Conclusions of Week 7 see the Jaguars get a London win, and Johnson running a new tread in Arizona

Week 7 got underway in London as the Jaguars and Bills squared off at Wembley Stadium in what was probably the most exciting of all the International Series matches. The match was notable for more than the action on the field. It was the first time that the Jaguars seemed to have a ‘home field advantage’ from the fans. Perhaps this was helped by an impressive second quarter which saw them score two defensive touchdowns in quick succession. The Bills must be praying for the return of Tyrod Taylor after EJ Manuel turned the ball over three times in 8 plays. But it wasn't all bad for Manuel. With a Bills team that was missing Sammy Watkins the second year player generated several scoring drives and at times made some impressive touch passes. In fact Manuel and the Bills looked to have done enough to complete an impressive comeback before Blake Bortles took over and hit Allen Hurns for the winning touchdown. Finally the Jags won in London.

 

The Patriots are 6-0 and Super Bowl bound right? Not so fast. Tom Brady and the Patriots narrowly defeated the Jets on Sunday. But look at who they've beaten; the Bills, an improving Jaguars, the downtrodden Colts, an impressive but stalling Steelers, Romo-less Cowboys and the Jets. Not exactly the Power Ranking top 10!

 

The Eagles continue to improve despite losing to a Carolina team that has an extremely aggressive defence. The Panther’s linebackers looked quicker than everyone on the field and their defensive line gave the Eagles fits.  On offence the combination of Mike Tolbert and Jonathan Stewart frequently ran through the Eagles defence (Byron Maxwell I'm looking at you) like it wasn't there. The Eagles defence did keep them in the game with turnovers but in the end the dropped passes and stupid penalties were too much. Last year’s first round pick Marcus Smith has still yet to contribute in any meaningful way and seems destined for bust label.

 

Two first round picks who definitely weren't busts are Oakland’s Amari Cooper and St Louis’ Todd Gurley. Amari seems to catch everything thrown his way and already has 519 yards and 3 touchdowns. Gurley, seemingly fully recovered from his ACL injury in college, added 128 yards to his rushing total for the year which now stands at 442 yards. He also scored the first two touchdowns of his NFL career.

 

The Lions prepared for their trip to Wembley with a loss to the Vikings. Teddy Bridgewater had a fantastic game and made several plays that suggest he could be an NFL star. Whilst the Chiefs looked impressive at times in their win over the Steelers was even more impressive when you consider they were without Jamaal Charles (torn ACL) and Jeremy Maclin (still recovering from a concussion). It was good to see Eric Berry playing at such a high level after battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

 

Bill O’Brien is in the hot seat, and if he's not he certainly should be. The Texans lost yet again and were not helped by the fact that their supposed starting quarterback this week Ryan Mallett, missed his flight (seriously, how does that happen to a supposed professional football player?!) and had to fly commercially. It's not the first time that Mallett has been late. He overslept and missed a pre-season practice earlier in the season. Personally that's not the sort of player I want leading my team, and it appears the Texans agree with me – Mallett was released on Tuesday. Tebow for the Texans anyone?

 

The Dolphins won their second straight match and the game was over by half time! Lamar Miller finally gets a significant number of carries and how does he respond? He rushed for 175 and chipped in with 83 receiving yards before being taken out of the game at half time. Ryan Tannehill passed for four touchdowns and the much maligned defence chipped in with a touchdown and 4 sacks.  Dan Campbell certainly has Miami playing with some intensity.

 

A year ago running back Chris Johnson was a New York Jet and only managed to rush for 663 yards in 16 games. Everyone was predicting the end of his career. A year later and after a drive-by shooting in which he nearly died, Johnson is looking rejuvenated in the desert. Now with the Arizona Cardinals, he's started the season with 567 yards rushing in seven games, including 122 yards on Monday night against the Ravens. Johnson looks to have found his speed and vision after looking lost at times for the Jets.

 

Tyrann Mathieu looks a little bit like Brian Dawkins. He's got a chance to be a really special player if he can stay healthy. The guy’s 5’9 but tackles like he's been shot out of a cannon and has instincts in spades. Arizona say he studies hard too. He's a fun player to watch.

Concluding Week 6 - Breakout game for Hopkins, and the Dolphins making waves again

The Jaguars really need T.J. Yeldon to return from injury ahead of their match against the Bills in London next week.  Dernard Robinson can do a lot of things but simply isn't as good when running the ball. This game saw the Jaguars take a backward step offensively as Bortles made some bad decisions behind an offensive line that can be described as inconsistent at best!

 

Meanwhile DeAndre Hopkins was breaking out for the Texans. He made all kinds of acrobatic catches, against what was often good coverage, on his way to 10 catches, 148 yards and 2 touchdowns. Hopkins is rapidly becoming one of the better receivers in the league. He was no doubt aided by Arian Foster who looked much faster than earlier in the year, suggesting that he is returning to full health.

 

The Dolphins change of coaching staff seemed to make a difference as they ran the ball right down the Titans throats. Lamar Millar ran for over 100 yards and the Dolphins really got after Marcus Mariota, sacking him 5 times. Cameron Wake was a force and accounted for 4 sacks and two forced fumbles. The Dolphins scored 38 points having averaged 16 for the year. With just under two minutes left and the game effectively over Zach Mettenberger took over and looked pretty good even though Bishop Sankey had two drops on the drive. If I'm the Texans I'm at least inquiring about Mettenberger.

