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– The Patriots’ assault of the Bills’ defense is nothing new, but this past week they took a new approach. A balanced attack featuring more runs than passes wore down an overhyped Bills defense – that allowed 48 points to the Jets, yikes – without Brian Waters and Logan Mankins.
The threat of the run opens up play action and the Pats have highlighted on it so far. They don’t look in sync with it yet, but we have to believe that with Tom Brady they’ll figure it out. The run/play action game will allow the Patriots to drain the clock without taking their foot off the gas at the end of games.
New England’s front seven continued their strong play, holding Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller to 62 yards on 21 carries. The Patriots’ secondary, which is still too big, can focus its attention on limiting the big play because of the other great play up front.
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– LeSean Mccoy still makes me feel funny things when he runs. The Eagles offense is at it’s best when he’s the focal point, allowing Vick to remain upright and monitoring turnovers. If the Eagles can avoid said turnovers and limit sacks, they have tantalizing talent and are a threat to beat any team.
Desean Jackson’s touchdown was a how-to on route running. Peering over his inside shoulders while feinting a pass down the seam allowed him separation when he broke to the corner – a solid example example of how Jackson has improved since entering the league.
– I can’t get enough football, but I’m not on board with the constant flux of Thursday night games. Football is a violent sport and three off days before a game simply isn’t enough time to prepare and recover. Predictably these games have been sloppy. These games also distract me from productive things I could be doing and I already have Sunday and Monday nights for that.
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– It was fitting that Sunday night’s game was heavily influenced by the zebras even with the real refs back. No beef on the Ramses Barden call that took the Giants out of Lawrence Tynes range, but the Giants got there thanks to a questionable defensive pass interference call just before.
Let this be a reminder that in the NFL there will always be bad calls; football is a really hard game to officiate. From my perspective the replacements needed to go, but the Golden Tate incident was blown out of proportion. Monday night football, game ending play, storyline of replacement ref built in. Go figure.
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– Seattle is my team this year. I think Marshawn Lynch is the unstoppable force we allude to when speaking of immovable objects. There are three Pro Bowlers in the secondary and the defense is savage, especially playing behind their home crowd. Eventually they will need to stop playing to “not lose” with Russell Wilson, but it makes sense to do so now.
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– The NFC West is very much improved when compared to teams of recent memory. The Rams are respectable, dare I say the Cardinals and Seahawks are pretty good, and the 49ers are great. The NFC as a whole is like the Western Conference in the NBA. And like the East, the AFC only has a few teams you need to take seriously.
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– Interesting stuff in New York as running back and return specialist Joe McKnight is transitioning to corner in on the absence of Darrelle Revis. McKnight wasn’t thrilled by the decision, claiming he hasn’t played bumped uglies with receivers since high school. Perhaps Rex Ryan is onto something as McKnight hasn’t done much at running back since high school as well.
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– I’m in the process of backing off the Lions. Calvin Johnson remains the man, but they have so many knuckleheads and they lack professionalism. The Vikings on the other hand are making moves. Christian Ponder has developed quickly and they have two of the leagues most dangerous playmakers in Harvin and Peterson. Vikings > Lions in 2012.
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– Lastly I’d like to proclaim my disdain for Madden ’13. Why would you ever do away with the fantasy draft? Wouldn’t seeing your salary cap when trading, as it has been for years, be helpful? Pretty ripped about this. First world, unmotivated college student problems.
