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Keyboard Quarterback: The Week That Was Four
Authored by Andrew Perna - 5th October, 2006 - 5:22 pm
While there isn't a real marquee matchup, Ravens vs. Colts, Panthers vs. Bucs, Bears vs. Falcons, and Chargers vs. Patriots are all pivotal games in the standings.
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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Week four in the NFL was full of exciting individual performances, incredible comebacks (including more than one in the Colts-Jets game), and the rise and fall of football’s unbeaten teams. Terrell Owens, after another week of controversy, started for Dallas and reeled in five catches for eighty-eight yards. I can’t wait until next Sunday when the Cowboys play the Eagles, and T.O. brings the drama to a whole new level in the City of Brotherly Love. Other highlights included Mario Williams leading the Texans to their first win with his first sack, and Kansas City shutting out San Francisco for only the second time in the last two decades.
So sit back, put your feet up, and grab a beverage of your choice, it’s time to enjoy the highs and lows from the NFL’s fourth week and another edition of my thrilling fantasy diary…
The Highest of the High Santana Moss Scores Hat Trick Last week it was the steady arm of Mark Brunell that led the Washington Redskins to victory. This week it was wide receiver Santana Moss who took charge as the Redskins improved to 2-2, with a gripping overtime victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Moss only recorded four catches, but three of them were touchdowns – his last was a 68-yarder in overtime to give Washington the win.
Tom and Larry Lead Pats Over Bengals Cincinnati entered Sunday’s game 3-0, while the Pats were coming off a disappointing lost to the Denver Broncos. The Bengals seemed to enter this match-up of AFC powerhouses with the advantage, even leading 6-0 after the first quarter of play. However, the next forty-five minutes belonged to New England as they rushed, literally, to a 38-13 win. Rookie running back Laurence Maroney ran for 125 yards and two touchdowns, and Tom Brady outplayed his counterpart, Carson Palmer, with a respectable 188 yards and two scores.
Bulger Bolsters Rams Attack St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger led the Rams to a victory over the Detroit Lions in an offensive shootout Sunday. Bulger went 26-42, throwing for 328 yards and three touchdowns. His last, a 5-yarder to Isaac Bruce, came with under two minutes left in the game and gave the Rams the lead. Jon Kitna made one too many mistakes for the Lions, costing them the 34-41 loss in St Louis. The Rams are now 3-1, while the Lions fell to 0-4.
Air McNair Takes Flight New Ravens quarterback Steve McNair hasn’t posted the most impressive stats through his first four games in Baltimore, but he’s done enough to help his team open the season with four straight victories. Trailing 13-9, after the Chargers took an intentional safety, McNair led the Ravens on a game-winning drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Todd Heap with 34 seconds left on the clock. The win was also a direct result of the Ravens defense. Baltimore’s Ray Lewis and Bart Scott combined for twenty-nine total tackles and an interception against San Diego.
The Bears, Oh My! The Seahawks might have been without last year’s MVP, but there were no excuse for the smack down the Chicago Bears laid on last year’s NFC Champions. The Bears demolished Seattle 37-6 on Sunday night. The Chicago defense held Matt Hasselbeck to 196 passing yards and zero touchdowns, while forcing two interceptions. Remember, last week Hasselbeck lit up the Giants for a career-high five touchdowns. Rex Grossman continued to improve with 232 yards and two scores. The 4-0 Bears will face the Bills in week five, looking to extend their NFC North lead.
The Lowest of the Lows Tennessee Tattooed by Tuna’s Team The Vince Young Era began in Tennessee on Sunday, and the result was no different than what Jeff Fisher and the Titans have seen all season. They remained winless after allowing the Cowboys to rack up 396 yards and forty-five points, while gaining only 229 yards and fourteen points of their own. Young ended the game with 155 yards and one touchdown, but was intercepted twice by the Dallas secondary. Tennessee has scored the fewest points of any team who has played four games, and is averaging over thirty points allowed per game.
