You know it is true what they say, the truly great players make something happen when all else seems lost! This week around the league I saw a number of great players doing exactly that starting with A J Green, wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals.
AJ Green has been in the league since he was drafted fourth overall by the Bengals in 2011 and in his first three years he caught more receptions (260) than any other player in NFL history during that time in their careers.
In the last two years in particular AJ has no doubt become a player that the Baltimore Ravens fans hate with a passion on account as he seems to be making a habit of scoring late against them to win games!
Another player who showed up in this game was the great Steve Smith Sr. Before the season started Smith Sr announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season and I for one am going to miss everything he brings to the game week in and week out.
Unfortunately for Smith Sr it just wasn’t going to be his day this week thanks to AJ Green and Andy Dalton. I strongly recommend that you all check out the highlights below to see these two great players in action.
Before I move away from the wide receiver position this week I couldn't not mention Julio Jones, wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons. Julio is another one of the great young receivers the league is currently blessed with and this week he had a monster game against the Dallas Cowboys with 12 receptions for 164 yards and two touchdowns. Don’t just take my word for it look at this beautiful selection of his highlights from last season:
Elsewhere in the league this week we had some normality restored as the Seattle Seahawks got their first win of the season against a Chicago Bears side that put up a decent fight in the first half but collapsed in the second half.
The Seahawks were not the only side to return to winning ways as the Indianapolis Colts somehow found a way to beat the Tennessee Titans. At times in this game I was questioning why I drafted Andrew Luck first in my fantasy league, I think at the time he had just 90 passing yards and had thrown two interceptions, the scoundrel ;)
Like all great players though Luck managed to regain his composure and finished strong with 260 passing yards and two touchdowns as the Colts won 35 to 33.
Whilst normality was restored in some of the league as I mentioned above there were other games that left me wondering what the hell was happening starting with the San Francisco 49ers against the Arizona Cardinals. Colin Kaepernick the 49ers quarterback is usually a solid player but this week his first two passes were intercepted and taken back for touchdowns by the Cardinals. During the course of the night Kaepernick went on to throw two more interceptions taking his tally for the night to four. It was just quite extraordinary really!
Another game that took me by surprise was the Bills vs Dolphins game in Miami. Don’t get me wrong I love my Buffalo Bills but not even I thought we would win by a margin of 41 to 14. At times during the game it really looked like the Dolphins just could not be bothered, almost like they were already on a plane over here to London ready for their upcoming game at Wembley against the New York Jets.
To finish off this week I want to talk about how many penalties are being given away this year by all teams. I don’t know if it is down to the most recent rule changes or if it is due to a lack of practice time but this year there has already been 714 penalties in three weeks of action adding up to a total of 6166 yards!
Personally this is just unacceptable, I want to see the players on the field making something happen and I don’t want to see a flag every other play. Let’s hope that it is just the kinks being ironed out in this new season.
I think that is enough from me for another week but be sure to check out our podcast ‘Spitball’ when it is realised later in the week, until the stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.