It would be rude for me to start this week without talking about a quarterback who since coming back from an early season injury has led his team to four wins on the bounce and that is Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.
Drew Brees has become one of the elite quarterbacks in the game since his move from San Diego back in 2006 and since his move no other quarterback in the league has thrown for more passing yards, touchdowns or 300 yard games than Drew Brees. Oh and he also now holds the record for the most consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass thrown (54 Games).
Why did I have to mention Drew Brees this week you may be asking, well it’s simple he threw for over 500 passing yards this week and seven touchdowns in the Saints shoot out win against the New York Giants. You can check out the highlights from this game below:
Another thing I want to talk about this week is my own personal impressions of the international series games held here in the UK at Wembley Stadium. Before this season I was not very impressed with how the fans reacted to the home teams in that you would only here them making noise on the opponent's third down attempts for the first quarter then the atmosphere would seem to just die.
This year however and particularly yesterday as Kansas played host to Detroit I thought the fans were just amazing. From the start of the game to the end there was a great atmosphere and noise in all the right places despite the blowout that was taking place on the field. Needless to say my opinion has now changed and for that I say a big thank you to all of my fellow UK fans that attend these games.
Back to the action stateside now and a team that seem to be going about their business and picking up wins without a great deal of media attention and that is the Minnesota Vikings. Since the introduction of new head coach Mike Zimmer back in 2014 they are starting to build a young and exciting team with big players in all of the right positions.
Last year they drafted both quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and linebacker Anthony Barr, two quality players who are both earning their money this year. I think you have to give credit to their general manager Rick Spielman as well because since he became the general manager in 2012 here are some of the key players they have drafted:
2012: Matt Kalil (Offensive Line), Harrison Smith (Safety), Blair Walsh (Kicker)
2013: Sharrif Floyd (Defensive Line), Xavier Rhodes (Cornerback), Cordarrelle Patterson (Wide Receiver)
2014: Anthony Barr (Linebacker), Teddy Bridgewater (Quarterback)
2015: Eric Kendricks (Linebacker), Stefon Diggs (Wide Receiver)
2013: Sharrif Floyd (Defensive Line), Xavier Rhodes (Cornerback), Cordarrelle Patterson (Wide Receiver)
2014: Anthony Barr (Linebacker), Teddy Bridgewater (Quarterback)
2015: Eric Kendricks (Linebacker), Stefon Diggs (Wide Receiver)
All of the above players are current starters at their position for the Vikings who now have a record of 5 – 2 this year which just goes to show what a great job Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer have done.
Finally to finish off this week I want to talk about two teams from the NFC West with contrasting fortunes and they are the San Francisco 49ers and the St Louis Rams.
Since the beginning of the year the 49ers have really been struggling to find any sort of form, to be fair to them they did have a lot of talent either retire or decide they want to play elsewhere, most notably their two middle linebackers Chris Borland and Patrick Willis who just decided to retire rather than play this season. They also lost their head coach in the off season as Coach Jim Harbaugh took a job coaching at the University of Michigan. When I think about it all those factors probably do explain why they have a 2 – 6 record this year.
The St Louis Rams however are really starting to come into their own this year and although they only have a record of 4 – 3, 3 of those wins are against all of their NFC Rivals. What is the reason for their recent success, well I put it down to a couple of factors.
Firstly is their head coach Jeff Fisher who is a great coach and during his time with Tennessee led them to the playoffs on six occasions. Fisher is one of those old school coaches who builds his teams on a solid running game and solid defence. He is also partial to the occasional sneaky fake punt. I personally love this style of coaching.
Secondly is the talent they now have on both sides of the ball. I think without question the Rams have one of the best defensive lines in the league led by Aaron Donald and Robert Quinn and they also now have explosive players on the offense in Tavon Austin and Todd Gurley.
In the last few weeks we are really starting to see Todd Gurley’s full talent at running back and he has now rushed for over 100 yards in each of his last four games. Thanks to opposing defences focus now shifting onto Gurley it has allowed Austin to become more active in the passing game and so far this season Austin has 426 combined rushing and receiving yards and 6 touchdowns.
Well that wraps it up from me for another week but be sure to check out our podcast ‘Spitball’ which will be available later in the week with a full recap of the week eight action. Until next time football fans stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.