out the Rams in week 1 (Ok, I didn’t realize the Rams were THAT bad), held a lead on the road against the Cowboys deep into into the fourth quarter, and physically dominated one of the most physically dominating teams (The Steelers). I can’t believe that the same players that played in those games were on the field today. I didn’t expect the Eagles to hang 50 points on the Ravens or anything, but they didn’t get past midfield until the fourth quarter (Well, except for the kickoff return).

Things were so bad that even when they had 1^st and goal on the 1 yard line I honestly did not believe they would score any points. Even though they had marched the ball 69 yards, I still couldn’t see how they could gain another yard. I didn’t except Ed Reed to take the ball 108 yards the other way though. That was pretty wacky.

I was pretty shocked when Donovan Mcnabb was pulled when the game was only a 5 (or was it 3) point difference. Mcnabb was playing bad, yes, but the running game and his receivers weren’t exactly giving him a lot of support. Mcnabb has played pretty well this season (Ignoring last week’s meltdown) and throwing in an inexperienced quarterback against a fired up Ravens defense doesn’t strike me as sound strategy. To his credit, although visibly distraught, Mcnabb was seen actually cheering his team on during their one decent drive. I’m guessing this is the last year Mcnabb will be in Philly. I’m also guessing that Zigi Wilf is already counting cap space and filling out Gus Frerotte/Travaris Jackson release forms to make way for Mcnabb on his roster.

The Ravens offense did not play too much better but they did manage to turn the ball over 5 fewer times than the Eagles. Of course, when you start with the ball on the preferable side of the 50 six times, decent things are bound to happen. The Ravens defense really ramped it up after the pummeling the Giants gave them last weekend. Just thinking about the two games back to back has to give you a sense of how good the Giants really are.

Statistical Notes – The Eagles have one offensive touchdown in their last nine quarters of play. Donovan Mcnabb had 13 TD’s and 5 INT’s his first 9 games, 1 TD and 5 INT’s the last two. Brian Westbrook put up 209 yards in his first game back from injury in week 8. Since then, he has 260 total yards in four games. After a tough start, Joe Flacco has 9 TD’s and only 2 INT’s in his last six games. Another 33 yards by Leron Mclain would have put Willis Mcgahee as the #3 running back in total yards. Ray Rice is second on the team in receptions….with 27. Ed Reed’s 108 yard interception return broke the record for longest return. The Old record was 106 yard held by…..Ed Reed.

Texans over Browns or “We want Quinn. We want Quinn. No! Wait! We Want Anderson! We Want Anderson!”

Another game with some bad quarterback play. It’s hard to say with a straight face but….Sage Rosenfels was the best QB on the field on Sunday. Both Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson were just terrible. Braylon Edwards may have had his best game of the season, hanging onto over HALF of the balls that hit his hands (Not by a lot though). I have to wonder, with the game never being more than 10 points out of reach and Jamal Lewis and Jerome Harrison being the only players on the Browns offense that resembled professionals, why didn’t Romeo Crennell call a few more running plays? I mean, besides the fact that he’s a terrible Head Coach. He couldn’t have been watching Quinn and Anderson go a combined 13/32 for 145 yards and 3 INT’s and thinking “We’ll get ‘em next possession.

The Texans were lucky that the Browns were so inept, as they kept shooting themselves in the foot. Five turnovers and 383 yards only leads to 16 points? Not good. Penalties In the red zone, penalties killing drives, penalties bringing back a kickoff return, blocked punts. There were a lot of points left on the field by the Texans. For the last two years it has felt like this team was ready to turn the corner but they just can’t. They now have some good players on offense (They really need Matt Schaub to play an entire season), if they could get the defense to play like they did Sunday they could finally get to the playoffs.

Statistical Notes – After three weeks of looking like a mere mortal (only averaging 5 catches for 63 yards), Andre Johnson was back to his “10 Catches, 100+ yard” self, his fifth such game of the season. He’s right back on pace for 120 catches and 1600 yards. Young slasher Steve Slaton is on pace for 1400 total yards. Sage Rosenfels has thrown 14 Interceptions in the last 8 games he played in. The Browns QB’s combined are completing less than 50% of their passes.

