Author: Anthony Stalter (Page 638 of 1503)

      Warner rebounds as Cardinals crush Bears

      November 8, 2009 /

      Kurt Warner shook off a five-interception performance last week in a loss to the Panthers to throw for 261 yards and an eye-popping five touchdowns in a 41-21 rout of the Bears on Sunday. Warner didn’t throw any interceptions while completing 22-of-31 passes for 261 yards.

      Warner did all this without Anquan Boldin, who sat out with an ankle injury. Larry Fitzgerald seemed to enjoy the spotlight, because he hauled in nine passes for 123 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The 83-year old Warner (I’m kidding) is now on pace for 32 touchdowns and 4,350 yards.

      Of course, Warner and the Cards racked up these gaudy stats against a Chicago secondary that couldn’t cover Fat Albert and the gang. The Bears thought that Charles Tillman could cover Fitzgerald one-on-one, which was incredibly smart on their part. Remember Boldin didn’t play, so why Lovie Smith and his coaching staff thought Tillman could (or even should) go one-on-one with Fitzgerald was questionable to say the least. Speaking of questionable, the Bears also decided to throw the ball seven straight times to open the game. Apparently the words “offensive balance” mean nothing to Smith and Ron Turner.

      Not to kick dirt in the faces of Chicago fans, but many Bear-lovers thought this would be a Super Bowl team after they traded for Jay Cutler. I’m fully aware that they’ve had injuries on the defensive side of the ball, but even if Brian Urlacher were healthy, the offensive line and secondary are still a mess and Matt Forte has dropped off the face of the earth (part of the reason is because the O-line hasn’t opened any holes). He only had 33 yards on five carries today, but when you’re trailing 31-7 at halftime you’re not going to get many carries.

      Their 30-6 win over the hapless Browns gave the Bears some false confidence. But this loss today proves how far Chicago is from being a legitimate contender.

      NFL

      Gerhart goes off as Stanford shocks Oregon

      November 7, 2009 /

      Stanford running back Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns as the Cardinal shocked No. 8 Oregon 51-42 on Saturday.

      From ESPN.com:

      Andrew Luck completed 12 of 20 for 251 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions to lead Stanford past Oregon, 51-42. Toby Gerhart rushed for 223 yards and three touchdowns.

      Stanford finished with 505 total yards. Oregon had been giving up only 301 yards per game.

      Sure, Oregon seemed to suffer a hangover from its 47-20 win over USC last weekend. But this was about Stanford’s offense dominating the Ducks defense, and the Ducks offense not being able to keep up.

      What does it mean?

      It means the Pac-10 is now wide-open. Arizona controls its own fate, but there is so much football left that it’s almost meaningless to speculate.

      It means the Pac-10 is out of the national title hunt.

      It means the Oregon vs. Boise State rankings debate ends.

      And it means Stanford, at 6-3, is bowl eligible. The Cardinal haven’t gone to a bowl since 2001.

      This had trap written all over it, although I still thought Oregon would prevail. The Ducks just couldn’t match the intensity it had from last week’s huge win over USC. They were emotionally spent and Stanford took full advantage of it but taking it to them for four quarters. Gerhart was amazing today and his performance may have catapulted him back into the Heisman race.

      Boise State stands to benefit the most from Oregon’s loss. Some had started to question whether or not the Ducks deserved to be ranked higher than the Broncos, even though Boise routed Oregon in the opening week of the season. With the Ducks now out of the way, the Broncos can start working on that whole style points thing that they continue to struggle with.

      College Football

      Refs, Les Miles help Alabama beat LSU

      November 7, 2009 /

      Let’s get this out of the way first: Alabama is better than LSU. They play better defense, have more big-time playmakers like Julio Jones and Mark Ingram, and they’re a more complete team overall.

      That said, the officiating in Alabama’s 24-15 win on Saturday was some of the worst in college football this season. And that’s saying a lot given how bad the officiating has been this year in the SEC.

      Crimson Tide fans can spin it as much as they want, but Patrick Peterson intercepted that pass in the second half. He not only got one foot down, but two and the refs still got the call wrong. The play might not have wound up being a game-changing moment, but the bottom line is that ‘Bama got a field goal out of the deal, which made it a two-score game late in the fourth.

      Granted, even if the call went LSU’s way, the Tigers were still losing, were in an obvious passing situation and might have still had trouble moving the ball. Plus, they still allowed ‘Bama to convert on a 3rd and 6 to pick up the first down.

      Still, the call was wrong. It should have been an interception, it should have been LSU’s ball and the Tigers still should have had the opportunity to march up the field and score.

      Speaking of bad calls, Les Miles had a few himself. He made a poor decision to go for two after LSU had taken the lead on a Stevan Ridley 8-yard touchdown run. His decision to go for two instead of going up 16-10 was dumb, but not as dumb as the poor clock management in the fourth quarter and a decision to punt on 4th and inches with no timeouts.

      LSU deserved better from the refs and Miles tonight.

      Monday Update: John Paulsen has posted screenshots of Peterson’s interception.

      College Football

      Iowa’s magic finally runs out

      November 7, 2009 /

      College football pundits and fans alike have been waiting for this day for weeks: Iowa finally fell. Northwestern topped the No. 6 Hawkeyes 17-10 on Saturday and dashed Iowa’s slim national title hopes.

      From FOX Sports.com:

      With that said, there’s no excuse for a loss at home to Northwestern, just as there was no excuse for such a lousy performance against Indiana. It’s not as if the Hawkeyes were playing the world-beaters, and it’s not as if the game were over after losing Ricky Stanzi to his ankle injury. Of course, not having the leader and No. 1 quarterback matters, but 1) Iowa was still winning when he got knocked out, 2) Northwestern also lost its starter, and 3) It … was … Northwestern.

      This is a Wildcats team that sputtered and coughed against Eastern Michigan, one of the five worst teams in college football, and this is a team that can’t get a score without it being wrapped in a nice gift basket. If Iowa really were a national title-caliber team, it would’ve pounded away on the mediocre Wildcats D and come up with a point over the final 50 minutes. Pat Angerer and Jeremiha Hunter did their part, combining for 27 tackles, but the offensive line that did such a great job against Indiana struggled to get the running game going and James Vandenberg was miserable in place of Stanzi. And that’s it. That’s the difference between an all-timer of a season and being among the mere mortals.

      As the article points out, does anything really change here? Even if Iowa ran the table, it would have had a hard time convincing voters that it deserved to play for a national title with teams like Florida, Alabama and Texas atop the rankings. So now the Hawkeyes can fight for the Big Ten title and the chance to play in the Rose Bowl.

      Obviously the outcome today was a massive disappointment. But not all is lost.

      College Football

      Iowa’s Stanzi hurt against Northwestern

      November 7, 2009 /

      Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi left the Hawkeyes’ game against Northwestern early in the second quarter with an apparent foot injury.

      Stanzi was hurt when Wildcats’ defender Corey Wootton sacked him in the end zone. He fumbled and Nwest Marshall Thomas recovered the ball in the end zone for a Northwestern touchdown to cut Iowa’s lead to 10-7.

      Backup quarterback James Vandenberg immediately came in and threw an interception to set up another Wildcats score. Northwestern is currently up 14-10 at halftime and at least for the moment, No. 6 Iowa is once again in trouble.

      Although hey, they’re always in trouble at halftime; they’ve trailed at halftime in almost every game this season.

      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      College Football

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