Week 10 Recap

A few quick-hit notes before we cut into the recap:

1. Tom Jackson was on fire on ESPN Radio's Sunday pregame show! First, he talked about how Pittsburgh's offensive line isn't as bad as you think, as evidenced by how they protected Byron Leftwich in the second half against Washington. He pointed out that Ben Roethlisberger holds onto the ball far too long not just waiting for a guy to get open, but waiting for a guy to get open 20 yards down field or longer. When Leftwich was in the game, he was almost never hit and the Steelers moved the ball better than they had all night. Now, that's not to say Leftwich would be an improvement over Roethlisberger (but it is to think it loudly), but maybe Big Ben could learn something from watching tape of Leftwich. Roethlisberger was scattershot and on his ass, Leftwich was upright and accurate. Some teams do a great job of taking away the deep ball, and Washington is one of those teams. Coming into the game, it's hard to believe Pittsburgh wouldn't have tried to adjust the play of the quarterback to have success. I think Roethlisberger's just wired that way.
Jackson's second point was about the Bills and Trent Edwards. Edwards has been very solid this season, but in their losses, he's turned the ball over too much and in the worst possible times of the game. Nobody's suggesting Edwards is a choke artist or anything, but the fact is, the way Turk Schoenert calls plays in Buffalo, the pass is designed to set up the run. When Edwards is way off, as he's been a few times this season, it allows teams to stack up the box against Marshawn Lynch. Lynch is a talented runner, but he ain't no Adrian Peterson.
And the third and final great point he made was about New England, and I was wondering if anybody in the national media was going to point this out: Rodney Harrison might be a leader and a big hitter and a smart player and all the rest, but New England's defense is a hundred times faster now that he's out. I mean, they still have a slow defense, but it helps having at least a single secondary player who can run around back there, and now that lead-footed Harrison is on the shelf, there's actually a little bit of speed on New England's defense.

Now, my own point:

When the Redskins first picked up DeAngelo Hall, I liked the move. You might have noticed from my post earlier in the week. First of all, Hall may be a brash personality, but "bad" DeAngelo was only really a turd in two pretty bad circumstances: when the Falcons brought in Bobby Petrino (an asshole if ever there was one), and in Oakland, which is like a black hole. There's hope yet that he may not be such a bad guy. Fred Smoot was a real cock in college and a full-blown disaster in Minnesota. Guys change. Reputations are sometimes bogus.
Second, the Redskins have been banged up in the secondary all season. This move gave them depth, and quality depth at that.
Third, Hall would be playing close to home, which is probably a good thing, although why, I can't say.
Fourth, the Redskins are a humble, hard-working defense built mostly out of steady veterans and a few no-name impact youngsters. The whole vibe of the team, top to bottom, is professional, humble, quiet, and hard-working. In other words, exactly the kind of environment to bring a loudmouth like DeAngelo Hall down to earth.
Fifth, the cost of bringing this guy on for a year is next to squat. Less than half a million bucks.
Sixth, it's now all of a sudden a contract year for Hall, which means he needs to look great, act great, fit in, suck up, get to practice early, leave late, and never be seen without his playbook. Guys almost always play better in contract years, and this is like a contract half-year after a disasterous stint in Oakland, better known as Football Hell.

Then, to make room on the roster, the Redskins cut Leigh Torrance.

Now, I hope Vinny Cerrato's head explodes in the middle of his midday radio show. Cutting Torrance for Hall makes zero sense. Torrance is a good special teamer. He knows the system. He's more quiet, he's much cheaper, and he's only 2 years older than Hall. Malcolm Kelly could have very easily gone on IR. Justin Tryon could have been cut from the practice squad, and they could have sent Rob Jackson back down to the practice squad to make room for Hall, especially now that Jason Taylor is back healthy. Any number of roster moves could have been made that A) kept a semi-valuable part of the defense intact, B) kept a very valuable part of the special teams intact, C) actually improved the depth in the secondary, where the Redskins have been hurting, D) kept a defender who is familiar with the defense, and E) didn't cost the Redskins a young, fairly competent player who actually sees the field on Sunday.

So now I'm angry about this move. This reeks of Dan Snyder and Vinny Cerrato getting big eyes over a big name free agent.

