What We Learned in Week 10 In the NFL:
- The Jets blew a chance to earn ground over the Patriots
- Tebow wins again completing just 2 passes
- Philly’s Dream Team will be watching the playoffs in January
- Baltimore has another Super Bowl hangover
- The Steelers regained the lead of the AFC North heading into the bye
Is it really Week 10 already? It’s going too fast for my taste. Remember the beginning of the season when everyone thought Detroit and Buffalo were actual contenders and the Steelers defense was too old and slow to get any turnovers? Through 10 weeks we have 1 undefeated team, 1 winless team, and a whole range of teams in between. That’s what you have to love about the NFL. Any week, anything can happen. Like a team like Denver pulling out a victory with 2 complete passes in the entire game. Tebow had more rushing yards than pass attempts. Say what you will about Tebow, the man can win some games.
A team that cannot win games consistently is the Philadelphia Eagles, who came into this season as the clear “winners” of the offseason snatching up all the big time free agents available. Now they sit at 3-6 and have given up the most 4th quarter points than any other team in the league. Not very dream like. With the tightness in the NFC East each year, already the Eagles are most likely out of the playoffs and can only hope to salvage this season by ending with a record above .500. Then there are the Jets. The Steelers and the Giants couldn’t have made it any easier for the Jets to see on tape what the Pats weaknesses are and how to exploit them. Instead, it was the Pats who were exposing the Jets weaknesses and capitalizing on them. How you play as poor as Sanchez did against the worst defense in the NFL is a head scratcher.
Baltimore fell into a trap in Seattle. After the Gatorade shower and the celebration (also I think they might have had a parade in Baltimore last week) for beating the Steelers, the Ravens had nothing left in the tank again to beat a mediocre Seattle team. With the Steelers and the Bungles going head to head and the Ratbirds already having a 2-0 edge in the division, they had a perfect shot to take a full game lead and blew it. Queue Suggs criticizing the offensive play calling. Next week the Ratbirds and the Bungles go head to head and I’ve worked it out mathematically and came to the conclusion that there’s no possible way that both teams could lose. Best we could hope for is a tie. Which would be hilarious if that actually happened.
The Steelers traveled to Cincy to earn their first AFC North division victory over the Bungles. I watched all of ESPN’s Sunday Countdown the morning and they could not stop talking about how great Cincy was and how this was their chance to prove that they are actual contenders in the AFC. Not really the case now. The Steelers started off great, jumping up to a 14-0 lead with the Steelers offense letting their passing game become their running game. Mendenhall gained only 44 yards but those were hard earned, especially the extra effort run for his 2nd TD of the day to pull the Steelers ahead 24-17. Jericho Cotchery caught his first regular season TD for the Steelers and Antonio Brown had another beast of a game.
There was only one hiccup on the offense with an interception that popped right out of Heath Miller’s hands and into the hands of Bengals CB Leon Hall. Ben was sacked 3 times, but got to run some more no-huddle pretty effectively. There are two points that I couldn’t be more pleased with; 1. The Steelers offense got the lead and held onto it, with their last drive they got 2 important first downs to be able to run down the clock and not give Cincy another shot with the ball. 2. The defense intercepted Dalton twice. Turnovers, oh where have you been all my life? William Gay tipped one ball that landed perfectly in Lawrence Timmons’ hands and caught another interception himself. Although the defense allowed a 14-0 lead to turn into a 17-17 tie, at the end of the game, when it mattered the defense stepped up like we love to see them do.
The Bengals first touchdown to AJ Green on a 36 yard pass that was covered by both Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu. Polamalu didn’t seem to know where the ball was and still hasn’t gotten that interception I know he wants so bad he can taste it. Where Polamalu has been lacking in getting turnovers he has made up for, at least in my mind, in excellent coverage and tackles I love to watch over and over again.
Now the Steelers get to go into their bye week to come back with everyone healthy and ready to close this thing out. Tomlin was asked in his post-game presser if he likes having the bye week so late in the season and he responded with,
"“I haven’t met a bye week that I didn’t like.”"
I’m not a big fan of bye weeks because I hate not watching the Steelers play. But that’s just me being greedy. I hate to be all overreacting about this win considering how bitter and angry I was last week after the Baltimore loss but I feel pretty good about this 7-3 team going into this bye. There’s no doubt in my mind we will get a healthy LaMarr Woodley back for Kansas City and the “old, tired, and slow” Steelers get a chance to rest and come back rejuvenated and ready to beat up on some Chiefs, Browns, and Bungles some more.
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