-Minnesota comes out on top in “the battle of the disappointments.” The Vikings needed a spark down 14-7 at halftime against the Cowboys. Percy Harvin, last season's rookie of the year, provided it with a huge 95 yard touchdown kickoff return to start the second half.
That big play got the crowd fired up, and the momentum was firmly on the Vikings side. Minnesota's defense stepped up and held Dallas to one touchdown in the half. Ryan Longwell's 38 yard kick, with four minutes left, gave the Vikings a 24-21 win.
Neither of these teams is Superbowl-caliber this season, but for the Vikings, it felt like a big win, one they could build on. They're only one and half games behind the Bears in NFC North and if they get on a roll anything's possible.
Meanwhile for Dallas, despite all their offensive weapons (there aren't many franchises that wouldn't swap their receiving corps for Dallas'), mistakes continue to plague their season. Tony Romo threw two more interceptions and though the offense averaged 5.2 yards per play (as opposed to the Vikings 3.8 yards), they didn't put up as many points on the board as they should have.
Missed opportunities, that's the true story of the Cowboys season, a season which we were promised would be special but is evaporating right in front of us. At 1-4, with both the Eagles and Giants picking up steam, a postseason berth looks a long way away.
-A full-blown quarterback controversy is brewing in Philadelphia. Want to know the best individual performance in the NFL this weekend? Look no further than Kevin Kolb's strafing of the Atlanta Falcons.
Kolb showed everyone the reason Andy Reid wanted him as his starter this season: he made good decisions, was accurate (23 of 29 passes completed) in the short game and intermediate passing game, but kept the defense honest by throwing the occasional deep pass. He finished with 326 passing yards, three touchdowns, and a passer rating of 133.6 (a perfect rating is 158.3).
So what does Reid do now when Michael Vick is ready to play? He has two quarterbacks who have looked good and produced at least one stellar performance this year. Kolb makes more sense for the long-term health of the franchise, but Vick dual-threat explosiveness is almost impossible to leave on the bench.
- Almost a tie in Foxboro. Both the Ravens and the Patriots had three possessions during the overtime period after they ended level 20-20 in normal time. Aside from a twenty yard Joe Flacco completion to Derrick Mason, both teams struggled to move the chains and the first five possessions ended in punts.
A tie genuinely looked on the cards until, Tom Brady hit the recently-returned Deion Branch for a 23 yard pass into Ravens territory with five minutes left. Five more plays moved them within field goal range and Stephen Gostkowski drilled the 35-yard kick with two minutes left.
Even if you're a Ravens fan, you should probably recognize this as a blessing in disguise. A tie could have really messed with the postseason races at the tail end of the season, just as the Bengals-Eagles tie did a couple years ago.
-Here's a shortlist of some of the studs of the week:
a. Lions receiver Calvin Johnson: Caught 5 balls on Sunday for 146 yards and a touchdown. He is the definition of a deep threat receiver.
b. Dolphins defensive end Cameron Wake: Consistently got into the Packers backfield and terrorized Aaron Rodgers. The pass rushing specialist picked up three sacks (for a combined 24 yard loss) doubling his total for the season. He laid a total of six hits on Rodgers.
c. Seahawks punter Jon Ryan: Had a monster day the Bears and their dangerous return teams. He was asked to punt ten times by Seattle and, with six of them, he pinned Chicago back inside its own twenty (five of those were actually downed inside the Bears ten). With both team sputtering on offense, Ryan's punting won the field position battle. (You'll notice I'm choosing to ignore his last punt that was returned for a TD for Devin Hester. The rest of his afternoon was too impressive)
d. Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel: Had his best game of the season at Houston. He threw for three touchdowns (he previously had thrown only four in the first four games) and completed 69 percent of his passes (as opposed to 55 percent heading into Sunday).
e. Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora: Has been an absolute tear of late, collecting 7 sacks in New York's last three games. Two of those came against the Lions on Sunday and both resulted in Drew Stanton forced fumbles (one of which was recovered by the Giants and turned into a touchdown). He's one of the league's most talented pass-rushers when he's right, and right now, he looks right, all right.
-Here's a shortlist of some of the goats of the week:
a. Raiders quarterback Jason Campbell: Put up “Jamarcus-like” numbers in a offensive snore-fest against the Niners. Actually I think that may be a little unfair on Russell, because even he would have struggled to finish a game with a 10.7 passer rating. Campbell threw two picks and completed only 8 of 21 passes for 83 yards.
b.Lions running back Jahvid Best: Was not at his best (sorry, that's awful) against the Giants. Bottled up by New York's front seven who held him to almost as many carries as yards (12 and 16) and a paltry 1.3 yard average.
c. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez: After a couple of strong outings, was pedestrian against Denver, completing 17 of 30 passes for 198 yards, a touchdown and a couple picks. One of his picks was one of the worst passes that I've seen thrown this season.
-Rookie of the Week: Last week, we had a fourth-round rookie win this award, and this week, it's an undrafted one who (literally) ran away with it. Saints running back Chris Ivory averaged a whopping 10.5 yards a carry against the Buccaneers, finishing with 152 yards on the ground. He also added 17 yards on his single reception.
-Play of the Week: If you type athleticism into YouTube in a couple weeks, a copyright-infringing clip of this circus catch by Colts receiver Pierre Garcon will probably pop up.
-Ridiculous Play of the Week: Ridiculously, a couple of quarters later, another Colts player, safety Aaron Francisco, made the exact same catch.
-Five Quick Hits:
1/ Four games away from the NFL didn't seem to change Ben Roethlisberger too much, did it?
2/ The fact that there was any debate about the Rams, who are now sitting pretty at 3-3, selecting Sam Bradford number one overall last spring is getting more ridiculous every start he makes.
3/ If you watched Hard Knocks this summer, you probably remember a scrappy little running back/ receiver by the name of Danny Woodhead. The Jets coaches loved him but they didn't know if they could find a roster spot for him. On Sunday, Woodhead was the leading rusher for the Patriots carrying the ball 11 times for 63 yards. Just one of those nice little stories, the NFL tosses up every once and a while.
4/ I'm beginning to think the Chargers could really have used this rejuvenated version of LaDanian Tomlinson on their roster in 2010.
5/ Speaking of San Diego, who's the better 2-4 AFC West team do you think? The Chargers or the Broncos? Two weeks ago, I would have said the Chargers, no question. Today, I'm not so sure.
