Andy Richardson

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with the NFL Red Zone Channel. On the one hand, I hate it, because you don't get the proper ebb and flow of each game watching things that way, and I generally have to go and watch my recordings of the games the next day anyway. On the other hand, I love it, because I cannot stand to watch commercials.

So yesterday I spent most of the afternoon on that Red Zone Channel, seeing bits and pieces (and scoring plays, of course) from almost every early game. Then I turned to Patriots-Broncos, like most of America, and watched all of that one. (Conveniently, almost all of the other late games were ugly blowouts.) For those of you unlucky enough to miss the action for some reason (attending a game? Watching just one team? Apple picking?), here were the highlights and lowlights of the day.

Dolphins at Bengals: Don't look now but Miami is going to win some games this year. Good defense. (Great run defense.) Impressive young quarterback. Running back having a really nice second career in Reggie Bush, who had a pretty impressive touchdown run. yards per carry poor, but Bengals respectable against the run when healthy. ... Nine more catches for A.J. Green. Every-week start in case you hadn't moved him into that category yet.

Packers at Colts: Everyone believes in Andrew Luck now, right? Not that Colts fans will forget Peyton Manning as easy as Broncos fans are forgetting Tim Tebow, but they're going to have a lot of fun watching him for the next few years. Fantastic game-winning drive, great throws and decisions throughout even while getting knocked around pretty good. Guy can scramble, too. Anyway, this game will probably be replayed on NFL Network this week, so I recommend you check it out. ... I traded away Jordy Nelson in a deal involving Julio Jones this week. Whatever the reason, it's just not happening with him and Rodgers this year. When you see a better rapport with James Jones, you worry. Not a believer right now. ... Another drop followed by an injury for Jermichael Finley. If he misses time, D.J. Williams is the deep league claim. Cedric Benson also left due to injury, giving Alex Green a chance to look like he belongs in the NFL. Running back scarcity being what it is, you have to consider him if the Benson injury is serious. James Starks a healthy scratch. ... Monster game for Reggie Wayne. Starting to think that Charles Woodson's move to safety is because he can't cover anyone without holding them anymore. Green Bay's secondary has some problems, again, and I'm not sure they're going to get fixed. Wayne should have had another touchdown but was dragged down by Woodson, who wasn't flagged. Man those refs favor the Packers! Just kidding.

Ravens at Kansas City: Please note that both of Matt Cassel's interceptions bounced off Dwayne Bowe's hands. Brutal loss for Kansas City fans, since Cassel (prior to getting sandwiched and knocked out of the game) fumbled away a snap at the goal line, and they had another touchdown wiped out by a penalty. And in the final minute a Joe Flacco fumble near his own goal line was erased by a quick whistle. In a 3-point loss. Jamaal Charles is awesome; Shaun Draughn, who came in to spell Charles after he ripped off a big play, is just a guy. And he lost a fumble. Peyton Hillis, when healthy, should be the No. 2 again, but it's Charles' show. Shame he's not on a better team. ... Not much to say about the Ravens offense, which could basically just stand around and let Kansas City beat themselves. Kansas City defense, healthier now, is also starting to look more like what we expected to start the season.

Browns at Giants: It was all Browns early, like several Giants games this year; slow starts are something Tom Coughlin may be discussing this week. But after an impressive Trent Richardson touchdown run, and a sweet 62-yard bomb from Brandon Weeden to Josh Gordon -- that's right, three rookies scoring for the Browns in the first quarter -- it was all Eli Manning, Victor Cruz and Ahmad Bradshaw. And oh yeah, Giants are doing some nice drafting these days, because both Reuben Randle and David Wilson chipped in some catches, yards and a long Wilson touchdown. Browns are missing some players on defense, but that's now three times this year that New York's offense has been pretty much unstoppable. A lot of talent, there. Feared I'd have to apologize to the guy I told to start Stevan Ridley over Bradshaw, but fortunately Ridley went on to have a really good game, too. ... For the Browns, I still expect new ownership to clean house at the end of the year. But for one day, they had to like seeing Richardson and Gordon look like franchise-type talents. (Jury out on Weeden.) Gordon only caught 2 passes, both for touchdowns, but he was targeted a bunch of other times and looked legit out there. Not saying you necessarily rush out to grab him, but the future looked better after today. Nice game for Jordan Norwood, too.

