NFL Monday recap - week #8

No Steelers today as this is their bye week. Big Ben threw some this week, but he won't be back any time soon. So much for my fantasy league. Blah. A lot of good games, however, around the league this week.

Other:

• Hey, another game in England. Is this every week now? That game with the Bengals and the Redskins ended up going into overtime, and guess what? It ended in a tie just like last week. Wanna bet that the English fans felt just as cheated as the American fans on this weird new rule?
• In overtime, the Redskins had a chance with a 34-yard field goal attempt to win the game, but alas, their kicker Dustin Hopkins missed the kick after making it first while the Bengals called a time out. First, please, stop this "icing" the kicker nonsense at the last minute. Blow the whistle before the ball is snapped. Second, Hopkins, you have one job to do; kick the damn ball. 
• And still going on with this England game, the kicker missed, the ball went to the Bengals who fumbled it and lost the ball back to Washington. It was exciting overtime stuff. Unfortunately, due to NFL rules, a lot of people didn't get to see the end of the game because once 1:00 came, the network had to switch to the regularly scheduled game. Luckily, for me, I got to see it as we didn't have a local game scheduled. Nope, I missed an infomercial on nipping and tucking.
• Twenty-four penalties on the Raiders today. It was a record in the NFL. Yeah, that's a record you won't be proud to own. Jack Del Rio needs to be doing some screaming in the locker room.
• Wow. I wish I could have seen the Seattle/New Orleans game which came down to the wire, but Russell Wilson's pass to the end zone, while caught, was just a tad out of bounds, and the Seahawks went home with a loss.
• Some fan in Tampa wore a full gorilla suit and sat in it at the Bucs game. In 87 degree weather. Are people just nuts?
• Denver's defensive coordinator took a massive hit while standing on the sidelines. Phillips was hit by Chargers running back Melvin Gordon, who was pushed from behind into the Broncos sideline and right into Phillips. Phillips was moving as they carted him off the field and taken to a local hospital, but the hit was a big one, and Phillips had no time to put his hands back to break the fall. Scary moment. The Broncos have had a time with their coaches in the hospital what with head coach Gary Kubiak's hospitalization two weeks ago and now Phillips.
• Panthers Cam Newton totally went off in the post-game news conference regarding the missed hit he took below the knees. I was with him. He's right. These refs have different calls for different players, and that makes the whole "we are cleaning up the league" nonsense that the NFL bigwigs spout is, as Newton said, "bullshit."
• Kudos to Drew Carr for his big game yesterday and his win, but man, he is one scary looking guy with those eyes of his.