Picking up from yesterday, here’s how the late games turned out:
(8-0) COLTS 27, (6-2) PATS 20
The infallible Tom Brady had a horrible game (0 TD, 4 INT). The creator of the Universe, Bill Belichick, was just as bad. I mean, my God, even John Madden was sitting there wondering why the hell the Patriots weren’t just lining up and running the ball down the throats of Indy’s effete defense. If these teams meet again in the playoffs, the Pats should try and do exactly the opposite of whatever it was they were trying to do in this game.
(6-2) BRONCOS 31, (2-6) STEELERS 20
Here’s another game where I have to wonder WTF the coach is thinking. The Steelers fall behind 14-0 in the first quarter, and all of a sudden it’s time to start resorting to canniablism and having Ben Roethlisberger throw the ball 50+ times. Is anybody keeping keeping track of the pitch count on the sidelines? Is anybody like, “Hey nobody EVER wins when they throw the ball as many times as we are throwing it, maybe we should mix things up a little so we don’t, you know, turn it over six times.
(3-5) NINERS 9, (4-4) VIKINGS 3
A week ago I’m talking about the Vikes like they are a Super Bowl contender. Now they can’t score against a 49ers team that would have had 35 points hung on them by the Bears last week even if they were playing 2 hand touch. I also think I wrote something not long ago about the NFC being the better conference this year. Forget I wrote that.
(6-2) CHARGERS 32, (2-6) BROWNS 25
LaDanian Tomlinson has been like something out of Revelations lately. He had 172 yards and 3 TDS on EIGHTEEN CARRIES in this game!??!? How is that even possible??
MNF
(2-5) RAIDERS AT (4-3) SEAHAWKS
Seneca Wallace and Maurice Morris meet up with Andrew Walter and Justin Fargas. It’s a shite state of affairs, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any difference.
NFC EAST NOTES
When I did yesterday’s early game recap, I hadn’t yet seen how yesterday’s Cowboys/Redskins game ended. By now, I’m sure you have. Long story short, the way the Cowboys lost this game made their MNF implosion in the last 5 minutes of the Santana Moss game last year look academic.
For the sake of future generations who may stumble upon this recap one day, I will briefly outline what happened in the last 3 plays of this game.
– Tony Romo hits Jason Witten for a 28 yard gain, the Cowboys have first down on the Washington 17 in a 19-19 game, and are able to stop the clock to set up what should be a game winning 36 yard field goal.
– Mike Vanderjagt’s kick is blocked by Troy Vincent. Sean Taylor picks it up and brings the ball back to the Dallas 35 yard line. Time has expired though, and it looks like the game will go to overtime.
– Except, there is a flag on the play, and a 15 yard penalty will be tacked on to the return for a facemask.
– AND a half cannot end on a defensive penalty, so the Redskins will get one more, untimed play.
– Nick Novak, who missed from almost this exact distance just 30 game seconds earlier, makes a game winning 47 yard field goal, and the Redskins win 22-19.
I’ve never seen a sequence of events this impossible on a sporting field without AJ Pierzynski being involved.
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The Giants can grab the #1 seed in the NFC with a win next Sunday Night over the Bears. They’ll have to do it without DE Michael Strahan. Strahan will be out 2-4 weeks with a foot injury.
The Bears were awful in yesterday’s loss to the Dolphins, but the Giants didn’t set the world on fire either in their 14-10 home win over Houston. The Giants are really banged up, with injuries to Strahan, Osi Umenyiora, and Plaxico Burress.
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The 4-4 Eagles are on a 3 game losing streak. They had a bye week to prepare for the Redskins, who come to Philly next week. Washington’s pass defense has been dire this year, and that represents a good matchup for an Eagles team that hasn’t thrown it less than 30 times in a game all year.
