Well, well, well. When we looked are the schedule before the season week 7 looked like it would be a great one for the visitors of this site. One AFC East clash and two East vs North battles. Then the early season played out and the games lost some luster; Ben got hurt and the Dolphins, Jets and Ravens turned out to suck. But at least we got one surprise…
In last place we find a team that surprisingly hasn’t been here in a while; the Buffalo Bills. The Bills traveled down to Miami for a weekend of partying before their big tilt against the Pats on Halloween Eve. Unfortunately, they forgot that their itinerary also included a football game against the Dolphins. The Bills were able to doggy paddle and stay afloat in the first half, even though Tyrod Taylor looked as aware of his surroundings as an American foreign exchange student in Paris. He continually just stood in the pocket until a Miami defender made contact with him, lucky for him his greatest asset as a football player is his escapability. All in all going into halftime the Bills looked like they might just be able to sleepwalk their way to a narrow victory. But alas, their run defense returned to 2012 form and they allowed an average running back to shred them to the tune of 200+ yards. And the secondary even allowed stone hands Kenny Stills to rack up 100 receiving yards. All in all it was a bad vacation for the Bills, but lucky for them it doesn’t matter, Rex only cares about the Pats and the two games he gets against him each year. We all thought that this would finally be Buffalo’s year to break their streak, but alas probably not. Definitely next year though.
On the plus side, we only had one loser this week. So on to the “winners”…
In third place we find our old friends the New York Jets. Tensions and friction abound in New Jersey, as the Jets benched the Bearded Wonder, Ryan Fitzpatrick in lieu of old friend Geno Smith. Geno came out firing, he looked as if he really wanted to show the world that Sleepy Todd was right in making the change. Then, showing pocket awareness to rival our friend Tyrod, he got himself drilled and tore his ACL. Like any great teammate though, he returned to the sideline to support his club, only to openly rebuff the advances (possibly amorous) of the aforementioned Fitzpatrick who regained his starting job with young Geno’s injury. So Fitz got his job back and assumed the role of Captain Checkdown. At least he didn’t throw a pick and he did “lead” the Jets to victory over a club that still thinks they are great on defense. Lucky he believes in himself, because as he told us after the game, the coach, GM and owner certainly don’t (I’m wondering if someone forgot to tell him that he sucks and they gave him $12MM this year when the going rate around the league was $0). Speaking of defense, the Jets’ secondary actually didn’t give up a TD pass and lucky for them Joe Flacco is about as elite as a three week old pile of crab legs that have been left in the sun. Although “Straight Line” Mike Wallace did kind of have his way with Fat Revis to the tune of 120 yds. But hey, the Jets won and are now out of the running for the 1st overall pick. Who’s the top d-lineman available in the draft next year?
Second place is a little harder to discern this week, so I’ll go with a tie for 1st and I’ll start with the Dolphins. For the second straight week, the Fins got to face a team that was hailed as the 2nd best team in the AFC and who also happened to have the Pats on their schedule in the following week. And for the second straight week, they won. It was rough sledding for the Dolphins for much of the 1st half, although the pass rush looked pretty good for once. But the offense was the real story for Miami on this day. It looks like the QB whisperer is starting to work his magic, he made the formerly atrocious Ryan Tannehill look downright serviceable; completing a whopping 60% of his passes for a 204 yds and a TD. But really who needs a QB when you have the second coming of Earl Campbell or OJ Simpson at running back in the form of Jay Aj&^%yi. Jay picked up where he left off last week and absolutely embarrassed the Bills defense to the tune of 214 yds and a TD. Things are looking up Miami, maybe next year you’ll return to a Jeff Fisher-esque 7-9.
And the other team tied for first place is the New England Patriots. The Pats face the Steelers who were led by this offseason’s Brock Osweiler (he played ok for a game so some dumb team will pay him 83 gazillion dollars) in the form of Landry Jones. Jones looked OK, he even accomplished something that no team this season has against the Pats; he failed to score in the red zone. The Pats once again seemed content to play back and let their opponent have all of the short passes and runs they wanted (even though the Steelers’ best weapon without Ben is their RB…). Logan Ryan continued to suck horribly, but Malcolm Butler played his best game of the season registering an interception in the red zone and nearly picking off at least two more Jones throws. He even kept Antonio Brown out of the end zone, which is no small feat. The Pats offense was ho hum, they decided that this would be a day for the run and let Legarrette Blount carry the ball more times than he’s ever carried it in a game in his career, to great success (I use the word great very loosely here). Tom Brady only threw 26 passes, completing 19 of them for a meager 202 yards and 1 TD. Rob Gronkowski continued his dominance over the Steelers and even moved into a tie for most receiving TDs in Pats history with 68. In his words, “Next one is 69, you know what that means…” On the downside, once automatic kicker Stephan Gostkowski continued his decent into suckitude as he missed an extra point for the second consecutive week. Expect the Pats to draft a kicker next year.
That’s all, next week should be a fun one; the Bills get to face a Pats team not lead by a HS quarterback on their home turf. Should be wild.
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