Friday 19 December 2014 07:40, UK
Andrew Luck is an elite quarterback, says Neil Reynolds, but is it the end of the road for Colin Kaepernick?
Given that the final month of the NFL regular season got underway on Sunday night, it would be fair to say that we are now at the business end of the 2014 campaign.
And with that in mind, there were some very telling signs in Week 14 as we looked to separate the play-off wheat from the also-rans chaff. Here are six storylines that caught my eye over a very enjoyable Sunday night watching the NFL action unfold in the United States.
Andrew Luck was harried and harassed for virtually the entire game as the Indianapolis Colts stared down the barrel of a defeat at the plucky, energetic and pretty impressive Cleveland Browns. But as so many elite quarterbacks – and I do think Luck is elite – tend to do, the third-year passer found a way to lead his team to a dramatic 25-24 win.
But Luck had to do it the hard way. He began his team’s final drive camped on his own 10-yard line and a penalty moved the Colts back to their own five. The Dawg Pound was baying for blood and the game was on the line – it conjured up images of John Elway leading Denver on a 98-yard march that became known as ‘The Drive’ in the 1986 AFC Championship Game.
Luck was undeterred by the crowd, Cleveland’s aggressive defence, poor field position and the fact that he had absolutely zero room for error with the game on the line. He marched the Colts 90 yards on 11 plays and, at one point, showed his fierce will to win by throwing himself forward in an attempt to pick up a first and goal near the Cleveland end zone. His head was jerked back at a vicious angle and he could very well have been injured on the play, but Luck came back to fire the game-winner to TY Hilton from a yard out.
It was vintage Luck, who in less than three years has learned to scare the pants off the rest of the NFL with his ability to come back and steal the win when seemingly dead and buried.
Running back Le’Veon Bell has been enjoying quite the campaign for the Pittsburgh Steelers in just his second year in the NFL. He was good as a rookie in 2013 but shed 20 pounds in the off-season and has played at a different level in 2014, displaying more explosiveness to go with his power and strength.
Bell was the key man on Sunday night as the Pittsburgh Steelers inflicted a 42-21 beating on the Cincinnati Bengals by scoring the final 25 points in what, for quite some time, was a competitive affair in Ohio.
Bell rushed for 185 yards and two scores on 26 carries and proved he is the all-around threat by adding six catches for 50 yards and another touchdown. Bell topped 200 yards from scrimmage for the third game in a row – a feat only achieved once in NFL history by the late, great Walter Payton, of the Chicago Bears, in 1977.
The Steelers,like all four teams in the competitive AFC North, remain tough to figure out, but I do know this: on their day, they possess the talent and firepower to defeat any team in the league and will be a dangerous opponent if they can reach the play-offs.
The San Francisco 49ers find their play-off hopes hanging by a thread. They have fallen to 7-6 and are two games behind the 9-4 Seattle Seahawks and three back from the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals with three to play.
I have said several times that I felt the 49ers were a house of cards and I do think they are stumbling towards the end of the Jim Harbaugh era. But will it also be the end of the road for quarterback Colin Kaepernick?
Apart from his general arrogant and indifferent demeanour, I have a problem with Kaepernick as a passer and do not think he has developed enough this year. He was poor again on Sunday as the 49ers fell to a pretty embarrassing 24-13 loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Kaepernick was out-played by rookie quarterback Derek Carr. Kaepernick went 18 of 33 for 174 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions while Carr hit on 22 of 28 passes for 254 yards, three touchdowns and no picks.
These are perhaps the most damning and alarming stats though if you are a San Francisco fan in today’s offence-heavy NFL: the 49ers have been held to 20 points or under in six of their last seven games. Also consider this: the 49ers have now played 13 games on the season and have scored just six second-half touchdowns.
It doesn’t seem to me like Harbaugh is getting some good coaching done during the half-time break.
The Seattle Seahawks are starting to resemble the team that won the Super Bowl last year. They play at an elite level on defence, they run the ball with authority and they get just enough out of the passing game thanks to the special skills of quarterback Russell Wilson.
The return of Bobby Wagner at middle linebacker seems to have re-energised the Seahawks and they have now won six of their last seven with a division-deciding game against Arizona still to come.
I still have concerns about the passing game and the protection of Wilson – he spends far too much time running for his life – but this team has its mojo back and while homefield advantage throughout the play-offs appears beyond them this time around, they are going to be dangerous in the post-season.
They showed last season that they can get by on offence and dominate on the defensive side of the ball against the very best offences in the NFL. I think the Green Bay Packers are still the best team in the NFC but even Aaron Rodgers will have his work cut against this dominant-again Seattle defence.
With his long and often dishevelled hair and excitable sideline antics, New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan is a favourite of television producers on Sunday afternoons. But that may not be the case for much longer because the Saints continue to struggle and Ryan might end up paying with his job.
I don’t think there is too much love lost between head coach Sean Payton and Ryan, and I don’t think Payton will be sacked for this poor season in New Orleans. But Ryan could go after the Saints produced another pitiful effort on defence on Sunday night.
The Saints fell to their fourth home defeat in a row on Sunday, getting embarrassed in the Superdome to the tune of a 41-10 scoreline. And while they were bad on offence, they were downright terrible on defence, allowing Carolina to gain 497 total yards.
Incredibly, the 5-8 Saints remain in first place in the NFC South with three weeks of the regular season remaining. But lord only knows what Rodgers and the Packers would do to that defence if they were to meet in the play-offs. Is there enough time in a game for a team to gain 1,000 yards of offence?
Many of the Arizona Cardinals’ wins this year have been harder to watch than an Edwina Currie shower scene in ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here’ but here they are three weeks from the end of the regular season with 10 victories in the books.
Sunday’s 17-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs was by no means a classic but it once again emphasised the great coaching job carried out by Bruce Arians this year.
He delivers two key messages to his team each week. First, don’t let injuries and absences be an excuse for a poor performance. The ‘next man up’ theory is alive and kicking in the Arizona desert. Second, defend your home turf at all costs.
The Cardinals may not be a perfect team, but they are a perfect 7-0 at home this season and will be tough to knock out of the play-offs if they get a game on home soil.
