10 Things We Learned: Rakish Week 10 edition

By Jonathan Comey
Cold, Hard Football Facts Thing Dinger

Ten things we learned from an NFL Sunday rich with inter-division intrigue, road wins and Tee-Bow, Tee-Bow, Tee-Bow!

1. The Eagles’ defensive problems go beyond Juan Castillo.

For the better part of a decade, Sean McDermott studied under the great Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson, moving up from quality control to secondary coach to defensive coordinator in 2010.

McDermott was fired shortly after the end of the season, after his defense allowed 23.6 PPG – 21st in the NFL. The Eagles seemed to realize that the problems ran deeper than coaching, as they spent most of their offseason money on that side of the ball, but the hiring of offensive line coach Juan Castillo was a bit of a puzzler. He had never coached defense in the NFL – hadn’t coached it since a stint at Kingsville High School, in fact – and McDermott quickly landed as defensive coordinator in Carolina (where his Panthers are struggling).

Castillo is taking the heat this year, and for obvious reasons. The Eagles added top players to the defense, and they haven’t seen positive results. At 3-6, Philly will have to more or less win out to keep playing in January, and that wasn’t the plan.

The Eagles went from allowing 5.0 yards a play in 2009 (and 21.1 PPG) to 5.2 yards a play in 2010 (and 23.6 PPG) and now 5.6 yards a play and 22.6 PPG this year. Three different defensive coordinators, three different defenses, three subpar units. That this year’s is the worst of the three with the most talent does suggest that Castillo wasn’t the man for the job, but it’s not as if a strength has become a weakness overnight.

2. Yes, Blaine Gabbert, Matt Moore, Tim Tebow, John Skelton and Tarvaris Jackson all won football games Sunday.

And Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, Michael Vick, Joe Flacco and Cam Newton all lost games Sunday, which goes to show … well, we’re not sure exactly what it goes to show. But it’s still a pretty rare thing to see.

Moore, Tebow, Gabbert and Jackson didn’t win the game so much as ride running and defense to wins – in all four cases, the winners had more runs than passes (including the extreme case of the Broncos and Tebow).

But Skelton was asked to drop back 44 times against the Eagles, with Philly stuffing Arizona’s run game, and after back-to-back games with 85.7 and 82.8 ratings, there’s definitely a QB controversy with the Cardinals.

As to Tebow, we’ll just say this: the man is so good at doing the Tebow stuff that he’s winning in the NFL at quarterback despite a complete inability to throw a football – and this, during the era of the passer. If there’s ever been anything more amazing than this, we’d love to hear what it is.

3. It’d be tough to be much better than Tom Brady was on Sunday night.

In a battle of rock vs. hard place, Brady was the rock, and now the Jets are in a hard place (oh yeah, that’s some good writing for ya, folks).

Facing the prospect of a third straight loss, a tough road game, the top spot in the division and the best pass defense in football, Brady said “That all you got?” With an assist from the New England D (three turnovers),

Brady’s 118.4 rating against the Jets in New York still has to rank in the top 10 regular-season performances of his career – and it went beyond the numbers. The Jets’ front was ferocious, winning the battles against the New England line, but Brady found the time he needed and made the most of it.

With seven of the softest games imaginable left on the schedule, he and the Patriots could easily earn the AFC’s top seed despite the two-game skid, and an 11th straight AFC East title (two were shared) seems like a foregone conclusion at this point.

4. It’d be tough to be much better than Drew Brees was on Sunday afternoon.

Aaron Rodgers is almost certainly going to be MVP, but what would the Saints be without Drew Brees? Would they be Indianapolis bad, with Chase Daniel throwing picks all over the field and “Suck for Luck” a real possibility?

Probably. The Saints as a whole certainly didn’t offer Brees much support on Sunday. Playing at Atlanta, New Orleans couldn’t run the ball (16 carries, 41 yards) or stop the Falcons’ offense (30 first downs allowed!)

Pfft. Brees just did his thing, getting plenty of help from his pass blockers (no sacks) and avoiding a single Negative Pass Play on the day in his 43 dropbacks.

He also got some help from ageless kicker John Kasay, who had three field goals of 44+ yards and a fourth in overtime to leave New Orleans in the driver’s seat. The only problem in New Orleans? At 7-3, they’re looking at the No. 3 seed (at best) in the NFC, and the prospect of needing two road wins to reach the Super Bowl.

5. The Falcons just don’t have “it.”

Admittedly, there’s nothing cold or hard about the preceding statement. But how else do you describe the Atlanta Falcons, a team that just seems to have no grasp of the big moment?

