Sports

The gunslinger award: NFL week 5

By October 10, 2012June 18th, 2018No Comments

Week 5 of the NFL season was much calmer for the gunslingers of the league as no one put up a Tony Romo-like 5 interceptions this week. That is still the leader in the clubhouse for best gunslinger performance of the season and I have a feeling that’s going to be a tough one to beat especially considering that Matt Cassel just got injured. However, if I know one thing about gunslingers it’s that they really want to win so I’m sure that Romo, Mark Sanchez, and Ryan Fitzpatrick will do their best to fit a ball into triple coverage on a 20 yard play when their team only needs 2 yards for the first down. Never count a gunslinger out. Never!

This week Jon Gruden wouldn’t have been happy with the level of gunslingers as there were eight quarterbacks that tied for the lead in interceptions with two. In his opinion that is probably not enough interceptions for you to be as great of a quarterback as Tony Romo.  Among those on the list were our usual favorites Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez, and Blaine Gabbert along with a slew of rookies Brandon Weeden, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins. The rookies are going to make their mistakes because they are inexperienced so they don’t count towards being a gunslinger. However, Cassel and Sanchez have been in the league for a few years so they shouldn’t be doing stuff like this. One thing that you probably don’t realize is that those were only Blaine Gabberts second and third interceptions of the year. Sure his yardage and TD numbers are atrocious (796 yards, 5 TD’s) but at least he’s not killing his team by turning the ball over.

Last weeks number one gunslinger of the week and overall leader Tony Romo had an amazing week as he threw no interceptions. Sure, the Dallas Cowboys were on a bye, but every little bit helps.

With five weeks in the books here’s how the standings look for top gunslinger in the league:

1: Matt Cassel – 9
*Brandon Weeden has 9 as well but does not qualify as a gunslinger since he’s a rookie.
2 (t): Tony Romo – 8
2 (t): Ryan Fitzpatrick – 8. He only threw one vs the San Francisco 49ers so that has to be seen as a major success for him.
4: Jay Cutler – 7. He also threw only one this week vs the Jacksonville Jaguars. Don’t sleep on him, he can quickly throw 3 or 4 into double coverage before you can say “Chris Ayanbadejo”.

Rob Cressy

Rob Cressy

Sports loving free throw specialist and yinzer living in Chicago who is awesome most of the time, has run with the bulls in Spain, and is a graduate of Second City's Improv program.