Week 7 Game Notes

Panthers over Redskins

Adam

• Cam Newton is a better athlete than Michael Vick.  Before you overreact, let me explain.  No, he’s not as fast as or as agile, but he’s easily the second-fastest starting quarterback in the league, and he combines that rare athleticism with the size and strength of Ben Roethlisberger.  Vick is as fast as anyone, but he’s barely 6-feet tall and 210 pounds soaking wet.  When you factor strength into the equation, Newton is the better overall athlete.
• The thing Newton was knocked for coming into the draft, his lack of accuracy has been one of his biggest strengths.  The kid is accurate, strong, poised: the complete package.  The Panthers hit a home run with this pick so long as Newton keeps working to improve.
• Steve Smith apparently just needed a quarterback; he’s the best receiver in football right now.
• The Redskins now look a lot more like the team we thought they would be heading into the season than what we thought they could be sitting at 3-1.  They don’t have a legit quarterback, and they lack playmakers. The defense though has some really special players.

Eric

• So, there’s John Beck for ya, Washington.
• This game was about Cam Newton though.  (Who else on Carolina could it possibly be about?)  Newton threw for 256 yards and a touchdown, rushed for another score, and only had five incompletions on the day.
• Newton has 7 rushing touchdowns through seven games.  The Panthers as a team rushed for 7 touchdowns all of last season.

Browns over Seahawks

Adam

• Let’s all just agree that this game never happened.

Eric

• I’m not even going to touch this one.

Falcons over Lions

Adam

• A really big win for the Falcons, they are too talented to linger around the .500 mark.
• Tony Gonzalez is now second only to Jerry Rice all-time in receptions, what a career for a guy who is still one of the best tight ends in the league in his fifteenth season.
• The Lions are developing an edge that I like.  They were feisty with both the Niners and Falcons in consecutive weeks, and I think that comes from fiery (read: maniacal) head coach Jim Schwartz.
• Calvin Johnson is so damn athletic, it’s not funny.
• If the Lions find a true feature back and a bolster the offensive line, this could be a top-2 offense in the league.

Eric

• The Upset of the Day Award goes to Atlanta for traveling to Detroit, the lions’ den, if you will, and knocking off the previously red hot Detroit Lions, who have now lost two-straight.
• The Falcons leaned on Michael Turner, who responded with 122 yards on 27 carries, so Matt Ryan wouldn’t have to do too much.
• Even with Julio Jones in the lineup, the Falcons are a running team.  Don’t forget that, Atlanta.
• In this game Tony Gonzalez moved into second place on the all-time receptions list.  Congrats, Tony.

Broncos over Dolphins

Adam

• Tim Tebow didn’t have amazing numbers, but he came through in precisely the way all of his supporters praise him for.  He was clutch, he improvised, he made plays on the run, and he made plays when it counted.  He also had one beautiful throw between triple coverage that looked like a big time, NFL-caliber pass.
• Yes, it came against a bad Dolphins team, but Tebow found a way to win.  If he keeps winning, nobody will care how pretty his spiral looks.
• The Dolphins stink.
• Tony Sporano is a dead man walking.

Eric

• For better or worse, anything the Broncos do from now on will all be attributed to Tim Tebow.
• For 54 minutes, Tebow and the Broncos couldn’t do anything against the Dolphins, but by erasing a 15-point deficit with just three minutes left to tie and force the game into overtime, that is all irrelevant.
• More than Tebow heroics I put this one on the Dolphins utterly disappearing over those waning minutes/overtime.

Jets over Chargers

Adam

• Memo to all quarterbacks: do not throw it near Darelle Revis.  He is having another monster year.
• Plaxico Burress finally broke out for the Jets, scoring three times and providing exactly what they need, a big red-zone target.
• Philip Rivers is not putting up near the numbers we are accustomed to with just an 83 passer rating.  His career rating is 96, and the past few years it’s been over 100.
• I’m not sure what is going on with him, but when he’s playing at his highest level, he’s behind only Aaron Rodgers and perhaps Tom Brady in terms of guys I’d want leading my attack.  He needs to get back to that level.

Eric

• Philip Rivers didn’t look quite right in this game.  By Rivers standards, he’s gotten off to a pretty terrible start to the season.  I hope he turns it around in the second half as I enjoy watching him put up video game numbers no matter who his receivers are.
• Plaxico Burress caught 3 touchdowns.  What is this, 2007?

Bears over Buccaneers

Adam

• Run the ball, Mike Martz.  Matt Forte is a stud, and your pass protection is awful.
• Marion Barber isn’t bad either, but he doesn’t seem to run with the same tenacity he used to.
• Jay Cutler is never going to change.  He will always make those few throws off his back foot that are just too stupid for words, and that’s why they Bears will never win a championship with Cutler leading the charge.
• Josh Freeman has not looked like the man we saw last year.

Eric

• Both quarterbacks were pretty awful in this game.  Who wasn’t awful was Matt Forte.  No player in the NFL accounts for as much of his team’s yardage as Forte, and in this game he accumulated 183 total yards and a score.
• Speaking of Forte’s touchdown, it is one of my favorite runs of the season so far.

Texans over Titans

Adam

• Arian Foster is a monster, and combined with Ben Tate, this is the best running back duo in football.
• When Andre Johnson gets back, this offense is scary.  It’s just a shame Mario Williams is out for the year.
• The Titans have been a Jekyll and Hyde team this year.  I can’t figure them out.
• Where are you Chris Johnson?

Eric

• This one wasn’t anywhere close.
• Props to Arian Foster and his 234 total yards and 3 touchdowns on the day.

