Oakland cut Charles Woodson because they felt he was too washed up. Say, Mr. Romo, does Mr. Woodson feel washed up to you?

Ohhhhh sweet baby Jesus. That was a week for the history books. I’m frothing at the mouth right now recounting the amount of times I leaped from my couch and hovered in the air for a few seconds watching a critical play. So many important games! So many thrilling finishes! So many head-scratching coaching decisions that somehow involved neither Andy Reid nor Norv Turner! We’ll get to the rest of the league in just a minute, but for now, some ink must be spilled (um, digital ink, I guess) about that Cowboys/Packers tilt up in Lambeau.

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THINGS I’M STILL PONDERING…

• Green Bay fans, meet Green Bay’s defense. Green Bay’s defense, it’s nice of you to come home. After two weeks of getting shellacked by the rip-roaring tandem of Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson and the far less intimidating and indeed a tad confusing Tampa Bay offense, the Packers held one of the league’s best offenses to a grand total of zero points for fifty-nine-and-one-half minutes. The garbage-time touchdown to Roy Williams aside, the Packers clamped down in their most impressive defensive performance in roughly a calendar year. The pressure was flying (five sacks on Romo), the turnovers critical (two fumble recovers and an INT), and a cocksure mentality wholly missing in the previous two losses. With the win, Green Bay sends Dallas to its first loss in five games and ends its own two-game slide. For Tony Romo, it’s only his second loss ever in the month of November. Needless to say – which is a silly phrase, because if something were needless to say we wouldn’t follow it up with the thing being said – few people saw the Packers pulling this one out. Even I, the most devoted Packer Backer this side of the Ohio Valley, figured the Cowboys would win. Way to surprise me in a good way!
• Two players deserve special mentions on the defensive side of the ball. Look at Charles Woodson’s line: 8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT (on the 1-yard line, no less!) and 2 forced fumbles. Some defensive backs don’t even have that kind of disruptive presence in an entire month. Woodson better be granted the Defensive Player of the Week after his wrecking-ball performance Sunday. Clay Matthews also deserves a nod. While he was only credited for one tackle, one sack, and two fumbles recovered, his presence was felt continuously from the weak side. Ted Thompson, he of the Favre fiasco, deserves a little credit for seeing the potential in the young linebacker from USC to trade back up into the late first round (gasp!) to grab Matthews. He’s assumed a starting role within a month of playing and having bought into Dom Capers’ scheme and Kevin Greene’s enthusiastic coaching, he’s a spark plug out there next to Nick Barnett.
• Hate to be a sourpuss, especially after such a refreshing win, but there are elements of the game that showed that the Packers are not yet playoff-caliber. First of all, where was the offense for over three quarters? Yes, Rodgers got sacked (four more times), but that’s never stopped this team from putting up big numbers before. We’ll call it an off day, but the coaching needs to adjust to defensive schematics in a much more timely fashion. The Cowboys were playing off the line for much of the game, allowing Donald Driver and Greg Jennings to run those simple screens, hitches, and run-pass options. I suspect, as I long have, that the failures to open up the middle of the field is largely due to an uninspiring rushing attack. You get Ryan Grant going, those linebackers will be cheating closer to the box, allowing explosive playmakers like Driver, Jennings, and James Jones to make moves in the open field. Of course, it’d be helpful to have a target like Jermichael Finley back on the field. Where is he? He’s been practicing fully the last few weeks but gets deactivated before the game even starts. Donald Lee looks like he’s used up in the passing game (still a decent blocker) and Spencer Havner, despite his four touchdowns in the last month, has but a fraction of the ability of Finley. Getting Finley back would keep those linebackers a little more honest.


It’s like that old saying: you can take the receiver out of Detroit, but you can’t take the Detroit out of the receiver.

