Thanksgiving Football Afterword: Cowboys vs Raiders

Dez Bryant had 61 yards on seven receptions, including this tough touchdown
catch late in the third quarter of the Cowboys' Thanksgiving win over Oakland.

Cory Puffett

Nineteen years ago, Dallas faced a 14-point deficit at home against the Green Bay Packers. Jason Garrett led the Cowboys to a comeback win and it stood as the biggest deficit Dallas has come back from in Thanksgiving history.

The Cowboys tied that mark this Thanksgiving when Jason Garrett coached Dallas from a 14-point deficit to a victory over the visiting Oakland Raiders.

The game took an ugly start for Big-D when Terrance Williams fumbled the opening kickoff and Greg Jenkins returned it 23 yards for the opening score. Rashad Jennings  scored twice in the second quarter to give Oakland a 21-7 lead. Demarco Murray scored with 14 seconds left in the half to make it a one-possession game at halftime.

It was all Dallas from there on out. Matt McGloin had a solid game but the Cowboys defense took over and kept him from influencing the game in the second half. Tony Romo had a great second half, meanwhile. He closed the game out with 11 straight completions.

While Romo had a very good game himself, his running backs and offensive line deserve a lot of credit for this win. Lance Dunbar, before going down with a sprained knee in the fourth quarter, had 82 rushing yards on 12 carries. Demarco Murray only had 63 rushing yards on 17 carries, but he scored three touchdowns on the ground.

With the right offseason moves, Oakland has a lot to look forward to for next year. Matt McGloin seems to have a bright future and a great work ethic. This year, however, is over for the Raiders. They’ll be playing as spoiler over the final four weeks. They play at the Jets next Sunday then against each of their AFC West rivals in the final three weeks.

For the first time this season, Dallas won the game after they got above .500. At 7-5, they control the division. They don’t have an easy closing schedule, but they control their playoff destiny. December hasn’t always been the kindest to Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys, but a good game on Thanksgiving and a long week to prepare for Chicago should have them confident that they can close out the season and earn the NFC East title.

Final Score:

Oakland Raiders – 24

Dallas Cowboys – 31

2013 Offseason Needs: AFC West

This week and next, between Tuesday and Friday, I am going through the NFL division-by-division, writing about what each team needs to address this offseason. I have covered the bases in the AFC East, AFC North and AFC South, so today I move on to the AFC West.

I won’t pretend to know every detail of what each team needs, but am open to comments from those who may know better what their teams need.

Denver Broncos

Denver’s offense doesn’t worry me. Manning will be healthier with an offseason to work at full strength. Knowshon Moreno also has an offseason to continue recovering from an injury that caused him to miss a lot of the middle part of the 2012 season. They have good depth at running back and receiver, their offensive line did a good job keeping Peyton on his feet, and unlike a lot of analysts, I’m a fan from what little I’ve seen of Brock Osweiler, their backup signal caller.

What Denver needs this offseason is defensive pieces, specifically in the secondary. A very weak schedule down the stretch hid some of their holes, but they were put on full display by a bizarre but effective offensive game plan by the Ravens in the divisional round. They need to add a good safety to help over the top. Denver has a few of the better corners in the league, but they’ll have off days like Champ Bailey did against Baltimore. Their safeties were unable to give help over top in that game, and that can’t be the case next year if Denver wants to be considered a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

Kansas City Chiefs

As soon as Kansas City picked up Andy Reid, I liked their chances for next season. Reid is still an excellent coach; it was just time for a change of scenery. Now they’ve picked up Alex Smith in what I consider a very fair trade with San Francisco. This team had the talent of a playoff team on a 2-14 team last season. Now they have a quarterback, and that could get them to the playoffs next season.

With the addition of Smith, I think there’s a better chance of keeping Dwayne Bowe, at the right price. Another thing that the trade gives them the ability to do is trade their #1 draft pick for more picks in this year’s draft, or to just take the best player available, which I guarantee you is not a quarterback.

Other than that, just add depth to the defensive unit and a wide receiver or two and this is a playoff caliber team.

Oakland Raiders

Oakland is a tough cookie to crack. Carson Palmer hasn’t panned out to this point, but it’s hard to say they should just get rid of him and go with Terrelle Pryor, who we haven’t seen much of since his days at Ohio State.

There is no doubt that this is a time of rebuilding in Oakland, and this project is going to take a few years. McFadden will likely be gone, if not this offseason then next; whenever the Raiders realize that they need more talent across the board rather than all their talent in one position.