And now, the recap. Let's dig right in:

Broncos over Browns, 34-30
My Pick: Browns over Broncos, 22-17
Yeesh. Choke job.

Brady Quinn outplayed Jay Cutler. C'mon, if you watched the game and know football, it's obvious. Cutler had 447 yards on the night. He got a miracle catch from Nate Jackson on a chicken-shit Brett Favre ball that should have been picked off. He got a miracle run from Daniel Graham on a crossing route, when apparently nobody on Cleveland had any interest in tackling him. Most importantly, he got a miraculously terrible defensive play on a 93-yard catch and run by Eddie Royal, when the defensive back not only took his eyes off the ball, not only tried to make a blind play on the ball, not only failed to address the receiver in any way, but actually tried to pull a Superman routine and fly through the air. When you miss on that kind of play, you don't just embarrass yourself. You embarrass your nation.

Quinn, on the other hand, did not make a single bad decision on the night. He was accurate, he was sharp, he was poised. Unlike Derek Anderson, he protected the football. No, the funny thing about Cleveland's offense in this game was actually the play of Kellen Winslow Jr. Look, I can look at a stat line and tell you he had a big night. Here's the thing, though: Winslow killed a second half drive with a blatant offensive pass interference penalty. He killed another second half drive by fumbling a ball. Then he killed a potential game-winning drive by letting a catchable ball shoot right between his hands. It's rare as hell that a receiver manages to cancel out 10 catches, 111 yards, and 2 scores by shooting his team in the foot multiple times. Winslow pulled it off.

Still, Cleveland would have won the game if anybody on their defense could cover, catch, or tackle for shit. And it's a shame, because Cleveland's defense looked a lot better this season until Thursday night. And you've got to figure now the only thing keeping Romeo Crennel in Cleveland is his young quarterback, which makes the benching of Derek Anderson in a short week about the smartest move Crennel has made in an otherwise embarrassing failure of a stint with the team. Think about it: if Cleveland loses this game like this with Anderson on the field and Quinn on the sidelines, why wouldn't the Browns dump Crennel in what is mighty close to a bye week after this game? But the fact that they just got a positive performance from the kid probably keeps Crennel around through the end of the season, right?

Right?

Atlanta over New Orleans, 34-20
My Pick: Atlanta over New Orleans, 29-28
Well, say this for New Orleans: they were pretty decisive about ending their season early. Last season, the Saints might have pulled this one off or made it really close, then lingered for a bit. Now, at least, we know where they stand: they're OUT. DONE.

As for Atlanta, I'm honestly afraid of this team at home. Matt Ryan's quarterback rating at home this season is over 120. The Falcons score an average of 32 points a game in Atlanta. Halfway through the season, they're a legitimately scary home team, and they've got two more consecutive road games after this one. There's every chance . . . every chance the Falcons will be 8-3 headed into a week 13 trip to San Diego. Holy shit, I can't believe I just typed that.

Atlanta's front four was all over Drew Brees Sunday afternoon. Brees might be one accurate sumbitch when he's in rhythm, but under pressure, he plays like a turd. Forget the 422 meaningless yards and the 2 touchdowns, one of which was a desperation heave in the final seconds; Brees was garbage, completing barely over 50% of his nearly 60 pass attempts. His three picks were ugly. He was under seige, and he folded. Matt Ryan, on the other hand, completed 16 of 23 attempts for about 250 yards and 2 scores. He didn't turn the ball over, he spread his passes around, and frankly, he looked like the veteran of the two.

Where do the Saints go from here? It bums me out that they have the Chiefs in Kansas City up next. The Chiefs are determined to lose every game left on their schedule, which means the Saints'll probably roll 'em pretty good. Then we'll have to pretend to take New Orleans seriously for another week. I don't have the energy for that. I can't root for the Chiefs, but I don't any longer think I can root for the Saints, not until their games are totally meaningless. We're almost there, but not yet.

