Remember everything that happened in the AFC East last week? Well forget it all and flip the script! Week 2 of the 2012 NFL season saw some serious surprises, highlighted by the defeat of defending AFC champions New England Patriots to the lowly Arizona Cardinals after a missed game-winning field goal by all-pro Stephen Gostkowski. If things couldn’t get any worse, it appears as if star tight end Aaron Hernandez could be out up to six weeks after injuring his ankle.

The New York Jets, who looked like a well-oiled machine last week against Buffalo, struggled to find any type of offensive or defensive consistency and were severely overmatched in a 27-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mark Sanchez struggled to find any type of flow, and the team’s wildcat offense proved effective but ultimately too late. Tim Tebow only saw the field for three offensive snaps, a decision that left Jets fans scratching their heads when it was apparent that the proto-typical offensive strategy wasn’t getting it done.

However, it wasn’t all gloom and doom for the AFC East. The Miami Dolphins won their first game of the season by besting Carson Palmer’s Oakland Raiders 35-13. Running back Reggie Bush had arguably his best game as a pro, rushing for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Rookie Ryan Tannehill stayed virtually mistake-free, throwing for one touchdown and rushing for another while successfully notching a zero in the turnover column. If the Dolphins continue to cut down on mistakes and Tannehill continues to progress, this season could be far more promising than previously anticipated.

After a debilitating week one defeat of divisional rival New York that saw starting running back Fred Jackson sidelined for at least a month, the Buffalo Bills bounced back with a decisive 35-17 victory at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. Running back C.J. Spiller filled in admirably for Fred Jackson, accumulating 170 total yards and two touchdowns. Ryan Fitzpatrick’s effort of two touchdowns to zero turnovers provided a catalyst for this sudden turnaround in Buffalo.

After two weeks of this NFL season, each team in the division is 1-1. With everything still up for grabs and teams still out to prove themselves, the AFC East looks to stay competitive for the foreseeable future. Next week, the New England Patriots travel to Baltimore to take on the Ravens in a Sunday Night Showdown. Buffalo travels to Cleveland, Ohio, while the Jets travel to Miami for an early season divisional showdown.

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Everyone in America has been hearing or talking about Tim Tebow nonstop for the past few weeks. The Patriots were apparently tired of hearing it.

Behind Tom Brady’s three touchdowns, two passing and one running, the New England Patriots put an end to Tebow’s string of late game comebacks and clinched a playoff spot in a 41-23 win over the Denver Broncos.

“It was a really good day for us,” Brady said. “Very emotional game. It was really rocking early. We showed some mental toughness.”

The Patriots were able to bounce back from a horrendous start that saw them fall behind 17-6 as Denver scored on its first three possessions. Denver outgained New England 167 to 4 in the first quarter.

But unfortunately for the Broncos, there was no late game heroics as the fast start eventually turned into a fizzle as they didn’t do anything for the rest of the game. Three late turnovers, something Denver had been limiting during their winning streak, was too much to overcome.

“We did have things going pretty well early, scored on the first three possessions and felt like we were moving the ball good and then we put it on the ground,” Tebow said. “That’s something you can’t do against a great team and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Besides that, we were right there with them.”

Denver still controls their own destiny, but the road to an AFC West title goes through Buffalo and Kansas City, who knocked off the undefeated Packers ending their 19 game winning streak.

Tebow finished 11 of 22 for 194 yards along with 93 yards on 12 carries for two touchdowns, but was sacked four times.

The Achilles heel for the Broncos seems to be elite passers as they are 1-4 this season against the likes of Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Philip Rivers. Their lack of offensive scoring punch doesn’t seem to allow them to keep up with the quarterbacks who can sling it all over the field.

“He’s still the best out there, in my opinion,” Bailey said of Tom Brady. “And you make mistakes against a guy like that, he’s going to make you pay. That’s pretty much what happened all day.”

Brady finished 23 of 34 for 320 yards the two scores, one of which was to Ochocinco who found the end zone for the first time this season on a 33 yard reception. Brady again was able to pick up his subpar defense which gave up 167 yards on the ground in just the first quarter.

After falling behind the Patriots went into hurry up mode and Brady was able to find Aaron Hernandez from 1 yard out. Hernandez had a career game hauling in 9 passes for 129 yards.

The Broncos made things close late when Tebow scored on a keeper from 2 yards out to pull them to 34-23, but that’s when Tom Brady did what he does best, and led the Patriots down the field on a 80 yard clock draining scoring drive culminated by BenJarvus Green-Ellis’ 1 yard touchdown to put them up for good.

“The more we fight, the better this team gets,” defensive tackle Vince Wilfork said. “We knew they were going to come out fighting. They were going to come out fast and explosive. Our main goal was to weather the storm.”

The Patriots finish out the season against Miami and Buffalo as they look to secure the top seed in the AFC and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

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The New York Giants repeated a comeback victory, similar to their 2008 Superbowl championship game, against the New England Patriots, scoring the final minutes to win 24-20 on Sunday.

There were no scoring drives in the first half of the game; however, the Giants where able to take the lead off a 22-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes, then a rushing touchdown from Brandon Jacobs a minute later, giving them a 10 point lead. Stephen Gostkowski was able to get the Patriots on the board with a 32-yard field goal with five minutes left in the quarter, making the score 10-3.

Five minutes into the fourth quarter, Tom Brady through the tying 5-yard pass to Aaron Hernandez for the Patriots’ first touchdown of the game. The Patriots took the lead in the third quarter off a 45-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski, making the score 13-10.

