I really hate bye weeks, especially when they wipe out 3/4 of the NFC North teams. Because of all the bye week teams, I found myself watching more of the Lauren Hill basketball game (which was incredible) than the noon games. The Vikings/ Redskins game wasn't very intriguing to me until the 4th quarter and the other game on my television was that awful beat down of the San Diego Chargers. To make matters worse, when the Chargers game got out of hand, CBS switched over to the Chiefs/ Jets game which was just as much of an embarrassment. Any team that has Matt Simms at quarterback deserves to be 1-8. In fact out of all the noon games, there were no "must watch" games like there normally are (if Romo was healthy, the Cardinals/ Cowboys game would have qualified).
Now when it came to the late games, I was interested in watching Manning/ Brady 16. Unfortunately, the game was practically over by halftime. Like most of their battles, Brady out-played Manning on his way to leading the Patriots to a big win. The Patriots now have the best record in the AFC and would own the tie breaker over the Broncos, who are considered to be their competition for that top seed. After that awful game against the Chiefs a month ago, the Patriots have looked like a totally different team, thanks in large part to Gronk finally being completely healthy. They still have a few tough games left on their schedule, especially an important game for playoff seeding against the Colts in two weeks, but right now the Patriots look like the Patriots of old, as much as I hate to say it. I hope you all enjoyed that one week of bash Tom Brady and the Patriots while it lasted. Another quick point about the late games was how close the other two games were. First, the Seahawks barely beat the winless Raiders at home. Though the Raiders are getting better, I think this shows that the Seahawks are struggling to find themselves after all the turmoil with Percy Harvin, Marshawn Lynch, and Russell Wilson. With the way the Arizona Cardinals are playing, it looks like the Seahawks will have to be a wild card team if they make the playoffs, which means they would have to do something they struggle mightily at. Play on the road. The other game, between two of the Seahawks division rivals, turned out to be, in my opinion, the best game of the day. I'm always a sucker for a good defensive battle, and this game was just that. Both the Rams and 49ers struggled to move the ball (the Rams didn't even get to 200 total yards). Yet the St. Louis Rams, in accompaniment with the officials and great winning voodoo of Austin Davis, found a way to win the game 13-10. They should send a thank you letter to Colin Kaepernick as well as the officials for how the end of the game went down. It was still fun to see the 49ers lose though, so it was fine by me. |
| It's tough to tell, but I think that's a touchdown. |
When it comes to the weekly look at the NFC North, yesterday was the one Sunday this football season that I was absolutely dreading. The week the Packers, Lions, and Bears don't play. It didn't even feel like a football Sunday without them. Now the Vikings did play, so they are the only team I can really talk about this week. Once again they found a way to win a close game against an even opponent. Like last week, however, Teddy Bridgewater was rather underwhelming yesterday. He missed a few long passes, none worse than over throwing a wide open Cordaralle Patterson in the first quarter that would have been an easy touchdown. Bridgewater's final stats did end up looking fairly decent, 26/42 for 268 yards and a touchdown. The Vikings now head into a bye week at a surprising 4-5 on the year and for now, they are not in last in the division. The last 7 games for the Vikings look difficult, outside of playing the Jets' traveling idiot show in week 14, but if they can stay competitive in some of those games, it will help build experience for the future.So I decided to add a small segment on the weekend review posts called funny John Madden things. This week I would like to draw your attention to these illustrations of plays drawn by Mr. Madden (who may or may not be the Cub's new manager's long lost brother).
And what the hell is going on here?
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