NFL Week 9 - What We Learned

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Wow, what a week of football.  We saw some blow out games, moments of heroism and other teams that continued to leave us scratching our heads, looking at you, Oakland.  Either way it was another week filled with incredible stories and before we start Week 10, here's the ones that caught my eye from last week.  

1. The problem in Denver is the coaching, plain and simple.  You have Peyton Manning playing the best ball of his career. Von Miller and Demarcus Ware destroying offensive lines and you lose by 22 points in New England. That can mean only one thing, bad coaching and for anyone who doubts me on that, look at the tape. It was a conservative game plan, filled with a couple of aggressive plays to a control a New England squad that wanted to put the Broncos down. Coach Fox and his staff need to quit with the mixing of conservative and aggressive games and give the Broncos an identity as either a smash mouth team to fear, or one that you can beat psychologically.  Enough tinkering Coach, we've seen what Sunday's game plan does (Super Bowl XLVIII anyone?) and what happens when you let loose (SNF against the Ravens anyone?) so let's stick with the latter please. 

2. Well, it's time to talk about RG3.  So.  Washington's "star" quarterback had time to rest, rehab and watch a ton of film.  One would think that would equate to some improvement when game time arrived and spoiler alert...it didn't.  Griffin was his usual inconsistent self, in a game filled with moments where Washington fans held their breath every time RG3 was sacked hard, something that happened often by the way.  Take that mess of a game, combined with reports that Griffin has lost the locker room as a leader and maybe it's just time to move on.  

3. Mark Sanchez was a pleasant surprise.  After an ugly end to his career with the New York Jets, Mister Sanchez quietly became the number two in Philadelphia and in many ways was forgotten until Nick Foles broke his collarbone and he was forced to step in and well...Philadelphia won. Granted he didn't look like an all star, but he got the job done and looked a jillion times better than his time in NY and that's pretty awesome. Guess we will see what progress he's made since the job is now his to lose, broken collarbone or no, Foles has not played well.  

4. The Arizona Cardinals are scary good.  There's a reason they are 7-1 and atop the league, they're awesome.  This is a squad that was getting knocked around by Dallas...for a little while. You could see the adjustments in the middle of the game, the patience they exhibited and that's why they won. They executed an adjusted game plan in the middle of the first quarter, they frustrated the Cowboys and wore them down.  It's some fine football they are playing right now, and they are the team to beat.  

5. Big Ben strikes twelve.  Another week, another record falling as Big Ben became the first NFL quarterback to toss 12 touchdowns in two consecutive games.  If anything we learned the gunslinger of old is still there, he's just been hiding under some dubious play calling from Todd Haley and well, maybe this is the clue to just turn Ben loose, because these last couple of weeks have been nothing short of spectacular.  

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