With a collective 180 minutes, played across three games, week 10 in the NFC South is complete. Despite having so much room for change the end result was basically stagnant; we entered the weekend with the Saints on top, followed by the Falcons, Bucs and Panthers and that's where we are this morning.
Despite the lack of wholesale change in the division we still saw some pretty dramatic outcomes, for better and for worse. So let's delve a little deeper into week ten, shall we?
The Awesome- Saints Vs. Falcons
Was there any better way for the top of the division to be settled than an overtime game with over 800 yards of total offense? If you're a Falcons' fan you're probably pretty upset that despite essentially dominating most of the game they failed to put the Saints away, but it's hard to deny that Sunday's game between 1 & 2 wasn't a good one. If you look across the game stats you'll see how even both teams played across the board.
I'm not sure yesterday's game really taught us who is the class of the division as close as it was, but it told me I can't wait to see the rematch on Monday Night Football, December 26th.
The Abysmal- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Yeeeeeesh... that one was pretty ugly, wasn't it? If you told me the Bucs would give up over 400 yards of offense to the Texans sans Andre Johnson I probably would have thought you were crazy. Arian Foster totaled 186 yards of total offense and two touchdowns, the Bucs gave up 16 yards per pass attempt and the defense picked off Josh Freeman three times.
The 4-4 Bucs heading into the game hardly looked infallible, but in leaving 4-5 they looked like a broken, shell of a team. That alone made their Sunday performance abysmal.
The Asinine- Carolina Panthers
We have a first here! An entire team gets the abysmal and the asinine this week as the Panthers fought the Bucs for the abysmal title, but their head scratcher was enough to move them to this rating. Head coach Ron Rivera stated that the Panthers would be starting a 'new season' following their bye-week. Well, if this was a 'new season' then God help Carolina Panthers fans because yesterday's game was atrocious.
The 5th ranked Panthers' offense stalled, their defense faltered and their special teams sputtered. When it's all said and done they'll hope this was the exception and not the rule.