NFL Football Games

25/01/08

No nerves for this QB in new football setting

By Willie Bans
SPECIAL TO THE UNION-TRIBUNE

January 25, 2008

His jersey was different, his teammates were different, his coaches were different.

But in an Offensive MVP performance in the East-West Shrine Game in Houston last Saturday, USD senior quarterback Josh Johnson played the way he did during his entire career as a Torero.

"I felt the same," Johnson said, "like I was playing in San Diego. I didn't take any different approach than any other game I've played. If I wasn't good enough to be there, I wouldn't have been there."

Johnson completed 5-of-11 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. He also had three carries for 91 yards. He was comfortable against defenses consisting of players from major programs (USD plays in the nonscholarship Pioneer Football League in what was formerly known as Division I-AA). And he never really felt uncomfortable.

"My approach to it is, it's football," said Johnson, who set several career passing records at USD. "Your body is naturally going to react to what you're playing against, so you don't really have to change your way of thinking. You've just got to go out, play the game and react."

Playing at a consistent level will be key in the future, Johnson said. In the week leading to the Shrine Game, NFL scouts talked with him mostly to gauge his personality, offering little on-field advice other than to "just keep the chains moving," Johnson said. "That's what they want to see in a quarterback. They want to see the offense progressing down the field and you making smart decisions and not turning the ball over."

Johnson has been training in Pensacola, Fla., with about 10 potential first-day NFL draft picks, including USC All-America tight end Fred Davis and Cal All-America receiver and kick returner DeSean Jackson, who, along with Johnson, is represented by the DeBartolo Sports and Entertainment Agency, headed by former San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr.

Next for Johnson is the NFL Combine in February at Indianapolis. Preparing for and participating in the Combine should make for a busy semester at USD, which begins classes Monday. Still, Johnson says he's not enamored with the fact he'll probably be the only pupil in the classroom with an agent and the best excuse to miss lectures next month.

"I don't look at it like that," Johnson said. "I'm still the same Josh. I'm gonna always be that same person. I'm never gonna change."

05/01/08

American Football: Chargers, Redskins open playoffs on hot streaks

January 5, 2008 - 10:33AM

San Diego will bring a six-game win streak into the weekend's start of the American football playoffs while the Washington Redskins, unbeaten since Sean Taylor's funeral, join them as the hottest teams.

The Chargers (11-5) will host Tennessee (10-6) and Sunday while Pittsburgh (10-6) plays host to Jackonsville (11-5) on Saturday in the National Football League's American Conference playoffs.

The Redskins (10-6) will be inspired by the memory of their teammate Taylor, a star defender who was fatally shot by home intruders in November, when they visit Seattle (10-6) on Saturday in a National Conference playoff game.

Tampa Bay (9-7) will host the New York Giants (10-6) in the other National Conference tilt Sunday.

Top seeds Dallas and Green Bay are idle in the National Conference as are American Conference top seeds New England - the first team in 35 years to run through a season undefeated - and Indianapolis.

The for clubs with first-round byes will host playoff games January 12-13 with those winners advancing to the January 20 conference finals, with New England and Dallas in position to host those playoff semi-finals if they win.

Conference winners will meet in the Super Bowl on February 3 at the domed stadium home of the Arizona Cardinals in suburban Phoenix.

The Redskins won their final four games to move past Minnesota for a playoff berth and book a rematch of a 2006 playoff meeting won by the Seahawks.

Washington beat arch-rival Dallas 27-6 in the season finale to clinch a playoff spot, the 21-point margin of victory matching Taylor's jersey number.

"It's strange," said running back Clinton Portis, a close friend of Taylor. "The strangest things have been happening to us all season, especially to finish the season winning by 21 points against Dallas."

Adding to the oddities is Todd Collins, a 36-year-old journeyman quarterback who had not started an NFL game in 10 years. Collins has replaced injured Jason Campbell and led the Redskins to three consecutive triumphs.

Should the bottom-seeded Redskins beat Seattle, they will have a rematch with the Cowboys in another week at Dallas. But that means ousting a Seahawks team that reached the Super Bowl two seasons ago.

Seattle's attack is sparked by quarterback Matt Hasselbeck while the run game, paced by Maurice Morris, has improved in the final weeks of the season.

"We're just trying to establish some consistency in the running game going into the playoffs," Morris said.

The Chargers seek their seventh triumph in a row while mindful of last year's disappointing first-game playoff ouster after a 14-2 season.

Add to that San Diego facing a Tennessee club they edged 23-17 in over-time four weeks ago, having to rally with two touchdowns in the final 7:30 of regulation to win on NFL rushing leader LaDainian Tomlinson's touchdown run.

