NFL Week 3 Wrap-Up

What’s this? A timely round up of the weekend of NFL action on this blog?? It can’t be! It is, enjoy:

Dallas Cowboys 34
Chicago Bears 10
Ruben Brown started the game but left in the 4th quarter with an ankle injury and did not return. When Brown left there was only around 10 minutes left and Chicago was down 17 points, so he may have been held out just as a precaution. We’ll update his status as the week goes on.

Lousaka Polite was inactive for the game, unless you include divulging secrets about the opposing team’s offense as being active. I do count that as active.

New York Giants 24
Washington Redskins 17
HB Blades saw his regular action on special teams, picking up an assist, but also got some action with the game on the line in the 4th quarter, making a solo tackle on a first down. Unfortunately the next play went for the game winning touchdown. HB fininshed with one solo tackle and one assist.

Carolina Panthers 27
Atlanta Falcons 20
Nick Goings held onto his kick returning duties for one more wee, but only returned the opening kickoff for 20 yards. He also added a solo tackle on kick coverage later in the game.

Cleveland Browns 24
Oakland Raiders 26
Darnell Dinkins picked up a solo tackle on kick coverage, his only real action of the day.

Arizona Cardinals 23
Baltimore Ravens 26
Larry Fitzgerald had 5 catches for 85 yards, but had a very costly fumble in the 3rd quarter. Everyone is saying that Leinart is still the starter in Arizona, but I’m not sure Fitz should be wishing for that. In the first half Leinart was able to get one ball to Fitz for 13 yards, in the second half Warner got him 4 balls for 72 yards.

Gerald Hayes added 11 tackles (9 solo) and continued his solid play inside for the Cardinals.

Miami Dolphins 28
New York Jets 21
Darrelle Revis got his 3rd start of his NFL career, which I guess is less newsworthy everyday because he’ll probably be starting in New York for a long time, and had 8 tackles (7 solo). That puts him at an average of 7 tackles (6 solo) per game, which would keep him over 100 tackles on the year. With as much as the Jets defense is on the field, he has an excellent shot at that mark.

Indianapolis Colts 30
Houston Texans 24
Clint Session played again on special teams, but only added an offsides penalty on a kick off.

San Francisco 16
Pittsburgh 37
Shawntae Spencer had 2 solo tackles and a pass defensed in his nickel back role.

Andy Lee was again busy against the Steelers, with 5 punts for a pretty amazing 57 yard average. That included 2 punts inside the 20, so he was definitely booming some of those punts, with a long of 66 on the day.

Minnesota Vikings 10
Kansas City Chiefs 13
Kris Wilson got his 3rd NFL start at fullback and had 3 catches for 13 yards. They did throw deep to him twice but were incomplete both times. It’s nice to see them trying to get him mismatches down the field, because we all know that Kris can be a deep threat at times.

Another Q&A With Larry Fitzgerald

This interview from Pro Football Weekly actually took place before the rumor mills started about Larry wanting out of Arizona at the end of the season. So while that isn’t directly addressed, Larry doesn’t give the impression he is extremely unhappy…but he doesn’t seem extremely happy either. He’s basically just saying the right things the whole time, so you can take that as truth or as just athlete interview speak.

Go ahead to the link above to read the interview, but it doesn’t offer a lot of insight on whether or not Larry is really happy. It does give a look at how his relationship with Leinart and Boldin has grown though, and that may be a factor in him staying in Arizona.

Larry Fitzgerald Leaving Arizona?

Pro Football Talk in its Rumor Mill post from yesterday speculates on Fitz leaving Arizona after his contract expires. Apparently he isn’t happy with Coach Whisenhunt’s run-first approach, and it’s impact has showed in his stats through the first two games. Those number probably won’t get too much better against the Ravens this week.

