By Paul Gotham
Trading Places
In November, the Indianapolis Colts won four consecutive games by a combined total of 10 points. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints have lit up scoreboards to the tune of 407 points while limiting opponents to 221. For one day, at least, the two undefeated teams changed roles. Indy sprinted to a 21-3 lead, and its defense held serve as they downed the Tennessee Titans, 27-17. New Orleans needed overtime to best the Washington Redskins, 33-30.
Peyton Manning and the Colts added a couple more milestones to their resume notching their 12th victory of the season. Indy has reached a dozen triumphs in seven consecutive seasons – adding to their own record. The win was the 113th of the decade, tying the San Francisco 49ers of the 1990s for the most wins in a decade. The Colts also tied the Pats for the most consecutive regular season wins with 21.
Tennessee came in riding a five-game win streak and was the last team to beat the Colts in the regular season – October 27, 2008. The Titans could not manage the same result yesterday.
Joseph Addai rushed for two touchdowns. Manning completed 24 of 37 for 270. Pierre Garcon had a career day with six receptions for 136 yards. But the Indy defense made the difference. Clint Session led the defense with 12 unassisted tackles and a forced fumble. The Colts defense stiffened with a pair of goal-line stands and two fourth down stops.
For the seventh game in a row, Tennessee’s Chris Johnson rushed for over 1oo yards tying a franchise record set by Earl Campbell.
New Orleans found the elixir for their Monday night hangover just in time. Less than a week after causing the New England Patriots to surrender, the Saints pulled out all the stops to beat the 3-8 Washington Redskins. When Washington’s Shaun Suisham missed a 23-yard field goal with 1:52 to play, Drew Brees and company got a second life. Instead of trailing by 10, the Saints needed just a touchdown to tie. A 53-yard strike to Robert Meachem tied the score. Garrett Hartley nailed the winning field goal in overtime.
But that is half of the story. New Orleans took advantage of a series of strange plays. A shanked punt turned into a 29-yard gain when Washington’s Kevin Barnes, lying on his back, was hit with the ball and the Saints recovered. Four plays later, Washington appeared to have recovered when Kareem Moore intercepted a Brees pass. Inexplicably, Meachem grabbed the ball right out of Moore’s hands and returned it for 44-yard score.
Washington has now lost three consecutive games when leading in the fourth quarter.
Muh, muh mediocre
Two weeks into the season, the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers stood at 1-1. Many thought the two AFC powerhouses had their wakeup calls. Maybe they hit the snooze alarm.
Pittsburgh and New England have combined to lose 7 of their last 8.
The Pats have a clear case of homesickness. Other than a win over Tampa Bay in London, the Pats have a big Ofer on the road. The Pats “got it bad so bad” that the Dolphins abandoned their running attack. Miami, the kings of the Wildcat, rushed the ball 27 times while throwing 52 passes. Can we revisit Belichick’s decision to go for it on fourth down against the Colts. Do you think he knew something about his team that we didn’t – well, at least at the time? The Pats can not defend the pass. Wonder if Belichick plays euchre because he sure has shown everyone his hand.
Even New England fans are calling the Patriots mediocre.
The Super Bowl champion Steelers had fourth quarter leads of 17-13 and 24-20 before succumbing to Oakland Free Academy. Gradowski and Janikowski sealed the victory. Gradowski found Louis Murphy in the end zone with :11 remaining. Janikowski split the uprights as the Raiders won, 27-24. If the playoffs started next weekend, the Steelers would be watching.
19th Nervous Breakdown
The final month of the year is becoming a favorite of the Eagles, Giants, and Redskins and all their fans. The Cowpokes just can’t get out of their own way during the season of yuletide. Anyone else getting pleasure out of watching Jerry Jones squirm as the ‘Pokes implode? Hey Jerra! Good luck against the Chargers next week…and the Saints the week after that…and the Eagles two weeks after that. Maybe you should tell wonder boy Jason Garrett to run the ball a little more. 23 rushes for 45 yards? Ouch! What happened to that All Pro line?
“Oh, who’s to blame. That girl’s just insane. Nothing I do don’t seem to work. It only seems to make matters worse.”
8th on the list
LaDanian Tomlinson passed hall-of famer, Jim Brown on the all-time rushing list. Tomlinson had 20 for 64 yards and a touchdown as San Diego downed Cleveland, 30-23. Tomlinson’s touchdown was the 150th of his career – he reached that plateau faster than anyone in the history of the NFL – 137 games.
Three of the top eight rushers of all time played college football outside the major six conferences: Walter Payton (Jackson State), Eric Dickerson (SMU), and Tomlinson (TCU).
Hungry Heart
After his rookie quarterback was injured while lunging for a first down, New York Jets coach, Rex Ryan, openly criticized Mark Sanchez. C’mon coach! He was just taking one for the team. Ya know, he was willing to “lay down his money and play his part…everybody’s got a hu-hu-hungaree heart…oh oh oh.”
