Tag: Anthony Stalter (Page 64 of 133)

      For all intents and purposes, Sam Bradford has been perfect so far

      October 4, 2010 /
      ST. LOUIS - OCTOBER 3: Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams looks to pass against the Seattle Seahawks at the Edward Jones Dome on October 3, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. The Rams beat the Seahawks 20-3. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

      Outside of cutting down on his interceptions, if you’re the Rams what more could you ask for out of rookie quarterback Sam Bradford to this point?

      After completing 34 of 41 passes for 289 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the Rams’ 20-3 blowout of the Seahawks on Sunday, Bradford is now 2-2 as a starter and has led St. Louis to back-to-back wins (for the first time since Regan was in office, I think). He’s also 28-of-49 for 350 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions on third downs and has thrown five red zone touchdown passes in his first four games.

      Again, outside of his interception total (six), the Rams couldn’t have asked for a better start out of their No. 1 draft pick.

      Granted, he hasn’t faced the most prolific of defenses to this point, as most quarterbacks will rack up good numbers against the likes of Arizona, Oakland, Washington and Seattle. But Bradford is only playing who’s on the Rams’ schedule and thus far, he’s been impressive.

      And let’s give a little credit to his receivers, too. The Rams arguably have the worst collection of wideouts in the league and yet look at their average yards-per-catch from Sunday: Mark Clayton 14.4; Brandon Gibson 16.7, Danny Amendola 9.5; and Daniel Fells (who is a tight end, not a receiver) 11.7. Bradford obviously has a hand in those numbers, but he isn’t afraid to check the ball down and let his receivers pick up yardage after the catch (which they did plenty of yesterday).

      The Rams have a long ways to go, but they play in the worst division in football so who knows? Maybe they can continue to surprise. With teams like the Lions, Bucs, Panthers and 49ers coming up before their Week 9 bye, Bradford and Co. may continue to rack up victories.

      External Sports, NFL

      Is it time for the 49ers to bench Alex Smith?

      October 4, 2010 /
      San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Troy Smith (L), David Carr (C) and Alex Smith carry pink towels to promote the breast cancer awareness campaign during pre-game warmups before their NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Atlanta, Georgia, October 3, 2010. REUTERS/David Tulis (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT FOOTBALL HEALTH)

      49er fans once again have had about all they can take when it comes to the play of Alex Smith.

      Following yet another rough performance by his starting quarterback in a 16-14 loss to the Falcons on Sunday, 49ers head coach Mike Singletary said that he never thought about pulling Smith during the game. Why would he? Smith killed two potential scoring drives with interceptions, but coaches don’t make it a habit to pull their starting quarterbacks when their team has the lead. And up until the final seven seconds, the Niners had the lead the entire time.

      But while the thought didn’t cross his mind on Sunday, I wonder if Singletary is considering making a quarterback change now. Smith hasn’t been dreadful, but the bottom line is that he isn’t making enough plays in the vertical passing game – or enough plays period. The situation in Atlanta was set up perfectly for him: he had a 14-0 lead, a solid game plan under new offensive coordinator Mike Johnson and a defense that was holding the Falcons to field goals instead of touchdowns. All Smith had to do was keep the chains moving, protect the football and allow the Falcons to kill themselves with dumb mistakes.

      But once again, he failed to do that and now San Fran is 0-4 after many pundits (this one included) projected them to win the NFC West. Given how bad the division is, that goal can still be attained but not if Smith continues to play as poorly as he has.

      The problem is that Singletary has options at quarterback, but they’re not very good. We’ve all witnessed David Carr’s handy work and Nate Davis is still incredibly raw. The wild card is Troy Smith, whom the Niners signed a month ago after the Ravens dumped him. But he’s coming off a brutal preseason and doesn’t have the accuracy or decision-making to be a starter at this juncture. Despite Smith’s play, he still gives the 49ers the best chance of winning at the moment (however long that is) and Singletary may have no choice but to stick with him.

      Then again, why continue to do something if it isn’t working? If Smith can’t produce under Johnson, then Carr, Troy Smith or Davis should get an opportunity. The Niners can’t continue to be derailed by inconsistency at the quarterback position or else this season is about to get longer than it already has been.

      It’s now or never, Alex Smith.