It’s basically stated that the rumor is pretty strong that Fitzgerald wants out after his contract, and with Anquan Boldin also needing paid, the Cards just can’t afford Larry. So instead of losing him for nothing a trade may be in the works. I’ve heard possible teams that would be interested as Seattle (would they really trade him to a division rival? I think not), Philadelphia and Minnesota. PFT mentions only Minnesota, being Larry’s hometown, as making the most sense. Minnesota could be an exciting offense for Fitzgerald with Adrian Peterson and a young QB. He’d definitely be the #1 receiver there, but I’d really like to see him go to an AFC team on the East Coast so that we could see him more often.

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In another Cardinals-related note, after some statistic corrections following Sunday’s win over Seattle Gerald Hayes was credited with his first forced fumble of the season. After watching the game on NFL Replay yesterday I was pretty amazed he didn’t get a forced fumble, and it’s good to see this correction was made.

Audio of Larry Fitzgerald Interview

As promised last week (but delayed slightly by our hectic week this week) here is the link to Cardinals Report’s interview with Larry. They unfortunately don’t have a transcript of the full interview, but you can download the mp3 version here. If you’d like to read their summary of the interview you can go here.

Here are some highlights from the summary:

The one thing that really comes across when you speak to Larry is what a respectful and decent guy he is, how thoughtfully and honestly he answers the questions you ask and his sincere desire to really continue to build his game to a higher level. There are so many players, wide receivers in particular, who spend most of each week and every chance in a game, point themselves out and making the game about themselves. Larry by contrast plays with incredible passion, but is more concerned about building up his teammates, winning the game and creating a great team then showing off or promoting his name on a national level.

This and the fact that he has played in Arizona has kept him mostly out of the national spotlight, but obviously a better person. Hopefully the people at the University of Pittsburgh helped him become that kind of person and they should get a small part of the credit where it’s due.

Toward the end of the interview we talked about what NFL players think of fantasy football and the crazed fan’s that live and die with their fantasy teams.

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Well, in the words of Larry 75% of the questions he gets from fans now are about fantasy football, and quite honestly he and most other NFL players couldn’t care less about fantasy stats! They are all about the real game, winning and competing but he did say that he and all the NFL players recognize that fantasy football has brought a huge new group of fans to the NFL.

Again I think that has to do with his humility…I think if you ask Chad Johnson that same question you might get a slightly different answer.

That’s about all you can get from the article portion of the interview, so download the mp3 and listen to the whole thing. It’s less than 10 minutes total, so it’s definitely worth it.

NFL Week 2 Wrap-Up

OK this is extremely late, but it’s just been a really hectic week.

Indianapolis Colts 22
Tennessee Titans 20
Clint Session saw action on special teams, in what I believe was his first time on the field for a regular season game. He got his name in the gamebook about as quickly as possible, assisting on a tackle on the opening kickoff. Unfortunately that’s the last we heard from him. At least his team is 2-0.

Houston Texans 34
Carolina Panthers 21
Nick Goings got his action returning kicks Sunday. He had 5 returns for 101 yards, for a nice 20 yard average and a long of 29. Pretty good day. Oh wait, there was that fumble. Some Carolina fans (by some I mean most fans on Carolina message boards) are blaming Nick for a large part of the loss. I think that’s overreaction, but here’s what happened. After their first possession of the second half Houston went up 24-14. Goings takes the kick and the Panthers are looking to answer and stay in the game. Instead he fumbles and it’s ran in for a touchdown by Houston…31-14…ballgame. Houston seemed to be moving the ball well on Carolina anyways, and there’s no way to say Carolina could have gotten back to within three on that drive…but Nick looks like the goat in Carolina.

San Francisco 49ers 17
St Louis Rams 14
Shawntae Spencer had another pretty decent game as the nickel back for the 49ers, with 4 tackles and a pass defensed.

Of course as punter for the 49ers, everyday is a busy day. Andy Lee had 8 punts and put 4 of them inside the 20 with only one touchback. He averaged over 41 yards per punt, and he was obviously placing a good number of those punts so he wasn’t just booming away.

