From: johndoe@samadams.inmet (johndoe)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.pro
Subject: johndoe's week 10 nfl commentary
Date: 9 Nov 92 20:14:04 GMT
Reply-To: johndoe@inmet.com (Bus error - core dumped)
Organization: Intermetrics, Inc.

this week's games

dal det
gb nyg
pit buf
sd kc
cin chi

other notes
playoff races
disappearing partity in the nfl: nfc central and afc east and west

btw, remember my broncos bias.

dal 37 det 3

this game was as bad as the score might seem to indicate, but in the
beginning, it looked like dal might have a relapse to the lions games they
played last year.

det got off to a decent start moving the ball, and sanders looked good at
the beg of the game, eluding tacklers like the sanders of 91.  unfortunately
for det, they suffered the early int (a tipped ball out of the wr's hands),
and one bad series of downs.

and dal came out flat.  throughout the earliest stages of the game, madden
and summerall kept repeating how loose and almost too relaxed dal coaches
said they were in practice this week.  they quoted one dal coach as saying
"we're really ripe," and talked more than once about irvin missing the
plane.  dal's first 2 o poss were pretty anemic, and they weren't able to
generate much of anything.

but then aikman got things going, hitting alvin harper on a underthrow-it-
and-have-the-wr-adjust.  harper may have got away with a little push, but
made a nice catch.  emmitt finished off the drive, and dal had the early
lead.  after the dal d started pressuring peete and hemming in sanders,
another long pass to irvin, this one caught in stride, put dal on the det 1,
and smith again finished it off.

from there it was all dal:  a balanced attack of aikman passing and smith
putting the ball in for tds.  this seems to be very much the cowboys style
this year:  they don't come out and steamroll anybody, but are fairly
consistent from game to game, week to week.  they methodically drive for
first half scores until the opponent finds themselves more than a couple of
scores behind, at which point they start passing, and dal puts on the pass
rush and starts running the ball a little more.  dal is getting better at
the 2nd half execution of this.  they almost blew a 34 pt lead against the
giants earlier in the year, and gave up lots of 2nd half points to the cards
and chiefs as well.  but against the raiders and eagles, they managed to
continue to grind down their d in the 2nd half.

det was no more able to get going in the 2nd half than the raiders or
eagles.  sanders cooled off after a quarter and a half, peete was knocked
from the game following a couple of tough hits, and kramer faired no
better.  with dal w/ball & up 27-3 late in the game, cbs switched to ...

nyg 27 gb 7

this game was 13-7 when cbs made the switch.  the gb d was outmanned, and
the gb o was playing pretty much above its head.  ny looked flat and not
very motivated.

not until lt got hurt.  rushing the gb qb late in the 3rd, he came down
awkwardly, w/all his wt on his right heel.  he completely tore his achilles
tendon, and was carried off in obvious pain on the cart.  bill parcells
later commented that lt was by far the best player he ever coached, and oj
simpson said, using as a measuring stick the other players at a particular
position and the effect a player has on those around him, lt may have been
the best football player ever to have played the game.

after this, the giants looked a little more motivated.  pepper johnson int'd
a favre pass, but fumbled it back when, during his enthusiasm to run the
ball back, he ran around in circles too long and had the ball punched from
his possession by favre and re-recovered by the packers.

no problem.  only a few plays later, favre went to the well once too often
and threw the manyth in a series of short outs.  he never saw reyna
thompson, who stepped in front of the pass, and ran it back all the way for
a td, eluding favre's weak attempt to bring him down around the gb 30.  20-7
giants.  

gb couldn't do anything with their next possession, and ny basically ran the
clock out.  (on the play before their last td with less than 2 min to go,
hos knelt down, and the crowd booed.  so the next play, the ball was given
to hampton, who went over the right side for about 10 yds and the td.  27-7
giants.)


buf 28 pit 20

this game never seemed that close, but buf just couldn't seem to put the
steelers completely away.  buf drove the ball pretty much at will in the
first half, even managing to score on a drive following a sure drop of a
long td by beebe; they led 21-3 going in for another score when they
committed a to with less than 20 seconds left.  pit ran the ball back to
midfield, o'donnell completed a quick pass, anderson nailed the 49 yarder,
and pit now trailed 21-6 going in at the half rather than 24-3 or 28-3.

