The Good, Bad, and the Ugly, week 7

The Good
Buffalo – The Bills answered some questions by beating the Chargers at home. The win was all fine and well, but the statement was made in the details. They outgained the Bolts 370-263, rang up a 22-15 advantage in first downs, held the ball for almost 11 minutes more, didn’t turn the ball over and grabbed three turnovers of their own. In the process, they silence the critics after a big loss prior to the bye, stake their claim as the frontrunner of the AFCE and earn a slot on our Good list.

Carolina – The Panthers followed up a stinker against the Bucs by pounding the Saints at home. The offense was efficient, but the defense set the stage. Brees had a respectable-looking 230+ yards in the air, but consider that more than half of those came in the fourth quarter after the game had long-since been decided. The stats overall pretend the game was fairly even but the Panthers defense controlled most of the first three quarters. The result was a big divisional win at home and a slot here.

Green Bay – The Pack only had eight possessions. They scored on their first four, missed a FG on number five and ran out the clock on their eighth. They failed to sustain a drive only twice. The Pack made the plays on both sides of the ball and wind up with a big home win in a Good performance.

New England – The reports of the New England Patriots death have been greatly exaggerated. After watching the Broncos drive into scoring territory on their first possession, the Pats defense grabbed a pair of fumbles to turn the tide and start a 41-7 home rout. The offense rang up over 400 yards, nearly 260 on the ground. Cassel was efficient, tossing three TD passes, while the defense held the Broncos mile-a-game offense to 275 yards and collected five turnovers. A Good performance when it was needed.

St. Louis – After spending weeks on the Ugly, the Rams wind up on the plus side of this week’s ledger sheet. Coming off of last week’s win, they saw the Cowboys march down the field on the game’s opening drive to take a 7-0 lead. When the ensuing Ram onslaught was done, it was 34-7 and they were on their way to a second consecutive victory. Along the way they forced four turnovers and a handful of big offensive plays, earning them their first spot on the Good.

Tennessee – When an NFL team rushes for 332 yards in a single game, it is Good (provided they win). Even against the Chiefs. The Titans earned that distinction in their 34-10 their drubbing of the home team in Kansas City. They rang up a total of 455 yards and didn’t turn the ball over, while rushing for TDs of 2, 6, 66 and 80 yards. In the mean time, their defensive unit gave up almost half of its yards after the score had reached 27-0. Sure, it was the Chiefs, but it is still a Good effort.

The Bad
Cincinnati – The only reason they are not a notch lower is they were actually in this game midway through the fourth quarter. Somehow, despite being outplayed, they only found themselves down by a TD with 12:30 left, the ball on the Steeler 37 and the game very much in question. They answered the challenge with a horrid finish, netting nothing from that drive and then proceeding to watch the Steelers drive 91 yards in six plays. For an encore, the offense skillfully executed a pair of three-and-outs with one of the outs being a fumble. Add a huge pass interference penalty by the defense, 21 points against during the stretch run, and a phenomenal -22 yards of offense until after the two-minute warning sounded. By that time they were down by 28 and the stands were empty. They were never good in this game, but they did find a way to tip the scales to the Bad by the time final gun sounded.

Indianapolis – The Colts played to a statistical stalemate in Green Bay. Unfortunately, the stats don’t tell the full story. They moved the ball well enough. Unfortunately, the Packer secondary also moved the ball pretty well, to the tune of 14 points. To make matters worse, the Colts were in or approaching scoring position both times. This could have been a good game, but a Bad performance at critical times made it a rout.

New Orleans – What made this Bad was not the 30-7 loss in Carolina. It was not the fact that they led after the first play of the second quarter and then proceeded to give up 27 consecutive points, although that contributed. It is not the fact that they did absolutely nothing in the second half, entering said half only down 13-7, although that also contributed. The icing on this cake was calling timeout to force a Carolina punt with 7 seconds left in the first half and watching Reggie Bush hobble off the field after that punt, done for the day and out for a few weeks. Oddly, it was an innocent enough looking play. The injury and the resulting surrender make this a Bad effort.

New York Jets – How does a team rack up 418 yards of offense, including 242 on the ground in slightly less than five quarters against the Raiders, only manage to convert that effort into 13 points (3 on a long, late FG) and lose the game? Turning the ball over 3 times while not collect any in return helps. In some ways it was not bad, just horribly inefficient. Still, losing this game with those numbers makes the list.

The Ugly
Dallas – The Jones and Jones circus followed up last week’s fiasco with a full-fledged debacle. It started with Adam Jones’ suspension and culminated with the Cowboys failure to show up against the Rams. After jumping out to a 7-0 lead, the Cowboys called it a day by giving up 21 points in the rest of the first quarter and 34 consecutive points total before voicing a whimper of protest. An Ugly effort that is compounded by this being the most winnable game of the three Romo is expected to miss. It is further compounded by the fact they can’t blame Romo’s absence for the defensive effort (taking liberties with the word “effort”) and even further compounded by a 4-3 record with all three losses within the NFC.

Denver – They played well for about 6 minutes, executing a 41 yard drive into scoring territory on their opening drive. The Broncos participation in Monday night’s butt whipping ended at that point, starting with a fumble to end that drive. The offense contributed over 100 yards less than their season average and was only a factor in that it lost five turnovers. The defense put in its typical 400 yard performance. The Broncs can be good when they take care of the ball and post 450 or so yards. They can be bad when they turn the ball over or are ordinary on offense. When the offense is shut down and they turn the ball over, they are Ugly.

Kansas City – Granted, they found themselves on the field against the team with the NFL’s best record, but it Ugly is ugly. The weekly question is not if the Chiefs will be ugly, but how. This week they achieved their customary slot by giving up 332 yards on the ground to the Titans. We all eagerly await next week’s strategy.