Warner Done in Arizona? The Cardinals lost their third straight game with a loss to the Atlanta Falcons this weekend. The Arizona offense, which was supposed to be among the league’s most explosive, struggled again on Sunday scoring just ten points. The Cardinals didn’t manage an offensive touchdown, with their lone touchdown coming on a 99-yard interception return by Adrian Wilson. The loss may have ended Kurt Warner’s run in Arizona, as the Cardinals announced that former USC standout Matt Leinart will start next week against the Chiefs.
Albert Haynesworth I already covered the new low reached by the Tennessee Titans in their loss to the Cowboys this weekend, but what Haynesworth did in the third quarter on Sunday deserves special admonishing. After Julius Jones of Dallas scored on a five-yard run, Haynesworth kicked Dallas center Andre Gurode in the face. A combination of Haynesworth’s spikes and the fact that Gurode lost his helmet on the play left the Cowboy a bloody mess. His actions were not only inexcusable but also embarrassing for the entire Titans organization. His five-game suspension is just what the doctor ordered.
Mangini and the Jets I’m not even going to touch upon the now infamous call in the third quarter of the Jets game against the Colts when Mangini decided to go for it on fourth down, well within field goal range. For the Jets the loss was a disappointment, because it seemed as though they had the game won several times. New York is now 2-2, but change a few last second plays in both of their losses and the Jets are easily 4-0. They took the led on a five-yard run by Kevan Barlow with 7:55 left in the fourth quarter, only to watch Peyton Manning tie the game with a two-yard pass to Bryan Fletcher with less than three minutes left. The drama didn’t end there – Justin Miller returned the Colts kick-off 103 yards for another go ahead touchdown, giving the Jets a 28-24 lead with a little over two minutes remaining. However, it only took Manning ninety seconds to go sixty-one yards and give the Colts the victory. If that wasn’t enough, the Jets attempt at a lateral to win the game on the last play nearly worked, before they where stopped well inside Indianapolis’ territory.
Jags Hit Snag Two weeks ago the Jacksonville Jaguars looked as though they had vaulted themselves among the AFC elite. They had just dismantled the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football 9-0, and were headed into Indianapolis with a chance to make yet another statement against an AFC powerhouse. Instead, two weeks later the Jaguars are 2-2 and in search of the defensive intensity that won them their first two games. Their offense must step it up when it counts from here on out. They haven’t played horribly in their last two games, losses to Indianapolis and Washington, but they could have played their way to at least a 3-1 record heading into a match-up with the Jets.
My Fantasy Diary – It’s getting better… Maybe it was all the hard work and effort I put in, maybe it was luck, or maybe it was the phone calls I made to several NFL front offices before this weekend’s games, but something lit a fire under my fantasy teams. For the first time all season my nine teams combined for a winning record, going 7-2 in week four.
I posted my first win in three of the most competitive leagues I’m in – the RealGM Challenge League, my college league, and the ever-important CBS East Coast Pigskin League. Wins in each of those leagues could help turn my season around, and maybe even somehow earn a coveted playoff berth. I pulled off a 3-1 record on Monday night, with the Eagles-Packers game weighing heavily in four of my leagues.
I clinched a victory in the East Coast Pigskin League, 74.3 to 55.9, over the Woodpeckers as Eagles’ kicker David Akers outscored Brett Favre 7.6 to 4.3 with the expanded CBS scoring. The win puts me in a tie for last place in my division, which is a step-up from enjoying the last place spot on my own
Next week I’ll take on The High Stokers, as I gun for my second straight win. My proudest fantasy moment came on Sunday morning when minutes before Indianapolis kicked off I took Ahman Green out and played Joseph Addai. Addai has a stellar week and Green ended up not playing against Philly on MNF. Another came when my team, Cut That Meat, improved to 4-0 in a league comprised of fellow Shelton, Connecticut natives.
The Shelton league is called, The Dan Orlovsky Charity League, as the commissioner decided to give a shout out to another Shelton native, Lions back-up quarterback Dan Orlovsky. I got my fourth straight victory with a five point win this weekend, and will look to go 5-0 when I play Damage Inc. this weekend. It’s good to dominate every now and then. My 7-2 performance this week puts my teams in much better standing heading into the meat of the NFL schedule. Let’s just hope this positive run continues…
