It’s Week 13 in the NFL and that means the PFF Live Reaction Blog is back.
All through the day we’ll be dropping PFF Premium-style nuggets designed to give you information you simply can’t get anywhere else. Naturally you won’t get all of the info you’d get from PFF Premium, but you’ll still see:
– The highest-graded players from every game
– Unique PFF Signature Stats that offer more context than any of the box score numbers out there
– Snap numbers including wide receivers routes run
– Analysis on all the breaking news
So bookmark the page and check back every half hour to be in the know.
17:00 McCain put on Injured Reserve!
Another one bites the dust courtesy of the twitter account of Tania Ganguli. The Texans usual slot corner Brice McCain was forced to start against Tennessee and managed just 20 snaps. McClain has had some problems this year after his breakout 2011 but it's a big loss for a Texans team that is already having its' depth tested with an injury to Johnathan Joseph. The good news is that both Roc Carmichael and Brandon Harris had encouraging displays. We'll be seeing more of both of them.
16:30 David Stewart Season Ends!
Just as an add on to our Titans analysis, they've lost starting right tackle David Season for the final quarter of the year. He lasted three plays against Houston and finishes his season our 23rd ranked tackle as of writing this. His replacement against Houston, and going forward, will be Mike Otto who filled in more than adequately against the Texans. For the year he's played 147 snaps and earned a +4.4 grade. Consider us interested to see what the 2007 seventh round pick can do, given that he's already beaten his previous highest total for offensive snaps in a season.
16:10 Texans at Titans Analysis!
– Nobody graded higher for the Texans than J.J. Watt (+6.5), Antonio Smith (+3.4) and Ben Jones (+3.1).
– Watt added two more batted to his collection and now has 14 on the year. His PFF record grows.
– Matt Schaub didn't attempt a pass over 20 yards in the air but did complete 5-of-8 between 10 and 19 yards.
– For the Titans nobody graded higher than Jared Cook (+2.5), with Jordan Babineaux (+2.4) second and Jurrell Casey (+1.8) third.
– Jake Long completed just 33.3% of plays when pressured while taking six sacks.
– Tennessee only pressured Matt Schaub on seven of 36 dropbacks.
15:45 Eric Wood Injury!
Bad news for Buffalo as a torn MCL may see Eric Wood miss the remainder of the year. There are more dominant centers in the league, but Wood brought with him some decent work in pass protection and proved himself to be pretty agile for a center. He's had some poor games this year but at this stage of the season it will be a hard loss to cope with. The likely result is that Kraig Urbik may switch to center as he did last year when Wood went down.
15:30 Ryan Broyles ACL Injury!
Bad news for the Lions as Ryan Broyles has picked up a severe injury that will end his year and possibly impact his 2013. Broyles was coming along slowly but averaging a healthy 1.63 yards per route run. It likely means more action for Mike Thomas (16 yards on 95 routes) with the team having washed its' hands of Titus Young (0.93 YpRR).
15:00 Panthers at Chiefs Analysis!
– For Carolina nobody graded better than Cam Newton (+4.2), Garry Williams (+2.8) and Jordan Gross (+2.6).
– Charles Johnson picked up just one hit and one hurry. That was only the second time this year he's recorded fewer than three quarterback disruptions in a game.
– Carolina only surrendered pressure on 9-of-31 dropbacks.
– The highest graded Chiefs were Brady Quinn (+4.1), Jeff Allen (+3.5) and Steve Manieri (+2.7).
– Quinn was only pressured on six plays, completing 15-of-18 when not pressured and with 81.6% of his yards coming in the air.
– Dwayne Bowe led the team with 23 pass routes. After him came Dexter McCluster (14), Joanthan Baldwin (11), Jamar Newsome (8) and Terrance Copper (1).
14:30 Two More Games Up
That's right and we'll have reaction and tidbits from PFF Premium coming up shortly.
