Week 8 Review

Broncos 7 Ravens 30

Well in the preview for this game I said about how the Ravens defence had struggled over the past few weeks. The bye week has defiantly sorted that out. The Ravens D got back to it formidable best against a previously undefeated team, and were so dominant, the Broncos offense was only in Ravens territory 3 times. Joe Flacco did his usual game managing best; he threw for 175 yards and a TD. Ray Rice, who has proven himself to be the number 1 option at RB in Baltimore, ran for 84 yards and a TD. But this wasn’t as big of a blowout as the score line suggests, only 2 TD’s in the 4th made it look that way. The excellent Broncos defence kept them in this game until that point, even on the back of the offences struggles. The Broncos will win a lot more games this season because of that defence; they are just not built to play from behind. Kyle Orton, much like Joe Flacco, is a game manager, and will make few mistakes. This is great if you are leading, but he is unable to put the team on his back to mount a comeback. A great win for the Ravens to stop the rot, they are now back in the hunt in the exciting AFC North.

Texans 31 Bills 10
This game put one of the best passing offences (Texans) against a ball hawking secondary (Bills) , and the league’s worst run defence (Bills) against a struggling running team (Texans). Interesting?? Well it looked it as the Bills took an early lead, and the Texans supposed star RB Steve Slaton fumbled his first carry and was benched, game on! The passing game went as we expected, Schaub throwing for 268 yards, but also throwing 2 INT’s to that man Jarius Byrd again. The difference in the end was the Bills inability to put points on the board, and the emergence of Slaton’s replacement at RB – Ryan Moats. Moats ran for 126 yards and 3 4th quarter TD’s to seal the game, I wonder if Slaton’s job is now at risk? Big win for the Texans as they now improve to 5 – 3 in their pursuit of the Colts. The bad news for the Texans is the season ending injury to TE Owen Daniels; this may affect them as the season wears on.

Browns 6 Bears 30
This game went pretty much according to plan. The Bears managed to turn up the heat with their defence, and managed to force 5 turnovers from the Browns. Derek Anderson completed just 6 of 17 passes, and threw 2 INT’s. Brady Quinn did play a small part of the game, and who knows what is going to happen regarding the QB position in Cleveland. Matt Forte finally had a decent game for the Bears, running for 90 yards and 2 TD’s. The Bears hope he has now turned the corner, because his production has been missed. The Bears didn’t look great in this game (Cutler 225 yards 1 INT) but they had way too much for an abysmal Browns squad. They needed this win to, as their division looks to be very tough.

Seahawks 17 Cowboys 38
The Cowboys come out firing again at home, and look very impressive once again. I stated in the preview for this game that the Cowboys roster is full of talent, and this was very much in evidence as 5 Cowboys scored TD’s in this game. Tony Romo looked very good, throwing for 256 yards and 3 TD’s. The Cowboys defence got to, and sacked, Matt Hasslebeck, who had a decent game in the losing effort for the Seahawks. The Cowboys look like they can be a very strong threat as the season moves forward, and with the result in the Eagles / Giants game, the NFC East is going to be a great division to watch. This is another disappointing loss for the Seahawks, but even with their 2 – 5 record, they still cannot be counted out in the weak NFC West.

49’ers 14 Colts 18
The Colts manage to grind out their 7th win of the season, and their 16th straight regular season win. This is a very impressive stat, but the 49’ers played extremely well in this game, and gave the undefeated Colts all they could handle. The 49’ers D managed to get enough pressure on the great Payton Manning with their front 4, so that they didn’t have to bring any extra blitzers. This meant the other 7 defenders could clog up pass lanes for Manning and even though he managed to throw for 347 yards, he didn’t throw a TD. The TD pass for the Colts in this game came from Joseph Addai, in the 4th, to give the Colts the win. Alex Smith did start at QB for San Fran, throwing for 198 yards and a TD. Frank Gore played well for the 49’ers, as did rookie Michael Crabtree. With these attacking options, and a very good defence, I still believe the 49’ers can win a lot more games this year, and challenge Arizona in the poor NFC West.

Giants 17 Eagles 40
Well, another dismal performance by the Giants in a big game. Eli Manning really struggled to cope with the pressure that the Eagles D were putting him under. This coupled with the fact that the Eagles were getting big plays from all over the field; put them out of sight. The Eagles big play ability was there for all to see on just their 3rd play from scrimmage. Leonard Weaver took the hand off, and went 41 yards for the TD. The Eagles D stepped up, and Eli had his pass (1st of 2) picked off by Asante Samuel, which the Eagles quickly turned into 6 more. This set the tone for the rest of the first half, and after TD’s from WR’s Maclin and the customary big play from DeSean Jackson, the score at half time was 30 – 7 and the game was over. The NFC East is set up really nice now as next week the Eagles and Cowboys collide in another huge game.

