NFL 2014 Week 7 Snap Judgments

This week's intro was a bit more difficult to write than usual, but not for the reason you might expect.  Peyton Manning set the all-time touchdown pass record Sunday night, passing Brett Favre.  It's yet another record that Peyton has broken and rewritten in the record books, and there isn't another active quarterback who is in striking distance of breaking that record (the closest is Drew Brees, who is 35 years old and is currently 136 touchdowns behind Manning).  While setting the record is worthy of mention, what could possibly be said that is insightful or new about Peyton Manning and his career?  At 38, he clearly still plays at an elite level, and there's no sign that he is slowing down at all.  It's easy to take a player of Peyton's caliber for granted, especially considering it's tough to know what to say in reaction every time he crosses out another record in the books.  I've said before calling him the greatest regular season quarterback is a backhanded compliment, but it's hard to argue against including Peyton in the Mt. Rushmore of greatest QBs ever.

1. Not only are the Packers going to make the playoffs yet again, but they are one of the best teams in the NFC.  I was dead wrong on my preseason prediction about the Packers missing the playoffs this year.  They're currently tied with the Lions for the NFC North lead, and those two teams play once again in Week 17 (Detroit beat Green Bay in Detroit back in Week 3).  Given how much Chicago has underachieved this season (more on that later) and how generally bad the Vikings are, it's very possible that Week 17 match up could be for the NFC North title.  And anyone who said after 7 weeks the top three teams in the NFC would be the Cowboys, Packers, and Cardinals would have been lying through their teeth.

2. Reports of Cleveland's improvements may have been greatly exaggerated.  Cleveland shot themselves in their collective feet in Jacksonville just as many talking heads were starting to think they were turning into a decent team.  With less than 2 minutes left in the first half, the Browns were up 6-0 and driving down into Jaguars territory, but turned the ball over on downs on Jacksonville's 24-yard line instead of at least kicking a field goal.  The Jaguars moved quickly down the field and scored a go-ahead touchdown with 27 seconds left in the half.  The second half was the same old Browns story, and the Jaguars put up 24 unanswered points to get their first win of the season.  Rookie Brian Bortles didn't help his own cause, throwing 3 interceptions in the game, but he still got his first win as a starting NFL quarterback.

3. Seattle's Super Bowl hangover is starting to show.  The Seahawks dropped one against Dallas last week, and then they blew another one on the road in St. Louis on Sunday.  They have a great group of coaches who knew how to properly prepare them for each game between head coach Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, and especially defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.  The offensive line gave up 3 sacks to the Rams, but their special teams were what did them in.  Halfway through the second quarter, the Seahawks punted the ball away to the Rams.  Tavon Austin should thank the Academy for his performance in drawing nearly every Seahawk on the field towards him, allowing Stedman Bailey to field the punt and run it all the way back for a touchdown.  The icing on the cake came with just under 3 minutes to go in the game; the Seahawks, down by 2 points, stopped the Rams on 3rd down, forcing the Rams to punt.  Rams punter Johnny Hekker faked the punt and threw a pass to Benny Cunningham for an 18-yard gain.  These kinds of failures aren't what anyone would expect from a team considered to be one of the most complete teams in the NFL.  They parted ways with Percy Harvin late on Friday after he proved to be a locker room cancer for the second time in his career, so there could well be a lack of focus or preparation among the players at the moment.  There's still more than half the season to go, but the Seahawks are now looking up at two other teams in their own division.  They're going to need to move quickly if they have any hope to defend their Super Bowl title.

4. What a difference a competent offensive line makes.  Through the first two months of the 2013 season, Joe Flacco threw 8 touchdown passes, 8 interceptions, and was sacked 20 times.  The Ravens as a team rushed for 1328 yards in 2013 for the entire season and scored 7 rushing touchdowns.  Through the first 7 games of 2014, they've already rushed for 920 yards and equaled their entire 2013 season total of rushing touchdowns.  Flacco has already thrown 14 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions so far this season, and has been sacked 8 times through 7 games.  Quarterbacks notoriously get too much credit and too much blame for their performance on the field, and last year Flacco made plenty of bad decisions over the course of the season.  However, he clearly got too much of the blame, largely in part to the big contract deal he signed with the Ravens after their had won the Super Bowl.  The offensive line was terrible last year, and those few stats tell a large portion of the story.  It's almost like Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta, John Harbaugh, and the rest of the Ravens' front office had a GASP! - plan or something on how to fix their very obvious problem.

5. The NFC South is going to make things a mess come January.  The NFC South is the only division that doesn't have a team currently over .500.  At this pace, we'd be lucky if the division winner even finished 8-8 on the season, which means we could well be staring at another case of a Wild Card team finishing with a record better than a division winner.  The NFL may finally have to think about its seeding policies for the playoffs.

6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to the Bengals offense.  The Bengals jumped out to a fast start at 3-0, which now feels like a distant memory.  They're 0-2-1 since then, having lost two games by 26 and 27 points.  They were without A.J. Green for the second straight week on Sunday and were shut out by the Colts, managing to put up only 136 yards of total offense during the game.  They are suddenly a very flat football team, and the Ravens have a chance to virtually bury them in the AFC North next week.

