2013 Offseason Update, Week 17

Tom Brady is working with new receivers during OTAs. Three of his
top receivers from 2012 are inactive with injuries and four more are
no longer with the team. Photo credit to BusinessInsider.com.

We had yet another slow week of NFL news. But it’s June, so that is certainly something to be excited about. We’re another month through the offseason and that much closer to football!

JaMarcus Russell

Fifty pounds is a lot to drop for anyone. For JaMarcus Russell, it was essential if he wanted any chance of returning to professional football. He has done it and is now down to 265, his weight from 2007. He is rumored to have the interest of multiple NFL teams and some CFL teams, though no teams have been named as suitors. Russell has said that he is open to signing with a CFL team if he doesn’t do so in the NFL some time in the next four to six weeks.

Cam Newton has also shed some weight this offseason, twelve pounds to be exact. It appears to be mostly fat weight he’s shed as he looks a little more toned. Hopefully that leads to a healthy season as he tries to carry the Panthers to a better finish in the NFC South in 2013.

Opening for the Dolphins?

I haven’t offered much insight into my predictions for the upcoming season yet, so here is a little on the AFC East. I expect the Dolphins to finish second, but there may be an opening for them to leapfrog the Patriots. With the various surgeries Rob Gronkowski has gone through and is recovering from, Tom Brady is without his top seven pass-catchers from 2012.

Here is the list:

• Wes Welker (118 receptions) – Denver Broncos
• Brandon Lloyd (74) – Free Agent
• Rob Gronkowski (55) – Inactive, rehabbing arm and upcoming back surgery
• Aaron Hernandez (51) – Inactive, rehabbing shoulder injury
• Danny Woodhead (40) – San Diego Chargers
• Julian Edelman (21) – Inactive, foot injury
• Deion Branch (16) – Free Agent

Madden NFL 25

I always look forward to Madden and keep close tabs on the development of the games. This year, Connected Careers returns with modes where you can play as a coach, player, or owner. Unfortunately, owners can’t bid to host Super Bowls, so there goes my idea of building a state-of-the-art dome with real grass for the Redskins.

There will be a sideline reporter, Adam Schefter will provide commentary during the draft and replays are supposed to look more authentic, like what you see during actual broadcasts. In addition, the Infinity Engine has been touched up so we should see more realistic foot-planting when running with the ball and players shouldn’t be able to float up onto their feet after the play.

Reminder

As I mentioned at the beginning of the offseason, I am now writing for ACC Battles, covering several athletic teams here at the University of Maryland. Because of that, I have less time for projects like this blog.

That said, covering the NFL truly is my passion and I am not prepared to give it up completely. So this year I will be doing something a little different. During the regular season, I will be focusing on the Redskins and Ravens, the two local teams. I will also cover prime-time games in depth (Thursday-, Sunday- and Monday-night games) and will predict every game of every week. But, until the playoffs, my main focus will be the Redskins and Ravens. I will still be watching as many games as possible, but I will not recap every game as I did last season.

If I am missing anything important, or if you just want to hear my thoughts on any other offseason news from the past week, feel free to contact me via my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 16 Early Games

Jimmy Graham overshot a fumble near the goal line in
overtime, but turns his body to cover it up.
Photo credit to The Times-Picayune.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! We had 15 games yesterday, so I’m going to get right into the 11 early ones, and I’ll try to keep everything short and sweet.

Cam Newton’s attitude issues apparently don’t only come out during losses. He got into it with a ref during yesterday’s 17-6 win against Oakland. He apologized after the game, but this is the kind of thing he’s got to clean up if he wants to have a long, successful career.

Green Bay thrashed the Titans, 55-7. There really isn’t much more to say about it other than that it is scary how many teams there are who can put up 50+ points right now.

Minnesota surprised Houston as Christian Ponder had a decent game throwing the ball and ran for more than half the yards Adrian Peterson did. AP got just 86 yards and is still over 200-yards away from the single-season rushing record, and the Vikings have to play the Packers, who will be playing to keep the #2 seed in the NFC.

