December 2011
24 posts
5 Things to Watch in Week 17
The table is set for a final day of NFL action that shall take place on the first day of a new year.
2012 will mark the beginning of a new calendar year for all, and the end of a football year for some. With one full sixteen game slate of games yet to be played, three precious playoff spots remain up for grabs, and seven teams are mathematically alive to clinch them.
For some (Dallas, the New...
Week 17 Picks and 5 Keys to a Kansas City Chiefs'...
And then there was one.
One game remaining, of course.
Although it’s difficult to believe, the Chiefs have finally reached the ultimate game of the regular season, and it’s time to meet up with a familiar foe.
The Chiefs travel to Denver in a game that could have had much more significance if the ball had bounced differently last Saturday, but alas the Chiefs still have a shot to finish the...
Week 17 Preview: In 140 Words or Less
If you’re like me, you cannot believe it.
Cannot believe what? That the 2011 regular season is just days away from concluding.
It felt like just yesterday I was grinding my teeth over the possibility of a locked-out season over labor disputes, but 240 regular season games later, we’ve nearly completed the 32 team jigsaw puzzle.
It hasn’t all been pretty, of course. Up until two weeks ago, the...
Week 16 Monday Night Football: In 140 Words or...
New Orleans 45, Atlanta 16
As impressive as New Orleans was as a team on Monday, last night was all about quarterback Drew Brees. Brees threw for 307 yards, good enough to surpass Dan Marino’s single season record for passing yards in a season of 5,084, and Brees managed to do it in dramatic style. Brees hit RB Darren Sproles on a 9-yard touchdown score to push his yardage total to 5,087, and he...
Putting a Bow on Week 16
If the 2011 NFL season were Twitter-ized, #InjuredRunningBacks would be trending. On Saturday, we played witness as yet another star runner suffered a gruesome knee injury, and in this case the subject was Vikings RB Adrian Peterson.
If there’s a silver lining to the injury, it’s that Peterson could return to the field for Week 1 in 2012, which is a comparable timetable that Patriots...
Week 16: Christmas Edition SNF, in 140 Words or...
Green Bay 35, Chicago 21
Just when you thought Green Bay was running short on momentum, Aaron Rodgers goes out and throws five touchdown passes to remind us all he’s going to be a-okay.
Rodgers improved his season total to 45 TD’s, and has an outside chance to tie or break Tom Brady’s single season record of 50, set in 2007. Rodgers twice hooked up with receivers Jordy Nelson and James Jones...
Week 16 Recap: In 140 Words or Less
A very Merry Christmas to All.
The closing weeks of the 2011 NFL season are confirming what we have long already known: it is the most wonderful time of the year.
As families wrap and exchange gifts purchased at retail stores, NFL fans of eight NFL franchises are feeling like they’ve already received the greatest gift of all: a trip to the post-season.
And...
Week 16 Picks: And 5 Keys to a Kansas City Chiefs'...
How exactly do you follow a thrilling and entirely unexpected (at least outside of the Kansas City market) victory over the previously undefeated and defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers?
You get back to work.
That’s the message interim head coach Romeo Crennel preached to his players this week, because although some may look back at the Green Bay win...
Week 16 Preview: In 140 Words or Less
Commissioner Roger Goodell has quite the Christmas present lined up for 30 of the 32 NFL teams, and it comes in the form of the flexibility to spend Christmas Sunday at home.
Due to a convenient calendar, Goodell made the wise decision to bump up the normally-slated-for-Sunday schedule of games by one day, and Saturday will now feature thirteen NFL contests. This...
Week 15 Monday Night Football: In 140 Words or...
San Francisco 20, Pittsburgh 3
Monday night was about three things: defense, a bum ankle, and power outages.
The lights twice went out in ancient Candlestick Park – once before the game and another interruption during the second quarter – but in the end neither a blown transformer nor the Steelers’ vaunted defense could stop Frank Gore and the 49ers.
Gore rushed for 65 yards and a score, and...
Putting a Bow on Week 15
Sundays, for Tamba Hali, start much earlier than the kickoff time indicates.
Hours before toe touches leather — even before much of the stadium operations support staff shows up for work – Hali can be found on the turf at Arrowhead Stadium or opposing venues, drenched in sweat.
His usual garb includes a grey Chiefs hooded sweatshirt on top,...
Week 15 Recap: In 140 Words or Less
Just when we thought we had the NFL figured out, Sunday happened.
Amongst the bizarre happenings from Week 15: the Colts won a football game, the Packers lost one, Chad Ochocinco caught a touchdown, and the Houston Texans were routed by a previously 4-win team.
But let’s not confuse oddities with history, and accordingly we must center our attention on the...
