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Week 4 Extra Points and Opinions
Monday, October 02, 2006
By Tovash Hatcher
Week 4 Extra points...and opinions.
It's Week 4 and my eyes have been glued to the tube! I've been watching highlight after highlight and still cannot believe that the first month of the season has come and gone. So do you think that the Saints can continue their good fortunes? Will TO continue to grab headlines around the league? Or how about the Manning brothers, are they doing ok? Well we still have tons more football to go, but let's dive into yesterday's action.
Can I officially declare the Jets' Chad Pennington as the NFL comeback player of the year? Coming back from an injury filled 2005 season, Pennington and the Jets will be good. I don't know how good they'll actually be but if the Jets play the rest of the season just like they played the Colts yesterday, look out AFC! Pennington and Peyton Manning both had a good day in the passing category. Pennington threw for 17/23 and 207 yards including a touchdown and an interception. After a severe shoulder surgery last season, Pennington has the J-E-T-S off to a good start. In the game yesterday, the Jets were pretty close to going 3-1. With 2:20 left in the 4th quarter, the Jets' Justin Miller returned a kickoff back 103-yards for the potential game winning touchdown. But the second career Peyton Manning touchdown run in as many games with under a minute to solidified a 4-0 start for the Colts. I expect the Colts to be the last standing undefeated team in the league once again, but it's still too early to talk 16-0. The Colts survive a scare 31-28.
I'm a little hissed off and angry concerning a certain incident in this one. For those you who that watched the game between the Cowboys and the Tennessee Titans, you should know exactly what I'm talking about. This was supposed to be a quite interesting game on a number of fronts. For one, Terrell Owens was coming off a really hectic week surrounding the "accidental overdose" and also his first game back since he broke his hand in Week 2. Also, this was the first start for the NFL's second coming of Warren Moon, Vince Young. But instead, the entire game is overshadowed by stupidity. How can you get so upset at a player on the other team that you ASSAULT him? Late in the first half after a short Marion Barber touchdown run, the FOX cameras caught Cowboys' center Andre Gurode being stepped on by Titans' defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Let me get a little more descriptive. Gurode cleared out Haynesworth on a nice block up the middle and Haynesworth gets upset, rips the helmet off Gurode, and steps on his forehead with his cleats...twice!! The replay shows that Haynesworth had malicious intent in mind when he acted violently. If you have time to step on a guy's forehead twice, there was some intended harm. Needless to say that Gurode was hurt, but he did not return to the game. Luckily, it was Gurode's forehead and not his vision that was affected. He at least did come back to the sideline with a huge bandage on his forehead. Reports said that he had to get multiple stitches. Haynesworth will likely get a hefty fine and suspension this week from the NFL. There was a football game by the way. Julius Jones had a season-high 122 yards on 23 runs including a touchdown. Drew Bledsoe found his favorite target in Terry Glenn early and often. He hooked up with Glenn for 5 catches and two TDs. Terrell Owens also had an ok receiving day with 5 receptions for 88 yards. The Titans had one bright spot in QB Vince Young looking somewhat impressive in defeat. Young committed a few mistakes resulting in big Cowboy defensive plays, but for the most part he looked like your typical QB going thru a few growing pains. The Cowboys handled their business in routing the Titans 45-14. The Cowboys now look ahead to the Philadelphia Eagles match-up on 10/8.
After pitching a shutout in Week 2 against the Steelers, the Jacksonville Jaguars looked at their already difficult schedule and headed to the nation's capital to take on the Redskins. The Jags, who came off a tough loss a week ago against an offensive juggernaut in the Colts, still looked like a team that will scare opponents this season. Jacksonville QB Byron Leftwich threw for 3 touchdowns and 289 yards and still could not get the job done. Normally, a three touchdown performance is a good omen for a team but not in this contest. The new and improved Mark Brunell had the Redskin offense clicking on all cylinders just like last week. 329 yards on 3 TDs for Brunell (all to Santana Moss) has the Redskins looking like the Colts of the NFC. That was just a joke. The ground game looked better with Clinton Portis in the backfield rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown as well. Is it too early to say that this Redskins offense looks good? And what about their defense, they only allowed 33 rushing yards. I just think that Washington is doing exactly what they need to be doing, especially in a tough NFC East and that's collecting early season wins. This one wasn't easy for the Skins however, because it took overtime to get the win. Brunell fit a perfect pass in between two Jacksonville defenders and let Moss sail away for the 68-yard score. The Redskins outlast the Jaguars in OT 36-30.
As a kid I used to view the NFL by each teams' logo. For instance, if the Bears and Lions clashed I would think the "king of beasts" would bring down the bear. When I got a little older I realized that it's just a name of a team and that they play the games for a reason. On Friday I looked at the match-up between the Seahawks and Bears and began rubbing my hands together like a mad scientist putting together an evil plan to take over the world. "It's alive!!!" I figured that this had to be a game where all the attention would be focused on the NFC champions versus the best defensive team in the league. Ask any coach in any sport for the recipe to winning and you'll always hear "defense wins championships". I won't go too far to say that the Bears will win the championship, but that defense is scarily good! Yes, I do know that the Seahawks didn't have their MVP running back due to a broken foot but I don't think the outcome would have been any different. The Bears held the Seahawks offense to just 77 yards on 19 carries on the ground and also forcing 2 Matt Hasselbeck interceptions in the passing game. Surprisingly, the Bears offense led by Rex Grossman moved the ball and moved it well. Grossman threw for 232 yards and two TDs. The Bears' QB also hooked up with WR Bernard Berrian for a 46-yard pitch-and-catch beating the Seahawk secondary down the sideline. What I thought would be a barnburner between two good teams actually turned out to look like a college football game. The Bears plucked the Seahawks by the score of 37-6.
Week 5 should be as exciting as Week 4. Keep an eye out on a couple of match-ups including Pittsburgh at San Diego and TO's return to the city of brotherly hate...uh I meant brotherly love. Sorry Eagles fans!!
I'm Tovash Hatcher
5:29 PM
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