Category Archives: 2012 Regular Season

NFL Week 4: AFC West -Teams Making Progress

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Darren McFadden takes a hand-off from Carson Palmer in Sunday’s come from behind win.

Funny how attention on one team seems to trump the news of the rest of the division. Many of us were paying so much attention to Peyton Manning and his progress with the Denver Broncos, we wind up surprised when other teams show they are not to be taken lightly. Such was the case in Oakland last Sunday. There was an emotional response to Darius Heyward-Bey being helped off the field late in that game. From that point on the Raiders played spirited football that hadn’t been seen in the first two weeks, when they couldn’t score more than 14 points. After an 0-2 start, the Raiders got off the canvas and an offense ranked 20th sprang to life and came from behind for a 34-31 victory after being behind 31-21 with 3:00 to go.

The San Diego Chargers fell from the ranks of the unbeaten with a  27-3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.  In a test against one of the NFC’s heavyweights, the Chargers showed they are still lacking when it comes to playmakers. In Antonio Gates, Ryan Matthews, Malcolm Floyd and company, they can get the yardage a given play is designed for but nothing more. Not a game-breaker in the bunch. Atlanta crowded Phillip Rivers and he had nowhere to go with the football as evidenced by his 21 of 38 for 173 yards and 2 interceptions. What this means is they are one of the best of the lesser teams. They can sit on the Oakland’s and Tennessee’s of the world but come up short against stronger teams. This week they travel to Kansas City where they haven’t won in 3 years. Can they do it?? The Chancellor sees a second loss coming.

West Division

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San Diego Chargers Chargers 2 1 0 .667 63 51 1-1 1-0 1-0 2-0 L1 2-1
Denver Broncos Broncos 1 2 0 .333 77 77 1-1 0-1 0-0 1-1 L2 1-2
Kansas City Chiefs Chiefs 1 2 0 .333 68 99 0-1 1-1 0-0 0-1 W1 1-2
Oakland Raiders Raiders 1 2 0 .333 61 88 1-1 0-1 0-1 1-2 W1 1-2

Last week’s 233 yard rushing performance was an eye opener.

Speaking of the Chiefs they are riding the momentum of their 27-24 win in New Orleans. A game where they finally started to look like the team most pundits expected out of the gate. Jamaal Charles ran for a season high 233 yards and displayed he hasn’t lost his game breaking ability with a 91 yard touchdown on the bayou. In those 2 prior meetings the Chiefs stayed with a commitment to the run with 26 rushes in 2010 and 34 in 2011. Now with Cassel and the passing game not totally in rhythm yet, Charles coming off 33 carries last week in the Superdome, and the Chargers allowing 5.7 yards per carry (14 car. 80 yds) for Michael Turner last week. We’re going to take a wild guess and say Kansas City runs the football this week. What do you think??

This week the entire division is squaring off against one another as the Raiders make the trek to Invesco Field. The Broncos will be without the services of MLB Joe Mays who will be serving a suspension. Not the right time when Darren McFadden just had his best game of the season. His 113 yards came on only 18 carries and had a showcase run for a 64 yard touchdown. Right now Denver is 13th against the run and Oakland is 26th against the pass. Last year, Oakland won in Denver when McFadden rushed for over 150 yards. Had the Raiders not played such an emotional game last week they would have a chance to hand the Broncos their third straight loss. The real issue is Manning is going to be able to hit his receivers and expect a huge day from Brandon Stokely. He’ll have a Wes Welker type of day and the Broncos should pull away in this one.

Then it will be time for the first quarter report cards with the season 1/4th over.

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NFL Week 4: NFC North – Lessons of The NFL

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Josh Robinson celebrating after his interception of Alex Smith in the 4th quarter of a 24-13 win.

One of the hardest things an NFL Head Coach has to do is get his team to take a supposed lessor team seriously. Especially when they get a target on their back. Well the Minnesota Vikings stepped up and showed they weren’t going to be pushed around by the San Francisco 49ers. They led the entire game and Chistian Ponder is growing up as a quarterback. So far on the young season he has thrown for 4 touchdowns without a single interception. How competitive has Minnesota been?? Do you realize the Vikings are an Adam Vinatieri overtime field goal away from a 3-0 start??

