1966 Magazine

I was ready to turn off the TV on Thursday night as the Colts vs. Texans game looked to be turning into yet another blow out when the Colts went up 24-0 in the first quarter. Then apparently, the Texans got the memo that the game had begun and started to play. It turned out to be a competitive affair that the Colts were able to hold on and win. It’s too bad the Texans don’t have a more reliable quarterback, because with J.J. Watt and company on the defense they could be formidable. Still it was good to finally see a Thursday night game that wasn’t a complete debacle.

The Bengals and Panthers provided the first tie game of the season which was a bit surprising to me as I thought the Bengals defense would have been able to handle Cam Newton and the Panthers offense. However, Cam had other ideas and seemed to be back to his old play-making self.  Of course, the Bengals kicker did the team no favors by missing a 36 yard field goal at the end of the overtime period. In so many words, a certain Bengal player blamed the kicker for losing the game. I think that’s unfair to the kicker; what was the rest of the team doing that lead to a tied game? Clearly they weren’t doing their jobs so well either, otherwise they would have beat the Panthers outright.

As the old expression goes, “you can’t keep a good man down.” Aaron Rodgers obviously thought it was referring to him with his theatrical come from behind touchdown pass to win the game against the Dolphins with three seconds remaining on the clock. The Dolphins were in control for most of the game and probably should have won it, but that just goes to show that when a team has an elite quarterback you can never count them out until the clock reads 00:00. Plus I just love it when a game goes down to the wire like that; it puts me on the edge of my seat because I have no idea what’s going to happen and I can barely stand waiting to find out!

The New York Jets were competitive and had a chance to beat the Denver Broncos but insisted on shooting themselves in the foot, the Cleveland Browns finally beat the Pittsburgh Steelers after several consecutive losses, the Oakland Raiders came within a whisper of beating the red hot San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys beat the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. You just can’t make this stuff up and that’s why we love the NFL.

Finally, watching the Monday night game between the 49ers and Rams, I learned a little bit about the Rams backup quarterback,Austin Davis. He had been with the Rams and then got cut and was working as a volunteer football coach. The Rams brought him back to the team after Sam Bradford went down for this season. In the first half of the game he came out guns blazing and had the Rams up two touchdowns while making the 49ers defense look pretty generic. I thought wow this kid is pretty good why did he ever get cut? I found out why in the second half. He wasn’t able to do anything against the 49ers defense and as Mike Tirico, who called the game on ESPN, pointed out;the Rams have not been able to play well in the second half which is why they haven’t been able to win games. The pick six in the last minute of the game definitely didn’t help. Hopefully, the Rams will get things figured out and help their quarterback succeed. I have made no secret of the fact that I love rooting for the underdog and this Austin Davis kid could be my new Brian Hoyer.