Steelers over Cardinals

Adam

• Ben Roethlisberger has been playing great the past couple games.
• The AFC doesn’t seem to have a great team this year, so the combination of Steelers’ defense and Roethlisberger could be good enough to again make noise in the playoffs.
• The Cardinals fall to 1-5, and with the Rams winless at 0-6 and Seattle at 2-4, the 49ers might not have to win more than two additional games to take the division.  Honestly, do the Seahawks, Rams, or Cardinals strike you as teams that could win any more than six games?  That’s a stretch-and-a-half.

Eric

• After throwing for five touchdowns a week ago, Ben Roethlisberger continued to torch opposing secondaries, this week going for 361 yards and 3 scores.

Chiefs over Raiders

Adam

• The Chiefs have recovered from an awful start, but Matt Cassel just is not a very good quarterback.  Kansas City is still a very limited team.
• The Raiders gave up way too much for Carson Palmer.  Even if he plays well for a couple of years for them, he’s been on the decline ever since he tore up his knee in that 2005 playoff game.
• Oakland may still be a threat in the AFC West once Palmer gets a week or two to really get integrated, but once again the division seems like it’s the Chargers’ to lose.

Eric

• On a weekend with a whole heap of bad quarterback performances, this game took the cake.
• In a winning effort, Matt Cassel finished with a 38.3 passer rating.
• On the other side, the Raiders used three quarterbacks, all to equally dreadful effect.
• Kyle Boller started the game and was pulled after throwing three interceptions.  His passer rating was 22.3.
• Replacing Boller was someone who had been with the Raiders less than a week and hadn’t been with any team since the end of last season, Carson Palmer.  Palmer completed just 8/21 passes; like Boller threw three interceptions, one of which was returned by Kansas City for a touchdown, also like Boller; and compiled a whopping 17.4 rating.
• Terrelle Pryor came in for one play in the middle of the game and committed a false start.

Cowboys over Rams

Adam

• Dallas wasn’t as bad as their 2-3 record indicated coming into this game, and they just needed a confidence booster game to get back on track in the wide open NFC East.  Beating the Rams by 27 is just what the doctor ordered.
• DeMarco Murray looked like a freak at Oklahoma but seemed a bit of an afterthought as an NFL prospect.  He now holds the Cowboy single game rushing record, ahead of Emmitt Smith and Tony Dorsett.
• The Rams are every bit as bad as 0-6.

Eric

• Wow, DeMarco Murray.  The rookie third-round pick from Oklahoma rushed for 253 yards, which included an impressive 91-yard touchdown scamper on his first carry of the game.

Packers over Vikings

Adam

• This game was closer than it should have been, only because Green Bay receivers dropped passes.  Still, any way you slice it, 7-0 is an incredible start to a season, especially for a defending Super Bowl champ.
• Aaron Rodgers is not real.  His passer rating on the season is 126.  The next closest is Tom Brady at 105.  In Rodgers’ worst statistical game this year, Week 3 at Chicago, he went 28/38 for 297 yards with 3 touchdowns and a pick, a 111 rating.
• Packer receivers lead the league in dropped passes, making Rodgers’ staggering numbers that much more impressive.
• Who cares about the Vikings?

Eric

• What’s left at 7-0 besides some nitpicks?  As might be expected, the Packer defense is behind the Packer offense, but I didn’t think it would look like this.  27 points to a rookie quarterback-led, outside threat-less offense?  175 rushing yards to Adrian Peterson?  Dom Capers has some work to do.
• Aaron Rodgers is the first player to ever post passer ratings of 110+ in each of a season’s first seven games.
• More on Rodgers: he went 17/20 passing in the first half.  Two of his incompletions were drops from his receivers; the third was a spike to stop the clock on the two-minute drill.
• Christian Ponder made his first NFL start and looked okay.  He still has a long way to go.
• Like the last time he faced a rookie quarterback, playing the Panthers Week 2, Charles Woodson intercepted Ponder twice.
• Minnesota blows another halftime lead as they were up 17-13 at the break.

Saints over Colts

Adam

• Florida Atlantic really had no shot against Alabama…oh wait, this was an NFL Score?  Yikes, 62-7 should never happen on a professional football field.

Eric

• Ouch.
• Curtis Painter trying to do a Peyton Manning impression (making all his play calls at the line of scrimmage, receivers’ routes and protection) is not a good strategy.
• The Colts are the only team in the league to be outgained in every game.

Jaguars over Ravens

Adam

• This seems to be the story of the Ravens over the past few years: tantalize us with offseason additions and the potential growth of Joe Flacco, yet the offense never quite gels, and the defense, while still powerful, continues to age.
• I like Flacco, like his arm, his demeanor, and I think he can improve, but he has to become more accurate and more adept at reading and manipulating defenses.
• As Terrell Suggs said post-game, it's not all that complicated.  Get Ray Rice and Anquan Boldin the ball more often, and let the defense do its thing.
• If Jacksonville had any aerial attack whatsoever, they could be a dangerous team, but this is a passing league and rookie Blaine Gabbert's still learning the ropes.  Jacksonville ranks eleventh in rushing offense, and their defense is top-10 in both passing and rushing yards allowed per game.
• This was a nice win for the Jags, but this team is in full rebuild mode.  I like their defense up the middle with Tyson Alualu, Terrence Knighton, and Paul Posluszny.  Maurice Jones-Drew is a great player, and Gabbert may develop into a good starter, but overall the cupboard is pretty bare.
  

Eric

• If aliens came to Earth and asked me, “What’s so great about football?” this is the absolute last game I would show them.  Well, scratch that.  This Sunday’s putrid Browns-Seahawks contest would be the last game.  Jaguars-Ravens would be second-to-last.

--from @AdamHocking and @jeuneski