Completely agreed. Teams mess this kind of thing up all the time, so it’s nice to see when they do it right. Although I imagine there were some fantasy owners who were not so impressed 
… and this is why I just can’t get on the Romo bandwagon. Sure, he’s a productive quarterback and our best option by far but I just find his periodic meltdowns so damn inexplicable. I like him but every week he stresses me the hell out until I see which player is gonna show.
I didn’t see Westbrook’s kneel, having by that point left the room do do something more entertaining like dust a kitchen cabinet shelf (I’m quite serious), but did tell my wife when she recounted it that it was one of the smartest plays I’d heard of an individual player making.
We didn’t get Pat/Jet coverage. Bummer.
Anybody else surprised at the degree to which the Fox boys teed off on Petrino? Some I understood but warning potential Arkansas recruits that the guy may not stick around seemed going to the extreme. Valid, but extreme.
And Troy ol’ buddy, I love ya dude and realize you don’t want to give the appearance of being biased towards your old team. But must you try to dispel that notion by swinging soooo far in the other direction? I almost can’t listen to you anymore since all you do is rag on Dallas every time there’s a questionable play, every time there’s a possible turnover, etc. It’s getting quite old and is now, finally, offensive. In an effort not to piss off half your audience, you’re pissing off the other half of your audience. CTFO.
Jacksonville… the real deal.
Or total lack of talent and team chemistry! 
What, no love for the Bucs finally scoring a TD on a kickoff after 31 years of frustration?
Oy, what a week at the top of the rankings. The AFC South had a perfect week, going 4-0, while the NFC East had a “bye” in more ways than one:
Donovan McNabb: 23 of 41 (56%) for 208 yards, 1 TD 0 Ints, Passer Rating: 78.10
Todd Collins: 8 of 25 (32%) for 166 yards, 0 TDs 0 Ints, Passer Rating: 56.42
Eli Manning: 18 of 52 (35%) for 184 yards, 1 TD 0 Ints, Passer Rating: 52.08
Tony Romo: 13 of 36 (36%) for 214 yards, 0 TDs 3 Ints, Passer Rating: 22.22
Combined: 62 of 136 (46%) for 772 yards, 2 TDs 3 Ints, Passer Rating: 59.44
McNabb can at least hold his head high, though even that wasn’t one of his better games. The NFC East is coming apart at the seams.
I remember in recent free agency both Trevor Pryce and Bart Scott of the rats received offers from the Browns. Bart Scott was much obnoxious, but both of them made public statements to the effect of “I’m not going to be a loser in Cleveland, I’m going to a winning franchise”. Reason #429 they can go F themselves. It amuses me now, as Balitmore is on an 8 game loss streak, having been Miami’s only win, while Cleveland is still in contention for the #3 seed.
I didn’t actually see it, but I’ve read that when Billick decided on the field goal instead of going for the TD on 4th and 1 his team didn’t want to listen to him, and he basically had to yell and say “look, I’m in charge here” and argue for it. I wonder how bad their melt down will get. Is the finger Ray Ray dislocated on his stabbing hand? Better be careful.
Mortensen is reporting that Billick’s job is secure. While that team has some talented young players, the window was closing on them as some of their core players aged. They’ll be fully stuck in rebuilding mode now. And with no Phil Savage. It seems apparent that the quality of their drafting has gone down in recent years because of that.
A few years of suck, and the Baltimore fans may all buy their redskins jersey and abandon their team. The Los Angeles Ravens, anyone?
Edit:
Dawson’s kick I talked about earlier is on the NFL’s plays of the week thing. Here’s a link if you want to see it:
It’s so ugly and yet so great. It was a low kick but I think it wasn’t blocked because the Bills didn’t expect him to kick it 30 degrees to the left like he did.
That is all kinds of awesome.
I like to make a mental note of the best and worst player movements each season. One of the funnier examples was a few years back when Takeo Spikes went to Buffalo while Corey Dillon went to New England. Boy did Dillon make out with the better deal. Poor Spikes thought he was getting off the perennial loser Bengals squad onto a good Buffalo team. Doh!
If you have to say “I’m in charge” then you’re not. Billick has micro-managed and quote-unquote-coached my already injured Ravens to a pathetic 4 and 10, but five (count 'em FIVE) of those were decided by bad luck or bad coaching in the last minute of the game:
Cincinnati - end-zone INT
New England - bad timeout, Bart Scott meltdown, a two-yard short Hail Mary
Miami - Stover never misses… but just RUN the BALL.
