Eddie Utah Tuesday Edition

Eddie Was Right…
…that the Lions are still incompetent and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Mediocre Accuracy by Kitna + dropped passes + ineffective running game = 31-0 halfway through the third quarter.
…about my Superpicks (again). If not for Sage Rosenfels, my picks would have been undefeated. Instead, they went 3-1-1. (11-3-1 on the season)
…to assume the Chiefs couldn’t win two weeks in a row. Larry Johnson followed up a 198-yard effort last week with a whopping two (2!) yards on seven carries. On the bright side, he’s averaging an even 100 yards over the last two weeks.
…to rank the Titans as one of the top contenders in the league. Even though they held the ball for less time and had fewer yards than the Ravens, they gained yards and turned them into points when it mattered most. A key characteristic of a quality team is pulling out a clutch win in an ugly—21 combines penalties for 169 yards—game.

Eddie Was Wrong…
…about the Falcons being overvalued. After a quality win in the home stadium of a legitimate opponent, they definitely earned some respect.
…to assume the Redskins would be in major letdown mode after their big win last week in Dallas. Jim Zorn is working magic on that whole team, not just the quarterbacks.

…to think (or hope) that Seattle could compete with the World Champions. The Seahawks defense, which is largely unchanged from their highly ranked unit of a year ago, looks more like a mid-‘90s Seahawk defense. Koren Robinson wasn’t even active, yet the wide receivers still dropped the ball just as well as K-Rob and crew did circa 2004.
…to assume the Bengals would lay down in Big D. They’ve played their two best games against quality opponents (Giants and Cowboys).
…to doubt the Dolphins single-wing juggernaut. Respect the Wildcat!


Conversation Probably Heard in the Cowboys Locker Room
T.O.: Yo, Tony, what’s up with throwin’ it to Witten on that second quarter touchdown play? I was open man!
Romo: Uhhh…I don’t know Terrell. There were three guys on you. I just don’t trust my accuracy THAT much.
T.O.: What?! Trust your accuracy?! You don’t need to trust that, just trust me. I’ll make the play!
Romo: I know, it’s just that…
T.O.: Just what?
Romo: Witten was so wide-open, he had time to jump up and down and waive his arms for a full three seconds. He even took off a shoe and threw it at me.
T.O.: Oh, and you’re afraid of a shoe? Throw it to him again in the red-zone and see what I throw at you!
Romo [sobbing]: Terrell, I’m s-s-sorry.
T.O.: You know this means Jessica’s staying at my house tonight, right?Romo [sniffling]: Yeah…I know…

“Throw Me in the Mosh-Pit” Goat of the Week
On four successive plays with 3:54 left in the game and a 10-point lead, Sage Rosenfels had two fumbles that resulted in 14 Colts points.

Impressive Power Play
With 12:00 left in third quarter, Karlos Dansby made a huge hit on Marshaun Lynch that stopped him for a loss. The Bills did not pick up another first down on the drive and settled for a field goal. This hit definitively set the tone for the rest of the game and gave the momentum permanently to Arizona, after both teams had been battling to establish physical dominance at the start of the second half.