Bucs over Lions or “And they Lions go ahead 17-0 they might actually…nevermind.”

Will the misery in Detroit never end? On their second possession, Daunte Culpepper completed 3 of 4 passes for 64 yards. The ensuing possession by the Bucs sees Cadillac Williams get hit…BEHIND the line of scrimmage, FUMBLE, and Detroit scores AGAIN!!!! Actual football being played here. Reality set in, Culpepper went 5/16 for 57 yards with 2 picks the rest of the game. He served some time on the bench while watching drew Stanton go 2/6 with 13 yards before getting hauled off the field with a concussion. With such outstanding Quarterback play, I can see why they only handed Kevin Smith the ball 16 times when he was gaining nearly five yards per carry.

Oddly enough, the Lions defense played pretty well. They brought some pressure on Jeff Garcia, sacking him six times and dropping Bucs runners for a loss four times and causing the Bucs to cough up three fumbles. Hey! I had to try to find SOMETHING good here.

When teams find themselves down by 17 they will often start to panic and throw the playbook out the window and just start chucking the ball downfield. The Bucs remained poised and played their game, running the ball and throwing short routes. Warrick Dunn was the backfield star but I have to tip my hat to Cadillac Williams. He actually made it back onto a Pro football field after tearing his patellar tendon. That would be that big thick feeling tendon under your kneecap. In case you aren’t sure which one I mean, here is a link to a picture that points it out. http://www.eorthopod.com/images/ContentImages/knee/knee_acl_patellar_tendon/knee_acl_patellar_tendon_anatomy03.jpg

That Tendon is so thick and strong that torn ACL’s….a devastating injury…are usually repaired by cutting a strip off the patellar tendon. Not even 14 months after this, Carnell Williams is back on the field. I’d still be riding on one of those scooters for the eldery and begging my wife for another hit from the morphine drip. This guy is playing football.

Even with the Lions being mostly inept, you have to start looking at the Bucs defense and be impressed. They were not all that highly touted coming into the season but they play well as a unit. I’ve noticed recently that very rarely is there one Buccaneer involved in making the tackle. Two or even three are usually running towards the ball carrier. Swarming defense like that is bound to lock down big gains and create turnovers, which they continue to do at an alarming rate.

I am still scratching my head at the benching of Jeff Garcia for Brian Greise. Garcia’s careful play is a good fit for this offense. He makes smart throws and avoids interceptions. He fumbled a few balls away, but he was pressed a reasonably number of times by the Lions defense and did not throw the ball into a bad place.

Statistical Notes –Somehow, Calvin Johnson is still making some plays for this train wreck. He has a touchdown in six of the last seven games. He should go for well over 1000 yards (On pace for 1300). Kevin Smith has 358 total yards in the last three. He is a keeper. Tampa’s D has caused 18 turnovers in it’s 8 wins compared to 2 in its three losses. Warrick Dunn is on pace for nearly 1200 yards. That will give him 1000+ total yards in 11 of 12 NFL seasons. He is now 16^th all time with 15000 yards from scrimmage and could pass Jerome Bettis and Tim Brown as early as next week. Jeff Garcia has thrown one interception in his last 190 attempts.

Bills over Chiefs or “Oh please just make this game stop already!”

The Chiefs kept this game entertaining in the first half, no doubt. Tyler Thigpen looked like the second coming of…I don’t know… Trent Green(?) on the opening drive and a long run by Larry Johnson got them into the end zone and gave them the lead again..but it pretty much all fell apart after that. In a little over 15 minutes of play, the Chiefs saw their 3 point lead turn into a 23 point deficit. They went through a string of possessions that looked like this: Fumble, Interception, Field Goal, Interception, Fumble, Fumble. Plain and simply…ugly.

I know that the Chiefs probably owe it to their fans to try to field the best team possible in an attempt to win games. Still, at 1-9 I think I’d sit Larry Johnson right on the bench and let him watch Jamaal Charles be developed and Tony Gonzales act like a professional. Letting a guy who does not respect team authority and apparently doesn’t respect women is not the best guy to have in a locker room full of young players.

