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Fantasy football: What we learned from Week 5
By Michael Salfino, Special to the Rocky
Published October 6, 2008 at 8:42 a.m.
Updated October 6, 2008 at 8:42 a.m.
Photo by Jarrett Baker/Getty Images
It was a long Sunday afternoon for Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who watched his team surrender 523 yards in a 44-6 loss to the New York Giants.
The season is settling and reality is getting more difficult to rationalize away. Let's lead with our head and trust our eyes as we give a cold, reasoned rundown of NFL Week 5.
The Seahawks posted one of their worst defensive performances ever in yielding 342 first-half yards to the Giants, proving to be equally inept against the run and pass. Seattle ended up allowing 523 yards and even managed to play patsy to gold-plated NFL bust David Carr on a late TD to make the final 44-6.
While allowing an opponent to post 254 rushing yards at 7.1 yards per attempt as New York did is emasculating, yielding more than 10 yards per pass attempt is even worse. The Packers are drooling in the on-deck circle, as they get set to visit Seattle in Week 6.
Deion Branch did not look like he was healthy in returning about eight months after ACL knee surgery.
Commanders defensive coordinator Greg Blache said Brian Westbrook is the game's best offensive player. Westbrook, like Marshall Faulk before him, is the queen on any offensive coordinator's chessboard because of his skill as a receiver and ability to line up anywhere.
The Colts' run defense continues to be pathetic (156 yards and 4.9 per carry to the Texans). The defensive tackles weigh 260 pounds like it's 1960 and, since Bob Sanders is out, their safeties just sit back and wait for the running back to barrel through the hole instead of sticking their nose in and limiting the gain.
Of course, it all was for naught, as Sage Rosenfels, who is very mistake-prone, decided to go helicopter like Nat Moore 20-plus years ago. Only Rosenfels fumbled, setting up a highly improbable Colts comeback form a 27-10 mid-fourth quarter deficit. The comeback was punctuated by a TD grab by Reggie Wayne that was one of the 10 best in the history of the league; and trust me, I'm not given to hyperbole.
Note the Texans have allowed opponents 13 TDs in 14 red zone possessions. Let's call it the "bend and break" defense.
Adrian Wilson of the Cardinals KO'd Trent Edwards and then nearly ripped Marshawn Lynch's head off, settling for merely his helmet. He's a safety that packs the wallop of a defensive end.
Prettiest pass of the day was J.P. Losman's 87-yard bomb to a streaking Lee Evans, which traveled over 60 yards in the air.
Champ Bailey claims teams only threw in his direction 11 times the first four weeks. That's a total hard to believe given the success teams have had passing against the Broncos. So much for the value of a shutdown corner.
Chris Perry isn't very good and had another big fumble after being on double-secret probation from Marvin Lewis for exactly that reason, so expect Cedric Benson to get more carries at his expense going forward. Benson also is perfect for the Mean Machine, prison yard team that Cincy always seems bent on building.
The Cowboys got bailed out by a spectacular flash of crossing speed by Terrell Owens late in that contest. But they cannot settle for other options when teams simply stick a corner in Owens's face with a safety behind him in cloud coverage. Figure out a way to get the ball to your biggest playmaker, Dallas. And not just little outs and ins but deep stuff, too.
That Wild Hog offense that the Dolphins use with Pennington lined up as a wideout while Ronnie Brown takes the snap resulted in another TD against the Chargers, who incredibly looked like they hadn't seen the play before.
Roy Williams dropped multiple passes and is now likely to have an inexperienced QB directing the Lions attack. Downgrades everywhere there except for rookie Kevin Smith, who will reclaim the RB job from Rudi Johnson.
Nice to see Randy Moss get deep. But Matt Cassel has an annoying habit of tapping the ball before releasing it on deeper pocket throws. His release is slow to begin with, and this gives defenders an extra split second to close on him and the receiver he's locked on to. When you see it, Matt, throw it.
Happy to be wrong about Clinton Portis, who looks as good as ever. Even if he gets hurt at some point, the heavy career mileage clearly hasn't taken nearly the toll I thought was likely. But the mileage formula seems to have worked for LaDanian Tomlinson. If you can find someone who fully buys into him being a second-half-of-the-season player, sell.
All corners used to have bad games against Marvin Harrison. Now, they all shine. It's not them, it's him.
The Broncos running game looks weak. Expect rookie Ryan Torain (elbow) to get a long look when he returns Nov. 2.
