Week 5 was a very emotional week around the league for players, coaches, owners, etc alike. The passing of a football legend occurred on Saturday when Al Davis passed away at the age of 82. Al Davis was the longtime owner of the Oakland Raiders and lived by the montra "Just Win, Baby", and his team took that to heart going up against the Houston Texans this week. They did their late owner proud and came away with the win. Granted, Oakland did not play one of their best games. But they stayed with it and showed their true colors winning by a final of 25-20. Going into an easier stretch of their schedule, don't be surprised when you hear the words Oakland and playoffs in the same sentence coming to the close of this season.
The passing of Al Davis is truly a tragedy for this league and its effects will be felt for weeks to come. He was always the person everyone loved to hate. Always making very questionable calls and odd draft picks (kicker Sebastian Janikowski was a first round draft pick for the team) people always took shots at him. But over his tenure as the owner of the Oakland Raiders he has built a very respectable franchise and worked with greats such as John Madden and Jim Plunkett.
A Hall of Fame owner that will not soon be forgotten.
Elsewhere around the league, the presence of the saying "Just Win, Baby" was heavily felt. Big upset wins by the Bills and the Seahawks shook up the league a bit and created some headlines that I will get into further down the article.
But first I gotta talk about my Patriots.
Big Week 5 match-up for them facing off against bitter rival and divisional opponent the J-E-T-S SUCK SUCK SUCK (god that feels good every time). With the Bills, another AFC East team, pulling an upset over the Philadelphia Eagles during their 1 o'clock game, the Patriots match-up had a lot greater implications.
Scenario 1: Patriots win and Jets lose. Puts the Patriots in a tie for first place in the toughest division in the NFL (I think) and technically in second behind Buffalo (the Patriots one loss) and the Jets fall to 2-3 and have a big hole to crawl out of.
Scenario 2: Patriots lose and Jets win. Would have dropped the Patriots into a tie for second place (technically third because of losses to the Jets and Bills) at 3-2 and given the Jets momentum in the division and, as Tim Thomas would say, pump their tires going forward in their schedule.
Thank god scenario one happened.
All week, per usual, the Jets were talking about their game-plan to stop Brady and how their offense was going to show its dominance and players were saying how much they hated Brady or the Patriots in general. The Patriots took all that chatter and turned it around on Rex Ryan and his team. Brian Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan wanted to go back to their "ground and pound" style of offense and just grind out runs and ware out the defense.
Bill Belichick said hey we can do that too.
Led by Benjarvis Green-Ellis, the Patriots out grounded and out pounded the Jets defense to a 30-21 victory. "The Law-firm" (Green-Ellis) had a career day with 136 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns on 27 carries. This running back is a quiet little stud. Since the beginning of last season, he is leading the league in touchdowns with 18 and averages 4.3 yards per carry for his career. He got a heavy workload this week with Woodhead out with an injury. He took over Woodhead's role as pass protection this week and delivered.
Over the course of the game, the play selection for New England was relatively 50/50 with 35 running plays to 33 passing plays, unexpected after the type of numbers Brady has put up the first four weeks of the season. But Coach Bill was smart and went all the way back to that stupid playoff loss last season and studied that defense. They frequently put six or fewer players in the box, practically encouraging the Patriots to run the ball. But with a lacking run offense, they would come out throwing, and play right into the Jets' defensive strength. He knew he needed to build up the running squad for this game. And it paid off well.
I'm going to end this rant with a follow-up to my post last week about GQ Jr. Mark Sanchez. After his the absolute beating he took last week against Baltimore he had a chance to show his mental toughness this week. That didn't happen. This entire game and in articles I've read this morning I have come to this hypothesis.
Mark Sanchez is a baby.
Reference number one to back up this theory. During the broadcast of this game, one of the commentators said that during practice this week, the offensive coordinator and coaches took away Sanchez's privileges of reading the defense and making play calls at the line and left those duties to veteran center Nick Mangold.
Reference number two. In this article by Rich Cimini right here he talks about how Sanchez's ability to change play calls or make audibles were limited in order to "reduce his mental burden." Where's Ochocinco when I need him. CHILD PLEASE! If Mark needs to be babied like this week to week then he's more of a princess than I thought.
Anywho now onto what I learned from this weeks games.
1) Heisman Part 2?
Jesus Christ Cam Newton. We get it. You wanted to prove that you were an NFL caliber quarterback. No need to go ape shit all over the league and put up numbers saved for future Hall of Famers.
This week Newton and his Carolina Panthers faced off against the offense heavy New Orleans Saints. Anyone see that kind of shootout coming? The final score of the game was 30-27 and it really did come down to the final possession for Drew Brees and his offense. Newton put his team ahead in the beginning of the fourth quarter. Unable to get any sort of drive going with 10 minutes left in the fourth, there was more than enough time for Brees to get his team downfield and score the game winner.
