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I've got a TON to say so let's get at it
IF The Season Ended
Today
• Pittsburgh is first AFC seed based on head-to-head
with New England (1-0).
• San Diego is third AFC seed based on conference
record with Indianapolis (6-2 to Colts' 4-3).
• Baltimore is second AFC Wild Card based
on conference record with Denver (5-3 to Broncos'
4-3).
• Green Bay is NFC North Champion based on
head-to-head with Minnesota (1-0).
• St. Louis is second NFC Wild Card based
on conference record with N.Y. Giants (5-3 to Giants'
4-6).
Favre
stars in 200th start
Brett Favre threw three TD passes and Najeh Davenport
ran for 178 yards and a touchdown to lead the Packers
to their sixth straight victory since starting the
season 1-4. The 45-17 win over St. Louis kept Green
Bay atop the NFC North at 7-4 by virtue of a head-to-head
win over Minnesota on Nov. 14. The Packers forced
three turnovers and scored six touchdowns to deal
the Rams their fourth loss in five games.
Crazy
Pass Watch
Trailing 24-21 at the two-minute warning, the Titans
had first-and-10 on the Houston 44, holding a timeout.
This is a pretty manageable situation -- no need
to do anything rash. Steve McNair threw a crazy
pass into triple coverage, interception; the Moo
Cows scored the icing touchdown two plays later.
Air
Miles
East Coast teams flying to the West Coast often
fare poorly, as do West Coast teams flying to the
East Coast. Miami's schedule called for the Ventral
Fins to play at Seattle a week ago Sunday, then
at San Francisco this Sunday. Rather than hike to
the coast, hike back to Florida then travel to the
coast again, the Dolphins simply stayed in California
for Thanksgiving. The tactic worked as Miami defeated
the Niners and avoided the stigma of the league's
worst record.
Why
Are You Punting?
Trailing 34-9 in the middle of the third quarter,
Detroit faced fourth-and-7 on its own 27. Boom goes
the punt. Punting when behind 34-9 in the third
quarter is yet another example of an NFL coach playing
to hold down the margin of defeat rather than playing
to win. When Steve Mariucci's performance review
comes at the end of the season, he doesn't want
one of the strikes against him to be, "We lost
to Indianapolis by 50 points." So Mariucci
punted for the sake of restraining the margin of
defeat, rather than gamble for the chance of winning,
however remote that chance had become. You're 4-6,
you're down by four touchdowns to the highest-scoring
team in the league, what have you got to lose? And
now you're 4-7.
After
meeting with brass, Davis resigns as Cleveland head
coach
It wasn’t the 10-point loss — albeit
in a 48-point outburst from the Browns’ offense
— that did Butch Davis in as Cleveland’s
head coach, but the 58-48 defeat was the last straw
in the Davis-Browns marriage. The Browns lost five
consecutive games to plummet from playoff contention
into the AFC North cellar at 3-8. Davis said he
could not continue as head coach knowing he would
be fired at the end of the season. Players will
have input as to whom replaces Davis in the interim:
either defensive coordinator Dave Campo or offensive
coordinator Terry Robiskie are expected to take
over.
Space constraints prohibit me from discussing
all the scoring plays in the Cleveland-Cincinnati
game.
Stats
of the Week
There were 13 touchdowns and five field goals in
the Cleveland-Cincinnati game.
Stats
of the Week No. 2
Cleveland scored 48 points and gained 462 yards,
and lost.
Stats
of the Week No. 3
Peyton
Manning has thrown 10 touchdown passes in his last
six quarters, a rate that equates to 106 touchdown
passes in a season.
Stats
of the Week No. 4
Carolina
has won three straight, Buffalo has won five of
its last seven -- and both still have losing records.
Stats
of the Week No. 5
Joe Gibbs coached the second-highest-scoring NFL
team ever, the 1983 Washington Redskins, who averaged
34 points per game. This season under Gibbs, the
Redskins are last in the league in scoring at 12.5
points per game, and their highest-scoring performance
is 18 points.
Stats
of the Week No. 6
On
Sunday, Dante Hall had more return yardage than
the offensive yardage of five entire teams (Miami,
Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington).
Stats
of the Week No. 7
Priest
Holmes has not played in three weeks, and still
has more touchdowns than the entire Washington Redskins.
Stats of the Week No. 8
After
200 consecutive starts, Brett Favre's game log requires
14 years of receiving statistics to list his one
career catch.
Stats
of the Week No. 9
The
Rams gained 452 yards, and lost.
Stats
of the Week No. 10
Peyton
Manning has thrown more touchdown passes than the
total number of touchdowns scored by all means by
any other team in the NFL.
Let's take a walk through the
top heavy AFC:
New England (10-1) looks headed
for the AFC East crown and a first-round playoff
bye, but the Pats' loss to Pittsburgh in Week 8
may keep them from claiming home-field advantage
throughout the playoffs. What New England really
has going for them is their remaining schedule which
boasts only one team with a winning record (Jets)
and games against the two worst teams, record-wise,
in the league (Miami and San Francisco). With Pittsburgh
having a tough remaining schedule (see next note),
the Pats should make plans to host two playoff games
at Gillette Stadium.
Pittsburgh (10-1) does indeed
control its own destiny for the division title,
a first-round playoff bye and home-field advantage.
However, the road may have some bumps ahead with
tough games against Jacksonville (this Sunday night
on the road), the Jets (home), Baltimore (home)
and at a rejuvenated Buffalo to close out the regular
season. As for this week, the Steelers can't clinch
the division title even with a win at Jacksonville
and a Baltimore loss against Cincinnati which would
give Pitt a four-game lead with four games left.
