Tampa Bay Buccaneers 3, San Francisco 49ers 48
Are you kidding me? I thought, going in, that this would be an excellent game. It was a matchup between two teams on the rise in the NFC, and it turned into a bloodbath. Tampa Bay made San Francisco look like the NFL’s best team. Alex Smith had a modest 170 yards passing, but he also threw for 3 touchdown passes. That’s almost always a way to win a game. He wasn’t Tom Brady, but he was certainly very, very good.
The Bucs, on the other hand, have a lot to work on. They were never able to get their running game going, and their passing game was ineffective most of the game. The only silver lining that I can think of here is that they didn’t get blanked. That’s something. Right?
San Diego Chargers 29, Denver Broncos 24
The Chargers came out firing, and they were able to open up a nice lead, but they let the Broncos back in the game in the second half. If I’m a Chargers fan, I’d be a little concerned that a second-tier quarterback (yes, I’m talking about Tim Tebow here) was able to bring the Broncos back and give them a chance to win it at the end.
The Broncos may finally make the most anticipated quarterback move of the season. Tebow ran the offense well, and he gave an inferior team the chance to win a game. That’s about all they could have asked for and he delivered in a big way. It’ll be interesting to see which one of their quarterbacks takes the first team reps in practice this week. For some reason, I’m guessing that it’ll be Tebow.
New York Jets 21, New England Patriots 30
I’ll be perfectly honest here. I’m not a fan of the way that Rex Ryan runs the Jets. I’m not big on trash talk and all the off the field “stuff” that happens with the Jets, but usually he puts out teams that win, and I can respect that. I’m beginning to wonder if the Jets can win with Mark Sanchez as their quarterback. He had himself a pretty nice day today with no interceptions and a pair of touchdowns, but he’s one of the most inconsistent passers in the game. The move away from Sanchez isn’t imminent, but if they can’t get above .500, the New York media will start bearing down on the Jets’ quarterback.
The Patriots are who we thought they were. They’re a damn good football team. They had that flukey loss to the Bills earlier in the season, but I expect them to win the division outright, and that includes beating the Bills in their second matchup. Tom Brady didn’t have his best game, but he was still able to rack up over 300 yards through the air, and the Pats were also able to run for over 125 yards. The Jets simply couldn’t keep pace with the Patriots. Once again, Belichick shows why he’s considered a football genius.
