| Contributing editor Joel
Buchsbaum discusses what jumped out at him during the Sunday games from Week 10. Baltimore
vs. Cincinnati: "Jamal Lewis had a great game running and catching. Trent
Dilfer played his best game in two years — was very efficient, made good decisions.
Defensively they totally shut down Corey Dillon."
Buffalo vs. New England: "The Patriots lost Drew Bledsoe very
early in the game. John Friesz just isn’t good enough. He’s too slow, he
doesn’t make quick enough decisions, he doesn’t throw the ball well enough.
(Buffalo) did a good job adjusting on defense after the first half for 29 minutes, and
then Flutie worked his magic. With the field goal by Christie, I don’t know how it
made it over. It was a prayer-type thing. Then they won in overtime."
Dallas vs. Philadelphia: "Two different games: The Cowboys
dominated the first half and the Eagles looked like they didn’t even show up, and the
second half was a different story. It was not all Philadelphia, but they played very
inspired. The thing that hurt Dallas throughout was Randall Cunningham, who did not play
well."
Indianapolis vs. Chicago: "Jim Miller was very efficient. They
got the running game going. They used a little more of the conventional offense with
Curtis Enis in there. The Bears played very inspired. They got the big lead and then the
Colts couldn’t quite come all the way back, but they made it close."
Miami vs. Detroit: "Miami got the Lions way behind right away.
The first play was a big kickoff return. The first play from scrimmage, Lamar Smith went
46 yards for a TD. Onside kick, Smith ran again and that was it."
N.Y. Giants vs. Cleveland: "The Browns are an awful team now with
no quarterback, no offense, no offensive line. They’ve had a lot of injuries they
couldn’t afford to have. The Giants are a solid team that wins the games they’re
supposed to win. And they won in efficient fashion."
Pittsburgh vs. Tennessee: "Tip your hat to Tennessee: They find
ways to win. They couldn’t get in the endzone — you’ve got to give the
Steelers great credit for their defense. Eddie George is not the same runner now.
He’s lost his initial quickness and he’s lost some of his cutting ability to
those injuries, and that was a huge factor. The quarterback play is just killing the
Steelers. Even the completion for a touchdown to Mark Bruener was a play which
would’ve been, at most, a short gain except that two Titans defenders collided on the
play."
San Francisco vs. New Orleans: "New Orleans just killed them
early, and the score isn’t indicative of how the game went. Basically the 49ers keyed
on Ricky Williams early in the game, opened up the passing game, let Jeff Blake have a
huge passing game, isolated their secondary. And it was all New Orleans all the way until
they called off the dogs."
Tampa Bay vs. Atlanta: "Dominating defense by Tampa Bay. They
knocked Chris Chandler out early with a concussion. The defense set up the offense. You
see, Shaun King had three TD passes, but he was under 50 percent and only threw for about
110 yards all game."
Washington vs. Arizona: "I guess you can’t keep blaming Brad
Johnson for this one. I mean, this is another example of the Redskins’ problems. This
team was not motivated, and they weren’t really ready to play this game. And they got
ambushed. But you could see it coming: They had the disappointing Monday-night loss, and
they didn’t take Arizona seriously enough. And they weren’t sharp."
Denver vs. N.Y. Jets: "Great play-calling by Mike Shanahan. Brian
Griese played a great game, was tremendous on third downs. And the Jets just ran out of
miracles this time. You know, that’s the second week in a row they’ve run out of
miracles. They’re getting poor play from their safeties: Aaron Glenn bit on an Ed
McCaffrey fake which resulted in a touchdown. In the first half, they let Terrell Davis
run the ball. For the first 20 minutes of this game, they were totally on their heels. You
really have to tip your hat to Griese: He had a great game. The stats don’t do him
justice."
Kansas City vs. Oakland: "The Raiders dominated this game.
Don’t let the final score fool you. They always had comfortable leads. Grbac got a
lot of garbage yards, a lot of garbage scores. Basically, (the Raiders were saying) you
want to take some time and score, we’ll let you — we know we can score on you.
The Raiders really exploited the young Chiefs defense. They took a lot of chances and they
just didn’t get away with them."
San Diego vs. Seattle: "You have to feel sorry for San Diego. I
mean, they dominate the game, they’re ahead and then the (Seahawks) kicker kicks
maybe the longest field goal of his life right at the very end to beat them."
St. Louis vs. Carolina: The Rams’ performance vs. the Panthers is
the one game of the week really worth talking about.
First of all, the Rams played the whole game without Marshall Faulk. The Rams beat
themselves.
They had a couple of very bad fumbles where they didn’t put the ball away, they
had a lot of penalties, and this is the real key that a lot of people are going to miss:
Their offensive line had a ton of injuries. They’re basically ankle injuries, leg
injuries. As a result of those injuries, they lost lateral movement, and some of the
players, such as Ryan Tucker, lost their ability to anchor. As a result, they
couldn’t move and they could be bull-rushed, and Carolina just ran all over them for
much of the game. Its defensive line was running over them.
Tucker had a horrible game at right tackle. But he really shouldn’t have been out
there. The ankle was too bad; he couldn’t adjust at all to the inside. He
couldn’t handle the power rush, and they killed him. And the only reason he’s in
there is they have so many injured players they really don’t have any depth.
Then Orlando Pace got hurt. He came right back in, but he didn’t look as dominant.
They tried to run Marshall Faulk plays too much on running plays with Justin Watson.
They tried to get outside with him; he just doesn’t have that type of speed.
You’ve got to just slam him quick inside because he does not have that speed to get
outside.
On defense, the Rams made big plays by blitzing, but they also left themselves very
vulnerable. There was some poor tackling in the secondary.
Grant Wistrom played a totally fabulous game — the type of game where you name a
guy Defensive Player of the Game. He was all over the place, and he had one touchdown
called back because of an inadvertent whistle, which was a key play early in the game.
The Rams’ receivers caught the ball extremely well. Trent Green also caused some
sacks with his indecision and holding the ball too long. The big difference between him
and Kurt Warner is that Warner sees and senses the rush better and gets rid of the ball
quicker.
Defensively, the most discouraging thing for the Rams was that there were times that it
looked like Kevin Carter flat out quit on them again. You really have to be disappointed:
You’ve got a lot of guys playing hurt, this guy is the freshest guy there —
they’re just playing him part-time — and he’s quitting. |
