Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 1453 of 1503)

What an absolute mess of a fourth quarter the Panthers had on Sunday night. Dallas, down 14-10 heading into the fourth quarter, put 25 points on the board to crush Carolina 35-14 and rebound from a bad Monday night performance against the Giants.

Starting his first NFL game under center, Tony Romo looked rather poised and comfortable in the pocket while throwing for 270 yards and one score. Romo connected with the ultimate coconut Terrell Owens nine times for 107 yards. Who knows how long this marriage will last, but Owens looked happier than a pig in slop with Romo looking his way on virtually every passing play. Nevertheless, it worked and Romo is 1-0 as a starter and Bill Parcels can breath easier for at least one night.

All you heard after Steve Smith returned to the lineup and Carolina rattled off four straight wins was how the Panthers were “back”. Yeah, Carolina’s back all right – back to looking like major overachievers. Jake Delhomme looks like the ultimate pain in the ass when he’s losing, but he certainly didn’t get any help from his receivers. Carolina dropped passes left and right on this guy and Keyshawn Johnson dropped a potential first down (if not a touchdown) reception when the Panthers could have really built a nice lead in the second half.

Most impressed with: How about the Dallas defense since we already talked about Romo? The Cowboys held Carolina to a modest 204 yards of total offense and limited Smith to six catches for 55 yards. Even though he scored on a reverse, Smith didn’t really have any game-altering plays like he displays on most Sundays. Dallas also forced three turnovers, including a key fumble on a Carolina kickoff, which eventually turned into seven points for the Cowboys.

Least impressed with: The Panthers on a whole were just lousy. Turnovers were one thing, but Dallas kept shooting itself in the foot all night with penalties and Carolina never took advantage of it. The Panthers defense allowed Romo to pick them apart (especially on third down conversations) all night and rarely did he have major pressure on him. And I’m sorry, I know he’s explosive with the ball in his hands, but Smith has no business trying to return punts from the two-yard line.

Here was your best late game in the NFL:

Colts 34, Broncos 31
This contest absolutely lived up to the hype. What a performance by Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne against a normally stout Denver defense. Manning connected with Wayne 10 times for 138 yards and three touchdowns. Along with the three scores to Wayne, the always clutch Manning threw for 345 yards and completed an outstanding 82 percent of his passes. Even though the Broncos looked great on offense for the first time all season, Manning and the Colts had an answer for them on virtually every turn of possession.

Mike Bell rushed 15 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns and seemed to break long gains on virtually every offensive possession for Denver. Jake Plummer actually looked good too for the most part, but he fumbled in the second half, which led to a Colts score.

Most impressed with: Manning is just amazing. The guy performs every week and despite his playoff misfortunate, he shredded a really good defense on Sunday. Joseph Addai ran well in this game too, gaining 5.5 yards a pop while rushing for 93 yards.

Least impressed with: Not taking anything away from Manning’s performance, but where was the Denver defense? The Broncos came into the game allowing about a fraction of a point per game, but couldn’t stop anything Indy threw at them. Besides another solid game by Champ Bailey, Denver was just outmatched all day by Manning and company.

Quick Shots:
I’ve got an idea for Pittsburgh. Maybe instead of worrying about what the refs are doing (Dan Rooney), or what defensive lineman are saying about your reconstructed face (Ben Roethlisberger), how about you spend your time more wisely and figure out how in the hell the Oakland Raiders beat you 20-13. Why did Roethlisberger, just six days after suffering a concussion, play in this game Bill Cowher? Terrible call and it led to another loss in a quickly sinking season for the defending champs and another atrocious performance by Big Ben. Roethlisberger flat out sucked today, period. Congrats to the Raiders for making Roethlisberger and the big bad Steel Curtain look down right silly today…I thought it was interesting that one week after losing a tight game to the Chiefs that the Chargers were nine and a half point favorites against a upstart Rams team that was coming off a bye. Now I know why as San Diego thrashed St. Louis 38-24. LaDainian Tomlinson was incredible, rushing for 183 yards and three touchdowns. The Rams just didn’t have an answer for San Diego’s offensive attack all day…There was a controversial ending in Cleveland as the Browns topped the Jets 20-13. New York thought that it tied the game with less than two minutes in the contest when TE Chris Baker caught an apparent touchdown pass. Baker, however, was crushed out of bounds by two Browns defenders and the play ended up being ruled incomplete. Cleveland was able to run out the clock on the change of possession. Jets head coach Eric Magini was furious that the play couldn’t be reviewed and although it was a tough call, it would have been impossible to decide whether or not Baker (what a catch by the way) would have come down in bounds. Regardless, Cleveland was up 20-3 in this contest and this game arguably shouldn’t have come down to that play anyhow. Reuben Droughns completely tore up the Jets run defense with 125 yards on 33 carries and a touchdown. Also, somehow Charlie Frye fit a tight pass in between two defenders to Kellen Winslow Jr. At least after one week, the move to fire offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon was the correct one.

