Charles Woodson won the Heisman at Michigan; he’s a lot better at age 33 than the youngsters in contention for the trophy this year.

Welcome back, friends and foes, to another installment of the most righteous recollection of all things football in this, the twelfth week of the 2009 NFL season. It wasn’t the most glamorous of lineups this Sunday, with several of the better teams playing on Thanksgiving or, ahem, in a certain Monday night matchup. But we still have plenty to talk about. First things first: a rewind to Thanksgiving afternoon where Green Bay feasted on a limp Lions team.

(As always, you can e-mail me at selfserve@gmail.com, leave a comment in the box below, or follow me on Twitter @greenbayblog)

THINGS I’M STILL PONDERING…

• Maybe you thought I was nuts way back in the preseason when I boasted that Green Bay had the top receiving corps in the league. Fair enough: Minnesota’s trio of Percy Harvin, Bernard Berrian, and Sidney Rice and Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, and Steve Breaston are rather good. Still, you saw on Thursday why I’ve been so excited all year about the potential of this offense. On a relatively quiet day for Greg Jennings (52 yards receiving), Donald Driver exploded for 7 catches, 142 yards, and a touchdown. Most of that yardage came on two massive rainbows set up by beautiful play action fakes by Aaron Rodgers and Ryan Grant, proof that even on a modest rushing day (Grant carried 20 times for 66 yards), the threat of the run is a weapon enough. James Jones and Jordy Nelson, receivers 3A and 3B for the Packers, also added a touchdown catch on a day where Rodgers went largely unmolested. Imagine that: a semblance of run-pass balance (OK, there was a moment where Green Bay passed 13 consecutive times, but it swung back toward the middle as the game progressed), creative game planning, and protection from the offensive line can result in a harmonious offense.
• The poor Lions: they never really had a shot, did they? Their lone touchdown was set up by a fumble on the opening kickoff. After the first quarter, Green Bay started getting their shots on Matthew Stafford, who looked exhausted and bruised by the time the fourth quarter rolled around. Calvin Johnson, despite catching that lone touchdown for Detroit, was operating at maybe half-speed. The Lions had to have a lot of things go their way to win on Thursday, and Kevin Smith, as good as he is, cannot carry this team like Barry Sanders. Perhaps the most glaring problem with the Lions is their lack of pass rush; at times, I counted up to six- or seven-Mississippi for Aaron Rodgers to find an open receiver. It doesn’t matter that their “best” pass rusher, Cliff Avril, is injured. The Lions need to make getting to the quarterback a priority in the draft and the offseason. Although they may have a tough time convincing free agents to pick Detroit over other cities if an uncapped league is on the horizon…


Silent Bob he is not; Barry Sanders he is also not.

• As nice as it was to see the Pack pick up their third win in a twelve-day stretch, the potential of the offense is still being stifled by special teams blunders. Jordy Nelson’s fumble to open the game is just one of many errors: Tramon Williams has let too many punts bounce inside the twenty instead of utilizing the fair catch, the blocking has been suspect and accrues far too many penalties, and for what seems like the seventh straight game an opponent has broken a decent kick or punt return. That doesn’t even begin to address Mason Crosby’s errors. Until this week, his misses had been tough kicks, 50+ yarders, generally outdoors. Then he blew a relatively easy kick in the first quarter, setting up a decision in the second half for Mike McCarthy to go for it on fourth down instead of letting Crosby line up for a 51-yard figgie indoors. That should make supporters of the green-and-yellow a bit nervous heading into December and January, months with particularly unforgiving weather for kickers.
• To end on a positive note, Charles Woodson was once again the best player on either side of the field, and perhaps put forth the best effort of any defensive player in the league. He grabbed two of the four Stafford interceptions (Tramon Williams and Nick Collins had the others), returning one for a late touchdown. He also added 6.5 tackles, had a sack, and forced a fumble. His one-man wrecking crew act helps mask some of the deficiencies on the defense, which was forced into an awkward position early but settled in nicely. I loved seeing B.J. Raji shoot the A-gap and burn Kevin Smith in the backfield early in the 2nd quarter; Clay Matthews’ pursuit that led to a sack of Stafford as time expired in the first half was equally juicy. The end result of an effective offense and an opportunistic defense is that Green Bay is now 7-4 and in sole possession of one of the two wild card spots in the NFC. The gauntlet awaits: a MNF home date against Baltimore followed by consecutive roadies against Chicago and Pittsburgh. Making it through that stretch with two wins would be ideal, but Green Bay taking care of business the last three weeks aids the cause.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH…

