Displaced Cleveland Fan

These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 15 game here.

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As long as it’s still the regular season, the Colts are the NFL’s best team.

Indianapolis beat Jacksonville in a wild Thursday night game, 35-31. The win is the Colts’ 23rd straight regular season win, an NFL record. The Jaguars gave them all they had. But in the end, the Colts were just the better team.

Peyton Manning threw for 308 yards and 4 touchdowns. Dallas Clark caught two TD passes. Reggie Wayne and Austin Collie had one each.

The Colts are now 14-0 and their remaining games are against the Jets and the Bills. Both are winnable games, if Indy wants to shoot for 16-0. They may choose to sit some of their key players in view of the playoffs though. They do have the #1 seed in the conference wrapped up. 16-0 means nothing without  a Super Bowl (just ask the Patriots).

So what should they do? Play the reserves, but play to win. After all, you never know when you might need them for real. Might as well try to win with them instead of kill time with them.

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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 14 game here.

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The New York Giants accumulated 512 yards of offense. They won the time of possession battle (34:46 to 25:14). They scored 38 points. And they lost. The thing that killed them was turnovers - 4 fumbles. One was returned for a touchdown.

The Philadelphia Eagles won a wild one in New Jersey last night with a 45-38 win over the Giants. During the high-scoring game, Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson tied an NFL record. He had a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown, and also a 60-yard reception for a score. The two scores brought him to 8 touchdowns of 50+ yards this season.

The Eagles are now 9-4 and in first place in the NFC East. Meanwhile, the Giants are 7-6, barely holding on to their playoff hopes after a 5-0 start followed by a 2-6 stretch. Their remaining games are against Washington (4-9), Carolina (5-8), and Minnesota (11-2).
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 13 game here.

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OK. Before any of you Patriots fans panic, your team is still in first place. But there is certainly cause for concern.

New England lost to Miami yesterday 22-21. This despite the fact that the Patriots were up 21-10 in the third quarter and the Dolphins were without their most dangerous offensive weapon — Ronnie Brown.

The Patriots were winning 21-19 when they punted the ball to Miami with under four minutes to play. All they needed was for the defense to make one more stop. Leading the Dolphins offense was second-year, backup to Chad Pennington quarterback Chad Henne. Surely New England would make this last stop and close out the game, right?

Wrong. Henne led the Dolphins 51 yards down the field in a drive that took just over a minute. It ended with a 41-yard field goal to put Miami on top 22-21. The Patriots tried to come back, but they couldn’t do it.

So now, while the Patriots are still in first place in the AFC East, they have fallen to 7-5, are only one game ahead of the Dolphins and Jets, and fell to 1-5 on the road this year. Of their remaining four games, it’s very possible they win three or four of them and get into the playoffs. But their failure to win games like this has got to worry New England fans.
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 12 game here.

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I typically post these recaps early Monday morning, even though there is still a game yet to be played on Monday night. But this week, I wanted to wait because of the game - New Orleans vs. New England. The Saints were trying to stay perfect against an always tough Patriots team.

What did we learn from last night’s game? The Saints are legit.

If there was ever any doubt, even after winning their first ten games, it was erased after their eleventh. The Saints piled up 480 yards of offense. Much of that came off the arm of Drew Brees who was 18 for 23 (78.3%) for 371 yards and 5 touchdowns.

When you have a team that plays this well against another one of the league’s top teams, especially this late in the year, you have to be thinking about their Super Bowl chances. If this team stays healthy, watch out. They’ve got to be the favorites right now.
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