Wow…this week was a doozy. There was no shortage of bizarre moments in this weekend's games, and most of them speak for themselves, so without too much else, lets get to the recap.
The Colts: This one is without a doubt the early winner for mistake of the year. Fourth-and-three on national TV, and the Colts do the sensible thing and send out the punt team. Instead of just lining up on the left hash and punting the ball, however, the Colts line up the offensive line and punter some 15 feet to the left of the hashmark, while leaving Griff Whalen under center where the ball is. According to all explanations given, the fake was intended to catch the Patriots -- one of the more disciplined teams in the NFL -- out of position or with 12 men on the field. All indications are that the play was never meant to be run, unless the Patriots were caught severely misaligned, and instead, the Colts were supposed to call a timeout. This was singlehandedly the worst play I’ve ever seen.
The Legion of Boom: The Seattle secondary made up of all pro cornerbacks and safeties used to make NFL teams fear passing against the Seahawks -- that is... when the Seahawks weren’t terrible. I have no doubt that at some point Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas were the best in the game, but the more I watch of them this year, the harder it is to remember. The fact that both were beaten by the Panthers’ Greg Olsen for the game-winning touchdown illustrates exactly how I feel about the Legion of Gloom.
Johnny Manziel:I swear at this point it’s like Johnny Football doesn’t want to ever get another serious chance at being an NFL quarterback. Just last year the NFL released new policies on domestic abuse following the vast inconsistency and mishandling of cases like those of Ray Rice and Greg Hardy. Then a Dashcam video surfaces of Manziel’s girlfriend in his car, clearly terrified after he’d hit her while driving. If I had to bet, Johnny Football has one more year as a backup in this league before washing out completely.
Cam Newton:It is amazing that the Panthers are 5-0 right now, especially given the way Cam Newton is playing the team. The team should be wallowing around 1-4, yet they keep winning. Throughout the first three quarters of the game, Cam’s quarterback rating (QBR) was an abysmal 37.1, yet in the fourth quarter, he managed a QBR of 94.1, good for second best in the league. What’s more astounding is that despite his horrendous play, he’s a very legitimate MVP candidate at the moment.
This week was a messy one, filled with some great comebacks and some hideous mistakes. The Colts' special teams' screw-up will go down in history as one of the ugliest plays of all time. I know for a fact that anytime I think everything is going right in this league, I’ll go back and watch that play and know all is as it should be.