7. Kirk Cousins blew his last chance with the Redskins.  Cousins was already on a super thin thread going into the weekend.  He was pulled late in the first half after he threw his 9th interception of the season, a stat that he leads the NFL in.  Colt McCoy took over for the rest of the game (who knew he was even on the Redskins roster prior to Sunday?) and led the team to a win.  Jay Gruden has decided to go with McCoy over Cousins until RGIII returns, so the promising few starts that Cousins had over the last two seasons look like they're distant memories now.

NFL 2014 Week 6 Snap Judgments

Since I started writing these weekly NFL recaps, I never thought I'd start things off by talking about the Cleveland Browns.  Even though it's only Week 6 and talk of playoff berths are a long way off, the Browns are a vastly improved team from what they were last year.  They gave the Ravens everything they could handle back in Week 3, and on Sunday they beat up the Steelers all day long.  They now stand at 3-2, and they don't look like the type of team who will falter down the stretch.  Quarterback Brian Hoyer plays better and better with each week, leaving 2014 first-round pick Johnny Manziel to be all but forgotten except for the occasional wildcat play.  Hoyer is a free agent after the season, putting the Browns in a strange dilemma of whether they should sign him long term or put their franchise in Manziel's hands.

For the here and now at least, the Browns are a very competitive team.  Their next three games - at Jacksonville, vs Oakland, and vs Tampa Bay - are all very winnable.  If they are 6-2 at that point, their next match up is a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, a game that could suddenly mean a whole lot more than what anyone had expected at the beginning of the season.

As for the rest of Week 6....

1. Tampa Bay looks like it's already packed it in for the season.  Down 38-0 at halftime, the Bucs looked like they forgot they had a football game to play for the second time this season after a miserable game in Atlanta a few weeks ago.  Lovie Smith has failed to properly prepare and motivate his players for the bulk of this season so far, and if not for a last-minute miracle in Pittsburgh the Bucs would be 0-6 right now.  Tampa lacks playmakers on both sides of the ball, and they look a lot further from being competitive than I had thought prior to the season.

2. Dare I say it, but the Cowboys might be the best team in the NFC right now.  Seattle jumped out to a 10-0 lead midway through the first quarter, and most other teams would abandon establishing a running game being down two scores on the road.  Not the Cowboys, though.  DeMarco Murray rushed for another 146 yards and scored a late touchdown to put Dallas ahead for good.  Tony Romo played well for the game, making just the right amount of plays when needed while avoiding crucial mistakes.  The Eagles are probably the only other team who comes close to being the top team in the NFC right now along with the Cowboys, given the injuries and losses other teams have taken so far this season.

Now if you'll excuse me for a minute, I think I'm going to be sick after typing all that.

3. If only Jay Cutler could consistently play the way he did on Sunday.  Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey each finished with well over 100 yards receiving as the Bears beat up the Falcons in Atlanta.  The Jay Cutler who played on Sunday looked like an MVP-candidate.  The problem is during the previous two games another Jay Cutler took the field.  He is arguably the most inconsistent quarterback in the league, which has to be maddening for Bears fans.

4. Can we jump off the Bengals' bandwagon now?  They laid an egg in New England last week, and this week they played to a tie at home against Carolina. Mohammed Sanu and Giovani Bernard had to carry the load since A.J. Green was out from a toe injury, and they did their share in keeping their team in the game.  The Bengals' defense couldn't stop Cam Newton from making one efficient throw after another.  Once again, the Bengals look destined to be a bridesmaid in the AFC, and not the bride.

5. The Cardinals are being overlooked as one of the better teams in the NFC.  Larry Fitzgerald proved he still has it even though he's past his prime, catching 6 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown.  The more fascinating stat is that no quarterback in Arizona has thrown an interception through the first 6 games of the season, becoming the first team to do so since the Redskins in 2008.  They have quietly taken first place in the NFC West as the Seahawks dropped one against Dallas and the 49ers have largely struggled to this point in the season.  Bruce Arians might be the Coach of the Year through the first six weeks.

6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Kirk Cousins.  The Redskins were in a close game through three quarters in Arizona, down only 17-13.  The fourth quarter was when the wheels came off, with Cousins throwing not one, not two, but three interceptions in the final 15 minutes.  The third pick came with less than 30 seconds to go, with Rashad Johnson running back a pick for a touchdown to seal the victory for the Cardinals.  There's now whispers of the Redskins going Colt McCoy at quarterback next week, which seemed inconceivable prior to the start of their four-game losing streak.

