The Final Drive: Week 8, 2011

Week eight in the NFL had close-calls galore, including one major upset from a previously winless team. What are you waiting for? The Final Drive starts right now!

I’m not even going to address the incompetence or impotence of the Colts. Instead, I feel like the semi-benching of Chris Johnson is compelling drama. CJ has fallen off the face of the rushing planet since signing his hefty new deal and is losing the lion’s share of the carries to Javon Ringer, who’s completely out-playing the Pro Bowler.

(1-6) St. Louis Rams 31
(5-3) New Orleans Saints 21

The hell??? I guess the Saints score all their week eight points back in week seven. How can you go from dropping 62 on the Colts to getting beat by an A.J. Feeley-led Rams? Unforgiveable. St. Louis may have done themselves a huge favor by winning and taking them out of the Luck sweepstakes for the week.

Baltimore ALMOST had another ridiculous loss on their records, but they pulled one out over the Cardinals, who have to be having a real hard time with their decision to trade for Kevin Kolb. I still think it’s too early to tell, but it’s not looking pretty.

Pfft. Put Grossman back in. Beck clearly can’t get points on the board and the Redskins went from tops in the division to taking up the rear in a span of two weeks.

(6-2) Detroit Lions 45
(2-5) Denver Broncos 10

Pfft. Put Quinn in. Tebow will probably get another four to five games to show SOME kind of improvement, but that throwing motion just isn’t getting any better. It’s akin to a slow motion train wreck. And he’s wildly inaccurate, which is quarterback no-no number one. Nice guy? Sure. Good quarterback? Probably not.

Whoah. That New England secondary has major issues. Like, Kim Kardashian-sized issues. They cut Leigh Bodden three days before this game when they already had a thin defensive backfield! I don’t get it. How does Belichick let his defense get away with performances like this?

So… that happened. Dallas just managed to crap its way out of the conversation in the NFC East for the week. Philly finally decided their corners needed to get back into the bump-and-run game, making their defense as formidable as it should have been all season. If the Eagles can keep LeSean McCoy’s carries up, they’ll keep winning.

This was some epically awesome and horrendous football. I love watching two teams suck it up for four quarters. The Chiefs may have been inept on offense for three quarters, but Philip Rivers sucked something awful with two interceptions and two fumbles (one lost). Watching Rivers throw interceptions is right up there with Brandon Marshall drops as the things I love most in the NFL.

Thanks for reading The Final Drive! Be back here next week for more foul-mouthed analysis!