The Bills managed to stop the bleeding and Trent Edwards finally put in a solid days work, but I can’t get too excited by their play. This game doesn’t prove much. At 6-5 they are still very much alive for a playoff spot and get a crack at each of the division foes yet…two of them at home. They seem to have figured out a way to correctly utilize Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson recently, which could take some of the pressure of Edwards. The defense is still pretty suspect and despite the bumbling fumbling act, the Chiefs actually put up 462 yards and 31 points. I don’t really expect Brett Favre, Chad Pennington, Jay Cutler, and Matt Cassell to make the same types of mistakes that Tyler Thigpen did.

Statistical Notes – Marshawn Lynch has gone over 100 total yards only three times this year…but twice in the last two weeks. The Bills seem to be at their best when he gets 20 touches in a game. What I like most? 15 receptions in the last two weeks. Trent Edwards threw zero interceptions after throwing 8 in the previous four games. Tony Gonzalez has 25 catches for 265 yards and 3 TD’s in the last three games. He’s back in place as the king of tight ends and is on pace for another ho-hum 96 catch, 1000 yard Season. His ten catch performance put him at #9 on the all time receptions leader list. Pretty impressive for a “Tight End”.

Bad Divisions in football

Just to illustrate which divisions are bad more graphically, I wanted to take divisional games out of the picture and give you records outside of them.

NFC East: 22-7

NFC South 22-8

AFC East: 19-9

AFC South 17-11

AFC North: 12-15

AFC West: 7-23

NFC North: 9-19

NFC West 6-22

Bears over Rams or “How much bad football can a person take in one day?”

The Bears went on the road and romped all over a bunch of bums off the St. Louis streets Incognito as Pro football players. Get it? Haha. Sorry, trying to say SOMETHING about this game.

Trent Green didn’t really look too thrilled about having to haul his 38 year old body out to stand behind three backup linemen after watching Marc Bulger get absolutely leveled by Adewale Ogunleye. For a moment I thought Marc Bulger was actually dead. In all, the Rams allowed 5 sacks and were tackled for a loss on SEVEN of only nineteen rushing plays. The return game gave the Rams a little spark and possession of the ball on the Bears’ 23 yard line. One play later the Rams find themselves on the 12 yard line. Four plays later? A missed field goal from the 22. Ugh.

I listened to Chicago radio Monday morning and not even Chicago fans were excited by this. Sunday was one of those games where you watch to make sure your team doesn’t somehow embarrass itself and lose to a team playing really poorly without half its offensive line and star running back. If anything though, they should be pleased with Matt Forte. He had a lot of open space but he doesn’t appear to be hitting the “Rookie Wall” like so many young runners.

I do have to question the wisdom of devoting so much of Devin Hester’s time to offense. They are trying as hard as possible to figure out a way to make him a viable wide receiver. In the meantime, he has done nothing on the return game. Would a team normally trade one of the most dynamic return men ever for a mediocre at best wide out?

Statistical Notes – Matt Forte went over 100 total yards for the fourth game in a row and eighth time this season. He’s on pace for an 1800 total yard season. He was an absolute steal for a second round back. Rex Grossman and Ryan Griese threw 41 interceptions in 2006 and 2007. Kyle Orton has four this season and hasn’t thrown once since week 4. The Rams have turned the ball over 15 times in four games. They have four offensive touchdowns in their last five games. Tory Holt had 45 100 yard games in his first nine seasons, an average of five per year. He had a season high 84 yards this Sunday and hasn’t had a 100 yard outing since December 2nd of last year.

Jets over Titans or “Who are Chris Johnson and Lendale White?”

If you were just introduced to the Titans team this week you probably wouldn’t have a clue. Going into this week, the Titans had thrown the ball 293 times and ran the ball 335 times. This weekend saw them facing a pretty decent run defense of the Jets that intended to make Kerry Collins beat them instead and Johnson and White had a total of 11 carries. Actually, I was shocked at how quickly the Titans abandoned the run. Their early carries were of 0, 3, 4, -1, 24, and 3 yards. I consider the 4 and 24 yard gains to be “Successes”, the 4 yard gains to be neutral, and the 0 and -1 to be failures. 2 of each. Not excellent, but not a disaster.

