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Keyboard Quarterback: Back On Track
Authored by Andrew Perna - 30th October, 2007 - 8:13 pm
With John Herrera standing to his right dressed in black and appearing not unlike an undertaker, Lane Kiffin sat down at the podium for Sunday's postgame news conference.
Baltimore wants Flacco to be their QB of the future. But the Ravens feel they have no choice but to start him now because Boller and Smith are unavailable. Wrong!
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For just the third time this season my Philadelphia Eagles were victorious on Sunday. The Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-16 on the road, with Donovan McNabb chewing up the Vikings’ secondary and spitting them out to the tune of 333 passing yards and a touchdown.
McNabb hooked up with Reggie Brown eight times for 105 yards, and Brian Westbrook added 92 total yards and two touchdowns. More importantly, the Eagles' defense held rookie Adrian Peterson in check. Peterson carried the ball twenty times, after being given the starting nod before the game but only registered seventy yards and failed to reach the end zone.
Philadelphia will host the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday with a chance to close the gap between themselves and first place in the NFC East. Fly, Eagles, Fly.
The Downs The First Down...NFL Invades London The NFL sent the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins to London, England this weekend to take part in the first-ever regular season game overseas. The game wasn’t very exciting, but the fans at Wembely Stadium seemed to enjoy the game nonetheless. Eli Manning and Cleo Lemon had just 208 passing yards between the two of them, as both teams chose to run the ball more often on foreign soil. The Giants were victorious 13-10, winning their sixth straight game on the strength of Brandon Jacobs’ 131 rushing yards.
The Second Down...Bears In Hibernation You know things are bad when you’ve been swept by the Detroit Lions. The Chicago Bears, struggling on offense and not nearly as dominant on defense as they once were, fell to the Lions 16-7 on Sunday at Soldier Field. Brian Griese threw four interceptions into the Detroit secondary, allowing the Lions to win despite having a rough offensive day of their own. Kevin Jones led the way for the Detroit, rushing twenty-three times for 105 yards and a touchdown. The Lions (5-2) are making Jon Kitna look prophetic.
The Third Down...Antonio’s In Charge Remember the beginning of the season when LaDainian Tomlinson was nearly in tears after each game, and San Diego’s offense looked more like the Notre Dame’s than 2006 version of the Chargers? Those days are over. San Diego won their third straight game this weekend, beating the Houston Texans 35-10. It was an exceptionally good day for those named Antonio: Gates, the tight end, caught three passes for 92 yards and two scores. Cromartie, the defensive back, returned both a fumble and an interception for a touchdown for the Chargers. It was nice to see all of the support for the local fire departments as well.
The Fourth Down...Pats, Colts Remain Perfect Thankfully, both the Patriots and Colts were victorious this week. Now we all get what we want: a matchup between the NFL’s last two undefeated teams this Sunday. Indianapolis downed the Panthers 31-7, and New England dismissed the Redskins 52-7. I plan on going into New England territory Sunday to watch the game with Ms. KQ’s family. I’m an Eagles’ fan, but I purchased a Colts shirt for the AFC championship game last season (in order to insult the Pats’ fans). I plan on donning it this coming weekend. Go Colts!
One Last Thing... How amazing was Monday night’s game between the Green Bay Packers and Denver Broncos? A close game all the way, the game headed to overtime after Denver’s Jason Elam scrambled for a field goal as time expired. On the first play of overtime, Brett Favre threw the second-longest overtime touchdown pass in NFL history to Greg Jennings to win the game for the Packers 19-13. To watch Favre run down the field and celebrate like a teenager was truly something worth staying up to see.
The ‘Who The Heck’ Statline of the Week... Texans’ running back Adimchinobe Echemandu: ten rushes for 62 yards and two catches for 11 yards.
My Keyboard Prediction for Week Eight The game between the Patriots and Colts won’t be nearly as high-scoring as people assume, as both offenses come out cautious. The underrated Colts’ defense will come to play, but it won’t matter. They’ll make Tom Brady look human, but New England will still win. For the first time all season the Pats will score fewer than 34 points, beating the Colts 31-27. ’72 Dolphins beware.
My Fantasy Diary... Week Eight was a dangerous one for several reasons. I was facing the Big Bulls, who I verbally assaulted via the League homepage at the beginning of the week. He had been quoted during a local evening newscast after a fierce storm in his hometown, and I used the footage to poke fun at his misfortunes this season.
In addition to lighting a fire underneath the owner of the 2-5 Bulls, I dreaded facing his starting quarterback. Each touchdown celebration featuring my man Donovan McNabb on Sunday would have to be enjoyed with a grain of salt. After being decimated by the hated Tom Brady in Week Seven, I could be sent to my second-straight defeat at the hands of my favorite NFL signal caller.
As I just mentioned, a loss to the Big Bulls would have marked The Drew Crew’s second-straight defeat. At 5-2 I was looking to distance myself from the rest of my division with a victory over the Bulls, but a loss could knock me back down into second place. Not where I wanted to be as the season hits it’s midpoint.
Thanks to Joseph Addai, Willie Parker and Reggie Brown a loss never entered my mind.
The two-headed running monster of the Drew Crew combined for nearly 250 total yards and four touchdowns (three of them coming from Addai). Combine that with Brown’s 105 receiving yards and a tremendous effort from the Titans’ defense, and I had all I needed to solidify a victory.
Eli Manning didn’t have the greatest week for The Crew, but a rushing touchdown in the third quarter excused him from a horrendous 59 passing yards. Damn London pitch.
Respectable efforts from Shayne Graham and Brandon Stokley rounded out the week for the Drew Crew, with a comfortable 27-point win.
I even did the unthinkable and left an injured player on my active roster heading into the 4:15 games. With a comfortable lead, and Stokley still set to play on Monday night, I decided against replacing New England’s Benjamin Watson. There wasn’t anyone on my bench that I felt I could drop in favor of another tight end, and Watson would have been gobbled up by the Bostonian owners of the East Coast Pigskin league.
It may have cost me the $10 associated with registering the league’s weekly high score (I was six points shy), but I’m preparing for the postseason.
Not only did I record another win, doubling my 2006 effort of three wins, but I also made an opportunistic free agent pickup. The Springfield Isotopes, frustrated by two weeks of dismal play, dropped Lions’ QB Jon Kitna. I snagged him up to replace Manning this weekend, who’s on his bye-week.
I have to admit that I peed a little when I saw Kitna on the free agent list. He’s owned in 99 percent of CBS Sports’ leagues, so there was no way I could pass up on him. Unfortunately, I had to drop Panthers’ running back DeAngelo Williams to make room for him. My Little Ponies, who I traded Brandon Marshall to in exchange for Williams, swiftly snatched him up.
This week I face the K-Team, who have been a walking injury report for the majority of the season. He’ll likely throw out Jason Campbell, Maurice Jones-Drew, Edgerrin James, Laveranues Coles, Jericho Cotchery, Todd Heap, Mike Nugent and the Jacksonville defense. It’s a game that on paper I should win handily, but I’ve told my players I’m considering it a trap game at midseason.
And no I’m not crazy, I was just kidding about the pep talk...wink.
My Fantasy Football Record for the 2007 Season: Week Eight: 6-6
Week Seven: 6-6
Week Six: 10-2
Week Five: 5-7
Week Four: 9-3
Week Three: 7-5
Week Two: 6–6
Week One: 8–4
Overall: 57 wins and 39 losses
