AFC East WEEK 7
Hmmmm…That was interesting. I’m fairly sure that I saw a cat and dog applying for a marriage license this morning (interesting, but that’s a debate for another forum) and all of the “no right turn on red” signs said left. This topsy turvey 2013 season has taught us a lot and this week may have been the most illuminating (so much that I thought about renaming this the “Week 7 Realizations”).
As always, we start with the week’s worst performer:
Ladies and Gentlemen let me introduce your New England Patriots! Even if there was not a never before seen penalty called at the most critical time (I mean that flag was the equivalent of a moving screen away from the ball with two seconds left), they would probably still be in this position. Tom Brady is old, there’s no two ways about it. He can’t throw a decent deep ball to save his life and he’s consistently off target on everything underneath. The return of Gronkowski, while so highly promoted (there were t-shirts available not 15 minutes after the announcement) was decent for Gronk, but a detriment for the team. Brady just locked onto Gronkowski for the entire third quarter no matter how many guys were covering him and ignored the WRs completely (who outside of just one drop by Thompkins and one bad comeback route by Dobson had a decent day running routes and beating guys deep). Oh yeah, that makes the first time in Tom’s career that he’s completed less than 50% of his passes in three or more games.
Now the defense, where to start? Maybe the 3rd and 20, 15, 14, 12 that they gave up? Maybe the 177 yards they gave up (well, it took the Jets 52 carries to get there…so no)? How about the complete ineptitude of Kyle Arrington? Yeah, let’s start there. Kyle Arrington is the luckiest man on earth, for some reason in 2010 NFL quarterbacks decided to band together and give Mr. Arrington about 10 easy interceptions (maybe he won a sweepstakes or something) and he has parlayed that into a pro bowl selection (voters are stupid) and a nice permanent place in Bill Belichick’s heart.
And what is that smell? I think it’s a rotten can of non-dolphin safe tuna in the dumpster. No, it’s just the Dolphins. I mean what the hell happened there? These guys sure are lucky the Pats played on Sunday, because losing to the Thad Lewis led Bills is usually a sure-fire way to earn the bottom spot. The “Terrible Twosome” of Mike Sherman (who is actually from the next town over from me and a very good friend of one of my Dad’s hunting buddies) and Ryan Tannehill might want to think about taking their show back to Texas. That was just plain awful. Tanny’s two bad picks (especially the pick 6 which was nothing short of horrendous) and game losing fumble were reminiscent of the Cleo lemon days. On the plus side, going into this weekend I had both Miami and Buffalo’s defenses on my fantasy team. I went with Miami. I chose poorly.
Now that we’ve dispensed with the losers (and I had a shower, because thinking about those teams made me feel dirty), we get on to the winners. It was a very fine line separating the top two performers this week, but coming in second were the Bills. Buffalo showed some real fight and the desire to win- something that this franchise was severely during the “Chan Dynasty”. The defense seems to be the opposite of the lowly Patriots, every week they get a pro bowl talent back from injury and they just keep getting better. The offense is a work in progress and is the reason that they are ranked where they are. The rushing game is a surprise to everyone in its mediocrity piling up just 90 yards all day and I’m pretty sure I saw a milk carton with a picture of CJ Spiller’s legs on it. But the quarterback. Thad has been the ultimate game manager, he won’t do too much, but he’s always in the right place at the right time and he’ll get you the win. I think it’s pretty clear that we’re watching the rise of the “Black Tom Brady” up there in Buffalo.
And this week’s top performer is none other than the circus that is also known as the New York Jets. The Jets made the Pats look like a Big 10 team in the second half on Sunday. I noticed in the first half how much Dan Dierdorf really loves him some Jets and the second half showed me why. When Geno isn’t throwing horrible passes to his opponents, he’s pretty darn good. If the Jets are lucky, he just might develop into the next Josh Freeman. And the front seven is definitely legit. Mo Wilk and company are beastly and Tom Brady definitely needed his footie pajamas and warm glass of milk after getting his ass handed to him all afternoon by those three. Most of us had the Jets pegged as one of the worst two teams in the league this year and they are not. I will admit that I was wrong and underestimated how much players love Rex. So kudos Rex you stand alone at the top of the mountain, let’s hope you stick around for a few more years.
Bonus section:
The real winners of the weekend were the Florida State Seminoles. Their 51-14 demolition of the House Cats in their own house was nothing short of shocking. Famous Jameis finished with 444 yards and three touchdown passing (and he added one rushing) and the ‘Noles wound up in the #2 spot in the first BCS poll of the year. If (when) the ‘Noles can look as impressive handling another undefeated top 10 opponent when Miami comes to Tallahassee in two weeks and if Florida get their act together enough to at least make it look like a quality win, they will have a good shot at meeting Alabama in Pasadena on January 6th.
Bonus, Bonus Section:
Go Sox!!! Boston Strong!!! (Sox win in 6)
By Vinny.
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