- Carlos Rogers is having a resurgence in San Francisco? People left this guy for dead coming out of Washington and all he’s done this year is be the Niners’ best cornerback. He clinched the Niners’ win over the Giants in my eyes. San Francisco had just taken a 20-13 lead early in the fourth quarter when he picked off Eli Manning (his second of the day) deep in Niner territory. A couple plays later Kendall Hunter raced 17 yards for a touchdown in order to give San Fran a 27-13 lead in an eventual 27-20 victory. The Niners have been getting big plays like that out of their defense all season. They obviously proved today that they’re for real.

- Do you know who’s not for real? The Buffalo Bills. I have zero confidence that they’ll turn things around, party because of their defense and partly because of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Everyone knew Buffalo’s defense would be overmatched most Sundays and they have been. And everyone knew Fitzpatrick was only going to lead the Bills so far. He was brutal last week and even worse today. It’s struck midnight on this fairytale, which is a shame because I could watch Fred Jackson run all day. Dude is siiiick.

- The Cardinals parted with a starting cornerback in Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, a second-round pick in 2012, and $65 million in order secure Kevin Kolb as their starting quarterback this season. And John Skelton has two of their three wins on the season. Incredible.

- If you looked hard enough, you probably saw the Ravens’ loss to Seattle coming. Baltimore just swept Pittsburgh and had to travel cross-country to play a Seahawks team that is usually competitive at home. I figured the Ravens would suffer a letdown but the fact that they didn’t lead at any point today was a little jarring. With losses to Tennessee and Seattle as well as a near loss to Arizona at home, it would appear as though John Harbaugh’s team plays down to its competition.

- Speaking of the clock turning Midnight, it’s probably about time the Bengals come back to earth. Don’t get me wrong: they fought hard today against Pittsburgh and gave the Steelers a game until the end. But cornerback Leon Hall looks like he’s out for the season and I just don’t see Cincinnati being able to finish this race on top. That said, the Bengals certainly have something to build off of. Andy Dalton was poised today and A.J. Green is a freaking star in the making.

- Does anyone else feel like the Houston Texans are the NFL equivalent to the Clemson Tigers? You keep waiting for both teams to eventually crash and burn and yet, both keep winning. Granted, Clemson did lose to Georgia Tech a couple of weeks ago and almost dropped its second game to Wake Forest on Saturday but still, you get the point. I keep waiting for the Texans to eventually stumble and they keep racking up double-digit wins without Andre Johnson. Finally, it would seem, we’ll get to see Houston in the postseason.

- If you’re one of the people who is defending Mike Smith’s decision to go for it on fourth and one from his own 29-yard line in overtime, let me remind you that it’s simple risk vs. reward. If the Falcons pick up that first down, they still have at least 40 yards to go to get into field goal range to possibly win the game. If they don’t pick up the first down, well, we saw what happened when they didn’t. It was a stupid call by a head coach that was simply trying to get lucky. Smith and Mike Mularkey played not to lose the entire game and all of a sudden they decide that they’re going to take a big risk. It was just a stupid decision by a team without a true identity.

- Saint Peters of Joseph, Chris Johnson is alive.

- Huge win for the Saints today but there’s still something off with the boys from Naw’lins. They managed to squander a 10-point lead in under five minutes and if it hadn’t been for Mike Smith’s stupid decision to go for it in overtime, who knows if they would have walked out of the Georgia Dome with a victory. I have no doubt that they’ll win the NFC South because the Falcons still don’t know what they are offensively. But I’m not sure if the Saints can go into Green Bay in the playoffs and win a huge game on the road. Again, there’s just something off.

- You can always count on Michael Vick to mail it in when his team is seemingly out of playoff contention. Granted, his receivers didn’t do him any favors by dropping the ball multiple times in the first half and he was without DeSean Jackson, who was benched after missing a team meeting. But Vick looked completely turned off by the thought of playing football today. In a lot of ways, he is the exact same player as he was in Atlanta and Philadelphia is now paying for his shortcomings as a player. (UPDATE: Apparently Vick played with two broken ribs, which he sustained on the game’s second play. Thus, I take back what I said about him mailing it in. Any player that stays in a professional football game with two broken ribs has a bigger pair than I do. Well done, Mike.)

- Tim Tebow threw eight passes, completed just two of them and was the winning quarterback today in Kansas City. I don’t even care what his numbers are outside of the fact that he’s now 3-1 as the starter. I just want to sit back and watch guys like Phil Simms’ head explode that Tebow keeps winning. These talking heads want to debate about whether or not Tebow will ever be a good passer. That was never a debate. People have said from the start that his motion is too funky for him to be a good passer and yet these media members keep boasting about how he’ll fail. And yet…3-1 as a starter. I love it. Nobody can explain how the dinosaurs became extinct and how Tebow is winning. Tim Tebow: #winning.