• On the other side of the field, wasn’t it about time for Miles Austin to fall back to Earth? He had an underwhelming four catches for 20 yards and for once, ceded the top receiving game to Roy Williams who caught 5 balls for 105 yards and that late touchdown. Of course, since it’s Roy Williams, he managed to sully his performance with a wide-open drop in the first half that could have been a huge gainer and also got the ball poked out at midfield by Woodson after a twenty-yard pickup. When you’re traded to a team that gives up a first-round pick and then signs you to a huge hunk of money, you simply can’t be making those kinds of training-camp errors. That’s Terrell Owens’ job (wow, who would have ever thought Owens could make himself irrelevant? Guess that’s what Buffalo can do to you). Tony Romo had but 95 passing yards through the first three quarters. That might seem like seem like an unusually low number, but wait, it’s about to get even more unusual: The Cowboys only called for 11 plays to their running backs the entire game! Part of that comes with the landscape when you fall behind two scores in the fourth quarter, but 80% of this game was played either tied or within one score. That statistic belies one of two things: the Cowboys have no confidence in their running game to pick up first downs, or the Green Bay rush defense is incredibly intimidating.
• Finally, a note about special teams. I understand that Will Blackmon is out for the year with an ACL injury, and I also understand that Tramon Williams has a similar skill set returning kicks (he returned a punt for a touchdown last year). But fumbling a punt is a huge demoralizer. The Packers got lucky that it didn’t burn them this week, but when the offense and defense aren’t clicking together, special teams can’t be the third of the game planning that crumbles. You gotta coach these guys to make north-south cuts and protect the ball when the lanes close down. It’s more important to retain possession than to fight for two or three more yards on a punt return.
  

  So he can kick a ball through a bell tower, but can he hit a 50-yarder with the game on the line?

  And what’s Mason Crosby doing out there trying to kick a 52-yarder in the first quarter? This isn’t an end-of-game situation where you don’t have much of a choice. The Packers have attempted at least one field goal in 8 of their 9 games. In those 8 games, Crosby has had only three games in which he made all his field goals; in the other five, he’s missed one a piece. The guy has a booming leg and for the most part is pretty accurate. He’s 14 of 15 from kicks between 19-49 yards. He’s only 1-5 from kicks of 50+, missing his last four from that distance. I don’t think the guy has a mental issue and those long kicks are much harder to make for a kicker who’s only been in the league for three years. Still, as the days get shorter, the weather gets colder, and field position becomes increasingly more important, you’d like to know that if your drive stalls at the opponent’s 35 that you can get points out of the drive. Wait and see with Crosby…

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH…

Every quest for perfection reveals a chink in the suit of armor.

The Saints and Colts survived another week with their unblemished records intact, though this week was the scariest yet for their pursuit of an undefeated season. Saints fans were on the edges of their seats, hopefully none of which were placed precariously close to open bottles of wine, fireplaces, cliffs, etc. The Rams played ‘em tough, tougher than any of us would have thought, and they had a chance to drive the length of the field and win late. A 28-23 road victory is never anything to sneeze at in this league, but you have to think that the Saints’ win underscores a few of their weaknesses, namely an inability to control the clock and to stop an opponent’s run game. These two weaknesses have been masked nicely thus far by the Saints’ usual strategy of getting a huge lead and then continuing to pile on against demoralized defenses. I guess the Rams defense can be demoralized no further than they already are. Anyway, it’s no secret the Saints are better than in years past at running between the tackles, but it’s still not what they’d prefer to do. They’re a pass-first team that will gladly move the sticks with 8-yard patterns, and they’re very, very good at it. But it’s not foolproof, it’s a strategy, and we’re seeing the natural and beautiful adaptation of the league via film study to thwart the Saints. Sean Payton has a great tactical mind for offensive scheming; let’s see what he brings to the table in December to keep defenses guessing.

In Indianapolis, Bill Belichick devised one tactic that left everyone in the nation guessing. I’m talking about the now-infamous decision to go for the first down on fourth-and-two backed up at his own 29-yard line with a six-point lead. As you surely know, the try failed (a few inches short) and Peyton Manning took over and threw the winning touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne with 13 seconds remaining. The Colts win by one, and the artificial vacuum of the sports world erupts with excoriating monologues. From Tony Dungy, we heard how Belichick outcoached himself and should have played the percentages; from Colin Cowher on ESPN Radio, we heard how he “violated an unwritten rule of football” that one does not go for a fourth-down play that deep in one’s own territory when holding the lead; from Jim Rome we hear anecdotes about how Belichick has disrespected his own defense. I’m here to set the record straight: those guys are wrong, wrong, wrong. Belichick made an intelligent, calculated, and informed gamble, and he lost. That happens when you gamble sometimes.