Monday night lights
The forecast is calling for a wintry mix. Mr. Rodgers meet Mr. Flacco. Actually, it might be more appropriate to say – Mr. Flacco meet Mr. Woodson. GBay needs the win to keep pace with the Eagles for the final wild card spot. Baltimore needs the win keep within sniffing distance of the AFC wild card.
Got any NFL splinters? Share them here.
I’m gonna have to call a ticky-tack foul. Uh … wasn’t SMU a member of the old SWC (Southwest Conference) when Eric Dickerson was running all over the place???? Given that the SWC had basically all the Texas schools (Longhorns, A&M, Tech, etc … including Houston when they were good) … I think you’d have to call that a “major conference”. Essentially, the SWC became the Big 12 South, except for Oklahoma.
The Arizona Cardinals looked really good Sunday night on both sides of the ball in squashing the Vikings. At 8-4, they’re comfortably leading their woeful division … definitely likely to see them in the NFC title game, IMO.
SMU a major? I’ll have to get on that one.
Wally,
This is kinda muddy: https://www.dawgsports.com/story/2006/4/26/214222/298
Ok, SMU was part of the SWC, but so were some other teams now considered non-majors.
Yes … some are now mid-majors, but BACK IN THE DAY …
Now … how about those AZ Cardinals???
Ok – it has to be at least noted as teams currently designated outside the major six or something to that effect.
As for the Cardinals – they held Peterson to 19 yards and picked off Favre twice. Was that game: a.) a wake up call for a young (other than Favre) Vikings team? b.) the beginning of the end for the Vikes? And Larry Fitzgerald – 8 catches / 134 yards – that sounds familiar.
Casey —
Favor to ask … I’ve failed at this research thru Wikipedia, Google, etc … I am trying to find a list of the Top 20 colleges with players on current NFL rosters, or at least at on NFL rosters at the start of this season. Which school has the most, how many, what’s the list of the top 20? Can you please give this a try???
Wally – check this link, I think it’s what you’re looking for – https://espn.go.com/nfl/college/_/letter/
Bill
HELMET STICKER!!!!!!!!!!
Double Helmet Sticker, Bill !!! Thanks. Now I just need to add up all the players. Trying to prove (or disprove) a hypothesis. Thanks again.
Wally – hurry up with that hypothesis. You got me jumping with anticipation. 🙂
Don’t get too excited, Casey. This will take me awhile to find the time in next two days to add up the data. If you want to assist, take the Top 15 teams in the final college BCS poll and find out how many players they currently have on NFL rosters. Oh … and do that for ND too. That’s all I need.
I’m trying to disprove the assertion that ND hasn’t been getting any talent. I think we’ll find that ND has at least the 15th most players currently in the NFL.
ND has 31 players on NFL teams this year, according to the site I posted. The average number of players from the top 25 (I used AP, but BCS is probably close enough) is about 22 players (21.92. I rounded up). If you were to sort according to teams, ND would place 8th after Florida (actually tie with Florida for 7th) with the current number of players in the NFL from that school. Of course, we’re using this year’s poll with current players, so the data is a bit skewed, but hey, it’s late, and I’m tired.
Bill —
That’s terrific and thanks a bunch for crunching the numbers!
So the data shows what I thought it would … and it disproves the assertion thrown out by many pundits that ND just isn’t getting the talent to compete at an elite level. That assertion is hogwash … for two reasons backed up by data:
1) Scout.com ranks every incoming recruiting class, and I presented the data about 2 weeks ago which showed that the Irish’s last 4 recruiting classes averaged about a #9 rank nationally. Willingham’s classes were ~8-10 spots lower than that, but still decent.
2) And now we have this NFL data which shows that ND is tied for 7th (with Florida) for having the most players currently on NFL rosters and they have almost 50% more NFL players than the “average” AP Top 25 school in the latest poll. Given the average shelf life of an NFL player being ~6 years, presumably the vast majority of these players were drafted by the NFL during the Willingham-Weis years.
So there’s been great talent going into ND and great talent coming out. The only reasonable conclusion to reach explaining ND’s mediocre to poor performance on the field has to be TERRIBLE COACHING !!
ND has all the tools, advantages, resources, etc to be a consistently “elite program” … except a good coach. Hopefully, they will fix that problem before the week is over. Obviously, good/great coaches like Lou don’t grow on trees or fall out of the sky, so ND better choose very wisely. Every time the school screws this up, it will erode and devalue all the aforementioned resources and advantages they have. Time to stop the leak now!
Wally,
I understand your frustration…I think. Here’s the thing, Duke is tied for the most players in the NBA, and the Blue Devils have advanced past the first weekend of action once in the past three years. The Blue Devils haven’t won a title since ’01, and they have the most players graduating to the next level. What does that say about Coach K?
Oh yeah. Bill – great work. You are piling up the helmet stickers.
Casey —
At least Duke is consistently in the Top 15 or better. But maybe coach K hasn’t been doing “a job commensurate with the talent” Duke gets? But I certainly wouldn’t fire him.
do these stickers come in the mail or is it like the holy grail?
seriously, no problem crunching numbers fellas, let me know what you need.