Sunday Football Afterword: Week 4 Late Games

Brian Dawkins was honored during pregame and at halftime,
but looked like he wanted to suit up and play last night.

I just missed a perfect Sunday evening with my predictions because of the Sunday Night matchup, but I got every game correct that started in the 4:00 hour.

Arizona narrowly retained their status as an unbeaten with an overtime, 24-21 victory at home against Miami. The ‘Fins owned a 13-0 lead at halftime, but Arizona came alive in the second half as Kevin Kolb threw three touchdowns, two of them in the fourth quarter, including a 15-yarder to Andre Roberts inside of 30 seconds to play in regulation. Kolb finished with 324 passing yards while rookie Ryan Tannehill threw for 431 for Miami, 253 of which went toward Brian Hartline’s single-game team record.

New Orleans offense finally did what we thought it could do when the season began – keep them in games despite their crippled defense. Unfortunately, the Packers rode the same train and did so slightly better. The Packers held on for a 28-27 victory in what was a must-win game for both teams. Drew Brees threw for three scores, throwing a touchdown in his 47^th consecutive game, which ties an all-time NFL record. Rodgers threw for over 100 fewer yards, but one more score in the game.

The other exciting early-evening game was a blowout after the first half. Washington led Tampa Bay 21-6 at halftime. But three missed field goals by Billy Cundiff on stalled Redskins drives allowed the Buccaneers to battle back to a 22-21 lead. With three seconds left, Cundiff ‘redeemed’ himself with a 41-yarder that barely made it through the uprights, to win the game. RGIII played very well, rushing for a touchdown (nearly two) and didn’t turn the ball over at all.

Andy Dalton has now thrown an interception in each of the first four games this season, but they keep pace with the Ravens in the AFC North with another win, this one a 27-10 victory over Jacksonville. The Jaguars could not get anything going offensively and the win was even more lopsided than the final score suggests.

Granted it was at home against an awful defense, but Peyton Manning looked better than he has all season, even looking back at their opener against the Steelers. He finished 30/38 for 338 yards, 3 touchdowns, and, most importantly, no interceptions. Willis McGahee contributed to the offensive attack with 19 carries, over 100 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

The Sunday Night game was as exciting as I’ve been waiting a nationally televised game to legitimately be this season. At the two-minute warning in the first half, the score was tied at 0. At halftime, it was 7-3 Eagles. The scoring picked up a little from there, but it was a close one to the finish. The lead switched hands a couple times late, and the Giants even grabbed a late 17-16 lead. The Eagles drove but were held to a 26-yard field goal by Alex Henery with just under two minutes left in the game. The Eagles committed two pass interference penalties on the Giants’ final drive, including on a 4^th & 1 downfield pass. However, offensive pass interference a few plays later moved the Giants out of Lawrence Tynes’s range.

Andy Reid needs to take a note from mistakes made by the likes of Jason Garrett and Joe Philbin and stop icing the kicker. They Eagles got lucky last night. Reid called a last-second time out and his defense blocked the field goal attempt. Lawrence Tynes took his second opportunity and made a beautiful kick, perfectly down the middle of the hash marks. He just didn’t have the leg from 54 yards and the Eagles held on to win 19-17.

With the regular officials back in place, this was the most exciting week of the season so far and I look forward to 13 more weeks of the same. For now, we have a big matchup on tap for tonight as the Cowboys host the Bears at 8:30. Be sure to check out my afterword on that game tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!