It is now Week Nine in the National Football League, and a lot has happened within the NFC. Here’s what happened this week in football.
Green Bay Packers (29) at Carolina Panthers (37)
The Carolina Panthers are indeed for real. We now know that after their impressive win against the Packers. This game certainly was not easy, at least not in the second half, but Carolina really stepped up and made plays in key moments.
The offense actually looked really good for the first time this season; they produced several big plays through the air. Cam Newton continued his MVP-caliber play with 297 yards and three passing touchdowns along with 57 rushing yards and one rushing score, and his receivers really stepped up Sunday afternoon and played big. One of the most impressive performances of the day came from the rookie Devin Funchess, who finally looked like the receiver that Carolina hoped he’d be when they drafted him. He only recorded 3 catches but had 71 yards, including a 59 yard catch, and one touchdown in which he displayed his strength and physicality by dragging a corner into the endzone with him.
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The defense played very well in the first half, but they nearly fell apart in the second half when they allowed Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to come back after being down 27-7 at halftime. However, they clamped down when they needed to and on the final drive, Carolina’s stud of a linebacker Thomas Davis, who has really had a marvelous year and ought to be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year (if he is not already), made an acrobatic interception down near the goal line that wrapped things up in Charlotte.
For Green Bay, these are obviously trying times. The offensive line was particularly atrocious for the second week in a row, as they surrendered five sacks. The offense itself mounted a furious comeback, but they obviously came up short. As for the defense, they were terrible all game long and it led to a sideline scuffle between players, an incident they apologized for later.
Green Bay has now slid to 6-2 and maybe even to second place in the division behind the Vikings, while the Panthers remain the lone NFC team still undefeated and currently the number one seed.
St. Louis Rams (18) at Minnesota Vikings (21)
Minnesota and St. Louis are both playing really well lately, especially the Vikings; a win Sunday and a loss by the Packers would mean the Vikings would be leading the division come Monday morning.
Minnesota ran the football down the Rams’ throats with their future Hall of Fame running back Adrian Peterson; the nine year veteran who is looking like a viable candidate for Comeback Player of the Year honors rumbled for 125 yards and a touchdown on 29 carries and really wore down St. Louis’ vaunted defense. His production also meant that the Vikings offense didn’t need much from Teddy Bridgewater and the passing game; Bridgewater only threw for 144 yards and had an interception this week, but he also added a rushing touchdown.
A scary moment came in the fourth quarter when Bridgewater took a vicious hit to the head from Rams defensive back Lamarcus Joyner which knocked the young quarterback unconscious for a few minutes. After the game he said he felt fine and even went out to celebrate the win with the team.
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St. Louis had a really rough time on offense this week, and had to rely a lot on their excellent kicker, Greg Zuerlein, who kicked five field goals and made four of them, including a 61-yarder in the first half. Their ground game that had been so effective the last few weeks was mostly quiet today; Todd Gurley rushed the football 24 times for 89 yards and a touchdown but he really had to work for those yards, and many of them didn’t come until late in the game.
The defense played relatively well, but they couldn’t stop Peterson and the rushing attack and in the end it proved costly; Peterson’s final run was a 16-yard rumble that put Minnesota in position to kick the game-winning field goal in the overtime period.
With this win, the Vikings are now in a first place tie with Green Bay (both are 6-2 this season) for first place in the NFC North. Meanwhile, the Rams are now at 4-4 and tied for second with the Seahawks in the West.
Tennesee Titans (34) at New Orleans Saints (28)
The Saints had played their way right back into the NFC playoff picture after their unbelievable win against the New York Giants a week ago, and with a game at home against the struggling Titans, you would figure that they would take care of their business and get ready for the week ahead, but that was not the case Sunday afternoon.
Tenessee’s rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota has had an excellent season and has really been everything Tennessee hoped he’d be, but he has missed some time due to injury. Despite missing two consecutive games, he didn’t look rusty at all against New Orleans’ porous defense and he picked up where he left off a few weeks ago by throwing for 371 yards and four touchdowns, including a miraculous 61-yard bomb to Delanie Walker that ricocheted off the hands of two Saints defenders and the game-winning score in overtime to a wide open Anthony Fasano.
The Saints defense was an abomination all afternoon, surrendering almost 500 yards and making it the second week in a row that their defense has surrendered yards at this high of a rate. If defensive coordinator Rob Ryan wasn’t on the hot seat after last week’s performance, it’s probably fair to say he could be after this week’s.
The Saints offense was a different story. After an injury-riddled start to the season, Drew Brees has played like a man possessed, especially in these last two games. Tennessee’s defense had no chance against the embattled veteran as he picked them apart on his way to 387 yards and three touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 118.2. His two ascending first and second-year wideouts Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks continued their brilliant play; Snead recorded six grabs for 95 yards and Cooks had 71 yards on four catches and a touchdown. If there were any flaws in the offense’s performance, it was the fact that Brees was sacked four times and the Saints turned the ball over twice.