pit took this new mo and drove fairly impressively (steadily and
consistently, if not quickly) for their first td to cut the score to 21-13.
but another blown pit db assignment led to another wide-open lofton td, and
a 28-13 bills lead.  lofton was at least 10 yds behind any defender on both
of his tds.

though this long strike took some of the wind out of their sails, to their
credit, pit refused to completely give up.  but though the bills failed to
score the rest of the way, their d was effective enough to keep pit from
coming up with the big strike (though o'donnell doesn't seem to be the qb to
be worrying about this too much, yet), and they bottled up foster when they
needed to.

this buf victory guarantees that the winner of next monday night's game will
be sitting alone atop the afc.


cin 31 chi 28 ot

this was a fairly entertaining, if slightly run-of-the-mill, nfl mid-season
game between a couple of fairly entertaining, if slightly run-of-the-mill
nfl teams -- chi and cin -- from a couple of fairly entertaining, if
slightly run-of-the-mill nfl divisions -- the afc and nfc central.

neither team was dominant, and neither team was pathetic.  each team was
able to move the ball on occaision and put together fairly successful
drives, and each defense was able to come up with a stand now and then to
force the other team to punt.

chi had the early mo, able to move the ball on the ground and with short
passes.  they had some success through the air; waddle made a couple of
clutch third down and long receptions, and wendell davis made one extremely
difficult catch.  

darren lewis showed signs of being able to be the feature back of the future
for the bears.  he looks as big as anderson, able to go up the middle like
the bears like to do, but seems flashier and a little faster than anderson,
with moves anderson never tries to put on.  he made one nice long run up the
middle for the bears.  and the spectacular special teams play of the game
was his: following a long cin drive to cut the chi lead to 7, lewis brought
back the ensuing ko 98 yds for the td, and chi seemed to have the mo back.

but cin never gave up, despite the spectacular defensive play of the game, a
drop-back int by mike singletary.  they continued to move the ball patiently
on the ground for most of the game, not looking for the wrs often.  this got
them back to within 7 in the 4th, and on a 4th down with very little time
left, boomer hit rookie dale carter on the spectacular offensive play of the
game:  a fairly high but not too lofting pass into the end-zone, where
carter outleapt a shorter lemuel stinson for the td and a tie score.

chi smartly drove the ball down the field with less than 1 min left,
managing to get to the cin 35 with less than :10 remaining.  butler lined up
for a 52 ydr into the wind, and though his kick was true, it was about 4 yds
short of the mark.

chi was unable to get into scoring position in ot on its first drive, and
they never had another chance.  cin's jim breech put the 3rd down kick into
the net for the 31-28 cin victory.  

cin kept its slim afc playoff hopes alive, only a game out of a wild-card
tie at 4-5.  chi probably kissed most of its already slim nfc playoff hopes
goodbye, two games behind the current wild card contenders, and a game back
to the next team in line, the giants, whom they've already lost to.  they're
3 games back in a divisional race to a team they've been swept by,
effectively putting them 4 back with 7 to play.


playoff races
nfc east

	dal has the upper had:  a 2 game lead, a split with phil, a victory
	over wash and nyg, and wash losses to nyg and phx.  that wash loss
	to the giants may sting even more, because all else being equal, if
	ny beats wash in giants stad later this year, they will have the
	same records and ny will have swept wash.  in wash favor is that ny
	and phil must still play each other twice.  expect 

nfc central

	minn has this pretty much sewn up, assuming they don't fall apart.
	chi would have to struggle for the 3rd wild-card.

nfc west
	a two team race.  look for this one to go to the wire.  the team
	that doesn't win the division will probably host a wild-card game.

