It was a revelation in Oakland Sunday -- the starting quarterback struggled a bit, but didn't make dumb decisions or do more to beat his team than beat the opponent. Instead, he led his team on a late touchdown drive to tie the score, then got a break to pick up the win.
With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
The Early Games
New Orleans (9-0) at Tampa Bay (1-8): New Orleans was tested last week -- in fact, they've been tested in each of their last four games. Drew Brees has thrown seven interceptions and only six touchdown passes in those four games. You can expect the Saints to come out on Sunday and look to clean up their act a bit on offense as they play a divisional foe who doesn't have the arsenal to put up much of a fight.
Josh Freeman's play since taking over at quarterback is giving hope for the future in Tampa. He's thrown four touchdown passes and only two interceptions and seems to enjoy throwing to Kellen Winslow who has 11 receptions in his last two games. The Saints defense is a little beaten up, but should be able to hold off the Buccaneers on Sunday.
Whatever, the organization that continually strives for mediocrity continues to fall woefully short. Which is why we've decided to distract ourselves from the putridity by creating a roster of non-football-playing professional athletes who would immediately make the Browns better. That's not hyperbole.
Not sure Jeremy Shockey should be the final arbiter of who's fit to play in the NFL and who isn't, but he took to Twitter to explain to all the football simpletons that LeBron James couldn't cut it. Just in case that wasn't obvious from the outset.
The thing is, after James made the comments, and Browns head coach Eric Mangini offered a "come on down," some people figured all that was left to do was sign the contract and get him fitted for a a uniform. Not sure how it got to that point, but thankfully, Shockey, who came out of retirement this season to resume his career (Wait, he was in the league last year? Really?), has set us straight.
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.
To say this week in Buffalo has been tumultuous would be an understatement. Trent Edwards was told that he had lost his starting job to Ryan Fitzpatrick right before head coach Dick Jauron was fired. The next bit of information gave Edwards new hope as interim head coach Perry Fewell wanted to wait until Wednesday to make a decision. Brian Galliford of Buffalo Rumblings wrote on Wednesday that Fewell had made the decision to go with Fitzpatrick.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is taking first-team reps at quarterback in Perry Fewell's first practice as interim head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Fewell confirmed this fact after practice. That bit of news confirms an NFL.com report from Wednesday - prior to the firing of Dick Jauron - that Fitzpatrick would be the club's starter.
The best NFL news on Wednesday was that Brian Westbrook will not play this week. He may be your starting running back in your fantasy league, but the Philadelphia Eagles' all-time leader from scrimmage with 9,711 yards also is a man who is recuperating from two concussions in 20 days.
Right now, Westbrook is not just an NFL star. He is a medical patient.
Thankfully, everyone realizes it's time to focus on Westbrook's health and future well-being, and not how he can help move the chains for the Eagles' offense.
Wednesday's news that Raiders coach Tom Cable had decided to bench struggling quarterback JaMarcus Russell and go with journeyman reserve Brad Gradkowski as the starter for now is remarkable for this reason: It showed Cable is doing what's best for the 2-7 franchise by getting hands-on owner Al Davis to agree with him about the move.
In fact, Cable said there wasn't even give-and-take with Davis on the decision to make Russell a No. 2.
"No, no. He left this up to me; this is my decision," Cable said of Davis. "We talked about it and he supported it."
How would you feel if you were an ineffective starter who may only keep his job one more week because the backup is injured? Worse, what if you were so bad that you lost your job to a guy who was injured? Well, Oakland's JaMarcus Russell may be on the verge of finding out how that feels.
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.
Maurice Jones-Drew owes me six points. In fact, he owes a whole lot of fantasy football owners a touchdown after kneeling on the one-yard line instead of scoring a go-ahead touchdown against the New York Jets.
With under two minutes left in the game, the Jets had no timeouts, a one-point lead and the Jacksonville Jaguars driving in the red zone. The Jets decided to let Jones-Drew score so they would have plenty of time for a game-winning drive of their own. Toni Monkovic of The New York Times gives Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio a ton of credit for foiling that plan.
With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
The Early Games
Denver (6-2) at Washington (2-6): Denver has lost its last two games and has shown an inability to score against good defenses. Washington's defense is ranked fifthh in the NFL, and that spells a much closer matchup than two teams with such opposite records should be involved in. It's extremely tough to throw against Washington, so Knowshon Moreno becomes a very important factor on Sunday. If he does well, Denver wins -- If Moreno falters, Denver loses.
It's often said that a team with two quarterbacks really doesn't have any. With that spirit in mind, FanHouse will keep you updated weekly on NFL teams facing potential quarterback controversies.
With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
Cut-N-Go is Fantasy Football FanHouse's weekday roundup of the NFL news with fantasy football impact.
The best NFL news on Wednesday was that Brian Westbrook will not play this week. He may be your starting running back in your fantasy league, but the Philadelphia Eagles' all-time leader from scrimmage with 9,711 yards also is a man who is recuperating from two concussions in 20 days.
Wednesday's news that Raiders coach Tom Cable had decided to bench struggling quarterback JaMarcus Russell and go with journeyman reserve Brad Gradkowski as the starter for now is remarkable for this reason: It showed Cable is doing what's best for the 2-7 franchise by getting hands-on owner Al Davis to agree with him about the move.
It's often said that a team with two quarterbacks really doesn't have any. With that spirit in mind, FanHouse will keep you updated weekly on NFL teams facing potential quarterback controversies.
With attention spans dwindling, we forgo full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. We call it The Once-Over.
