NFL Week 12 Recap

Another week of football in the books. Well almost, we still have the Saints-Pats tonight, which should be a dandy.

Were inching closer to the playoffs as were starting to see who are the contenders and pretenders.

Now onto my recap of Week 12 in the NFL:

Concussions Taking a Toll

Concussions have always been a cause for concern in the NFL. It has been one of, if not the most, controversial and debated injuries. They have cut short many player’s careers such as Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and many, many more and recent studies have shown it has caused major damage for players in their post-playing careers. But it isn’t until recently that were seeing a change in the way they’re handled.

A few weeks ago news broke that there would be independent neurologists on the sidelines and they, not the team, will decide if the player can go back into a game. Also Jay Glazer reported yesterday that Roger Goodell is on the verge of reworking the stipulations of if a dinged up player can return to a game making them much stricter.

Yesterday we saw the first real ramifications from all this talk. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger didn’t play on Sunday Night despite practicing all week. He was only suffering from concussion like symptoms yet he was held out of the game. Remind you that the Steelers were playing the division rival Ravens and were on a two game losing streak. Their loss sent them to third place in the division and on the outside looking in on the playoffs. Is there any chance Roehtlisberger would have sat out this game even last year? I doubt it. A similar situation took place in Arizona with Kurt Warner. Warner was cautiously not brought back into the game last week and was fully expected to suit up this week, but after waking up with a sore neck on Sunday, they held him out.

In addition to Roethlisberger and Warner, Clinton Portis and Brian Westbrook are also dealing with concussions right now with their teams handling them differently. The Eagles let Westbrook come back early from one a few weeks ago only to suffer another concussion and now may be out the remainder of the season, possibly his career. Portis suffered a concussion earlier this month and hasn’t played in the past three games and won’t play this week, and maybe even the remainder of the season.

While some fans and fantasy owners may not like this new caution when dealing with concussions it is long overdue. We tend to forget these are humans beings just like us and they have families and a life after football. When you look at what has happened to players such as Ted Johnson, Harry Carson, and Wayne Chrebet, football seems unimportant.

Comebacks a Plenty

Now onto some football action. We had three great comebacks on Sunday, showing why we love this game.

The most impressive comeback of the day belongs to the Tennessee Titans and Vince Young. Down four with under three minutes left the Titans started with the ball on their own one yard line. What ensued was a 99 yard drive that entailed four forth down conversions and culminated in a fourth down touchdown pass to Kenny Britt as time expired. The last great Vince young drive was four years ago in the Rose Bowl, when he led Texas to a dramtic win over USC. The opposing quarterback in that game was Matt Leinart, who happened to be the starter in this game as well. Coincidence?

The win puts the Titans at 5-6, one game away from .500 and in the playoff mix. They will likely have to run the table to make it, but if they keep playing the way they are I’m not betting against them. It makes you think what could have been if they either went to Vince sooner or just scraped out one or two victories in their first six games. In the first four games of the winning streak, Vince was mostly a facilitator playing a secondary role behind Chris Johnson making plays only when needed and avoiding turnovers. But on Sunday, Vince was the man. He passed for 387 yards and looked like a completely different quarterback. The Titans can’t celebrate for too long though, as they take on the undefeated Colts next week.

Lost in the shuffle was the Atlanta Falcons, who came back with a dramatic last minute drive to defeat the Bucs. Down 17-13 Chris Redman, in for an injured Matt Ryan, led the Falcons on a 15 play 59 yards drive ending with a touchdown pass to Roddy White on forth and goal with 26 seconds left. On the day Redman passed for 243 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers. A los would have been crippling to the Falcons, who are still lingering around in the playoff picture.

Not to be outdone was the Indianapolis Colts. It seems like every week they make a fourth quarter comeback. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but we’ll find out come playoff time as the Colts became the first team to clinch on Sunday. In his latest comeback Manning led the Colts from down 20-7 at halftime and responded with four touchdown drives to start the second half. Another crushing loss for the Texans, who can’t seem to get over that hump form good team to great. Gary Kubiak may be looking for work come season’s end.

Game Balls

Darrelle Revis

If Revis wasn’t getting enough attention earlier in the season he certainly is now. He picked of two Jake Delhomme passes, returning one for a touchdown. He caught more balls than the man he guarded, Steve Smith, adding him to the list of receivers he’s shut down this year. A list that includes Andre Johnson, Randy Moss (twice), Marques Colston, and now Smith among others.

Lame Ducks

Jake Delhomme

Another dreadful performance from Delhomme, who is making it a habit of ending up in this section. He completed a putrid 41.2% of his passes for an average of 3.8 yards per attempt while throwing four picks. Now it’s reported that Delhomme has a broken finger, which may be the excuse thae Panthers have been searching for to bench him.

Stat of the Week:

The Colts have now come back from a fourth quarter deficit to win in five consecutive games. No other team has done on this on even four consecutive games.

Stat of the Week 2:

In 2006 Rex Grossman threw 20 interceptions in 16 games. So far in 2009 Cutler has 20 in 11 games.

Stat of the Week 3:

With the Bengals win over the Browns they finished their AFC North slate 6-0.

Quote of the Week:

Michael Vick, who will return to Atlanta next Sunday as a member of the Eagles:

“I’m going to get a great reaction from the crowd. It’s going to be a standing ovation. It’s still my city.”

Quote of the Week 2:

Commissioner Roger Goodell , addressing the issue of concussions in a roundtable discussion on the NFL Network:

“We’re not in the business of ending careers. We’re trying to extend careers.”

Picture of the Week: