My Week 14 Recap

[vancelot23]

We're in the process of closing out the season, and the good teams are showing it, while the bad teams are, well, really bad. This week the Packers flex, the Cowboys flop, the Jags romp, and the Broncos do it again.

Week 14 Power Rankings:

32. Indianapolis Colts-I really don't see how they could possibly win a game at this point. Move over Lions, you've got company.
31. St Louis Rams-Injuries have killed them, but injuries had nothing to do with not getting Stephen Jackson the ball on the goalline. That's pure idiocy.
30. Cleveland Browns-The defense held Pittsburgh to 14 points. Unfortunately for them, if a team can score 10 against the Browns, it's enough.
29. Tampa Bay Buccaneers-How bad is this team you ask? They gave up 41 points to the Jags, a team whose season-high up to that point had been 20 points. THAT'S MORE THAN DOUBLE THEIR PREVIOUS BEST. Raheem Morris, go stand in line with Haley and Sparano.
28. Kansas City Chiefs-Todd Haley goes from looking homeless on the sideline, to being jobless. Can a cardboard box be far behind?
27. Minnesota Vikings-Jared Allen and Percy Harvin are playing on another level. The rest of the team...not so much.
26. Buffalo Bills-At one point this year, beating the Bills meant something. Now it's just a chance to see if Steve Johnson will act like an idiot.
25. Miami Dolphins-Maybe the Chiefs and Dolphins should have just traded their coaches for the rest of the year. What could it hurt?
24. Jacksonville Jaguars-Maurice Jones-Drew is a real monster. The rest of the team are muppets.
23. Washington Redskins-Played pretty well considering they were without their starting LT and TE, suspended for being morons.
22. Carolina Panthers-Cam in the first half-"WOW!!!". Cam in the second half-"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
21. Chicago Bears-I would say they got Tebowed, but really, they got Barbered.
20. Philadelphia Eagles-Good thing the defense came to play, since the offense stayed home.
19. Oakland Raiders-With every interception Carson Palmer throws, Mike Brown's head swells one size.
18. Seattle Seahawks-I don't think there's much else to say about Marshawn Lynch. People keep trying to tackle him up high and bouncing off.
17. Arizona Cardinals-Don't sleep on Arizona. They've been in almost every game this year, even if they didn't win.
16. Cincinnati Bengals-The critics appear to be correct. They just can't beat good teams. Losing to a team on their 3rd QB and missing their #1 WR and top pass rusher has to be demoralizing.
15. San Diego Chargers-Getting it together lately. Can they pull of more December magic?
14. Dallas Cowboys-Two straight losses when they could have put the division away and Jason Garrett got the dreaded vote of confidence.
13. Tennessee Titans-Chris Johnson needs to decide if he's CJ2000 or CJ on the bench.
12. New York Giants-And just like that, they might have saved their season.
11. Atlanta Falcons-Can't fall behind like that against a better team, or their season will end prematurely.
10. New York Jets-Mark Sanchez tapped into his inner Tebow.
9. Denver Broncos-Tim Tebow still isn't a good QB, but you better believe that his team thinks he is.
8. Detroit Lions-If they can stop stomping on people, and shoving referees, they can beat anybody.
7. San Francisco 49ers-Can we say that they got Fitzgeralded? Nevermind, too hard to pronounce..but the Niners had no answer for him.
6. Houston Texans-They just keep winning.
5. Pittsburgh Steelers-Dodged a bullet with Ben's ankle.
4. New England Patriots-It's absolutely amazing to watch Brady and Gronkowski work other teams over.
3. Baltimore Ravens-They received the gift of playing the Colts.
2. New Orleans Saints-Held on for a good road win. Brees is unstoppable.
1. Green Bay Packers-How good are they? Their #1 WR goes down and nobody even flinches.