Tennessee over Chicago, 21-14
My Pick: Chicago over Tennessee, 17-16
Well, I was wrong, but it turns out I don't feel so stupid about it. Chicago did a hell of a job bottling up Tennessee's ground game. They didn't count on Kerry Collins stepping up and putting the Titans on his shoulders, but sometimes you pick your poison and live with the consequences. Pretty much every opponent this season is going to try to make Kerry Collins beat them. How many times will he be able to deliver? Well, at least once.

Tennessee still managed to dominate time of possession, with a 7 minute advantage despite only 21 rushing yards. You know you're a tough-ass football team when you can rush for only 21 yards and have 8 penalties on the road and still win time of possession and your ninth consecutive regular season game. The two most impressive things about this Titans team, in my opinion, are the way they pass-protect and their stinginess with the football. They just don't turn the ball over ever. It's remarkable.

Chicago didn't really do anything wrong to lose this game. They just ran up against a superior team. In this case, I really think it's that simple. They turned the ball over one time, had only 3 penalties, outrushed their opponent by a significant margin, and played pretty effing great defense. I suppose this game came down to three things: 1. Chicago only converted 3 of 14 third down opportunities. It's hard to win games when you can't sustain drives, and Chicago struggled mightily to make the key plays that keep an offense on the field. 2. That one turnover? Yeah, a bad ball from Rex Grossman inside his own territory that gave Tennessee possession at the 25 yard line. Chicago had the lead at the time, but not for long. 3. Tennessee made the big special teams play of the day, a blocked fourth quarter field goal.

Sometimes, that's how it goes. The Titans are as solid and well-coached as any team in football, they'll make those kinds of plays. You've gotta love this team.

Jacksonville over Detroit, 38-14
My Pick: Jacksonville over Detroit, 24-20
I spent a few minutes clicking through stats, replays, summaries, whatever I could find to try to muster up the energy to bang out a recap of this one, but you know what? I don't care about it at all. Detroit sucks. Jacksonville sucks, but they still know what to do against roadkill. That's it! I don't want to get bogged down in a recap of this game, otherwise I'll be too depressed to give adequate thought to everything after it. That's it!

Baltimore over Houston, 41-13
My Pick: Houston over Baltimore, 20-16
It would be easy to roll this whole thing up, hang it around Sage Rosenfels' neck, and call it a day.

So we're going to do that very thing!

Remember how, in my pick of this game, I mentioned that Sage Rosenfels isn't such a steep drop-off from Matt Schaub, that he might make some mistakes, but ultimately he can run the Houston offense successfully? Okay, forget all that. Sage Rosenfels is a friggin' turd. He played like hammered dog-shit out there. Of course, Baltimore's defense is one hell of an obstacle, but damn. Those two throws that turned into picks by Ray Lewis were about as piss-poor as your likely to see at any level of football ever. Who the hell was he throwing to? The Haloti Ngata pick . . . well, Ngata is a monster and he made an incredible play, but still, Rosenfels hit him in the hands. Chris McAlister walked right into a pick. Rosenfels was turrible. Turr-i-bull.

Joe Flacco, on the other hand, did his own little Matt Ryan impression out there. He was friggin' stellar. And again, this guy throws a beautiful, beautiful deep ball. In fact, from the TV angle, Flacco looks as comfortable and athletic as any quarterback in football when he takes a deep drop. I'm no NFL scout, but to me Flacco's whole drop-release motion is about as fluid as any I've seen, and he's got a cannon. Right now, Baltimore's only asking him to take care of the ball and hit the occasional bomb off playaction, but someday down the line, Flacco might be one prolific passer.

He still looks like an ostrich.

But I'm thinking about this now, and I'm saying to myself, "Baltimore's defense is quite nearly as ferocious as Pittsburgh's. Baltimore's offensive line is superior. Baltimore's backfield is healthier. Pittsburgh might have the better receiving corps, but right now (only), Flacco is doing a better job of playing within the mold of quarterback on a run-first offense with a strong defense." All of a sudden, I'm convinced Baltimore is a better overall football team than Pittsburgh. If Flacco plays like this (15 of 23 for 185 and 2 scores, 111 straight pass attempts without a turnover) the rest of the way, Baltimore is the better team. Now, he's a rookie, and he's bound to have some rookie outings the rest of the way, but he's shown the ability to protect the ball, hit some big plays, and keep his team in the game, and frankly, Ben Roethlisberger has been a turnover machine.

