2009 Game Reviews
NFL Week 15
by Jody Jamieson
24/12/2009
 
Colts 35 Jaguars 31
 
This game felt like it lasted about 20 minutes. There were hardly any incomplete passes, and the first punt of the game didn’t come till the 4th quarter. There were no challenges and both teams kept the clock running. Penalties were also kept to a minimum as two teams let it all hang out in an offensive shootout. For the umpteenth time this season the Colts found themselves down in the 4th quarter, but found a way to win. Indianapolis rotated most of their starters in and out of the line up, but Peyton Manning played the entire game as the Colts would like to finish 16-0 more than they are letting us believe.
 
Indianapolis led 21-17 at half time after Manning threw touchdown passes to Dallas Clark and Austin Collie, while Chad Simpson added a 93 yard kickoff return. Josh Scobee kicked a 50 yard for the Jags, while Maurice Jones-Drew had rushing and receiving touchdowns in the first half. Mike Sims-Walker had a 16 yard TD reception to give Jacksonville the lead, but Dallas Clark scored his second TD to put Indy back in front. Mike Thomas scored from 13 yards out, but the winning touchdown came when Manning hit Reggie Wayne for 65 yards. Jacksonville were trying desperately to rally, but David Garrard was picked off by Jacob Lacey and the Colts ran out the clock.
 
Cowboys 24 Saints 17
 
This has been coming for a few weeks now. The Saints have somehow escaped with their unbeaten record intact under bizarre circumstances in recent weeks, but their luck finally ran out against the Cowboys on Saturday night. I’d like to declare the Cowboys are finally turning the corner in December, but they drubbed the Giants in Week 15 last year before getting embarrassed in their final two games, so I will reserve judgement. This was an impressive all round performance by Dallas, who moved the ball at will, and then got constant pressure on Drew Brees.
 
Before the Saints could even get settled into the game, Dallas had waltzed down the field on their first two possessions and put 14 points on the board. First, a heavy dose of Marion Barber set up a 49 yard play action pass to Miles Austin for the opening touchdown, and a Barber three yard run on the next drive gave the Cowboys all the momentum. Both teams kicked second quarter field goals as Dallas held a 17-3 half time lead.
 
Marion Barber had his second score of the game to make it 24-3, but the Saints put together a furious rally to make it a one score game. Mike Bell scored from a yard out, and a Cowboys three and out was followed by a 7 yard TD pass from Brees to Lance Moore. Dallas moved the ball well and looked to have the game won, but Nick Folk hit the upright with a chip shot (and was cut for his troubles) to give the Saints life. They showed a bizarre lack of urgency on the final drive, and just when they picked up a pace, Brees was strip sacked as the Saints lost their first game of 2009.
 
Patriots 17 Bills 10
 
Buffalo held the ball for 9 minutes on their opening possession, but could only put three points on the board after bogging down in the redzone. Tom Brady started poorly, but when he finally completed his first pass of the day he made it count, hitting Randy Moss for a 13 yard touchdown. Laurence Maroney added a 1 yard TD run to make it 14/3 at the half. Stephen Gostkowski kicked a field goal in the 3rd quarter to make it a two score game. The Bills scored in the 4th when Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a late 11 yard TD to Lee Evans, but the Patriots were able to hang on. The Bills did have two big mistakes late when Josh Reed dropped a certain touchdown on 4th down with the score at 17-3, and after the Evans score they recovered the onside kick, but Aaron Maybin was offside on the kickodd.
 
After all the controversy about Moss dogging it last week, it was bizarre to see Wes Welker have a really bad game on Sunday. This wasn’t down to a lack of effort, but thereason I highlight this is because he’s one of the more consistent players in the league, but he had a nightmare. He had a couple of drops, ran the wrong route a couple of times, and even tripped over after running into team mate Julian Edelman. It was bizarre.
 
Cardinals 31 Lions 24
 
The Lions started poorly when Northcutt muffed a punt and the Cardinals took over in the redzone. Kurt Warner hit Larry Fitzgerald for the opening touchdown. Mike Nugent kicked a 2nd quarter field goal before Tim Hightower ran in from a yard out to give the Cardinals a 17-0 half time lead. Daunte Culpepper was stinking the place up, and was replaced by Drew Stanton, who didn’t do much better. Luckily for the Lions, their defense and running game got them back into it. First, rookie Louis Delmas took an interception back 101 yards for a touchdown, and Maurice Morris ran one in from 64 yards to make it 17-14. Jason Hanson kicked a field goal to tie it up.
 
Chris Wells gave Arizona a fourth quarter lead with an 18 yard TD run, but the pesky Lions tied it up again when Drew Stanton scored from a yard out on a QB sneak. Anquan Boldin finally put the Cardinals ahead for good when he caught a backwards pass from Warner and rushed in from 5 yards to wrap up a second consecutive NFC West crown.
 
