Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1316 of 1503)

Jaguars 31, Steelers 29
My defensive back days ended when I was a senior in high school, so I’m not one to talk about a professional athlete not making a play. However, on David Garrard’s fourth quarter scramble that eventually led to Josh Scobee’s game-winning field goal, Steelers’ defensive back Tyrone Carter should have charged the line of scrimmage instead of waiting back. Garrard was going to pick up the first down no matter what, but if Carter is more aggressive, maybe he limits Garrard to only a seven or eight yard gain instead of 32…Pittsburgh really missed Willie Parker’s outside running in this game and it was clear that Big Ben was trying to do too much in the first half. The Steelers lost their swagger after losing to the Jets in Week 11…I love the potential of a Jaguars-Patriots matchup. Besides the Colts, I think Jacksonville is the only other AFC team that could possibly knock off New England (and no, I’m not overlooking the Chargers).

Seahawks 35, Redskins 14
This was a snooze-fest until the fourth quarter. Neither offense was very impressive throughout the entire game, but both defenses had their share of big plays, including two Seahawk interceptions that were returned for touchdowns. In the end, was Todd Collins really going to lead the Skins deep into the playoffs? He was a nice story, but Patrick Kerney and the rest of Seattle’s defense befuddled him (although he didn’t get much help from his receivers in the first half). At least Washington made a great run for Sean Taylor…The Seahawks are in trouble. Matt Hasselbeck’s hand is clearly affecting his decision-making and Shaun Alexander has been a shell of his former self this year. I love their aggressive defense, but they live and die by the turnover and that’s going to eventually cost them. Green Bay has a nice matchup next week.

Giants 24, Bucs 14
Other than the first quarter, the Giants were very impressive. Eli Manning had two great drives in the second quarter to help put NY up 14-7 and Ahmad Bradshaw provided a great spark in the third quarter to put the Bucs away. The G-Men aren’t overly impressive, but they know Dallas well and they might just give the ‘Boys a game next week…Not to take away what he did for Tampa in the regular season, but this game was a perfect example of how Jeff Garica will only take a team so far. He’s limited and when his team gets down by more than two scores, he’s really limited. Obviously this loss wasn’t all on him, however. The defense wore down in the second and third quarters and Michael Spurlock fumbled the opening kickoff in the second half that led to a Giants field goal. Since waxing the Falcons at home to win the NFC South in Week 15, the Bucs were a completely different team.

Chargers 17, Titans 6
There won’t be many times when someone says the San Diego Chargers’ offense was more productive without prolific tight end Antonio Gates, but that was the case Sunday. The Chargers were blanked 6-0 in the first half and lost Gates to a toe injury, but they managed 17 unanswered points in the second half to pull off the sloppy victory…The Titans dominated this game defensively in the first half, but they started to ware down when Vince Young and the offense couldn’t muster any scoring drives. That’s been the case for Tennessee all season…Not sure how good San Diego is going to be without Gates in Indianapolis next weekend, but at least they finally got over their 13-year playoff-win drought.

Sure, the Patriots went 16-0 but will they finish the job and hoist the Lombardi Trophy? After ranking the 12 playoff teams in my latest column for Bullz-Eye.com, I asked Mr. Optimism and Mr. Pessimism to size up each team’s chances. One likes what he sees, one doesn’t. Whose arguments are more compelling?

In case anyone hasn’t figured it out yet, here’s how the new chain of command is working in Miami: Bill Parcells is hired by owner Wayne Huizinga and immediately is given control of everything from the football operations, to the guys sweeping trash in the parking lot. Then Parcells immediately fires GM Randy Mueller and replaces him with Jeff Ireland – a man whom Parcells can control. Ireland then cuts the Dolphins’ coaching staff down to, oh, two.

It’s one and done for first-year Dolphins coach Cam Cameron after newly hired General Manager Jeff Ireland fired him and most of his staff Thursday morning.

When asked about his decision to fire Cameron during today’s news conference, Ireland said, “It was a pretty simple process. Bill [Parcells] and I talked at length [Wednesday] about where we were going, what direction we were going. We just felt like in order to move forward and not look back that we needed someone in place that shared the same philosophical compatibilities that we shared.”

It was a pretty simple process? Is Ireland not a “Parcells guy” or what? Translation of Ireland’s comments about firing Cameron: “Look, this wasn’t really a complicated deal. The guy went 1-15 this year, so we fired him along with every S.O.B. in the building who had any sort of connection to him. Next question.”