Rams 17 Lions 10
In a week full of really exciting games, this was not one of them. In fact, with just a couple of minutes on the clock before half time the score stood at 3 – 2, wow! To break this 3 – 2 bore fest; the Rams faked a FG, and their kicker (Josh Brown) threw a 36 yard TD pass to Daniel Fells. Finally some excitement. The Lions got a TD and a 2 point conversion to tie the game at 10, which left the best player on the field to get the game winning TD. Rams RB Steven Jackson is having a really good season, apart from the fact he hasn’t scored a TD, until Sunday that is. Jackson ran for 149 yards and his first TD, to carry the poor Rams past the even worse Lions, so both teams now have 1 win each. So, over to you Tampa.

Raiders 16 Chargers 24
So could the Chargers keep up the pressure on division leaders Denver, and continue their dominance over rivals Oakland?? Of course they could. Rivers had a decent game throwing for 249 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT and Vincent Jackson had 103 yards receiving and 1 TD. The other big plus for the Chargers was that even though L.T only ran for 56 yards, he managed to get in the end zone twice. This was a huge win for the Chargers, even though it was expected. History tells us they will now get on a roll, and give Denver a real fight for the division title. If they are to do this though, they will have to begin next week in the Meadowlands against the Giants. Russell threw for just 109 yards for the Raiders, also 0 TD’s and 1 INT. He and the Raiders are very poor.

Jaguars 13 Titans 30
I hate to say it people, but I did call that this would be the week that the Titans would get their first win. Vince Young started the game, took care of the ball, and threw for 125 yards and 1 TD. He also ran for 31 yards. The explosiveness of RB Chris Johnson was the difference on the day. He ran for 228 yards and 2 TD’s. His TD runs were of 52 yards and 89 yards respectively. On the other side of the ball MJD ran for 177 yards, and his 2 TD runs were of 80 and 79 yards. Can we please get some run defence? The Titans looked back to the style that we saw from them last year, which is pound the ball (White also got 47 yards rushing). Will they now make a run?? Or will Young slip back into making mistakes?

Vikings 38 Packers 26
Brett Farve, the former Green Bay legend, returned to Lambeau for the first time, as a member of the arch rival Vikings. As he entered the field he received huge boos from the home fans, which I believe is to be expected. Did it affect his performance? Only in a positive way. Farve threw for 244 yards and 4 TD’s on his return, and showed the Packer organisation just what they had let go. The score was 17 – 3 Vikings at half time, as the Packers struggled to get anything going on offence. One of the main reasons for this was the fact they could not keep QB Aaron Rodgers upright. He was sacked a total of 6 times, 3 by Jared Allen. This has been a huge problem for the Packers all year, and one that needs to be sorted if they are to have any level of success this season. Rookie WR Percy Harvin made a few big plays for the Vikings offence, including a 51 yard TD reception. The Vikings now have a strangle hold on the NFC North, and will probably feel slightly aggrieved that they aren’t still undefeated, after the heartbreak loss to the Steelers last week.

Panthers 34 Cardinals 21
This to me was the shock of the week. We go on about the effectiveness of Kurt Warner, and how ineffective Jake Delhomme can be. In this game it was like they were playing for the opposite teams. Kurt Warner threw a total of 5 INT’s and also fumbled once. Delhomme on the other hand threw for 90 yards, 1 TD and most impressively 0 INT. As you can tell from those stats, Delhomme did not have to throw the ball much. This was due to the success of the Panthers running game. We knew this running game was there, it is what took the Panthers to the playoffs last year, but we did not expect it to show itself here, against the number 1 defence against the run. Williams had 158 yards and Stewart had 87 yards and 2 TD’s. This was exactly what was needed to take the pressure off Delhomme. This was a HUGE win for the Panthers as they try to pull themselves back into the hunt in the NFC South, it’s a long way back, but they have to start somewhere. This is typical Cardinals football. After a massive win on the road against the Giants last week, we were all believers. This week they make us all look rather stupid.

Falcons 27 Saints 35
Monday night football was a big game in the NFC South. The division leading Saints welcomed the Falcons to the Superdome. I thought we might be in for a bit of a shootout and we were not disappointed. Both QBs had good games Brees – 308 yards, 2 TD’s, 1 INT. Ryan 289 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT’s. Also the running game for both teams was very good as Turner went for 151 yards for Atlanta, and Thomas and Bell combined for 140 yards for the Saints. As you can tell by these stats the game was close right up to the end. The Falcons kicked a FG with 31 seconds left to pull them within 8 points of the Saints. They converted the onside kick to give them a chance. With just 3 seconds on the clock Matt Ryan threw the ball to the endzone, only to be intercepted by Saints safety Darren Sharper (his 7th INT of the year). This win takes the Saints to 7 – 0, equalling their best ever start, and puts them in a very commanding position in the division. The Saints go marching on!