After that, it will just be a matter of taken the best player available with each of their draft picks, because they don’t have much cap room to play with in free agency. Oakland is a mess and I think their 10-season run without a playoff appearance is going to increase by a few more years, especially with Denver a perennial contender for at least another three years and both Kansas City and San Diego likely on their way back up.

San Diego Chargers

I’m sure Denver would have liked to hold on to Mike McCoy as their offensive coordinator, but the way he’s carried himself over the past two seasons, getting the Broncos to the playoffs with Tim Tebow and then meeting Peyton Manning halfway in a brand new offense, he’s earned his job as head coach in San Diego. Believe it or not, Norv Turner has not put this team beyond repair. Philip Rivers is still a good quarterback and there’s a good shot that with McCoy’s help, we’ll see a little of the old Rivers in 2013.

I also liked McCoy’s hire at offensive coordinator, nabbing Ken Whisenhunt, who did good work in Arizona when he had decent quarterbacks leading his offenses.

The biggest areas of concern are the line on offense and the secondary on defense. Rivers was rarely given time in the pocket to go through more than a couple of his progressions, and their defense struggled mightily in the passing game. Depth in the backfield is also a concern with Ryan Mathews struggling to stay healthy.

On Monday I will recap the biggest news stories from the NFL of this week, then I will do what I’ve done for the past four days, but for the NFC divisions. Keep up with new posts as I publish them by ‘liking’ my Facebook page and by following me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl.

JaMarcus Russell Comeback

JaMarcus Russell and Jeff Garcia were teammates on the Raiders
during the 2009 preseason and is now trying to help him return
to the NFL. Photo credit to NFL.com.

So Russell is serious, after all, at least for the moment. A few weeks ago this story came out and my first thought was that it was too early for an April Fool’s Day joke.

But his comeback story was updated Saturday when Bleacher Report posted a video of Russell working out with former NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia. In the initial reports from a few weeks ago it was said he would also be training with Marshall Faulk and former Olympic sprinter Ato Boldon of Trinidad.

Currently weighing in at 308 pounds, Russell was reportedly even heaver than that just a few months ago. His reported weight from his Raider days was around 260 so he still has quite a bit of work to do.

There is no way he will be playing in the NFL in 2013. Heck, I’m not even sure he’ll still want this by the time we hit mid-March. Sure he’ll want it, but will he still be willing to work for it? Forgive me for being a doubting Thomas, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

But what if he does stick with the program? Could he spend a year or more in the CFL as he works his way back to the NFL? Would he spend a year or more in the CFL? I think the answer to that lies in his motivation for trying to return to the NFL, and I don’t think any of us know what that is right now.

Remember to check back daily during the week for my take on some of the biggest stories surrounding the NFL. ‘Like’ my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter, @cpuffnfl, to stay updated on new blog posts as they are published.

By the way, forgot to include this when I first published this, but happy birthday to Robert Griffin III, who turned 23 today!

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Raiders vs Broncos

After a high-profile NFC South matchup last week, TNF went
back to low-profile games with this AFC West matchup.
Photo credit to NFL Network.

The game wasn’t really all that memorable outside of some benchmarks Peyton Manning reached over the course of the affair in Oakland.

In 2004, Jake Plummer tied John Elway’s franchise record for touchdown passes in a season at 27. Eight years later, Manning has 30 so far, his seventh season with that many, and he has three games to go.

Manning also threw his 5,000^th completion, second all-time, during the game.

More importantly, Manning led the Broncos to their eighth straight victory. Though it was less impressive due to Oakland’s low run defense rank, Denver made it a point to use Knowshon Moreno, who carried the ball 32 times with Ronnie Hillman spelling him for four carries. Manning threw the ball 36 times, so it was an extraordinarily balanced attack for a Peyton Manning-led offense.

Denver’s primary focus over the next three games is to continue to show improvement from one week to the next. The semi-close final score of 26-13 doesn’t really show how thoroughly Denver beat Oakland last night. Manning threw for over 300 yards while Moreno and Hillman combined for nearly 150 rushing yards and nearly four yards per carry.

Denver is not pleased with the final result though. When you gain that kind of yardage and give up less than 300 passing yards and fewer than 75 rushing yards, you expect to win by more than 13 points.

Manning made one particularly bad throw in the red zone which kept the score from being a little more indicative of the kind of game Denver played. He had to adjust his release very quickly but ended up severely under-throwing his receiver on what should have been an easy touchdown pass. Phillip Adams made an excellent play on the ball and managed to pick it off.