MVPs of the Week:

TJ Yates-All he did was throw for 300 yards and a last second GW TD against a potential playoff team.
Rob Gronkowski-Two more TDs and he's the new record holder for TDs in a season for a TE.
Maurice Jones-Drew-When you're the only threat on offense, and so the focus of the defense, and you still get 4TDs, you're OK.
Eli Manning-Lose and they're pretty much done, and then down in the 4th quarter, Eli brings them back. That's clutch.

Goats of the Week:

Marion Barber-Need I say more?
Rams coaching staff-Really? Jackson should be the ONLY option on the goalline, and Bradford clearly shouldn't have been in the game.
James Harrison-If his appeal is denied, he's hurting his team with an absence, and a penalty like that against an actual NFL team can change the game.
Carson Palmer-Is trying to fit as many INTs as possible into a short year for him.

Random Thoughts:

1. Only the fact that they have a few wins has the Rams over the Colts. I think the Colts would win head to head right now.
2. I know it looked heroic and all, but Ben shouldn't have played in the 2nd half of that game. No reason to risk further injury against the Browns.
3. Reggie Bush is quietly putting together a pretty good year in Miami.
4. Tebow's run is amazing but to those saying God is helping him win, just stop.
5. If I were a Bucs fan, I'd be embarrassed beyond belief in that team.
6. The 49ers year has been impressive, but I'm leery about picking them to win a playoff game.
7. The Seahawks are coming on, the Cardinals have quietly had a decent year, the Niners have been really good. The NFCW might be a good division next year.

 

[DanBengalfan]

shoving referees?

I must have missed that, sucks not having the nfl network ever since I talked my bill down.

 

[cincygrad]

I'd put Adam Jones on my goat list.

I'm not as high on Atlanta as you.

Otherwise, entertaining as always!

 

[DanBengalfan]

the Tebow thing really bugging you. It's hard to listen to people violate #3 (#2 in catholic version).

 

[flamingrey]

Losing 4 out of 5, and the 1 win barely eeking it out against the Browns. 1-6 against teams with a winning record. Being ranked 16th? Christmas must have come early this year.

 

[cincygrad]

Losing 4 out of 5, and the 1 win barely eeking it out against the Browns. 1-6 against teams with a winning record. Being ranked 16th? Christmas must have come early this year.

Who do you rank above them? Arizona is probably the only team ranked lower that I would think about moving and that's only because they've looked much better over the past month. Seattle is playing better, but we already beat them on their home turf. The Eagles are horribly inconsistent and the Bears are in serious trouble if they can't find an offense for the stretch run. The Raiders defense is an abomination and Palmer has thrown too many interceptions.

It's pretty sad how bad the back-half of this league really is.

 

[Servo]

I think the Bengals are ranked appropriately. Shocking how bad Tampa Bay has been this year. What's their excuse?

 

[DanBengalfan]

Losing 4 out of 5, and the 1 win barely eeking it out against the Browns. 1-6 against teams with a winning record. Being ranked 16th? Christmas must have come early this year.

The only thing saving us is A J Green's freakish ability to grab a ball out of the sky no matter where it is.

 

[DanBengalfan]

yes, I exaggerated. sue me.

 

[kramer1]

yes, I exaggerated. sue me.

Not really

 

[flamingrey]

Who do you rank above them? Arizona is probably the only team ranked lower that I would think about moving and that's only because they've looked much better over the past month. Seattle is playing better, but we already beat them on their home turf. The Eagles are horribly inconsistent and the Bears are in serious trouble if they can't find an offense for the stretch run. The Raiders defense is an abomination and Palmer has thrown too many interceptions.

It's pretty sad how bad the back-half of this league really is.

I would have Arizona and Seattle both ranked ahead of the Bengals. Power rankings are for how teams are currently playing, not how they were 10 weeks ago. Cincinnati and Seattle are both different teams now than when we played. I'm fine with everything else, but personally I would put Oakland ahead as well. They've lost 2 in ugly fashion, but at least one was against Green Bay. I believe they are the better team, even now.