7. If the Jaguars don't defeat Miami in Week 8, they have a real shot at going 0-16.  The Jaguars have four more games until their bye in Week 11.  They are home this Sunday against Cleveland, home again versus Miami after then, then they hit the road in Cincinnati, and then return home versus Dallas.  Miami is by far the most winnable game of that bunch, but after their bye they don't have another winnable game on their schedule until Week 16 when they are home against Tennessee.  If they lose to Miami, the noose gets tighter and tighter around the players' necks,  It becomes more and more difficult to take the field each week, knowing there are fewer and fewer chances to get at least one win on the season.  The Jaguars are an extremely young team, but they have to give their ownership and fans some kind of sign they are building something competitive.

8. Ties stink, but there's a great irony to the NFL's current overtime rules.  The league office wanted to come up with a better way to play overtime in order to give both teams in a game a decent chance of at least having one possession.  In 2012, the owners voted on changing the overtime system to match the system adopted for the playoffs.  Overtime no longer is necessarily sudden death, but the great irony is that in the effort to avoid ties and give both teams the ball at least once in overtime, the league has actually increased the number of games ending in ties.  Since 2012, there has been at least one game each season that has ended in a tie.  Prior to 2012, the last year a game ended in a tie was in 2008; prior to that was in 2002; and before that was a pair of games in 1997.  Ties were not as commonplace as they were prior to the league taking steps to avoid them.

I don't know what the answer is.  I know it's not to continue playing until somebody scores, regardless of how many quarters a game has to last.  Players are beat up and exhausted enough after 4 quarters of play; if they had to play as many as 6 quarters, injuries would pile up and they wouldn't be ready in time for their next game the following weekend (God help a team who might have to play 6 quarters on Sunday and then have to play again Thursday night).  There will never be a perfect overtime system, but the one we have now is better than the old one, and it's worlds better than what college football uses.

NFL 2014 Week 5 Snap Judgments

It isn't often that football feels like such an afterthought, but it certainly is today.  It's rather difficult to focus on the NFL when, you know, MY ORIOLES ARE IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES.  I went to a block party yesterday to watch both the Ravens and the Orioles, and even if the Ravens were in a position to win their game (they weren't), I wouldn't have cared about the outcome of that game one way or the other.  I'm much more emotionally invested in the Orioles right now, and it's going to stay that way until the Orioles' season finishes, regardless of how far that goes.

1. The NFC East is a much stronger division than most people had expected.  The Cowboys and Giants were both expected to be two of the worst teams in the NFC this season, and the Redskins were a total enigma of team, leaving many to wonder whether they're any good or not.  The Eagles were expected to essentially run away with the division.  Instead, after 5 weeks, the Eagles and Cowboys are tied for first place, and the Giants are only one game behind them.  Once again, we're looking at a very real prospect of the NFC East winner finishing with around 10 wins instead of a more dominant 12 or 13 wins.

2. The Jets are a complete mess.  The Jets are one of four teams with only one win on the season (with two more teams who are still winless), and they looked like the single worst team who took any NFL field Sunday.  Geno Smith went merely 4-of-12 for 27 yards and an interception during the first half, leading to Michael Vick finally being put in at quarterback for the Jets.  Vick didn't play much better, completing 8 of 19 passes for 47 yards.  The Jets have heavily invested in drafting for their defense during Rex Ryan's tenure as head coach, with one notable exception in Mark Sanchez drafted 5th overall in 2009 (and he obviously didn't work out).  The offensive talent on the Jets' roster is mediocre at best, and the few draft picks used on offensive skill players since Rex Ryan took over the team in 2009 have been largely busts: the aforementioned Sanchez and Smith, WR Stephen Hill, RB Bilal Powell, TE Dustin Keller, and WR Jeremy Kerley.  It's highly unlikely Ryan returns next year as head coach now, and whoever becomes the Jets' next coach has to rebuild the entire offense.

3. Are the Chargers the best team in the AFC?  In terms of sheer record, yes, the Chargers are the best team in the AFC, with one more win than the Bengals and Broncos since those two teams were on bye last week.  However, they have also given up the fewest points in the entire NFL thus far, they're +6 in turnover ratio, and they're averaging over 34 minutes per game on offense.  Philip Rivers is having an excellent start to the season, which has masked the injuries they've taken to their running backs.  The Chargers play three divisional games in a row the next three weeks, including a Thursday night contest in Denver on October 23.  How good they really are will likely be more clear by then.

4. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Alex Henery.  Easy call this week.  Henery missed three very makeable field goals for Detroit, including one at the end of the game that led to Buffalo taking the ball back and moving down field for an eventual game-winning field goal of their own.  Henery even got the job because rookie kicker Nate Freese was just an ineffective.  Lions kickers are a pathetic 1-for-9 in field goal attempts over 30 years this season; they're going to need a lot of help on their special teams for the rest of the season.

5. Peyton Manning made history.....again.  Manning threw four more touchdown passes on Sunday, the first of which was his 500th career TD pass.  He's now only 5 touchdown passes behind Brett Favre for the all-time lead, a record that doesn't look like it won't be broken again any time soon given the active QBs on the list and their career totals.  The irony is Manning has never really cared about setting individual records for himself; he truly is a team guy, which has always been a huge factor in why he's such a great leader.  The only blemish on his career has been his playoff record, and he's not going to be able to improve that dramatically given the late point he's reached in his career.

