$.01--The marquee game in the AFC pitted the unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals testing their mettle against the sagging New England Patriots in the Sunday night game. Cincy entered the contest as the NFL’s last unbeaten team. They left on the wrong end of a blowout loss.

One of the key points came on the first drive of the second half. The Bengals dodged a bullet just before halftime in holding the Patriots to a field goal, and Cincy could have seized momentum with a scoring drive. Instead they went 3-and-out thanks to blanket coverage from Darrelle Revis, Kyle Arrington and the New England secondary. Instead of making a statement they were back for the attack, the Bengals whimpered back to the sideline with all their positive vibes zapped.

When the Bengals did get a spark, the Patriots answered. Cincinnati quickly turned a long Adam Jones punt return into a Dalton-to-Sanu touchdown, cutting the lead to 20-10. New England responded with an impressive touchdown drive, and on the ensuing kickoff former Patriot Brandon Tate fumbled it away. Kyle Arrington scooped it up and ran it in, pushing the score to 34-10. The Patriots ultimately won 43-17.

Just like that, the NFL’s last undefeated team went down. It took just five weeks for every team to lose at least once, ending all drama in the chase to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins, who will never let you forget they’re the only team to go through an entire season unbeaten.

For all the talk about New England possibly giving up on an aging Tom Brady, the Patriots sure didn’t seem distracted. Shame on you if you expected them to go down without a fight. As I wrote in the game forecast,

But I refuse to write off the Patriots and Bill Belichick. I think New England’s defense will play to its potential in this one. They are a cornered animal, and Brady is still dangerous. So is the defense, and I’m worried about some post-bye rust from Andy Dalton and the Bengals offense. This is the proverbial middle finger from the cocksure Brady to all the people throwing dirt on the Patriots.

It’s games like this that remind us all that the New England Patriots are still a very legitimate contender in the AFC, and that the Bengals still struggle under the bright lights.

$.02--The Arizona Cardinals entered Sunday unbeaten and flying high. They head home from Denver 3-1 and thoroughly outclassed by the mighty Broncos, who pasted the visitors 41-20.

It was a close game until the fourth quarter, when Arizona’s good fortune with backup quarterbacks finally ran out. Drew Stanton, already filling in somewhat capably for an injured Carson Palmer, was knocked from the game. Enter fourth-round rookie Logan Thomas, who looked very much like the ineffective, inaccurate signal caller he was for most of his Virginia Tech career.

Thomas had one hell of a line: 1-for-8, 81 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT while being sacked twice. Not exactly Peyton Manning, huh…

Manning put on a clinic for the Broncos, completely outclassing Arizona’s defense. More specifically, Demaryius Thomas completely outclassed Antonio Cromartie. The big wideout broke out of an early season slumber with 8 catches for 226 yards and two touchdowns, including an 86-yarder where Thomas ran the last 60 yards unscathed. I didn’t catch every play but it appeared Arizona tried to handle Thomas with Cromartie on his own. Big mistake, and Manning made them pay. This was as close to the vintage Peyton as he’s been this year, though the Calais Campbell INT was a bit of a head-scratcher.

This should serve as a reality check for the Cardinals. Instead of being distraught about the loss, there is plenty of time to regroup and right what went wrong in Denver. Having a healthy Palmer--which is not a given with his nerve issue in his shoulder--will certainly help. They also learned what it will take to advance to the next level, and they do have the talent to pull it off. They must not get discouraged; winnable games with Washington and Oakland come with the next two weeks.

$.03--Last week during New York Jets' loss to the Detroit Lions, fans came out of the woodwork to demand Rex Ryan insert Mike Vick in at quarterback. Young starter Geno Smith was struggling against Detroit’s strong front, and his fumble on a sack set the Vick fans to fever pitch.

When Smith was once again brutal in Sunday’s lifeless 31-0 loss in San Diego, those fans got their wish. They learned a harsh lesson. The grass isn’t always greener because of better conditions. Sometimes that new grass sits over a septic tank.

 

It was about as ugly as a NFL offense can look. The Jets finished with 60 passing yards, or 34 fewer yards than they were penalized. New York was 1-for-12 on 3rd down, and two of their 11 first downs came on San Diego penalties. Just one drive had more than 5 plays or 23 yards. San Diego marched 90 yards on 11 plays on its first drive, and the ensuing Philip Rivers-to-Antonio Gates TD was all the Chargers needed to win.

