After Week 7 of the season, we have seen the second International Series game of the year
and witnessed EJ Manuel`s best
attempt to engineer a move to San
Francisco, who surely would love another struggling QB to go with Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert. Manuel`s second quarter in London was very
reminiscent of Kaepernick in earlier weeks in its ineptness. Something the travelling Bills fans did not
deserve, special mention to those fans who arrived en mass in London and
contributed greatly to the NFL week.
In terms of the NFC West, you have to say what a
difference a week makes. Last week I was
sitting here saying how San Francisco were the only team to win, and now normal
service this season has been resumed and the 49ers this week were the only team
to lose. True the fact that the Niners
were up against a divisional opponent in the Seahawks, ensured that there would be at least one loser in the
division and to be honest it was never going to be Seattle, the return to some
form of Marshawn Lynch, who racked
up 122 yards on the ground. On the defensive side of the ball, we always hear
about the Legion of Boom of course
and free safety Earl Thomas racked
up 7 tackles but the standout was on the DL, Michael Bennett has struggled at times this year, being caught in
the neutral zone multiple times, but Kaepernick was terrorised by Bennett to
the tune of 3.5 sacks for the lineman, with Cliff Avril able assisting with 1.5 of his own.
From the Niners viewpoint they will be pleased in their
defensive effort holding Seattle to 20 points and 5 sacks of their own as the
frailties of the Seahawks OL were exposed again, but the Offence struggled mightily
as they failed to move the ball and were once again forced to move away from Carlos Hyde in the running game and
unlike New England who can decide to
not run the ball against the Jets, the Niners cannot do that and win. In part because New England have a Tom Brady and mostly because San
Francisco do have a Colin Kaepernick.
So the Seahawks win, would they move closer therefore to
division leader Arizona Cardinals,
who played on Monday night against the struggling Baltimore Ravens. The answer
to that was negative as Arizona rolled onwards following a 26-18 win mainly on
the back of the continued re-emergence of Chris
Johnson and his matching Marshawn Lynch with 122 yards. With a long run of
62 yards, CJ2K showed he still has that ability to rip off the big run. Although his big run in this one did look
like a happened next Question of Sport
question, following an attempted tackle Johnson was left sitting on top of the
tackler so never actually hit the ground.
The referee never signalled the play dead, so Johnson popped back up and
rushed off as some defence players thought otherwise and John Harbaugh was livid, but ultimately the Cardinals moved to 5-2
to retain the lead in the division.
For years the St
Louis Rams have been like the little brother to the rest of this division,
well if that is the case, the Rams may just be growing up. In a division which has had or still has
running backs like Lynch, Johnson, Frank
Gore and now Carlos Hyde, the Rams now have their own beast in the
backfield in rookie Todd Gurley. In his two starts to date Gurley has gone
over 100 yards and the Browns with their low ranked run defence were always
going to struggle to contain him. Gurley
went for 128 yards and his first two touchdowns of his NFL career. With that threat behind him Nick Foles does not have to be the
man, but with the big play potential of Tavon
Austin, Foles is able to play conservative and hit the big play as
required. Jeff Fisher is finally seeing the sort of team that he dreams
of. Meanwhile off the field in St Louis,
town hall meetings are being held in a bid to keep the Rams in St Louis, a
winning team may be more difficult to move to Los Angeles in terms of meeting the relocation criteria, wonder
what Stan Kroenke thinks about that.
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