The old adage "you learn something new every day" is true if you're a football fan. Each game carries its own insights and lessons. Each matchup reveals a little something about the teams or players involved.
Every week, football fans can add a new tidbit to their glossary of NFL knowledge and understand the season a bit better. So what three things did we all learn this week?
1. Tom Brady is still Tom Brady
Remember after Week 4 when the New England Patriots were 2-2 and the offense looked like a hungover college student waking up after their 21st birthday? Well, since then, the Pats have reeled off four straight victories capped by Brady's five touchdown performance yesterday against the Chicago Bears. In those four games, Brady has thrown for 1,268 yards, 14 touchdowns and no interceptions.
"We're a team on a mission," Darelle Revis said after the game. That mission definitely doesn't belong in a Tom Cruise franchise because it's anything but impossible. Brady looks like the Terminator out there, carefully carving up defenses with lethal precision. A healthy Rob Gronkowski, who hauled in three scores and 149 yards this week, has reclaimed his spot as the most effective mismatch in the entire NFL.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Brady's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The New England Patriots are once again a dangerous football team poised to win the AFC East for the 11th time in the last 13 years.
2. Seattle Seahawks: The struggle is real
The Seahawks just barely hung on to a 13-9 win over the Carolina Panthers yesterday. These are the same Panthers who rank in the bottom half of every major category (passing yards per game, rushing yards, opposing passing yards, opposing rushing yards) this season. And yet, Seattle managed only 310 total yards on the day.
The 'Hawks are an unimpressive 4-3 and are quickly falling behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. Is it a Super Bowl hangover? Is it locker room controversy? What is the true source of Seattle's ailments and can coach Pete Carroll fix it before it's too late?
Seattle will host the Oakland Raiders next weekend, in what should be viewed as an easy statement game. We'll know if this is a serious problem or a bump in the road after that.
3. Work hard, play harder is dangerous
Chicago Bears defensive end Lamarr Houston became the second NFL victim of overzealousness this weekend when he injured his right knee while celebrating a sack in the fourth quarter of Chicago's blowout loss to New England. Houston will undergo an MRI today to discover the extent of his injury.
Houston's mishap comes just weeks after Detroit Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch tore his ACL while celebrating a sack.
"I probably shouldn't have celebrated while they were blowing us out, but it happens," Houston said after the game.
Uhh, no, it doesn't really happen. In fact, this type of thing is pretty rare. If you were to just go out and do your job and act like you've sacked someone before, you wouldn't be in this mess. There is absolutely no reason to showboat during a blowout loss. With all the dysfunction in Chicago, Houston's injury is just a microcosm of the undisciplined environment surrounding the team.
Hopefully, he learned his lesson.
