NFL Week 6 Snap Judgments

I'm going to start this column talking about the horrific story involving Adrian Peterson's son from last week.  I'm not a father, but I do have a 2-year-old niece.  I can say with absolute certainty that if anyone ever caused harm to her, no one would find that person's body when all was said and done.  I've read conflicting reports over whether Peterson even knew the boy was his son prior to Thursday, but even if Peterson didn't know, we're still talking about a 2-year-old boy beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend.  If that doesn't make your stomach turn up in knots, I don't know what will.  My heart bleeds for Peterson right now, and I can only pray he will find some semblance of peace with his other children and family around him.

1. The football gods must love them some Patriots.  Three weeks ago I looked at the Patriots' upcoming schedule, and saw three super tough games back to back to back: At Atlanta, at Cincinnati, and then home against New Orleans.  I thought there was a real chance the Patriots could go 0-3 during that span, but instead they went 2-1 and proved me very, very wrong.  In typical Tom Brady fashion, the Patriots were down 4 points with 12 seconds left in the 4th quarter.  He threw a game-winning touchdown with 5 seconds left on the clock, sealing the win for the Pats.  These kinds of performances are the kinds that only the football gods allow to happen.  I never would have expected the Patriots to be much good without Rob Gronkowski in their group of tight ends and receivers, but Tom Brady has somehow figured out how to make his rag tag group of no-namers competitive.

2. Another week, another pick-six for a Texans quarterback.  This time it wasn't Matt Schaub, since he had to leave the game because of an injury.  It was T.J. Yates, filling in for Schaub, throwing a pick-six as the Texans blew one at home against the Rams.  You may not believe me, but there actually was a time when the Texans were 11-1 last season.  Since then, they've gone 4-8 including the playoffs last year.  Head coach Gary Kubiak got himself a contract extension for winning the division the last two seasons, but the Texans' real colors are showing now, and the Colts are in the driver's seat for the division.  Kubiak has put himself squarely in the crosshairs of both fans and management in Houston for why this season has gone so badly.

3. Speaking of coaches on the hot seat, Greg Schiano can't be around much longer in Tampa.  The Buccaneers have a great receiver in Vincent Jackson.  They have an elite defensive tacke in Gerald McCoy.  Their secondary includes the likes of Darrelle Revis, Dashon Goldson (even though Goldson is a bit of a head case), Mark Barron, and rookie Johnathan Banks.  They have one of the best young running backs in the league in Doug Martin.  So what exactly is their problem?  It sure isn't the roster.  The only real possibility is their head coach.  He doesn't have much of a plan on how to run an NFL roster, and his experience in head coaching prior to the Bucs was the Rutgers college football program.  If he does find himself canned (and there's no reason not to expect that considering the team is now 0-5), the team could very well find itself in a massive turnaround once they find the right guy to coach the team.

4. Stop the presses, the Broncos were held under 40 points!  And against the Jaguars, no less!  No, this is not a misprint or a dream.  In a game where the Broncos were favored to win by 28 points, they were held to "merely" 35 points against the single worst team in the NFL.  Peyton Manning even - GASP! - threw a pick-six early on.  Manning isn't the type of player who underestimates any competition, so he took the Jaguars far more seriously than anyone else probably would have.  Still, the Jaguars showed there is a way to hold the Broncos to under 40 points, something no one else has been able to do so far this season.

5. I hate to do this, but the Goat of the Week Award goes to John Harbaugh.  I love John Harbaugh.  I think he's a fantastic coach and motivator for the Ravens.  But he made a really, really dumb decision right before halftime that ultimately led to determining the outcome of the game Sunday.  I had no problem at all with going for it on 4th and goal to put 6 points on the board early on.  I had a much bigger problem with throwing the ball with 12 seconds left in the first half.  Why not just take a knee and send the game into halftime?  I'm a lowly blogger and would never pretend to know as much about football as Harbaugh does, but it seemed like a no-brainer to me.  So when Flacco was hit and lost the football, the Packers recovered and were able to score another field goal before halftime.  Those three points proved to be the deciding factor in the game.  

6. The Eagles would be better off with Nick Foles at quarterback the rest of the way.  No turnovers, less risk of injuring himself, and a good grip on the offense.  I don't know how long term of an answer Foles would be at quarterback for the team (considering they had drafted Matt Barkley in April), but if the Eagles want to challenge the Cowboys for the division, they should keep him under center.

7. Time for a ridiculously early and absurd thought about the playoffs.  The 49ers have clearly righted their ship after starting the season at 1-2.  Compare them to the Eagles and Cowboys, who sit tied atop the NFC East at 3-3 (and also face off in Philadelphia in Week 7).  Now recall the hoopla made over the Saints in 2010, who went 11-5 in the regular season but was a Wild Card because the Falcons won the NFC South that season.  The Saints - who were defending Super Bowl champions at the time - had to travel to Seattle for the Wild Card round of the playoffs because the Seahawks wound up winning the West at 7-9.  Not only are we talking about a real possibility of history repeating itself, but this is even a step further.  We're talking about a possible playoff game in January where a west coast team might have to travel to the eastern time zone, and the Wild Card team will have at least 3 more wins than the NFC East winner.  It's been well-established that west coast teams traveling east to play a game at 1:00 on a Sunday rarely perform well, which would put either the 49ers or the Seahawks at a major disadvantage.  I don't know what the solution to the problem is, and frankly in 2010 I didn't really care because I figured it was a fluke.  If this kind of situation keeps coming up, the NFL might have to consider seeding the playoff teams based on teams' records more than divisional winners automatically hosting a playoff game.

8. If not for Peyton Manning this season, Andrew Luck might be in the running for MVP.  Color me impressed.  I don't normally like the idea of hyping up a young player fresh out of college because it can invariably set the player up to disappoint once he takes the field; Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell are just two good examples of young players with tons of hype who were colossal busts.  Andrew Luck has most definitely lived up to his hype and expectations so far, and it's almost a shame his season to date has lived in the shadow of what Peyton Manning is doing this year.  If not for his receivers letting him down last night, he'd have had another stellar performance.