NFL Games That Zigged When They Should Have Zagged
Monday, December 19, 2011 at 9:47AM Joe Simmons 
Yesterday was a different day compared to most in the NFL. The games all seemingly zigged when they were expected to zag (thanks for the line @Talentedink). The first slates of games were attention grabbers and were expected to lead up to the main event battle of supremacy between media darling Tim “Baby Jesus” Tebow and “Sir” Thomas Brady. The under card got moving pretty much as usual until about a quarter of the way through a couple of games some big hits occurred that jarred the spine. I mean literally. If you saw the hit on Johnny Knox as he was diving into a pile to recover his own fumble against the Seattle Seahawks, you know what I mean. If you didn’t see it, here it is in slow motion. Warning its pretty graphic and will make you cringe.
The Bears have pretty much folded as they don’t seem to have a signal caller who can get it done in the absence of Jay Cutler. Also since Matt Forte has shut it down, they really don’t have anyone who can carry their team. This should work as great leverage for Forte since he is negotiating for next season.
The games appeared to take the normal positioning with the exception of about two or three as they began to catch our eye. First the Panthers were rolling the Texans in the first half. That’s common in Carolina so not that many people were caring at the time. The Panthers would be 13 – 1 if the game was only 30 minutes long. However the play of Cam Newton had a lot of us guessing whether or not he should be included in this years Pro Bowl as he is about to break the 4th rookie record of the year if he gets 15 more yards passing.
The other game that had everyone buzzing was the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts came into Sunday’s game winless and everyone figured they would stay that way, but the Colts had a different plan as Donald Brown looked like the first round draft pick that he was and carried them to the victory over the disappointing Tennessee Titans.
Probably the funniest of the games in the under card was the Redskins versus the Giants. This one took on humor as the Cowboys and Eagles fans were rooting for the Redskins, and the Redskins fans were rooting for the Giants (crazy ain’t it). The Redskins came out on a vengeance and dominated from the beginning. Santana Moss looked like he had been taken over by Jerry Rice as he was open all day long. The Giants looked lost and Eli Manning was a disgrace to the game after being a hero last week. It’s funny how this game plays itself out on a weekly basis.
The final game of the under card didn’t seem like much of a battle coming in. The Chiefs and the Packers were about as far apart as any two teams could be coming into a game. The Chiefs just fired their head coach and everyone expected them to come in and take their beat down from the undefeated defending champs like a bunch of men. The Chiefs had a different plan as Romeo “where for art thou” Crennell unleashed his quarterback Kyle Orton on the defending champs and Orton delivered. The Chiefs defense seemed to hold the wide receiver corps of the Packers in check especially without the services of Greg Jennings. The upset victory was great for Romeo Crennell and you could hear the bottles of champagne popping in South Beach as the 72 Dolphins were celebrating another team folding under the pressure.
The second slate of games got underway and everyone was watching the main event Broncos versus the Patriots. I of course had my eye on the mix channel and was watching the Eagles do their thing against the New York Jets as well. The Broncos came out rolling and after a Tebow touchdown they were able to take an early convincing lead over the Patriots. Then the camera went to Sir Thomas Brady on the sideline throwing. Brady looked like he was in Super Bowl mode as he came out and dissected the Broncos for a quick strike to Chad Ochocinco (yeah, Chad actually came to play for the first few plays anyways).
The Broncos countered and marched the length of the field and dropped another score on the Pats. This led me to believe that this one was going to be good. But then it happened. The Patriots found nirvana as they used the best combination of tight ends to ever play together outside of a Pro Bowl to carve up the Bronco’s. Tebow didn’t play bad, the defense just didn’t live up to its part. The type of offense the Broncos use is not going to produce enough points to keep up with high octane offenses like the Patriots.
During the game I kept flipping back and fourth taking note of the Michael Vick influence on the Eagles. Vick seems to make everyone on the Eagles better and it showed as they totally dismantled the Eagles. Maybe its just those Ryan defenses as he did the same to the Cowboys a few weeks earlier.
Ironically the main event was upstaged by a Detroit comeback as Calvin “Megatron” Johnson and the Lions went 98 yards to finish the come back victory over the Raiders who still had a chance to win before Ndomukung Suh blocked the 65 yard field goal attempt by Janikowski.
The day that seemed to be normal turned into another epic day in football. The football gods never disappoint.
Stay Breezy ~ I’m Out!
Reader Comments (2)
That hit gets worse every time I see it. My lord.. Prayers sent to Johnny Knox and his family.
The Packers can rest up now. Still not sure they are better than the Saints