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Week 4 in the NFL: All About The Undefeated Lions and Packers

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It’s Week 5 in the National Football League and the bye weeks will start this week. So iof you are fantasy player, remember who’s in and who’s out.

There are 12 games on Sunday (not 15) and among the highlights, the 2-2 Jets play at 3-1 New England, 3-1 Tampa plays at 3-1 San Francisco; 1-3 Philadelphia is at 3-1 Buffalo and on Sunday night, 4-0 Green Bay is at 2-2 Atlanta. On Monday night, 2-2 Chicago plays at 4-0 Detroit. This week, the Ravens, Browns, Cowboys, Dolphins, Rams and Washington have the byes. Remember, if you have Joe Flacco in your fantasy pool, bench him this week. He’s not playing.

In the meantime, the NFL has never been as polarized as it is this year. There are good teams and bad teams and not many in the middle.

For instance, while only two teams – the NFC North’s Detroit Lions (4-0) and Green Bay Packers (4-0) – remain undefeated, there are 11 teams at 3-1. There are only eight teams at 2-2. There are seven teams at 1-3 and Miami, Indianapolis, Minnesota and St. Louis are all 0-4.

Meanwhile, with that huge come-from-behind 34-30 win over Dallas on Sunday (the Lions were down 27-3 in the third quarter), Detroit became only the fifth club since the 12-team format was adopted in 1990 to open a season 4-0 after opening the previous season at 0-4.

Meanwhile, according to the NFL’s statistics department, “13 teams, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-1), currently own or share a division lead. Nine of those clubs did not reach the postseason in 2010, including five – Buffalo (3-1), Detroit (4-0), Houston (3-1), Tennessee (3-1) and Washington (3-1) – that finished in or tied for last place in their divisions.”

The good teams in the NFL are very good and we found that out in Week 4. Let’s take a look back:

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Matthew Stafford

Detroit 34 Dallas 30

What a comeback. Dallas led 20-3 at the half and 27-3 in the third quarter and 30-17 entering the fourth quarter, but the Lions roared back with 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter as Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes to Calvin Johnson and Detroit improved to 4-0 to start the season. Dallas QB Tony Romo threw two pick-sixes in a five minute span in the second half.

Kansas City 22 Minnesota 17

The Vikings fall to 0-4 as Donovan McNabb has yet to win as the Vikings quarterback. K.C. QB Matt Cassel’s 52-yard TD pass to Dwayne Bowe was the difference. There is a growing mob in Minnesota who want to see McNabb out and Christian Ponder in as the Vikings quarterback. And if they don’t get rid of McNabb, then that mob wants head coach Leslie Frazier out.

Green Bay 49 Denver 23

The Packers Aaron Rodgers was sensational: 29-for-38, 408 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for two touchdowns. The Packers are the best team in the NFL and Denver quarterback Kyle Orton is just a loser (and the U.S. mainstream media, led by ESPN and it’s incessant anti-Tim Tebow rhetoric have to be held responsible for enabling GM John Elway and head coach John Fox to allow the Broncos to become a dreadful offensive team).

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Matt Forte

Chicago 34 Carolina 29

Matt Forte carried 25 times for 205 yards and a touchdown. In a losing effort, Cam Newton threw for 374 yards and a touchdown. Our good friend, Israel Idonije from Brandon, had another great game with two tackles and one tackle for a loss.

Cincinnati 23 Buffalo 20

The Bengals Cedric Benson carried for 104 yards while A.J. Green caught four passes for 118 yards. Meanwhile, rookie quarterback Andy Dalton had a big second half for Cincinnati when the Bengals outscored the Bills 20-3. The Bengals proved on Sunday that they are a much better than most pundits believe they are.

Houston 17 Pittsburgh 10

A statement game by the Texans, who shut down the Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger. Houston QB Matt Schaub threw for a touchdown while RB Arian Foster rushed for 155 yards and a TD.

Tennessee 31 Cleveland 13

Titans QB Matt Hasselbeck threw for 220 yards and three touchdowns while RB Chris Johnson rushed for 101 yards. Cleveland outgained Tennessee but the Titans defense was just too good.

New Orleans 23 Jacksonville 10

The Saints’ Drew Brees threw for 351 yards and a touchdown while RB Darren Sproles added 188 all-purpose yards as the Saints improved to 3-1.

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Frank Gore

San Francisco 24 Philly 23

Niners QB Alex Smith was a solid 21-for-33 for 291 yards and two touchdowns while RB Frank Gore rushed for 127 yards and a fourth quarter TD. Philly’s Michael Vick was 30-for-46 for 416 yards and two TDs and yet the Niners improved to 3-1 while the Eagles fell to 1-3.