6. That's why they're the Jaguars.  Look at this tweet from Gil Brandt.  Pretty much says it all right there.

7. There's a lot to talk about the Bengals/Patriots game Sunday night.  While the quality of talent on the Patriots' roster is clearly not what it once was, they still do not lose consecutive games very often.  After they were blown out Monday night in Kansas City, their flaws were collectively exposed on national television, leading many to wonder if they could stay competitive among the better teams in the AFC.  Sunday night, they responded doing what they've done for nearly 15 years: they blew out the Bengals, and the game was essentially over after the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the Bengals once again looked like how they've always looked in a big spot.  Andy Dalton wasn't awful like he's been in his three postseason games in his career thus far, but he certainly didn't play as well as he did against the Ravens, Falcons, and Titans.  He can play well against talent that is either equivalent or inferior, but when it comes to playing against the big boys, Dalton once again did not come through for his team.  The Bengals look destined to make another run for the playoffs, only to make yet another speedy exit.

8. Exactly who is the bad guy in San Francisco?  The situation brewing between Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers front office is apparently getting worse every day, to the point that Fox's Jay Glazer says this year will be Harbaugh's last in San Francisco, even if the 49ers win the Super Bowl.  That's a crazy thought to consider, especially since the 49ers have reached the NFC title game every year in the three years Harbaugh has run the team, and even reached the Super Bowl once.  There have been rumors that Harbaugh has even lost player support in the locker room, though those reports have been debated a bit more as to their validity.  Still, the bottom line question is who is the most at fault here?  The team is still winning, so it's not like the players have completely quit on Harbaugh (though NFL players wouldn't risk losing their jobs just because they don't like their coach).  Harbaugh and the front office were on the same page for the first year or two of his tenure there, but it would seem he's much more stubborn and bullish than his brother John.  If the 49ers somehow put together another playoff run and even win the Super Bowl, it'd be a really odd press conference later on to announce that the 49ers front office is not retaining him for 2015.

NFL 2014 Week 4 Snap Judgments

A truly special defensive player in the NFL is a real rarity.  Going back to just the 1980s, the truly elite list of defensive players - bar none on position - would include the likes of Mike Singletary, Ronnie Lott, Lawrence Taylor, Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Troy Polamalu.  They're all all-time greats at their respective positions, with Taylor being the last defensive player to win the league MVP award.

J.J. Watt has quickly put himself among that list of great defensive players of all time.  Earlier this season, he was used as a tight end on a goal-to-go situation for the Texans and caught a touchdown pass.  On Sunday, he picked off E.J. Manuel for an 80-yard touchdown run in addition to hitting Manuel nine times over the course of the game.  He's quickly taken the lead on Defensive Player of the Year, though it's far too early to talk about him becoming the first defensive player since Lawrence Taylor to be MVP.

1. Joseph Vincent Flacco is quickly becoming the man the Ravens paid him to be.  Flacco had one of his best career games Sunday, throwing for 327 yards and 3 touchdowns with a 71% completion percentage.  He's well on his way for setting career highs in completion percentage, yards, touchdowns, and quarterback rating.  Adding Steve Smith, Sr, to his group of receivers, hiring Gary Kubiak as offensive coordinator, and rebuilding the offensive line has finally given Flacco the opportunity to put some serious points on the board every Sunday, which the Ravens certainly did on Carolina.  The sluggish first half in the Ravens' first game against the Bengals in Week 1 feels like a distant memory, and their next meeting in Cincinnati in November could possibly decide who wins the AFC North.

2. DeMarco Murray is the Cowboys' MVP (and possibly league MVP) through the first month of the season.  Murray has rushed for at least 100 yards in every game thus far in the season and scored at least one touchdown in every game.  He's on pace to rush for over 2100 yards and score 20 rushing TDs on the season, which would blow out the previous single season rushing record if he maintained his pace.  The Cowboys have quietly invested in their offensive line through the draft over the last five years, and adding Zack Martin this past spring is starting to pay some dividends.  Their defense is their obvious Achilles heel, but since the Eagles' defense is equally weak, would it shock anyone to see the NFC East come down to those two teams again?

3. Is Mike Tomlin on the hot seat?  The Steelers choked up a heartbreaking loss to the previously-winless Bucs at home on Sunday.  The Steelers have regressed as a team over the last 4 years, going from division (and AFC) champion in 2010 to back-to-back 8-8 seasons the last two years.  Eight wins on the year feels like a generous amount for the team to accomplish this season based on their quality of play in three of their first four games.  They blew a 24-point lead against Cleveland in their first game, looked completely inept against Baltimore, and then collapsed against Tampa on Sunday.  Tomlin was visibly upset in his post-game conference after Sunday's loss, blaming stupid penalties as the primary reason why the Steelers blew the game.  Despite being right in his assessment, he's been in this position before each of the last two years, and the results hadn't improved.  The Rooneys are exceedingly patient in their decision making in the past, giving both Tomlin and Bill Cowher the benefit of the doubt to bounce back after some tough seasons.  Even they have to be thinking about the long term future of the franchise if Tomlin continues failing at properly disciplining his players to avoid making stupid penalties that cost the Steelers games.

