So it was my birthday weekend and I celebrated by kicking back and relaxing with family and friends. I even got caught up on my Christmas shopping as I am like most men who wait until the last minute to buy gifts. The sports scene this weekend was one of many layers. The NFL saw the Green Bay Packers going down for the first time this year as Kansas City pulled off a stunning 19-14 victory over the defending champs. Tim Tebow’s mythical legend suffered a setback as New England led by another Golden Boy in Tom Brady built a lead that even the great Tebow could not overcome. The Broncos-Pats game did draw a 19.5 T.V. rating good enough for the highest rating in four years for NBC. Let’s give it up for Carolina Panthers Offensive Coordinator Rob Chudzinski for pulling off the Little Giants hidden ball trick play that. It resulted in a 7-yard TD for fullback Richie Brocker and help them beat the Texans. And we have to mention the Titans as they got Indianapolis in the win column losing to the Colts 27-13. I think we may have seen Matt Hasselbeck’s last past as a Tennessee Titans but more on that later.
The biggest story in the NBA was off the court as Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant wife Vanessa filed for divorce. This just adds to the list of things going on for Bryant as the Lakers seem to be in flux after the on again off again trade for Chris Paul. As for CP3 he finally landed with cross town rival Los Angeles Clippers and looks to make for a formidable team with the likes of dunk poster ready to happen Blake Griffin and a young promising Deandre Jordan. The Knicks continue to add veteran point guards with Baron Davis reportedly signing. B-diddy will be out 8-10 weeks with a back injury so he won’t be seen for a while. The season is just a week away and there will surely be a few more surprises coming the association.
Now for the rundown (I warn you now it’s football heavy):
Tebow mania runs into Brady and Belicheck: It cannot go without saying that Tebow love has reached full scale epidemic mode. He has Saturday Night Live spoofs, has a beer named after him and even got a few kids suspended for Tebowing in school hallways. Tom Brady knows a thing or two about superstardom and even more about winning. The Pats gave up an early lead to the upstart Broncos but would come roaring back and put this one too far away for another Tebow moment. Brady seemed to have something to prove going 23 of 34 for 320 yards with 2 passing TDs and one rushing TD. On his rushing score he seemed to make sure to emphatically spike the ball to serve notice that no one should be forgetting about him. Denver really got sloppy with the ball at the end of the first half as they fumbled three times. The Pats came out firing on all cylinders in the second half as they went on to score the last 21 points of the game. Tebow started hot and finished 11 off 22 for 194 yards. He scored two rushing TDs but also took a few ugly sacks including one that saw him lose multiple yards. The Broncos shouldn’t hang their heads as they lost to a very good New England team and still are in first place at 8-6 and in first place in the AFC West. Tebow and co. should still make the playoffs where is legend can continue grow.
Green Bay finally loses but surprisingly to the Kansas City Chiefs: There a lot of ways in my mind on how the Packers quest to go undefeated would unfold. 1. They would just go undefeated. 2. They would start to lose players to injuries (See: Greg Jennings) and shut it down for the rest of the season or 3. One of their two remaining division foes would take them down. As you can notice in no way, form or fashion did I have the previously 5-8 Chiefs would take down the undefeated champs. Kyle Orton was making his first start for them as well as Rommeo Crennel taking the helm as head coach after the firing of Todd Haley. The Pack came out flat and never seemed to have the precsion passing game working that we have come to get use to from them. There were dropped passes from trusted guys like TE Jermichael Finley and WR Donald Driver. Their defense allowed Orton and the Chiefs to march up the field a number of times that yielded 19 points. And the last thing that doomed the Pack was an off game for Aaron Rodgers. He has played lights out all year but this was the first game he looked human going 17 of 35 for 235 yards and one TD. The Chiefs deserve a lot of credit as well as they simply out played Green Bay. Crennel’s defensive game plan was masterful as he flat out jammed the receivers at the line and only rushed four men to give his defense enough personnel to cover the vaunted Packers passing game. Its just one lost but it opened up Pandora ’s Box of questions for Green Bay. They suffered two more injuries on the offensive line and that of course means that Rodgers is at risk until they get healthy. We all know that somewhere in the world today every player from that ’72 Dolphins team are smiling.
Indianapolis finally gets a win at the expense of the Titans playoff chances: Upon witnessing Donald Brown’s 80-yard scamper that sealed the game for the Colts, I remembered asking myself how did this just happen? How did a Tennessee Titans who are smack in the middle of a playoff race let a winless team beat them so thoroughly? On the surface it appeared as if the Titans simply came out flat and didn’t take the Colts seriously. But as I looked at the game stats and different recaps of the game a few things became more apparent to me. First, I couldn’t believe that the Titans started the game going just 1/9 on third down. A lot of that can be attributed to them seemingly going two runs and one pass on most of the first half drives. Secondly, Indianapolis seemed to be more physical the entire game and it was evident with Brown end game stat line of 181 yards. The Titans just didn’t seem to want it as much as the Colts did. And lastly, it appears the time of Matt Hasselbeck as the starting QB for the Titans may have just passed right before our eyes. Hasselbeck was as ineffective as I ever seen him going just 27 of 40 for 223 yards and no TDs. He was coming off a calf injury so we can cut him some slack for that but that was just not a good performance from the vet. Jake Locker came in and provided a spark for Tennessee as he led them on a scoring drive and it just seems like it time to start thinking about the future with the Titans playoff chances in serious doubt.
They would need a few miracles to happen now at 7-7 now to make it in as this lost basically took them out of contention. I like everyone else are disappointed about their lost to such a poor team but upon further thinking this is exactly what I predicted the Titans to be this season in a .500 team. They have had a few surprising victories over some teams and now they lost a game they should have won which is the exact reason they are a .500 football team. They are not quite there yet as a playoff team in my mind but they are oh so close.Now I know Tennessee Head Coach Mike Munchak came out and stated that its still Hasselbeck job but don’t be surprised if Locker doesn't get at least one start this year.
Editor’s Note: I know will be interning for 102.5 the Game here in Nashville so you may be able to catch me on a few of their radio and promotion spots. Don’t forget I also still host the Sportaholic Radio Show on beatknockin.com every Saturday from 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. so make sure you tune or call in.
