Are You Ready for Some Football - Week 3

[Dis]

still waiting for that Bears running game.

[Frozzy]

Here's what the Colts punter had to say about Jacksonville

"Jacksonville is like the stand-up comic who can only use vulgarity and curse words because he lacks intelligence and lacks class. He really doesn't have anything to say. Our intangible is our class and our intelligence. A team that gets personal fouls the way they do, the roughing penalties, they just don't have any material.''

[OzzyKP]

No one yet mention last year's MVP on last year's NFC champion is out indefiniately with a broken foot?

Seahawks’ Alexander out indefinitely with cracked bone in foot

KIRKLAND -- League MVP Shaun Alexander has a broken left foot and will be lost to the Seattle Seahawks for at least a couple of weeks.
Coach Mike Holmgren said today that a bone scan revealed Alexander sustained a “small crack” and “displaced fracture” on a non-weight-bearing bone in his foot sometime during the Seahawks’ 42-30 win over the New York Giants on Sunday.

Alexander ran for 47 yards on 20 carries before sitting out the fourth quarter, which began with Seattle leading 42-3.

The coach said last season’s NFL rushing leader was on crutches inside team headquarters Monday.

“You lose the MVP for a while, it’s a hit,” Holmgren said. “Let’s face it, he’s the MVP. We’re not going to sugarcoat it.”

Alexander missed practices last Wednesday and Thursday because of soreness from a bone bruise he sustained while rushing for 51 yards on 19 carries in the Sept. 10 season opener at Detroit.

Holmgren said that bone bruise led to the small crack.

Alexander will miss at least Sunday night’s showdown at Chicago, which is also 3-0. Seattle has its bye the following week before playing at division rival St. Louis on Oct. 15.

“I don’t think it will be lengthy,” Holmgren said. “He just has to stay off of it and let it heal.”

Holmgren said he could not yet specify how long last season’s league rushing champion would be out.

“We’re looking at a few weeks, let’s put it that way,” Holmgren said. “The good thing is, it’s just a small, little crack — if you want to talk about a good thing.”

Alexander has started 69 of the last 70 games for the Seahawks.

His only absence in that span was a 2002 start that he missed to help with the birth of his first daughter. He entered that game in the second quarter.

Last season, Alexander rushed for 1,880 yards and 27 touchdowns. He has just 187 yards and an average of 2.9 yards per carry through three games. His career average is 4.5 yards per rush. He has gained fewer than 100 yards in each of Seattle’s three games this season, his first such streak in two years.

Sunday, the Seahawks welcomed former Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch by featuring four-wide receiver formations, and Matt Hasselbeck threw a franchise record-tying five touchdown passes.

Maurice Morris will make his fourth career start for Alexander against the Bears. Morris rushed 15 times for 18 yards against the Giants on Sunday.

“You have only one way to go,” Holmgren said. “Just plug someone in and go.”

http://news.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060925/SPORTS/60925005

[Lord Avalon]

Madden Curse lives!

[Donegeal]

da BEARS! 3-0 and facing a team that just lost the reigning NFL MVP! 4-0?!?!?! Here we come!

When do we start barking?

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Donegeal
da BEARS! 3-0 and facing a team that just lost the reigning NFL MVP! 4-0?!?!?! Here we come!

Even if he were in there, without Steve Hutchinson to block for him, he's averaged 2.9 ypc.

When do we start barking?

I thought Bears growled.

[-Jrabbit]

The Saints will win tonight.
The fix is in.
Just like it was for NO to get Reggie Bush.
I should have known it.

[SlowwHand]

GO SAINTS!

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Lord Avalon

Even if he were in there, without Steve Hutchinson to block for him, he's averaged 2.9 ypc.

Yeah... I almost wish he'd been in the game. Seattle was WTFinsane with 4 WR spreads, and the BEARS would easily contain Alexander without his buddy Hutch.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
The Saints will win tonight.
The fix is in.
Just like it was for NO to get Reggie Bush.
I should have known it.

See, I don't see a fix there. I think HOU realized:

1) Reggie Bush is going to cost a lot of $$.
2) We don't have an offensive line.
3) RBs are worthless without an offensive line. Barry Sanders would have a hard time rushing for 100 yards/game with their O line...
So ...
4) Why pay a lot of $$ to get someone who won't really help that much, when you can pay less and perhaps ultimately end up better off [by taking the extra $$, giving it to an offensive line, and using your existing pretty good RBs]?

Sounds reasonable to me

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by snoopy369
RBs are worthless without an offensive line. Barry Sanders would have a hard time rushing for 100 yards/game with their O line...

Lions' OL wasn't that great - Sanders had a lot of rushes for -2yds. It was a testament to his ability that he gained yards all those times he was "caught" in the backfield.

I think he would easily have the career rushing record if he had had a line like Emmett Smith did at Dallas. If he had been running behind an OL that pushed the line of scrimmage like they did, hell, if he tripped it would be a 4-yd gain, and if he got into the secondary that many more times - look out.

[snoopy369]

Oh, i'll give you that. But, Detroit's O line was ten times what Houston's is ...

That Joe Horn play just a second ago ... nobody can tell me he's not one tough son of a $#%^... just getting up and walking away from that, and staying on the field... wow.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Donegeal
da BEARS!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Man.... Atlanta didn't have a chance from the opening whistle. How do you contend with such home field advantage and emotion? Oh well, at least it is to New Orleans.

[-Jrabbit]

Originally posted by snoopy369


See, I don't see a fix there. I think HOU realized:

1) Reggie Bush is going to cost a lot of $$.
2) We don't have an offensive line.
3) RBs are worthless without an offensive line. Barry Sanders would have a hard time rushing for 100 yards/game with their O line...
So ...
4) Why pay a lot of $$ to get someone who won't really help that much, when you can pay less and perhaps ultimately end up better off [by taking the extra $$, giving it to an offensive line, and using your existing pretty good RBs]?

Sounds reasonable to me

This is old territory, Snoop. I've decided the err on the side of suspicion. But here's your response:

1) Mario Williams cost just as musch as Bush.
2) Not Applicable. So what? Best player available, hands-down consensus.
3) That is the most idiotic argument I can imagine for declining to draft superior talent.
4) Because you want to give your fans some HOPE?

Look, Domanick Davis was damaged goods, and they had to know it. Even if they believed he would heal, he was STILL a running back coming back from a serious injury.

New Orleans seems to be doing fine playing their RB (coming back from serious injury) and Bush. Both are playing well, and co-existing. Bush is not a pure RB, BTW. He returns punts, can be split out as a receiver.

Houston's investment in their offensive line is independent of their first round draft pick (a defensive end).

FACT: Charley Casserly, Houston GM, was on the record as dead set on drafting Bush until about 3 weeks before the draft.

FACT: Casserly's pre-draft talk considering Williams was openly mocked by every draft expert out there. Why? Because Bush was too valuable a commodity to ignore.

FACT: About two weeks after the draft, Casserly resigned his GM post in Houston.

FACT: Shortly after that, Caserly accepted his current position in the NFL executive offices.

FACT: The NFL desperately wants to save the NO franchise.

Is it really such a leap to think that the league persuaded Casserly to let Bush fall to #2, promising him lifetime corporate employment in return for screwing the team that was poised to fire him?