Texans 16 Rams 13
 
Credit the Rams for playing Houston close in this one. Matt Schaub (28/40, 367 yds, TD) and Andre Johnson (9-196-0) couldn’t be contained for the most part, but the Rams defense knuckled down in the redzone, leaving Kris Brown to kick field goals of 27, 25 and 28 yards. St Louis held a half time lead when Danny Amendola caught a 2 yarder from Keith Null to give the Rams a 10-6 lead.
 
Kevin Walter caught a touchdown pass from Schaub to give Houston the lead in the third quarter, but Josh Brown nailed a 52 yarder to make it 13-13. Kris Brown kicked his 28 yarder in the 4th quarter to give Houston the win.
 
Browns 41 Chiefs 34
 
Cleveland had one of the greatest breakdowns of all time in this one. With the Chiefs leading 17-13 the Browns predictably had a three and out and set up to punt. No-one seemed to be paying attention as the snap glanced off the up back and rolled into the endzone. The punter waited all day for the ball to roll to a halt before diving on it, but his stupid indecision allowed Andy Studebaker to land on the ball for the touchdown.
 
Luckily despite that dreadful piece of ineptness, and another poor performance from Brady Quinn (10/17, 66 yds, 2INT) they were able to overcome the Chiefs because Jerome Harrison ran wild and Josh Cribbs is awesome. Harrison rushed an amazing 34 times, but made it count with an astonishing 286 yards and 3 touchdowns. Cribbs meanwhile returned two kickoffs for touchdowns.
 
Matt Cassel was a reasonable 22/40 for 331 yards and two touchdowns (to Chris Chambers and Mark Bradley), but the Chiefs couldn’t recover from their awful run defense and their inability to contain Cribbs. Jamaal Charles ran for 154 yards and a score on 25 carries, and coach Todd Haley said after the game that Charles was developing into one of the best backs in the league. The difference between Haley and the rest of us was that we’ve known all season that Charles was the best back on that team, but Haley still thought that Larry Johnson was the go to guy. Of course, it took a couple of offensive LJ tweets to get him kicked out of KC. I’d be fairly certain that if he’d kept his mouth shut, Haley would still be rolling him out there.
 
Dolphins 24 Titans 27
 
Vince Young was only 14/27 passing in this game, but check out his three touchdown passes. He threw 21 and 22 yarders to Justin Gage, as well as a 32 yarder to Nate Washington. All three were beautiful touch passes that were right on the money, and that’s not what you expect to see from VY. Young’s transformation since he got his starters job back has been remarkable as he’s been a true dual threat, but if anything, he’s been a bigger threat as a passer in recent times. His third TD pass gave Tennessee a 24-6 lead as they looked to be running away with this one. Miami had other ideas as they put together a spirited comeback to almost take the victory.
 
Dan Carpenter kicked his third field goal of the day to make it 24-9. Ricky Williams ran in from a yard out, and when Chad Henne hit Anthony Fasano for the TD, it was 24-22, and they were a two point conversion away from tying it up. Williams ran it in, but the Titans weren’t shell shocked. Instead, they marched down the field to set up a 46 yard field goal attempt for Rob Bironas. Bironas is one of the more reliable kickers in football, and he was never going to waste the opportunity to bring the Titans back to 7-7.
 
Falcons 10 Jets 7
 
Michael Turner limped out early, and the Falcons offense didn’t recover until late on. Their defense also suffered when Mark Sanchez hit Braylon Edwards in the second quarter for a 65 yard touchdown to make it 7-3 in the first quarter, but they held firm after that and gave the offense numerous chances to get back into it. They finally did get back into it, and won the game when Tony Gonzalez caught a 6 yard touchdown from Matt Ryan on fourth down to severely dent the Jets playoff hopes.
 
The Jets blew chances to add enough points to win the game. Kellen Clemens couldn’t handle the snap on a 19 yard field goal attempt and was drilled, and Jay Feely was 0/2 on field goal attempts, missing from 37 and 38 yards out. They Jets had an amazing 33 plays from scrimmage inside Falcons territory, but couldn’t score a single point, as their only touchdown was the bomb to Edwards.
 
Raiders 20 Broncos 19
 
What is it with the Broncos? They played the Colts tighter than the score suggests last week, but made mistakes in key situations. This week they laid an egg at home against a Raiders team that featured the other worldly talents of Charlie Frye and JaMarcus Russell at quarterback. While they contained the quarterbacks for the most part, they allowed the Raiders to run all over them, giving up an astonishing 241 rushing yards on 34 team carries.
 
