2013 Offseason Update, Week 7

A member of the Cleveland Browns since 1999, Phil Dawson went to
his second Pro Bowl in 2012 and is currently rated as the NFL's
7th most accurate kicker. Photo credit to SB Nation.

The NFL got very quiet over the weekend, just in time for everyone to turn their attention to March Madness. There was plenty of news in the first half of Week 7 though, so let’s get to it.

Major Additions

Most of the big additions this week came in the AFC. The lone exception was Phil Dawson signing with the 49ers. David Akers struggled mightily in 2012, just a year removed from a historic season in which he set the NFL record for field goals converted in a season. It just goes to show how short a kicker’s career is once he starts missing.

Tennessee nabbed a former Ravens in Bernard Pollard, but the bigger addition in my mind is Ryan Fitzpatrick. He will not be taking Jake Locker’s job, but he will provide competition. Locker progressed rather nicely in his second season but with Matt Hasselbeck out, the Titans would like to speed up the process.

Former Raven Ed Reed is headed to Houston. He visited the Texans last week but when he left without a deal we weren’t sure where he was headed next. Turns out they just needed to talk money and contract length.

With all these Ravens players leaving, it is nice that Baltimore finally got some good news Sunday afternoon when Elvis Dumervil signed with them. This comes a week after he signed a contract with the Denver Broncos that was voided because the document arrived via fax after the league’s deadline.

Rule Changes

The Tuck Rule is gone. Praise the Lord, right? It only came about a decade late. One rule was put into place, however, that most people are not too happy about.

The League’s new Crown-of-the-Helmet rule states that any player three or more yards downfield may not deliver a blow with the crown of his helmet. It isn’t a popular new rule, and I myself am not looking forward to a new slew of fines to come this season because of the change. However, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh made an excellent point when he said, “Anybody that has played the game knows that when you’re going in on a higher hit you tackle with your eyes up. You see what you hit.”

We Have Football!

Well, not quite. But at least we know when we will have football again. The Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins will meet in Canton on August 4 for the NFL’s annual Hall of Fame Game, which kicks off the preseason.

The game will be played the day after the 2013 Hall of Fame Induction is held. This year’s class includes former greats such as Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden. Bill Parcells will be inducted in his second year on the ballot and Cris Carter will also be inducted after being slighted for several years.

Opening On the Road

The Super Bowl victor traditional hosts the NFL’s Kickoff Game on the Thursday (or Wednesday) following preseason to officially begin the regular season. A scheduling conflict with the Baltimore Orioles, who share a parking lot with the Ravens, will force the city’s NFL franchise to open their season on the road. There is no word yet on which team they will visit. The New England Patriots believed they will play the Ravens in Baltimore but perhaps the NFL will look kindly on Baltimore and not force them to visit such a difficult opponent in their first game of the season.

If I’m 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 blog’s Facebook page or my Twitter account, @cpuffnfl.

Thursday Night Football Afterword: Bills vs Dolphins

The Bills and Dolphins played in one of my Top 20 games
of 2012 so far. Photo credit to NFL Network.

Last night’s game was more interesting and exciting than I could have hoped for. The game went down to the final minutes, there were two return touchdowns, and they were division rivals in a cold weather game. The only thing missing was a blizzard.

The Bills dominated the first three quarters in terms of offensive yards, but a kickoff taken to the house kept the Dolphins in the game. Buffalo had so many possessions deep in Miami territory that it would have been upsetting if the Dolphins had snatched away the win, but they gave themselves a chance but stalling the drives and forcing four field goals. In fact, only one touchdown in the game didn’t come on a return, and surprisingly it belonged to Miami.

The Bills offense looked dangerous, but I will have a hard time deciding what I expect of them next week because they played against a defense that seemed to give a lackluster effort.

The second half saw no scoring until the fourth quarter when an incomplete pass was challenged and reversed into a touchdown reception by Davone Bess on a fantastic pass by Ryan Tannehill, unfortunately one of only a few really good-looking tosses by the rookie under center.

Ryan Fitzpatrick didn’t throw for a ton of yards and his completion percentage was nothing mind blowing, but he had a great game nonetheless, drawing several pass interference calls from a defense trying too hard to shut down Donald Jones, who had been a fantastic alternate to Steve Johnson since the bye week.

But the Harvard grad didn’t have to be outstanding because C.J. Spiller ran all over the Miami defense with only one memorably bad run in the game, one in which he tried to bounce outside and get to the edge when there was much more running room up the middle.

The loss is the third in a row for the Dolphins while the Bills got a close win after suffering a close loss last week against New England. I hadn’t seen much from Miami’s past few games so last night was the first opportunity I had to see just how bad they look compared to earlier in the season. The Bills seem to have found their running game and their defense actually shut down a decent running attack, something they struggled mightily with throughout the first half of the season.

