Andy Richardson

Week 13 heralded the annual reminder that Old Man Winter can have a major impact on NFL games. As can Old Woman Wind and Young Child Rain and whoever else Mother Nature wants to line up in Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and elsewhere across the East and Midwest. Last year there was an 8-0 game in Cleveland, yesterday a 10-3 game in Buffalo, a 10-6 game in Cleveland, and on and on. Don't forget to bookmark Weather.com for easy access each Sunday morning; ignore the elements at your fantasy peril. OK, on to the games I focused on yesterday....

Giants-Washington: Plenty will be said this week about all the Plaxico Burress stuff, so I'll just focus on the game. Which was kind of more of the same with the Giants: an inexorable march toward another Super Bowl appearance. Washington was plenty game and threw out reverses and some nice individual efforts on the part of veterans like Chris Cooley and Antwaan Randle El, but they couldn't run the ball (Jason Campbell led the team with 38 yards; Clinton Portis had 22) and got chewed up by Eli Manning when they stacked the line against the run. Very nice game for Amani Toomer, whose value is up dramatically with Burress' season in doubt, and Domenik Hixon, who should now be owned in all leagues. Brandon Jacobs looked fine too. Manning was a little erratic (picked by DeAngelo Hall and would have thrown a second to him had Shawn Springs not broken it up -- great play, buddy), but he got the job done.

As for Washington, a lot of little plays added up to their loss. They had a nice drive before the half that ended in a momentum-sapping missed field goal. James Thrash -- yes, he's still in the league -- had an awful drop on what would have been a third-down conversion. And they botched an interception, as noted above. Jason Campbell was just OK, and that's probably not going to be good enough to beat the Giants this year.

Panthers-Packers: This was a game of huge momentum swings. Early on the Panthers jumped out to a 14-3 lead, and the boo birds were out in force at Lambeau. On the bright side, if the Panthers had continued to pour it on the Packers' fans could have made it home in time to catch the start of the Jets game. Not that it affected the outcome, but there was some bad refereeing in this game. Steve Smith caught a pass down to the 1-yard line and it sure looked as if he rolled over a would-be defender into the end zone, but he was ruled down short. DeAngelo Williams scored a touchdown but there was a quick whistle when he was briefly stopped before his second effort got him in, which was just a horrible call -- you saw one ref rushing into the play blowing his whistle while another rushed in signaling touchdown. Just beautiful. Williams scored on the next play anyway, and three more times on the day (the last after yet another Smith catch down to the 1-yard line). Bad week to be facing Williams, and a bad week to own either Smith or Delhomme given they were about 2 feet from connecting on a pair of touchdowns. Delhomme, by the way, didn't look particularly good, either; fortunate to avoid a couple of interceptions.

As for the Packers, their passing game looks fine; Aaron Rodgers threw a pick and should have thrown a couple others, but it's not his fault this team's run defense is horrible, and he made some nice throws to Greg Jennings and Donalds Driver and Lee in there, too. Brandon Jackson looked better than Ryan Grant, which was what the team was probably hoping when they used a second-round pick on him last year; maybe there will be a controversy here at some point. At 5-7, the Packers may need to do a little more thinking about next year right now.

Broncos-Jets: Never underestimate the potential of a good young quarterback matched up with a shaky pass defense. Jay Cutler had a great game and the Jets, well, didn't. Right from the start they looked like they'd used up a whole lot of emotion winning at New England and Tennessee the last two weeks. On offense, they struggled against a pretty poor Broncos defense, falling into a 7-0 hole with a trick play that Jerricho Cotchery really should have fallen on (and maybe he did; replays looked that way but the play wasn't reviewable). In the fourth quarter, with the Jets down 10 points and trying to convert a 4th down at the Broncos 39, he dropped a long pass that could have pulled them within 3; instead the Broncos got it back and scored a few plays later to finish things. So that's right, Jerricho, I'm putting this loss entirely on YOU. Nice game for Thomas Jones anyway, but that's about it.

As for the Broncos, I guess they're going to win the AFC West. I don't understand it, with their defense wretched and them down to a nobody fullback as their starting running back, but there you go. Their offense certainly looks a lot better with Tony Scheffler in the lineup, and facing a pass defense with the problems the Jets have doesn't hurt. New York's run defense evidently misses linebacker David Harris, as well. That and the other teams in Denver's division are a combined 9-27.

Bears-Vikings: Gus Frerotte has taken a lot of criticism over the years for head-butting a stadium wall some years back, more than he should really. But it's funny how here he is again playing a night game, a decade later, and little things happen that recall the incident. Like taking a late hit that wasn't called (it was kind of accidental) that resulted in his head slamming into the turf -- fortunately he was OK. And then scoring on a quarterback sneak, which I couldn't help but wonder if might lead to some wild celebration by Frerotte -- instead he just spiked the ball. But I like to think that he was at least considering head-butting something. By the way, there was another great play later where the Vikings were flagged for being offside, but the play continued, resulting in Kyle Orton getting driven into the turf with a bone-rattling sack. Good to see the refs are protecting those quarterbacks.

As for the game, well, the Bears kind of screwed up a goal-line situation, which was followed by a 99-yard touchdown pass -- tying a record, of course, and I actually think it was a foot or so longer than the other one I know of, from Brett Favre to Robert Brooks, which I might add also came against the Bears. And that 14-point swing was pretty much the game, although Kyle Orton throwing 3 ugly interceptions in the space of seven passes really put the capper on it. The Vikings don't look particularly good and they're about to lose the guts (so to speak) of their defense to suspension, but they've got a pretty good shot to win the NFC North.

Random notes from other games I caught bits and pieces of: Funny sign at the Browns game. "All I want for Christmas is a win." Just like a kid, though, that wasn't really all that fan wanted. Underneath, it said "A win. A WR that can catch. A winning coach and season." Looks like he's 0 for 4. ... Wind was a huge factor in that Colts-Browns game, possibly playing a factor in an ugly Manning interception and certain a Vinatieri missed field goal, although probably not a Reggie Wayne TD drop. Derek Anderson got hurt, meaning if Browns fans didn't think things could get worse for them at quarterback, it's only because they didn't see Ken Dorsey play in San Francisco a couple of years back. ... Cadillac Williams looked OK scoring a touchdown for the Bucs. Drew Brees, however, looked bad, forcing throws in to Marques Colston and Jeremy Shockey (in the end zone), both of which were picked. The game ended on another forced throw; I didn't catch the number, either Moore or Henderson. The Bucs sure can make good quarterbacks look bad. ... I wrote off the Ravens a few weeks back. I was wrong. They've still got a tough closing schedule, but I'm not betting against them being a playoff team anymore.

Andy watches as much football as he can each Sunday. If you've got some observations of your own, feel free to add your comments below.

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