Matty Nice Breaks Records, Jets Exit as They Came In, and Norv Survives Black Monday

• The Jets are out. The Cowboys are out. Life is good.

• How ‘bout that Matty Flynn?! I love how he broke Aaron Rodgers’ records - and set franchise records - in his second career start! 480 yards, 6 touchdowns, and a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the fourth quarter.

• Matthew Stafford wasn’t half bad, either, breaking 5,000 throwing yards on the season. We all knew that Brees and Brady were going to break Dan Marino’s record, but who would have thought Stafford would come within 46 yards?? Flynn and Stafford combined for 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns. Crazy.

• After a very quiet game against the Packers on Thanksgiving, Megatron made some noise in a big way, catching 11 passes for 244 yards!

You, sir, are a stud.

• Rodgers may have let Flynn break his yards and touchdowns in a game numbers, but Aaron now owns the NFL record for best passer rating in a season with 122.5.

• Only four quarterbacks in NFL history have thrown for over 475 yards and 6 touchdowns: Y.A. Tittle, Joe Namath, Joe Montana, and Matt Flynn.

• I felt compelled to look up what Y.A. Tittle’s name stood for. His full name is Yelberton Abraham Tittle. That is fantastic. I’m going to name my first son Yelberton.

• Jordy made Alphonso Smith look like a paper doll on this touchdown.

• That Larry Fitzgerald is one tough guy. The spectacular receiver helped the Cardinals to an overtime victory while suffering from a bruised lung!

• The Bears ousted GM Jerry Angelo, which I heartily support. The Bears are a poorly run organization, in my opinion. Their refusal to spend money on an offensive line, the Matt Forte contract debacle, the inability to get offensive coordinator Mike Martz on the same page as everyone else, screwing over the Baltimore Ravens on draft day and then refusing to own up to it, and a spree of bad signings (Roy Williams, anyone?) are all red flags. They also don’t seem interested in taking care of their players. Just ask Greg Olsen about his feelings on the team.

• As it turns out, the Bears don't have to worry about Martz anymore, as he resigned today, citing "philosophical differences," which I guess is the NFL version of "irreconcilable differences" for celebrity couples.

"We ask you to respect our privacy during this difficult time."

• With the starting outside linebacker position up for grabs, Brad Jones didn't waste any opportunity to show off his tackling technique.

Any time you feel tempted to run onto the field, just remember this.

• It’s hard to imagine the Steelers going far into the playoffs with all the injuries they’ve sustained. Roethlisberger’s ankle is beat up, and now running back Rashard Mendenhall’s season is over after tearing his ACL. Then again, they are playing the Broncos...

 

• In the Fiesta Bowl, Stanford's rookie kick returner Ty Montgomery wanted to run the ball out of the endzone. His teammate, however, strongly advised him otherwise

• Alright Patriot fans, watch this video and just try to tell me that there are not “Tom Brady rules." Absolutely ridiculous.

• You stay classy, Jets. In the final game, receiver Santonio Holmes was benched for fighting with his teammates in the huddle, after fighting with Mark Sanchez and generally acting like a sullen teenager in a team meeting earlier in the week. Then Bart Scott, who loves media attention when the Jets are winning, declined an interview in his own, charming fashion. Hmm, I wonder where they get their respectful attitude and good sportsmanship from?

• Seattle’s Marshawn Lynch really like Skittles, apparently. His mom used to give him Skittles after he scored touchdowns when he was a kid, and now he has someone on the sidelines who gives him Skittles when he scores.  No, for real. He gave a little tribute to his favorite treat last week. (And was fined, of course.)

These are so awesomely cool! I want a pair!

• Norv Turner is not fired. I have no idea how. The man must have some incredibly incriminating dirt on someone high up in the Chargers organization.

"And then you will make me GM, President, and starting QB ... or else!"

