Posts tagged ChadPennington at FanHouse

Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around with his finger in the air while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

We've decided to extend Studs and Duds into the playoffs. Here's Wild Card Weekend at a glance, where we point out the horses destined for the Kentucky Derby and jeer those headed to the glue factory.

Studs

Ed Reed, S Baltimore (2 interceptions, 1 returned for a TD) -- As one of my colleagues said in an email yesterday, there isn't a football player in the NFL (or the world, for that matter) playing better football than Reed. The Ravens' shifty Robin to Ray Lewis' Batman has hauled in six interceptions in his last three games, all must-wins, and has given the Baltimore defense that scary title that no other unit, offense or defense, can claim this season -- "Group You Do Not Want to Play Under any Circumstances." The '07 Patriots offense carried that torch and now the Ravens defense, thanks to Reed, is happy to be strutting around with the acclaim.

Both his interceptions were tough catches, and it was really too bad a potential third interception went through his hands late in the game. Up next for the Ravens? A quarterback who threw just seven interceptions all season. If only they had some experience with a quarterback who only tossed seven interceptions before the playoffs (rubs chin).

Stay on top of all the postseason action with FanHouse's NFL playoff coverage.

During the regular season, Miami quarterback Chad Pennington threw just seven interceptions, one of the lowest totals in the NFL among starting quarterbacks. On Sunday, during the Dolphins 27-9 Wild Card loss to Baltimore, Pennington was guilty of four interceptions while Miami turned the ball over five times against a swarming Ravens defense. Miami finished the day a -4 in the turnover department, after finishing the season with a league-best +17 margin in terms of turnover differential.

That's not going to get it done.

The current saga that is New York Jets football continues to take bizarre twists and turns, as Teddy Atlas, a friend of recently fired head coach Eric Mangini and a personal assistant for the team (in the field of boxing?!), has become the latest person to jump on the pile of chaos in the Big Apple.

As Atlas tells it, Mangini wanted to enter the season with an open quarterback competition between Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens, while the team would play a "protect the ball, intelligent approach." Things changed, naturally, when Brett Favre came to town and played his throw the ball all over the place while having a good time approach. It worked for a while, then all went terribly wrong in the second half of the season, resulting in finger-pointing, name-calling, and general insanity. Here's what Atlas had to say, courtesy of Brian Costello of the New York Post:

"Mangini went into the season ready for a whole different approach, whether it was going to be Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens (at quarterback), whoever won that battle," Atlas told The Post. "It was going to be a secure, protect the ball, intelligent approach. It was something he was comfortable with, something he believed in. The whole plan, the whole blueprint got thrown out the window when Favre came. He's the antithesis of that. He throws the ball all over the place."

Atlas also claims that Jets owner Woody Johnson "forced" the trade on Mangini, and called Favre "basically a selfish guy." Well, Teddy, you're going to have to get in line behind Thomas Jones, Kerry Rhodes and Bruce Ciskie.

There are several different fantasy playoffs models, so it's difficult to accommodate everyone when doing any set of fantasy advice for the real playoffs. Most common models require you to do a bit of prognosticating as far as the actual game winners. To that, I say good luck. This isn't like last year, where we all knew the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl. This season the playoffs are wide open, and no, I don't think the Giants are a sure thing to make the big game. They are the surest bet, but it's still a bet.

Anyway, we're going to analyze some of the players.

First, here are the regular-season defensive rankings for the teams playing this postseason.

Team (overall rank, rushing rank, passing rank, scoring rank)

Pittsburgh Steelers (1, 2, 1, 1)
Baltimore Ravens (2, 3, 2, 3)
Philadelphia Eagles (3, 4, 3, 4)
New York Giants (5, 9, 8, 5)
Minnesota Vikings (6, 1, 18, 13)
Tennessee Titans (7, 6, 9, 2)
Indianapolis Colts (11, 24, 6, 7)
Miami Dolphins (15, 10, 25, 9)
Carolina Panthers (18, 20, 16, 12)
Arizona Cardinals (19, 16, 21, 28)
Atlanta Falcons (24, 25, 22, 11)
San Diego Chargers (25, 11, 31, 15)

Stay on top of all the postseason action with FanHouse's NFL playoff coverage.

When the Ravens faced the Dolphins in Week 7, both teams were 2-3 and coming off forgettable 2007 seasons. I'm pretty sure nobody had Baltimore finishing the year 9-2 or Miami winning the division. Yet 11 weeks later, here we are.

The Ravens won 27-13 back in October in what has now become a familiar formula: run, run, play-action; matriculate the ball down the field; control the clock; and let the defense take care of the rest.

Pretty much everybody likes the Ravens tomorrow, partly because of their suffocating defense, and also because the Dolphins haven't beaten anybody outside the AFC East. Of their 10 non-divisional games, Miami was an impressive 7-3, but the teams they beat combined for a 36-76 record. So, yeah, there are some skeptics. The Ravens, on the other hand, smoked the Eagles, Redskins and Cowboys, and played the Steelers well enough to win. Twice.

Now the question becomes: can Miami concoct variations of the Wildcat that will work against Baltimore's defense? And when running a conventional offense, will Chad Pennington be able to play up to his MVP candidate form against the Ray Lewis All-Stars?

With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. Click here to go back in time.

Saturday Games

Atlanta at Arizona (4:30 PM ET): I said a few days ago that I thought this was the perfect situation for Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (rookie play-caller, first playoff game, up against a struggling team with a spotty defense). In reality, it is really a perfect match-up for both teams. Atlanta gets to go on the road against the only playoff team they'd want to play. And in the past six weeks, Arizona has defeated only two teams, who have a combined record of 6-26.

