NFC News and Notes from Week 5
By Teddy Covers
Sportsmemo.com
Welcome to Teddy’s unique look at the NFL. Teddy watches games all day on Sunday, typing furiously on his laptop while giving you the key info that the box scores and game recaps don’t necessarily have. This week: NFC thoughts and opinions from Week 5.
Chicago Bears - Chicago entered the game with only six sacks on the season, a notable weakness on a defense that's heavily reliant on creating turnovers. They got a little bit of pressure on Drew Brees here, but not enough. The Bears played a lot of Cover-2 today and it gave the Saints fits for a while, forcing Brees into dink-and-dunk’ mode. But Sean Payton made play calling adjustments, and Chicago’s defense didn’t adjust back, leaving Jimmy Graham in store for a huge afternoon.
Marc Trestman was a pointspread monster during his tenure with the Montreal Alouettes in one role in particular: coming off a loss. In his first NFL try in that same role, that success did not translate.
For the second straight week, this rebuilt offensive line got eaten up for extended stretches. Jay Cutler was under constant pressure and Matt Forte had no room to run. Even at this stage of his career, in just about every game, Cutler continues to make a handful of truly cringe-worthy throws. He had a pair in a crucial second half 'first and goal from the five' situation as they were trying to rally from 16 down. That being said, it’s certainly a good sign to see Cutler developing chemistry with a receiver not named Brandon Marshall; a huge afternoon for Alshon Jeffrey.
Arizona Cardinals - This offensive line continues to struggle to protect Carson Palmer. Palmer actually did a decent job of extending plays with his legs; certainly not a QB known for his scrambling ability. But he threw an INT in the end zone last week and had another one here – this offense isn't good enough to waste good scoring chances like that. This was the third week in a row that this offense simply didn't move the football with any consistency.
Darnell Dockett was blowing plays up at the line of scrimmage; one of the more underrated facets of this defense – it's pressure that make Patrick Peterson and the secondary as consistent effective as they are. Peterson is making impact plays every week. He won the game for Arizona at Tampa last week practically singlehandedly, and made a great INT and return just before halftime here, ending a Panthers scoring threat.
DE Calais Campbell was awesome. LB Daryl Washington was back in the lineup after serving a four game suspension and he did a remarkable job keeping Cam Newton in the pocket as the 'spy' defender, not to mention his two sacks and red zone interception. ‘Zona’s blitzes were very effective and the pass rush was there without it.
Dallas Cowboys - Tony Romo was every bit as good as Peyton Manning in this ballgame, a really impressive...until his second interception of the season late in the fourth quarter, the only mistake he made all day, and at the worst possible time. Romo made several tremendous throws on the run when forced out of the pocket on scrambles, creating something out of nothing. Dallas had 13 first downs on their first two dozen offensive snaps, generating all kinds of big plays. With nine completions of longer than 20 yards, it was certainly an offensive explosion, good enough to beat just about any team in the NFL.
It's hard for me to rip any defense facing Denver, regardless of how badly they get gashed -- Peyton Manning is pretty hard to stop. That being said, when you allow more than ten yards per play for an entire half, like Dallas did in the first half here, you're clearly doing something wrong. And when you allow TD's on six consecutive red zone possessions – even against Denver – there's clearly a problem. Sean Lee is a beast at LB, but most of this stop unit is downright soft. There are holes galore to exploit in Monte Kiffin's Cover-2.
Green Bay Packers - Morgan Burnett back in the lineup at safety after missing the first three games of the season and he definitely had an impact, saving a potential big play TD with a beautiful pass breakup. The front seven is clogging up the middle – there’s simply not much room to run against them between the tackles.
But I can't understand why Dom Capers keeps blitzing on every passing down. This secondary is not good enough to handle single coverage, even against an injury riddled receiving corps. The blitzes seemed very predictable, the Lions handled it well, and the Packers struggled to get off the field on third downs as a result. The D had a stellar effort here, but I don’t trust them to do it again next week.
When Aaron Rodgers had time to throw, he had open receivers downfield, but his protection was mediocre at best, even though he took only a single sack. The offense wasn't clicking; lots of missed connections that were just slightly off – passes bouncing off fingertips type of thing. And the Packers were settling for field goals all afternoon, 0-fer on red zone opportunities. Total bettors must note their strong commitment to the run in a game that stayed three touchdowns Under.
New Orleans Saints - The Saints entered this game with the best defensive numbers in the NFL this year, holding foes to 3.4 yards per play. No other team is even close. The stats from this game will show a significant decline, but those stats are very misleading.
The Bears only first down on their first four drives came via a Cutler scramble. Once they had a three score lead, their strategy changed to more of a prevent style, which resulted in plenty of garbage time yards for Chicago, but they were not meaningful yards.
Let me give credit where credit is due – good defensive draft choices. This year’s #1, Kenny Vaccaro, is absolutely an impact rookie, making plays all over the field. Their previous #1 (from 2011), Cameron Jordan, has four sacks over the past four weeks; a difference maker on the edge of Rob Ryan’s 3-4 defense.
With a defense that's getting stop after stop, an offense this good is downright scary, in theory. But the Saints running game simply isn’t working, and this pass heavy offense struggled in the red zone on grass instead of the fast track inside the Superdome. That being said, there’s nothing about this undefeated team that appears fraudulent thusfar – they’re legit contenders to win it all.
Seattle Seahawks - This defense is truly special; nary a weakness on this stop unit. Their pass rush is strong; their blitzes extremely effective. These linebackers are all over the field. The secondary has nothing but lockdown corners and hard hitting safeties. They gave Andrew Luck fits today, shutting down the Colts passing game for extended stretches.
Yes, this D got gashed in the fourth quarter here. Yes, they did commit a handful of foolish penalties. And yes, they blew a couple of coverages, especially on the TY Hilton long TD that changed the momentum of the game entirely. This certainly wasn’t one of their better defensive showings, but there’s nothing to make me think that this elite stop unit has suddenly sprung a leak.
Coming into the game, my biggest concerns about the Seahawks were on the offensive side of the football; playing without both starting tackles and their starting center. Frankly, it didn't matter that much. Russell Wilson was pretty close to unstoppable with his arm and with his feet, and Marshawn Lynch defined the bruising back concept here. But this passing game struggled repeatedly on third down and in the red zone. That had at least something to do with their offensive line issues; a situation to watch moving forward.