This past Monday the NFL had a game that everyone was talking about. The Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs showed what two quality offensive teams can do with the new rules the NFL has put in. Coming off of that showcase type of a game the NFL had three more chances on Thanksgiving day to highlight what the NFL is turning into. Being that it was the Thanksgiving holiday instead of just one Thursday night game there where three games on the schedule.
The day opened with the NFC North leading Chicago Bears going to Detroit to take on the Lions. Detroit is one of the two teams and cite that traditionally host a Thanksgiving day game. The second game of the day featured a battle for the top spot on the NFC East as the Dallas Cowboys hosted the Washington Redskins. Dallas is the other place where there is always a Thanksgiving day game played. The third and final game had what many people think is the best team in football the New Orleans Saints hosting the Atlanta Falcons in an NFC South match up.
With the NFL coming in on just about as high of a note as they could be after the Monday night game the opener on Thursday did just about everything in it’s power to kill that. It was as boring and uninteresting as an NFL game could be and if you are anything like me you where starting to hope that there was something else on.
Now the Bears where playing without their starting quarterback as Mitchell Trubisky mossed the game with a shoulder injury. Chase Daniels got the start in Trubisky’s place and even though he has played in this type of offensive system for a few seasons now the Bears need to hope that Trubisky has a quick recovery.
The Lions where playing with a bit of an offensive handicap as well. They where missing their top wide receiver and top running back for this game as both where out injured. It was also pointed out over and over on the broadcast that with the injury to Marvin Jones Jr. and the trade of Golden Tate the Lions don’t have a receiver who can really break away from a defender.
As the game plodded along I really lost interest in it and I was hoping that it would be time to eat very soon. Oddly just as I thought I was being saved from this terrible game both teams decided they wanted to score some points. Some how Detroit was leading this snore-fest 13-9 heading into the 4th quarter when I was very happy that it was time to eat. I ended up missing the Bears putting up two touchdowns in the 4th quarter. Their final score was an Eddie Jackson 41 yard interception return which ended up being the winning touchdown as the Bears pulled out a 23-16 victory.
While I’m sure this wasn’t the type of game that the NFL wanted to kick the day off with you kind of get what you get with the Lions who just aren’t a very good team this season.
The second game had a little more interest to it as the winner would be in 1st place in the NFC East.
The Redskins where also starting a back up quarterback as Colt McCoy would be making the start in place of the inured Alex Smith.
This was a much better game than the first one as both teams where able to move the football. This game featured some big scoring plays which also makes the game a lot more fun to watch. Washington tied the game at 7-7 when McCoy connected with Vernon Davis for a 53-yard touchdown pass. The Redskins took a 13-10 lead before the Cowboys hit their first big play as Dak Prescott hit Amari Cooper for a 40-yard touchdown pass to give Dallas the lead back at 17-13. On the Cowboys next series Prescott went to Cooper again, but this time it was for a 90-yard touchdown pass to extend the Cowboys lead to 24-13. Prescott threw his third and final touchdown pass of the game with about 14 minutes left in the game and it looked as though the Cowboys would cruise to a victory as they had a 31-13 lead. The Redskins where unable to comeback, but they did manage to make it interesting as they scored 10 straight points to get the game to 31-23 where it ended.
With the win both Dallas and Washington have a 6-5 record, but due to tiebreakers the Cowboys are considered the 1st place team in the NFC East.
While the second game kind of got Thanksgiving day football back on track I’m not sure if the third game of the day was what everyone had hoped it would be.
The Falcons have had a down year coming into the game at 4-6 they still have what looks like a talented offense. On the other side the Saints have only lost one game this season and that was back in Week 1. How many people remember that New Orleans lost that Week 1 game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I don’t think anyone was surprised when the Saints got out to a quick lead 7-0 as Drew Brees threw the first of his four touchdown passes. The Falcons answered with a field goal to make it a 7-3 game, but the surprise here was that would be the only points the Falcons would score in the first half.
The Saints added 10 points to their lead as Brees threw his second touchdown pass with just about three minutes left before halftime to make it a 17-3 game. Sadly the game was pretty much over at this point, but you know every fantasy owner wanted to know what Brees would do in the second half.
The Falcons did score first in the 3rd quarter to make it a 17-10 game, but the Saints scored the next two touchdown in the making the score 31-10 Atlanta did get into the end zone one more time to get the game to it’s final score of 31-17.
Brees didn’t put up too many yards in the game; just 171, but he threw 4 touchdown passes. interestingly those touchdown asses went to receivers who probably aren’t on a lot of fantasy rosters. Tommylee Lewis, Austin Carr, Keith Kirkwood and Dan Arnold where the four Saints players who caught touchdown passes from Brees. I know there are people who have picked up Carr and Kirkwood in some bigger leagues, but I’m willing to bet they didn’t play them. I get the feeling that Lewis and Arnold will be waive wire pick ups this next week.
Let me know how you Thanksgiving football watching experience was and don’t forget that you can listen to the Sports Time Radio podcast live on BlogTalkRadio.com, but the podcast is also available any time you want to listen to it at TuneIn.com.
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