MNF Week 14 Rush Attack!

I was looking forward to a nice day in front of the tube watching football yesterday. The forecast had a good chance of snow for several of the games, and the contests looked pretty tight. What did I get? Blowouts.

Eight of the 14 games yesterday were won by 20 points or more. Five of those were blown open by QBs who scored 4 TDs each (there had only been 2 weeks in the season so far when as many as 3 QBs threw four scores.) The only underdogs to win were in relatively uninteresting games ( Houston and Philly), and the only two exciting come-from-behind wins were by teams I hate ( San Diego and Dallas ). The only game that got some decent snow was the ridiculous Miami at Buffalo match and the snow didn't even stick.

To make things worse, the results sucked most of the drama out of the season with three games to play. Four divisions have been clinched outright and only one of the remaining four is closer than two games apart. There's a bit of a question about seeding and the last wild-card spot on each side, but that's about it. If you told me in Week 1 that next week's Bills-Browns game would have the most playoff implications for Week 15, I'd have slapped you silly, but here we are.

The bright spot for me was that the Broncos finally pasted somebody, smacking it to the Chiefs 41-7. It illustrated the old football adage: to win in December and January, you gotta be able to run, and stop the run. The Broncos held the Chiefs to 16 yards on 17 carries, while putting up 215 yards on the ground of their own. That, and four TDs from Jay Cutler turned out to be enough to get the job done.

Meanwhile, in New England, Pittsburgh put up 181 rushing yards and held the Patriots to 22. The Steelers lost 34-13. So maybe it's: You gotta run, stop the run, and not play New England .

Certainly stopping the run was the game plan in San Francisco , facing the Vikings top-rated rushing attack, and playing for nothing more than a shred of dignity. The 49ers held the Vikings to 33 yards on 30 carries, including holding rookie sensation (and yards-per-carry leader of the NFL) The Adrian Peterson to less than 8 inches per carry on 14 tries. Of course that also doesn't include the one carry Chester Taylor took 84 yards for a score, but we all get a mulligan, right? Also, SF played poorly on special teams and finished their game with their third-string QB whose total NFL experience in 6 years had been 2 kneel-downs and lost 27-7.

So really, the adage should be: You gotta run, stop the run, not play New England and not be San Francisco .

As I mentioned, part of the 49ers woes were that they were playing their 3rd string QB, Shaun Hill. I know I've talked about this before, but by my updated count there have been 22 teams that have had a QB knocked out of or benched in a game this year. At least 6 teams have starting QBs who are on injured reserve or won't play the rest of the year due to injury. At least eighteen teams have given a start to a QB different from their starter for week 1. Would you like to know who is not on that list? Every division leader except Tampa Bay . It's possible that consistency at quarterback bodes well for one's success, I'm just saying.

I count 7 teams this week that gave (or will give) playing time for one reason or another to a guy who started the season no higher than 3rd on the depth chart – and some were fourth, on the practice squad, or out of football. How’d that work out for them? Well, they all lost (except Atlanta , so far, because they play tonight), none has more than 5 wins and their combined record is 22-69 (32%). And the J-E-T-S aren't even among them!

Tonight's Saints at Falcons game might have been one to look forward to when it meant the excitement of Michael Vick vs. Reggie Bush. Of course, this week's news is that Reggie Bush will probably miss the rest of the season with a torn PCL, and a book is coming out revealing the inappropriate favors and benefits he received while playing at USC. This makes his news the better of the two. Vick, it turns out, was sentenced to 23 months in prison this morning for making dogs kill each other for fun and profit.

In Vick's place, the Falcons will start Chris Redman who was out of football for the last 3 years, and came up from behind the incarcerated Michael Vick, the injured Byron Leftwich, and the ineffective Joey Jo-Jo Shabadoo Harrington on the depth chart. Since the rest of the Falcons aren't good either, hopes for the Chris Redman era are not running high.

Slightly better off, but still disappointing, are the New Orleans Saints. From last year's NFC Championship game to a 5-9 season, the Saints really haven't gotten anything going. While they have had QB consistency in Drew Brees, they have lost their potent 1-2 rushing tandem of Deuce McAllister, and the aforementioned Mr. Bush. The Saints are 2.5 games back from the Bucs to in the NFC South, but the Bucs play the Falcons, 49ers and Panthers the rest of the way out. They're a longshot for the last wild-card spot, but I think it would be safe for them to make January plans that don't involve, you know, playing football.

Something tells me less people travel from New Orleans to Atlanta for the game than when it's the other way around. Especially this week, when the game will suck. There's not even a chance of snow to make it interesting, as it's in a dome in the South. (There should be a rule that says after Thanksgiving, all SNF and MNF games should be played outside in a snow city.)

So can either of these teams run, or stop the run? Will it matter either way? Will we have to hear more about Michael Vick in prison or Chris Redman's recent history selling insurance? Who will be the insufferable booth guest? I don't know. But c'mon down to Tessa's Toy Terrarium and have some leftover turkey Manwich with us as we find out.

You'll be glad you did.

- jdlrm