Turkey Day NFL Headlines

Another Ho-Hum Kind of Day for Aaron Rodgers

Rodgers and the Packers dominated the Lions in a 27-15 victory that was not as close as the final score indicates. There wasn't much scoring in the first half, but the Packers scored on their first two possessions of the second half to put it out of reach. Not much else to say about this game besides that the Packers look to be rolling; an undefeated season is very much possible at this point. The biggest newsworthy item from this game was Ndamukong Suh's stomp attempt. He is very much living up to the stigma of being a dirty player. His comments after the game were startling. Suh seemed to think that he hadn't done anything wrong and insinuated that the public is making him out to be a villain. Actions like this have no place in sports, and he should be punished accordingly. If he doesn't learn to stop this bullish behavior, he could be in trouble for the long haul. All I'd ask right now is for Suh to at least acknowledge his mistakes and apologize. It doesn't look like we're even going to get that far.

Romo Leads Game-Winning Drive

At first glance, the now 7-3 Cowboys beating a now 3-7 Dolphins team doesn't seem to be a big deal; however, I believe that this is a very underrated Dolphins team. Matt Moore has played surprisingly well, Reggie Bush is running with attitude, and Brandon Marshall can be a beast. The defense has also played very well - they have only given up two touchdowns in their last four games. Romo threw two interceptions early, but overcame them to eventual lead the Cowboys to a 20-19 victory. The Dolphins couldn't convert on the Cowboys' end of the field, settling for four field goals. Look for the Dolphins to be an underrated bet the rest of the season, and I'm sure that you can find value there.

The Harbaugh Bowl: A Snoozefest

What a boooooring game this was. I know the football "purists" out there would like to have you think that this was good old-fashioned football, and it very well might have been. The problem is that no one used to watch football back then, because it wasn't fun or interesting (and they wore leather helmets). Both of these coaches did a miserable job in this game, especially Jim (Alex Smith was sacked 9!!! times). Both teams ran the ball far too often (52 runs averaging 3.19 yards per attempt) and displayed some poor play-calling. Jim and the 49ers threw more often than the Ravens because they were behind for most of the second half of this game. I did a quick re-watch of the game. The Ravens disguised their blitzes and actually blitzed pretty often. Of the 37 pass plays run by the 49ers, not one was a screen! Against an aggressive, blitzing team, what better play to run than a screen? Also, of those 37 pass plays, only 9 of them (24%) were 3 step drops or quick passes. The other 28 were 5 or 7-step drops. In the 9 quick-passes, Smith went 7-9 for 54 yards, 6 yards per play, no sacks. On the other hand, during the other 28 plays (long dropbacks), Smith was 8-15 for 86 yards, 2 runs for 12 yards, was sacked 9 times for 44 yards, and had a 15 yard intentional grounding penalty. So, on these 28 plays, they netted a total of 39 yards. That's absolutely pathetic. Why did they not run more quick passes or even try a screen? That's just bad coaching. The NFL is a coaching league, and Jim called plays very poorly. That's not to say that brother John did a great job either, but Jim's glaring mistakes really cost the 49ers a chance to keep pace with the undefeated Packers for homefield throughout the NFC playoffs.