The Jets offensive line is really starting to come together. Of course, you would hope so with four first round picks starting (Nick Mangold, Alan Faneca, Damien Woody, and D’Brickashaw Furegeson) up front. They really pushed around the frightening Titans front seven. On Leon Washington’s long touchdown run, the five linemen and a tight end were all engage in simple man to man blocking and broke the hole open so wide that nobody laid a finger on Leon. Thomas Jones didn’t break a bigger run until late in the game, but he plugged away for quite a few 5+ yard gains.

Of course, with a running attack to worry about, Brett Favre ends up with plenty of time to sit back and choose his targets. With the exception of the Haynesworth/Vanden Bosch sandwich that I thought had killed poor old Brett, the Titans pass rush was a non factor as Favre picked the defense apart with a great short passing game. Between the running and the dink/dunk passing routine, the Jets kept their offense on the field for over 40 minutes and grabbed 28 first downs.

Let me be clear about this. The Jets did beat the Titans convincingly but this in no way signals the beginning of the end for the Titans. I think Jeff Fischer has been gaining confidence in Kerry Collins ability to win games for this team but when he reviews the game tape he’ll realize that he allowed the Jets to take him out of his game plan. This will be a wakeup call and I see the Titans pounding the ball all day long against the Lions.

Statistical Notes – Brett Favre set another NFL record, this one for winning in 32 different stadiums. That’s a pretty wild feat. Since earning the title “Game Manager”, Favre has completed 77 percent of his passes and thrown 5 TD’s to 1 INT. Thomas Jones has 789 yards and 10 TD’s in the last 7 games. Leon Washington has 4 TD’s (2 Rushing, 1 Receiving, 1 Kick Return) in the last two games. Chris Johnson has only 167 yards and 0 TD’s in the last three games. Lendale white? 71 yards and 1 TD. The Titans have given up 332 rushing yards in the last two games.

Patriots over Dolphins or “Matt Cassell Makes Statement: SHOW ME THE MONEY!”

Tom Brady couldn’t have picked a better time to get hurt as far as Matt Cassel is concerned. Prior to this season, Cassel was probably content with his decent paycheck and career collegiate/professional backup role. He’s staring at a HUGE pay day now when he hits the free agent market in the offseason. In a mere 11 games he went from a guy that looked uncomfortable and missed his targets by 5 yards to a back to back 400 yard game performer. I would like this time to once again laugh at the many media pundits who raved about how much smarter the Cowboys were than the Patriots for having Brad Johnson as a backup plan instead of a loser like Matt Cassel.

I’ve got to give Randy Moss a lot of credit. I think a lot of people were expecting him to give up and become old sulking Randy when Tom Brady went down. He’s been on the sidelines clapping for the team and being patient with the new quarterback. I know that this is just what he SHOULD do, but earlier in his career he may not have. It really shows that he has matured in the last few years. He wasn’t a big part of the last 400 yard outing (catching three balls for 26 yards) but with the Dolphins “Disrespecting him” by putting single coverage on him. He made some great catches. Of course, you can’t forget about his counterpart at wide receiver either, who seems to always be open.

Every game I watch I realize how much Kevin Faulk means to the Patriots. He’s not a big numbers guy, he just makes big plays.

Chad Pennington had himself a pretty good day too. With the Patriots ready for the wildcat and Pennington throwing to guys that not even fantasy players can name, he kept the game a lot more interesting than the 20 point loss suggests. The sweetest play of the game had to be the Dolphins last touchdown which put them momentarily within three. The Dolphins receivers all dragged towards the right leaving Ricky Williams alone with a linebacker. Williams flared out towards the sidelines and cut up field and caught the ball in the back of the end zone. He sold the route great and Pennington threw a perfect pass.

