I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as I did, watching football and playing cards with my family in between copious amounts of food. It was quite a week for football, too.

$.01--Last week the leadoff cent here proclaimed the New England Patriots the best team in the NFL. Ah, good times.

As Ric Flair liked to loudly proclaim, “To be the man you gotta beat the man!” Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers accepted that challenge, and with their 26-21 home win over the Patriots they are now The Man. This is where you flip your bleached-out hair and scream “Whoo!” loud enough to scare your neighbors…

Rodgers continues his unbelievable play at home. The opponent is often inconsequential; Rodgers just destroys everyone with poised pocket work, precise accuracy, exceptional field vision and calculated aggression that demoralizes even the best opposing defenses.

The Packers defense did enough to disrupt Tom Brady from matching Rodgers…barely. Green Bay did a fine job bringing pressure and moving Brady off his desired point, but the veteran still found some holes and converted some clutch throws. Gronk was once again superhuman on a couple of those catches. It was not enough.

With Arizona stumbling badly, Green Bay has to be atop any power rankings now. Anyone not putting them as the best team at this point is simply being intellectually dishonest. Being the best at the end of November doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be the team to beat in the playoffs, but it’s hard to not like their chances for postseason success the way Rodgers is playing and the way the defense is holding up.

$.02-- Former US District Judge Barbara Jones overruled former Ravens RB Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension in a strong ruling on Friday. Her decision is a direct spit in the eye of Commissioner Roger Goodell and his Putin-esque handling of all dissention and matters of league justice.

Jones ruled that there was no evidence Rice ever was anything but forthright in his dealings with the league after his awful incident where he cold-cocked his now-wife in a casino elevator. He was initially suspended for two games, but then Goodell reversed course and suspended him indefinitely once graphic video of the punch became public. Rice argued he was the victim of unfair double jeopardy, and the judge agreed.

But the judge wasn’t done, and thank goodness she wasn’t. Jones questioned why the NFL never sought to obtain the surveillance video, asking the very same question the TMZ reporter annoyed Goodell with at his half-baked, tardy press conference in the wake of the video. In her report (available here thanks to CBS) she called Goodell’s decision making process “arbitrary”. Essentially, she correctly ascertained Goodell is the NFL’s version of a shirtless Vlad Putin riding a horse and crushing Ukrainian resistance on an egocentric power trip. 

I’m happy for Ray Rice. I think what he did was horrible and he deserves the public shame and humiliation. But he was punished. He lost his job. There was no need for Goodell to pile on when the world thought he was too lenient. Even Putin realized he probably should stop with annexing Crimea and not try to rebuild the old Eastern Bloc, but Goodell apparently lacked that good sense. The owners who pay Goodell tens of millions every year need to rein in their overreaching oligarch, or else face further angry dissention and more legal humiliation.

Will Rice play again? I doubt he will in 2014, as much for the fact he was not a good football player in 2013 as for the potential negative PR any team signing him would take. If the vast majority can forgive Michael Vick for what he did, they’ll forgive a clearly penitent Rice. But that redemption story needs more time to breathe. He’ll get a shot next summer, and after the first couple days of camp the protest volume will dwindle in whatever city signs him. I’m not optimistic he’ll ever be a quality NFL runner again, but he deserves a second chance. After all, the NFL has allowed players who actually killed people (Leonard Little, Donte Stallworth) back into the league. In that context, Rice’s reprehensible bad day shouldn’t be the end of his story.  

$.03--Just when you thought it was safe to believe in the Dallas Cowboys, their longtime late-season nemesis Philadelphia Eagles came to town. As they have done so many times in the Tony Romo era, the Eagles flew over the host Cowboys 33-10, dropping Dallas from first place and putting their playoff promise in peril.

