And Week 5 of 2009 Closes

What a wild finish to the Monday Night game. Who would have thought Miami had it in them to pull out the victory against the New York Jets? The week finishes with a score of 8-6 (me) and 9-5 (Mardi). The season tally stands at 51-25 (me) and 50-26 (Mardi). Sorry, Mardi, still not yet tied.

The Houston/Arizona game was a tale of two halves. In the first half it looked like Arizona was going to run away with this game, going up 21-0 at the half. Kurt Warner was on fire with over 200 yards passing at the half. At the opening of the third, however, Houston came back with a vengeance on both sides of the football. The Houston defense allowed just over 50 total yards in the second half. This was the defense that was needed in the first half to win the game. Matt Shaub also lit it up offensively in the second half, leading to 3 touchdown drives. In the end, it was a poor decision to throw that allowed an interception return for a touchdown that put Arizona over the top. Short yardage situations have been a problem so far for Houston, but they've found other ways to overcome it. This time, however, when they needed to push the ball less than a yard, they came up short and were unable to tie the game with 40 seconds left. I see this game as possibly a turning point for Houston. It's true they let the first half get away (failure to convert a 4th down and a blocked field goal attempt were big against Houston). But the way I see it, they were able to shake off the problems and get their collective heads into the game. Let's hope this momentum rolls into next week against a very confident Cincinnati team.

Again Minnesota rolls another opponent. I expected it to be a little more competitive than it was, at least defensively. In no way did I expect the score to be so lopsided as St. Louis, with a decent defense, just couldn't get things to click. Adrian Peterson had another subpar week this week, but Brett Favre and the Minnesota defense both did their jobs as the blowout was taking shape before half time.

I thought San Francisco would be able to handle Atlanta. Instead, it was Atlanta who thoroughly embarassed San Francisco with a final score of 45-10. Derek Anderson has to be the official worst Quarterback ever to win a football game. He went 2-17 for 23 yards to lead Cleveland to their first win of the season. Mardi pretty much covered the other surprises for the week.

This wasn't a particularly good week for either of us, but she did get the win. Check back on Wednesday evening when my Week 6 picks will be available.