Week 15

Week 15 gave us some surprises and some answers

Cardinals@Rams: 12-6

What a boring game to watch. These days boring means run run run, this was two teams with good defenses and inept QBs. No offense, ultimately the better team won. 6 FGs was the story.

Cardinals needed the win to keep the Seahawks out of a first place tie. Rams basically playing for next year in Los Angeles.

Jets@Titans ; 16-11

Two teams playing with pride, and not much else; even had a major brawl after Geno was punched by a Titan. This was two bad offensive football teams, and the ref didn’t help any. The Jets won because in the end they wanted it more. A rare Geno game with no turnovers of any kind. Good game by Calvin Pryor until he got hurt and Coples. Titans are in worst shape at QB than the Jets are, sad, very sad.

Steelers@Falcons: 27-20

The Falcons like the rest of the NFCS are not good and cannot compete with any team that shows any kind of life. The Steelers dominated and should have actually put this one away earlier than they did. Brown was unstoppable and Big Ben took advantage of a suspect defense. Steelers are on the way to the playoffs, and sadly, this pathetic Falcons team may join them.

Redskins@Giants: 13-24

We got to see RG3 back in the game, Colt McCoy was injured and in came the prodigal son, the center of all that is bad with the Washington Redskins. The Giants are riding Odell Beckham in the hope of saving the HC from the firing squad. RG3 now may get to play the next two games, and I am sure that Gruden hopes the young man actually does well, because in the off season, Snyder will not be forgiving to whomever wants his “boy” out of town.

Dolphins@Patriots: 13-41

Unless you were a prisoner of the Taliban for the last 4 years, than you should have known how this game was going to end. NE doesn’t lose at home, not to Miami, not to any AFC team. The Dolphins kept it close until quarter 3, then the more talented team took over. This is the end of the road for the Dolphins, who now have to hope to finish above .500 and save Philbin’s job. The Patriots have two games to control home field advantage in the playoffs.

Raiders@Chiefs: 13-31

The Raiders gave the Chiefs a scare in Arrowhead, early on, but the home team prevailed with a needed win to keep pace in the WC. Raiders have played very hard and inspired under Sparano. Hard to believe, but coach Sparano may get another HC coaching job in 2015. They now go home and hope to spoil the Bills WC dreams.

Texans@Colts: 10-17

The Texans are what they are, a team with a few good players on offense and a few on defense, and no matter how hard you squeeze, they are a .500 team. Thinking they could go to Indy and get a step closer to a division title was a pipe dream, especially since this Houston team has never won in Indiana. Colts are well on the way, even with Luck having found his slinger mentality, these Colts will be fighting with the Patriots and Broncos, to get to the SB.

Jaguars@Ravens: 12-20

The Ravens are one of the strangest teams in the NFL this season. They win big one week and get outplayed at home by the lowly Jaguars. I really think the Jags deserved to win this one more than they did. I guess I just don’t think the Ravens are that good. Jags? Well, they will win another game before its all said and done.

Packers@Bills: 13-21

The Packers had been playing the best football in the NFL these last few weeks. Rodgers well on the way to an MVP caliber year, and the team looked poised to an easy ride towards a possible championship, but……stampeding in come the Buffalos! I wrote last week that I didn’t think the Bills would win, but wouldn’t surprise me if they did either. This is by far the best Bills team I have seen since the days of Bruce Smith and company. This defense is not as good as that one, but its a lot more opportunistic. The Bills have set themselves up for a possible playoff appearance. To do so they need to beat the lowly Raiders and the Patriots in Foxboro. Never easy to go West, and even harder to win in NE, but I will say it again, nothing about this year’s Bills surprises me, nothing. They win games even their fans never expected them to; be prepared Patriots, these are not the same Bills you beat earlier in the year.

Buccaneers@Panthers: 17-19

A game between two teams in the NFCS means a boring game, and it was. I actually watched it on a small screen while watching Homeland, because I really lost interest very quickly. The sad part is that the Buccaneers, at 2-11 entered this game with a shot at winning the division. My only interest was to watch Kelvin Benjamin and Evans, because I had them on my FF team and like their upside. Panthers won even without Cam Newton, and their dream of becoming the second team in recent memory to win the division and host a playoff games, with a losing record, is very much alive.

Bengals@Browns: 30-0

The Almighty Johnny Football made his much awaited debut, and suddenly Geno didn’t look so bad. Manziel has done a great job carrying the clipboard and cheering, why mess with that? The Browns flirted with a great season, but have reverted back to .500 and probably finish below that  yet again. The Bengals are playing good football, at the right time of year, but will they finally win a playoff game?

Broncos@Chargers: 22-10

The Chargers (aka Dolphins West) have begun their annual late season suck-fest. Except for early on ( lost to the Jets at home after a first round bye), every year since Mr. Rivers has been the QB, this team stinks big at the end of the season. Chargers will not be in the playoffs, again. The Broncos have started to play good football again, but is it enough? I think the league has caught up to Manning’s Denver Antics (old man trying to play young), and I do not see them back in the SB. I can see them losing to the Colts at home, after a first round bye.

Vikings@Lions: 14-16

The Vikings  put a scare in the Lions fans, as they took a nice lead, but just didn’t have the personnel to play with the NFC #2 seed. The Vikings will go to Miami and put a scare in them, and they may end up sealing Joe Philbin’s fate. As for the Lions, yes the Lions are currently ahead of Mr. Rodgers’ Packers and seeded second, WOW! Maybe the coaching change was exactly what they needed, and just maybe Jim Schwartz sucks as a HC (Beware, for all his success as a DC in Buffalo, he may not be your man!).

49ers@Seahawks: 7-17

Jim Harbaugh will not be in the playoffs for the first time since taking over Singletary’s team. A lousy year will be capped off with a departure from the city by the bay, but he may not walk to far, because across the bay, the Oakland Raiders will be all out to get him. Last week I wrote that it was not good news for the rest of the NFL, the Seahawks were back. Its not! This team still has the most balance of any of the others, and to stop them from winning their second SB will not be easy.

Cowboys@Eagles: 38-27

The Eagles lost some momentum since losing Folk, that was very evident as they played sloppy against division rival Dallas. I still think the Eagles make the playoffs, but they are not as tough an opponent as they were a few weeks ago. The Cowboys have benefitted so far, Romo has not performed his yearly ritual; but with two weeks to go, there is plenty of time. Bad news as their workhorse RB, Murray has a broken bone in his hand. Dallas has played far better than anyone expected them to, but how far can they go?

Saints@Bears:

I have to admit, I treated this game the same way I treated the Panthers/Bucs one, I watched it while watching something else. Two boring teams that cannot go away soon enough. The Bears have self destructed weeks ago, and nothing they did last night says that things will be better soon. This is a team full of self centered talented individuals with no direction. The Saints are coached by the most overrated self centered individual in the NFL.  Sorry, but how does a team that has one of the 4-5 best QBs of his era and a load of offensive talent, how do they play so inconsistent? A lot of the blame has been shifted to the defense, and they do suck, however, this team was built to score 30-40 every night, and their HC is supposed to be a genius when it comes to offense. One can only blame DCs so many times, before he must look in a mirror and say ‘time to move on jack!”