Vince Young, Drew Brees Dominate Week 12 Headlines

Young's Titanic Drive
As Matt Leinart watched Vince Young make a last-minute, remarkable drive on Sunday he must've had a serious case of deja vu. Of course a little under four years ago it was Young who led his Longhorns in the closing seconds to a game-winning touchdown that stole a third consecutive national title from Leinart and the USC Trojans.  This drive may not have been on as bright of a stage,  but it was even more impressive.

If you look at the situation the Titans were facing, it was almost impossible to have the odds stacked against them any more than they were. Tennesse started the drive from their own 1 with 2:37 remaining. They converted on fourth down three times on the drive, including the final play of the game and a 4th and 4 from their own 7.

Disregarding the fact that this was a regular season game, Vince Young's drive could be considered one of the best drives of all time. John Elway's famous drive against the Cleveland Browns in the 1987 AFC Championship game covered 98 yards but took over five minutes. Joe Montana's drive in Super Bowl XXIII was just 92 yards and took over three minutes. And neither of these drives resulted in touchdowns on the last play from scrimmage. For Vince Young to go 99 yards in two and a half minutes is incredible, especially for someone who's just a month removed from riding the bench.

Whatever doubts the Titans had toward Young being the franchise quarterback were silenced after Young's drive. He showed tremendous poise under immense pressure, mixing timely runs with crisp, accurate passes. I'm not really sure why the Titans were so fast to bench Young for Kerry Collins last season. Young has been a proven winner throughout his career. He won the national championship at Texas, and he took the Titans to the playoffs in 2007 But for some reason after a bad opening game and a minor mental breakdown last season the Titans gave up on him. Young has come back with a vengeance to silence his critics with his 5-0 record as a starter this season.

Young is proving that the era of the dual-threat quarterback isn't quite over. Across the league, we've seen the quarterback position retreat back to pocket passing for the most part. Not only are there no quarterbacks that can run as well as Young, there are very few that even deserve a running play called for them. Young has been criticized in the past for giving up on the pass and running too often . But thus far he's been perfect with how he's balanced the two. His ability to make plays with his feet is helping the Titans overcome a below-par receiving corps because defensive backs have to keep an eye on him at all times.

It's unlikely that Young and the Titans will run the table like they probably need to in order to make the playoffs. But at least the Titans know where to go with their future.

Saints Brees-ing by the Pats
It's weird but over the past couple weeks Drew Brees was sort of flying under the radar as the MVP talks shifted toward Favre and Manning. Brees changed that in a hurry with his performance last night against the overmatched Patriots. You could tell that Brees wanted to make a statement not only for his MVP chances, but for his career. He wants to be put on the same level as Manning, Brady and Favre. Outplaying Brady like he did on national television did a lot for his cause.

Sean Payton called this game like he wanted to make a statement also. On the first play of the game he attacked the Pats with a long pass play to Devery Henderson. He repeatedly went for big plays on the first play of a drive, which would immediately suck away any momentum the Pats had and ignite the raucous Superdome crowd. Payton outsmarted and humiliated Bill Belichick in this one. He even went for it on 4th down in the 2nd quarter as if to say "Yea, we can do that too." Payton was Belichick-esque in the way he exploited the Pats weaknesses.

Give a lot of credit to defensive coordinator Gregg Williams as well. When have you ever seen Tom Brady look that out of sync? He also shut down Wes Welker to just 6 catches for 32 yards. The Saints defense was always there to stick Welker as soon as he caught the ball. It was a lot of fun to see the looks of pure frustration on the sidelines especially from Welker and Brady. I've never seen them so upset and confused.

After the Niners, the Saints are my favorite team. They're so explosive, versatile and exciting to watch. On any given play they can score, whether they're on offense, defense or special teams. But I think I like them even more because of their city and fans. After Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans has rallied around this team. The passion these fans possess is unmatched around the league. The atmosphere of Saints' games is similar to that of a college game and the Superdome is easily the loudest stadium in the NFL. And then you see the fans stay after the game during ESPN's Monday night recap. I could barely even hear Stuart Scott talk over the "Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?" How do you not love that?

But let's get back to Brees and his case for MVP. He's 1st in passer rating, 1st in passing TDs, 4th in completion percentage and 5th in yards. So statistically he's got the numbers right now. The biggest thing he's got going for him is that there are no true stars on his team. Don't get me wrong, his supporting cast is extremely talented collectively. But I don't know if there's another Pro-bowler on that offense. Manning has Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. Brady has Moss and Welker. Favre has Adrian Peterson. Brees makes everyone around him better, similar to Manning. Also, if the Saints go undefeated he has the "I'm the best player on the best team argument."

One of the problems for Brees (if you want to call this a problem) is that his team has been too dominant and hasn't really needed him to make a last minute drive or a huge comeback to win. This shows that the entire team is playing well enough to have most games sealed up by the fourth quarter. Favre and Manning have had to lead their teams on comebacks numerous times. And the other this is the turnovers. Brees has thrown 9 interceptions as opposed to Favre's 3. Manning has 11 picks but his play late in games has made most of us forget them. Right now I'm calling it a three-way tie but I feel like Manning is going to find a way to squeak it out. The entire world is in consensus that no one player is more important to their team than Manning.

Defending champs lose 3rd straight, in jeopardy of missing playoffs
This is unfamiliar territory for the Steelers. They've now lost 3 in a row and are on the outside looking in. A lot can be blamed on misfortune. Come this time of the year the best teams are usually the healthiest and the Steelers certainly aren't. Without Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers couldn't really attack this weak Ravens secondary. And without Troy Polamalu, the Steelers didn't have anyone to contain Ray Rice who exploded for 155 total yards.


Dennis Dixon played well considering he was thrown into as tough a situation a quarterback can face. But his inexperience finally caught up to haunt him when he threw the interception in overtime that put the Ravens in field goal range. Things should get better for the Steelers as they get Roethlisberger back and face the Raiders and Browns in the next two weeks. It's very likely that the next Ravens-Steelers matchup will determine the wildcard playoff teams in the AFC.

49ers are still alive
No one was a bigger fan of Vince Young than me on Sunday. The 49ers' season was hanging in the balance on every one of those 18 plays on that epic drive. The Cardinals' loss dropped them to 7-4 and just two games up on the Niners who are 5-6 after their win over Jacksonville. Now the Cardinals play host to the Vikings while the Niners travel to Seattle. If the Niners win and Cards lose there will be just a one game gap and the two will face each other next week on Monday night for the division lead. Things could get interesting in a hurry.

But the Niners better not look ahead and take Seattle for granted. Seattle is one of the toughest places to play in the NFL. On Sunday, San Francisco played their most complete game since a Week 4 win over the Rams. I finally got to see the offense open things up and air it out. Alex Smith is so much better running the spread offense and finally the coaching staff has put him in a position to succeed. This offense has the potential to be very dangerous. Michael Crabtree and Josh Morgan are a pretty good 1-2 receiver combo and have plenty of time to improve. Vernon Davis is a Pro-bowler and a go-to target in the redzone. And Frank Gore is continuing his success as a rusher and a receiver.

Smith got the ball into the hands of his play-makers often against the Jags. The one concern is the running game, which averaged just 2.6 yards per carry. The offensive line is struggling to open up holes without Joe Staley and Tony Pashos. Running the spread is giving Smith just enough time to get rid of the ball though.

It's still clear that the Niners' secondary has some glaring weaknesses but I'm happy with how the defense held strong when the Jags got into the red zone. The defense did a great job in getting to David Garrard and forced two crucial fumbles. That is the kind of performance Mike Singletary has been hoping for and will need consistently in order for this team to make the playoffs.

Troubling Falcons overcome injuries to find a way to win.
Atlanta probably saved their season with their last second touchdown from Chris Redman to Roddy White to defeat the Bucs. But the joy of this win should be short-lived because Matt Ryan and Michael Turner won't be playing next week. Roddy White has been banged up as well and hasn't been nearly as effective as he was early on in the season. Redman played pretty well last week but it won't be easy for him against the Eagles next week. I just don't see this team being able to overcome all of these injuries and make the playoffs.