I think it would be rude for me to not start this by talking a about Russell Wilson and last years Superbowl runners up the Seattle Seahawks. Despite having a shaky start to the season with the added drama of Kam Chancellors holdout the Seahawks have really been playing some great football lately.
A lot of that is down to the play of Russell Wilson who in the last four weeks has thrown for 1171 yards and 16 touchdowns. Let’s also remember that a lot of that yardage is without their star tight end Jimmy Graham who has been injured recently. When Wilson starts playing like this you wonder two things, firstly can anyone stop them and secondly why did they pay such a heavy price for Graham when it looks like they don’t need him! Below is the highlights from the Seahawks game against the Ravens this week:
Another thing worth mentioning this week is just the sheer number of injuries we have seen this seen. I am sure we have seen more big injuries this year than any other season I can remember and this week we added some more big names to the list with Andy Dalton fracturing his throwing thumb and Thomas Rawls the stand in running back for Seattle will miss the rest of the season with a fractured ankle. Whilst this amount of injuries does mean that more players are getting their chance to shine, you really do just want to see the best players competing week in and week out.
Anyways that’s enough of that let’s get back to the positives like this little touchdown pass from the Titans vs Jets game. You certainly don’t see scores like this every week:
Elsewhere around the league we saw a truly dominant display from Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders as they took on their division rivals the Denver Broncos. Throughout the course of the game Mack was consistently putting pressure on Brock Osweiler the young quarterback for the Broncos and Mack even managed to sack him five times. To see Mack in action check out the highlights from the game below:
There were a couple of other young players in the league that seemed to have what you would call comeback performances this week. The first of these is Eddie Lacy running back for the Green Bay Packers. Over the course of this season Lacy seems to have been lacking the kind of runs and general play that had him win rookie of the year a couple of seasons ago but this week he was back with vengeance against the cowboys. Check out Lacy’s highlights from the game below:
The second player who is getting back to the form that saw him drafted no.1 overall last year and that is Jadeveon Clowney of the Houston Texans. Clowney had a big night against the Patriots this week and between him and JJ Watt you can really see them making a push for the playoffs. Check out the best of Clowney's highlights below:
Finally to finish off this week it would be rude not to talk about the playoff picture which is starting to shape up nicely in each conference. Over the next few weeks to be honest you will hear a lot about the playoff push as we are just getting into that time of year where every game matters.
In the AFC the New England Patriots have now taken over the number one seed thanks to losses from Denver and Cincinnati and the wildcard spots are now held by the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets. Kansas has won seven games in a row and looks to be the form team heading towards the postseason. The main contender against these two teams is the Pittsburgh Steelers who have the same record but a worse record within the AFC.
In the NFC the Carolina Panthers have now clinched their division and a first round bye in the playoffs and the Arizona Cardinals have also clinched a playoff berth. The two wildcard teams are the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings and both of these teams have a two game lead over their closest rivals. With only three weeks left you can probably assume these will be the playoff teams with the only real battle being for the NFC East title.
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. Until next time football fans stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.