Andy Richardson

Been a busy couple of weeks: attending an NFL game, rock concert, family birthday or two, and a high school reunion. That's when you really appreciate a Sunday afternoon with nothing to do but and sit and watch some football. And since this was week 12, it's time to appreciate it fully, because before long you'll wake up, half of the Christmas tree will be on your rug, and the season will be over. Better yet, it was a pretty amazing day of games. So there's no time to waste: let's get right to the handful of games I saw the most of this week....

Colts at Texans: In a way this was a fitting matchup: a team that doesn't know how to lose, and a team that doesn't know how to win. The Colts keep winning, only briefly slowed by falling behind 17-0 in this game. The Texans keep losing games they could or should win: fumbling at goal lines, missing field goals, blowing big leads. Plus you can't use any of their running backs these days, which is kind of a drag.

Some of the highlights, a nice touchdown grab by Pierre Garcon, where he tipped the ball to himself; Anthony Gonzalez' chances of contributing this year dip even lower. Later Garcon got another end-zone throw; couldn't get his second foot down. Could easily have been a touchdown. Three plays later, perfect fade to Wayne. Peyton Manning is basically inexorable. Give him enough chances and he will throw a touchdown. He nearly hit Garcon, Joseph Addai, and Austin Collie before connecting with Wayne for the score. The game featured an amazing effort by Addai to convert a 4th and 1, and an impressive touchdown run in garbage time by third-string tailback Chad Simpson. Colts are good, Texans are fading.

Bucs at Falcons: An exciting game; at least, it turned out that way. I'm no doctor, but it looks kind of bad that Michael Turner sat out only one week with a high-ankle sprain that some guessed would cost him several weeks, and proceeded to reinjure the same ankle during the game. I really don't think anyone would have questioned the guy's toughness if he took another week. I was kind of hoping the Falcons would lose, as it would have knocked several people out of a suicide pool I'm in, but no such luck. Matt Ryan was knocked out early with what turned out to be an injured big toe. (Turned out I was not the only one who thought of Bill Murray and Stripes when hearing about the injury; Dan Patrick made the same joke on Football Night in America.) Ironic fantasy sidelight to the Ryan injury was that I was facing him in a pretty important league where I found out too late that Kurt Warner was sitting out and I couldn't add anyone to replace him in my lineup (my only other quarterback was Ben Roethlisberger). I lost the quarterback battle 0.75 to 0.00.

With 38 seconds left, Falcons were lining up their 4th and goal play. After they show their formation, the Bucs use their last timeout. And I'm thinking, you know, it's important to be prepared to stop this play, but on the off chance they score here, you might want to have that last timeout, since you'll only be down by 3 points. And that's kind of what happened. Anyway, a fairly fortunate win for the Falcons (a key penalty helped them out, plus a missed field goal giving them good field position), but they're probably not going anywhere this year.

Panthers at Jets: You almost have to feel bad for Jake Delhomme. Worse for his teammates I guess. But Delhomme's first interception in this game bounced off Steve Smith's heel and was returned for a touchdown, as bizarre a play as you'll see. Later, he threw a pretty good 40-yard bomb to Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone, and officials threw a flag; seemed likely to be a pass interference on the defender. Instead they flagged both safety Eric Smith AND Muhammad for pass interference, something I've never seen happen before. Scary moment for the Panthers when DeAngelo Williams was tackled awkwardly and had both his legs wedged underneath the defender; looked serious. But he was fine, although he didn't help any fantasy teams with what seemed like an ideal matchup. Steve Smith owners (including me) will be disappointed to hear that Smith had a touchdown reversed by instant replay; didn't have full control of it as he slid out of the end zone. A game of inches.

For the Jets, Shonn Greene lost a fumble, which won't help his chances of getting more work in the backfield. Mark Sanchez, shortly before the scary play involving Williams, was tackled while running toward the sideline and fell awkwardly, then lay there clutching his knee with both hands. he was out of the game and I was sitting here explaining to my 4-year-old that Sanchez might not be playing for a while. It looked bad. But surprisingly, Sanchez returned. And so were the Jets. Another good game from Dustin Keller, although it could have been huge; he caught a dart near the goal line and had the ball knocked out as he stretched it into the end zone for a touchback. Another 4-year-old comment as the cameras focused on Thomas Jones' mouth guard: "Hey look he has a pacifier in his mouth!"