Tom Brady played awful early and at one point was 9/18 with no scores and 2 interceptions, letting Jacksonville lead early. He cleaned it up after that, though it was surprising not to see the Patriots run away with is like they usual do after poor starts to games. Brady finished with two touchdown passes in New England’s 23-16 win in Jacksonville.

The Colts looked good early against another terrible team, but let Kansas City back in it during the third quarter. Andrew Luck got his only touchdown pass of the game in the fourth quarter, for the go-ahead score that ultimately was the final score of the game. Luck also broke Cam Newton’s rookie single-season passing yards record in the game.

Miami handled Buffalo with little difficulty, 24-10. The Jets stayed close but fell 27-17 to the Chargers. And St. Louis took care of business against the Buccaneers, who were squarely in the playoff race a few weeks ago. The final score in that one was 28-13.

Dallas took advantage of a poor New Orleans defensive effort, but Drew Brees came to life late in the game to lead the Saints to a 14-point comeback to send the game into overtime, where they finally got a defensive stop and then drove the ball downfield for a game-winning field goal.

Washington, meanwhile, won their game in Philadelphia, 27-20. But it doesn’t mean all that much because next weeks matchup with Dallas, which has been flexed to Sunday Night Football, will decide the winner of the NFC East. If Dallas looses, they’re out. If Washington loses, they are almost definitely out, and we’ll know for sure by the time the game starts. These are two of the hottest teams in the NFL right now, and I’m sure this game will remind many people of past days when this was a common division-deciding matchup to see late in the season.

The final game of the early afternoon was in Pittsburgh, where Cincinnati knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs and knocked themselves in. All six AFC playoff spots are decided, the only thing left to determine is seeding, so there won’t be too much resting of starters next week because there is still plenty to play for.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the four late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

Monday Night Football Afterword: Eagles vs Panthers

Cam Newton initially missed the end zone on this dive, but
a second effort pushed the football across the goal line.
Photo credit to Northwest Herald.

Bryce Brown was not the only bright spot for the Eagles, but it certainly felt like it. With LeSean McCoy inactive due to a concussion suffered last week against the Redskins, Brown recorded an Eagles’ rookie record 178 rushing yards in the 30-22 home loss to Carolina. He scored twice, including on a 65-yard blast, but he also fumbled twice and will have to learn to hold the ball more securely moving forward.

But Nick Foles was also a bright spot. He struggled mightily in the red zone, and he threw some shaky passes early on, but he threw only five incompletions. He only threw for 119 yards and failed to record a scoring throw, but, more importantly, he also did not throw any interceptions, a week after throwing two against Washington.

Injuries are the story for the Eagles. They have only one offensive lineman that has started every game. In addition to Michael Vick and McCoy sitting out, DeSean Jackson went down with an injury early on and did not return, leaving Foles limited in his offensive weapons and completely crippling Philadelphia’s ability to stretch the field.

Philadelphia looked terrible on defense early, giving up two big touchdown passes to Cam Newton. They settled down some as the game progressed but consistently failed to contain Newton, who threw for 306 yards and two scores on 18/28 passing in addition to carrying 14 times for 52 yards and another two touchdowns.

Andy Reid’s record losing streak now continues at seven games, as the Eagles still have not won since the last time the Phillies notched a win. The Philadelphia baseball club notched its last win on October 1, the day after the most recent Eagles victory.

Carolina defeated the Eagles for just the second time since 2001. Their other victory was in the playoffs en route to their narrow Super Bowl XXXVIII loss to the New England Patriots.

Before I wrap this up, I want to briefly pay my respects to Sean Taylor, the Redskins safety who died five years ago, today. Gone but never forgotten. Rest In Peace, #21.

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 7 Early Games

There were eight 1:00 games on Sunday, eight!! That’s a lot, especially when there were only 2 in the early evening slot. But let’s get too all the early action.