14:00 Steelers at Ravens Analysis!
– In a fine win for Pittsburgh the stars of the show were James Harrison (+3.3), Troy Polamalu (+1.6) and the combination of Charlie Batch and Heath Miller (+1.5).
– Speaking of Batch, he wasn't flawless but did exceptionally well under pressure. There he completed 9-of-12 for 120 yards.
– More is likely to be asked of Keenan Lewis going forward. He only allowed 3-of-8 into his coverage for 35 yards with two pass break ups.
– In a devastating defeat Kelechi Osemele (+4.3) earned the highest grade for Baltimore. Following him was Vonta Leach (+4.0) and Bernard Pollard (+3.5).
– The play of Flacco is obviously a talking point. He had problems under pressure where he went 3-of-10 for 32 yards and a pick with three sacks taken. Quite the contrast to the Steelers QB.
– Four times Torrey Smith was targeted on a ball over 20 yards in the air yet he didn't catch any, with one drop to his name.
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13:30 Ike Taylor Out!
Blow for the Steelers with the news courtesy of Adam Schefter that Ike Taylor will miss 3-6 weeks of action, right when the Steelers need him most. Taylor hasn't always graded well in our eyes with him being prone to giving up penalties, but his ability to track a teams' top receiver has proved invaluable. It will mean an extra burden on Keenan Lewis and Cortez Allen as the Steelers playoff push goes on.
13:00 Sig Stat Teaser!
We've got more games to come but who have been the most productive pass rushers so far?
– Mike Neal leads 3-4 defensive ends with a 11.8 score.
– John Abraham is at the top of the 4-3 defensive ends with an 18.9 number.
– While Dwight Freeney leads 3-4 outside linebackers with a 13.2 mark.
12:30 Sherrod Martin Injury!
Tough break for soon to be free agent Sherrod Martin who has injured both his ACL and MCL ligaments. He'd lost his starting spot to Haruki Nakamura this year and responded in a largely positive fashion, even if he was still missing a tackle for every five attempts he made. After seeing 1,005 snaps in 2011 he'd managed 279 this year before his injury.
12:15 Foles the Guy!
We've yet to grade Nick Foles' performance against Dallas, but regardless the Eagles are likely ending the Mike Vick era by announcing him the starter for the rest of the year. It's hard to see how Vick, with a new regime likely in town, a big contract, and old wheels is likely to be part of the future. His performance this year, where only five quarterbacks have graded worse, likely won't stop teams taking a chance on him come next year but he's going to once again have to prove he's got something left after completing just 58.5% of throws with 13 interceptions and only 12 touchdowns.
12:00 ReFocused
Want to read an in depth review of how the Seahawks beat the Bears. We've got you covered and you just need to click here.
11:40 Sig Stat Teaser!
We've had a few games go up already and let's see what our Adjusted Accuracy percentage signature stat says.
– Aaron Rodgers is currently leading the way of the 13 QBs measured with a 87.5% mark.
– Second is Colin Kaepernick with a 85.7% score that is marginally better than Sam Bradford (83.3%).
– Nobody was as bad as the 40.7% Ryan Lindley posted. Though Christian Ponder (52.2%) and Andrew Luck (56.3%) gave it a good go.
11:15 Suh Watch!
More chat from the Colts guard Mike McGlynn about classless antics from the Lions and Ndamukong Suh. It probably didn't help his mood that Suh spent most of the game beating up on him. That was the second week in a row Suh earned a mammoth +8.1 grade, in large part due to the one sack, four hits and five hurries he picked up in a dominant display. There are players in the league who respond to their eyes being on them, saving their best for the national stage. Suh appears to be one of them. Lesson to the opposition? Don't poke the bear.
11:00 Colts at Lions Analysis!
– In an improbable win the Colts highest grades came for Dwight Freeney (+5.0), Antoine Bethea (+3.0) and Ricardo Mathews (+2.6).
