However, the winless Browns wisely opted to start a healthy Seneca Wallace over a gimpy Jake Delhomme in today's divisional showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Wallace looked sharp last week in Cleveland's loss to the Ravens, completing more than 70% of his passes. However, some of his old bad habits continue to tell: he still checks down too often on third down, accepting less than first-down yardage rather than risk throwing down the field. As he sometimes did with the Seahawks, Wallace--when pressured in the backfield at one point--scrambled to buy time, but instead of throwing the ball away, he ran out of bounds, taking a 6-yard loss and awarding a sack to the defense. Still, Wallace has clearly outplayed Delhomme and deserves to keep the starting job.
Pork Chop Womack played well; he and the rest of the Browns' O-Line helped their runners grind out 173 rushing yards.
TJ Houshmandzadeh played little for the Ravens last week. After getting little production from Housh in the 3-wideout set, Baltimore reverted to a standard 2-wide receiver offense, relegating the ex-Seahawk to the bench. In the fourth quarter, Housh came off the pine to make a clutch first-down catch, keep a drive alive, and help his team drain the clock and keep the lead. Presumably, Baltimore expects more value from Housh; maybe they'll get it today in Pittsburgh.
Josh Wilson played in Baltimore's nickel packages, covering receivers effectively and recording one tackle.
Cory Redding made a couple of tackles, but sustained an injury and is out this week.
Nate Burleson, instead of embodying his Transformers identity ("Recepticon") was once again Receptican't. Remember when Nate came to the Seahawks and needed a year or two to adapt to our offense? It looks like he's having the same growing pains in Detroit, with the same disappointing underproduction. Last week, Burleson didn't catch a ball, but he did get injured, so he's inactive today against the Packers.
Rob Sims and Detroit's O-line failed to move the Williams Wall. The team gained fewer than 70 yards on the ground, but the line surrendered only one sack to the Vikings.
Mo Morris had more opportunities last week. He failed to capitalize on the ground, gaining 6 yards on 5 carries, but he was a factor through the air, catching 5 passes for 36 yards.
Julian Peterson made 5 tackles, but the Lions defense got rolled, surrendering 24 points and letting Adrian Peterson gouge them for 160 yards.
Life won't get any easier for Detroit on the road today in Green Bay.
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