While the Indianapolis Colts aren’t the flashiest team in the NFL, they sure are one of the toughest to beat.  The Detroit Lions had a comfortable 33-21 lead with just under nine minutes left in the game.  Yet QB Andrew Luck kept firing the football and connected for two touchdown passes in the 4th quarter, including the last second game winner.  Two things I took away from this game. One is that the Colts are probably headed for the playoffs.  I don’t see any other AFC teams currently looking outside of the playoff picture knocking out the Colts.  And two is the Detroit Lions reverting back to their old ways.  They are not contenders anymore and will probably need to shed themselves of the current structure of knuckle heads they have.  Plus it seems that their head coach Jim Schwartz is losing control fast.  Either way the Colts have continued the trend of NFL teams that had terrible records one year to being the most improved team the next thanks to the man pictured above. 

A football game is just a football game.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I was okay with the Kansas City Chiefs decision to play the game Sunday after one of their players, Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend.  Then himself Saturday morning outside of Arrowhead Stadium leaving behind a three month old daughter without any parents.  It was their choice to play and they ended up winning their second game of the season.  In the aftermath of that murder-suicide by Belcher, some seemed to have lost focus on what was truly important.  First and foremost, this was done by Jovan Belcher and him alone.  He used a gun, yes, but HE chose to kill the mother of his three month old daughter.  I don’t care about the reasoning behind it.  It was an evil act by an evil person.  I call it like I see it.  Some are using this to further some kind of opinionated agenda and I for one am tired of it.  Why isn’t common sense being used nowadays?  It’s human nature to kill.  No matter how much you try to curb the access of weapons, those that aren’t intended to have them will get them and use them.  Plus it doesn’t have to be a gun.  He could have used his bare hands if he wanted to.  No one wants to see this happen to anyone.  I pray that we will learn from this, but I also pray that those that chose to take advantage of this will wait at least 24 hours next time before they go off on a completely different tangent.

Four teams have now clinched playoff spots.  The New England Patriots, Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons have clinched their division titles.  The Houston Texans have clinched a playoff spot, but they will probably clinch the division title soon.  Not one of these participants are a surprise.  And it’s expected that all four will make it to at least the divisional round.  Whatever the case may be with these four teams they should all be serious threats to make a run at this years Super Bowl.

What could be something special eventually is fast becoming a phenomenon now.  Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin is keeping them in contention in the extremely tough NFC. They are right on the New York Giants heels and put the Dallas Cowboys away early on Thanksgiving.  If the Redskins happen to make the playoffs.  They will be a dangerous team to face.  They seemed to have found a nice balance with their spread offense. Griffin has become more comfortable after every game and their defense, while not among the best has picked up their pace of late. It will be interesting to see if the Redskins do continue this pace and if they can clinch a playoff spot.

Normally you don’t see a team make a conversion on 4th and long. That wasn’t the case in San Diego. Baltimore Ravens RB Ray Rice caught a pass near the line of scrimmage and promptly converted the 4th and 29 play.  Three Chargers defenders took terrible angles to tackle Rice and he was off to the races.  He also got a key block just before he reached the first down marker.  Now this was probably not the play that propels the Ravens to a Super Bowl. But it certainly was an important step if they get that far. As for the Chargers this defines their season.  They simply can’t do the little things to help you win a ballgame.  If the Chargers don’t win another game, it won’t surprise me one bit.  Baltimore should be able to use this to their advantage from here on out.

I suppose I should give my two cents on the 49ers quarterback situation.  Alex Smith wasn’t able to start against the Chicago Bears because of a concussion.  Their backup, Colin Kaepernick started instead.  He played great and was named the starter again this past week against the New Orleans Saints.  Not an impressive game, but he did enough to help the 49ers beat the Saints.  Now San Francisco’s head coach Jim Harbaugh has a problem.  Do you return to Alex Smith or keep the momentum going with Kaepernick. He has decided to go with the hot hand in Kaepernick, but honestly as long they win, why should it matters who starts?  I would have gone back with Smith, but at least the 49ers know what they have. Not many teams can say they can go with two quarterbacks and be comfortable.

Besides the matchup of the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers.  There was a controversy that arose from that game.  Not between the teams, but from a hit.  Ravens S Ed Reed earlier this week was suspended for one game, without pay for his hit on Steelers WR Emmanuel Sanders.  Contact was made with the helmet and Reed was penalized during the game.  Did Ed Reed deserve to be suspended?  In my opinion no.  The NFL pointed to a history of hits that Reed had committed as far back as 2010.  All in all they only had three examples.  The league is trying to implement suspensions based on what they call ‘repeat offenders’. My only problem with this is that there are many other players that I would deem ‘repeat offenders’ and the hits they laid out were far worse than Reed’s.  I again have to point out the identity crisis going on in the league.  They are being sued by former players and are trying to show that they’ve always cared about the players safety.  Yet, they were selling the game on its big hits for so many decades.  I understand what they’re trying to do, but they are going about this in the wrong fashion in this situation.