For the Cardinals, they are getting an inexperienced playoff team at home, where they always seem to play better. Think about it -- out of the Eagles, Falcons, Giants, Vikings, and Panthers, the Cards would have almost certainly picked Atlanta to face in in their first-ever home playoff game in Arizona.

Yet I think Atlanta pulls this one out. Not counting the passing explosion against the Seahawks in Week 17, Kurt Warner has been off lately, and now the Cardinals have to deal with all this Larry Fitzgerald off the field stuff. That actually brings me to an off topic: You know how we live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty? If you're an athlete (or public figure), you are guilty as soon as anyone accuses you of something. It is rather ridiculous.

Pick: Atlanta

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning has been selected the NFL's 2008 Most Valuable Player by an Associated Press panel of sports writers.

Manning wins the award after a 2008 in which he played through knee pain and led his team from a rocky start to a 12-4 finish. On the season, he completed 66.8% of his passes, with 27 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His 4,002 passing yards made it the ninth time in his career that he exceeded the 4,000-yard mark.

Of the 50 media voters, 32 selected Manning. Second place was a tie between Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington and Falcons running back Michael Turner, with four votes each. Via PFT, the other votes went to Steelers linebacker James Harrison (3), Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (3), Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (2), Titans running back Chris Johnson (1), and Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner (1).

Manning joins Brett Favre as the only player to win the AP MVP award three times. Manning shared the award with Steve McNair in 2003 and won it outright with 49 of 50 votes in 2004. Favre won the award outright in 1995 and 1996 and shared it with Barry Sanders in 1997.

Manning won't have long to celebrate. The Colts are headed to San Diego for a wild card playoff game against the Chargers tomorrow night.

As we get ready for the Wild Card Weekend matchup of the Dolphins and Ravens, Brian Miller from PhinPhanatic and Tony Lombardi from ProFootball24x7 were nice enough to offer some insights on their teams for this week's Behind Enemy Lines feature.

Sportz Assassin: How do both of you feel about how your teams are playing heading into the playoffs?

Brian Miller (PhinPhanatic): I like the fact that no one is giving us any real credit for getting there. Jim Mora says on air that the best AFC East team is New England and there has been little "props" for winning the division as most of the kudos surrounds simply the turnaround. The Ravens are three-point favorites in this game and the Phins are getting tired of feeling second rate.

Tony Lombardi (ProFootball24x7): The Ravens are really beginning to gel in Cam Cameron's offense and now they are getting contributions from Mark Clayton and Willis McGahee. Joe Flacco has come on strong since the last meeting with the Dolphins and has the third highest road QB rating among NFL quarterbacks. And of course the team's defense is always dependable. The Ravens could be a dangerous post season participant.

There are several different fantasy playoffs models, so it's difficult to accommodate everyone when doing any set of fantasy advice for the real playoffs. Most common models require you to do a bit of prognosticating as far as the actual game winners. To that, I say good luck. This isn't like last year, where we all knew the Patriots were going to the Super Bowl. This season the playoffs are wide open, and no, I don't think the Giants are a sure thing to make the big game. They are the surest bet, but it's still a bet.

Anyway, we're going to analyze some of the players.

First, here are the regular-season defensive rankings for the teams playing this postseason.

Team (overall rank, rushing rank, passing rank, scoring rank)

Pittsburgh Steelers (1, 2, 1, 1)
Baltimore Ravens (2, 3, 2, 3)
Philadelphia Eagles (3, 4, 3, 4)
New York Giants (5, 9, 8, 5)
Minnesota Vikings (6, 1, 18, 13)
Tennessee Titans (7, 6, 9, 2)
Indianapolis Colts (11, 24, 6, 7)
Miami Dolphins (15, 10, 25, 9)
Carolina Panthers (18, 20, 16, 12)
Arizona Cardinals (19, 16, 21, 28)
Atlanta Falcons (24, 25, 22, 11)
San Diego Chargers (25, 11, 31, 15)

The holiday season doesn't bring good tidings for everybody. Just ask those head coaches who are spending the New Year cleaning out their offices.

Seeing as how the whole Bill Cowher-to-the-Jets rumor train has seen more ups and downs than the first six years of my college transcript, it's kind of nice to know that not only was Scoop dead wrong, but that Cowher will not be teasing us with the possibility of joining the Jets organization any longer.

At least according to the New York Post, who says that Cowher is out, and there's a good possibility that the sticking point was Brett Favre at quarterback.

After reaching out to Coach Cowher's representatives, we were informed tonight that he is not a candidate for the position," Jet spokesman Bruce Speight said in an e-mail.

While the Jets hoped to woo Cowher with a boatload of money, the marriage appeared to be unlikely from the outset. Sources close to Cowher said he did not want to have Favre as his quarterback, and that he also wanted to bring in people he was familiar with to handle personnel.

The idea that Cowher would leave his cushy studio job for long hours as a highly scrutinized coach seemed far-fetched enough, especially after Mort's report, but I suppose at this point, we'll never really know if Favre actually forced Cowher away from the Jets job.

But if it is true, my God, people in charge of football teams: do the smart thing and just don't let this guy near your company. Look at what he did to Green Bay, scope out the Jets in 2008 and then glance at Chad Pennington's success in Miami. If Aaron Rodgers had led the Packers to more than six wins, even Deanna would be begging him to call it off.