The biggest showdown this week had the undefeated New Orleans Saints visiting the 4-1 New England Patriots. A showdown between teams that have enjoyed some considerable success in recent seasons, as well as two of the premiere quarterbacks in the league right now, if not for all time. Brady versus Brees.
The Patriots went ahead and appeared to be solidly in control, with a 17-7 lead. But this was a back and forth game, and the Saints were able to answer. It just kept going back and forth.
But the Saints were winning the game, 27-23, as time was running out late in the fourth. Brady was able to engineer a surprisingly effective, and really incredible, drive. It culminated with Brady passing just over Saints defender Malcolm Jenkins in the corner of the end zone, to the waiting hands of Kenbrell Thompkins, who was able to make the catch and, with 5 seconds left to play, get the victory - and a huge one at that! - for the now 5-1 Pats.
The Saints were the only unbeaten team entering this week to fall.
Now, I will admit to being surprised at the matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Denver Broncos. The Jaguars are not only in last place in the league right now (along with my Giants), sporting an NFL worst 0-6 record, but also, they were worst in the league last season, as well, finishing the 2012 campaign with a 2-14 record. In the meantime, the Broncos are tied with the Kansas City Chiefs with an undefeated 6-0 record, tops in the league. That success was seen during last season for Denver as well, as they finished that season with an NFL best eleven game winning streak, and an overall record of 13-3 - best in the NFL.
So how it is that the worst team in the league should happen to have to visit the stadium of the best team in the division, without the excuse of being division rivals or anything, seems a little preposterous to me. A lowly last place team in one division visiting a first place, elite team in another division? C'mon, man! Really?
Denver has looked like absolute killers so far this season, with a crushing offense that was running up the board against almost every opponent. They had scored fifty points in two consecutive games, and entered this game on average having beaten their opponents by an average of 22 points through the first four games, before barely eking out a win last week against Dallas.
Statistically, they still look dominant. They have won their games by an average of just shy of eighteen points, while still ranking as easily the highest scoring team in the league, with 265 total points, which averages out to just over 44 points a game. Manning is still leading all quarterbacks in history with a prolific season so far, adding two more touchdowns to his total, for 22 touchdowns in all after six games. Most importantly, the Broncos are still undefeated, at 6-0.
But they were officially favored by 28 points, and not only did they not really come close to covering that spread, they actually struggled quite a bit against Jacksonville. Now, it might be true that Jacksonville was especially motivated for being the biggest underdogs in history (nobody had ever been favored by 28 points before). But the Denver Broncos, with every conceivable advantage on their side, nonetheless were not even assured of victory yet when the fourth quarter stared. Almost everyone seemed to think this would be an epic beat down, and some were suggesting that Denver might be able to put up record numbers. Instead, they had to focus on just winning the game.
Which, to their credit, they did. Plus, they won it convincingly, for that matter. no last minute heroics were needed, like in Dallas.
So what's the problem? Well, Denver has perhaps been slowing down just a tad these last few weeks. They have not looked quite as dominant and all-time in the last two games the way that they did in the first four, when they were pushing opponents around all over the field. Perhaps they were looking past these opponents, and onto next week's opponents in Indianapolis, with the red hot Colts? Or, maybe Denver is not quite as unstoppable as everyone assumed, or perhaps Jacksonville really was not as bad as everyone assumed. Or, maybe some combination of those things.
Whatever the situation may be that caused the surprisingly narrow victory, it was nevertheless a notch in the "W" column for the Broncos, and they keep pace with their division rival Chiefs atop the AFC West at 6-0 - and this is the first time that I have seen two teams within the same division remain unbeaten this far into the season. Impressive!
The Kansas City Chiefs had a surprisingly tough time themselves against the Oakland Raiders, but managed to remain undefeated by holding Oakland off towards the end, when it mattered the most. They pulled off a tough win, not necessarily playing at their best but winning anyway. This team looks better and better every week, and they will host the suddenly struggling Houston Texans next weekend.
