NFL Weekly Recap: Week 6

Now that we’ve seen a near-fight between coaches after a game, is there anything this season hasn’t had? One of the most exciting NFL seasons in recent memory is resulting in some very surprising teams finding themselves at the top of their divisions.

After six weeks, only three teams that made the playoffs last season would qualify for this season’s playoffs. Will that hold up, or will some of the most experienced teams that are off to slow starts now pick it up over the last ten weeks of the season? Before we head into week 7, let’s take a one last look back at week 6.

Poor Sportsmanship, or Passion for the Game?
By now, you’ve without a doubt heard countless talking heads rant about what a disgrace the post game confrontation between Jim Harbaugh and Jim Schwartz was. Analysts have loudly proclaimed that both head coaches need to be “classy” and “act like they’ve been there before”. Harbaugh apologized immediately after the game for his role in the incident, but was this really the disastrous event the media has made it out to be? I for one don’t think so.

It’s been awhile since there’s been any real excitement surrounding the San Francisco 49ers. Their last winning season was in 2002, when they went 10-6. In the past thirteen seasons, the once dominant franchise has won the NFC West only once, and in those thirteen years they have finished third or fourth eight times. 2010 was an especially frustrating time for the 49ers. As the NFC West became the first division to have a champion with a losing record, San Francisco still could only manage a third place finish, going 6-10.

This season, with a rookie head coach and essentially the same roster as 2010, expectations were understandably low. The most interesting topic among 49er fans was if the team would attempt to be competitive, or if they would just tank and hope to “Suck for Luck”.   It wouldn’t have been a crazy move on San Francisco’s part. Getting the first pick of the draft and grabbing Andrew Luck would reunite the Stanford quarterback with his old head coach. With no real improvements on the roster, wouldn’t getting the best college quarterback in recent memory be the best move for the franchise long term?

For Harbaugh, this was out of the question. With the same roster that struggled to be competitive in 2010, he has been able to lead the 49ers to surprising 5-1 start. Harbaugh took the physical style of play he made successful at Stanford and instilled that same personality in San Francisco. The physical style of play has suited the team well: their rushing game, powered by Frank Gore, is the best it’s been in years, and the defense (especially the front seven) has played at a near elite level. Harbaugh has gone out of his way to bring the team together, even having a mid season “training camp” during their two game east coast trip earlier this month. Although the 49ers are off to their best start in over a decade, their hot start has gone largely unmentioned in the media.

The reason for San Francisco’s start being largely ignored? The even hotter start that the Detroit Lions have been on. The dry spell that San Francisco has been on is dwarfed by Detroit’s. Their last playoff appearance was 1999. Their last division title was in 1993, and they’ve had only two winning seasons since 1997. The Lions hit rock bottom three seasons ago when they went 0-16 in 2008. If any fan base had a reason to be pessimistic, it would be Detroit’s.

Following that abysmal season in 2008 the Lions hired Jim Schwartz, then the Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator, to be their new head coach. Schwartz found himself in a worse situation than Harbaugh would in San Francisco, and the turn around would be a slower process in Detroit. In spite of that, through his first two years as head coach the Lions showed steady improvement as the team took at the attitude of their young and fiery coach.

Still, no one would have expected the Lions to start this year on a 5-0 run. Their win on Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears established Detroit as one of the best teams in the NFC as well as proved that Ford Field was now one of the toughest places to play in the league.  They, like the 49ers, have adopted a more physical style of play that has been led by Ndamukong Suh and his violent, almost-late hits on opposing quarterbacks.

All of this led to the highly anticipated match up between these two young teams Sunday afternoon. It was both a highly physical and emotional battle far before the post game handshake. Early in the game it was Schwartz trash talking to Harbaugh across the field after the 49ers botched a challenge attempt. For the entire 60 minutes it was a back and forth battle, with tensions high and neither team willing to yield an inch. By the time San Francisco scored the go ahead touchdown late in the 4^th quarter, emotions were at a fever pitch.

We all saw what happened next. Whether it was an obscenity uttered by Harbaugh, or just a hand shake that was a little too firm, Schwartz was going to have none of it. Clearly the handshake and the scuffle that followed wasn’t a picture of stellar sportsmanship. So why, in my opinion, was this not a problem?

For San Francisco, they headed into this game looking for respect. They felt ignored by the media, who they felt had talked about Detroit’s rise for far too long. No one really gave the 49ers a real shot to win in Ford Field, but they went onto the Lions’ home field and snatched the win away from Detroit. And that’s why Harbaugh was excited. This game was about establishing dominance in the NFC, and he carried that attitude all the way through the post game hand shake.

