It was bad enough for the Texans to lose Matt Schaub for the year. But after losing backup Matt Leinart (pictured), likely for the season as well, Houston's road to the Super Bowl got a lot harder.
Musings, observations and the occasional insight from a Week 12 in the NFL that helped separate the pretenders from the contenders as December looms....
By Mark Potash mpotash@suntimes.com November 18, 2011 11:24PM
GM Jerry Angelo (left, with Lovie Smith) hasn’t been able to build an offensive line through the draft. | AP
Five weeks after one prominent local columnist suggested the Bears hire the football version of Theo Epstein to replace him, general manager Jerry Angelo is flying high as the architect of one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
The Chargers (4-5) visit the Bears (6-3) in an inter-conference battle between two clubs fighting to keep pace in crowded divisions. San Diego could wake up Monday tied for first place or all alone in last place in the AFC West. The Bears need to scratch and claw through the end of the season to pick up the wild-card playoff crumbs the undefeated Packers will leave behind in the NFC North.
I’m buying in.
Although I don’t yet trust Will Muschamp’s ability to be a competent head coach, there are too many other positive factors.
Florida will be back sooner rather than later.
There are numerous reasons to fault Muschamp.
The Gators remain dead last in the country in penalties and there are only seven teams out of 120 that have a worse turnover margin than UF’s minus-9.
The Bears are exactly where they were at the off week a year ago, 4-3. But they are not facing the same issues and have a schedule that is to their advantage if they can continue to play well.
Jay Cutler puts up 107.8 passer rating to go with Matt Forte ’s 158 total yards. Defense holds Matt Ryan and Falcons “O” without a TD.
Stupid? He thinks it was a streak of genius.
Jace Lankow, the 22-year-old who stripped down to his skivvies, ran wild and inadvertently sparked a bench-clearing riot during last week's UCLA-Arizona football game after coming onto the field dressed as a referee, told police he did it because he wants to be a contestant on the TV show "Wipeout."
Mark Sanchez is the most criticized quarterback north of Tony Romo. But he hasn't been getting much help from his offensive line, running game or wide receivers. Something clicked, however, in the second half of the New York Jets' home win over the Miami Dolphins last week. So there's good reason to think the Jets will keep flying high this week as they play host to a better AFC opponent in Week 7:
A snapshot look at the Vikings as they prepare for Sunday afternoon's game against Green Bay at Mall of America Field.
Veteran cornerback Cedric Griffin has been on the wrong end off too many highlights this season.
And the latest came early Sunday in Chicago. That's when Bears receiver Devin Hester delivered a small juke, then beat Griffin badly on a post route to haul in a 48-yard touchdown grab from Jay Cutler. That a mediocre Bears receiving corps torched the Vikings for 11 catches, 195 yards and two touchdowns is of major concern. So too is the confidence of Griffin, who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the 2009 NFC Championship game and the ACL in his right knee last October.
View full size Doug Beghtel, The Oregonian BYU linebacker Jordan Pendleton wrestles OSU freshman quarterback Sean Mannion to the ground. With only one win, the Beavers are in rebuilding mode and Mannion is a cornerstone of the effort.
Midway through the 2011 season the Beavers appear headed for the school’s worst record since the 1996 team went 2-9 and Jerry Pettibone got fired. It began with a stunning loss to lower-tier Sacramento State on Week 1. While this young, injury-riddled team showed marked improvement during a stretch when it played decently at Arizona State and then beat Arizona at home, Saturday’s 38-28 loss to BYU was a step backwards. With a bowl game now a fairy tale, OSU is reduced to playing Pac-12 spoiler the rest of the regular season. There are potential wins on the remaining schedule – Washington State, Utah, Cal – but it could get ugly vs. Stanford, Washington, and Oregon. Here's our mid-season report card for Oregon State along with a quick look into the future:
are not getting the love they deserve.
The Lions are 5-0 for the first time since first-class postage stamps cost three cents. How long ago was that? The Dodgers still played in Brooklyn and the iconic ’57 Chevy was not even built! We are talking a looong time ago.
We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate . Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries.
I'm glad you brought up the kickoff rule , Stefan, because I think it's the most interesting thing about this NFL season that does not involve the ongoing vigil over Peyton Manning's neck . (I don't mean to make light. Peyton's injury is a sad story-the NFL is a much brighter place when all the Mannings are present and accounted for-but at this point would anyone be surprised if ESPN sent Chris Mortensen to do stand-ups from the grotto at Lourdes?) As regards the safety issue, I tend to take the cynical view: Fiddling around with the rulebook in the name of player safety is really just a way of shifting the liability onto the help. (Now there's a wussy move.) That's been the league's M.O. from the moment Alan Schwarz started bird-dogging the concussions issue in the Times . That's what the league did last year when it engaged in some heavy-duty concern-trolling about "flagrant" hits, never mind that the real killer is the steady accumulation of many lesser and perfectly routine blows, which is to say the very substance of the sport. Players hurt players, the league's message goes, but football itself has clean hands. Any time Roger Goodell talks about safety, all I hear are 100 lawyers clicking their briefcases shut.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- Roy Williams is new here, but he's a quick learner.
The veteran wide receiver is the de facto No. 1 receiver for the franchise where "receivers go to die," and he's a fading star to boot.
There are a lot of distractions, and we've got to take care of business, take care of our jobs first and everything else will fall into place.
There’s nothing complicated about the Bears’ mission Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, according to offensive coordinator Mike Martz.
“We need to score more points than we did last year,” he said. “We got going pretty good at the end of the year, but (we need) consistency more than anything, and discipline.”
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — QB Matt Ryan had the first big game of his NFL career against the Bears during his rookie season, when he pulled out a victory in the final 11 seconds. Ryan and the Falcons also beat the Bears in 2009.
But Ryan, who’s set to open his fourth season, knows the Bears will be tough at home on Sunday. However, he has a much more potent passing attack to take to Chicago.
The start of the 2011 season begins Thursday night in Green Bay. A game hasn’t been played yet, but already history has been made. Peyton Manning‘s streak of 227 consecutive starts will come to an end. A shortened but chaotic offseason/preseason resulted in many familiar faces ending up in different uniforms.
LAKE FOREST — Former Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather, known around the league as a heavy hitter, has not unpacked all his bags after his quick move to Chicago this week.
But he insists he doesn’t come to the Bears with a lot of baggage anyway. Instead, he intends on quietly working his way into this defense, and contributing in a big way — most likely with some big hits — very soon.
lockout is over, there's a new CBA intact, and it's time to get Sunday, Monday, Tuesday—and any other day—Night Football going!
Week 1 of the regular season is closer than ever. Let's take a look at the season-opening matchups for the 2011 season.
As the song goes, "Are you ready for some footballllll???"
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Every Father’s Day we come across a number of stories related to the NFL, and they’re often, sadly, about absent fathers. That’s why it was particularly pleasant to read some Father’s Day thoughts from Devin Hester.
The NFL Network's list of the " Top 100 Players of 2011 " is reaching interesting territory now. With picks No. 21-30 having been revealed Sunday, the two shows that remain feature the very cream of the crop, player-wise, and should foster fierce debate among fans who have little else to discuss thanks to the lockout.
The brilliance of Gale Sayers as a football player can best be summed up like this:
Due to a pair of crippling knee injuries and the primitive medical treatment of such injuries some 40 years ago, the iconic 1960s Chicago Bears halfback played only 68 games in the NFL.
Yet after he retired at age 29, Sayers was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame at 34.