– Everyone is talking about his clutch win. But what about the majority of the work of Andrew Luck? Where he went 7-of-20 on balls aimed over 20 yards in the air and completed just 38.1% of pressure. This was a nice finish, but the whole performance wasn't a good example of why he should be rookie of the year.
– The Colts missed just four tackles on defense.
– For Detroit nobody graded higher than Ndamukong Suh (+8.1). After him Matthew Stafford (+4.5) and Cliff Avril (+4.1) impressed.
– Stafford threw at Calvin Johnson a quite incredible 21 times.
– In addition to the two sacks, the Lions hit Matthew Stafford to the ground on nine further occasions.
10:30 Tweet Us!
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10:10 The Curious Case of Andrew Luck
He's led his team to a seemingly likely playoff spot and helped a somewhat miraculous comeback win against Detroit. But does the work Luck produced towards the end of that game mean we should forget how erratic he was for the large majority of the game? It's a question we're going to look into later this week but it's one we think everyone should be pondering.
10:00 Vikings at Packers Analysis!
– No surprises where the best grades for the Vikings came this week. Phil Loadholt (+6.1), Jerome Felton (+3.5) and Adrian Peterson (+3.2).
– A poor day from Christian Ponder who completed just 2-of-11 passes aimed over 10 yards in the air. With no Percy Harvin his flaws are all the more evident.
– He does enjoy facing off with the Packers. Jared Allen turned his 47 pass rushes into two sacks, a hit and six hurries.
– Nobody graded higher for the Packers than Josh Sitton (+4.0), with Aaron Rodgers (+3.7) second and Evan Dietrich-Smith (+2.5) third.
– How quickly can Clay Matthews come back? The Packers defense managed just nine quarterback disruptions all game.
– James Jones led the receivers with 40 routes run, while Randall Cobb and Greg Jennings both managed 33. Jordy Nelson was limited to six through injury with Jarrett Boykin picking up just the one.
09:30 Premium Users
Two more games up for premium users with IND @ DET and MIN @ GB analysis to follow!
09:00 ReFocused Articles
This isn't the only page you should bookmark. You want in depth game reviews we'll have them for all 16 games from Week 13. Just bookmark this page and you'll be able to catch all the games as and when they go up.
08:30 Sig Stat Teaser!
What happens when you throw the ball to Brandon Marshall? He picks up 5.69 yards per route run.
08:00 49ers at Rams Analysis!
– In a tough defeat nobody graded better for the 49ers than Anthony Davis (+5.4), Alex Boone (+3.6) and Chris Culliver (+3.0).
– There were some mistakes but Colin Kaepernick had an adjusted accuracy percentage of 85.7%. It was helped by him channelling his inner Alex Smith and not attempting a pass over 20 yards in the air.
– With Kyle Williams out there's still no room for A.J. Jenkins. Michael Crabtree led the team with 33 pass routes, followed by 24 for Mario Manningham, 13 for Randy Moss and nine for Ted Ginn.
– A good win for the Rams with the highest graded performances had by JoLonn Dunbar (+4.7), Eugene Sims (+4.0) and James Laurinaitis (+3.3).
– A solid day for Sam Bradford yet he only went 2-of-7 on balls aimed over 10 yards in the air.
– How about Eugene Sims. Gets the start and turns 31 pass rushes into a sack, hit and three hurries while adding two defensive stops in the run game.
07:30 Washburn Out!
More changes in Philadelphia. Remember when the ‘wide-9' was the toast of the town? Well Philadelphia are moving on from that era that brought them so much pressure in 2011 and so little (comparatively) in 2012. It wasn't the biggest surprise in the world after Jason Babin was let go (as we explained here), but it's another sign of the colossal disappointment the Eagles have been this year that heads continue to roll at this point of the season.
07:00 Seahawks at Bears Analysis!
