For the first time in a long time, we had something like a normal week of action in the AFC. All the scrappy underdog teams got sent back to the kennel, and all the expected powerhouses were operating at full power, churning black smoke of fury into the skies.
It was a weekend to make an AFC traditionalist awful satisfied. With one major exception, that is…
AFC East
Patriots, Jets and Dolphins won; Bills lost
In a way, the AFC East is finally settling into what we all expected it to be. A dominant Patriots team sits on top, with its high-octane offense more than capable of letting us ignore whatever weaknesses or failures exist on defense. A defiant but flawed Jets team sits in contention for a wildcard spot. And Buffalo and Miami display slightly different facets of suck.
It’s worth noting, though, that the Dolphins are the league’s scariest spoiler team right now. They can nearly single-handedly snuff out the slim playoff hopes of the Eagles and Bills, and put a serious hurt on the Jets. Their shocking turnabout in play has even Dolphins fans mystified, as Michael Serrania from PhinsPhocus.com points out:
The more I try to rip Sparano, the more the play of the Dolphins pull me back in.
If the Godfather III was written about the Dolphins, that’s the line I would include in the script.
Meanwhile, New York’s rebound from their midseason malaise is coming from a surprising source. No, not Mark Sanchez, who is playing as inconsistently as usual despite his red zone theatrics. The core offensive load is being carried by Shonn Greene, who had yet to earn any semblance of long-term trust. Maybe that’s changing, after displaying power and speed in week 12 (6.0 yds/carry) and a nose for the goal line in Week 13 (3 touchdowns and 22 carries). He only has one 100-yard game, and that was back in Week 7, but the Jets might be willing to lean on him like they have not before.
AFC North
Ravens and Steelers won; Browns and Bengals lost
Again, we have something like a return to normalcy. In any given week of the AFC North, this is essentially what you’d expect to happen: a pair of powerhouse teams laying waste to their opponents, while the Ohio River valley unfortunates are relegated to a sublevel of competition. But thanks to the rampant weirdness of the early season (the Ravens unable to beat teams they should, the Bengals refusing to lose, etc.) this is actually the first week of the calendar in which this combination of wins and losses happened.
The biggest transformation in the division many not be the Bengals, though, it may be in Pittsburgh, where a team that looked cooked after its week 1 blowout loss to Baltimore is looking as dangerous as ever come wintertime. Why? Bam at Blitzburgh Blog tells us that there’s a youth movement already underway:
A funny thing is happened to the old and slow Steelers: they turned into the young and fast Steelers. The injuries and old age that everybody was so worried about early in the year have become almost a blessing in disguise. The team has been forced to play a lot of young players and they have responded very well.
We’ve written before about the emergence of Antonio Brown and the Steelers’ surprising depth of talent in the passing game. If they could only take back one of those losses against the Ravens, they could be firmly in control of their playoff future. As it stands, we’ll have a hell of a horse race to the finish.
AFC South
Texans and Titans won; Jaguars and Colts lost
Raise your hand if, back in Week 1, you expected Houston to be in control of this division, while starting a guy named TJ Yates? If your hand is up, you’re either a flat out liar or you have TJ Yates’ high school trophies on your mantle.
(You can put your hand down, now, Mrs. Yates.)
But that said, once you adjust for Peyton Manning’s absence and the run-dominance of Arian Foster and the Texans’ offensive line, then factor in a dangerous Titans team led by Chris Johnson, this weekend turned about about how you thought it might. Having Yates outplay the Falcons’ Matt Ryan is a significant bonus, but come on, you’re not totally shocked by that by now.
But hey, what about that Dan Orlovsky, you ask? What about the Colts making things interesting against New England? 18to88’s Nate Dunleavy has a very cold glass of water to throw on you.
The Wrong crouches at the door, waiting to reach out and devour those who come too close. Its tentacles reach beyond the threshold, stealthily waiting to pull in the lazy, the weak, the stupid and the naive. It’s a broad road and leads to destruction.
In the NFL, The Wrong lurks in the fourth quarters of blowouts and late in the second half of preseason games. Defenses go limp. Coverages grow slack.
The mediocre become spectacular.
It’s all an illusion.
AFC West
Broncos, Chiefs and Chargers won; Raiders lost
Speaking purely as a fan of the game, any week in which a Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos team, playing without its best defensive player (arguably the best defensive player in the game, period), wins a wire-to-wire offensive thriller to take a share of the division lead is a great week. It’s just nothing at all what you’d expect.
In some sort of return to normalcy, the defending AFCW champion Chiefs won, as did the preseason-consensus contenders in San Diego, briefly halting the parade of torches and pitchforks outside the houses of Todd Haley and Norv Turner. Oh, and the Raiders losing, that should be par for the course as well.
But this week is more aberration than a sign of things to come. No one knows how far this Broncos circus can go, the Raiders are still a desperate team with a dangerous offense, the Chiefs still suck, and as Ross Warner at Justice Is Coming points out, rather than root for another miracle push for the postseason, like the one just a few years ago, Chargers fans should be rooting for a season of wholesale change.
It’s no secret that the most recent playoff loss changed something in me. Sure, I’m older and now have 2 kids. But it was also the result of the sad knowledge that the Chargers hadn’t learned their lesson. They weren’t going to even give themselves the chance to get to the Super Bowl.