A scuffle after the final play left Chargers fullback Lorenzo Neal with a fractured fibula and linebacker Shawne Merriman, who suffered a knee injury in the second half, called the Titans a "dirty" team.

"It was definitely one of the most physical games we've played in this year," Tomlinson said. "It did feel like a playoff game. That's kind of what I'm expecting again this week, the same type of intensity level."

Vince Young was hurt in Tennessee's season-closing win at Indianapolis and Kerry Collins, the backup quarterback, might start or play much of the time against San Diego in the first Titans playoff game since 2003.

Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay host foes with more wins because they won division crowns.

Jacksonville won 29-22 at Pittsburgh on December 16 with Fred Taylor running for 147 yards in cold and snow to inflict the year's only home loss upon the Steelers.

"A lot of guys didn't believe that we could come on the road and play a team like Pittsburgh and win the game," Taylor said. "We just played the game."

Ben Roethlisberger, who led Pittsburgh to a 2006 Super Bowl triumph, threw for 3,154 yards and 32 touchdowns this season and will be vital to the Steelers hopes of advancing.

"We didn't like our performance the last time we played Jacksonville, and that's not taking anything away from them," said first-year Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. "We know what type of team they are and we have work to do."

For the Giants, it is a rematch with a familiar foe in Jeff Garcia. The Tampa Bay quarterback will be trying to beat New York for the third time in a playoff game and while with a third different club.

Garcia ignited the second-greatest comeback in NFL playoff history in 2002, rallying the San Francisco 49ers from a 24-point deficit to a 39-38 triumph over the Giants.

Garcia faced the Giants last season while with Philadelphia and the Eagles ousted New York 23-20 when David Akers kicked a 38-yard field goal as time expired.

The Giants have not won a playoff game in seven years since blanking Minnesota 41-0 before losing the 2001 Super Bowl.

Tampa Bay last won a playoff game when the Buccaneers beat Oakland 48-21 in the 2003 Super Bowl.

18/12/07

Jessica Simpson jinxes football star boyfriend at NFL match

11:00AM Tuesday December 18, 2007

Is Jessica Simpson a bad luck charm?

Simpson and her parents attended new boyfriend Tony Romo's football game - and the Dallas Cowboys quarterback had the worst game of his career.

The player was feeling the pressure during yesterday's match against the Philadelphia Eagles, making several ball handling errors, while Simpson watched from the stands wearing his number on her shirt.
The Cowboys lost to the Eagles 10-6.

The 27-year-old star ended the game with a quarterback rating of just 22.2 - the worst in his entire career. (In comparison, his average rating this year is over 100.)

According to People magazine his previous low was last December, when then-girlfriend Carrie Underwood was in the stands.

Even commentator Joe Buck felt it necessary to tell viewers, "It's never easy to play in front of your girlfriend."

- NZHERALD STAFF

10/12/07

Kawakami: Raiders chilled in Green Bay, 38-7

By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Staff Columnist
Article Launched: 12/09/2007 04:07:16 PM PST

GREEN BAY, Wis. - This was real football, in real football weather, exposing the real strengths and foibles of two franchises.

Which was unfortunate for the Raiders, since they were overmatched Sunday by the Green Bay Packers, the sub-freezing weather at Lambeau Field and the all-too familiar Silver & Black shortcomings, not necessarily in that order of significance.

The result: Packers 38, Raiders 7, by far the Raiders' worst, chilliest and possibly most telling defeat of the season.

They're 4-9 now, guaranteed their fifth consecutive losing season. They can't stop making mistakes and they have no chance on the road against a playoff team.

They're the Raiders, through sleet or sunshine, on artificial surface or semi-frozen tundra, at home or anywhere else Al Davis will take them.

Sure, they won their last two against awful Kansas City and diddling Denver. Sure, they look better this season under Lane Kiffin than they ever did last year under Art Shell.

But they're still the Raiders, and, I must point out, they never managed to lose by more than 30 points under Shell or Norv Turner.

Endlessly and forever, the Raiders. And when they're stacked against a good team in an environment that exposes weakness, they're just not any good at all.

"That's the difference," said Warren Sapp, "between a playoff contender and a team that's trying to find itself . . . (But) it's going to get a lot better before it gets any worse."

Hmm, interesting thought there. Better before it gets worse?
Sapp explained that the Raiders still are adjusting to the new coaching staff and new system; and he implied that facing the newly powerful Packers in wintry weather was an uphill battle.

Here was Sunday's equation: three turnovers plus two special-teams touchdowns (including the first touchdown return on a Shane Lechler punt in his career) plus lots of penalties plus 156 rushing yards to Ryan Grant equals the Raiders' loss since Green Bay pummeled them 41-7 on Dec. 22, 2003, in Oakland.