4. Nobody in the NFC South is very good.  Despite being blown out the last two weeks, the Panthers are still tied for first place in the division with the Falcons at 2-2.  The Saints looked like their old Jekyll and Hyde selves Sunday night: dominant at home, but below average at best on the road.  The Bucs could not have looked worse 10 days ago in Atlanta if they had actively tried, but they managed to take advantage of some late play calling blunders on the Steelers' part on Sunday.  Through the first four weeks of the season, there have been only three head-to-head matchups among NFC South teams, and two of them were in the first week of the season.  These four teams are going to beat each other up all season long, so there's a good chance the division winner may finish with 9 wins.

5. What's wrong with LeSean McCoy?  Through four games, McCoy has carried the ball 70 times for a total of 192 yards and scored only 1 touchdown.  Nick Foles has also had a tough start to his season as well, but it isn't as glaring as McCoy's.  The obvious answer is poor offensive line play, but the Eagles' collapse in San Francisco was more about turnovers and poor defense.  On the Eagles' final drive of the game with about 2:40 to go in the game, McCoy got 5 yards when the Eagles were on the 49ers' 6-yard line.  The 2013 version of LeSean McCoy would have gotten to the goal line and scored the go-ahead touchdown, but the 2014 version has been coming up short in situations just like that.  If the Eagles are going to play football in January, they're going to need the old version of McCoy again.

6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to the entire Oakland Raiders team.  This team is just unwatchable.  It's quite embarrassing that the NFL sends a product like the Raiders across the pond to play in London in order to build interest in an NFL franchise overseas (which they still project will happen by 2022).  There just aren't words to describe how terrible the Raiders looked against Miami, particularly Matt McGloin's first snap after Derek Carr went down with a knee injury.  Head coach Dennis Allen was just fired overnight.  They aren't a franchise built for being competitive or relevant, and that isn't going to change any time soon.

7. The Packers and their fans can truly relax.  Shame on me for thinking the Packers were taking a step backwards this season and Jay Cutler and the Bears would simultaneously take a step forwards.  Aaron Rodgers put on a show in Chicago, and Jay Cutler was so far behind in Rodgers's shadow that the Bears didn't look like they were ready to take their own field.  The Packers' next three games are all very winnable, starting Thursday night at home against Minnesota.  If they win all three, they finish the first half of the season on the road in New Orleans before their bye week.  Even if they lose in New Orleans, that would put them at a very respectable 5-3 heading into their bye.

8. The Patriots may finally be meeting their decline.  When I was putting together my season predictions in August, one that I had considered making was the Patriots would not reach double-digit wins for the first time since 2002.  Then I looked over their schedule, and I quickly put that prediction aside because I couldn't come up with a feasible way they would fail to get at least 10 wins again.

Now, having seen what they did last night, I think there's a real chance they may win only 9 games this year.  They don't have a horse of a running back, a la LeSean McCoy, Marshawn Lynch, or Jamaal Charles; their receivers are a bunch of unknowns who may not make the roster of many teams across the league; and their defense is filled with holes top to bottom.  Tom Brady even recently said he'd only retire when he'd start sucking, and while no one will claim that day has come, he certainly isn't playing at the level he was in 2007 when the Patriots went 16-0 in the regular season.  He doesn't have the kind of talent he needs as a quarterback to have a competitive team anymore.

NFL 2014 Week 3 Snap Judgments

Three weeks into the season, and there are only three undefeated teams left: Philadelphia, Arizona, and Cincinnati.  Arizona is the big surprise of the group, despite winning 10 games last year and barely missing out on the playoffs.  No one is expecting any of these teams to go undefeated for the season, but as long as they keep winning they have little to complain about.  Other teams in the league don't have such a luxury though, such as....

1. Boy, oh, boy, are the Bucs a bad team.  I must eat some crow on this one.  I had picked the Bucs to not only be an upstart team this year, but win the NFC South outright.  I had expected Josh McCown to at least play at an average level at quarterback, but he has been anything but average.  The Bucs are one of three winless teams left in the NFL right now, and it's hard to tell where they fall in line relative to the Jaguars and Raiders.  If this weekend's games are the litmus test, the Jaguars and Bucs are neck and neck for how inept each of them looked.

2. The Bengals, on the other hand, are really, really good.  Give credit where it's due.  The Bengals have looked excellent through the first three weeks of the season.  Andy Dalton hadn't thrown an interception - in fact, the Bengals didn't turn the ball over at all - until late in the first half against the Titans.  The pick shouldn't even really count since the ball was deflected into the hands of Tennessee's George Wilson.  The Bengals are the lone undefeated team in the AFC right now, and they have an early bye next week.  Their first truly tough game of the season comes in Week 5 when they travel to New England.  If Dalton leads Cincinnati to a win on the road against one of the top two teams in the conference, the Bengals could show a sign they're not going to be one and done in the playoffs again.

