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.

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.

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 Roundup

On Wednesday…had some problems getting to a working computer the last few days, but better late than never I guess. Without any byes, the NFL still has a full slate and lots of Panthers in action:

Houston 24
Indianapolis 43
Charles Spencer had a tough assignment in his second NFL start. Not only was he in one of the loudest buildings in all of football, he was lining up against Dwight Freeney. Things seemed to be going pretty well for Spencer though. The Texans were averaging over 4 yards per carry on the day, Freeney had only one tackle and no sacks…and then the Texans got the ball for their first drive in the 3rd quarter. Spencer went down and his return was “questionable”. Turned out he had broken his leg and was done for quite a while. I’ll have more on this in a story later this morning.

Tampa Bay 3
Atlanta 14
Torrie Cox had an up and down day for the Bucs Sunday. He ended up with four total tackles, one on special teams, and was in on a play that led to a fumble that gave Tampa the ball in good field position although he wasn’t credited with the forced fumble. After playing pretty well in pass coverage most of the day he was flagged for illegal contact that kept an Atlanta drive alive, but they ended up missing a field goal so no real harm was done.
Dave Moore did not play because of his rib injury.

Arizona 10
Seattle 21
Larry Fitzgerald had a rare game with under 100 yards receiving Sunday, finishing with only four receptions for 52 yards. Seattle’s defense did a great job of covering down the field with their zone defenses. Running back Edgerrin James was the Cards‘ leading receiver.
Gerald Hayes had a much better day, finishing with only four tackles but he also intercepted a Matt Hasselback pass when the Seahwaks were driving to score again before the half. Unfortunately Neil Rackers missed the field goal before the half that would have given Arizona more momentum going into the half.

St Louis 13
San Francisco 20
Antonio Bryant had the game winning score on a 72 yard touchdown pass that I should have video of posted soon. That capped a four catch, 131 yard day for Bryant, who had been frustrated again in the first quarter with his lack of catches. More on that later today as well.
Shawntae Spencer started in his usual spot at left corner and his hamstring seems to be completely healed. He ended with four tackles and one pass defensed.
Andy Lee‘s job as the 49er punter isn’t as busy this year as it was last year, but he still had four punts Sunday, putting two inside the 20 yard line. The other two were from inside his own 30, and went 54 and 46 yards. He also held on all San Fran field goal and extra point attempts as usual.

New England 24
New York Jets 17
Kevan Barlow did not start as we thought he might on Sunday, but he did get more than twice the carries of starter Derrick Blaylock. Barlow finished with 14 carries for 42 yards and one catch for four yards. I should have some video of Kevan up tomorrow.
Washington 10
Dallas 27
Lou Polite had a quiet day, as most days are for fullbacks in Bill Parcell’s offenses. Bledsoe threw incomplete to Polite twice, and the rest of the day was all blocking for Lou and they don’t put that in the papers.

Kansas City 6
Denver 9
Kris Wilson got in the game but had no passes thrown his way again in a defensive game.

Inactives:
Rob Pettiti was inactive for the Saints.
Nick Goings was inactive for the Panthers.
Darnell Dinkins was out with a hamstring for the Browns.

Sunday NFL Roundup

Sorry for no posting over the weekend, but even bloggers have somewhat of a life…not much was happening until the season got into full swing yesterday anyways. Here’s a quick rundown of how former Panthers did in their games yesterday around the league, probably a more detailed follow-up on some of these later today.

Philadelphia 24
Houston 10
Charles Spencer started his first NFL regular-season game at left tackle. He did have a false start in the second quarter, but other than that no penalties. Houston only had 70 yards rushing and David Carr was sacked five times, not exactly good stats for an O-lineman to see. I’ll be looking around for some more information on how Spencer played later today.

New Orleans 19
Cleveland 14
Darnell Dinkins played special teams for Cleveland, but did not make a tackle.

Rob Petitti didn’t dress for the Saints.

Atlanta 20
Carolina 6
Nick Goings played special teams for the Panthers and recorded his only tackle covering a punt in the second quarter.

