Week 9 Monday Night Football Live Blog

NFL Week 9/MLS Conference Finals Live Blog

Man, what is it with all the crappy early games as of late?  I mean, I guess Jets-Bills is sort of okay, but 49ers-Redskins?  That the Redskins are so bad that I am getting Seahawks-Cowboys with Chris Myers?  Ugh.  Well, on the likely more exciting side of things, MLS Conference Finals are tonight.

Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City 5:30 (FSC - JP Dellacamera and Brian Dunseth, SR: Allen Hopkins)

Real Salt Lake vs. Los Angeles Galaxy 9:00 (ESPN - Ian Darke and John Harkes, SR: Rob Stone)

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NFL Week 9 Schedule

Sorry I could not get this up earlier. This week has been hell.  It will get worse before it gets better.

Map of who gets what Sunday afternoon games.

CBS games

New York Jets vs. Buffalo Bills  1:00 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)
Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans  1:00 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts)
Miami Dolphins vs. Kansas City Chiefs  1:00 (CBS - Kevin Harland and Solomon Wilcots)

Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders  4:05 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Tennessee Titans  4:05 (CBS - Marv Albert and Rich Gannon)

Fox early games

San Francisco 49ers vs. Washington Redskins  1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston, SA: Tony Siragusa)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints  1:00 (Fox - Dick Stockton and John Lynch)
Seattle Seahawks vs. Dallas Cowboys  1:00 (Fox - Chris Myers and Tim Ryan)
Atlanta Falcons vs. Indianapolis Colts  1:00 (Fox - Ron Pitts and Jim Mora, Jr.)

America's Game Of The Week and Fox late games

New York Giants vs. New England Patriots  4:15 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, SR: Pam Oliver)
Green Bay Packers vs. San Diego Chargers  4:15 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick, SR: Laura Okmin)
St. Louis Rams vs. Arizona Cardinals  4:15 (Fox - Sam Rosen and Chad Pennington)

Sunday Night Football

Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers  8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth, SR: Michele Tafoya)

Monday Night Football

Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles  8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden, SR: Suzy Kolber)

Eagles Week 9 Recap: Eagles Win Game, Refs Win Money

• The Vegas point spread in the game was Eagles favored by 3.  The Eagles won by 2.  Carl Cheffers has to be absolutely giddy about that, for 2 of his ticky-tack calls wiped out 2 Colt turnovers in drives that would ultimately end with an Indianapolis touchdown.
• Michael Vick certainly adds a dynamic to the Eagles that Kevin Kolb does not.  I like Kolb, but at this point, Michael Vick is the man for the Eagles.  Andy Reid is going with a merit system, and based on that, he is right with going with Vick.  He is in win-now mode, and with the NFC as bad as it is, I can't say that I blame him.  Before, I did.  But this putrid NFC changes everything.  It also helps that Kolb did get to play in a few games after all because of Vick's injury.
• The question of the future now.  You can't keep both QBs next season, so do you work out a new contract with Vick and trade Kolb, or let Vick walk and keep Kolb?  At this point, I would say extend Vick and trade Kolb, but, that is something that could change multiple times as the season nears a conclusion.  
• Coming into this game, the Eagles were 11-0 in the game after the bye week under Andy Reid, while Peyton Manning was 3-0 all time against the Eagles, in games that were not even close.  The more impressive streak held up.  Eagles are now 12-0 after the bye week, the longest such streak in NFL history.
• Before this game, Peyton Manning had been sacked 7 times all season.  The Eagles got him twice tonight.
• Before this game, Peyton Manning threw 2 INTs all season.  The Eagles, more specifically, Asante Samuel, intercepted him twice tonight.
• The Eagles 1st 4 red zone possessions resulted in 1 TD and 3 FGs.  For all the talk about the refs that you will see below, if they lost that game, that would have been the reason.  When facing Peyton Manning, touchdowns are imperative in red zone situations.  The Eagles were seemingly the better team all night long, and it should not have been as close as it was.  After all, the Colts had over 40 seconds at the end of the game to drive into field goal range and kick a game-winning field goal.  Luckily, Manning overthrows and an Asante Samuel interception prevented that.
• Ellis Hobbs was injured this week and did not play.  2 weeks ago, he was the guy who got beat  time and time again by Kenny Britt.  In his plate this week was Dimitri Patterson who had a fantastic game against a fantastic opposition.  Patterson was not beaten for the big play at all, something Ellis Hobbs has not been able to boast.  If Andy Reid makes Patterson a regular starting CB alongside Asante Samuel, I would be quite happy.  From what I've seen, Dimitri Patterson is a better cornerback than Ellis Hobbs.  Sure Patterson allowed lots of underneath completions, but in comparison to the deep completions given up by Ellis Hobbs on an alarmingly consistent basis, I'll take it.
• There were positives and negatives for Sean McDermott tonight.  The positives:  He beat Peyton Manning, something that Jim Johnson never did.  Also, his defense held Manning and the Colts offense to 7 points in the 2nd half, very impressive.  The negatives:  After the Collie hit, Sean McDermott kept calling plays and blitzes that were not working, allowing the Colts 10 easy points in the final 2:23 of the first half. 
• DeSean Jackson played his first game in 3 weeks after suffering a severe concussion.  If he missed a step, it sure as hell did not look it.
• Michael Vick played his first game since the start of the Redskins game 5 weeks ago.  If he missed a step, it sure as hell did not look it.
  