The Raiders held a 13-6 lead at half time as the only touchdown of the first half was on a 23 yard run by Michael Bush. Denver scored 13 unanswered on two field goals and a Brandon Marshall receiving score, but just when it looked like the Broncos would get the win, JaMarcus Russell decided to show up and do something useful. Frye suffered a concussion, and Russell struggled to 5/11 for 47 yards, but his 11th pass was a touchdown to Chaz Schilens to give Oakland an unlikely win.
 
Bengals 24 Chargers 27
 
After the sad death of Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry this week, you could have forgiven Cincinnati for being all over the place in this game and getting wiped out. In memory of their fallen friend, they put in a marvellous performance and really deserved to pick up the win. Carson Palmer had his best game in about 6 weeks (27/40, 314 yds, 2TD, INT) and the Bengals hung with the red-hot San Diego Chargers right until the end. Antonio Gates hauled in a 3 yard pass from Philip Rivers to make it 7-0, but the Bengals came roaring back. A Shayne Graham field goal was followed by a 49 yard TD reception from an emotional Chad Ochocinco, who dropped to his knees and pointed to the sky in a beautiful Bengals moment. San Diego led 14-13 at the half when Vincent Jackson scored on a 21 yard reception. The Chargers threatened to run away with it when they added 10 third quarter points on Vincent Jackson’s second TD and a Nate Kaeding field goal, but the Bengals were able to tie the scores in the 4th. First, Palmer to Laveraneus Coles and a successful two point conversion made it 24-21, and Graham tied it with his second field goal. Rivers though wasn’t done in regulation and with less than a minute remaining, he led the team 46 yards to set up a field goal attempt, and Kaeding was good from 52 yards as time expired to wrap up the AFC West.
 
49ers 13 Eagles 27
 
Philadelphia mixed the run and pass well on their first drive, and McNabb finished off the drive with a 19 yard TD pass to DeSean Jackson. Andy Reid then had a mental breakdown on the next Eagles possession. After yet another Michael Vick parallel run on 3rd and 1 failed, Reid decided to go for it on 4th down on the Philadelphia 29 yard line. Reid characteristically took too long to make the decision, and had to burn a timeout. The play then failed and set up a short field for the Niners. Luckily for Reid, Sheldon Brown stripped Delanie Walker and Asante Samuel recovered to bail out their Head Coach. McNabb and the offense then put together a 94 yard touchdown drive (6 yard TD run by McNabb) to make it 14-3. They added two field goals to make it 20-3 at half time.
 
San Francisco were guilty of 4 turnovers in the first half. Credit the Eagles pass rush for getting pressure on Alex Smith, but Smith really needs to throw the ball away when the pressure is on. The Niners made it a 7 point game in the third quarter with a field goal and a Josh Morgan 12 yard TD catch, but LeSean McCoy rushed in from 2 yards to wrap up a fifth straight win for Philadelphia.
 
Buccaneers 24 Seahawks 7
 
Matt Hasselbeck threw 4 careless picks, while Josh Freeman took relatively good care of the ball. That’s all you really need to know about how this one went down. Seattle opened the scoring when Hasselbeck hit John Carlson for a 29 yard touchdown, but it was all downhill from there are 24 unanswered Tampa Bay points wrapped up their second win of 2009. Freeman threw two screen passes for touchdowns to Cadillac Williams and Derek Ward, while three Connor Barth field goals put the Bucs out of sight.
 
Bears 7 Ravens 31
 
Joe Flacco threw two touchdown passes to Todd Heap in the first quarter of this game to pretty much end it as a contest. Chicago didn’t put up a single offense point, as their only score came in the second quarter on an Earl Bennett punt return. The Ravens scored 17 points in the third quarter as Flacco threw touchdown passes to Demetrius Williams and Derrick Mason, and Billy Cundiff kicked a field goal. Flacco finished an impressive 21/29 for 234 yards and 4 touchdowns. Compare that to Jay Cutler, who was a miserable 10/29 for 94 yards and three picks as he leads the league with a whopping 25 interceptions. Second year QB Caleb Hanie even got into the game for Chicago and threw 5 passes, completing two for 8 yards, and throwing a pick.
 
There was some bad news coming out of this game for Baltimore. Rookie corner Lardarius Webb has torn his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. Webb had made an impact as a kick returner, but he was playing very well on defense, and he’ll be a big loss.
 
Packers 36 Steelers 37
 
Pittsburgh had to have this one, and it took all 60 minutes for them to pull out the win. Ben Roethlisberger had a whopping 503 passing yards in a game of big plays and big numbers. It’s not often you two quarterbacks combine for 94 pass attempts in a December game in Pittsburgh but that’s what happened here as Roethlisberger (29/46) and Aaron Rodgers (26/48) aired it out in an exciting game.
 