The Jets Cory Ivory ran the ball exceptionally well against the Redskins on Sunday as he rushed for 146 yards. Brandon Marshall had over 100 yards receiving and Ryan Fitzpatrick rushed for a touchdown as they were simply too strong for the Redskins. It looks like it could be another long year in America’s capital!

 

Neither quarterback looked impressive in the Cleveland vs Denver game as both had two interceptions. Each team’s defence scored and the ground games took over. The

Broncos eventually scraped another win, making enough plays to secure the victory in overtime and are now 6-0. Should Manning work through his poor form then Denver will really be a team to watch out for.

 

Two games went to overtime this week.

 

The Arizona Cardinals fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers despite Carson Palmer passing for over 400 yards. The Steelers started second string quarterback Mike Vick in place of injured starter Ben Roethlisberger, but when Vick went down it was Landry Jones who sparked the offence to an upset win. Mattavious Bryant had 167 yards and 2 TDs and it was enough to see the Steelers go to 4-2.

Andy Dalton has been phenomenal all year and continued to play at a high level, adding another 3 touchdowns. The Bengals were far too much for the Bills, lead for the first time this season by EJ Manuel. A healthy LeSean McCoy produced 90 yards and a touchdown but there was little competition. The worst loss for the Bills was the injury to second year receiver Sammy Watkins. Watkins, perhaps the lone bright spot on Buffalo’s offence last year, was returning from injury and will be a huge loss if he can't play when the Bills arrive in Wembley next week.

Ok, so it was against the Bears but a week after I dropped him in my fantasy league Calvin Johnson returned to fantasy relevance as he saw his Lions to their first win of the season. Johnson had 166 yards and a touchdown and Matthew Stafford rallied after getting benched last week, throwing for 4 touchdowns and over 400 yards.

 

Every year there’s a team that shows how difficult it is in the NFL to pass the ball if you don't have a legitimate running threat. Last week the Chiefs lost Jamal Charles for the year to a torn ACL. The result? They struggled to replace Charles’ elite skill set. This allowed the Vikings to focus on the pass and stop the Chief’s offence. Meanwhile the Vikings managed to make enough plays to win 16-10 despite two interceptions from Teddy Bridgewater.

 

As an Eagles fan it was great to see the Eagles start to make some offensive progress. The defence is continuing to play at a high level but the Monday night game was just ugly for both teams. Neither offence could put together a sustained drive on a regular basis nor the pass protection of both teams failed frequently as attested by several sacks and pass deflections.  Riley Cooper is the Eagles leading wide receiver in yards per catch with 19.8 and he seems to have little or no connection with quarterback Sam Bradford who frequently made horrible plays. Could it be time to bring out Mark ‘The Sanchise’ Sanchez in Philly?

 

Conclusions from Week 3 - Outstanding individual milestones

In the absence of reigning rushing champion DeMarco Murray the whole Eagles team pitched in to get Chip Kelly his first win of the season. Ryan Matthews rushed for 108 yards and Darren Sproles was electric . Part of that comes from sustained drives without which the Eagles offence and the tempo system doesn't work. The Eagles got great production from two of their rookies, Eric Rowe and Jordan Hicks, but the supposed jewel in the Eagles 2014 draft crown, Nelson Aghalor, remains largely unnoticed so far this season. Final note on this one should go to Brandon Bair. The third year former Oregon player, who has been inactive the past two games, came up big with three pass deflections.

 

Anyone in the league doubting that the Raiders are a much different team to the one that lined up last year should watch the Browns game. Derek Carr is making use of Amari Cooper early and often in games (targeting him 8 times for 134 yards) and that defence simply isn't as bad as it has been in recent years. Cooper's presence a deep threat opens up the running game and Latavius Murray took advantage and rushed for 139 yards.

 

Like him or hate him the ever impressive Tom Brady joined the elite 400 TD club. Whilst I think his legacy is irrevocably tarnished as a result of the DeflateGate it's still an incredible achievement and one that Drew Brees should also reach later this year.

 

Think the Bears regret getting rid of Greg Olsen? Only once in his time in Chicago did he get up to 60 catches. In that same year he still only just breached 600 yards. He's been impressive for the last three years with the Panthers and has really continued that way this year. On Sunday he had 134 yards receiving and two touchdowns as he proved un-coverable.

 

That Falcons offence is incredibly potent. Devonta Freeman ran for 141 yards and three TDs while Julio Jones scorched the Dallas defence for 164 yards. They're now 3-0 and clearly the class act of the  NFC South. What a difference a year makes.

 

Adrian Peterson is back. In their demolition of the Chargers he rushed for 126 yards and two touchdowns. When Peterson is in the backfield second year signal caller Teddy looks a lot more comfortable.

 

Steve Smith had 13 receptions, 186 yards and two touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals and still wasn't the best receiver in the game! AJ Green was ridiculous in this game, snagging 10 passes for 227 and two touchdowns. Green's averaging over 100 yards so far this year as his and Andy Dalton and the Bengals are enjoying the fruits of his labour as they increased their record to 3-0. This was every bit the offensive shootout many predicted, with both quarterback throwing for over 350 yards.

 

Colin Kaepernik had perhaps the worst start to a game I've ever seen. He threw two pick sixes in his first four passes. The 49ers are in real trouble again and it could be time for them to start researching quarterbacks. 

 

Aaron Rogers is amazing. His command of the offence is incredible and his ability to move in the pocket buys time for the players around him. It doesn't hurt that he has an impressive offensive line keeping him upright (ask Alex Smith). Speaking of Smith he played a great game himself in the second half and Jeremy Maclin is certainly justifying his acquisition by the Chiefs in the offseason.