From SHUTDOWN CORNER…

The impish Cincinnati Bengals receiver playfully tried to bribe an NFL official today during his team’s game with its division rival, the Baltimore Ravens. With the Cincinnati Bengals up 14-3 in the third quarter, Ochocinco caught a 15-yard Carson Palmer(notes) pass near the sideline. The side judge ruled it a catch, but the Ravens contended that Ochocinco’s foot was out of bounds. While the ref was under the hood looking at the replay, Ochocinco borrowed a dollar bill from an assistant and playfully tried to hand the one-spot to another official.

It’s funny, but not to his fantasy owners. They’re just hoping that this doesn’t result in anything more than a fine.

During the first half of the Atlanta’s 31-17 win over Washington on Sunday, former Falcon DeAngelo Hall got into a skirmish along the sideline with some of his former teammates and wound up mixing it up with Atlanta head coach Mike Smith.

Afterwards, Hall (who is a complete loudmouth) had this to say to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“I ran over there to kind of pull my guy away,” Hall said. “One of their strength and conditioning coaches put his hands on me and started grabbing me. Then it went to various other guys pulling at me and grabbing me. Through the whole time, I’m trying to get the guys’ hands off of me.”

“I can’t wait for guys to sit back and watch the replay. I can’t wait to watch the replay. I’m going to be giving Commissioner [Roger] Goodell a call myself because something needs to be done about that.”

Hall didn’t think that Smith was simply trying to break up a fight.

“When he comes over to put his hands on you in a harmful way, something needs to be done about that,” Hall said. “Like I said, I’m going to call Commissioner Goodell. Ray Anderson, who used to be with the Falcons, I know him very well, and he’s the vice president over there in the league office. I definitely will be calling some of my friends to work out this situation.”

Hall was asked again if he was contending that Smith came after him.

“Oh, yeah,” Hall said. “He put his hands on me in a harmful way. Talking about that he was going to kick my [butt] and all this other [stuff]. That’s not how you do things.

I saw the fight live and in no way was Hall trying to help the situation by, “getting his guy away.” He went to the sidelines looking for a fight and he got one. Smith did grab him, but it appeared that he was trying to get Hall away from the sidelines and his players. I don’t know what words were exchanged between the two, but Hall is trying to play the victim role in this situation, which is an absolute joke.

Now, maybe there’s a rule that coaches can’t touch opposing players and maybe the league will look into the situation. But I guarantee you Smith earned the respect of his players by getting into Hall’s face and the whole situation could have been avoided had Hall not carried on like the punk he is.

Hall has always had attitude problems and this isn’t the first time he’s gotten into skirmishes in the middle of the game with opponents, referees or even his own teammates. He’s a cocky, selfish player and it’s clear that he has a long way to go before he matures.

]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/deangelo-hall-calls-out-falcons%e2%80%99-head-coach/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/cowboys-make-statement-in-nfc-east-%e2%80%93-are-the-giants-done/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/cowboys-make-statement-in-nfc-east-%e2%80%93-are-the-giants-done/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:00:02 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=28610

With their 20-16 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, the Dallas Cowboys made a huge statement in the NFC East.

After squeaking by a bad Kansas City team in Week 5, Dallas went into its bye week on a mission. They emerged in Week 7 and took it to a good Falcons team at home, beating Atlanta 37-21. They took care of business at home the next week by beating Seattle 38-17 and then proved they could win on the road in a hostile environment last night.

There’s a lot of football left to be played, but the Cowboys are finally playing with some consistency under Wade Phillips. Granted, maybe nothing has changed and Dallas will go on to lose five of their next eight games and miss the playoffs. But at least for the moment, the Cowboys are playing as good as any team in the league right now.

All is certainly not lost for the Eagles following this loss, but this was a disappointing defeat after routing the Giants 40-17 last Sunday. They couldn’t sustain drives and Donovan McNabb threw two costly interceptions. With teams like the Chargers, Falcons, Giants, Broncos and Cowboys left on their schedule, the Eagles certainly have their work cut out for them in the second half.

Speaking of the Giants, with they have now lost four in a row after the Chargers came from behind in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to beat New York 21-20 on Sunday. Eli Manning threw for 215 yards and two touchdowns, but the Giants twice settled for field goals in the second half and it came back to haunt them.

Even after losing four straight, I don’t think anyone is ready to completely write off the G-Men, but what is this team’s identity is at it stumbles into its bye? The Giants have been a team that lives and dies by rushing the quarterback it’s apparent that this isn’t the same pass-rushing team that it was earlier in the year. Of course, they did rack up wins against the Redskins, Bucs, Chiefs and Raiders, so that built some false hope.

Tom Coughlin and his coaching staff has a lot to work on heading into the bye. We’ll see if the Giants can emerge from their off week ready to go, because they’ll face the Falcons, Broncos, Cowboys and Eagles in succession starting in Week 11. That’s not exactly the kind of schedule a team wants to deal with after dropping four straight.

Photo from fOTOGLIF
]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/cowboys-make-statement-in-nfc-east-%e2%80%93-are-the-giants-done/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/fantasy-fallout-week-9-qbs/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/11/09/fantasy-fallout-week-9-qbs/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:00:56 +0000 John Paulsen http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=28584

- Kurt Warner (261 yards, 5 TD) bounced back in a big way against a struggling Bears pass defense.