Now that it has been firmly established that both Smith and Vick are awful, where do the Jets turn? The only other QB is Matt (son of Phil) Simms, who has been on the practice squad or the street for his entire 2+ year career. How can there be any hope? Those who clamored for Vick instead had their worst nightmare come to life, and now what do they have? Granted the receiving weaponry isn’t very good, but no quarterback should be as bad as either Smith or Vick were. Or are. The Jets are a mess at the most critical position in pro sports, and it’s almost certain to ruin what is a competitive rest of the team.

$.04--The Philadelphia Eagles certainly like to make their games interesting. Sunday’s matchup with the St. Louis Rams was no exception.

The Eagles took the lead less than 30 seconds into the game when they blocked a punt and Chris Magaros recovered it in the back of the end zone for a quick touchdown. It was 13-0 late in the second quarter and the Rams had just 53 yards on their first five drives. It looked like a rout in the making. The teams traded late touchdowns before halftime, and the host Eagles certainly looked comfortable with a 20-7 lead. It looked even more comfortable when Zac Stacy fumbled, and two plays later the Eagles were up 34-7 late in the third quarter.

After that point, it was all Rams all the time. Austin Davis, looking more poised and accurate with his deeper throws than Sam Bradford is in his dreams, rallied the Rams for three touchdowns in as many drives. The Eagles offense sputtered down and ate little clock on its own three drives, as once again Lesean McCoy found tough sledding behind a patchwork offensive line. When the Eagles aren’t going at full up tempo speed, they’re just not a very good offense.

Davis even had his resurgent Rams in position for a winning touchdown, but his 4th down pass to Brian Quick wound up incomplete. The Eagles held on 34-28 in a game they led by 27 with less than 20 minutes to play. This continues a wild up-and-down scoring chart for Chip Kelly’s Eagles:

Opponent

Score

Final

Jacksonville

17-0 JAX

34-17 PHI

Indianapolis

20-7 IND

30-27 PHI

San Francisco

21-10 PHI

26-21 SF

St. Louis

34-7 PHI

34-28 PHI

It’s an exasperating, exhausting way to get through a season. They’re a very tenuous 4-1, with five defensive/special teams touchdowns in the last two weeks augmenting what has become a flat offense behind Nick Foles. The next five games (NYG, bye, @ARI, @HOU, CAR, @GB) are going to require putting up points in more conventional ways and not resembling Doug Moe’s Denver Nuggets teams of the 1980s with their wild in-game runs.

$.05--Last place in the NFC South was on the line when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveled to New Orleans in a matchup of 1-3 teams. This was supposed to be a get-right game for the struggling Saints, but instead they needed overtime to eke out a 37-31 win. All is not right in New Orleans, but one thing in particular stands out.

The inevitable decline of Drew Brees deserves the attention. It’s very real and it’s very painful to watch, especially if you’re a Saints fan.

 

On a day where he passed 40,000 passing yards with the Saints, his signature play was an awful, off-balance pick-six to backup linebacker Danny Lansanah. As Mike Tanier from Bleacher Report noted at the time, this wasn’t the first awkward, off-target panic heave for Brees this season. He threw three on the day.

While his raw statistics look awfully similar to his recent career arc, Brees is not playing as sharply as normal. His offensive line is a problem, but there is more to it than that. Marques Colston has also declined, but it goes beyond that, too. The velocity looks off just a bit. So does the pinpoint accuracy. Jimmy Graham, Brandin Cooks and friends are still making the catches, but they’re working harder to make them.

Perhaps he misses QB Coach Joe Lombardi, who is now running Detroit’s offense with mixed results. Or perhaps he’s trying too hard to shoulder the burden of trying to overcome Rob Ryan’s truly atrocious defense. It’s probably a confluence of all these issues. And I’m not sure it is going to go away. This is still a dangerous team, and by no means am I suggesting Brees needs replacing before 2016, but it’s hard to see this Brees leading this particular cast to any playoff wins. 

$.06--Another Thursday night, another blowout. We probably should have seen this one coming, as the Packers hosted the QB-challenged Vikings in a grudge match Green Bay desperately needed to fully right its listing ship. Desperation, thy name is Christian Ponder.

The Vikings third starting QB in five games was terrible, even for his own prior low standards. Ponder was 22-of-44 for 222 yards, a dismal yards per attempt ratio. It gets even worse when his six sacks are factored in, dragging the total passing yards down to just 158 yards on 50 dropbacks. He threw two interceptions on consecutive plays, the first returned for a TD by Julius Peppers. Minnesota’s defense wasn’t nearly as awful as the 42-10 final would indicate. They knew they had no chance with Ponder under center and it showed.