This was the second time in three weeks that Denver played a bad AFC West opponent – they played Kansas City in Week 12 – and seemingly barely skated by with a victory. They played much better last night than they did against the Chiefs, but they also were not pleased with last night’s game and know that it isn’t the kind of game that equates to playoff victories when you have New England and Houston to go up against.

The Broncos will come over to Maryland next Sunday to play the Ravens before heading back home for what should be easy wins against the Browns and Chiefs. With the schedule winding down, next week’s matchup will be a good indication of how much the easy schedule in the second half of this season has affected Denver’s ability to play good teams. They will be watching closely as the Ravens take on the Redskins in Landover this Sunday.

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 14. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 8 Late Games

Peyton Manning won the fifth matchup of the two quarterbacks
and is now 3-2 against Brees. But Drew won the game that matters most.

I spent the afternoon mostly watching the Giants/Cowboys game. I switched over from time to time, but the Raiders game went about as I expected as Oakland won 26-16 in Kansas City. Brady Quinn, poor guy, went down early with an injury. Matt Cassel came in and played a decent game, but the Chiefs are just a terrible team this year, there is no way around it. In a league of mediocrity, they stand out as a truly bad team.

In Dallas, the Giants remained unbeaten at the new stadium by a fingertip. On a bomb into the end zone – I still don’t know how Dez Bryant got behind the Giants’ secondary – Bryant leapt up, made a catch, and came down with the official signaling touchdown. But all scoring plays are automatically reviewed and the replay showed that the tips of Bryant’s fingers touched the chalk at the back of the end zone before any other part of his body landed in bounds. To be fair, the Cowboys didn’t deserve to win the game. Tony Romo threw four picks, which isn’t even his worst game of the season. That said, the Giants didn’t exactly deserve the win either with how bad their defense was in the second half.

The Sunday Night game featured two of the best quarterbacks in the league right now; in fact, two of the best in the league’s history, in Peyton Manning and Drew Brees.

Manning’s Broncos won as the defense showed just how good they are. The Saints came in with the best offense in the league and were held to 14 points, with 7 of them coming on a garbage-time touchdown pass to Jimmy Graham. Manning became just the second quarterback in history to throw for 3+ touchdowns in four consecutive games. The only other quarterback to do so is Steve Young, who accomplished the feat in five consecutive games. With the easiest schedule in the league over the final nine games of the season, Denver figures to be on the brink already of winning the AFC West and is in a great position to lock up a bye in the playoffs. However, if history is any indication, a playoff bye does not spell good things for Peyton to get a second Super Bowl ring.

Check back tomorrow for my Afterword on tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the 49ers and Cardinals in Arizona. Thanks for reading!

10 Things You Need to Know: NFL Regular Season Week 2

Because of the posts I had planned for last week, and the Giants/Cowboys game being moved from Thursday to Wednesday night, I did not publish a Things You Need to Know post for Week 1.

Instead, this week will be the first one of the Regular Season, and will be the first to feature a list of 10 things, rather than the 5 I published each week of the Preseason.

Quick note before I start my countdown: the reason the San Francisco 49ers logo is at the head of this post is because they are #1 on my list of Things You Need to Know this week. Every week for this post, the picture will be related to the top item on my list.

10.            Lovie Smith Requests Quiet at Soldier Field

The Bears did more than hold their own at home this weekend. They crushed the Colts, 41-21, picking off the No. 1 overall draft pick, Andrew Luck, 3 times in the contest. Still, Lovie Smith found something to work on, and it has nothing to do with his team.

He felt the fans were too loud when his team had the ball, specifically when the Bears were in the red zone. Jay Cutler felt the same. Interesting that this even needs to be said. Most football fans know that when your team has the ball, you give them the quiet they need to have easy communication. When the opposing team, you bring down the house on them. Smith felt that Chicago fans needed a reminder.

9.            Don’t Hate on the Raiders

Boy did Oakland show up this weekend. I know they lost 22-14 against the Chargers. I still don’t expect them to have a breakout season or make the playoffs. But they are going to make plenty of games exciting, and expect some spoilers at their hands as the season draws toward its conclusion. Carson Palmer looked good, Darren McFadden looked outstanding, and their defense was solid outside of killing themselves with penalties. But penalties are the staple of this franchise. It’s only a matter of time before the coaches except it and gameplan to overcome these setbacks.

8.            RGIII better than Advertised?

It is difficult to answer this question, because Robert Griffin III was very highly touted. He won the Heisman Memorial Trophy, so of course he was nowhere near under the radar. He had a good, but not great, Preseason. But, wow, did he show up in the Superdome on Sunday. RGIII had over 300 passing yards, almost 50 rushing yards, 2 TD passes, and, most importantly, no turnovers! As a Redskins fan who has not missed a game in years, I cannot remember the last time a Redskins quarterback didn’t turn the ball over in some capacity. Rex Grossman threw a pick in ever game he played last year. RGIII is very good, but it’s the turnovers, or lack thereof, that make me thrilled to have him playing for my favorite team.