Some games just plain were not exciting. Baltimore played a lousy game, continued to ignore their all-pro running back by only giving Ray Rice nine carries in the game, and got blown out by Houston 43-13. On the new Total Quarterback Rating system, which rates everything a quarterback does on a scale of 0-100, Flacco scored 0.3, the lowest for any quarterback since 2008. The bright side was that Terrell Suggs was not only back but also phenomenal, but it did little to slow down the Texans attack.

Dallas and Carolina played a close game, but it was also boring. Cam Newton continues to show that he struggles with adversity, and the Panthers ought to just be called the Steve Smiths, because he seems to be the only one out there who knows what he’s doing. The Panthers should have won the game.

New Orleans and Tampa Bay played a very strange game. Drew Brees was rolling in the first half with over 300 passing yards, 4 touchdown passes and one interception on a tipped ball. He had 32 fantasy points in my league at halftime! He totaled 3 more fantasy points in the second half as the Saints went insanely conservative and the Buccaneers led a furious comeback that almost sent the game into overtime if it hadn’t been for illegal touching being called on a Tampa Bay touchdown pass on the last play of the game. I know it’s typically frowned upon to run up the score, but that’s when you’re winning by three scored in the last 5 minutes of the game. When it’s halftime, no lead is safe; we saw that last Monday Night.

I didn’t get a chance to see much footage from the Packers win over the Rams or Minnesota’s 21-14 win over Arizona. Generally I can watch a bit from everything, but eight games at once was a bit much.

The Bills played much better than I anticipated, which seems to be a common trend. They are very streaky. There are teams that do really well one week and then very poorly the next and I learn quickly not to jump on the bandwagon after a good week. Then there is Buffalo. They’ll play very well for a few weeks and I’ll start thinking they’ve gotten things figured out, then they back into irrelevance for a while and we overlook them. They showed up against Tennessee, but, just their luck, Chris Johnson decided to have his second good game of the season and Matt Hasselbeck showed that he isn’t as washed up as many people seem to think.

The Colts played a pretty good game, but so too did the Browns. I can’t sit here and say that Cleveland will be an AFC North title contender in a few years time, because the Browns have an uncanny knack for screwing up their team in the offseason and starting right where they did the year before every year. But Brandon Weeden is playing very well, maybe even better than Andrew Luck the past two weeks. But the Colts have a couple more pieces than Cleveland and were able to pull out an important win.

I don’t think anybody would argue about the most exciting game of the day. The Giants and Redskins squared off in East Rutherford and it was quite a battle. The first half saw the Redskins score on all three possessions (a touchdown and two field goals). The Giants scored three times on four possessions and it was tied at 13 at halftime. The second half was entirely different, but both teams still scored plenty.

Eli Manning threw two uncharacteristic interceptions in the second half, but the Redskins turned the ball over four times in the last 30 minutes, three of them on fumbles. Griffin III’s only interception was on a double clutch that he normally would not have released. The turnovers were enough to doom Washington. RGIII led a drive late in the fourth quarter to give the Redskins the lead, but it was too soon as Manning quickly found Victor Cruz for a long touchdown play. There was still plenty of time for Washington, and they were driving nicely, but Santana Moss fumbled near midfield with about 45 seconds left to play and that was it.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the three late games. Thanks for reading everyone!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 5 Late Games

A high level of respect is present between two of the
Game's all-time passing greats.

A cold has been kicking my butt the past few days. I had hoped to publish this yesterday a few hours after my first Sunday Afterword, but was unable to.

Cam Newton continues to struggle in tight spots, evidenced by a poor pass on 4^th down near the Seattle goal line late in the game. The Seahawks defense, of course, cannot be overlooked, but it also cannot be ignored that this was not the first time Newton has failed in such situations. Seattle won 16-12 in Carolina, a game the Panthers needed to win if they wanted to be considered a legitimate playoff contender in the NFC.

