NFL Week 14 Snap Judgments

This weekend's action was something unseen in football in years.  Five games were impacted by snow and/or freezing rain, which for fans watching from home is incredibly exciting.  Football has always marketed itself as a fall and winter sport, emphasizing how the cold in cities like Green Bay, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia have led to legendary games over the decades.  How fans in the stadiums bear with the weather is a mystery, but it still always makes for a great spectacle.

The weather leads back to the discussion over having the Super Bowl played in New York/New Jersey in February.  Weather like what was seen in Baltimore and Philadelphia in particular could well be what the Super Bowl will have to deal with, so I'm still very concerned over how such weather would affect the overall quality and enjoyment of the game.  Personally, I think it's still a mistake opening the Super Bowl up for a potential winter storm, but time will tell.

1. Playin' round a winter wonderland.  Keeping with the snow theme, there hasn't been a game in the NFL quite like how the Ravens/Vikings game had ended yesterday in years, if ever.  For over 3 1/2 quarters, the game was a mess with both teams struggling to move the ball much down the field.  Once the snow turned over to freezing rain, the passing games opened up on both sides, leading to a scoring frenzy in the final 2 minutes.  The Ravens kept hold of their playoff spot in winning the game, still holding off the Dolphins who also won Sunday.

2. LeSean McCoy is not of this world.  McCoy still lives somewhat in the shadow of Adrian Peterson of being the best running back in the league, but Sunday showed just how good he is.  In another game heavily affected by snow, he put the Eagles on his back and ran circles in the snow.  The Eagles are starting to make my preseason prediction of the team winning the NFC East this season look smart again, even after I had written them off a few weeks ago.  McCoy and Nick Foles are playing large parts in why they're playing so well right now.

3. The Redskins are imploding...again.  One could have made such a statement weeks ago, but this is more about the war going on between head coach Mike Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder.  According to an ESPN report, Shanahan nearly quit on the team after the Redskins had lost to the Seahawks in the playoffs in January.  Shanahan has yet to actually refute the report, and his postgame conference almost implied that the initial report was accurate.  If Snyder does show Shanahan the door, that would mean the Redskins would be searching for their 8th head coach in Snyder's 14 years as owner of the Redskins.  How can any team build a winning product when the coaching regime is switched every two years?

Oh yeah, and the team doesn't have a first-round pick again from the deal for RGIII.  This team is going nowhere and getting there awfully fast.

4. Don't look now, but the Bengals are getting hot.  After beating the Colts into the ground on Sunday, the Bengals have won three straight games and are currently holding the #3 seed in the playoffs.  Andy Dalton looks like he has righted his ship after a miserable stretch where he threw only 5 touchdowns against a whopping 8 interceptions in a three-game span.  Giovanni Bernard is looking like an every-down running back, and the defense is playing well enough to handle the absence of defensive tackle Geno Atkins.  The only elephant in the room is whether Dalton can handle playing well in the playoffs.

5. Bad luck for Rob Gronkowski.  Gronkowski took a vicious hit to his knee on Sunday, tearing his ACL and MCL in the process.  The Patriots are still going to run away with the AFC East and likely get a bye in the playoffs, but their offense took a major blow in losing Gronkowski.  The injury bug is the ultimate equalizer in the NFL, and every contender in the AFC has had to deal with losing major contributors to injury at some point this season.  There is no clear favorite in the conference, and that includes the Broncos.

6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Antonio Brown.  In a classic end-of-game play reminiscent of "The band is on the field", the Steelers had to return a kick against the Dolphins in order to win the game.  After tossing the ball back and forth a few times, Antonio Brown wound up with the ball in his hands and ran it down the sideline for a game-winning touchdown with no time left.....except, he stepped out of bounds at about the 15 yard line.  For the second straight week, a kick off return involving the sideline affected the outcome of a Steelers game, only this time it all but ended their season and knocked them out of the playoff hunt.

7. The Seahawks/49ers game would have been the game of the weekend had the Northeast not been stuck in a blizzard.  This divisional rivalry has quickly become one of the very best in the NFL in the last couple years, considering how much the players, coaches, and fans all openly dislike one another.  The game was a classic back and forth slug fest, and even though the 49ers won the game, the Seahawks still lead the division by 2 games with 3 to play.  The 49ers are tied with the Panthers for the Wild Card lead, holding a slim 1-game lead over the Cardinals.

8. Is it possible that Drew Brees somehow still doesn't get the recognition he deserves?  Brees passed 50,000 passing yards for his career Sunday night, becoming the fifth quarterback in NFL history to do so (and the youngest to accomplish the feat).  Brees is consistently considered one of the elite quarterbacks in the game today, but not quite of all time.  He hasn't been associated often with some of the all-time greats like Elway, Favre, Unitas, or Montana, but now that he's on the verge of throwing for 5000 yards in his third straight season, he has to be thought of an all-time great now.  Once upon a time, Dan Marino was the only quarterback in history who had thrown for 5000 yards in a single season, but now it's almost the norm for the greats playing the game today.  Brees has thrown for more yards than Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or Aaron Rodgers in the last three years, and is second only to Manning in passing yards among active quarterbacks.  He's built quite a resume for himself for Canton once he calls it a career.

9. The Bears have built quite a dilemma for themselves at quarterback.  Jay Cutler is nearing returning from his ankle injury, but Josh McCown has been extremely productive in the interim, especially last night against Dallas.  Cutler is in his contract year, and he's certainly looking for a deal in keeping with what Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Aaron Rodgers, and Tony Romo all got last season.  He's also 30, and while McCown is 34 the Bears may have to consider the idea of letting Cutler walk and draft a young quarterback for their future.  They now have a solid receiving corps with Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffrey, and Martellus Bennett, and a great running back in Matt Forte.  If they had a franchise quarterback under center, they'd have a complete offense.  Even though it's a potentially expensive dilemma, the Bears are probably happy to have it.