I'm just saying. Keep an eye on it. Pittsburgh is not so invincible. Baltimore could win the North.

Miami over Seattle, 21-19
My Pick: Miami ove rSeattle, 21-13
I made a big stink over the 2-point spread, and look at this shit. 2 friggin' points. If I were a betting man, I'd have almost been screwed. Almost.

So this was the best possible effort from Seattle. They traveled as far as possible to play a fairly warm AFC team still in the hunt, and they came within 2 points in a 1pm East Coast game. That moral victory might be as close as they come to the word "victory" the whole rest of the season.

As for Miami, hey, a win is a win. Ricky Williams had himself a nice game. The Wildcat was on fiyah(!) again today, which was nice to see. Miami's on a nice little run here, and watch out for those Dolphins: they've got two more consecutive home games coming up, and they've got seven straight possible wins left on their schedule. Oakland, New England at home, St. Louis, the Bills in Buffalo (not as tough as we thought), San Francisco at home, Kansas City, and then a week 17 match-up with the Jets in New Jersey that could be for a playoff spot. Miami could win anywhere from 4 to 7 of those games. 9-7 would be a disappointment for this Dolphins team. What an unbelievable story they've been.

Can you believe this shit? Already in this post I've talked about Atlanta heading into week 13 at 8-3, Baltimore winning the AFC South, and Miami being a disappointment at 9-7. Just for the record, those three teams finished a combined 10-38 last season. You could say this has been a strange season.

Minnesota over Green Bay, 28-27
My Pick: Green Bay over Minnesota, 27-17
Something just hit me about this game: no matter who won, it would be impossible to say either team earned it. This was about as frustrating a football game as you're likely to ever see.

Minnesota, for crying out loud, these fucks can't stay out of their own way. Gus Frerotte was fucking terrible. He and Sage Rosenfels should get together and buy each other a few drinks. What an incredibly terrible performance by a veteran quarterback. And consider this two-minute sequence from the third quarter: Minnesota takes over possession at their 45 yard line leading 21-10 with about 5:30 left on the clock. Gus Frerotte drops back and fires a short pass directly into the arms of a Green Bay defender, who races through and around the Vikings for a 59-yard score. Minnesota gets the ball back 14 seconds later, loses 18 yards in 2 plays, punts on fourth and eight, and Green Bay's Will Blackmon returns it 65 yards for another score. Green Bay goes into the fourth quarter leading 24-21.

Minnesota is just an awful, awful football team. In an absolute must-win division home game, the Vikings committed 7 penalties, turned the ball over 3 times, and gave up their NFL record sixth special teams touchdown of the season. How in the hell did they win this game?

His name is Adrian Peterson, and when we make a point of mentioning the possibility of him going nuts against any given opponent, this is exactly what we're talking about. On the decisive drive of the game, the Vikings ran the following plays: Adrian Peterson run left for 4 yards. Adrian Peterson run left for 5 yards. Frerotte pass to Wade for 5 yards. Adrian Peterson run left for 2 yards. Pass to Adrian Peterson for 16 yards. Pass to Adrian Peterson for 8 yards. Adrian Peterson run right for 29 yards, touchdown. That score decided the game. One player on Minnesota's offense had their head screwed on correctly on Sunday, and they're thanking their lucky stars it also happened to be their best player, the pissed-off rhinoceros wearing number 28. For 33 touches and 225 total yards, this kid piled his team's whole season on his back and carried it around. On the winning scoring drive, the Vikings called his number on 6 of 7 plays.

As for Green Bay, I guess they're the one middling sub-.5oo team I'll refuse to write off for another week. What the fuck. Aaron Rodgers was bad, but he was under an insane amount of pressure in the pocket. Minnesota's defense was pretty fucking dialed in, come to think of it. Green Bay had nothing in the following departments: slowing down Minnesota's ground game, and converting anything on offense. Green Bay's defense just couldn't get off the field, and they ended up facing down Adrian Peterson in Minnesota for 36 minutes. There might be two or three defenses in football that could contain Peterson for 36 minutes, and the Packers don't have one of them.

