We expect teams to start showing their merits and character in week 3. For some, this is a pleasant surprise, for some, not so much.
With that disclaimer, you will no doubt start with the Good and your head will spin. When, in the history of the universe, have Cleveland, Kansas City and St. Louis all been in the Good in the same week? We’re not even sure they have been in the Good together in the same month. Yet, here they are, and for good reason.
Many thanks to the GBU contributors (Team Ugly): Any, Arj, Ben, BG, Geto, GFC, Hannah, Stig, and Ward.
The Good
Atlanta – Despite the fact that the Falcons would have lost this game about midway into OT save a pull-hook on a 29 yard game winning field goal, it was how they got to that point and how they finished was worthy of note. They survived an early Saint barrage tie things at halftime and turn the pace into one of their liking. The Saints barrage was a 72-yard punt return and an 80 yard TD pass. The Falcons fate may have turned on an interception with the Saints nearing the red zone four minutes into the second quarter, already ahead 14-7. Atlanta followed that up with a 19-play, 72 yard drive that tied the game, ate over 10:30 of the second quarter clock and included two fourth down conversion. That drive was an omen. In the end, the offensive production between the two teams was fairly even, but the Falcons ran 26 more offensive plays and possessed the ball 45:50 to 27:15 for the Saints in almost five full quarters. Ryan was effective with a pair of TD passes and Michael Turner rang up 114 yards in 30 carries. The game ball goes to Tony Gonzalez, who gathered in 8 receptions for 110 yards, many in clutch situations, plus a TD. All that mixed with a little luck in OT equals a big road win for a team not known for road prowess against the cream of the division and a slot here.
Cleveland – A Good is not given out lightly to a losing team but this one merits an exception. Cleveland was on the road, and the Browns were widely considered to be heavily outmatched by their division rivals here, yet they held their own. Peyton Hillis had a huge game and even the Browns passing game, though modestly employed, was effective. Anquan Boldin completely destroyed Eric Wright in the form of 142 yards and 3 TDs, which was the only thing that prevented a shocker.
Dallas – With their backs against the wall, under threat of falling to 0-3, the Cowboys answered the call in pretty much every facet of play. Dallas moved the ball effectively on the ground and especially in the air against a secondary that achieved the rare feat of being owned by Roy Williams. Though Arian Foster had a good day, the Texans’ offense never quite got going, trading down to field goals on the few sustained drives they mustered. Probably the most impressive part of the game for Dallas was shutting down Houston’s usually potent passing attack, with both an effective pass rush, and stifling secondary play. Though Schaub’s numbers look respectable on a stat sheet, a lot of that came in a late drive for a garbage TD, with the Cowboys in prevent mode.
Kansas City – While, they weren’t exactly playing a powerhouse in the Niners, the surpising Chiefs will happily celebrate their 3-0 start. Todd Haley has gotten some welcome production from his offense with Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles each rushing for almost 100 yards. Even Matt Cassel looks decent throwing to Dexter McCluster and Dwayne Bowe. KC’s defense is the biggest surprise, only yielding 251 yards and a FG to a 49ers offense that has some weapons (Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree). Obviously the Chiefs won’t go 16-0, but a win is a win is a win in the NFL and this one was surprisingly easy.
Pittsburgh – The Steelers rolled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-13 in Raymond James Stadium, which appeared to be about half full of Steelers fans. This time the Steelers got some much needed offense led by 4th string QB, “Old Man Rivers”, Charlie Batch. After throwing an interception on the first play from scrimmage, Batch acquitted himself nicely by hitting 2nd year speedy sensation, Mike “60 Minute Man” Wallace, for two TDs while Rashard Mendenhall gained 142 yards and a TD. The stingy defense only gave up one touchdown in slop time as the special teams continued their solid play. The Steelers have already come out of their first 3 games, without suspended Quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, in a much better situation at 3-0 than most had anticipated. This shapes up nicely for next week’s game vs. the Baltimore Ravens at Heinz Field next week.