By Michael Salfino, Special to the Rocky
Published October 6, 2008 at 8:42 a.m.
Updated October 6, 2008 at 8:42 a.m.
Photo by Jarrett Baker/Getty Images
It was a long Sunday afternoon for Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, who watched his team surrender 523 yards in a 44-6 loss to the New York Giants.
The season is settling and reality is getting more difficult to rationalize away. Let's lead with our head and trust our eyes as we give a cold, reasoned rundown of NFL Week 5.
The Seahawks posted one of their worst defensive performances ever in yielding 342 first-half yards to the Giants, proving to be equally inept against the run and pass. Seattle ended up allowing 523 yards and even managed to play patsy to gold-plated NFL bust David Carr on a late TD to make the final 44-6.
While allowing an opponent to post 254 rushing yards at 7.1 yards per attempt as New York did is emasculating, yielding more than 10 yards per pass attempt is even worse. The Packers are drooling in the on-deck circle, as they get set to visit Seattle in Week 6.
Deion Branch did not look like he was healthy in returning about eight months after ACL knee surgery.
Commanders defensive coordinator Greg Blache said Brian Westbrook is the game's best offensive player. Westbrook, like Marshall Faulk before him, is the queen on any offensive coordinator's chessboard because of his skill as a receiver and ability to line up anywhere.
The Colts' run defense continues to be pathetic (156 yards and 4.9 per carry to the Texans). The defensive tackles weigh 260 pounds like it's 1960 and, since Bob Sanders is out, their safeties just sit back and wait for the running back to barrel through the hole instead of sticking their nose in and limiting the gain.
Of course, it all was for naught, as Sage Rosenfels, who is very mistake-prone, decided to go helicopter like Nat Moore 20-plus years ago. Only Rosenfels fumbled, setting up a highly improbable Colts comeback form a 27-10 mid-fourth quarter deficit. The comeback was punctuated by a TD grab by Reggie Wayne that was one of the 10 best in the history of the league; and trust me, I'm not given to hyperbole.
Note the Texans have allowed opponents 13 TDs in 14 red zone possessions. Let's call it the "bend and break" defense.
Adrian Wilson of the Cardinals KO'd Trent Edwards and then nearly ripped Marshawn Lynch's head off, settling for merely his helmet. He's a safety that packs the wallop of a defensive end.
Prettiest pass of the day was J.P. Losman's 87-yard bomb to a streaking Lee Evans, which traveled over 60 yards in the air.
Champ Bailey claims teams only threw in his direction 11 times the first four weeks. That's a total hard to believe given the success teams have had passing against the Broncos. So much for the value of a shutdown corner.
Chris Perry isn't very good and had another big fumble after being on double-secret probation from Marvin Lewis for exactly that reason, so expect Cedric Benson to get more carries at his expense going forward. Benson also is perfect for the Mean Machine, prison yard team that Cincy always seems bent on building.
The Cowboys got bailed out by a spectacular flash of crossing speed by Terrell Owens late in that contest. But they cannot settle for other options when teams simply stick a corner in Owens's face with a safety behind him in cloud coverage. Figure out a way to get the ball to your biggest playmaker, Dallas. And not just little outs and ins but deep stuff, too.
That Wild Hog offense that the Dolphins use with Pennington lined up as a wideout while Ronnie Brown takes the snap resulted in another TD against the Chargers, who incredibly looked like they hadn't seen the play before.
Roy Williams dropped multiple passes and is now likely to have an inexperienced QB directing the Lions attack. Downgrades everywhere there except for rookie Kevin Smith, who will reclaim the RB job from Rudi Johnson.
Nice to see Randy Moss get deep. But Matt Cassel has an annoying habit of tapping the ball before releasing it on deeper pocket throws. His release is slow to begin with, and this gives defenders an extra split second to close on him and the receiver he's locked on to. When you see it, Matt, throw it.
Happy to be wrong about Clinton Portis, who looks as good as ever. Even if he gets hurt at some point, the heavy career mileage clearly hasn't taken nearly the toll I thought was likely. But the mileage formula seems to have worked for LaDanian Tomlinson. If you can find someone who fully buys into him being a second-half-of-the-season player, sell.
All corners used to have bad games against Marvin Harrison. Now, they all shine. It's not them, it's him.
The Broncos running game looks weak. Expect rookie Ryan Torain (elbow) to get a long look when he returns Nov. 2.
