Empty the Bench

(Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

- Purple Jesus is clearly one of the best running backs in the NFL, and Chester Taylor is certainly no slouch either, but it’s time to give it up for the Minnesota Vikings offensive line. The league’s best rushing offense, which at 178 yards/per averages 40 more than the next closest team, didn’t miss a beat against the overmatched Raiders on Sunday, as Taylor went off for 164 yards rushing (7.5 YPC!), 38 yards receiving, and three visits to the endzone. Nine out of ten successful running backs owe a big hat tip to their lineman (see Emmitt Smith), and both Vikings’ backs are certainly no exception. After a road game and so-so matchup against the Giants in Week 12, Minny gets two juicy matchups against the Lions and 49ers.

- When you need a big play, and your best playmakers have been making–as NFL broadcasters have become fond of saying lately–”good football plays” throughout the game, why oh why would you not turn to them in crunch time? With his team down by just six points late in the fourth quarter, Detroit Lions QB Jon Kitna decided to lock in on and force the ball to Shaun McDonald, the Lions’ coaching staff decided to limit Megatron Johnson’s snaps (3 receptions, 45 yards, 1 TD), and Roy Williams was not given a chance to redeem himself for missing that wide-open touchdown catch. The result was two Kitna picks in the final minutes, 3-5 McDonald drops, and a 16-10 fluke win for the Giants.

- So, Randy Moss and Tom Brady are pretty good. Both are well on their way to having the best ever season in NFL history at their respective positions. Moss looked like the Jolly Green Giant out there Sunday night, towering over the hapless Bills’ secondary and basically doing whatever he pleased. Moss finished with 10 catches for 128 yards and 4 touchdowns, but he probably could have had six scores if the Pats didn’t show a little mercy. That’s right, Bills fans–they could have run it up a lot more. And honestly, we wish they had. Whether you like them or not, we’ve maybe never seen an offensive machine like this one. Why should the Pats be bashful about it? If opposing teams don’t like it, the best way to stop them from scoring is to play defense. It’s that simple.

- Reggie Bush is not a good running back. He’s a fantastic receiver out of the backfield, he’s elusive in the open field, and he’s fairly solid at finding the endzone. But at this stage in his young career, he does not excel at running after a handoff. At all. It’s on HC Sean Payton and his staff this offseason to figure out how to best utilize Bush’s skillset, and to decide whether or not they need to go out and get a more reliable every-down back to run the ball. We have our doubts about Deuce McAllister’s ability to bounce back from yet another big injury, and the fact that Bush has still only rushed for over 100 yards once in his career has to be troubling for the Saints. Bush finished with 15 carries for 34 yards (2.3 YPC) and 12 catches for 70 yards in his team’s 23-10 loss to the Texans.

- Andre Johnson is back, and in a big way. After Johnson told reporters that he was basically learning to walk again during rehab, we had serious concerns about his ability to come back strong this season. Those doubts were erased very quickly after a 73-yard touchdown reception with 10:44 remaining in the first quarter. Johnson finished with 6 receptions, 120 yards and 1 TD and is once again a weekly must-start. The man throwing the ball to Johnson, Matt Schaub, also becomes a solid QB2 and borderline QB1 option with the return of his best receiver. Schaub went 21-for-33 for 293 yards and 2 TDs. He’s a strong play this week at Cleveland, but unfortunately the schedule gets pretty difficult after that.

- With the exception of perhaps Rex “Mental Midget” Grossman and Trent “Where’s the Buffet?” Dilfer, the New York Jets have collectively been one of our resident Whipping Boys throughout the season. But we’re fair guys–every ugly duckling has its days, and we’ll give them credit for an improbable 19-16 overtime win over (my good friend Dave’s) heavily favored Steelers at Giants Stadium. And of all the backs we could have predicted to end the Steelers’ 36-game streak of not allowing an opposing RB to break 100 yards rushing, Thomas Jones is one of the last names we would have guessed. He did it, though, with 30 carries for 117 yards. Good job, Thomas. Good job, Jets.

- Oh, pipe down Cedric Benson–we haven’t forgotten about your “breakout” game either. We were shocked to see “Benson, 43-yard TD run” crawl across the stat ticker, amazed that such a slow man could break off such a long run, and immediately phoned our local FOX affiliate to verify its authenticity. Sure enough, it truly happened, and his career-long run contributed to an uncharacteristically strong day: 11 carries, 89 yards, and 1 TD. Still, the Bears dropped to 4-6 with a 30-23 loss in Seattle. They’re dangerously close to also dropping out of the NFC playoff picture; a loss to Denver on Sunday would probably do the defending NFC champs in.

- We learned a few things as well on the other side of the ball in that Seahawks win as well. First, Maurice Morris is better than Shaun Alexander right now. Morris rushed 18 times for 87 yards (4.8 YPC) and 1 TD. Morris showed more burst than Alexander has all season on that 19-yard TD scamper in the second quarter, and he’s obviously worth owning. We also learned that Seattle is extremely committed to the passing game. Matt Hasselbeck went off for 337 yards and 2 TDs. He did it by completing 30 of his 44 pass attempts, making it the third consecutive game Hasselbeck has attempted over 40 passes, and the fourth game out of the last five. Throwing that volume of passes will translate into huge fantasy stats for Hasselbeck down the stretch.

- Darryl Johnston is quickly becoming the NFL’s most prolific source of unintentionally ironic comments. Upon seeing the Green Bay Packers up 21-3 over Carolina during the Giants/Lions, Johnston astutely pointed out, “The offense is starting to come together in Green Bay.” Uh, yeah, it’s starting to. The Pack are now 9-1, averaging 25.9 points a game (5th in the NFL) and 370.3 yards a game (4th in the NFL). It makes me shudder to say it, but Brett Favre is having one of his best seasons ever. He has a career-best 67.7 completion percentage, 2,975 yards passing, 19 TDs and, most important, just 8 INTs on the year. It’s becoming more and more clear that Green Bay is the class of the NFC this season.

- We’re not sure what Brian Billick was so upset about in his press conference after the game. He was whining about the Phil Dawson field goal that was discussed by officials for several minutes and then, correctly, ruled good. We haven’t seen anything like that before either, but the refs made the right call and the Browns proved themselves to be the better team after completing a sweep of the Ravens on the road. I predicted a 27-17 win in the Crystal Ball, and that was the exact score at one point in the fourth quarter, but I’ll consider the 33-30 outcome close enough.

- The Eagles narrowly avoided disaster on Sunday by eeking out a victory over the winless Dolphins, but their BCS ranking certainly took a hit. It should not have been this close, and we were seriously concerned about Donovan McNabb’s performance before he left with the ankle injury. McNabb completed just 3 of his 11 passes for 34 yards and threw 2 INTs. He was replaced by AJ Feeley, who thoroughly outplayed him and went 13-of-19 for 116 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT. Even if McNabb comes back healthy, it’s time to be extremely concerned, Philly fans. We think McNabb needs a fresh start somewhere else.

- Since we always promise to remind you about our Crystal Ball predictions that come true, I’d like to draw your attention to numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 10 under the Brian section. They’re not exact, but that’s pretty damn close, don’t you think?