Introduction
This week was full of defensive battles as we saw in the Miami Dolphins-Baltimore Ravens game, the Tennessee Titans-Jacksonville Jaguars game, the New England Patriots-Dallas Cowboys game, as well as a few others. This week we also saw the last of the unbeatens go down as the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Cincinnati Bengals. Right now, let’s take a look at the week’s top five games.
5: Philadelphia Eagles 28, New York Giants 10
In Philadelphia, Donovan McNabb showed his detractors why Andy Reid never benched him early in the season, passing for 314 yards and two scores in the Eagles rout of the Giants.
The Eagles are now officially on a hot streak, winning seven of the last eight after two embarrassing losses at home to start out the season.
The Giants cannot say the same about themselves, looking terrible in their last two games. The Giants repeatedly had good chances to score or make a big play, but could not come up with anything.
The Giants are now 4-6 and now most likely out of the playoff hunt while the Eagles are tied for first place in the NFC East.
4: Miami Dolphins 9, Baltimore Ravens 6 (OT)
At Pro Player Stadium, the Dolphins survived an ugly outing by their offense and managed to pull out a win versus the Ravens.
Both teams gave each other opportunities, but it wasn’t until Olindo Mare’s field goal with 8:48 left in OT that one team took advantage of any opportunity.
The Dolphins offense looked terrible, with Ricky Williams barely getting over 100 yards on a whopping 36 carries and failing to gain a yard on seven consecutive carries, while Brian Griese matched Williams’ ineptitude, throwing just 13 completions in 32 tries for 126 yards and a pick.
The Ravens offense, however, looked just as bad. Anthony Wright—who you might remember from his days as a Cowboy two years ago—went 14 of 25 for 112 yards and two picks. Jamal Lewis also lost a fumble that set up the game winning field goal.
3: Cincinnati Bengals 24, Kansas City Chiefs 19
In Cincinnati, the Bengals made good on a guarantee by wide receiver Chad Johnson and eeked out a win against the now 9-1 Chiefs.
The Bengals skill position players shined on Sunday, with Rudi Johnson running for 165 yards, Jon Kitna throwing for 233 yards and two scores, and Peter Warrick, catching six balls for 114 yards and a score and returning a punt for another touchdown. The Bengals defense also played a big part in the victory, shutting down Dante Hall and stuffing Priest Holmes to just 62 yards on the ground. The Bengals are now tied atop the AFC North with the Ravens for the first time in 13 years, the last season they had a winning record.
2: Green Bay Packers 20, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13
In Raymond James Stadium, the Packers ended the Buccaneers’ playoff chances for this year with a steady dose of running by Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport.
The big story of the day was another close loss by the Buccaneers. Led by Warren Sapp, the Bucs are being exposed as a team that cannot stop the run and is getting increasingly older as the season wears on.
Penalties have also been a problem for the Bucs this year, and that was summarized when three straight flags were thrown against the Bucs, all inside the Bucs four-yard line, which pushed them back all the way to inside the one-yard line.
1: New England Patriots 12, Dallas Cowboys 0
At Gillette Stadium, the Patriots are making their case as the best team in the NFL, and prevailed in the Bill vs. Bill Bowl against the Bill Parcells-led Cowboys.
Bill Belichick used a game plan to stuff the run and let young quarterback Quincy Carter make mistakes, which is exactly what he did. Carter threw three picks, two to Patriot cornerback Ty Law, and ended the game with just 207 yards passing and no touchdowns.
While Tom Brady was ineffective for most of the game, he did not commit any turnovers and broke 200 yards passing while effectively reading any blitz that the Cowboys threw at him. The Cowboy offense never got in gear, and never even got into position to attempt a field goal.
Now that we have seen some results from some of the league’s best games, let’s look at how some local teams did this Sunday:
Indianapolis Colts 38, New York Jets 20
In the RCA Dome, the New York Jets slide out of the AFC playoff race continued as the Indianapolis Colts, behind Reggie Wayne’s 141 yard receiving performance, pounded on the Jets.
Houston Texans 12, Buffalo Bills 10
In Orchard Park, the Buffalo Bills continue to fall despite a very impressive 2-0 start as they lost to the expansion Houston Texans, who got a big game from both QB Tony Banks, who had 207 yards passing, and receiver Andre Johnson, who had 122 yards receiving.
Player of the Week: Bill Belichick
He’s not a player, but Belichick continues to be somebody who is grossly underrated in the NFL. He is probably the best scheme-maker (and that includes Parcells) and continues to prove it week in and week out. This week he had a better game plan in place then Parcells and it showed. All Belichick wanted to do was stop the run and see if the inexperienced Carter could win the game with his arm. Well, Carter did win the game … for the Patriots. Belichick should no doubt be Coach of the Year due to the injuries he has coached his team through. But hurry up, because this bandwagon is quickly filling up.
Disappointment of the Week: Quincy Carter
Keeping with the Cowboys-Patriots theme, everybody thought that Carter was the second coming of Troy Aikman when his team rose up to 7-2 this year with him as the starter.
Those same people also didn’t see that five of those teams he beat had losing records and were largely unproven, and that in his opening game, he lost to the lowly Atlanta Falcons.
Carter proved last year that he is a mediocre quarterback at best due to his knack of making mistakes at all the wrong times. This Sunday, in a game that meant more than just two 7-2 teams going at it, Carter showed why he should still be competing for a starting job with Chad Hutchinson by throwing three key picks. Carter didn’t even drive the Cowboys into scoring range, as evidenced by the fact that not a single field goal was attempted.
Watch out for: the Cincinnati Bengals
Yes, I am talking about those “Bungles” that have been the NFL’s punch line for the last decade. Head Coach Marvin Lewis finally has them feeling like they can win, and behind a cast of characters that includes three unknown Johnsons (Rudi, Jeremi, and Chad), a castaway quarterback from Seattle (Kitna), and a former first round pick who is finally paying dividends (Warrick). Riding high after knocking off the last of the unbeatens, the Bengals now face three games on the road (at San Diego, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore) that will go a long way to show if this team is legitimate or not.