"It's disappointing, but it's not a setback," said cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. "We just didn't play up to par today."

OK, sure, yes. Kiffin has definitely infused this team with more discipline and direction.

Plus, it's always a tough matchup when you go up against Brett Favre and the now 11-2 Packers, especially while many of the Raiders were more concerned with thermal layering than with proper tackling techniques.

But the Raiders thought they had momentum after the two-game winning streak, thought they could give Green Bay at least a scare and thought that they could finish 2007 with a nice closing kick.

Instead, on Sunday they committed killer penalties that led to massive breakdowns that caused big problems and finished up, every time, with 70,828 partying it up in Lambeau.

"Sure, it's a setback," Kiffin said, noting that the Raiders had been in every game until Sunday. "But it's one game. You can't let one game go on. We've got a great team coming in next week, Indianapolis.

"We don't let one game define us. But if we keep playing the way we did today, it will."

Of course, the Raiders have played like this for most of the last five years, and that's exactly what Kiffin was hired to prevent.

Now they've got the Colts, Jaguars and Chargers to finish things up, which spells 4-12 by any serious measure.

They will be out of the cold, however.

"I've never seen Jack Frost make any tackles," Sapp snapped when it was suggested the 18-degree scene might've made things worse for the Raiders.

Anyway, the quintessential scene of the day, for me, was watching rookie JaMarcus Russell slowly and reluctantly peel off his parka, then his ski mask, then his wool cap, when there was a thought to get him into the game late in the fourth quarter.

I don't mean to pick on Russell, since I do believe he represents most of what's fascinating and optimistic about this franchise's future and he'd never been in cold weather before this trip.

But . . . at that moment in the blowout, Russell talked to a coach, bent his legs stiffly and very unconvincingly, then - by my read - very happily retreated to the mask, the cap and the parka once he got word that he wouldn't be coming in.

Ever been in cold like that, JaMarcus?

"Not that cold - damn it was cold," Russell said later. "It was all right though. If you have to play in it, you have to play in it."

Kiffin said he contemplated putting Russell into the game after giving Andrew Walter a series after taking out the banged up and sick Josh McCown.

But Kiffin considered the score, the weather and the pass protection issues, and reconsidered. I wonder if he also looked into Russell's eyes - if he could see them through the mask and the glaze.

"I was thinking it over in my head," Kiffin said. "But there wasn't going to be anything positive coming out of that for him."

You could've said the same thing about the Raiders, and this whole frigid day. This was cold, hard reality time - the Packers are for real, and the Real Raiders showed up, too.

04/11/07

Panthers-Titans Preview

The Tennessee Titans have been winning this season. It just hasn't been very a pretty process lately.

The Titans look to improve their anemic offense and keep rolling Sunday when they host the Carolina Panthers.

Tennessee (5-2) is off to its best start since opening 9-2 in 2003, the last season it reached the playoffs. The Titans started 0-5 last year before rallying to win six of their last seven games and finish 8-8.

While the team seems to have carried over its momentum from the second half of last season, its offense has stagnated. The Titans have scored just five offensive touchdowns over the past four games, but have won three, thanks to 13 field goals on 14 chances from Rob Bironas.

Tennessee's passing game has been the biggest culprit. The Titans haven't scored a touchdown through the air since Sept. 24 in a 31-14 win at New Orleans and rank 29th in the NFL with 156.7 passing yards per game.

Vince Young is coming off his worst game as a starter, having completed only six of 14 passes for 42 yards in Sunday's 13-9 win over Oakland. The 2006 NFL offensive rookie of the year started after sitting out the previous week with a strained right quadriceps muscle.

Tennessee's defense came through a week after giving up 29 fourth-quarter points in a 38-36 victory at Houston, getting five sacks and two turnovers against the Raiders.

"We want wins," defensive end Antwan Odom said. "We want W's. That's all we care about. This win was a team effort. The defense won't play every game like we did (Sunday), so the offense has to step it up. We win and lose as a team. We have to get after everybody we play."

Tennessee has been much better at running the ball than throwing it, gaining 150.9 yards per game on the ground, good for third in the league. LenDale White rushed for a career-best 133 yards on 25 carries against the Raiders.

Still, the Titans have reached the end zone in just 32.1 percent of their red-zone opportunities, ranking them 27th in the NFL. Their 13 touchdowns overall tie them for 24th in the league.