Cardinals at Titans: Two years ago I traded Vince Young for Jay Cutler in my dynasty league. Two weeks into the season, Young had been benched and Cutler was on his way to a pretty outstanding fantasy season. That trade looked pretty awesome for about a year and a half, but now? Er....well, I recently packaged Cutler in a deal for Philip Rivers anyway. The point is that you never know how deals are going to work out, so don't be too sure that you've "won" a deal until the season (or in this case, the league) is over.

As for the game, well, with Warner surprisingly held out -- a stupid mistake on my part not to have a third quarterback, but I didn't think there was any doubt Warner was playing -- we got the epic Rose Bowl rematch of Matt Leinart and Vince Young. And with the Titans really playing great football right now, I won't be too harsh on Leinart, who did after all lead what should have been the game-winning touchdown drive, had the Cardinals not let Vince Young convert three fourth downs while taking the Titans 99 yards to win. Then again, he led only one touchdown drive with one of the league's best offenses at his disposal, so odds are the Cardinals will have Warner back in the lineup next week. I have nothing to add to Young's drive, which everyone will have seen, beyond noting that Kenny Britt's game-winning touchdown capped an excellent day and is sure making those first-round wideouts from last April look better and better. Which brings us to....

Bears at Vikings: A lot of people laughed when Brett Favre said this Vikings team was the most talented he'd been on. Including me, because I know that Favre says that pretty much every preseason, or at least some variation on it, so it's no big deal. Anyway, no one is laughing after the way the Vikings totally dismantled the Bears. Tough to know what the best stat was from this game, but here's a good one: the Bears had 2 yards of offense in the entire second half, and didn't pick up a first down. It's been a pretty steady downward spiral for the team, although they should enjoy a slight uptick next week (hosting the Rams).

As for the Vikings, well, they won't roll up 500 yards of offense every week, but they've currently got 4 startable receivers, with Shiancoe scoring every week, Rice and Harvin both having breakout seasons, and even Berrian heating up a little bit. (Although his hold cost Chester Taylor a second touchdown.) And having watched Favre play since 1992, I can honestly say he's playing as well right now as he ever has -- so much better than he did last year with the Jets it's not even funny (and he had a few good games with them, but this? Crazy). Raise your hand if you thought there was a chance playing for the Vikings this year would enhance his legacy. Not, of course, with Green Bay fans. But in NFL terms? Anyway, the Vikings have had a nice little stretch of games here against soft defenses, so I won't get too carried away. But still....And oh yeah, Harvin and Rice? No question their long-term value is a little questionable with Favre being 40 and all. But they're also making some circus catches out there, week after week. They're good.

Steelers at Ravens: A while back John Harbaugh said it was hard to take Ray Rice off the field when he kept making plays. He should stick to that thought in the critical moments when he's instead using the far less dynamic Willis McGahee. McGahee vultured a touchdown from Rice (Rice did get one snap near the goal line beforehand), and Rice himself sure seemed underused until it's 4th and 5 in the final minutes, Ravens trailing by 3, when Baltimore sends him out into a route and he burns half the Steelers defense on a catch and run to set up the tying field goal, then runs for a bunch more yards in overtime. Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Maurice Jones-Drew....Ray Rice? He's in the conversation right now. For the Steelers, Dennis Dixon played pretty well until his overtime interception; better than anyone expected. Didn't do much for his receivers' values, and Roethlisberger will be back next week, but I don't know that Charlie Batch would have been any better, or that Pittsburgh would necessarily even have won with Roethlisberger.

Monday, Monday: Pretty sure this game doesn't need any promotion. A 10-0 team on pace to set all kinds of offensive records, facing the former 16-0 team that holds a lot of them. I like the Patriots for some reason, probably because New Orleans' defense is a little banged up...let's call it 31-24 New England. Either way, it should be a game where the Monday night crew can just step out of the way and let the game essentially speak for itself. We can hope, anyway.

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