Month: October 2007 (Page 7 of 20)

Without failure, another young, promising NFL player is off to a fantastic start in trying to ruin his career. After a huge 31-28 victory against Pittsburgh Sunday night, Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall was arrested on suspicion of DUI Monday morning, according to Rotoworld.com.

Marshall was arrested on charges of false imprisonment and domestic violence in March, but had that case against him dropped. Still, two run-ins with the law likely mean the league will take a long look at the new charges against Marshall. A conviction could lead to a suspension and/or fine, but that all takes time. In most cases, player avoid punishment until the following offseason.

For those of you unfamiliar with Marshall, he was named a starter at the start of the season after Rod Smith was placed on the physically unable to perform list. Thus far, he’s hauled in 33 receptions for 439 yards and two touchdowns, as well as become a solid go to guy for Jay Cutler. And now, right when his team needs him most with Javon Walker being sidelined due to surgery, Marshall decides that having fun off the field is more important. How selfish.

Titans 38, Texans 36
Game…of…the…day. The Titans had this game completely in the bag up 32-7 early in the fourth quarter, but Houston – led by backup QB Sage Rosenfels, who entered the game when Matt Schaub was injured in the first half – just kept chipping away. The Texans had a couple of huge drives in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 35-29 with less than two minutes to play. Houston then recovered an onside kick and Rosenfels followed with a 53-yard touchdown bomb to Andre Davis, giving them a 36-35 lead. It was all for naught, however, as the Titans drove the ball down the field and with only seconds remaining, Rob Bironas kicked an NFL record eighth field goal to win the game 38-36. I’m exhausted just re-counting what happened.

Patriots 49, Dolphins 28
Ho-hum, it was another mega day by New England’s offense. Tom Brady had a career high six touchdown passes and Randy Moss had four catches for 122 yards and two scores. Amazingly, NE scored 49 points and Laurence Maroney did damn near nothing, infuriating fantasy owners everywhere…There’s just not much to say about a team that gives up 42 points in the first half. Words can’t say how bad Miami’s defense is.

Giants 33, 49ers 15
The G-Men have it all rolling and enough can’t be said about Eli Manning’s confidence. Both of his touchdown passes were made because he didn’t hesitate and had confidence that only his receiver was going to come down with the ball. Brandon Jacobs has helped the offense stay balanced too, which has been big as well. The defense, however, was the unit that propelled NY today, forcing four turnovers, including Osi Umenyiora’s 25-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Without the turnovers, this was a tighter game because San Fran actually moved the ball quite well at times, but Trent Dilfer was absolutely battered by the Giants D all game.

Bears 19, Eagles 16
Every week it seems Chicago mounts a last second come back to either tie or win the game. The Bears offense moved the ball well throughout the game, but kept stalling in the red zone. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Brian Griese mounted an impressive fourth quarter drive that ended with a game winning 15-yard Muhsin Muhammad touchdown reception. Just another day in the life of the Bears, a.k.a. “team horse shoe directly up the ass”…The funniest moment of the day was when the FOX sound crew caught one of the Eagles fans shouting, “We want Cowher next year!” The seat under Andy Reid just got a hell of a lot warmer after this collapse.

Saints 22, Falcons 16
It’s remarkable how much of an impact Reggie Bush can have even when he doesn’t have the ball. Sean Payton can use Bush as a decoy in the passing game, sucking the linebackers up in coverage and opening the seam down the middle of the field. Then on short yardage downs, play action fakes seem to open up the bootleg pass for Drew Brees because the defense has to completely flow to Bush so he doesn’t get in open space. The Saints weren’t great today, but the offense is starting to show signs of life…Someone has one hell of a curse on the Falcons this season. Byron Leftwich ignited a dead offense in his first start, but got hurt early in the third quarter and the Falcons crumbled. Joey Harrington played decent, but once again came up short in the clutch. He’s now 0 for his life in clutch situations.