Carolina has been a struggling franchise for a few seasons now. To see the addition of Cam Newton have this sort of ability to keep them in games against such top-tier teams really means something. The addition of a few more pieces and they could be the next Detroit Lions. Granted, their record says 1-4. However, consider the fact that their 4 losses have been by a combined of 22 points... that's a step in the right direction if I've ever seen one.
2) Speaking of 1-4
Hey Philadelphia. Uhhhh whatcha doin over there? Oh losing more football games? Ok that's cool have fun with that. Us analysts are just going to sit here and rip you a new one if that's cool.
Yet another loss for the
So who/what is to blame for the Eagles lackluster season thus far? Is it team chemistry, coaching, player ego? I would say the blame has got to fall on Andy Reid their head coach. His players don't look like they are well disciplined at all, example Juqua Parker jumping offsides on fourth and inches with little to go in the fourth quarter to extend Buffalo's drive and eventually end the game, they're unorganized, and haven't quite gelled yet. So here is the proposal.
If not now, then when?
They have got to step up their game and start winning or a lot of that staff will find themselves on the hot seat by the end of this season.
3) Quiet Thunder
Has anyone been watching the San Francisco 49ers? Well just a heads up, they're 4-1 and 2 games ahead of the Seattle Seahawks in their division.
This past Sunday they laid a 48-3 smackdown on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. At this point last season, the 49ers were 0-5, players were revolting, and Mike Singletary was shooting lasers out of his eyes at anyone that got in his way.
Enter new head coach Jim Harbaugh.
He has taught his team patience, encouraged them to learn the reason why they run certain routes or why they need to be in this specific spot for this play, and formed a single unit that plays together. And as Delanie Walker said after the game "You act like your coaches." Harbaugh wants to know everything about everything pertaining to his team. He attends all meetings that pertains to his players, he spends time with his players, he is a piece of this squad.
Their quiet efficiency has gotten them this far. This week, quarterback Alex Smith only threw 19 passes and completed 11 of them for 170 yards... but 3 touchdowns. Oh and he sat out the entire fourth quarter. Frank Gore, the most important piece of their offense, has found himself back on the right track with a 100 plus yard game for the second week straight. But their defense if just as quiet as their offense. No huge names, no flashy plays. Just the ability to shit down a team's run game and the ability to turn the ball over.
It's no wonder why they have been winning games.
4) The Tim Tebow Watch
Grantland has recently become one of my favorite sports blog collections to read. In their weekly wrap-ups for the NFL they include something called The Tim Tebow Watch. It's a collection of Tebow's actions at different points through the four quarters. Up until this point it has shared things such as:
"Tebow is fully suited, mouthpiece in, and helmet on. Waiting for the coaches call."
"Tebow is stretching again on the sideline. Man this guy stretches a lot."
"Tebow is on the sideline by John Fox (head coach) with helmet in hand and a properly fitted and adjusted hat on."
Well wait no longer. The Tim Tebow Watch is in full effect. He finally got the chance that all of Denver has been asking for. Starter Kyle Orton was benched after halftime and replaced with Tim Tebow to see what would happen. Orton has yet been able to inspire any sort of spark in this Denver Broncos' offense and has quite frankly been terrible (record of 6 and 22 in his last 28 starts). Tebow came into the third quarter behind by 16 points to the San Diego Chargers and somehow managed to give his team a shot by the end of the game.
As in he almost won the game.
As in he showed promise of actually having some sort of talent.
Tebow scored two touchdowns in his two quarter span of commanding the team and they looked alive and glad to see him on the field. It came down to a hail mary at the end of the game and it was almost caught in the back of the endzone, but Denver fell 29-24.
So now after seeing this game fans and coaches have got to be saying it's time for some Tebow. With the team sitting at 1-4 going into a bye week this week, John Fox has got to make the swap. For the sake of his team. For the sake of the team's fanbase. For the sake of all humanity! Too much? Maybe. It'll be interesting to see how he fits into this offense and what types of changes the Broncos make to their playbook to adapt to his style as a quarter back.
Quick Hits
The frail Pittsburg Steelers beat the Tennessee Titans this week off of Roethlisberger's 5 touchdown tosses. Big Ben powered through a sprained left foot and rallied his injury ridden troops to pull out a big win... The Seattle Seahawks upset the New York Giants despite a minor pectoral injury to starting quarterback Tavaris Jackson. Despite Charlie Whitehurst winning this game, coach Pete Carroll stated that Jackson will still be the starter after this weeks bye... In Houston's loss to Oakland, they lost key defensive figure Mario Williams to a pectoral injury. It was confirmed today that he could be done for the season. The Texans are now 20-24 in games decided by 7 points or fewer... Rookie Andy Dalton out dueled other rookie Blaine Gabbert in a 30-20 win for Cincinnati.
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