close
NFLSlider

The Tuesday 10-spot (Ed. 4)

Josh McCown shined in a relief role in the Bears' narrow loss to Washington last week, and will need to do more of the same to keep Chicago's playoff and division title hopes in play.  (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Josh McCown shined in a relief role in the Bears’ narrow loss to Washington last week, and will need to do more of the same to keep Chicago’s playoff and division title hopes in play. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Our takeaways from the seventh week of the National Football League season.

1. The Bears offense may be more dynamic with Josh McCown.

Before I go on, I must admit to making this assessment with confidence before – with disastrous results. Back in 2011, the Bears were 7-3 but were going to be without Cutler, who broke his thumb in a win over the Chargers. In stepped Caleb Hanie, who performed admirably replacing an injured Cutler in the NFC Championship Game the season prior, and I thought with that championship game experience, Chicago would be able to weather Cutler’s absence. Five straight losses ensued, turning a promising season into an 8-8 record. With that said, the Bears, I think, will be better off with Josh McCown this time around replacing Cutler, who will miss at least four weeks with a groin injury. Seeing the Chicago-Washington game in person, his mobility as well as the accuracy he showed last week was impressive (14/20, 204 yards, TD, 33 rushing yards), and defenses will have to prepare for both his arm and his legs. Maybe McCown will be exposed, if nothing else, because I gave him the dreaded vote of confidence. But the potential is there for the Bears to not skip too many beats.

 

2. The AFC East is going to be fun to watch for the rest of the season.

If you were not convinced before that the AFC East race would come down to the wire in 2013, the games amongst the four rivals this past week should be the strongest indicator yet. At MetLife Stadium, the Jets took down the Patriots in overtime after getting a reprieve on a New England special teams penalty, while in Miami, Buffalo snatched a huge 23-21 win against the Dolphins to avoid what would have been a dispiriting 2-5 start. As a matter-of-fact, each of the five match-ups pairing AFC East sides so far this season has been decided by a touchdown or less, with four of them decided by three points or less. Shameless plug alert: A Lot Of Sports Talk will be in Foxboro this Sunday for the Dolphins-Patriots match-up, and we are hoping the trend of close games between AFC East foes continues.

 

A season-ending ACL injury has thrown Sam Bradford's St. Louis career into uncertainty. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
A season-ending ACL injury has thrown Sam Bradford’s St. Louis career into uncertainty. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

3. Slide, quarterbacks! Slide!

Three Thursdays ago, in the game between the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns, we saw both teams with promising starts to the season suffer key injuries to their quarterbacks – EJ Manuel and Brian Hoyer – when both took hits along the sidelines before having a chance to slide or go out of bounds. Hoyer is out for the season with an ACL tear while Manuel may not be back until the latter part of November with a sprained knee. This past Sunday, Rams signal-caller Sam Bradford also tore his ACL when taking a hit right before reaching the sideline in the loss to Carolina. Is an extra yard or two worth losing your season for?

 

4. It is never too early to project the common opponents tie-breaker scenarios.

That seems a pretty random thought, but there have been a good number of times recently where Wild Card teams have been decided by the “record vs. common opponents” tie-breaker component. It is only in use if teams who are tied in overall record – and did not play each other in the regular season- are also tied in conference record and the teams have a minimum of four common opponents. Using my favorite team (New York Jets) as an example, Gang Green is currently tied with the San Diego Chargers for the last playoff spot in the AFC at 4-3. They are also tied in conference record (2-3) and do not play each other. The common opponent tie-breaker is next, and this week’s opponent for the Jets is the Cincinnati Bengals, one of the four teams that play both the Jets and San Diego Chargers in 2013. At this point in the season, this sort of thinking is pedantic, but better to look at this now before realizing this at Week 16 or Week 17.

 

5. I wish the St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers were still in the same division.

Don’t we all want to see what Steve Smith would do to St. Louis Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins if they met up again after Smith’s not-so-friendly words for Jenkins in his post-game comments?

 

6. Injuries are part of the game, but the Week 7 MASH unit resident list is just ridiculous.

Brian Cushing, Reggie Wayne, Leon Hall, Sam Bradford all suffered season-ending injuries, Doug Martin’s torn labrum may cost him the season, and Jay Cutler and Lance Briggs will be out at least a month with groin and shoulder injuries respectively.  Ouch!

 

7. Brandon Meriweather should be suspended for a month for his shocking game against the Bears.

Redskins safety Brandon Meriweather must not have gotten the memo on player safety. The repeat offender committed two more personal foul penalties on helmet-to-helmet hits, with the second one bordering on egregious, when he launched into Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall in the endzone in the fourth quarter. The NFL, which did not cover itself in glory in the player-safety department as evidenced by the Frontline documentary, must really come down hard on players like Meriweather, who continually, and maybe blatantly, flout with the new laws of the game.

 

You might be looking at the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
You might be looking at the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

8. How many teams currently wish Jameis Winston was a redshirt sophomore right now, not a redshirt freshman?

Definitely two of the teams in the same state Jameis Winston is pulling off some magical play currently at Florida State. Jacksonville and Tampa Bay are still winless, and although both are the frontrunners in the Teddy Bridgewater sweepstakes for 2014, seeing a quarterback in college in the Sunshine State look as if he is NFL ready – but can’t enter the draft until 2015 – has to be a cruel punch in the gut.

 

9. Indianapolis Colts, welcome to Super Bowl contender status.

An impressive defensive showing – along with the play of Andrew Luck – in the 39-33 win over the Denver Broncos has pushed the Indianapolis Colts into the discussion of which is the best team in the NFL. Indy has wins against Denver, Seattle and in San Francisco, and you cannot talk about the best in football without talking about the Colts and taking those wins into consideration.

 

10. Can someone give the Cleveland Browns defense some love?

Definitely the Browns offense is not giving it the TLC it needs. Cleveland’s stop unit ranks seventh in yards per game allowed (318.9) and second in the NFL in yards per play allowed (4.5). In the latter statistic, they narrowly trail the Seattle Seahawks, the team almost universally regarded as having the best defense in the NFL. If Brian Hoyer does not get hurt, could this have been a playoff team in 2013?

 

Facebook Comments Box

Leave a Response