NFL Week 12 Musings

Week 12 went almost according to how it was scripted, with a couple of not-so-shocking differences, which means that most Confidence Pools had high-scoring teams across the board. This has been the norm, rather than the exception this year. The one area that I did see a radical change in was the amount of low-scoring games. It seems that the defenses have finally caught up with the offenses and are now causing more punts and field goals instead of touchdowns. Of course, the Giants would beg to differ with that assessment. I am sure that the reason for the high-scoring games earlier this year was due to the lack of conditioning due to the lock out, the lack of practice by the defense and the inability to disguise their coverages and the reliance on the passing game; almost across the board. When teams like Cleveland, Carolina and Tennessee are airing it out far more often than running the ball, you know change is a-foot. However, success in the NFL comes from mixing the play-calling up and controlling the clock. Those items, coupled with the weather getting bad, will force teams to rely more on the running game, which tends to bring the scoring down and field goals come faster than TDs. There were 12 field goals on Thanksgiving alone and another 48 on Sunday. There were some very happy fantasy owners who received far more points than expected from their last draft pick. A few other items of note from this past week:

• DeSean Jackson needs a new financial advisor because getting benched for your play (or lack of) is not the key to a huge payday
• Calling a reverse-side screen with a little-used QB in the Red Zone is the type of play that should remind people that Mike Martz is far from an offensive genius
• Stevie Johnson made fun of Plaxico shooting himself in the leg once. He makes fun of Stevie Johnson numerous times per game by dropping critical passes
• It seems like Jon Gruden had a personal mission on MNF to make sure that Eli Manning was praised as often as Drew Brees, if not more, but he went overboard. He was almost courting him. I think he needed to be toweled off after the telecast.
• Fame is fleeting. Kevin Smith became the toast of Detroit when pulled off of the shelf after missing two years with injuries and putting a career game together, then gets hurt early the next game.
• Fame may never come. Matt Leinart gets yet another chance to showcase any talent he may have and gets knocked out for the year before the half is over.
• The coaching carousel is firing away; see ya Larry Coyer, see ya Jack Del Rio, better not hang Christmas lights just yet, Andy Reid
• The Patriots are 3-TD favorites over Indy. DAMN, that is a lot of points. The oddsmakers went overboard three years ago and started jumping the Patriots' lines over 20 points....they did not cover any of those games.

Speaking of lines for this week's games, the Saints continue their aerial assault and bomb the Lions. The Niners shut St. Louis out, Cleveland covers against Baltimore and more than half the games go Under again, with Houston and Atlanta being a real snoozer.