In the first two weeks of teams coming off their bye week they are a combined 3 and 9 and then in the third week of coming off a bye they are over .600 this week with :
Cowboys 7 - Eagles 33 The Eagles used the bye week to get focused on the rest of the season and came out of fire because every time I looked up the Eagles had the ball and were moving down the field and had smoked the Cowboys 24-0 in the first half and Mike Vick was 21 of 28 for 279 with two TDs as Brett Celek had 7 catches for 94 yards with a long of 22 yards while both Jason Avant and Jeremy Maclin had longs of 24 yards. LeSean McCoy went for 185 yards on 30 carries for the Eagles while the Cowboys did not have as good a game as last week because the Cowboys were down big quickly but still had 74 yards and only 8 carries with a long of 26 yards.
Patriots 17 - Steelers 25 : Ben Roethlisberger throw 36 of 50 for 365 yards with 2 TDs and the Steelers running game carried the ball 23 times for 98 yards and the Steelers were very effective keeping Tom Brady off the field holding on to the ball for 39 minutes of the game. They were 10 of 16 on third down completions and had 28 more offensive plays while Brady had racked up over 700 yards in the last two meetings and only had 198 yards passing with 2 TD and an interception and it was only the second time in his career that he has lost to the Steelers. The turning point in the game was when Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a 42 yard field goal that would made 20-13 Steelers and the Steelers take the ball and drive the field for a field goal to make it 23-10 and Stephen Gostkowski had hit a 46 yarder earlier in the game.
Redskins 0 - Bills 23 for the first time in their four season experiment the Bills have won a regular season game in Toronto and hope it will vault them into the playoffs like it did when the Dolphins and Jets won in Toronto against the Bills. This game marked the first time that Mike Shannonham has been shutout in 158 games and strangely enough they went for it on fourth down with less than a minute to go instead of trying a 40 yard field goal. Freddie Jackson had 194 yards on the day on 26 carries for 120 and 3 receptions for 74 yards while the Redskins net offensive was 178 yards with 208 yards through the air but quarterback was sacked 9 times for a total loss of 52 yards and they only picked up 26 yards on the ground. Ryan Fitzpatrick went 21 of 27 for 262 yards with 2 TD and an interception while completing over 75% of his throws and also took a jarring plow from former Bill London Fletcher but did finish the game. On defense Marcell Dareus had 2.5 of the 9 sacks while George Wilson who would of rather had the game being played in Buffalo had 8 tackles and an assist to go with getting one of the two Bills interceptions but he is not the only one wishing the game was in Buffalo as Rogers communications who gave the Bills guaranteed money for all games in the T.O. series had to go into their pockets again and basically give tickets away just before kickoff and there were umpty seats still.
Browns 10 - Niners 20 After week off after hand shake gate Jim Harburgh's Niners boosted their record to 6-1 and basically have the NFC West locked up as the rest of the division is not very good and their game plan was very simply and it was to hand the ball to Frank Gore who carried an amazing 31 times and racked up 134 yards and with TD he has run for 125 yards plus and a TD in four consecutive games. While Alex Smith kept it simply as he went 15 of 24 for 177 yards through the air and 41 of those yards were picked up on a 41 yard Michael Crabtree while Nose Tackle Isaac Sopoaga recovered a fumble and free safety Dashon Goldson had an interception of Colt McCoy for the only two turnovers in the game but it was from a lack of trying Colt McCoy did fumble the ball 4 times and recovered it 3 times.
Dolphins 17 - Giants 20 Giants took almost the entire first half to get off their bye week as the Dolphins had a 14-3 late in the second quarter before Eli Manning put together a TD drive to cut it to 14-10 @ half and they took their only lead of the game with 6 minutes left in the game when Eli Manning hit Victor Cruz to seal the deal and give the Giants the 20-17 victory to stay on top of the NFC East. Eli was all they had offensively as he put the ball in the air 45 times and completed it 31 times for 345 yards and 2 TDs as Ahmad Bradshaw was 13 for 50 yards but was dinged up and had to leave the game to get X-rays done and bandaged up and came back into the game as Brandon Jacobs who was complaining about his touches during the bye week could not get the job done as he had 4 carries for 10 yards and missed a hand off early and had to just fall on the ball. Cruz was his favorite target as he caught 7 passes for 99 yards while Mathias Kiwanuka had 1.5 sacks of Matt Moore and Corey Webster had an interception of Moore who was very conservative with his passes as he was 13 of 22 for 138 yards including 20 yard reception to Brandon Marshall, 24 yards to Davone Bess, and 16 yards to Charles Clay. The real positive for the Dolphins is not that Tony Sparano house is still on the market or that Nick Saban's University of Alabama is in a prime time game as 1 and 2 in the nation faceoff but it is that Reggie Bush ran for over a hundred yards for the second time in his career and both have come against the Giants as he went off for 103 yards on 15 carries with a long of 35.
Seahawks 12 - Bengals 34 the Bengals keep rolling as they man handle the Seahawks as Andy Dalton throw two first half TDs and Brandon Tate ran back a punt for 56 yard TD to embarrass the Seahawks and gave the Bengals their fourth win in a row and Marvin Lewis 65 wins to become the winiest coach in Bengals history and he is probably just thankful no more drama. Andy Dalton had a simply passing game as he went 18 of 29 for 168 with his long being a beautiful pass to A.J. Green for a 43 yard TD reception while the running game with Bernard Scott ran 22 times for 76 yards. While the defense shortened the field with a Gibril Wilson fumble recovery of a Marshawn Lynch fumble and a Reggie Nelson interception of Tarvaris Jackson. Tarvaris Jackson who was 21 of 40 for 323 yards and both Ben Obomanu (107 yards) and Sidney Rice (102) were both over a 100 hundred yards receiving.
Almost half way through another NFL season
Tom Mehegan
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