The game was tied at 7-7 after a 60 yard Mike Wallace touchdown was followed by an 83 yard Greg Jennings score. Rashard Mendenhall gave Pittsburgh the lead with a more conventional 2 yard run, but Rodgers ran it in from 14 yards out to tie it up. The Steelers held the half time lead when Mewelde Moore caught a 10 yards pass.
 
Pittsburgh started trading field goals for touchdowns in the second half as three Jeff Reed field goals were answered by three Green Bay touchdowns. Jermichael Finley caught an 11 yard touchdown passes before Ryan Grant scored on the ground from 24 yards. Rodgers then threw a 24 yarder on 3rd and 14 to James Jones with two minutes remaining to seemingly win the game for the Packers and end the championship reign of the Steelers. Big Ben put the cape back on and gave Pittsburgh their first win since Week 9. Roethlisberger fired a TD pass to Mike Wallace in the corner of the endzone as time expired to tie the scores, and Jeff Reed’s extra point won the game.
 
While Pittsburgh got the win and are somehow still alive as it seems the entire conference is sitting 7-7, they fact that they’re shipping 36 points at home shows how far their defense has fallen. I doubt they can rely on 500 passing yards too often, and while this was a great win, they still have work to do to make the playoffs. When the Steelers led 30-28 with 3:58 to go, Mike Tomlin attempted a surprise onside kick, which proved how much he doesn’t trust his defense. The Steelers recovered, but the ball had only travelled 7 yards, so an illegal touch gave Green Bay the ball and a short field. Luckily it didn’t cost Pittsburgh, but it’s an indication of how Tomlin feels about his stop unit.
 
Vikings 7 Panthers 26
 
The Minnesota Vikings fell to their second defeat in three games after getting completely outplayed by the Carolina Panthers. Minnesota were so bad offensively that despite holding a 7-6 lead in the third quarter, Brad Childress tried to pull Brett Favre in favour of Tarvaris Jackson to protect his quarterback from the beating he was taking. Favre refused to be removed from the game, and it caused a rather big controversy you may have heard something about. The offensive line wasn’t doing a good job in pass protection and Bryant McKinnie in particular was being punished by Julius Peppers.
 
Carolina scored first when Brad Hoover caught a one yard TD pass, but the extra point was blocked. Adrian Peterson scored on a 3 yard rush where you could have been forgiven for looking away as the play developed. Peterson looked to be stuffed at the line, but Chris Gamble couldn’t hold on as Peterson powered into the endzone. As the half was coming to a close, John Kasay lined up for a 47 yard field goal, but a false start penalty backed them up 5 yards. Carolina decided to throw a Hail Mary, but Matt Moore’s long ball (which looked more like a punt) was batted down.
 
Moore threw a TD pass to Steve Smith, but it was wiped out by holding, but on 3rd and 26 when most thought they would throw short to set up a field goal, Moore went deep and Smith made the catch for the touchdown and a 12-7 lead. Jonathan Stewart added rushing and receiving touchdowns in the 4th quarter as the Vikings blew a golden opportunity to close the gap in the race to be the number 1 seed in the NFC.
 
Moore was 21/33 for 299 yards with 3 touchdowns, and he went early and often to Steve Smith, who hauled in 9 catches for 157 yards and the score. Brett Favre was 17/27 for 224 yards and a late pick.
 
Giants 45 Redskins 12
 
In a game New York had to have, they got off to a marvellous start. They held the ball on their opening drive for over 9 minutes, and stuck it in the endzone when Ahmad Bradshaw took an inside handoff for a 3 yard score. Bradshaw scored again at the start of the second quarter as the Giants threatened to run away with it. After a Laurence Tynes field goal, Steve Smith hauled in a touchdown reception to make it 24-0.
 
The Giants had 16 first downs before the Redskins moved the chains for the first time. Washington had an appalling MINUS TWO YARDS with three minutes left in the quarter, when Campbell got injured and was replaced by Collins. Collins launched a pass to Santana Moss to get the Skins going, but Jim Zorn ran a horrible fake field goal to end the half. Tom Coughlin called a timeout when the entire line shifted to the left, but Zorn decided to do it again. Hunter Smith threw a horrible pass up in the air with no Skins in the vicinity and about 7 Giants gathered under it. The pass was picked and almost returned for a touchdown. If you’re trying to score a touchdown, why not just send the offense out?
 
The second half didn’t get a whole lot better for the Skins. They did score twice on a Fred David reception from Campbell and a Quinton Ganther rushing touchdown, but the Giants continued to rack up the points. Derek Hagan and Mario Manningham caught TD passes from Eli Manning, and Terrell Thomas had a pick six as the Giants completely embarrassed the Redskins on Monday Night Football.