Jets Upset Chargers - Vikings Crush Cowboys

by Brandon on Jan 18, 2010 7:00 AM CST in News Comment 18 comments

I certainly wasn't expecting the Jets to beat the Chargers, but they did what they had to do: win the turnover battle (2 to 1) and play better defense. Actually I'm not sure the Jets played great defense, stats from ESPN:

	Plays	Total Yards	Yards/Play
Chargers	60	344	5.7
Jets	63	262	4.2

The Chargers averaged 360.1 yards/game during the regular season, so they weren't too far off that pace. The Jets forced the Chargers into 6 punts and 3 FG attempts, and they allowed no play longer than 37 yards, so they did make the Chargers work. It would have been a lot better if the Chargers' All-Pro kicker Nate Kaeding hadn't missed all 3 FG attempts. Don't tell me making an opponent miss FGs is a skill. Sometimes it's just better to be lucky. The Jets did what they had to do to win, even if Kaeding helped them out. They kept the score low and made a couple big plays (former Badger S Jim Leonhard returned an INT back to the Chargers' 16 yard line (which became a TD), and the big 53 yard TD run from RB Shonn Greene) to win it.

Cowboys at Vikings

I did expect the Vikings would win, but I didn't expect the Cowboys would suck. While the Cowboys had been avoiding turnovers and playing great defense lately, they didn't do either on Sunday, stats from ESPN:

	Plays	Total Yards	Yards/Play	Turnovers
Cowboys	66	248	3.8	3
Vikings	60	323	5.4	0

The Vikings were held to under their regular season average of 379.6 yards/game, so most of the Cowboys' defense played well, but the big plays to WR Sidney Rice (6 rec. for 141 yards, 3 TDs) killed them. It's not a great free agent class for corners, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Cowboys looking closely at the end of the 1st round for one. The Cowboys' defense also paled in comparison to the Vikings' defense. They did a great job putting pressure on QB Tony Romo and forcing turnovers. The Cowboys also suffered from Charger-like kicking problems (K Shaun Suisham missed 2 of 3 FG attempts). Despite how bad the Cowboys played, this didn't turn into a blowout until the 4th quarter. It was only 17-3 at the end of the 3rd quarter, and if Suisham had made his FGs, it would have been a manageable 17-9.

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Viking special teams

The Vikings consistently won the battle of field position. They seemed to do a really good job on kick coverage yesterday.

by uglyfatpimplynerd on Jan 18, 2010 10:04 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

The entire team dominated that game. I couldn’t believe it. Aside from the first quarter, the boys had NOTHING on them.

by TrevorR on Jan 18, 2010 10:22 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

The first missed field goal was deflating...

After that the Cowboys did not look the same. Vikings were great yesterday. It will be a fun NFC Championship game. Maybe the Saints will run up the score on them.

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by Bush League All Star on Jan 18, 2010 10:35 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

haha that would be funny. According to the Vike fans in the Daily Norseman, there is no running up of the score. We’ll have to remind them of that one day in the future.

by TrevorR on Jan 18, 2010 11:33 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I saw that.

It all comes down to personality. I am not the type who would want the teams I play on or the teams I root for to do that to another team. I saw plenty analysts who said they didn’t agree with the Vikings doing that, but also said that Brooking should have just kept shut. I understand that. Say your peace on the field, don’t bring it to the media. But an underlying theme most of the players said, “What goes around, comes around.” I don’t know if that means that they will just run up a score if they get a chance against the Vikes or resort to other means (which I don’t find sporting in itself, but I won’t rule it out either).

Stripped down to the essentials, I can see both sides of the argument. But it was still running up the score no matter which way you cut it. Nothing wrong with a field goal at that point, but going for the endzone on 4th down? Up 24 points with 1:55 left? I would be okay with the second stringers trying to pull something off like that. Different strokes for different folks I presume.

