Team News
If The Play-Offs Started Tomorrow…
Nov 9th
Just how surprised would we be with the teams there?
The AFC Would shape us as follows, ranked in descending order:
- Baltimore Ravens
- New York Jets
- Kansas City Chiefs
- Tennessee Titans
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- New England Patriots
There’s little doubt with the season just over halfway through that the AFC is generally stronger than the NFC and that list shows this very clearly. The Colts are also just a game away and can’t be ruled out either.
If there’s one team with a question mark there, it’s the Kansas City Chiefs. Although they’re atop the [relatively] weak AFC West, I’m not sure they can stay there all season. When you look at the teams they’ve played though, their schedule has worked strongly in their favour – they’ve played only one team of the twelve I have making the post-season here (the Colts) and they lost that. In this scenario, I think the Patriots would be more than happy to be heading to Kansas for Wildcard weekend.
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NFL International Series: Meet Your Starting Quarterback
Oct 27th
Troy Smith
I have to be honest and say that I don’t know much about this other Smith, beyond the broadstrokes I know he won the Heissman, can scramble, had limited use at Baltimore and that he’s not practised with the firsts at the 49ers. Also that I can’t find a decent picture of him as a 49er.
There are worse places to make a debut though, than at a neutral venue. As I said in an earlier post, Josh Freeman has developed well after taking over for Josh Johnson in last year’s game – it’d be nice to see Troy’s career take-off in a similar way. We wish him the best of luck.
Image Credit: Keith Allison
Oh no! Romo!!
Oct 27th
By now I’m sure you have all heard about the injury to Tony Romo. He took a hit in Monday night’s game against the Giants and had to leave the field never to return. Well, that night anyway. Now we know the extent of his injury the forecast shows that Tony will miss at least 6-8 weeks with a fractured left clavicle. Good news? No surgery is required, and it is his non-throwing shoulder. Bad news? I suppose the fact that the Cowboys will be without their franchise quarterback during this harsh time is bad news enough… for Cowboys fans anyway.
Tony Romo
NFL International Series 2010: Wembley Watch – Morning Update, Wednesday 27th
Oct 27th
A quick update and some team news. As injury statuses are updated later today, we’ll get a clearer picture of where things are.
San Francisco 49ers
Alex Smith‘s status is still unknown. A scan has confirmed that he’s got a seperated shoulder, the extent of it hasn’t been revealed. It’ll be later today when a status is given to him, but he was in a sling yesterday so it doesn’t look good.
Nate Clements and Delanie Walker are both expected to play. Eric Heitmann is still out.
EDIT – I really should have waited. Troy Smith has been announced as the starting QB for the 49ers. Hopefully he’ll go on to do as well as Josh Freeman (who also made his debut at Wembley) is doing.
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NFL International Series 2010: Wembley Watch – Update 9pm, Monday 25th
Oct 25th
NFL at Wembley... Not Long Now
The 49ers have arrived and are settling into London and the UK timezone for a good number of days ahead of Sunday’s game. Yesterday Alex Smith underwent some tests on his shoulder, but it’s still not known at this point if he’ll be able to play or not.
If he can’t, expect to see some serious time spent running the ball. The Broncos gave up 328 yards on the ground against the Oakland Raiders this week, a number which… well, wow. If the 49ers can get their young offensive line to create some seams, Frank Gore could have another great day and possible his third consecutive 100 yard game. If that’s the case (and I know there’s a lot of ‘ifs’ here) then backup QB David Carr won’t be asked to win the game, just not to lose it… something which he didn’t manage this past week.
NFL International Series 2010: Wembley Watch – 6 Days To Go
Oct 25th
Yes, there is less than a week left until these two teams face off at Wembley Stadium, and neither team had the ideal preparation this week with them both losing.
We’ll be taking a closer look at this match later in the week, and making our final predictions but here’s what happened last night.
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LaDanian Tomlinson… Sorry, But I’m Not Drinking The Kool-Aid
Oct 21st
A lot has been made of LaDanian Tomlinson‘s apparent return to form this season. After leaving the Chargers after a largely productive 9 years, he’s now a Jet and seeing game time, and putting some yards up like the LDT of old.
But let’s take a closer look… let’s take a look at his stats and compare them to last year’s starter over the same timeframe:
| Games | Carries | Yards | Avg | TDs | |
| LaDanian Tomlinson, 2010 to date | 6 | 93 | 490 | 5.3 | 5 |
| Thomas Jones, 2009 Weeks 1-6 | 6 | 96 | 481 | 5 | 6 |
So let’s be honest: He’s not doing any better than Thomas Jones, who was released, and both players had their numbers boosted by playing the Bills. There is a very strong case that LDT’s production this year is largely a result of the system; that he’s at a team much more set for the run than the pass, with lineman ready for it, indeed an entire club ethos of running it “up their ass”. In fairness, Thomas had some bad games in that timeframe, against the Titans in particular, but he was productive in others including 100+ yard games in 4 of the 6 divisional matchups.
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Players Fined For Hits
Oct 20th
This season, more than ever it seems, we’re hearing more and more about concussions. There have been long term studies going on for a while about the long-term affects of playing a game that gets you hit a lot, but there has also been a culture of ignoring it. That definitely seems to be over, with 32 reported incidents so far this season.
James Harrison has been fined $75,000 and Brandon Merriweather and Dunta Robinson have been find $50,000 each. These are high numbers, but not figures that are likely to make a big impact. Harrison’s fine can be equated to somebody that earns £25,000 being fined £145… it’s an inconvenience more than anything else (that said, Harrison has been seriously bothered by it and we’re all watching him for more news) but it’s a start, and The Law is being established and clearly communicated out to all clubs.
Hits are part and parcel of playing football, and all players understand that. But some hits are clearly unnecessary. Brandon Merriweather‘s launch at Todd Heap is a prime example and clearly something that needs to be cut out of the game: The ball was gone, Heap had missed it and was on his way empty-handed to the ground before Merriweather launched himself. I know the game moves fast but it was a dirty, cynical, and pointless play.
Robinson’s collision with DeSean Jackson isn’t as clear, and Robinson is appealing the fine.
I hope that all concussed players are back as soon as it’s safe for them to do so, but there is little doubt we’ll be seeing suspensions in the next few weeks.
Brett Favre… Two More Milestones Coming
Oct 8th
Love him or loathe him, or rather respect him as a player and hate his as a ditherer, there are certainly things that you cannot take away from Brett Lorenzo Favre.
Brett Favre
It was Sterling Sharpe that caught Favre’s first ever touchdown pass, over 18 years ago against the Bengals. Sharpe caught another 40 TDs from Favre and none of the existing corp are anywhere near that. Antonio Freeman’s 57 TDs from Favre will almost certainly never be beaten.
So assuming he gets his 500th career score, who will catch it?
My money is on Visanthe Shiancoe, though you can’t rule out Randy Moss who’ll be looking to be back ‘home’ with a big splash. In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how the Jets’ fans show their appreciation.
If you’re interested in more information about these 499 touchdowns, check out Journal Sentinal Inc’s impressive site on it.
Image Credit: Paul Weimer
NFL Teams – Bye Weeks
Oct 6th
Admittedly we’re a little bit late with this, but here’s a list of which teams are off each of the bye-weeks. The NFL bye-weeks are between weeks 4 and 10 of the season. All teams play in the first three and final 7 weeks.
Week 4
Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Week 5
Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks
Week 6
Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals
Week 7
Detriot Lions, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets
Week 8
Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles
Week 9
Denver Broncos, Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers, St. Louis Rams, Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins
Week 10
Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Oakland Raiders, San Diego Chargers