Baltimore 27
Tampa Bay 0
Torrie Cox also played on special teams for the Buccaneers. He finished with one tackle covering a punt in the first quarter. On a day Baltimore kicked off basically the entire game, Cox only had one kickoff come his way, but returned it for 26 yards. Maybe Baltimore was afraid and kicking away from Torrie.

New York Jets 23
Tennessee 16
Kevan Barlow made his Jets debut and scored on a one yard run in the second quarter. He was second on the team in carries with 11, but was only one yard behind Derrick Blaylock, who had 19 carries. Barlow ended up with 35 yards on his 11 carries for a 3.2 ypc average. Not too bad for a Jets team that didn’t seem like it could run the ball with anyone most of the day.

Cincinnati 23
Kansas City 10
Kris Wilson played sparingly for the Chiefs, and didn’t get any special teams tackles or receptions on offense. Maybe all that talk about three tight end sets in the preseason was just talk.

San Francisco 27
Arizona 34
Larry Fitzgerald is the headliner as far as Pitt alumni go in the league right now, and he didn’t disappoint on Sunday. He finished with 9 catches for 133 yards, but couldnt’ get into the end zone. Kurt Warner threw to Larry a total of 14 times and Larry dropped a few catchable balls, so he easily could have had 11 or 12 catches and gone over 200 yards if he had grabbed a few of those.
Gerald Hayes is the other starting Panther for the Cardinals, starting at middle linebacker. Hayes led the defense from the start and ended up with five tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery that he returned to the 49ers 5 yard line. Big game for Gerald’s starting debut.

For San Francisco, Shawntae Spencer was back from his injured hamstring to start at corner. He finished with 6 total tackles and a pass defensed. Can’t say it was a great day for him though as Kurt Warner pretty much threw the ball all over the field at will all day. I’m sure Shawntae’s receiver, whether it was Boldin or Fitzgerald, got their share of catches.
Antonio Bryant almost matchd Larry’s yardage total, with 4 catches for 114 yards including a 46 yarder. He also couldn’t get in the end zone though. He was thrown to five other times for incompletions, picked up a holding call on a running play, and was slapped with a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting.
The final Panther in the game was punter Andy Lee. Usually punting for San Francisco is a pretty busy job, and Andy made the most of his opportunities on Saturday. He put three of his four punts inside the 20, including one downed at the 5 in teh second half. Andy also holds on all field goals and extra points for the 49ers.

Thursday NFL Roundup

Seven games on the preseason NFL slate last night featured former Panthers, thank goodness the preseason is almost over…

New England 23
New York Giants 31
Mike Jemison might not have helped his case to make the Giants last night. He didn’t get in the game until the 4th quarter, which is a bad sign when almost no starters are playing, and got nine carries almost in a row. Those nine carries went for 22 yards, only a 2.4 average. That was the good part though, as he fumbled on his final carry and didn’t get another opportunity. To be fair to Mike the Giants only had time for one more rushing play in the game, but it wasn’t with Jemison. Check back for roster news in the next week, as there will be plenty of moves.

Carolina 15
Pittsburgh 13
Nick Goings was the only former Panther in this game, and most likely already had a roster spot locked up going into last night. He finished with only four yards on five carries, but did get two receptions for ten yards and one tackle on special teams. More on Nick later today.

Minnesota 10
Dallas 10
Lousaka Polite had a pretty uneventful night, a few passes thrown to him were all incomplete, but he did assist on a tackle on special teams. His play on special teams and his versatility out of the backfield is helping him make this team more than his ability to block as a fullback it seems. Parcells just doesn’t seem to use a fullback in the traditional role much.
Rob Petitti did play, but I haven’t searched around the web yet to get how much he played or if it was at right or left tackle. This was a big game for Rob and I should have some more info later on today.

Chicago 20
Cleveland 7
Ruben Brown started for the Bears, which is somewhat surprising in the final preseason game. I’m assuming he played only one series as there is basically no info on anything he did in the game.

Darnell Dinkins had three receptions for 27 yards, in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. He should be a lock to make the team as of today.

Tampa Bay 13
Houston 16
Torrie Cox did not play in this game, which could be a good sign for him, as mostly all the starters were held out. I have not seen any info that he was hurt, so I will assume it was a good thing he was held out of the game.
Dave Moore did play on kick coverage getting an assist and was the long snapper on most of the kicks and punts. More news on Dave’s situation later today, possibly not in a good way.

