Jordan’s Serial: NFL 2013 Week 8 Takeaways
It’s around this time of the season that the real contenders start to make a move. The first couple of months will see a lot of upsets as teams finding their feet under new coaching schemes, and the players that were traded have gotten used to their new playbooks. The best teams of course don’t really need this bedding down period; the additions they’ve made have already prospered and shown exactly why they were so steadfastly pursued.
So with autumn well and truly upon us and the football about to be played in crisp conditions that will bring wind, rain and the eventual snow. A time when we see the breath of the lineman as they bear down on each other at the point of scrimmage,
This is for the future, what happened a few days ago in Week 8? I hear you ask. Here’s the rundown.
PANTHERS 31 BUCCANEERS 13
Tampa Bay is now real contenders for the number one pick in next year’s draft. They have good competition though. It will be a long hard slog to see if they can obtain their goal. One which will have all on the edge of their armchairs every Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile over in Carolina the fans are witnessing the emergence of a team that has been a sleeper the past few years. Sure they had the first year of Cam Newton to be excited about, but now the spotlight is away from him and looking at others in the new breed of QB they have fallen under the radar and are on a stealth mission to the playoffs.
49ERS 42 JAGUARS 10
This was every bit the one-sided affair that everyone in Wembley Stadium, London feared it would be. The best part of the week long build up focused largely on San Francisco, you could be forgiven if you thought they were the home team. Jacksonville did show up as hosts but only after the game was well and truly out of their reach. There were no heroics like the ones they displayed in nearly upsetting the Broncos. It was that display that had some thinking upset here, as well as the possible imminent bad weather coming in to hopefully level things out a bit. The 49ers are gathering up their own storm now and this could be quite a tornado in the coming weeks.
BROWNS 17 CHIEFS 23
8 down, 8 to go. Kansas City fans are no longer pinching themselves; they know this is for real. You don’t get to an unbeaten record at the halfway stage of the year by being lucky. It’s hard work and grinding out results. Cleveland may not be the biggest threat they will face, but they can be a tricky obstacle to jump over. The season is slowly ebbing away for the Browns, it will be hard for them to win their division and the wild card target will be set in double digits. With that in mind the Chiefs now just need a couple more wins, three to be safe, and they will be in the playoffs. It will take a collapse of monumental proportions if they are not to be playing in January.
DOLPHINS 17 PATRIOTS 27
Miami raced into a 14-0 lead in this one, and then they remembered the reason why they are on a losing streak and promptly caved in allowing New England a way back into the game, and were courteous enough to wave them on their way as the Patriots eased away from them. I’m still standing by my statement that New England is not the team that their record would suggest. They have often been given games by their opponents more out of fear and respect for past achievements. As much as they were exposed by the Jets last week, they were let off the hook this week. The Dolphins took their bait and were left floundering on fortunes past.
BILLS 17 SAINTS 35
You didn’t really think Buffalo would win this one did you? I hope not. The New Orleans Saints are playing arguably the most consistent football in the league at the halfway mark. They will pretty much coast their way to the NFC South title and then it’s just a case of how much they want home field advantage. They should want it very much because anyone coming into the dome in a playoff environment will find it tough to come away with a win. The Bills never got going in this one; the Saints were just too quick off the blocks and gave Buffalo little hope in getting any kind of rhythm.
COWBOYS 30 LIONS 31
Where to begin with this one?! Never a dull moment if you follow Dallas and never knowing what you get with Detroit. Billed in the lead up as Dez vs. Megatron. The latter won handsomely gaining the second most single yards in a game by a receiver in the games history. He was simply quite unstoppable, even all of the Autobots would have slowed him down. This though was a game that the Cowboys threw away, and for once it wasn’t Romo who did the throwing. The gutsiest of calls at the very end was called by Matt Stafford. When everyone, including his teammates expected him to clock the ball, he took it upon himself to win the game with a leap of faith. This result could have huge playoff tiebreak implications.
GIANTS 15 EAGLES 7
Two teams that are both struggling for any kind of momentum showed exactly why. The strangest tale to come out of this is that even though the New York Giants have been woefully bad this season they are only two games back from the division lead. At 2-6. That just about says it all for the NFC East so far this year, no one wants to win it, and let’s face it, winning it will be the only way into the postseason. This also bodes well for Philadelphia who is in a terrible rut at the moment with just 10 points from their last two outings. At this time both teams will still have to vastly improve if they are to have a chance contesting for the division.
STEELERS 18 RAIDERS 21
Oakland is punching above their weight a little. They seem to be hanging onto wins or just about hanging in games. This is not the same team as last year where they would just roll over and die. There is a certain amount of grit about them this time around. Not quite the finished product but they are gaining a decent reputation that could mean they play spoiler to a few as the season winds on. For Pittsburgh this loss just about seals the end of their season. There was a dim light at the end of the tunnel but that has now been extinguished. It will be interesting to see how they play out the rest of the schedule as they could be looking at a relatively high draft pick and some decent new blood injected into a somewhat ageing roster.
JETS 9 BENGALS 49
When the New York Jets beat the Patriots it was meant to be a time of change, it was. They changed back into their bad alter ego and simply imploded. They were nowhere near the team that hounded the Patriots into submission. Instead they let Cincinnati tear them apart. That a touch unfair to the Bengals as they roared into life and again showed why they are the team that so many thought they would be in preseason. Emerging now as the team that could be the threat to the more serious contenders in the AFC. That said the others will now be looking at the Bengals knowing that they are the serious contenders. This will be the team to watch in the coming weeks as to whether or not they can handle the pressure they are putting themselves under.
FALCONS 13 CARDINALS 27
Atlanta’s season was the way of the Dodo a while back but they will look to salvage some pride in the remaining games, on this occasion they found an Arizona team that wasn’t willing to yield an opportunity to strengthen their own record and chances of progression, even if they are slim. It’s unlikely that the Cardinals will see post season play given the fact they are in the strong NFC West where wins will be hard to by. So like many other teams at this halfway stage it’s playing for pride and being a postseason party pooper for others.
REDSKINS 21 BRONCOS 45
For a short time it actually looked like Denver could have another loss dropped on them, after gaining an early lead they just assumed Washington would roll over. RG3 and his crew forgot about reputations, and they flew into a point’s frenzy of their own scoring 21 points very quickly. This of course woke the Broncos up and they responded by putting up 38 unanswered points to prove that they are the hottest offence side in NFL history (so far). Worryingly both defences will have to improve if they are to fulfil their respective goals, that of Super Bowl success for Denver and of catching the Cowboys for the Redskins.
PACKERS 44 VIKINGS 31
Returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown does not, repeat DOES NOT mean you will win the game. A team that is flitting from one QB to another week after week will never have any real direction, in fact the only place they may want to go now is back to London, scene of the Vikings only win so far this season. Green Bay are one of those contenders mentioned earlier, and right now they look the genuine article, one of four teams in the NFC that are hunting the prize of home field advantage. Of course the division has to be won first but they are making huge steps every week in reaching that target.
SEAHAWKS 14 RAMS 9
Is it a sign of a good team that even when you have a really bad off day you can still win? If that’s the case the Seattle Seahawks are a very good team. This simply has to be put down as one of those days for them and when it mattered the defence bailed them out, but make no bones about it this was a very poor performance that on any other day would have resulted in a loss. St.Louis will look back on this one and see it as one that got away. They played tough from the start and actually looked like the team of last year that did not lose a game in the division. Still a work in progress are the Rams but they are so nearly there on this showing.