The Dolphins really could have used this win. It would have put them at 7 wins with three very winnable games. They still have a shot at ten wins if they can beat the three teams with 5 wins between them and knock off either the Bills or Jets on the road.

Statistical Notes – Wes Welker continues to be the model for consistency and has three straight 100 yard games and 25 catches in that span. Matt Cassel has 1049 passing yards, 98 rushing yards, and 8 touchdowns (6 passing, 2 rushing) in the last three games. Randy Moss passed his old team mate Cris Carter to become #3 on the all time receiving touchdowns list. It took Carter 234 games to reach his total. It’s only taken Moss 165. Chad Pennington has 11 touchdown passes, one fewer than three Dolphins QB’s had all of last season. Jerry Porter managed to get to the quarterback again, making it 14.5 sacks on the season. He’s been credited with at least half a sack every game except week 2.

Vikings over Jaguars or “How many mistakes can one team make?”

It seems like a lifetime ago since the Jags were a dark horse Super Bowl pick and they reached a new low this week. In front of a home crowd, the Jaguars lost three fumbles, were picked off twice, were penalized 8 times for 80 yards, and missed two fields goals. They let a team that had 226 yards of offense put 30 point on the board. Their once vaunted ground game was held to 35 yards. I’d say they handed the Vikings this win on a silver platter but we know they probably would have dropped the platter.

The Vikings really didn’t even have to play that well. The passing game was uninspiring. Adrian Peterson gained some yards, made some people look dumb, scored a touchdown. The usual. The coolest run of the day came from Chester Taylor. Spinning around and doubling back to go the other direction for a score was sweet. I’m pretty annoyed with Ryan Longwell though. This guy had a hard time kicking the ball into the end zone on kickoffs. Now he’s 4/4 from 50+ this year for the hated Vikings?

Statistical Notes – Adrian Peterson has failed to gain 100 yards total for the second game in a row! A Slump! He’s only on pace for 1860 yards and 12 touchdowns or something. After averaging 100 yards and a TD over a four game span, Bernard Berrian has 4 catches for 52 yards in two games. The usually careful Jaguars has as many turnovers this week (5) as they did the previous seven weeks. Fred Taylor finished last season with five straight 100 yard rushing games. He has one this entire season. The Jaguars have two 100 yard receiving performances this season, and one of them was Maurice Jones-Drew this week! Jones-Drew leads the team in Touchdowns, total yards, rushing yards, and is second in receptions. The Jaguars have 19 or fewer points 6 times this season. They only had four such performances last year and zero after week 6.

Raiders over Broncos or “Worst….Division…..Ever.”

The Broncos were playing at home against a team that is more of a laughing stock than the Detriot Lions are now….and that is saying something. They had a chance to have their lead increase to an insurmountable 3 games in the division. They looked….very very vulnerable. They simply cannot stop the run, and without Champ Bailey, aren’t exactly stopping the pass either. Jamarcus Russell has looked terrible in a lot of games this year and came out with plenty of time to throw the ball and actually made plays. Ashley Lelie, whom I didn’t even realize was still in the league, lit up his former team mates. It was just an ugly defensive performance.

The offense….not much better. It’s hard to believe this was the same team that started out the season 3-0 with 114 points scored. Jay Cutler lacks the accuracy he did earlier and quite frankly, his receiving group doesn’t seem like it can get open. They only need to win two games to clinch this division, but I can’t see them making too much noise in the playoffs. If the Raiders can do this to them at home, imagine what the Colts or Patriots could do.

Statistical Notes – The Raiders scored as many points this week as they had the previous four weeks. Who leads the Raiders in total offense? Stud rookie Run-DMC? Highly paid free agent Javon Walker? Nope. It’s Justin Fargus. Tight End Zach Miller leads the team in receptions with 32. His numbers aren’t huge but if you look down his game long he has been consistent throughout. Prior to this week, no Raider had more than one Touchdown. Now Darren Mcfadden and Ashley Lelie have 3 and 2 respectively. Jay Cutler failed to throw a touchdown for the first time this season. The Broncos D has created three turnovers in the last five games and only ten on the season. Brandon Marshall isn’t putting up huge numbers every week (He has not had 100 yards since week 3) but he has gone below 70 receiving yards only 4 times in the last 22 games.