St. Louis – Perish the thought! The Rams picked up their first victory of the 2010 campaign despite the loss of Steven Jackson due to a first half injury. Third-year pro Kenneth Darby stepped up with 49 yards and a TD in the second half, and rookie Sam Bradford added 235 yards passing and a TD toss to Daniel Fells. Bradford looked mature beyond his years, making a number of excellent reads at the line and calling audibles that turned into solid gains.
St. Louis started strong and ended strong, sprinting out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, then rattling off the last 4 scores once Washington briefly grabbed the lead on a 21-yard Graham Gano field goal.
The Bad
Detroit – This game went how most expected. The Vikings got off the schneid against one of the league’s perennial doormats, but that doesn’t make this performance by the Lions acceptable in any way. Even with Favre’s struggles continuing as Detroit’s pass rush pressured him into incompletions and more INTs, the Lions were helpless to stop Adrian Peterson. On the other side, with Detroit having QB issues of their own, the Vikings were able to lock in on rookie sensation Jahvid Best and make him appear magnetically attached to the line of scrimmage. His stats are a bit misleading with one big run into the secondary…otherwise his average per carry would be best expressed in inches.
Green Bay – As expected, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers moved the ball Monday night in Chicago. What made this performance bad was losing the turnover battle and even worse, committing 17 penalties for 152 yards. Green Bays mistakes clearly cost them a chance at first place in the division as Chicago took advantage of the help they were given to squeeze out a 20-17 victory.
Houston – After defeating two solid teams to open the season (Colts, Redskins), they absolutely underperformed at home against the “rival” Dallas Cowboys. The usually high-powered offense was stagnant, the bend but don’t break defense broke, and that’s that. Andre Johnson isn’t 100% but it’s not an excuse to score only one measly touchdown while giving up yards at will to Tony Romo and Co. It’s still early, but we didn’t expect the team to squander the momentum they acquired over the first two weeks. On the other hand, Arian Foster is absolutely the real deal and it’s pretty amazing how far Steve Slaton fell in that offense.
Washington – It was not simply that they lost to the Rams, it was how. When Gano’s go-ahead FG in the third quarter sailed through the uprights, it was his third of the afternoon and highlighted Washington’s inability to perform in the red zone. Three Redskin drives of 53 yards or more stalled at the 12-yard line or closer. After Gano’s last kick, Washington couldn’t get any further than their own 37-yard line until their final drive of the game.
The Ugly
Carolina – Looking at the numbers does not do justice to this Ugly effort. Seeing is believing. Cincinnati worked hard to give the Panthers a home win, but persistence paid off and Carolina prevailed in their effort to out-Ugly the visitors. Give the defense some credit: the score could have been worse. Palmer was intercepted twice but probably should have notched three or four more. How bad was this? After Palmer hit Panther CB Captain Munnerlyn on a beautiful in route, the Panthers squandered a golden opportunity to take the early lead when Clausen muffed the center exchange, which bounced around until the ball managed to stick to a Bengals defender. Clausen answered the crowd’s call for encores by tossing an interception and fumbling twice more, losing one and accounting for three of the Panthers’ four turnovers. Steve Smith did not touch the ball until about 10 minutes remained. If that is not Ugly enough, despite their best efforts this game was still well within reach. It took dedication to lose this one. The Bengals probably deserve an Ugly of their own, but they did manage to put this in the win column. We’re sure there was no malice in it.
