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 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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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting.

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We had a wild game last night in Indy.

In a much anticipated game that lived up to all the hype, the Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots in the final seconds, 35-34. With the win, the Colts improve to 9-0 and are two games ahead of the next closest team in the AFC in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs.

It looked like the Patriots were going to hand the Colts their first loss of the season. Early in the 4th quarter they scored a touchdown to go up 31-14. Peyton Manning led the Colts back and cut the lead to six points after a touchdown with 2:23 remaining. The Patriots next possession defies all logic.

The Colts, by holding the Patriots offense and using their time outs, left New England with a 4th and 2 on the Colts’ 28 yard line with 2:08 to play. Common sense says you punt in this situation. Inexplicably, Patriots coach Bill Belichick decides to go for it. On the 4th down play, Tom Brady completed the pass, but his receiver was tackled just short of the first down line. This gave the Colts the ball inside the 30 yard line. It took Manning just four plays to get into the end zone, connecting with Reggie Wayne for the winning score with 13 seconds left.

For as much of a football genius Belichick is supposed to be, he sure made a bonehead call here that cost New England the game.
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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 4 game here.

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Who’s the best quarterback in the NFL? Tom Brady? Drew Brees? Eli Manning?

My pick is Peyton Manning. For the past few years, he has been the best QB in the league. Yes, I realize that many will challenge that statement. But if I were able to build a team around a quarterback, any quarterback, it’d be Peyton Manning. Hands down. No question.

This week against the Seahawks, Manning through for 353 yards on 31 of 41 passing (75.6%) and 2 touchdowns. Through four games this season, he’s completed over 70% of his passes, averaged 334 yards a game, and has 9 touchdowns.

He also reached a milestone this week with his 342nd career touchdown pass. This ties his with Fran Tarkenton at third on the NFL’s all time list of most career touchdown passes.

I’m not really a Colts fan. But I do enjoy watching their offense play with Manning under center.
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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 3 game here.

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Eric Mangini’s former team, the New York Jets, improved to 3-0 after beating the Tennessee Titans 24-17.

According to ESPN, Rookie QB Mark Sanchez (the one the Browns could have taken in the draft, had they not traded down) became the first rookie QB to start and win his first three games.

Meanwhile, the Browns have Mangini yanking Brady Quinn out of the game after the first half in favor of a 3 interception performance by backup Derek Anderson. Just for fun, let’s compare the stats from these two QB’s:
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