3. How good are the Eagles, really?  The Eagles put themselves in the record books by winning their first three games of the season despite being down by double digits in every game so far.  That obviously says they don't lose composure when they face at least a two-score deficit, which can only mean Chip Kelly knows how to keep his team focused.  However, they still gave up over 500 yards of total offense to the Redskins.  Their defense is ranked 26th in the league at the moment, giving up almost 400 yards of offense per game and 26 points per game.  Their next game is in San Francisco (another enigma of a team), but their tougher games against the likes of Arizona, Carolina, and Seattle all come much later in the season.

4. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Stephen Tulloch.  The Lions beat up the Packers on Sunday, but Tulloch gets the Goat this week because with just under 8 minutes to go in the first quarter, Ziggy Ansah sacked Aaron Rodgers.  Tulloch was so ecstatic over the play that he did Rodgers's Discount Double Check move to celebrate a play that wasn't even made by him, and in the process he hurt his knee, knocking him out of the rest of the game.  The Lions have confirmed Tulloch tore his ACL during his celebration, so hopefully players will use Tulloch as an example to not get overly excited over a play as relatively routine as sacking the opposing quarterback, especially midway through the first quarter of a game.

Oh yeah, and celebrate a play they made themselves, instead of celebrating a play a teammate just made.

5. The big rookie quarterbacks are finally going to get their moment.  Due to injuries to Chad Henne and Matt Cassel, Blake Bortles and Teddy Bridgewater made their season debuts this weekend.  Neither were originally planned to play so soon - particularly in the case of Bortles - but necessity is the mother of all rookie quarterback play.  They both managed to play fairly well yesterday, given the sudden need for them to jump in each of their respective games.  Johnny Manziel is still in very limited use in Cleveland at the moment (save for a trick play that was called back due to penalty Sunday), leaving him be the one first-round quarterback who hasn't gotten the call to take the reigns yet.  Bortles's first start will be in San Diego next week, while Bridgewater will stay at home against Atlanta, so both rookies will face some tough challenges in getting their first wins.

6. Baltimore won a Pyrrhic victory Sunday.  Going 2-1 in three divisional games to start the season has to feel good for the Ravens, especially given all the off-the-field drama involving the Ray Rice case.  Their running game has vastly improved from last season in particular, with three good backs carrying the load.  They won on the road in a tough match up against an improved Cleveland team, but tight end Dennis Pitta hit the ground untouched after catching a pass from Joe Flacco.  Last year he fractured his right hip, and he re-injured that same hip Sunday.  He's since gone under the knife to repair the dislocation and fracture, and is now out for the season. Considering this makes two hip injuries in the span of a little over a year, the question of whether his football career may be over has to be asked.  His absence will once again be felt on the field, but the improvements and changes made to the Ravens' offense this year may mask his loss.

7. Seattle and Denver put on a classic game.  There was little surprise that Sunday's Super Bowl rematch proved to be much more competitive than their previous contest.  Seattle appears to have Peyton Manning's number though; if these two teams wind up facing off again in Super Bowl 49, one has to wonder which Denver team will show up to that game.  If it's the same team who played in Seattle on Sunday, then the game should be worth watching.  If not, then we'd have two Super Bowls reminiscent of the Cowboys/Bills games from over 20 years ago.

8. Are the 49ers in trouble?  It's normally quite premature to ask such a question, and it's also worth noting around this time last year a very similar question came up.  This time, however, the circumstances are different.  The 49ers are without Aldon Smith and Navorro Bowman, Ray McDonald is awaiting his domestic violence case to proceed, and there's significant tension between Jim Harbaugh and GM Trent Baalke.  This combined turmoil could lead to the kind of downward spiral that sinks a team's season, especially since the Cardinals are playing better than most people's expectations.

NFL 2014 Week 2 Snap Judgments

Last week was arguably the most brutal week the NFL has seen in off-the-field drama in a very long time, possibly ever.  The latest horrifying story line with Adrian Peterson and his alleged child abuse made for two players who had been perceived to be really good guys in the eyes of the public but now have their reputations tarnished, to say the least.  This weekend, however, things finally felt like I could concentrate more on the on-field action, so if the NFL will allow a simple writer to borrow a catch phrase, we can get back to football.

1. At least some of the remaining unbeaten teams are going to come back to Earth.  Buffalo, Houston, Carolina, and Arizona are all to some degree already looking better than they really are.  I had expected Arizona to compete for one of the NFC Wild Card spots by the end of the season, but I don't expect any of the other three to be truly good teams this year.  Houston, amazingly enough, started last season off 2-0 as well, and then went on to lose their next 14 games.  Buffalo isn't quite playing with house money yet, but they've clearly overachieved by winning last week in Chicago and then beating up Miami.  Carolina still has an elite defense, but I don't believe in their offense being able to score enough points every week to play with the big dogs in the NFC.