Teddy Bridgewater will likely be back next week for the Vikings, and that should represent the end of Ponder in a NFL uniform. There is no reason for Minnesota to keep him even as a backup. Sure, he knows the offense. How exactly did that help against Green Bay’s lowly-ranked defense? Ponder is a free agent at the end of the season. Minnesota needs to accelerate his fate. Chandler Harnish is not the answer as the backup either, but he cannot be worse than Ponder.

The Packers have some backup QB issues of their own. Matt Flynn came into the game in mop-up duty and promptly threw his first pass right to Harrison Smith, who plays safety for the Vikings. At least Green Bay finally got something positive from Eddie Lacy, who looked more assertive in charging through some big holes opened by his quality run-blocking line. He topped 100 yards on just 13 carries after not topping 48 yards in any other game this year. He entered the game with 161 yards on 53 carries. If Lacy can run like he did against Minnesota, the Packers are back as a viable playoff team. 

$.07--Normally college football only gets one cent here, but this was one of the most fascinating Saturdays in memory. Alabama lost to Ole Miss. Oklahoma lost to TCU. LSU got routed, although Auburn was favored. Mississippi State rolled unbeaten Texas A&M. Northwestern stunned Wisconsin, while Utah State knocked off unbeaten BYU.

But nothing tops what happened under the cover of late-night obscurity in the PAC-12. It started Thursday, when Arizona clogged up Oregon’s go-go offense and strangled the 2nd-ranked Ducks 31-24. It was the second year in a row Rich Rodriguez’s Wildcats feasted on Duck meat. Never mind that Arizona is undefeated; they were 24.5-point underdogs and probably would be if those two teams played again next week. That kicked off a string of surprises which has left the power structure of the 2nd-best conference in shambles.

UCLA was ranked No. 8 and undefeated. Was. Utah went into the Rose Bowl and came away with the 30-28 win when UCLA’s kicker missed two potential game-winning field goals with no time on the clock. The Utes won despite passing for exactly 100 yards.

Stanford, consistently the most overhyped program in the nation, lost on a soggy and cold afternoon at Notre Dame. The Irish remain undefeated thanks as much to Stanford’s unimaginative offense and one blown coverage on a great throw from Everett Golson, who belongs in the Heisman race. The Cardinal are now 3-2 and have to be the least fun team in any major conference to watch.

USC is fighting hard to climb back up to national prominence, but that slippery slope got sloppy when Jaelen Strong stabbed a Hail Mary and scored the game-winning TD for Arizona State. The man who threw that pass is a backup QB, Mike Bercovici, who threw for over 500 yards on the road against a defense featuring potential #1 overall draft pick Leonard Williams.

It was such a crazy weekend out west that Washington StCollege ate QB Connor Halliday broke the NCAA record for passing yards in a game, throwing for 734 yards and 6 TDs. The Cougars lost 60-59 when their kicker missed a 19-yard field goal with little time left. The Bears, one of the worst programs in the nation over the last few years, are the only team in the North division with two conference wins. 

$.08--NFL Quickies

--My Lions suffered a brutal home loss to the Buffalo Bills. I really don’t want to think any more about this dog of a game, punctuated by three missed field goals from about-to-be-unemployed Alex Henery. Here’s my takeaway for Detroit:

 

--Awesome comeback win for the Cleveland Browns in Tennessee. After trailing 28-3 just before halftime, the Browns clawed their way back and stunned the Nashville faithful 29-28. Blame Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt for throwing the ball with backup QB Charlie Whitehurst more often than they ran the ball with the lead for helping Cleveland’s miracle comeback.

--Indianapolis finally beat a team that will win more than 5 games this year with a hard-fought 20-13 win over Baltimore. The strange stat from this game? 92 total dropbacks from Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco against what have not been good pass defenses, and just one touchdown pass.

--FOX’s Jay Glazer adamantly stuck to his guns in reporting San Francisco will part ways with head coach Jim Harbaugh even if the team wins the Super Bowl. Harbaugh fatigue is real, folks, much as Niners fans want to ignore it. 

--Kyle Orton’s breathtaking moustache deserves more national attention:

 

--Through five weeks the Chargers have the league’s best point differential at +70. The Colts are next at +47. At the other end is Jacksonville at an astonishing -102. That means they’re losing by an average of 20 points per week. The Raiders are next at -52, though they’ve played just 4 games. Tennessee is at -51, giving the AFC South two of the three worst teams in the league. Easy to see why the Colts rank 2nd, no?