This time there is no possible way to blame Romo. I’m sure some will try, but this loss was all about Philadelphia’s offense destroying the taxed Dallas defense. Those Cowboy defenders never got close enough to Eagles QB Mark Sanchez to wish him a happy Thanksgiving as he carved them up like some drunken uncle with the electric bone saw attacking the 24 lb. turkey. Lesean McCoy was often untouched until he got to the second level, too. Dallas has now given up 95 first downs in the last four games, the worst mark in the league (thanks CBS!).

Now the Eagles soar in first place in the NFC East, a two-team boat race with Washington and New York not going to reach 8 wins combined. The Sanchize continues to not suck in relief of injured Nick Foles, taking to Chip Kelly’s up-tempo nicely. Their balanced attack and quick-hit passing plays keep the pressure off Sanchez, and he responds by making smart decisions with better accuracy than he showed in his Jets days. He’s not going to lead them to big victories, but he’s playing well enough within the system to not be the reason they would lose them.

The challenge for Sanchez and Philly comes next week with the Seahawks coming to town. The Eagles get the Cowboys at home, followed by trips to Washington and New York. That sets up Seattle as a potential trap game, if the defending champs could ever be regarded that way. It’s also a chance for the 9-3 Eagles to establish themselves as the team to beat in a rapidly changing NFC playoff picture.

Dallas is clinging in that picture, but they’re trending in the wrong direction. They lose Wild Card tiebreakers to Seattle and Detroit, and they’re extremely unlikely to pass both those teams. They have to hope for an Eagles stumble and a road win in the City of Brotherly Love in two weeks. To quote Bradley Cooper in The Hangover, “Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.”

$.04--The biggest winner on Thanksgiving was the Seattle Seahawks, who dominated the rival 49ers 19-3 in Santa Clara…which doubles as San Francisco on game days. The Niners ran just 51 plays, 13 fewer than they average as well as the league average. Richard Sherman continued his mastery of Colin Kaepernick, picking off two passes and pouring salt in the wounds with rare braggadocio.

The Seahawks are getting back to what carried them to the Super Bowl title last year. In beating San Francisco and Arizona by consecutive 19-3 scores, Seattle’s defense is proving it’s back to its old suffocating ways. Getting linebacker Bobby Wagner back has sparked the unit, making 20 tackles and three tackles-for-loss in those two pivotal NFC West contests. The Seattle offense is no juggernaut, but they are effective enough to carry the day when the defense is playing at such a high level.

With the loss, the Niners are now 7-5. To many it feels like 5-7, and in the NFC playoff race it might as well be. After the game owner Jed York tweeted out an apology to fans for how awful the team played. GM Trent Baalke’s daughter one-upped her father’s employer, tweeting an angry message at Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman before quickly deleting her Twitter account. Ms. Baalke was not wrong in her sentiment; Roman’s refusal to attack down the field is a serious issue, especially when that’s what the quarterback does best.

Roman won’t be the only current Niners coach employed somewhere else in a few months. Rumors are now rampant Jim Harbaugh will be gone. Of course they’ve been circulating in many places for months, but the very real probability the Niners wind up missing the playoffs suddenly brought them to a head. Adam Schefter of ESPN (and others piggybacking) indicate the Niners might attempt to trade him after the season, as they nearly did to Cleveland last winter. My question is this: why would anyone trade for Harbaugh? The Niners entertained dumping him despite making it to at least the NFC Championship game three years in a row. Not one current or former Niner player or coach ever directly defends Harbaugh, not even when pressed. Is giving up a prominent draft pick really worth the headaches to deal with the impossibly unctuous and grating Harbaugh? Be careful what you wish for.

$.05--Washington got pounded 49-27 in Indianapolis, but the much larger story is the fate of former golden child QB Robert Griffin III. RG3 was benched by rookie coach Jay Gruden after Griffin’s return to the lineup from injury was ineffective at best. At this point it’s impossible to argue RG3 provides Washington a better chance to win than journeyman backup Colt McCoy.

