Outstanding. Somebody needs to light a fire under Vernon Davis’ ass and there might be no one better than Singletary. That team needs passion and something to play for after Mike Nolan was fired and I’m glad Singletary is getting a shot, although that was an ugly start to his interim career.
Not that the Jaguars have been that impressive this season, but the Browns 23-17 win in Jacksonville might have been the best upset of Week 8.
Without tight end Kellen Winslow, Derek Anderson still managed to throw for 246 yards and a touchdown, amassing 168 yards in the first half alone. He hit for big plays all afternoon including a of 51-yard completion to Steve Heiden on a fourth down play, a 43-yard strike to Braylon Edwards that set up a field goal, and a 53-yard connection with Syndric Steptoe in the fourth quarter to set up a Phil Dawson field goal with less than five minutes remaining.
Cleveland has now won three of their last four games and were close to coming away with a win last week in Washington. With the Steelers losing to the Giants, the Browns are far from dead and have shown signs of life since starting the season 0-3.
The Jaguars might be the hardest team to figure out in the NFL. They started off 0-2, but showed some mettle in close wins over the Colts and Texans to get to 2-2. But they weren’t sharp in a loss to the Steelers in Week 5, then followed that performance with an impressive win over the Broncos in Denver. Now they sit 3-4 after their loss to the Browns.
Are the Jags are a playoff team lying in the weeds or are they underachievers that would be lucky to finish 9-7? One thing is for sure, this team isn’t running the ball anywhere close to what they had been in previous years and the passing game simply isn’t good enough to overcome it.
There are times throughout a season when a team can look back at a game they should have won and it wound up costing them a spot in the playoffs. Considering they don’t play in the toughest division, the Steelers might be a lock to make the postseason anyway, but their 21-14 loss to the Giants on Sunday could come back to bite them in the ass.
The game was far from over when Pittsburgh had a 14-9 lead early in the fourth quarter, but they had been in control. The defense was flustering Eli Manning and the Giants couldn’t get their run game going. But while facing a 4th and 5 from New York’s 34-yard line with 14 minutes remaining, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin decided to go for it instead of attempting a long field goal or pinning the Giants back with a punt. Ben Roethlisberger was then intercepted and on the change of possession, NY drove 62 yards and cut their deficit to 14-12 after a John Carney field goal.
On the Steelers next possession, punter Mitch Berger had the snap fly over his head and out the back of the end zone for a safety. All of a sudden the game was tied and the air was sucked out of Heinz Field. The Giants then marched 53 yards on seven plays and Manning found Kevin Boss for a 2-yard touchdown pass.
Pittsburgh never recovered.
Not to take anything away from the Giants, but the Steelers blew an opportunity to only take a commanding lead in their division, but also beat a very good team and keep pace with the other elite teams in the AFC. Penalties, turnovers and some questionable coaching decisions cost Pittsburgh a win and spoiled an otherwise great defensive effort.
Hand it to Eli and the Giants for hanging tough and coming away with a huge road win. They didn’t look sharp at times, but then again Pittsburgh’s defense is still one of the best in the league. Good teams find ways to win games when they don’t play to their capabilities and the G-Men did that on Sunday.
With their 25-17 loss to the Washington Redskins on Sunday, the Detroit Lions fell to 0-7 on the season. The Lions are trying to forget about the losses and just find anything to be positive about.
NFL sources told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that the Lions haven’t paid Millen, who is still owed $6 to $10 million under his contract which ran until 2010, since he was fired Sept. 24.
According to those sources, the Lions are trying to get Millen to settle for an amount less than what he is owed. Millen currently has no plan to file a grievance against the Lions as both sides are exploring a settlement.
I think it’s only fair that the team asks Millen to take a reduce salary for the next two years considering he stole from them the past eight.
Related Side Note: How good has Clinton Portis been this year? He finished with 126 yards on Sunday, going over the 120 yard mark for the fifth consecutive game. That’s unbelievable.
Play by play announcers and casual football analysts will probably wax poetically about how Brett Favre sprinkled a little late-game magic Sunday to the beat the Chiefs at the Meadow Lands. But despite throwing for 290 yards and two touchdowns (including the game winner to Laveranues Coles with only a minute remaining in the game to give NY a 28-24 win), the fact of the matter is that Brett was brutal and nearly cost his team a win.
Pundits and fans alike love to talk about Favre’s gunslinger mentality and how he takes risks in order to seek big rewards. But that wasn’t the case Sunday against Kansas City. He threw three costly, dumb interceptions including one that was returned for a 91-yard touchdown by Brandon Flowers that gave KC a 24-21 lead with less than eight minutes remaining in the game.
Yes, he did lead the Jets on a 6-play, 46-yard drive to win the game. But all Favre did with the drive was save his own skin and Coles had to make an incredible one-handed catch on an otherwise poorly thrown ball.
