When a Football Game Means More

        Yesterday was one of those days for the Indianapolis Colts, one of those days where an NFL game is more than an NFL game. As you may already know, Colts head coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with a treatable form of leukemia about a week ago. The whole week the entire Colts organization was downplaying that their coach would an inspiration, even though it is really hard to imagine that being the case. So in come a recent Super Bowl winner, and the best record in the NFL last year in the Packers. So the Colts are staring at a game of being a underdog at home, with their head coach in the hospital diagnosed with cancer.
       This is why Sunday is one of those days in sports where we get some inspiration in life. Where a team fights so hard for a member that has fallen to where they don't care if they are an underdog. Where we draw that inspiration for those slightly over the top cheesy sports movies. This is also where we saw the whole Colts team in the "there is no way you are beating us after what has happened to us this week" mode that we see many players or teams in after something like this. The Patriots felt the Packers pain earlier this year, when we saw Torrey Smith operate under the same mode and delivered a very similar performance.
      I love sports for so many reasons, but these occasions where we see all those cliches of bouncing back and overcoming is easily one of the best ones. How could you not feel good after seeing the Colts in the locker room with owner Jim Irsay telling his team he is going to deliver the game ball to Pagano in the hospital? If you watched the game, seeing Reggie Wayne (who wore orange gloves in honor of cancer research) stretch as far as he can to get just enough for a touchdown felt so perfect. It makes us all feel good. It is where I see all the inspirational quotes and saying for reasons to live shine, in real life, in front of my eyes. So whether it is Chuck's battle against cancer or it is the Colts pulling up the upset in his honor, this was a Sunday where we can see a lot of inspiration from the Colts.

Other Sunday Stories

Saints Finally Breakthrough: The Saints finally got a notch in the win column against the Chargers. It was definitely a matter of when, not if, for Drew Brees and company. The thing is the Saints didn't have to change their game plan much, in fact they didn't look that much better in this win than any of their 4 losses. They just finally got the right plays at the right time this week, so don't be surprised if we see more of this to come.

Sophomore Slump: Cam Newton is almost as news worthy this year, this time for being more disappointing than anything. All of the Cam question marks that he put to rest last year are starting to creep back into the question. Personally, I feel Cam is just way too talented for this to last the rest of his career. However, I can see Cam's sophomore season to continue to be disappointing. The talent around him as pass catching options and blockers just seems to be sub-par. Carolina will be an interesting team to watch the rest of the season.

NFC Goes Through Atlanta?: Atlanta is the last unbeaten team in the NFC after this week, question is will they have the same success all year? I feel like Atlanta has the same formula as the Packers last year, MVP QB with offensive weapons and an average defense. So I can see the Falcons going 14-2 or something and being the one seed in the playoffs. Once we get to the latter part of the year though, anything can happen.

San Francisco Dominating... On Offense??: San Francisco put up 621 yards on offense, 311 passing and 310 rushing. This was a franchise record, and the first time in the NFL that team had over 300 yards through the ground and air. The 49ers have also won their last two games by a combined score of 79-3, and yes they were actually playing NFL teams. The roster additions to the offense have seemed to pay off for the offense, and the 49ers figure to be in the playoff picture again.

NFL Picks record going into Monday Night Football: (9-3)

NFL Week 4 Sunday Quick Points

Week 4 in the NFL wasn't quite the spectacle that week 3 was in the NFL, but many fans probably enjoyed it more. What the NFL lost in unpredictable officiating, key injuries, and crazy finishes everywhere; they got back in just some really good football. Here are some quick points you should take from Sunday:

If You Root For An Expected Contender You Will Be Okay: Some of the things that were said last week around this time were "Oh no, the Patriots have a losing record for the first time since 2003" and "The 49ers just lost to the Vikings, maybe they aren't as good as we thought (we will talk about the Vikings later)." Look, this is a league that you don't have teams go undefeated over 99% of the time. On top of that these teams normally lose to one or two teams that they shouldn't lose to. So this whole worrying about some of these teams after the first three weeks was a little premature. In this league you can lose 6 games and still make the playoffs, so this week proved you should be fine if you're the Packers or Patriots. Also, a loss to the Vikings doesn't make the 49ers go from a popular best team in the NFL to maybe just a borderline contender.