Andy Benoit of MMQB wrote a fantastic piece recently that lays out just how poor of a quarterback Griffin has become. The long and the short of it: Griffin lacks vision, on-field discipline and even a rudimentary understanding of the offense.

Injuries can only provide so much of an excuse, though they are certainly a big part of the problem. Ever since his devastating knee injury at the end of his fabulous 2012 rookie campaign, Griffin’s footwork has regressed. So has his confidence and positive swagger he often displayed, and those were the qualities that made him special.

Sending him to the bench is not going to help his confidence. It’s not going to allow him to learn the offense any better, not ceding first-team practice reps to a guy who is competing to be his long-term backup. Or maybe the Skins have decided it’s not worth the very public headaches of dealing with Griffin’s peculiarities and growing pains. There are whispers the team will see what others are willing to offer them for RG3 this offseason, seeming blasphemy for a franchise which traded two first-round picks and moved up from a third to secure his services just three years ago. Yet it might be the best move for all parties. Griffin raised the bar so high with his awesome final year at Baylor and debut year in DC. He’s not even close to that guy anymore, and he’s unlikely to return to that under the fisheye lens. Washington needs an influx of overall talent, so acquiring an extra pick or two for a player who’s not any better than his backup at this point makes a lot of sense. 

$.06--The AFC playoff picture is ridiculously complex, and the North division epitomizes the jumbled nature. All four division members played in early games on Sunday. Three of the four lost, and the fourth tried very hard to give away a win to a lousy opponent.

The team that won was Cincinnati, which now sits atop the division at 8-3-1 after beating Tampa Bay 14-13. Reports surfaced after the game that Andy Dalton was violently ill all day, and perhaps that explains why Cincinnati’s on-field play was often vomit-inducing. It took Tampa Bay’s inability to count to 11 on a play to set up a potential game-winning field goal to bail out the Bengals.

 

At least they held on for the win. Baltimore failed to do the same at home against San Diego, which rallied for 21 fourth-quarter points to upend the Ravens 34-33. The Chargers converted 9-for-11 3rd downs and bagged 31 first downs en route to the huge win. San Diego was often sloppy and undisciplined, but the Ravens couldn’t put them away despite another strong effort from RB Justin Forsett. Now the Chargers are 8-4 and very much alive, holding the tie-breaker on Baltimore to boot. It’s a bitter loss, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for the home team. Wideout Steve Smith summed it up nicely after the game, telling reporters “If you look around the locker room a lot of people are gone and disappointed.”

Pittsburgh never even had that opportunity against the visiting Saints. New Orleans erupted for five TDs in six drives spanning from the middle of the 2nd to the late portion of the 4th quarters, carving up an undermanned, overmatched Pittsburgh defense. The Steelers rallied for two late TDs so make it interesting, but there was never really much doubt. New Orleans had lost three in a row--all at home--and Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan had to battle off loud (and justified) shots at his job performance. Once again the Steelers dropped what should have been a win on paper, throwing their advantages into the trash and making this season excruciating for their fans.

Then there’s Cleveland. The time finally came for Brian Hoyer to hit the pine after telegraphing an interception into triple coverage to wipe out any realistic chance for a comeback in Buffalo. Johnny Manziel came into the game and drove the Browns 80 yards for a quick, efficient touchdown in his first opportunity. It was too little, too late but the change has now been made. The fool’s gold that is Hoyer should be done in Cleveland, and the Browns will be better for it in the long run. Unfortunately the loss here greatly hinders any playoff run this year, as both Cleveland and Buffalo are now 7-5 and looking up at several other teams.

$.07--Since my Lions rolled the visiting Bears on Thanksgiving, I was free to do a more in-depth focus on the games on Sunday. With my Texans-fan son Layne at my side, much of the early-game attention was focused on the Houston-Tennessee game. It was a great chance to witness absolute domination.