- I realize the Niners are a very good football team but leave it to the Giants to beat the Patriots on the road and then erase a lot of the good vibes that have surrounded New York the past week by losing today. Freakin’ Giants.

- The NFC South is now a one-team race. The Saints are clearly the best team in the division, as the Falcons are still suffering an identity crisis and the Bucs are just plain bad. Tampa Bay’s front office thought it could get by without making any significant upgrades in the offseason and figured the team would just win 10 games again. Whoops. Turns out Josh Freeman is going to need more help, Bucs.

- This comment was made by one of our regular readers, Jester of the Apocalypse, earlier this week. He’s a huge Browns fan and was commenting on my Week 10 preview in which I wrote, “this is a game [vs. the Rams] the Browns should win.” Said Jester: You underestimate my Brownies knack for clutching defeat out of the jaws of victory . . . How absolutely, positively appropriate given the debacle that happened in Cleveland today.

- Even after their performance today I’m still not sold on the Cowboys. Outside of their miraculous victory against the Niners in Week 2, they still haven’t beaten a team of substance. I realize the Bills have a winning record but they’re on a downslide. Three weeks ago the ‘Boys were pummeled by a Philadelphia team that has clearly given up on the season and their other losses have coming against New England, Detroit and the Jets. That said, Dallas still has games against Washington, Miami, Arizona, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia and thus, the playoffs are still well within their reach. I’m just sayin’ I’m not sold. And this is coming from a guy who predicted them to win the NFC East this year.

- Wow Matthew Stafford was bad today. Granted, he was playing with a fractured index finger and 25-30mph wind gusts but still – wow. Two of his four interceptions were taken back for touchdowns by the Bears, who are now suddenly 6-3 on the season following two huge wins. If Chicago’s offense line can continue to play as well as it has, there’s no reason to believe Lovie Smith’s team won’t make it as a Wild Card.

- All I want for Thanksgiving is for Larry Fitzgerald to have a quarterback willing to throw him the ball every down. Because his seven-catch, 146-yard, two-touchdown performance today proved once again that he can completely take over a game if he gets enough opportunities.

- One week later, the Steelers finally get their big defensive stop to preserve a win.

- Two of the Seahawks’ three wins this year have come against the Giants and Ravens. And yet, they lose to the Browns, 6-3. The NFL is a funny league.

Pro Football Talk is associated with NBC and is a juggernaut in the industry (82K Twitter followers and counting), and while I appreciate the work that guys like Gregg Rosenthal and Evan Silva do in fantasy circles, some of PFT’s practices bother me.

For example, I just saw this headline on Twitter:

Reading that, I’m thinking, “Wow, Fitzy must have said something pointed about Gabbert.”

Clicking through to the article, I see Fitzgerald’s actual quote:

“I would doubt that we would draft a quarterback that high (No. 5),” Fitzgerald told FOX Sports Arizona on Tuesday. “I would doubt it. But, who am I? I’m just a player.”

The author, Silva (whose work I generally respect), concluded that Fitzgerald must be talking about Blaine Gabbert, since the Cardinals have been linked to the Missouri QB.

Only Fitzgerald never mentioned Gabbert. And he never said that the Cardinals shouldn’t draft a QB. He just said that he doubted they would. Big difference.

Headlines are meant to drive interest and traffic, I get that. But this one was simply misleading.

According to NESN.com, Cardinals’ receiver Larry Fitzgerald could be available in a trade, although that doesn’t mean that “the team is actively trying to unload him.”

For the right price, Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald could be available in a trade, according to league sources, but that doesn’t mean the Cards are actively trying to unload him.

In fact, no one polled for this story had any direct knowledge of whether the Cardinals have had any legitimate discussions about trading their star receiver, so take that for what it’s worth.

The Pats are also equipped with two picks in both the first and second rounds of the draft, which would give them more than enough ammunition to acquire Fitzgerald if they’d like to explore that avenue. However, there aren’t considered to be any franchise-caliber quarterbacks in the 2011 draft class, so the Cardinals might not be overly interested in anything the Pats would have to offer.

So a player could be available at the right price, but his team isn’t actively trying to trade him. Uh, allllllllllllll right. Isn’t this true for a lot of players? If Team X is willing to give up three first round picks and two second rounders to acquire Player A from Team Z, I’m willing to bet that Team Z would consider that the “right price” for Player A as long as he’s not the face of the franchise. And even then…

What a weird report. It’s almost like NESN.com wanted to speculate about something – anything – so they threw this out there. Then when they “polled” their sources and came back with nothing, they discredited their own report.

