So, I posted my slants this week before watching Sunday and Monday night football. The reason was that I wanted to take a longer and more comprehensive view at these four teams because I believe they (Jets, Pats, Ravens, Steelers) are the best four teams in the AFC. The South is not very good, with the Colts probably being the best but showing their mortality. The Chiefs are a nice team out West, and the Chargers are dangerous, but neither could really put together a game plan that could beat any of the Fantastic Four more than 3 out of 10 times. So, I figured, these games should tell us a lot about where we stand in the American Conference.
First, the Raven-Steelers game. The Ravens won in Pittsburgh, and Flacco played well late. However, Ben did not play in that game. Back in Baltimore, with Ben hurt along with half the Steelers it seemed, I thought the Ravens would pull it out again. However, a late play by Polamalu let the Steelers take this game.
The truth is, both teams showed great quality. They fought hard. The defenses were tough as nails. However, the thing is this game showed great weakness for both teams on offense. The Ravens cannot consistently move the ball. Stallworth is the only deep threat, and he cannot stay on the field. Ray Rice is a good player, but is elite like Brian Westbrook was. He slashes through a defense, and does not carve them up. He cannot pound a team. Flacco is a 2-3 read QB, nothing more (though that makes him top 15 in the NFL).
The Steelers showed their issues with injuries. The LT spot is a revolving door (I think Terrell Suggs is still blitzing). Their specialists are either terrible or hurt. Hines Ward simply does not create separation any more. While they won, they lost Heath Miller while doing it. Big Ben makes a ton of plays, sure. However, he also occasionally costs them and his injuries are mounting.
In the second game, America was treated to NE-NYJ on Monday night, which is almost always a classic. The Jets beat NE in New York earlier this year, before NE “molted” and became the team they are now. And, NE almost won that game. The Jets and Pats were both on great winning streaks. However, NE was having a troubling inability to convincingly finish games, and NYJ was having trouble starting them. The first game between them was a surprise not because of the troubles of NE’s offense (we know the Jets defense is good), but because Sanchez seemed at ease versus Belichick. Well, that changed this week.
Now, New England won this game because Brady was dealing. He almost looks better than 2007 Brady. The numbers are not the same as they were in that year. However, Brady is earning his Surgeon nickname because of the way he dissects a game. He controls the pace perfectly. He gets production out of bad running backs. Where Manning analyzes weaknesses and tendencies, Brady creates weaknesses and presses. On this night, Brady went after Jim Leonard’s replacement in about 4 ways. He was relentless. He took them on long drives, killing clock and erasing bad field position twice on 93 and 94 yard drives.
However, it should not be overlooked that Sanchez was terrible. After some deceptive stats (he has a 3-1 TD INT ratio for much of the season, but his passer rating shows he was never that good), he has come back to earth. Belichick confounded him, despite not a huge amount of real pressure. A supposedly young and insecure defense made him look silly. The defense has no big play makers, sack makers or ball hawks. They contain. Well, they could not contain New England.
This Patriots team is very interesting. It is growing together in no way I have seen before. They seem to have the perfect mix of youth/athleticism and veteran leadership and fire. It is the 2001-2005 “share the ball” Patriots with a decent amount of 2007 “embarrass them” Patriots. The defense is improving weekly. The linebackers now are swarming to the ball and are able to slip into coverage with ease. The corners are covering 1:1 with confidence, and there is a good 3 safety rotation.
So, if I had to power rank just these four teams, I am pretty confident it would go like this: 1. New England, 2. Baltimore, 3. Pittsburgh, 4. New York Jets. I know that will cause uproar because the Steelers beat the Ravens, but the win cost Pittsburgh several key players.
I said before this week that no matter how Atlanta played this week (my number 1 team), that if New England won, they would jump to the top spot from their number 2 perch. After Atlanta’s comeback, I was going to reconsider that stance. However, NE showed me they deserve that spot. After all, name me the team that beat the Chargers, Steelers, Ravens, Jets, and Colts this year. Oh yeah, it is the Pats. That is a hell of tiebreaker to hold for a possible 1 seed.
BLISS
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