This week’s edition is abbreviated due to time constraints. Being a dad to a great son was more important than covering football for my typical 16 hours on a Sunday. Look for some NFL Draft offerings during the week. 

$.01--If you had any doubt these New England Patriots were a team of destiny, Sunday’s win over the game New York Giants should erase any doubt. This was one of the best games of the year so far.

There were three lead changes in the fourth quarter, two of them in the final two minutes. The final New England drive was rife with dramatic events. Tom Brady wildly missed the first throw. A beach ball of a throw should have been an easy INT for rookie Giants safety Landon Collins, but it was apparently too easy and he dropped it.

It could have been different for the Giants. Aside from Collins dropping the gimmie, New York blew a couple of chances at scoring a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal on its final drive. Odell Beckham lost control of a potential catch in the end zone when Malcolm Butler batted it out of his hands. Giants fans will surely take umbrage, but that was definitively not a catch in today’s NFL. Eli Manning then guessed wrong and lofted a fade into double coverage instead of hitting an uncovered Beckham on the slant.

When Stephen Gostkowski’s long 54-yard field goal tucked just inside the left upright, New England’s latest quest for perfection remained unblemished. Vanquishing the pesky Giants, the team that ruined the last shot at perfection, has to be especially sweet for Belichick. He smiled, and not just a cursory grin either. The Hoodie was as excited as you’ll ever see him after a regular season game, all smiles and high fives with the relieved Patriots.

Can the Patriots run the table and raise the giant middle finger straight up Commissioner Rodger Goodell’s profile? I’m not going to lie, I’m rooting for it. In the face of the ridiculous DeflateGate fiasco, an investigation even Geraldo Rivera shakes his head at in incredulous shame, it would be wonderful to see the Patriots, the Evil Empire of the NFL, complete the perfect season all the way through the Super Bowl.

This was the biggest obstacle in the road, but potholes remain. The Jets are a matchup problem back in New York in Week 16, and the trip the following Sunday to Miami could be a sinkhole as well; both of those teams are likely to need wins in the battle for Wild Card spots, while the Patriots will be playing for nothing other than perfection. Even the next game, a Monday night visit from old nemesis Rex Ryan and his Bills, ought to be interesting.

$.02--The Denver Broncos have a Peyton Manning problem. On a day where he set the NFL record for most career passing yards, he also turned in one of the worst performances of the Super Bowl era.

Trailing 22-0, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak had the mercy to euthanize Manning for the inimitable Brock Osweilier. He was 5-for-20, 35 yards, zero TDs and four INTs. His QB Rating was an actual 0.0. If a QB simply takes the snap and fires the ball into the turf on every snap, it’s a 39.6 rating.

Peyton deserved to be benched. And somewhat surprisingly, it’s not unprecedented for a legendary icon to take an early shower on a day of great accomplishment…

 

(Side note: I do not have anything to do with this Twitter account. But you should follow it anyway)

Manning was awful from the get-go. His first pass got picked by stellar Chiefs rookie Marcus Peters. His next dropback resulted in a strip sack. The final INT strongly resembled your neighborhood fourth grade cheerleader trying to throw a ball over a blimp. The Chiefs played shallow in coverage, daring Manning to throw the ball over them. He couldn’t, and it was downright painful to watch him even try. Osweiler was better, but not by much. He threw one interception and that was only because the Chiefs missed at least two others.

Kansas City prevailed 29-13, its third win in a row. Winning the turnover battle 5-0 will do that for you. So will holding opponents to 13, 10 and 13 with a stingy, opportunistic defense. They’re 4-5 now and not out of the AFC playoff race by any means. Heck, they’d be in first place in the AFC South. They have tough road games at San Diego (better than its 2-7 record) and Oakland (also 4-5 after getting walloped 30-14 by the first-place Minnesota Vikings) sandwiched around a visit from schizophrenic Buffalo up next. If they can win two of those three and get even at 6-6, I really do like their chances to somehow sneak into the playoffs.

Kubiak faces an intriguing decision, a Sophie’s Choice at quarterback. Does he stick with the obviously ineffective, hobbled Manning or turn to the unproven Osweiler? Can a coach just half a season into his tenure with legit Super Bowl expectations really sit down the legend, even if he deserves to be benched? What happens if Osweiler isn’t any more effective and the season continues in the downward spiral; Denver has lost two in a row and really has been impressive just once in the last month. Kubiak once waited too long to yank a similarly ineffective Matt Schaub in Houston, and it ultimately cost both of them their jobs.

$.03--The last time the Detroit Lions, the team of my long-suffering fandom, won a road game against the Green Bay Packers was in December of 1991. I was a sophomore at Ohio University. I had just starting dating my now-wife. My mullet was glorious. I had recently become obsessed with the fresh band Alice in Chains and the new Sega video game console. George H.W. Bush was President, with Bill Clinton just making a name for himself to be his successor. Four current NFL teams did not exist. Brett Favre was a rookie in Atlanta. Matthew Stafford was three.

