Tweet
AFC News and Notes from Week 10
By Teddy Covers
Sportsmemo.com
Welcome to Teddy’s unique look at the NFL. Teddy watches games all day on Sunday, typing furiously on his laptop while giving you the key info that the box scores and game recaps don’t necessarily have. This week: AFC thoughts and opinions from Week 10.
Cincinnati Bengals - Five key starters are missing from this defense. Geno Atkins, Robert Geathers, Taylor Mays and Leon Hall are all on injured reserve. Rey Maualuga was out today, as was fellow LB Michael Boley. That's one heck of a lot of talent to be missing! So for this stop unit to shut down the Ravens for the better part of the last three quarters speaks volumes about their depth and defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer’s schemes.
All the questions about Andy Dalton's ability to guide this team to postseason success continue to linger. Dalton won the AFC Offensive Player of the Month award in October, but here in November he could win the 'biggest downgrade of any QB this month' award. Dalton was awful last Thursday against the Dolphins and he was even worse today.
Dalton held the ball too long, taking sacks instead of making quick decisions. His accuracy was way off all afternoon, completing less than half his passes. And he threw three interceptions for the second week in a row. On a day where Cincinnati was able to run the football effectively, some of Dalton’s struggles may have been gusty wind related, but it was the type of performance that could get a QB benched.
If the Bengals are the favorites to win the AFC North (which they are, leading by a game and a half), I want some money on longshot Cleveland to win the division.
Indianapolis Colts - Every team gets a mulligan or two throughout the course of a 16 game season. After facing Seattle, San Diego on Monday Night Football, Denver with Peyton Manning's return to Indy, a huge Sunday Night TV game against division rival Houston with another divisional game on tap for Thursday Night, yes, this was a real flat spot for the Colts. And it showed, from the opening possession, by far Indy’s worst game of the year.
Indy's defense is not loaded with playmakers, but they've still got one real difference maker after all these years -- DE Robert Mathis, who blew up the Rams first drive with yet another tackle-for-loss and had a pair of sacks. Mathis certainly isn't living on past reputation; every bit as effective now as he was five years ago. Unfortunately for the Colts, he’s probably the only impact player on this defense.
The Colts spent a fortune in draft picks to acquire Trent Richardson from the Browns. Richardson is no better in Indy than he was in Cleveland -- no explosiveness, few broken tackles and a miserable yards-per-carry average. They completely gave up on the run by midway through the second quarter, and Andrew Luck finished the game with 17 of Indy’s 18 rushing yards. The injury loss of Reggie Wayne as Luck’s favorite weapon probably was a factor as well – there’s no need for double coverage against any healthy receiver on the roster.
Complete disaster on special teams here. The Colts allowed a punt return touchdown, and their own return game was nothing short of awful. Three of their first six drives started inside their own ten yard line after poor decisions to run deep kickoffs out of the end zone.
Jacksonville Jaguars - We've seen modest improvements from the Jags offense since the beginning of the season; but their defense has been horrific since Week 1. Today, we saw legitimate defensive improvements; a winless team playing their Super Bowl – a post bye week game against a divisional foe. Just having an early lead seemed to improve their energy level; and a halftime lead is something they haven’t come close to having all year before today.
Still, make no mistake about it – the Jags rank #32 out of 32 NFL teams. Their offensive line play is nothing short of awful. Maurice Jones-Drew didn’t see much daylight, consistently hit at or behind the line of scrimmage. Chad Henne connected on a handful of downfield throws, but watching him trying to protect a lead was downright ugly. His fourth quarter interception was truly awful, a ‘bench me immediately’ kind of throw. The Jags had five fourth quarter drives with a lead, but managed to run more than 1:30 off the clock on only one of them.
But the Jaguars defense made some plays today, something this playmaker-deficient unit has struggled to do all year. It’s a lot easier to win games when your defense forces four turnovers.
I don’t often include post-game quotes in this column, but I thought this one was too good to leave out. Offensive guard Uche Nwaneri: “Getting this win today, it did feel like a breath of fresh air. It was kind of like [giving the] middle finger to all the people who want talk about the Jaguars not winning the game or being the worst 0-8 team in history. It’s kind of, ‘Eat this.’ That’s kind of how it feels."