7.            The Peyton Manning of Lore

The Colts can keep telling themselves that they want to be in rebuilding mode, that they are better off without Peyton Manning. But the Manning who showed up was not the near cripple some might have been expecting. Instead he looked very similar to the Peyton Manning of 2010. I could swear at one point the orange and navy of his jersey melted into the white and colt blue of Indianapolis.

I kid of course, but he played an extraordinary game, especially running the no-huddle. Sure it’s his expertise, but even in his prime it can’t be easy in that thin air at Mile High. Unfortunately, Tim Tebow leading Denver to the postseason last year means that winning MVP may not come particularly easily for Peyton. But if he can take this team to the Super Bowl, that award may be his for an incredible fifth time.

6.            Fantasy Disappointments

• Brandon Weeden: Not that we expected him to put up phenomenal numbers, but he posted -2 points in my ESPN league (yes, minus-two points!).
• Wes Welker had just 2.5 points. By the half-point, you can probably tell it is a PPR league, which generally makes Welker even more valuable. Welker is usually a solid WR2 or Flex player because of those receptions. Not this week.
• Fred Davis, the Redskins TE, had just 4 fantasy points. Don’t expect this to rise too much, either. With Logan Paulsen taking some of his touches away, and the possibility of bringing Chris Cooley back, Davis may not have the numbers he did with Sexy Rexy Grossman as his QB.
• Torrey Smith had a 52-yard reception on the first play from scrimmage, but then finished with just 7 fantasy points.
• Sebastian Janikowski scored only 8 points in Oakland’s loss to San Diego. A lot of his fantasy value comes from banging in long field goals, because he doesn’t usually kick very many. Not to worry, though. His fantasy value should not lower much. Expect him to be around 10 points every week with the occasional outbreak performance.

5.            Fantasy Surprises

• Matt Ryan is no slouch, but to be the leader in points for QBs is not what we have come to expect from him. He had 6 points more than Tony Romo and RGIII, who were tied for second among QBs in my league. He may have more trouble this week against Denver’s defense.
• Kevin Ogletree scored 29 points in my league, tied for second among all fantasy players this week. Don’t expect numbers like that every week, but remember that the Cowboys #3 WR last year was Laurent Robinson and he scored a touchdown in just about every game of the second half of the season. Ogletree is a great pickup for fantasy this week.
• Browns D/ST: They racked up 29 points in my fantasy points, mostly due to picking off Michael Vick 4 times. Don’t jump on Cleveland’s defense though. I don’t expect another game like this in 2012.
•  C.J. Spiller: Fred Jackson went down with an injury in the first quarter of the Bills game against the Jets. Spiller stepped in and scored 25 fantasy points in my league. Be careful going after him, though. Fred Jackson is expected to be back in about a month.

4.            Games to Watch

I’ll be more specific on why these are the games you should keep a close eye on in my prediction post tomorrow. In the mean time, here is my list.

• Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers (Thursday Night Football)
• Baltimore Ravens at Philadelphia Eagles (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• New Orleans Satins at Carolina Panthers (Sunday, 1:00 p.m.)
• Washington Redskins at St. Louis Rams (Sunday, 4:05 p.m.)
• New York Jets at Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, 4:25 p.m.)
• Detroit Lions at San Francisco 49ers (Sunday Night Football)
• Denver Broncos at Atlanta Falcons (Monday Night Football)

3.            Power Rankings

For the sake of space, I will list just the top 6 and the bottom 6 here. You can see the rest on NFL.com.

1. San Francisco 49ers	27. Jacksonville Jaguars
2. New England Patriots	28. Buffalo Bills
3. Houston Texans	29. St. Louis Rams
4. Baltimore Ravens	30. Cleveland Browns
5. Chicago Bears	31. Indianapolis Colts
6. Green Bay Packers	32. Miami Dolphins

The NFC East saw some of the biggest changes: the Cowboys shot up 7 spots, the Redskins 9 spots, while the Giants fell 9 spots. In the NFC South, the Saints fell 10 spots, the Bucs rose 7, and the Panthers are only one spot ahead of the bottom 6. Most of the other changes were much tamer, though the Cardinals did rise from 31^st to 21^st this past week. Only the Dolphins stayed in place, dead last.