So the concept of the pathetic Lions, who entered Sunday the only 1-win team in the league, breaking that dubious streak over the 6-2 Packers seemed as absurd as Bruce Jenner being a reasonably attractive woman. This is a Detroit team which fired its GM and President after a lifeless loss in London, a unit which benched a starting safety and placed a starting corner on IR. Even though the Packers had lost two in a row, there was no way Aaron Rodgers was losing to the laughable Lions.

Whilst I would love to wax poetic about the profundity of Detroit’s extraordinary victory, such words would be a fabrication. The truth is, this was an awful football game. And it says a great deal more about the Packers than it does the blind squirrels in the Honolulu Blue uniforms.

Green Bay is in real peril. Because they have Aaron Rodgers it’s not grave, but it’s close. They have lost three in a row. Denver held Rodgers & Co. to under 100 passing yards in the first game. They fell behind 37-14 at Carolina before pilin gup garbage time numbers to make the final more respectable. And now this, an 18-16 home loss to the worst team in football playing for a lame duck coach.

Detroit’s defense emphatically outplayed Green Bay’s offensive line, a recurring theme for the Packers. Yet Rodgers has overcome far inferior blocking and far superior Detroit defenses. He’s got no help anymore. Randall Cobb couldn’t get open against Darius Slay. Davante Adams struggled to get open against Nevin Lawson, and when he did get open he was just as likely to drop it as catch it. Rodgers had some uncharacteristically off target throws, sailing some high and outside with others falling well short of the intended receiver. Eddie Lacy ate his way to inactive status, and replacement James Starks couldn’t break tackles.

All of the sudden, Green Bay’s talent pool on offense looks dangerously shallow. They can’t even get open despite running blatantly illegal pick plays. The offensive line play has fallen off dramatically, and with left tackle David Bakhtiari leaving with a late knee injury it’s not apt to improve anytime soon. Rodgers is showing the signs of faltering after carrying the offense for so long. But don’t just take my word for it. Take it from Aaron Nagler, perhaps the biggest homer in the NFC North (I say that endearingly):

 

With Minnesota’s win over Oakland, the Packers are no longer in first place in the NFC North. If they play like they did in this loss, they won’t be back there again anytime soon. 

$.04--Rob Ryan was somehow still employed as a Defensive Coordinator in the NFL until Monday morning, and that reason is his name. There is no other rational or acceptable explanation.

Ryan’s defenses are almost always awful, but Sunday’s performance by his Saints in Washington took the term “suck” to a new level.

 

That No. 32 is with a big old bullet around it. Washington put up 47 points, though one touchdown came on a Dashon Goldson pick six off a harangued Drew Brees trying to play catchup. Kirk Cousins threw for 325 yards and four touchdowns, barely breaking a sweat in picking apart the uncoordinated New Orleans mass of defenders. They couldn’t cover anyone. They couldn’t tackle anyone. They failed to record a takeaway from one of the most careless QBs in the league. They set an NFL record by being the first team to ever surrender four TD passes in three straight games.

Twitter overflowed with the same basic take…

Already last in the league in yards per play, the Saints allowed Washington 8.7 yards every time they snapped the ball. Cousins & Co. entered the game ranked 30th in yards per play at just 5.1 and hadn’t topped five yards per play in a game in a month.

The Saints get their bye week, and it strongly behooves Sean Payton to fire Ryan. The gregarious hairball has lingered on the name of his father and brother for far too long. If his name were any other, it’s almost inconceivable he’d ever land an NFL job again.

Washington will take the win, and it’s a big one for them. They improve to 4-5 and are just a half-game back of the Giants. Jay Gruden’s team is 4-1 at home and still hosts the Giants and Cowboys within the NFC East, though the Cowboys are all but dead at 2-7. Of course, they still have road dates with undefeated Carolina (next week) and the 4-5 Eagles (on Dec. 26th) while also finishing at Jerry World in a game where the division title could be on the line. If Cousins, Matt Jones and Alfred Morris (26 combined carries for 148 yards and about 15 broken tackles) can keep the momentum rolling and avoid the crippling turnovers, they’re in a decent position to win the NFC’s worst division.

$.05--Sunday night’s extraordinarily long affair between Arizona and Seattle might be over now. I’m not really certain, as I feel asleep despite trying my hardest to make it to the end. Mr. Goodell, your league has a pacing problem…

The third quarter started at 10:38. It ended at 11:32. Just for good measure, the first play of the fourth quarter, a strip sack by Cliff Avril, took another five minutes between the actual play and the subsequent review to correct an obvious officiating error. A total of 13 minutes elapsed for the first minute of the fourth quarter to be played, four snaps. Another Seattle strip sack, this one recovered and taken to the house for a TD by Bobby Wagner, ensued. With the subsequent commercial break after the extra point, it took 19 minutes of actual time to play two minutes and seven plays of football.

This is why I no longer watch baseball, Mr. Goodell. The interminable, preventable delays which plague that once-great game are now even worse in football. Officials don’t have any clue what a catch is or isn’t. The spotting of the football, as subjective and arbitrary as any action in sports, is a mystifyingly inconsistent joke. Reviews that should take 20 seconds linger for minutes, forcing Al Michaels to dig deep into the well of personal knowledge to keep viewers from fleeing to public access TV programming of awkward teenagers acting out Pokemon fights.

Arizona answered at the stroke of midnight, with Carson Palmer finding a strangely large hole in the Seattle coverage to hit TE Jermaine Gresham for the go-ahead touchdown. At that point there were 21 penalties for 184 yards. Seattle had more accepted penalties (13) than completions (12) at the two-minute warning, when they were behind 39-29 after both Cary Williams and Frank Clark decided it was more important to pull up than try and tackle Andre Ellington as he scooted up the left sideline for a long TD run on a gutsy third down call.

The game finally ended with Arizona all but locking up the NFC West with the 39-32 win. It was 12:29 in the Eastern Time Zone. The Cardinals survived blowing a 19-0 lead on the road in Seattle to take a three-game lead in the NFC West, where they are the only team with a winning record. Palmer kept his name near the top of the MVP candidate list, and Bruce Arians certainly belongs in the mix for coach of the year. They’re not going to be an easy out for anyone. And they might have done the rest of the NFC a giant favor in putting Seattle’s return to the playoffs in very real peril, too. 

Bonus cent on college football…

Everyone is fretting about the College Football Playoff rankings. What’s going to happen now that Baylor has lost? Is the PAC-12 dead now that Stanford and Utah both lost again? Iowa, really?

Allow me to clarify everything in advance. Don’t believe me, just watch!

I’ll start at the top with Clemson. They’ll struggle more than expected with South Carolina in two weeks, then lose to a hot North Carolina team in the ACC Championship game. North Carolina’s only loss will be its opener to that same South Carolina team.

That Clemson loss really hurts Notre Dame, which wins out and winds up with its only loss in a literal hurricane at Clemson. Of course their upcoming win at Stanford is diminished with the woefully overrated Cardinal’s loss to Oregon. The only team they’ve beaten who will be ranked at the end of the year could be Stanford, if (when?) UCLA upsets USC.

Right now the No. 2 team is Alabama. Their case is quite simple. They’re friggin’ Alabama. They could lose to Florida in the SEC title game and still get in over the Gators, especially after Florida State defeats Florida in two weeks. An improving Auburn team will threaten them, but unless the Tide lose to both Auburn and Florida, they’re pretty much guaranteed a berth. And they’re not losing to both.

Next up is Ohio State. They’re undefeated but largely seen as underachievers. They’ll blow out Michigan State and squeak past a revitalized Michigan in Ann Arbor to head to the Big Ten Championship game without a loss.

They’ll meet unbeaten Iowa there, and the winner of the B1G absolutely gets a spot. The bigger question is, where does the loser (read: Iowa) wind up? They will have exactly one win over a ranked team, the winner of the Wisconsin/Northwestern game. The Hawkeyes, through little fault of their own, could fall from the top 5 to about 17th depending on the loss margin to the Buckeyes.

The Big 12 gets in if Oklahoma State runs the table. If and only if. An undefeated Cowboys team putting it to Oklahoma would make a statement that not even Barry Alvarez could ignore. The Sooners thumping the injury-ravaged TCU Horned Frogs out of the rankings next week, followed by those same Frogs upsetting Baylor the following week, ruins OU’s shot. Right or not.

The non-power conferences have a shot, but it’s a highly dependent one. Houston has to win out, including a no-sweat beatdown of 1-loss Navy (at Notre Dame). Michigan would have to beat both Ohio State and then Iowa, making the B1G champ the 2-loss Wolverines. Just for good measure, Florida State would have to beat Florida and then the Gators somehow pummel Alabama in the SEC Championship. Sorry Cougars fans, I’m pulling for you but it’s just not in the cards. Enjoy walloping Stanford or Iowa in your bowl game.

I’m going to say Oklahoma wins Bedlam, just because Oklahoma State lacks the good fortune to ever have good fortune. That makes the final four:

Alabama

Ohio State

Clemson

Notre Dame

As you might already know, that was the top four last Tuesday. Essentially, nothing will change over the final three weeks. Remember that.