Week 10 in the NFL
Examining some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the 10th week of the season.
• The Bengals didn't get it done in their biggest test as an AFC North contender, falling 24-17 to Pittsburgh, but they sure made the Steelers work for it. That Cincinnati defense, which limited Rashard Mendenhall to 44 yards on 16 carries (albeit with 2 touchdowns) and Ben Roethlisberger to 245 yards passing, is for real. Even though they lost the game and cornerback Leon Hall for the season, it wasn't that bad a day for the Bengals. Fellow AFC North contender Baltimore somehow lost to the Seahawks, and AFC wild-card hopefuls Buffalo and New York were both blown out. It's very possible that both NFC wild cards could come out of the North division, and the same could happen in the AFC.
• I didn't find it shocking that the 49ers beat the Giants on Sunday. That they did it while getting zero yards on six carries from workhorse running back Frank Gore, who left with an injury, is shocking. Though Kendall Hunter and Anthony Dixon produced good per-carry averages, the 49ers ended up with just 77 rushing yards. While their run defense and two interceptions of Eli Manning are primary reasons they won, the 49ers relied more heavily that usual on Alex Smith, who produced a decent 19-for-30, 242-yard, 1 TD, 1 INT line. Everyone still thinks the formula for beating the Niners is to build an early lead and make them catch up, but nobody has been able to do it.
• Until the Denver losses we all think should be happening actually happen, I give up trying to explain the whole Tim Tebow thing. I rarely see teams that complete two passes in a game win at the high-school level anymore, let alone the pros. That's exactly how many passes Tebow and the Broncos completed in their 17-10 victory over the Chiefs Sunday. Make no mistake about it, this wasn't some great offensive performance: 17 points, 313 total yards, 16 first downs. Denver won because of its defense, and because the Chiefs' passing game wasn't much more effective than its own. But Tebow shouldn't be winning, not with this team, and he is. I don't know why, exactly, but it is happening.
• I'd like to end by saying I'm glad Falcons coach Mike Smith opted to go for it on fourth-and-very-short from his own 29 in overtime, if only because it didn't work and led directly to the Saints winning, which was a good thing for the Bears. My initial reaction was that Smith was crazy for doing it, because if it fails, his team is almost certainly going to lose the game. After reading some analysis of how the win probability was actually a bit higher for the Falcons by going for it than by punting, I've backtracked, at least to myself. Give credit to Smith for showing guts, if nothing else, in a league where coaches too often error on the side of being conservative and making the moves that will get criticized the least. The one thing I didn't like (or actually, because of my rooting interest, did like) was that Smith didn't order up a quarterback sneak.
