Green Bay Packers 31 Minnesota Vikings 3: Brett Favre struggled to find words to describe the beat down at home against his former team the Packers. Aaron Rodgers played pitch and catch with Gregg Jennings (3TDs) and James Jones (1TD) as the Packs’ ‘D’ held Adrian Peterson out of the end zone and to only 78 yards on the ground. Even the return of Sidney Rice couldn’t make Favre a winner (17-of-38, 1INT).  Rice caught three balls for 56 yards and he was the top receiver on the day for the Vikes.  Minny falls to 3-7 and the Tavaris Jackson watch is on.

New England Patriots 31  Indianapolis Colts 28: Peyton Manning threw an INT on the Colts first drive and played catch up all day. Driving to tie or win, Manning threw his final pass for another INT and the game was over. He had the better day as he threw for four TDs on 38-of-52 passing, but without more than a whiff of a run game, Indy was doomed. Brady only had to throw two TDs because his backfield of the “Law Firm” and Danny Woodhead each found the end zone.  Pats keep pace with the Jets at 8-2 and Indy falls to 6-4.

New York Jets 30  Houston Texans  27 : Mark Sanchez to Santonio Holmes for the game winner looks like it might become a habit. A week after a winning TD pass and catch in OT, the duo hooked up with seconds on the clock. The Jets blew a 16 point lead in the 4th. They came back to down Houston, who looked like they would send the Jets to 2-3 record at home. Sanchez threw two scores to Holmes and one to Braylon Edwards. Matt Schaub was a bit gimpy and it showed. He ended up with only one TD on 19-of-33 passing.

Washington Redskins  19 Tennessee Titans 16 in OT: The teams swapped TDs in the first Q and then combined for seven field goals between them, the last a game winner for Washington. The Titans lone touchdown was thrown by 3^rd stringer Rusty Smith who came in after Vince Young tore a thumb tendon. Donovan McNabb had a 30-of-50 day for 376 total yards and one INT, with the offense stalling in the red zone throughout the game. Chris Johnson ran for 130 yards and for the Redskins, Keiland Williams and Clinton Portis racked up 100 yards rushing combined.

Jacksonville Jaguars  24 Cleveland Browns  20: Break up the Jags!  They are tied with the Colts for 1^st place in their division after the close win over the Browns. Aren’t all Cleveland games close and no cigar? Seems so.  MJD had another monster game with a TD and 133 yards on the ground plus 87 yards receiving. Good thing since David Garrard threw three picks with two TDs. Browns’ Peyton Hillis had more than 140 all purpose yards and one TD.

Buffalo Bills  49 Cincinnati Bengals 31 : The Bengals have lost seven in a row and with their talent, that just shouldn’t be. It’s time to wonder if Carson Palmer needs a new home after being outplayed by Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Bills are known for their come backs this season, most of which end in defeat.  Not this time as they scored 28 unanswered points in the second half and their D held Cincy scoreless.  Bills double their win total as Fitzy threw for four scores on 21-34 and 316 yards. Palmer found the two divas, T.O. and Ochocino for a score each but threw two picks and finished with only 230 yards passing.

Tampa Bay Bucs 21 San Francisco 49ers 0: The 49ers lost at home in an awful way. I’m sure Mike Singletary is ready to fall on his sword after the team dropped to 3-7 in front of the home fans. Troy Smith fell back down to earth after last week’s win on 16-of-31 passing for 148 yards and one INT. Josh Freeman  threw for two scores and Cadillac Williams found pay dirt once, for the second week in a row. The Bucs look for real at 7-3.

Kansas City Chiefs 31 Arizona Cardinals 13: The Chiefs’ scored two by air and two on the ground as the Cards struggled to score from the red zone all day. You couldn’t tell from Derek Anderson’s numbers, 1 TD to Larry Fitzgerald on 25-of-46 passing for 295 yards through the air. The Cards RBs even topped the 100 yard mark between them Hightower and Wells. The Chiefs got two scores from Thomas Jones and Matt Cassel added two to Dwayne Bowe.

Atlanta Falcons 34 St. Louis Rams 17: The Falcons scored seven times on four FGs by Matt Bryant and three TDs. Michael Turner scored one and Matt Ryan found Justin Peele and Brian Finneran for one each.  The Rams couldn’t stop Atlanta and Rams’ QB Sam Bradford couldn’t muster more than his average performance this season: two TDs, one INT on 233 yards through the air.

New Orleans Saints 34 Seattle Seahawks 19 The Saints rolled to their 3^rd win in a row despite Drew Brees throwing two more picks. On the good side, he tossed two TDs on 382 yards, two each to Meacham and Colston. The Seahawks still struggle to find the end zone which they only did once on a Hasselbeck toss to Ben Obomanu. The Seattle QB avoided picks and sacks all day but with New Orleans’ D holding the team’s RBs to under 50 yards on the ground there was no hope for a victory

Pittsburgh Steelers  35 Oakland Raiders 3: The refs were “letting them play” until Oakland’s Richard Seymour threw a haymaker at Ben Roethlisberger who went down to the turf.  Ben had the last laugh as he ran for a score and threw for two more. The Raiders put both QB’s on the field and neither Gradkowski nor Campbell could move the team. Each passed for under 100 yards and one pick. Plain ugly.

