Week 17 Report: Defensive Players Comes Up Big in Final Week

Other than an amazing season for Jamaal Charles, the former Longhorn defenders outperformed the offensive players for the most part this season.

Turnovers were plentiful this week, with a handful of players getting in on the action.

Quentin Jammer, Tarell Brown and Michael Huff all picked off passes over the weekend. Derrick Johnson, Michael Griffin, Frank Okam and Tim Crower all forced or recovered a fumble.

DJ recorded 5 tackles this week put together the best season of the bunch and the best of his career, leading his team with 121 tackles (15th in the NFL), 1 sack, 4 forced fumbles. DJ was recently named as a Pro Bowl alternate.

Michael Huff also had his most productive season of his career, racking up 94 tackles, 3 forced fumbles, 3 INTs and 4 sacks. Huff had 1 tackle over the weekend and returned his INT 17 yards.

Teammate Lamarr Houston had 4 tackles and sack to round out his rookie campaign with 39 tackles, 5 sacks and a forced fumble.

Michael Griffin finished his year with 108 tackles after tallying another 5 tackles this week and also ended the season with 2 forced fumbles and 4 INTs (tied for 19th in the NFL). Griffin returned his fumble recovery for 20 yards late in the game.

Nathan Vasher bounced back late in the season after a very quiet start to the year, finishing with just 19 tackles and an INT, but with 12 of those tackles coming in the final 3 weeks. Vasher only became a starter in Week 14.

Quentin Jammer ended his campaign with 45 tackles and 2 INTs after adding 3 tackles and picking off a pass this week.

Roy Miller had solid season with 48 tackles and a sack after tallying 2 tackles and his sack over the weekend in a big win over New Orleans.

Tarell Brown added 5 tackles and returned an INT for 62 yards and score in the 4th quarter (video). After adding 3 tackles this week, Brown finished the year with 39 tackles and the one INT.

Aaron Ross had the most tackles of his career, adding 5 this week to close out the season with a total of 35 tackles and a sack.

Brian Orakpo had just one tackle this week but finished the year with 56 tackles, 8.5 sacks (tied for 24 in the NFL) and a forced fumble in his second season.

Tim Crowder recovered a fumble this week and ended the year with 31 tackles, 3 sacks and the one forced fumble.

Not a very great week for the offense.

JC, the one bright spot on offense this week, carried the ball 14 times for 87 yards, including a 47-yarder and a 5-yard TD run in the 3rd quarter. JC also caught the ball 2 times for 13 yards.

JC fell just short of the rushing title, ending the year with 230 rushes for 1,467 yards and 5 TDs. Arian Foster beat out JC for the title, with 1,616 yards and Michael Turner, Chris Johnson, Maurice Jones-Drew and Adrian Peterson came in just behind JC in the title race.

JC had significantly less carries than the other top RBs and managed 6.38 yards-per-carry, which is just .02 yards-per-carry shy of Jim Brown’s NFL record. He needed just 5 more yards on those 230 carries to break the record.

“Five yards over a season,” said Yahoo Sports. “That’s nothing. As we saw Sunday night in Seattle, the difference between a few yards can be as simple as where the official spots the football. Charles was this close to setting the record.”

JC also racked up 45 catches for 468 yards and 3 receiving TDs to close the year with 1,935 total yards.

Colt McCoy struggled for the second week in a row, completing 20 of 41 passes (with most completions coming when the loss was already sealed) for 209 yards.

Colt was under pressure all game and tossed 3 INTs this week for the second week in a row, after going up against two top defenses in Baltimore and Pittsburgh to round out the year.

Colt threw a 20-yard TD pass late in the game and finished the year having completed 135 of 222 passes (60.8%), 1,576 throwing yards, 6 TDs and 9 INT (6 of those INTs coming in the final 2 games).

With Colt under center, Cleveland went 2-6, but the rookie gained valuable game experience after entering the season with no real intention of seeing action. Colt also showed off his leadership skills and began earning his team’s trust.

“Guys in that locker room are committed to changing the way it’s been around here, and I’m one of them,” said Colt.

Over in Cincinnati, Cedric Benson carried the ball 21 times for just 53 yards and added 3 catches for 12 yards. Benson finished the year with 321 rushes for 1,111 yards (2nd most of his career) and a career-best 7 TDs. Benson finished 13th in the league in rushing yards.

Teammate Jordan Shipley caught just 2 passes for 14 yards and finished his rookie year with 52 catches for 600 yards and 3 TDs. Quan Cosby caught just 2 passes for 15 yards all season.

Ricky Williams carried the ball 6 times but gained up just 5 yards and lost a fumble in a crushing defeat against New England. Ricky ended his season with 159 carries for 673 yards and 2 TDs.

Roy Williams also had a rough week, catching just 1 pass for 6 yards (his only catch in 3 weeks), to finish the year with 37 catches for 530 yards and 5 TDs.

Finally, Phil Dawson finished what might be his final season in Cleveland, as he enters free agency this off-season.

Other Noteworthy Performances

David Thomas – inactive with knee injury
Casey Hampton – 1 tackle
Cory Redding – 4 tackles
Henry Melton – 1 tackle