By the way, where is this explosive Packers offense?? Do you realize after 3 weeks Green Bay has yet to crack 24 points in a game and are ranked 25th in offense?? After throwing for 45 touchdowns a season before, Rodgers only has 3 this season. They are having an issue rushing the football. Twice this season they have failed to rush for more than 100 yards as Cedric Benson and the offensive line haven’t meshed. Nevermind the blown call in last night’s loss to Seattle, the fact is the Packers overlooked Seattle and woke up in a battle. Teams are really playing their receivers physically this season which throws off timing. People tend to forget that in 2010 Aaron Rodgers was 1 concussion away from sitting out the rest of the season. Last night with his being sacked 8 times in the first half they may get him knocked out. They have to right the ship quickly. Now they are behind Seattle (2-1) San Francisco (2-1)  when it comes down to wildcard and division tie breakers. Just remember the old axiom what happens one season doesn’t necessarily happen the next..

Speaking of which…

North Division

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Minnesota Vikings Vikings 2 1 0 .667 70 59 2-0 0-1 0-0 1-0 W1 2-1
Chicago Bears Bears 2 1 0 .667 74 50 2-0 0-1 0-1 1-1 W1 2-1
Green Bay Packers Packers 1 2 0 .333 57 54 1-1 0-1 1-0 1-2 L1 1-2
Detroit Lions Lions 1 2 0 .333 87 94 1-0 0-2 0-0 1-1 L2 1-2

Will the Detroit Lions begin to play defense?? First, DE Cliff Avril sits out all summer and doesn’t want to sign his franchise player contract. Here we are with 7 tackles and 1 sack after three games?? He has to get on track and where is Nick Fairley?? Right now this team isn’t tackling and the defense just gave up 44 points to a team that could not score more than 13 in the previous 2 weeks. That’s embarrassing. The offense finally got RB Mikel Leshoure going (26 car. 100 yards 1TD) the special teams and defense let the team down. The Lions can look forward to having a more balanced offense and keep pressure off Matthew Stafford now. However they may need to make a trade before the week 6 deadline to fortify the defense. After 3 weeks they have only forced 1 turnover and have no interceptions.

Michael Bush was a good insurance policy pickup this offseason. It may pay off this Monday Night when they face Dallas.

Remember when the sky was falling just a week ago when Cutler and the Bears lost in Lambeau?? They are tied for the division lead after beating the Rams 23-6. Jay Cutler has thrown 6 interceptions this early season and is a work in progress. He has to improve on his 52.7% completion rate as he and Brandon Marshall work to find a rhythm.

It looks like the Chicago Bears will be without the services of RB Matt Forte on Monday Night when they face the Dallas Cowboys. Don’t be surprised if the Bears simplify their game plan and feed them Michael Bush 25-30 times. He actually leads the team with 151 yards and 3TDs anyway. This may be the best time for them to run the ball with his straight ahead running style. Allow that defense to rest.

Did we just say something about running the football?? Well Head Coach Leslie Frazier clearly got the memo. In their game with the 49ers, Minnesota ran the football 41 times with Toby Gerhart and Adrian Peterson. There is a culture war going on in the NFL between hard running teams like Minnesota and all these teams lining up in 4 receiver sets and empty backfields. The teams that are playing 7 man sled running, blocking, and tackling football are winning right now. The Packers have lost two to these types of teams already. If you look at the Packers situation in a nutshell, teams have figured out their offense and tendencies and what we have seen over 3 weeks is no fluke. They had better get it together on the ground or they could be watching this year’s playoffs. Both rushing the football and stopping the run. Didn’t Vince Lombardi once say that?? Lessons of the NFL

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Is The 2004 NFL QB Draft Class The Best Ever?

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Eli Manning has two rings….were they better than the 1983 class?

With 3 members of the great quarterback class of 1983 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, at first glance you might say no. Until you realize the class of 2004 has 4 Super Bowl rings won between Eli Manning and Ben Roethlisberger. Not only are they in the prime of their careers but you have to include Pro Bowl QB Matt Schaub and Phillip Rivers as well.

Many pundits have the Houston Texans as an AFC favorite to make this year’s Super Bowl and Phillip Rivers has made the AFC Championship along with a couple of Pro Bowls. How do they stack against the great classes of the past??

