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Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap
The Return of the Steel Curtain! - by Brian Falor
In a week that saw the baseball Cardinals' skipper, Tony LaRussa, retire after winning 3 World Series' with 2 different teams, NFL week 8 is now in the books and there were some interesting games over the last weekend. A couple teams barely dodged the upset bullet and a couple didn't. Some teams keep looking stronger as the season progresses and others seem to be getting worse!
The Lions bared their collective fangs against Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos and won in convincing fashion. Maybe Tebow isn't quite ready for the NFL. Given time, I think he will become a good QB, but he hasn't yet had time to cut his teeth on the speed of the NFL vs college ball.
The Ravens barely dodged being upset 2 weeks in a row by a Cardinal team who started the game off with a big lead. The Ravens came back to win by only 3 in the closing seconds of the game showing that they definitely have some vulnerabilities they need to look at prior to playing a resurging Steelers team in Pittsburgh next week. The Cardinals simply showed they are unable to close the deal, losing a big lead and, by the end of the game, just fizzling out altogether.
The Giants were also nearly upset this week barely scratching out the win and nearly being the Dolphins first conquest of the season. However, Eli and the Giants find ways to win and the Dolphins, like the Cardinals simply cannot close the deal and manage to find ways to lose.
A couple of upsets that DID happen were the Rams closing their deal against the Saints to win their first game of the season and the surprising Chiefs moving into a 1st place tie in the AFC west by beating the Chargers by a field goal in OT. The Chiefs started the season by getting crushed in 3 straight games. However, they have now won their last 4 in a row!
Surprisingly, the Colts and Dolphins are still winless, the Colts moving to 0-8 and the Dolphins to 0-7 records. Amazing that the Colts could actually have been so dependent on one person and that without Peyton, they cannot win a single game!
Congrats to the Giants and Ravens who both scrapped and clawed their way into a 3-point win after being down most of their respective games.
Congrats to Vikings who pulled out a close one against the Panthers, the 49er's who move to a 6-1 record under Jim Harbaugh and finally to the Eagles who simply annihilated the Cowboys on Sunday night.
Congrats to the Rams who finally chalked up their first win of the season by playing some impressive football against a pretty good Saints team.
Congrats to the Lions for hopping back on the winning train against a struggling Broncos team.
At this point I'm still sticking with most of my picks to win their divisions:
NFC North - Packers, NFC West - 49er's, AFC East - Patriots, AFC South - Texans.
The AFC West, NFC East and NFC South are all fairly weak, but I think the Saints probably have the edge in the NFC South and I think the Chargers have the edge in the AFC West even though they lost one to the Chiefs on Monday night.
I think at this point the AFC North may be up for grabs too, but not for the same reasons. The Steelers, Ravens and Bengals all appear to be contenders to win this division. The Steelers and Bengals, however, appear to be getting stronger while the Ravens look to be floundering.
Blowouts for week 8:
Lions over Broncos 45-10 (I think the Broncos only TD was more of a gift)
Bills over Redskins 23-0
Bengals over Seahawks 34-12
Eagles over Cowboys 34-7
Upsets for week 8:
Rams over Saints 31-21
Chiefs over Chargers 23-20
And some might consider Steelers over Patriots 25-17 to be somewhat of an upset.
Now on to my choice for Game of the Week Recap for week 8.
Patriots vs Steelers.
This game marks what appears to be a resurgence in the Steelers winning ways. They were dominant this whole game and Big Ben and the offense were on the field most of the entire game.
The Steelers defense is now a cobbled up concoction of players basically being held together with baling wire and bubble gum. Yet, somehow Dick LeBeau's crew looked more like the Steel Curtain of the 70's on Sunday than they have most of the season keeping the pressure on Tom Brady the entire game.
Roethlisberger was brilliant in his passing game completing 36 out of 50 passes for 365 yards and 2 TD's. His one INT led to a Patriot TD early in the game.
It was 17-10 Steelers at the half and they kicked off to the Patriots to start the second half. The Pats were unable to do anything at all throughout the 3rd quarter while holding the Steelers to only a FG.
Things got interesting in the 4th quarter when, what should have been a Patriots TD at the goal line wasn't called. The Pats eventually did score the TD, but not before a nice chunk of the clock had run down.
Both teams missed FG's in this one with the Pats kicker dinging one off the right upright! The Pats tried an onside kick with didn't go the required 10 yards and was touched by a Pats player for a penalty. The Steelers added another FG to make the score 23-17. The Pats and Steelers traded punts after this, but when the Pats finally got the ball back, there was less than 30 seconds left on the clock.
On the first play from scrimmage, Brady went back to pass and was nearly sacked. The ball was jarred loose and Polamalu punched the ball into the end zone. This should have been a penalty, but it all happened so fast that the refs didn't see that he actually pushed the ball intentionally. The ball scooted into the end zone where Ziggy Hood recovered just outside the back of the end zone for a safety to effectively end the game.
The Pats had to punt with only seconds left on the clock and tried a little trickery in an attempt to get the ball back. They drop kicked the ball, but it went harmlessly out of bounds and the Steelers offense came back out for a quick kneel-down to win the game which had already been put out of reach with the safety and a 25-17 win.
There are a number of contenders for biggest meltdown this week. The Saints and Chargers take dishonorable mentions with losses to teams they should have been able to beat.
The Cardinals and Dolphins lock in their MOW (Meltdown of the Week) for not closing the deal and allowing their opponents to come back to win late in their respective games. Both these teams started their games off playing good football only to crumble and fall apart like a stale cookie late in the game.
Especially the Cardinals who had a big lead at the half only to give it all away and lose. You would think Ken Wisenhunt, who used to be the Offensive Coordinator for the Steelers would know the Ravens pretty good being that he used to have to deal with them twice every year. Yet, his team couldn't put them away after building a lead that should have been able to win this game for them.
The Cardinals get my vote for biggest meltdown this week losing one they should have been able to win. Extremely poor 2nd half performance.
Just saying......
By Brian Falor
Previous Articles by Brian Falor
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 11-15-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 10-24-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 10-18-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 10-11-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 10-4-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 9-27-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 9-19-2011
Brian Falor's Game of the Week Recap from 9-13-2011
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