Displaced Cleveland Fan

These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 15 game here.

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As long as it’s still the regular season, the Colts are the NFL’s best team.

Indianapolis beat Jacksonville in a wild Thursday night game, 35-31. The win is the Colts’ 23rd straight regular season win, an NFL record. The Jaguars gave them all they had. But in the end, the Colts were just the better team.

Peyton Manning threw for 308 yards and 4 touchdowns. Dallas Clark caught two TD passes. Reggie Wayne and Austin Collie had one each.

The Colts are now 14-0 and their remaining games are against the Jets and the Bills. Both are winnable games, if Indy wants to shoot for 16-0. They may choose to sit some of their key players in view of the playoffs though. They do have the #1 seed in the conference wrapped up. 16-0 means nothing without  a Super Bowl (just ask the Patriots).

So what should they do? Play the reserves, but play to win. After all, you never know when you might need them for real. Might as well try to win with them instead of kill time with them.

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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 14 game here.

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The New York Giants accumulated 512 yards of offense. They won the time of possession battle (34:46 to 25:14). They scored 38 points. And they lost. The thing that killed them was turnovers - 4 fumbles. One was returned for a touchdown.

The Philadelphia Eagles won a wild one in New Jersey last night with a 45-38 win over the Giants. During the high-scoring game, Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson tied an NFL record. He had a 72-yard punt return for a touchdown, and also a 60-yard reception for a score. The two scores brought him to 8 touchdowns of 50+ yards this season.

The Eagles are now 9-4 and in first place in the NFC East. Meanwhile, the Giants are 7-6, barely holding on to their playoff hopes after a 5-0 start followed by a 2-6 stretch. Their remaining games are against Washington (4-9), Carolina (5-8), and Minnesota (11-2).
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 13 game here.

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OK. Before any of you Patriots fans panic, your team is still in first place. But there is certainly cause for concern.

New England lost to Miami yesterday 22-21. This despite the fact that the Patriots were up 21-10 in the third quarter and the Dolphins were without their most dangerous offensive weapon — Ronnie Brown.

The Patriots were winning 21-19 when they punted the ball to Miami with under four minutes to play. All they needed was for the defense to make one more stop. Leading the Dolphins offense was second-year, backup to Chad Pennington quarterback Chad Henne. Surely New England would make this last stop and close out the game, right?

Wrong. Henne led the Dolphins 51 yards down the field in a drive that took just over a minute. It ended with a 41-yard field goal to put Miami on top 22-21. The Patriots tried to come back, but they couldn’t do it.

So now, while the Patriots are still in first place in the AFC East, they have fallen to 7-5, are only one game ahead of the Dolphins and Jets, and fell to 1-5 on the road this year. Of their remaining four games, it’s very possible they win three or four of them and get into the playoffs. But their failure to win games like this has got to worry New England fans.
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 12 game here.

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I typically post these recaps early Monday morning, even though there is still a game yet to be played on Monday night. But this week, I wanted to wait because of the game - New Orleans vs. New England. The Saints were trying to stay perfect against an always tough Patriots team.

What did we learn from last night’s game? The Saints are legit.

If there was ever any doubt, even after winning their first ten games, it was erased after their eleventh. The Saints piled up 480 yards of offense. Much of that came off the arm of Drew Brees who was 18 for 23 (78.3%) for 371 yards and 5 touchdowns.

When you have a team that plays this well against another one of the league’s top teams, especially this late in the year, you have to be thinking about their Super Bowl chances. If this team stays healthy, watch out. They’ve got to be the favorites right now.
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting. You can read my recap of the Browns week 11 game here.

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The old man’s still got it.

After deciding late in the off-season to return to football, Brett Favre joined the Vikings. No one knew if he could perform like he used to when he was with the Packers. The Vikings may have been a better team than the Jets. But Favre was also a year older. After ten games, we have seen what Favre can still do. The 40-year old quarterback has led his new team to a 9-1 record.

It’s not just the record. Favre is putting up MVP-type numbers. He came into this week averaging over 250 passing yards per game, a 68% completion rate, 17 touchdowns, and just 3 interceptions.

Yesterday against Seattle, he recorded the best completion percentage of his career - 88% on 22 for 25 passing. He threw for 213 yards and 4 touchdowns before being taken out of the game with a big lead. The Vikings beat the Seahawks 35-9.

The Vikings could have the division title wrapped up in a week or two. Then Favre will be in the playoffs trying to win another Super Bowl, this time with the Packers’ division rival.
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These are stories from around the league that I thought were worth noting.

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We had a wild game last night in Indy.

In a much anticipated game that lived up to all the hype, the Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots in the final seconds, 35-34. With the win, the Colts improve to 9-0 and are two games ahead of the next closest team in the AFC in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs.

It looked like the Patriots were going to hand the Colts their first loss of the season. Early in the 4th quarter they scored a touchdown to go up 31-14. Peyton Manning led the Colts back and cut the lead to six points after a touchdown with 2:23 remaining. The Patriots next possession defies all logic.

The Colts, by holding the Patriots offense and using their time outs, left New England with a 4th and 2 on the Colts’ 28 yard line with 2:08 to play. Common sense says you punt in this situation. Inexplicably, Patriots coach Bill Belichick decides to go for it. On the 4th down play, Tom Brady completed the pass, but his receiver was tackled just short of the first down line. This gave the Colts the ball inside the 30 yard line. It took Manning just four plays to get into the end zone, connecting with Reggie Wayne for the winning score with 13 seconds left.

For as much of a football genius Belichick is supposed to be, he sure made a bonehead call here that cost New England the game.
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Former Cleveland Browns head coach and Western Kentucky University alumni Romeo Crennel was honored last week, being inducted into WKU’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni as part of the school’s homecoming weekend activities.

In the Homecoming game, the Hilltoppers lost to Troy, 40-20. The loss puts the team at 0-9 for the season and winless in their last 17 games - the longest losing streak in the country. On Monday, head coach David Elson was fired. He will remain with the team through their final 3 games.

So now WKU begins the search for a new head coach. My first thought: What about Romeo Crennel?

Sure, he didn’t have a lot of success as head coach with the Browns. But that was the NFL. With this job, he could go back to a college program where he’s probably better suited. He would be at his alma mater. And he would surely improve the Hilltopper football team while improving his head coaching skills at the same time.

Turns out my first thought wasn’t that far-fetched. WKU Athletic Director Wood Selig told WBKO in an interview that Crennel was approached about the possiblity of coaching for his alma mater.

“Romeo was our first call,” said Selig. “We owed it to ourselves, owed it to our fan base, owed it to WKU to touch base with Romeo. We did that yesterday and he indicated he wasn’t interested in being a candidate but was willing to help in any way possible.

“He’ll play a very vital role in the process.”

Who knows what that other role in the process might be. But it looks like Romeo Crennel is not interested in coaching at WKU. Too bad. Could have been a good fit.

-dcf