Charles Spencer did start at left tackle, as expected, and didn’t commit any penalties this game. Looks like Charles is getting more settled in his role as a starter.

New Orleans 9
Kansas City 10
Josh Lay played a good bit in this one, battling for that last roster spot with Anwar Philips. Josh got two tackles but did commit an illegal contact penalty. Philips seemed to play more though, with five tackles and an assist without committing any penalties. Look for updates here as they are available.

Kris Wilson played, but was only thrown to once for an incompletion.

Denver 29
Arizona 23
Larry Fitzgerald started and made one catch for 26 yards before exiting early with the starters.
Gerald Hayes seemed to play a lot more, starting and still being on the field to make a tackle in the 3rd quarter. Hayes finished up with three tackles, and committed a holding penalty on defense.

Brandon Miree did get in the game for Denver, but the only time the ball came his way was on an incomplete two-pointconversion attempt. Not a good sign for Brandon, although he may make the squad as a fullback.

Saturday NFL Roundup

Five games featuring Panthers from Saturday night, Torrie Cox and Josh Lay with big nights at defensive back. Look for video of a lot of these plays soon. I’m out of town or there would have been video included in this post. 

Cleveland 20
Buffalo 17
Darnell Dinkins was the only Panther on either roster for this game after Buffalo dropped Matt Morgan last week. Dinkins did play in the game but had no balls thrown to him and committed no penalties. He is expected to make the team as the third tight end.

Indianapolis 27
New Orleans 14
Josh Lay had a more eventful game for New Orleans, and it started on the opening kickoff when Josh tackled the returner. In the fourth quarter Lay picked off a Shaun King pass and returned it 24 yards. The Colts had been driving to score again when Josh picked off the pass. This has to help Josh make the team as a special teams player and as a dime defensive back. We will be updating this week as cuts are made.

San Francisco 7
Dallas 17
Antonio Bryant was made into somewhat of the story heading into this game, facing off against Bill Parcels, whom he had thrown a jersey at when he played on the Cowboys, before being traded to the Browns. Bryant was thrown to 5 times for two catches for 24 yards. He also made a tackle on a ball thrown to him that was intercepted.

Andy Lee, as reported here again yesterday, is battling for his punting job. Unlike last week when Andy got the majority of the punts, this week he had two punts for 78 yards while his competition Rouen got three punts and put all three inside the 20. I still think Lee wins his job, but this game did not help at all. Look back here for updates early this week as teams go into cuts.

For Dallas, Rob Petitti did not start as we thoguht he might. He did play in the game, though I’m not sure what the split between right and left tackle was. This has been a hard story to follow, as Rob has gone from a virtual lock for the right tackle spot to third string right tackle, to being the team’s “Swing tackle” and then yesterday it seemed he is back in the battle for the right tackle spot. I think eventually he will be the swing tackle, backing up both right and left.

Lousaka Polite did play at fullback as usual, getting only one carry for four yards. He is Dallas’ only fullback.

Tampa Bay 18
Jacksonville 19
First of all, that is one of the weirdest football scores I have ever seen.

Torrie Cox didn’t start for Tampa Bay, but was in on the second defensive play to make a tackle on Fred Taylor. He is a lock to make this team as a nickel or dime back. Torrie also had a pass defensed on a really nice play downfield later in the game. He finished with three solo tackles, one assist and a pass defensed.

One area Torrie hasn’t got to show off his skills much this preseason has been returning kicks. He made the most of his opportunity though, returning the opening kickoff of the second half for 49 yards. Hopefully he gets more and more chances to return kicks, as Pitt fans know how good he can be in that role.

Dave Moore handled all of the long-snapping duties, and he will make the team in that role.

St Louis 12
Kansas City 16
Kris Wilson was in on some two and three tight end sets and as the main tight end later in the game, but only had one ball thrown his way for an incompletion. Kris will make the Chiefs roster as their third tight end.

Saturday News Wrap – Hayes, Petitti, Wilson, Martin, Lee

Just some news blurbs from around the NFL. Nothing major, so figured I’d just throw these all in a notebook style post.