Schwartz, of course, took exception to Harbaugh’s celebration and made sure all the 49ers knew it. And Schwartz was right to do so. One of the most important aspects of the game is defending your home field. If you allow your opponent to act like Harbaugh did, it’s going to be tough to demand your players to defend their home with a passion in the next week. Rolling over, like many pundits say Schwartz should have, would have been an extremely fast way to lose the respect of the locker room.

Football is one of the most emotionally driven sports on the planet, and that’s why we all love it. The NFL has taken much of that aspect of the game away, penalizing celebrations and hard hits. But you can’t completely eliminate emotion from the game, and both head coaches proved that Sunday. Say what you want, but you can’t question either coach’s passion for their teams. And the passion both coaches showed is exactly the type of thing players will rally around for the rest of the year.

Should Harbaugh have acted like he’d been there before? Perhaps. But the fact is he hadn’t been there before at all. Should Schwartz have let it slide? Maybe. But I’ll take passion and heart for the game over a vanilla hand shake any day. It birthed a new rivalry that should last for years to come. We can only hope the two teams will meet again this year, this time on an even bigger stage in the playoffs.

Surprise of the Week
I think it’s pretty fair to assume that the odds were against the Cincinnati Bengals to match, or even improve on their record from 2010 this year. With Carson Palmer refusing to play for Bengals, some even expected Cincinnati to struggle to get a single win in 2011.  But after a three game winning streak, the Bengals have already matched their number of wins from last year, and head into their bye week at an extremely surprising 4-2. In fact, if the playoffs started today, the Bengals would find themselves as the top wild card team in the AFC. Not too shabby for a team predicted to finish last in their division.

The Bengals’ decision to go with Andy Dalton as their starting quarterback was one that raised some eyebrows across the league. Even though he would have a great wide receiving talent in fellow rookie AJ Green, Dalton’s ability to be a quarterback that could win games was a huge question mark. Through the first six weeks of the season, Dalton has answered that question with a resounding “yes”.

Cam Newton has made headlines with his playmaking ability for the Carolina Panthers, but it’s actually been Dalton who has had the better season so far. He’s posted a better passer rating than Newton (84.4 to 78.3) and a better record as a starter (4-2 to 1-5). Dalton has started to show a good connection with not only Green (29 catches for 453 yards), but he’s shown he can spread the ball around effectively when teams focus on Green. What’s more impressive is that Dalton has been able to do this with running game that averages only 105 yards a game.

The key to the Bengals’ success has been an outstanding defense. After ranking 19^th in the league last year, Cincinnati has had the #1 defense in the league for two weeks before slipping to 2^nd on Sunday. The defense has been able to force seven turnovers, which their offense has converted into 37 points.

The real test for the Bengals will start in week eight after their bye week. Their upcoming schedule includes games at Tennessee, Baltimore, and Pittsburg, as well as games at home versus Pittsburg and Houston. Will the Bengals be able to continue with their early season successes? Only time will tell.

Rookie Watch
By the time Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback Christian Ponder took the field on Sunday night, the only thing going through many fans’ minds was “What took so long?” Donovan McNabb, the incumbent starter, has been entirely ineffective in the first six games, but the Vikings’ coaching staff had been reluctant to through Ponder into regular season action.

For his first real action, Ponder looked pretty good. He displayed good athleticism on some runs, including an early bootleg that he converted into a first down. He showed a good awareness of where the pressure was coming from in the pocket, and did a good job for the most part of avoiding that pressure.

He had some trouble staying consistently accurate or going through all of his reads, but considering how poorly his offensive line was protecting him, I have a hard time blaming him too much for that. Overall it was an encouraging start for the young quarterback. The next question will be whether or not the Vikings go with Ponder from here on out, or if they decide to try McNabb again. Based on what I saw Sunday night, I think there is a good chance playing Ponder now will not only be good for the future, but might even give Minnesota a better chance of winning games now.

Fantasy Notes
One of the hottest wide receiver sleepers this season was the Oakland Raiders’ rookie wide receiver Denarius Moore. Unfortunately, he and the rest of the Raiders’ receiving core’s fantasy value took a huge hit as their quarterback Jason Campbell went down with a broken collar bone. With Campbell’s absence expected to last anywhere from six weeks to the remainder of the season, it’s likely that the only Raider worth using consistently in your fantasy line ups is Darren McFadden.

One receiver whose value has increased this week is the St. Louis Rams’ newly acquired Brandon Lloyd. While playing under Josh McDaniels, Lloyd was one of the best fantasy wide receivers in the league. Now that the two are reunited, look for Lloyd to start putting up good numbers again once he and Sam Bradford are acclimated to each other.

Lloyd won’t be the only receiver to benefit from the trade between Denver and St. Louis. If you have faith that Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow can get them the ball, you have to think that both Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas will see increased roles in Denver now that Lloyd is gone. Decker is likely taken in your league already, but if you’re quick you’re still probably to able to claim Thomas on waivers.