The NFL reported its various player of the week awards, and NaVorro Bowman came up short for Defensive Player of the Week. Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Linval Joseph was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his Week 9 performance against the St. Louis Rams. Joseph had a good game, finishing with 10 tackles, including three for a loss, one sack and two QB hits.
It is certainly a strong performance worthy of recognition, but I am a little disappointed NaVorro Bowman did not take home the award. Bowman finished Sunday's game with seven tackles, including two for a loss, one sack, three QB hits and a pass deflection.
The Vikings defense did solid work against Todd Gurley and the Rams ground game. They held Gurley to 89 yards, and 3.7 yards per rush, which was a season-low since Gurley moved into the primary running back role. However, compared to that, Bowman and the 49ers run defense were absolutely lights out. They held Devonta Freeman to 12 yards on 12 carries, and the Falcons as a whole to 17 total rushing yards. The Falcons trailed for most of the final three quarters, but the game was never so far out of hand that they should have abandoned the run game.
Bowman is picking up steam as the season moves along, and may have turned a corner in getting back to his former self. He is currently second in the NFL with 88 tackles, but more important is seeing him making the tackles for losses, and generally flying around the field to get after guys he was not getting to earlier in the season.
In the preseason, SB Nation conducted a poll of the 32 NFL bloggers to figure out preseason awards. The Comeback Player of the Year award including the following suggestions
NaVorro Bowman
Adrian Peterson
Eric Berry
Sam Bradford
C.J. Spiller
Carson Palmer
Justin Blackmon
Peterson, Bradford and Berry actually finished tied with seven votes apiece. Bowman was next behind them with five votes. It would not surprise me to see Berry get the award given his comeback from cancer. Adrian Peterson is putting together the best statistical season of the various candidates, but coming back from taking a season off to deal with legal issues surrounding beating your child seems a little difficult to swallow as a candidate for "comeback player of the year". Of course, NFL media has always been a little bizarre, so it would not surprise me to see something like that happen.
Bowman is a deserving candidate, but it will be interesting to see what happens with the Peterson and Berry vote.