Most of the other games were not all that exciting. Chicago’s offense played well and their defense played better. Granted, it was against the Jaguars, but it was in Jacksonville; that has to count for something, right? Well, maybe not so much, but 41-3 is still a score that you can’t scoff at regardless of the opponent.

Only San Francisco scored a larger margin of victory, backing up a crushing defeat of the New York Jets a week earlier with a 45-3 win back in California against the Bills. For the first time in NFL history, a team – Buffalo – gave up 300+ passing yards and 300+ rushing yards. There had been 122 games in which a team gained 300+ yards on the ground, another 2,316 with 300+ through the air, but San Francisco was the first with both. (source)

Tennessee was manhandled no worse in Minnesota as they lost 30-7 in another ugly contest with an AFC team getting pummeled by an NFC opponent.

The game of the week for many of us, myself included, was the Broncos-Patriots game in New England. On Denver’s first drive, Manning lofted a perfect pass to Demaryius Thomas, which he caught then fumbled. New England took over and turned the takeaway into a touchdown. Manning drove Denver back down the field to tie the score on their ensuing drive, but the Broncos’ offense stalled after that.

New England took off and led 31-7 in the 3^rd quarter. Manning led a furious comeback against a defense that was somewhere between a standard Belichick defense and a prevent scheme. Despite the secondary being backed up a bit, Manning still threw fantastic passes over the top and found receivers deep. When they couldn’t get over top, Manning still found ways to get them the ball on ‘go’ routes. It wasn’t enough, however, when a fumble by Willis McGahee deep in Patriots territory late in the 4^th quarter ended all hope of a full comeback. New England held on, 31-21 in yet another epic Manning v. Brady/Belichick battle. Brady is now 9-4 all-time in their matchups.

Suspended coach, Sean Payton, was in attendance for
Drew Brees' record-breaking performance Sunday.

The final game of the day, the Sunday Night game, was not a particularly exciting game, but there were still plenty of important story lines. The Saints ended their bid for a winless season as Drew Brees beat his old team, the San Diego Chargers, 31-24. Sean Payton and two other Saints executives were permitted to be in attendance for the game and got to see Drew Brees break one of the oldest records in the National Football League. Over half a century ago, Johnny Unitas of the Baltimore Colts set a record of 47 consecutive regular season games played with a touchdown pass. On Sunday night, Drew Brees threw a touchdown in his 48^th consecutive game.


Breaking records is special, and it is even more special at home. Last year, Drew Brees got to break Dan Marino’s single-season passing yards mark at home. This year, on Sunday, he broke an even longer-standing record, and he also broke that mark at home against the team that parted ways with him for their current quarterback. It couldn’t have been written any better for Brees.

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Panthers vs Giants

"Dominating" is the word I keep coming back to in trying to describe New York’s performance on Thursday. The Giants looked as complete as I’ve seen them in a regular season game in years, and they looked it with a defensive secondary that has suffered some key early-season injuries.

I picked the Panthers to win for a few reasons. I know Cam Newton is much better in the passing game when he can run the ball, and though I didn’t expect the Giants’ defensive line to give him much room to do so, I wasn’t sure that the secondary would be able to contain the passing game regardless. I also counted on Eli Manning being lethargic for three quarters and then coming alive in the fourth, but with one less key weapon available to him – Hakeem Nicks.

I still don’t think it was a terrible pick, but it looks awful on the final scoreboard. 36-7, a dominant performance by the defending Super Bowl champs.

The Giants opened the game with the ball and immediately drove the field for a touchdown. The Panthers have now allowed a score on the first drive of every game this season. The touchdown came on a pass from Manning to Martellus Bennett, the former Cowboy, who is the first player in history with a touchdown reception in each of his first three games with the Giants.

