Andy Richardson
All he does? Watch touchdowns -- I spent the first hour of my Sunday with DirecTV's Red Zone Channel, which was sort of like watching Arena Football, or maybe an '80s Bengals game with Sam Wyche calling the shots All touchdowns, all the time. Here's how that hour went.
Aaron Rodgers to James Jones: A perfect throw and catch for a 74-yard touchdown against a Tampa Bay secondary that's really been awful. Carson Palmer to Andre Caldwell: Bengals drove down the field with lots of Cedric Benson runs, then Palmer hits an open Caldwell on a short touchdown throw. Picking up where they left off in the fourth quarter of the previous matchup.
Matt Ryan to Tony Gonzalez: Little play-action toss. Kurt Warner to Larry Fitzgerald, who beats Charles Tillman on a short pass over the middle and there's no one between him and the end zone. Jay Cutler to Greg Olsen: beautiful 40ish-yard touchdown dart to the back of the end zone. Heckuva throw. Josh Freeman to Derrick Ward: Short throw that Ward sneaks into the corner of the end zone on. Touchdown set up by an ill-advised downfield throw by Rodgers that was picked.
Peyton Manning to Joseph Addai: Nice little play. One series later, Addai gets another throw near the goal line from Peyton Manning that falls incomplete. Addai, most underrated entering the season? Mebbe. Next series, yet another end zone throw for Addai. Later, Addai scores the game-winning touchdown. I thought Ian's ranking of him was too high this week; it wasn't.
Rashad Jennings touchdown: Nice tackle-breaking run from around 30 yards out. Just spelling Maurice Jones-Drew. (Later MJD scores too, a play where's he hit at the 5-yard line and kind of drags the pile into the end zone without losing his feet. Nice.) Ryan Grant touchdown: Pass formation near the goal line. Naturally, Bucs expecting the pass, both because of the formation and because it's the Packers.
Falcons Defense: Tye Hill intercepts a pass and brings it back for a touchdown, putting Atlanta up 14-0. Since it's Washington, that game is officially over.
Bucs attempt a field goal. Worth mentioning because it's only the second field goal they've attempted in the last five games, and features their new kicker Connor Barth. Not surprisingly, he misses it wide right. Later, Bucs block a punt -- not just the punt but what appeared to be the punter's entire body, accompanied by a cry of empathic pain from the announcers -- for a touchdown. They'd be winning this game but for the missed field goal.
Another Warner to Fitzgerald touchdown. Nice bit of footwork by Fitzgerald at the sideline. Guess I picked the wrong week to bench Warner for Roethlisberger. One of those too many teams things...I didn't really think about it until Sunday morning, and when I did I wanted to start Warner, but didn't because of past burns involving last-minute decisions. All-around dumb by me. You know, unless Roethlisberger also throws 5 TDs tonight.
Falcons fans booing former Falcon DeAngelo Hall. What, those 16 years of memories don't count for anything? Sorry, I was thinking about last week. One final Red Zone Channel touchdown, Rodgers to Driver. It's funny; Tampa cornerbacks let wideouts just run by them. I guess they miss defensive backs coach Raheem Morris, who of course is now running the whole team.
The great thing about watching the Red Zone Channel is you see all the scoring plays. It's nice. But the downside is that you miss everything else, and there's no perspective to anything. And if you don't stay with one game for a while, you miss the peaks and valleys of a game like Green Bay-Tampa Bay, which figured to be a laugher for Green Bay; instead the Bucs laughed last. How was it possible? Well, Green Bay made special teams mistakes, couldn't protect Aaron Rodgers, and let a green rookie quarterback make some big plays against them. And that's how you lose to a winless team in the NFL.
Anyone can watch highlights, but that's only part of the game. It's not watching football. And on that subject, some thoughts on the games I saw the most of yesterday...
