FanHouse Brooks Bollinger

The Florida Tuskers continued their dominance of the UFL. Despite the easy nature of their wins, coach Jim Haslett is confident his team has remained motivated.

Brooks Bollinger threw two touchdown passes and back-up Chris Greisen tossed one more as Haslett's Tuskers thoroughly dispatched the California Redwoods, 34-7, at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida on Thursday night.

"They know this is their last stop and that, if they want to get back to the NFL, they need to play at a high level, and have fun doing it," Haslett said. "And they understand that, so I don't need to harp on them."

The coach certainly had nothing to get on them about last night in the lone contest in Week 3 of the UFL's inaugural season.

Marcus Maxwell, Jayson Foster and Andrew Pinnock each had a TD grab, while Taye Biddle had five catches for 133 yards for Florida, which has won its first three games to start the season -- all in convincing fashion.

Fans of the New York Jets don't need any more angst, especially after the abysmal performance by rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez on Sunday.

So, Jets fans, stop reading now because Brooks Bollinger, a former starter for Gang Green in 2005, has been a standout signal caller in the UFL.

Check Bollinger's numbers in two season-opening wins for the Florida Tuskers: 44-of-58, 535 yards, 7 TDs and 1 INT. Thanks in part to Bollinger, the Tuskers have scored 64 points and amassed 792 yards of total offense in those contests.

OK, masters of the obvious, success in the UFL doesn't equate to similar prowess in the NFL. It's the irony, however, that strikes us, as well as the opportunity for a social experiment.

Will New York fans second-guess anything, even if they are, in effect, second-guessing themselves?

The UFL is back on the field Saturday night with the New York Sentinels taking on the Florida Tuskers. You can catch all the action live here on FanHouse.

The new league kicked off on Thursday night -- Las Vegas downed California, 30-17. New York features former NFL superstar Simeon Rice, while Florida's roster boasts ex-NFL players Brooks Bollinger, Tatum Bell and Michael Pittman.

Catch all of the action beginning at 7 PM ET.

The Florida Tuskers and New York Sentinels squared off with each other in their first scrimmage of the season Thursday night at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

However, the teams were not at full strength thanks to injuries to some key players. Tuskers safety Dexter Jackson, a former Super Bowl MVP with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, sat out with a shoulder stinger. Former NFL standouts Simeon Rice and Koren Robinson of the Sentinels also did not participate for undisclosed reasons.

During the scrimmage, Tuskers offensive lineman Julius Wilson injured his foot/ankle, though the severity of the injury is unclear as the team awaits test results.

The Florida Tuskers signed quarterback Brooks Bollinger on Tuesday and, one day later, released quarterback Craig Nall, the Orlando Sentinel reported Wednesday.

A representative from the league did not immediately return a request for confirmation.

The signing of Bollinger leaves Orlando with a logjam under center. The Tuskers also employ signal-callers Darrell Hackney and Chris Greisen.

A year ago, the Cowboys used their two first-round picks on running back Felix Jones and cornerback Mike Jenkins. Neither contributed much as a rookie; Jenkins played in 14 games (starting three) and had 19 tackles, but the one he didn't make sticks out most in my mind (of course it does).

Jones, who was something of a surprise pick with Rashard Mendenhall still available, played in just six games before landing on injured reserve with a big toe and hamstring injury.

We're a month into the Broncos-Cutler standoff, and here's what we know: Jay Cutler is a sensitive sort, and new head coach Josh McDaniels might be in over his head, at least when it comes to dealing with moody Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Yet through it all, public opinion seems to be firmly behind the organization.

I have no idea how this turns out, and at this point, I don't care; I just want it to end so we can get back to the important stuff: Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and Brett Favre's impending return to the sport he loves so much. But before moving on, I just want to point out that Jeff George, perpetually on the comeback trail, has weighed in on the situation and, shockingly, supports Cutler:

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

You could use just about every adjective for "crazy" to describe the '08 Dallas Cowboys. At the beginning of the year, they were expected to produce, but never did. Quarterback Tony Romo struggled with injury issues and the ability to step up in big games. They still had a chance to advance to the playoffs but couldn't take down Donovan McNabb and company in the last week of the season. Oh, and Adam "Pacman" Jones and Terrell Owens were as psycho as ever. A lot needs to change in Dallas during the offseason to make the Cowboys a contender in their new stadium.

Even though the Dallas seems to have survived a forgettable month of Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger and are now back in the playoff race, former Cowboys running back and ESPN wordsmith Emmitt Smith is still disappointed in the team that won 13 games last year.

"Mediocre." ... "[I'm] disappointed because I saw this team being a lot better than it is," Smith said. "Chemistry has a lot to do with it. And for some reason, the chemistry of the Cowboys this year has been thrown off a little bit.

"Either there's too much salt in the gumbo or not enough meat in the gumbo. Something's wrong. Whatever it is, they need to get it corrected. It's just been a blah kind of season for me."

Bottom line: there's something wrong with the gumbo. Smith is right, though, chemistry has been an issue; according to an unnamed PFW.com source, "a faction of the players that feels that Pacman Jones' presence could throw off the chemistry and positive swagger that the Cowboys have worked hard to regain."

Smith also points out that Dallas beating San Francisco and Seattle -- two teams they were supposed to beat -- is hardly reason to assume they've fixed the midseason problems. In fact, it sounds like he's still hung up on how a promising 2007 campaign ended so abruptly.

Obviously, Tony Romo has a lot to do with the Cowboys' success, but he can't do it alone. Sure, it seems that way, but there aren't many teams who could survive the dynamic duo of Brad Johnson and Brooks Bollinger, no matter how healthy the other 51 guys on the roster.

So it's with that in mind that this must come as a relief to the team still angling for a wild card birth: DeMarcus Ware and Marion Barber didn't sustain serious injuries in Dallas' Thanksgiving Day throttling of the Seattle Seahawks.

The Cowboys received some good news Friday morning when the results of the MRI exams of linebacker DeMarcus Ware and running back Marion Barber did not reveal any structural damage.

Ware left Thursday's game with a hyperextended left knee in the third quarter. ... Barber departed Thursday's game with a dislocated little toe on his right foot.

Ware says he expects to play next Sunday against the Steelers and Barber, as he has done his entire career, said nothing. Because he doesn't talk to the media (despite Troy Aikman's protestations).