‘SuperCam’ came out hoping to lead his own team to a score and keep the score close in the early stages, but he didn’t look so super last night. Where Carolina couldn’t seem to make Manning break a sweat, New York was breathing down Newton’s neck from the start. Both teams finished with two sacks in the game, but those were probably the only two times Eli was put on his back all game; Cam felt the pressure much more.

New York’s secondary was the story of the game, but it was helped by the linebackers, which is remarkable because it means that the Giants were getting pressure on Newton even when only their four down linemen rushed him. For example, linebacker Terry Jackson became the first Giant to record an interception in each of the first three games of the season since cornerback Michael Boley did it in the late 70s.

The game wasn’t a total disaster for the Panthers. They actually did drive the ball on the Giants a few times, but early on it seemed like the 50 yard-line was to New York’s defense what the fourth quarter is to Eli Manning.

After the halftime break, the Panthers game out hoping to cut into a 20-0 New York lead. They didn’t even get the opportunity thanks to a fumble on the opening kick return of the 2^nd half.

The Panthers did get on the board midway through the third quarter and it looked like they had a chance to at least make a game of it, but the next time they drove into the red zone Newton threw an interception.

By the end of the fourth quarter, David Carr was running the Giants’ offense and Derek Anderson was in for Carolina. I know it was garbage time, but Anderson looked much more comfortable than Cam did at any point in the game. That might be because Newton was held to just six rushing yards a week after a career high game where he rushed for 71 yards against the Saints.

Perhaps the most glaring thing about the game for me was that the officiating didn’t ruin the game. Sure the refs were shaky at times, stumbling over their words as they announced penalties, but even the real refs have occasionally had the same trouble. But there were no glaring mistakes, and even the one time I thought the call was questionable (a holding call against the Giants on a run off tackle), the replay showed that there was in fact a hold, a minor one that could have as easily been a no-call, but a legitimate call nonetheless.

I only hope the rest of the week goes as smoothly with the refs, but we’re off to a good start and it was the first game I really enjoyed watching so far this season.

My next posts will come next Monday. I will have one for the 1:00 games and another for all the later games, including the Sunday Night game, so be sure to check those out.

Subscribe to podcasts from The All-Sports Crew on iTunes and be sure to keep up with our sports thoughts and NFL predictions on our blog. Thanks so much for reading and enjoy your Sunday football fix!

2011 Season in Review

Unfortunately, I became too busy during the semester to keep my blog up to date during this past semester. With the winter break here, I have time to get this going again, just in time for the postseason, no less.

This has been a very exciting season, and a surprising one, too. Of my preseason predictions of end-of-season records, I got just three teams correct: the Giants (9-7), the Redskins (5-11), and the Texans (10-6). I was close on several others. As for my playoff predictions, I was way off on a few, but I am pleased that I correctly predicted the top three seeds for the AFC playoffs; New England, Baltimore, and Houston, respectively.

2011 saw many let downs, breakout performances, and, of course, Tebow Time. The Eagles, or the ‘Dream Team’ as Vince Young famously titled them, stumbled out of the gate. It was too late for them, but they got on a roll at the end of the season, and with Reid returning next year they have some good momentum heading into offseason workouts.

The 49ers may have been the biggest surprise of the 2011 season. With no offseason to work with his team, Jim Harbaugh let San Francisco to not only their first playoff appearance, but also their first winning season since 2002. Alex Smith finally looked like a quarterback worth the first overall pick that he was back in 2005, and Ted Ginn, Jr. helped them start of the season with a win, returning a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the 4th quarter of their week one game against Seattle.

The Packers season got off to a hot start. But a recently Todd Haley-less Chiefs team outsmarted the Jennings-less Packers in week 15 to give Green Bay their first, and only, loss of the season. Not only that, but the winning quarterback was Kyle Orton, who led the Broncos to a 49-23 loss against the Packers eleven weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, the Broncos, after starting 1-4 with Kyle Orton starting, switched to Tim Tebow and won seven of their next eight games before losing their last three. But it was just enough to win the AFC West and their first playoff appearance since 2005.

