NFL Week #2 Review

A lot of people around the NFL are talking about the success of young quarterbacks like Mark Sanchez in New York, Joe Flacco in Baltimore and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan.

But NFL Week #2 was really a celebration of old quarterbacks and young running backs as the league went through the second line of the 2009 schedule.

Brett Favre (soon to be 40), Kurt Warner (38), Peyton Manning (33) and Drew Brees (30) all led their teams to big victories, with the last three on the road. The Vikings, Colts and Saints are all 2-0 to start the year.

And those young running backs lit up the scoreboard, as 26-year old Frank Gore and soon to be 24-year old Chris Johnson just blew up their opponents.

Manning put the cap on the week with a remarkable effort in beating Miami on Monday night. With a decided disadvantage in time of possession, Manning directed the Colts to the victory and started it all on the first Indy offensive play on an 80-yard TD pass to TE Dallas Clark (right). They held the ball for less than 15 minutes and ran just 35 plays, and won.

“It was about being efficient when it counted, in the fourth quarter,” Manning said after the game. “That’s really what the game’s about.” Read More..

Super Bowl Set: Arizona & Pittsburgh

One team headed to Tampa is a surprise, a big surprise. The other club with a spot in Super Bowl LXIII is a familiar face, a very familiar face.

The Arizona Cardinals will make the franchise’s first appearance in the NFL Championship Game in 60 years as the NFC representative after their 32-25 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Their opponent will be the Pittsburgh Steelers, making the franchise’s seventh trip to the Super Bowl and second in the last four years after a bruising 23-14 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

The Cardinals and Steelers will tee it up somewhere around 5:30 p.m. CST on Sunday, February 1 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The game will be broadcast on NBC.

For statistics and other details on both games, click here for the Cardinals-Eagles, and you can click here for the Steelers-Ravens.

Pittsburgh will try to become the first NFL franchise to win a sixth Super Bowl. Right now, the Steelers, 49ers and Cowboys all own five Lombardi trophies.

Arizona’s trip to Tampa dropped the number of NFL franchises who have never been there to five: Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville and New Orleans.

It was an emotional victory as evidence by the picture at the right of FB Terrelle Smith and DT Gabe Watson after the game at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

The Cardinals entered the playoffs with the least amount of momentum of any of the 12 teams, but they were able to overcome thanks to a strong defensive effort and the play of their 37-year old quarterback, Kurt Warner. A Super Bowl MVP from almost a decade ago with St. Louis, Warner engineered a 72-yard drive to win it with his fourth TD pass of the day.

The winner was an eight-yard pass to rookie RB Tim Hightower. Warner then hit TE Ben Patrick for the two-point conversion.

“I want to say thanks to all of you guys,” Warner told the crowd during the post-game celebration. “When nobody else believed in us, when nobody else believed in me, you guys did and we’re going to the Super Bowl.”

Back on Thanksgiving night, the Cardinals were blown out by the Eagles 48-20. They rolled into the playoffs having lost four of their last six games to finish the season at 9-7 and the No. 4 seed on the NFC side of the tournament bracket.

“It was a great team win for us,” said head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who in two seasons since joining the team has turned a losing culture into a championship environment.

With post-season victories over Atlanta, Carolina and the Eagles this is the Cardinals winningest season of all time with 12 victories. They’ve already surpassed their total of successful games in the playoffs dating back to when the playoffs began in 1933. Read More..

NFC Championship Game Preview

When it comes to football’s glamour position, the best match up of championship Sunday comes in the desert.

Donovan McNabb, 32 years old, 10-year veteran, appearing in his fifth NFC Championship Game. Kurt Warner, 37 years old, 11-year veteran, appearing in his third conference title game.

McNabb leads his Philadelphia Eagles into the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale against Warner and his Arizona Cardinals.

Kickoff Sunday afternoon is 2 o’clock CST with the broadcast on FOX.

When McNabb took the Eagles to the Super Bowl in February of 2005, he was leading a very veteran club. When Warner took the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl in January of 2000 and February of 2002, he was at the start of his NFL career. The first time, came as an unknown replacement for the injured Trent Green in the ‘99 season with Dick Vermeil.

Right now, they are the grizzled veterans of their teams, passing on not only their play, but their experience.

“I have had a number of guys come, especially some leaders on our team, and ask me ‘What are we missing? What do we need to do?’” said Warner. “It was kind of exciting for me because I have never had that before. When we were wavering a little bit and not playing so well, guys were concerned. Guys were looking for answers. That was exciting to me. Some young guys, some leaders, who even though they may be young and haven’t been here before, they are still leaders on our football team. Trying to get them whatever knowledge I could to help them to go to their group and share that with their group and bring us closer together.”