2. Meanwhile, some of the 0-2 teams have to be better than they've looked so far.  This comment mainly applies to the Saints and Bucs, who can't be as bad as their records would otherwise indicate.  The Saints managed to lose a heart-breaker to their divisional rival Falcons last week, and then Sunday they had to merely stop the Browns on their final drive to get the win in Cleveland.  Instead, Brian Hoyer led the Browns down field into field goal range, where Billy Cundiff had to kick what had amounted to little more than a chip shot for the Browns to win the game (more on the Browns in a moment).

The Bucs managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by a rarely-used rule at the end of the game.  Inside the 2-minute warning of either half, if a player is injured on the field, the player's team can call for an injury time out to stop the clock.  The Bucs' Mike Evans caught a key pass with 8 seconds left on the clock, but he was hurt on the hit he took after making the play.  The Bucs' trainers had to rush him off the field, but the Bucs were hit with a penalty for not having any time outs left for an injured player, so they were forced to run 10 seconds off the clock.  There's your ball game.

3. The Browns are not push overs.  Last week, the Browns managed to come back from down 27-3 against the Steelers, and Sunday they were neck and neck with the Saints before pulling an improbable victory for themselves (they had even jumped out to a 10-0 lead early on).  I still see the Browns losing double-digit games this season, but they aren't going to be blown out 30-10 every week.  If there's such a thing as a Pyrrhic victory in football, it will be that the Browns will finish around 5-11, but only have a minus-20 point differential, give or take.  That should give them something to build on for 2015.

4. Some teams are going to miss some key players for a significant portion of the season.  Take a look at some of the players who had sustained potentially serious injuries this weekend: Robert Griffin III, DeSean Jackson, Jamaal Charles, Knowshon Moreno, A.J. Green, and Ryan Mathews.  The severity of some of these injuries is still unknown at this point, but Griffin, Moreno, and Mathews are all going to miss a minimum of four to six weeks at least (Griffin's dislocated ankle could even possibly end his season).  From a fantasy football perspective, these injuries are going to affect a lot of fans out there, but from an on-field perspective, their respective teams will have to make some serious adjustments for the rest of their seasons.

5. Here's a rather crazy thought: Philip Rivers may actually be the best quarterback from the 2004 NFL draft class.  Rivers is clearly in the shadow of Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger, considering those two guys have each won two championships so far (and Manning has two Super Bowl MVPs to go with his rings).  Rivers has still managed to be a really good quarterback for the bulk of his career and won a lot of football games for the Chargers.  His performance against the Seahawks was virtually perfect, and his three touchdown passes to Antonio Gates were all beautifully thrown balls.  However, if you go back to comparing Rivers's stats to Eli's and Ben's, he has them both beaten in career completion percentage, QB rating, and touchdown/interception ratio.  If Rivers never wins a championship he'll never measure up to Manning or Roethlisberger, but he could well be the best QB to never win a championship since Dan Marino (which is quite a backhanded compliment).

6. The Goat of the Week Award goes to Marty Mornhinweg. The Jets were up 21-9 late in the first half in Green Bay, and were driving well into field goal range with the ball.  They were also due to get the ball back after halftime as well, so they could potentially have put the game away.  With just under 2 minutes to go in the first half, instead of running the ball to get a little closer for another field goal, Mornhinweg called for a pass to make a play for the end zone again.  Instead, Tramon Williams picked off Geno Smith's pass, putting the ball in Aaron Rodgers's hands.  The Packers then took the ball all the way down the field to score a touchdown, down only 21-16 at the half.  The Packers went on to win the game 31-24.

7. The Ravens avoided digging themselves into an incredibly deep hole Thursday night.  The Ravens were front and center amid the worst off-the-field week for the NFL in a very long time.  Coming from the perspective as a Ravens fan for a moment, I had firmly expected them to be clobbered by Pittsburgh Thursday night.  I thought the short week coupled with the Ray Rice drama was going to affect their ability to play well to say the least, but they brought their A-game on the field.  Had they lost that night, they would have been 0-2, in a complete disarray as a team, and face going on the road into the aforementioned not-push over Browns.  How well they fare on the road in their next game will start to show whether they're truly improved as a team this year over last.  Their running game has done well so far in their first two games, but Joe Flacco needs to play well on the road for a change.

8. The Colts are not in trouble...yet.  I kept the Colts as a separate talking point from the rest of the 0-2 teams in the league because they were my pick from the AFC to reach the Super Bowl.  If the Colts played in any other division, I'd probably be super concerned about their season.  Losing to two very good teams (including my projected Super Bowl champ last night) is not going to break the Colts' season when they have three average to bad teams in their division.  Three of their next four games are against the other teams in the AFC South, so they can put themselves back into first place and bounce back from a tough start to their season.

And the Ray Rice Case Is Only Getting Started

I'm sick.

I'm disgusted.

I'm angry.