Eagles at Steelers: Considering the problem Michael Vick seems to have with fumbles, maybe the Eagles shouldn't call so many quarterback draws? I didn't see every second of this game, but a lot of plays I was did see involved Vick scrambling up the middle and fumbling, including one that was overturned, one that wasn't, one at the goal line, one during the post game handshake....ugly stuff. All things considered it was impressive they almost won, but that's a pretty good defense they have. Year after year the Eagles seem to have problems turning plays around the goal line into touchdowns rather than field goals (at best) or turnovers (at worst). I dunno, just seems they might want to do some things differently down there. ... Am thinking this week's Ask the Experts question might have to do with these guys coming back from torn ACLs. Granted it's Week 5, but there are now three backs who tore their ACLs last season, two of them very late, and all of them are playing and looking pretty good right now, most recently Rashard Mendenhall. If you started Ben Roethlisberger and lost a narrow game, skip this next part. If you faced him and won, keep reading. Mendenhall's touchdown "run" was ruled a lateral; it was awfully close to a forward pass. Jerricho Cotchery tripped over his own feet after another catch near the goal line, then Mike Wallace was held (not called) on the next play. Anyway, nice win for the Steelers.

Falcons at Washington: The Matt Ryan to Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White show continues. One of those receivers will get left out of the fun each week and this week it was White's turn, but if you've got any one of these guys you can't complain too much. Next week, Oakland! The fun should continue. ... Robert Griffin, well, we've talked about the injury risk with him. Suffered a concussion, a hard hit but not a dirty one. These running quarterbacks, and I realize this is easy to say, but they've got to just get out of bounds if they have the chance, because they're too important to be giving way in close games to the likes of Kirk Cousins. (Although in fairness he did a nice Rex Grossman impression: long touchdown, 2 picks.) ... Alfred Morris continues to impress. Thank heavens I picked him up in my dynasty league even when the "official depth chart" listed him third-string. And drafted him everywhere. hope you did too. ... One highlight (unless you were facing them): Ryan to Gonzalez was ruled just short of the end zone. So the next play, instead of, I dunno, letting the fullback carry it in or something, Ryan went back to Gonzalez for the touchdown, even while the receiver was dragged down by a defender. Nice to see.

Broncos at Patriots: Big game for Stevan Ridley, but when New England was running out the clock late, he lost a fumble -- tough play where he had the ball ripped out while nearly down, although I'm not sure Bill Belichick cares about such nuances. Ridley owners this week will be nervous, so maybe it's a good time to trade for him. Or avoid him, since Brandon Bolden might be next week's starter. Bottom line, Belichick doesn't care about you and will happily use multiple running backs each week (Shane Vereen even scored yesterday), so it doesn't take much, presumably, for him to change his mind. Aside from that, nice day for Ridley, so for now I'm guessing he'll be fine as the starter going forward. ... Rough day for Willis McGahee, who kind of ruined what could have been a fantastic Peyton Manning finish by dropping a ridiculously easy reception on a late 4th and 1and then fumbling it away with Denver on the verge of making it 31-28 in the final minutes. Big numbers for Manning, anyway, and at this point it's fair to wonder if anyone can stop New England. Maybe the Giants in the Super Bowl? Nothing else leaps to mind.

Chargers at Saints: The Saints aren't going to win anything this year, but Drew Brees is sure going to be a part of a lot of fantasy titles. He's moving the team up and down the field as much as ever, week after week. If you've got him, you're probably doing a lot better than New Orleans, or the people who drafted Rodgers, Newton, etc. ... Maybe it's just because he's my dynasty quarterback, but I feel kind of bad for Philip Rivers. His head coaches have been Marty Schottenheimer and Norv Turner, and although I can't prove it, I feel like he'd have been on the right side of more close games and had more playoff success with somebody else calling the shots all these years. Last night Rivers was throwing to Ronnie Brown on the final drive. I don't know why Ryan Mathews, who ripped off big chunks of yardage whenever he was on the field, wasn't out there, but he could have helped. ... Robert Meachem lends credence to the idea that players perform better against their former teams. It's crazy that he and Rivers had no rapport for two months, including the exhibitions, then connect for 2 TDs last night. If you started him, congrats. I endorsed him last week mostly because of the lousy opponent, and maybe that's really all there was to it. ... Disappointing game if you started Sproles, Graham, or Jackie Battle. The Battle thing was a reasonable possibility with Mathews the greater talent, the Sproles and Graham outings not as much. Guys get hurt, what can you do.

Monday, Monday: There's absolutely nothing upon which to base any optimism regarding the Jets in this matchup, but strange things happen in the NFL all the time. Maybe they return a pick or fumble, block a punt, complete a Statue of Liberty play or something, I don't know. Most likely you're very happy if you have Arian Foster and the Texans defense going tonight, and that will be the story of the game. I'll call it Texans 27, Jets 13 and move along to next week.

• Comments [18]

Readers' Comments

Add a Comment

Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.

To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.