Neither team is really a playoff threat right now, but at least their fans will be treated to a few more good games, perhaps more so for Bills fans than ‘Fins fans.

Thanks for reading everyone and enjoy the rest of Week 11. I’ll be back Monday with my Sunday Afterwords!

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 3 Early Games

Christian Ponder threw two touchdowns and ran for another
as he led his Vikings to a huge upset over San Francisco.

The Redskins hosted the Bengals in their home opener yesterday, so of course a lot of my attention was focused on that game. There was, however, too much madness going around the league to ignore it all completely.

As those of you who paid close attention know, I only correctly predicted two of the nine 1:00 games played on Sunday. I correctly predicted the Redskins game and the Bills game. The other seven didn’t go so well.

The Redskins went down early as the Bengals kicked the game off with a long touchdown pass, and it wasn’t Andy Dalton who threw it; he was lined up as a receiver. Instead, the opening score was a 73-yard pass from Mohamad Sanu to A.J. Green. The Redskins tied it when Rob Jackson picked off Dalton in the end zone for a touchdown (yes, you read that correctly, nothing I can ever remember seeing before in my life).

The Bengals then scored 17 unanswered points, after which the Redskins returned the favor to tie the game at 24 in the third quarter. When Dalton threw touchdown passes on the next two Cincinnati drives, the lead was just too much for RGIII and the Redskins to come back from. Instead the Bengals won their second game of the season and they are in a tie for first in the AFC North while the Redskins are all alone in the cellar of the NFC East.

Bradford wasn’t terrible, but Danny Amendola didn’t come close to the success he had against the Redskins a week ago and the Rams were not able to make much of a game out of their contest in Chicago. Cutler was a little better than last week against Green Bay, but the key was a huge defensive effort from the Bears. That carried them to a 23-6 victory.

C.J. Spiller went down in the first quarter of the Bills game in Cleveland. He already had 58 total yards and a score when he left. Right now the report is that he should miss only a couple weeks and that he avoided anything to severe. Ryan Fitzpatrick finally had a good game after struggling much of last season. He threw three touchdown passes in the game. With the 24-14 loss, the Browns are now on a nine-game losing streak dating back to last season.

I really thought the Buccaneers had a legitimate shot at beating Dallas, and they did. But apparently Tampa Bay plays their hardest when the other team is in the victory formation. It’s like running a six-mile race but only running hard the last quarter mile. It isn’t going to win you games.

I am having a difficult time explaining what happened to the Colts. They led 14-3 at halftime; Andrew Luck was playing very well (both 1^st half touchdowns came from him). But their defense is clearly still suspect, and Jacksonville shut down the Indy offense in the second half. The Jaguars outscored the Colts 19-3 in the second half for a 22-17 victory. The winning score came on an 80-yard touchdown pass from Gabbert to Cecil Shorts III with less than a minute left to play.

In a bizarre finish, the Jets beat the Dolphins in overtime. Last year it took the first installment of Tebow Time for the Broncos to beat the Dolphins; this year all it took for Tebow’s new team was Joe Philbin. With a few minutes left in overtime, Nick Folk lined up for a field goal to win the game. Philbin called a timeout just before the snap, but the Dolphins blocked the field goal. The attempt to ice Folk backfired and he knocked the next one in to win the game.

The shocker of the week in a Sunday full of them was the Minnesota Vikings. Christian Ponder had a fantastic game. I think most of us knew he’s a talented young passer, but to lead this team to a victory over the 49ers seemed too much to ask. After the 24-13 victory, apparently it wasn’t. Nobody gave Minnesota much chance, considering they lost to Indianapolis last week and the 49ers had already beaten two much more formidable NFC North teams in Green Bay and Detroit.

In another wild finish, Kansas City kept their matchup against New Orleans close through the first half. In the third quarter it looked like the Saints were finally pulling away until a 91-yard touchdown run by Jamaal Charles. The fourth quarter saw four scored, all by the Chiefs, to tie the game up and send it to overtime where a 31-yard field goal by Ryan Succop, his sixth field goal of the game, won it and sent the Saints to 0-3.

The third overtime of the day came in Tennessee where a rehash of the Music City Miracle gave the Titans a 10-6 lead in the first quarter. Jake Locker completed 29 passes for 378 yards, two touchdowns and no picks. Chris Johnson still looks like he’s sleepwalking, but the Titans overcame it for their first win of the season. Tennessee scored five times on plays of over 60 yards, an NFL record! They had a punt return TD, a kick return TD, a fumble return TD, and two passing TDs from Locker, all over 60 yards. And it still went to overtime despite Matthew Stafford going down with an injury and Shaun Hill, the Maryland grad, taking over. The final was 44-41.

Be sure to check in later when my afterword on yesterday’s later games is published, and of course keep an eye on the status of this week’s The All-Sports Crew show where we will talk more about Week 3.