Well for starters this class didn’t have to live up to the expectations of the class of 1999. Remember that group? Donovan McNabb, Duante Culpepper, Tim Couch, Akili Smith, and Cade McNown were the hot quarterbacks anointed to challenge the class of 1983 yet came up woefully short.

Couch, Smith, and McNown were out of the league within 5 years. Culpepper had some big seasons culminating with an NFC Championship visit in 2000 and had his best season in 2004 with 4,717 yards and 39 TDs. After that he was a journeyman playing for several teams.

As for Donovan McNabb, he was the face of the Philadelphia Eagles and led them to 4 straight NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl appearance. He played with distinction for well over a decade and was a Pro Bowl quarterback 6 times including 5 straight years (2000-2004). For his career, he threw for 37,726 yards and 234 touchdowns while crossing the 3,000 yard threshold in 8 different seasons. Yet no Super Bowl victories. The class of ’99 only had his 1 Super Bowl appearance.

Which brings us to the hallowed class of 1983. Dan Marino, John Elway, Jim Kelly, Todd Blackledge, Ken O’Brien, and Tony Eason were the signal callers who were going to dominate pro football for the next 15 years. They did….well kind of.

With all of them going to the AFC, the next decade worth of drafts were slanted to pass protecters, specialist linebackers who defensed the pass better than the run along with receivers, and cornerbacks to cover them. The AFC took to the air as their earthbound counterparts in the NFC were rooted in the ground with power running schemes and more stout physical defenses. As the decade wore on each of the class of 83 started making their way to the Super Bowl. One after the other they went down in Super Bowls XIX- XXVIII in 10 straight games. Only after the Denver Broncos built John Elway an NFC team did the class of ’83 finally win two Super Bowls. Four of them reached the Super Bowl and three of them made it to multiple Super Bowls. While Elway, Kelly, and Marino rewrote the record books: Were they better than the ’04 class??

Big Ben has had playoff heroics that are either equal or surpass those of John Elway

The biggest issue the newer quarterbacks face is perception. The media fawned over John Elway being the prototypical quarterback (6’3, blonde hair, golden arm) that he rarely faced detractors until his Super Bowl losses. Sportswriters of the time lauded Marino for his cool in the face of a blitz, and Kelly for his toughness. Roethlisberger, because of a few off field incidents, is rarely thought of in high regard when it comes to writers who romanticize the game’s players.

His scrambles and daring play are every bit as good as John Elway’s and has won more games for the Steelers than most can keep count. Where Elway had The Drive (Elway’s 98 yard drive to tie the 1986 AFC Championship Game) Roethlisberger led a last second drive culminating with a last second touchdown throw to win Super Bowl XLIII with :42 seconds left.

We hardly hear of it talked about in the air of Elway’s drive when Big Ben’s was greater because it won a Super Bowl. Why?? Talk about playoff heroics… What about the 3rd and 19, 58 yard bomb to Antonio Brown with 2:00 left in the 2010 playoff with the Ravens?? It led to the game winning score and another Super Bowl visit. Others in that instance would have played for overtime. Yet where is the coverage of his daring or a nickname for either of these moments??

Did we say last second drives to win Super Bowls?? Well Eli Manning has two. Not only did he take down an undefeated Patriot team in 1 Super Bowl (2007), he proved it wasn’t a fluke with an encore performance in the 46th edition. Where Elway won one conference championship game with a last minute drive on the road, Eli has done that twice now in Green Bay and San Francisco in overtime. He has become the NFL’s all time winningest quarterback in the playoffs with 8 wins away from home, he set the record for road wins in a season with 11.

Then what may go down as one of the defining games of his career happened last Sunday. After throwing 3 interceptions early in the game to put his Giants in a hole, Eli comes back with 245 yards passing in the 4th quarter alone in beating Tampa Bay 41-34. The Giants scored 25 points in that final period as Manning threw for 510 yards overall. He came within 45 yards of the all time record of 554 set by Norm Van Brocklin in 1950.