Washington 17  St. Louis 10

Washington’s defence sacked the Rams Sam Bradford six times. The Skins Ryan Torain carried for 135 yards and 20-yard TD. The Rams fell to 0-4 and nobody would have thought it would get that bad to start the season. The Rams have a brutal schedule in the first and a not-bad schedule in the second half. They could still finish 8-8.

NY Giants 31 Arizona 27

The Giants scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to win it. Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes in a 58-second span in the fourth quarter while Hakeem Nicks caught 10 passes for 169 yards and a TD.

Atlanta 30 Seattle 28

Atlanta QB Matt Ryan threw for 291 yards, and rookie wideout Julio Jones caught 11 passes for 127 yards as the Falcons held off a second-half Cards rally. 

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Wes Welker

New England 31 Oakland 19

The Pats Tom Brady threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns. Wes Welker had nine receptions for 158 yards and a TD. 

San Diego 26 Miami 16

Chargers QB Phillip Rivers threw for 307 yards and a touchdown as Miami fell to 0-4 and lost QB Chad Henne to a shoulder injury.

Baltimore 34 New York 17

The Ravens outstanding defense scored three touchdowns, the most in franchise history.

MONDAY NIGHT

Tampa Bay 24 Indianapolis 17

Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman threw a TD pass to Preston Parker and rushed for another as Tampa improved to 3-1.

 

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Vikes Coach Brad Childress Dead Right in His Assessment of Sunday’s Blowout.

Posted on January 17, 2010 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Here is what our local football guru wrote in a Winnipeg newspaper this week:

“The Vikes have a lot of people thinking their Week 17 walloping of the Giants was a playoff primer. Not us. Their defence is suspect and their offensive line could prove porous to a big D like the one in Dallas.”

He went on to say: “The Vikings have lost three of their last five games and while many believe their season-ending thumping of the Giants was a show of strength, we believe it was smoke and mirrors. The Cowboys match up very well against the Vikings with a huge offensive line that can slow down the pass rush and move the ball on the ground. Look for the Dallas defence to push the Vikes around at the line of scrimmage.”

I wouldn’t bring it up if it had been a close football game, but like Vikings coach Brad Childress suggested on Sunday afternoon, it was so off-base it was hard to ignore. Now, to be fair, that’s just what was written in Winnipeg about Sunday afternoon’s game between the Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys. It wasn’t a whole lot different anywhere else. In fact, Childress heard the talk in the Twin Cities all week and it pissed him off.

So yesterday, after the Vikings drilled the Cowboys 34-3 here at Mall of America Field, Childress took a little time to go off on all those who thought Dallas was the be-all and end-all of professional football teams.

“I heard all the nonsense and all the hype about the Dallas Cowboys coming to town, the hottest team in the playoffs,” Childress said. “I asked my players this week to just choke it back and shut up. And we’ll play the game when they get here on Sunday.

“The game is always won on the football field so I’m tickled to death for our guys. I knew they’d play their tails off and dispel the myth about whoever was coming to town.

“All I heard all week was that the Tasmainian Devils from Dallas were coming in to bombard the state of Minnesota and were about to run through us like Sherman through the south. That was the aura that was left after last week’s games. Our guys had enough of it by Tuesday. They did a great job by shuttimng up because sometimes it’s hard to listen to that stuff.

“So that was a team victory. We were a good football team all season and a good football team today.”

You can check the numbers at www.nfl.com. Needless to say, the Vikings were much the superior team.

But while so many of the so-called experts were calling for Dallas to win easily on Sunday, it took former Vikings coach, Mike Tice, to assess the situation best.

On Friday, Tice was interviewed by Dan Barreiro on 1130-The FAN in Minneapolis. Tice said: “Under duress, Romo will revert, get sloppy and then go fetal.”

That’s exactly what he did. That’s why the Vikings had six sacks, why Romo fumbled three times, threw an interception and got his ass kicked. So much for “Their (Minnesota’s) defence is suspect and their offensive line could prove porous to a big D like the one in Dallas.”

Brett Favre was brilliant, Sidney Rice was unstoppable and the Vikings defence was a monster. 34-3. This one wasn’t even close.

But now comes the real test. Can the Vikings win on the road, in New Orleans?

Sure, But will they? Guess all the experts will know in seven days.

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Three more things to think about: Murray, Holyfield, Romo.

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

Three more things banging around in my cranium…

1) The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that Bryan Murray is frustrated with the way the Senators are playing and he wants to shake up the team. Hey, Bryan, thanks for catching up.

 

Let’s cut the bullshit. It was Murray who created this 12-14-5 mess. It was Murray who took a Stanley Cup contender built by John Muckler and turned it into a big time loser. It was Bryan Murray who fired John Paddock, replaced him with Craig Hartsburg and made a first-place team in the East, a 12th place team in the East.