Week 15 Picks and 5 Keys to Kansas City Chiefs'...
And so it begins. For (at least) three weeks, Romeo Crennel takes the reins as the head coach in Kansas City, as he works to salvage a season that, to-date, has been highlighted by streaky play, injuries, and of course the firing of Todd Haley. It’s not an easy task, and a visit from the Green Bay Packers in his first test is about as far from a favor as Crennel could imagine. But let’s not...
Week 15 Preview: In 140 Words or Less
Around this time a year ago, many were rightfully praising the talents of the first round draft picks from the 2010 NFL draft. It was a simple exercise, really, because so many young draftees had quickly catapulted themselves into the realm of stardom, and the futures of their respective franchises were looking up.
It started in the Eastern half of Missouri, where Sam Bradford, the very first...
Week 14 Monday Night Football Recap: In 140 Word...
Seattle 30, St. Louis 13
A healthy does of Beast Mode plus an opportunistic special teams play sparked the Seahawks second win during their three-game home stand, as Seattle downed St. Louis 30-13.
Marshawn Lynch (aka Beast Mode) finished with 115 yards on 23 carries, and rookie receiver Doug Baldwin added 7 catches for 93 yards and a late score. Seattle improves to 6-7 on the season, and the...
Week 14: Put a Bow On It
For football fans, Sundays are best characterized as “Holy” on seventeen occasions throughout the calendar year.
For a base much larger than just football fans, Sundays are holy every time they occur after Saturdays.
And whether you believe in religion or spirituality, and regardless of what God you believe in, one cannot refute the notion that holy devotion is a building block of our...
Week 14 Recap: In 140 Words or Less
Try as we will to make sense of the NFL draft, the fact remains it’s an exercise in inexact science that will continue to puzzle us for years to come.
For months leading up to the (now) three-day bonanza, pundits, experts, and everybody in between prognosticate about which draftee will end up where, and how exactly he’ll perform once donning NFL apparel instead of his...
Week 14 Picks, and 5 Keys to a Kansas City Chiefs'...
The NFL isn’t a style business, and that’s a good thing for the Kansas City Chiefs, because last Sunday’s 10-3 win over the Bears wasn’t exactly an offensive exhibition.
Fortunately, it’s about results, and the Chiefs earned their fifth win in twelve tries in 2011, and thus keep hope alive of a miraculous AFC West comeback in the season’s final...
Week 14 Preview: In 140 Words or Less
It’s easy to laud the work of the NFL’s division leaders and those who figure to be in the playoff mix come the start of 2012. No shortage of glowing praise has been cast upon the perfect Packers, and deservedly so, as they seem prepared to capture their second Super Bowl in as many years and do it in undefeated fashion. The brilliance of Aaron Rodgers cannot be understated, and...
Week 13 Monday Night Football: In 140 Words or...
San Diego 38, Jacksonville 14
Chargers’ fans likely went to bed last night asking themselves where this Chargers team has been all season after routing the lowly Jaguars, 38-14.
Philip Rivers threw four touchdowns and zero picks in a performance reminiscent of his old self — as in the 2010 version of Rivers. Malcolm Floyd was the primary beneficiary of Rivers on the night, finishing...
Putting a Bow on Week 13
With 75 percent of all regular season games having been played (ok, slightly less than 75% until the conclusion of tonight’s barnburner between the Jags and Bolts), you’d think we’d have a better idea of who will be in and who will be out come playoff time.
Not quite.
It’s no so much that divsion leaders have yet to emerge, as it’s a safe bet that New England and...
Week 13 Recap: In 140 Words or Less
Regardless of which side of the Oklahoma State-Alabama debate you rest on, a part of each of us is feeling the BCS blues today.
After another typically-thrilling regular season, college football fans are left less satiated than even the Indianapolis Colts’ faithful these days. On principle, the BCS is as sensible as it is easy to understand. The system incorporates rankings generated by...
Week 13 Picks and 5 Keys to a Kansas City Chiefs'...
The Chiefs have finally put games with New England and Pittsburgh in their rear view mirror, but that doesn’t mean the tough sledding has concluded. Pittsburgh marked leg one of the Chiefs’ four stop tour versus each of the NFL’s semi-finalists from 2010; they’ll travel to Chicago this Sunday, New York to face the Jets the following week, and will wrap it all up with an...
Week 13 Preview: In 140 Words Or Less
Tis the season…of NFL coach carousel-ing. That’s right, the rush of NFL coaches being fired and hired embarked Tuesday morning when the Jacksonville Jaguars let go of long-time head coach Jack Del Rio. Del Rio and the Jaguars trudged through the first eleven games of the 2011 season with a sloppy 3-8 mark, highlighted only by a defense that plays hard every down. But Del...