The Texans rolled to a 45-21 win over the team that used to call Houston home. Like the current state of their old Astrodome home, these Titans are a sad, sorry spectacle. After being benched--deservedly--less than a month ago, Ryan Fitzpatrick torched Tennessee’s defense for six TD passes. What’s even worse is that the defense is far and away the better of the Titans’ units.

Tennessee has had major injury issues to the offensive line, and they certainly don’t help. They suffered two more major injuries in this one too. Rookie quarterback Zach Mettenberger, who throws a beautiful deep ball but does little else at an even backup QB level, got flattened by J.J. Watt and appeared to suffer a serious shoulder injury. He did not return and no official injury info is available yet, but it didn’t look pretty. Yet what happened to wideout Justin Hunter was even worse. He suffered a lacerated spleen and was seen spitting up blood on the sidelines. He remains hospitalized and his season is over.

Mett (as he’s known in shorthand) was a lot better than the man he deposed, Jake Locker. After the injury, Locker came in and promptly threw an interception on his very first pass. He also threw another and took two sacks to Mett’s one despite the fact he’s an insanely superior athlete. His Titans, and yes they’re his after they made him the 10th overall pick in 2011, are now 2-10 and probably playing consistently worse football than any team this side of Jacksonville. He will struggle to legitimately earn a backup gig next year.

About Watt--if the Texans eke out eight wins, he’s a viable MVP candidate. He won’t win (tough to bet against Aaron Rodgers) but he deserves at least salutatorian distinction. His afternoon in Reliant was masterful:

 

He’s the best, most consistently impactful defensive player I’ve ever seen, right there with Deion Sanders, Reggie White and Lawrence Taylor in their primes. The Texans still have somewhat viable playoff breath. They draw 2-10 Jacksonville twice, get inconsistent Baltimore at home and get a shot to close ground on the Colts in two weeks. It’s not inconceivable they win out and sneak into the playoffs with 10 wins. If they manage that feat, Watt will be the reason why and deserves the MVP over even the masterful Rodgers.

$.08--NFL Quickies

--The Chicago Bears placed LB Lance Briggs on injured reserve, ending his season. It’s almost certainly the end of his Chicago career, too. I’ve argued for several years Briggs was far more deserving of Hall of Fame consideration than more celebrated running mate Brian Urlacher. Briggs was the best 4-3 OLB in the league since Derrick Brooks retired.

--Cleveland TE Jordan Cameron missed his fifth straight game with a concussion. That’s a scarily long time for a player to miss for an isolated brain injury. It’s time to legitimately wonder if he should call it a career out of respect for personal safety and quality of life.

--How bad were Carolina’s special teams?

 

--Jacksonville came back from 21 points down to hang an embarrassing defeat on the Giants. It was the largest comeback win in franchise history. It’s also the final nail in Tom Coughlin’s coaching career in New York. There are no excuses in blowing a three TD lead to the worst team in the league.

-Hey Oakland, I know you got the win last week. That doesn’t mean your season is over, however. Apparently one was enough to satisfy their thirst. St. Louis rammed them 52-0. That’s enough justification to remove the “interim” tag from Tony Sparano’s coaching title, except not in the direction normally expected. Unacceptable effort. It overshadows an ongoing resurgence by the Rams, who have now alternated wins and losses over the last seven weeks to improve to 5-7.

$.09--College/Draft Quickies

--Nebraska fired coach Bo Pelini after yet another 9-3 campaign. Pelini isn’t always the easiest guy to deal with, but he’s done reasonably well with second-tier talent in Lincoln. Cornhusker fans better hope their beloved school isn’t following Michigan’s blueprint of firing a consistently good coach and replacing him with a decade of significantly worse results.

--Ohio State beat Michigan but lost Heisman candidate J.T. Barrett in the process. Losing the nation’s leader in touchdowns created is a huge blow for the Buckeyes and their playoff prospects. It’s impossible to argue they are going to be as good with Cardale Jones and not Barrett under center. They might not even beat Wisconsin in the B1G title game next week, something that seemed foregone before Barrett’s broken ankle.

