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 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.

News Roundup…Barlow, Moore, Miree and Goings

Lots of little news around the web dealing with Panther Alumns today, but not much that really needs its own full post. So here’s a quick roundup of what’s happening:

Kevan Barlow may be losing his short-lived grip on the starting running back position in New York:

HOT SEAT: RB Kevan Barlow. He’s losing ground quickly to rookie Leon Washington.

It’s just a quick blurb at the end of a story, but I think Washington’s catch and run ability is what’s causing the problems for Kevan. What got Kevan the lock on teh starter’s job originally was his experience but mostly his ability to pass block as well as pound the ball. If Washington improves his pass blocking, I think it’s probably only a matter of time.

Dave Moore is using the bye week in Tampa to heal his injured ribs, and Coach Gruden seems optimistic he will be back when the Buccaneers face the Saints in two weeks:

“Dave Moore has a chance to return for the New Orleans game”

Brandon Miree has been signed from the Packers practice squad and is now their second string fullback. His familiarity with the Packers style of blocking seems to have gotten him to Green Bay in the first place and now onto the active roster:

Brandon Miree was promoted from the practice squad to the 53-man active roster on Tuesday, giving the Packers a true backup to starting fullback William Henderson for the first time since Vonta Leach was cut on Sept. 12. The Packers had been using their tight ends as backup fullbacks the last two weeks.

The 6-foot, 236-pound Miree was signed to the practice squad on Sept. 4. He was a seventh-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in 2004, and spent his rookie season on injured reserve due to a broken thumb. Last season, he was on the Broncos’ practice squad, and was released at the end of training camp this summer.

In Miree, the Packers have another player experienced in the zone-blocking scheme being employed by first-year coach Mike McCarthy. The Broncos were one of the first teams to use zone blocking.

Nick Goings looks like he will be back for the Panthers this Sunday as they face New Orleans in a virtual must-win game:

Running back Nick Goings (thigh), cornerback Ken Lucas (neck) and wide receiver Steve Smith (hamstring) all practiced and are listed as probable.

Nick has been sidlined with his thigh injury since week 2.

Sunday NFL Roundup

The Sunday night game doesn’t involve any former Panthers, so that gives me a chance to wrap up Sunday before the evening is over. Let’s get to the other six games that involved Pitt alumni this afternoon:

Carolina 26
Tampa Bay 24
Torrie Cox had a quiet day compared to last week, with just one pass defensed and no tackles. He also got an illegal block on a punt return in the second quarter. He was the only Panther active, more on the inactives at the end of this article.

New York Jets 28
Buffalo 20
Kevan Barlow got his first start as a New York Jet Sunday but didn’t have the big day you would expect against the Bills’ defense. Kevan did get in the end zone though, finishing with 12 carries for 31 yards and a touchdown. No receptions for Barlow but he did lead the team in carries. He is sharing the load with two others in a running back by committee in New York.

Chicago 19
Minnesota 16
Rueben Brown was in his usual spot at left guard. A quiet day, a good thing for an offensive lineman…one holding call that was declined. The Bears only managed three yards per carry out of Thomas Jones and Rex Grossman was sacked once. Not bad on the sacks but Chicago definitely wants to get more than three yards per carry.

Philadelphia 37
San Francisco 24
Antonio Bryant had his quietest day as a 49er, with only four catches for 36 yards. More later on whether he punched out QB Alex Smith after the game.
Shawntae Spencer actually led the 49ers in tackles Sunday with 7…apparently not much tackling going on when you’re busy giving up 37 points. Spencer also fell on a fumble in the second quarter that led to San Fran’s first points, a field goal that made it 14-3 Philly.
Andy Lee had almost 300 yards in punts Sunday, finishing with seven punts for 298 yards with two ending inside the 20. Doesn’t sound like he had many chances to pin the Eagles back as the niners weren’t really moving the ball out of their own end much.

St Louis 16
Arizona 14
Larry Fitzgerald was another former Panther Biletnikoff winner with a relatively quiet day. Larry put up six catches for 65 yards but did get into the end zone. Seems with him and Boldin one of them always gets a lot of yards but doesn’t get the TD and the other one has a lot less yards and a TD. That was the case again as Boldin finished with 10 catches for 129 yards, but didn’t get in the paint.
Gerald Hayes led his Cardinals in tackles on the day with 10 and recovered a fumble that could have been the biggest play of the game had the Cards been able to drive for the win. Late in the 4th quarter with Arizona trailing 16-14, Hayes fell on a fumble on the Cardinals’ own 23 yard line. The Rams were on their way to scoring and putting hte game out of reach before that play. The O couldn’t muster a drive though, and actually failed to convert a 4th down after a sack from the same 23 yard line.

Inactives
Other than Panthers with byes (Lousaka Polite and Kris Wilson), three sat out with various injuries Sunday:
Dave Moore missed his second straight week with a rib injury for Tampa Bay. This was expected, he was listed as out on the weekly injury report.
Nick Goings sat out for his second week with a thigh injury for Carolina. He was listed as questionable coming in.
Darnell Dinkins also missed his second week in a row with a pulled hamstring for the Browns. He was listed as doubtful for the week.

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.

Injury Update – Moore, Dinkins, Goings

Some injury news from around the league, some encouraging news for at least one former Panther…

Let’s start with the good news. It looks like Dave Moore could be playing Sunday in his regular long-snapping role for the Buccaneers, according to Jon Gruden:

“We’re hopeful and optimistic that Dave will play, but he is questionable. Doug Jolley is a guy who we think can snap but we’ll update you as the week unfolds.”

Just in case though, the Bucs have signed two potential replacements to their practice squad, and have a potential replacement in TE Doug Jolley who was already on the roster:

With Dave Moore unavailable to practice on Wednesday due to his rib injury, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made not one but two moves to replace his on-field contributions.

…

The team brought in two new players for that eight-man unit: long-snapper Andrew Economos and tight end Keith Heinrich.

After Moore was injured in the Bucs’ season opener against Baltimore on Sunday, the Bucs quickly conducted a series of tryouts with long-snappers, including Economos, the former Jacksonville Jaguar. After practice on Wednesday, Head Coach Jon Gruden also reiterated that tight end Doug Jolley as a possible replacement for Moore if the veteran snapper is not ready to play by Sunday. Jolley handled the snapping duties in the opener after Moore sustained his injury.

Now the bad news. Darnell Dinkins is definitely out for Cleveland‘s game this Sunday with a hamstring injury.

Nick Goings is listed as questionable for Carolina but should play.

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.