Any Given Thursday | Week 6

Texans and Falcons remain the only undefeated teams, RGIII got hurt, Vick played like Michael Vick, the Manning/Brady showdown didn’t live up to the hype, good vibes back in NO, and nothing beat the story of what went down in Indianapolis over the weekend. Another week, another coin toss…

Let’s get to it!

From week 5, here’s our results.

Week 5
Mark: 9-5
Joe: 7-7
Erwin: 6-8
Rob: 9-5

Which takes us to..
Overall:
Mark: 37-36-3
Joe: 37-36-3
Rob: 37-36-3
Erwin: 29-44-3

Now let’s break down our week 6

“4th and Goal”

(Mark) Do it for Coach! – The Colts’ amazing effort against the Packers

After surprising most of the NFL world by choosing to re-up in Indy this offseason, people had to doubt how effective Reggie Wayne would be with a 1st year signal caller getting him the ball. So far on the year Wayne is on pace to catch over 140 balls for about 2000 yards, both of those NFL single season records. Now obviously he is going to slow down throughout the course of the season, but what he has been able to do thus far has been spectacular. Without the physical blessings of the Calvin Johnson’s or AJ Green’s of the NFL, Wayne has relied on running crisp routes and just flat out beating DB’s. With Bruce Arians running Wayne out of multiple positions similar to how Hines Ward was used in Pittsburgh, it’s creating matchup nightmares for coaches and Wayne is reaping the benefits.

The most impressive thing about the season thus far is that Wayne is literally THE only option on Indy that opposing defenses have to key in on. Regardless of the fact Indy hasn’t played a top tier CB yet, there is more than enough parity in the NFL, coupled with the constant double teams Wayne has been facing, to make his numbers through the first 4 games that much more incredible.

We can’t expect him to go 13-200-1 every week, but the emotion and energy Reggie Wayne showed as he put his team on his back and helped lead that comeback victory was by far the most amazing individual game performance in the NFL so far this year. In a game ripe with emotion for Indy on the heels of the Chuck Pagano story, Wayne did what veterans should do: played his ass off, lead by example, and made plays when it counted. Here’s hoping those young wide outs in Indy have been watching….

(ERWIN) To Play or Not To Play, RGIII says he’s “feeling good”

That was the prognosis on how Robert Griffin III said he felt as of Monday morning. RG3 suffered a mild concussion during Sunday’s loss against the now, 5-0 Atlanta Falcons and looming questions about what Mike Shanahan decides will be asked all week. Sean Weatherspoon delivered a solid hit on the rookie quarterback trying to score and we can all sit here with the same suggestions; “He should slide.”, “He’s gotta run out of bounds.”, “What’s he doing?!”… All very true and I agree with all of these sentiments. The level of importance of RG3 on the Redskins is extremely high and he is useless to them on the sidelines. Shanahan’s options in the event RG3 isn’t cleared by an independent neurologist are now Kirk Cousins and (my boy) Rex Grossman — Not very promising. To Cousins’ defense, he did throw for a TD and helped put the Redskins ahead, but the following drives were unsuccessful and Crazy Mike is likely kneeling in a pew, praying for clearance on Griffin’s health.

Now, I bring this all up because my question is, Should the Redskins really be rushing RG3 back into the line-up? We’re 5 weeks deep. Washington is 2-3 in the league’s most overrated division and their franchise player couldn’t recall the quarter they were playing, once they got his helmet off. It’s really tough to say with an upcoming schedule of vs MIN, @ NYG & @ PIT, respectively and as of this very short season, their hopes and dreams ride on the succession of Griffin. Their future ALSO rides on Griffin. Let’s say he’s medically cleared, which is (as of Monday night) sounds very promising. After all, he is saying, “Feeling good” and he tweeted on Sunday evening to ensure everyone he’ll be ready to go next week.

…In case you’re wondering, I’m trying to be facetious. Of course your star player is going to say those things. Of course he WANTS to play. Do you allow him to? Even if he is medically cleared? Concussions are big deal in professional sports and franchises need to be weary of how they handle the health of their athletes. Especially, their star rookie quarterbacks.

I’m hoping that RG3 has a positive recovery and I do hope to see him play, but I also hope the Redskins don’t rush him back because they realize that their back-ups are still Kirk Cousins and Sexy Rexy. We’ll definitely keep a lookout on how things transpire this week.

(Joe) And Another One … – Houston Texans

…To re-up on my missed blurb from last week, we head into week 6 undefeated. Nobody expected the Jets to beat the Texans, but give them credit, they hung in there with the best team in the league. Nothing new about Foster having a big day, but as I mentioned last week, Kareem Jackson coming up with a huge interception on the last Jets drive just shows he’s finally coming into his own. What more can we say about JJ Watt, other than the fact that he’s still in the lead for DPOY, and maybe….MAYBE if he continues his play we can be chanting MVP. For the people who would scoff at this statement, name me one player who has had a bigger impact than Watt so far this season.

The injury to Brian Cushing is a huge blow to the defense, but things happen. On this play we can make an argument about a rule change about blocks to the knee, they’ve made a rule to protect defenseless receivers, maybe Goodell should start thinking about the other side of the ball. The irony of this injury is that the Texans utilize the Zone-blocking scheme that is notorious for cut-blocks.

Being on top we’ll always have the haters saying that Texans haven’t faced any real competition; although many people had Denver being a huge force with Peyton at the helm, and Tennessee was supposed to challenge Houston for the AFC south crown. Now we have GB coming into town. At the beginning of the season this would have been the game of the week, but as I called it at the beginning of the year, the defense has been mad suspect, and injuries to Cedric Benson have totally derailed the balanced attack GB wanted to establish. Jennings not being 100% spells trouble for the Pack. I guess the only thing the Packers have going for them is that Texas’ Cushing is injured, with a suspect line that’s the only good news Rodgers has probably received this week. I’ll look forward to when the Ravens, Bears or Pats come into town to give the Texans some competition.

(Rob) Is This Love?: The ebb and flow for Eagles faithfuls

It’s tough to pinpoint how legit this year’s Philadelphia team really is, everyone knows by now that their three wins are by a combined four points, but the bottom line is, they are 3-1. Feeding off Mark’s comparisons, it is a very Giant-esque start to the season, just getting by to start the year without falling behind, and hoping that things drop into place as the season goes on. Their defense is good and working to get better. Mr. Vick has 4 TD passes, 6 interceptions, 56% completion rate, and 27 carries for 130 yards. Not great, but he sustains enough of the offense to keep it moving. To me, they aren’t a fun team to watch, they make stupid mistakes and their depleted o-line will catch up with them. But as always, it seems to boil down to Head Coach Andy Reid and his use of superstar LeSean McCoy and their running game. For years, the Philly faithful have taken all the highs and lows of having Reid as their head coach with many of them begging for a predominantly run focused offense. It is something that has never quite come to reality, which is a mind boggling argument considering they have the best RB in the game. His DNA bleeds West Coast style offense, and if they don’t win it all this year, Reid and Vick will be shown the door. Coming off a bye week, it will be very interesting which Eagles team shows up against the Lions of Detroit.