A few articles in Arizona have noted what we reported here last week, Gerald Hayes has seemingly locked up the starting MLB spot for the Cardinals. azcentral.com:

Gerald Hayes started at middle linebacker and has apparently won that job.

East Valley Tribune:

As expected, Gerald Hayes got the start at middle linebacker and should remain the starter.

Rob Petitti will start if Flozell Adams can’t go on Saturday. We reported that here yesterday. The news today from the Cowboys official site is Parcells has said he may still be a candidate to start at right tackle, where he started all 16 games as a rookie:

Parcells also hasn’t officially named a starting center or right tackle yet. Andre Gurode worked at first-team center for most of training camp, but Parcells has said last year’s starter, Al Johnson, is better suited against the 4-3 defenses Dallas will face exclusively after Saturday’s game.

Parcells plans to rotate Jason Fabini and Marc Colombo at right tackle for the second consecutive game. Last year’s starter, Rob Petitti, will play left tackle again Saturday, but Parcells says he’s still a candidate on the right side. The Cowboys will need Petitti to rotate with seven-round pick Pat McQuistan if Flozell Adams (strained calf muscle) doesn’t play.

Kris Wilson is featured as one of the “Five Things to Know” about the Kansas City Chiefs on cbssportsline.com:

Maybe this is the season tight end Kris Wilson makes a name for himself. Wilson, who was supposed to be a weapon, hasn’t been a factor in his two NFL seasons — with only three catches in 17 games. But that might change, with Wilson more involved in the offense at practices and coaches more determined to get him the ball. I know, it’s tough when you play the same position as Tony Gonzalez, but expect the Chiefs to use two tight ends … maybe three … more than they have in the past.

The author doesn’t mention that Kris sat out almost an entire year with an injury. This is the latest in a series of articles in the last month that say Wilson will be in a lot of two and three tight end sets in KC this season. That might be how they will make up for hte loss of some key lineman up front as well.

Curtis Martin gets another feature article saying he wasn’t recognized enough in the last decade. Odd that the people writing these articles are probably some of the guilty reporters they are pointing to. This time it’s the Sporting News telling us what we already knew, that Martin was one of the best ever:

There goes one of the greatest players in NFL history.

I’m talking about Curtis Martin, the fourth-leading rusher of all time, whose degenerative knee could throw him for a career-ending loss. Ten months after having arthroscopic surgery, Martin is nowhere near ready for some football. He is on the Jets’ physically unable to perform (PUP) list and has been rehabbing behind the scenes during training camp. The chances of him playing again are not looking good.

Even if Martin doesn’t return for a 12th NFL season, which always has been his goal, he has secured his place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His 14,101 rushing yards rank behind only Emmitt Smith (18,355), Walter Payton (16,726) and Barry Sanders (15,269). And Martin and Sanders are the only players to rush for at least 1,000 yards in each of their first 10 seasons.

At least they’ve finally noticed, I guess better late than never.

As reported here last week, Andy Lee is indeed battling for his job in San Francisco:

Competition still exists at punter between veteran Tom Rouen and incumbent Andy Lee, at free safety between Mike Adams and Mark Roman and with the trio of Kwame Harris, Justin Smiley and Adam Snyder at right guard and right tackle.

Thursday NFL Roundup

Only one game with a Pitt alumni last night, as Kansas City visited the New York Football Giants.

The Chiefs started in a two tight end set but it did not include Kris Wilson. Tony Gonzalez is obviously the true starting tight end, the other was blocking specialist Jason Dunn. Wilson did play from the second quarter on and came away with 2 receptions for 16 yards, including a 12 yard reception on a 3rd and 9 that was deflected before Kris got his hands on it to keep the drive going which later ended in a punt. Kris was in the game after starter Trent Green had been replaced by second year QB Casey Printers.

The Giants surprisingly featured RB Mike Jemison in the second half, giving the former Panther 10 carries for 37 yards including a rush of 13 and adding one reception for another 13 yards. Jemison played only in the second half, but looked good running the ball after starting slow with only 1 yard on his first four carries. Jemison led the Giants in carries for the game.

You can vote for Mike as the most impressive player in the Giants win on their official home page.