New York Giants (32) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (18)
Of all the divisional races in the NFC, the battle that’s currently going down in the NFC East is not only the most wide open, but also the most fascinating; Even the lowly Dallas Cowboys aren’t necessarily out of the picture at 2-6. That being said, the Giants currently sit at first place at 5-4 and are a game ahead of the 4-4 Eagles following their big win over the Buccaneers.
New York’s offense looked amazing a week ago against the Saints despite losing, but this week they were very inconsistent. The ground game was nowhere to be found; the leading rusher for New York was Rashad Jennings with just 48 yards on 13 carries. The passing game for the Giants was nowhere near as productive as it was in New Orleans, and Eli Manning had turnover troubles this week with two interceptions, but he also threw two touchdowns and had 213 yards. Odell Beckham continued where he left off a week ago with nine catches for 105 yards and made a key catch late in the game that helped extend a crucial drive in the fourth when it looked as if Tampa would come back.
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As for those Buccaneers, they fought valiantly but ultimately made too many mistakes, particularly with turnovers (they turned it over three times). Tampa’s stud of a second-year receiver Mike Evans had eight catches for 152 yards, but he easily could have had more had it not been for his many drops. Jameis Winston played a decent game; he had a rushing touchdown and he passed for 249 yards but he had his share of troubles, such as only completing 19 of 36 passes. He was under some serious pressure by the Giants’ Jason Pierre-Paul, who did not register a sack but hit him quite a few times in his return from injury.
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The defense is a work in progress and they have been up and down all year, but one thing is certain: this linebacking core is one of the underrated cores in all of football. Lavonte David, who does not get enough love in many defensive circles, led the team with 11 tackles and the rookie Kwon Alexander, who played out of his mind a few weeks back against the Falcons and has had an excellent rookie season, recorded another double-digit tackle game with 10 this week.
New York now stands alone atop the division, and they have a familiar old foe coming to town next week: the undefeated New England Patriots. The Bucs, meanwhile, have a second consecutive home game next week against the struggling Cowboys.
Atlanta Falcons (16) at San Francisco 49ers (17)
The 49ers season has been a fast sinking ship of Titanic proportions, and this week things took another turn when the team traded away tight end Vernon Davis and benched quarterback Colin Kaepernick in favor of career backup and draft bust Blaine Gabbert. With or without that change, few gave the Niners a real chance against the Falcons, who have had a wonderful season, but have struggled in recent weeks against some inferior competition.
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The Niners played inspired football against Atlanta Sunday afternoon, despite limited weapons; their leading receivers were Quinton Patton, who had 70 yards on three catches, and tight end Garrett Celek, who is now the starter with the departure of Davis, scored two touchdowns. The offense actually jumped to a 17-7 lead to begin the game.
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On defense, the Niners looked an awful lot like the defense that once paved the way for consecutive NFC Title game appearances in 2011, 2012 and 2013. NaVorro Bowman has been a great story and has had such a wonderful season since coming back from that gruesome leg injury back in 2013 (he also missed most of 2014 recovering from it), and he has been the biggest positive on an otherwise struggling defense. Bowman was the team’s leading tackler for yet another week with eight tackles, and he now has 88 on the season.
Atlanta has somehow lost three games to teams that had a combined five wins at the time the Falcons appeared on the schedule. Their offense got huge performances from Matt Ryan and Julio Jones (Ryan had 303 passing yards and a touchdown and Julio had 137 receiving yards), but they only scored one touchdown. As for the defense, they clamped down in the second half, but when they needed to come up with a big stop, they surrendered a big, time-consuming drive that cost the Falcons the game.
Philadelphia Eagles (33) at Dallas Cowboys (27)
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Philadelphia, with their huge overtime win at Dallas, are now 4-4 and only a game behind New York for the division lead. But it is the way they pulled this game off that is even more impressive.
Dallas came in having lost five games in a row, and they gave the Eagles all they could handle on offense. Matt Cassel was sensational, with 299 yards and three passing touchdowns, and the combination of Dez Bryant and Cole Beasley went off for a combined 216 yards and three touchdowns. The running game was also very effective with lead workhorse Darren McFadden, who racked up 117 yards on 27 carries. So where did the Cowboys go wrong? Philly’s defense sacked Cassel four times, and Dallas’ lone turnover was a pick six thrown to the rookie linebacker Jordan Hicks.
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Philly’s offense has been so inconsistent in recent weeks but they have had their share of bright spots, and Sunday night their offense was on fire, producing 467 yards. Wide receiver Jordan Matthews ended up being the hero of the game with a 41-yard touchdown in the overtime period, which put him at 133 yards for the night.
Now week nine is over, so bring on week ten.