"When you run the football for nearly 200 yards against a defense like theirs that is playing eight- or nine-man fronts, and they say 'No you can't,' and you say 'Yes, I can,' and you do it, that is how you win football games," coach Jeff Fisher said. "We're not happy with the lack of points and the lack of touchdowns, but we definitely had some opportunities (Sunday) and couldn't take advantage of them.''

Young has thrown just three touchdown passes this season and six interceptions. He could have a chance to improve his numbers against the Panthers, who have just five interceptions and are allowing 313.9 passing yards a game, fifth most in the NFC.

Carolina (4-3) has its own issues in the passing game thanks to a string of injuries at quarterback. Vinny Testaverde, who led the Panthers to a 25-10 win at Arizona on Oct. 14 four days after signing with them, aggravated an Achilles' tendon injury in Sunday's 31-7 loss to Indianapolis and was replaced by David Carr.

Carr took over as the No. 1 QB after Jake Delhomme was lost for the season in Week 3 with a right elbow injury that required ligament replacement surgery, but he's been dealing with compression fractures in his lower back. Saying he was only at 80 percent, Carr threw for 103 yards against the Colts, but the Panthers were outscored 21-0 in the second half.

The 43-year-old Testaverde has missed practice all week, making Carr the front-runner to start Sunday. Carr, acquired in an offseason trade with Houston, is 2-8 against the Titans.

"He was well enough to play last week. There aren't a lot of players out there that are 100 percent at this stage of the season,'' coach John Fox said of Carr.

Receiver Steve Smith was held to two catches for 18 yards last week, all on Carolina's first drive, and was seen screaming at Carr on the sidelines late in the game.

Smith had 2,729 receiving yards and 20 touchdown catches in his previous two seasons, but has been held to 50 or fewer receiving yards in four games this year.

"I'm trying to get him the football. And he's not necessarily concerned about himself getting the football,'' Carr said. "He just wants our team to be better. I just went up to him and said, 'If there's anything I can do that you see from the wide receiver position that can make us a better team, then let me know.'

"We just got talking because we're too old to keep secrets from each other. And he's not like that at all. He'll tell you straight up.''

DeShaun Foster ran for just 62 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries Sunday, and will be up against the NFL's stingiest run defense this week. Tennessee is allowing 64.3 rushing yards per game.

The Panthers fell to 0-3 at home last week but are undefeated on the road.

Carolina and the Tennessee franchise are meeting for just the third time and first since 2003. Carolina beat the Houston Oilers 31-6 on the road in 1996 but lost 37-17 at home to the Titans in 2003.

29/10/07

NFL union says it's OK to play in San Diego on Sunday

National Football League Players Assn. spokesman Carl Francis said today that union leadership was confident that Sunday's game between the San Diego Chargers and Houston Texans could be played at Qualcomm Stadium without endangering player health or safety.

"We've been in communication with the NFL, and we feel very confident with the information that the San Diego mayor and others have given to the league," Francis said. "We are confident that the game can be played in San Diego on Sunday. We're just following the health guidelines and safety plans in place. We're working closely with the NFL."

Although the NFL will play its game Sunday, most of the county's organized outdoor athletic activity ground to a halt earlier in the week. The San Diego Unified School District canceled all athletic activity during the weekend. San Diego State University postponed several athletic events, including a Saturday football game against Brigham Young University at Qualcomm. That game has been rescheduled at the stadium for Dec. 1.

San Diego State also postponed men's and women's soccer matches, a cross-country meet and swimming, diving and volleyball competitions. The university plans to reschedule the events or move them to alternative locations.

-- Greg Johnson and Tony Perry

16/10/07

NFL commissioner says NFL title game may someday be held in London

Published: October 15, 2007

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona: A future pro American gridiron champion may someday be crowned overseas in a game witnessed predominantly by a foreign audience, the commissioner of the United States' National Football League said.

"There's a great deal of interest in holding a Super Bowl in London," commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters Monday. "So we'll be looking at that."

The commissioner said London's Wembley Stadium would make a great candidate for American pro gridiron's biggest matchup, given the opening of the stadium's lastest incarnation and enthusiasm overseas for the game.

The NFL has been expanding its overseas presence for years by televising games around the world. It's held preseason games in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Mexico and Canada, and in 2005, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers played the first regular-season match outside the United States.

The game at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City drew the league's largest crowd to date, 103,467.

On Oct. 28, Wembley will host the first regular-season NFL game outside North America. It took just 90 minutes to sell the first 40,000 tickets for the game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants. Goodell said event organizers have sold 95,000 tickets in all.

Goodell spoke about the possibility of a British Super Bowl after a luncheon Monday in Scottsdale sponsored by the host committee for the 2008 Super Bowl in Arizona.