Any Given Sunday is not only a great film that everyone should watch if they haven't seen it yet but it also applies to every single week in the NFL!
For those of you who are regular readers you will have seen me say that so often but I don’t think you can deny how true it is. In football (Soccer) you pretty much know who is going to win between Burnley and Manchester City the only real question is by how much however in American Football, Pittsburgh can play Cleveland and who knows what is going to happen!
Okay so back to the action and we start with the Cleveland Browns playing host to the Pittsburgh Steelers. It seems crazy that these teams have now played each other twice and we have only just had week six of the season.
If you remember back to week one Cleveland and Pittsburgh had an absolute barn burner of a game that finished up with Pittsburgh stealing the win at the end of the game meaning Cleveland had a real point to prove this time round.
The Browns playing at home in the dawg pound really used the crowd energy to their advantage and holding the Steelers to just three first half point whilst they racked up 21 points of their own. This time round the Browns managed to hold their nerve and the lead as they came away with a big division victory. Check out the highlights which include some massive plays by Jordan Cameron by clicking on the picture below:
Next up I want to talk about them Cowboys or America’s Team as they are otherwise known. This week the Cowboys were up against the defending champion Seattle Seahawks in the most intimidating of venues ‘CenturyLink Field’ in Seattle!
In the time that Russell Wilson has been the starting quarterback for Seattle they have only lost once at home, it has become quite the fortress and that crowd noise is second to none. At one point last year the crowd recorded a new world record noise level of 137.6 decibels.
The game itself had a few intriguing matchups but none more so than the battle between Dallas wide receiver Dez Bryant and Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman. This year Mr Bryant has just been making some phenomenal catches as you would have seen from last weeks ‘Spitball’ show notes whereas Sherman hasn't had the best of starts by his standards.
Seattle got the scoring under way with a 33 yard field goal and it was soon followed by seven more points as they blocked Dallas’s first punt and took it back to the house for a score. Not the best way to start for any team but to their credit Dallas did not crumble like Denver in a Superbowl but instead managed to fight back to a 17 - 10 halftime lead.
To see how the rest of the game played out check the highlights by clicking on the picture below:
As you can see the Cowboys really are firing on all cylinders at the moment and move to five wins in row, I mean we are even starting to see the old Romo avoiding pressure and making big plays. They are also helped by the fantastic running of DeMarco Murray who has rushed for over 100 yards in each of the first six games. In total he has 785 rushing yards and six touchdowns which is just amazing.
I have to say this week again the standard of football was just something else and this season is really shaping up to be one of the best ever, not to mention with the way the results have been going it’s really tricky to try and predict who is going to make it to the postseason.
Before we take a look at all of the scores from this week I think we should take a visit to Sun Life Stadium in Florida where the Miami Dolphins were at home to the Green Bay Packers. The Packers had a bad start to the season but ever since Aaron Rodgers told everyone to chill out they have been playing much better and have won their last two games.
Miami came into this game off a big win against Oakland at Wembley Stadium and they were also fresh from the bye week. Despite all of the positives for Miami I honestly thought that Green Bay would easily win this game and they started off strong by scoring a touchdown on their opening possession.
The game continued to go back and forth between both teams in the first half and into the third quarter. By the time we got into the fourth quarter though it really looked as though Miami were riding the momentum and they went on to score 14 points taking a 24 - 17 lead with nine minutes left in the game.
The tension built as Green Bay were only able to get a field goal on their drive making it 24 - 20 just four minutes left. Four minutes for Green Bay to stop Miami from scoring and moving the ball. Check out the finale to the game by clicking the picture below:
Here are all of the scores from week six apart from the game to be played later tonight:
Indianapolis 33 vs 28 Houston
Carolina 37 vs 37 Cincinnati (OT)
New England 37 vs 22 Buffalo
Pittsburgh 10 vs 31 Cleveland
Green Bay 27 vs 24 Miami
Detroit 17 vs 3 Minnesota
Denver 31 vs 17 New York Jets
Baltimore 48 vs 17 Tampa Bay
Jacksonville 14 vs 16 Tennessee
San Diego 31 vs 28 Oakland
Chicago 27 vs 13 Atlanta
Washington 20 vs 30 Arizona
Dallas 20 vs 23 Seattle
New York Giants 0 vs 27 Philadelphia
To be played Monday 13th October 2014
San Francisco vs St Louis
Indianapolis 33 vs 28 Houston
Carolina 37 vs 37 Cincinnati (OT)
New England 37 vs 22 Buffalo
Pittsburgh 10 vs 31 Cleveland
Green Bay 27 vs 24 Miami
Detroit 17 vs 3 Minnesota
Denver 31 vs 17 New York Jets
Baltimore 48 vs 17 Tampa Bay
Jacksonville 14 vs 16 Tennessee
San Diego 31 vs 28 Oakland
Chicago 27 vs 13 Atlanta
Washington 20 vs 30 Arizona
Dallas 20 vs 23 Seattle
New York Giants 0 vs 27 Philadelphia
To be played Monday 13th October 2014
San Francisco vs St Louis
As you all know October is breast cancer awareness month in the US and the NFL has their crucial catch campaign which has all players and coaches wearing something pink. A lot of the game day wear is also put up for auction at www.nfl.com/pink with the proceedings going to charity.
This year it is not just America raising awareness but two local flag American Football teams here in the UK are holding joint scrimmages as part of Pinktober with the only prerequisite being to wear something Pink. The two teams involved are the Northampton Phantoms and the Aylesbury Vale Spartans. Over the next two weeks you will see a selection of the photo’s from both sessions starting with the pictures below:
Well that wraps it up from me for another week but be sure to check out our podcast ‘Spitball’ later in the week. Until next time football fans, stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.