The Falcons did a lot of things right against the Saints. They held Darren Sproles to three yards from scrimmage on six touches; they rushed for 138 yards; they picked up 30 first downs; they piled up 481 yards of offense.

And, at home, in a game they needed, they lost – thanks to a failed and foolish 4th-and-inches show of ballsmanship in overtime. If Mike Smith was trying to forge an identity for himself and his team other than “regular-season team that fails in January,” he’s got one – the team that couldn’t get an inch against a terrible defense at home.

6. Chicago has quietly put together one of the best-balanced teams in the league.

Jay Cutler is 12th in passer rating. The Bears are ninth in rushing yards per carry (4.47 YPC). They are 13th in rushing yards per game allowed (106.7), and sixth in Defensive Passer Rating (77.5).

They aren’t the best in the league at anything, or really even close to it. But when you figure in the Devin Hester factor and the competence across the board, you have a team that wins consistently.

Since Hester was drafted in 2006, the Bears have avoided losing streaks (only two longer than two games), won at home (29-15) and generally been there every week. Lovie Smith, the very definition of even-keeled, deserves a lot of credit for covering over his team’s flaws and making the most of what he’s got.

7. The play of the Jacksonville defense is the great lost story of the season.

It’s not easy to win games in the NFL when you have no offense whatsoever. But the Jaguars have won three of them this year despite ranking 31st in scoring, a tribute to some unexpectedly ferocious D.

The Jags are one of five teams allowing fewer than 20 points a game and under 5.0 yards a play, and the other four have actual offenses: Baltimore, San Francisco, Houston and Pittsburgh.

Some of it has to do with a weak schedule of offenses, and some has to do with a tightly maintained ball-control attack, but that hardly explains the drastic improvement. The Jaguars were dead last in yards per play allowed last year at 6.3 per crack – all the way down to 4.8 an attempt this year. This despite the same head coach (Jack Del Rio) and defensive coordinator (Mel Tucker), and a similar cast of characters.

Give credit to free agent signee Paul Posluszny for leading the charge as the quarterback of the defense, and give Del Rio another year – he’s earned it.

8. Hurray! Joe Flacco sucks again.

It was a rough week for the “sub-elite” quarterback class of the NFL. Philip Rivers drove another nail in his own coffin on Thursday night (with a big assist from one of the worst offensive line performances in history), Matt Ryan failed in a big spot, Eli Manning threw two interceptions, young guns Matthew Stafford, Cam Newton and Andy Dalton all fell flat.

But maybe no one had a worse day than Flacco, who had magically “made the leap!” the week prior against Pittsburgh.

Against a Seattle secondary that was 23rd in Defensive Passer Rating, Flacco was 29 of 52 for 255 yards with an interception. His line did the job (one sack in a career-high 53 dropbacks), but Flacco didn’t.

And so, even with two wins against the Steelers, the Ravens look destined to finish second in the AFC North and have to go on the road in the postseason. Not elite.

9. The Titans aren’t done yet.

Houston is looking like the real deal, with four straight wins by double digits and great play on both sides of the ball. And the Texans have a cushy two-game lead over Tennessee with a head-to-head win under their belts.

But after their 30-3 win at Carolina, the Titans are all of a sudden looking like a team that could sneak in the back door with an unlikely wild-card spot. Tennessee has two easy ones (vs. JAX, at IND), two tough ones (at ATL, host NO) and two 50-50s (vs. TB, at BUF) before their Week 17 road matchup with a Houston team that could have nothing to play for.

If Tennessee can go 5-2 the next seven weeks, it’d be sitting at 10-6 – and with Cincinnati, the Jets and Buffalo having seen their best days (and easiest parts of the schedule), that would probably be enough for the No. 6 playoff spot (and a quick playoff exit).

They’ll need more 174-yard days from Chris Johnson (from scrimmage) to do it, but No. 28 surely has some big runs left in those well-paid legs.

10. The road show continued in Week 10.

The trend started in Week 7, when seven of 13 road teams won, and continued after a Week 8 stretch of normalcy in Week 9 with 10 road winners. 

And then came Week 10, where road teams have gone 10-4 thus far (with Minnesota unlikely to add to the total tonight in Green Bay).

But don’t tear up that poster on your wall about home-field advantage in the NFL; teams are 66-81 on the road thus far this year (44.3 percent), which is actually right on par with last year’s numbers (113-143, 44.1 percent)

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