Division Breakdown

Wow what a weekend, last weekend we had 1 good game and 3 snoozers, this weekend 2 amazing games, 1 snoozer, and 1 what the hell just happened.  I missed a lot more of the games this weekend but I still have seen enough to give my thoughts.

I'll start with the snoozer, New England vs. Houston.  What a terrible game, Houston was overmatched the whole time.  Tom Brady is pretty good and anyone who doesn't think he's the best in the game needs to watch the game closer.

I said it last week about Houston's D, besides Watt who else makes plays?  Nobody, Shane Vereen a RB was victimizing one on one coverage against a LB all game.  Welker who's just as big as a small DB was open nearly every play.  Houston needs Brian Cushing healthy and pass rushing OLB then next year they'll break through.

This game was so boring I stopped watching it to watch the Iowa Men play Northwestern, they did win a conference game finally.

In the other AFC game Baltimore shocked Denver in the final minute of regulation, then got a fg in the 2nd OT to win the game.  I didn't see the end of the game live, but I rewatched the 70 yard pass that Flacco threw to Jones.

Everyone is gonna focus on the final 2 minutes of regulation and then the OT's, but this game had a crazy 1st half and it's gonna get forgotten.

Torrey Smith clowned Champ Bailey in the 1st half, he beat him deep twice, once for a TD the 2nd time Flacco overthrew him.  Then right before half Smith stopped his route jumped and seemed to pause in mid-air as Champ's momentum took him into the end zone, Smith caught the ball and walked in for the score.  That was a great play and like I said it's gonna get lost b/c of the 70 yard score.

Where was Von Miller?  I've heard he should get consideration for defensive MVP, yet he didn't make a single play against Baltimore.  I got a feeling this guy is like John Abraham, he beats up shit teams but comes up small against great teams.

I'm not the biggest Peyton Manning fan in the world, I don't want to slam him.  He isn't right though, he doesn't have a strong arm, his ball wobbles, and playing outside was probably a detriment.  This guy played his whole career inside in Indy, and he thought he was gonna go to Denver and throw the ball in January outside in the cold and wind?  It's not like Manning is the guy keeping Denver in the game, Holliday ran back a punt and a kick, that's 14 of the 35 points they scored.  Manning gave Baltimore 7 on a pick 6, not to mention the Favresque pick he threw right near the end of the first OT.

Baltimore vs New England is gonna be an interesting game.  I'm a Brady guy so I'll be rooting for New England, but I won't be shocked or heartbroken if Baltimore wins though.  It'll all come down to how uncomfortable Baltimore makes Brady.

In the what hell just happened game San Francisco just clowned Green Bay, mainly Kappernick clowned the GB D.  This game was hard to watch for me b/c it seemed San Fran was always on the attack and Kappernick was leading that attack.  The guy runs like Usain Bolt and throws like Dan Marino.  He has an awkward motion, but gets the ball into tight spots.  When he doesn't have a guy open he just tucks it and breaks off a 40 yard run.  He doesn't exactly go through all his reads before he takes off, but he looks downfield for 3 seconds sees nothing then boom he's gone.

I like Aaron Rodgers, but this talk of him being all time great needs to stop.  I heard Joe Buck call him all time great in the 1st half.  Stop it, please can we just stop doing this all the time.  I'm getting tired of every guy having to be an all time great when we're watching him.  They did this a few years ago with Peyton, heading into the Super Bowl against New Orleans, they kept saying if he wins the game he'll be the best all time.  Rodgers is a great QB, is he top 3 in the league right now?  Yeah probably, but he's not all time great, hell he's not even top 2 all time on his own team.  Pretty sure Favre and Starr have that.  Rodgers has a Super Bowl and a MVP, yeah that's nice but he's 5-3 in the playoffs, let's give the guy a little more time, more than just 5 years before we call him all time great.

Green Bay has real problems on defense, their old in the secondary, they have the same problem as Houston, if Clay Mathews isn't having a great game the QB has all day.  Not sure what they'll do to fix this but between that and the offensive line they got a lot of work to do up front.

In the other "great" game of the weekend, Seattle game back to win then lost to Atlanta.  I've watched Atlanta probably the 2nd (to the Skins) most of any team in the league.  I've seen that drive that Matt Ryan ran to get the FG at least 3 times this year.  They give up the score, get the ball run a few plays run Matt Bryant out and win the game.

If your watching any of the shows all they talk about is Atl blowing the 20 point lead, how about talking Seattle blowing 2 red zone chances in the 1st half, first time they go for it on 4th and 1 at like the 12, the score was 13-0 then, kick the FG Carrol and guess what you win the game.  Then right before half, they get a 1st down, then call a time out and of course they don't get points b/c they complete a pass on 3rd down and the clock runs out before they get another play off.  That's 6 points left on the field, they lost by 2, but of course nobody is gonna talk about that.

Can anybody just make a play anymore?  I understand these guys are great athletes, they've been told their whole lives how great they are, but seriously just b/c you made a tackle, a pass break-up, and first down why do you have to act like you just made the play of the game?  I like TD celebrations, that's a big deal getting a TD.  I don't mind sack celebrations, that's a big play you got a sack, you wanna celebrate a turnover sounds good.  Most sack celebrations are the guys move so I'm ok with it, Jared Allen with calf roping, JJ Watt's salute, Clay Mathews flex, all cool, but Richard Sherman from Seattle kept getting in the face of Roddy White and Julio Jones if he made a play on a deep ball.  Then when he got burned by White, Roddy didn't celebrate instead he got up and ran back to Sherman to talk shit, come on dude you beat him you don't need to run your mouth.  Sherman just clapped his hands as if to say you got me this time.  This is an epidemic in the NFL, guys can't just make a play and go back to the huddle, as I said a big play pull a sharpie out and sign a ball, but this first down pointing, and flexing by Kappernick shit can end anytime, side note to that Kappernick you not huge stop flexing.

Seattle has a good future, they got a rowdy fan base, a good QB, and a great RB.

I think San Fran is gonna rollup Atlanta next week.  Kappernick is playing a different game, and he's just gonna run all over the Falcons d.  ATL played a lot of zone yesterday and if you leave those open gaps in the zone Kappernick will peel you apart.  Aldon Smith is gonna get after Matt Ryan, I think it'll be a decent game.

That's it for this week, I'm working on another post that might be up today as well, be sure to check back in next week after the Championship games for full coverage, in the mean time follow my as seen on TV twitter account @derekbredeson.