Cowboys over 49ers or “Maybe T.O. isn’t over the hill yet….”

Owens expressed his frustration over the lack of (catchable) balls being thrown his way during an interview with Deion Sanders. Needing a win pretty badly, the message was clear. “Give me the ball so we can win.” Luckily, the 49ers were more than happy to oblige. Owens had been in the worst slump of his career since week 3 against the Packers. 0 100 yard games, only 2 games of more than 40 yards, only three touchdowns. A lot of media types say that the Redskins or Bengals came up with the “Blueprint” to stopping Terrell Owens, but it was indeed my Packers who started the streak of playing a corner up on T.O with a safety shadowing him.

The 49ers come out with Nate Clements playing man defense on Owens, 10 yards off the line of scrimmage? Why does this even seem remotely like a good idea? Nate Clements was made to look like a pathetic little insect trying to keep up with/tackle T.O. The 49ers $60 Million man did about as well as I could have done.

Really, the return of Tony Romo had a lot to do with this, of course. Yes, Romo returned last week but you could tell his finger wasn’t ready for it. He was missing wildly on passes and didn’t have the zip on them. He didn’t look perfect yet this week, but he looked better. I’d expect him to be back to form by Thursday.

The Cowboys defense looked to be back on track, too. They completed dominated the middle of the game and took Frank Gore out of the picture. The End numbers (Points and yards) do not look so grim for the 49ers but almost half the yards and over half the points came in 4^th quarter garbage time drives. Alex Smith, Shaun Hill, J.T. O’Sullivan, Trent Dilfer…it doesn’t matter. The fact is that until the 49ers can figure out a way to defend their quarterback, they aren’t getting any better. Their QB’s have been sacked 95 times In the last 27 games. They’ve been rushed and hit many more times than that.

Statistical Notes – Isaac Bruce has his second 100 yard game of the season. He’s still a joy to watch. Tony Romo has three touchdown passes in 5 of his 8 games this season, and 1 in each of the other three. He has thrown at least one touchdown in 38 of his 42 career games. Marion Barber went over 100 total yards for the eighth time in 11 games. He is on pace for 1731 total yards. Oddly enough, the exact same statements apply to Frank Gore.

Falcons over Panthers or “Mental Note: watch for Michael Turner in the red zone.”

Just when I started believing in the Panthers they have two weak victories against bad teams and get taken down by the Falcons. The Panthers front seven was looking solid but they did not get it done against Atlanta. Matt Ryan was given time to sit back and pick his targets and they couldn’t keep Turner out of the end zone.

The pivotal play of the game, and perhaps the Falcons season came on 4^th and goal from the one in the fourth with the Falcons up three. Instead of taking the almost sure three points they put the game in the hands of Turner and their offensive line. The team responded to the challenge, went up 10 and never looked back.

Offensively, the difference I see between these two teams is this. The Falcons have their two main playmakers in Michael Turner and Roddy White but when needed others will come up huge for them. Jerious Norwood has made some great plays, Michael Jenkins has some big catches, and this week Harry Douglas (An unknown rookie wideout) came up with some huge catches, a big punt return for a score, and a touchdown for a score.

The Panthers looked like this earlier in the season. Dante Rosario was the unlikely hero of week 1, Jonathan Stewart was running neck and neck with Deangelo Williams, and they survived for two games easily without Steve Smith as Mushin Muhammed really stepped up into his role. With the exception of the Lions game, Stewart is clearly getting fewer carries and doing less with them than Williams, Mushin had a Touchdown this week but his production has really dropped, and it’s really hard to name another Panthers offensive threat. Not saying that Steve Smith and Deangelo Williams aren’t enough, but a bad game or two by either one is likely to cost the Panthers.

One thing is certain, the battle for the NFC South is suddenly very interesting. There are five divisional games left and any of these teams is capable of beating the other. I suspect a wildcard spot (Or two) will come out of this division, but two decent teams could end up home for the playoffs.