$.09--College/Draft Quickies

--I really don’t want to pile on the train wreck that is Michigan football, but consider the Wolverines made Gary Nova look like Peyton Manning in Rutgers’ 26-24 win. Nova threw 5 INTs in a loss to Penn State last month, and his propensity for spectacularly inept play once led me to compare watching him to brushing my hair with a pitchfork. He threw for over 400 yards and 3 TDs against Michigan, not turning the ball over once.

Now consider that one of Michigan’s victims this season is Miami, the Ohio version. They held the nation’s longest losing streak until finally eking out a win over UMass, its first victory since 2012. The Redhawks won when UMass forgot to spike the ball to kill the clock and couldn’t get into the end zone as time expired. The new holder of the longest losing streak? You guessed it, the Minutemen.

--Lots of folks are now touting Ole Miss QB Bo Wallace after his impressive, gutsy comeback over mighty Alabama. I’ll admit Wallace has improved in terms of a NFL prospect, but I still see a guy who tops out as a very good college QB but a marginal backup at the next level. They’re not really similar, but think Curtis Painter or Jeff Tuel as his NFL lot.

--Spent a good portion of the early Sat. game window focusing on Ohio State DT Michael Bennett. He’s a gap-wrecking bull with quick hands and natural strength throughout his body. Bennett has already figured out how to set up his moves and vary his attack, something that often comes later for interior guys. His best fit at the next level is at 3-4 DE, where he can use his quickness more effectively with the offensive tackle leaning outside to protect against the wide rush. It’s still early for draft slot projections, but Bennett belongs in the top 25 overall.

--The flip side of that game was Maryland WR Stefon Diggs. He did not impress, looking very linear and stiff in his routes and overall movement. There was one play, a reception over the middle where he shaked and baked after the catch, which showed why some have touted him as a top 50 talent, but the rest of the game he looked rather pedestrian. He reminds me of Devin Street from Pittsburgh, the Cowboys’ seldom-used 5th round pick last May.

--Remember when Florida vs. Tennessee was a marquee matchup, worthy of Brent Musburger in prime time? Yeah, times have changed. The two played a 10-9 affair which left both fan bases exasperated and hopeless. Florida won…I think. I don’t really know. Or care. It’s a rather insignificant game in the humdrum SEC East, where no team stands much of a chance against any West division team. The best team in that East might be Kentucky, which upended 3-3 South Carolina.

$.10--Music critic time!

Frequent readers know I love my music. I’ve been to well over 150 concerts in my lifetime, seeing some truly incredible shows. Heading into this last week, my top five concerts:

5. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts at the Newport in Columbus, 1989

4. Metallica on the first night of the S&M recordings in San Francisco, 2001 on tickets I won on a radio contest while everyone else was focused on the Columbine massacre the day before.

3. Coheed and Cambria with Porcupine Tree at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, 2010. Unquestionably the best audio production of any show I’ve ever seen.

2. Dream Theater with Joe Satriani circa 2004. So good I saw that tour in Cleveland, Detroit and Indianapolis. I never thought this musical nirvana could be topped.

Ladies and gentlemen there is a new top dog, albeit a familiar one…

1. Coheed and Cambria with Thank You Scientist at the Fillmore, Detroit last Tuesday night.

If you are unfamiliar with Coheed, you’re probably not a 20-something white male into comic books and fantasy. I’m not either of those, but I’m still a diehard Child of the Fence. That’s what fans call themselves, and it’s not unlike a religion.

Coheed’s music plays out as an extended story over multiple albums, and on this night they played the second one in its entirety. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth was the entry point to the band and its story for many of us. It features one of the two songs casual music fans might be familiar with, A Favor House Atlantic. Yet for fans this is THE record that best defines the band and being part of the community.

Seeing it performed live with a couple thousand others was very much a religious experience. The entire congregation rose and cheered in unison. Everyone knew every word to every song and most sang along all night. Claudio Sanchez, the lead singer, guitarist and creative force behind it all, presided like a humble guardian of all that is holy. The light show, with the band’s signature key logo and dragonfly mascot, was awe-inspiring.

Every note was perfect. Not good, perfect. The sound engineering was fantastic. The guitar interplay between Sanchez and Travis Stever worked seamlessly, and it was great to see Stever offer a heartfelt thanks to the crowd. It was truly an amazing experience and it was well worth getting home at 2:30 AM to see it.

The opening act was a new band from New Jersey called Thank You Scientist. They’re hard to describe without actually playing their music. Think of a 70s funk band playing progressive rock with jazzy undertones, including a horn section and violinist. It sounds strange but it absolutely works. They earned a lot of fans with their unusual style and intricately melodic music.