      External Sports, NFL

      Josh Scobee hits chip shot field goal as Jaguars upset Colts

      October 3, 2010 /
      JACKSONVILLE, FL - OCTOBER 03: Quarterback David Garrard of the Jacksonville Jaguars rolls out against the Indianapolis Colts at EverBank Field on October 3, 2010 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

      The NFL – ha! It’s so predictable.

      Well of course the Jaguars were going to upset the Colts today. Why wouldn’t they? They were only coming off back-to-back losses in which their opponents outscored them by a combined 66-16 and posses the 29th worst pass defense in the league. Peyton Manning didn’t have a chance!

      And of course you knew that Josh Scobee would nail a 59-yarder right down the middle to win the game. That was easy to call.

      Seriously, what a freaking kick by Scobee. I’m sure both sidelines were saying, “All right, after this fool dribbles one to about the 7-yard line, we’ll head into overtime and see if we can’t get this thing done.”…Or Scobee will nail it and give the Jaguars an improbable 31-28 victory.

      The NFL – so predictable.

      Let’s give it up for David Garrard for a second. For the past two weeks, the guy has played like Joey Harrington on his worst day and he came out on Sunday and completed 17-of-22 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns. The Colts’ pass defense played passive aggressive the entire day and Garrard made them pay. He may revisit the Harrington style next week, but for one day he was solid.

      As for the Colts, they were just outplayed. They allowed Maurice Jones-Drew and company to rack up 174 rushing yards and also committed two turnovers offensively. The Jaguars had to play a near-perfect game to win and that’s exactly what they did.

      As I wrote earlier in my predictions for this week, the Jags always seem to give the Colts trouble and that’s exactly what happened again today. Nice win.

      External Sports, NFL

      Michael Vick may have fractured his collarbone

      October 3, 2010 /
      PHILADELPHIA - OCTOBER 03: Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles warms up before playing against the Washington Redskins on October 3, 2010 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

      The feel good story of Michael Vick just took a major turn.

      ESPN’s Adam Schefter is speculating that Vick suffered a hairline collarbone fracture in the first half of the Eagles’ game with the Redskins on Sunday. If the report is true, Vick will be out a couple of weeks and Kevin Kolb will be thrust right back into the starting lineup.

      Speaking of which, Kolb hasn’t looked particularly sharp since taking over for Vick and as of this writing, the Eagles are getting it handed to them by Washington, 17-6. Vick was 5-of-7 for 49 yards before suffering the injury and also rushed three times for 17 yards.

      Updates to follow.

      External Sports, NFL

      Steelers defense finally falters as Joe Flacco steps up for Ravens

      October 3, 2010 /
      PITTSBURGH - OCTOBER 03: Anquan Boldin of the Baltimore Ravens runs after a catch in front of Bryant McFadden of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the game on October 3, 2010 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

      If you had gotten Mike Tomlin liquored up before the season started and asked him if he would take a 3-1 record without Ben Roethlisberger, it’s highly unlikely that he would have responded with a “no.” He may have even admitted that he would have taken a split without his starting quarterback.

      But considering his Steelers were so close to a 4-0 start, he must be disappointed today.

      For three weeks, Pittsburgh’s defense had played better than any unit in the league. But on Sunday against the Ravens, their secondary cracked late and Baltimore was able to steal a 17-14 victory in the final minutes.

      I’ll be honest, after Joe Flacco threw that lame excuse for a pass to Anquan Boldin on a 4th and goal with just under three minutes remaining (the one that had little to no chance of being caught by Boldin), I thought the game was over. But the Steelers couldn’t kill the rest of the clock and when Flacco got a second chance to lead his team to victory, he didn’t falter.

      Flacco completed all four of his pass attempts for 40 yards on the Ravens’ final drive, which ended with a T.J. Houshmandzadeh 18-yard touchdown reception with roughly 30 seconds remaining. Flacco shredded Pittsburgh’s secondary, which failed to cover a couple sideline routes and then allowed Houshmandzadeh to get behind them on the final play. Pundits said before the season started that the secondary was the Steelers’ biggest weakness (save for Troy Polamalu, of course) and it showed today.

      But give credit to Flacco. All three of the Ravens’ running backs were banged up and the third-year quarterback stepped up when he had to. There hasn’t been one quarterback (that includes Matt Ryan and Vince Young) who has looked good against Pittsburgh’s defense this year, but Flacco managed to.

      Now that Big Ben is set to return next week, it’s going to be fun watching the Steelers and Ravens battle it out in the AFC North.

      External Sports, NFL

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