I watched the Chicago Bears hammer the Dallas Cowboys Monday night in the Soldiers Field Ice Box in Chicago. The Bears beat the Cowboys 45-28 in conditions that made everyone miserable. However, one of the biggest moments of the game, aside from the legendary Mike Ditka having his famed No. 89 retired to the Bears Circle of Honor, was the scoring of the 100th touchdown of the long weekend of play. Starting a week ago Thursday night with the game between Houston and Jacksonville and finishing with the Chicago vs. Dallas game on Monday night, a grand total of 14 touchdowns were scored by NFL teams in week 14 of the 2013 NFL season. Ninety of those touchdowns were scored on Sunday. Led by Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos who put 51 points on the board against the Tennessee Titans, Kansas City scored 45 points against the Washington Redskins, and the Cincinnati Bengals scored 42 points against the Colts. Andrew Luck threw four touchdowns against the Bengal secondary and uncovered a couple of new targets in Da’ Rick Rogers and LaVon Brazill but it wasn’t enough to cover the collapse of the Colts defense. The irony of the situation is that with the Tennessee loss, the Colts clinched a playoff berth even with their humbling loss to Cincinnati. They could win the AFC South with an 8-8 record which speaks volumes about the level of competition in the AFC South. The Houston Texans are perhaps the most shocking disappointment of the 2013 season; the Texans were a popular preseason pick to go the Super Bowl. Instead, their season is in shambles. Their record is 2 wins and 11 losses and they are rated as the worst team in the league. To make matters worse, their next opponent is Denver, where Peyton Manning is leading a record-setting offense. The Texans’ front office fired their Head Coach Gary Kubiak on Sunday. Kubiak suffered a mini-stroke just before half time during their home game with the Colts. The Texans will most likely have the first pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.
It has truly been a strange football season for all the teams. Every week of the season there have been questionable calls by officials, the loss of major stars to serious injuries, gaffes by coaches during games, and off the field issues that have been distracting to the progress of the season. It is noteworthy that a record number of points will most likely be scored this season. The single game touchdown pass mark of 7 in a game had last been set in 1969. It was equaled twice this year, once by Peyton Manning and then again by Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles. This has never happened before. So its been a season of high scoring offense and inept defense. This last weekend has been the wildest of all.
snicewanger@yahoo.com