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by Bush League All Star on Jan 18, 2010 12:55 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Everybody usually says that until it happens to their team

That being said, I didn’t think it was wrong of them to do since they are all paid professionals and if the Cowboys didn’t like it, they should’ve stopped them, but it wasn’t a very classy move (Although we haven’t really come to expect class from the Vikings)

by Charlie Kelly on Jan 18, 2010 2:09 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

Whiners complain when the other team is mean to them. Winners prevent it from happening. The Cowboys will get their shot at the Vikings next year, and then we will see if they can do anything about it.

by ktenreb on Jan 18, 2010 3:34 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Up by 24, less than 2 mins left, seriously?

It just makes another point about why it is so very easy to hate on the purple creeps. While they may deserve to be where they’re at right now (can’t take that from them), I’ll be rooting for the AFC if Minnesota gets past New Orleans. Just when I thought rooting for Dallas was bad enough. :-P

by pvilleWIcheezhed on Jan 19, 2010 7:26 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

It was sort of weird for me

I watched the game, knowing that I despised both the Cowboys and theVikings. Somehow, during the game I wound up rooting for the (gulp) Vikings. I just couldn’t stand the sight of Tony Romo looking like a complete dumbass goober like he was in way over his head (which he was).

If I were on the Vikings, I would have lobbied for showing some class by not throwing into the end zone at the end of the game. On the other hand, if I were on the Cowboys, the last thing I would do would be to whine about how mean the Vikings were. Those are the antics of amateurs. Professionals don’t whine.

by ktenreb on Jan 20, 2010 6:58 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Jets/Chargers

The Chargers lost because of their penalty yards (almost 90) and missed field goals. The Jets are praised because they held the Chargers to those field goal attempts and numerous third down incompletions by Rivers, or making him throw to a checkdown and the receiver tackled short of the first down.

by Danwood on Jan 18, 2010 11:47 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

FG kickers in the playoffs vs the Jets.

0 for 5. WOW

But the Jets needed a grinder and got it. Who is to say that those field goals would have or would have not changed the outlook of the game. I don’t know. Maybe being up 13-0 at half forces the Jets to throw. That was a game the Chargers would like back. Looking forward to Jets/Colts. Should be a blast to watch.

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by Bush League All Star on Jan 18, 2010 12:47 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I think you can blame kaeding VERY easily as well though. I usually am NOT one to pin a game on one guy but he did miss THREE FGs in the game!~

by TrevorR on Jan 18, 2010 3:35 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree

I was just posting my rebuttal to

Actually I’m not sure the Jets played great defense

by Danwood on Jan 18, 2010 4:22 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Poor Nate Kaeding...

Wikipedia is not showing him any love at this point. LOL

Must read.

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by Bush League All Star on Jan 18, 2010 1:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Just wow

by coltsfanawalt on Jan 18, 2010 1:22 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I will highlight this before it gets removed because this is just crazy lol.

Nathaniel James “Loser” Kaeding (born March 26, 1982) is an American football placekicker who currently misses kicks for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Chargers in the 2004 NFL Draft in the 3rd round with a pick acquired from Rivers-Manning Trade.

In the 2009 NFL Season, Kaeding completed 32 out of 35 (91.4%) Field Goals. His season long of 55 yards came in a Week 12 victory over Kansas City. 2However during the divisional post season game against the New York Jets he missed three field goals, which ultimately cost the Chargers and knocked them out of the running. He was consequently fired after the game in the post game conference. 3

In January 2008, Kaeding began writing weekly movie reviews for 1CorridorBUZZ, a daily arts & entertainment web site serving the Iowa City/Cedar Rapids, Iowa corridor. Nate and his wife, Samantha, have two sons, Jack (born on May 7th, 2008)4 and Wyatt (born on August 17th, 2009)5. After seeing that their fathers life was crumbling like buildings in Haiti, they filed for emancipation.

Battle against Shayne Graham — Kaeding went up against Cincinnati Bengals kicker, Shayne Graham, in a contest to see who can miss the most field goals in increasingly shorter distances. After they both missed even pushing the ball through the goalpost whilst standing on an elevated platform right in front of the very center of the post, the universe subsequently imploded.

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by Bush League All Star on Jan 18, 2010 1:36 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs