FanHouse Cory Ross

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

James Butler, Giants
You know, I was a little hard on Manning the Younger last night. I accused him of playing great football for 30 minutes, and then turning into an interception-throwing pumpkin, while the Patriots did what they do: mount a second-half comeback and win in handsome Tom Brady fashion.

But after some soul-searching, I've come to the realization that the Patriots-Giants game didn't turn on Manning's fourth-quarter pick, but on what transpired three plays prior. You can see the birds-eye view here, but all you need to know is this: safety James Butler must've blacked out because when the cameras finally caught up with him, he was about 15 yards behind Randy Moss. Moss was making his way to the end zone after hauling in a 65-yard bomb from Brady.

That was the game-changer. To that point, the Giants' offense was moving the ball without much trouble, and the defense was like Plexiglas Burress: bend but don't break.

On the bright side, Manning played probably his best game as a professional, and the timing couldn't be better.
Sorry, No Photos

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't act as if finishing fourth in the AFC bothered them in the least. That could turn out to be a curious decision after their B team failed to beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. The game leaves them hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars, the same team that smacked them in the mouth at Heinz Field a few weeks ago.

Things went wrong for Pittsburgh right from the get go. Willie Reid, subbing for injured returner Allan Rossum, coughed up the opening kickoff and set up a Musa Smith touchdown run. With Charlie Batch offering the defense little worry, the Ravens keyed on Najeh Davenport and slowed the offense down to a crawl for most of the first half. Batch was intercepted once and his biggest play came courtesy of a pass interference on Corey Ivy. The Ravens led 20-7 at the half and appeared to be in charge of the game.

They appeared to be pulling a Billick, as its come to be known this season, by losing that control late. Batch found Santonio Holmes and Cedrick Wilson for touchdowns to cut the margin to six but when David Pittman picked him off for the second time late in the fourth, a return date with the Jags was in place.

You won't see many kicks like Phil Dawson's as the clock ran out in regulation. It hit one upright, ricocheted off the back of the crossbar and back out. The crowd went wild, the Ravens went wild and Baltimore's playoff hopes were jolted back to life. But just for a second. The kick hit a part of the crossbar that was through the uprights and the Browns protested that the call was wrong. The officials conferred and ruled that the kick was good. That sent the game to overtime where Dawson plugged another kick, in more conventional style, and won the game 33-30 for the Browns.

Here's the rub. Field goals aren't reviewable plays and the kick was ruled no good by one official in the end zone while the other one saw it good. Referee Pete Morelli brought them together and, after much deliberation, called the kick good. Morelli termed it a discussion between the officials, as opposed to a review (it appeared that he did give the play a look on replay but NFL Head of Officiating Mike Periera said he didn't, according to Bill Cowher on CBS), and they ended up getting the call right. I doubt Brian Billick takes much comfort from that, however.

The confusion was fitting on an afternoon overflowing with miscues by both teams and the officiating crew.

You'd never confuse the roster of a sports team for the cast of characters in Homer's Iliad but they have more in common than you think. That's the opinion of Dr. Robert Kennedy, a linguistics professor from UC-Santa Barbara, anyway. In the epic poem Homer refers to many of the major players with nicknames and Dr. Kennedy draws a parallel to the world of sports in an article for the academic journal American Speech in an article published last year. He identifies two types of nicknames, phrasal and hypocoristic, and he credits their use with fostering a sense of community among teammates.

Hypocoristic nicknames are shortened versions of someone's given name, A-Rod for example, while phrasal ones are the type that enter the popular lexicon. The Sultan of Swat, The Louisville Lip or The Georgia Peach, for example. Kennedy's work doesn't cite the Baltimore Ravens but the Baltimore Sun takes a look at the colorful variety of nicknames on this year's team and finds plenty of both kinds. Musa Smith is "Moose" while Chris McCallister goes by the flavorless "C-Mac" on the hypocoristic front but it's the phrasal nicknames that really zing. Take 5-6, 201 pound running back Cory Ross, for example.

"I went and ate some pork chops at this guy's house," Ross recalled. "He came back the next day and was telling coaches that I ate about seven pork chops. Ever since then, everybody started calling me 'Pork Chop.' Of course, that was a lie. Then I lost some weight and got down to where I like to be at, and all of a sudden, it went from 'Pork Chop' to 'Chop.'"

Samari Rolle is known as "Doorknob" because his head looks like one, Kyle Boller earned the moniker "Jesus in Cleats" from the University of California student newspaper and the massive offensive tackle Adam Terry is better known as "Catfish" for his resemblance to the bottom-feeder.

My personal favorite is backup kicker Rhys Lloyd of Dover, England. His teammates at the University of Minnesota showed their knowledge of history when they dubbed him "Winston Churchill" because of his grace under pressure. Sadly for Lloyd's on-field career, the days of Matt Stover, a.k.a. "Stove Top," have lasted longer than others.

The press descended on the Baltimore Ravens for two reasons on Thursday: First, to take a harder look at a team that was so quiet in the preseason nobody expected it to start the season 4-0; and to ask questions about return man B.J. Sams, who was arrested on the Baltimore Beltway early on Tuesday morning for DUI -- an arrest that may result in a four game suspension from the league for a second violation of its substance abuse policy.

Despite the arrest, Sams, who is second in the league in kickoff return average, will keep his starting job through Monday night's game in Denver against the Broncos. Then again, head coach Brian Billick didn't let Sams get off easy with the press:

Asked if he had taken Sams into his office and scolded him, Billick said, "I'll go back to the Chris Rock example: 'You never disrespect someone and hit them, but you would sure like to shake the [expletive] out of them.'"

The Ravens actually have a good track record of trying their best to help out players who run into trouble off the field. Over at Ravens Central, Mike Preston hints that Sams' troubles run far deeper than just alcohol, and the team is ready to give him whatever help he needs.

When it comes to the effect on the field, if Sams is suspended, starting wideout Mark Clayton could do double duty on both kicks and punts, but does anybody really want to use a starter in that role after the way we saw Jason Sehorn's career ruined in a preseason game against the Jets? Preston seems to think running back Cory Ross might be a better bet if Sams is no longer an option.