• I will use the next 3 bullets to address 3 things of importance that need to be said.  First of all, what happened to Austin Collie was an extremely scary incident.  Thankfully, reports indicate that Austin Collie is all right.  You never want to hear that a player has a concussion, but in this case, that is sort of good news, as the worst was definitely feared, especially seeing what happened to that Rutgers player a few weeks ago.  However, that hit on Collie was called a penalty, and a penalty it was not.  Before you get up and arms about this, learn the NFL rules.  Because if you think I'm wrong, then you don't know the NFL rules.  Once a player catches and establishes possession of the ball, as Austin Collie clearly did, the receiver can no longer be declared "defenseless."  Here is a description of the play, per Matt Mosley "Eagles safety Quintin Mikell unloaded on Collie after he appeared to make a catch with 2:23 left in the first half. Mikell led with his shoulder and it appeared to be a clean hit as he made contact with Collie, who then pin-balled into Eagles rookie safety Kurt Coleman. After watching several replays, I'm not sure how Coleman could have avoided the helmet-to-helmet contact, which appeared to cause Collie's injury."  Here's the video.  The catch was made and Collie established possession.  The receiver was not defenseless.  Therefore, there is no hit on the defenseless receiver, even though they called the penalty on Mikell, and not Coleman, the guy who administered the concussion-causing blow.  In situations like that, the helmet-to-helmet is not a penalty.  Unfortunate things can happen on perfectly clean plays. This is one of those situations.  Like it or not, Mikell's hit and Coleman's hit were clean football plays.  What has been stated above are not opinions.  They are facts.
• This is the explanation Carl Cheffers gave of his call. "Well, if he is completing the catch, his second foot is not down yet or it's just down, we still give the defenseless receiver protection. So if it is a bang-bang type play, with his second foot coming down, he still gets protection on that play. The fact of the matter is, is that ball was incomplete. So, he has protection throughout that entire process on that play because we don't even have a completion -- at no time did he have possession and become a runner to where he would have transitioned out of being a defenseless receiver."  If the mumbling and the jibbersih seem familiar, well, it should.
• Now whether or not it should or should not be a suspension has no bearing on whether it will be suspended.  Knowing Goddell, it will be suspended.  Les Bowen said it best, "This is Mr. Goodell's NFL: Guy is hurt, so it must be a penalty."  Given all that has happening, Goodell will damn the rules of football straight to hell and fine and/or suspend Quintin Mikell and/or Kurt Coleman for no valid reason.  And that's a shame.
• And lastly, a big hullaballo is being made of Eagles fans booing while Collie was motionless.  Let's set one thing straight.  They were booing the OFFICIAL.  They were not booing Austin Collie.  They were booing one of the WORST CALLS OF THE SEASON.  They were not booing a motionless man.  They were booing an INCOMPETENT OFFICIATING JOB.  They were not booing a guy who needed to be stretchered off the field.  They were booing the fact THE REFEREE COST THE EAGLES A FUMBLE RECOVERY.  They were CHEERING when Austin Collie was being wheeled off the field.  Wait, what?  That doesn't follow the script!  I challenge you to find another crowd in the NFL that would not have reacted in the same way.  Donovan McNabb got a standing ovation 5 weeks ago when he returned to Philly for the first time.  Why is that being forgotten about now?
• And lastly, the win probability chart. (advancednflstats.com)

