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Week 14 Pretty Sensational… and Two More Games to Go

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — While sitting in the press box in Jacksonville, Fla., yesterday, most of the conversation that wasn’t being directed toward David Garrard and the surprisingly good Jags, was being directed at Brett Favre, his swollen collarbone and the big hole in the Metrodome’s Teflon roof.

Early Sunday morning, the big pillow in Minneapolis collapsed under the weight of a foot and a half of snow which immediately meant two things: (1) Sunday’s game between the Vikings and New York Giants that was already postponed until Monday night because of the blizzard in the Twin Cities, would now have to be played in Detroit and (2) This is the beginning of the end for the Vikings in Minnesota?

You can pretty much guarantee that if a new building for the Vikings isn’t on the front burner of the Minnesota House, the Vikes won’t be playing in the cold much longer. Both L.A. and San Antonio are calling and the money seems to be in place to make that franchise comfortable in warmer climes. If the Minnesota legislature isn’t preapred to build a new stadium soon, you can pretty much start packing up the moving vans.

Art Modell, Georgia Frontiere and the Irsay family would be so proud.

Meanwhile, Brett Favre told reporters in Minneapolis and Detroit that he expects his streak of 297 consecutive starts as an NFL quarterback to end tonight. Favre’s shoulder/clavicle injury has not responded as well as he’d like to treatment and he said it’s likely Tarvaris Jackson will start tonight against the Giants.

Well, it had to end sometime.

OK, Sport Select and Fantasy Players, here are your NFL scores and highlights for Week 14…

Last night…

Philadelphia 30 Dallas 27

The Eagles improved to 9-4 as DeSean Jackson had 210 yards receiving and scored the winning touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Michael Vick threw for a touchdown and ran for another.

Yesterday afternoon…

Detroit 7 Green Bay 3

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers left the game with a concussion in the first quarter and never returned. In the end, Drew Stanton of the Lions out-dueled Matt Flynn of the Packers.

New England 36 Chicago 7

The Pats clinched a playoff berth and improved to 11-2 as Tom Brady threw for 369 yards and two touchdowns in a snow-storm in Chicago. Deion Branch caught eight passes for 151 yards and a touchdown. The Pats have won five straight.

Jacksonville 38 Oakland 31

The game we watched yesterday here in Florida was a thriller. David Garrard threw three TD passes while Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown, the sixth straight game in which Jones-Drew has rushed for 100 yards or more. Oakland’s Darren McFadden rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns and caught three passes for 86 yards and another TD.

Tampa Bay 17 Washington 16

Washington scored in the dying seconds and were about to kick the extra point to send the game into overtime when they botched the point after and lost.

Miami 10 NY Jets 6

Miami’s Chad Henne found Brandon Marshall for the game’s only touchdown in the first quarter.

Atlanta 31 Carolina 10

Falcons runningback Michael Turner carried 28 times for 112 yards and three touchdowns.

Buffalo 13 Cleveland 6

Buffalo’s Fred Jackson rushed for 112 yards while Cleveland’s Peyton Hillis rushed for 108 yards but neither team had miuch more offence than that.

Pittsburgh 23 Cincinnati 7

The Steelers didn’t have much offence, but Troy Polamalu and LaMarr Woodley each returned interceptions for touchdowns. The Bengals have lost 10 straight.

New Orleans 31 St. Louis 13

Drew Brees threw three touchdown passes, two to Marques Colston.

San Francisco 40 Seattle 21

Niners quarterback Alex Smith threw for 255 yards and three touchdowns.

Arizona 43 Denver 13

Arizona’s Tim Hightower carried 18 times for 148 yards and two touchdowns.

San Diego 31 Kansas City 0

The Chargers Phillip Rivers threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns.

Tonight, two games on a Monday: Baltimore plays at Houston in the real Monday Nighter, while the Giants face Minnesota at Detroit in the fake Monday Nighter.

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Favre Hurt, Flacco Sacked and Manning All Over The Place As Week 13 Provides Plenty of Surprises

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

TAMPA, Fla. — It was a wild one Sunday as Week 13 in the National Football League provided all sorts of thrills and spills.

Minnesota quarterback Brett Favre injured his shoulder on the third play of the game, but tarvaris Jackson came off the bench the lead the Vikings to a 38-14 win over the Buffalo Bills.

Now, this morning, everyone it seems is screaming to start Jackson next week against the Giants. Sounds great, but remember, T-Jack just won at home against the UFL-like Bills. The Giants are a whole different argument.

