It was Mark Ingram’s night.
In winning this year’s Heisman Trophy, Ingram amazingly became the first player from Alabama to win the award. A lot of people will credit Ingram’s Heisman win on his performance against Florida matched against Colt McCoy’s off night against Nebraska. If that is the case, the award is just as meaningless as it is if people are putting their ballots in at the season’s half-way point. This year’s vote deserved to be the closest in history and Ingram and Gerhart deserved to be the two that were being agonized over. It was tough for me to decide who I would’ve voted for in the Ingram/Gerhart debate, but I do believe that the right man won the trophy last Saturday night. Gerhart had the stats over Ingram and the multiple 200 yard performances in big games definitely made his case. However, it’s not as though Ingram didn’t gain yards this season, and the fact is that Ingram had big enough performances for his team in a tougher environment—not the SEC, but the national title hunt—with the Tide being inside the top ten since the preseason polls came out. For Gerhart, it was a season that completely came out of nowhere as the two Oregon teams were supposed to have the big runners in the Pac-10. But Ingram was a bit of a surprise too: in how effective he was with a quarterback making his first collegiate starts and the added pressure of being in Glen Coffee’s place and not beside him.
Colts clinch home field with win over Denver
Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts wrapped up home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with their 28-16 win over the Broncos this past Sunday, extending the Colts’ regular season win streak to 22 and their record this season to 13-0.
Lost amidst all the accolades for the Colts was Bronco receiver Brandon Marshall continuing his fantastic 2009 campaign with an NFL-record 21 receptions in the loss. Marshall caught two touchdowns and gained 200 yards on the catches.
Marshall’s first score came in the final minutes of the first half and got Denver on the scoreboard, Marshall’s second came with just under ten minutes to go and made things close at 21-16.
The game may have been closer than it should’ve been due to Peyton Manning suddenly turning into a gunslinger in this one, or just having a bad day.
Manning went 20/42 passing for 220 yards and while throwing all four of the Colts’ touchdowns in the game, Manning’s three interceptions may have given Denver a false sense of hope.
While Marshall’s receiving day was the one people rightfully talked about, Dallas Clark didn’t have too bad of one either. Three of Clark’s five catches were for touchdowns, and he finished with 43 yards off of the catches.
Saints squeak out win in Atlanta
It wasn’t easy, but the New Orleans Saints are still unbeaten. The Atlanta Falcons stuck with their division rivals, but eventually fell 26-23.
Drew Brees was his usual self throwing for 296 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions on 31/40 through the air.
The winning points came on Garrett Bartley’s second field goal of the game, this one from 38 yards with 4:42 to play.
After a field goal-plagued first quarter, Reggie Bush and Marquis Colston gave the Saints a comfortable lead with touchdown catches in the second quarter. Bush would catch a second touchdown in the third quarter, upping New Orleans’ lead to 23-9.
Bush finished with 46 yards receiving and the two scores on six catches while also adding 33 yards rushing on six carries.
Colston finished with 54 yards on six catches and the score.
Touchdowns by Michael Jenkins and Jason Snelling in a nine-minute span erased the Saints’ lead and made the game 23-23.
Philly prevails in shootout with Giants
Whether it’s a defensive struggle or a shootout, if the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants are playing each other you can bet it was hate-filled and compelling.
Sunday night it was a shootout, and once again it was compelling; this time Philly came away with the win 45-38.
The Eagles caught some big breaks early in the game: a Sheldon Brown fumble return touchdown from 60 yards put the Eagles up 14-0 six minutes into the game, and a DeShawn Jackson 72-yard punt return for a score extended their lead to 24-10.
Jackson finished with 83 yards on returns and 178 yards receiving on six catches.
Michael Vick scored his first touchdown in just under three years on a one-yard touchdown run with ten seconds to play in the first half.
Despite losing, Eli Manning was on top of things for the Giants offense. Manning went 27/38 for 391 yards and three touchdowns. Manning’s scores were to Hakeem Nicks from 68 yards, Domenick Hixon from 61 yards on his only catch of the game, and Kevin Boss from four yards.
Nicks finished with 110 yards on four catches.
Boss finished with 70 yards on seven catches.
Chargers extend win streak to eight with win over Cowboys
Whatever was ailing the San Diego Chargers at the beginning of this season has been flushed out of their system. After the team’s 20-17 win over the Cowboys, the only question remaining seems to be whether or not they are going to be a playoff spoiler for one of the AFC’s big boys.
The Charger offense never skipped a beat staying slightly ahead in a game that was basically even the whole way. The teams ended up almost even in first downs, plays, total yards, penalties, time of possession, and were both 2/4 in the red-zone.
Rivers lead the way for San Diego throwing for 272 yards, a touchdown, and an interception on 21/32 passing.
Vincent Jackson was Rivers’ favorite target, pulling in seven passes for 120 yards.
LaDanian Tomlinson put the Chargers up 7-3 in the first quarter with a short touchdown run, and finished with 50 yards on 21 carries.
Despite the fact that his second touchdown throw came with two seconds to play, Tony Romo did have a pretty good game. Romo went 19/30 for 243 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions, his touchdown throw to Miles Austin on the final play of the third quarter tied the game at ten.
Austin caught six passes for 71 yards in the game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Time is ticking people. As the end of the regular season approaches, some teams can feel the tougher end of their schedule wrapping tighter and tighter around their necks. Pittsburgh lost some big ground imploding against Cleveland while Green Bay and Philly are making big strides in pulling away with those two wild card spots and making the AFC’s be the only fun wild card race this year. Despite winning, New England can’t escape the rest of their division as they still only have one game on Miami and the Jets while the Titans (who started 0-6) and Texans are still in the hunt for possible playoff spots, as is San Francisco with their win over Arizona giving them a seasons sweep over Warner and the Cardinals. As of now, eight teams are still alive for the AFC wild card spots and five in the NFC. At the end of this week, that number will shrink and the scope of the league’s football for the final few weeks will focus on the select few that are still alive and kicking. This will mark the end of the pileup of teams going for playoff spots as, win or lose, some teams have just run out of time. And then, it’s all a countdown to the playoffs all the while waiting to see who will still be around.
