Robert Griffin III converted a ridiculous 4th-and-10 play with the game on the line while spinning and changing directions to avoid Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Tuck. The one mistake he made was scoring too quickly with a bomb to Santana Moss. That left 1:40 and two timeouts for Eli Manning, plenty of time to drive gradually, so the Redskins couldn't just plant their safeties 30 yards off the line of scrimmage. As a result, Victor Cruz was able to run by them. Still, RGIII is exceeding the substantial hype preceding his arrival into the league, and if I were to pick a QB to run my real-life franchise for this year only, I'd already take him ahead of Matt Ryan, Matthew Stafford, Joe Flacco and maybe Tony Romo and Philip Rivers. In fantasy, I think only Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers can be safely ranked ahead of him. Consider also that RGIII has missed his top receiver Pierre Garcon for most of the year and his No. 2 target Fred Davis for some of it (and now the rest of it).
Victor Cruz is the rare top-five real life NFL receiver who doesn't have elite size or speed. What he does have is decent size, good speed, elite quickness and great hands. He's a bigger, faster just as shifty version of Wes Welker.
Eli Manning had a subpar game, throwing two picks and missing some wide open targets. But he made the big throw when it counted, and no one ever worries about him anymore.
As I've been saying all year, I'm so glad I drafted Chris Johnson at No. 6 overall instead of Trent Richardson or Darren McFadden. I really should have gone with my No. 2 receiver A.J. Green there, it turns out, but I got him in the second round of one of the NFFC leagues where I made the Johnson pick anyway. So it turns out there was no good pick at 1.6 except Drew Brees.
It wasn't surprising that Trent Richardson couldn't seriously play with damaged rib cartilage - it sounded fishy the entire week. But even the ostensibly healthy Montario Hardesty got just seven carries for 28 yards against a Colts defense that plodding Shonn Greene shredded last week. Or so we thought that was the takeway. But maybe it wasn't merely that the Colts defense was bad, but that the Jets offensive line is starting to play better. Greene ran for just 54 yards on 16 carries against a stout New England front, but he looked nimble on a few runs and also caught six passes for 34 yards, while the offense moved the ball consistently.
Mark Sanchez played well Sunday, getting eight yards per attempt and leading the Jets comeback. Were it not for a terrible Stephen Hill drop, the Jets might even have won the game. Still, Hill showed the ability to get open, and Jeremy Kerley and Dustin Keller were also significantly involved. It doesn't seem like Santonio Holmes will be particularly missed.
You don't often see the Ravens on the wrong side of blowouts like this. The Texans made the Green Bay loss seem like an anomaly, though another reading is that maybe the Packers are just that good - after all, they essentially blew out the Rams in St. Louis, too, and no one had beaten up the Rams except the Bears in Chicago on a fourth quarter pick six. The 30-20 score was actually due to the Rams getting points in garbage time.
The Seahawks dominated the 49ers in the first half Thursday night and would have had a significant lead but for some terrible dropped passes. Russell Wilson has a cannon even when throwing on the move, something that reminds one of Michael Vick, though Wilson trades some foot speed for accuracy. The 49ers took over in the second half, mostly behind Frank Gore who looked like he was in his prime against one of the league's top run defenses. Of course, he hurt his ribs in the fourth quarter, but has 10 days to get ready for Week 8.
One of the greatest moments in gambling history occurred at the end of that game, and even though I had the 49ers and of course lost when Jim Harbaugh declined the holding penalty (and hence the safety), no one can take away the 30 seconds of elation between the flag and seeing it declined. It was miracle, albeit a temporary one.
The Vikings won even though Christian Ponder passed for 58 yards and threw two picks.
Josh Freeman had a huge fantasy day, but the guy seems like he's moving in slow motion, whether it's taking an hour to survey the field or taking an eon to line up and run a play with the clock winding down. And Greg Schiano is so old school he's adapted his playbook from stone age cave scrawlings. "Smash ball into end zone." Finally after wasting three goal-to-go plays from the one, the Bucs had Freeman roll out at 3 mph. It was like watching Philip Rivers run the ball if Rivers were straining to stay continent.
The only thing keeping the Bucs in the game was the Saints playing "allow" defense, a variation of "prevent" where you take away no part of the field because you can always shove a receiver out of bounds who will be penalized if he catches the ball.