All right, so it's finals week and I don't have much time to write about stuff. I swear I'm going to do a little ditty about the MLB Hot Stove stuff (especially the Phillies and Red Sox big signings), but probably not until next week.
For now, I think I'm going to recap the Week 14 games from the other side of what I wrote last week; this time I'll be looking at the games from the side of the worst teams in the league, those that seem destined for top-5 draft picks. If there are ties record-wise, I'll break them based on which team I expect to finish lower.
1. Carolina Panthers (1-15): This team just doesn't have ANY quarterback play, and they've thrown 4 of them out there at some point this year, including two rookies (one of whom, Jimmy Clausen, is supposed to be the guy of the future). They got destroyed by the Falcons thanks to their bottom-ten run defense getting thrashed by Michael Turner for 110 yards and 3 touchdowns.
2. Cincinnati Bengals (2-14): They went undefeated in the AFC North last year, and if they don't beat the Browns this week they will win only one game in the division this year. Their inadequacy was on prime display against the Steelers this week, as Pittsburgh scored 2 more touchdowns on returns of Carson Palmer INT's than they scored offensively (zero). Cedric Benson has toted the rock at least fifteen times with less than 4 yards per carry 8 out of 13 games this year (two more if you count games where he didn't get to fifteen, like this week)
3. Buffalo Bills (3-13): I expect them to lose their last three games (against each of the other teams in their division), but put up a pretty good fight against at least the Dolphins. They won a snorefest against the Browns 13-6 thanks to a workmanlike 29 carries and 112 yards from Fred Jackson. So you drafted CJ Spiller at what, 7 overall? 8 carries for 33 yards for a team with 2 wins against a team that's going nowhere? If you are paying him all this money and whatnot, why not give him the ball, hm?
4. Detroit Lions (3-13): Another team that's just sad-looking, and if they had some decent quarterback play I would have thrown them a bone for at least another win. However, Aaron Rodgers gets a concussion and Drew Stanton is able to lead his team to a 7-3 victory with this stellar line: 10-for-22, 117 yards, 1 TD (on a screen), 2 INT. His QB rating was 0.2 points fewer than what he would have gotten had he just thrown 22 incompletions and called it a day.
5. Denver Broncos (4-12): I don't know if/when Tim Tebow shows up, but I really hope he doesn't, if for no other reason than that I have Brandon Lloyd on my fantasy team. Kyle Orton is top-5 in the league in passing this year, but has gone 28-for-73 with 283 yards, 0 TD, 3 INT in the last two weeks after going 24-for-41, 347 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT the week before. Oh, and they just lost 43-13 to a Cardinals team that had scored 43 points in their prior four games combined. I just think there's too much offensive firepower on this team not to win a game before the end of the year.
Honorable mention bad teams:
Arizona Cardinals (5 games where the top passer had 150 or fewer yards, and they won 2?)
Tennessee Titans (Randy Moss signing looking good now, huh? 5 games, 5 catches, 62 yards, 0 TD) San Francisco 49ers (Alex Smith really likes putting together good finishes to confuse his coaches)
Cleveland Browns (Peyton Hillis is a beast, but there's just nobody on this team)
Minnesota Vikings (Tarvaris Jackson is terrible, and Brett Favre is not much better; poor Adrian...)
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