Dallas Cowboys 35 Detroit Lions 19: The Boys are having a party in Big D as they win their second for interim coach Jason Garrett. Bryan McCann ran back a punt for 97 yards and a score after last week’s 101 yarder. Jon Kitna knows his Christmas has come early as he threw for three scores, two to Miles Austin and one to Dez Bryant, even adding one on the ground for himself. Shaun Hill was 32-of-47 for 289 yards. Two TDs and a pick but his running game was non-existent with a total 75 yards for the game.

Baltimore Ravens 37 Carolina Panthers 13: Brian St. Pierre got out alive and frankly, didn’t perform as poorly as some expected. One week a stay-at-home Dad, the next the QB of the struggling Panthers.  He got sacked three times, picked twice (one for a pick-six by Ray Lewis), but did throw a score to WR David Gettis. The Ravens got a one TD day from QB Joe Flacco on 24-of-33 passing for 301 yards and Ray Rice found pay dirt once.

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.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

The 2010 NFL has featured a plethora of injuries and controversial hits but no position has been hit harder than quarterback. In the week after numerous teams were forced to use their third-string signal-callers, the NFL started reinforcing their rules on excessive hits to any players and levied stiff fines, like the one for 75K issued to James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Some notable dispatches from the trainer’s room thus far and there’s more:

• Detroit Lions: Former first-round pick Matthew Stafford injured his shoulder on opening day and has yet to return.  His replacement, Shaun Hill, broke his arm last Sunday against the New York Giants, forcing third-stringer Drew Stanton into action.  With the luxury of a bye week this Sunday, Stafford may finally return next week against the Washington Redskins.
• Cleveland Browns: People didn’t expect to see rookie quarterback Colt McCoy much this 2010 season, that is until both starter Jake Delomme and second-stringer Seneca Wallace were sidelined with ankle injuries. Colt got the start last week against the Steelers physical defense now imagine if he would have gotten knocked out of the game. . . fans then would have been given the opportunity to see a guy named Brett Ratliff who needed to be signed off the Patriots’ practice squad.
• Philadelphia Eagles: Starting QB Kevin Kolb suffered a concussion in Week 1 opening the door for Michael Vick’s comeback.  Vick then injured his ribs a few weeks later, thus opening the door for Kolb’s “comeback” and yet another quarterback controversy in Philly. Although not a QB, an honorable mention goes to wideout DeSean Jackson who was KO’ed from a vicious hit from the Falcons last Sunday, another hit that produced a large fine against the defensive player ($50,000).
• Chicago Bears: Jay Cutler missed a recent game against the Carolina Panthers, thanks to suffering a concussion (and 9 sacks) against the New York Giants the previous week. Todd Collins saw time in that game against the Giants until he was injured on a crushing hit opening the door for the Bears’ third-string QB, “what’s his name”.
• Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars: Both starters, Vince Young and David Gerrard left last Monday night’s game with injuries setting up a battle on Monday Night Football between two second string slingers.

And this list doesn’t even include the QBs who almost didn’t make it to the starting lineup last week – the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers (concussion) and the Vikings notorious “texter” Brett Favre (elbow), who nearly missed last week’s games.  So what’s the league to do?

First off, there’s not much that can be done to change the rules further to protect quarterbacks.  But keep in mind that this has become a pass-happy league – ten quarterbacks threw for over 4,000 yards in 2009 – so protecting them will be even more vital to the NFL’s future success.

That will lead to a further increase “The Blind Side” effect – namely, teams will spend top-dollar on quality left tackles that can protect their prized QBs.  Mammoth-sized offensive linemen with quick feet will only get richer (just ask Miami’s Jake Long who went No. 1 overall in his recent NFL Draft).

Finally, this all ties into a recent hot-button issue that has emerged during the collective bargaining agreement negotiations between owners and the NFLPA: should the NFL really expand to an 18-game season?  Player injuries as a whole have been trending upward, and two more games can’t be good news for QBs.  At this rate, will teams be forced to carry four of them on their rosters?  And who wants to hypothetically see Matt Flynn facing off against Tarvaris Jackson in a Sunday might match-up at Lambeau?

Used with permission of the author.

Chris Lardieri also covers the NFL for Sports Climax and the Los Angeles Dodgers for Examiner.com.  He has written about Major League Baseball for Inside Edge, a scouting company that provides content to ESPN Insider and Yahoo Sports. He previously wrote for 1766, the Rutgers Alumni Magazine, and popular blog, ‘The Outer Loop’.  Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter for more MLB and sports observations

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC