Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick (7) leaves the field after running into one of his teammates in the second half during their NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons in Atlanta, Georgia, September 18, 2011. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL)
Giants @ Eagles, 1:00PM ET
You have to love that after all of the media reports dedicated to how Michael Vick is this mature, changed person that when walking to the locker room following his injury against the Falcons on Sunday night, he points to the scoreboard in response to heckling fans. He’s changed all right. Now instead of using his middle finger to diss Falcon fans, he uses his index. Get well soon, Mike.
Patriots @ Bills, 1:00PM ET
I’m sure the sentiment for most people heading into this game is that the Bills will “come crashing down to earth” after the Patriots get done with them. But I have a different take: I think this game is going to be fun as hell. Buffalo showed in the first two weeks that it has more than enough offensive weapons to be dangerous and obviously New England can score. This could be a 52-52 game about midway through the fourth quarter.
Texans @ Saints, 1:00PM ET
Sean Payton hasn’t quite mastered how to best utilize Mark Ingram, Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas in the same backfield, but once he does the Saints could revert back to their ’09 form when they blew teams out on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, Arian Foster once again looks doubtful to play and fantasy owners that drafted him with their top pick are starting to realize that yes, his hamstring is going to be a major problem early on.
Jaguars @ Panthers, 1:00PM ET
It’ll be the Rookie Quarterback Bowl in Carolina this Sunday when Blaine Gabbert makes his first professional start against Cam Newton, who has already thrown for over 800 yards in his first two games. Maybe if he stops throwing the ball to the other team he’ll pick up a win to go along with all of those fancy yards.
49ers @ Bengals, 1:00PM ET
Cincinnati receiver Jerome Simpson and offensive tackle Anthony Collins were detained by police late Wednesday when authorities investigated a package filled with 2.5 pounds of marijuana delivered to Simpson’s house while both players were present. Neither player was arrested but it’s great to see that the Bengals are already in mid-season form when it comes to obeying the law.
Dolphins @ Browns, 1:00PM ET
Just what every head coach on the hot seat needs: a three-game road trip following an 0-2 start. In three weeks if the Dolphins are 0-5, you can bet that Tony Sparano won’t be on the sidelines when Miami hosts its next home game (vs. Denver on October 23). And no, I mean literally bet on Sparano being canned: theSpread has his odds of being let go listed at 3/1.
Lions @ Vikings, 1:00PM ET
Let’s sum up Donovan McNabb’s career. Booed on draft day. Has appeared in 967 playoff games and one Super Bowl but has no ring. Had to put up with T.O. and a slew of media members and fellow athletes bashing him at every turn. Benched for Rex Grossman… possibly will be benched for Christian Ponder. I feel sorry for McNabb and I don’t mean that in a condescending way. I actually feel bad for the guy. Ah, well: Lions 56, Vikings 3.
Broncos @ Titans, 1:00PM ET
If there’s one game I don’t care if I see a down of this weekend, this would be it. I apologize to Denver and Tennessee fans but this matchup is the epitome of boring. But hey, go get ‘em Kyle Orton and Matt Hasselbeck. You do your thing. I’ll be over here watching Giants-Eagles, Texans-Saints or hell, even Jaguars-Panthers. Just anything but Broncos-Titans on a nice fall Sunday afternoon.
Washington Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall celebrates after intercepting a pass intended for Chicago Bears wide receiver Johnny Knox during the fourth quarter at Soldier Field in Chicago on October 24, 2010. The Redskins won 17-14. UPI/Brian Kersey
It was his performance in a 2005 Monday Night Football game against the Eagles when I first became impressed with cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
Only in his second year as a member of the Falcons, Hall drew the responsibility of covering Terrell Owens one-on-one, which was a difficult task considering the game would be nationally television and T.O. had just helped lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl appearance the year before. While Owens did rack up 112 receiving yards that night, Hall held his own in coverage and kept the Philly receiver out of the end zone. For a player that young and inexperienced, Hall’s performance was impressive.
But that memory has faded over time, mostly due to the fact that Hall’s talent has never matched his oversized ego. Yes, he’s talented, which is why he’s gone to three Pro Bowls and is still a top-12 corner. But it’s his manner that has always rubbed people the wrong way.
Take his latest outburst for example. While appearing on a radio interview for WJFK-FM in Washington, Hall called the Bears’ Jay Cutler “a clown” and went on to talk about how “unreal” it was to intercept the QB four times during a mid-season victory in Chicago last season.
Granted, Cutler did fuel Hall’s comments by stating, “I’ve played against [Hall] before, there’s no reason to shy away from him…I’d go at him every time if we could,” after the game. Still, if you’re Hall, where’s the benefit of calling Cutler a clown now? You’ve already bested him – let your four interceptions do your talking. Calling him a clown (six months after the fact, no less) does nothing good for your character. What’s wrong with being modest in that situation?
Hall and Landry were seen making “pillow gestures” toward Jackson and told the wide receiver “night, night,” leading to a pre-game skirmish. Hall denied the allegation, but the former Falcon’s classless history leaves little room for benefit of the doubt. Jackson, of course, had the last word, easily fending off Hall’s jam on the first play of scrimmage and dusting Landry down the deep middle for an 88-yard touchdown bomb to kick-start the blowout. Eagles C Mike McGlynn also accused Landry of spitting in his face during the game.
Rotoworld sums up the situation perfectly: Unless you were standing right there, you don’t know what all was said. However, Hall has a reputation for being a classless player so when situations like these come up, you tend not to believe whatever comes out of his gigantic mouth.
If Hall and Landry did what the Eagles are saying they did, then they certainly got what was coming to them. Hall must think because he intercepted four Jay Cutler passes that were thrown right between his numbers that he’s entitled to act like an idiot. But in the end he got torched, which is nothing new for him.
After throwing four interceptions to DeAngelo Hall in the Bears’ 17-14 loss to the Redskins on Sunday, one would have thought that Chicago quarterback Jay Cutler would have shown some respect to the Washington cornerback.
Then again, if you thought that, then you don’t know Jay Cutler very well.
“I’ve played against him before, there’s no reason to shy away from him. I mean, that’s hard for me to say throwing four picks at a guy. But I’d still, if we had to play them tomorrow I’d go at him every time, if we could.”
Hall had this to say on SportsCenter in response to Cutler’s comments:
“You know what man, Jay’s a little bit, he don’t really understand, I guess, the game, the game of football,” Hall said on Monday. “And in the game of football, you’re gonna see guys several times in their career. You know, he completed four passes against me when I was out in Oakland and he was in Denver on a Monday Night Football game, and I knew leading up to the game he was still feeling good about that. He made some smart, snide comments about that after that game, so I knew definitely he was gonna try to come out there and try me, and it didn’t work for him.”
Cutler has always been brash and confident – that’s kind of his M.O. He believes that he can get the best of a defense every time and in some respects, quarterbacks have to have that mentality.
That said, he should learn to show some humility because it would serve him in the long run. You can’t throw four picks to the same guy and then turn around and say that you’d throw on him “every play” if you could. That’s the kind of attitude that got Cutler into trouble in the first place. After the second interception, he should have known that Hall was on top of his game and looked elsewhere. But because he’s so overconfident at times, he kept going at him and it wound up costing the Bears a potential win.
Look, interceptions are a byproduct of several things – not just the quarterback. The quarterback’s decision making, down and distance, receivers’ route running and pass protection all factor into a pass play. Anyone who studies the Bears knows that not every interception that Cutler has thrown in the last two seasons have been his fault.
That said: come on already. Cutler has yet to lead a team to the playoffs and maybe there’s a reason for that. I don’t want to get into a debate about how games aren’t won or lost by one player – I know that. But considering he has yet to win anything in his career (college or pro), it’s time for Cutler to learn some humility so that he can become the quarterback that the Bears envisioned he’d be when they traded for him two offseasons ago.