Warner was quick to provide his younger teammates with what he’s learned over his time with the Rams, Giants and now the Cardinals.

“When you play against good football teams, playoff football teams, they are all well-coached, they don’t make many mistakes and they capitalize on the mistakes that you make,” said Warner. “I think that is what we saw down the stretch. We played some football teams. I know some people wanted to say, ‘Well, the Cardinals aren’t very good.’ I think we realized what it was like to play against playoff football teams. We got to see four playoff teams there down the stretch. Read More..

AFC Championship Game Preview

So what’s in a name?

Apparently a lot if you are the Mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl. This past week he had his name legally changed to Luke Steelerstahl before the team’s match up with the Ravens in the AFC Championship. All in support o f his hometown team.

Oh by the way, stahl in German is steel.

So what’s in a name?

In Baltimore, the Ravens cry all season has been “What’s my name?” It’s based on a speech given to them by head coach John Harbaugh’s father way back in August, when he told the team the story of Muhammad Ali.

So what’s in a name?

In both of these cities, the other team’s name is considered mud, or other less pleasant substances.

“Pure hatred for one another,” is how Steelers WR Hines Ward (above left) described the emotional level of the average Ravens-Steelers game.

Those are some of the story lines surrounding Sunday’s AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field. It’s the Ravens and the Steelers, an AFC North re-match.

Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m. CST in Pittsburgh and can be seen on CBS.

These fellow members of the AFC North will play each other for the third time this season. Pittsburgh won the previous two games, taking a three-point overtime victory at Heinz Field in September and then a four-point victory at Baltimore in December.

Since the current post-season system was created with the merger of the two leagues in 1970, this is the 16th time that division mates played for the conference championship. The last time was 1999, when Tennessee swept Jacksonville in their season series. There have been four occasions where a team had the chance to take three games with the AFC Championship. That team won three of the four times: Tennessee ‘99, Miami ‘82 and the New York Giants ‘86. In 1983, the Seattle Seahawks won the two regular season games against the Raiders, but ended up losing the title game.

Besides the fact they are division rivals, these teams don’t like each other one bit and it’s become one of the NFL’s best rivalries. Read More..

NFL’s Final Four: How They Were Built

There are three familiar groups and one interloper in the NFL’s Final Four this year.

But there is a familiar theme to how they got there. In all four cases, they built their teams through the draft. Some relied more on the annual selection meeting more than others, but more than half of each team’s starters at the end of the season and into the playoffs came via the NFL Draft.

And at least three of these teams have been doing it that way for years. The Philadelphia Eagles made the playoffs for the seventh time in this decade and it’s their fifth appearance in the NFC Championship Game. The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens have found a spot in the tournament six times each. The Steelers are in the fourth AFC title game this decade and it’s No. 1 for the Ravens.

The interlopers are the Arizona Cardinals, who made the playoffs for the first time this decade and haven’t been in a championship game since 1948, when they were based in Chicago.

Here’s a look at how these teams were built. Read More..

Divisional Weekend/Game No. 4

Sunday morning dawned cold and snowy in Pittsburgh.

Perfect weather for the Steelers? A real disadvantage for the visitors from SoCal?

Not necessarily. History shows us that when it comes to having the home-field advantage in the playoffs, one team that frequently can’t seem to cash that chip at the tournament table are the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Steelers and Chargers will battle at Heinz Field with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. The broadcast is on CBS.

Pittsburgh faces quite a challenge with these Chargers, who are trying to make history. With a victory in the snow, San Diego would become the first 8-8 team to win two games in the playoffs and it would make them the first team with fewer than 10 victories to make the conference championship game in 12 seasons (Jacksonville in 1996 went .

Could the Chargers be this season’s version of the New York Giants, a team that struggled through the end of the regular season a year ago before tearing through the playoffs en route to the Super Bowl title?

“Why not us?” QB Philip Rivers said.

The Steelers hope to have the answers to why it won’t be the Chargers. The league’s No. 1 defense has dragged the team’s sluggish offense throughout this season. This Pittsburgh team is a veteran group, just two years removed from a Super Bowl championship.

But that title run came on the road. At Heinz Field, the Steelers are just 3-3 in the post-season, including losing to Jacksonville last year 31-29.

“I think we just have to play confidently, play the way we play in all three phases,” veteran receiver Hines Ward told the Pittsburgh media this week. “Most of us have been around long enough to know that it’s the playoffs and that you can’t just show up and win. It takes a great game and I think people know that. We’ve added some young guys who get it now — like LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons. Everyone realizes what it takes at this stage, control the ball, don’t turn it over, do what you do.”