2010 NFL Season Week 9 Live Blog

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NFL Week 9 Schedule

There are good things and bad things about going to college in rural PA where I get 3 affiliates that carry football games, KYW out of Philadelphia, WYOU out of Scranton, and WOLF out of Wilkes-Barre. There are weeks like last week where the 2 CBS affiliates, KYW and WYOU, show different games and thus I get 4 regional broadcasts instead of the normal 3. Then there are weeks like this where because I don't get WTFX out of Philadelphia, weeks like this week can happen where the only 1:00 ET time game I get is........(wait for it, wait for it)...........Jets vs. Lions. Bleh. At least that game has got Gus Johnson........(games I get are in bold)

Map of who gets what Fox game.

Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings 1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa)
New Orleans Saints vs. Carolina Panthers 1:00 (Fox - Dick Stockton and Charles Davis)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Atlanta Falcons 1:00 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick)
Chicago Bears vs. Buffalo Bills (game to be played in Toronto) 1:00 (Fox - Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan)

New York Giants vs. Seattle Seahawks 4:05 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman)

Map of who gets what CBS early game.

Miami Dolphins vs. Baltimore Ravens 1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
San Diego Chargers vs. Houston Texans 1:00 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Dan Fouts)
New York Jets vs. Detroit Lions 1:00 (CBS - Gus Johnson and Steve Tasker)
New England Patriots vs. Cleveland Browns 1:00 (CBS - Bill Macatee and Rich Gannon)

Map of who gets what CBS late game.

Indianapolis Colts vs. Philadelphia Eagles 4:15 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders 4:15 (CBS - Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots)

Sunday Night Football

Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers 8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth)

Monday Night Football

Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals 8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden)

NFL Week 9 Live Blog

Your Week 9 NFL Schedule

This may be the only thing I have up for you today. While I'm feeling better, I do still have a slight cold and like I said, I've stated before, I've got this little thing called a giant research paper that needs a whole lot of working on today.

Yes, I am aware of the altercation between Cole Hamels and Brett Myers in the clubhouse after last night's game, yes, I am happy that someone finally stepped up and figuratively, if not literally, slapped him in the face and told him to wake up, even if it was Brett Myers and even if it was public.

On to an unrelated topic, here is your Week 9 NFL schedule. All times are eastern and the games I get are in bold.

Map of who gets what Fox game.

Arizona Cardinals @ Chicago Bears 1:00 (Fox - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman)
Washington Redskins @ Atlanta Falcons 1:00 (Fox - Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa)
Green Bay Packers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1:00 (Fox - Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan)

Detroit Lions @ Seattle Seahawks 4:05 (Fox - Dick Stockton and Charles Davis)
Carolina Panthers @ New Orleans Saints 4:05 (Fox - Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick)

Map of who gets what CBS early game.

Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots 1:00 (CBS - Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf)
Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals 1:00 (CBS - Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts)
Houston Texans @ Indianapolis Colts 1:00 (CBS - Kevin Harlan and Solomon Wilcots)
Kansas City Chiefs @ Jacksonville Jaguars 1:00 (CBS - Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein)

Map of who gets what CBS late game.

San Diego Chargers @ New York Giants 4:15 (CBS - Jim Nantz and Phil Simms)
Tennessee Titans @ San Francisco 49ers 4:15 (CBS - Ian Eagle and Rich Gannon)

Sunday Night Football
Dallas Cowboys @ Philadelphia Eagles 8:20 (NBC - Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth)

Monday Night Football
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Denver Broncos 8:30 (ESPN - Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, and Jon Gruden)

It does not get much bigger and better than the Eagles and the Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. That being said, with the exception of a few games (Baltimore-Cincy, Miami-New England) the rest of this week does not exactly inspire my excitement. Then again, I guess on any given Sunday any surefire dud of a game can become instant classic, thouch, right?