NFL Sunday Recap - Week 7

ESPN is calling this Beatdown Sunday. Heres why:

The Four Biggest Beatdowns:
4. San Diego Chargers 31 - Kansas City Chiefs 7
This could go down as the week the Chargers woke up. Slow starters over the past few years, they are again off to a bad start at 2-3 before this week. Looking at the stats, though, its hard to think so. The Chargers are a team built on a solid defense and LT running the ball. Tomlinson had only 71 yards and no TD. Their defense had 3 INTs, which is good considering Matt Cassel hadn't thrown one in the last four games. Only 3 sacks and over 100 rushing yards given up is a bit troubling, though. What this game really highlights is how bad the Chiefs are. Their defensive stats are all zeroes, and Cassel could only manage 10/25 for 97 yards. The Cheifs are still rebuilding, and it looks like they need to tear things down to the foundation before they'll be good again.

3. Cincinnati Bengals 45 - Chicago Bears 10
This game was a perfect storm beatdown of the Beasrs. Its been said over and over the past few weeks: Their defense isn't the same without Brian Urlacher. Add to that Carson Palmers return to MVP-like ability and Cedric Benson's running ability, and the Bears never had a chance. Palmer found four different receivers for 5 TDs in this one. And when he wasn't picking apart the D, Benson was running them over, 37 times in all, for 189 yards and a TD. And much like the Chiefs, the Bears defensive stats are all zeroes.

2. Indianapolis Colts 42 - St Louis Rams 6
The good news for the Rams: their 17 consecutive losses cover two seasons. Otherwise, they'd already be with the Detroit Lions as the only teams to go 0-16. The crazy thing about this game is that the Colts didn't really put up huge stats. Sure, they had over 150 yards rushing, but Peyton Manning had his lowest output of the season with only 235 yards, and none of their receivers topped 100 yards. But against a team as bad as the Rams, you don't need huge stats to get a huge win.

1. NY Jets 38 - Oakland Raiders 0
Of all the games that could have been a shutout this weekend, this one should have been the least likely. With the Jets coming off three straight demoralizing loses and without D-line anchor Kris Jenkins, and the Raiders coming off a huge win over the Eagles, this should have been a much better game. Instead, the Raiders fumbled the ball on their first play, and the Jets never looked back. Even the loss of Leon Washington early in the game couldn't stop them from putting up 316 yards rushing. With any luck, this is a game the Jets can build on, and one the Raiders can use to re-evaluate their team.

Some Beatdown Sunday Stats:
Of the 24 teams that played on Sunday, six of them put it a backup QB at some point.

Two of the closer games, the 24-21 win by Houston and the 46-34 loss by Miami, looked like blowouts at halftime. San Francisco trailed Houston 21-0 before putting in their backup QB and rallying in the second half. New Orleans trailed Miami 24-10, and the score was only that close thanks to a late TD after the two-minute warning. The Dolphins scored only 10 points in the third quarter while the Saints put up 10 in the third and 26 in the fourth.

The Jets are the first team in 49 yeards to rush for 300 yards in back-to-back games.

Peyton Manning's streak of 5 straight games with 300 yards to start the season was snapped.

Rookie Roundup: Using a complex scoring system to rank two major rookies for the season

Mark Sanchez: 9/15, 143 yards, 1 TD, 1 sack, 4 rush yards, 1 rush TD, 1 fumble
Points: 16.55, 30.3 overall

Matthew Stafford: OFF
Points: 0, 36.7 overall

Week 7 Winner: Sanchez

What Have We Learned?: Three things we can take away from this weekend
1. Some of these teams are pretty bad
The six biggest blowouts of the weekend came against five of the NFL's worst teams. The Bucs, Raiders, Browns, Rams, and Chiefs lost by a combined 183-23. None of them put up more than 7 points. These stats are compounded by the fact that in all five of these games, the loser was the home team. I can only imagine things would have been worse if the Redskins had played Sunday instead of Monday, and the Lions didn't have off.

2. The Saints really are that good
Coming into this week, the Saints had never trailed all season. They've been jumping out to quick leads and running away with it. This week, they trailed 14-3 after the first quarter, and 24-10 at the half. Drew Brees had a season high 3 INTs, but he also had more rushing TDs than passing for the first time in his career. The Saints second-half D held Miami on drive-after-drive, allowing Brees to rally the offense to 36 second-half points. It was that D that finally sealed the game(and covered the spread) with a pick-six to finish off the socring late in the fourth quarter.
3. Home team advantage? What home team advantage?
Of the 12 games played on Sunday, only four were won by the home team. Of those games, Pittsburgh barely held off Minnesota by forcing late turnovers, Houston led 21-0 at the half but barly won 24-21, and only Dallas and Cincinnati had significant wins. In the games where the home team lost, in only six of them did the home team score double digit points, and of those only Carolina, Kansas City, and Tampa Bay scored a TD.