I didn't see much of the Thursday Night game due to a holiday function, but the results were enough. Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Julio Jones and Roddy White were huge busts. and it's a nice reminder of how much failure and disaster comprise the NFL and fantasy football experience. Then again, if you didn't have a lot invested in that game, it was a thing of beauty.
Calvin Johnson had another 171 yards Sunday, and actually Matt Stafford missed him again on a deep ball after Johnson had gotten behind the defense. Johnson now has 1,428 receiving yards, a pace for 1,904. Jerry Rice's all-time record is 1848.
Matthew Stafford attempted 46 more passes, giving him 534 through 12 games, a pace for 712. Drew Bledsoe's all-time record is 691.
Bad timing for Ryan Broyles to hurt his knee coming off a big game, with Titus Young out, on the eve of the playoffs and so early in the game. Fortunately, it's not the knee he tore in college.
Andrew Luck has just 7.1 YPA, 17 TD and 16 picks on the season, and the sabermetric crowd thinks the Colts are a fraud. Maybe so, but just as the Chargers, Eagles and Cowboys constantly underperform their predictive stats, might Indy, Atlanta and Baltimore (more on them) be the opposite?
Jake Locker had 309 passing yards and 38 rushing yards, but took six sacks, threw three picks and fumbled twice.
Thirty-one of Tom Brady's 40 passing attempts were directed at Wes Welker (18) and Aaron Hernandez (13).
It was one thing when the Bills were criminally underusing C.J. Spiller and telling the truth about it. But despite vowing to get him the bulk of the work, they gave him just 14 carries and one target to Fred Jackson's 25 and three, respectively. As long as Jackson's healthy, this won't be better than a 50/50 timeshare.
Marcedes Lewis has quietly been a useful fantasy tight end since Chad Henne took over with two TDs in Week 11, and eight catches for 124 yards since.
Cam Newton's been a monster the last two weeks. Like Stafford, he was a bust early, but he's now the No. 5 QB in standard leagues that don't subtract for picks, behind only RGIII, Brees, Luck and Aaron Rodgers. In fact, he's ahead of Brady, Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan. But the QBs from No. 3 (Luck) and No. 10 (Andy Dalton) differ by fewer than two points per game.
DeAngelo Williams finally had the backfield to himself, and despite getting 5.6 YPC, saw just 12 carries.
Brady Quinn had a QB rating of 132.1, a YPA of 8.7 and two touchdowns without a pick. He took one sack and threw only four incompletions. It was far and away the best game of his career and arguably the team's best game of the year. A good job by Quinn and his coach under unfortunate circumstances.
The Jets-Cardinals game would have been funny except I had the Jets in Survivor. It kind of sucked that Shonn Greene took it upon himself not to cover the spread. Hard to knock the guy for the correct football decision, though.
I was bummed my 1,000,000 to 1 ticket on two SF-STL ties didn't cash when Greg Zuerlein made that 54-yard FG.
Colin Kaepernick didn't play badly, but if the Niners were to struggle against the Dolphins next week, you have to wonder whether Alex Smith would get the job back. After one big game against the Bears, Vernon Davis has gone back to being invisible again.
It's rare you see a guy get 210 rushing yards and still be underused. But why did Adrian Peterson get just 21 carries (10 YPC) and Christian Ponder attempt 25 passes (4.8 YPA, two picks)?
I refuse to believe James Starks scored a touchdown.
Russell Wilson is having one of the better rookie seasons for a quarterback in NFL history, but you wouldn't know it because RGIII is having easily the best one ever, and Andrew Luck has also been good. Getting 7.9 YPA in Chicago with no picks and throwing a game-winning touchdown in overtime is impressive.
The Broncos are arguably the best team in the NFL right now. Only Houston has their balance on both sides of the ball, and Denver has a better quarterback and better offense.
Unbelievably the Chargers outdo themselves every week. They're the Shakespeare, Wayne Gretzky and Babe Ruth of their category. Philip Rivers in particular deserves credit for throwing away a superstar NFL career to play his current role of clueless lummox. And Norv Turner's earnest expression each game is a true joy. There are times I almost believe he's in charge of an NFL team that's trying to win a game. I don't care who they're playing or what the line is, I'm all in on them next week.
I didn't see the entire Steelers-Ravens game, but I did see Emmanuel Sanders fumble a ball for no reason after running untouched behind the entire defense, Charlie Batch miss a wide-open Mike Wallace by a mile in the end zone, Antonio Brown throw a pick on a gadget play and Wallace let a 40-yard bomb slip right through his hands. In spite of this, the Steelers - with their third string quarterback starting, and best cornerback, Ike Taylor, in a walking boot for much of the game - beat the Ravens on the road.
The Raiders put up some stats in garbage time, but their whole season seems like garbage time. The last few seasons actually.
Trent Richardson always looks good, but never seems to have anywhere to run, even against the Raiders.
The Eagles haven't mailed it in by any means, Bryce Brown needs to be a starting back somewhere and it looks like Nick Foles turned a corner.