New York Giants – When you outgain your opponent by 200 yards (exactly) but still get blown out, some serious ugliness had to have been served up. It came in the form of turnovers and penalties. The Giants surrendered two INTs (in defense of Manning, both were off ricochets, and while one was a questionable pass the other was just plain bad luck), and one Bradshaw fumble lost. The fumble and one of the INTs came in “goal to go” situations for the Giants in a game where they could not afford to leave any points on the field. The Giants also missed two field goals. That wasn’t even the real killer for them though; penalties stalled any attempt to overcome these miscues. The Giants were flagged 11 times including 5 personal fouls. Though many came at what the announcers like to call “inopportune times” none was more directly damaging than a Bradshaw chop block in the end zone that resulted in a safety (and a quick follow up TD by the Titans). We don’t usually like to discredit the winning team and the Titans played a solid game on both sides of the ball, but the general sense walking away from this game was that the Giants pretty much destroyed themselves better than the Titans could have hoped to do, and if New York had executed a game with anything near an even average level of professionalism, they’d have won handily.
San Francisco – While getting hammered by a score of 31-10 at Kansas City on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers defense made Matt Cassel look like vintage Tom Brady. The Niner defense surrendered 3 TD passes and a 111.7 passer rating while giving up nearly 100 yards on the ground to both Thomas Jones and Jamal Charles. If that wasn’t bad enough, San Francisco’s lackluster offense managed only 251 yards of total offense, 43 on the ground. You can call him Ray, or you can call him Jay, but Head Coach Mike Singletary called Offensive Coordinator, Jimmy Raye, fired in the wake of a slow start in the City by the Bay.
Tampa Bay – Not much to be said. The offense couldn’t score points and the defense made Charlie Batch and Mike Wallace look like Joe Montana and Jerry Rice in their primes. We’re hesitant to say their 2-0 start was a fluke, but these kind of performances won’t do anything to keep coach Raheem Morris’ job off the hot seat.
Honorable Mention
New England – The Pats finally found their running game with 200 yards on the ground. Unlike in previous games, Bill Belichick dstuck with what was working and kept enough running plays in the mix to keep the Buffalo defense honest and keep his own defense relatively well-rested. Leading the way with 98 yards on 16 carries was BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who made the most of his move up the depth chart thanks to the trade of Laurence Maroney and injury to Kevin Faulk. New England’s passing attack was a throwback to several years past, as Tom Brady completed multiple passes to six different tight ends or wide receivers. Brady, who finished with 252 yards and 3 TD passes, was deadly accurate, completing nearly 78% of his throws. New England’s young guns made themselves heard, as rookie tight ends Hernandez and Gronkowski, along with 2nd-year WR Brandon Tate, all had highlight-reel worthy grabs. However (a word defined as “disregard everything before this word”), New England’s defense once again made a journeyman quarterback look like a Hall of Famer. On the afternoon, the Pats D allowed seven plays of 20+ yards, including Buffalo’s first successful conversion of a 3rd-and-10+ in 2010 when the Bills converted on 3rd-and-18 in the first quarter. One is left to wonder what an elite offense will do to this defense if one with as many glaring holes as Buffalo’s could move the ball with such ease. One answer is they might be in the Good rather than here.
Individual Honors
Ryan Fitzpatrick – The Buffalo quarterback kept his cool in completing 20 of 28 throws for 247 yards and 2 touchdowns, very nearly matching Tom Brady throw-for-throw. However, one of his two interceptions proved costly, as Patrick Chung’s pick in the end zone was followed by a six-and-a-half minute New England drive capped by a 7-yard Green-Ellis TD.
Laser Rocket Arm (Peyton Manning) – The Colts would have this no other way.
Earl Thomas – Welcome to the league, rook. 2 INTs in critical situations against a top QB preserved the Seattle win.
Leon Washington – In one game, he became the Seahawks all-time leading kick returner. No Seahawk had ever returned 2 kickoffs for TDs, much less in one game. Oh, and additionally, he now holds the two longest KR TDs in Seattle history and won the game for the Seahawks.
And Dishonors
San Diego special teams – They were so bad that Washington could have returned a 3rd kick for a TD had he not slipped and fallen. The Seahawks were able to get great return yardage on punts, as well.
Awards
Ciron Black best of the Good: Pittsburgh Steelers
Aunt Esther ugliest of the Ugly: San Francisco 49ers
