Thursday, November 8, 2012

By The Pigskin Of Our Teeth, Week 8: Down And Around

Who does Doug Martin think he is? Adrian Peterson? (Buccaneers 36, Vikings 17)

Signal Finder: ATL @ PHI, NYG @ DAL, OAK @ KC


This will be the ultimate test. The Eagles in the Reid era have always won this game no matter how good the team has actually been. Wow. That was surgery assisted by an unwilling patient. Let's see how the Eagles respond. Three and out! AWESOME. It's bad enough that the Falcons are doing everything right, but the Eagles are giving them more help than they need with penalties, especially on third downs. That they've had the ball for all of 35 seconds hasn't helped, either. Shouldn't those turbines be spinning? It's pretty windy out there. Now the Eagles are starting to click. They needed that touchdown badly. What they didn't need to follow up with was Julio Jones running right past Asomghua. But then, he runs right past most people. Seriously, he cut inside and just took off. How do you slow those two down? Bump-and-run? I'm not sure.


These fans are not happy. Well, what there are of them. That said, credit to the Falcons: You can't play football better than they have in the first half. They're playing like they're trying to get out of town. I can't think of a single Eagles defensive player who's had a good game so far. This is the final play in Saints-Buccaneers last week. He's out of bounds. OMG A SACK! And it took Cedric Thornton to get it? Shameful. Lynch just made a good point: They should probably go for it regardless — they haven't stopped the Falcons yet. They're punting? Bad move. And there's the "Fire Andy!" chant. And even that's kind of halfhearted, partially because this stadium is half-full.


Ladies and gentlemen, stop the presses: The Falcons are going to punt. Hey, the Eagles have the ball at midfield. Or, rather, had. Blocked punt? No wonder the Falcons only did it once. Also, that's the first good thing Casey Matthews has done in two years. Well, that'll be that. In retrospect, that opening drive may as well have been a death march. The game after the bye week was like a lighthouse in the midst of the darkest, roughest seas, and now that that's gone out... (Falcons 30, Eagles 17)
(Patriots 45, Rams 7)

Well, the Jets are certainly seizing the wide-open slogfest that is the AFC East.



(Dolphins 30, Jets 9)

Well, that lasted, what, 25 minutes of real time? Brady Quinn wasn't the answer but we knew that and it's not because of this. That note Adam Schefter had about how long it had been since the Chiefs won a game with a quarterback they'd drafted is staggering, and next year probably isn't the year to fix that. (Raiders 26, Chiefs 16)

What's sad about this is that at this point, the rest of the division would be better served by the Cowboys winning even though all of the evidence says they have no shot. Also, why were there exactly two late games this week? Quirk of the schedule? Anyway, on to the action, and the Giants seem to be choosing the "bleed them out slowly" method, while the Cowboys seem to be choosing the "let's hand the game to them before halftime and get the humiliation over with" method. It's kind of ridiculous and hilarious at the same time. So... yeah. The Giants sniffed that screen out and Pierre-Paul made Romo throw it right to him. The rout could be on here. 



The Cowboys' goal-line offense looks like the Eagles'. Oh, there you go. They needed that badly. That and the interception have somehow turned this into a game. Now Romo's lighting up the Giants' secondary when it's not lighting itself up, though the complete absence of even the thought of a run game concerns me. Am I seeing this? Did the Cowboys just take the lead?






The Giants look completely discombobulated. That's... they're calling it an interception? Did it hit the ground?




And now it's down to between the guy you want the most in the fourth quarter and the guy you want the least. That penalty won't help. Field goal gives the Giants the lead back but they could have had more. Fumble!



The Giants did well to get points there. I have to say the Cowboys' defense has played pretty well for having a 29 on the scoreboard for the opposing team. More in the moment, I have to say the Cowboys' offense is running out of time here. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. The Giants' secondary strikes again — as bad a game as Dez has had, you still can't leave him that open. Wait... did he come down inbounds? I'm not sure he did. Oh, boy. You can see in high-definition that his fingers are on the end line. I'm not sure he had to brace himself the way he did... he probably could have just fallen straight down and he might have stayed in.




Why isn't he on the field? It's second down, you've gotta do the same thing again; wouldn't you want him out there? Oh, they're treating him. Did he hurt his hand? Wow, Romo, that throw wasn't even close.



Well, this division race is over.



Also, #OccupyJerryWorld.



Also also, it was a good day to be a Giant.



(Giants 29, Cowboys 24; Giants 4, Tigers 3; TAFKA The Giant 2, Sheamus 0)

Peyton Manning, ladies and gentlemen. (Broncos 34, Saints 14)

I'm pretty sure ESPN is the only channel not showing Sandy updates. Though Cardinals fans are probably wishing they were. The 49ers' receivers are running through and away from people. Same old story again. Or still. Patrick Peterson is getting used and abused. Been a few years since we've seen that Randy Moss.
Smith's only incompletion was Walker's drop? Jebus. Well, the Cardinals stink again. Order has been restored. (49ers 24, Cardinals 3)

RANKINGS:
TOP 4:
1. Atlanta (7-0): Seriously, people. Best team in the league
2. Houston (6-1): To the recharging stations
3. San Francisco (6-2): Got back to basics
4. Chicago (6-1): Something about gift horses and mouths

BOTTOM 4:
29. Carolina (1-6): Gave that one away
30. Jacksonville (1-6): Does anyone care?
31. Cleveland (2-6): Though their win probably says more about the Chargers
32. Kansas City (1-6): What's happened to home field advantage?

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