In other news, The Scores Report has learned that Brett Favre will play for the Buffalo Bills next season according to league sources. That said, our sources have no knowledge of this report and therefore can’t confirm its truth. So take our Lord Favre-to-Buffalo report with a grain of salt. Because it may or may not be true. We don’t know. And neither do our sources. Grain. Salt.

Merry training camp season, everyone. It’s been a long offseason, but football is finally gearing up again and to celebrate I’m rolling out a new series on TSR entitled “2010 NFL Question Marks,” where I discuss one or two of the biggest concerns that teams have heading into the new season. Granted, some teams have more issues than others, but I’ll primarily be focusing on the biggest problem areas. Today I’ll be discussing the Cardinals massive issues at the quarterback position.

The Cardinals have a couple of weakness that could be discussed, including offensive tackle, cornerback and inside linebacker. But none of them will impact their chances this season like the quarterback position will.

Gone is Kurt Warner, as well as the high-powered offense that the Cards have been able to run the past couple of years. The team traded Anquan Boldin to the Ravens during the offseason because quite frankly, they didn’t need him. (It’s also noteworthy that they felt as though he couldn’t stretch the field anymore.) The team knew the offense would focus more on the running game and less on the pass and thus, they could get by with the combination of Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston at wideout.

The look of the offense was changing and former first round pick Matt Leinart was going to usher in a new era.

But after giving him all the first-team reps this offseason and two starts in preseason, there’s growing speculation that Leinart won’t even make the final roster – nevertheless emerge as the regular season starter.

Reports have surfaced that there isn’t a lot of confidence in the locker room that Leinart can be the team’s long-term quarterback. Some have coined him “Captain Checkdown,” in reference to the way he looks to checkdown early in his progression instead of going through all of his reads and throwing downfield. While he has completed over 70% of his passes in preseason, he has failed to move the offense, which is why Derek Anderson is now the favorite to start.

Anderson has better footwork and arm strength than Leinart, and at this point he has a better command of the huddle. His teammates seemingly have more trust in him as well, which is why Leinart could be on his way out.

But Anderson also hasn’t done anything since the first 10 weeks of the 2007 season when he nearly led the Browns to a playoff berth. Heading into Week 11 of that year, he had thrown 20 touchdowns to just nine interceptions. But in those last seven games, he finished with nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

The main concern about Anderson is that 1) he isn’t accurate and 2) he commits too many turnovers. At times, he has too much trust in his arm and tries to fit passes into windows that just aren’t there. He’s also incredibly streaky and is a terrible improviser.

Further down the depth chart are two intriguing youngsters in Max Hall and John Skelton. Hall has been impressive so far in preseason, completing 7 of 15 passes for 101 yards, a touchdown and just one interception. He also has good command of the offense and a quick release.

Skelton, a small school product out of Fordham, was impressive in his last preseason outing as well. He finished 5 for 6 for 84 yards and a touchdown and was thought to be in a battle with Hall for the No. 3 job, but if Leinart is let go then both rookies could wind up on the 53-man roster.

But they’re just that – rookies. No matter how impressive they may be in preseason, it’s a different animal when the games start counting. Maybe the Cards have found a gem in one of them, but as of right now neither of them can be counted on to lead Arizona this season.

And really, when it comes down to it, none of the quarterbacks on the current roster instills much confidence. Even the staunchest of supporters have to question whether Leinart or Anderson have the talent to lead the team back to the playoffs – especially considering neither of them has ever accomplished the feat.

That said, maybe Anderson will surprise or one of the rookies will come out of nowhere to lead the offense. This team still has Fitzgerald, Breaston and Beanie Wells, plus an aggressive, attacking defense that has the capability to set the offense up in good position.

I just wouldn’t bet on the Cardinals catching lightening in a bottle this year.

Anquan Boldin hasn’t caught one pass yet as a Baltimore Raven, but I feel confident enough to say that it’s already a perfect partnership.

The Ravens acquired Boldin and a fifth round pick from the Arizona Cardinals on Friday in exchange for their third and fourth round selections in this year’s draft. Immediately after acquiring the 29-year-old receiver, Baltimore signed him to a four-year, $28 million deal.

The Ravens have been desperately seeking a true No. 1 receiver over the past couple years, while Boldin has wanted to be treated like one. It’s not that he didn’t like playing in Arizona – he just felt as though he should be paid similarly to Larry Fitzgerald, or at least have the opportunity to make No. 1-type money.

Boldin will immediately upgrade Baltimore’s receiving corps and assuming he doesn’t retire, Derrick Mason will make a fine No. 2. Acquiring a legitimate No. 1 receiver was the final piece of the puzzle for GM Ozzie Newsome and while it took a couple years, he finally found one in Boldin. Joe Flacco now has several solid weapons at his disposal in Boldin, Mason and rising star Ray Rice, and will also be protected by an above average offensive line.