Next week against the Jets, Coach Belichick causes a national scandal when he orders Tom Brady to kneel on the first three plays “just to confuse Rex.”

Think about it: the Colts had a couple of time-outs in their pocket and a full two minutes. Would it really have mattered had they been pushed back forty yards (an average punt minus return)? That’s like, two or three passes from Peyton Manning to Reggie Wayne, who had been killing them all night. No, it’s a regular season game that ultimately doesn’t mean a whole lot. The Patriots are going to win their division. They may see the Colts again in the AFC Championship game, but they just proved they can beat the Colts in their own house. So why not roll the dice if you’re playing with the house’s money? As Gregg Easterbrook will surely remind us, the average play in the NFL gains roughly 4 yards. The play the Pats drew up would have won the game if executed correctly — keep in mind that the Colts defense, while reacting quickly to the play, wouldn’t have prevented the first down from occurring had the ball been caught cleanly. The reason I’m spending so much damn time on this topic is that I want to correct a hyperconservative trend in football circles, that punting is acceptable as blame-shifting. If Belichick punts and Peyton Manning scores a touchdown anyway, everyone shrugs their shoulders and says, “Hey, Peyton’s a great clutch QB, what could anyone have done?” Except the thing to be done is to never let Peyton get the ball back in the first place. Kudos to Belichick for shirking tradition and going for glory. You don’t win Super Bowls unless you trust your defense AND your offense. Belichick trusts Brady. End of story.

Whose division is it anyway?

Apart from the aforementioned Pats, Colts, and Saints, the other divisional leaders all faced challenges to their thrones (except for Minnesota who merely had to breathe on the Lions to win). Starting out west, the Cardinals needed Kurt Warner to come alive in the fourth to handle a depleted Seattle team. It helped that Beanie Wells is like Michael Myers incarnate — you really need to decapitate him if you want to bring him down. The Eagles had a chance to jump back into contention for the NFC East title after Dallas lost at Green Bay, but they decided that driving to the 5-yard line was good enough and settled for too many field goals at San Diego.

If he cradles LT Jr. half as well as he carries the rock, that kid is going to grow up just fine.

Kudos to LaDainian Tomlinson for ascending into third all-time on the touchdowns list and 12th all time for rushing yardage in the same game, but double kudos for doing it just hours after learning he would be a daddy. Those Chargers moved into a virtual tie with Denver after the Broncos lost both their starting quarterback and the game to the hapless Redskins. Looks like the annual Denver demise/San Diego comeback is beginning a few weeks earlier than normal. Finally, in a game that unsurprisingly featured zero offensive touchdowns, the Bengals outlasted Pittsburgh at Heinz Field, giving them a nigh-insurmountable 5-0 divisional record that includes season sweeps of the Steelers and Ravens. They even accomplished it largely without the help of Cedric Benson, who left the game early on with a hip injury. Marvin Lewis has put the teeth back in the mouths of the Cincy Cats.

It helps if your young quarterback is actually named Young.

Break up the Titans! Bolstered by Vince Young’s Ali-like return to the ring, Tennessee has ripped off three consecutive wins. Obviously inspired by the adequate play of the third overall pick of the 2006 draft, running back Chris Johnson went berserk once again, scoring twice and consistently gashing an overmatched Buffalo defense. This team doesn’t have the ability of last year’s squad to pull off a nine- or ten-game winning streak and make the playoffs, but a rebound might be just the tonic to save Jeff Fisher’s job–that is, if the longest-tenured coach in the NFL was really ever on the hot seat to begin with. The results just keep trending downward for the second quarterback taken in the 2009 draft as Mark Sanchez can’t buy the Jets a win. For the second year in a row (first with an ancient QB, Favre, now with a babe behind the wheel) New York has jumped out to a presumptive playoff position then faded awkwardly midway though the season. The Jets are behind the eight-ball in a serious way, having lost their last three home games to AFC competitors, and probably will miss out on January games yet again. In Miami, the Dolphins got a late field goal from Dan Carpenter to hold off the charmed play of Bucs youngster Josh Freeman, the third quarterback taken in this year’s draft. While his play is a little choppy thus far, his grit and natural leadership must give Tampa fans some serious hope for 2010 and beyond. At the very least, he’s not like JaMarcus Russell, the first overall pick in 2007, getting hooked in the third quarter by Oakland coach/women’s rights aficionado Tom Cable. When Bruce Gradkowski is brought in to try and win a home game against a 1-7 division rival because it’s thought you just don’t got the juice, you can safely say you’re the worst (non-Cleveland) quarterback in the league.

