Monday, November 16, 2015

Week 10 of the NFL Was Unbelievably Crazy



If you’ve followed the National Football League for any length of time, you’re aware that strange results and crazy plays are not uncommon, but, even so, the level of craziness we saw across Week Ten was through the roof.

Where to start?

Green Bay

Why not up north? Green Bay dominate all comers at Lambeau Field. It’s not called the Frozen Tundra for nothing. The Packers are especially adept at turning the venerable stadium – perhaps the most famous of all National Football League venues – into a desolate graveyard for their NFC North rivals the Detroit Lions.

It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since the Lions have won in Lambeau Field. Back then, Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’ was the number one song in America, and George Bush Sr. was in the White House.

Who in their right mind would ever have thought that the Lions of 2015, winners of just one game and likely to be the subject of a major franchise clean-out at seasons end would be the team to break a winless drought in Green Bay?
More than that, the Packers, after starting 6-0, have lost three straight, and relinquish their hold on the NFC North Division with a Minnesota win over Oakland.

Peyton Manning

Early on, it was a great day for Manning. He broke Brett Favre’s all-time passing yardage record – an incredible achievement that should assure Manning’s legacy as one of the greatest ever. But things went downhill after that, and did so quickly. Actually, the warning signs had been there early.

Before breaking Favre’s record, Manning had tossed an interception. He proceeded to toss three more, and recorded a QB Rating of 0.1. That’s the worst such rating in the last ten years.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Gary Kubiak, tiring of Manning turning the football over to the Chiefs (who led 19-0 at the time, and would go on to win) and pulled him. That’s right, Peyton Manning was benched in favour of the tall timber from Arizona State, Brock Osweiler. It was perhaps the most shocking event of all on a Sunday with plenty to shock and surprise. Seeing Manning healthy and watching on from the sidelines was something I never expected to see.

Kirk Cousins

The quarterback situation in Washington isn’t great. You don’t need me to tell you that. It’s been a circus with Robert Griffin III, Colt McCoy and Kirk Cousins over the last few years, but the much-maligned backup-turned-starter Cousins turned on a performance for the ages, recording a perfect Quarterback Rating of 158.3 as the Redskins destroyed the New Orleans Saints – a surprise in of itself -47-14. He went 20-25 for 324 yards and four touchdowns on a very good day for a Washington team that hasn’t had too many this season.

Now, be honest, of all the quarterbacks out there in today’s NFL – Brady, Newton, Dalton, Palmer – I bet Kirk Cousins was right at the bottom of your list of signal-callers you thought would record a perfect rating. Especially after some downright horrible performances this season. Cousins almost looked like a legitimate franchise quarterback out there! Told you it was a crazy NFL Sunday!

Jacksonville

One of the worst teams in the NFL for the last few years, the Jaguars, although improving, still hadn’t won on the road since the 2013 season, and, of course, it came at the end on a suitably crazy play. With no time outs, the last play – or so we thought – was QB Blake Bortles being sacked at midfield, thus ending the game. Right? Wrong. Because Baltimore’s Elvis Dumervil put in a nomination for Bonehead of the Year, bringing down Bortles squarely by his facemask. Flag, fifteen yards, game-winning field goal.

New York Giants

Tom Coughlin needs to hang his head in shame. Not for the first time this season – in fact, it’s easily, like, the third time – the irascible Giants head coach completely forgot how to manage the clock late in the game, with his team on the doorstep and poised to take a lead over the undefeated New England Patriots. Coughlin opted to pass the football rather than run it when in the red zone, as a result, didn’t take enough time off the clock en route to capturing a narrow two-point lead, courtesy of a field goal.

It turned out to be a fleeting lead, because Tom Brady had too much time on the clock, and Giants fans had that “Oh no!” feeling in their stomach. Although, Brady did his best ‘bad quarterback’ impression, seemingly trying to gift the Giants a win by popping up a punt-like throw to Landon Collins who, inexplicably, dropped what would have been a game-sealing interception. Yep, it was that kind of game for the Giants.

In the end, the Giants lost on a 54-yard field goal from Mr Automatic Stephen Gostkowski, who seems like he could nail them from the parking lot.

Arizona vs. Seattle

A safety after Russell Wilson ran into his own lineman, two consecutive possessions where Carson Palmer was sacked and stripped, a vintage Larry Fitzgerald performance – like it was 2009 or something – and a mammoth comeback for Arizona to score an important  39-32 win, but only after Seattle stormed back from as much as nineteen points down to lead for a while in the fourth.

This NFC West battle (one that actually ran into Monday morning on the east coast of America), had a little of everything, and was a fitting end to one of the craziest Sundays of NFL football I can remember. 

And wasn't it fantastic?

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