The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Week 11

The Good
Dallas – Given their recent performances, whodathunk the Cowboys, with Romo back at the helm, would win a defensive battle by running over the Redskins defense in the fourth quarter? Overall, the defense held the Redskins to 228 yards of offense. They rang up a normal-looking 315 of their own, with an unremarkable 117 on the ground. Then you realize Barber carried 14 times for 66 yards in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys were strong in the final stanza, holding the ball for 10:52 of the final 15 and earning a spot here.

Denver – After taking the second quarter off, the Broncs offense stepped up in the second half. They only had four possessions, one of which ran out the clock and the other three netted 17 points. They even had two cracks from a yard out to make that 21. The defense didn’t stop Atlanta, but did contain them to only seven points in their three possessions, one ending on an interception and one on downs. The result is a road win against a quality opponent, something the Broncos needed. Add the Charger loss to Pittsburgh and it was a Good day.

Green Bay – With just under four and a half minutes left in the first half, the Pack offense took the field nursing a 7-3 lead. Over the next 32 and a half minutes, the Pack outgained the Bears 268 yards to 98, outscored them 30-0 and walked away having delivered a first-class whipping in what might have been a must-win game. A very Good performance for the home fans.

Indianapolis – The Colts looked like the old Colts in the second half of their home win vs. the Texans. While the run defense also looked like the old Colts, the offense scored 24 points in its four possessions of the second half, including a killer drive that ran over 7:00 of the final 8:48 off the clock. In the second half alone they ran 44 plays for 303 yards, and held the ball for almost 19 of the final 30 minutes. In all, they ended with 474 yards in a game they could not afford to lose. But the second half performance of the Good Colts makes the list.

New York Giants – They pretty much had their way with the Ravens in the Meadowlands. They ran for 207 yards against one of the league’s premier defenses at about 6.3 yards a clip. The G-men methodically shredded the Raven defense in each of its first three drives, grabbing a 20-0 lead. They had one three-and-out all afternoon. On defense, they didn’t smother the Ravens, but they contained them and returned an interception for a TD that pretty much salted the game away. On special teams, they blocked an early FG. Folks, this was not just a Good game, this is a Good team.

New York Jets – Putting this in perspective, by halftime they had a comfortable lead on the Pats and wound up needing overtime to seal the deal after allowing a TD in the dying seconds. The Jets also gave up a ton of yards (511 yards in four quarters, the Pats did not have the ball in OT). None of that is Good. However, the Jets possessed the ball for 11 minutes more, managed to ring the bell for 375 yards of offense themselves, more or less punched the Pats in the mouth in the first half and did enough to earn the win in New England with the division lead on the line. Overall, that placed the result in the Good.

Pittsburgh – The scoreboard pretends the final was 11-10, and if it was not for the referee’s brain fart with :00 on the game clock the final should read 18-10. The Steelers were not perfect, committing 13 penalties, one of which called back the potential game winning TD, and allowing four sacks. They also gained 410 yards, held the Chargers to 213 with only 66 on the ground, intercepted a pair of passes (including a gem by Troy “Houdini” Polamalu) and held the ball for 36 and a half minutes. The scoreboard does not do justice to this as a Good performance.

Tennessee – Trailing 14-3 at halftime on the road, the undefeated season looked like it was coming to an end. Nobody would have thought any worse of the Titans had their run ended in Jacksonville. Instead, the Titans scored on their opening two possessions of the second half and the defense did not allow the Jags past their own 40 until less than four minutes remained. By then it was a 10 point bulge. A Good second half performance results in a 10-0 mark, all but locks up the AFCS and mention here.

The Bad
Buffalo – The Bills weren’t terrible and they weren’t even Bad all game long. They were just Bad enough at certain moments to ensure a loss. Edwards was intercepted twice in the opening three minutes and three times in the opening twelve. Still, they seemed to insist on building his confidence after miscue #1 by throwing until he committed miscue #2. Alas, the opponent was the Browns, so while they should have been run off the field they stayed in the game and almost won it. Pull away any of the three interceptions, a fumble that killed a potential scoring drive, a defensive lapse allowing a 72-yard TD run in the fourth quarter, a holding penalty that killed a mid-fourth quarter drive in Brown territory or those dreaded words, “wide right” and the Bills probably win this game. A Bad way to treat any playoff chances.

Oakland – The fact they almost won this game prevents it from being Ugly. Still, the all too typical numbers tell the story. The Raiders total offense was outgained by the Dolphins running game (222-186). Anemic offense and allowing 380+ yards against is not going to allow you to win many games. Thanks to a Higgins punt return TD this could have been one of them. The Raiders were just slightly too Bad.

Philadelphia – What makes this Bad is not simply they didn’t win a game against a 1-8 team. The tie is almost as damaging to the Eagles playoff hopes as a loss would have been. That is the upside. The Eagles seemed uninterested in running the football, opting for the forward pass on 60 of 78 plays. One might have thought they would have run the ball a few times just out of curiosity since the Bengals defense is not exactly known for being a brick wall. Bad game plans lead to Bad results.

Washington –The final result was not enough to put the Redskins here. The Skins nursed a 10-7 lead into halftime and held the ball for the opening 6:30 of the third quarter. The Bad started in those 12 plays when they opted to run the ball only 3 times and came up dry on a Campbell interception. Portis carried the ball only three more times, gaining 28 yards in the process. They finished with a 5.1 per carry average, but only tried 18 times for 92 yards. In a tight, important divisional slugfest with the opportunity to relegate the Cowboys to chasing the final wild card spot, the strategy of abandoning the run despite its success earns them a spot hear.

The Ugly
Chicago – The Packers did not rout the Bears by themselves. Only down by four just shy of halftime in a game that could have put some distance between themselves and the Pack, they answered the bell by being almost completely ineffective on offense and often hardly noticeable on defense. There result was a 34 point loss and sinking into a three-way tie for the NFCN. An Ugly way to start the home stretch.

St. Louis – If you only look at the numbers, the Rams outplayed the 49ers. Of course, by the time they actually started putting up the bulk of the numbers the game had been over for some time. The Rams dug themselves a 35-3 hole by halftime due to a Keystone Kops impersonation of three turnovers on successive possessions that led to San Fran TDs. The Rams aren’t capable of recovering from that sort of carnage in Madden, let alone on an NFL field. A brutally Ugly performance ended the game by halftime.