What the Chargers do is move the ball on offense, especially through the air on the arm of Rivers. The weather conditions and his groin injury will likely make LaDainian Tomlinson a pre-game scratch, making the passing game even more important. It will have to come in weather conditions that will not be ideal. The weather service says it will feel like 18 degrees when the game starts, and that temperature will go down as the game goes on and night settles over the stadium. Read More..

Divisional Weekend/Game No. 3

Division rematches are always so much fun in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.

Like Sunday’s early game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants. For the third time this year, RB Brian Westbrook (right) will try to run away from LB Antonio Pierce.

These two teams have played each other 152 times over league history. That includes three games in the playoffs. They faced each other twice this season, splitting the games with the Giants winning at Philly by five points and the Eagles winning in the Meadowlands by six points.

They’ll faceoff for the third and deciding game of the ‘08 New Jersey Turnpike Series today, again at the Meadowlands. Kickoff is noon CST and the broadcast is on FOX.

These teams are separated by 100 miles of New Jersey, a trip that’s less than two hours getting on the Turnpike at exit three or four and jumping off at exit 16-W for Giants Stadium.

Familiarity sometimes breeds contempt, and like any divisional rivals that’s happened in the past. But these are two battle-tested, veteran teams who have spent a lot of time in the playoffs over recent seasons. These guys know that as much history as there has been between the teams, it matters not after kickoff.

“The 2008 regular season is over with,” Pierce told the New York media last week. “There is nothing we can do about it. It is not going to help us moving forward. We can look at film and study, but come Sunday, it is a totally different ballgame. I think we understand that.

“The psyche of the team this year is a group that understands what it takes to win the championship. We have 35 or 40 players that were on this team last year, coaching staff, front office, everybody. They know what it takes to win the championship. So what we have this year is experience. And that is what we are going to use this Sunday.” Read More..

Divisional Weekend/Game No. 2

That the Arizona Cardinals are a 10-point underdog for their divisional round game in the NFC playoffs comes as no surprise in light of one simple fat: these birds do not travel very well.

The Cardinals went 0-5 going to play in the Eastern Time Zone this season. Since 2003 they are 2-19 when they head east.

Tonight the Cardinals face the Carolina Panthers and WR Steve Smith (left) at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. Kickoff is 7:15 p.m. and the broadcast is on FOX.

“I don’t really put much stock in that other than to say if we’re 0-5, then maybe we’re due,” said Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt.

“Maybe it’s time we win one. We’re going to win one at some point. Hopefully, it’ll be this weekend.”

What else can a coach say? There’s only one way for the Cardinals to get over this problem and that’s toughen up mentally and not be affected by long flights, hotel room beds and non-supportive fans. Whisenhunt tried this year when the Cardinals had back-to-back games on the east coast and he kept the team there for the week of preparation. They ended up getting smeared in that second game, giving up 56 points to the New York Jets; so much for that strategy.

All five of their opponents finished the season at .500 or above, so that didn’t help either. They get another one in the Panthers who played solid football all season and came within an overtime loss to the Giants of having the best record in the NFC.

One of the Panthers victories came against the Cardinals, right there in Charlotte when they trailed the visitors by 14 points before coming back and picking up a four-point victory in October. The winner was a 65-yard TD pass from Jake Delhomme to Smith.

The game’s outcome will come down to which defense has the best night.

Read More..

Divisional Weekend/Game No. 1

As usually happens in situations like a game in the divisional round of the playoffs, it would be more fun and entertaining if the Baltimore defense had to play against the Tennessee defense.

That can only happen on paper, but it’s been happening all this week in both Baltimore and Nashville leading into the matchup between these two teams in a divisional game in the AFC Playoffs.

Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. CST from LP Field in Nashville. CBS has the broadcast.

The Ravens defense put on quite a show last week in beating Miami in the wildcard round and that has the whole football nation talking about Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and those mean and nasty guys from Baltimore.

All that’s done is tick off the mean and nasty guys on the Tennessee defense, and rest assured, they have those type of guys. DT Albert Haynesworth (above), LB Keith Bulluck and CB Cortland Finnegan are among the best in the business, and they enjoy the rough, in-your-face style that is so associated with Baltimore.

And, they don’t like it one bit that their defense has been forgotten.

“Well, that’s what everybody is saying, they are the best,” Finnegan said this week in Nashville. “We’ve got a lot to prove to people for a team that finished 13-3 with the No. 1 seed in the AFC. All of us on defense have sort of put it in our back pocket as a little extra ammunition.”