– In a big win for the Seahawks the teams' biggest grades went to Russell Wilson (+4.4), Russell Okung (+3.6) and Sidney Rice (+2.7).
– After breaking another four missed tackles Golden Tate now has 11 on the year. He's on course to beat his previous best tally of 13 in 2011.
– Tate ran 40 routes to the 41 of Sidney Rice, while Braylon Edwards managed 13 compared to the 22 of Doug Baldwin.
– Nobody graded higher for the Bears than Henry Melton (+5.1). Behind him Stephen Paea (+2.6) and Gabe Carimi (+1.7) had good games.
– Normally such sure tacklers the Bears missed 12 tackles. Their season average per game before this contest was 4.5.
– Between them the Bears linemen gave up eight quarterback disruptions. Their average per game before this contest 10.9.
06:30 Jake Long Injury!
Jeff Darlington of the NFL Network is reporting that the injury Jake Long sustained against New England is a torn tricep injury that will end his season. It's another blow for Long as he prepares to start looking for a new deal, with his play dropping off the past couple of years. Whether it injuries or not it seemed a lock at one time that he'd get a deal to rival that of the mammoth one Joe Thomas secured. Now, Long is coming off a severe injury and is currently only our 23rd ranked left tackle on the year. It creates an interesting dilemma for Miami. Do they try to work out a long term deal in the hope he recovers his pre-2011 form, knowing if he does they've got a bargain? Do they franchise tag Long to give him a chance to get back to his best? Or have they seen enough to know he's not worth what some other team who hasn't evaluated him as much as they have will pay him?
Decisions, decisions.
06:00 Cardinals at Jets Analysis!
– A tough day for Arizona but some players came out of the game looking good. None more so than Kerry Rhodes (+6.9), while William Gay (+3.4) and Bobby Massie (+3.3) will also be happy with their performances.
– One guy who won't be happy is Ryan Lindley. He didn't complete any of his pass attempts (five of them) when pressured, while the 38.5% he managed when he was pressure free is an appalling number. In way over his head right now, completing just 2-of-10 on passes aimed 10 yards or more.
– With Andre Roberts out Michael Floyd ran 33 routes compared to the 34 of Larry Fitzgerald and 25 of Early Doucet.
– The Jets top performers all came on their offensive line. D'Brickashaw Ferguson (+6.5), Austin Howard (+6.0) and Brandon Moore (+4.4) all had fine days.
– Naturally the benched Mark Sanchez didn't. He was terrible between the numbers, completing just 1-of-7 seven attempts with three picks. He was particularly bad on the 13 occasions the Cards blitzed. 2-of-9 for 22 yards with two picks and three sacks. Ugly.
– Seven times the Cardinals went after Antonio Cromartie and all they got from it was 23 yards and one catch (as well as one pass deflection).
05:30 Saints at Falcons Analysis!
– It seems right to start with the Thursday Night Football. For New Orleans no-one graded higher than Ben Grubbs (+5.6), Brian De La Puente (+5.0) and Rafael Bush (+2.9).
– When the Falcons pressured Drew Brees (16-of-51 dropbacks) he took one sack, completed just 46.7% of passes at 3.8 yards per attempt and threw three picks. And people say sacks are everything?
– With two more missed tackles Malcolm Jenkins has now missed 20 for the year. That's got record breaking potential.
– For Atlanta John Abraham (+4.7) earned the highest grade. Following him was William Moore (+3.8) and Justin Blalock (+2.8).
– Dunta Robinson allowed 6-of-9 balls into his coverage to be complete, but for just 26 yards.
– Atlanta didn't just intercept five balls, they deflected another five in one of the better displays of playmaking from any coverage unit this year.
05:00 Under Way!
Welcome! We're up early and our team is busy beavering away, ensuring you get the analysis on all of the action from Week 13 in the NFL as soon as possible. We've got three games up already and will follow shortly with analysis on all of them as well as reacting to all the days' breaking talking points.
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