Meanwhile, a big sack and forced fumble by Troy Polamalu led to a late touchdown by the Pittsburgh Steelers as the Pittsburgh beat Baltimore 13-10 in a defensive struggle. I’m sure Baltimore’s Joe Flacco is a good quarterback, but he had so little time to throw and put so few points on the board that it’s hard to tell.

Meanwhile, Peyton Manning threw four interceptions, two were returned for touchdowns and the one in overtime led to the winning field goal while here in Tampa, the Bucs Josh Freeman did his best Peyton impersonation by throwing an INT in the dying seconds to seal a loss to Atlanta.

A lot of quarterbacks were great on Sunday. Many more were not. But it sure made for some interesting football:

Sunday night…

Pittsburgh 13 Baltimore 10

Ben Roethlisberger threw a nine-yard TD pass to Isaac Redman with 2:51 remaining after Troy Polamalu forced a Joe Flacco fumble on a sack. The Steelers are 9-3 and in sole possession of first place in the AFC North.

Sunday afternoon….

Minnesota 38 Buffalo 14

Brett Favre injured his shoulder on the third play of the game and Tarvaris Jackson came in and was sensational. He threw two touchdown passes to Sidney Rice while Adrian Peterson rushed for 107 yards and three more touchdowns as the Vikings improved to 5-7. Jackson could start this coming Sunday at home against the Giants.

Chicago 24 Detroit 20

Jay Cutler hit Brandon Manumaleuna with the game-winning touchdown late in the fourth quarter, right after a dreadful roughing call against the Lions Ndamukong Suh. The Bears re 9-3 while the 2-10 Lions have lost five straight.

Jacksonville 17 Tennessee 6

Maurice Jones-Drew rushed for a career-best 186 yards as the Jags took over first place in the AFC South with a 7-5 record.

Green Bay 34 San Francisco 16

Aaron Rodgers threw for three touchdowns while Greg Jennings caught six passes for 122 yards and two TDs.

Cleveland 13 Miami 10

Mike Adams interception in the final minute set up Phil Dawson’s game winning 23-yard field goal with no time left.

NY Giants 31 Washington 7

Brandon Jacobs rushed for 1-3 yards and two touchdowns while Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns.

Seattle 31 Carolina 14

The Seahawks Marshawn Lynch rushed for 83 yards and three touchdowns.

Oakland 28 San Diego 13

What an upset, as Oakland quarterback Jason Campbell threw for one touchdown and an for another. The Raiders swept the season series with San Diego.

Kansas City 10 Denver 6

The Chiefs Jamaal Charles rushed for 116 yards while Matt Cassel threw a three-yard TD pass to Leonard Pope to win it.

Atlanta 28 Tampa Bay 24

Eric Weems scored on a 102-yard kickoff return and Matt Ryan threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins as the Falcons rallied from a 10-point deficit with 14 points in the fourth quarter.

New Orleans 34 Cincinnati 30

New Orleans QB Drew Brees hit Marques Colston with the game-winning touchdown with 31 seconds left as the 9-3 Saints won their fifth straight.

St. Louis 19 Arizona 6

The Rams Steven Jackson rushed for 107 yards including 27 on the game’s lone touchdown and the 6-6 Rams stayed in a first-place tie with Seattle in the NFC West.

Dallas 38 Indianapolis 35 (OT)

Peyton Manning threw four interceptions. Two were returned for touchdowns while the fourth was returned far enough to get David Buehler in position to kick the game winning 38-yard field goal in overtime.

Tonight, in the Monday Nighter, it’s the 9-2 New York Jets against the 9-2 New England Patriots in a battle of the two best teams in the AFC East – and maybe in all of football. Thursday night this week, Week 14 starts with the Colts play the Titans.

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Put on your fantasy thinking caps. The 2008 NFL season starts tonight.

Posted on September 4, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Say whatever you like, but this is the greatest moment of the sports calendar.

 

The National Football League, the greatest sports league on the planet, opens a new season tonight with the Washington Redskins at the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants (that’s still hard to write with a straight face), and I have just spent an entire morning answering questions like these…

 

“I have a choice. The Lions defence in Atlanta or the Jags defence in Tennessee? What do you think?”

 

I like the Lions defence, not because I particularly like the Lions defence per se, but because the Lions are favoured on the road for the first time in 23 games and only the fourth time this decade, so since hell has indeed frozen over again, I fear Vince Young more than I fear Matt Ryan.

 

“I have a choice between Matt Hasselbeck in Buffalo or Derek Anderson at home against Dallas. What do you think?”

 

I hate road openers (unless it’s Detroit in Atlanta), and I’m not sure Dallas is as good as everyone thinks. Derek Anderson will put up some points at home. I’m not sure Hasselbeck, against a pretty decent Buffalo defence playing in their own backyard, will do much of anything.