Adrian Peterson single-handedly kept this game from being a total farce. The total points might trick you into thinking this was a good game. It had it's moments, but there was only one player on either team worth watching. The rest was total garbage.

New England over Buffalo, 20-10
My Pick: New England over Buffalo, 23-17
I wish I had more to say about this. I feel like I should write an extended eulogy for the 2008 Buffalo Bills, but I've got nothing. New England was clearly the better team, and what was truly appalling was the lack of enthusiasm or energy from Buffalo. They came out flat, sleep-walked through the better part of this game, and got drilled. Now they're 0-3 in the AFC East, 5-4 overall, losers of 4 of 5, and all but out of the running for the playoffs. Record-wise, they might still be in it, but how in the hell do you recover from this kind of collapse?

Why go on? You know what happened. But do you care? Nope, neither do I.

New York Jets over St. Louis, 47-3
My Pick: New York Jets over St. Louis, 29-20
Ouch. What an embarrassment.

And other than that, I don't care at all about this game.

Carolina over Oakland, 17-6
My Pick: Carolina over Oakland, 35-6
I guess you get to play that poorly on the road and win, so long as you do it in Oakland. Holy hell. I had a hard time figuring out which team was which out there. I'm not sure Jake Delhomme should be allowed to collect a paycheck this week after that stink-bomb.

7 of 27? I mean, what the fuck happened out there? Was he throwing with his left arm or something? 7 of 27? 4 picks? Those are Horacio Grey numbers! The headline of this recap on NFL.com says "Panthers get road win vs. Raiders". Has the word "get" every implied anything as foul or ill-gotten as this win? I'll never look at the word "get" the same after this. If I'm Andrew Walter, I'm sending a case of something expensive to Jake Delhomme this week. Who even remembers how bad Walter played after watching Delhomme stumble out there?

Remember that scene in Rookie of the Year, the one near the beginning where the idiot main character fucks up his little league game by committing a series of errors on a ball hit to center field before accidentally throwing it over the outfield wall? That was Jake Delhomme. Was his helmet actually on backwards? I mean, I know we use that saying all the time when guys play like dogshit, but now I'm really wondering! 7 of 27? I'd like to make a joke about somebody out of left field being able to outperform Delhomme, but I'm struggling to think of anybody I know who actually couldn't complete better than 7 of 27 throws against Oakland's defense. Jesus, is DeAngelo Hall really that bad? Take him out of Oakland's defense, and all of a sudden otherwise competent quarterbacks complete only 7 of 27 pass attempts. If that's the case, I'm driving out to Ashburn today with a sledgehammer. No way Hall takes the field for the Redskins this season. No way.

Man, what a friggin' dog this game was. Nobody deserved to watch this crap. Oakland residents are luckier than a mother this game was blacked out in the local market.

Indianapolis over Pittsburgh, 24-20
My Pick: Pittsburgh over Indianapolis, 23-20
I was almost exactly right about the final score, except the teams were backwards, which means I was almost exactly wrong.

Indy, man, for all the shit that's gone wrong for them in 2008, they sure have had some incredible luck in a few of their wins. How about a tipped ball that finds Reggie Wayne for a 65 yard score? I mean, I hate to piss all over their parade here, but they seriously lucked into another win. They played poorly on offense from start to finish, hit a couple of timely plays, got incredibly lucky on a few others, and somehow managed to sneak off with a win. Good for them, I suppose.

As for Pittsburgh, I imagine there are a lot of folks wondering why Byron Leftwich didn't play Sunday afternoon. I can't be the only one. Roethlisberger didn't look right. I'll give him this: he seemed to have picked up on Leftwich's success in completing short passes and taking pressure off the offensive line, but his full-tilt tendency reared its ugly head in a few bad, bad moments. That end-of-the-first-half interception was a friggin' disaster, it let Indianapolis off the mat and the ensuing touchdown gave the Colts all the momentum headed into halftime. Twice in the game Ben forced balls in his own territory, and the Colts turned both interceptions into touchdowns. I'm not saying Ben Roethlisberger is killing the Steelers, but I am typing it. Ben Roethlisberger is killing the Steelers.