The most popular player on any football team is the backup quarterback; this proves doubly so when the backup plays better than the starter.
By now you’ve heard enough about Vince Young’s season and how he’s 5-0 this year (extending a personal winning streak to 9 games), but the elevation of his game was never more on display than this week. He threw for nearly 350 yards and the decisive touchdown to rookie Kenny Britt with no time on the clock, extending the drive with three fourth-down completions including said touchdown. Did I mention that the winning drive started on Tennessee’s own 1-yard line with only two minutes to play? That’s John Elway’s territory! (Brief aside here: I hope that Arizona’s Larod Stephens-Howling, their third running back and a proud Pitt alum, gets the the recognition he deserves for his special teams play. He returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and pinned not one but TWO Arizona punts inside the two-yard line! His efforts almost single-handedly won the game for an overmatched Cardinals squad.) The Titans are still 5-6, owing to that awful start to the season, and a playoff spot is probably out of reach. But Tennessee has to be feeling outrageously good that the prodigal son has returned–once more to shun Matt Leinart, it would appear.



Kurt Warner’s backup fared far less successfully than Kerry Collins’. Can you say 2006 Rose Bowl flashback?

In Atlanta, Matt Ryan couldn’t finish the game against Tampa Bay with an apparent toe injury. I didn’t watch the early portion of this game, but I can only assume the injury occurred whilst kicking himself for another turnover. Chris “Method and” Redman entered the game and, minus a yet-again-injured Michael Turner, manufactured enough plays and got enough help from the defense to win the game on a dazzling five yard stutter-slant by Roddy White on fourth-and-goal. Buffalo’s new coach Perry Fewell (my fingers have to be coerced not to type “Perry Farrell”) seems like a genius for installing Ryan Fitzpatrick as the quarterback for the rest of the Bills season. For the second week in a row, he lobbed a perfect rainbow to Terrell Owens and let T.O. get his popcorn ready in the end zone. Fitzpatrick had the luxury of Fred Jackson, who is officially the backup to ineffective starter Marshawn Lynch and had a workmanlike 116-yard day with two scores on the ground.

Except, of course, when they make the depth chart look particularly shallow.
Kyle Boller was asked to throw 40+ times in a loss to Seattle. Why? You have Steven Jackson and Seattle’s weakness is run defense! Bruce Gradkowski was asked to repeat his magic he displayed last week against Cincinnati. Why? Justin Fargas was tearing up the Dallas front seven! A competitive first quarter devolved quickly to a pretty pathetic display. The “Sunday Night Football” matchup was deceptively exciting: the close score was made possible by what I call “slopportunities.” This is when a team capitalizes (or alternatively, fails to capitalize) on ugly play by the opposition. “Decent” Dennis Dixon threw a duck on an out-pattern with under two minutes to play; a Ravens cornerback had an easy pick-six and dropped it. Earlier in that quarter, Ryan Clark had a beautiful opportunity to pick off an overthrown Joe Flacco pass but instead lowered his head in an attempt to make a highlight-reel hit (he whiffed). The game’s outcome went from up-in-the-air to pretty well determined when Steelers’ third-stringer Dennis Dixon dropped a pass right into a zone blitz designed to confuse inexperienced quarterbacks. Steelers fans lament, if only we had started backup Tyler Palko, to whom current Ravens starter Flacco once backed up! (Confused? See my Steelers/Ravens preview from last week.)

Sometimes the NFL’s divisions multiplies our excitement.
For instance, check out one of the league’s most fascinating and surprising squads, the Bengals. By handling the Browns at home this week, the formerly woeful Bungles have brought jungle fever back to southern Ohio by completing a 6-0 sweep of their AFC North foes. They’re in prime position, considering their moderate schedule, to snatch up a division crown and possibly a first-round bye. It’s hard to gauge the Bengals at this juncture: they’re 8-0 against teams from the AFC and NFC North, 0-3 against teams from other divisions. The NFC East and AFC West are divisions that are also far from decided, particularly the former, wherein three teams are within two games of one another.



We must hurry up and win this division! It’s nigh National Repeal Day!

OK, so it doesn’t always work out so neatly. I suggested a few weeks ago that the Colts and Saints should have their divisions wrapped up by Pearl Harbor Day. By virtue of their comeback win over Houston and Jacksonville’s loss in San Francisco, the Colts clinched the AFC South before the first of December! New Orleans can clinch the NFC South next week. Minnesota and Arizona are in positions to do the same thing by winning the next two weeks. Oh well: the wild card race can be just as, if not more thrilling, owing to the larger volume of teams competing for a smaller overall space.