 

“I can either go with Arizona’s Anquan Boldin at San Francisco or the Jets’ Jerricho Cotchery in Miami. What do you think?”

 

Boldin is a great receiver, but Kurt Warner will look for Larry Fitzgerald first (wouldn’t you?). Boldin doesn’t even want to be in Aizona anymore. Brett Favre, meanwhile, seems to love Cotchery. Big target who runs Brett’s routes. Take Cotchery simply because he’s going to see the football.

 

Isn’t this fun? It’s football season. Real football season. Major league football season. And there is nothing more fun than lining up your fantasy team in Week 1.

 

So without further adieu, here are the 10 things you need to know heading into the NFL’s Kickoff Weekend:

 

1. The Lions and Vikings will battle for first in the NFC North. Barring catastrophic injuries to either team, they could both battle for the NFC crown. In fact, if you’re looking for a sleeper team in the NFC this season, look out for Detroit. they have an easy travel schedule (only 11,860 miles, making them 27th on a list led by Seattle at 34,766 miles) and their quarterback, Jon Kitna, is not as inept as his reputation would suggest. In fact, Kitna threw for 4,068 yards last year, his second with the Lions, becoming the first quarterback in club history with back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons.  Kitna, who passed for a career-high 4,208 yards in 2006, ranks fourth in the NFL with 8,276 yards over the past two seasons. The 12-year veteran has thrown for 200 yards in 28 of his 32 starts with Detroit, the most 200-yard games in the NFL during that span. If the Lions get any defence at all, they could win a lot of football games. 

 

2. The New York Giants won an NFL single-season record 10 consecutive road games in 2007, going 7-1 in the regular season. Considering they opened the year in London, England, they travelled 15,618 total miles. They won’t do that again and, as a result, won’t win the NFC East.

 

3. Watch out for teams with a “tandem backfield.” In 2007, 12 clubs boasted two running backs each with at least 500 rushing yards apiece, including five playoff teams: Dallas, Indy, the Jags, the Giants and Seattle. In fact, in Jacksonville, Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor (1,202) combined for 1,970 yards and they went 12-4 with a first round playoff win.

 

4. RUN THE FOOTBALL!!! Last season, teams with a 100-yard rusher won 73.4 per cent of the time, compared to 56.9 per cent for teams with a 100-yard receiver and only 53.1 per cent for teams with a 300-yard passer. Run the football, win the game.

 

5. Oh yeah, and force turnovers. San Diego led in takeaway-to-giveaway ratio with a plus-24 takeaway differential and finished 11-5 (it didn’t hurt to have LaDainian Tomlinson either). 13-3 Indy was next at plus-18 while 16-0 New England was third at plus-16.

 

6. The New England Patriots went 16-0 last season. They also finished first in fourth-down conversions, going 11-for-11 and second in sacks with 47. The Super Bowl champion New York Giants led in sacks with 53, but both defensive ends Michael Strahan (rertirement) and Osi Umenyiora (knee injury) are gone.

 

7. Win in Week 1: According to the NFL’s media department, there are never any guarantees, “but there are trends and they start in Week 1.” History is clear that the best way for a team to start its drive towards a possible Super Bowl championship is to win its opening game. The 42 Super Bowl winners have a 34-7-1 record in the Kickoff Weekend games of their title seasons. However, as the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants proved, a loss on Kickoff Weekend can still lead to a championship season. According to the league, since 1978, when the NFL went to the 16-game schedule, and excluding the abbreviated season of 1982, teams that are victorious on Kickoff Weekend are more than twice as likely to reach the playoffs than losers of an opening game. 

 

8. Once again, you have to like Pittsburgh. After all, QB Ben Roethlisberger is chasing his third divisional title in five years. Roethlisberger has a 39-16 (.709) regular-season record and was named to his first Pro Bowl after shattering the Steelers’ single-season record for passing touchdowns (32) and passer rating (104.1) last season. Yeah, it’s hard NOT to like Pittsburgh.

 

9.  A team that’s been forgotten during the pre-season is Tampa. The Bucs won the NFC South last year and have won the division three times under head coach Jon Gruden. In fact, under Gruden, the Bucs are 17-0 since 2002 when not committing turnover. Meanwhile, quarterback Jeff Garcia was named to Pro Bowl last year and in his career (incl. playoffs), Garcia’s teams are 32-12 (.727) when he has 95+ passer rating. The Bucs will not roll over this year.

 

10. Can the Giants repeat? The short answer is no, but until we meet up in Tampa in January, who really knows, right?

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