DRAMA was the word of the week for episode 15 of the 2010 NFL season. There was plenty of it in several key games this weekend. The one match-up that is still being talked about, and will continue to be talked about for months or possibly years to come is the is the Philadelphia Eagles visiting the New York Giants in a battle that would determine control of the NFC East.
For three and a half quarters, the New York Giants’ defense did a damn good job of containing the Eagles’ high-flying offense, while the Philly D had their hands full in stopping the Giants’ offensive attack. Enter Michael Vick. A few quick scores, an onsides kick and some good defensive stops later, and the game was knotted up in a 31-31 tie. With 14 seconds left on the game clock, all the Giants had to do was put the ball away and run out the remaining time to try their hand in overtime. Enter DeSean Jackson.
In what appeared to be a perfect storm of events with a bad long snap to the punter, a botched kick, a fumbled catch and recovery and a few key blocks, the scoreboard read 37-31 Eagles with :00 left on the clock. The point-after made the final score 38-31 and within one half of one quarter of football, headlines everywhere that spoke of a Giants blowout of the Eagles had to be erased and re-written.
Since the game was played at 1:00pm EST, the story of the comeback was the lead-in to every pre-game and halftime show for the remaining three broadcasts of the football week. The heroics solidified the 2010 MVP picture, which is basically a two-horse race between Michael Vick and Tom Brady. Stay tuned for the next two episodes… and more.
In other drama-filled events, there were other contests on Sunday featuring battles between two of the league’s best teams in which playoff contention or positioning was at stake. Four games, to be exact, and three of them played out the exact opposite as our in-house football expert predicted. Those contests were New Orleans at Baltimore, Jacksonville at Indianapolis, New York Jets at Pittsburgh and Green Bay at New England. In all but the Steelers’ case, the home team won each of those games. Indy, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Baltimore are all now tied in the respective divisions, while the Jets moved closer to clinching a wildcard berth and stayed within reach of the Patriots for the division. Both the Saints and Packers took serious blows to the hopes of winning their divisions, while the Pack needs to climb uphill to even get a playoff spot now.
As I mentioned, a few of those games did not go as predicted, but of the four games that were disagreed with by a majority of members in week 15, only half of them were wrong. So, with a 2-2 record on the week, the House was not beaten. Here are the overall tallies for the week and year, all three factions finished with a 9-7 record:
| * | The House | Madden Sim | Members |
| Week 15: | 9-7 | 9-7 | 9-7 |
| 2010 Overall: | 131-93 | 127-97 | 141-83 |
And getting back to drama, you can’t have that word in regards to the NFL without a certain queen of it… Brett Favre. After not practicing with the first team all week, Queen Favre woke up Monday morning and decided that he wanted to play in the Monday night Football game against the Bears. He did, and it didn’t take long to have his ass, or should I say head, planted into the turf.
Brett left the game and we ask ourselves, yet again, was that the last we have seen of Brett Favre… or at least this shadow of that player we see today?
Since the House was not beaten, no prizes will be awarded this week. Shit, 11 correct picks was the most anyone had in week 15… you should be giving US the prize.
Be on the lookout for the week 16 picks and predictions, which should be going live sometime early Wednesday. Also, look for the results of the Jagermeister Players of the Week contest, which are usually revealed on Wednesday evenings. There are only two more chances to enter before the season ends!