 

Maybe the shakeup in Ottawa should start with Bryan Murray. It was  former Ottawa GM John Muckler who told me in Tampa this season, “Bryan Murray can’t coach talent.” Bryan Murray can’t manage it either.

 

2) Ever seen a fixed fight before? You probably did on Saturday if you watched the Evander Holyfield-Nikolai Valuev heavyweight championship fight in Zurich on TSN2.

 

Valuev barely landed a punch and was awarded the fight 114-114, 116-112 and 115-114. Valuev couldn’t have hurt me with the wussy punches he threw and he certainly didn’t hurt the much smaller, and older, Holyfield, who danced all over the ring and was barely touched. Granted, neither fighter was worth his weight in dog-shit, but let’s not lie to people (as the Associated Press report did on Saturday), Holyfield kicked the crap out of the big Russian.

 

The TSN2 announcers called it one of the worst fights in history. That was definitely true. Valuev barely landed a punch and made the 46-year-old Holyfield look like a 20-year-old, as he danced around the ring. In fact, both announcers called it 117-112 Holyfield.

However, the judges gave it to Valuev. And I get that. It was fixed, but it was fixed for a reason. They gave it to the champion because even though the challenger was the better fighter, he didn’t do enough to take the belt away. 

I’ve always maintained, unless you knock the champion down a couple of time, you don’t get his belt in a decision. 

Unless you fight a Winnipeg guy in Winnipeg. Then you can just steal a belt. Remember that WBA Championship of the Americas fight. Dome guy from Colombia rolls into Winnipeg, fights Winnipeg’s Larry Sharpe to a draw and gets to take home Sharpe’s belt because Winnipeg judges are so afraid that they might look like homers. They aren’t afraid to look like idiotic assholes, but they sure don’t want to be homers.

Boxing has long been weird, but no wonder MMA is stealing its thunder. It’s hard to watch boxing when you and everybody else in the building know who won the fight, but the judges go the other way because (a) they’ve been told to go the other way or (b) they’ve been paid to go the other way.

However, judges are so unpredictable, boxing is starting to look as phoney as figure skating because either Valuev-Holyfield was botched or Sharpe-and the Colombian guy was botched. Or fixed???

3) On Thursday, one of Fox Sports Radio’s NFL handicappers suggested that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo had never proven to anyone that he could win a big game.

“Never done it in the regular season, never done it in the playoffs,” said our fearless prognosticator. “That’s why I believe Baltimore wins by a touchdown.”

Wow, was that guy ever right. 

Now, in fairness, the Dallas defence was dreadful in a 33-24 home loss to Baltimore on Saturday night, but two interceptions and too many red zone stalls made Romo look less than effective.

Dallas might not make the playoffs. It could be very easy to blame head coach Wade Phillips, but Tony Romo might not be as good as the NFL media wants us to believe.

And once again, it takes a professional gambler to figure it out.

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London, England, Brees and Rivers and bad Cowboys: Week 8 in the NFL should be intriguing

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Leave a comment

It is Week 8 on the NFL schedule and while there are a number of great matchups this weekend, the biggest will probably be the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants in Pittsburgh to face the Steelers.

Both quarterbacks, Eli Manning of the Giants and Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers were 2004 first-round draft choices who have both won Super Bowls and they have already faced off against each other — way back in their rookie seasons. Roethlisberger won 33-30. This should be the Game of the Week.

 

Meanwhile, the National Football League heads to London, England this week. It’s the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers live from Wembley Stadium and aside from the international impact, this one comes complete with a shot at revenge.

 

It will be the first time Saints quarterback Drew Brees will face his former team (remember, he signed with the Saints as a free agent in 2006). His understudy for those final two seasons in San Diego will be across the field from him on Sunday — Chargers quarterback Phillip Rivers.

 

Not surprisingly Brees leads the NFL in passing with 2,224 yards while Rivers is fourth at 1,697. Rivers has been slumping and has much to prove. Brees would love to stick it to the Chargers. This will be a great game.

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It’s Week 2 in the NFL. Here are the 10 things you need to know.

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

MINNEAPOLIS — It’s Week 2 in the National Football League and we’re here in the press box at the Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis for a pretty important matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and Minnesota Vikings.

One of these teams will shuffle out of the Humphrey Dome with an 0-2 record and after both teams were borderline dreadful in Week 1, no one will be surprised which of these two teams it is.

As he was called in a headline in the Twin Cities Star-Tribune this morning, Indy’s Peyton Manning is the "rusty, slow, dangerous quarterback." Granted, he and the Colts were drilled at home by Chicago last week, but you can never underestimate the things Manning can do.