While the Cardinals would have loved to keep Boldin paired with Fitzgerald in their dynamic offense, all parties involved in this trade walk away winners. The Ravens got their receiver, Boldin got his money and his No. 1 status, and the Cardinals got fair compensation for a player that didn’t want to be there long-term.

Boldin was a top 10 fantasy receiver in Arizona, and depending on who starts the season as the Ravens’ WR2, he should be a top 10 receiver in Baltimore. If Mason sticks around, it will likely depress the numbers of both players. Also, don’t expect Ray Rice to catch 78 passes again next season. Boldin is going to get a ton of targets and Mason figures to as well.

From Arizona’s point of view, it’s an opportunity for Steve Breaston or Early Doucet to step into the WR2 role and have a big season. Breaston has had the better career, but Doucet played well in the postseason, catching 14 passes for 145 yards and two TD against the Packers and Saints. However, either player’s success will depend directly on how Matt Leinart fares at QB. There’s a good chance that the Cardinals will now focus more on Beanie Wells and the running game. Larry Fitzgerald should continue to be a top 3 fantasy wideout.

Photo from fOTOGLIF
]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/03/05/anquan-boldin-ravens-a-perfect-match/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/22/should-the-cardinals-trade-anquan-boldin/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/22/should-the-cardinals-trade-anquan-boldin/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:50:19 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=33375

If beat writer Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic is right when he says that the Cardinals will try to shop receiver Anquan Boldin this offseason, then the team would be making a wise decision.

Boldin is a quality playmaker with excellent size, good speed and solid hands. But talent isn’t something the Cardinals are desperate for at the wideout position. They have plenty of youth and depth at receiver with Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Breaston and Early Doucet, which makes Boldin expendable.

Boldin will be 30 in early October and is set to make $3 million in his final year. Mind you, that’s not a ton of money to pay a receiver of his caliber, but if he reaches free agency after the 2010 season then Arizona will get nothing for him in return. If they trade him now, they might be able to get a third round pick and another player, which was what teams were offering last offseason.

A trade makes even more sense if Kurt Warner retires this offseason. When Matt Leinart takes over under center, the Cardinals will switch from an offense that attacks opponents through the air to one that tries to beat teams on the ground. The focus will come off the quarterback and receivers and onto young running back Beanie Wells.

If Warner does hang ‘em up, then Arizona won’t have much need to have four starting-caliber receivers on its roster. Fitzgerald, Breaston and Doucet would be more than enough at the receiver position and if they can acquire a draft pick for Boldin, then they could concentrate on acquiring more talent on defense.

That said, I wouldn’t blame the Cardinals if they retained Boldin if Warner decides to play one more year. They could keep the same offense intact and led by the best receiving corps in the league, try to make another run at a Super Bowl. But in that scenario, they still forfeit the opportunity to acquire some form of compensation before Boldin walks at the end of the year.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Warner decides and what teams would be offering for Boldin. Either way, the Cardinals will be faced with an interesting dilemma this offseason.

Photo from fOTOGLIF
]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/22/should-the-cardinals-trade-anquan-boldin/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/15/do-the-cardinals-need-boldin/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/15/do-the-cardinals-need-boldin/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:46:37 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=32951

According to Adam Schefter via his Twitter page, the Cardinals don’t expect wideout Anquan Boldin (ankle/knee) to play against the Saints on Saturday.

As crazy as it sounds, Arizona might be better off.

The mere thought that the Cardinals are better without Boldin in the lineup sounds ridiculous. He’s an underrated playmaker that makes teams pay for double-teaming Larry Fitzgerald. He has the size and speed to win one-on-one matchups with a defender of any size and he’s a load to bring down in open space. Of course the Cardinals are better with him.

That said, over the last two seasons the Cards are 6-1 when Boldin didn’t play. And as the Wall Street Journal points out, they’ve averaged 33.9 points per game without him in the lineup, compared to the 24.5 PPG and 17-13 record with him. They also racked up 41 points in the one regular season game (vs. the Bears) that he missed this season and 51 points last week against the Packers, so the numbers would indicate that they’re better off without him.

But this is one of those times when numbers can be misleading. Arizona has survived without Boldin because they have an abundance of depth at the wideout position. Steve Breaston has shown the ability to be a playmaker when he starts and Early Doucet showed last week that he could be a star in the making. Fitzgerald aids both receivers by commanding double-teams, and having a quarterback in Kurt Warner that can deliver the ball in a timely manner so his wideouts can make the catch in stride and pick up yards after the catch is critical as well.

Can the Cardinals win without Boldin? Absolutely – and they’ve proven it. But are they better? That’s debatable. The numbers would suggest that they are, but teams are always better when they have their full complement of weapons, especially during the postseason.

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