Buffalo - Seem to remember this one tight in the fourth.
Browns - That field goal. Jesus, that field goal.
A few plays go right instead of wrong, and the Ravens are 9-5 instead of 4-10. But in each of those games, they put themselves in a position to lose, so they own (and ought to embrace) the shitty record they’ve built for themselves.
Also: I accuse Billick of not instilling the Ravens with any fighting spirit. They get one little whiff of bad luck, and all the air goes out of them. Coaches are supposed to make a group of men play like a team.
Anyway, keep the starters healthy, lose out the season, and pray for good draft picks while we find an offensive coordinator who can stand up to Billick’s micromanagement and instill some piss and vinegar back into my Ravens. This bird is cooked.
I loved the 8-0 score in that Browns game. Almost as odd as the 5-4 high school score I heard about once.
Yeah, he learned from that one and got himself traded to a play-off bound Eagles team. Wait…
Did the Bears #33 tackling Ferguson at the goal line in the 3rd not horse collar him? 1:51 of the game clip. I didn’t understand the no call.
Don’t take this too far.
SenorBeef clearly has a bug up his ass about the Ravens, but they’re just not a good football team.
They also could have lost to San Francisco, and Arizona and be 2-12 right now. Except the Pats, every team in the league has games where a bounce or two could get them 4 more wins or 4 more losses.
On the big play of the Ravens game, the offense wanted to stay on the field and go for the touch. That’s what Billick! was screaming about, “get off the field. I’m the coach.” or something.
But, he was clearly wrong. Dig. . .
You got McGahee with 100 yards in his pocket against the worst run defense in the NFL.
To that point, the Ravens second half possessions had been Punt, Pick, Punt, Punt whereas the Fins had scored on 3 of their last 5 possessions. Lewis is out of the game. Lemon is picking the secondary apart.
To think that they had a better shot to win that in overtime than regulation was folly. Billick chose the path of “least media criticism if we lose”.
He was wrong.
I’m not enamored of his coaching at all this season. But, I don’t know what’s his fault. . . the team is getting older on defense. Their secondary is terrible. Contrary to popular opinion, McAlister is only average when he’s healthy. Then, there’s a pretty good drop-off to Rolle, then a huge drop to Ivy and Prude and Martin. That’s a terrible secondary.
I don’t see them being any better next year.
He grabbed him from behind but pulled him to ground to the side instead of backwards. As I understand it, a horse-collar is illegal not in where you grab on to tackle but how you tackle the runner (if the NFL would publish its full rule book I could look it up). Regardless of the non-call on the field, if the head office considers that a horse-collar Charles Tillman (#33) will get a fine later in the week.
Goes both ways. A few plays go wrong instead of right, and you’re 1-15. 3 of your 4 wins were squeakers against bad teams where you could’ve easily lost. St. Louis was your only convincing win.
The Browns, by the way, could easily be 12-2 right now. We lost by 2 points against Oakland after making a 40 yard kick in the final seconds, finding out a timeout was called, and then getting the second attempt blocked. We lost the second Steelers game because a completely phantom holding penalty on the last kick return started us off at our own 30 instead of the Pittsburgh 40 with IIRC around 45 seconds left. We lost the Arizona game on what could’ve been called a force out. Only the first Pittsburgh and the New England game were convincing losses. (And by the same token we could be 7-7 too). Most teams in the NFL are like that.
By the way, is Minnesota’s offensive line so immobile by scheme, or do they scheme that way because Minnesota’s line is so immobile? They have such a one dimensional running game that I’m not surprised it may be starting to get shut down. There was almost no misdirection whatsoever. No pulls, no traps, barely any down blocking or reach blocking, no stretches. They seemed to have about 5 running plays, all drive blocking with no movement from anyone.
If they keep that up, teams with good run support corners are just going to have their D-line play disciplined gap control and send the sam, mike, and playside safety shooting the playside A and B gaps with the backside safety pursuing and the will playing contain. A one-gap team with quick, penetrating DTs is even better shape if they can beat the slow O-lineman off the ball on off-tackle runs.
They need to get, at least, some misdirection in there to punish the overpursuit, and actually consider possibly getting their lightning fast and agile running back stretched out and in space.