I realize Brett has been criticized before because of his reckless play, but it just seems that he’s been untouchable since he was traded to New York. Had the Jets lost today, one would hope that he would have been criticized like every other quarterback had they been intercepted three times by a one-win Kansas City team playing with rookie corners. But I doubt it. (Not to mention Tyler Thigpen outplayed him as he threw for 280 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.)
Brad Johnson wasn’t very impressive (he missed open receivers the entire game), but unlike the loss to the Rams last week, he didn’t turn the ball over and thus, allowed the defense to win the game. And his touchdown pass to newcomer Roy Williams before the half proved to be the difference in the end at least in terms of the score.
Speaking of the Dallas defense, they deserve a ton of credit for finally rising to the challenge this week. They’ve been rightfully hammered by the media due to their poor play, but they forced Tampa to settle for field goals on multiple occasions throughout the game. They also came up with a huge fourth down stop when Jeff Garcia had driven the Bucs into scoring range with under a minute to go.
Forget Tony Romo – he’ll be back soon and he’ll obviously he’ll provide a huge boost to the offense. What the Cowboys really need is a defensive effort similar to the one they got today. If they do, there’s no reason to think that Dallas won’t be legitimate Super Bowl contenders again soon.
Many have been waiting for the Arizona Cardinals to emerge as true playoff contenders for years. And after starting the season 4-2, the NFC West finally looks like Cards’ to lose, especially with the Seahawks struggling.
But in order for Arizona to take the next step, pundits have often said that they have to play better on the road. What a better way to prove that they’ve arrived this season than to beat the Panthers in Carolina on Sunday?
After building a 17-3 lead early in the third quarter, the Cards choked on applesauce and allowed the Panthers to come from behind for a 27-23 win. Kurt Warner once again lit up the stat sheet throwing for 381 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw a costly interception (not all his fault as the ball was thrown high, but tipped by a receiver), which Carolina turned into a field goal.
‘Zona still might be the team to beat in the NFC West with the rest of the division looking incredibly suspect, but they need to start winning games away from the desert. Even if they do make the postseason, how are they going to make a deep run if they can’t win on the road?
It wasn’t anywhere near as crucial as Ed Hochuli’s gaff in the Broncos-Chargers game earlier this season, but the refs blew another call Sunday, this one costing the Falcons a chance to possibly drive for a late score and beat the Eagles.
The 27-14 final suggests that Philadelphia soundly handled Atlanta, but it doesn’t provide the full story. Rookie QB Matt Ryan connected with Roddy White for his second touchdown pass of the game to cut the Eagles’ lead to 20-14 with just under four minutes remaining in the game.
After forcing Philly to go three and out on their next possession, the Falcons were set to get the ball back with just over two minutes left and no timeouts. But after returner Adam Jennings let a punt bounce at his feet, the refs called a muff and awarded the Eagles the ball at that spot. Replays clearly showed that the ball never touched Jennings but because the Falcons had used all of their timeouts, they couldn’t review it. Brian Westbrook (who had a huge day coming back from injury) then broke off a 39-yard touchdown run to put the game away.
Granted, Atlanta might not have scored anyway, but they never got the opportunity either. And it seems that more than ever, refs are way too flag-happy and it has cost teams chances to win ballgames. Earlier in this game, Trent Cole was flagged for a 15-yard personal foul penalty for a hit on Ryan that couldn’t have been a worse call. Cole hit him square and it wasn’t head-to-head or malicious at all.
I hate to talk about blown calls because they happen to every team every week. But they’ve seemed especially bad this year and it looks like they’ll continue throughout the season.
The knock on Chad Pennington his entire career is that he has a noodle-arm and can’t complete passes over 15 yards. But in the Dolphins impressive 25-16 win over the Bills on Sunday, Pennington proved that there is something attached to his right shoulder.
Pennington completed 22 of 30 passes for 314 yards and a touchdown against an underrated Buffalo defense and his 46-yard pass to Ted Ginn on the first play of the game set up a Anthony Fasano touchdown to put Miami up 7-0.
I was definitely skeptical of the Pennington signing in the offseason because I felt the Dolphins weren’t giving their young signal callers a chance to compete. But Pennington has been great for a young Miami squad and at 3-4 they’re certainly in the playoff hunt in the AFC, albeit a long shot.
The Bills really blew an opportunity to stay ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East. Trailing 17-16 at the start of the fourth quarter, Trent Edwards was intercepted, which Miami eventually turned into a field goal. On their next possession, Edwards fumbled and although Miami didn’t turn the turnover into points, they pinned the Bills at their own three-yard line and then sacked Edwards for a safety. Then down 25-16 with less than four minutes to play, Robert Royal fumbled, which allowed the Dolphins to run out the clock.
This was a disappointing step back for a Bills team that was building momentum after beating the Chargers last week.
The knock on Chad Pennington his entire career is that he has a noodle-arm and can’t complete passes over 15 yards. But in the 
