Week 7 Recap and Why the Patriots Field Goal Call Is Fine

In a word, this week was ugly.  Not that that's such a bad thing if you like defense and upsets.  A stunning six teams had defensive touchdowns on Sunday, the Rams-Panthers game featured punches and ejections, and it'll be a while before we forget that very bizarre penalty in the Meadowlands.  Anyway, I certainly can't complain about not having anything to write about this week.  Here's your Week 7 Recap and While the Patriots Field Goal Call Is Fine.

Week 7: The Good Stuff

That Colts Defense - Andrew Luck will get plenty of nods for Sunday night's upset special against the Broncos and rightfully so.  He protected the football while also making some calculated risks to keep Indy in front for the duration of the game.  Nevertheless, you can't ignore the Colts' defense in coming up big every time it mattered.  Indy sacked Peyton Manning four times, forced three turnovers and, at my count, stopped the Broncos at least 8 times on three and outs.  Robert Mathis is making a strong case for DPOY and the Colts secondary had no problem shutting down a stacked Denver receiving corps before a few late game injuries.  Important question: now that Indy has knocked off three Super Bowl favorites this season (Seahawks, 49ers, Broncos), what's stopping them from going to the Meadowlands in February?

Keenum Making a Case - It's hard not to fawn over young and unlikely QBs stepping up when the chips are down.  Look no further than Kurt Warner and Tom Brady if you're wondering how draft valuation might be flawed.  Of course, it's still way to early to have more than a knee-jerk reaction to Texans undrafted backup/new starter Case Keenum, but he played about as well as any passer has against the mighty Kansas City Chiefs pass rush this weekend.  Keenum averaged nearly 20 yards per completed pass without any interceptions and kept Houston in the game until the final minute of play on the road.  Before you start calling for Matt Schaub's resignation, let this one ride out for a few weeks - Keenum will have plenty to prove if Arian Foster's injury lingers and as teams get more used to his tendencies as a QB.  Still, he gets an A- out of the gate, which is more than we can say for Schaub.

Redskins Revival - Washington is still in a 2.5-game hole if this team wants to keep another division title in sight, but as we learned last season, a confident Robert Griffin is a very dangerous guy.  And he's got some new friends to diversify his attack with in rookie TE Jordan Reed and RB Roy Helu, who ruined Alfred Morris-having fantasy teams everywhere with 3 TDs on Sunday.  Moreover, they kept the normally opportunistic Bears to just manageable enough to eke it out in a shootout.  It wasn't an ideal win for a team that still has too many liabilities on defense, but there's still a glimmer of hope for a team that might yet win some track meets.

Nailed It!  My Best Week 7 Prediction - There's almost literally nothing to write home about when it comes to my picks this week.  Although I was too chicken to pick the Colts, at least I allowed for the possibility I spose:

• "I’m going to keep betting Broncos until proven wrong, but the Colts do have a slim path to victory here: let Andrew Luck play hero ball and stop handing off to Trent Richardson for 3 yards/carry. The kid is almost as good as his predecessor in the no huddle and Denver’s secondary is looking a bit more questionable than it used to. Let’s see if Indy’s upset factor continues to have truth against the high-flying Broncos."

Week 7: The Bad Stuff

Josh Freeman Again Already? - I'm echoing the sentiments of MNF call man Jon Gruden a bit here, but it was more than a little puzzling to me that the Vikings put Josh Freeman in last night after just two weeks on the job.  With the Bears and Lions losing on Sunday, Minnesota still has/had a shot at a playoff bid and a great opportunity to get a win against the 0 - 6 Giants who have allowed an NFL-worst 35 points per game.  Why then, would you start a guy who's having the worst season of his career already and has had to both learn and unlearn playbooks in 14 days to be remotely functional?  Say what you will about Christian Ponder, at least he gave Adrian Peterson room to breathe with a few decent throws now and then.  I've mostly liked how much Coach Leslie Frazier has done with so little, but this is about the least resourceful decision he's made unless he's going for draft gold in April.  And apparently he is.

 

The Giants-Vikings Game in General: There may have been a worse game somewhere on the schedule in the past seven weeks, but I can't think of a more torturous game that I've watched in prime time than the Giants and Vikings on Monday Night.  Per Josh Freeman starting above, dude completed 35% of his passes but somehow OC Bill Musgrave thought it was perfectly fine for him to rack up 50 mostly horribly overthrown passing attempts.  As a result, Adrian Peterson was a ghost with nowhere to run and neither team broke 3 yards/carry.  Both Freeman and Manning could have notched multiple interceptions thrown right into the numbers of their respective defenders, but apparently these two secondaries and their special teams units spent some part of the pregame immersing their arms in Novacaine in order to lob the ball into their opponents' hands.  Nothing short of an abomination, and we get to watch Minnesota do it all over again next Sunday night.

Shanked It!  My Worst Week 7 Prediction: Where to even begin?  By far, the game that was most surprising to me as a whole was the Redskins-Bears rumble at FedEx Field.  Chicago held on admirably despite losing Jay Cutler early, but where in the heck did that defense go?

• "Wasn't it around this time last year that the Redskins came out of nowhere to win seven straight and take the NFC East by surprise?  No matter, Chicago's defense will take a page from Capitol Hill and shut Washington down... See what I did there?"

Week 7 Feature: Why the Patriots Field Goal Call Is Fine

Arguably the hottest topic in the football universe this week is the controversial call at the end of the Patriots-Jets that helped New York put the game away in overtime.  In case you didn't see it, the Jets attempted and missed a 56-yard field goal that would have clinched the win.  However, instead of giving the Patriots the ball with excellent field position, the officials whistled New England for an unnecessary roughness call that gave the Jets a first down and a 15-yard head start.  The problem?  This is the first time that such a rule--created in the offseason of 2013--had ever been enforced.  I can understand Pats' fans concerns about the call since it was an awfully controversial and high-stakes moment to unveil it.  Still, in the interest of being a thorn in my friends' side, here's why these guys and their fans should quit whining and learn to love the call (or at least accept it):

1. Few teams have benefited as mightily from bizarre but properly enforced rules as the Patriots.  In fact the NFL rules committee finally eliminated the Tuck Rule earlier this year because it's ridiculous, but it enabled this team to go to the Super Bowl.
2. The Patriots already got a Mulligan on this very rule last week in the Saints game.
3. It is a rule meant to protect players' safety that was proposed by players themselves in the offseason.  Surely the Patriots can empathize with those worried about major injuries during routine special teams plays.
4. New England is lucky to be 5 - 2 the way it is with an enormous pile of injuries to overcome and Tom Brady having one of his least productive years ever. Given that the Patriots were a miserable 1 for 12 on third down conversions on Sunday, there's no guarantee they would have won anyhow if the penalty had not been called.
5. Finally, this is nowhere as terrible of a call as Fail Mary was for the Packers a year ago.  In that situation, the call was clearly incorrect and changed the outcome of the game beyond a reason of doubt.  Ultimately, it also meant that the Packers did not get a bye week or homefield advantage in the divisional round that they would have otherwise had.  It'll be interesting to see if this game has any similar impact on the Patriots in January, but if it does, you still can't argue that the call was incorrect.