The final three minutes of the game was where all the action and tension was. Eli Manning took charge in an 85-yard streak of plays that ended with a 10-yard pass to Mario Manningham and a lead for the Giants. Brady responded by leading nine plays downfield for 64-yards, finishing up with a 14 yard pass to Rob Gronkowski, which gave the Patriots a 20-17 lead with a minute left in the game.

But a minute was all Manning needed to get the ball downfield in eight plays, and thanks to a 20-yard pass interference call on Patriots safety Sergio Brown that left the ball spotted on the one-yard line, a touchdown pass to Jake Ballard finished the game with the Giants winning 24-20.

The Giants (6-2) travel to California to face the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday, while the New England Patriots (5-3) travel to New Jersey to face the New York Jets.

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When the 6-1 Patriots take on the 5-2 Steelers this Sunday we all will get a little preview of what may come later in the playoffs as both teams look to make runs at the Super Bowl. Both teams have been playing well as of late and this should be another classic showdown between one of the leagues’ best offenses and one of the best defenses.

New England is the No. 1-ranked offense and Pittsburgh is the third-ranked defense. On paper this would seem like an even matchup and for years the Steelers have been known for their staunch defense, but there is one thing that those stats don’t reflect: Tom Brady is the QB for the Patriots and if history shows anything it’s that Brady plays really well against the Steelers.

Brady is 6-1 all-time against Pittsburgh with a 104.8 career passer rating and a 67.8 completion percentage. You don’t have to be a sports analyst to know that those are astonishingly good stats against a team whose defense is usually its strong point. In the most recent matchup between the two from last year, Brady was 30 of 43 for 350 yards and three touchdowns.

Mike Tomlin, whose now in his fifth season coaching the Steelers, has yet to beat the Patriots. “He is just very good physically and mentally,” Tomlin said this week. “He is very talented in both areas. He is tough to trick, he makes quick decisions, he has pinpoint accuracy and he has the arm to do the things he desires to do.”

The Steelers run a base 3-4 defense with a lot of zone-blitzes that are designed to trick and disguise quarterbacks, but Brady always seems to be a step ahead of them. Brady’s ability, plus the personel for both teams favors the Patriots. The Steelers strength is not their secondary it’s their front seven.

With the way the Patriots utilize spread formations along with the emergence of tight ends, Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski, the Steelers are forced to sub out linebackers for more corners, or live with James Farrior, LaMarr Woodley, and Larry Foote matched up against the more athletic tight ends.

With the way the Patriots have been able to run the ball this year–they are 10^th in the league–it’s a double edge sword for the Steelers. Not having James Harrison, who will miss his 4^th game due to an eye injury, hurts as well because it takes away from the Steelers pass rush, which as we have seen over the years is the only way to get to Brady.

On the flip side is the atrocious Patriot defense, especially the secondary, against Big Ben and the Steeler offense. The Steelers have the 9^th ranked pass offense and the Patriots have the 32^nd ranked pass defense.

This matchup should favor the Steelers  as Rashard Mendenhall has been running the ball effectively and with a WR core consisting of Mike Wallace, Hines Ward, Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, and TE Heath Miller, the Steelers should have no problem exploiting the secondary.

This game has the looks of a shootout the question boils down to whether the Steelers can manage to stop Brady and if Big Ben, who isn’t known for putting up monster numbers in a game, can keep up with the high scoring Patriots. This is not to say that history won’t repeat itself again and that means that Tom Brady and the Patriots have the Steelers number.

Add to that giving Belichick an extra week to prepare and it is probable that the Patriots will win a high scoring. Final Prediction: Patriots 31 Steelers 21.

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With your team down by three with under two minutes left to go, who would you rather have leading your team down the field than Tom Brady? That’s exactly what happened in Sunday’s game as Brady stepped onto the field with only one thing on his mind; “You can’t not get the ball in the end zone.”

And Brady did just that, finding Aaron Hernandez in the endzone with 22 seconds left on the clock to give the Patriots a close win over the Dallas Cowboys and moving the team to 5-1 and back atop the AFC East with Buffalo losing.

This was Brady’s 32^nd comeback in games where the Patriots trailed or were tied in the fourth quarter, so it’s nothing new for Pats fans or the fans of teams playing them. The fact that he was able to do it against the fourth overall defense in the NFL, who had been stifling the Patriot offense all day, says something about Brady.

“When you’re playing against a quarterback like Tom Brady, he’s going to go down as one of the all-time greats,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “So you have to try to make it hard on him.”

Dallas did a good job all day of making things difficult for Brady as they had an extra week to prepare coming off a bye week. He was sacked three times, two by DeMarcus Ware who now has seven through five games, and picked off twice, but Brady turned it up on that last drive going 8 for 9 with 78 yards and the game winning score.

This wasn’t the best game for the Patriots as they had four turnovers, but they still found a way to pull out a victory. Brady finished 27 of 41 for 289 yards and two touchdowns.

Dallas fell to 2-3 behind an okay game from Tony Romo who was 27 of 41 for 317 yards 1 TD and 1 Int. The Cowboys broke the tie with 5:13 left and after a Patriots punt decided to run the ball three times, only gaining 5 yards and punted right back.

Welker, who entered the day as the leagues’ leading receiver, was held to 6 catches for 45 yards, but three of those catches came in that final drive none bigger than his last which put the ball at the 8 yard line. That’s when Brady found Hernandez in one on one coverage and zipped a pass to him for the winning score.

“This is probably, as a whole, one of our worst performances as an offense,” Patriots wide receiver Deion Branch said. “It’s times like this when we show what we’re made of — that last drive.”

All things aside the Patriots are right where they were expected to be, heading into their bye week at a 5-1 mark. Things don’t get easier for the Patriots after the bye though as they travel to Pittsburgh and then face the Giants at home.

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