With week six in the books for the NFC South we had a divisional Sunday that saw the Atlanta Falcons host the Carolina Panthers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers welcome the New Orleans Saints to town. In both cases the home teams won which now ties the Bucs and Saints atop the division at 4-2, the Falcons at 3-3, and the Panthers bringing up the rear at 1-5.
The Awesome- Michael Turner
In a season that has been rather unkind to Turner he was finally able to breakout on Sunday, and when we say 'breakout' think 'steamroll'. Do the Panthers have the best defensive line? No, but regardless Turner put on an absolute clinic on Sunday as he ran for 139 yards on 27 carries and added 2 touchdowns. Turner ran up the gut, he cut to the edge, he caught the ball out on the backfield... if you wanted a class in 'Running Back 101' then look no further than Turner.
This stout running game allowed for the entire offense to open up for Atlanta and took a lot of pressure off Matt Ryan, which made the second half for the Falcons a cakewalk.
The Awful- Carolina Panthers in the 4th quarter
Through three periods the Carolina-Atlanta game looked to be one of the games of the week. The new look Panthers offense was clicking, the Falcons couldn't be stopped and we had a shoot-out on our hands. When the 4th quarter began the Carolina Panthers were leading 17-14, and when the game was over the score was 31-17. That's right.... the Panthers gave up 17 points in 15 minutes.
Not only did Carolina allow the Falcons to post over 125 yards of offense in the 4th, they had less than 5 minutes possession in the 4th quarter. In short, the Falcons brutalized them.
The Asinine- Sean Payton's leg isn't supposed to bend like that!
Each week in the NFL we see millionaire athletes put their bodies on the line, and sometimes the result is a gruesome injury. What we don't normally see is a head coach get demolished on the sideline, and that's what happened in Tampa Bay.
Go watch the video here, then come back
Okay, so maybe it doesn't look too bad... but what if you were to find out that Payton broke his tibia and tore his MCL? Yeah, that happened, and for that it was our most asinine NFC South moment of the week.