Week 11 in the NFL
Examining some of the highlights (and lowlights) of the 11th week of the season.
• Ahmad Bradshaw or no Ahmad Bradshaw, there's no excuse for the 17-10 Giants' Sunday-night loss to the Eagles. Eli Manning may not have had a running game with the very old and very bad Brandon Jacobs in for Bradshaw, but he's got to find a way to put up more than 10 points and beat Vince Young. He just has to. Dallas tried its best to blow one to Washington before pulling out a 27-24 overtime victory, meaning the Cowboys are tied for first place in the NFC East with New York. I'm not sure how Giants coach Tom Coughlin survives yet another second-half collapse, no matter how tough the Giants' schedule may be.
• I think the Dolphins' 35-8 blowout of the Bills is more a reflection of Buffalo's collapse than Miami's surge, but the once (stink)ing-for-Luck Dolphins sure are playing better. That defense is, at the very least least, pretty good. Nobody's scored in double digits on Miami during its three-game winning streak (the only reason that's not really impressive is that the Dolphins faced Matt Cassel, Rex Grossman and the awful-of-late Ryan Fitzpatrick during the stretch), and nobody has put up more than 20 on the Dolphins in over a month. For Miami's sake, I do have one wish — that it doesn't fool itself into thinking Matt Moore's fantastic recent play decreases its huge need for a young quarterback to build around.
• OK, the Tim Tebow thing is no longer explainable and no longer easily laughed off. But can we give the Broncos' defense some credit, please? The timing of Tebow's one touchdown drive couldn't have been better last Thursday, and that it went 95 yards against the Jets only made it more impressive, but it was his only touchdown drive of the game! The touchdown is irrelevant if the Denver defense hadn't managed a Pick 6 of Mark Sanchez earlier. In fact, most of the dramatic Tebow touchdowns wouldn't matter if the Denver defense hadn't held its opponents to 15, 24, 10 and 13 points in its last few wins. Buy into Tebowmania if you must, but realize that Von Miller and the defense are what's really carried that team into improbable contention.
• When checking scores on my phone from a Soldier Field parking lot Sunday, the one that jumped out most was Carolina leading Detroit 24-7 midway through the second quarter. The fact that the Lions had three turnovers to that point generated a headline under the NFL tab. It's to the Lions' credit, even against a brutal defense, that they were able to come all the way back from that spot and topple the Panthers 49-35. Maybe we'll look back on the latter two-thirds of that game as a turning point in the career of Matthew Stafford, who went from playing some terrible football for a second game in a row to throwing for 335 yards and five touchdowns.
