It is not often that I talk about great coaching here on the blog and so that is exactly where I am going to start this week. For me there is one coach at the moment who is head and shoulders above the rest and that is Mr Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots. Firstly you just have to take one look at his record and it speaks for itself; 195 wins, 104 loses including 3 Superbowl wins and 5 Superbowl appearances. You also have to look at the fact that in 13 years at New England he has only had one losing season in his first year back in 2000.
Okay so now you have the stats, you are probably asking why the talk about coaches this week? The answer is simple, anyone who coaches a team back from 24 – 0 down at halftime to win the game is pretty special in my eyes. Admittedly it was poor execution and game planning that saw them go behind in the first place but for me the mark of a great coach is two things: firstly getting the best out of ordinary players whilst still achieving greatness and secondly the ability to change a gameplan at halftime and continue to make adjustments during the game!
This week against the Denver Broncos I think we saw the best of Bellichick because we all know that he doesn't have the best receivers to work with on offence but through a combination of great defence in the second half and some offensive tweaks the Patriots scored 31 unanswered points in the second half before the Broncos managed to get the tying touchdown with just over three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
In overtime the New England defence managed to stop the Broncos scoring and following a punt late in overtime the Patriots got a lucky deflection from a Broncos player and recovered the fumble in great field position. This then lead to the game winning field goal and goes to show that despite their recent woes with bad calls, football is a game of swings and roundabouts. This win sees the Patriots move within one game of Kansas and Denver for the top spot in the AFC!
We now move on but stay in the AFC. Let me ask you, going into this week did you think that the game between the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders would be a battle for the sixth playoff spot in the AFC?
Well that is what we ended up with and I was in a state of shock thinking about it, if the season ended today one of those two would be in the playoffs! That is why we love football I guess. It was also a battle of the backup quarterbacks between Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Titans and Matt McGloin on the Raiders.
To save boring you with the ins and outs of the first half, let us just say that both kickers earned their money! The halftime score was 9 – 6 in favour of the Raiders for reference.
The second half however started off in fine form with the Titans scoring on a 54 yard pass from Fitzpatrick to Justin Hunter to give them the lead. The Raiders managed to hang in there with a field and 27 yard touchdown pass from McGloin to Marcel Reece either side of Rob Bironas 23 yard field goal. This put the Raiders up 19 – 16 with a little over six minutes left in the game.
Luckily for the Titans the young quarterback Ryan Fitzmagic as he used to be known in Buffalo would come up with the game winning touchdown pass to Kendall Wright with only 10 seconds left on the clock. So there you have it, The Tennessee Titans are currently the number six seed for the AFC when it comes to the playoffs, and I guess there is still hope for Buffalo yet!
Before we move onto all the scores week 12 the is one final game that I would like to talk about and that is the return of Greg Jennings to Lambeau Field as the Minnesota Vikings took on the Green Bay Packers. The game started well for Green Bay as they took the lead courtesy of this epic touchdown run by Scott Tolzien. Please check out the highlight by clicking his picture below. I’m sure like me, you will keep hitting rewind to watch his epic spin!
Unfortunately for Tolzein that would be the only highlight of his day as Minnesota went on to score 23 unanswered points and Tolzein would get pulled out of the game and replaced by Matt Flynn in the second half.
Most Green Bay fans will remember Matt Flynn for his one amazing record breaking performance a couple of years ago but now they have something else to remember him by. Coming into the game 23 – 7 down, Flynn managed to bring the Packers back to 23 all to force overtime. In overtime both teams managed a field goal however under the new rules this isn’t enough to win a game and it became the first game under the new rule to finish as a draw apparently. I say this because I thought the new rule was in place last year when the St Louis Rams drew with the San Francisco 49ers, maybe I’m wrong?
Here are all the scores from week twelve with the exception of the Monday Night game to be played later today:
New Orleans 17 vs 13 Atlanta
Denver 31 vs 34 New England OT
Dallas 24 vs 21 New York Giants
Tennessee 23 vs 19 Oakland
Indianapolis 11 vs 40 Arizona
Pittsburgh 27 vs 11 Cleveland
Tampa Bay 24 vs 21 Detroit
Minnesota 26 vs 26 Green Bay
San Diego 41 vs 38 Kansas City
Chicago 21 vs 42 St Louis
Carolina 20 vs 16 Miami
New York Jets 3 vs 19 Baltimore
Jacksonville 13 vs 6 Houston
To be played Monday 25th November 2013
San Francisco vs Washington
New Orleans 17 vs 13 Atlanta
Denver 31 vs 34 New England OT
Dallas 24 vs 21 New York Giants
Tennessee 23 vs 19 Oakland
Indianapolis 11 vs 40 Arizona
Pittsburgh 27 vs 11 Cleveland
Tampa Bay 24 vs 21 Detroit
Minnesota 26 vs 26 Green Bay
San Diego 41 vs 38 Kansas City
Chicago 21 vs 42 St Louis
Carolina 20 vs 16 Miami
New York Jets 3 vs 19 Baltimore
Jacksonville 13 vs 6 Houston
To be played Monday 25th November 2013
San Francisco vs Washington
Looking at the above scores it has reminded me that there is so much to talk about this week and if I wanted too, I could write on for hours. I will however spare you from that and just say that if you want to know more about what I thought of the rest of the action be sure to check out our podcast ‘Spitball’ later in the week.
Feel free to drop me a comment on the page if you have anything you want to add or if you have the answer to our overtime question. I can also be contacted via any of the social media icons above.
Until next time football fans, stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.
Until next time football fans, stay safe, take care and ‘Thanks for Stopping By’.