When the first and second All-Pro teams were announced on Friday, they included six defensive players in this game. Lewis, Reed, Haynesworth and Finnegan made the first team, with Baltimore’s Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs on the second team.

Here’s an important tidbit on all six of those guys: they were all drafted by their teams. Lewis, Reed, Haynesworth, Ngata and Suggs were first-round picks. Finnegan was a seventh-round choice.

The most important defensive statistic in any season is points allowed and Tennessee was second in the league, giving up 14.6 points per game. Baltimore was third at 15.2 points per game. But the Ravens actually allowed fewer touchdowns, giving up 21, while the Titans allowed 24. Read More..

Shuffling the Numbers/Kickers

With the end of the 2008 season, we are taking a look inside the statistics generated by the league’s 32 teams over the 356-game schedule.

Today, we focus on the field goal kickers.

FIELD GOALS/OVERALL

There was a time in the NFL when if a kicker made 75 percent of his field goals, he was considered an average kicker.

Now, he’d have a hard time keeping his job.

Twenty-five years ago, the leading kicker in the 1983 NFL season was Matt Bahr of the Cleveland Browns, who made 87.5 p ercent of his field goals on the season (21 of 24).  There were a total of 10 kickers who made at least 80 percent of their field goals.

There were 24 kickers in the league that made at least 80 percent of their field goal attempts during the 2008 season. In the season before, that number was 23.

The most accurate kicker of the ‘08 season was Detroit’s Jason Hanson. The veteran kicker for the team that put up the worst record in NFL history, Hanson was sensational. He missed one field goal among his 22 attempts. That was a 33-yard attempt that was blocked by Jacksonville in early November. That total included a perfect eight-for-eight from 50 yards or more. His 95.5 percent success rate; that was the best season by a kicker since Mike Vanderjagt of Indianapolis went 37 for 37 in the 2003 season.

There were six who topped 90 percent. Here are the top kickers in overall FG percentage:

Hanson was the only kicker to miss just one field goal. Elam and Folk missed only two. Everyone else missed at least three. The kicker who missed the most FGs was Washington’s Shaun Suisham, who hit 26 of 36 for 72.2 percent. Read More..

Shuffling the Numbers/Passing

With the end of the 2008 season, we are taking a look inside the statistics generated by the league’s 32 teams over the 356-game schedule.

Today, we focus on the quarterbacks.

INDIVIDUAL NUMBERS

Quarterbacks can be judged by many different numbers, depending on the emphasis of the evaluation. Touchdown passes to interceptions; that ratio is a very important number. So is completion percentage and ditto for average gain per attempt. That’s why those numbers all factor in to the number we’ll use for judging the individual quarterbacks and that’s passer rating.

The top quarterback in the league was San Diego’s Philip Rivers, who finished with a passer rating of 105.5. He was the only quarterback to finish the season above the 100 passer rating mark. Miami’s Chad Pennington (97.4) and Kurt Warner of Arizona (96.9) were right behind him

When it comes to touchdown passes, Rivers and Drew Brees of New Orleans led the league with 34 each. The fewest interceptions for full-time starting quarterbacks was Washington’s Jason Campbell, who threw six in 506 attempts.

The best TD/INT ratio was Rivers, who threw 34 TD passes and 11 interceptions. The best completion percentage was Pennington, who hit 321 of 476 passes, 67.4 percent. And the best average gain per attempt was Rivers at 8.39 yards for his 478 throws.

Here’s the top ten in pass rating for the ‘08 season:

Interesting note on the top 10: as the league hits the divisional games in the playoffs this coming weekend, only two of the top passers are still playing: Rivers and Warner. Only four of the top 10 made the playoffs with Pennington and Manning eliminated last weekend. Proof positive again that it’s great to have one of the league’s top passers, but it guarantees nothing when talking about victories and playoffs. Read More..

Shuffling the Numbers/Receiving

With the close of the 2008 regular season, we will take the next few days to look inside the numbers generated by the league’s 32 teams over the 256-game schedule.

Today the focus is on the receivers.

INDIVIDUAL NUMBERS

Houston’s Andre Johnson (right)  was the league’s leading receiver in both catches (115) and yards (1,575). Johnson finished ahead of the second place receivers in receptions (New England’s Wes Welker with 111) and yards (Denver’s Brandon Marshall with 1,265 yards.)

While the NFC dominated the list of top rushers, it was the AFC that dominated the list of top receivers, but the other conference led the way in receiving yardage. Seven of the top 10 in receptions were from the AFC, but six of the top 10 in yardage were from the NFC.