And though Peyton Manning wasn't great, he didn't turn the ball over and he found the endzone. When his defense gave him a short field, he took advantage. That was a gutsy road win for the Colts. They get to linger for another week, and if you take the group of wild-card contenders right now, you've got to like Indy's chances. Down the stretch, I'd feel more comfortable with my money on them than on Brett Favre's Jets, the plummeting Bills, the upstart Dolphins, or the rookie-led Ravens. There's a good chance the Colts will not make the playoffs, but among the teams competing with them, they look like one of the safer picks because of their pedigree and experience.

San Diego over Kansas City, 20-19
My Pick: San Diego over Kansas City, 31-20
I sat in a booth at Thai Towne for a good 5 minutes with absolutely nothing in the world to say about anything. It could have even been longer; it's possible I blacked out for a period. I'm still not sure I know exactly what to say about what happened in San Diego Sunday night. Even thinking about it makes me feel nauseated.

It's not supposed to be like this. Coaches can't aggressively torpedo their teams like this and keep their jobs. And to be sure we're on the same page here, I should say I have rarely seen a coach cost his team a game the way Herm Edwards did on Sunday. I've said so much about the guy already, I'm pretty much out. But where in the past Herm was just a terrible gameday coach and an embarrassment, this time he's actually crossed the line into actively working for the opposition to hurt his own team. What he did on Sunday should be called a crime.

The first two-point conversion attempt was an accident. Kansas City failed to execute a simple extra point kick and wound up screwed. The second one was just an incredibly fucking retarded call by Edwards. Jesus Christ. I shouldn't even have to explain this. On the road, with a chance to deliver a death blow to a struggling Chargers team, playing them remarkably close throughout, struggling from behind late, scoring a miracle touchdown. Kick the goddamn extra point, take the momentum, put 'em away in overtime, for crying out loud. The Chiefs are a fucking 1-win team! They had a victory in their grasp! Anything can happen in overtime! Give yourself a goddamn chance! This isn't like Mike Shanahan rolling the dice in week 2 after a gift from the referees. The season was young, Shanahan was looking for a statement, and he has a very talented core of offensive players to work with. There's reason to trust his players in that scenario: they'd been lighting up San Diego's defense all night, and he had a tried-and-true play in his hip pocket for that exact scenario. Kansas City . . . oh fuck it. It was a retarded call by a horrifyingly bad coach, a guy who deserves to be fired so bad, and not just from this job, but from a cannon into the sun. There's guts and then there's stupidity: if you watched any portion of this game, you knew there was a 0.0% chance the Chiefs would convert that 2-pointer. The only person in America who didn't seem to know that in advance was Herm Edwards.

The thing is, I generally love the 2-point call, down one late in a game. I love a coach going for the win. I can't fully explain why I felt overwhelmingly differently about this call when cameras showed Herm holding up 2 fingers after Tony Gonzalez made his miracle touchdown catch. This didn't feel like going for the win, it felt like going for the loss. There was no way in hell the Chiefs were going to get the conversion, from the moment Herm raised two fingers. They'd stolen momentum by scoring the late touchdown, but it was a miracle catch. Watch it again.

I fucking hate the Chiefs, I hate the Chargers, I hate the AFC West. I almost hate the NFL for being affiliated with these assholes.

New York Giants over Philadelphia, 36-31
My Pick: New York Giants over Philadelphia, 24-21
Time of possession, folks. 40 minutes of possession for the Giants, in Philadelphia. In the wise words of John McCain, "that, my friends, is domination."

And really, what a game! This game had intrigue from all angles. Brandon Jacobs took it upon himself to make it a lot more interesting by fumbling the ball on an absurd end-of-run hurdle attempt, and then put the ball on the turf a second time, late in the game, at the goalline, only a millisecond or so after crossing into the endzone. I love this guy, he's a monster, but he needs to secure the damn ball a little better. Then Eli did his part by tossing the ball mere milliseconds before crossing the line of scrimmage, leading to frustrating minutes of confusion about the rule regarding how much of a quarterback must be at or behind the line of scrimmage when the ball is released. So the Giants did their part. They dominated the game, but in the interests of entertaining primetime television, they really went above and beyond in providing an interesting game.

