NFL Week 12-13

Week 12






Tom Terrific puts up the first perfect passer rating of the 2010 season in the Pats romp at Detroit...talk about 2 complete opposites...what must it be like to be a Pats fan vs what must it be like to be a Lions fan...nothing but W's vs nothing but L's

NY Jets outscore the Cincy Bungles 23-3 in the 2nd half to cement their 9th W and keep pace with the 9-2 Pats setting up the game of the year this upcoming Monday Night in Foxborough

Speaking of 9-2 how about Matty Ice and the Hotlanta Falcons...Matt Ryan aka Matty Ice has started 21 games as QB in Atlanta for the Falcons and the team has a 20-1 record in those games...impressive



Peyton Hillis continues his impressive 2010

 Cleveland RB Peyton Hillis has another big game...this guy has been the find of the year...Browns pick him up in return for QB Brady Quinn...that means Broncos man in charge Josh McDaniels has traded Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, and Hillis for nothing much in return and as a result the Broncos have lost 16 of their last 21 games


The last 7 games Randy Moss has played since being traded from New England have resulted in a 1-6 record...0-3 with his new Titans...in that same span the Pats are 6-1...looking like the Moss trade was a great one for the Pats and looking like Moss is getting exposed as a cancer

2 weeks ago Raiders fans were on a high they haven't felt in years and years...2 weeks later and 2 L's later the team has crashed back to earth...Jokeland has been bombed 68-20 in those 2 games...RUN DMC aka Darren McFadden had been great the weeks previous, but the last 2 he has a total of 16 yards on 18 carries...

KC (7-4) continues to be the most improved team in the AFC and Da Bears (8-3) continue to be the most improved NFC squad

Rams QB Sam Bradford has his first career 300+ yard passing game...Sam has been really playing well lately...last 6 games he has 11 TD's vs just 1 INT...impressive



QB Phillip Rivers is EXTREMELY good...playing EXTREMELY well

 San Diego continues their resurgence...4 straight W's...shut out Peyton and the Colts in the 2nd half of their 36-14 W on Sunday Night...#1 D...#1 O...all 5 of their losses were 8 points or less...if the playoffs started today they would not be in as KC would be the AFC West winners and Pitt and NE/Jets being the 2 Wild Card teams...next 3 games are all in SD and are all winnable...Jokeland/KC/SF then they finish the 2010 season @ Cincy and @ Denver


Week 13

New Orleans (@ Cincy) and Chicago (@ Detroit) plus St. Louis (@ Arizona) all won last week and are all in position to get a road win vs a team they should beat to continue their march to the playoffs...KC (vs Denver) and NY Giants (vs Washington) plus San Diego (vs Jokeland) all have the same chance to follow up week 12 W's with home games vs teams they should beat to also continue their march to the playoffs

Jacksonville @ Tennessee...The Titans hope to have QB Kerry Collins back for this game plus WR Kenny Britt...2 teams in the AFC South are 6-5 and the other 2 are 5-6 so any inter-Division game in the AFC South takes on that much more meaning...the Titans have lost 4 straight games but they play an AFC South foe 4 times in their last 5 games so they still have a great chance to make the playoffs...for Jacksonville they are wanting to rebound from a 2nd half collapse in New York last week in a 24-20 loss to the Giants

Atlanta @ Tampa Bay...the 9-2 Falcons can drop the upstart Bucs to 7-5 with a win this week...Atlanta will still have the Saints (currently 8-3)  to deal with, but here is an opportunity to narrow the race in the NFC South to 2 teams...a TB win would have them at 8-4 and just 1 game back...hanging around

The Nighter games for Week 13 are as good as they get...Sunday Nighter Pittsburgh @ Baltimore...Monday Nighter NY Jets @ New England...34-10 combined records here...4 legit AFC contenders...

Pitt @ Balt...last 3 years the games in this series have all come down to the wire and have all been phenomenally physical...both teams sit at 8-3 currently...Baltimore won 17-14 in the first meeting this season back in Week 4 at Pittsburgh...that was the last game QB Ben Roethlisberger sat out as part of his 4 game NFL imposed suspension...Big Ben is listed as Questionable (sprained foot)

NY Jets @ New England...Week 2 the Jets won the first game of the 2010 matchups in this series 28-14 in New York...both teams have had extra time to prepare as A) Monday Night game so extra day there and B) both teams played last Thursday on US Thanksgiving...A Jets victory would give them a major leg-up in the AFC East as they would be 10-2 plus 4-0 in the Division and 2-0 vs New England so all the tie-breakers would belong to them...a Pats victory would put the Pats at 10-2 and back as the #1 seed in the AFC...with Pitt/Balt/Jets all have better D than the Pats do so I believe New England will have heavy emphasis on getting the #1 seed so they can have their high-powered O and their D play at home which is their best chance to go  a 5th Super Bowl in the Brady-Belichick era...surprising stat for me is that Jets QB Mark Sanchez only has 230 less passing yards than Tom Terrific has so far this season...of course Brady is all about putting points on the board (23 TD's vs only 4 INT's) but Sanchez is impressing in his 2nd season

craig.ballard@hotmail.com