• Oh, Pat Lee. If Randall Cobb ever gets injured, the Packers might try to negotiate some kind of deal with the opposing team. Maybe just forgo the kickoff/punt and give the Packers the ball at the 15?? Because, it turns out, no one else is capable of competent returns. Not even Jordy, whom I love, obviously, but he does not have a great track record with holding onto the ball on punts and kickoffs.

• Yahoo! Sports pointed out perhaps the oddest thing to happen this weekend: “The Texans lost, and it was not Jake Delhomme’s fault. Delhomme came in for an injured T.J. Yates, they trusted him to throw the ball 28 times, and he did so without throwing a single interception. So, of course, someone snaps a ball over his head and they lose.”

"Seriously? How can a loss not be blamed on Jake Delhomme?"

• Rams’ coach Steve Spagnuolo was fired, which makes sense for a 2-14 team. I think they should have also shown Josh McDaniels the door. He came in as offensive coordinator and took a team that had 4,846 yards of offense and 27 touchdowns last season and turned them into a team that struggled to gain 3,537 yards of offense and 16 touchdowns. SIXTEEN TOUCHDOWNS! I know there were many injuries for the Rams, but to regress like that after the Rams showed so much promise last year is unfortunate, to say the least.

• The Broncos lost, but still made the playoffs. Whew! There will still be hours and hours of media coverage on Tim Tebow.

Just stop throwing INTs, Timmy, and crazy things can happen.

• I hate Jared Allen, but I still feel kinda bad for him falling 1 sack shy of setting a new season record, especially when you consider how Michael Strahan “earned” his final sack.

Okay, okay, I’ll get to the officiating in the Lions-Packers game. I’m not a big fan of losing teams whining about the referees, but the game was horribly called and the Lions were on the short end of the stick several times. (Not that the Lions whined; they didn't.) First off is the fact that Jim Schwartz had to throw the challenge flag twice before halftime. The first one was ruled a Lions’ fumble, but was rightly overturned. The second one was also ruled a Lions’ fumble, but because there was no clear shot of the ball on the play, the ruling had to stand, even though common sense suggests that the player was down by contact. At this point, Schwartz has used up all his challenges, which is not really fair, since they were both bad calls by the refs. And it’s not like Schwartz wasted his challenges on little things like first down completions or something. He had to throw the challenge flags on both because they were turnvovers! So, the Lions get screwed on that second fumble call. (Though the Packers were not able to score any points off of it, as Flynn threw an interception a couple of plays later.)

The Titus Young non-touchdown call was by far the worst, however. Young caught the ball and was able to drag his second foot on the ground for the score. Except the refs called it incomplete. And because it was ruled not a scoring play, it was not automatically reviewed. And the Lions didn’t have any challenges left. This is poor officiating on multiple levels. First off, you have a ref standing right there, staring directly as Young’s feet. His only job is to see if Young gets two feet in and maintains possession. How do you miss that?! Furthermore, since the new rule that mandates a review of every scoring play came into effect, officials have been much, much more likely to rule a questionable call a touchdown, knowing that it will get looked at. Schwartz wondered why the Lions did not get that benefit that every other team has received, and it’s a fair question. If the refs had ruled it a touchdown, it would have been reviewed, and if Young had not gotten both feet in, then it would have been overturned.

Finally, there was the Jordy Nelson fair catch in the fourth quarter. The fact that Schwartz was out of challenges was moot, since the play was not reviewable. Why, I can’t imagine. One of these arbitrary decrees by the NFL, I guess. For the record, I think Jordy did have possession. He made a fair catch signal, caught the ball in his right arm (thereby ending the play), and it was when he was shifting the ball from his right to his left that he lost control. That being said, I don’t know if the officials would have seen it the same way I do had it been reviewed, and there was certainly a chance they could have called it Detroit’s ball.

    All in all, a rough day for Detroit. You know it’s bad when smug, self-congratulatory, bespectacled Mike Pereira admits that there's a problem. I don’t like to say outcomes would be different because of officiating, but it would have been nice for Detroit if they had been given the opportunities they deserved.