THE NO-HUDDLE…
According to reports, Larry Johnson is close to signing a deal that would put him in a Bengals uniform for the rest of the season. Obviously Cincinnati brass is concerned that Ced Benson’s injury might be enough to force him to miss some time, otherwise why would they sign such a character risk? Oh right, because it’s Cincy…Vikings superstar Adrian Peterson continues to make ridiculous moves a la Barry Sanders that make us drop our jaws, but it’s another part of his game that dislodges our mandibles for a more unsettling reason. I’m referring to his fumbling issues, and he’s lucky that the Lions is in a state of disarray too acute to make him pay for a blunder like the one he made in the third quarter, having the ball punched out from behind on the way to a huge gain…

I think I made the correct call. (Photo courtesy of Mickey’s Family Crab House)

I missed Monday night’s Ravens/Browns game to head to the diner with some friends, wherein I enjoyed a (Todd) heaping bowl of Maryland crab soup. Turns out my dinner wasn’t the only dominant performance from the Old Line State, as the Ravens shut out Cleveland 16-0. All I needed to hear about the Brownies’ performance, or lack thereof, was summarized by Marv Albert as I listened to the radio broadcast on the drive home: “I have never seen a team perform this badly on offense,” said Marv (I paraphrased), “than the Browns in tonight’s game…”The Panthers upended the Falcons, sending Atlanta to its third loss in the last four games. It’s not a great sign when Matt Ryan is regressing despite having weapons like Roddy White and Michael Turner, plus new addition Tony Gonzalez. The most impressive (if you want to call it that) win they have this year is a road drubbing of San Francisco, a win that looks weaker by the day…In the Bills‘ loss to the Titans, rookie safety Jairus Byrd recorded his fifth straight game with a pick, giving him an incredible eight through nine games. Titans owner Bud Adams thus responded with two high flying birds of his own…

30 SECONDS OF FAME
I love innovative technology almost as much as I love clever commercials. Imagine my child-like delight at the convergence of the two in this week’s highlighted advertisement for Clear, a company promoting ubiquitous wi-fi coverage in select metropolitan cities. On the record, I love the beer-as-internet metaphor, culminating in a giant soaky stadium-sized suds bath. That’s what I call fantasy football. Fantastic idea and fantastic marketing can only mean positive things moving forward for Clear.

WHAT I’M WATCHING NEXT WEEK:

Not a whole lot to choose from on a relatively unappetizing week of football, but I’ll still make sure to pay attention to Falcons/Giants and Eagles/Bears, two similarly themed games where the winner can still maintain a playoff disposition while the loser fades into the mist of mediocrity. The Broncos/Chargers battle for the AFC West takes a bit of a hype hit if Kyle Orton can’t play. “Monday Night Football” may not seem intriguing at first blush, but I’m very interested to see if the Titans can build on their three-game winning streak heading into what should be a raucous Houston crowd hoping to boost their Texans to a win in a rare prime-time performance.

SPECIAL THUNDER’S DAY PICK!

The Dolphins head to Carolina in a battle of 2008 playoff teams destined to go nowhere behind crappy-to-mediocre quarterbacks this year. Before this weekend, I figured Miami would walk all over Carolina. Now, with Ronnie Brown probably out for the game and Jake Delhomme finding ways every week to suck less and less, I’m sliding toward the side of the Panthers. I don’t really like either team, and the fact that both sides are wearing teal will make HD tuners crack all over America, so it’s really a lose-lose proposition. Still, I’m an intrepid journalist, and I must make the tough calls so you don’t have to.
Panthers by four.