THE NO-HUDDLE…
From what I saw of the Giants/Broncos game, that New York defense looks like it’s given up on the team. I don’t know if that’s indicative of coaching, or a lack of belief in Eli Manning’s ability to put points on the board, or a demoralizing effect from injuries to guys like Kenny Phillips and Michael Boley, but this isn’t the same energetic group that harassed quarterbacks on their way to a Super Bowl win two years ago…How about Mike McKenzie, the former Packer, coming in off the streets to pick off Tom Brady in the Saints‘ steamroll win over the Patriots? New Orleans used to be excoriated for their lack of talent in the secondary; now it seems like they can plug in anyone they want and get results…The Chargers win over the Chiefs was hardly contested by Kansas City, but it was nice to see Chris Chambers, unceremoniously cut because of the emergence of guys like Malcolm Floyd and Legedu Naanee, get a touchdown and quietly shuffle back to the huddle. True professionalism…Is Jay Cutler the new Bears retread? He has as many interceptions as Rex Grossman did in 2006 and often looked bored in the blowout loss to Minnesota.



Laugh if you want, but at least this Bears QB went to the Super Bowl.

I hate to say it, but Brett Favre is the best quarterback in that division, and he makes normal guys like Visanthe Shiancoe look good, and good players like Percy Harvin look great…The league leader in fumbles? That’d be Jaguars’ quarterback David Garrard, who coughed it up twice in the red zone in a loss to the 49ers…Ho-hum, another four-INT game for Jake Delhomme, who gave his run-oriented Panthers no chance to beat a rather average Jets team…The Eagles victory over the Redskins may have had a high cost. According to Philadelphia radio jockey and sports maven Howard Eskin, starting TE Brent Celek told teammates he may have torn ligaments in his hand. This comes after the revelation by Andy Reid that dazzling WR DeSean Jackson had to be taken out of the game with a concussion…And he may not be able to play next week, according to a report that the NFL is going to require teams to bench any playerswho suffer concussions for a week…

30 SECONDS OF FAME
Verizon recently launched a two-pronged attack on AT&T plans: the Droid (the commercial for which I placed in the initial launch of this segment) undermined the infallibility of the iPhone, which has an exclusive partnership with AT&T, and now a second series of commercials that underscore its superior 3G network and make extensive use of a pun involving “maps” versus “apps,” the ubiquitous term found on iPhone commercials. AT&T responded thusly:


As if the tepid acting by Luke Wilson wasn’t enough to grind your teeth, the genius marketing gurus at AT&T decided to film a second-half to the commercial, creating a cacophonous and irritating bookending effect on television:


Great, you paid Luke Wilson to nonchalantly throw postcards and name twenty-three American cities. My two-year-old cousin could do this. Back to the drawing board, dum-dums.

WHAT I’M WATCHING NEXT WEEK:
The primetime games look particularly juicy, starting with Vikings/Cardinals in a game that was flexed to Sunday night, followed by Ravens/Packers on Monday night. Make sure to check out Titans/Colts to see who will stay undefeated: Peyton or Vince. And if you’ve got a morbid sense of humor, Michael Vick and the Eagles head down to Atlanta to take on his former pals, the Falcons. I promise, no jokes about “unleashing” his potential this week.

SPECIAL THUNDER’S DAY PICK!



At the end of the day, either the Bills or Jets will have as many wins as the Toronto Maple Leafs.

T.O. heads to T.O. as the Bills host the Jets north of the border. This game doesn’t mean a whole lot in terms of the playoff picture, but I think it’s safe to say that the loser (who would be 5-7) can start making alternate plans for mid-January. I don’t think it’s safe to say that this game will be exciting. The Jets defense has a knack for making bad offenses look worse, and Ryan Fitzpatrick isn’t the kind of quarterback that can overcome a large deficit. Still, one cannot forget the first meeting between these two teams, when Mark Sanchez had a Delhommian meltdown and tossed five interceptions…yet, the Bills needed overtime to win because they couldn’t capitalize on all those slopportunities (you see, it’s going to catch on). What it will probably come down to is the Jets and their top-three run game will deteriorate the fragile Buffalo run defense, controlling the clock and making the game as safe and lukewarm as a CBS sitcom.
Jets by four.