Cincinnatti Bengals 45
Cleveland Browns 51
First of all, this game was awesome…love seeing the Bengals lose to the Browns. Darnell Dinkins played on special teams and finished with two tackles, one solo. He also returned a kick as an up man for 11 yards.

Seattle Seahawks 20
Arizona Cardinals 23
Larry Fitzgerald had a pretty active day catching the football but still didn’t get in the end zone. He finished with 7 catches for 87 yards, giving him over 21 yards per catch.

Gerald Hayes had a decent day as well with 7 tackles, 6 of them being solos. He didn’t get creditfor a forced fumble in the official stats, but anyone watching knows Hayes made one of the biggest plays of the game. With the game tied and less than two minutes to play Hayes disrupted a handoff in the backfield that led to a fumble and the Cardinals getting the ball at the Seahawk 36. That set up Neil Rackers for the game winning field goal. The one knock on Hayes is that he isn’t in the backfield much and doesn’t get sacks. Hopefully we see a lot more plays out of Hayes like that this season.

Kansas City Chiefs 10
Chicago Bears 20
Ruben Brown had a typical day for a lineman – only in the stats when things go bad. He picked up a holding penalty in the fourth and had a tackl when Chicago was intercepted earlier in the game.

Kris Wilson got his second NFL start at fullback  for the Chiefs, and it went better than his first game. He ended up with 4 catches for 34 yards. And no fumbles. Was still a weird day for Kris though, as after the first half of play he had 2 catches for 35 yards, including a catch and run for 31 yards. In the second half he had 2 catches for -1 yards.

New York Jets 13
Baltimore Ravens 20
Darrelle Revis got his second NFL start in as many games for the Jets. He finished nicely with 6 tackles, 5 solo and 2 passes defensed.

Hank Poteat also saw playing time for the Jets, but had no tackles.

Ask Larry Fitzgerald a Question

The Cardinals blog at Most Valuable Network (MVN), Cardinals Report, is going to be interviewing former Panther Larry Fitzgerald next Tuesday. They are asking for readers to submit questions for the interview here. I thought some Panther fans might have some interesting questions to ask Larry after he’s been away from Pitt for a few years, so here’s your chance.

Even if you don’t want to ask a question, jump over to their site to check out the picture of Larry and his little brother (who plays at Marshall). Fitzgerald always looks strange with dreadlocks to me, especially when they are in a ponytail. To each his own I guess.

Once the interview is posted over at Cardinals Report we’ll be linking it from here.

Update: check out our post linking to the interview and the mp3 version.

NFL Week 1 Wrap-Up

Each week here at PITP we will be recapping all of the games that Panther Alumns took part in. Let’s get moving on week one after the jump

Sunday NFL Roundup

Eight games with former Panthers on the field yesterday, so let’s get right to it:

New Orleans 18
Carolina 21
Nick Goings did play, coming back from his thigh injury, but didn’t get much action. He did get a holding call in the 4th quarter. His biggest play of the game was probably his recovery of an onside kick with less than two minutes left with New Orleans trying to get a chance to tie the game.

Dallas 45
Tennessee 14
Another fullback not seeing much action was

Arizona 10
Atlanta 32
Larry Fitzgerald
Gerald Hayes

Indianapolis 31
New York Jets 28
Kevan Barlow

San Francisco 0
Kansas City 41
Antonio Bryant was part of the overwhelmed San Fran offense, finishing with only two catches for 29 yards on the day. I can’t imagine the loss of Vernon Smith really hurt SF this much, maybe it was just an off day…at least AB and company had better hope so.
Shawntae Spencer
One guy who is always busy when his team gets blown out is the punter.

For KC, Kris Wilson’s only true action was a tackle on a kickoff. KC probably wasn’t throwing the ball much late, but if you can’t get a touch when your team puts up 41 points…that’s probably not a good sign.

