It's nearly the halfway point of the NFL season already, and surprisingly there are only a small handful of teams who truly are bottomfeeders in the league. The Jets, Jaguars, Raiders, Falcons, Bucs, and Rams are the only ones who are facing packing it in and/or trading away players who would help the rest of the teams still in contention by today's deadline. The trading deadline in the NFL doesn't get nearly the kind of drama or impact the MLB deadline does, but it still matters. Last year, there were actually a few significant trades made before the deadline, namely the Ravens acquiring Eugene Monroe from the Jaguars. The Bucs have already put Doug Martin and Mark Barron on the trading block, and there's a chance Vincent Jackson could be had for the right price as well.
As for the rest of Week 8....
1. George Iloka deserves an Academy Award for his flop. Homerism be damned. The Ravens got the ball with just under a minute left in the game, down by 4 points. With 40 seconds left, Joe Flacco threw a deep ball down field that was caught by Steve Smith, Sr, who ran it in for a go-ahead touchdown. The score was called back because Smith was flagged for offensive pass interference on Bengals safety George Iloka. Smith did push off, but it looked little more than a tap after both players had been wrestling with each other while the ball was in the air. Iloka fell to the ground, which to any ref is going to be a sign the receiver illegally pushed off. The refs chose to flag a questionable play like that but failed to penalize Geno Atkins for roughing Flacco during the first half (when Flacco had his helmet knocked off, a play that has consistently gotten defensive players roughing the passer penalties for years). I'm not normally one to criticize the performance of refs in an NFL game, but the officiating was atrocious.
2. The Bears continue to sink. Chicago managed to dig a hole to the tune of 38-7 by halftime in New England, despite Brandon Marshall calling out the entire team last week after a bad loss at home against Miami. Even though the Packers were blown out in New Orleans Sunday night, the Bears still have a steep mountain to climb if they have any hope of competing for the playoffs. Jay Cutler's performance this season has been decent overall, including this past week. However, the Bears are giving up over 27 points a game (30th in the league) and over 370 yards of offense per game (15th). As bad as those numbers look, Chicago is also the second-most penalized team in the league, and has given up the third most points in the league so far this season. Cutler could throw 400 yards and 4 touchdowns every week and still be playing from behind with a defense like that.
3. Speaking of the Bears, the Goat of the Week Award goes to Lamarr Houston. With just over a minute to play before the game was mercifully over, Bears defensive lineman Lamarr Houston sacked Jimmy Garoppalo, who came into the game for Tom Brady. It was Houston's first sack of the season, so he danced and jumped to celebrate....only he came down awkwardly on his right knee. Adam Schefter confirmed yesterday that Houston tore his ACL during his celebration dance.
Lamarr, did you learn nothing from Stephen Tulloch a few weeks ago?
4. The Broncos have separated themselves from the AFC. Another week, and another huge performance from Peyton Manning. They currently hold a one-game lead over the Patriots in the AFC seeding, and every other team is at least two games behind them. Denver even has a chance to increase their lead in the conference next weekend as they travel to New England for a showdown Sunday evening. We've been down this road with the Broncos each of the last two years though, so I'm a little hesitant to anoint them as the favorites in the AFC.
5. The Cardinals are starting to separate themselves in the NFC West. Arizona managed to open up a 2-game lead in the division this weekend after edging out the Eagles. The Seahawks are on the verge of imploding (more on that in a moment) and the 49ers already lost once to the Cardinals earlier this season. It's now very possible that Arizona could vie for the one of the top two playoff spots in the NFC. In fact, their next game is a showdown with the Cowboys in Dallas, which could separate them from the rest of the conference if they leave Texas with another win.
6. The Seahawks are teetering on collapsing. We're past the point of overreacting when it comes to the Seahawks; if even half the reports about what's gone on in their locker room in the last couple weeks are true, they are falling apart. First came the sudden and shocking trade that sent Percy Harvin to the Jets. Reports almost immediately leaked that Harvin had been getting into fights with teammates during his time in Seattle, but what's even more mind-boggling is the crazy story that alleged some Seahawks players claimed Russell Wilson wasn't "black enouigh," whatever that means. Now the latest reports claim that the coaches and team are growing tired of Marshawn Lynch as well.
Just what on God's green Earth is going on in Seattle? If Pete Carroll wants to dismantle the team by removing the locker room cancers, that's his decision to make. If the Seahawks do ultimately blow up their roster, they'd make an even more extreme turnover than the Ravens did last year after their Super Bowl win, and for entirely different reasons as well. They could wind up becoming the third straight defending Super Bowl champion who fails to make the playoffs at this rate.
7. Ben Roethlisberger single-handedly made every Pittsburgh naysayer shut up. I'm including myself in that group of naysayers since Pittsburgh looked uneven at best for most of the season prior to Sunday's game against the Colts. The Steelers had beaten teams like Cleveland, Houston, Jacksonville, and Carolina so far, but they didn't get any true statement win yet. They even embarrassed themselves by losing a heartbreaker to Tampa Bay at home and get blown out in a loss to Cleveland. Big Ben put up numbers not seen anywhere except in video games on Sunday, showing the Steelers are not going out quietly this year. Don't look now, but every team in the AFC North is above .500 at the moment. The division is arguably the best in football, and it's hard to discount even the Browns.
8. The NFL is hellbent on expanding to London, but it's a logistic nightmare. The NFL has had at least one regular season game in London every year since 2007; this year they are playing three games in Wembley Stadium. The owners and league office have all but admitted they want an NFL franchise in London, and these few games played over there have been planting seeds thus far. There is a fundamental flaw with having a team in London that no one in the league seems to care about though, and unless someone sat down to really think about it, it's easy to miss. Stay with me here, because this may get a little complicated.
A London-based team would have to be added to one of the two Eastern divisions of the league. None of the eight teams playing in the two Eastern divisions are facing relocation at all, so the league would have to expand. That means the NFL would have 33 teams, which means the league would have to add an additional team somewhere else (*cough cough* LOS ANGELES *cough cough*) to bring the total back to an even number of teams.
Now we have 34 teams, with 17 in each conference. The schedule is now predicated on every team playing 2 games against each of its divisional opponents (6 games total), one other division within the conference (4 games), one division in the other conference (4 games), and 2 other games against teams within the same conference. That schedule will never work if the league switched to a set up with 4 divisions in a conference, one of which has 5 teams and the other three have 4.
Take the NFC East, for instance. The division would have Dallas, Washington, Philly, NY, and London in this scenario. Right now, if a team has to play in London, its bye week follows the London-based game in order for the team to travel back and rest up for the remainder of its season. A London team would have to travel 4 times across the Atlantic to each of those cities, along with the rest of its road games for the season. It'd be unfair to the players and coaches to travel back and forth across the Atlantic multiple times throughout the season, so the team would likely have to play at least 2 or 3 consecutive road games before returning home. And what if they have to make a West Coast trip to play in San Diego, San Francisco, or Seattle?
Realignment isn't the answer because that still doesn't address the London team having to travel to the U.S. for its road games. There's no ignoring this elephant in the room; if people are complaining about the quality level of play in the league now, just wait until there's a team based in London. Everyone is going to be exhausted, and injuries will be an even greater risk.
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