Statistical Notes – Deangelo Williams has been out of control lately, putting up four straight 100 yard rushing performances on a bloated 6.8 yards per carry. He also has five touchdowns to show for the yards. Ignoring for a second that strange game against the Raiders, Steve Smith is averaging 6 catches and 100 yards per game. I’ve mentioned people were concerned about Michael Turner being able to carry a full load. He has 22+ carries in 8 of 11 games and looks to be getting stronger. He has 291 yards and six touchdowns in the last three games. The Falcons are 6-0 when Matt Ryan does not throw an interception, 1-3 when he does. John Abraham now has 12 sacks, one away from his career best.

Colts over Bolts or “7-4 and out of the division race. 4-7 and still in it. Uhhhhh….”

At 7-4, the Colts don’t look like they have a prayer of catching the Titans barring a complete meltdown. The Chargers are now 4-7 and only two games behind the lead. Did I mention before that the AFC West is not that good?

Actually, the Chargers are not as bad as their record indicates. Their last minute meltdowns must be getting tiring though. First the Panthers beat them on a last second catch in the back of the end zone, the Broncos score after some controversy, go for two, and beat them. The hold a 10-8 lead on the Steelers until the last few seconds, and now Peyton Manning gets the Colts 37 yards in a minute and a half so Adam Vinatieri can stick the dagger in their hearts. I think they had a lead on the Bills in the fourth quarter, too. Ouch.

I’m amazed at the tendency of the Media to call them “Ladainian Tomlinson and the Chargers”. LT has been a ridiculously good player, no doubt, and he hasn’t been bad this season but he isn’t what he was. He just barely broke the 4.0 YPC mark for the fourth time this season and is averaging 3.8 on the year. Meanwhile, Philip Rivers has become the emotional leader of the team and the guy that ends up holding the ball with the game on the line. The Chargers could probably do about as well without LT at this point, the same cannot be said for Rivers.

Peyton Manning and company seem to be humming along nicely. My wife took notice of it and in a gutsy move pulled “Must start” (According to several fantasy sites) Bernard Berrian out of her fantasy lineup and inserted…Anthony Gonzlaes. I seriously taunted her about it before the games played out, too. That stunt gave her two wins on the day and she clinched two division titles. Who said girls can’t play fantasy football? Anyway, Manning and his offense has suddenly started clicking and have won four in a row after a pretty dull 3-4 start. With the Browns, Bengals, and Lions looming around the corner it’s looking like we won’t have a non-Colts playoff year after all. Remember what happened the last time the Colts were not playing as well as anticipated…..

Statistical notes – After opening with as many INT’s as TD’s in the first four games, Manning has adjusted and has a more usual 14 TD’s to 5 INT’s in the last 7. Joseph Addai seems to be getting back on track with 254 yards and 2 TDs in the last two games. Philip Rivers has thrown at least one touchdown in 17 of the last 18 games and leads the league in TD passes (23), QB Rating (103.3) and yards per attempt (8.6). Ladainian Tomlinson has only 2 touchdowns in the last 7 games.

Carnage Guesses on Games

Last Week I had 11-5. That brings me to 108-62 on the year. I’m getting better.

Pittsburgh over Cincy

Raves over Eagles

Texans over Browns

Cowboys over 49ers

Bucs over Lions

Vikings over Jags

Bills over Chiefs

Dolphins over Patriots

Bears over Rams

Titans over Jets

Broncos over Raiders

Panthers over Atlanta

Giants over Cardinals

Redskins over Seahawks

Colts over Chargers

Packers over Saints

Let’s see what this week holds.

Titans over Lions

Cowboys over Seahawks

Cardinals over Eagles

Packers over Panthers

Bills over 49ers

Ravens over Cincy

Dolphins over Rams

Colts over Browns

Chargers over falcons

Jets over Broncos

Steelers over Patriots

Chiefs over Raiders

Vikings over Bears

Texans over Jaguars

Crazy upset pick duo! I’m taking the Redskins at home over the Giants and the Saints going into Tampa.

See you next week! Happy Thanksgiving!