Update: Ed Reed won his appeal and was fined $50,000 rather than be suspended.

I don’t think any other team has been more snake biten this season than the Carolina Panthers.  They’ve had leads in a few games this season, especially late.  Yet, they can’t seem to hold on to them. Their QB Cam Newton hasn’t handled his press conferences in the best way, but I get that he is frustrated with losing.  There are many problems with this team and many areas where the fingers will be pointed at.  Already they have fired their general manger Marty Hurney.  It looks like if this trend continues their head coach, Ron Rivera will be next.  Things looked so promising after last season.  I didn’t have them as a playoff team, but certainly not at the bottom of the conference.  When you can’t win games that you have the lead in, there’s bound to be some changes coming.

The defense can only do so much.  They can’t bail out a terrible offense and they can’t protect the quarterback either.  If the Bears offense can’t score enough points to take the pressure off their defense, then it will be a lost season.  It has become apparent in the last two games.  Chicago’s offense is suffering without QB Jay Cutler, but I’m sure he was happy he didn’t play in the Monday night game against San Francisco.  The Bears backup QB Jason Campbell had no time at all.  They were dominated on almost every possession and the Bears defense looked lost with the 49ers play action attack.  This can be fixed, but with the history of the Bears and their lackluster offenses it won’t be easy.  If they can’t find the right personnel both on the coaching staff and on the offensive line, Chicago will be watching the Green Bay Packers go past them to a division title.  Leaving the Bears to fight for one of only two Wild Card spots.

Well, if I were to say that the Atlanta Falcons were going to lose their first game to the New Orleans Saints, you might think I was a little off.  I didn’t think that the Falcons would lose this game to the Saints, but it should come as no surprise.  The Saints still can score with the best of them.  Their defense was impressive in keeping the Falcons more one dimensional by throwing the ball more than they’re used to.  Atlanta, like any team has their flaws, but they’re still a talented team.  Now that they have the crazy hype of going undefeated out of the way.  They can focus on the more important task of getting home field advantage.  Once they have that, it will be a daunting task to beat them in Atlanta, but more pressure is on the Falcons to succeed.

I expected the Bears to play better.  But I didn’t think the Texans would beat the Bears at their own game at Soldier Field.  Houston still needed to prove to me that they can beat a good team. Chicago is flawed on offense and they were exposed.  Credit the Texans for showing the rest of the league the Bears weakness. Also they exposed the Bears defense and their lack of a run defense.  But you can’t blame them entirely because their offense couldn’t get anything going.  Houston is definitely here to stay.  But just like the Atlanta Falcons, they will need to prove it when it’s time for the playoffs to start.

It will be a matter of time when you see Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid take his last walk out of the Eagles locker room. It just gets to a point where even the best head coaches can’t get the best out of his players.  He is partially to blame since he struck out with his play calling, a lack of a short yardage runner and investing heavily in Michael Vick.  Reid wasn’t the one to write the check to Vick, but he certainly gave it his blessing.  Now it appears that Reid and Vick won’t be playing in Philadelphia after this season.  And it isn’t even Vick’s fault entirely since he hasn’t had a reliable offensive line in front of him his entire time with the Eagles.  It’s become a sad situation, but the inevitable is going to happen.  There will be a new head coach in Philadelphia.

I don’t think I’ve seen the Bears defense play better in my lifetime than they are right now.  Ever since they named Lovie Smith their head coach, the Bears defense has been on the offensive.  Partly because the Bears haven’t had a great run of scoring with their offense.  They’ve had to do it with defense and their special teams. I’m not quite ready to say they will be the team to beat, but they are sure tough to defeat in their current state.  If Jay Cutler and the offense get better, this could be something special brewing in the ‘Windy City’.

I haven’t hid away from my love with Boise State and their ‘underdog’ status in College Football.  You can bet that I was thrilled when Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie RB Doug Martin was running up and down the Raiders defense on Sunday.  The holes weren’t the biggest, but once he went through he took off.  Running backs don’t have a long life span in the NFL.  But I hope that Doug Martin does have a successful career.  He is the rare every down back that the NFL is lacking in these days.