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NFL update: contenders escape upsets

Roar Rookie
23rd November, 2012
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Roar Rookie
23rd November, 2012
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Early on in the initial slate of games, week 11 of the NFL season almost produced multiple upsets to contenders.

Atlanta, Houston, Green Bay and Tampa Bay all found themselves behind substandard competition only to stabilize themselves and through various ways, found themselves victorious in overtime.

The most remarkable of these was the offensive explosion in Houston between the Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Despite entering the contest with the league’s worst offense, the Jaguars accrued 458 yards against Houston’s fifth ranked defence.

Rookie receiver Justin Blackmon reminded everyone of the Saturdays in which he dominated college football defences again and again and made the Texans defensive backs look like they were playing for Kansas, not one of the best defensive units in the NFL.

Many times you can give quality teams credit for escaping with a victory somehow from a poor team that is playing its most important game, but these are traditionally games that are low scoring with the dominant team hampered by mistakes, which was a far different character of game compared to this game in which Matt Schaub tied for the second most passing yards in a single game in NFL history.

The Texans defence appears at times to be impenetrable but it has had occasional struggles. The most notable of these was Aaron Rodgers’ evisceration of the Texans on Sunday Night Football.

The Texans obviously can be given a pass for this, Rodgers is the best quarterback in the game, but it makes no sense at all that a team that looked to be one of the best in the league could allow such a moribund offense to compile such an enormous offensive display and almost win the game.

The Texans still hold the upper hand in the race for the top seed of the AFC but with Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Denver and New England close by, the Texans must not fall into complacency.

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Since Asante Samuel left in free agency, the New England Patriots have had a constant question mark in their secondary. Draft misses and free agency blunders have been numerous but their recent trade for Tampa Bay’s troubled cornerback Aqib Talib has finally given the Patriots a defensive back that quarterbacks and offensive coordinators will be wary of.

Talib returned an interception for a touchdown and the Patriots finally look to have a semblance of intimidation on the backside of their defence. The trade for Talib could be one of the most important player movements of the 2012 season and transform the Patriots from possessing an enormous defensive liability to a more complete and dangerous team on both sides of the ball.

Although Talib gives the Patriots hope on the defensive side, the loss of tight end Rob Gronkowski is devastating. Without the best tight end in the league, the Patriots will struggle somewhat for the next few weeks in a far more significant way in comparison to when they lost fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez who is still out.

The Patriots will have to drastically redesign their offense in the next few weeks to stabilize and hope that both tight ends can return in time for the playoffs.

The biannual Baltimore-Pittsburgh slugfest again delivered exactly what was expected, a bruising, low scoring defensive struggle, with the Ravens winning 13-10.

Although Baltimore entered the game with a substandard defence, the Ravens came up big, particularly in pass rush registering three sacks and more quarterback hits. The Ravens rush defence is a concern with Baltimore allowing five yards per carry despite playing against an injured second string quarterback in Byron Leftwich, who posed little to no threat after the first series.

In the long run, this victory sets Baltimore in prime position for the second spot in the AFC, with the Ravens expected to reach 10 wins with a victory against struggling San Diego next week and again against the Steelers, who will be starting third quarterback Charlie Batch in week 13.

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Baltimore will end up with a high playoff seed but they will be tested significantly late in the season with games against Denver and the New York Giants. Gauging the calibre of the Ravens against the Manning brothers will determine perceptions of Baltimore entering the playoffs. For the Steelers, their playoff prospects still are positive thanks to the collective weakness of the AFC.

The AFC seems to have solidified its playoff positions already with Indianapolis and Pittsburgh entrenched as playoff teams and only Cincinnati posing a threat for the final spot. The Steelers simply need to win against Cleveland next week before injured quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returns from injury. The Steelers should be incredibly grateful that the AFC has been such a disappointment.

On Monday Night Football, Chicago completed its two week test to gauge its status as a contender, with an incredibly poor performance in a 32-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The one excuse the Bears have is that they were without quarterback Jay Cutler but losing to a 49ers team that was without their starter cancels out this excuse.

The Bears lost this game early thanks to a timid and overly cautious gameplan. The blueprint for beating the 49ers is simple. Teams like the Vikings and Giants have shown that the key to winning is to get an early lead and bait the 49ers into making mistakes, thanks to the lack of talent in quarterback Alex Smith.