The Vikings, meanwhile, are a team that didn’t pass the consistency test last week in Green Bay. They lost 24-19, but had a dozen opportunities to win the game. In the end, quarterback Tarvaris Jackson threw an interception on the final drive to lose it.

One of these teams will snap out of it today and we’ll have all the action and colour right after the final gun.

In the meantime, here are the 10 things you need to know heading into Week 2. (By the way, go see Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Burn After Reading. Spectacular flick.)

1.  By Tuesday morning, only 16 teams will be able to boast about having a perfect 2-0 record. That leaves at least 16 clubs at 1-1 or 0-2. Since NFL realignment in 2002, 42 of the 72 playoff teams (58.3 per cent) began the year at either 1-1 or 0-2.  Four of the past seven Super Bowl champions began their seasons with a 1-1 or 0-2 record, including the Super Bowl XLII Champion New York Giants. In case you’ve forgotten, the Giants started 0-2 last season and coach Tom Coughlin nearly got his butt fired.

2.  In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a scoop: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. However, the NFL still has plenty of durable quarterbacks. New York Jets QB Brett Favre (I still have trouble writing, "New York Jets QB Brett Favre), who goes head-to-head against Matt Cassel and the Patriots today (more on that later), holds the NFL record for consecutive regular-season starts with 254. Indy’s Peyton manning will start No. 162 here in Minnie today.

3. Speaking of Peyton, he’s had plenty of success against the Vikings. According to the league, Manning has thrown four touchdowns in each of his two career games against Minnesota. With a similar performance today, he can become the first NFL quarterback to pass for four touchdowns in three consecutive games against an opponent. OK, that’s an obscure milestone, but it’s still pretty good.

4. And on the topic of obscure milestones the Eagles Donovan McNabb can break a 22-year-old record this Monday night when Philadelphia plays the Cowboys in Dallas. McNabb, coming off a three-touchdown performance last week against St. Louis, needs two TD passes against Dallas tomorrow night to surpass former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski (1977-86) as the Eagles’ career leader. Oh yeah, and Jaworski will be covering the game in Dallas for ESPN.

 5. When the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals meet up in the Cards home opener today, history suggests there will not be very many incomplete passes. Dolphins QB Chad Pennington (65.5) and Cardinals starter Kurt Warner (65.1) lead the NFL with the highest career completion percentages. That’s right, Pennington and Warner are 1-2 ahead of No. 3 Steve Young and No. 4 Peyton Manning.

6. Perhaps the most intriguing game of the weekend will feature the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. Before the season began, this was going to be a matchup between Jets QB Brett Favre, the NFL career leader in all the major passing categories, against three-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady. But Brady’s gone for the duration (knee surgery) and a seventh-round draft choice from 2005 named Matt Cassel is the quarterback. Cassel, who backed up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinert at USC, hasn’t started a game since high school. However, be fair. Brady was a sixth-round pick who carried a clipboard for a year before replacing the injured Drew Bledsoe. Favre, who now calls himself "a New Yorkian," was a second-round pick who was traded after his rookie year (and no starts) from Atlanta to Green Bay before he got his chance. This will be an intriguing matchup because after Brady’s success, you can’t write off Cassel quite yet.     

7. Atlanta Falcons rookie QB Matt Ryan’s 62-yard touchdown pass on his first NFL attempt last Sunday was the first time a player threw a TD pass of 50 or more yards in the first quarter of his NFL debut since Roger Staubach hit Lance Rentzel on a 75-yard TD bomb on Sept. 21, 1969.

8. The Cleveland Browns will try to bounce back, as they did last year, from a 28-10 opening game shellacking at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and end an ugly streak. After losing 34-7 in their 2007 opener to the Steelers, the Browns roared back in Week 2 last year with a 51-45 win over Cincinnati, so they know a quick turnaround is possible (they eventually finished 10-6). Problem is, the Browns are playing Pittsburgh a team that has won nine in a row over the Browns and 14 of the last 15.

9. What a Monday night matchup. Last week, the Philadelphia Eagles amassed  522 yards of total offence while the Cowboys picked up 487, to rank 1 and 2 after Week1. That means, Monday will be the first time since Nov. 19, 2006 (Cincinnati, 545 at New Orleans, 513) that teams have met the week after posting at least 475 yards of offense.

10. Oh yeah, and the quarterbacks were pretty hot last Sunday, too. Philly’s Donovan McNabb threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns while three Eagles receivers (rookie DE Sean Jackson, Greg Lewis and Hank Baskett) each  put up at least 100 receiving yards (the first time that has happened for Philly since 1960). Meanwhile, the Cowboys’ Tony Romo threw for 320 yards while putting together four long touchdown drives against the Browns.
 

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