NFL Week 7 scores are in and while the Chicago Bears Mike Martz offense sputtered out in the Windy City, Colt McCoy 
and the Cleveland Browns pulled off the upset of the week in New Orleans.
Washington Redskins 17 Chicago Bears 14: DeAngelo Hall with four catches was the second leading reciever for the Bears, problem is, he was wearing a Redskin jersey. Two QBs, two poor performances. Donovan McNabb and Jay Cutler both threw pick-sixes and only one TD each. Ryan Torain kept the chains moving for Washington with 125 yards on the ground while the Bears and their fans are becoming too familiar with Mike Martz’ offense consisting of sacks, more interceptions and very few yards on the ground. The Bears only rushed for 66 yards in this one. When the Redskins win, it’s ugly and the Bears win and many times lose the same way.
Oakland Raiders 59 Denver Broncos 14: Before the Broncos fans had fully settled into their seats, the Raiders were up by three TDs and tacked on more after that. Four turnovers, two by Denver QB Kyle Orton had the Broncos down 38-7 at the half. Oakland RB Darren McFadden scored three TDs, QB Jason Campbell threw for two and you wondered what the Broncos would do in the second half. The answer was not much. The teams traded TDs in the 3rd quarter as the score reached 45-14. The last time the Raiders scored that many points was in 2004 and Al Davis was a spry senior citizen. When McFadden took it in for his 4th TD, on a 57 yard run from scrimmage, to make it 52-14, you thought you were at a bad NCAA football game. When the Raiders reached 59 points and it wasn’t the 4th quarter yet, it was mind numbing.
New England Patriots 23 San Diego Chargers 20: Turnovers and untimely penalties have plagued the Chargers this season and this game was no different in the first half. San Diego had four turnovers and only three points on the board at half-time. But it wasn’t that the Pats were setting the world ablaze. The Chargers D sacked Tom Brady four times in the first half and limited the Pats to one TD and two FGS. In the second half, San Diego made one of their patented charges, scoring 17 points, even recovering an on-side kick to get to within three at 23-20 with four minutes to go. Philip Rivers drove them down to FG range after the Pats turned it over on downs. A false start penalty pushed the team back and the FG was now a 50 yard attempt for Kris Brown, a one week pick up after SD’s kicker Nate Kaeding got injured. The ball hit the upright, bounced off to the right and the Chargers lost another one in a miserable way.
Seattle Seahawks 22 Arizona Cardinals 10: Arizona’s third string QB, Max Hall wasn’t up to the task against the Seahawks and in came Derek Anderson, whose concussion had kept him on the sidelines for more than a week. He led the Cards to their first score of the day in the third quarter to make it 16-7. The AZ defense held Seattle to a FG in the 3rd quarter and another in the 4th but the Cards offense only managed a FG in the second half. Seattle is 4-2 in a division that boasts of the Cardinals, Rams and 49ers, not one of which is .500 for the season. Oh boy!
Kansas City Chiefs 42 Jacksonville Jags 20: Third-stringer Todd Bouman was just what the doctor ordered for the Jags. He kept getting his team down field and threw for one TD in the first half. The Chiefs two-headed RB monster, Thomas Jones and Jamaal Charles each scored to give their team a one-point lead at half-time. But the Chiefs came out throwing and Matt Cassel to Dwayne Bowe for two TDs, a pick-six and a running TD blew the game open for the Chiefs who climb to 4-2 on the year.
Baltimore Ravens 37 Buffalo Bills 34: The Ravens D couldn’t hold down that future Hall of Famer, Ryan Fitzpatrick. Who knew? He tossed three TDs and the Bills were up by 14 with less than a minute left in the half. But the Ravens D finally awoke and got their offense a chance to score 23 points, unanswered going up by 11 as the 3rd Q ended. The Bills wouldn’t go away, scoring twice to tie it up at the end of regulation. The teams coughed the ball up to each other in OT with Ray Lewis getting the final turnover to allow kicker Billy Cundiff to win it.
Tennessee Titans 37 Philadelphia Eagles 19: CJ2K had another tough day gaining only 66 yards without a TD. Kerry Collins was having trouble standing upright in the first half. He was sacked 3 times and threw 1 pick. But Jeff Fisher let Kenny Britt out of the doghouse just in time for three TD catches that got the win for the Titans. Kevin Kolb threw a lot, completed more than 50% but only managed one TD on the day. The rest of the Philly scoring came from David Akers four FGs
Cleveland Browns 30 New Orleans Saints 17: Cleveland D coordinator Rob Ryan is sick of his brother Rex getting all the headlines. His defense shut down the Saints and intercepted Drew Brees four times, two for pick-sixes. The Colt McCoy experiment is still just that but with their running game and the toe of Phil Dawson, the kid only needs to avoid mistakes for his team to have a chance, if Ryan’s defense keeps it up. The Saints fall to 4-3, Cleveland 2nd win of the year.
Pittsburgh Steelers 23 Miami Dolphins 22: The Steelers D only gave up one TD and held Miami to FGs all day long. But they mount up after a while. Dan Carpenter kicked five and it looked like enough to overcome two Big Ben TDs. With a bit more than two minutes left in the game, Roethlisberger ran to the goal line, fumbled, but Miami didn’t recover in the end zone, giving Pittsburgh’s Jeff Reed time to kick his third FG on the day.
Tampa Bay 19 St. Louis Rams 17: Sam Bradford did his thing, throwing for a couple of TD’s without an interception and the Rams D took away any running game the Bucs hoped to have. That was all in the first half. The second half was all Tampa Bay as they came back for a 19-17 win by holding the Rams scoreless down the stretch. Josh Freeman sealed it with 10 seconds left in the game, with his first TD pass of the day to Cadillac Williams.
Carolina Panthers 23 San Francisco 49ers 20: The teams were evenly matched in the first half as both young QBs threw for a TD. Then Alex Smith was sacked and injured his shoulder, ushering in David Carr. He was ineffective and the passing game was over for the 49ers. Carolina got a great day from Matt Moore as he went 28-41, two TDs and one pick. John Kasay’s 3rd FG of the day won the game in the final minute and the Panthers are no longer winless for the season.
Atlanta Falcons 39 Cincinnati Bengal 32: The Falcons came out and punched the Bengals in the mouth on offense and the D followed suit, holding Cincy to 2 FGs through the late 3rd quarter. A late surge by Carson Palmer with 2 TDs got the Bengals close and a big strip and fumbled recovery by Adam Jones put Cincy ahead after four straight scores. But Matt Ryan found his comfort food, WR Roddy White, for their second score of the day and they connected a third time, as the Falcons held off a final late game charge to beat the Bengals.
Used with permission of the author.
Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles.
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