Considered the strongest teams in the NFC before the season, the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers had statement wins this week to put themselves back in the conversation.
While the focus on this side of the pond yesterday was on whether Tony Romo and his injured back would play/survive the Dallas Cowboys' routine victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley, the jockeying for play-off position in the NFC stepped up a gear on American soil as NFC West powerhouses Seattle and San Francisco strove to restate their claims.
The Super Bowl champion Seahawks hosted the New York Giants with questions over their once-vaunted defence (giving up three second-half touchdowns to the winless Raiders will do that) and an offence that was struggling to match the efficiency of last year's championship run.
Those struggles looked set to continue as the Giants went into half-time with a 17-14 lead and picked off quarterback Russell Wilson for the second time right after the interval. But from that point forward, things pretty much went perfectly to plan for Seattle as the defence stiffened and coach Pete Carroll went back to basics offensively, running the ball incessantly en route to three consecutive touchdown drives and 24 unanswered points.
Running back Marshawn Lynch had the first four-touchdown game of his career as the 'Hawks demolished the Giants up front, running the ball 45 times en route to a team record 350 rushing yards.
The victory keeps Seattle (6-3) in the thick of the play-off hunt and one game ahead of their arch rivals from San Francisco, who ended a horrendous two-game losing streak with a huge 27-24 overtime win in New Orleans. The Saints had not lost at the Superdome in more than a year and, after coming from 14-0 down in the first quarter, thought they had kept that record intact when tight end Jimmy Graham pulled down a Hail Mary from Drew Brees in the dying seconds, only to see it ruled out for offensive pass interference. It was the correct call, but cornerback Perrish Cox's sales job no doubt helped the officials make it.
The Niners remain outside the play-off picture for now at 5-4 and still have a host of problems to address, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, where a series of second-half collapses (the first team offence has yet to manufacture a fourth-quarter touchdown all season) have seen them blow big leads in three of their four defeats.
But there appeared to be a renewed commitment to their bread-and-butter power running game yesterday, striking a 50-50 run/pass balance for the first time since the Week 5 win over Kansas City, and there are other reasons to feel like the team has turned a corner. The schedule eases up over the next month, with the Thanksgiving night home game against Seattle their only opponent with a winning record.
There is also the small matter of the ever improving health of the squad. The defence has been stout despite being without pass-rush specialist Aldon Smith, All-Pro middle linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis and lineman Glenn Dorsey, but Smith returns from suspension this week against the Giants while it is hoped the others are not that far behind.
What few predicted, though, is that both Seattle and San Francisco would be staring up at the Arizona Cardinals, who beat the St Louis Rams 31-14 to maintain the NFL's best record at 8-1, a mark the franchise last reached when they resided in Chicago in 1948.
It's a little early to crown them division champs yet, though, impressive as they have been. They have a brute of a schedule to finish the season, hosting 7-2 Detroit on Sunday while also having to face Seattle twice and visit the 49ers on the final day. They also lost quarterback Carson Palmer to an apparent cruciate ligament injury yesterday, although back-up Drew Stanton brought the team from behind to beat the Rams and already has two victories under his belt as a starter this year.
The NFC West may have temporarily ceded the title of Best Division in Football over the past few weeks, but with three teams jostling for play-off positions and a host of internecine battles still on the slate, it'll certainly be the one we are keeping our eyes on.
A Bears bloodbath?
Chicago entered the season as an outsider to win it all. With quarterback whisperer Marc Trestman guiding Jay Cutler's many throws to Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, as fine a pair of wide receivers as any and a strengthened offensive line, the Bears were expected to put up points for fun, or at least enough to cover up any defensive frailties that may have carried over from last year.
And things looked promising to begin the season, as Chicago began the season 2-1, notably turning over San Francisco in the first game at shiny, new Levi's Stadium. Since then though, the Bears season has disintegrated. They have only won once, against a poor Atlanta side, and the vaunted offence has struggled to top 20 points.
It looked like rock bottom had been reached with last week's 51-23 hiding in New England, but there was
even greater humiliation in store against hated rivals Green Bay last night, as they lost 55-14 to become the first team since 1923 (the Rochester Jeffersons) to allow 50 points in consecutive games.
Aaron Rodgers threw a record six first-half
touchdown passes as the Packers ran out to a 42-0 lead after two quarters, finding open receivers roaming free in the Bears secondary at will. On the other side, Cutler showed his usual inconsistency, throwing two picks (taking his career record against the Pack to 1-10 with 22 interceptions) and highlighting the difference in the two signal callers. Green Bay lineman Datone Jones summed it up when he told reporters: 'We believe in Aaron... That’s what separates us from the Bears. I feel like the Bears really don’t believe in Cutler.'
Naturally, Twitter had a field day at the expense of the aloof Cutler.
It's not all Cutler's fault though. The Bears D is worse now than it ever was last year, especially in the porous secondary, while the team appears to lack any sense of organisation or belief, direct failure of the coaching staff. Trestman is undoubtedly on the hotseat, and defensive coordinator Mel Tucker faces, at the very least, being sacrificed by a head coach desperate to cling to his first, and likely only, shot at a top NFL gig. Above them sits GM Phil Emery, the man who gave Cutler a contract extension this past offseason that guarantees him more than $15million next season.
At 3-6, the Bears season is over. It just remains to be seen how messy it becomes.
Short yardage
- Justin Bieber showed up to Steelers bible study on Saturday, then Pittsburgh laid an almighty egg in New Jersey, losing 20-13 to the Jets. Coincidence? We think not.
- Fan of the week goes to this Andy Reid lookalike as Kansas City travelled to Buffalo and took home a big win thanks to two fourth-quarter touchdown drives. Well done that man. Both of them.
- On the opposite sideline, Mario Williams thought, 'if I can't play like a demon, I may as well
look like one'.
- After being handily beaten in New England last week, Peyton Manning went back to being Peyton-y against the Oakland Raiders, even to the point of
denying his back-up the chance to get into the game.