One would have thought that after Jay Cutler threw his second interception to DeAngelo Hall that he would stop looking the corner’s way. But apparently that’s not how Cutler rolls.
Hall tied a NFL single-game record with four interceptions in the Redskins’ ugly 17-14 win over the Bears on Sunday. Cutler completed 26-of-40 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown, but his four picks and fumble at the goal line in the third quarter killed Chicago’s hopes for victory. One of Hall’s interceptions went for a 92-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.
This game was like a bad highlight reel of all the Bears’ problems stuck on repeat. They continue to struggle in the red zone, Cutler continues to be careless with the ball and this team can’t score on the goal line. It’s amazing. It’s almost like they have some sort of complex when they get on the one-yard line. They tense up, freak out and find a way to blow it.
And how about this little nugget of information: the Bears still haven’t scored in the third quarter this year. Not once. Not one point. How is that even possible? How can a team head into the locker room at halftime, make adjustments and not manage a measly field goal at least? That’s a shocking stat.
The Bears’ defense can only do so much. They started to get gashed on the ground late in the game, but they had been on the field all day and still held Washington to just 17 points. Cutler can’t continue to put his team in bad position every week and there’s no excuse for throwing four interceptions to the same defender.
Chicago has now lost to the Seahawks and Redskins at home in back-to-back weeks. The NFC North can be had, but these are games they have to win if they want to challenge for a playoff spot.
Many of Albert Haynesworth’s Redskins teammates have expressed their displeasure over the last two days in the defensive tackle’s decision not to report to a mandatory mini-camp because he wants to be traded.
Actually, let me start this post over. In 3…2…1…
Many of Albert Haynesworth’s Redskins teammates think he’s a bum. And this post is in dedication to all the things that they’ve said about him since he’s decided that he can dictate where he plays and in what system he plays in.
London Fletcher:
“He can say what he wants to say about being traded, but there are ways he can’t be a Redskin — give the money back. I’m sure they’ll take it, and we’ll move on without him. I want teammates I can count on, depend on and know in the fourth quarter, will make a play and do the job that’s called of him. We need people we can depend on. Right now, he’s showed he can’t be depended on.”
“It’s no different than his attitude and approach to last year’s defense, about wanting everything to revolve around him and him making plays. And if it didn’t benefit him, he wasn’t really willing to do it.”
“There’s ways he cannot be a Redskin: Give the money back. We’ll move on without him. I want teammates who I can depend on, who I can count on, who in the fourth quarter I know is going to be there to make a play or do his job that the defense calls [for]. We need people that we can depend on. And at the end of the day, right now, he’s showing that he can’t be depended upon. … Last year we had a lot of selfishness that took place, and we got 4-12 out of that. This year, we can’t have that.”
The Giants gave the Redskins a beating of the lifetime on Monday night football, so in the end a certain non-call didn’t matter. But how the hell did running back Brandon Jacobs not get flagged for throwing a punch at Albert Haynesworth during the third quarter last night? It wasn’t like he snuck the punch in while lying underneath a pile of players and the refs didn’t see it; the punch was right out in the open.
As the saying goes, “they” always catch the second person in the act and not the instigator. But it was ridiculous when the official announced that Haynesworth was the one penalized when Jacobs clearly started the melee by tussling with Washington cornerback DeAngelo Hall (no surprise that he was in the middle of something). Granted, Haynesworth should have been flagged as well, but I was shocked that Jacobs wasn’t thrown out of the game, never mind the fact that he escaped the situation without getting penalized.
Again though, the situation was just one embarrassing moment in a sea of embarrassing moments for the Redskins. The Giants crushed them 45-12, but the score wasn’t even that close. New York dominated every phase of the game and proved that they’re going to fight for one of the two Wild Card spots in the NFC.