The Bears lost this game in the first quarter by playing conservatively on offense and restricting quarterback Jason Campbell’s ability to make plays. As bad as Campbell looked late in the game, he has shown over the years that he is a more than capable quarterback.

When you have a receiver as dominant as Brandon Marshall, Campbell should be given the opportunity to exploit the talent that is at hand. Rather, the Bears acted conservatively electing only to pass in incredibly obvious passing situations when the game was still in the balance.

The 49ers approached the Bears defence in exactly the way the Bears should have approached the game, they were aggressive and showed faith in backup and debut starter Colin Kaepernick.

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Although Kaepernick has been given sporadic opportunity, only occasionally running plays in a pistol formation that capitalized on his running ability, Kaepernick was shown faith and unleashed on an incredibly strong defence and in turn showed that it is he, not Robert Griffin III, who is the closest thing to Randall Cunningham in today’s NFL.

The 49ers approach was certainly more risky, but their creativity paid off. If anything, the 49ers would be more likely to succeed with the Bears tactics due to their superior offensive line.

When the Bears fell behind the 49ers, playing conservative and ending in third and long, Campbell was placed in an incredibly difficult position to actually complete anything and with an offensive line that seems at times to play like traffic cones with jerseys on, the Bears had no chance.

The result of this game was not Jason Campbell’s fault, this was a result of a substandard offensive line being dominated by one of the best front sevens in the NFL. How Campbell even completed passes was a miracle in and of itself.

The Bears’ loss was Green Bay’s gain, with the Packers sliding quietly to first in the NFC North and second in the entire conference.

The Packers were lucky to escape the Detroit Lions thanks to a last minute touchdown and field goal. How Aaron Rodgers is not being talked up as an MVP candidate is a mystery, he has been outstanding in covering up the Packers awful luck with injuries.

If the Packers can actually have some of their receivers return from injury and not have to rely upon Randall Cobb to be their primary receiver, they will be the most dangerous team in the NFC. For all the hype that the Saints are receiving thanks to their fiery form, the Packers actually will be in the playoffs and will be a real threat to win the Super Bowl.

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Until Atlanta lost to New Orleans, thanks to a Saints’ goal-line stand, the Falcons season had been typified by poor performances and lucky escapes as much as it was by electric offensive outputs.

The Falcons again reverted to a poor offensive output against the Cardinals, with Matt Ryan simply awful, throwing interceptions and nearly sinking the Falcons. It is this kind of display that has doubters convinced that, although the Falcons are a dangerous regular season team, their lack of consistency and tendency to let inferior opposition in the game has them prime and ready for another disappointing performance.

Tampa Bay again demanded the attention of the league and again Josh Freeman demonstrated that he is one of the most intriguing and dangerous young quarterbacks in the league.

Freeman has poise that very few quarterbacks possess. His passing late in the game to put the Buccaneers in position to win the game by both passing for an impossible touchdown to come to two points down and then to follow up with another difficult pass to complete the two point conversion to send the game to overtime. Freeman iced his performance with a game winning touchdown pass in overtime to affirm that he is arguably the best young quarterback in winning time.

As far as escaping an upset, this is by far the most positive way to win. The Buccaneers will now believe that they can win any game as long as they have Freeman at quarterback and are in striking distance of the lead.

One of the less noticed stories has been the Cleveland Browns season. Although the Browns are a pitiful 2-8, they have been a competitive team in the majority of their games. With Trent Richardson already commanding the respect of the best defences in the league, the Browns look to be headed in the right direction.

Right now the Browns just cannot find a way to win games. They have been in a position to win but haven’t found the way to get it done. Against the Cowboys they again found themselves close, with the game headed into overtime, but again failed to capitalize on their opportunity.

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If the Browns draft an offensive weapon, such as USC’s Marquise Lee, they could find themselves suddenly possessing a very interesting and potentially explosive offense. If they can draft a defensive difference maker such as Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o, they could have a game-breaker on the defensive side of the ball to compliment Joe Haden and T.J Ward.

The Browns are a team that has the makings of a surprise for next year.

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