--Alabama definitively proved they are the #1 team in the nation with their dominant second half in the Iron Bowl, running away from a game but limited Auburn team after trailing at halftime. From the defensive front completely neutralizing Auburn’s gimmicky attack to Amari Cooper running free through the Tigers’ overmatched secondary, that was as good of a half of football (after Sims’ first pass was picked off) as you’re going to see from one good team against another one. It was so bad it forced Auburn to fire Defensive Coordinator Ellis Johnson less than 12 hours later. That’s how dominant Alabama looked.

--I don’t have a Heisman vote, but if I did my ballot would look like this:

1. Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon, who cemented it after another almost flawless game in the Civil War trashing of Oregon State

2. Melvin Gordon, RB, Wisconsin

3. J.T. Barrett, QB, Ohio State

4. Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama

5. Trevone Boykin, QB, TCU

--Marshall fell from the rarified air of undefeated teams with a 67-66 overtime loss to now 7-5 Western Kentucky. For those of you wondering why nobody took the Herd seriously, there you go. 

$.10--I like to poke hot sticks at the NCAA whenever I can. Frankly, that bastion of hypocritical corruption deserves daily doses of venomous enmity from every sports fan in America and every college student and student-athlete they purport to represent and oversee. Yet one rather disturbing development in college sports from this weekend is not directly their fault.

The University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) is going to drop football according to numerous sources. From CBS Sports:

USA Today's Dan Wolken and Sports Illustrated are reporting that Mackin, the Blazers athletic director since 2007, will be fired as part of major changes to the athletic department that will include shutting down the football program. Sports Illustrated's Thayer Evans reports that the announcement could come on Thursday. UAB will become the first Football Bowl Subdivision/Division I-A school to drop football since Pacific in 1995.

The Blazers are in the dreaded mid-major land of FBS football, and it costs them serious money to be in that no-man’s land. In the ever-escalating arms race that is big-time college football, UAB simply cannot afford to keep up. Their facilities are subpar, to be polite; they’ve been described as inferior to many FCS-level schools in the surrounding area by dismayed recruits. Rather than pouring more resources into a money pit that will never achieve more than an occasional hiccup to the lowest-regarded bowl, the school’s brain trust opted for the dramatic solution.

I wonder why they didn’t explore dropping down to the FCS level. I wonder why they didn’t schedule more of the guaranteed loss/guaranteed paycheck games against schools like Alabama and Oklahoma. They used to be one of those schools after all, competing as an I-AA (FCS) school in the 1990s. Sure, they made trips to LSU and Ohio State in recent years, but they’ve also hosted at least one FCS school every year to be on the other end of the guaranteed paycheck phenomenon.

The Blazers are an example of why big-time football needs to declare independence from the NCAA and operate as an individual, independent entity. The haves no longer have any need for the have-nots, and the have-nots shouldn’t be forced to try and keep up with them in return. This is not basketball, where the lesser schools have legit chances to knock out the big boys. It cannot happen in football. Even the feel-good stories like Urban Meyer’s last Utah team or the Northern Illinois Orange Bowl team grow more impossible by the year. The new playoff structure doesn’t even give them a chance.

The NCAA has an opportunity here to restore some sanity and provide real guidance and assistance to the young men who want to play college football outside the power five conferences. Allow schools in the MAC, Sun Belt, Conference USA and AAC to play in a higher tier of FCS and worry about each other instead of the SEC and Big 12 powers. Allow schools currently in the FCS to jump up and join them if they desire, which many in the Colonial and Big Sky conferences would jump at the chance to do. Try and help restore some sanity to the cash cow that is quickly escaping your shriveling pasture before those cows can’t ever come home again. UAB is the first in a while to eliminate educational opportunities for young men so dramatically, but they will not be the last.