2.            Baltimore Ravens

The Bengals really didn’t look that bad. The Ravens just looked that good. In fact, I think the Ravens deserve a higher ranking than the 4 spot they hold in NFL.com’s power rankings. Joe Flacco looked incredible, Ray Rice was solid, their receiving corps was good and their defense was impenetrable.

1.            San Francisco 49ers

I have to talk about San Francisco since they lead the power rankings on NFL.com. Alex Smith has taken another huge step in his progression. They have a solid group of three running backs. Randy Moss is old, but he showed he can still be a contributor on offense. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s defense looks every bit as good as they did last year, and maybe even better. They held last year’s best offense to just 22 points. I really expected the 49ers to regress this year, but they took a nice step toward proving me wrong this past Sunday.

Week 1 Monday Recap

I apologize for being a day late posting this.

Going into Monday Night Football, I was most excited for the game in Denver. I felt that that game was the more even matchup, and in the end I was probably right. However, there was plenty of excitement in the first game of the night, too.

Tom Brady recorded 517 passing yards, a fantasy player’s dream (or nightmare), good for the best single-game passing performance in Patriots history, and a spot in the top five for the NFL All-Time list.

What is easy to forget is that Miami’s quarterback, Chad Henne, also had a career game, throwing for 416 yards and two touchdowns while running for 59 yards and another score.

The defining moment of the game came with about six minutes left in the game and Miami trailing 31-17. A big play for the Dolphins was called a touchdown but then overturned on review, the ball placed on the 1-yard line. Three stops later the Dolphins are faced with 4th-and-goal, just inside the one. Miami elected to pass, and Henne threw an incompletion.

With just under six minutes to play, the Dolphins knew that a quick stop, or better yet a safety, could keep them in the game. Brady stepped back to pass, Miami rushed, and Benny Sapp let Wes Welker slip by him. Brady saw the opening, went for it, and 99 ½ yards later the Patriots had a new organization record for the longest play from scrimmage. The Dolphins would score again, but by this time the game was well out of reach.

Denver hosted the Raiders in the late game. Oakland arrived at Mile High on a seven game winning streak against the AFC West. However, they were also on a long losing streak in opening games. Meanwhile, Denver hadn’t lost a home opener since 2000. Only one of those streaks remained intact at the end of the night as Oakland earned a 23-20 win in a game that wasn’t nearly as exciting as I had anticipated.

Neither team played lights out football, though Darren McFadden was quite impressive, gaining 150 yards on 22 carries. One of his carries was probably my highlight of the game. The only other play that particularly impressed me was Janikowski’s NFL record-tying 63-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.

Late in the game, Denver fans began a Tim Tebow chant, but I didn’t see what was so bad about Kyle Orton. No, he wasn’t stellar, but he was a little above average from what I saw. He made a couple mistakes, one that should never be made (he lost his grip on the football while scrambling out of the pocket). But he threw for over 300 yards and had a pretty nice 13-yard scramble.

My next post should be up either Friday or Saturday evening, and that will have my predictions for Week 2 as well as my games-to-watch.

2011 Offseason: AFC West

Today’s posts are for the teams in the AFC West.

Denver Broncos

2011 Offseason: Denver Broncos

Kansas City Chiefs

2011 Offseason: Kansas City Chiefs

Oakland Raiders

2011 Offseason: Oakland Raiders

San Diego Chargers

2011 Offseason: San Diego Chargers

Thanks for reading and check back tomorrow for posts on the NFC East teams.

2011 Offseason: Oakland Raiders

The Raiders took a step in the right direction with the firing of Tom Cable. Hiring Hugh Jackson should end up being a good move as well, so I fully expect the Raiders to, at least, be hovering around the 8-8 mark they hit this season.

Their passing attack looked pretty good this year. Jason Campbell is still probably one of the ‘worst’ starting quarterbacks in the NFL, but there really aren’t any particularly bad starters in the league. Not only that, but he also showed quite a bit of improvement in Oakland from where he was in Washington. The Raiders have some very talented wide receivers, so I don’t think having a top rated quarterback is a necessity. Whatever Oakland’s heights are, Campbell will be able to take them there as well as just about anyone else.

One thing that helped Campbell was Oakland’s success running the ball. Darren McFadden had a great year with only a couple really bad performances. We should be able to expect similar success from him next year, assuming he stays healthy.

Nnamdi Asomugha is a key player in the Raiders’ defensive scheme, and losing him could really hurt them down the road next season. He didn’t have a terrific year in 2010, but he still has plenty to offer any team. If they have the money to do so, keeping Asomugha is definitely in Oakland’s best interest.