Eddie’s Observations
Roddy White is lighting it up and Matt Ryan is looking his way on just about every passing play. If he’s available in your fantasy league, grab him.
At least they did this right: With 1:20 left in the third quarter and the Seahawks down 37-6, Coach Holmgren put Seneca Wallace into the game at quarterback and sat Matt Hasselbeck safely on the bench.
Aaron Rodgers has really been paying attention these last few years. On Sunday, he (1) played hurt, (2) threw deep to a guy in double-coverage for a touchdown, and (3) looked tough and accurate on a fourth quarter, 80-yard touchdown drive.
I was skeptical at first, but Michael Turner looks like the real deal. I love the way he pushed the pile and picked up first downs to run out the clock late in the fourth quarter.
Cedric Benson actually looked respectable.
Terrell Owens showed some serious speed and hustle in racing forty yards to the end zone after a 17-yard catch.
Raise your hand if you thought the Redskins were going to win after the Eagles went ahead 14-0 with 7:47 left in the first quarter. (Thank you Coach Zorn and the rest of the Redskin team—you can put your hands down now.)
Hog Hunting: With 7:18 left in the fourth quarter, the Redskins ran the ball on eight out of ten plays and then knelt on it to run out the clock.
If Matt Schaub was so sick, then why was he suited up and active for the game. There’s got to be something more to this story.
Rodney Harrison, with 1:30 left in the fourth quarter, knocked the ball out of Arnaz Battle’s hands on a throw that would have been a first down and kept San Francisco alive to cover the point spread. That had to be the first time I ever cheered for Harrison.
Babe Ruth Moment: With 0:41 left in the second quarter, Ronnie Brown smiled and waived to the defense with a “come and get me” gesture. They didn’t. He ran in the direct snap for a five-yard touchdown.
I love the way Miami is using their two running backs—both a threat on most plays.
I’m not sure that anything makes me happier than to see Ben Roethlisberger get sacked and throw an INTD on successive plays. Seeing Hines Ward’s pouty face is right up there too. And I loved the montage of Rashean Mathis interceptions off of Roethlisberger. Tonight’s INT was his fifth in three years off of “Ben.” At least two of them were INTDs.
Gus Frerotte looks like he’s still the nerdy but athletic high-schooler who isn’t quite comfortable with all the attention of being the starting quarterback. In spite of the Vikings win on Monday night, I don’t trust this guy with a playoff game on the line. (But he’s definitely a better option than the inaccurate Tavaris Jackson.)
Ed Hochuli isn’t quite as buff as he used to be back in my high-school days…but then again, neither am I…
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. With 7:10 left in the fourth quarter, Viking wide-receivers Bernard Berrian and Aundrae Allison both mistakenly ran post routes (I’m assuming it wasn’t by design, as suggested by Ron Jaworski). Berrian still somehow came down with the ball for a touchdown.

Eddie Wonders…
…What’s with all the Dolphin defenders pretending to kick field goals after they make a tackle for a loss?
…if you knew the halftime yardage of the Chargers-Dolphins game would be 220-91, would you guess correctly which team had the most yards?
…why there were so many empty seats in Miami?
…why we always have to see some sort of food preparation on Madden broadcasts?

Isn’t that Special?
Shaun Suisham and Neil Rackers both made field goals that doinked off one of the uprights.
Two Matts in the Tampa at Denver game combined for five field goals and 23 fantasy points.
With 14:01 left in the fourth quarter, down one point to Dallas, Shane Graham did a great job in selling the deep kick and then showing some toughness as he took a shot trying to recover the onside kick.
With 1:54 left in the third quarter, Jo-Lonn Dunbar experienced the absolute best feeling in football when he blindsided Erin Henderson and sprung Reggie Bush for the first of two punt-return touchdowns.
Monday Night’s game was the first game in NFL history with a blocked field-goal returned for a touchdown, a touchdown pass by a non-quarterback, two punt return touchdowns, and two 50+ yard field-goals.

Crazy Stats
Kyle Orton’s last two games: 42/68 533 yards, 5 TDs, 2 INTs. Yeah, ok, so one game was against Detroit, but still…
Total combined first quarter yards by the Chief and Lions on Sunday: -4.
First Half Time of Possession: Panthers: 21:00, Chiefs: 9:00.
New England won for the first time ever at San Francisco on Sunday.
Big Easy Turnover: The Saints had four turnovers, not including the field-goal that was blocked and returned for a touchdown, yet still could have won the game had Martin Gramatica made the 46-yard field goal with two minutes remaining.

Announcement of the Week
Chris Myers has a catchy field-goal call: “It’s up there. It’s out there. It’s good!”

Email to Michael Silver
Since Mr. Silver likes to correct the spelling and grammar of his readers’ emails, I thought this question was appropriate for him. He printed a past email of mine in his column, so perhaps he’ll find it appropriate to post this one too:

To Your Highness King of Grammar:

Can you please explain to me the following phrases used by Al Michaels during the Sunday Night Football broadcast?

“They had a long drive, did Pittsburgh”
“They had the ball, did the Steelers”
“He was down, was Garrard”

How are any of those phrases grammatically correct? Are they even sentences? And more importantly, do they make any sense to you? In each situation, the context of the play made identification of the pronoun obvious and without need of any clarification. I understand that a live broadcast will oftentimes not follow the formal rules of written grammar, since live description and analysis of a game should be conversational in tone without the majority of grammatical restrictions. But why ignore the rules of grammar to say something that (1) makes little sense, (2) you would never say in normal conversation, and (3) sounds ridiculous? What can we do to get Michaels, and other announcers, to stop this practice immediately?

Eddie Wants to Read TMQ’s Take On…
…why the Jaguars lost in spite of the professionalism of their cheerleaders. I believe they changed their outfits to even skimpier (i.e., more professional) in the second half.