Top Three Shocking Things About Week 12


Snow in Seattle in November?

Before the snowfall, the total precipitation in Seattle for the month reached a near-record 15.08 inches. The all-time record for precipitation in a month in Seattle is 15.33 inches in December 1933.

Be that as it may, the NFL week was split up between the six unlucky teams having to celebrate Thanksgiving on a football field, preparing or recovering from a football game, and the rest of the league playing at regularly scheduled times, making it a weird NFL week to begin with. Now those six teams, all having had an equally small number of days to recover from Week 11, will go forth into Week 13 with more rest, several days in fact, than the teams they will be facing. A half-bye week so to speak. We'll be keeping an eye on those for next week but for now:



Giant Collapse

You hold a 21 point lead and all the cards against the Tennessee Titans and a rookie quarterback and what happens? You blow it. Blow it miserably.

The Titans and Vince Young concocted the biggest foruth-quarter comeback in franchise history, 24 points in the final 9 plus minutes to come from behind and finish a dramatic upsets victory, 21 of which Young had a hand in recalling that NCAA Championship of only a year ago against the USC Trojans. It doesn't turn the Titans into Titans and it doesn't knock the Giants from the playoff picture (it should considering this miserable flop and all the growing question marks called Eli over Philip Rivers in the NFL draft are you kidding me now sort-of-question marks.

As one of a pack of 6-5 teams remaining the Giants aren't done for but let's hope that military mindset muppet Tom Coughlin is out the door before Tiki - falling out of the playoffs after this sort of disaster is just the stuff that's needed to send him packing.


Redskins Win

Is this shocking only to me? Are Joe Gibbs' Skins not dead? Did they not roll over and play dead the last several weeks following that amazing comeback against the Cowboys? Are the Panthers not the team that comes roaring back in the second half of the season after a slow start to clinch a playoff berth with weeks to spare?

So what the hell was going on?

Well Jake Delhomme's inconsistency, a poor running game made this an ugly sort of game. But it was more a Redskins game, a Joe Gibbs game - 10 first downs via the rush and only 5 via the pass. Safe football - the kind you need to play when you've got a QB starting only his second NFL game.

Something to think about next year - The Panthers are 1-7 against the Redskins, and 0-5 in Washington.


Ravens Extinguish Any Vestige of Hope In A Steeler Repeat

"That's probably the hardest I've ever been hit in my life. I didn't see the guy coming," Roethlisberger said. "He hit me clean, hit me front side and I just kind of remember my head hitting the ground."

Hard to imagine a worse 10 months than those 10 months following Ben Roethlisberger's Super Bowl Championship. At least in football anyway. Meteoric rise, stupendous stumble, near-dead in a motorcycle crash, constant injury, press making fun of your injuries, questioning your talent, more injuries, miserable performances, etc. Now the defending Super Bowl Champs are out for the count, TKO'd by their division rivals, the bandwagon everyone will soon be jumping upon, the Baltimore Ravens.

It was Pittsburgh's most lopsided defeat since a 37-7 whipping by Dallas in the 1997 season opener. So, Bill Cowher probably can't retire now. Not after this kind of performance. Rushmore head has something to prove now and so does Roethlisberger. Was last season merely a dream sequence he is constantly and painfully waking up from?

It was the second time this year that the Steelers were shut out; the last time Pittsburgh was blanked at least twice in a season was in 1989.


Randon Thoughts

Michael Vick used both hands to deliver a gesture and flashed an angry look toward the handful of fans remaining in the Georgia Dome following yesterday's game. Those who hung around booed the home team loudly after its dismal 31-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints with good reason.

Vick has since apologised agonisingly but should he bother? What's wrong with a gesture of frustration at a season spinning down the drain? Should he flip off his teammates? His coaches that he's softly killing? His own alter ego? Why not the fans, convenient scapegoats? Why not do a little flip-you-all-off-muthafuckahs dance in the endzone the next time you score? Just to make up for it, of course.

If you're interested, a brief sporting history of bird-flipping.

More QB news means Jay Cutler is set to become the league's next Tony Romo and the excitement in Denver must be palatable knowing that they are finally rid of Jake Plummer once and for all. Think about it - at the season's start Young, Cutler and Matt Leinart were all slated to take over for lame duck QBs and now they've all made it. Romo is not a rookie in the traditional sense of the word, but he's certainly making up for lost time.

If Cutler has as much impact on the Broncos as Romo has had on the Cowboys, is it possible the two could meet in the Super Bowl?

After the way this season has played out, anything is possible.