The Colts never did get Peyton Manning back this season and went from being considered a Super Bowl contender before the season to a 2-14 season and owners of the #1 pick in the 2012 college draft.

Last year’s #1 pick, Cam Newton, made a strong case for rookie of the year, breaking all kinds of rookie records, including a few of Manning’s. He also set the all-time record for touchdown rushes by a quarterback in a single season.

His main competition comes from Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, who had a pretty fantastic rookie season himself and has his team in the playoffs.

Von Miller, the rookie linebacker for Denver is almost certain to be the defensive rookie of the year, and is the one other individual who could give Newton a run for overall ROY in 2011. He was a major contributor to Denver’s excellent defensive efforts during the regular season and has already been awarded with a ticket to play in the Pro Bowl.

And, of course, there was one other major occurrence I would never live down not including in this post. On the day after Christmas, Dan Marino's 27-year-old passing record was finally broken by Drew Brees, who is now my favorite for league MVP, with Aaron Rodgers a close 2nd and Tom Brady a distant 3rd.

The postseason begins this Saturday. Interestingly enough, I am already excited for next season. In the meantime, I will do as I did last year and post predictions the day before each day of playoff games, so my next post will be on Friday.

Week 1 Sunday Recap

Yesterday was a very exciting day as the NFL kicked into high gear with its first Sunday of regular season action for the 2011 season.

I chose the Ravens/Steelers game to watch during the 1:00pm session rather than the Eagles/Rams, and I was treated to a blowout. The Ravens defense allowed seven points, but they also forced seven turnovers, and Baltimore took advantage of all of them by not turning the ball over even once! Flacco looked very good, Ray Rice was stellar, and Baltimore rolled to its easiest win over their most hated rivals in NFL history.

The Eagles took care of business in St. Louis, but it didn’t hurt that Sam Bradford, Steven Jackson, and Danny Amendola all sustained injuries during the game. Their severity will be assessed today. Vick settled down as the game wore on, but the Rams defense was gunning for him early. In fact, the Eagles didn’t really look very good at all during the first quarter, yet they led 14-7 going into the second.

Other big early games included Chicago’s romping of Atlanta and the surprise 41-7 win by Buffalo, who was visiting a Kansas City team that went 7-1 at home last year.

I got to see the Redskins win at home against the Giants during the later games, and it was a very good game. During the first half New York scored twice, but the drives following both New York touchdowns resulted in touchdowns for the Redskins. During the second half it was all Washington. It opened up with rookie Ryan Kerrigan tipping an Eli Manning pass, catching it, and running into the end zone for a touchdown.

The other three late afternoon games all have great story lines as well. Cam Newton became the first rookie to pass for 400+ yards in week 1, breaking a record previously held by Peyton Manning. It wasn’t enough, however, as the hosting Cardinals still won the game. Minnesota led in San Diego, 17-7 at halftime, but Philip Rivers helped lead a big comeback win at home. Fullback Mike Tolbert scored all three Charger touchdowns. And the game in San Francisco was much closer than the score suggests. Ted Ginn Jr. had two late return touchdowns, the first a kickoff and the second a punt. It marked the first time in NFL history a player had one of each on opening day.

The late game was the most exciting of the day. The Jets hosted the Cowboys, and Dallas looked like they would be unstoppable early on, or at least Dez Bryant looked unstoppable. Unfortunately, after the first series he left the field with an injury. He would return later but would not be very effective. Dallas led by 14 early in the fourth quarter, but Sanchez finally came to life, and the Jets’ run offense got a spark, too. When New York completed it’s comeback and the game ended, it marked the first time in Dallas Cowboys franchise history that they lost a game in which they led by 14+ in the final quarter (they have also tied once).

Tonight we have two games. Miami hosts the Patriots at 7:00pm and the Oakland visits Denver at 10:15pm. Tomorrow’s post will include recaps of those games and my Week 1 prediction results. I will then be back next Saturday with Week 2 predictions.