Comparing these two classes is one-sided in the favor of the ’04 group when it comes to Super Bowls. The latter group is 4-1 in the big game where the ’83 group was 2-10. Where John Elway was the winningest quarterback in NFL history at one time, folks are slow to notice Roethlisberger is approaching 100 with a total of 84 right now. To further tilt matters this group is in it’s prime and how many Super Bowl visits are in the near future when we include Matt Schaub and possibly a Phillip Rivers (both are 2-0 to start 2012). As of right now there are 3 busts in Canton from the earlier group but this one is better and hasn’t come close to finishing their run yet. They need to get the respect their elders did concerning their on-field heroics.

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Replacement Refs Need Replaced

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The NFL tried it’s best to downplay the use of replacement officials in the regular season. The truth of the matter is they nearly blew several games today. In the Green Bay Packer/ San Francisco game, you had a clear illegal block in the back that should have negated a 75 yard punt return by Randall Cobb. It was a touchdown that nearly reversed the game and the official picked up the flag. Why?? Every camera angle clearly showed the hit in the back.

San Francisco held on for a 30-22 hard fought victory but that call put their control of the game in jeopardy. There were calls in that game that were downright awful. Clay Matthews III was called for an unsportsmanlike foul when he was in the midst of tackling Alex Smith. This is still football right?? Several pass interference penalties that were of the ticky tack variety. Granted the calls went against both teams so at least they could each complain.

In the Seattle Seahawks /Arizona Cardinals game we had a Chris Webber moment. Seattle is racing down to take the go ahead score yet didn’t have any timeouts left. With under :40 seconds to go and in the Cardinals redzone the Seahawks called for a timeout. Cardinal players started protesting immediately they didn’t have any. In the booth, the head of the officiating, Mike Preira stated the “damage is done” with the long stoppage to argue the case. The Cardinals were clearly cheated in this situation.  Thankfully the Cardinals stopped the Seahawks on the next three plays or all hell would have broken loose at the NFL offices.  When the score is 20-16 in the 4th quarter, officials have to understand the entire situation just like the players and coaches do. To possibly have your opponent get an extra opportunity to rest and regroup could have proven disastrous.

The regular officials should be celebrating tonight with the bad officiating everyone was making sport of. Even in the telecast of the Steelers v. Broncos, Cris Collinsworth chimed that Al Michaels had more officiating experience than the guys on the field. Yes NFL, it was that bad and the regular officials need to have a deal made before week 2. Now granted it may have been the first week and the officials may make fewer mistakes next week but why take the chance? What happens when one of these gaffes results in a team losing?? Its not fair to the players, coaches, or fans to have that occur. Get the real officials back before the game suffers…

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2012 NFL Season Opener

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Here we go… the beginning of the regular season and The Chancellor of Football is already 0-1. Thanks Giants. Yet it’s time to pick the other games.

Indianapolis Colts @ Chicago Bears – Bears.. Julius Peppers should be all over Andrew Luck

Philadelphia Eagles @ Cleveland Browns- Browns in this week’s upset special….their defense is underrated

St Louis Rams @ Detroit Lions- Lions begin a championship march with a big win in week one

Miami Dolphins @ Houston Texans- Texans… just a better team. Not as strong as they could be this season from a personnel standpoint.

Atlanta Falcons @ Kansas City Chiefs- Chiefs should win their opener… Tony Gonzalez is back in KC for first time.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Minnesota Vikings – Vikings at home will win their opener.

Washington Redskins @ New Orleans Saints_ The Saints will be too much for RG III in his first game.

Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets-  Bills will win with Mario Williams and a revamped Bills defense descends on the Jets pass pocket.

New England Patriots @ Tennessee Titans- Patriots should get after Jake Locker…Brady should do well in the opener.

Seattle Seahawks @ Arizona Cardinals- Cardinals and Larry Fitzgerald should win the opener…

San Francisco 49ers @ Green Bay Packers- Packers in a tight struggle. Rodgers is a great quarterback and should win this game late.

Carolina Panthers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Tampa should win this one with a revamped defense and improved ground game.

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Denver Broncos- Steelers Big Ben will win this game late and Manning will struggle against the Steelers as he did in Indianapolis.

Cincinnati Bengals @ Baltimore Ravens- Ravens will win it by suffocating the Bengals running game.

San Diego Chargers @ Oakland Raiders- Chargers will win it by being more solid on both sides of the ball.  Phillip Rivers starts a bounce back season with a win in Oakland.