Texans at Colts: With the Colts up 13-0, Houston is driving, converts a 4th down, and appears to be set up inside the 5. Watching it, I thought perhaps it was a Ryan Moats fumble as he was tackled, but it didn't seem it would matter since the Texans were about to run a play. And should have, but they didn't, and the 2-minute warning came, and the extra time gave the Colts the opportunity to challenge. Big play, and you wonder if the Moats fumble will be good news for those of us who have Steve Slaton. (Slaton was in for next series, but might have been a coincidence; two-minute offense.) Next series Manning is intercepted, and gives a shining example of the veteran quarterback with no desire to get injured tackling a guy running back an interception. I suppose I can't blame him. Anyway, Texans mount a nice little comeback to take the lead, with both Moats and Slaton scoring touchdowns. And lose on a late Addai touchdown and then a missed field goal. Houston's not ready to beat the Colts, but maybe in three weeks, when they play again, they will be.
Cardinals at Bears: I was really wrong about the Bears this year, and maybe I was wrong about Jay Cutler, too. They say a team follows the lead of its quarterback, and the Bears just look like a bunch of losers. It began with defensive tackle Tommie Harris, whose absence in a recent game against the Bengals led to the Bears getting blown out, bizarrely punching a fallen Cardinal in the face, and being tossed. After that, the Cardinals, who can't run, rushed for 182 yards, and there you go. Cutler actually played pretty well, and certainly his fantasy owners are happy after his 3 TDs and 369 yards. But the Bears aren't winners. If things continue to go south, I wonder if Mike Shanahan will get a call to work with his former quarterback again.
Ravens at Bengals: Didn't see this one coming, either. Baltimore looked like it had put it all together in smacking the Broncos around last week, and then they get handled by the Bengals. Cedric Benson, Carson Palmer, and Ochocinco are getting most of the pub, but it seems like overnight the Bengals have a good defense. Clearly, they're a better team than the Ravens, although at least Ray Rice salvaged his day with a mess of receptions and a touchdown. They might be better than Pittsburgh -- we'll find out for sure next week.
Dolphins at Patriots: I've also really underestimated Ronnie Brown. Watching the guy play against the Patriots, he's really a tough, talented runner who's going to have a nice career when all is said and done. A couple of years ago I thought he was headed for a future as a goal-line back. Nope, he's pretty good. As I'm thinking this, Brown is stuffed at the goal line, which is ironic, and then proceeds to throw a touchdown out of a Wildcat formation. I'm starting to think the AFC East has three really good football teams. Neither Miami nor the Jets is going to the playoffs, but there's some talent there and some pretty good coaching staffs. A year from now, the AFC East should put multiple teams in the playoffs again.
Late game notes: Two touchdowns for Chris Johnson, including a short one after he's ruled (correctly) to have stepped out of bounds during what initially looked like an 81-yard TD, and an option on 4th and short which looked dead in the water in the backfield -- and his speed turned it into the game-winning touchdown. The guy is amazing. The game also featured a pretty unbelievable catch by Justin Gage, who jumped higher than you'd believe a person can jump to haul in a ball over the middle. Gutsy catch by Gage, who's re-emerging after a very quiet month-plus. ... Two touchdowns for Vincent Jackson. Another really talented player. Who saw the Giants losing four in a row? Not me. ... I survive another week in the suicide pool as Seattle shrugs off a quick 17-0 deficit to win 32-20. Five picks for Matthew Stafford. Rookie quarterbacks. Enough said. ... Tony Romo didn't see a wide-open Jason Witten in the end zone before the half. Aren't these guys supposed to be friends? Jetting off to Cabo on with Jessica Simpson on bye weeks and whatnot? Tony: throw your friend a touchdown one of these days.
Monday, Monday: I'm expecting mostly defense, which makes my decision to leave Roethlisberger in the lineup over Kurt Warner even more curious. Oh well. I think Pittsburgh's better and can definitely shut down Denver's offense, adding intrigue to both the AFC North and West. And remember, when they show snow-capped mountains, it doesn't mean it's not sunny and warm in Denver, which is at a much lower altitude. Because just like there's more to football than the scoring plays, there's a lot more to a city than what they show you on TV.
- Comments [0]
Readers' Comments
Add a Comment
Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.
To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.