- In that JAX/KC matchup, David Garrard (264 yards, TD) and Matt Cassel (262 yards, 2 TD) both predictably had nice fantasy days.

- Josh Freeman (205 yards, 3 TD) had a productive game in his first start.

- Aaron Rodgers (266 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT) threw three picks, but had two pass TD and a rush TD for a nice fantasy line.

- It was a relatively quiet game for Drew Brees (330 yards, TD, INT), who had a rough first half before a pretty big second half.

- Vince Young (172 yards, rush TD) wasn’t spectacular, but he was solid and had a nice TD run.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

- Ray Rice (12 carries, 48 yards, TD) scored in the ground game, but did a ton of damage (8-87) through the air. He is on pace for 92 catches.

- Michael Turner (18 carries, 166 yards, 2 TD) now has 10 TD on the year. He has ran very well over the last few weeks.

- Tim Hightower (16 touches, 88 yards) and Chris Wells (13 carries, 72 yards) evenly split the work in the Arizona backfield.

- Matt Forte (5 carries, 33 yards) didn’t a lot of carries in the running game, but went for 6-74 in the passing game.

- Cedric Benson (34 carries, 117 yards, TD) grinded out a nice game against a pretty stout Ravens rush defense. He’s an every-week start.

- Joesph Addai (19 touches, 112 yards, 2 TD) continues to be a very good start with Donald Brown sidelined.

- Ryan Moats (19 touches, 53 yards, TD) got the start, but Steve Slaton (9 touches, 29 yards, TD) was involved. Moats did fumble around the goal line.

- Jamaal Charles (6 carries, 36 yard) and Kolby Smith (4 carries, 17 yards) split what little work there was in the KC backfield. Charles (3-19) was active in the passing game.

- Laurence Maroney (20 carries, 82 yards, TD) should continue to see the lion’s share of the carries until Sammy Morris returns (reportedly in Week 11).

- Pierre Thomas (18 touches, 81 yards, TD) seems to have established himself as the Saints’ lead back again. Mike Bell (5 carries, 17 yards) and Reggie Bush (9 touches, 53 yards) were used in a complementary manner.

- In the last four games, DeAngelo Williams is averaging 137 rushing yards and 1.3 TD. He is starting to look like the guy who tore up the league last season, but he lost a costly fumble late in the game that sealed the win for the Saints.

- Julius Jones (22 touches, 114 yards, TD) got most of the work out of the Seattle backfield, but Justin Forsett had a nifty 14-yard carry and went for 5-45 in the passing game.

- LaDainian Tomlinson (14 carries, 30 yards) looks good when he’s in space, but there just aren’t the same running lanes available as there were when he was in his heyday.

- Brandon Jacobs (11 carries, 67 yards) was more productive than Ahmad Bradshaw (14 carries, 39 yards) but missed some time with a leg injury.

- Chris Johnson (25 carries, 135 yards, 2 TD) had another monster day and also went for 3-25 in the passing game.

- Frank Gore (15 carries, 83 yards, TD) was heavily involved in the rushing and passing games, catching 7-75 out of the backfield.

Check back in a bit for the QB position.

- Larry Fitzgerald (9-123-2) looks like a man playing a child’s game.

- Steve Breaston (5-66-1) filled in admirably for Anquan Boldin, who missed the game with an ankle injury. Breaston also had a 25-yard run.

- Devin Hester (6-94) and Earl Bennett (7-93) benefited from the fact that the Bears trailed all day, posting nice numbers in PPR leagues.

- Pierre Garcon (5-60) outperformed Austin Collie (2-26) for the first time since Week 3.

- It didn’t take Chris Chambers (3-70-2) to make an impact in Kansas City. Chambers is the consummate tease, so don’t bother picking him up unless he has another good week or two. Lance Long (8-74) filled well in for Bobby Wade.

- After a surprisingly quiet game last week against the Titans, Mike Sims-Walker (6-147-1) bounced back in a big way against the Chiefs.

- James Jones (4-103-1) caught a 74-yard TD early, and was involved throughout the game. He’s a nice guy to roster as insurance for Donald Driver (4-71-1) or Greg Jennings (5-61).

- Steve Smith 1.0 (4-64) had a 46-yard catch in garbage time, but was otherwise underutilized as the Panthers focused on running the ball.

- Marques Colston (1-45) had at least three drops, which kept him from having a big day. Robert Meachem (5-98-1) and Devery Henderson (3-93) picked up the slack. Lance Moore was inactive.

- In his first game back from a knee injury, Calvin Johnson (2-27) had a disappointing day.

- Vincent Jackson (5-58-2) continues to tear up the box score.

- Mario Manningham (6-52) outproduced Hakeem Nicks (3-39). Steve Smith 2.0 (8-57-1) continues to be the Giants WR1 and most dependable fantasy option.

- Michael Crabtree (3-30) was a disappointment against a bad Tennessee pass defense. Jason Hill (4-50-2) took advantage, however.

- Greg Olsen (5-71-3) finally broke out with a big fantasy day.

- Dallas Clark (14-119) continues to tear it up with Anthony Gonzalez sidelined.

- Brandon Pettigrew (7-70-1) had by far his best game of the year, and looks like a decent option for fantasy owners still reeling from the loss of Owen Daniels.

- Kevin Boss (2-17-1) shook off a big hit and returned to catch a TD.

- Vernon Davis (10-102) had a big day and has great chemistry with Alex Smith.

Check back in a bit for the QB, RB and WR positions.