Baltimore Ravens - This offense won the Super Bowl because they took lots of big play shots down the field throughout the playoffs last year. This year, they consistently haven't been able to connect on deep balls. Joe Flacco was firing away downfield in last week's loss at Cleveland, but he was under duress throughout, taking big hit after big hit.
This week, the Ravens first TD was set up on a deep throw that got a pass interference penalty. Still, Flacco was under pressure and he underthrew the pass, which would have been an easy TD if he could hit his receiver in stride. He's just not the same QB right now, struggling with his accuracy badly, unable to complete a single loss pass all afternoon; 0-fer the game on attempts longer than 15 yards.
To make matters even worse for this offense, there’s still no running game whatsoever. Ray Rice is a complete non-factor these days; so is Bernard Pierce. Poor offensive line play is haunting this team. Despite another solid defensive showing, this is simply not a playoff caliber offense these days.
Tennessee Titans - Talk about flat! Chris Johnson fumbled away the football deep in Tennessee territory on the Titans first play from scrimmage. From there, the offense went three-and-out on their next three drives, followed by an interception, another three-and-out and a fumble. That’s a team not ready to play!
Chris Johnson was the difference between winning and losing at St Louis last week; his best game of the year. This week, after that initial fumble, Johnson dropped an easy dump off pass that would have been a first down and didn’t have a single rush longer than six yards. The offensive line in front of him did NOT have a good game, and that’s putting it mildly.
Jake Locker couldn't stay healthy in college at Washington, and he hasn't been able to stay healthy as an NFL starter either. Initial reports called his injury today another season ender. Ryan Fitzpatrick was solid off the bench; one of the better NFL backups. But Fitz throwing in the red zone is a mistake waiting to happen; hence the Rob Bironas field goals.
The Titans management brought in Bernard Pollard in to toughen up their defense in the offseason. Here, Pollard had two key penalties on the Jags lone touchdown drive in the second half, both major mistakes. The secondary as a group didn’t tackle well either, but that hasn’t been a consistent problem for this team.
The Titans are starting to get some production out of young WR's like rookie Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright. For Mike Munchak’s squad to remain in playoff contention, they're going to need big plays out of that WR duo and fewer mistakes from Fitzpatrick in the red zone.
By Teddy Covers
Sportsmemo.com
Welcome to Teddy’s unique look at the NFL. Teddy watches games all day on Sunday, typing furiously on his laptop while giving you the key info that the box scores and game recaps don’t necessarily have. This week: AFC thoughts and opinions from Week 10.
Cincinnati Bengals - Five key starters are missing from this defense. Geno Atkins, Robert Geathers, Taylor Mays and Leon Hall are all on injured reserve. Rey Maualuga was out today, as was fellow LB Michael Boley. That's one heck of a lot of talent to be missing! So for this stop unit to shut down the Ravens for the better part of the last three quarters speaks volumes about their depth and defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer’s schemes.
All the questions about Andy Dalton's ability to guide this team to postseason success continue to linger. Dalton won the AFC Offensive Player of the Month award in October, but here in November he could win the 'biggest downgrade of any QB this month' award. Dalton was awful last Thursday against the Dolphins and he was even worse today.
Dalton held the ball too long, taking sacks instead of making quick decisions. His accuracy was way off all afternoon, completing less than half his passes. And he threw three interceptions for the second week in a row. On a day where Cincinnati was able to run the football effectively, some of Dalton’s struggles may have been gusty wind related, but it was the type of performance that could get a QB benched.
If the Bengals are the favorites to win the AFC North (which they are, leading by a game and a half), I want some money on longshot Cleveland to win the division.
Indianapolis Colts - Every team gets a mulligan or two throughout the course of a 16 game season. After facing Seattle, San Diego on Monday Night Football, Denver with Peyton Manning's return to Indy, a huge Sunday Night TV game against division rival Houston with another divisional game on tap for Thursday Night, yes, this was a real flat spot for the Colts. And it showed, from the opening possession, by far Indy’s worst game of the year.
Indy's defense is not loaded with playmakers, but they've still got one real difference maker after all these years -- DE Robert Mathis, who blew up the Rams first drive with yet another tackle-for-loss and had a pair of sacks. Mathis certainly isn't living on past reputation; every bit as effective now as he was five years ago. Unfortunately for the Colts, he’s probably the only impact player on this defense.