Cleveland 24
Oakland 21
Darnell Dinkins

New England 38
Cincinnati 13
Hank Poteat
Seattle 6
Chicago 37
Ruben Brown

Sunday NFL Preview

Here are a few things to watch today if you have NFL Sunday ticket and are surfing around for Panther alumns:

Arizona @ Atlanta 1:00 pm
Gerald Hayes leads the Arizona Cardinals with 18 tackles. Today his defense faces the top rusher in the NFC in Warrick Dunn. The Hayes-led D in Arizona hasn’t given up a 100 yard rusher yet this season, and this will be their biggest test so far. On the other side of the ball for the Cards, Larry Fitzgerald is going up against Dante Hall who is playing with a bruised calf that could slow him down. Could mean a big day for Larry in the dome in the ATL.

New Orleans @ Carolina 1:00 pm
Nick Goings looks to be back and active today as his thigh bruise has healed. DeAngelo Williams will most likely continue to get most of the second RB carries that Goings might have gotten last year, but Nick will probably see some time at FB.

Indianapolis @ New York Jets 1:00 pm
Kevan Barlow may have lost his starting job in New York this week, although some have started to specualte his calf injury he sustained before the end of the game las Sunday may be more serious than first let on. We’ll be watching closely to see if Kevan does get the start and how the carries are split up amongst the Jets’ three headed running back monster.

San Francisco @ Kansas City 1:00 pm
Shawntae Spencer could have a big day if the Chiefs are forced to throw the ball. KC starter Trent Green is still out and Damon Huard will be under center for the Chiefs. Antonio Bryant will try to snap the Chiefs perfect record so far this season of not allowing any passing touchdowns, although with the rookie Vernon Davis out with a broken leg, there will be more attention on Bryant from KC.

Cleveland @ Oakland 4:15 pm
Darnell Dinkins is still listed as questionable going into the game against the Raiders.
Green Bay @ Philadelphia 8:30 pm Monday
Brandon Miree was signed to the Packers’ 53-man roster earlier this week and the AP is reporting that he will be the starting fullback on Monday night in Philly. Quite a move up for Miree who was cut by Denver in the preseason.

Larry Fitzgerald is a superstar

At least if you have an Alltell phone he is. I wanted to post this last month when I first heard about it but could never find an actual link to it. Each Wednesday there will be a podcast from Larry that you can get a code to access with your Alltell phone. Here are the instructions I could find:

Watch his weekly podcast @ www.alltelcircle.com/11. The podcast launches every Wednesday and is available only to Alltel customers until it’s released to the public on Friday thru RSS feeds.

These further instructions are from the above website:

You need a passcode to enter Larry Fitzgerald’s “Circle Only” web site. To unlock this site and get exclusive access to Larry’s weekly podcast, dial #Larry11 from your Alltel Wireless phone. The call is free and automatically enters you to win great prizes including Cardinals tickets, autographed memorabilia and VIP treatment for you and your circle of 10 friends. Plus, Larry will call one lucky fan each week. Don’t forget to call back every Wednesday for the weekly passcode.

So, if you have an Alltell phone, it might be worth checking out. If you don’t, you can still have Larry pitch products to you. According to Brandweek, EAS,  maker of sports supplements, recently started a campaign including Larry:

Abbott Labs’ EAS, Golden, Colo., whose nutrition and dietary supplements have NFL approval, will feature players in a season-long print campaign, via The Brainstorm Group, Denver, in such pubs as ESPN, The Sporting News and Men’s Fitness. Team EAS includes NFLers Matt Hasselback, Carlos Rogers, Larry Fitzgerald, Ronnie Brown and Vernon Davis. Tag: “Join the team. Use what the pros use.”

I thought I had seen Larry in a magazine ad for EAS a year or so ago, but I honestly can’t remember.  If you’re in a “pub” during the football season, which I’d think most of us are pretty regularly, look for Mr. Fitzgerald on the wall. On a side note, I don’t see how advertising sports supplements to drunk guys with beer bellies will go over, but whatever floats your boat.