Just when you thought you knew ...
This is the NFL, the league of competitive balance and unexpected events, and just when a trend is starting to develop, it gets completely flipped upside down on its head. Week 9 in the NFL was full of twists and turns that had us doing double takes and eventually left us saying, 'Let me get this straight ...'
Let me get this straight: The winless Buccaneers traveled to Seattle and held a 21-point lead in one of the toughest stadiums to play in all of the NFL. Regardless of them losing the lead and eventually the game in overtime, you have to be impressed with how the team rallied around a coach that was possibly coaching for his job, and executed the game plan to near perfection. This wasn't a game in which Greg Schiano and his staff was outcoached, they just simply aren't on the same talent level as the Seahawks.
Jason Campbell added 262 yards and three touchdowns of his own as the Browns beat the Ravens for the first time in 11 tries. The last time the Browns won this head-to-head matchup was Week 11 in 2007. Case Keenum threw for 350 yards and three touchdowns and Kellen Clemens totaled 210 yards and a touchdown, but both quarterbacks lost and are 0-2 in their two starts this season.
Let me get this straight: Riley Cooper, who entered the game with just two touchdown receptions on the season, caught three scoring passes and totaled 139 receiving yards. Cooper had five touchdown receptions in his career entering this season and he had never had a multi-touchdown game before Sunday.
Let me get this straight: Arguably the three best running back performances of the weekend came from three somewhat unknowns, two of them rookies. Mike James, a rookie sixth-round pick out of Miami, carried the ball 28 times for 158 yards and while he didn't get in the end zone himself, he did throw for a touchdown against the Seahawks. Those 158 rushing yards marked the third highest total for a running back this season.
Fellow rookie Zac Stacy, the Rams' fifth-round pick, rushed for 127 yards and two touchdowns, and also added six receptions for 51 yards. All were career highs. Rashad Jennings, 2009 seventh-round pick of the Jaguars but now playing for the Raiders, rushed for 102 yards and a touchdown and added a career-high 74 receiving yards.
What isn't surprising as we continue to look at the devaluation of the running back position in the NFL, is that the Bucs, Rams and Raiders all lost despite these career-high numbers from their respective running backs.
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