The Colts spent a fortune in draft picks to acquire Trent Richardson from the Browns. Richardson is no better in Indy than he was in Cleveland -- no explosiveness, few broken tackles and a miserable yards-per-carry average. They completely gave up on the run by midway through the second quarter, and Andrew Luck finished the game with 17 of Indy’s 18 rushing yards. The injury loss of Reggie Wayne as Luck’s favorite weapon probably was a factor as well – there’s no need for double coverage against any healthy receiver on the roster.
Complete disaster on special teams here. The Colts allowed a punt return touchdown, and their own return game was nothing short of awful. Three of their first six drives started inside their own ten yard line after poor decisions to run deep kickoffs out of the end zone.
Jacksonville Jaguars - We've seen modest improvements from the Jags offense since the beginning of the season; but their defense has been horrific since Week 1. Today, we saw legitimate defensive improvements; a winless team playing their Super Bowl – a post bye week game against a divisional foe. Just having an early lead seemed to improve their energy level; and a halftime lead is something they haven’t come close to having all year before today.
Still, make no mistake about it – the Jags rank #32 out of 32 NFL teams. Their offensive line play is nothing short of awful. Maurice Jones-Drew didn’t see much daylight, consistently hit at or behind the line of scrimmage. Chad Henne connected on a handful of downfield throws, but watching him trying to protect a lead was downright ugly. His fourth quarter interception was truly awful, a ‘bench me immediately’ kind of throw. The Jags had five fourth quarter drives with a lead, but managed to run more than 1:30 off the clock on only one of them.
But the Jaguars defense made some plays today, something this playmaker-deficient unit has struggled to do all year. It’s a lot easier to win games when your defense forces four turnovers.
I don’t often include post-game quotes in this column, but I thought this one was too good to leave out. Offensive guard Uche Nwaneri: “Getting this win today, it did feel like a breath of fresh air. It was kind of like [giving the] middle finger to all the people who want talk about the Jaguars not winning the game or being the worst 0-8 team in history. It’s kind of, ‘Eat this.’ That’s kind of how it feels."
Baltimore Ravens - This offense won the Super Bowl because they took lots of big play shots down the field throughout the playoffs last year. This year, they consistently haven't been able to connect on deep balls. Joe Flacco was firing away downfield in last week's loss at Cleveland, but he was under duress throughout, taking big hit after big hit.
This week, the Ravens first TD was set up on a deep throw that got a pass interference penalty. Still, Flacco was under pressure and he underthrew the pass, which would have been an easy TD if he could hit his receiver in stride. He's just not the same QB right now, struggling with his accuracy badly, unable to complete a single loss pass all afternoon; 0-fer the game on attempts longer than 15 yards.
To make matters even worse for this offense, there’s still no running game whatsoever. Ray Rice is a complete non-factor these days; so is Bernard Pierce. Poor offensive line play is haunting this team. Despite another solid defensive showing, this is simply not a playoff caliber offense these days.
Tennessee Titans - Talk about flat! Chris Johnson fumbled away the football deep in Tennessee territory on the Titans first play from scrimmage. From there, the offense went three-and-out on their next three drives, followed by an interception, another three-and-out and a fumble. That’s a team not ready to play!
Chris Johnson was the difference between winning and losing at St Louis last week; his best game of the year. This week, after that initial fumble, Johnson dropped an easy dump off pass that would have been a first down and didn’t have a single rush longer than six yards. The offensive line in front of him did NOT have a good game, and that’s putting it mildly.
Jake Locker couldn't stay healthy in college at Washington, and he hasn't been able to stay healthy as an NFL starter either. Initial reports called his injury today another season ender. Ryan Fitzpatrick was solid off the bench; one of the better NFL backups. But Fitz throwing in the red zone is a mistake waiting to happen; hence the Rob Bironas field goals.
The Titans management brought in Bernard Pollard in to toughen up their defense in the offseason. Here, Pollard had two key penalties on the Jags lone touchdown drive in the second half, both major mistakes. The secondary as a group didn’t tackle well either, but that hasn’t been a consistent problem for this team.
The Titans are starting to get some production out of young WR's like rookie Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright. For Mike Munchak’s squad to remain in playoff contention, they're going to need big plays out of that WR duo and fewer mistakes from Fitzpatrick in the red zone.
Comment