The NFC’s leading receiver was Larry Fitzgerald of Arizona, with 96 catches for 1,431 yards.

Here’s the top 10 in receiving yardage: Read More..

Shuffling the Numbers/Rushing

With the close of the 2008 regular season, we will take the next few days to look inside the numbers generated by the league’s 32 teams over the 256-game schedule.

Today, we zero in on the running game.

INDIVIDUAL NUMBERS

Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson dethroned LaDainian Tomlinson as the league’s best runner in 2008.

Tomlinson had led the league for the previous two seasons. But his injury filled season knocked him out of the top spot and he fell all the way to No. 10.

Peterson finished with 1,760 yards on 363 carries. That was an improvement on his rookie season when he ran for 1,341 yards on 238 carries. That gives him 3,101 yards in two seasons; he’s the fifth back in NFL history to run for more than 3,000 yards in his first two seasons.

He finished 61 yards ahead of Atlanta’s Michael Turner (right), who finished with 1,699 yards while leading the league in carries with 376.

The top four rushers were from the NFC: Peterson, Turner, DeAngelo Williams of Carolina (1,515) and Washington’s Clinton Portis (1,487). The AFC’s leading rusher for the ‘08 season was Thomas Jones of the New York Jets with 1,312 yards.

TEAM NUMBERS

The top running team in the NFL for the ‘08 season was the New York Giants. They averaged 157.4 rushing yards per game. The worst running team in the most recent season was the Arizona Cardinals. They averaged 73.6 rushing yards per game. Read More..

Wildcard Weekend Game Four

“Hey, it’s win or go home.”

Spoken like a true veteran. But the speaker was still a relative youngster, the key figure in wildcard weekend’s fourth and final matchup: 23-year old Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

With an NFL career of just 30 games, Peterson will be the focal point of the Philadelphia defensive efforts, as the Eagles go on the road and try to use their post-season experience to beat the Vikings.

Game-time is 3:30 p.m. from the Metrodome and will be on FOX.

“This year he is more patient, he will hit it inside and then bounce it,” Eagles veteran safety Brian Dawkins said of Peterson. “I think that’s the thing that you see more so than anything. You can bottle him up for three straight quarters and all of a sudden if you get out of your gap in that fourth quarter, he can gash you for a couple of long big runs.”

There has been a lot of talk this week in both the Twin Cities and the City of Brotherly Love about Peterson and his fumbling. He led all running backs in the league with nine fumbles, with six of those coming in December. Vikings opponents were clearly trying to pry the ball loose.

“I’ve just got to do my job and keep the ball high and tight,” Peterson said.

If the Eagles try too many tackles aimed at ripping the ball loose, they may forget to make the tackle and Peterson can make them pay with his speed.

“Eventually you can hit a home run on these guys,” Peterson said. “But they play solid football up front with the front four and linebackers. It’s going to be a tough game.”

Peterson says he’s looking forward to going against an Eagles defense that frequently sends an extra player into the pass rush. The downside to all that blitzing? It leaves one less defender to keep a running back from scoring should he make it past the front line. Read More..

Wildcard Weekend Game Three

“There was a culture change that had to take place here, just with everybody in the building, to be quite honest with you. It wasn’t just the players. It was everybody.”

Today’s wildcard Sunday quiz is this: which rookie head coach said the above? Was it Baltimore’s John Harbaugh? Or was it Tony Sparano (right) of Miami?

The answer is Sparano of the Dolphins, but it easily could have been Harbaugh. Both men took over teams that needed a real facelift, not so much just o n the roster but in attitude. Both provided that in their first seasons as NFL head coaches.

The teams meet today at Dolphin Stadium. Kickoff is noon on CBS.

The Dolphins are coming off that 1-15 season and their 11-5 season is one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in NFL history. The Ravens were 5-11 last year and had tuned out the Brian Billick coaching staff. They turned it around with an 11-5 record this year.

Besides new coaches, the key for both teams was new quarterbacks. The Ravens grabbed Joe Flacco in the first round of the draft. The Dolphins signed Chad Pennington after he was released back in August by the New York Jets. Pennington won the league’s Comeback Player of the Year Award, but he wasn’t sure what he was walking into when he signed.

“As far as the end result, I really didn’t know,” Pennington said. “I don’t think our team really knew. We were kind of surfing through this thing one week at a time and learning more and more about ourselves each day, as individuals as well as teammates.”

They’ve learned enough to win five consecutive games and nine of their last 10. Read More..