I feel like I, along with most other Ravens fans (and NFL fans in general), have been personally betrayed.  To some degree that's a silly idea, but Ray Rice was a guy who I had a lot of admiration for.  He was my favorite player on the Ravens for years, and not just because of his skills as a football player.  He was an extremely active member of the Baltimore community from the moment he took the field in his rookie season, particularly when it came to his anti-bully campaign that he posted constantly about on his Facebook page.

He was also a great teammate, one who took on a leadership role during the final seasons of Ray Lewis's career.  He quickly became one of the most outspoken members on the Ravens, one who loved playing for the team just as much as the organization and the fans loved him right back.

That's why Ray Rice's firing from the Ravens and subsequent indefinite suspension by the NFL stings so much.

I haven't watched the elevator video that was released earlier this week by TMZ; in fact, I haven't even seen the first video that was released in February of Rice dragging the unconscious body of Janay Palmer through the casino floor.  I knew I'd throw up if I watched either video.  I have to tilt my head down or look elsewhere if I'm at the gym and the video comes up on ESPN on one of the gym TVs.

Last night Steve Bisciotti sent out an email to all Ravens season ticket holders and various stakeholders.  It quickly found its way publicly, as it should have.  In my opinion, while the Ravens' front office led by Bisciotti mucked things up pretty well over the last six months or so, the email did a fairly decent job outlining their thinking and ultimate actions.  Bisciotti pulled no punches though; he openly admitted where the Ravens dropped the ball and how they could have acted differently.

Some may argue the Ravens' dismissal of Rice and Bisciotti's email would be too little and too late, and they would have a pretty compelling argument.  Keith Olbermann sure would say that.  Take a look:

Kind of hard to argue against Olbermann's thoughts, and this comes from someone who regularly disagrees with his philosophies.

Here's the real problem though: this entire outrage is completely in response to the shocking video in question.  Domestic violence is a far, far bigger issue than Ray Rice, one that has existed in the NFL for years.  We've all turned a blind eye to it, and I'm just as guilty of doing so as everyone else.  Until Ray Rice's story broke, NFL players who had been charged with any kind of domestic violence charge were left largely to be footnotes in the news.  The recently retired James Harrison was even suspended for one game for punching his then-girlfriend in the eye in 2008.  Less than a year after that incident, he was a Super Bowl hero for the Steelers against the Cardinals.

Harrison is only one example though.  Brandon Marshall held a knife - a knife - to his then-girlfriend (and now wife) in 2008.  He was later diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder, and had to seek counseling to deal with his issues.  Now he's regarded as a great teammate and leader for the Bears.  His history, which is quite a laundry list of domestic violence claims and charges, is extensive to say the least.  Because he has since straightened himself out, no one talks about his background.

Yes, I'm also perfectly aware of Terrell Suggs's incident with his then-fiance involving a bucket of bleach as well.  He's another one who was a footnote when his incident had happened, but has since been a leader for the Ravens.  I don't know what the answer is when dealing with players who had previously had cases of domestic violence.

Ray Rice had to know the elevator video would surface eventually, as did the Ravens and the league office.  While I believe the Ravens' front office team members and the league office didn't see the video prior to Monday (I'll explain why in a moment), I don't believe either party took the necessary steps to properly obtain the video, which Bisciotti discussed in his email.

This kind of gross incompetence is unacceptable.  Somebody will be the fall guy for the league office, especially when considering Commissioner Roger Goodell's lack of explanation over what he knew, when he knew it, and what actions he took in response to whatever he knew.  Groups such as the National Organization for Women are now calling for Goodell to resign in light of everything that has happened and been made public.  Goodell has said he won't resign as a result of the fallout from all this, but that doesn't mean somebody won't be fired or forced to step down.

Goodell has said the league office had contacted law officials for all evidence in Ray Rice's case, to which the police department declined due to the video being the primary evidence in the incident in question.  If Goodell lied or hid the truth about somehow obtaining the incriminating video and the ACPD could somehow prove it, that would be the start of a defamation lawsuit waiting to happen.  If you thought the fallout from this entire scandal was already bad, consider the fallout from that scenario.  Goodell would almost certainly have to step down as commissioner, and the NFL would be eager to settle the lawsuit out of court.  The impact to its brand at that point would be beyond comprehension.

The Ravens have already put together plans to distance themselves with Rice, starting with offering fans who have his jersey to bring them in to exchange for another player's jersey of their choice.  Bisciotti's email also referenced the Ravens partnering with the House of Ruth, a nonprofit organization designed to help women who have been victims of domestic violence.  Small steps to be sure, but they're making an effort to make amends for their foul ups.

I haven't even gotten to the real victim here, and that's Janay Rice.  She's made the choice - for better or worse - to stay with her husband.  I want to believe that this was the first and only time Ray has ever hit her, but there are too many inconsistencies in the entire story that have left me wondering where the lies stop and the truth starts.  His anti-bully campaign looks like a farce, one that many people would rightly question its validity and whether it was a front to cover up other domestic violence.

Oh, by the way, the Ravens have to play tomorrow night against their arch rival Steelers.  When was the last time any football game was such an afterthought, especially when it's game featuring one of the best rivalries in the league?