10 & Out: Week 5 Luck of the South & Rise of the Rookies & more…
By Kevin Casini
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck jogs off following their 44-17 victory over the Jaguars. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
What I learned this week these weeks…
It’s a funny, funny league. Ten days after being humiliated by the Atlanta Falcons 56-14, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers find the guts to pull off an incredible literally-last-second comeback on the road and beat Pittsburgh. Meanwhile the same Falcons that embarrassed Tampa on Thursday night were never really in the game at all when they traveled to Minneapolis. More on those Minnesota Vikings in just a second.
The demise of the San Francisco 49ers was reported prematurely. They thumped stuffed stymied and otherwise bewildered the Eagles offense in hanging on for a 26-21 win they sorely needed.
After beating Tampa in week one 20-14 and then holding the Lions to only a touchdown in week two the Carolina Panthers have lost two in a row by a combined score of 75-29. That’s not getting it done. Next up: the über-pissed Jay Cutler and the Marc TrestMen. Good luck, Riverboat Ron.
Told ya so…Told ya Atlanta-Minnesota was a trap game. Told you all but I wasn’t listening. At age 21 Teddy Bridgewater (19-30, 317 yards, 1 rushing TD) started his first game and led the Vikings offense, sans Adrian Peterson, to six scoring drives in just three quarters. Yea, he left with an ankle sprain, and that’s going to happen throughout his career, but he’ll play Thursday against Green Bay. A decade after Daunte Culpepper last starred at the position for Minnesota it looks like the Vikings may have finally picked the right quarterback. Now I just need to pick the right teams.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugh
Good: Andrew Luck (29-41, 393 yds, 4 TDs) the 41-17 rout of Tennessee. With one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL the Colts are averaging 34 ppg in this young season. In his last two games Luck is 60-80 for 763 yards and eight (8) touchdowns. It won’t keep up but at this pace he’d have 5,220 yards and 52 touchdown passes. He’s going to dominate his division for another decade, like Peyton before him. I’m ready to say he’s the best player in football.
Bad: The Philadelphia Eagles offense scored zero (0) points and gained just 213 yards, season lows, and 90 fewer than the Chiefs had in the first half against New England. Credit the San Francisco defense but in the last two games LeSean McCoy has 39 rushing yards. Maybe 80 plays a game takes a toll? I dunno, I just work here.
Ugh: Oakland Raiders….again they’ve fired their coach, again just four games into the season. Former Dolphins HC and Jets OC Tony Sparano will take over at the helm for the remainder of the season. If he can right the ship with this sorry lot he’ll have the inside track for the permanent job. If not, he and GM Reggie McKenzie will be sprucing up their resumes. Why is Tony Sparano, the ground & pound inventor of the Wildcat offense on the same offensive staff with former Chiefs OC and one of the architects of the St. Louis Rams “Greatest Show on Turf” offense Al Saunders anyway? That doesn’t make a lot of sense internally for Oakland but then again, what does?
Whatever…Ok maybe Jay Cutler has some fine-tuning to do before he can put up Offensive POY numbers. He’s still the man. Whatever.
Mystery Team…Fourth in the league in total offense, eighth against the run and eighth in total YPG against…
FWIW…In his first start Jacksonville Jaguars rookie QB Blake “Fear the” Bortles set an NFL record: at a 78.4% completion percentage (29-for-37) his was the most accurate quarterback debut in NFL history. He’ll take his lumps before this season is over, but he already looks like the best QB on their roster.
These Teams aren’t very Special…The Bears and Packers game was a day off for the punters; no punts in the game at all. Green Bay’s possessions went TD, TD, TD, FG, TD, TD, missed FG. Chicago coupled scores with turnovers and the end of half almost score to Martellus Bennett. The last time a game had zero punts for 60 minutes was a Bills-Niners tilt in 2002 when Steve Young and Jim Kelly led their respective offenses to over 1,000 total yards.
Hey, didn’t you used to be…the New England Patriots? Embarrassed on national television is the only real way to put it. F grades across the board except maybe for the special teams unit. In their last eight AFC road games the Pats are 3-5, and are 5-6 overall away from Foxboro against the NFL. That never used to happen. No wonder the Jets Bills and Dolphins don’t think they’re out of it this year. Speaking of the Bills…
Buffalo Bills Head Coach Doug Marrone decided to yank starting and now former future franchise QB EJ Manuel and go with Kyle Orton instead, he of the 58.5% career completion percentage and the 79.9 quarterback rating. Marrone said Orton gave Buffalo “the best opportunity to win.” If that’s true, why didn’t he play the first four games of the year?
Top Three…Raiders
Bo Jackson
Al Davis
Blackbeard
W2W4: Arizona and Denver should be a good one but I’m keen on Baltimore and Indianapolis. The Colts are boasting the best offense in the league after two back-to-back blowout wins, albeit over lousy divisional opponents. They’ll face a much tougher test when Baltimore comes to town this week. The Ravens are interesting: not great against the pass but stout against the run, they’ve averaged only 12.3 points against during their three game winning streak. This could end up being game of the week.
Mystery Team revealed….the 1-3 Washington Redskins…funny league.
Locks of the Century of the Week… Oooh la lahhh 5-2 last week, (falcon Atlanta….) leaves me at 14-5 on the season. I should never have given up on Tony Romo. Hoping you checked the injury reports Sunday am and saw Arian Foster was playing against Buffalo. Games I’m considering this week include:
CLE +1.5 @ TEN – 1.5
CHI +2.5 @ CAR -2.5
BUF +7 @ DET – 7
IND -3.5 @ BAL+3.5
SEA -7.5 @ WAS +7.5
NYJ+6.5 @ SD -6.5
Check back Friday for the latest picks with injury updates.
MONEY LINE – If you want to take a dog, take CLEVELAND +155. If you just want a winner,
Seattle. ELIMINATOR PICK– WK 1 Philly WK 2 Green Bay WK 3 New Orleans WK 4 San Diego
WK 5 Pittsburgh
NFL Week 5 picks NFL Week 4 10 & Out