Redskins 21, Cardinals 19
Arizona has to feel like it let one get away today, especially after gritty performances by the defense, Anquan Boldin and Kurt Warner. Take away two poorly overthrown Warner passes that the Redskins converted into 14 points, and the Cards probably pull off a nice upset. However, I don’t want to downplay the defensive effort the Skins gave, because they came up with huge stops all day. Their safety combo of Sean Taylor and LaRon Landry gives defensive coordinator Gregg Williams so many options for disguising blitzes and coverages. Williams and his defense earned this victory.

Bills 19, Ravens 14
It’s utterly amazing how Trent Edwards, who is a rookie mind you, has looked more comfortable in the pocket in three games than J.P. Losman has in three years. Edwards made two great passes in this game and both times he stood tall and delivered a strike while facing pressure. Buffalo has to love the potential of Edwards and Marshawn Lynch going forward…The Ravens defense has been killed by big plays this year. Teams are finding the soft zones in Baltimore’s pass defense and having success moving the ball up the field. That’s a bad recipe since the offense is so inconsistent.

Lions 23, Bucs 16
Talk about home cooking – the Lions are a completely different team at Ford Field. They seem to play with more confidence, focus, and excitement. What was remarkable about this game was that Detroit relied more on big plays in the running game than on the pass. Jon Kitna only threw for 147 yards, but Kevin Jones and Calvin Johnson came up with huge running plays and the Lions won with relative ease. I wouldn’t bet on this trend continuing for Mike Martz and the offense, but it must be comforting for the Lions to know they can win without having big passing plays…I can’t put my finger on the Bucs this year. They always seem to play hard, but the lack of playmakers seems to kill opportunities for big plays every week.

Seahawks 33, Rams 6
There’s just not much to say anymore about the Rams. They can’t run, they turn the ball over at an alarming rate and the defense has yet to come up with a big play all season. The plight of Marc Bulger has been disappointing after so much hope at the beginning of the season…This was a nice bounce back game for Seattle, but that was about it. Matt Hasselbeck moved the ball well and the defense came up big with five turnovers, but Shaun Alexander’s hesitation every time he gets the ball is disturbing. Two and a half yards a carry just isn’t going to get it done in the second half of the season when the playoffs are on the line.

Chiefs 12, Raiders 10
I’m telling you: Watch out for the Kansas City Chiefs. Their defense is playing lights out and Larry Johnson is starting to pick up steam. Sure, a 12-10 win over the Raiders won’t send shivers up the spine of the Patriots, Colts and Chargers, but Herm Edwards has his team playing hard right now. And draft pundits that criticized KC for taking Dwayne Bowe over other prospects like Robert Meachem and Dwayne Jarrett are eating serious crow right now…Not that Daunte Culpepper has been terrible, but I wonder when Al Davis is going to start getting antsy and insert JaMarcus Russell. It’s probably smart to leave him on the sidelines for his rookie season, but eventually Davis is going to want to play with his new toy.

Bengals 38, Jets 31
What a forth quarter collapse by the Jets in this game. They were in complete command in the first half, and then they come out after halftime and lay an egg. Chad Pennington’s interception that was returned for a touchdown by Jonathan Joseph with less than two minutes to play in the game was brutal. What’s worse is that he came back out with the game practically over and threw a last second 32-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery. Jet fans had to be like, “Hey Chad, where the F was that the drive before when the game was still in reach?!” Awful, just awful…How big was Kenny Watson today? He rushed for 130 yards and three touchdowns but what was bigger was that he gave Cincy much needed balance on offense. The Jets had no clue what was coming at them in the second half. The Bengals aren’t “back” yet, but the win was encouraging to their playoff hopes.

Cowboys 24, Vikings 14
It’s unbelievable how Dallas didn’t run away with this game with how poor Tavaris Jackson played for Minnesota. Either way, the Cowboys defense really stepped up against Adrian Peterson today. The amazing rookie back still had a very productive game (63yards, 1 TD), but his fumble late in the third quarter killed the Vikings hopes for keeping the game close. The Dallas D played incredibly inspiring football today, which is huge seeing as how New England treated it like a chew toy last week.