Reason is ... Pittsburgh's lone loss is to the trailing
Ravens who could then tie the Steelers at 11-5 and
would have swept them to get there (these teams
play each other again Week 16 at Pittsburgh).
Indianapolis (8-3) has won
four in a row and looks as if they are headed for
their second consecutive AFC South title. The Manning
touchdown machine should keep rolling this week
as the Colts host the Titans. With a current two-game
lead over the Jaguars and a season split already
in the books, the Colts are further advantaged by
having a big edge in division record (3-1 vs. Jags'
2-3). An Indianapolis win against either Tennessee
or Houston (Week 14) will require Jacksonville to
best the Colts on overall record, unless the Texans
can somehow catch this duo and create a three-way
tie where the Texans have a strong division record
(3-1) and have a win in hand against Jax and can
still split with Indy. In case you're curious, a
three-way tie at 10-6 would have the Texans winning
the division title due to season sweep of the Jags
and better overall head-to-head record among the
three teams (3-1 vs. Colts' 2-2 and Jags' 1-3).
Here's a look at the muddied
NFC playoff picture:
Philadelphia (10-1), along
with Atlanta, has separated itself from the pack
and looks headed for a sure home game on divisional
playoff weekend. The Eagles, with their dominating
victory over the N.Y. Giants this past week, have
clinched the NFC East title in one of the earlier
division clinches (Week 12) in recent memory. In
their battle with Atlanta for home-field advantage
throughout the playoffs, the Eagles are helped by
a strong conference record (8-0); their lone loss
was at Pittsburgh. Their toughest test might be
this week as they play host to the Green Bay Packers,
owners of a six-game winning streak.
I'm going to skip the NFC North
for now and talk about Atlanta and the NFC South.
The Falcons (9-2) and rookie head coach Jim Mora
are certainly the surprise of the NFC. Atlanta can
clinch the division title with either a win or tie
at Tampa Bay this Sunday. An Atlanta loss keeps
extremely slim division hopes alive for the Buccaneers
and the winner of the Carolina-New Orleans game
as each team could eventually beat the Falcons on
division record if there were to be a tie at 9-7.
Not happening.
Back to the NFC North,
Green Bay (7-4) reclaimed the division lead with
an impressive win Monday night over St. Louis and
is currently riding a six-game winning streak. The
Pack holds the edge over Minnesota (7-4), due to
its Week 10 34-31 win against the Vikings. Green
Bay also has a nice lead in conference record (6-2
vs. 4-3). However, the big winning streak will be
in jeopardy this week as Green Bay heads to Philadelphia.
Down the road, the date to mark is Christmas Eve
when the Pack travel to Minneapolis to take on the
Vikings. As for Minnesota, they appear to have the
easier remaining schedule of the two teams with
games against Chicago, Seattle, Detroit and Washington
besides the tussle with Green Bay on Christmas Eve.
Seattle (6-5) is leading
what looks like the weakest division in football.
St. Louis' loss on Monday night helped, as the Seahawks
need to stay ahead of the Rams on overall record
due to St. Louis' sweep of Seattle this season.
Although it would appear that this division would
only send one team to the playoffs, the Rams (5-6)
actually would be the No. 6 seed in the NFC if the
season ended today as they have a better conference
record than the faltering N.Y. Giants (5-3 vs. 4-6).
The fact that three of the Rams losses are against
the AFC could ultimately help come Week 17 as conference
record will be key for teams to break out of the
pack and into the playoffs.
Thoughts-O-The-Week
This week saw the best
teams all increase the leads in their respective
divisions - New England (10-1), Pittsburgh (10-1),
Indianapolis (8-3), Philadelphia (10-1) and Atlanta
(9-2) all won. They all enjoy commanding leads in
their divisions. The rest? Oh, man.
The AFC West now has
the Chargers in the lead by one game with a matchup
against #2 Denver this weekend. The Packers have
to win to stay tied with the Vikings at 7-4. The
NFC West will have a divisional winner because it
is in the rules but Seattle (6-5), St. Louis (5-5)
and even Arizona (4-6) all have a shot at that coveted
"first out" during week one of the NFL
playoffs.
It was a big week with
the great getting greater and the mediocre becoming
a very crowded group. The game of the week honors
the best of all fantasy situations - the second-highest
scoring game in the history of the NFL between the
bottom two teams in the AFC North.
Rudi Johnson ran for
201 yards and two scores. T.J. Houshmandzadeh had
two scores as well. It was a veritable scoring frenzy
that likely contained no more than three players
that were on fantasy starting line-ups and six others
that may not have even been on any roster.
The Browns are only
3-8 on the season and likely will go through a shake-up
in the offseason. On the road, already far behind
with their best players on the sideline they had
every reason to tank and no one would blame them.
But they didn't - they played a tremendous second
half with 35 points scored and while they lost,
they go down in the record books for one of the
most explosive games in the history of the NFL and
one of the most impressive performances by a team
that had little to win and even less motivation
to succeed.
Remember that if one
of your fantasy teams is on the downside of the
league standings. It's all about playing the game
every week and what happens overall is only secondary.
Just ask the Browns.
Now
get back to work...
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Week
13 STUD
I'll say this for Julius Jones:
the guy is a horse. Really, if the over the
hill Eddie George hadn't gotten into Tunas
early doghouse and JJ gets put on IR way back
in October we wouldn't be seeing this talent
emerging right now. Best move you've made
in a while TUNA. |
Wager
On Football Writer Ray Monohan is an NFL analyst
with 10+ years of experience covering the NFL. He
provides a great perspective on the NFL with player
and team insight unmatched in the NFL football betting
industry.
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