Don’t forget to check out my NFL Random Thoughts blog on Monday.

Here was your best game from the early action in the NFL:

Falcons 29, Bengals 27
Atlanta has walked on the wild side the past two weeks, but what a win by the Falcons. Cincinnati had everything going in the first half – especially on offense. After a Rudi Johnson rushing touchdown, Carson Palmer hit Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson for a nine yard score to build a 14-6 lead halfway through the second quarter.

Atlanta never gave in on offense, however, and Michael Vick put together another fantastic day through the air. Vick was 20 of 28 for 291 yards and three touchdowns. More importantly than his stats, however, was the way Vick picked apart the Bengals defense by making smart reads and taking exactly what Cincinnati gave him. Vick hit Alge Crumpler, Michael Jenkins and Justin Griffith for scores while also rushing for 55 yards.

Most impressed with: Along with Vick, the Falcons defense played superb in the second half. After giving up 17 points in the first half, the Atlanta defense made adjustments at halftime and tightened-up its overall play. If it weren’t for a 55 yard bomb to Chris Henry towards the end of the contest, the Falcons defense would have held the Bengals to only three points in the second half.

Least impressed with: “Ocho Cinco” vs. DeAngelo Hall was a real dud. Johnson finished with six catches for 70 yards and the one score, but most of that came against the Falcons other corner, Jason Webster. Speaking of Webster, he was horrible in coverage for the second straight week. I’m shocked that Jim Mora hasn’t gone to the rookie Jimmy Williams yet. I think Atlanta got the benefit from some calls by the officials too.

Quick Shots:
The only other early game that was even remotely close was the Chiefs beating the Seahawks 35-28. This was an absolute wacky game that included a botched Kansas City field goal that turned into a 61-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown by Seattle’s Kelly Herndon. The story of this game was Larry Johnson absolutely going off for 155 yards and four total touchdowns…Speaking of going off, the Bears spanked the 49ers 41-10. Chicago scored every single one of its 41 points in the first half. QB Rex Grossman was 23 of 29 for 252 yards and three touchdowns – completely shaking off his dismal performance on Monday night two weeks ago…The Packers notched their third win of the season with a 31-14 rout of Arizona. Brett Favre threw a touchdown and ran for another while RB Ahman Green rushed for two scores and 106 yards. Ranked dead last in passing defense coming into the game, Green Bay held QB Matt Leinart in check, picking off the rookie once and limiting him to 157 yards through the air…Houston fell to the Titans 28-22 after David Carr absolutely handed this game over on a silver platter. Carr was benched for Sage Rosenfels after losing the handle on two fumbles and throwing two picks. Rosenfels almost led the Texans to a comeback victory, but fell short in the end. Rookie QB Vince Young threw just 15 passes in this contest, but completed seven of those passes for 87 yards and a touchdown…The Jaguars, who got waxed by those aforementioned Texans last week, came out this Sunday and smoked Philly 13-3. Jacksonville’s defense finally showed up again after a few turbulent weeks, holding Donovan McNabb to 161 yards passing and Brian Westbrook to just 38 yards rushing. Fred Taylor ran well for the Jags (103 yards and their only score), while QB David Garrard wasn’t asked to do too much in spot duty for the injured Byron Leftwich. Garrad attempted just 17 passes and finished with 87 yards…Brian Billick wanted to call his own plays for the Ravens and after a 35-22 win over the Saints, it looks like Billick made the right call firing Jim Fassel. Let me get this straight: the Ravens start off hot; look awful on offense the past few weeks and then hammer (the score was closer than the game actually was) a previously unbeaten Saints team in New Orleans? Weird. Nice game by QB Steve McNair who bounced back from a concussion he suffered two weeks ago to finish 17 of 23 and three total touchdowns…The boring game of the day goes to the Giants and Bucs after New York squeezes out a snoozer: 17-3. There was nothing boring about WR Plaxico Burress’ first half touchdown, however. Burress reached out for an Eli Manning pass and snagged it one-handed to give New York its first score. The Giants defense is playing excellent of late too, holding Tampa Bay to just 174 total yards.

Don’t forget to check out my NFL Random Thoughts blog on Monday.