The Eagles, hey, they're entertainers too! How about Donovan McNabb, folks, is this guy something or what? Why not take a late delay of game penalty, that'll spice things up!

Okay, seriously, this was a hell of a game. The Eagles, despite having the ball for only 20 minutes of game time, had a chance down the stretch. Brian Westbrook might not have had a great game (or really, any game at all), but it's hard to criticize Andy Reid for putting the ball in the hands of his All-World tailback on the clinching 4th and 1 play. It didn't work, so he'll eat shit for it, and the Eagles have had major troubles converting short-yardage chances all season, but again, Westbrook is one of the best tailbacks in football, and he only needed a yard.

One thing must be said of both teams: they went after it. On Philadelphia's final meaningful defensive play of the night, Brian Dawkins obliterated Derrick Ward in the backfield and caused a fumble. On New York's final meaningful defensive play of the night, Danny Clark, Antonio Pierce, and Chase Blackburn charged upfield like it was the first play of the game, blew up Philly's blocking in the backfield, and stuffed Brian Westbrook a yard and a half short of the first down marker. New York chewed Philly's defense to bits, especially upfront, churning out 220+ rushing yards and only allowing a single sack on the night, and the Giants dominated time of possession and won the game because of it, but both teams came to play and neither team let up for a minute. Even the aforementioned Donovan McNabb scrambled for a key first down deep in New York territory late in the game and then fired a beautiful ball on the go to Kevin Curtis on fourth down.

So both teams played well. It must be said, then, once and for all, that the Giants are much better than the Eagles. Both teams played well, both as close to full strength as can be expected 10 weeks into an NFL season, in Philadelphia, but New York still doubled 'em up in rushing yards and time of possession and still won the game. In fact, it really shouldn't have been as close as the final score.

They don't get any easier for either team from here on, either. New York has a red-hot Ravens team up next, then they go to Arizona, then to Washington. Those are three tough wins, and if the Giants drop two of them, they could be right back in the thick of the NFC East. The Eagles are facing an uphill battle, and not just for the division any longer. With Carolina, Tampa, and Atlanta all above them in the NFC, not to mention Washington today and potentially Dallas down the stretch, they need another run here. They can forget about the division, of course, but they're pretty clearly talented enough to be a playoff team. They just put three straight wins together before Sunday night, they need to find a way to get back on the horse and do it again.

Arizona over San Francisco, 29-24
My Pick: Arizona over San Francisco, 34-13
Mike Singletary's influence over San Francisco's overall effort and their offensive gameplan was significant, and the 49ers played about as well as they have all season. Arizona is not an easy place to play for away teams, but the 49ers were in good position to win this game down the stretch.

But here's the thing: San Francisco turned the ball over 3 times, committed 10 penalties, and seemed to be clueless in key situations regarding clock management and playcalling. Singletary is a new head coach, and sometimes clock management can be tricky for new coaches who don't spend a lot of time playing Madden in the off-season. The 49ers ran the ball well and played pretty solid defense, on the one hand. On the other hand, they ran the ball to Michael Robinson from the 2 yard line with 4 seconds on the clock and lost 25 of the final 45 seconds on the clock trying to get the right personnel on the field for a quarterback spike. Ultimately, those two plays were the difference between a fantastic division road win and a gut-wrenching, demoralizing loss. I think Singletary will probably find his way, and I think this game will be remembered more for the positive ways Singletary influenced the gameplay of the 49ers than the way his team struggled to put their helmets on correctly down the stretch. That probably won't make it any easier for San Francisco's players this week.

As for Arizona, boy, that shiny new running game they unveiled last Sunday sure disappeared in a hurry in week 10, didn't it? It's a good thing A) Kurt Warner was pretty damn close to perfect passing the ball, B) Frank Gore was lightly grazed while stumbling to the turf inside the five yard line with less than a minute left, and C) Arizona's defense came up with a huge push on that ill-fated Michael Robinson plunge on the final play. Arizona escaped with a victory Monday night. It was an entertaining, illuminating game, and Arizona barely escaped with their reputation intact.

And now, some rankings:

Contenders

1. New York Giants (2)
That's right. They friggin' owned the Eagles in Philadelphia Sunday night. You can't tell me they aren't better than Tennessee. If you can pull the "Tennessee is undefeated" card, I can pull the "the Giants are Super Bowl Champs" card. So there.

