NFL Week 13 Report Cards: Worst of the Worst from Sunday's Action
If there's one thing you can count on in the NFL, it's that some games are going to be ugly, some calls are going to be bad and some players and fans aren't going to be happy once the day is over.
But this piece covers the worst of the worst. These are the events that inspire such segments on TV as "C'mon Man!" These are the events that get the talking heads talking and the NFL front offices issuing press releases.
This is the worst the NFL has to offer, and we revel in it because we're fans.
So let's get to it...
Worst Secondary: San Francisco 49ers
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As if giving up three touchdowns to Aaron Rodgers wasn't bad enough, the 49ers secondary left a section of the field the size of Idaho open for Donald Driver to roam in, catch a pass and run 61 yards for a touchdown.
You'd think the 49ers would've tried to tackle him. At least half the team tried. But apparently whatever disease that infected the Cleveland Browns lately when it comes to tackling has been passed on to the 49ers.
Worst Home Record: The Miami Dolphins
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Miami just isn't comfortable at home. They've only won once there this season. This late in the year, you'd think they would have won more games than that.
The Dolphins just don't like playing at home this year, and that's a cross their fans will have to bear.
Worst Quarterback Depth: Arizona Cardinals
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You'd think the Panthers would have this one locked up, right?
Nope. The Panthers have serious depth at quarterback compared to Arizona.
Starting quarterback Derek Anderson, arguably one of the worst quarterbacks to hold a starting job this season, got benched for the fifth or sixth time this year versus the Rams. (Honestly, I've lost count, and does it really matter at this point?)
So in comes Max Hall, the undrafted rookie whose experiment as a starter failed earlier this season.
Hall got injured, and rookie draft pick John Skelton got the call after head coach Ken Whisenhunt said Anderson didn't "look like himself."
Anderson is clueless, makes bad throws and then never wants to take responsibility. What part of his day wasn't normal?
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Worst Attempt at Winning the Division: San Diego Chargers
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The Chargers, with a genuine chance to start controlling their own destiny, decided to not play well, give up big yards to the Oakland running game and generally look as bad as they've looked all year.
In a game where you can't make mistakes, the Chargers made plenty.
Worst Attempt at Rebuilding: Mike Shanahan and the Redskins
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When Eric Mangini took over the Browns and promptly led them to a 1-11 start, he was in danger of winning the "Worst Rebuild EVER" award before winning the last four games of the season.
Now Mike Shanahan has taken on the task of rebuilding the Redskins, but they arguably have much more talent than the Browns, and Donovan McNabb is supposed to be a better quarterback than Jake Delhomme.
Instead, McNabb is inconsistent at best, the offense isn't great and the defense is...well the results speak for themselves.
Is Mike Shanahan rebuilding this team? Or is he just blowing it up so he can start rebuilding next year? Right now it looks like the latter because this team isn't winning much of anything and doesn't appear to have much left to build on.
Worst Collapse of the Year: The Indianapolis Colts
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Before any Titans fans shout, "Hey, what about us," the Titans didn't have the expectations coming into the season the Colts did, who were again expected to meet the Patriots in the AFC Championhip Game with the winner moving on to the Super Bowl.
The Colts now are looking up at the division leaders, Peyton Manning is trying to do everything, and his receivers don't know a route from a stroll in the park. Meanwhile, they have no running game and the offensive line has been destroyed by a short-sighted front office.
Now that's a collapse.
Worst Follow-Up Performance to a 2,000-Yard Season: Chris Johnson
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While Chris Johnson has passed the 1,000-yard mark for the season, his lofty goal of 2,500 yards is just a dream.
Johnson was limited to five yards last week and had only 53 yards this week.
One bad week can happen—two in a row is a trend.
Worst Call of the Day: Ed Hochuli
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Referee Ed Hochuli has been at the center of more than one penalty controversy in recent years, so he can't be happy to see his name again in conjunction with the latest Bears win partially due to poor reffing.
Hochuli flagged Lions rookie defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh for unnecessary roughness. Suh hit Jay Cutler's shoulder pads hard from behind when the quarterback was running downfield.
The Bears scored shortly after this, and that ended up being the difference in the game.
Protecting the quarterback currently is in a psychotic penalize first, ask questions later mode, and the Lions ended up on the short end of the stick again.
Worst Performance by a Good Quarterback: Kyle Orton
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Peyton Manning isn't really expected to have great days lately, so he escapes this dubious honor despite everything he did to earn it this week.
Orton earns the honors because he's been having good games despite the lack of support on both sides of the ball.
That didn't happen on Sunday as he threw for only 117 yards, zero touchdowns and zero passes that seemed to make one bit of difference in the game.
At least Manning had some touchdowns.
Worst Case of Turnover Syndrome: The Redskins Offense
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We hit the Redskins as a team earlier, but we would be remiss if we didn't single out the offense and Donovan McNabb's lame fumble, bringing the total Redskins turnover number to six on the day.
S-I-X.
Why is McNabb there?
Who is that?
Rex Grossman?
OK, nevermind.
Worst Route Running: Colts Wide Receivers
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As pointed out by announcer, and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Troy Aikman, the Colts wide receivers aren't very good at running routes, and now instead of looking off defenders, Peyton Manning has to lock on to his young receivers so he can see where they are going.
Reggie Wayne is the only real target out there, so he's double-covered while the defense dares him to throw to any of the other guys.
It was a pretty good plan this week, and it produced results.
Worst Revenge Game: Kansas City Chiefs
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So after being blown out and completely humiliated three weeks ago by the Denver Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs had a chance for revenge.
So 10 points and zero impressed fans later, the game ended with a four-point victory.
The highlight of the game was Champ Bailey shutting down Dwayne Bowe, so yeah, point to the Broncos.
To top that off, head coach Todd Haley hugged Josh McDaniels after the game.
Pathetic.
Worst Line Discipline: Cincinnati Bengals
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Observe how calm and collected Drew Brees is as he explains the play to the Saints.
Brees tried the old "Fake snap and hope the other team jumps offsides" trick at the end of the game versus the Bengals with the intention of taking the delay-of-game penalty and kicking the field goal to tie the game.
But Pat Simms is too good to fall for that trick and jumped offsides.
If only Simms had waited one more second, he might've got them!!
Worst Non-Call: Haloti Ngata's Roughing the Passer Penalty
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Haloti Ngata had a pretty vicious blow to the head on Ben Roethlisberger that absolutely destroyed his nose.
No flag. None.
Granted, nobody likes Roethlisberger anymore, but you can bet every dollar of your next five paychecks the same hit on Tom Brady or Peyton Manning would've resulted in a flag, an ejection, a heavy fine and possibly a suspension.
Worst Clock Management: Carson Palmer
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When your team is down, and the clock is running out, you're supposed to call a timeout when you make a big gain. You only run up to the line and spike the ball after a long gain if you're out of timeouts.
But not Carson Palmer—he wanted to make sure there only was time enough left on the clock for one play.
And he got his one play.
It didn't score the touchdown.
It wasn't even close.
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