The Cowboys might be feeling good after beating the previously undefeated Saints on Monday night. But with two losses to the Giants hanging over their heads, they might be a little worried after seeing New York’s performance on Monday night. The playoff race in the NFC is far from decided.
According to ESPN.com, Falcons’ head coach Mike Smith was fined $15,000 for his part in Sunday’s sideline ruckus with his players in Atlanta’s 31-17 win over the Redskins last Sunday. Washington players Albert Haynesworth ($7,500) and LaRon Landry ($5,000) were fined, but DeAngelo Hall wasn’t despite being right in the middle of the melee.
Here’s video of the altercation:
Smith was in the wrong. He should have never touched a player on the opposing team and he should have concentrated on getting his own players under control.
That said, how the frock was Hall not fined? He claims he was going to get Landry, but Landry is clearly walking away from the incident in the video, yet Hall stays to mix it up. Hall was looking for a fight all week (he ripped Atlanta GM Thomas Dimitroff in the days leading up to the game) and took advantage when Landry laid out Matt Ryan. Yet everyone involved was fined but him.
Regardless, this incident may have hit Smith’s wallet but he no doubt earned the respect of his team for mixing it up with Hall. Again, he shouldn’t have touched a player from an opposing team. But he sent a message to his players that nobody (especially not an ass clown like DeAngelo Hall) is going to intimidate them.
On the other side of the field you have Jim Zorn, who clearly has no control over his players and looked like a deer in the highlights while the incident was going on. No wonder the Redskins have given up.
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.
Current Redskin and former Raiders’ cornerback DeAngelo Hall appeared on a Washington D.C. based radio show recently and told an interesting story about Oakland owner Al Davis not knowing who Tom Cable was when he hired him.
The funniest Al Davis story from his time in Oakland?
“Probably the funniest thing, I was pretty close to Lane Kiffin…and after they fired Lane and were about to announce who the next coach was – I don’t know if you guys saw this in the media world, but I was actually sitting there live, me and a couple other players there in the back. And [Davis] went through this whole spiel of what happened…and said our next coach is Tom Cable, he’s going to be our interim coach. When everybody paused for Tom to come in, like a breakoff. [Davis] goes to the media guide and not even whispering says ‘hey, anyone got any information on this Tom Cable guy, I don’t know where he comes from.’ That’s just vintage Al Davis. Making a move, not really knowing why, no real justification for doing it. But just saying, ‘hey, I want this guy, let’s get him, I’ll figure everything else out later.’ And that’s just how Al Davis is.”
His thoughts on being out of Oakland:
“Oh, it’s a weight off my shoulders, just that whole situation out there and the way they did things. I’m not knocking it but it wasn’t what I was accustomed to, what I was used to, and I just started just not caring like a bunch of other guys, you know. It kind of rubs off on you. They say you go to Oakland as a player to die..You can definitely go there and have fun towards the end of your career, but to go there during the prime of your career, that’s just not a place you want to be. I felt the same when I was out of there – just a sigh of relief to get out of there.”
For as zany as Al Davis is, I highly doubt he would hire a head coach not knowing who he was. I also highly doubt that Davis would say what Hall says he did in front of an entire media staff. (And loud enough for Hall to hear it in the back, but not loud enough for the media members to hear it in the front.) It just sounds like Davis didn’t know where Cable was from (i.e. where he was born, raised, bred, etc.), which isn’t as big of a deal as Hall making it sound like Davis hired Cable not knowing who he was.
His second comment is vintage Hall and vintage Raiders. Hall isn’t saying anything that former Raiders haven’t said before about the situation in Oakland, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least that he says that he stopped caring. The Raiders handed him a $70 million contract and $24 million in guaranteed money and he couldn’t even make it half a season without throwing in the towel. I know the situation in Oakland lends to guys quitting, but it pisses you off when you hear about guys making millions of dollars to play football and they just go through the motions. (Especially in this economy.)