Well Unless You Root For These Two: Well, maybe you should actually hit the panic button on the Saints. The aren't the same team after bounty gate, which came so surprising to some especially with an 0-4. Especially me, I was sitting there saying "They have DREW BREES, they will be okay", "So what about bounty gate, they still have a solid team without Sean Payton", and "Man, DREW BREES has done so much for New Orleans, he can get this done." As you can see, I believed in the Saints team (and that Drew Brees guy) overcoming this and making the playoffs. Four weeks in and anyone with that opinion couldn't feel more wrong, and all of the games have lacked key late game execution. Sean Payton is pretty much this years Peyton Manning, the more he is staying away from the Saints the more this guy looks like a genius. New Orleans could easily be 4-0, had they just put a drive together in the 4th quarter in each of the games. Which just makes it seem Drew Brees isn't so much a great coach on the field, as much as he seems to be a great quarterback who misses his great coach on the sidelines.
       Now for the 1-3 Lions, who aren't in nearly as bad of shape, but still there are some real issues here. They squeaked out a game against St. Louis, and then lost 3 straight to the 49ers, (expected) Titans, (really not expected) and Vikings (not as shocking). There are two fixable issues here that can turn the Lions ship around. First of all, they need to finish their drives off right. The Domininc Raiola play is such a symbol for this as the Lions seem to be able to gain the yards needed to put up points. Other than the Titans game, which they still lost, they have averaged 19.6 points a game. That isn't awful but it definitely doesn't meet the standards that such a highly respected offense requires. As for the second issue, its the return touchdowns, which can be pointed to bad preparation. The Lions are the only team that has let up a kick return touchdown up this year, and they have let up two. Add to that two punt return touchdowns the last two weeks, and that is 28 points the last two weeks that special teams gave up. This should be easily fixable, lets see if Jim Schwartz tries to fix the issue.

Is It Time To Hop On The Viking Ship?: Yes, it can be conceded the first two weeks were a little more ugly, but these last two were really solid for Minnesota. It is hard to be attributed to it really being a fluke either, since they beat two teams in the 49ers and Lions that are suppose to be pretty solid squads. The Vikings were not a trendy pick to win the NFC North by any means, especially when looking at the competition, but when you look at the roster it isn't all that crazy. The Vikings still had some real offensive talent, especially now that Kyle Rudolph seems to be emerging as another good young Tight End in the NFL. Really their only big differences last year to the 12-4 team was the fact that Donovan McNabb's ghost, and a Christian Ponder more unaware of the world than Bambi were the quarterbacks instead of Brett Farve. Christian Ponder has come out in the last two games and is improved greatly from the rookie who was vastly unprepared after the lockout. Ponder is in a great fit in Minnesota with the talent around him in Peterson, Rudolph, and Harvin. Game managing can be looked at as his best skill, and Ponder is on a team that just needs him to manage the game. Add that defensive line, and a secondary that is revamped by adding Chris Cook and Harrison Smith to the established Antoine Winfield. This seems like a great recipe to make Minnesota this years version of the team that goes from last in their division to first, something we have gotten every year.

Do We Believe In Chris Johnson Now?: Ehhhhhhh, no. As much as most of the NFL's fans want to see the electric Chris Johnson that we use to know, and as seductive as believing in this guy can be (you just want to believe!). One impressive performance isn't enough to remove the stink that was around the artist formerly known as CJ2K. Even if he can come out once every four weeks and have a game like this, he still is on pace for 744 yards on the year. There are articles everywhere after that game saying there is more of this to come, all of which are completely fair to say. It just seems to overlook how awful he was through 3 weeks of the year, 44 yards isn't something to just throw out. He was on pace until this game to have 6 more yards the whole year than Jamaal Charles had against the Saints. In my opinion he won't be that bad the rest of the year, but he isn't going to lead the NFL in rushing every week like he has so far this week. I feel like 70 yards is a good expectation going into the next couple weeks, with no surprise if he gets 60 less or 60 more.

The Mark Sanchez Question: Oh what do the Jets do? They brought in Tim Tebow to be the league's most notorious back up, and now Sanchez is playing like well... Sanchez. The issue that is circling around Sanchez is the fact that everyone is waiting for some kind of improvement that might never come. If you take a look at Mark Sanchez's last 32 starts and split them up into two groups of 16 you don't see much of a difference. Bill Barnwell of Grantland did so:

Split	Completions	Attempts	Comp %	Yards	Yards/Attempt	Touchdowns	Interceptions
Last 16 starts	290	519	55.9%	3,282	6.3	25	17
Previous 16 starts	313	575	54.4%	3,746	6.5	17	18

As you can see, Sanchez's improvement is minimal at best. These stats work for a guy who is a quarterback of a run oriented team that just needs the quarterback to make some plays, like Sanchez was at the beginning of his career. Now with a run game that is just deteriorating, and no improvement being made by Sanchez, this is just screaming trouble. As my good friend texted to me while watching the Jets game "if you are going to have a quarterback who can't throw, might as well be the one who can run." I don't know if it's time to bury Sanchez yet, but he really needs to get something going if the Jets are about to do anything.

Brian Hartline playing so good he surprised Brian Hartline: We have heard about Ryan Tannehill's chemistry with Brian Hartline through Hard Knocks. I don't think anyone expected 12 catches 253 yards and a TD though. Even Brian Hartline: https://twitter.com/BenVolinPBP/status/252557833374138369
Hartline hadn't gotten a 100 yard game even at Ohio State, and 4 games into 2012 he has already had a 111 yard game and now this 253 yard game. Expect a vastly improved year for the 4th year receiver from Canton.