best div winner: dall (pretty easy sched; losses only @den @wash = 13-3)
2nd  div winner: no (win @ sf this week, 4 home games, @jets, @rams = 13-3)
w.c. div winner: minn (3+ game cushion just enough w/ tough sched; )
w.c. #1 (home):	 sf (loss to no in sf means no nfc west; 12-4)
w.c. #2:	 phil (beats wash and ny at home to win last 3;10-6)
w.c. #3:	 wash (giants->8-8; w/o lt won't make a run; wash 9-7)


afc east 
	battle of the afc titans this coming week.  buf had flashes against
	pit, and has revenge on their side, but they still showed signs of
	the vulnerabilities that plagued them during their recent slump.
	winner of this game has upper hand the rest of the way, including
	for home field throughout playoffs.  ind looked promising against
	mia, but have not scored a point since.  look for them to continue
	to be sporadic.  they won't make the playoffs.

afc central
	surprisingly enough, the whole div is still in it.  pit is
	vulnerable enough at qb that they have to rely heavily on d; this
	will win them a few, but close games could be a problem.  hou has
	really fallen apart, and cle and cin are still hanging in there.
	everything is still up for grabs.  pit's sched is favorable enough
	to predict them as div winners; hou will probably make the playoffs,
	but lose on the road right away.  cle's d is bellichek-good; expect
	them to lose enough close games down the road to keep them out of
	the playoffs.  cin is too far back and too inconsistent to streak
	back into contention.

afc west
	another two team race.  not at all surprising if this goes down to
	the season finale den @ kc.  den has the qb and the experience, kc
	has the d and home-field advantage on the last weekend.  sd is 1-3
	against den & kc, & has lost to pit and hou, all important in
	considering wild-card tie-breakers.  sd may have the schedule
	advantage, but still not enough consistency at qb.

best div winner: den (2 vs sea, 1 vs raiders, home vs dall&giants; 12-4)
2nd  div winner: mia (beats buf, but 1-2 in tough 3 games: hou, @no, @sf; 12-4)
w.c. div winner: pit (tough sched; 10-6)
w.c. #1:	 buf (same rec as mia, but season sweep costly; 12-4)
w.c. #2:	 kc  (never forget schottenheimer's den/elway jinx!!; 10-6)
w.c. #3:	 hou (same rec as pit, but will lose 2d in 3riv in 92 playoffs)



and finally, a note:

the bottom nfc central has once again settled into the abyss it has
generally been for the past 20 years.  last year was the rare exception
for detroit and the bays, winning the division and hosting playoff games;
tampa bay did it in 1979.  usually, these teams are known for playing below
average football with a lack of overall talent and no real compensation in
terms of coaching.  

but this week has been typical for the nfc central:  they lost all three
games they played by an average of 6-33.  granted, detroit has had some
extenuating circumstances this year -- they do have a pretty solid defense
and some talent at the skilled offense positions, not to mention excellent
kick ret talent -- but they got their beat up the worst of all -- at home! --
and are at stuck at the bottom of this division.  their records, excluding
games they've played amongst themselves, is 4-15-0.  they are all already
basically out of the playoff hunt.  the team with the most real talent and
the best chance is the furthest behind.

currently, the afc east and west aren't fairing much better, but at least
some of the games seem respectable, at least part way through: the bottom 3
in the afc east lost by an average 10-29, record of 5-18-0, and the bottom 3
in the afc west averaged 9-21, also at 5-18-0.  and from each of these
groups, one team is only a game out of playoff contention, with a strong d
and some young offensive line talent that may lead somewhere soon.  

and neither of these groups has been as bad for so long.  the pats went to
the super bowl in 85, then won the division again in 86, and challenged for
playoff spots for two years before falling on really hard times.  the colts,
despite very poor management practices over a very long period of time, won
the division in 87; and though they've hardly been a juggernaut, the jets
went to the playoffs in 85, 86, and 91.  the raiders won the sb in 82, the
div in 83, 85, 90, and playoff spots in 84 and 91.  sea won the div in 88
and wc spots in 83, 84, 87.

compared this to the nfc central:  det won the div last year, but in
otherwise, det was the only team to make the playoffs, winning the nfc
central in 1983 with an 8-8(!) record.

it is simply amazing to me that these teams can wallow in mediocrity
together for so long.