First Impressions

Since it is only the preseason, I am not going to bother making predictions or giving in-depth recaps of any of the games (though weekly predictions is something I am adding this season).

However, I do want to give some of my first impressions on some potentially key quarterbacks in the NFL based on their performances in the first week of the season.

Neither Tom Brady nor Peyton Manning played in their teams’ preseason openers. Manning’s appearance without a jersey on the Colts’ sideline was to be expected, and he likely will not play at all this preseason as he continues to let his neck recover from corrective surgery). Brady’s absence from the playing field was very surprising, even to him, who did not even know until the team had arrived at the stadium that he and a small handful of other starters would not play against the Jaguars.

I got to watch the first few drives of the Browns/Packers game. Aaron Rodgers looked good, like he picked up nearly where he left off in the Super Bowl, with that lost step being attributed to it being preseason and having a shortened camp. Colt McCoy’s performance is what really impressed me. He might some very crisp passes into tight spots and everything was on the money. He left the game having gone 9/10 for 135 yards and a touchdown pass. Most notably, he threw no picks (he finished last season with 6 touchdowns to 9 interceptions).

Despite what many experts seemed to be saying, I thought Tim Tebow’s performance was pretty respectable against the Cowboys. He was not necessarily one of the standouts, but the contrast between my view and the views of most analysts on ESPN and NFL Network make me feel that his performance is worth mentioning. He was 6/7 for 91 yards. He did not look exceptionally comfortable, but he sure looked better than the projected Broncos starter, Kyle Orton, who was just 2/6 for 37 yards.

Staying on that game, Tony Romo, as usual, looked decent but did not impress, which I expected. However, Jon Kitna did not particularly impress me either, something I had not expected. Stephen McGee looked fine, and led the ‘Boys to a win, but he was playing against backups, so I would not dream of saying he should be the starter in Dallas. I will, however, say that I think Dallas has a tough decision ahead of them on who the starter would be. They will need to give both Romo and Kinta more than five passes in their game against the Chargers on Sunday.

It certainly looked like Kevin Kolb and Larry Fitzgerald were on the same page against the Raiders, but he did not look particularly sharp throwing the ball elsewhere. It will take some time to adjust to his new team, so nobody should be too concerned. If anything, it is a positive that Kolb has already apparently developed a bit of a rapport with the Cardinals’ best receiver.

Rex Grossman really stood out to me. The Redskins need a good quarterback if they want to have any shot at competing this year. I am still not convinced that he is the one, but he definitely made big strides toward be considered such in my mind. Granted he played the entire first half, and only the first drive against the Steelers starting defense, but on that drive he took the ‘Skins from their own 1-yard line to the Steelers’ 10-yard line, resulting in a missed 27-yard field goal attempt. Soon after he led an 82-yard drive for a touchdown, though against a second-string defense. Tim Hightower was the main attraction for Washington on the first drive, but Grossman made some nice passes. He made great passes later on, too, ones that I have no doubt would have been great against a first-string defense and a small handful that could have been big mistakes against a better defense. All in all, it was not a perfect outing, but a huge improvement from the final few games of the 2010 season.

Of course, I cannot close this out without mentioning the #1 overall draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, Cam Newton. He got plenty of playing time and went 8/19 for 134 yards. I cannot really speak too much on this subject, as I have not had the opportunity to see more than a couple of his good plays from their game against the Giants. However, those numbers do not particularly impress me. Though there is more to football than stats, and if you make the plays in key spots and do not in other times, you can still come away with a win. But, by and large, players who make plays have better stats than those posted by Cam Newton. He is a rookie, so he has to be given time to adjust, but he better not think that he is locked in as their starter in Carolina. Clausen wants a shot, and Anderson has been a starter before, granted in a terrible Browns offense, but he knows how good it feels to start and you better believe he will fight for that right again.

I will be back next week with a short recap of players who stood out to me in week 2 of the preseason.