 

[cincygrad]

I know you are a big Palmer guy, but I think you're being a little crazy here. They are 3-4 since the trade, they just lost 2 games by a combined 50 points, there defense is coordinated by Chuck Breshnehan, and their running game has been destroyed by injury. While the Bengals have certainly hit a wall, all of their losses in the past month have been to teams that will be in the top 4 seeds in the AFC, and only one of those losses did not come down to the 4th quarter.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Palmer started sucking when I made him my backup to Tebow in ff, sorry bout that rey.

 

[flamingrey]

I know you are a big Palmer guy, but I think you're being a little crazy here. They are 3-4 since the trade, they just lost 2 games by a combined 50 points, there defense is coordinated by Chuck Breshnehan, and their running game has been destroyed by injury. While the Bengals have certainly hit a wall, all of their losses in the past month have been to teams that will be in the top 4 seeds in the AFC, and only one of those losses did not come down to the 4th quarter.

I also know you hate Palmer, but I also think you're being a little crazy (see how I did that...unnecessary).

They are 3-3 with Carson as the starter with 2 of the 3 losses coming to Green Bay and a Denver team that has won 7 in a row. Nothing to be ashamed of. The 3rd loss came to a surging Miami team who had won 3 of 4 and lost the 4th in the final seconds. Their running game has been destroyed and doesn't look to be getting healthy anytime soon, but they've also been killed on the outside being down their 2 best receivers, but both of whom practiced at the end of last week. Assuming they're back this week, it won't allow teams to stack the box against Bush as they have been the last 3 weeks forcing Carson to throw to 3rd, 4th, and 5th stringers. Point being, they're better than they've played the last 2 weeks as they'll likely show next week.

The Bengals? Not so much. We know what they are. Dunlap will be back, but that's it. We're still screwed in the secondary, so the defense probably won't get much better as they've shown to struggle since the bye anyways even with a healthy Dunlap. Our last 2 games, Pittsburgh dismantled us in the 2nd game, and we lost to a 3rd string QB and a team without its best receiver. There is no way to sugarcoat that, not even by calling Houston a top 4 AFC seed. The week prior, we barely beat Cleveland and before that were handled by both Baltimore and Pittsburgh, but both of which we managed to make games at the end. Most did not agree with me then either, but those 2 games fool's gold imo. The Bengals haven't given me any reason to change my assessment.

As I said earlier, I'm fine with ranking the Bengals ahead of the Raiders, but I don't necessarily agree.

 

[flamingrey]

Palmer started sucking when I made him my backup to Tebow in ff, sorry bout that rey.

No need to apologize to me. But maybe you could address that to all Bengals fans as we'll gain all of maybe 4 draft spots if the Raiders don't make the playoffs and give ourselves almost a 0 chance of a 1st rounder in 2013.

Shocked you missed that one! [\sarcasm]

 

[DanBengalfan]

yep. maybe I should root for the Steelers and trade for Big Ben, then they can start losing.

 

[cincygrad]

TJ Yates also beat Atlanta, and while I'm not big on the Falcons, there is a good chance that they steal that last wild card in the NFC.

My doubts about the Raiders have less to do with Palmer and more to do with Chuck B - Though the two are related as the Raiders have had some games where they get down by large sums and then have to force the pass.

 

[vancelot23]

The back half of the league IS pitiful.
Seattle looked good the past two weeks-against a shitty Philly team and a horrid Rams team.
You said it's based more on how teams are playing now, and I agree. The Raiders have been blown out twice in a row, thus the ranking.
I considered ranking Arizona higher. They're better than their record.
I think Atlanta will make the playoffs. They're inconsistent, but when they play right, they can beat anybody.

 

[Tubbs1518]

Yep the Raiders sure are better. GB has only beat 1 team by a larger margin than them and that was the Vikings. a 30 point loss drops you. They aren't better than us by a mile right now. We have a better QB, WR's, TE, D, and probably O-Line. I'll give them RB with any of the 3 they got.