2. Tennessee Titans (1)
The didn't do anything to lose the top spot, except maybe look like garbage in their running game. New York jumped up and took it from 'em.

Everyone Else

3. Carolina Panthers (3)
Played about as poorly on offense as you can, but still found a way. They could have dropped, but nobody jumped up high enough to take this spot.

4. New England Patriots (6)
Flattening the Bills and jumping to the front of the AFC's only deep division is enough to bump you into the top 5 in my book.

5. Washinton Redskins (5)
Didn't play, didn't move.

6. Pittsburgh Steelers (4)
Dropped a home game to the Colts behind an ugly game from a clearly banged up Ben Roethlisberger.

7. Atlanta Falcons (8)
That was some ass-whupping they laid on the Saints in Atlanta on Sunday. This is a serious playoff contender.

8. Philadelphia Eagles (7)
They had a chance down the stretch against the Giants in Philly, but the tale of that game is told in the numbers: 20 minutes of offense and virtually no running game did them in.

9. Baltimore Ravens (10)
I'd bump them up higher, but over who? They stomped the shit out of Houston on Sunday, and I think they're still improving.

10. Chicago Bears (9)
The Bears put up a fight against the Titans, but they didn't have much going offensively and didn't have an answer for Kerry Collins, of all people.

11. Arizona Cardinals (11)
That was their diciest home performance of the season, and they very nearly tossed out all the good will they'd generated through the first half of the season. Still, a division win is a division win.

12. Green Bay Packers (12)
Yes, they lost, but they played the Vikings very close in Minnesota and nobody behind them jumped up at all.

13. Miami Dolphins (17)
It was a narrow home win over a lousy Seattle team, but everyone around them took a dive and they look like playoff contenders.

14. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (14)
Didn't play, didn't move.

15. Indianapolis Colts (18)
Hey, any time you go into Pittsburgh and come out with a win, you've done something impressive.

16. New York Jets (19)
Absolutely throttled the hapless Rams in one of the ugliest, most brutal violations ever committed to film.

17. Minnesota Vikings (20)
It wasn't pretty, but the crucial division win put them above .500 and kept hope alive for a playoff run.

The Dregs

18. Buffalo Bills (13)
I could move them lower, even. 3 straight losses, all in the AFC East, and it's adios, Bills.

19. Houston Texans (15)
Just looked like poached rat crap in a humiliating blowout at home. Sage Rosenfels is quickly becoming either an adjective or a verb, or maybe both.

20. New Orleans Saints (16)
Put up zero fight in their most important game of the season. They're totally done.

21. Denver Broncos (21)
That win did nothing to convince me they're anything but a bunch of clowns.

22. Jacksonville Jaguars (22)
Meh. Killing the Lions is hardly an accomplishment.

23. San Diego Chargers (23)
And we'd all like to thank the goddamn Kansas City Chiefs for letting this atrocity hang around for another week.

24. Cleveland Browns (24)
Brady Quinn was a nice improvement. Too bad the rest of the team is crap, and now they're accusing each other of quitting. Nice.

25. Kansas City Chiefs (25)
Played well enough to win, coached poorly enough to lose.

26. Dallas Cowboys (26)
Is this excessively low? Probably. But after putting them here last week, I can't really move them if they didn't play, can I?

27. San Francisco 49ers (29)
Played almost well enough to win in a very hostile environment. That's worth something.

28. Seattle Seahawks (28)
I'll give them a little credit for traveling all that way for a 1pm game against a good team and still mustering up a competitive effort.

29. St. Louis Rams (27)
Wow. That was just awful.

30. Cincinnati Bengals (30)
Didn't play, right? Or did they? At any rate, they didn't move, apparently.

101. Detroit Lions (31)
So incredibly bad. The odds of them going winless in 2008 are getting very strong.

201. Oakland Raiders (32)
Lost by 11 points to a team whose quarterback actually played with his helmet on backwards, at home, and the only thing surprising about it was that they only lost by 11.

Week 11 picks should be up tomorrow afternoon. Peace!