So, what happened with the Texans, anyway? Everyone expected them to be really good this season, based on the last couple of seasons. Instead, they barely won their first two games, hardly looking as good as many expected them to look. And now, they have lost four in a row. Their home fans cheered when Matt Schaub got injured. That was a despicable display on the part of Houston football fans, and reminded me of the mean-spirited Giants fans who cheered when Phil Simms got injured (for the season, no less) during the 1990 season - a season, incidentally, in which he was statistically the leading quarterback in the league, and that included Joe Montana!). Terry Bradshaw had some moments like that in Pittsburgh, as well. I understand being frustrated by a team's performance, but cheering the misfortunes of someone, especially someone that has served your team very well until very recently, just seems entirely crass and classless. Shame on those fans who participated in that kind of conduct.
This time, the Texans lost at home to the Rams. St. Louis is a talented team, with an excellent head coach (at least by my estimation) in Jeff Fischer. But let's be honest here: the Texans have no business being absolutely blown out at home to a team like the Rams. Not because the Rams are bad, or anything, but simply because the Texans are too good for this. This was a team that was supposed to be a serious Super Bowl contender this year. Instead, they have suffered four straight, embarrassing defeats, and have dropped down from sole possession of first place in the AFC South, to solidly in third place, and watching Indianapolis, in particular, begin to really pull away. Tennessee is quite tough, as well, and the Texans sure look like they are digging themselves in a hole that they might not be able to dig themselves out of before too long.
The Titans, in the meanwhile, had a tough challenge, having to go to Seattle to play one of the hottest teams in the league. Yet, they largely held their own. They did not manage to win, but they kept it close, which is a fairly tough order on it's own, and something that earned the Titans some respect. Of course, it is not what they wanted, which would have been to remain only a game behind the Colts, and to expand their lead on the reeling Texans. Still, it's a good sign for the Titans that they have been this tough thus far.
One rivalry, if most people would even consider it a rivalry, that I have always enjoyed has been between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills. Back in the eighties, I can remember these teams match up twice in the playoffs and a few times in the regular season. I always enjoyed when these two teams met. Back then, the Bengals always seemed to have the advantage, although that changed quite a bit in the nineties, when the Bills made it to all of those Super Bowls.
They met again today, in a fairly intriguing matchup. The 3-2 Bengals were in a first place tie with the Browns and the Ravens. The Bills, in the meantime have shown signs of improving, and they wanted to win to keep from falling too far behind. They can be tough at home, and are capable of giving good teams some headaches. They did so again today, pulling ahead of the Bengals early, before Cincinnati really began to take control of the game.
But then, right when it seemed the Bengals were about to ice the game, the Bills came all the way back from a two touchdown deficit to get back into the game. It went into overtime, but Buffalo's luck ran out, as the Bengals were able to kick a field goal deep into the overtime session to win, 27-24.
The win by the Bengals means that they are by themselves atop the division at the moment, by virtue of a tough loss for the Browns, when they hosted the Detroit Lions, who effectively dominated Cleveland. Also, the Ravens lost a tough, defensive battle against the Green Bay Packers, who look a bit resurgent in recent weeks. With the Lions win today, and the Bears win on Thursday, both teams are 4-2 and tied for first. But the Packers are right there with them, sporting a 3-2 record (they have already had their bye week, which accounts for having played one less game).
So, there are some interesting races.
One race that has proven rather strange is in the NFC East, although the Cowboys were able to get a convincing win against Washington, sinking them down to a 1-4 record. The Eagles also won on the road against Tampa, to keep pace with Dallas, and it is beginning to look like those two teams are in a race for the division title, with Washington and the Giants maybe already being too far behind to seriously entertain any hopes of clawing their way back in the division race, let alone taking it.
In other games, the 49ers beat the Cardinals for the eighth time in nine meetings, while the Vikings lost yet again, this time at home to the Panthers. The biggest news from that game was that Adrian Petersen played just two days after losing his son.
Earlier in the afternoon, I watched a good part of the Jets game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, I know the Steelers were hungry for a win, and you know that they are going to get it eventually. But for the Jets, this was an absolutely necessary game to win, because their next three games are going to be very tough! Next weekend, they host the Patriots. Then, they have to take on the Bengals in Cincy, and then the Saints. Those are three very tough games and, let's face it: it is all too easy to picture a scenario where the Jets drop all three games, and the solid start begins to look more like ancient and irrelevant history.
I know it is a bit weird for a 3-2 team that most consider improving to have a must win game at this point in the season, but for the Jets, this probably was it. Instead, they got dominated by Pittsburgh.
And it's hard not to come to the same conclusion that most Jets fans come to (and often, by this time of the year, as well). namely, same old Jets.
Sigh.
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